#elf school

Episode: "Elf School"

I like to process important stuff more thoroughly to help me retain it, so I take notes when I listen to shows and podcasts and stuff. And the best episode of Hot Brown Morning Potion Podcast just came out–the Deluxe Elf Interview with Devon Giehl and Iain Hendry–so you know I was all over that. This is just my personal notes, nothing super detailed or organized, and not delved into yet at all.

If I have a direct quote, it’s in double quotes. Sometimes my notes are paraphrasing or getting only most of the words, and sometimes it’s just me rambling, but if I “quote” something, it’s a proper direct quote that I went back and listened to. Also, sometimes I noted who was talking, just because I loved how they played off each other and offered different perspectives. I is for Iain and D is for Devon.

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Rayla as a child/school: feisty. Like Korra punching her way into the room. Rambunctious about her assassin goals. Elf School taught general subjects: gardening, weaponsmithing, life basics, etc, so you can find the one for you and contribute to the whole village. She excelled at PE, not the forest biology nerdy classes. She’s a jock, does intuitive Moonshadow stuff like her Moonshadow powers, but only cares about her PE classes.

Her friends weren’t close. She valued her alone time. “fitting in is overrated.” To Ezran in S1. She was trained to keep others at arm’s length, and then Ezran reached out to her and she finally had a close friend.

Runaan’s feelings for Rayla atm: he’s got a lot of time to think. He went through a lot very quietly early in the show. He thought this was Rayla’s moment to show that she was more dedicated than her parents had been. He has a brief crisis: is this my fault, did I not train her hard enough, was Ethari right about her softer heart. And he is still stewing over these things now. Was he too eager to give Rayla a chance to prove herself, did he put her in a position where she couldn’t succeed. He took her off the mission so it could be completed. And so Rayla could survive. Two reasons for his action. He believed that Rayla being alive was better than everybody being dead. He feels guilty. He does blame himself for his part in Rayla’s failure. He didn’t take into account fully the type of person she was. (soft heart despite her PE major, and also so young). Because he was projecting onto her who he wanted her to be. “The gift he wanted to give her of redeeming herself in the eyes of her people for her parents.” He could start off angry with her for failing, he gave her exactly the opportunity she needed and she failed, but with all the reflection he’s doing, he gets around to feeling guilty and blaming himself. “Maybe it was me who stepped too far here.”

I: we don’t know how he feels in the coin but if he’s in constant pain he’ll be more angry even if he doesn’t mean to be. “I wouldn’t be in here if she hadn’t gone off and disobeyed our orders and lied to me.”

D: “So long as we are capable of recognizing how flawed we are, and how violent and messy emotions can be, and how they can dictate how we treat each other, but forgiveness and patience, and acceptance are ultimately so much more powerful than those negative perpetuating lashing-outs.”

Only with the jocks.

She had a bit of aggression right after she came to live with us, so I went every time, no matter what. Runaan always called it “impromptu training” so I told them to come get me instead. Rayla’s poor teachers seemed so relieved to get to deal with me instead of a looming assassin. It made them way more cooperative, and that worked out best for everyone, especially Rayla. I can Moonshadow just as well as anyone else in the Silvergrove. She settled again quickly and only broke a few noses. Almost No harm done.

- Normally, high schoolers in the little kingdom would go to a high school building, but due to a massive lack of high schoolers, the building is closed, and Aya would spend her high school years at elf school.

- (Un)luckily, she's familiar with her teacher (wise old elf)

- There would only be 2 classes at elf school though (one for year 5, 9:00-12:00, and another for Aya, 12:00-3:00)

- Though year 13 would be one of the "easiest" year at elf school

- Unlike any other year, Senior year would be split into 3 trimesters.

- First trimester would take place between Summer break and Winter break, which would just be essay-oriented

- Second trimester would take place between Winter break and Easter break (with the wise old elf disregarding February break). The trimester would be review-oriented, meaning that Aya would re-learn everything she's been taught from years 1-12

- Since there are 12 weeks in the second trimester, the wise old elf would re-teach Aya some lessons from each year during each week (first week would be year 1 week, second week would be year 2 week)

- Aya would get assessed at the end of each week

- During year 5 week, regular classes would be canceled for Aya, but that's only because she was invited into the year 5 classes to learn what they're learning for the week

- Finally, the Third trimester, which takes place between Easter break and Summer break, would be life-skills based, like taxes and applying for jobs and stuff

- Final exams would be based on what Aya has been learning in the second trimester