Where I post anything that relates to my current obsessions, thoughts, or anything that comes in mind. Leonardo Watch & Midoriya Izuku are the Best Characters and they deserve the world
Totally normal for a legitimate for-profit company to refuse to reclaim or stop running their products even after they're no longer being paid to do so. I'm sure it's very normal to just keep running your service for free when your contract's been terminated. Spending money to continue running cameras that supposedly no one is looking at is definitely not an indicator they are just run by the federal government to spy on everyone and only a wacko conspiracy theorist would think so.
white americans when you tell them that the idea of climate change as an impending disaster is a reductive first world perspective because it’s a tangible reality for many in the global south already:
maybe if you see south and southeast asians dying in the heat and latin americans dying in floods and all you think of is imagining a reality where YOU are affected, then you should rethink how you see people of color. if you cannot see climate change as a real disaster until it is other americans dying in the heat and the floods and not just black and brown people, then don’t talk about climate change until you can acknowledge the grim reality of climate change for everyone.
ladies… has anyone ever told you it’s okay to be feminine 🩷 i’m sure no one has ever ever ever reinforced this deeply held secret, that’s it’s okay for you to be feminine. 🩷 i know the world totally tries to tell you that you have to be manly and masculine and grow your body hair and eat as much as you want and get strong and stand up for yourself and make waves and take up space and show your bare face and show your anger. but it’s okay to do the exact opposite actually. 🩷 it’s okay to shrink yourself down to the exact same mold every other woman is expected to conform to. 🩷 did you know that it’s okay to be feminine. 🩷 did you know it’s okay to be feminine. 🩷 did you know it’s okay to be feminine. 🩷 has anyone ever told you it’s okay to be feminine. 🩷 will you be feminine. 🩷 will you be feminine. 🩷 will you be feminine. 🩷 will you just be feminine already. 🩷🩷🩷
"how are you going to complain that other people don't like fictional women when you literally like fictional men" is one of those extremely revealing bad rebuttals, because it shows that people genuinely can't even consider liking women enough to bring it into proportion with the amount they like men. they have to imagine disengaging with male characters almost entirely as a prerequisite for actually caring about female characters' interiority. i think that doesn't do a whole lot to help you dodge the misogyny allegations you're trying so hard to dodge personally.
Since I don’t know of any current plans to translate the Jack Jeanne summer novel (ジャックジャンヌ ー夏劇ー) and I’ve been reading through it lately, I’ve decided to finally write some summary posts so that people can at least get a general idea for what the stories cover. (I hope to cover the whole book, but if not, I figure at least a partial recap is better than none).
The book starts off with Kai’s story which is by far the longest chapter. Each chapter is split into 3-5 parts, but some of these parts might be just a few lines long and some might be 20+ pages. Kai’s section will need to be split into 2 posts, but some of the others will be a fair bit shorter.
While you can skip around to your favourite character, the book is written in chronological order, starting during the preparations for the Weekend Lesson play and ending during their summer break. The stories do tie into each other somewhat, especially the first three. But each story involves interactions and dynamics between other characters so I will list out and tag characters who are relevant.
Characters: Kai, Fumi, Sou, Suzu
There aren’t any route spoilers, just some things from the summer common route and hints towards events that happen in the fall. The stories are told via a third-person limited POV from the perspective of the character the chapter is focused on so it allows us to see outside of Kisa’s POV. These aren’t re-tellings of game events, but new stories of things that canonically happened at the same time, written by the game’s lead scenario writer, Shin Towada.
Please let me know if you find any errors or corrections! While I did go back to check some things, these are largely based on my notes while reading so there may be things I've missed or misread.
Part 1
The book opens up with a description of Hasekura and Ando in the dance pub, introducing the basic plot of Weekend Lesson and the typical “intro to Univeil” spiel that they always seem compelled to include in case a non-Jack Jeanne fan just stumbled into reading this book somehow.
Kai struggles a lot with insecurity about not being a “true” Jack Ace and not matching Fumi’s level. This will be a core theme in this chapter that gets hammered in over and over by Kai’s inner monologue. There’s a line I quite like here about how a gear that is unable to mesh with others is just clattering and spinning around in pointless circles (誰かと嚙み合うことも、軋轢を生むこともない、カラカラと空回りするだけの歯車)
There is a conversation between the two of them after practice that I find telling. Fumi asks if maybe he’s being pushed into the spotlight too much. Kai says that actually Fumi should be up front and centre even moreso. Fumi counters by asking what if Kai was the one to stand in the spotlight more. Kai thinks to himself that, while he trusts Fumi, they will never agree on this topic. His role is to be the vessel, to support the flower, the star performer. (Hasekura is the main character of the entire play, but Kai can’t seem to see beyond these rigid flower/vessel roles).
Fumi says it would be fun to have Kai in the front more, but Kai insists this would confuse the audience and that he wouldn’t be able to be a proper vessel if he did that. Fumi gives a wry smile and Kai thinks that maybe he’s thinking about Tsuki. Tsuki and Fumi on stage together were like two giant flowers. But Tsuki was special in a way Kai thinks he could never be. He’s only suited to being a vessel, nothing more. He considers himself “just a gear,” acting for Quartz’s sake (カイはその歯車の一つでしかない).
Kai looks over towards the Jeannes and he sees Sou watching Suzu “as if he’s looking out at a beautiful view in the distance” (まるで遠くかすむ美しい景色を眺めるかのように) He feels a pang in his chest as he recalls an old memory: this is how he used to look at Fumi as a first-year (一年生だったカイは、我がもの顔で踊るフミを見ていた). He describes Fumi as dancing like he owns the place and as a violent flower that was hard to look away from.
He then looks over towards Kisa. He notes that for the Jack and Jeanne roles to work, gender distinctions have to be exaggerated more than typical for men and women. But he senses that Kisa’s acting in particular has the freedom to extend beyond these gender constraints (しかし希佐の芝居には性別に囚われない独特な自由さを感じることがある) This is why he thinks she was assigned to be a Jack. He watches as Suzu calls out to Kisa and her face lights up while Sou’s face darkens and he drops his gaze to the floor.
Mitsuki then approaches Kai and Kai asks about how practice is going with the Jeannes. Mitsuki mentions that Sou might have a hard time with it. Kai senses a feeling of doom building up in Sou.
Part 2
Kai is practicing on a Saturday morning, wondering why he and Fumi have been so out of sync lately. He wonders if maybe his dancing isn’t good enough, but Fumi would’ve told him if that was the case. So he can't seem to figure out the problem.
Suzu approaches him and asks if Kai could teach him some of the fundamentals of being a Jack. Suzu thinks that Kisa has adapted to being a Jack so quickly because she has such a good grasp on these core principles which he might be losing sight of.
Kai thinks that, while Suzu does know those principles already, he has the tendency to make roles more like himself, which can be both a strength and a weakness. In comparison to Kisa, who is highly adaptable, but doesn’t have her own distinctive flavour. He doesn’t view one as better than the other, just different.
Kai agrees to teach Suzu then he notices Sou watching them. Sou turns away, but Suzu drags him over to join them and eventually convinces him to join in on their Jack practice. The exercise they do is called “One Life Jack” where they are given numbers and have to act out scenes from a person’s life at that particular age. They can be from personal experience or made up. Everyone else tries to guess the sort of scene that is being acted out. Suzu does well at first, quickly thinking up characters to act out that seem to be much like him: energetic and cheerful characters. Meanwhile Sou takes longer to come up with his characters and it’s less clear if they’re representing him or someone else.
When Kai calls out the number 18, Suzu noticeably struggles. He has no experience being 18 and doesn’t know what to draw on. He clumsily tries to act out a part-time job. When Sou is told to also act out “18” he conveys this entire scene of a student writing his university entrance exams and failing. Kai then tells him to do “19” which Sou acts as the same character coming back and writing the tests again. Instead of disappointment, the character shows nonchalant acceptance of the result. Previously Sou and Suzu had been alternating but this time Kai starts having Sou act out year after year rapid-fire. “20” he’s working as a part-time delivery driver. “21” he finds a romantic partner and a full-time job. “22” they broke up.
They make it all the way up to age 49 before Mitsuki enters the scene and says Neji is calling for Kai. Kai tells Sou his Jack acting was quite interesting and they should do it again sometime. Sou’s face seems to light up.
Part 3
The three of them continue having these regular practices and Suzu is quite impressed at how well Sou does with it. One night, Suzu heads off after to get some food so Sou and Kai stick around late and walk back to the dorm together.
Kai knows that Sou wanted to be a Jack. He tries to broach the subject by asking what kind of Jack he’d like to be. Sou is reluctant to answer, but Kai waits for a response. Sou says he thought the Sleepless King from the newcomers’ performance was pretty cool.
Kai says that if it was him playing the role, he’d do it differently than Suzu’s version. His version would be more overbearing and demanding. He then demonstrates a bit of this version which is described as sharp, irritable, and wolf-like. Sou feels unnerved seeing it, but he relaxes again when Kai breaks character.
Kai tries to casually ask Sou what his version would look like. Sou says he’d play the king as someone who secretly hoped deep down that someone would love him, despite him rejecting everyone. His king would be a pathetic and cowardly sort of man who lashes out to hide his insecurities (臆病で、傷つきやすくて、その弱さを隠すため、攻撃的になる。俺に触れるな近づくなと叫びながら、本当は優しく抱きしめて欲しくて……).
Kai says that this king would have a lot of feelings when he wakes up to see the maiden in the morning. Sou says his king would lie awake at night, wondering what would happen if the maiden grew to hate him and left to return to her village. He’s scared to face her each morning in case things have changed, and yet he still wants to see her. And she’s always the first one waiting there. (娘に嫌われたらどうしよう。娘が村に帰ってしまったらどうしよう、って。不安で不安でどうしようもなくて、朝、謁見の間に行くのも恐ろしい).
It appears as if Sou had already imagined this version of the king many times. He says he doesn’t ultimately think the king and the maiden have a happy ending together. He thinks that the maiden will be whisked away by someone else who can make her happy and the king will be left with his hopes of being loved unfulfilled. The curtain falls sadly on the lonely king as he faces away from the audience (「哀しく幕が下りてしまうんです」 王の寂しい背中が見えた。)
Sou looks up at a street light and says the moment he saw Suzu, he knew he had lost, that he couldn’t be a Jack. Then he snaps out of it and apologizes to Kai for saying such strange things and runs off. Kai wants to call out to him, but doesn’t know what to say. So he says nothing as Sou runs off in the distance and he heads back to the dorm.
[I’ll end the first half of the recap here since it gives a nice introduction to the primary characters/themes. The second half focuses more on the Kai and Fumi dynamic and how it parallels Sou and Suzu (with a special cameo character appearance)]
The way that the ATLA movie explicitly focuses on Aang’s PTSD and survivor’s guilt and the nuance over being the sole survivor of genocide, and how his extreme isolation and loneliness and desperation for connection and community drives him to make unwise decisions… which is directly paralleled to Katara and her standout episodes The Puppet Master and The Southern Raiders from the cartoon… and then people in this fandom are character assassinating him and saying he’s basically evil and a horrible person and selfish and a man child for *checks notes* being a genocide survivor.
Since we’re going to blame Aang for everything as if he wasn’t being manipulated and taken advantage of, should we also blame Katara for her nearly getting Sokka and Aang killed when she trusted Hama for the exact same reasons as Aang? Should we say she’s acting like a baby for grieving her mother like Aang grieves his father figure? What the fuck!
Like oh my god, media literacy is fucking dead. It’s so dead, it’s reanimated as a zombie.
To all the trans people who see this tonight, no matter what happens, we will survive. Trans people will still be here 4 years from now and 10 years from now and 100 years from now and tomorrow. We have always existed and we always will. The world cannot unlearn about us; we are too public, too loud, too beloved, too present. Ill be here tomorrow. Please stay here with me.
if you're trans you have to keep going. please. live. no matter how hard it feels or how dark the future looks you have to survive. we will persist and we will persevere and we will make it out the other side of whatever comes, and one day we will be free and we will look back on our hardships and thank our past selves for fighting for us. and we will be happy.
I love you all so much.
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