ooookay. after 5 hours and a half, i am officially done with jordan's career. therefore. initial thoughts and opinions etc. spoiler warning yadda yadda. will eventually put things under a cut because theres a lottt of images and text probably
getting this one out of the way first: oh this one's a hit with the executive dysfunction community.
the career straight up starting with jordan (no, not the trainer, we get more narration afterwards and it's clear the introductory career chapter *is* from Jordan's pov) mentioning how she's always hated doing anything bothersome or annoying, meanwhile she enjoys having fun and taking her time? yeah. and not even minutes after
jordan's entire career was genuinely Good on a base level, especially when compared to some of the other careers on global currently, but there's just Something that hits about it when you're coming from the same place as her: Someone who struggles with executive dysfunction, who has issues with studying for one reason or another, who always tries their best but is never quite able to Get to what is expected of them, and even if you tried to explain why, it's not like those people would listen to your reasoning anyways. (i could go into jordan's coding of dyslexia at points, but that's another story)
through basically All of her career we have one thing made explicitly clear: Yeah, Jordan isn't the brightest. she struggles with complicated words and, especially focused on, the theoretical part of racing. no matter how much the trainer starts trying to use strategies and "professional" vocabulary when explaining those to her, Jordan always gets confused and doesn't fully get it, be it actually trying to get her to understand a method of racing or even something like "what is your goal?" or "what races would you like to run in?", because she never thought that hard about it.
and yet, jordan unconsciously knows exactly how to run, how to do things. through different points at the career, we have the trainer trying to explain something to her with technical vocabulary only for her to get confused and, once they simplify it or give her physical examples (in the example above, trying to get her used to uphills where, while she didn't understand the technical aspect of it, by doing it herself it's mentioned not only how she gets it now, but how she's always been doing it unconsciously during practice) jordan is very capable of wrapping her head around it. Jordan being "stupid" is something very important for her career, and while there are different goals/objectives in it, i'd say the main focus of it is that. trying to prove how while jordan may not be the brightest academically, she *is* smart in other senses of the word.
during the career jordan has been overlooked because of "not taking practice seriously" or "goofing around too much" and others, but all throughout it? the trainer and her friends continue having faith on her, pushing her forward (especially important post her arima kinen + senior new year). it's shown just how affected jordan actually is by those comments, by people not believing in her, by people seeing her as lesser because she's "not taking things as seriously as others" and because her trainer "isn't training her properly", crying at various points over not being enough or dragging her trainer down, because they're wasting time with her.
but time and time again, we CONSTANTLY see the trainer not only simplifying and explaining things to her, but making their own methods so she's able to practice in a way that is fun and interesting to her, that doesn't bore or overwhelms her. and while to other people it might look stupid?
it works. not only because jordan genuinely wishes to make her trainer proud and help them, but because she want to learn and get better, for herself eventually. and everyone around her supports and helps her with whatever she's having issues, be it gold city helping her study or nakayama giving her a small boost to find her path when figuring out jordan doesn't really know where to go eventually or gold ship pushing her forward on her goals, even if without a rival. and they don't judge her on any of her struggles.
however, the game doesn't treat jordan as fully unaware, fine or ignorant of it. in fact, it's the opposite. jordan feels so bad over not being the brightest or best that not only does she actively go after help from other people at one point, but it's extremely shown through a form of avoidance and comparison to others
and the trainer twists that thought. knowing that they cannot really change what she thinks of herself, they simply decide to turn that around, to make of that something they all can see as positive, something to be proud of, that helps them. they knew jordan, at the state she was in after everything that piled up and she kept to herself, would not be able to accept praise or actually believe on it, so they have to try and make her see it for herself. that even if she seeks herself as a dumb or an idiot due to external views of her, she's much more than that. that she might be one, but that's something that gives her strength.
and once everything's said and done and jordan finds herself able to actually accept it, to actually ask for that praise, they give it to her.
there's. a looot more i'd like to talk about and ramble on about jordan's career. from the importance i think having palmer be the first person to go and talk to her on her debut and listen to her nervousness, to the fact i genuinely believe this might be one of if not The best trainer we have gotten so far in a career, to how while thinking she's dumb in academical matters, it's consistently shown Jordan is extremely smart in social situations and loves helping or cheering other people up in her own way, no matter how pushy she might be. how her competitiveness is so important to her and a core trait of her character, because deep down, most things she ends up doing come from a place of wanting to compete, to prove herself as equals, as better than others, to guarantee her own spot as someone worthy, but i can't just post screenshots of the entire career in this, but really. yeah. oh was it worth it to wait and spend 30k for my girlie. live laugh love tosen jordan now. please read her career if you have the chance
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