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Parts of Season 9 that I personally found unrealistic:

-Maya is able to support herself financially and make rent without having a steady full time job or family support

-The contrived way she got a job at the school. Somehow the principal just walks out to meet the candidate, and the candidate is late or doesn’t show up, and she pretends to be that candidate, and he doesn’t even realize it’s not that person until the whole interview is over

-The nurse going to a drinking party with students

-Max having his own place as a high school student

-Maya disappearing for 5 days, where would she stay, and she can’t even send one text to Lola telling her she’s fine

-Likewise, Lola away from home for a whole week, apparently in the greenhouse. Where would she shower, brush her teeth, have meals, etc. And for the whole week she really can’t send a message telling La Mif she’s fine?

-60 girls showing up to a party Maya advertised for a day on a dating app. The party decked out with drinks, strobe lights, and music as if it were a club, not an abandoned greenhouse

-Likewise, Maya moving in with July for an entire week and then not being able to send her one text reply

-Meeting up all chill with Ely before she had apologized to month girl. Like if their friend had helped someone by letting them stay over all week, and then they just started ignoring them they would be like ???

-Tiff going into to the washroom where Maya is naked in the shower and hugging her while the shower is still going, apparently for maximum emotional effect

-Of course, Maya turning things around and not being upset after one clip

-Maya being able to leave the country without giving Max advance notice about the rent situation

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Season 9 synopsis: Maya is the main. She is naked in half of it and sad in almost all of it.

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In two months, Maya has worked two weeks. How does she support herself and pay the rent?

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The great thing about having Maya as a main is that there’s still lots to explore about her background. What they have shown about her in this season helps build on the character they introduced back in season 6. You can watch that season again and understand her character better.

There’s the question of whether she has any other family that she is in contact with.

They’ve shown her paternal grandmother which is intriguing. Don’t know what that relationship is like or if they even have one. And what was her grandmother’s relationship with her parents?

Also, were there any family friends, etc. that she still knows or has contact with?

Another element to this is that she’s a bit isolated and different from the rest of La Mif. The other members have parents and siblings. They are also working on completing their bac while Maya didn’t finish high school. Is that something she would want to do?

Having her as a protagonist allows them to explore all this.

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one thing about druck this season was that the cashqueens and even yara didn’t really have distinct characterizations. yeah they were supporting characters but for a bunch of scenes you could have swapped them out for each other and it wouldn’t really have made a difference.

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What people asked for: character development and a proper apology to Ava

What people got: a surprise party for Lou's car

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It’s important to move on to the next main and focus on their story. But you can still have continuity and update the previous storylines.

-Nora and her mental illness, her mom’s alocholism

-Fatou’s dyscalculia, her abi

-The fundraising for the abiball 

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In some ways, Ava is the Kiki/Vilde of Druck second gen. Her initiative to take on the abiball fundraising and events brings the cashqueens together. That’s similar to the Kiki/Vilde role in the first gen. 

Similar to Kiki for Mia and Vilde for Noora, Ava has a complicated relationship with the love interest character. It’s completely not her fault, but Ava creates a dilemma for Fatou in Fatou’s relationship arc with her love interest Kieu My. 

We know with hindsight that Kiki and Vilde don’t get a season. Instead, they play a major supporting role throughout the seasons of other mains. That’s kind of what’s happening with Ava, although she has played a surprisingly small part in this Ismail season.

The quesiton is whether Ava will continue to be like Kiki/Vilde in not getting her own season. Unlike the white Kiki and Vilde, a character like Ava is rare in media representation. She really should get a season as the main and have her story told.

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So I actually think the Ismail - Constantin relationship/friendship is a really intresting one. It’s strange how they don’t include that as much this season. I get that part of it is the perspective shift into Ismail’s season, but in the past 2 seasons they were shown getting along and messing around together.

It would be interesting to know how that friendship formed. Constantin is a pretty problematic dude but he generally doesn’t seem to judge Ismail for having a gender non-confirming identity. Maybe that and Ismail feeling sorry about Constantin’s family situation is why Ismail previously showed a problematic loyalty to him.

A lot of people expected Ismail - Constantin to be one of the main points of conflict and growth this season, especially with regards to Ava. There seems to have been a drop off with that story. They built up to that argument at the garage over Lou, but that didn’t really progress or get a resolution. 

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The strange thing about s7 is that it takes on too much and yet does too little. 

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One of the most frustrating things about druck s7 is that they leave out interesting parts that have potential.

For example, Ismail’s growing friendship with the cashqueens and how that developed. They were hinting at it with the end of s6 and the two groups coming together but it’s a missed opportunity not to include some of that development. 

Like Fatou had an interesting dynamic with Ismail in s6 but that doesn’t carry over. Ismail also seems to have a somewhat friendly rapport with Mailin but the season just starts with that established.

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You can’t tell me this isn’t Spongebob, Patrick, Squidward, and Plankton

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Thank you! Your post about Ava getting a raw deal put things in perspective for me. I've never quite understood why it felt inappropriate to make Ava a full force of contentious in s6 (+ s5), beyond the sinking feeling that they gave certain people their perfect botched excuse to turn on her. See, I know Druck made decisions for Ava in good faith, unlike the egregiously bad choices made for yann (fr) and Moyo(wtfock), but they overlooked, among other things, the need to show her supportive side.

Thanks, I'm really glad. And agreed - Druck tries to do the right thing and for the most part are pretty good at it.

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I thought Ava got a pretty raw deal last season. 

In the skam format, the appeal of a character is often based on how they treat the main. the protagonist’s best friends usually get featured in a positive way. It’s a chance for them to gain a little popularity and for the audience to get to know them better.

That wasn’t the case for Ava in the Fatou season. There were some strong parts highlighting her relationship with Fatou as two black girls connecting. But Ava was used again (because this happened with Nora too) for adding conflict to the plot.

With Kieu My and dyscalculia. Ava doesn't get to support Fatou in either of those things. In fact, Ava was portrayed as someone who discouraged Fatou from Kieu My. When Fatou was struggling most in school, Ava was upset with her, away from home, and unable to provide support. If anything, Mailin and Nora took on more supportive roles.

In contrast, Ismail seemed to like and respect Fatou. They had a rapport and Fatou was confident enough to act sassy. As a result, Ismail got a boost in likeability. Even though it was building towards an Ismail season, it was still kind of messed up given that Ismail was Ava’s bully and Ava and Fatou were supposed to be best friends.

A lot needs to be addressed with Ava this season which will directly affect the impact and messaging of the story. She’ll be an important part of how they deal with Ismail’s story.

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In this season and the last two, Druck took the typical character tropes and subverted them.

You would expect the popular, party group to be white, straight, and gender conforming, but the instas are a much more diverse group. 

That's what makes the whole thing so unpredictable. We often build our expectations for storylines based on how characters are coded, but druck doesn’t let us do that.

Ava may have been bullied but she’s a leader, unapologetic, confident, and a musician/dj.

Ismail might be gnc/queer. That doesn’t make him in love with Constatin.

We don’t know what to make of Lou because we so rarely encounter characters like her in media.

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interesting to note that Ava sort of recoils and leaves when Ismails walks up to the group but Constantin was already there. they both bullied her but whatever happened between Ava-Ismail may have been more personal

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✨ manifesting love and positivity for Ava this season✨