Not only will there be a new volume of CHECK, PLEASE! in the works...
But CHECK, PLEASE!: YEAR FIVE will be...
…THE YEAR OF THE FROG. 🐸 🏒 ✨
Below, find a summary of what the newest volume of CHECK, PLEASE! will have to offer… highs, lows, and a whole new SMH!!
Samwell mens hockey’s favorite baker—and championship-winning senior captain—has graduated! How will the team survive?
Problems abound as their new captain, Dex, learns that the effortless balance Bitty maintained on the team isn’t as easy as it looks. Then, ultra-aloof Nursey must finally drop his “chill” and get vulnerable in a senior poetry seminar. And to make matters worse, Chowder faces the dreaded ‘SSGS’ and is having the worst season of his college career.
But when change arrives at Samwell hockey, it not only threatens to rip the team apart, but could destroy Dex, Nursey, and Chowder’s friendship forever. Before they graduate, to save their team and themselves, the three seniors must come together and ask the question:
‘What does Samwell hockey mean to you?’
I can’t reveal any more spoilers, but I’ll leave you with that question—what does Samwell hockey mean to you? Look out for more Check, Please! news in the months to come!
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It's kind of wild that people defend Marvel as brainless or pure fun entertainment cuz like, bro that's a three hour movie that requires you to have seen 12 other 2-3 hour movies before you can enjoy it. Your movies are giving you homework. You have the patience of a god. My "pretentious snobby foreign film" is 98 minutes and it's full of sex and drugs and arguing. How tf am I the elitist here.
The first four episodes focus on (a) Sam not feeling worthy of the shield and (b) Sam dealing with the startling news that someone else has taken on the mantle of Captain America. These conflicts both internal and external—along with Sam and Bucky’s disagreement on Sam giving up the shield—ground the first half of the season. While Karli and the Flag Smashers are hinted at, we don’t actually get to see our heroes tangle with the revolutionaries until midway through the series, a major turning point. Sam discovers the leader of this group is just a kid.
(On that note—what would be really neat—a fun unreliable point of view. Everything we learn about Karli we get through John Walker as he reports to his higher ups. By the time we get to the midway point of the series, the audience thinks Karli is despicable. But when Sam starts to peel back the layers of her character, he does the hard work of forcing us to empathize with her. Oh, that being said: bring in JLD around episode 2 or 3 like the serpent in the garden. When John’s higher ups reprimand him for demanding a stronger approach against the Flag Smashers, Valentina Allegra like, fucking winks at him. A 10 second scene! Make the internet go: yo wtf is that julia louis dreyfus???)
Bucky-and-Sam interaction happens scene i, ii, or iii of episode one. Open the series with Bucky looking at Sam give the shield away. Bucky should be at the ceremony, watching the shield get put in a glass case. Jesus Christ, putting it on ice. Just like Steve, huh? Then he speaks to Sam—just to tell Sam that Sam is wrong.
Sam: Hey, Bu—
Bucky: Giving it away for their little history fair project, huh.
Sam: Nice to see you too, Sergeant Barnes.
Rhodey can say something sarcastic as Bucky storms off and Sam sighs. It’d be lovely for Dr. Raynor to bring up something like “oh, you went to support your friend. That’s good.” and Bucky’s like “uh, yeah. ’support’ is not really the way I’d phrase it.”
It’d also be great if Ayo was set up as a bit of foil to Dr. Raynor. She understands Bucky as a warrior with trauma and has done the work to help exorcise his demons. Ayo shows up in episode 1 or 2 to see how Bucky is doing. That he hasn’t relapsed. Bucky is startled because the Dora Milaje don’t take vacations to check up on outsiders, but she’s also there to see how his arm is doing. Wakandans like to keep track of Wakandan tech. This removes the awesome cliffhanger of Ayo dropping in Latvia, but it would add another dimension to her relationship with Bucky.
Sam’s main criticism of Bucky is that his identity is too wrapped up in the legacy of Steve Rogers. I like Bucky’s canon disapproval of Sam’s not taking the shield because it’s very real and myopic. Good. The guy needs a place to grow from. Over the course of episodes 2 or 3, it’d be nice to see Bucky apologize to Sam and acknowledge that the shield is a complicated burden for Sam as a Black man—but still points out that Sam’s feelings of unworthiness aren’t valid. In an attempt to show Sam that he is worthy and that America needs a black Captain America, they visit Isaiah Bradley—that, uh, just makes things worse. Sam is more confused than ever going into the latter half of the season.
Sam’s uncertainty about the shield comes not just from race, but from a deep inner insecurity. He’s not a super soldier. He’s just some dude from Louisiana. He’s just a man. He can’t be a symbol. Sarah and Bucky constantly point out that Sam has battled aliens and the supernatural, but Sam just can’t internalize his accomplishments just yet.
Before we head to Madripoor—because we have an extra 80 minutes of screentime—we get to see Bucky talk to Sam about his notebook without Zemo present. This is the first time Bucky opens up to Sam and sets us up for that shield-frisbee scene in Delacroix.
Can Sharon reach out to Sam or something through encrypted messages? Like, she knows he’s on Karli’s tail and wants to play everyone? Make Sam and Bucky think they know what’s going, but she’s simply placing everyone on the map like toy soldiers. This also helps Sam and Bucky become active protag/deuteragonists. I have no clue what actually happened with Sharon’s storyline in the actual show. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Okay, the Latvia episodes would be the tail end of episode 4, up until episode 6? That’s when we really bring in Zemo and Sharon. Might be a little late to bring in the power broker storyline, but you could hint at that in early episodes. Hell, Zemo could come in earlier, idc. Honestly this part wouldn’t really change from episodes of 3 and 4 of the aired program. But Bucky and Sam’s interactions could be a lot more tense because the emotional background of this portion of the story is Sam not being sure if he’s any better than Walker. Even though he knows what he’s doing is right. BUCKY HAS TO VOCALIZE THIS. Bucky knows that Sam is better than Walker. He hates Walker. That is Bucky’s entire purpose as deuteragonist!! He needs to externalize Sam’s thoughts.
Oh, and make the Dora Milaje fight against walker like 1 minute longer. MORE AYO.
The final four episodes test the thesis of the story: who should be Captain America and why? Each episode should be Sam getting closer and closer to Karli and her struggle while John Walker is closing in on finally nabbing the terrorist leader and earning his first major accomplishment as the new cap. It’s basically a race. As Sam gets increasingly sympathetic and pacifist, Walker gets increasingly unhinged and violent. By the time Lemar is seriously injured—not killed—maybe put into a coma that he comes out of later (dear god), Walker is ready to take Karli down on sight. But who gets to her first?
If Episode 6 ends with Lemar getting seriously injured, then Episode 7 should open with Sam having a flashback of losing Riley and how he reacted to it. All of the gutting hopelessness and trauma does two things: (1) creates another foil moment for him and John Walker and (2) allows him to have begrudging sympathy for Walker.
note: DO NOT CHANGE BOAT EPISODE
The finale of the series would then be Sam battling the two main antagonist of the series—first Walker, and then Karli. Walker ends up saving Sam’s life by killing her. The rest of the episode plays out basically like Episode 6, with some changes. Sam should save Bucky from falling, for example. And, jeez, not a huge fan of Sam making a speech in front of a bunch of NYPD cop cars and to two straw-man senators. But if he must, Sam makes the speech, kneeling, with Karli in his arms the entire time.
hey if you’ve never written sam before, you can give yourself some goals. over the course of a scene or chapter in your fic/comic, have him
- (a) learn something and (b) react to the new information he’s learned. How does this new info change him? The key is the reaction.
- start out in one emotional state -> then shift to another one. what caused the shift? how easy is it to return to the original emotional state, if at all?
- explicitly state or show that he wants something for himself or from someone else. what will happen if he doesn’t get it? What actions can you write/draw to show how badly he thinks he needs this?
honestly this is all advice for good scene writing anyway. eta: if you’re sitting there wondering if you’re doing good by sam in your story (i.e. are any of my prejudices getting in the way of my craftsmanship/exploration of the character?), just go through the list. if you’ve genuinely ticked off a box, you’re probably okay. If you’re doing all three damn that’s probably excellent writing.
I want to re-write this advice to make it more general, but I’m bringing this around again. I try not to use fandom to call people out (It’s hard, and I’m not perfect! The point of fandom is enthusiasm and celebration!) and instead look for opportunities to “call people in.”
Basically when you restrict your writing of Sam to “Sam Wilson is a good bro” or “Sam Wilson is a gift” you’re not only tapping into some redundancy, but you’re coming close to removing agency. It’s flirting with reduction. In your writing you can always ask yourself if you’re giving a character with a marginalized identity agency. And again, that’s by giving them the chance to react to something (even better if it has nothing to do with a love interest), by asking yourself if they have a goal (emotional goals are better than physical goals), or by having them want something.
Sam Wilson is a good bro, but what complicates him? Sam is a gift but what does he lose by giving himself to others? It takes practice to carve out good character, and even more practice to do so for characters with identities you might not be familiar with.
hey if you’ve never written sam before, you can give yourself some goals. over the course of a scene or chapter in your fic/comic, have him
- (a) learn something and (b) react to the new information he’s learned. How does this new info change him? The key is the reaction.
- start out in one emotional state -> then shift to another one. what caused the shift? how easy is it to return to the original emotional state, if at all?
- explicitly state or show that he wants something for himself or from someone else. what will happen if he doesn’t get it? What actions can you write/draw to show how badly he thinks he needs this?
honestly this is all advice for good scene writing anyway. eta: if you’re sitting there wondering if you’re doing good by sam in your story (i.e. are any of my prejudices getting in the way of my craftsmanship/exploration of the character?), just go through the list. if you’ve genuinely ticked off a box, you’re probably okay. If you’re doing all three damn that’s probably excellent writing.
if ya don't mind -- what did u think of tfatws? and i mean like specifically bc u said u didn't go gaga for it and i am interested to hear what u think (u might've already posted ur thoughts abt it and i just didn't look carefully, in which case, my bad)
we never got to see sam's inner world. they contextualized sam as a brother and black guy but not as a human outside of his responsibilities
shoehorned boring international jetsetting plotlines
villain storyline not at all compelling...please Marvel, Killmonger worked because he was well-written
John Walker was the best written character BY A LONG SHOT and that's egregious...how did the white woman and black men making this show let this happen
Best scenes were bucky and sam talking to each other and those were ALL shown in the trailer. Bunk!
I gave it a D+
ALSO the fandom was bogus because everyone was (a) terrified of writing a dynamic, funny, emotional Sam Wilson (b) not good enough at writing to know how to do that
Wandavision A-
Loki B-
Shang Chi C
I stopped watching MCU content after that
And Sam's new Cap was true to the comic and looked terrible! Watch my technique!
sam: you ever think your right arm is ever jealous of your left arm
bucky: —?
sam: yeah
sam: you know. it’s all normal while the left one’s this...flashy vibranium wakandan super-powered thang
bucky: ???
sam: or maybe your right arm’s like “nah, i’m good. i’m the o.g.”
bucky: no
bucky: none of this
I griped a lot about the Sambucky show, but this fandom in particular has taught me a few things about writing: your protagonist is the character who wants something and they are the character who changes. They’re the character whose internal mechanics are driving a scene. Their desire is conflict. Their passivity is nonexistence. So much of my writing Sam has been making sure that he is never sidelined. He discovers something in a scene. He seeks something in a scene. The reward I get in writing in him is learning as he learns.
very obsessed with newspaper au because 17yo eic sam wilson’s concerns are
- is the press going to break this story before the new york times does?
- will he make out with bucky during lunch?
- did dean pierce frame sam’s boyfriend for vandalism???
- wait is bucky his boyfriend should he ask bucky if they’re boyfrie—
director fury has four dozen high schoolers running around brooklyn and manhattan scooping up stories from actual reporters with salaries
i’m imagining some LA Times editor typing and backspacing the same sentence reading it out loud like “according to Brooklyn Prep’s Weekly Press, who broke the story this Friday—holy fuck, we can’t print this. we look like a buncha clowns. these are high schoolers.”
I got a crush on a guy and I don't know how to tell him. What should I do? Also, he might already hate me. We got off on the wrong foot.
How do I prove to him I'm not awful?
— Sharpshooter.
P.S. Maybe I am. Awful, that is.
Forgotten in his hands were three other handwritten notes slipped into the Press’s submissions box. Behind the current note was a plea for solving semester-long club drama, a solicitation on easing senior graduation anxiety, and a half-crumpled sticky note that wasn’t quite a question, but a comment on the new Dean, Dr. Pierce. But Sam read the torn half-a-sheet of college-ruled notebook paper again and again, his curiosity fluttering open wider with each look-over. Black ballpoint pen and lopsided letters drifted in and out of the lines. Cramped, rushed words, that Sam had to bring up to his nose in order to read. This was writing that wanted to hide, a secret.
Then it clicked. He had seen this handwriting once before—on an apology letter addressed to him some thirteen months ago.
"Sharpshooter," breathed Sam, blinking. “Nuh uh, no way.”
And he sorted through three facts all at once:
1. Bucky Barnes wrote this. Sam still had that stupid apology letter for some reason. He had read it a dozen times before banishing it to a shoebox in a dusty corner of his dorm room.
2. This had to do with Bucky Barnes hating him. He knew that for sure. This was a prank. A gimmick. After all, the letter Sam got last year was not a note of contrition. Barnes apparently had to write half a dozen letters to different students before they suspended him. But if this letter was here, this morning, on the first day of Spring semester and fresh from the subs box, then that left Sam with the final fact:
3. Bucky Barnes was a student at Brooklyn Prep again. Somehow.
Sam Wilson was a reporter at heart and he suddenly, desperately wanted the full story.
The dull scrape of desk chairs and the clunk of staffers unloading backpacks filtered in from the newspaper’s front room and into the backroom. Sam read the note one last time. Who on earth was Bucky "held back a year for getting big-time suspended" Barnes in love with? Or, of course, this had to be a joke. Sam's stomach flipped a bit—was this a joke about being gay? But why would Barnes drop it into the first batch of advice column submissions of the school year? Sam broke open the sentences and turned over the grammar in his head as if the syntax could provide him with clues, but nothing. A damned mystery.
The backroom was usually filled with Press staffers doing homework and exchanging scuttlebutt, but everyone was gathering in the front room for the first staff meeting of the year. The front room was the more presentable part of the operation—National Junior Journalism Trophies, green chalkboards with article assignments, and old wooden desks that Brooklyn Prep hadn't bothered to update. Sam couldn't help but think of himself in terms of the two spaces: the tall 17-year old black boy with close-cropped hair and presentable uniform? That was the front room. The same boy who was also wearing worn-out Jordans, a backpack with spraypainted red, white, and blue, and who was developing an unhealthy obsession with the note still in his hands? That was the backroom.
The backroom also had a wooden mail box under lock and key. Its brass mail slot opened out into the hallway, so that passersby could stop and slip in tips, suggestions, and of course advice queries. Sam snapped out of reading the submissions and read the old digital clock up on the wall: he had wasted five minutes tripped up by the Barnes note. So much for prepping for his very first staff meeting.
The massive inkjet printer in the corner chugged to life and right on cue, Sam's news editor and right-hand woman strolled in.
"You can't hide in the backroom before every staff meeting, Sam, come on," said Natasha. She snatched the sheet of paper the printer spat out just as it glided to the floor, a loose braid of red hair trailing behind her. "Got ya. Hey, almost time to rally the troops, Captain."
She handed Sam the sheet just as the two-minute warning bell rang.
"I thought we agreed that no one was calling me Captain this year," said Sam, staring down at the sheet.
Natasha shook the paper in his face. "We've called every EIC 'captain' since 1996, you think you're special or something?" And when Sam grabbed the paper with a grimace she added. "Answer: you are. Very whiny and very special."
"Thanks, Nat," said Sam. "Just let me chiefly edit a few issues before I feel comfortable with the grand title."
Sam held the masthead in his hands. Every editor, every writer, and every photographer and cartoonist. At the very top, times new roman and center: Editor in Chief - Sam Wilson. It felt like a bad haircut, something he wasn't sure he'd ever grow into.
Sam folded the submissions in his backpack. Natasha's eyes flashed and she leaned in.
"Whoa, are those subs?" She reached out for them but pulls her hand back. "Perks of being chief. The only person who can check the mail. Any tips?"
"No, just complaining and weird ass questions," said Sam. He flung his backpack on the beaten sofa. Time to face the music.
Half out of the backroom, Sam turned around.
"Nat, is Barnes back on campus? Bucky Barnes. Steve woulda told us, wouldn't he?"
Natasha spun him around by the shoulders. "A good journalist is ever observant, Captain."
And when Sam looked into the sea of staffers, entering the room and parting the crowd of beat reporters, designers, and photogs, was Director Fury. Following him, was Bucky Barnes. From underneath a worn blue cap and messy brown hair, Barnes's eyes met with Sam's.
What?
Sam blinked and that gut feeling in him which wanted to fill in a thousand blanks erupted.
