Sorry (?) for the asks I just. Needed to get that out there with someone who agreed somewhat, I felt like I was crazy on the official discord-
no no no you're good!! genuinly made me happy to see this discussed more
I'm not on the offical discord due to anxiety so getting to discuss this with someone is nice
I do love Viviana as a character but honestly she's so vague it's hard to get a read on her and understand why she's like this, I understand she's a being of the void but also that doesn't excuse tha callous behaviour towards the students
hopefully whatever the future holds will tell us a lot more about KADE and how it came to be what it is
The fact she has 3 whole methods, which seems to be forever altogether, to just... Get rid of students. The ghouls in the cemetery, literally dead for however long, probably not much aware BUT ROTTING
The sanatorium, literally isolation and craziness all around, more physical and isolated, seems to be just torture all together
And erasing people. Which we must assume she has done before. Not even killing just erasing altogether
genuinly like... of course so many students stay in line, the punishments rarely seem to fit the crime
while detention exisits it still seems to rarely happen, the typical ones seem so extreme
I honestly think Viviana forgets these are essentially children, like Bella and Rev are at MINUMUM 16-17, Sera seems to be rather young for an angel, they're all young
Whatever her plans are, they are not going to justify the lack of humanity in her teachings
Everyday that passes I can somehow understand a bit Nyarla. She's a manipulative and malefic presence, but destroying Kincaid almost seems to be for the better.
To me it just seems like Viviana almost just wants control or "fun", instead of helping. Hell, the whole thing with Wendy summoning Yog was manipulated by her! Giving her worse punishments while Rev got off scot-free to push her to do it, and then throw her away when she wasn't needed. Almost just seems like a game she enjoys, to see Rev choose the school.
The whole thing with the sanatorium too! Cleo seems the most sabe and normal too, except for a bit of superiorly complex. Dee and Jacqueline however seems to have gotten worse. A Dybbuck with no body and demonic seals around him and giving Jac subjects to calm her down even if it makes her more insane.
From the whole school, it seems only Victor (however small) and Lovecraft care for these kids. Lovecraft giving most human lessons, literally acting as therapist, having sessions with Sera for years, helping Bella when she was down and continuing to do so, help Rev stop his suicidal tendencies for the ball, and even sacrifice himself to buy the students time.
Hell, even Nyarla seems to care more than Viviana!
you nailed it on the head anon
While Nyarla's goals may be unclear she still has a more obvious care towards the students who get lost in the cracks like Mary and Roman and even Rev she shows a lot more personal care towards rather than a chess piece. Her motives may be messy but at least she's trying
the sanatorium is straight up concerning, one single staff member down there? and even then multiple students died under her watch? no wonder the school has a graveyard...
Most of them could reasonably be helped too!!! Cleo needs her superiority complex put to productive use like her being in a leadership position with checks and balances, Jackie needs proper guidance and care, Dee literally needs the magical equivalent of medical attention probably
Lovecraft has his moments but he's at least trying, Baba Yaga doesn't seem to really care and Victor is trying in at least small ways. The lack of staff if definitely an issue... no wonder I made so many teacher oc's to fill the roster...
so I've been slowly catching up to all the Archon Quests this month and am currently just finishing up Act IV... where are the fics of Jahoda working for the Frostmoon Scions for a few days? pls I need that sm
I have... many thoughts of s2 ep 4 but honestly I don't think I can type them out in a way that'll make sense
instead I'm just going to talk about my thoughts on how KADE as a school and how none of it makes any sense to me
most likely spoilers for season 2 from this point forward
lets start with the subjects.
Alchemy makes sense, magic related classes when many students probably use it makes sense, Undead 101 seems to be the equivalent to biology which also makes sense
Then there's Rehabilitation.
This Post by @/summerfandoms mentions how the class seems more similar to a human social studies class ('It’s more like a social studies class rather than a place being used to help students change their behavior or even their thinking.') and I agree, mostly in how it's presented in season 2. In season 1 it did seem to focus more on empathy and understanding of emotions especially with the infamous empathy test which made sense, if it's a school focused on students eventually blending in then starting with basic emotions and understanding a concept like empathy meaning they're less likely to see humans as prey and more as equals.
Then we get to Season 2 Episode 2 where we're shown the students learning about utensils? this struck me as odd but I grew distracted by Rev and his plot that episode before I could think about it too much.
Looking back, why would it be in Rehabilitation of all classes they'd be taught about human items like forks? Wouldn't it make more sense for that to be something separate that focuses on mannerisms, cultures and even histories to have students truly understand human life and how to blend it? Having that be in Rehabilitation feels very out of place.
While normally this kind of mixing of subjects doesn't seem to be out of place, in reality (and from personal experience) I know that it is not a healthy way to teach. Having a subject be more that two things at once only causes confusion and inconsistency, an example being Undead 101 having both practical and theory classes, that is balanced and reasonable as both types of classes relate to the subject.
Rehabilitation being a social studies class focused on complex discussions like empathy, then mannerisms and social ques does not lead to a stable leaning environment nor a stable teaching style.
Speaking of stable learning environment, the student organisation is some of the least organised I've seen.
#also im a bit confused on how kade works? are they all in the same grade. i feel like it's implied that mark and sera have both been there #for a while. do they just repeat the grade if their rehabilitation isn't good enough? why are they even there in the first place #bella makes it seem like a decent place to be but if the point is to blend in with humans #are they just failures of a monster and end up at kade? like maybe this is explained later idk
In the above image are excellent questions brought up by @/shyeheehee in the tags of this post on their thoughts on s2 ep4, I had been wondering similarly for a while.
With how KADE is structured it would make more sense for there to be years and there to be examples of students who have graduated... and yet there are none.
There is no mention as far as I remember of anyone entering KADE and graduating, no mention of how long the school has been in existence... nothing. The closest we seem to get to previous students is of course Harrah, Mino and Seabasstian who all died before they could graduate and with them all seeming to be at very different 'stages' of rehabilitation.
In order to try make sense of the timeline, I had been assuming the school year started before Rev enrolled and he started about a month into the school year, which would explain how everyone else seems much more comfortable in the school than him.
But thinking it over... it does seem like Sera and Mark have been attending KADE for quite some time, possibly even repeating a year. That changes a lot more than it seems.
For starters... what does this say about them as people? did they fail rehabilitation? Did they not succeed in reaching a certain bench mark to move onto the next year? what does this mean?
Then we move onto clubs such as the Poetry club which... is concerning. How were Mary and Roman able to slip so easily though the cracks? (paraphrased from this post by @/summerfandoms) Where is the genuine care for these students?
The students aren't organised in any meaningful way, we don't even know who is who's roommate aside from Mark and Rev. So why? Are they all in the same year? does the school only provide a single year of education to 'rehabilitate' students before they go to the human world? It doesn't make much sense
I don't have many conclusions but I do hope we get some form of an answer for both the lack of structure and sense in both the Academic and Student Body aspects of this school. Due to my thoughts being much too complex on the subject of The Sanatorium I decided not to include it, instead I once again bring your attention to the post I have been referencing by @/summerfandoms throughout this as they put many of my same beliefs into better words than I could manage.
sorry for the long post! I just had many thoughts after s2ep4 and wanted to put the questions lingering in my mind to word.
Full Credits to:
@summerfandoms (Their Post)
&
@shyeheehee (Their Post)
for their own posts related to this and for inspiring me to finally write this. Maybe one day I'll have more energy to write something about the issues I find with KADE and their organisation in more detail than here but I hope this is enough for now.
oh i was confused for a sec on why i was tagged lol
thanks for crediting me, im going to be so honest i haven't touched any of season 2. sort of just fell out of interest.
BUT i was hoping to see if the world building was going to be a little more fleshed out/consistent in S2. that doesn't seem to be the case from what you've mentioned.
which is fine, i guess? not every story needs tons worldbuilding. but in a school setting, it's a little disappointing we don't know much about how any of it works. like you said, we don't even know what characters are roommates besides rev and mark.
which isn't huge but it's still some flavor that would add a little something. (maybe freakshow isn't as focused on the side characters, but it could help flesh them out a little more too idrk)
it could be a lore reason for why so much is still not fully explained, but it just seems like writing inconsistencies/kade was never fully thought out, even if it's the main setting of the show. makes sense why rehabilitation class is so different from s1. it loses its direction on what sort of class it's suppose to be.
same thing with kade being a school for rehabilitation. we still don't know what that really means, and it feels like there should be some context for how it functions. are they integrating into human society fully?
what causes them to fail? how long do they stay at kade?
do they completely forgo their monster identity?
are they shunned completely from their society once fully rehabilitated among humans?
i have lots of questions.
i do hope some aspects of the writing continue to improve for the fans who like freak show but there are some places where it does feel like it's a little flat/not given enough attention.
I get it! You really put it into words in the best way possible
As you said I was also really hoping for consistent worldbuilding, it didn't need to be grand but it should be consistent enough to follow
I had this discussion with my mother (who is also a writer like me) about loose threads in stories and how, while we will enjoy a piece of media regardless, those loose threads are going to poke at us like uncomfortable tags on clothes when we want to actually think of the world building implications.
Freak Show doesn't really have loose threads that are being ignored in terms of the plot, but the world building is where it suffers. How KADE as a school works and is organised escapes me in ways I can't make sense of, to the point I just started slowly working on my own personal rewrite of it to better fit the story
I've sent many a voice note rant to my best friend who doesn't watch the series and one thing I brought up in my last one was how KADE feels more like a containment facility than an actual rehabilitation school which... I do hope will be mentioned at some point because it just makes sense especially with the information Nyarla gave us in episode 2.
thank you sm for replying, truly your additions really are helpful
I have... many thoughts of s2 ep 4 but honestly I don't think I can type them out in a way that'll make sense
instead I'm just going to talk about my thoughts on how KADE as a school and how none of it makes any sense to me
most likely spoilers for season 2 from this point forward
lets start with the subjects.
Alchemy makes sense, magic related classes when many students probably use it makes sense, Undead 101 seems to be the equivalent to biology which also makes sense
Then there's Rehabilitation.
This Post by @/summerfandoms mentions how the class seems more similar to a human social studies class ('It’s more like a social studies class rather than a place being used to help students change their behavior or even their thinking.') and I agree, mostly in how it's presented in season 2. In season 1 it did seem to focus more on empathy and understanding of emotions especially with the infamous empathy test which made sense, if it's a school focused on students eventually blending in then starting with basic emotions and understanding a concept like empathy meaning they're less likely to see humans as prey and more as equals.
Then we get to Season 2 Episode 2 where we're shown the students learning about utensils? this struck me as odd but I grew distracted by Rev and his plot that episode before I could think about it too much.
Looking back, why would it be in Rehabilitation of all classes they'd be taught about human items like forks? Wouldn't it make more sense for that to be something separate that focuses on mannerisms, cultures and even histories to have students truly understand human life and how to blend it? Having that be in Rehabilitation feels very out of place.
While normally this kind of mixing of subjects doesn't seem to be out of place, in reality (and from personal experience) I know that it is not a healthy way to teach. Having a subject be more that two things at once only causes confusion and inconsistency, an example being Undead 101 having both practical and theory classes, that is balanced and reasonable as both types of classes relate to the subject.
Rehabilitation being a social studies class focused on complex discussions like empathy, then mannerisms and social ques does not lead to a stable leaning environment nor a stable teaching style.
Speaking of stable learning environment, the student organisation is some of the least organised I've seen.
#also im a bit confused on how kade works? are they all in the same grade. i feel like it's implied that mark and sera have both been there #for a while. do they just repeat the grade if their rehabilitation isn't good enough? why are they even there in the first place #bella makes it seem like a decent place to be but if the point is to blend in with humans #are they just failures of a monster and end up at kade? like maybe this is explained later idk
In the above image are excellent questions brought up by @/shyeheehee in the tags of this post on their thoughts on s2 ep4, I had been wondering similarly for a while.
With how KADE is structured it would make more sense for there to be years and there to be examples of students who have graduated... and yet there are none.
There is no mention as far as I remember of anyone entering KADE and graduating, no mention of how long the school has been in existence... nothing. The closest we seem to get to previous students is of course Harrah, Mino and Seabasstian who all died before they could graduate and with them all seeming to be at very different 'stages' of rehabilitation.
In order to try make sense of the timeline, I had been assuming the school year started before Rev enrolled and he started about a month into the school year, which would explain how everyone else seems much more comfortable in the school than him.
But thinking it over... it does seem like Sera and Mark have been attending KADE for quite some time, possibly even repeating a year. That changes a lot more than it seems.
For starters... what does this say about them as people? did they fail rehabilitation? Did they not succeed in reaching a certain bench mark to move onto the next year? what does this mean?
Then we move onto clubs such as the Poetry club which... is concerning. How were Mary and Roman able to slip so easily though the cracks? (paraphrased from this post by @/summerfandoms) Where is the genuine care for these students?
The students aren't organised in any meaningful way, we don't even know who is who's roommate aside from Mark and Rev. So why? Are they all in the same year? does the school only provide a single year of education to 'rehabilitate' students before they go to the human world? It doesn't make much sense
I don't have many conclusions but I do hope we get some form of an answer for both the lack of structure and sense in both the Academic and Student Body aspects of this school. Due to my thoughts being much too complex on the subject of The Sanatorium I decided not to include it, instead I once again bring your attention to the post I have been referencing by @/summerfandoms throughout this as they put many of my same beliefs into better words than I could manage.
sorry for the long post! I just had many thoughts after s2ep4 and wanted to put the questions lingering in my mind to word.
Full Credits to:
@summerfandoms (Their Post)
&
@shyeheehee (Their Post)
for their own posts related to this and for inspiring me to finally write this. Maybe one day I'll have more energy to write something about the issues I find with KADE and their organisation in more detail than here but I hope this is enough for now.
Leona: *reading one of Idia's old webtoon fan translations* "When the cherry petals of Magic Romance Academy are in bloom... anthyding can hadplen."
Idia: *hiding his face in his pillow* Uuuughhhh! 😖
Leona: That is so true. 😌
Idia: C'mon, I was only a kid! I was still relying on shitty browser translators back then! You can't hold me to the jacked standards of the modern day! Gods, just gimme a ride into town so I can lay down in traffic...
