#episode 008

[yoshida-midoriko]

Usagi and Luna ✦ Episode 008

[getyourchangeon]

Episode 008: The Strongest! The Cyber End Dragon/S1E8: For The Sake of Syrus

In this post, I'm going to review and compare the subbed and dubbed versions of Yugioh GX episode 8. I introduced the really major differences for the Marufuji/Truesdale brothers last episode and those carry into this episode, but this episode we’re also going to cover an additional difference that will impact Shou/Syrus’s arc going forward!

…Oh yeah, and so many Chumley fat jokes I turn into Kronk to deal with it. That happens this episode, too.

Episode Review

Chronos: Now, that shall not be necessary! You see, to even challenge Ryou Marufuji - #1 in skill at the Duel Academia - to a duel, Dropout Boy, try coming back...in a million years! (Rips up the form)

We start with Judai/Jaden filling out a duel request form. When Chronos/Crowler shows up Judai doesn't explain the reason behind his request and Chronos tears it up citing the rank difference, whereas Jaden explains his reasons claiming it will help with the tag duel and Crowler tears it up as a way of ensuring Jaden's expulsion.

Crowler: Ah, yes, of course, the big tag team match. The one where if you lose, you'll both be expelled from the academy, Am I right? And you say that dueling Zane will help you prepare? Well that's a shame, because there'll be no duel. (Rips up the form, cackling)

Back at the Red dorm Shou's trauma flashbacks are about the same, just his brother's dialogue is different according to their respective scripts. In his imagination sequence, Kaiser only calls out Shou's name while Zane tells Syrus he doesn't belong.

I'm up to episode 12 in my post buffer as of the time this review releases, and at this point I feel rather confident saying it's a consistent pattern that Chronos is focused on upholding his elitist worldview with Judai as his favorite target, while Crowler is on a descent into Saturday morning villainy primarily based in how he hates Jaden. These couple lines are a good example of that: Chronos rips up the form because he doesn't believe a Red student has the right to duel a Blue, while Crowler is pettier and rips up the form out of personal malice.

In the next scene Hayato in the tree is doing some general deckbuilding, while the dub makes a joke that's honestly in character for him given what we see next episode:

Hayato: I really can't take this card out...

Chumley: Look, it's not you, it's me. I just can't use you in my deck anymore. I gotta make room for another koala. Fifteen oughta do.

Judai comes in grumbling about Chronos tearing up the form, while Jaden grumbles about paperwork requiring a number 8 pencil. This took me right out because every kid who went through the US academic system in the 2000s knows that a number 2 pencil is the golden standard. @blazing-jay pointed out that the number 8 pencil highlights the obscurity of paperwork requirements, though, so the joke works.

And then For Some Fucking Reason (fat jokes, again), Jaden IDs Chumley as a giant tree sloth instead of a koala. You know, the animal Judai IDs him as in the sub. The animal we just saw his entire deck is made out of. The animal they associated Hayato with from the moment he showed up in episode 2. You know, THAT animal?

Judai teases Hayato about trying to duel again and Hayato deflects by claiming he's fortune telling, while Jaden comments on the number of koalas and Chumley suggests a pick-up game. This inspires Jaden to chase down Zane directly, whereas in the sub I don't think there was really a strong correlation between the Hayato conversation and Judai running off.

When Judai gets booted out of the Obelisk entrance, Black-Haired Amelda has a generic line about not letting him near the Kaiser in the sub while the dub has a "wet behind the ears" dig leading into the Obelisk guys splashing water on Jaden. The dub cuts a Hayato reaction shot afterward, but it's not that important.

Upon return to the dorms, Judai's joke about Shou acting like Hayato is about the same up until the dub adds - guess what - another Chumley toilet joke where Hayato gets indignant at being poked fun at for his sleeping habits. 

Hayato is concerned about dinner soon in a case of bad priorities, while Chumley is concerned about grilled cheese night. It's the same joke otherwise, and I'm not going to gripe about the “but dinner…” jokes this episode since the sub started it. Unfortunately, there’s a lot of other tired fat jokes this episode so it’s like saying you’re plugging a single hole in a colander. The dub saw me try to declare episode 7 a win for Hayato so they made sure to pile on the fat jokes for episode 8.

But to the dub’s credit, they finally start to vaguely acknowledge the fact that Hayato/Chumley hears spirits! Since they cut the first time from episode 6, the dialogue is different by necessity…aaaaand it’s another fat joke.

Hayato: There it is...it's that "kuri kuri" voice again...

Chumley: So hungry, starting to hear voices.

This is kind of shooting themselves in the foot, even, because next episode Hayato/Chumley explicitly mentions hearing spirits and the dub has to pretend it added in that plot point instead of writing it out (episode 6) or sidelining it for fat jokes (right now). And then in the present the dub makes extra sure to let you know Chumley hates running as they pursue Shou/Syrus, a joke which they will repeat at least twice more this episode.

…Look. I started this episode review expecting to talk most about the Marufuji/Truesdale brothers, I swear. I did not mean to make the entire first third of this review complaints about Chumley character assassination. The fat jokes are just that consistent. Like my list of points for changes in this part of this episode goes: Chronos ripping up the form, Shou nightmare, number 8 pencil, Chumley fat joke, wet behind the ears, Chumley toilet joke, Chumley hears spirits but it’s also a fat joke, Chumley fat joke. If you think it’s tiring to read, imagine how I feel trying to document this.

And then to everyone’s relief and especially mine, we finally get to the main episode plot with Kaiser/Zane and Asuka/Alexis at the lighthouse. This time the sub explicitly says they’re talking about Asuka/Alexis’s missing brother, so unlike last episode (where it seems the dub writers didn’t understand what all the vagueness was referring to) the conversation is kept. Zane also acknowledges his assholery more than Kaiser, who's more interested in Judai:

Kaiser: Judai Yuki? Ah, from the entrance exams. Asuka: Are you going to accept, Ryou?

Zane: The big bad brother. What, does Jaden want to scold me now? Alexis: Actually, I think he wants to duel you.

This is when Shou and Judai raise a commotion, of course. When Shou latches onto Judai in the water, Judai shouts that they're both going to sink while Jaden has a quip: "And you were about to raft out into the ocean? That makes sense." Judai is a bit ruder to Shou when he insists on leaving, whereas Jaden tries to be supportive:

Judai: Quit whining already! I made up my mind! You're my partner!

Jaden: Sy, that's your brother talking. Come on, pal. You gotta believe in yourself.

When Kaiser confirms Shou is leaving, he tells him to "Go right ahead" while Zane says "Well, it's about time." I’ve already talked about the difference between Kaiser/Ryou and Zane last episode, which was informed by scenes like this: Kaiser wants Shou to come to conclusions on his own and does not communicate about it, while Zane has given up on Syrus entirely and truly believes he should leave the island.

And then, for some reason, the dub also makes Zane a snob.

Judai: Your little bro said he's gonna leave! Kaiser: Not much I can do. Judai: If that's true, why not just give him a goodbye gift, at least! With a duel between you and me, Kaiser! Shou: Big bro! Kaiser: A duel with you? All right...come on up, Judai Yuki.

Jaden: You're his big brother! How can you say that? Zane: Because I know him. Jaden: Yeah, I bet you think you know it all, but guess what. You don't, and I'm gonna prove it right now. Let's duel. Syrus: No, Jaden! Zane: Duel a Slifer? Sure, why not? After all, it's been a while since I went slumming.

Um. What?

Judai opens the duel by celebrating getting to face the school's top duelist, while Jaden mentions figuring out what's going on with Syrus first before also mentioning how he compares to Zane. The dub cuts a minor reaction shot/line from Judai about Cyber Dragon's effect.

When Kaiser/Zane puts a card into his time capsule Shou has an idea of what it is - which, you know, three guesses. Syrus just says it'll be bad, removing the obvious hint. Afterward Judai lays out the reasons why Kaiser's dueling is strong, while Jaden just says he's good.

Judai: They definitely don't call you the Kaiser for nothing, "onii-chan." In your first turn, you got your defense, offense, and groundwork - every tactic there is - set up. Talk about a thrill!

Jaden: Yeah, and I'd better make it count, 'cause I'm starting to get the feeling that not only is this guy as good as everyone says he is, he might even be better. But still, that doesn't mean he's better than me.

Much like episode 2, they’ve skipped the actual explanation of why Judai’s opponent is superior/talented and replaced it with “they’re good because we said so” like an English teacher from a mirror universe gripped 4KIDS by the shoulder hissing tell, don’t show. I have no idea why they did this - the dialogue isn't any shorter for it. I think it weakens the dialogue, honestly, because without the explanation of why something is a good move the praise just feels insubstantial.

Zane's dialogue when bringing out double Cyber Dragon is is a bit snappier, where Kaiser has more straightforward lines. And I know it's a general dub thing to make dialogue quippier, but for Kaiser/Zane specifically - the guy whose favorite food in Tag Force is plain sandwiches (i.e., two pieces of bread with no filling) - it just feels a little bit wrong. This guy does not have room in his brain for snappy lines. He could be using that brainpower to think about the duel.

And wouldn’t you know it, the dub cuts out some peanut gallery conversation including the following line about exactly that characterization: 

Shou: It's how my big brother duels. He focused on calculating everything he'll need to win. No one can keep up with him, not even Aniki...

Kaiser ending his turn is turned into an Exchange in the dub, but it comes out to the same point.

Same with Jaden referencing the episode 4 duel when he draws the Winged Kuriboh Lv10 combo, whereas the sub just flashes back onscreen. After Judai summons Mudballman Shou considers Kaiser's capsule returning next turn, while Syrus has a generic peanut gallery line.

The dub skips over the Syrus bullying flashback repeat  plus a "here we go" exchange between Kaiser/Judai, and then we come to the Big Philosophical Difference. Despite all my griping about the volume of Chumley fat jokes, this right here is easily the biggest change in episode 8. 

In the sub, Kaiser makes some pointed comments that Judai calls out as a lesson for Shou. Shou finally realizes what his brother has been waiting for him to understand all this time, i.e., his brother’s central dueling philosophy of respecting his opponents.

Kaiser: You've been showing me the best of your capabilities. That allowed me to give it my all against you, as well. Your dueling deserves respect. Shou: Is my big brother admiring Aniki's dueling?  Judai: Kaiser, it sounds to me like you're saying that to Shou. Shou: That's it! My big brother duels by keeping his opponents in mind and dueling with strategies to deal with anything that comes up! But back then, I...I mocked my opponent and I overtrusted my card. I practically ignored my opponent in that duel.

Zane has no such philosophy, and instead his lesson is about the difference between knowing a card’s on-paper effects and knowing how to use it effectively. And unlike the sub, the dub doesn’t imply that Zane is doing this to teach Syrus something; Syrus just figures it out regardless of his brother’s intentions. Jaden does call it out as good advice, but given it's pretty established that Zane truly believes Syrus doesn't belong at the school I don't think this was purposeful on Zane's part.

Zane: And that means not just knowing how to use all of their cards, but knowing how to play them, too. And you play your cards well, Jaden. Syrus: Knowing how to play your cards? Jaden: That's a nice compliment, but even better advice. Hope Sy's listening. Syrus: Of course. Knowing how to use a card and knowing how to play it are two totally different things. That's what Zane was trying to tell me all those years ago. I get it now.

After that, Shou/Syrus's takeaway after the Power Bond play is slightly different as it summarizes the lesson he’s learned in each version:

Shou: That risk isn't the problem. What my big brother wanted to tell me...was to respect my opponents!

Syrus: Yeah, but that won't matter if you play it right. And Zane has. I just wish it didn't have to be at Jaden's expense.

After the duel, both Kaiser and Zane acknowledge Judai's impact on Shou/Syrus: Kaiser says Shou has a "fine big bro (aniki)," while Zane says "Sy chose good friends."

Shou complimenting Judai after the duel is changed to Syrus saying he got the looks between the two brothers, with an additional "I wasn't joking" note as he and Jaden laugh. And as everyone heads to dinner, the dub makes sure to tack on another 1.5 "Chumley hates running" jokes at the end because of course it does.

And that’s game! Gotcha!

Spoiler Zone

In a quick search of dub episode scripts, most of Syrus’s future duels either don’t mention respect or mention it a single time…until Hell Kaiser vs. Shou in season 2, where it’s mentioned eleven times, which kind of feels like they gave up on trying to write it out. It’s gone again by Judai vs. O’Brien, though, and of course Shou’s episodes in season 4 never got dubbed so 4KIDS manages to avoid dealing with the respectful philosophy issue for every episode but That One.

On the ending of the duel: it might be only me who cares about this, but Kaiser acknowledging Judai as Shou's aniki is echoed later in season 3 (episode 137/S3E33) where Shou calls out for "Aniki" in his sleep and Hell Kaiser mentions that Shou isn't referring to Hell Kaiser himself. Because the dub only goes with acknowledging him as a friend, Syrus instead calls out for his buddy and the scene makes slightly less sense. I've talked about the difficulty of translating "aniki" before so I don't really blame the dub for changing it, but this little bit of consistency between episodes 8 and 137 stuck in my mind so I wanted to give it a mention.

The Character Assassination of Chumley Huffington

Did you get tired of me counting the fat jokes? Me too. Yeah, it was a bunch of small lines that aren’t the main point of the episode, but it feels telling that half the dialogue changes in the episode’s first leg are all variations of Chumley fat jokes.

You can’t convince me that The Character Assassination of Chumley Huffington isn’t an active effort at this point. I pulled out the conspiracy board last episode about the Marufuji/Truesdale brother differences which I found legitimately intriguing, and now I’m a similar level of insane about Why The Fuck Does 4KIDS Hate Chumley So Much. Which is a much worse topic, but I’ve exhausted my benefit of the doubt as of this episode. It’s not a matter of what jokes are the lowest-hanging fruit when they ignore the onscreen koala imagery, have Jaden acknowledge his deck is full of SPECIFICALLY KOALAS, and then also go “Chumley resembles a giant tree sloth.” For some reason, the dub is going out of its way to do this and it both baffles and exhausts me. 

And I'm not even mad about this purely on the basis of the butchered character, I also think it's just genuinely bad writing. Did they really think this was peak humor? Did the same minds that produced the jokes the GX dub is so fondly remembered for really think audiences would love hearing "boy I’m a fat kid and I hate running!" three times in the same episode? Does the sight of Hayato Maeda in the background activate the stupidest possible Millennium Item to make the dub writers black out and become possessed by the ghost of a wannabe comedian who can only tell one joke?

Honestly it might be that last one because next up is Hayato/Chumley’s first focus episode. And despite - or because of - the fact that the episode is primarily about him, it’s actually way better about the fat jokes. Whether or not it’s also because next episode is the infamous "giant bottles of hot sauce" episode and the writers decided to hammer that button instead, it’s at least a more enjoyable joke so I don’t have to descend into insanity like I did for these last two.

Final Thoughts

I put most of my thoughts on the Marufuji/Truesdale brothers in last episode’s review, having watched 7-8 together because of how 8 clarifies 7. As mentioned previously, I consider the difference between Kaiser and Zane’s lessons to be the most significant in this episode by far. This impacts two major things, the audience’s understanding of Kaiser/Zane from all this and later on the brothers’ respective arcs.

Kaiser believes that Shou needs to mature and learn to respect his opponent and holds back because he wants Shou to learn the lesson himself rather than be told, using Judai as a proxy to demonstrate it. Zane believes his brother is just a poor player without hope for improvement. He's an asshole and actually acknowledges it as much ("the big bad brother"), but lacks deeper motives when it comes to his brother. In a few episodes we'll see that Syrus doesn't think of him as well as Shou does, which is pretty reasonable honestly.

In the longer run, the philosophy of respectful dueling - considering what your opponent has to offer, allowing them to show their best game and giving them your best in return - informs both Marufujis’ arcs in the sub even after this season. "Knowing how to play a card" - understanding how to best use a card in contrast to simply knowing its on-paper effect - doesn't last past this arc, as far as I'm aware. It works for these few episodes, but it's hardly something that you can use as a centerpoint for Syrus's character development long-term.

I can see where 4KIDS thought "knowing how to play a card" was close enough to the original, and in a vacuum it probably would be. But this is a 3-4 season series, and in the sub respectful dueling becomes a character-defining principle that follows Shou - and to some extent Kaiser - for the rest of the show. By dropping the concept of respecting your opponent in this episode, 4KIDS is kind of on the back foot for future Shou/Syrus episodes: either they try to introduce the concept late (like what they do with Titan), or they have to keep rewriting his character because they've written out the base his arc is built on. (Check the Spoiler Zone if you want a rough preview of how they handle that.)

Then again, given that they've been taking Syrus in a different direction compared to Shou since episode 3, maybe they already decided they were going to rewrite his arc anyway. How do they write Syrus’s arc in future episodes when he doesn’t have the same cornerstone philosophy? We’ll see about that.

[officialidolproject]

EPISODE ONE OUTLINE

It’s finally time to kick off Idol Project 2! EpisodeOone will mainly focus around introducing each trainee to the viewers, watching them settle into their dorm, and getting a feel for their personalities. Each company’s trainees will put on a performance, as sort of an introduction to the skill each company has to offer.

TASKS

To earn points for your trainee, please complete the following tasks. These are not mandatory, and can be done at any time and still be counted.

Weekly Confessional: post an interview or confessional about how your character feels about finally being here, and moving into the dorm.*

Drabble: Write a short drabble (IC or OOC) about your trainee’s audition, or auditions if they had to go through multiple. How they were feeling, how they were received, if they felt prepared enough ect.

Threads: threads to do with the show can earn you points too. Para threads (200+ words) are worth more points than gif chats and one liners. Threads played out to their completion are worth even more points too; if you finish a thread, submit the link to the last post to the Idol Project blog.

Self Paras: self-paras to do with the show (ie practicing, dorm life, self reflection, performances, calls home) can also earn you points. These can be done as often as you’d like as long as you provide some variety in the content.

Weekly Challenge: Each company has prepared a performance for the first episode. Songs were picked by their CEOs, and they had to figure out the details on their own. Write a short para (IC or OOC) about your character’s reaction to all of this– be it just the practice, or the performance as well.*

Tasks can be completed at any time. Episode-specific tasks are indicated with a little ‘*’ above, so when you complete them (even if you end up doing it in a few weeks or something), be sure to mark it as ‘EPISODE ONE’, be it as a title or in the info before your self para or something like that. Any completed tasks and challenges can be tagged ‘rivalsipdone’

WEEKLY PERFORMANCE

For this week’s performance, as stated above, each company’s trainees will perform as a unit, showcasing what that company has to offer. The CEOs picked the songs, and after that it was up to the trainees to learn the choreography and the lines. The performances are as follows:

ALPHA RECORDS’s trainees will be performing Helix’s “Voodoo Doll” DS MEDIA’s trainees will be performing Gemini’s “Last Romeo” NEW WAVE MUSIC’s trainees will be performing Nu’Est’s “Action” RADIOACTIVE ENTERTAINMENT’s trainees will be performing Legacy’s “War of Hormone” SPOTLIGHT PRODUCTIONS’s trainees will be performing B.O.W’s “Sherlock”

WEEKLY VOTE

This is for the entire roleplay, not just the trainees! VOTE HERE for your favorites! It will be noted that the popularity vote results affect the ranking very little. The vote is just for fun.

The weekly ranking will be posted on January 14th, and a summary of episode one will be posted on January 16th.

[yoshida-midoriko]

[yoshida-midoriko]

[thetodorokifamilyannotated]

The TodoFam in BNHA Vol. 2 Chap. 011 - Bakugō's Starting Line (スタートライン、爆豪の START LINE, Bakugō no)

Release date: September 22, 2014 (WSJ Issue 43, 2014)

Let’s look at what the manga shows us first:

Todoroki Shōto ‘Sototero, abunē kara. Mukō wa bōeisen no tsumori darou ga… ore ni wa kankeinai.’ 轟焦凍「外出てろ、危ねぇから。向こうは防衛戦のつもりだろうが…俺には関係ない。」 Todoroki Shōto “Stay outside, it’s dangerous. They’re probably trying to defend themselves… but that doesn’t matter to me.”

Ojiro Mashirao ‘.........!’ 尾白猿夫「………！」 Ojiro Mashirao “...!”

Todoroki Shōto ‘Ugoite mo īkedo. Ashi no kawa ha ga recha manzoku ni tatakae nē zo.’ 轟焦凍「動いてもいいけど。足の皮剥がれちゃ満足に戦えねえぞ。」 Todoroki Shōto “You can move, but… you won’t be able to fight properly if the skin is peeled off your legs.”

ALL MIGHT ‘Nakama o makikomazu kakuheiki ni mo DAMAGE o ataezu naokatsu teki mo jakutai-ka!’ オールマイト「仲間を巻き込まず核兵器にもダメージを与えず尚且つ敵も弱体化！」 All Might “He didn't involve any of his allies, won’t cause any damage to the nuclear weapon, and also weakened the enemy!”

Kirishima Eijirō ‘Saikyō ja neE ka!’ 切島鋭児郎「最強じゃねエか！！」 Kirishima Eijirō “He is the strongest!!”

Hagakure Tōru ‘Itatatatata...!!’ 葉隠透「痛タタタタ……！！」 Hagakure Tōru “Ouch, ouch, ouch...!!”

ALL MIGHT ‘HERO TEAM WIN!!’ オールマイト「ヒーローチームWIN！！」 All Might “HERO TEAM WIN!!”

Ojiro Mashirao ‘......!’ 尾白猿夫「……！」 Ojiro Mashirao “...!”

Todoroki Shōto ‘Warukatta na.’ 轟焦凍「悪かったな。」 Todoroki Shōto “Sorry.”

Ojiro Mashirao ‘Netsu...!’ 尾白猿夫「熱…！」 Ojiro Mashirao “Heat...!”

Todoroki Shōto ‘LEVEL ga chigai sugita.’ 轟焦凍「レベルが違いすぎた。」 Todoroki Shōto “Our levels are too different.”

PRESENT MIC ‘Suisen nyūgakusha 2! Todoroki Shōto. Kosei: Hanrei hannen! Migi de kōrashi hidari de moyasu! Hani mo ondo mo michisū! ! Bakemono ka yo!!’ プレゼント・マイク『推薦入学者２！轟焦凍。個性：半冷半燃！右で凍らし左で燃やす！範囲も温度も未知数！！化け物かよ！！』 Present Mic “Recommended admission student 2! Todoroki Shouto. Quirk: Half-cold, half-hot! Freezes with the right and burns with the left! The range and temperatures are unknown! ! Is he a monster? !” [Chap. 11]

Bakugō Katsuki ‘Kōri no yatsu mitetsu! Kanawanēn jatte omotchimatta...!!’ 爆豪勝己「氷の奴見てっ！敵わねえんじゃって思っちまった...！！」 Bakugō Katsuki “Look at that ice guy! I thought there was no way I could beat him...!!”

Observation notes:

In a single move Shōto ends the match quickly and efficently with his team’s victory. From a Doylistic point of view this allows Horikoshi to spend few pages on him, especially compared to the ones he had to spend from the fight between Team A and Team C and still make him impressive. It also hints at a certain aloofness in Shōto. Shōji looks straight ahead of himself but Shōto seems to look away from him and even his actions in the whole battle give a vibe that seems to hint he is working solo, even though it is subtle as he let Shōji do reconnaissance before icing the place. Shōto is also shown as confident of his own ability, but in a way that seems calmer than Bakugō. Shōto is paired up with Shōji, which is one of the characters who appeared early on, in the admission test and who is meant to have a prominent arc at the end of the manga. Sadly, in this interaction with Shōto, same as in other scenes in which he will appear later on, he doesn’t manage to shine significantly, when it would have been good if this scene was used to later build a relation with Shōto, be it positive or negative. In itself instead, it doesn’t even seem his reconnaissance matters.

Cultural notes:

Suisen nyūgaku (推薦入学 “admission by recommendation”): in Japan admission by recommendation takes place when Japanese universities and high schools, when recruiting students, select students who have been recommended by their alma mater and admit them, usually exempting them from academic tests. Often the alma mater which recommend them has to be a designated school and not a random school. It seems the receiving schools benefit from this system as they are able to secure talented students early on. Thanks to Ultra Archive we know of three middle schools in the BNHA world that are designated schools for U.A. high, Corusan middle school (凝山中学校 Corusan chūgakkō), which is Shōto’s middle school, the middle school annexed to Horisuma University (堀須磨大付属中学校 Horisuma dai fuzoku chūgakkō), which is Yaoyorozu’s middle school and Kintora middle school (近寅中学校 Kintora chūgakkō), which is Honenuki’s middle school. Tokage’s middle school remains unnamed. It’s unknown if they’re private schools as Ultra Archive doesn’t mention it.

Places notes:

The chapter hints at a location:

Korusan middle school (凝山中学校（こるさんちゅうがっこう）Korusan chūgakkō), which is Shōto’s middle school

Korusan Chūgakkō (凝山中学校) takes its name from planet Coruscant (‘Korusanto’ コルサント), the location of the Galactic Republic Senate building and the central Jedi Temple.

To be honest we learn this school’s name only in “Ultra Archive”, here it is just said Shōto is a recommended student, but since it is a direct tie to its existence I still thought it would be worth to mention it here, especially because, as said before, in Japan public middle schools take the name from the places they are located, be it a city/town, a ward inside the city (Shizuoka has three wards), a small town, a specific area or a geographic reference, so the fact that Shōto’s middle school is named as such hints also at how Shōto likely lived in Korusan, be it a city, a town or a ward.

Retcon notes:

Here it is said that Shōto’s Quirk “freezes with the right and burns with the left” and we indeed see that by touching the place with his right hand he freezes it and by touching the bomb with his left he basically warms THE WHOLE BUILDING, melting all the ice that covered it. However, later on, Shōto’s Quirk will be corrected so that he burns with his left because he creates fire with his left, not just heat. Here instead we can’t see a single flame yet the heat spreaded through the whole place. This is even more visible in the anime. While we can still make it work by assuming that to make flames all Shōto has to do is to further raise the temperature of the heat he produces, it still seems possible Shōto’s Quirk originally produced coldness and hotness and not ice and fire and later his Quirk had been adjusted to produce such things (Chap 29 is the first in which he produces flames instead than heat and chap 38 is the first in which he uses ice to attack instead than to freeze... with chap 34 being in the middle way as he still freezes Sero but he does so by producing a giant wall of ice where before he used to just ice/freeze the surface of things)... though we will never know if this was the case.

Sexism notes:

Hagakure, whose Hero costume consists only of gloves and boots and, for the rest, is naked, removes them also as Horikoshi attempts to titillate male fantasy with the idea a completely naked girl is around without showing the girl in question. Considering we are told in chap 139 that the special fibers in Mirio’s costume are made with his hair and therefore can reacts and permeate stuff as well as he can, it would have been possible to make her a costume that would disappear with her but that still wouldn't leave her naked. What’s more, considering Quirks are purely fictional and can do whatever Horikoshi says, he could have given her a Quirk that also gives her the ability to make her clothes invisible. Instead Horikoshi left her naked for the viewer's fantasy pleasure. Not only it’s pretty gross but it’s disgusting how no one in the series, adult Heroes/teachers, Hagakure’s parents, classmates, shows some form of concern about it, not even for safety purposes. Hagakure do wear a school uniform or everyday clothes, meaning for her it’s not the norm to go around naked and Midnight mentions a law against skin exposure but everyone turns his face away for the pleasure of leaving a girl naked as she fight Villains.

Translation notes:

In this chapter we learn that, in order to say “I”, Shōto uses ‘ore’ (俺/おれ Lit. “Oneself”). I’ll spoiler you a bit and tell you that in normal situations all the Todoroki males use ‘ore’. This term is the most casual form of self-address used by men, which establishes a sense of masculinity. It can be seen as rude, depending on the context, as it’s suitable for conversations among close friends or relatives but not in polite conversation. It emphasizes one’s own status when used with peers and with those who are younger or of lesser status. Among close friends or family, its use conveys familiarity rather than masculinity or superiority. It was used by both genders until the late Edo period and still is in some dialects.

‘Suisen nyūgaku-sha’ (推薦入学者 “Recommended student”) refers to a student who received a recommendation from his previous school. Long story short, Shōto wasn’t recommended by his father as many western fans seem to think but by his previous school.

A ‘Bakemono’ (化け物 “monster” Lit. “transforming thing”) is a class of yōkai (妖怪 “strange apparition”) in Japanese folklore. Literally, the terms mean a thing that changes, referring to a state of transformation or shapeshifting, therefore it’s used to refer to living things or supernatural beings who have taken on a temporary transformation. Here it’s clearly used not with the intent to insult Shōto but to imply Shōto is too amazing to be human.

Bakugō’s ‘Kōri no yatsu’ (氷の奴 “ice bastard”) is the first insult Bakugō uses for Shōto... but it won’t be repeated through the story as, in future, Bakugō will use another insult. Tecnically 'yatsu’ (奴) means “guy” but the nuance here is that you’re either using for someone you’re close to, therefore in a familiar way, or it comes out as derogatory and is therefore often translated as “bastard”.

Now, regarding the anime version...

Episode 8 - Bakugō’s Start Line (スタートライン、爆豪の. START LINE, Bakugō no)

Added parts notes:

They included an image of Shōto and Shōji waiting outside the building. The scenes were significantly expanded so that, for better comparison, I placed the images of the manga parts in which Shōto appears next to the correspective scenes in the anime. The anime focused on showing Shōto’s entrances, both in the building and in the room Ojiro is, and in how he crosses the others (Shōji and Ojiro). Visually, showing him walk from left to right while Shōji remains still and Ojiro is looking in the opposite direction, implies that Shōto is going ahead of both. We get a better visual of how his Quirk works and there is a note of creepiness in how the light in the red eye seems to leave a trail of red light.

We also have a line of Ojiro that implies he has recognized Shōto’s Quirk said before Shōto appears on the door.

Ojiro Mashirao ‘Kono kosei wa…’ 尾白猿夫「この個性は…」 Ojiro Mashirao “This quirk is…”

We finish with the anime showing them, or more specifically Shōto, leaving the building. That is because although the anime has it’s own way to introduce the characters, all that dialogue couldn’t be said in such a short space so they added a scene of Shōto leaving to manage to finish the sentence.

Present Mic’s sentence is also slightly changed so as to make it flow better.

PRESENT MIC ‘Todoroki Shōto. Koitsu mo HERO-ka no suisen nyūgaku-sha 4-nin no uchi hitori. Kosei “hanrei hannen”. Migi de kōrashi hidari de moyasu. Hani mo ondo mo michisū. Bakemono ka yo!’ プレゼント・マイク『轟焦凍。こいつもヒーロー科の推薦入学者4人のうち一人。個性“半冷半熱”。右で凍らし左で燃やす。範囲も温度も未知数。化け物かよ！』 Present Mic “Todoroki Shōto. He’s one of the four recommended students for the Hero Course. His quirk is ‘half cold, half hot’. He freezes with his right hand and burns with his left. The range and temperature are unknown. He’s a monster!”

In the end the additions are not something drastically new, we could figure out what the anime showed by the manga panels we had but they still made their best to expand the scene and give it more importance.

Changed parts notes:

The building used for the training was changed in the anime. Ojiro in the manga seems angry while in the anime he seems sorry.

Deleted parts notes:

They cut the 2 panels summarizing how the teams were formed and who was the Hero and who the Villain.

Extra notes:

The scene of Shōto freezing and unfreezing the place was included in the scenes that took part to the ultimate scene ranking.

[faces-in-unexpected-places]

Do You Have the Time? Episode 008: Research Dinner Party Part 1

[March 26th, 2018, 18:33]

Leslie stood in her uncleaned room and adjusted her emerald green dress in front of her mirror. The bodice showed the upper part of her chest in a V shape, and the skirt flowed loosely just past her knees. Her hair was pulled into a bun, except for a small lock that she’d curled and pushed off to the side of her face. She got it in just the right place and smiled at her reflection. A knock at her front door alerted her. Leslie paced through the living room and ensured that her sound generator and music were softly playing at the same time. She tested a few songs by a guy called Johann Sebastian Bach. They fit her image of a dinner party. Sophisticated and calming. 

She would be a successful host!

“Oh, hello!” Leslie cheered and opened the door. She was met by Madison and Jeremy who had not deviated much from their usual clothing choices underneath their coats. Madison wore a skater dress and tights as she does most days, but took the liberty of curling her naturally straight hair. Jeremy dressed up one of his many striped sweaters with a button-down shirt and tie underneath. His hair, coincidentally, was also tied into a small bun.

“No way, Jeremy! Did you and Leslie call each other and plan to wear your hair the exact same way?”

“The only other people who make that joke are upwards of ninety years old,” he said.

“Daaaamn, girl, look at that dress! A bit of a step up from your usual sweater and khakis, don’t you think?”

Leslie blushed and nervously adjusted her outfit.

“Oh! Is it too much? Should I change? I could—”

“No, don’t it’s— uh. It’s good,” Jeremy interrupted.

“Real descriptive, there,” Madison joked.

“Well, uh, so happy you two could make it!” Leslie changed the subject, “Please, please, come in. The food should be done in just a minute.”

“Woooow! What a sweet pad, Les,” Madison complimented as she gleamed all around the living room.

“Well, thank you, dear!” she called and rushed to the kitchen.

“Uh, Leslie—” Jeremy stuttered, “Is there a place that we should put our jackets?”

“Oh, that’s right! A coat hanger!” she said and raced back to her guests, “Ummm… I don’t have one. Uh, but here, here! I’ll take them, why don’t you give them to me! Your backpack, too!”

Jeremy’s expression shifted from blank to slightly distraught. Leslie was walking the line between politeness and just plain robbery.

“O-only if you want to, though!” Leslie clarified, “I could find a place for them somewhere else is all I mean.”

Making her guests uncomfortable. That was not something that a successful host would do.

“Oh. Okay. Here you go. Thanks,” Jeremy said. He handed his bag and his neatly folded jacket to Leslie. Madison did the same.

“Yes, of course, my pleasure,” she smiled and scuttled back to her room. So long as she handled everyone’s coats and nobody went into her room, there should not be any issues. Leslie hustled back down the hallway to see Jeremy and Madison still standing towards the door.

“Oh, please, you guys, make yourselves at home! Have a seat on the couch, or the dining table, or take a look around. Whichever you prefer.”

Madison, in response, wandered away from Jeremy and gravitated towards the few plants that sat on the windowsill. Jeremy remained uncomfortably planted in place. However, curiosity got the best of him, and he peaked into the kitchen. He asked Leslie if he could assist.

“No, no, it’s fine,” she said with a hint of inattention to him, “I’m just finishing up the noodles. Everything else is done. These should be close, too.”

Knock-knock-knock.

Leslie gently sighed to herself in preoccupied discontent.

“Ohhh, I bet I know who that is!” Madison yelled whilst smelling a flower that she held all the way up to her face.

“Why don’t you just keep doing that,” Jeremy suggested, “and I’ll handle Leopold and his stuff.”

“No, no, I’ll do it!” Leslie stubbornly called from the kitchen. She slipped past Jeremy, who stood out-of-place in the dinning area, and opened the door for Leopold. His outfit was the least changed. It wasn’t at all. It was the same as always. His white dress shirt and loose tie and black pants. All he did was take off his lab coat and put on an outdoor coat.

“Oh yeah, now the party is really starting!” Madison called from the back of the room, holding a stapler that she found… somewhere.

“Hi Leo, so glad you came!” Leslie said.

“This place is hardly changed since the last time I saw it!”

Jeremy meandered over to the stovetop where Leslie had left the pot of boiling spaghetti on the burner with the wooden spoon still in it. He picked it up and stirred the noodles about.

“You’ve been here before?” Madison asked.

“Of course! I’ve known Leslie for half your life,” Leo joked.

“Please, have a seat, Leo. You and Madison can keep each other entertained while I finish up the food. Let me take your coat and satchel.”

“On your command,” Leo laughed and surrendered his possessions. Leslie scurried away with Leopold’s things like a dog hiding a bone. Jeremy stirred the noodles and lifted one up with a spoon. Leopold sat down at the bar, opposite to Jeremy at the stove. He gestured to the music player.

“Did you pick this music?” Leo asked. 

Jeremy shook his head and shut off the burner.

“It is very nice, though,” he said.

He rifled through the cabinets above the sink and found Leslie’s colander. He set the colander in the sink and poured the pot of noodles into it. Bountiful amounts of steam rose from the sink as he shook the colander back and forth. He choked on the vapour and leaned away. Leslie came power-walking from the hallway, once again, and investigated her sink.

“What’s going on?” she asked.

“The noodles were done, so I poured them out.”

“Oh. Okay, thank you. Why don’t you go spend time with everyone else while I finish up?” she said with a forced smile.

Jeremy glanced into the living room. Madison was posing with Leslie’s curtains like she was wearing dresses for a fashion show. Leopold made a paper airplane and threw it at her face. She caught it in her mouth. They both burst out laughing. He looked back at Leslie.

“I think I would be more useful in here.”

She chuckled and her worry lines began to dissipate.

“I think you might be right. Want to set the table?”

“Great,” he said quickly with a faint smile. Her playful remark relaxed him; she didn’t seem to be upset over their dispute from that morning. It was long gone in Leslie’s mind after she spoke to her mother and spent the afternoon stressing over her guests.

Jeremy searched through the nearby cabinets until he found some white, ceramic plates with a subtle design of flowers near the rim. He paused and thought back to all of the times he had to set the table at home. What did his mother always make him do? One plate to each seat. Forks to the left of the plate, knives and spoons to the right. Napkins under the forks. Meanwhile, Leslie mixed the noodles and tomato sauce. She offered the bowl and pasta fork to Jeremy. He naturally arranged the bowl in the middle of the table. Though they didn’t speak much as they worked, their actions flowed together seamlessly and peacefully. A well prepared dish, set table, and symphonic music left Jeremy with a tranquil expression. He secretly moved his fingers on the table following the melody of the harpsichord in the piece.

“Do you like the music?” Leslie asked with a grin, glancing down at his fingers. She set down two more plates. One with meatballs, and one with something that resembled meatballs but was likely not meatballs. Jeremy shyly pulled his hands back.

“Oh, yeah, yes. It’s, uh, very nice to listen to. Leopold and I were talking earlier. About how we liked it, I mean.”

“Oh! Is that right, Leo?” she asked happily.

Jeremy and Leslie glimpsed across the living space to see Leopold looking at Madison through the wrong end of a pair of binoculars that he must have found. He was too distracted to hear her.

“You were talking to him earlier?”

“Yes.”

“While he was doing all that?” she gestured to his eccentric sister and boss. “No, before, he was talking to me at the bar,” he clarified.

“Sure, he was,” she chuckled and left for the kitchen again.

“But he— he actually—”

“No, I bet, Jeremy.”

“Oh, forget it,” he said with a heavy breath.

“Yeah, let’s call them over,” she gleamed.

“Actually first—” he stuttered, “uhh, you know…”

Leslie frowned and moved further into the kitchen with Jeremy, away from the dinning area.

“What is it? Are you alright?” she asked.

“Uh, yeah, oh yeah, everything is fine. But I, uh, wanted to say…”

Leslie’s expression shifted from confused to concerned.

“Just, you know… this morning… I didn’t mean to—” he stammered.

“I know, Jeremy.”

“—when you were talking to me about Madison, I was a bit… severe. I didn’t really want to talk about it, and uh, just… I’m sorry.”

She tilted her head in understanding and relaxed her shoulders.

“It’s okay. I was trying to help, but maybe it was unexpected,” she considered.

“Well… thanks,” he said, “For trying to help. It’s nice. I think I was… caught off guard. But next time, if I don’t want to talk, I’ll… find a way to tell you.”

“I would like that,” she said softly, “I don’t want to pry into things that aren’t my business. But I’m open to help if you ever decide that you want someone to talk to.”

Jeremy nodded slowly and awkwardly.

“Yeah. Okay. Thanks.”

“Thank you, too, Jeremy. It means a lot that you wanted to patch this up with me. You’re a good person. It makes sense that you’d end up getting your degree under Leopold.”

“Uh, wow. That’s very nice of you, Leslie. I think that, uh, you’re a good person, too.”

“Okay,” Leslie replied with a chuckle, “you want to get things moving, eat, talk some shop and have fun?”

Jeremy relaxed his body. He was so relieved. He was glad that he and Leslie were okay. He thought to himself in that moment. It was odd for him to feel this way. The purpose of his degree was to do research and make discoveries, not go to dinner parties and make up with friends. So why was it that he hadn’t thought about the research since they told him about the dinner party? Leslie was still waiting for him to respond. She looked confused.

He set the train of thought aside.

“Yes, let’s eat.”

--

Madison flicked the wicks of a few large candles all crowded on Leslie’s desk. The desk rested next to the hallway that led to her room and bathroom. Leopold leaned over to her as he tucked the binoculars away where he found them.

“Hey, why don’t you bring those candles to the dinning area, huh?” he asked, “I think Leslie and Jeremy would like it.”

“Oh, yeah sure,” she said, “But, I can’t light them.”

Leopold picked his Zippo lighter out of his back pocket and flicked it open.

“Got your back, kid,” he said with a wink.

“Okay, everybody, please have a seat!” Leslie happily announced. Jeremy, taken by surprise, was the first to sit. Madison strutted over with arms full of candles and placed them all about the apartment and dinning area. Leopold followed behind and lit them with his metal lighter. Leslie sternly eyed the lighter, but snapped out of it before anyone noticed. She stood before her three friends at the table.

“As you can see, we have spaghetti, meatballs and meatless meatballs. You may choose whichever you like!”

“What exactly are the… meatless meatballs?” Jeremy curiously asked.

“Good question!” she said and began fix everyone’s plates with spaghetti, “They’re made of eggplant baked in breadcrumbs.”

“Huh. Sounds interesting. I’ll try those.”

While Leopold and Madison stuck with the classic meatballs, Leslie joined Jeremy to even the scales. To Leslie’s delight, they enjoyed the food and music. She was further contented by their help with the food and decor. Even the slightest amount of help made her smile. Eating dinner with them all went about as she expected. Leopold talked about physics facts to captivate Madison. Madison talked about pop culture that only Jeremy knew about but refused to acknowledge. Leopold listened intently, and Leslie herself tried to but got lost and gave up. Jeremy was pretty quiet, but did speak up when Leslie tried to bring up topics of conversation that everybody could contribute to. Mostly to balance out Madison. Leslie felt that her efforts had paid off so far, and relished in her guests’ happiness.

--

[March 26th, 2018, 19:50]

“Okay kids,” Leopold said with a grin and placed a napkin next to his empty plate, “are we ready to get things moving?”

“Yes, yes!” Leslie said and began collecting people’s plates, “You guys start; I will clean up and do the dishes and I’ll join you in a few minutes.”

“Oh come on, Les, it’s party! Dishes can wait. I wanna get to talking science with you guys!”

“No, no, it’s okay! I don’t mind.”

“I think you put our notes and computers in a room down the hall,” Jeremy said, “Should we go get them, then?”

“Oh!” Leslie jumped, “No, no, that’s okay too. I will get them all for you, finish the dishes and then I will join you.”

“But—” Leo said.

“No worries, it will only be a minute!”

And after a few minutes of waiting, Leopold, Jeremy and Madison were rejoined by Leslie at the spotless, roundtable. Despite having free time, Jeremy and Leopold decided that it would be best to wait to start with Leslie present. The three scientists opened up their computers to retrieve their research materials. Leopold opened a blank word document to take notes on his subordinates’ presentation. Jeremy and Leslie displayed their experiment in GraviTime. It was a blank coordinate plane. Leopold frowned, for he did not understand. In unison, they repeated the same process as they did that morning. Jeremy spread the heat energy horizontally in the space while Leslie used the TURBINE tool to rapidly the heat so that it did not dissipate. The energy compacted together into a continuously spinning line from left to right. It was like a very thin, sideways tornado. A string.

[03–26–2018; 19:57_Research_Video_Log_003_START]

Leopold leaned forward past the camcorder that Madison had secretly dug out and started filming with. He squinted at the Leslie’s laptop screen. He asked Jeremy to spread the heat over a larger distance to make the string longer. For cosmic strings to warp space and time, they needed to be infinite. They pressed the STOP button to stop time so that heat could be put into the system and not dissipate until they pressed PLAY. The line of heat extended from one end to the other in the infinite coordinate plane. Because the program was physics based, there were many ‘INFINITE’ buttons. The mathematicians and physicists behind GraviTime were keenly aware of the importance of infinity in modern science.

To view the effects of the cosmic string, they set up a negative control. One object, a simple box, was placed infinitely far away from the string. The other box was placed just next to the string. There were digital timers respective to each box to determine if they experience space-time the same way. Or rather, at the same rate. They pressed PLAY.

The timer for the infinitely far away box, the negative control, ran like any other timer. The seconds counted normally. One, two, three… Leopold’s eyebrows raised with a wrinkled forehead when he watched the timer for the box next to the cosmic string. The numbers were completely inconsistent. One, three, ten, eight-hundred, five, twelve, negative two-thousand. The milliseconds ran up and down in sporadic, nonsensical ways, counting up and down with no rhythm. Leopold grew a smile like a cheshire cat from one ear to the other. He leaned back in his chair, clasped his hands behind his head and put his feet up on the table. Leslie’s face was plagued with anxiety, seeing Leopold put his feet on her sterile table.

“Dude, gross!” Madison laughed, “Get your huge old man feet out of my documentary!”

“Obviously, the timing is inconsistent and difficult to quantify a harnessable pattern for truly travelling in time, but—” Jeremy said.

“Oh, hush boy!” Leopold bellowed, “We have our evidence! That’s a groundbreaking feat on it’s own!”

“Groundbreaking feet?” Madison said and filmed Leo’s feet.

“These numbers tell us that it’s theoretically possible to warp time! All we have to do, now, is build a machine to use them the right way,” he explained.

“So, you think we made some good progress?” Leslie timidly asked.

“How long did it take you guys to generate these observations?” he asked.

“We started working together at around… six-thirty this morning?” Jeremy said, “Assuming you mean from then until now, it’s been… a little over twelve hours? Give or take.”

“You two really bring great things into this world,” Leo replied.

“Well, it was a little bit of a fluke,” Leslie said, “An accident, really. It just sort of happened after a while of playing around. We were so tired!”

“We’ve been over this, Leslie. That’s what research is all about!” Leo said, “That’s all it takes. It’s just a matter of if your head is in the right place.”

“So, now you guys can build the time machine, right?” Madison asked from behind the camera that she pointed to Jeremy and Leslie. Leslie smiled faintly at her and Jeremy took a weary breath.

“Well, not exactly, sweetie. All this says is that it’s technically possible. The real problems come from whether or not we have the means to make it happen.”

“Okay, so let’s just spin some heat around and let’s go kill Hitler, alright?” she laughed.

“This is what you do when she doesn’t get it,” Jeremy whispered to Leslie, “Okay Madison. You tell us. Since you understand how the energy works, how are we going to put it into action.”

“‘Kay, so get this,” Madison started, “So, we gotta produce lots of heat, right? So we use some kinda crazy exothermic chemical reaction! The kind that releases heat. You remember, I showed them to you!”

“Yes, you googled ‘some of the most exothermic reactions possible’ for me. I remember.”

“Right yeah! We use that to generate a ton of heat and then we spin it around in the air!”

“And how are we going to do that?” Jeremy pressed.

“I dunno man, you’re the damn scientists, you figure it out! With a turbine, like the program thingy said!”

“The thermite reaction would be a promising place to start,” Leopold confirmed. “Yeah, except turbines convert kinetic energy into work. Putting the heat energy into the system would just heat up the blades,” Jeremy countered.

“Oh…” Madison paused, “Huh, that’s a good point. What about a fan, maybe?”

“A powered fan would blow the heat in all directions and break the string structure. It would undo the space-time properties it has. It would basically be an inefficient heater.”

“Damn, sorry Jeremy, didn’t mean to contribute a bunch of shit ideas,” Madison sarcastically spat at him.

“All I mean to say is that it’s not as simple as ‘step two: build the time machine.’”

“Cool, point proven. So now what?”

“This,” Leopold interjected. Everybody looked at him.

“What?” Madison said.

“We do this. All of us. We talk it out, debate, until we agree on something that seems plausible. Then we work together to make it happen” he explained, “I think the thermite reaction is a good place to start for energy. It’s simple, easy, and cheap.”

“Is it?” Jeremy asked.

“Oh yeah! Aluminum powder, iron oxide powder and the ignition mix? We can buy plenty of that, and we only need a little to make some real heat. The other parts of the machine might be more complicated, but the chemicals we need are easy to obtain.”

“Okay,” Jeremy reluctantly agreed, “Since it fits with our budget, I vote we start with it, too.”

“I think it sounds like a great idea!” Leslie said.

“Alright!” Leopold exclaimed with a cheery smile, “One step down, a lot more to go. But great suggestion there, kiddo. If you do well in chemistry, you’ll always have a place in my lab if you want to do graduate school, too.”

Madison beamed with excitement, wonder and confusion.

“But you’re all about physics though, right? How could I be in your lab with a chemistry degree?”

“Ah, well,” Leo chuckled, “all of that is a long time off anyway, and you don’t need to worry about it right now. But so long as you have passion and work hard, you can apply what you know to plenty of things that aren’t completely part of your degree. We are talking about using chemical reactions for time travel, aren’t we?”

“Huh, I guess you’re right. I had no idea. I mean, I would have a ton of fun working for you!”

“Well, just know you have somewhere to go in four years, if you need it,” Leo looked at Jeremy, “Brilliant ideas must run in the family, huh?”

Madison blushed and smiled.

“I think we should talk about the length of the strings,” Jeremy changed the subject, “They won’t be infinite, of course.”

“The shorter they are, the less they warp space-time, though. Their infinite lengths are important to their properties,” Leslie explained.

Meanwhile, Leopold brought up a shopping page for the materials needed for the thermite reaction. Four-hundred and fifty grams of aluminum powder was about ten dollars. Five-hundred grams of iron oxide was seventeen dollars. A twenty-three meter long strip of magnesium was worth three dollars. He gestured to the reactants on the screen with a grin. Madison’s gaze at the computer grew distant in her confusion.

“Is that it?” she asked.

“Is what it?” Leopold replied.

“Like, that’s all we need? Time travel literally costs thirty dollars?”

“Well, there’s shipping and taxes,” Leo joked.

“Okay, so thirty-four dollars?”

“And, well, lot’s of thinking, trials, errors and building the reactor to hold the reaction and the machine to apply the energy needed. But, to put it simply… yes,” he chuckled, “Say, you know what? You can set off the reaction for us!”

Jeremy and Leslie stopped talking with each other. The table was quiet after Leopold’s statement.

“I… what?” Madison said.

“It’s just basic chemistry! You can do that in our lab and you can put that down on your résumé.”

“Wow, I… didn’t really think about that,” she said, nervously.

“Leo, do you think that’s a good idea? She doesn’t have much experience yet. Maybe it would be better to wait a year or so before we ask her to do that,” Leslie argued.

“Well, she’s got to earn experience somewhere, doesn’t she?” he replied flippantly.

“Yes, but there is a big difference between working independently in a lab with equipment that is unfamiliar, and working in a lab supervised by a TA that tells you how to do everything,” Jeremy added.

“Hey, he doesn’t tell me how to do everything. I can follow directions in the procedure!”

Leopold reached his arm over and protectively covered Madison’s shoulder with his hand. He could feel the precautionary passion from Leslie and Jeremy.

“I will personally supervise Madison the whole time,” he assured, “If she wants to do it, that is.”

She peered at Leopold with insecurity.

“You have no obligation,” he said to Madison, “If you think it sounds like a good opportunity and you want to take it, then you absolutely can. Jeremy and Leslie do raise good points, so I will accommodate them. I’ll be there the whole time and show you everything you need to know, okay?”

“Okay,” Madison said with gratitude.

“Okay then,” Leo resolved and turned to his subordinates, “how do you want to approach the length of the strings?”

The two of them glanced to each other, their expressions bewildered. Leopold chuckled because when they were put in the spotlight, they needed to pause and think. It didn’t matter how intelligent anyone was— when put on the spot, even the greatest scientist could feel at least a little uncomfortable.

The three of them thought out loud to one another. Mainly, they discussed the methods in the scientific paper of one other research group who attempted to tackle time travel using cosmic strings. Longer strings were more dense and warped space-time more intensely. Leslie had annotated that the table showing the distortion coefficient — the number representing how warped space-time was — appeared to increase when the difference between distance and displacement was higher.

“Okay, someone’s gotta back up for me,” Madison said, “What do you mean distance and warping, and all that stuff.”

Jeremy opened his mouth to begin explaining, but Leopold put his hand out to stop him. He took the opportunity to explain it to Madison, as he felt she would receive it the best from him.

“This isn’t too bad,” he began, “You’re just stuck on definitions because you haven’t taken physics yet. So, ‘distance’ is how long the string is. ‘Displacement’, however, is the measurement of the length of the string from one end to the other.”

“They sound like the same thing.”

“They do, but they’re not. Think about it like this: how long the string is will always be the same, won’t it? If we make the string a meter long, no matter how we curl or bend it, if you trace your finger along the string in all its twists and turns, it will always be a meter long.”

“Yeah,” she responded indifferently.

“But when we bunch it up so it curves and turns, we can measure from one end to the other, straight across, and the length will be less than the total length of the entire string. That’s displacement.”

“Okay… so, like, it’s like when you look at your GPS, and it tells you which roads to take to get somewhere. Like, it will make you jump through all these hoops and roads that wind all around just to get to your location. But like, if I just said ‘screw the GPS’ and decided to drive in a literal straight line from my house to the store, I’d travel less distance because it’s the most direct path? I mean, obviously, I’d be driving through people’s yards and houses probably, but it would technically be the fastest way there?”

Leo smirked and slumped in his chair because he felt the formality of the research meeting diminish with Madison’s presence.

“That’s exactly it! Driving through people’s houses is displacement, and following the law is distance.”

Leslie cleared her throat and jumped back into the discussion.

“So what they noticed is that if you keep the distance of the string the same but lower the displacement by compressing the string and making it curve up and down, the more intensely space-time was warped,” she explained. Madison tilted her head and frowned. 

“Uhhh… I… think that makes sense…”

Meanwhile, Jeremy was scribbling things down on a loose piece of paper that he had dug up. His pencil raced back and forth over the paper. He finished and curtly placed the pencil on the table with a significant tap sound. With two fingers, he slid the piece of paper over to her and spoke matter-of-factly.

“Like this.”

Madison ran her eyes over it, attempting to make sense of it. The table was quiet and allowed her to process the information. She nodded and hummed. Leo smiled at his coworkers.

“Ohhhh, I get it.”

Leopold gave them both a secret thumbs-up for helping Madison understand. “This is like… really simple math,” she exclaimed.

“Yeah, this part really is!” Leslie agreed.

“So… the problem is… how far do we take this?” Madison asked.

“That’s one of them, for sure,” Jeremy replied, “How long do we make the strings? How much do we compress them? In what way do we compress them? How do we control the space-time warping?”

“Wow, yeah, okay, I get the idea,” she replied with a snort.

“Any other ideas?” Leopold asked her with a grin, trying to keep her included. She rubbed her chin with intrigue and hummed. The expression on her face gradually became blank from thought. Sound only emitted from the music and soundscape speakers resting on the bar. Leopold snickered when it was clear that Madison was could not conjure anything else.

“That’s okay, kiddo. You’ve already had one great suggestion. We should probably take it from here. Maybe we should quit while we’re ahead, anyway. A lot of headway was made today, and—”

“What about a circle,” Jeremy stated. All eyes went to him, but nobody spoke, “Take a cosmic string and bend it all the way around on itself. Merge the ends together.”

“Umm…” Leslie said.

“I know it’s odd, and I’m not saying it will work, but just think about it a little longer,” he urged, “Join the ends together, and we have a uniform ring of energy. You wouldn’t be able to tell where it begins or ends. It’s just a circle.”

Leslie scribbled things down into her notebook. Madison focussed the camera on Jeremy. Part of Leopold’s arm took up the frame because he leaned forward more intently.

“What’s happening?” Madison whispered to the camera. Jeremy started to smile while Leopold and Leslie listened very closely. She had never seen these expressions on any of them before. Jeremy had smiled before, of course, but not like this. The excitement in his face was foreign. Like he would soon burst out in song. And Leopold’s face was so stone-like. The goofy and devious looking smile that he usually wore was wiped off and replaced with something serious. She would think he was looking a bit grim if she had no context. Leslie looked enthralled. Her pen raced across the pages and her glasses were resting on the edge of her nose from looking down for so long. Her tongue was sticking out.

“If you start at an arbitrary place on the circle and you trace your finger all the way around it, the length will still be the same as it was when it was a string,” Jeremy said, “That would be the distance.”

“Keep going,” Leopold said.

“But when you form a circle out of the line, instead of scrunching it up to keep shrinking the displacement… because there is no beginning or end—”

“The displacement is zero,” Leslie finished the sentence as she kept scribbling. She wore a soft and enchanted smile as she spoke and wrote alongside Jeremy.

“Yes,” he confirmed, “That would be the biggest possible difference between distance and displacement.”

“Okay, now I’m confused,” Madison said.

“What about measuring from any arbitrary side to the other directly across?” Leopold objected, “Wouldn’t that just become the displacement?”

“That would be the diameter,” Jeremy clarified, “which is not the same as displacement. There are not really any equations that relate diameter or radius to displacement. When talking about displacement, we usually only use it with respect to distance, velocity, acceleration and those other variables.” Madison nodded along, pretending to understand.

“In this case, though,” Leopold countered, “the distance of the string just becomes the circumference. So actually, using the equation for circumference, C=πd, we see that the displacement becomes the diameter because that is the furthest distance apart one point on the circle is from another point.”

Jeremy began to sweat. He could feel his hands clamming up and his throat becoming sore. Being challenged always set him into an anxious mood.

“That’s true, but there’s more to it than that,” Jeremy said with a nervous and frustrated tremble.

“Please, keep going, boy. I want to understand, and I want you to be right. But I’m not convinced right now,” Leopold warned. It was a peculiar position to watch a person take. To play devil’s advocate and openly support the person he was arguing against. Leopold was a tougher cookie to crack than Madison gave him credit for. Was he just being nice to her by saying that they would try her idea? Maybe Jeremy’s idea was more complicated. Or Leopold had higher expectations for Jeremy.

“If you have a string and loop it around into a circle, it has a fixed length, distance, or, as you said, circumference. I agree with that part. We disagree about diameter and displacement. The diameter is the same across any two opposite points because it is a circle. However, if you were to change the orientation of the circle into an ellipse,” Jeremy turned to Madison, “which is an oval,” then looked back at Leopold, “then the diameter no longer exists. The diameter turns into both a major axis and a minor axis which can vary across all kinds of numerical values, and all the while, the circumference is still the exact same. Once we join one end of the string to the other, we have to keep the distance constant because no parts of the string are lost and no new parts are gained. However, we do not keep the diameter the same, because it can shift into axes that differ in lengths. You don’t calculate the circumference of a circle and the circumference of an ellipse the same way because the axes and the diameter are not the same thing. It is here where we see that the displacement is also not the same as the diameter nor a major or minor axis.”

Leopold leaned back in his chair to process all of Jeremy’s logic. He remained silent for quiet some time. Leslie had taken a break from writing during his argument and waited to hear the response. Madison broke the silence.

“I didn’t understand any of that nonsense.”

“I’d like to try to explain that too, but I think we might have to save that for another day, honey,” Leslie said with a chuckle. Leopold’s expression appeared conflicted. The expression of wanting to be convinced but being unable to accept the argument.

“That is an impressive explanation, Jeremy,” he complimented.

“But?” he provoked.

“But if we choose to accept that hypothesis for now, it still does not explain whether or not displacement is existent or not. If it is zero, then I can see how this would fit into the distortion coefficient. But if it doesn’t exist, if it’s N/A, then that makes what you’re talking about mathematically impossible.”

Leslie pushed her glasses back up the bridge of her nose. She interjected the conversation to further support Jeremy’s hypothesis.

“I can help. Try thinking about it like this, Leo. If you run one lap on a track field, you will end up right where you started. The distance you travel is about the circumference of the track. Because you end up right where you started, and essentially did not travel anywhere, the displacement is zero. The displacement still exists,” she explained, “the displacement in the cosmic circles would still exist, too.”

She adjusted herself to face Leopold the same way that Jeremy was. They sat next to each other like a single, united front. Madison was slouched over the table, listening as intensely as she could. She still could not make sense of the sciencey mumbo-jumbo.

“Will we be travelling in circles along the cosmic circles like we would on a track field?” Leopold asked for clarification. Jeremy huffed from exhaustion.

“There’s no way to tell, Leopold,” he stated, “This is as far as I’ve gotten with it. There’s no real way of knowing what will happen because nobody has done it before. To learn more, we have to try it. That’s why it’s called an experiment.”

Leopold was silent again. Everybody was. Leslie held her position next to Jeremy and presented a fixed and resolute appearance. Leopold shifted his gaze to her and nonverbally encouraged her to speak.

“I think it’s doable,” Leslie supported, “It’s thought out, it’s logically sound, it’s testable,” she paused, “I think it’s brilliant.”

Jeremy glanced at her with dull looking eyes. She leaned back in surprise.

“That was unintentional!” she laughed. He let out a humoured breath and left it at that. Leopold nodded with a thoughtful expression, then looked to Madison. She seemed caught off guard.

“What me?” she asked.

“Yeah, you. Tell me what you think,” he spurred her on.

“I mean, pretty much what Leslie said. He had an answer for everything except the things that you guys would need to test. If you’re looking for an experiment with potential that is also cheap, then I think this one is it.”

“Well, I wouldn’t call it cheap,” Jeremy said.

Leopold grinned and chuckled to himself. He dissolved into quiet laughter as he surfed the products on a chemical distribution website. The other three exchanged blank looks with one another. Leopold reached into his pocket, pulled out his phone and dialled a number. All the while, he was still giggling to himself like he was about to pull a practical joke. He raised his finger up at his friends as the phone rang.

[wildernessphotos]

Australian Wilderness Adventures: Episode 008 – Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park (Uluru)