Just wanted to come on here and say that I hate Jomo (the real one, not his doppelganger).
"Family commitments got in the way of his dreams" well, they sure didn't get in the way of him traveling to a cool mountain with his buddy, did they?
Bro just left his wife to raise two children on her own and expects me to like him; Shakes seriously needs a wake-up call, cause that is not someone you can admire.
Like, I get that the plane he went on crashed and made him lose his memory or something, but I'm not mad about him not returning, I'm mad about him leaving to go to Kilimanjaro in the first place, before the crash, before he got on the plane, before he even got inside his wife's taxi. Bro, your wife needs you, where the fuck are you going? Help her out in the kitchen instead of running off with your side piece. Now your son has to take up two spots in the family portrait than just one.
I'm telling you that crash was just a setup for him to run away and start a new life on some private island with Vince, worry-free. You can't make me think otherwise.
If I was Shakes, I'd hate to have Jomo as a father.
Sorry for this sudden rant, I just needed to get this off my chest cause I've been wanting to talk about this for a while.
(Just a disclaimer that this is a very long rant about the show —specifically about Vince, Coach and Jomo— and my AU and how I need help with certain things. So if you're willing to take time out of your day and read all this to learn a few things or to maybe help me, continue reading!)
I feel like a large problem within my AU is Jomo's role, since he already feels like an extra piece as is in the original show. His character messed with a lot of aspects and plot points, especially after rookie season rolled around. He was meant to be the answer to some, if not all of our questions (especially about Shakes), yet his presence just left us with more questions than we already had.
His connection with both Vince and Coach feels like something the writers made up on the spot to make Shakes seem special, like he was always meant to be a football player like his dad and carry on his legacy (to which we all say "bullshit"). It puts this sort of pressure on Shakes that's left unacknowledged, and we're just sort of expected to accept it without question.
Because of this connection, there's a huge plot hole within the show that makes you question just how horrible Jomo and the others were. Coach was already a coach by the time Shakes was born, and going off of the average salaries of Premier League coaches, we can guess that Coach was making 1.4 million USD minimum at the time (23 million max, hell, maybe even more). He had more than enough money to help fund Shakes' struggling family, yet he didn't because... Because...
Shakes' mom cut contact with him after Jomo disappeared? That's a rather cheap reason to not send them money and help out with their financial situation. You know where they live, don't you?
And the fact that Vince was the culprit behind his disappearance makes everything so much more confusing and random, because you'd think he'd be going after Coach for getting a Supa Strikas contract first. We know from rookie season that Jomo wasn't exactly pleased with Coach's position himself, and we never got word of when Vince got accepted into IU or why; so for Vince to target Jomo when he wasn't a threat to neither him or Coach (and never had planned to do anything in the first place) is the most perplexing part of it all.
Had Jomo done or said something to Coach or Vince that the writers never bothered to tell us? In Shakes' flashbacks during rookie season, we see Jomo and Coach together with no sign of Vince, yet Coach states in season 7 that Vince knew Jomo better than anyone else did.
And it's not like Jomo had done anything impressive enough to have his head be at the end of a crosshair, he'd only helped Coach name the fourth fundamental of football (also the fact that every important aspect of the show leads back to Supa Strikas is annoying, let the other teams play a part in the SL too, it's not just SS!).
That begs the question, why did Vince target Jomo? Did he have something that Vince wanted, or was he in the way of something?
Jokesters will say that Vince was jealous of what Jomo and Coach had (Vince/Coach mentioned, or maybe Vince/Jomo, but you'll never know), but he implies that Jomo's still very much alive, as said in season 7.
I'd love to know what kind of theories you guys have on this, and if you have a suggestion, my inbox is open!
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Now, about the main topic I'd like to discuss...
I'm currently working on an AU of my own for this show, and by "currently working on" I mean adding to and changing stuff about it in my head: timelines, ages, events and what not, just for daydreams and stuff; and one of the most gear-turning parts of it is Jomo's connection with Vince, how he disappeared and why.
"N, you know you could just not add that in since it's your AU, right?"
I know, but for Shakes' character in my AU to make sense, I had to keep that aspect; for Jomo's absence is what drives Shakes to do certain things or react in certain ways. I find that a missing figure in Shakes' life, especially one as important as his father, would lead him to be hyper independent and "more mature for his age". He'd bite off more than he could chew because he'd think that's what he's supposed to do, and his reluctance for help from others is what would make him not fit in with his team.
It'd be a perfect arc for him, because he'd not only learn that getting outside help is okay, but that his destiny isn't to carry on a legacy he was never told to keep alive.
That being said, him finding out that his father was actually accepted into IU instead of Supa Strikas would challenge that belief, especially if he's close to changing for the better, and Vince would play an important part in making him dig his hole deeper.
In my AU, it's just Jomo and Vince. Coach is in another team and has only heard of their names during games (prior to getting into the higher leagues). And while this solves the plot hole of "why didn't Coach just aid Shakes' family financially instead of leaving them to fend for themselves?", what I'm still stuck on is what leads up to Jomo's disappearance — or in more specific terms, death.
I have this story that's still in the rough drafts (for it to work I'd have to finish the world building first), but the simplest way I can put it is that it all stems from Vince's envy and relies on Jomo's pettiness.
Basically, out of Jomo and Vince, Jomo's more skilled when it comes to soccer. But he isn't the type of person that sees a person for who they are, but rather whom they're related to (you can blame his father for making him think that way. Grandpa also put Shakes at the head of the dining table when he was 7 and is the reason the poor boy went into religious psychosis at 16, because why the fuck not. We hate you grandpa).
He cares a lot about last names, is what I'm trying to say.
And because he was so focused on "Mashona" he didn't put in the effort to learn Vince's first name. He was also very self-centered, so he'd lash out on and criticize people whenever they'd interrupt him during his working hours.
Vince didn't exactly hate him, but he was envious of his skill. And when he found out that Jomo got a contract from IU, he was less than pleased — but of course, he hid it for the sake of keeping their friendship.
That was until Jomo told him that he'd signed an aleatory contract (correct me if I'm using the term wrong) with the Super League incase something happened to him. That his role as a player would be passed down to "V.M" if he were to resign or, in the worst case scenario, die.
And you know, since he never learned Vince's first name, the "V.M" referred to Vusi Mokena — Shakes. But the SL didn't know that because of how vague those initials were, and Vince saw this as an opportunity to finally get a place in the League he'd been dying to be a part of for so long because that brute didn't think to write names properly.
And when push came to shove, he could just use his family's money to get his way and satisfy himself. He was old money for Christ's sake.
So basically the plane crash was staged by him to kill Jomo and to finally get into the higher leagues, since he was the only one in the system with "V.M" as initials at the time, so he's basically a fraud.
And now that Shakes is in the SL and is part of Supa Strikas, he's thinking "hey, why don't I just kill two birds with one stone and make him join my team?" Because he'd be getting probably the most strategic and lethal player in the League onto his team and the feeling of power would rush through his veins anew; and technically it was what Jomo wanted, so it's a win-win, right?
So Shakes kind of gets lured into his office and he bearly makes it out alive with Skarra because why not.
...
Also I don't know how to fit Shakes' mom into all of this because in my AU she becomes a police officer three seasons in cause she wants to know what the hell happened to her husband and why the authorities dropped his case out of bull fuck nowhere.
My only problem with my version of Jomo and Vince's story is that the characters, especially Vince, feel very one-sided. Like he's just doing evil shit for the fun of it instead of having a good reason behind it. It could be excused with the power-hungry trait I gave him though, since it makes him feel like he's in control... And that's what he's after.
But yeah, I just have a problem with it, I don't know why.
...
Also Shakes immediately figures out that Vince killed his dad cause the first thing that catches his eye in his office is a bronze ring his dad used to wear with a teal jewel embedded into it.
But let me know what you think, cause the edges of good and bad writing are starting to blend into each other in my eyes and now I don't know if this is good or bad.
I feel like I've left something unaccounted for, but I just don't know what.
Once apon a time, there were three pillars of deceit.
Jomo, the wolf in sheep's clothing.
Vince, the one who wasn't afraid to show just how immoral he could be.
And between them both was David, the kind one with minor slip ups and... Questionable choices. It made you wonder just what his true intentions were.
Before Jomo apparated out of the picture, the three came together to set aside their differences...
But in the process, J.D Vance was born.
Soon after Jomo's disappearace, Vince unleashed his truer, much darker side.
David took the situation from a different perspective, however. And from then on promised to himself that he'd never let the darkness claim him. That he'd be better. Not accepting himself for who he used to be.
And J.D lived on in the White House, not knowing that his true family... Was a fictional one.
He's so cute, I love him. Our little science nerd 🥹
He has experimented on himself before btw, that's why his hair looks like that. It's not actually hair, but its own sentient being.
He had normal hair up until fourteen when he snuck onto school grounds after hours to complete a science project he'd completely dipped (he always needs to outshine everyone so he goes all the way), ended up getting high off magnesium hydroxide and shit got so radioactive that he grew extra muscles on his head and yeah...
The fun thing about his "hair" now is that it raises and lowers depending on what he's feeling: negative emotions like sadness make it lower, and extreme emotions like anger raise it like a peacock raising its tail — it also raises when he's on high alert or senses something. Yes, the team makes jokes about his hair, and yes, they also jump into action when they see he's on high alert, cause that ain't normal. So you could say it's a Spidey sense, in a way.
Anyway, I just realized that I gave him thin eyebrows when they're thick af, I'll go die in a ditch now.
