quick plug for the Spanish Boost YouTube account if you're a beginner/intermediate Spanish learner looking for comprehensible input (slow, easier to follow speech). I've mostly been watching the Minecraft videos so far (eyeing the Stardew Valley series 👀) but they've been just about perfect for my learning level, and it's fun because it's the kind of stuff I'd be watching on YouTube anyway
Watching Doctor Who and Torchwood in quick succession is such a trip though because the Doctor is so strict about his no guns policy and then the Torchwood gang find themselves in an impossible predicament and I will be sitting there all stressed automatically thinking how are you lot getting out of this one!! what peaceful solution can even exist given how rough this look- oh you shot the alien. Oh, right.
Oriko Mikuni has the personality of a Death Note arc villain and the design language of a Touhou EX Stage boss, and manages to parallel both Homura and Madoka herself in different ways. Amoral and commits serious atrocities, also a kind person and sincerely trying to save the world from extinction. Gifted-kid precognitive 'evil' mastermind, also a dumbass teenager who has dogshit media literacy. Character of all time, 10/10, no notes.
I know you said you weren't going to say (maybe? possibly?) BUT i have a guess...! Is Harumi's Element going to be Crystal? I don't know how that could counter the Green Element but...! Crystals are shiny, and---it's Crystallized.
As shown in the mailman scene from Book Two, people definitely know Kai, Jay, Cole, and Zane live in the Monastery... but do they know the Secret Ninja Force lives there? (I feel like they would, maybe, so people would know where to find the Secret Ninja Force if anything, but who knows!)
Here's the scene for reference :>
"MAIL!" cheer the boys, rushing for the door. The poor mailman on the other side hardly has the chance to set his bag down before the combined might of Jay, Kai, and Cole's excitement greets him at the door. The mailman stares back at the eager faces, only sighing before rummaging around in his bag.
"Let's see…a letter from Jay's parents…Kai has a letter from Meghan Marshall…and, oh, something from Cole's father?"
:P
it's Crystallized. <- LITERALLY the thing that I legit thought would give it away right away RIP. But then I was getting hit with stuff like 'death', 'entropy', 'heat death of the universe', 'corruption', 'anti-time', 'space', 'apathy', 'decay' (guess that's a DR element now whoop), 'isolation', 'solitude', 'purple'...! Which are all extremely good guesses regardless, but very, very abstract and I was having a meltdown over how anti-hyped the truth was gonna be jhkgfdgfds
I TOLD y'all it was gonna be stupid and lame once I said it HELP
But anyway, congrats *confetti* we can all stop agonizing yaaaaay
Of course, how I plan to parallel this to the Green Element is entirely in its symbolism, which I actually already basically summed up here, here, here, and especially MOST IMPORTANTLY HERE <- and I literally put extra emphasis on the process of crystallization here mannnn I CANNOT believe nobody even jokingly guessed this sooner kjhgfdsjhgfdsghfd I WAS SMACKING THE TABLE at how close that one anon got AND YET!!! HNNNNNNG
Just, in my head, and to generally summarize: Crystal (in the very specific case Crystallized provides for us here), in juxtaposition to Life Energy, it does not change form, remains rigid in its structure, takes up space it shouldn't otherwise, and defies the 'rules of the cycle of life', further implied by Harumi defying her death and being 'brought back to life'. It prefers to persist in solitude, needing no outside interaction with others (elements) to define itself, and gets stronger in isolation (i.e. how when crystals have more space to themselves they tend to get bigger) (and as a random science example to further illustrate the point, gravity is one of the factors that can actually cause detriment to crystal growth and/or its quality!)
There's also the scientific train of thought that 'crystals' (at least the process thereof) technically exist in much of non-living matter (providing a parallel to 'energy' being in all living things vs 'crystals' existing in non-living things, giving Lloyd and Harumi equal ground in their range of elemental manipulation, if we wanna push the envelop on that) (also also this logic gives Harumi the ability to create lasers like Lloyd too jhfdhgfds)
And if Energy is 'infinite', then Crystal would be, like 'negative infinity'. Energy exists in an eternal cycle of never being created of destroyed, and every ending is simply a new beginning. In the case of Crystal, it is always going to (metaphorically) represent 'one stage' in that cycle, also not achieving a beginning or end, but via the prospect of not cycling at all!! ...hence why I've made the comment that Harumi would not be 'alive' after being 'brought back' from death; she's been taken right out of the cycle. (not that she can't still 'die', but she's not actively 'living' either. that's a plot point tho)
...I promise I put thought into this, I didn't just jump on crystals specifically because the season put in there on a silver (crystal) platter jkhgfdhgffgd
But like my plans for the Crystal Army or whatever its called ARE really cool tho and you're definitely not getting THAT out of me yet RAAAAAA (esp since I'm still flip-flopping on the Neo Ninja situation and now you can probably imagine WHY ahahaha)
(BUT ALSO this relates to WHY I've been trying to emphasize why Blue Crystals can be so dangerous but ALSO we JUST got to them in-story and I haven't been able to expand on it yettttttttttttttt)
(AND THEN there was the Crystal Sword no one thought was even remotely suspicious given that its definitely not in OG!S3 except for one person who went in the entire opposite direction with it hgfdshgfds)
(like with how obsessively I mention crystals I thought I was giving myself away but was it just TOO obvious????)
(and i KNOW i am not the first one to pull this for Harumi either hnnnng I'm gonna look like a sham once we finally get there lmfao)
anyway
As for you second question, the mailman is just that good at his job jhgfdshgfds. He even managed to know to give Mr. Menloi the letter from Darkley's to Lloyd in Book 3, after all.
You know as much as the s5 finale is lackluster it does something unironically funny towards the end
So you know how Andre got off being a bad father and bad mayor by victim blaming his actions and problems on his wife and "14 yrs old daughter" so the ending does confirm he's a bad mayor unintentionally due to the fact that for some reason miss bustier was able to turn Paris into some utopia at the end.
Oh he was absolutely a bad mayor. However he had the one redeeming trait(in the show's eyes) that counters all that:
He's a White European Male.
Therefore he can be a terrible mayor. He can be corrupt and criminal for more than a decade, yet he can prace off to live his dream life because nothing was his fault.
Or something.
When anyone says Chloé needs to face consequences I tell her she can right after André does.
