So I’ve had the week off, and this is the result of binging Voyager. Thought I might do some doodle sketches around one idea – namely, Tom’s organised a soccer game for the next planet they set down on, and the crew take advantage.
The Captain and co. have a picnic, cause why not? Neelix brings enough food to feed the crew two times over, naturally. B’Elanna gets a bit too aggressive™during the game. It’s a tad bit frightening. rip Dalby. My man Tuvok’s reffing, Chakotay didn’t quite understand the rules, Ensign Vorik is again the victim of B’Elanna’s klingon enthusiasm, Lyssa tries to be of some comfort while the Doc takes no prisoners. Icheb and Naomi climb a tree and things glow, B’Elanna wins the game for the Delta Kickers, and my beloved Janeway and Chakotay continue to be awesome together. Simples.
Thank you for attending my ted talk, you may now leave.
Finally got the chance to play around with my drawing tablet! I used to draw flowers like these on notes and stuff, so I think for a first time its pretty good? Can you tell when I got tired of the brush tool and realized there was a paint bucket tool??? Anyway I’m gonna continue to play around, maybe figure out how layers works, and like more complicated stuff in general.
interpret this as if i just took a massive bong rip but as someone with an older sister who i trust with multiple facets of my identity way more than i trust our parents, but whom i rarely agree with and can feel suffocated by, danny vibes like an only child
i’ve read literally so many fics (and there are even canon episodes!) where a major thing happened in danny’s life that ripple-effected almost everyone around him, even the ghosts, but jazz’s role is that she…Was There. which flies in the face of everything we know about her? it’d be one thing if she and danny didn’t get along or if she was a lot quieter and confined to her studies, but she takes an active role in EVERYTHING. like there’s a whole episode dedicated to the fact that jazz WON’T leave danny alone
i like the idea that danny suffers supervisory neglect, and i like the idea that very few people rly know What The Fuck Is Up With Him, so like. idk i feel like there are certain aspects of fanon (where the marriage between danny and crippling angst is concerned) where jazz’s whole thing sticks out like a sore thumb lmao
you know that one idea i had awhile back where jazz isn’t danny’s sister; she’s just the valedictorian who somehow Finds Out and crams herself into the situation like a bull in a china shop? or that one kind of obscure idea where jazz and danny aren’t close and she’s more naggy than protective? yeah
my point, if i can be said to have one, is commit to the bit, whichever bit (angst or tone-compliant) you choose idfk. this is mostly a letter to myself
as someone with an older sibling who grew with less than ideal parental figures, I think I can explain why they both function like only children in the beginning for reasons other than shitty early 2000s writing cliches (though don’t get me wrong I 100% agree that that was a factor)
Danny and Jazz’s emotional distance from each other pre-reveal is honestly just due to their differing relationships with their parents and how they respond to the trauma of being neglected for so long.
Early season one Jazz is super detached from other people. She doesn’t have any friends, she’s thrown herself into her studies – especially psychology, and she’s convinced that she’s an adult because of that. Her initial object in the series is just to go to college at an ivy league presumably far away from Amity Park. (Taking Danny into consideration would shatter that dream) She butts heads a lot with her parents and her only real interactions with Danny pre-reveal are when she’s using him to prove her theory about her parents’ shitty parenting (ie her introduction in Mystery Meat)
Danny, meanwhile, and we don’t know a lot about him pre-powers so I’m just inferring based off of his character before his confidence arc (if it can be called an arc) but he’s shut down, shy, and not very confident. He rarely speaks up for himself even with his own family and probably spent most of his time holed up in his room playing video games or hanging out with Sam and Tucker.
So they weren’t close - and I don’t think either of them really realized that because they were both too busy just trying to survive their parents.
Until finally, Jazz starts noticing Danny’s changes – because she’s nothing if not observant (canonically she has memoirs and keeps track of her family’s regular day-to-day behaviors [as seen in Prisoner’s of Love] ) – so she sees oh. Danny’s breaking the pattern. He’s not in his room all time - hell, he isn’t even home most of the time! He’s twitchy, nervous, acting out – not like her quiet, pushover of a brother she has records of. Because while Jazz does bullhead her way into everything she’s more like a scientist to a research participant with Danny than an older sister
And then the reveal happens and Jazz, most likely due to grappling with her brother’s death (which she isn’t even able to clarify anything about with him for almost a season) finally starts to try to bond with him again. Help him. And while it’s not really explored, I think there’s a certain level of guilt she feels for not being there for him sooner (because we know there was a time they were close thanks to Fright before Christmas with the flashback of her defending danny from the ecto-turkey) and her arc is learning how to care about and interact with other people in a way that isn’t solely subjective and from a detached psychoanalytic viewpoint.
And then they start to bond again but neither of them know how to have healthy boundaries and Jazz thinks she’s an adult and Danny’s doing everything in his power to avoid revealing anything to her so there’s that constant unsibiling like tension between them because of that. They have to rediscover the sibling dynamic buried beneath years of trauma: neither of them knows the value of a good family. They have to learn what family means for themselves before they can create a strong sibling bond. They have to learn that they can trust each other.
But it’s hard to do that without confronting the trauma of the Fentons being terrible parents and the show didn’t have the balls to do that other than in one liners (I’m looking at you “or looking for a scalpel to dissect me with” RT)
I guess what I’m saying is that there’s other ways to retcon their canon relationship other than just making them prefect siblings – they have a lot of trauma to work out and thereby trust issues, especially when it comes to family. And I think exploring that developing dynamic (which Fenton Menace and Secret Weapons tries too) more in fanon could be interesting– I’d love to see Jazz start to play a bigger role in more canon-based [and I use that more fanon’s lose version of canon] fics rather than having her be more of a set decoration
If I have to attribute one factor that led to Assassination Classroom being a big hit across Asia, but hard to catch on for the Western audience, it will undoubtedly be the differing perspectives with which the two sides view schools and education.
See, while Kunugigaoka Middle School and its Class E system is indeed a bit exaggerated, it is actually satiring the way real life Japan’s education system works. The predicament that Class E faces is real (but on a higher scale). The issues they face are very real.
This post will be all about what Japan’s education system is like, and what Matsui Yuusei is trying to achieve.
Very well written. And yes I agree that asian readers would see this differently than the western counterparts because of how the education design operates here. I feel glad when I read assclass because Matsui makes the best of the characters and also makes us see the best of ourselves, even amidst our countless failures.
And yes, Ikeda’s case was heart wrenching to read :( How many people do we know do not have the people to support them? It’s not just school, it could be parental issues and so on. But at least when they read this comic, what Matsui tries to convey, i hope they can be inspired to reach out –even without a superteacher like korosensei.
