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People just straight up looked for any reason to justify their hatred of the ship. From the age gap to the the "sibling-coded" discourse, although they're the only pair where one character outwardly demonstrated some attraction going as far as season 1 (Kenji hitting on her). But the way the fandom harrassed the creators as if they had committed a crime when the only reason they were mad was because their ship wasn't canon was straight up embarrassing 😭

I find it both funny and concerning that so many people in the fandom flipped out over the age gap between a 13 year old girl and a 15 year old boy who were close friends before dating, without even having birthdays to go off of, but now practically no one is saying anything when that same girl is now 19 and being shipped with the woman in her 30s/40s that has tried to kill her multiple times an tortured her.

People were straight up nasty to Brooklynn x Kenji shippers over the age gap, but her and Santos are fine apparently despite there being a massive in canon age difference and power/experience/maturity imbalance. (Not that I want them to be nasty to shippers, it’s just that the difference in reactions is striking.)

Shippers be crazy

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Not sure if I posted it here already, but I started making JWCC/JWCT edits recently if anyone's interested in following me there 👀

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Guess who got their hands on S2 crew memes

Two of these were gifs that just could not be transferred over.

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JWCT: How I think the love triangle will go down: Kenlynn endgame, Dinostar friendship restored.

So, as I teased in a post I don’t remember how long ago, I’m going to explain my theory on what I think the writers are planning to do with Kenji, Brooklynn and Darius, and what led me to think that. I don’t claim to know what’s going through their heads, I’m only a girl who loves to write and who has taken classes on the process of film-making, narratology and cinematic analysis…and also the biggest Kenlynn shipper, so even though I try to be the least biased possible, it will probably still shine through, I’m human. Oh, and that’s only a theory of course, chances are I’m wrong. It goes without saying, but I had a blast writing this, I love to dissect the stories I love to find meaning in it.

I split my thought process in different parts, so pick and choose what you're interested in reading, I know that's freaking long, but I can't help it, I LOVE TO ANALYZE EVERYTHING OK (especially fiction).

(also don't mind the typos there are a lot of atrocious ones but it was too long to check correctly)

Dinostar is (too much of) a mess:

2: They could have killed Kenlynn, but chose not to:

3: They're putting a suscpisiously large amount of effort into Kenlynn

4: Darius’s arc with Brooklynn is not about romance:

5: Brooklynn was in the wrong: she had everything

6: Kenji has suffered enough:

7: The way she looked at Darius (plane scene):

8: An example of what could happen (purely going off of vibes):

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Some more memes from season 2, Ft. the origin of Sad Kenji that we never posted (bc it had season 2 spoilers) and Earnest's parents (?

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I have the biggest Kenlynn is endgame post coming yall are not ready 😂

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Another JWCT season 2 Kenlynn analysis because I'm obsessed and I don't know if the writers are geniuses, or if I'm getting worked up over a whole lot of nothing 😂.

So, bear with me.

Kenji's arc in season 2 is clear from the first episode: he's throwing himself at danger because of the losses he's suffered. He's broken.

But in all that sadness, he has one last glimmer of hope: Bumpy's egg.

He's the one the most attached to it, even more so than Ben. After all these losses, it's the first sign of something good happening in his life. It's the contrary of death, a birth, "someone" new he can love.

During the entire season he's the most concerned with the egg, obsessed with getting it back, almost dying for it (more on that later).

Now flashfoward to episode 8: he discovers that Brooklynn is alive.

When he finds out, he's confused, hurt, mad, shook to his core (but props to the animators, for a split second...you can see that he is just... so happy).

"She's alive?"

But the hurt and feeling of betrayal is too hard for him to grasp, so he pushes all his feelings away. He knows it's not the time.

And what does he do in order to push away his feelings about Brooklynn?

He focuses on the egg, as we established the only thing in his life which isn't tarnished or hurtful. And he desperately needs it right now, now that his whole world is crumbling down even more. This shift in his priorities is shown when he says this:

"The eggs... Brooklynn took Bumpy's egg..."

At this point, Kenji's motivations are still unclear, but this line suggests that his main goal, the thing the most important to him at this moment is the same as it was at the beggining of the season, aka getting Bumpy's egg back... not getting to Brooklynn.

So when he goes berserk, driving like a madman, running as if his life depended on it to get to Brooklynn, of course we have the feeling that he wants to see her, but he's also running to achieve his objective, which has always been to take care of Bumpy's egg, and it just so happens that Brooklynn is the one obstacle to his goal.

We can see he's desperate, but it's left to interpretation as to exactly why.

Until he finally catches up to Brooklynn.

It's Brooklynn's hand he grabbs, not the case. The thing he wanted the most is in his direct reach, yet he grabbs her hand. In this moment, he completely forgets about the egg, not even sparing it a glance, not mentionning it even once.

"Brooklynn..."

All that matters to him is that the girl he loves is there, in front of him, which he thought would never happen again.

We finally have the confirmation that the reason he was so eager to run to that airport wasn't to get the egg back, but to see her. And not to get mad at her, no, just to... get her back.

And then, Brooklynn leaves.

She leaves them, but she leaves him. It's him she looks at the last, his grasp she frees herself from, him who utters her name afterward.

They're still at the center of the scene, and the scene is a direct call back to the break-up scene (also... their colors are matching, it's like not even a little subtle, which tells me there's a reason Brooklynn wore a dark blue shirt the entire season...which is SO NOT her color).

Notice how even there, it's Ben who remembers to ask Brooklynn to give them the egg.

"Wait! Bumpy's egg... it's in that case..."

It's SO FAR from being something Kenji can focus on right now, now that Brooklynn is in front of him.

We then find out that before boarding the plane, Brooklynn has given Kenji the egg. Not Ben (who was the one who asked for it), not Darius, but Kenji.

...And Kenji looks the most heart-broken he has ever looked.

He has just gotten his hands on what he thought he wanted the most, his ultimate goal this season, the very thing he threw himself into fire for, into an ocean beaten by the storm... and yet he's not even looking at it, his eyes instead watching the plane take off with Brooklynn inside.

He's gotten what he thought he wanted, but at what price?

It's not to diminish his link to Bumpy's egg. As I've shown, he risked his life countless times for it. But it just goes to show just how much Brooklynn matters to him. In that last scene, it's made clear that the thing he wanted the most, was for her to come back to them, to him. But she didn't, and gave him the egg to make up for it, as some sort of consolation price.

But it's not, and it will never be.

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Revisions from JWCT Season 2 Finale's Ending Sequence [boarded by Jiedi @tio-trile].

Recommended listen: Daniel Pemberton - Nueva York Train [ATSV] I had this on loop while working on the final sequences of this episode.

"We're not leaving without you..."

"... I'm not leaving without you."

"I'm not the same Brooklynn you knew."

I mentioned in a previous post that Jiedi did a magnificent job with the boards & I'm going to do it again here. Approaching revisions for these intense emotional beats felt very fluid as she had set us up for success with this final sequence (you'll find a few of her drawings in here).

Navigating my drawings for the airstrip reunion sequence was a whole lotta: "how is each member of the N6 feeling in this situation, after everything? How did Brooklynn's death affect them individually?" what relationship did they each share with Brooklynn and what does this discovery mean for them? What kind of acting here will create a satisfying & convincing conclusion to this long emotional arc?"

This season means a lot to me. There was a lot of shit going on in my life when I was on this show. I was often at my limit - mentally, emotionally, but I always tried to stay the course, remain composed/effective, and find ways to channel whatever relevant feelings/emotions that I had into our characters. I hope that our audience was able to feel some of that.

Bonus: "haha i win. fuck them kids" - Santos

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A little Brooklynn edit I made 💔

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Rich and famous, meant to be?

More like fifty shades of broke and undercover playing dead.

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Considering that I believe the writers plan to get them back together: I have this theory that it will happen at sunset or dawn and that, this time, Brooklynn will be the one to take his hand and to reaffirm her feelings

Something that is always in my head about the relationship of Brooklynn and Kenji is how they, somehow, break up twice at the sunset.

Not only that, but Kenji was the last person to touch her hand before she loses it. Ironically, it happened again before she leaves her friends.

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Shipping discourse (Kenlynn/Dinostar)

Ok, so two days ago I commented under a youtube video the reasons that shows, at least to me, why I think Kenlynn still has very high chances of being endgame (I might post my reasoning later).

I was happy because a dinostar shipper even replied to me, agreeing with a lot of my points (love that kind of interaction).

And then another person replied, saying that they doubted I was right and that there was no way they would have made Darius fall in love with Brooklynn for nothing or throw him under the bus like that.

I'm talking about this because, replying to them, I was finally able to put into words what the problem in the reasoning of a lot of people who are sure Dinostar would be canon for the simple fact that the writers had introduced the storyline was. In the end, I'm thankfull for that comment. So here's what I answered to them:

What I meant is that it's possible they will go with Dinostar, although what I have observed tells me it's very unlikely, but it's also largely possible they will go with Kenlynn, and broke them up to better bring them back together (that's the conclusion my observations have led me to), or even that she'll end up alone, idk. I try not to look at this from a shipping standpoint, but from a story standpoint, because I think that's what the writers are doing with the characters. The ships and how popular they are isn't their focus (Or we would have gotten Dinostar a long time ago and Benji back in camp cretaceous), it's clear what's more important to them is to tell an interesting story. I don't think they see Darius having an unrequited love as "throwing him under the bus", but as something that can happen, even to the most deserving of love people. In Chaos Theory, they are clearly tackling very mature and human themes and are putting the characters in very uncomfortable situations, (death wish, amputation, family death, paranoia, attempted murder, conspirations, depression...), so I don't see why they would stop at showing what happens when you fall in love with one of your best friends, but as much as they love you, they just can't ever love you that way. It's totally on par with what the show is, so it wouldn't have been "for nothing", actually I think it's a lot more probable than Brooklynn getting with Darius. Although I'm a Kenlynn shipper, I think I only pointed out what was in the show in my reasoning, what made me think they're going for Kenlynn. What I meant by that is that, unlike what you said, "there's way", at least when you look at what's in the show (and the promotional material, to me that letter is one of the most compelling piece of evidence, because like... why did they do that?) That's not to say I'm not biased, I totally am, but what I don't do is think they wouldn't write a storyline just because it's not satisfying for the character. Brooklynn lost her arm, Kenji thought his girlfriend of six years died and saw his father get killed and is now very unstable, Ben is paranoid... but Darius having to come to terms with his romantic feelings not being reciprocated is unimaginable? I think that's where I'm coming from.

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I need to talk about this moment because there's just so much to say.

This interaction is so heartbreaking, and I applaud the animators for what they were able to convey without the characters saying anything, using only their facial expressions.

Kenji looked at her arm and by the expression on his face you just know he's thinking about what she must have gone through, and most likely regretting not being there for her. He's heartbroken, not because she's missing an arm, but because he knows it means she has suffered. The way he looks down almost gives the impression that he is asking her what happened (remember that he had already seen her arm). There's the feeling of an unspoken dialogue between them.

As for Brooklynn, we just need to compare her reaction to the one she had with Ben. With Ben she reacted badly, almost agressively, asking him to stop looking at her like that. Ben was only concerned, but still the fact that his eyes kept coming back to her arm was enough to hurt her. While here, she doesn't get mad, she's scared. That's my interpretation, but I take it as she is scared he will look at her differently. They were lovers, I'm not going to dwelve too much into it, but Kenji was the one person who "knew" her body the best (sorry I can't think of another way to put it but you get the idea) so it's especially frightening for her. There's no hint of anger like with Ben, only sadness, fright and pain.

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bit of a shipping rant below, but also not...

...I'm really kinda hoping they don't do a "Just Kidding!" with Brookenji.

I liked the notion that a fourteen-year-old and sixteen-year-old who fell in love while abandoned on an island running from dinosaurs would just gradually drift apart. I don't want them to have done a Shrek-style breakup because his Evil Dad was texting her at Exactly The Wrong Time, and maybe if she'd taken five minutes to come up with a better excuse, things would be better and they'd be Just Fine.

Especially because Kenji still had his Romantic Lead style...it was all her messing it up, not him. Kenji didn't fumble her, she lost him, and I found that a compelling story: she's getting lost in her own life, and it's pulling them apart. It felt mature and realistic, which really made the show refreshing.

The one thing keeping me from resigning myself to the future is that I do feel that it would be a disservice for Brooklynn to "learn her lesson" and "settle down", and I don't think Kenji would be tearing off into whatever adventurous life she's going to lead. Maybe both of them will quietly retire somewhere (in their early 20s???? THEY SHOULD BE AT THE CLUB! But they're not living this down ever), but...I dunno. Maybe there's a future for those two, but I dunno what it's gonna be.

Dinostar, sorry, I think you got mangled this season, I REALLY don't see a path to victory for you, baby. Not enough focus on you two, and I know I don't want a "prize" or "reward" ending, the best hope for you two is--once again--the "sometime in the future" option. But Darius also kinda seemed to come to the "it was a crush" realization when he admitted that he wasn't there for her. Brooklynn's just got the Charm.

Which brings us to--*microphone feedback*--which, let's be real, is never ACTUALLY gonna be a thing but has all sorts of on-and-off incidental possibilities. Definitely has Power, though.

But back to the Brookenji thing...I do appreciate the "Asian Man Romantic Lead" rep, it's criminally underrepresented, but I still don't feel like they were ever executed perfectly. But this isn't about ship preference, it's that they're going to need to have REALLY nailed the romance writing in Season 3, and frankly, I'd much rather that energy be given to the Yasammy wedding. And speaking of Sammy...I kinda hoped that we'd get some stuff with her and Brooklynn, but I don't think there was much (EXCEPT for the fact that she went and asked if that was Brooklynn there, meaning that she was having doubts about really seeing her because this is just a thing, oh look, it's Brooklynn again...but this time, she has hair Sammy's never seen her with, that's different, she always had familiar hair when she's a ghost). I dunno, there was extreme focus on Kenji (he WAS in love with her, give him that always and forever), but if that's a big thing in the next season...hm.

I'm just hoping we don't get a monopoly again next season. Kinda hoping that Brooklynn is off on a Clean Break. I noted in an earlier post that the girl is actually kinda being an accomplice...under extreme duress, mind you, but she DID volunteer for the DLN without hostages. Faked her death. Probably gonna have to pay years of taxes. It's not like she was put into Witness Protection or given permits by the government, that girl was Doing Crimes, and if they don't expose EVERYTHING (which, given that Soyona is up and running during Dominion...), she could actually need an identity change. Or to stay "dead".

I guess I'm just having a little worry that they're going to just go back to the way things were in the Camp Cretaceous finale, which Chaos Theory's stellar first season did a phenomenal job of gently prying it from our hands. We were all ready to let Brooklynn go, even without the reveal that she's alive (at least, I was), because they were all processing and moving on...and I don't think this season did enough to convince me that we should flip back.

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Going to make an edit about Brooklynn to the song heartbreaker just because it's a free country and I can

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😭😭

Major S2 Spoilers

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Darius Bowman: "If he loved you half as much as I do he'd understand"

Also Darius Bowman a few years ago: "Yeah, Brooklynn, get yourself kidnapped over a stupid laptop, the rest of the world is more important than you"

While the man who "loves her less than him": "Fuck the world, Brooklynn is more important, I'm getting her back whether she likes it or not"