Fraxinus
chunky plant goop
i mean, i guess? but i dont think it really addressed the bullying issue very much.
again i think the shadow club was basically what team star tried to be but it didnt know how to do that. basically the premise of the book was a group of kids who lived in the shadow of other kids' achievements kind of joined forces to sabotage those people, and before they knew it, what started as minor pranks turned into malicious acts.
its easy to forget why you started doing something if your ambitions just become centered on the fact youre doing the thing now, and not your reasons i guess? but even then most bullied kids arent gonna forget that they were bullied; why they stand against it. like at least they had the bosses get reminded of their reasons? but how could they have forgotten?
but the shadow club actually had them realize this on their own because it was others within the group who were doing terrible things to their rivals and they had the self awareness to be like "wait, this isnt what this club was for"
bullying isnt as clearcut as bullies vs targets where you can simply make a role reversal by starting a clique either. its a caste system; person a bullies person b, person b bullies person c to get over person a bullying them, etc. person b and person c will never bully person a, though. i dont think team star's devolution is particularly relatable; i was at the bottom of this ladder in elementary school and always got in trouble for standing up for myself. if a group of kids stood up for me, you know what would have happened though? the bully would have got in trouble; not them. its a majority rules thing. the teacher would say "hmm, multiple people are having issues with this person's behavior" and **** would just ****ing end. bullies usually stop when they dont have an audience to entertain too; if wveryone thinks they're being a prick, they're suddenly the outcast and they stop.
something something ik im overthinking this but no this isnt how this works, so i realllyyyyy question the relatability unless bullying has become less psychological in the past 15 years
why they gotta even cut class doesnt make sense cuz the class lets you do this treasure hunt anyway so you can literally avoid campus where you might be getting bullied and stuff
it just feels... unfortunate.
and yeh arven was neat.
again i think the shadow club was basically what team star tried to be but it didnt know how to do that. basically the premise of the book was a group of kids who lived in the shadow of other kids' achievements kind of joined forces to sabotage those people, and before they knew it, what started as minor pranks turned into malicious acts.
its easy to forget why you started doing something if your ambitions just become centered on the fact youre doing the thing now, and not your reasons i guess? but even then most bullied kids arent gonna forget that they were bullied; why they stand against it. like at least they had the bosses get reminded of their reasons? but how could they have forgotten?
but the shadow club actually had them realize this on their own because it was others within the group who were doing terrible things to their rivals and they had the self awareness to be like "wait, this isnt what this club was for"
bullying isnt as clearcut as bullies vs targets where you can simply make a role reversal by starting a clique either. its a caste system; person a bullies person b, person b bullies person c to get over person a bullying them, etc. person b and person c will never bully person a, though. i dont think team star's devolution is particularly relatable; i was at the bottom of this ladder in elementary school and always got in trouble for standing up for myself. if a group of kids stood up for me, you know what would have happened though? the bully would have got in trouble; not them. its a majority rules thing. the teacher would say "hmm, multiple people are having issues with this person's behavior" and **** would just ****ing end. bullies usually stop when they dont have an audience to entertain too; if wveryone thinks they're being a prick, they're suddenly the outcast and they stop.
something something ik im overthinking this but no this isnt how this works, so i realllyyyyy question the relatability unless bullying has become less psychological in the past 15 years
why they gotta even cut class doesnt make sense cuz the class lets you do this treasure hunt anyway so you can literally avoid campus where you might be getting bullied and stuff
it just feels... unfortunate.
and yeh arven was neat.