Aaaaaaaand Mulroney has learned absolutely nothing. Big surprise. Though I do agree, his last line there was a bit ominous. He wouldn’t resort to sabotaging Lindsay’s future for his own personal gain, right? …Right?
As long as they dont find out about Lindsay’s past deed, she will.
I gotta be real, I still get a bit of anxiety whenever she pops on screen, but I know she’s making the most of her second chance because she realized that she deserved one. The victims would probably want her to move on anyways.
Welp that is the end of that storyline, and I will admit that I have mixed feelings about its plot. I do want to warn you, this critique is long.
I want to begin by talking about Joel; I will admit that, like with Jocelyn, I feel that Joel does not have as much personality in the reboot as he did in the original. While by no means a generic character, everything about Joel in the reboot is what was already set up in the original (I.e., a snarky rebel who is misunderstood by everybody except for his friends). The difference, however, is that Joelâs family is supportive of him this time around and has no consistent archenemies (I.e., Lindsay and Kevin) besides maybe Mulroney. Do not get me wrong, this is a MAJORLY refreshing change of pace over the original where Joel was an unsympathetic jerk and was robbed of virtually any happiness, but the unfortunate consequence of giving him an easier life in the reboot is that there is less conflict for him to face. Thus, less excitement or character exploration.
Giving credit where it is due, however, the reboot is digging deeper into Joelâs rock star goals. We are better shown exactly how much music means to Joel and why he wanted to become a musician in the first place. Which is why it pains me to say that I was mixed about this storyline because I felt like it had too much going on. The first five strips focused on Joel finally finding a teacher who is willing to listen to him, but now must put up with pretentious classmates who disagree with his visions. Okay good, that sets up the conflict, but I would like to start off with my first concern and that would be Joelâs friends deciding to all drop out too.
On one hand, it emphasizes their strong bonds with each other, showing that where Joel goes, his friends will be there with him. On the other, them all collectively agreeing to just dropping out of school felt like an abrupt way to shake up the status quo. There would have been more benefit if Joelâs friends dropping out had better build-up or was even the subject of its own storyline rather than just condensed into several strips.
Secondly, Joel came off as more of a supporting character in this storyline, with the focus shifting from him onto his friends (Aaron especially) and finally Mulroney and Lindsay. While he certainly affected the events of the storyline, directly or otherwise, it was still disappointing how this was built up to be a Joel-centric arc only for his actual presence to progressively lessen as the storyline went on. For that matter, it was equally disappointing that we did not get to see much of Lars, as he only appeared in a handful of the 20 strips (I am excluding tomorrowâs Sunday strip) and the only things revealed about him are that he is compassionate and apparently a stoner. Obviously, Lars is going to be a new recurring character and thus will be expanded on in future storylines, but it was still underwhelming how his introduction hardly did anything with him.
Finally, the conflict about Joelâs egotistical classmates sort of just gets dropped (no pun intended) in favor of an entirely different conflict during the last set of strips. That is, the revelation that Joel and his friends dropping out of high school caused a domino effect where now everyone else is dropping out, which prompts Mulroney to go to Lindsay for advice on how to keep the kids in school. While this turn of events sets up a hook for future storylines, I still think that could have made for a storyline of its own due to how sudden the shift in the plot was.
This went on longer than I intended, so I apologize for that. In conclusion: this storyline had its strengths (further developing the bonds between the Westworld gang, the introduction of Lars and Mrs. Hilliard, and Lindsay hopefully finally being able to change the school for the better) but was bogged down by an equal number of weaknesses (too many different plotlines into one, inconsistencies with the character focus, and pacing issues).
That happens when you write a full book report, Jayster. đ
I agree with your critique, too.
Man, compared to everyone else, my critique stands out like a sore thumb XD
Aaaaaaaand Mulroney has learned absolutely nothing. Big surprise. Though I do agree, his last line there was a bit ominous. He wouldn’t resort to sabotaging Lindsay’s future for his own personal gain, right? …Right?
It is so obvious this storyline will have its follow-up.
@Chris Wolvie Oh boy… đ
In the words of the great Count Dankula: In the business, we call this foreshadowing.
Ho boy. Lemme guess: Moron-y is gonna purposefully flunk Lindsey to keep her around. She REALLY should just replace him as principal in this case.
And no, I’m not bashing Lindsay. I realizedshe’s a good person now and that she’s moved on. In fact, this storyline made me like her even more.
Very Ominous line by Mulroney in the last panel.
As long as they dont find out about Lindsay’s past deed, she will.
I gotta be real, I still get a bit of anxiety whenever she pops on screen, but I know she’s making the most of her second chance because she realized that she deserved one. The victims would probably want her to move on anyways.
Welp that is the end of that storyline, and I will admit that I have mixed feelings about its plot. I do want to warn you, this critique is long.
I want to begin by talking about Joel; I will admit that, like with Jocelyn, I feel that Joel does not have as much personality in the reboot as he did in the original. While by no means a generic character, everything about Joel in the reboot is what was already set up in the original (I.e., a snarky rebel who is misunderstood by everybody except for his friends). The difference, however, is that Joelâs family is supportive of him this time around and has no consistent archenemies (I.e., Lindsay and Kevin) besides maybe Mulroney. Do not get me wrong, this is a MAJORLY refreshing change of pace over the original where Joel was an unsympathetic jerk and was robbed of virtually any happiness, but the unfortunate consequence of giving him an easier life in the reboot is that there is less conflict for him to face. Thus, less excitement or character exploration.
Not helping is how out of focus Joel has been recently; many] of the storylines after 1991 began focusing on either Lindsay, Tina, Jocelyn, Jenny and Eric, or Aaron, while Joel is just kind of… there. There is nothing wrong with wanting to flesh out the other characters, but for being the MAIN character, Joel’s prominence has decreased noticeably. It is one of the reasons why I did not like the rebootâs retelling of the âLet âEr Ripâ storyline because Joel was adapted out in favor of Jocelyn. In the original, Joel convinced Selena that her worship of SinĂ©ad O’Connor was unhealthy and the storyline overall brought some level of closure between the two after their disastrous date. The reboot not only replacing him with Jocelyn but also changing the original moral about unhealthy creator worship into a heavy-handed moral about free speech was a let-down, I am not going to lie.
Giving credit where it is due, however, the reboot is digging deeper into Joelâs rock star goals. We are better shown exactly how much music means to Joel and why he wanted to become a musician in the first place. Which is why it pains me to say that I was mixed about this storyline because I felt like it had too much going on. The first five strips focused on Joel finally finding a teacher who is willing to listen to him, but now must put up with pretentious classmates who disagree with his visions. Okay good, that sets up the conflict, but I would like to start off with my first concern and that would be Joelâs friends deciding to all drop out too.
On one hand, it emphasizes their strong bonds with each other, showing that where Joel goes, his friends will be there with him. On the other, them all collectively agreeing to just dropping out of school felt like an abrupt way to shake up the status quo. There would have been more benefit if Joelâs friends dropping out had better build-up or was even the subject of its own storyline rather than just condensed into several strips.
Secondly, Joel came off as more of a supporting character in this storyline, with the focus shifting from him onto his friends (Aaron especially) and finally Mulroney and Lindsay. While he certainly affected the events of the storyline, directly or otherwise, it was still disappointing how this was built up to be a Joel-centric arc only for his actual presence to progressively lessen as the storyline went on. For that matter, it was equally disappointing that we did not get to see much of Lars, as he only appeared in a handful of the 20 strips (I am excluding tomorrowâs Sunday strip) and the only things revealed about him are that he is compassionate and apparently a stoner. Obviously, Lars is going to be a new recurring character and thus will be expanded on in future storylines, but it was still underwhelming how his introduction hardly did anything with him.
Finally, the conflict about Joelâs egotistical classmates sort of just gets dropped (no pun intended) in favor of an entirely different conflict during the last set of strips. That is, the revelation that Joel and his friends dropping out of high school caused a domino effect where now everyone else is dropping out, which prompts Mulroney to go to Lindsay for advice on how to keep the kids in school. While this turn of events sets up a hook for future storylines, I still think that could have made for a storyline of its own due to how sudden the shift in the plot was.
This went on longer than I intended, so I apologize for that. In conclusion: this storyline had its strengths (further developing the bonds between the Westworld gang, the introduction of Lars and Mrs. Hilliard, and Lindsay hopefully finally being able to change the school for the better) but was bogged down by an equal number of weaknesses (too many different plotlines into one, inconsistencies with the character focus, and pacing issues).