Sports One Coverage Annotations It's the notes for the Sports One Coverage of Gymnastics America's Olympic Trials to determine the United States Gymnastics Team for the New Zealand Olympic Games! That's... a lot of words....
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12 thoughts on “Notes and annotations: Sports One Coverage of the Olympic Trials (Patreon Exclusive!)”
I’m honestly a little surprised they didn’t fire him and get a new coach or just pull her out entirely. I suppose they didn’t quite realize just how bad it had really gotten and, well, Even thought Deej could do it.
I’m also at least somewhat surprised that Mandy didn’t take them to court and got bought off by a few grand. I’d have thought that she’d have some idea what kind of rock she could kick over here and might just find it fun to do that.
….Ok, what happened to the Pentad during the Apocalypse Agenda? Because I’m willing to bet Mandy’s cane relates to that in some fashion. I’m pretty sure they survived it, simply because Mandy is still alive at that point.
Look, even if she simply found out about, say, Jetgirl dying from the news, I’m pretty sure some part of her would reflexively try to oppose whatever was responsible and I’m not sure she’d even get 5 seconds of useful time before she died. So, it is reasonable to assume that they all lived through it. Also Conner and Mierra.
(as an aside, I’d enjoy knowing more about how Mierra is doing)
Anyway. Yes, there’s an implication you’re making here that the Pentad all died except for Ant during the Apocalypse Agenda, but I refuse to believe that Ant could physically let that happen without trying to stop it and dying in the attempt herself.
Granted, that still doesn’t explain the cane. Possibly it’s simply old age catching up with her, as this event takes place at least 5 years after Forebears 1. And….ok, yes I did bet that her cane was because of the Apocalypse Agenda….but now I’m no longer sure. If her powers don’t kill her, they usually leave her physically rejuvenated. And opposing anyone involved in something called “The Apocalypse Agenda” would very likely kill her, so… Possibly just some Clark Kenting to cover the fact that she was in better physical shape? Secondary monitoring device? alien artifact?
….If she simply slipped on the stairs and broke her hip, I think you should just go ahead and tell us since I doubt that’s noteworthy enough to actually come up in a story, but I also doubt that you’d bother pointing it out here if it was that mundane.
……..Ok, yes, “Antonym slips on the stairs, breaks a hip, and uses a cane now” is hilarious enough that one of her supposed “friends” would bring it up. Well, ok, Colin would have, were he still alive, but I’m sure at least one of the others would snark about it a bit.
I try not to overly spoil in my responses to comments.
Whatever happened with the Pentad and Mandy in the Apocalypse Agenda? It didn’t involve a total party wipe. If it did, you would have heard about it unless it were so completely off the grid that no one knew it happened. Which it isn’t.
Plus… I already mentioned elsewhere that the upcoming “A Wake” stars Beguile, Shooting Star, Jetgirl, Hearth, and Topaz, and takes place in the In Nadir era. I suppose they could all appear in flashback, but if that were the case then the one character we knows only appears in flashback so far — Mandy herself — would also be one of the stars.
Anyway, this is awesome reasoning and I greatly enjoy seeing you work through these things, but I figured this one was a freebie. The Pentad isn’t dead after the Apocalypse Agenda.
The ‘why’ for not firing Albescu was, at least in part, explained in “Forebears #1.” There’s no gymnastics club within practical distance capable of handling Junior Elite gymnasts. And Evan believes in Evvie and as Danni said in “Forebears,” Evvie’s only truly happy when she’s in the air in gymnastics.
(Well, or on her father’s lap being read stories.)
I have to agree with you. Hitting the death dive perfectly should definitely count because…well…. we saw what happened when her powers did come out. She would not have done it perfectly if she had any of her powers throwing her off.
I dunno. Leather still holds certain things sacred, even as a villain. I doubt she’d actually cheat to win the Olympics. Plus, I mean, what’s the point of winning if you cheated? (Well, and she’s enough of a show-off that I think she’d rather lose honestly and look good doing it, than cheat to win and risk people finding out)
Though, if they ever set up a parahuman gymnastics circuit, I’d bet she’d try to figure out how to get into it. Dynamo Girl is connected to her Leather alias now, so she’d need another identity to join that.
This hasn’t been written, so it’s just me surmising the same as you… but I really don’t think Leather would have any interest in defrauding the Olympics. If she had to hold back to appear prosahuman, she wouldn’t see the point. The major driver to go to New Zealand anyway, at least from what we saw in the first draft of “Like a Shot from a Cannon,” was Emma… and that would have been because she knew Deej had been so focused on getting there.
Deej, at this point, is much more focused on the dual facts that A) she can jump to the top of a building in a single bound and B) that is AWESOME. It’s stunning how fast she stopped caring about gymnastics when she realized she had honest to God superpowers.
And then, of course, her parents died and she had other things on her mind.
…..Ok, did Jenna sabotage that springboard? Because the way you’re talking about this makes it sound like she somehow rigged that thing to fail. Not “launch someone into the rafters” obviously, but “whoops, looks like she had a wobbly board and a bad launch, so she missed her landing” sounds fairly plausible. Especially for someone who didn’t have an outstanding score.
…okay, I was planning on reposting “The Cognisentinals” soon anyway. I think that needs to move to the front of the queue (in and around Leather Revised, anyway). I probably won’t include the second part where Leather discusses the video with her bagmen, which admittedly comes right out and says “there was a conspiracy and it was me, not Jenna, because my powers destroyed the springboard.”
That said?
Jenna’s in “Invitational” while characters like Callie aren’t. Just saying.
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I’m honestly a little surprised they didn’t fire him and get a new coach or just pull her out entirely. I suppose they didn’t quite realize just how bad it had really gotten and, well, Even thought Deej could do it.
I’m also at least somewhat surprised that Mandy didn’t take them to court and got bought off by a few grand. I’d have thought that she’d have some idea what kind of rock she could kick over here and might just find it fun to do that.
….Ok, what happened to the Pentad during the Apocalypse Agenda? Because I’m willing to bet Mandy’s cane relates to that in some fashion. I’m pretty sure they survived it, simply because Mandy is still alive at that point.
Look, even if she simply found out about, say, Jetgirl dying from the news, I’m pretty sure some part of her would reflexively try to oppose whatever was responsible and I’m not sure she’d even get 5 seconds of useful time before she died. So, it is reasonable to assume that they all lived through it. Also Conner and Mierra.
(as an aside, I’d enjoy knowing more about how Mierra is doing)
Anyway. Yes, there’s an implication you’re making here that the Pentad all died except for Ant during the Apocalypse Agenda, but I refuse to believe that Ant could physically let that happen without trying to stop it and dying in the attempt herself.
Granted, that still doesn’t explain the cane. Possibly it’s simply old age catching up with her, as this event takes place at least 5 years after Forebears 1. And….ok, yes I did bet that her cane was because of the Apocalypse Agenda….but now I’m no longer sure. If her powers don’t kill her, they usually leave her physically rejuvenated. And opposing anyone involved in something called “The Apocalypse Agenda” would very likely kill her, so… Possibly just some Clark Kenting to cover the fact that she was in better physical shape? Secondary monitoring device? alien artifact?
….If she simply slipped on the stairs and broke her hip, I think you should just go ahead and tell us since I doubt that’s noteworthy enough to actually come up in a story, but I also doubt that you’d bother pointing it out here if it was that mundane.
……..Ok, yes, “Antonym slips on the stairs, breaks a hip, and uses a cane now” is hilarious enough that one of her supposed “friends” would bring it up. Well, ok, Colin would have, were he still alive, but I’m sure at least one of the others would snark about it a bit.
I try not to overly spoil in my responses to comments.
Whatever happened with the Pentad and Mandy in the Apocalypse Agenda? It didn’t involve a total party wipe. If it did, you would have heard about it unless it were so completely off the grid that no one knew it happened. Which it isn’t.
Plus… I already mentioned elsewhere that the upcoming “A Wake” stars Beguile, Shooting Star, Jetgirl, Hearth, and Topaz, and takes place in the In Nadir era. I suppose they could all appear in flashback, but if that were the case then the one character we knows only appears in flashback so far — Mandy herself — would also be one of the stars.
Anyway, this is awesome reasoning and I greatly enjoy seeing you work through these things, but I figured this one was a freebie. The Pentad isn’t dead after the Apocalypse Agenda.
It doesn’t explain the cane, of course.
The ‘why’ for not firing Albescu was, at least in part, explained in “Forebears #1.” There’s no gymnastics club within practical distance capable of handling Junior Elite gymnasts. And Evan believes in Evvie and as Danni said in “Forebears,” Evvie’s only truly happy when she’s in the air in gymnastics.
(Well, or on her father’s lap being read stories.)
I have to agree with you. Hitting the death dive perfectly should definitely count because…well…. we saw what happened when her powers did come out. She would not have done it perfectly if she had any of her powers throwing her off.
I dunno. Leather still holds certain things sacred, even as a villain. I doubt she’d actually cheat to win the Olympics. Plus, I mean, what’s the point of winning if you cheated? (Well, and she’s enough of a show-off that I think she’d rather lose honestly and look good doing it, than cheat to win and risk people finding out)
Though, if they ever set up a parahuman gymnastics circuit, I’d bet she’d try to figure out how to get into it. Dynamo Girl is connected to her Leather alias now, so she’d need another identity to join that.
This hasn’t been written, so it’s just me surmising the same as you… but I really don’t think Leather would have any interest in defrauding the Olympics. If she had to hold back to appear prosahuman, she wouldn’t see the point. The major driver to go to New Zealand anyway, at least from what we saw in the first draft of “Like a Shot from a Cannon,” was Emma… and that would have been because she knew Deej had been so focused on getting there.
Deej, at this point, is much more focused on the dual facts that A) she can jump to the top of a building in a single bound and B) that is AWESOME. It’s stunning how fast she stopped caring about gymnastics when she realized she had honest to God superpowers.
And then, of course, her parents died and she had other things on her mind.
…..Ok, did Jenna sabotage that springboard? Because the way you’re talking about this makes it sound like she somehow rigged that thing to fail. Not “launch someone into the rafters” obviously, but “whoops, looks like she had a wobbly board and a bad launch, so she missed her landing” sounds fairly plausible. Especially for someone who didn’t have an outstanding score.
…okay, I was planning on reposting “The Cognisentinals” soon anyway. I think that needs to move to the front of the queue (in and around Leather Revised, anyway). I probably won’t include the second part where Leather discusses the video with her bagmen, which admittedly comes right out and says “there was a conspiracy and it was me, not Jenna, because my powers destroyed the springboard.”
That said?
Jenna’s in “Invitational” while characters like Callie aren’t. Just saying.
Evan’s a parahuman, isn’t he?
Evan’s…
Hrm.
I really need to finish Forebears #2.
Anyway. Evan’s considered prosahuman… but there is indeed something about him. Does that mean he’s actually parahuman? Hm. Interesting question.
No, gymnastics was not great to her. It sounds like there were a few fun points though.
Of course, now she’s in a job where she gets to do gymnastics every day, set her own hours, and get paid for it. Well, “paid.”
So, it was all worth it, right?
Deej wouldn’t trade her years with Emma and the Riverside team for anything. That much is true.
Does that make it all worth it? That’s… kind of a good question.