Paternity

[mmike1969]

...I noted he had a great relationship with Tiffany, so I'm not worried about her abilities to tackle bratty teens.

I mean look how WELL she did handling JJ...

[methodwriter85]

I mean look how WELL she did handling JJ...

 

I mean, the ending of her coaching JJ sucked, but otherwise, JJ was kept pretty much out of trouble and he made it all the way to being national champ under her guidance.

 

JJ may be a bitch, but other than flunking out of 9th grade, he's been pretty well-behaved during his teen years.

 

Edited to add:

 

 

 

As for JJ, I actually think this works out better. Skating had really restricted the roles I could have him play, and it put a huge damper on his relationships. I can see him chafing against that.

 

That's the great thing about character development. Sometimes they really surprise you, like real people do. The kid who proclaimed that he would be on the Wheaties box at age 20 is not the kid who made the decision they did. I had pictured JJ as being a guy willing to do absolutely anything to get ahead, and in reality, no, he's not.

 

Anyway, that's why I kind of figured you worked towards this point with JJ. It definitely didn't come out of nowhere. I'm interested to see if he's going to decide he wants to do some dumb kid things to catch up because he was the good boy all these years, or if he's basically going to remain prim n proper with some bouts of fun.

 

There are a lot places you could take JJ, which you couldn't with the career he had.

Edited May 6, 2016 by methodwriter85

[Timothy M.]

I mean, the ending of her coaching JJ sucked, but otherwise, JJ was kept pretty much out of trouble and he made it all the way to being national champ under her guidance.

 

JJ may be a bitch, but other than flunking out of 9th grade, he's been pretty well-behaved during his teen years.

 

My thoughts exactly. Tiffany disagreed with Jeanine about the way she acted with JJ and Will and I think it contributed to their break-up. She's tough and clever and used to deal with egocentric skaters. Bratty teens will be a walk in the park - but she'll probably need Wade's help to deal with Elizaeth Danfield.

 

JJ never interested me much, but he does add drama to CAP, and is useful for the story line in many ways. I was totally on his side regarding the noisy kids episode.

[methodwriter85]

My thoughts exactly. Tiffany disagreed with Jeanine about the way she acted with JJ and Will and I think it contributed to their break-up. She's tough and clever and used to deal with egocentric skaters. Bratty teens will be a walk in the park - but she'll probably need Wade's help to deal with Elizaeth Danfield.

 

JJ never interested me much, but he does add drama to CAP, and is useful for the story line in many ways. I was totally on his side regarding the noisy kids episode.

 

I think what JJ adds to the story is a viewpoint that we're not going to get from Will. We're not going to see Will putting up with snobby blueblood circles, and we're not going to see Will hanging out at the opera. We're also not going to get bitchy (but often very true) observations from Will, because Will tends to believe the best in people unless they repeatedly give him a reason not to, while JJ has to like you before he even considers deigning you with his discussion.

 

The other difference is that Will is largely "settled", in a sense. Will at 16 is probably not going to be very different from Will at 26. Meanwhile, JJ still kind of feels like he hasn't really totally formed yet; inchoate-like. I think the years he missed out on normal teenage socializing adds to that, but he's making me think of something that director Richard Linklater said. People who are hard-core athletes are never really allowed to grow up, because their whole life is focused on getting to that spot. When that dream is over, then what do they do now? JJ basically gets to grow up now.