aristaspark

[aristaspark]

Sooo, you will probably only be able to reply to this after season 4 because I know how you're walking on eggs with everything that is remotely close to giving away shipping spoilers, but I'm going to ask anyway 🤣

Regardless of who ends up with whom in the infamous Darius-Brooklynn-Kenji situationship, I was wondering for the longest time if the idea of Darius catching feelings for her was something that was already on the table at the time of writing season 4 and 5 of jwcc (or even since the beggining?), or it's more a case of you, the jwct writers, realizing that there were scenes in jwcc that could support this storyline, thus deciding to write it into the show (slightly recontextualizing the scenes in jwcc in the process).

Because there are definetly scenes in these seasons that are slightly ambiguous between those three. I'm thinking of their first meeting, when Kenji sat between Darius and Brooklynn in the van, or during season 4 when Kenji tried to help Brooklynn stand up but Darius grabbed his hand and seemed mad, or Kenji reluctance to tell Darius of all people that he was dating Brooklynn (as if he knew he would have a problem with it) and Darius' initial reaction to the news that was interesting, to say the list. And these are only a few examples, it's crazy all the little scenes throughout the show where there's this "love triangle material" subtext between them.

So, yeah, which is it? Sorry my question is a mess but I'm incapable of writing something simple.

This is actually a fascinating question, and I’ll answer it from a more writerly standpoint I guess.

I don’t know what discussions came up in regards to Darius’s potential for feelings for Brooklynn during JWCC since I was not on that show. Save for Scott and Bethany (and other show leads), we had a totally different writing staff for JWCT. Scott in particular already had that idea for JWCT by the time we started the room, so it may have been on his mind from JWCC. Though, within the show’s timeline, it’s been six years, so even if JWCC hadn’t had any of those moments you pointed out, a lot of stuff must have happened in that time.

But as far as I can recall, moments like you’ve pointed out were discussed in the room for sure. We didn’t wanna rely TOO heavily on “what happened in between,” so the choices we made were still backed by everything we saw in JWCC. I think it’s likely a case of both things are true — there were things in JWCC that informed that choice already, and then that choice also recontextualized some of those moments. It’s a chicken and egg situation that just sorta built upon itself as we were writing.

[aristaspark]

If anyone who worked on Camp Cretaceous/Chaos Theory happens to be at the Annecy Festival...

I WANT YOUR AUTOGRAPH PLEASE I'M BEGGING 🤣

[aristaspark]

Hii! Sorry if you've answered this before, but if you didn't ship Kenlynn, who would you ship Brooklynn and Kenji with?

Hiiii,

I don't think I've already answered it,

Considering I have always been a hardcore Kenlynn shipper (When I got into the show there were only two seasons and my ass was already shipping them 😭) it's reaaaaally hard for me to answer this question.

I WISH I was part of the people who are able to multiship... but I'm not 🤣.

But if I REALLY had to answer...

For Brooklynn it would have been Darius I guess. I know, surprising considering the countless posts I made where I let out how much I despise them. But back in JWCC, I wouldn't have been mad had they happened. Disappointed? Yeah. But that's a predictible ship that had a good set up. If you look at my posts back when JWCT season 1 came out I was actually not totally against them possibly being endgame. I was still irked by their... situationship, but I felt it had the potential. I was kinda ok with it because I thought Darius hadn't actually tried getting with her. And that, maybe Brooklynn had developped feelings for him during the time she had spent at his place, without knowing that Darius liked her, on her own accord. It's still kinda fucked up, but it's tragic, quite compelling. It's a real thing, you don't choose who you fall in love with. Brooklynn developping feelings for him because she was in a vulnerable place and he was there for her coulda worked. But then they hit us with season 2, and Darius threw Kenji under the bus like a back stabber if I've ever seen one, hit Brooklynn with this outrageous "unless" when girlie had been dumped by his adopted brother a few days prior, and the show made it clear that at the time Darius confessed, Brooklynn was still thinking of Darius as her best friend and nothing more and was flabbergasted. This last point is another reason I hate them after season 2, because if Brooklynn ends up returning his feelings, it would only be a response to his feelings having changed, and I HATE IT. I invite you to read my last post, where I talk about it and how it stinks of Nice-guy syndrom. To me Dinostar could only have worked if both of them had realized their feelings had changed, but both repressed their feelings for Kenji's sake. So, yeah, I'm the biggest complicated and compelling Dinostar platonic soulmates stan, but I'd rather Brooklynn be with Earnest than with Darius after season 2.

Ok, but Yaz and Brooklynn would have been quite cute when you think about it. Not my type of ship but if I really had to choose one, I found their rivalry in jwcc hilarious and they actually grew to appreciate each other, to the point where Yaz is her biggest defender in JWCT 🤣

Now, for Kenji. Idk honestly. Him and Yaz or Sammy feels all kinds of wrong. I know Yazji has its own little fanbase, because yk, opposites attract I guess. But while it's a cute trope, it's exactly that, a trope. Their episode in season 2 shows just how much their personnalities don't align, how toxic they would have been and, well, why they're not interested in each other. They were able to be friends because they made compromises, but they are fundamentaly too different. Yaz spends her time roasting Kenji and being annoyed with him, and Kenji would never be able to cope with her strict discipline, or to find it attractive.

Same with Sammy, they are way too different and they just feel so platonic in their interactions.

And I already talked in detail about why I CAN'T STAND the Benji ship. I would rather have Kenji be with, idk, anyone else. Sorry I'm not being a little more... considerate. But I'm like, me being blunt is nothing compared to the way the fandom treated Kenlynn shippers and speaks about Kenlynn on a daily basis, calling the ship outrageous things, so at some point I'm allowing myself to be blunt 😅

Not even going to bring up the possibility of Kenji and Darius because the idea of shipping them should never cross anyone's mind.

So, yeah, sorry but I would not ship Kenji with anyone else no matter how hard I tried.

[aristaspark]

Brooklynn is in love with Kenji / Brooklynn's arc in JWCT.

The post is the follow up to 2 of my posts, the one about why I think Brooklynn isn't in love with Darius, and the one where I talk about how Dinostar being endgame would be terrible in relation to Darius's character arc writing wise.

This is the Brooklynn is in love with Kenji / Brooklynn returning Darius' feelings is the worst pay off to her character journey version.

Saying it here, if you read all that you deserve a cookie 🍪.

Sooo Brooklynn.

A large portion of the fandom is convinced she doesn't love Kenji.

That alone should be a pretty darn good indication that it might actually be the case...if it was coming from any other fandom. But it's the camp cretaceous fandom we are talking about, a fandom that had convinced itself the writers had set up B*nji and still continues to do so even after the crew has admitted that this reception was absolutely not what they were going for. Honest and overly bold confession as someone who has always had vastly different opinions from the majority, I've had this impression since I first entered the fandom, and only time will tell me if I'm right, but I feel like the fandom often misunderstands the writers and what they are trying to convey, especially in the shipping department.

They've had this conviction that the gyrospheres somehow meant the characters were made for each other, and only saw the story through that lense, not even thinking of the possibility that the writers... well, didn't have that lense.

I'm like 99% sure Brooklynn is still in love with Kenji.

At no point in the story do they show Brooklynn questionning her feelings for Kenji.

She looked smitten with him in the video on her phone. She looked smitten with him when she came home to his trailer, displaying physical affection and being flirty despite her mind already not being there. She looked in love with him when they ran up that cliff, and actually conflicted when she had to miss this moment because Daniel called her. She wanted to be with him in this moment, but she was already so far gone that she couldn't hold out on responding to Daniel. She looked shattered when Kenji broke up with her, at a loss for words. She came home, angry and crying, and the first thing she did was throw the picture of Kenji and her in the trash because of how hurt she was. The ONLY picture in her appartment, mind you.

I think Brooklynn's reaction to the break up is one of the biggest proof that she still loves him. This was the perfect opportunity for the writers to show Brooklynn questionning her feelings for Kenji. If deep down Brooklynn didn't really love Kenji, then him taking the burden of breaking up off of Brooklynn's shoulders should have somehow relieved her. She could have went home and, instead of angrily slamming the door, throwing his picture in the trash and cry, realized that she wasn't as sad and angry as she should have been, that she was almost... indifferent, which would have been a way to actually set up that story arc for her. But the writers didn't do that.

I can already hear people say "oh, but she did it in her scene with Darius" 🧏‍♂️.

Well, no.

Once again, she never, not even once, put HER feelings into question. She put Kenji's feelings for her into question, because she can't fathom why he'd break up with her, because, in her delusional mind, she was only "a little distracted".

But if Kenji had not broken up with her, she wouldn't have.

And I think it's very telling that she brings up Kenji in that scene with Darius. Darius is seen making moon eyes at her, he is already smitten with her. For Brooklynn's hypothetical feelings for Darius not to come out of left field later in the show, Brooklynn should have behaved in a way that betrayed that there had been a shift in the way she felt about him him after that time she'd spent with him, and yet, the first thing she does in the only Dinostar scene up until that point, is to remind Darius that she is tied to Kenji, and that she is still very much thinking of Kenji. I cannot stress enough that the show made it painfully clear that Brooklynn's feelings for Darius hadn't changed during these few days she'd spent at his place. It's not what is shown, and it wouldn't have made sense either, because a few days prior she was still in a committed relationship with Kenji and was crying and angry about their break up. And the way she speaks about the break up to Darius, as if it was an argument that had ended badly, using present tense, shows she has not accepted it.

Now a little... case I have to make. Do not think I'm in denial enough to pretend that the way Kenlynn was handled in season 4 of jwcc was good. It simply wasn't. Where I disagree with the fandom is on there being no set up and no chemistry. The set up was there and the chemistry too, but the execution was extremely rushed. When I say that the set up was there, I mean that to me, Kenji liking Brooklynn didn't come as a surprise. He was flirting with her since season 1, and there were scenes in season 3 that suggested that he started genuinely liking her, to me what was lacking was simply a scene of him realizing that his feelings had evolved. But where it really lacked was on Brooklynn's end. It really did seem like Brooklynn first accepted to date Kenji because he liked her. She definetly got closer to him during season 4 and developped an innocent crush on him because who wouldn't, but not to the point of being in love with him like he was with her. But yk what? That's ok. I'm ready to accept this as a fact. Brooklynn was a thirteen year old girl whose guy best friend fell in love with her, and he started acting incredibly sweet to her, so why not go for it? This isn't the best writing ever, but it's not unbelievable.

But Brooklynn doing the exact same thing with Darius in Chaos Theory doesn't hold the same implications. Once is a coincidence, twice is a pattern. As I'm fairly convinced the show made it clear she had never seen Darius as anything other than a friend before he confessed to her, if she was to suddenly developp feelings for him, then that would just suggest that Brooklynn will fall in love with anyone that confesses their love to her. No matter if she's a single teen or a young woman who just got dumped by the man she was with for 6 years, the simple fact that someone confesses to her is enough for her to start seeing the person in a new light. I think people understimate and frankly don't care about how much Brooklynn returning Darius' feelings would butcher her as a character. People criticize Kenlynn every day of the week over the fact that Brooklynn liked him seemingly out of nowhere and yet they're out here praying the same will happen for Dinostar. She was crying over Kenji a week ago, no matter the amount of chemistry she might have had with Darius when she was thirteen, it would be out of nowhere in Chaos Theory.

Another case I have to make is that it would remove any agency from her, once again.

Kenji breaks up with her, her status is now available. Brooklynn didn't have any say in the situation, it was Kenji who ended the relationship. She is not single by choice, Kenji broke up with her. Then Darius seizes his chance and confesses he likes her. Once again, she has no agency in this. But since Darius has always been her best friend, is in love with her, and she is now single, then why on Earth wouldn't she love him. He's perfect for her, she should love him.

Sorry, but the Dinostar dynamic stinks of nice-guy syndrom and I'm tired of pretending it doesn't, or it's more that I'm tired of people pretending like they don't see it. I like to believe the writers actually were very aware of that.

Speaking about it, I'm starting to think that the way they made Darius' confession so similar to Kenji's in Camp Cretaceous was not a coincidence. You know, the, "you're amazing" speech, immediately followed by the most akward backtrack. I really think that we are supposed to see the two scenes as parallels and that, this time, they will have Brooklynn finally get some agency back over her own love life.

She started going out with Kenji because he liked her, she got dumped by Kenji, Darius came and told her he liked her, Kenji doesn't want her anymore because she hurt him too much, so she has every reason to go for Darius. He still wants her after all, so everything bounds up pretty well.

But this is forgetting HER feelings and agency, a thing this fandom loves to do. People are sure Kenlynn are over because of the way Kenji reacted to her betrayal during season 3, and I'm like, ok, but it doesn't change the fact that the last time Brooklynn saw Darius she clearly wasn't in love with him, and the last time she saw Kenji she cried and was salty because he "dumped" her.

Brooklynn fighting to get Kenji back is the most satisfactory resolution to her arc and the one that actually makes the most sense considering the scenes we got. It would finally give her the chance to actively choose who she wants to be with, not because this is her only option available, but because he is the person she truly wants even if he doesn't want her anymore. It would make the most sense regarding her overall story because the reason Kenji broke up with her in the first place was because she was no longer putting any effort in the relationship. She would have to overcome that flaw by putting an extreme amount of effort, thus care, something she had never quite done.

It would show her character growth, show that she has learnt from her mistakes, understood that she needs, and wants, to show the people she loves (Kenji) that she does love them. This is actual character development.

But what does Brooklynn suddenly falling in love with Darius would say? That Kenji didn't accept Brooklynn's treatment of him because he didn't really love her, unlike Darius. That Darius was right, that she was "amazing" even when she was neglecting everyone, the very flaw the writers said she had to overcome to complete her arc. Shipping aside, Brooklynn returning Darius' feelings doesn't involve any character development for her whatsoever.

Another point I've made countless times is that Brooklynn's neglect of Kenji and their relationship is shown not to be specific to their relationship. Brooklynn neglected all of the people she loved. The Nublar 6 tease her about the fact that she always abandons them to her face, and Sammy further confirms that she was like that with everyone when she says that she was barely around and that, even when she was, she wasn't. What Brooklynn did to Kenji, she did to all the people she "loved", and Darius was no exception.

So once again, the show never suggests that the reason Brooklynn neglected Kenji was because she didn't love him. Because if that was the case, then that'd mean that she didn't love any of her friends.

Now the small details that I've already talked about.

Earnest spelling out to the audience in the least subtle way known to man that her arc is about learning to appreciate the things she had, and neglected. Doesn't lead to Dinostar no matter how I look at it, and this scene was here for a reason.

The way she looked at Kenji during the plane scene, which everyone seem to ignore because she had a more "visceral" reaction to seeing Darius. I already explained how I didn't see anything even remotely romantic in the way she looked at Darius, so I'm going to focus on Brook and Kenji. The whole scene between them feels so intimate. The background is blurry, it seems like they can only see each other. And the slow camera movement upward until she realizes that it is Kenji. Her eyes light up for a second, she opens her mouth, but then regret overtakes her because she knows she has already made her decision and she will inevitably break his heart again. The freaking shot where they are both in the frame, silently gazing at each other, both miserable.

Her reaction when she heard Kenji on the phone in season 3. She doesn't react to the others, but the moments Kenji snaps at her, bitter that she's still doing the very thing that led to their break up, she stops walking and looks heart broken for a second.

And then there's that letter.

Adressing the "it's not canon" argument: it will never be canon in the sense that only the material that is in the show will ever be canon. With that out of the way. This is transmedia storytelling. Feel free to search what it is. We are meant to take it as something Brooklynn wrote. The marketing team and executives, aka the people who are tasked with deciding how the audience will receive the show and what they should know, the people who are in charge of the identity of the show in the public eye and its consistency (NOT THE WRITERS) decided to have Brooklynn write this to Kenji. Like, think about it like that: if they had posted the same letter but with Brooklynn adressing Ben, you would have been like, wtf?? What's happening? Because it doesn't make sense in regards to the story. Because it implies that Ben is somehow special to Brooklynn. If Brooklynn had written that letter to Darius everyone would have sworn it was canon. The marketing will never post something that will contradict the narrative. And you can see it in the reaction people had when Dreamworks posted this. Everyone lost their marbles, this post has way more engagement than the ones that were posted at the time, because though it's not in the show, the intention behind them posting it remains. They knew we would take it as something Brooklynn wrote, and chose to have her not write to the camp fam, not to Darius, but to Kenji.

[aristaspark]

Was gonna make a post about him actually, I NEED TO WRITE IT

Where’s all the Davi love, y’all?

[aristaspark]

Why Brooklynn ending up with Darius feels so unsatisfactory from a writing standpoint : Darius' arc.

Chaos Theory Season 3: Part 9

Everyone seems surprised when I say that I think Kenlynn being endgame makes the most sense, but to me the fact that people want Brooklynn to end up with Darius is what is surprising. A big part of that (apart from my obvious love for Kenlynn), is because to me, from a writing standpoint, Darius and Brooklynn ending up together would be the worst pay off to what the writers have set up.

I'll try to explain it solely from a writing standpoint, as someone who loves writing, but OF COURSE it is biased, it will never not be.

To me, good writing is when characters get character devloppment, when their experiences teaches them something. The character starts with something they need to overcome, stuff happens and in the end, the experiences they go through changes them, hopefully for the better.

And with a story like jwct that was written all at once with a clear ending in mind (the writers have repeatedly stated how they had clear arcs for the characters and how the show was written all at once then divised into seasons), I don't see what we had in the 3 first seasons setting up dinostar ever getting together.

Take a look at Dinostar's story in jwct:

Darius and Brooklynn have been best friends for many years, with Brooklynn dating his adopted brother, which basically makes them in laws, which should make the very idea of a romantic relationship between them... disturbing, at the very least.

They've always been fusional, so close that even the fandom think they are "better" than Brooklynn and her boyfriend almost as if... Darius was entitled to end up with Brooklynn because of how good of a friend he is to her.

Then one day, boom, Brooklynn gets dumped, and suddenly Darius' feelings for Brooklynn change, until one day he accidentally spills the beans.

In this scene, Darius is the one who puts the burden of his feelings on Brooklynn. She was speaking of her relationship with Kenji, looking foward to receiving her best friend's support and advise, but instead she got his confession.

You can choose to think that she likes him, but you can't argue against the fact that his confession wasn't what she wanted from him in this moment.

And because she did not give Darius the answer he would have wanted, he didn't show up when she needed him to, and in the end she was the only one who suffered the consequences of Darius' feelings for her : he didn't show up, she was alone and unfocused in these woods, she lost her arm and was left traumatized.

Don't get me wrong, Darius emotionally suffered because of this decision, because Brooklynn died, but Brooklynn was the one who was directly impacted.

It happened to her.

Narratively speaking, Darius is in the wrong. Because she failed to respond to his feelings, he wasn't a friend to Brooklynn when she needed him to be, which was all she had ever asked of him. They always said they survived because they were together, but he chose not to be with her.

This moment he let his selfish feelings drive his actions is at the core of his story in jwct, it's what caused his creepling feeling of guilt as well as his entire conflict with Kenji, this is the moment that sparked his entire character arc.

The thing that sparked his arc was his incapability to take Brooklynn's rejection, it appears as the weakness he has to overcome to become the better version of himself.

Some might argue that the ending of season 3 was the end of that arc, that Darius finally showed up for her, that now everything is good and that they can be together. But this is not the end of the story, and "not showing up" wasn't the wrong he had to correct. Not showing up was merely the manifestation of his incapability to accept her rejection.

By showing up for Brooklynn this time around he only makes it up to her for the fact that he hadn't shown up the first time around, but it doesn't make up for the fact that SHE was the one who had suffered the consequences of HIS inability to take her rejection.

That's why I think the writers backtracking on her rejection would be cheap and wouldn't make sense. It would basically magically remove the very thing Darius has to learn to accept to grow as a person.

Think of it like that.

You're a parent at the mall and your child wants a toy, but you don't have enough money for it, you have to buy food. But the child throws a tantrum, he starts throwing things at you, you get hit in the eye, and he even hurts himself in the process. Now not only do you need to buy food, but you need to buy stuff to treat your eye, and you need to make him feel better on top of that. You eventually manage to calm him down, to make him understand that you can't buy him the toy and in the end he finally learns to accept it, he shows growth and helps you clean up his mess. And then in the end... instead of buying what you came here to buy, you use the money to buy the toy.

That would make the whole thing meaningless. Because in the end, the entire weight of his actions would have befallen on you.

You're the one who was wronged and in the end you're the one who ends up having to go back on your stance to catter to the child's entitled desire. The child wouldn't have learnt any lesson, because in the end he would have gotten what he wanted despite behaving badly. Sure, he made it up to you by helping you clean up afterwards, but it doesn't mean he should get the toy. On the contrary, him not getting the toy and learning to be okay with that would do him more good in the long run.

This is a stupid scenario purely made to demonstrate how unsatisfactory Brooklynn returning Darius' feelings would be on a writing level, and why I don't believe the writers wrote that because, duh, they're writers, not shippers. If Darius gets the girl, then the entire burden of his feelings would have befallen on Brooklynn and his arc would have led nowhere.

All that happened during the 3 seasons we have might as well have not happened since the very thing that sparked the story would be rendered insignificant if she was to return his feelings (actually nevermind, Darius abandonned Brooklynn based on something that wasn't even true, so her "death" could have been avoided had she told Darius her real feelings, too bad for HER. Oh, and even if she wasn't in love with him in this moment, she was always going to realize her feelings later, too bad for HER she hadn't realized them in this moment).

Not only does she get her arm eaten, but on top of that she is the one who would have to backtrack on her rejection, while Darius wouldn't suffer any direct consequence and magically get the thing he wanted in the end without the opportunity to come out of all this as a better person.

Now that's where Kenji enters into the mix, because they are 3 in that triangle.

I don't know if you noticed, but Darius had to make it up not only to Brooklynn, but also to Kenji. Without even thinking about it on a shipping basis but purely on a "Kenji is Darius' adopted brother" basis, the way Darius threw Kenji under the bus when he confessed was horrible, and the clear manifestation of another character flaw.

There must have been a reason the writers had Darius sound so immature and petty during his confession, a reason they had him belittle Kenji's bond with Brooklynn to make his bond with her seem more "legit". If they wanted Darius to end up with Brooklynn then why would they make his confession to her, this pivotal moment, about Kenji? All it does is tarnish it.

And we know Darius was wrong, Kenji didn't break up with Brook because of a lack of love, but because Brooklynn had pushed him to his limit. Darius was basically victim blaming Kenji, putting the blame of the break up on the supposed frivolity of Kenji's feelings rather than on Brooklynn's actions.

To me not only does he has to prove that he's willing to be a friend to Brooklynn even if she never returns her feelings, but he also has to prove that he has come to aknowledge that he was wrong about Kenji, which is why I'm so sure his redemption with the both of them will come with him doing his best to get Kenji to forgive Brooklynn and repair their relationship.

Bottom line is: Darius ending up with Brooklynn would be the contrary of character developpment.

[aristaspark]

Kenlynn truthers are like don't mess with us there's 4 of us

In all seriousness they are living in my head rent free :(((

(they're both playing with each other's hair bc they both loveee doing that)

[aristaspark]

Yeah, I think the "dishonesty" lies in the fact that Kenji's always the one they're aging up as if Brooklynn was stuck in time. Because yk, if we really have time to waste thinking about their ages, since the only reference we have was their ages at a specific point in time (season 2), we could argue that season 2 was set right before Brooklynn's birthday some time around May (completely random date lol), which would make a 1 year and a half age gap. But it's ALWAYS the other way around and it's so annoying.

Especially when the fandom used this to bully the creators of the show.

And it's the only ship they do that for.

Weirdly enough I've never seen anyone say that Benji was horrible because Kenji was 16 and Ben 14.

Me everytime I see someone age up Kenji to justify their hatred of Kenlynn by pretending he was 16 during jwcc while Brooklynn was 13.

You're allowed to dislike the ship, just don't make it something it's not by implying that something somber was going on. The only indications we ever had was that at one point during season 2 Kenji was 15 while she was 13, point blank.

The age gap between Kenji and Brooklynn has never been and will never be problematic.

[aristaspark]

Me everytime I see someone age up Kenji to justify their hatred of Kenlynn by pretending he was 16 during jwcc while Brooklynn was 13.

You're allowed to dislike the ship, just don't make it something it's not by implying that something somber was going on. The only indications we ever had was that at one point during season 2 Kenji was 15 while she was 13, point blank.

The age gap between Kenji and Brooklynn has never been and will never be problematic.

[aristaspark]

Gaslighting everyone into thinking Kenlynn is endgame

Chaos Theory Season 3 : Part 8

Finally getting around to posting a more *detailed* version of my Kenlynn are endgame thoughts.

Part 1 because I'm allergic to going straight to the point.

A little disclaimer because I think that it's necessary: this post is not meant to convince anyone of anything. It isn't me trying to convince myself either. I genuinely believe that in the forth season that is probably already fully animated as we talk, Kenji and Brooklynn get back together at some point. This post is just me laying out the elements that make me think that.

Most, if not all of it, will turn out to be wrong but I don't care, I like to theorize, that's fun!

Part 1: Brooklynn isn't in love with Darius.

While there are some things I am uncertain about - duh, I'm human - this might be the ONE thing no one will be able to change mind about.

If you only look at what's in the show (not relying on the false sense of security the popularity the ship has in the fandom brings nor the flawed belief that the writers took shippers' feelings into consideration when they wrote the show) everything that's actually on screen points towards Brooklynn only feeling platonic love towards Darius. I feel like people tend to forget THE TEXT, and only look at their scenes as being detached from the story and CONTEXT.

Firstly, her having feelings for Darius don't make sense chronologically. She has only spent a MAXIMUM of two weeks with him at the time he confesses. And this was right after her boyfriend broke up with her and she came home crying, throwing their picture in the trash because she was heart broken like a good romance movie heroine. She was in no mood to fall in love with anyone and her utter shock at his confession makes it clear that she had never considered Darius as anything other than a friend, these two weeks she had spent with him hadn't change that for her the way it had for Darius.

There's also that she only went to see Darius to fuel her obsession with her investigation. She made that face when she understood what was going on.

She recoiled.

She looked sorry for him, no sign of her being flustered, shy, lost in thought or enamored after he left.

She didn't even spend a second thinking about his confession after he left, she wasn't moved at all. She still expects him to help her with her investigation, because to her their relationship has no reason to change. She didn't feel any type of way about the fact that she was going to see him in the evening. She gets mad at him when he ignores her calls, doesn't give his feelings more credit.

When she sees him again in Senegal, she only reacts to his presence when they come face to face in person for the first time after he let her down, but when she sees him on the monitor (which would make it the first time she sees the man she supposedly loves after months apart), when she saves his life, or sees him above the arena, nothing. She never focuses on Darius.

They were adorable in season 3. But again. Brooklynn still prefers to do things on her own, Darius is not special in that regard, she rejects his offer at helping her. She doesn't treat Darius any differently from the way she treats Yaz and Ben.

When they separate, it's Darius who calls out to her, she was already on her way to leave.

She could have been the one to call out to him, she could have been the one needing that interaction with the person she loved, that would have shown that despite her always going off on her own, he is at least a little special to her, but no. She's treating Darius exactly the same as the others. She's pushing him away exactly like the others.

HE is the one always running after her, begging her to stay (what's funny is that when Kenji was the one doing it people used it as proof that he wasn't right for Brooklynn, but here it's crickets).

To me, but I know that other people opinions differ on that, the use of their nicknames feels like a re-affirmation of their friendship, a first step towards reconciliation. Like Darius will always be Dino-Nerd to Brooklynn, the kid obsessed with dinosaurs who was always her best friend, and Brooklynn, despite having been rejected by her, is still Superstar to Darius, the socially awkward girl with pink hair he struggled to understand at first but who later became his best friend. I feel like if they had used their names it would have said something else yk? Picture it, Darius calls her superstar, and she replies with "Good luck...Darius". To me it would have shown that there has been a shift in her perception of Darius. That she was no longer satisfied with him being her friend dinonerd, the name she wrote down on that post it while she was still in a relationship with Kenji, the name that he was registered as on her phone while she was in a relationship with Kenji, but that she now saw him as Darius. But I know that it's only my interpretation, that might or might not have been the writers' intention.

Brooklynn LOVES Darius, don't think I don't see the endeared way she looks at him, especially during season 3. But it's the key word, endeared. Endeared, as in opposed to "in love".

She looks endeared when she says "you too dinonerd", and I think that was what I tried putting into words in one of my previous posts but couldn't. It's like she's happy that he calls her superstar and that their relatonship hasn't changed despite everything that happened. The way she behaves with him just feels SO platonic to me. He gets her better than anyone else because he is and always was her best friend. They have a special bond, but to me it was NEVER shown as been a romantic one on Brooklynn's end.

As of the end of season 3 you have yet to show me a single element that suggests that her feelings for him have changed in the few hours she spent with him since the moment he confessed (as I'm POSITIVE she didn't love him during the confession scene).

Like, if she's in love with him, when did it happen? During the six months she was dead? It makes no sense because she spent 6 traumatizing months alone after that confession and her last interaction with Darius was her getting mad at him because he was ignoring her calls, demanding that he came for her investigation, not giving a damn about his confession.

I'm only looking at the actual story. They would be cute as hell because the trope is cute as hell, but it just doesn't fit with what was shown in the three first seasons. To me the only way for dinostar to happen would be to have Brooklynn fall for him/realize her feelings during season 4 (because I repeat myself, but there's no way she was in love with him before, at least not consciously). And with everything that's bound to happen, I don't see it happening, especially because of one...detail.

They are currently stuck in an helicopter, with Ben and Yasmina, who will probably leave them alone as quickly as humanly possible to allow them to get rid of the awkwardness that they are bound to display.

Dinostar WILL have a discussion at the start of the season, there's no way they won't. Darius even spoke about wanting to tackle the subject in season 3, so sorry, but them talking about their feelings is not shaping up to be that series final gran endgame ship reveal/pay off. And whatever that conversation holds for them, they will probably come clean about their feelings and as I said, I absolutely do not believe Brooklynn to be in love with him at this point, and her saying "I'm not sure" would feel extremely anticlimactic.

But let's imagine that somehow she's like, yeah Darius, while I was looking at my amputated arm, alone at Ronnie's, I realized that I actually felt the same.

That would make yet another thing Kenji would have to forgive her for.

We all have our beliefs about what ships will be endgame, but I think it's not too far fetched to say that in the end they will all be on good (if not great) terms with each other. Or at least cordial.

Brooklynn already has an endless list of things Kenji has to forgive her for if she wishes to someday be friends with him.

Seeing his dad behind his back. Neglecting him. Choosing her work over him. Secret appartment. Not telling him she was alive. Letting him mourn her despite knowing what it would do to him. Rejecting him after they see each other for the first time since she died. Choosing her work over him once again.

That's a lot to forgive if they want to be friends.

But then you would also have to add - falling in love with my adopted brother, your best friend, while I was still hurting over you and you were still treating me like crap, and deciding you wanted to be with him before we even had some sort of closure on our relationship, not even asking yourself if I would be ok with it.

And you know, you could take that endless list and throw it back at me and say, well, doesn't that only reinforce the idea that they have no chance of getting back together if the chances of them even being friends are this thin?

Well, that's the thing. There's this endless list of things Kenji has to forgive Brooklynn for, but I believe that these things all come down to one "big thing", that thing being the sole reason Kenji has currently given up on Brooklynn (someone counts the number of times I said *thing*).

I think the real reason Kenji is so mad at Brooklynn is that to him all her actions are all proof that she doesn't love him. This is what hurt him the most, this is the reason, to me, the real reason he broke up with her in the first place.

Just like his father didn't love him, the love of his life, the girl he loved for 6 years...also didn't love him.

He desesperately wished for her to prove to him that he was mistaking, that she did love him the way he loved her. He gave her the opportunity to prove it to him when he broke up (I can't be with you IF you're not going to be with me), but she didn't. He did it again in front of the plane, he made his heart vulnerable again because the fact that she was alive made him forget all the rest. She pushed him away. When I look at these two scenes I just SEE the set up being...yk, set up? This is right there, at the beggining of their arc: Kenji was waiting for Brooklynn to show him that he was mistaken and that she wanted to be with him - that she loved him.

But each and everytime her actions prove to him that she doesn't love him, so he ends up accepting it as a fact and thus gives up on her (the moment she pushed him away in front of the plane, which is why the focus was so heavily on them).

Which gave us season 3 Kenji, who has given up on her. She has proved to him that he was right, now he's done. You can see it in the way he talks about her that he genuinely believes Brooklynn doesn't love him/them. "She doesn't want anything to do with us" / "She sacrificed us willingly" / "She didn't look like she needed our help, or wanted it"

Now that I spoke about Brooklynn's feelings for Darius, I will talk about her feelings for Kenji in part 2 because I have way too much free time on my hands (I actually don't, that's the worst part 😂)

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Brooklynn doesn't hold an ounce of responsibilty in Yasammy's break up

Chaos Theory : Season 3 Part 7

I saw quite a few posts talking about how Brooklynn is going to feel guilty because Yasammy broke up because of her. And while I absolutely think she's going to feel guilty because that's just who she is, those who think that she has any responsability in their break up really didn't think the whole thing through.

Brooklynn is merely a pretext that made both Yaz and Sammy realize just how disfonctional their relationship had become, and it was disfonctional even before Brooklynn died, as made evident by the things they talked about when they broke up.

Sammy resents Yasmina because she needed space and took it, but too much space and for too long to Sammy's liking. And Yasmina was very clearly taken aback by the way Sammy completely shut down her family over their disagreement regarding the ranch. From the way Yaz is talking about it, it seems Sammy is the one who cut all ties with them because they wouldn't agree with her, and despite thinking that Sammy was right about the inital disagreement, Yasmina can't wrap her head around why she would do that. Sammy suffers because she's no longer with her family, but it appears it was HER choice, not theirs.

I like Yasammy and I absolutely think they will get back together, but it's clear they need to sort out their sh*t seperately before they do.

The way they are right now, they are not right for each other. They needed to break up and if it hadn't been Brooklynn, another subject would have come up that would have led to the same conclusion.

One can't just shrug their problems under the rug and expect that they will stay hidden there forever. That's what they did after season 1. They were so happy to see each other again (and frankly, they found themselves in a life or dead situation AGAIN so there was no time for romantic drama) that they just put aside their problems, but one can only do that for so long. It was only a matter of time before their issues caught up to them.

I don't know if you noticed, but when they broke up, while the argument initially was about Brooklynn, it almost immediately shifted to other things.

Brooklynn is like Sammy's family, or like the distance Yasmina took from Sammy : yet another subject that made the two realize that they were no longer on the same page, which is the sole reason for their break up.

They didn't understand each other and I think that they didn't know if they loved the person they only now realized the other had become.

I honestly think that at the moment, they didn't.

Especially Yasmina. She seemed really taken aback by how "excessive" Sammy's reactions were, like she couldn't wrap her head around it.

I think Sammy needs to learn that the world isn't black or white, that it's not all or nothing. In camp cretaceous, her family and her friends were the best thing ever to her. They were perfect, they could do no wrong, family was like this untouchable concept to her, it was everything. But now she went to the other extreme. She realized that they didn't live up to the pedestal she had herself put them on, and she couldn't accept it, same with Brooklynn. So rather than accept that family wasn't this magical, perfect thing, she rejected it altogether.

I think that for Yasammy to work, Sammy first needs to find a middle ground, and that Brooklynn coming back to the group will allow that. Because she will have to face the harsh reality: Brooklynn isn't perfect, but that doesn't make her someone undeserving of a second chance. Brooklynn is allowed to be flawed. She is far from perfect, but she didn't have bad intentions, she simply made the wrong choices and let herself be swayed by her worst instincts. And you know who else is guilty of doing that? Sammy.

Don't get me wrong, Yasmina is ALSO at fault. She should have tried to fix their problems instead of running away, because it only made things worse for them. She served Sammy a reason to resent her on a silver plate. She's the one who allowed things to get to a point of almost no-return instead of trying to communicate with Sammy.

So yeah, impeccable writing and stop putting the blame on poor Brooklynn. Is she responsible for the 6th months rift between Kenji and Darius? YES. Is she responsible for Yaz and Sammy breaking up? NO. They broke up because they were already disfunctional, Brooklynn only happened to be the one ordeal that finished to pull them apart.

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My opinion on Sammy's reaction to Brooklynn

Chaos Theory : Season 3 part 6

This post will just be me trying to figure out my on thoughts on Sammy's reaction to Brooklynn because while I understand where she's coming from, something bugs me so yeah.

I said it in a previous post: when it comes to the campers' reaction to Brooklynn, funnily enough, I find Sammy and Kenji's stance to make MUCH more sense than the others. With how Brooklynn has been treating them, it's to be expected that they'd react that way. But as I also said, the reason Sammy and Kenji refuse to go after Brooklynn is different, and I found myself leaning more towards Yaz's side on the debate she had with Sammy about Brooklynn.

Kenji is justified in his refusal to go after Brooklynn: he has seen countless things that have shaken his trust in her (her going to see his dad, the bag full of money, the secret appartment, all the lies when they were living together), and then he found out that not only was she capable of all that, but she was also capable of making him believe that she was dead for several months AND to reject him coldly afterwards, him, the man she was supposed to love. Kenji has absolutely no reason he should trust Brooklynn, going after her would straight up be masochism with how much she's caused him suffering and anguish. Brooklynn actually wronged him even though she hadn't intended to, simply by virtue of him being her boyfriend.

But Sammy is slightly different.

It's not to say that Brooklynn's actions haven't caused her suffering, they have, they were friends, family as she put it. But I believe the reason Sammy is so mad at Brooklynn finds its root in a fondamental difference between them: to Sammy, family is everything, it has always been, but Brooklynn has always been "on her own", a loner living her life independantly. And you know what? Both are fine.

Neither should have to change to please the other, because friendships don't work like that. And so, my point is that Sammy's anger towards Brooklynn is rooted in something that isn't inherently bad, it's like she's angry at Brooklynn because she doesn't value family the way she does. It was a flaw she already had in camp creataceous, a flaw that makes its return here. She struggles to accept that other people don't live the way she does and it makes her look like she really lacks empathy.

As I said, Brooklynn actively hurt Kenji, he was a direct - dare I even say the biggest - victim of her actions, so in their case she's the one who has to show empathy to him (and even with that being the case, Kenji STILL showed empathy towards her when he looked at her arm at the end of last season, despite everything she had done to him).

But Sammy, while being hurt over Brooklynn's lack of care for her family, puts that above everything else to the point where she doesn't even stop to wonder why she does what she does, or what she has been through. I repeat myself but Kenji and Sammy are not the same, Kenji is hurt because of the things Brooklynn did to him, while Sammy is hurt because she assumes Brooklynn doesn't love her family simply because she doesn't treat them the way Sammy expects people to treat their loved-ones. I get that she wants to protect herself and that she has her own exterior reasons for feeling like this, but they're exactly that, exterior reasons that have nothing to do with Brooklynn. Brooklynn isn't responsible for Sammy's fall out with her family and neither is she for Sammy's initial fall out with Yasmina, but because of these two factors, Sammy immediately gives up on Brooklynn. She's only focused on the hurt she feels and never even tries to wonder if Brooklynn could have a reason to be doing what she's doing or what she's been going through. Brooklynn has lost an arm and, as Yasmina reminds Sammy, she has been all alone for months, but Sammy is too focused on her feelings and on her pre-existing struggles to even care about what could have been going on in Brooklynn's life. Sure, Sammy said it, she deserves better, but just like Sammy had stuff she had been going through, Brooklynn also did. I think what I'm trying to say is that Brooklynn at least deserved Sammy to give her the benefit of the doubt. She at least deserved that Sammy asked herself what had happened to her. But Sammy didn't, because of what happened with her family and Yaz, and instead redirected all her anger at Brooklynn.

Simply because Brooklynn doesn't treat her family the way Sammy wants to be treated doesn't mean that in her lonely, traumatized and socially akward mind she doesn't consider them family, but Sammy never considers that, she doesn't care about that.

But this isn't me saying that Sammy isn't justified in her anger. Brooklynn IS a shitty friend. But she's not being a shitty friend on purpose. She's just being her obsessive, unsensitive, clueless self who struggles and has ALWAYS struggled with her relationships. Sammy has always known that Brook was a shitty friend, but she only has a problem with it now that she has been wronged by other people.

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One thing I don't like in season 3: Ben's crappy selective memory

Chaos Theory Season 3: part 5

Rewatching season 3 there's one tiny detail I hate and that I think could have easily been avoided. It's the way they made Ben stupid OR gave him the memory of a fish to justify the campers not trusting Brooklynn.

Let me explain.

When Ben and Brooklynn meet during season 2, Brooklynn spills ALL the beans to Ben: Her ultimate motive is to send Soyona to prison for the rest of her life. She leaves no doubt whatsoever as to where her loyalty lies: it's not with Soyona.

Now at the start of season 3 you'd think that Ben would remember the details of this crucial discussion he had with Brooklynn. But what does he say?

She did warn me about how dangerous Santos is.

I'm sorry, what, Ben?

Dude just left out the only part that really mattered in his attempt to get the others to trust Brooklynn. Of course the others don't trust Brooklynn with what he told them. Her warning him about how dangerous Santos is says NOTHING on whether she is working for her or not. She could have been genuinely working for Santos but still caring enough for them to urge them to get the hell away from her.

I know they had to leave a doubt because they wanted Kenji loosing all trust in her after she boarded the plane with Soyona to make sense, but then they shouldn't have had Brooklynn explain everything to Ben and Ben conviniently forgetting the most IMPORTANT part of their conversation in which she spelled it out to him that she was working undercover.

That's one tiny grip I have between the continuity of season 2 and 3, where the writing suffers from the "it's not in the same season so we can retcon what happened no one will notice" syndrom.

Little edit:

It's even more deplorable because it plays into the main source of conflict in the relationship between Kenji and Brooklynn. I don't know if you've noticed, but the reason Sammy and Kenji refuse to go after Brooklynn are NOT the same. Sammy seems to be aware that Brooklynn is working undercover but she doesn't give a damn. Her issue with Brooklynn has to do with the way she's treating them, like they don't mean anything to her. As she said, it was like that even when she was alive.

But Kenji? He thinks that Brooklynn has changed and that she's really working for Santos, that she's not the same person they knew and loved (when she still very much is, only she took it way too far). So Ben explaining things correctly would have greatly altered this storyline.

[aristaspark]

Chaos Theroy Season 3 : part 4

In one of my previous posts I said that Kenji and Brooklynn didn't even interact once this season, but as we all know, that was a lie. They did interact ONCE. And omg, just this one scene gives a sense of how strong the angst is going to be when they see each other again.

Sammy calls Brooklynn to prove that she doesn't care about them and that she doesn't deserve that they go rush to her rescue. And truth be told, I agree with Sammy. Frankly I'm on Sammy and Kenji's side on the Brooklynn debacle, their reaction makes much more sense when we see what they've been through because of Brooklynn (I think Sammy is guilty of projecting some of her pre-existing issues with her family on Brooklynn, but Kenji? She has put him through hell).

Brooklynn is my favorite character even in this season (I'd say even more in this season) but she is a morally grey character. She deserves to suffer the consequences of her choices and I love that the writers acknowledged that.

Since the beggining of the season, we can see that Kenji doesn't wanna know anything about Brooklynn anymore. He knows what awaits him if he was to try and rush to her rescue: heartbreak, rejection and pain. So everytime they talk about Brooklynn, he evades the situation, he's better off not knowing. He has made up his mind since the moment she rejected him again to get on that plane, he won't be the one to try and make things right anymore, never again.

But Sammy calls Brooklynn on a whim and this time he doesn't get to evade the situation. Brooklynn immediately says that she doesn't have the time. Then Sammy asks Brooklynn what she's doing, what's her excuse.

"Nothing. Working."

"Working, huh? That's new."

Someone kill me right now 😭

Despite having chosen to stay out of it, Kenji cannot help but react to what she says. Simply hearing her utter the word "work" triggers him so bad.

Kenji is SO mad at her. So mad that she is still doing the one thing that made him break up with her, so mad that she is still prioritizing her work over the people that care about her. So mad that his hurt boyfriend persona can't help but rush back to the surface.

You can see that it's something that he had been wanting to say for a long time and that he's finally allowing himself to because, why wouldn't he? When they were together she might have not been aware of how much space her work was taking, but now she has made the conscious decision of choosing her work over him, so he's finally allowing himself to be spiteful.

I don't even find this scene heart-breaking, even as a Kenlynn shipper because Brooklynn needed to hear that and DESERVED to be told that. Actually I kinda find it funny that the moment Kenji gets to speak with her he starts a domestic quarrel with all their friends listening.

Now, the less funny part is Brooklynn's face when she hears him.

She deserves it, but gosh does it hurt. She looks so...hurt. It's as if for a second the "real Brooklynn" comes back (by real I mean in opposition to investigator Brooklynn).

I don't know what will happen in season 4, but it's clear that neither of them have made peace with their break-up. We've seen quite a lot of scenes of them in the show, but if we look at the timeline we realize just how crazy the timeline of their relationship is and we understand why even after 6 months Kenji is still acting like a spiteful boyfriend.

Brooklynn neglected him for a long time for her work, one day, unable to take it anymore he breaks up with her. He didn't know that that was the last time he'd see her because she dies like a week after that. Then, six months later, she reappers. The first time he sees her after their break up. But she rejects him for her work again and gets on that plane. Then that phone call. THAT MAKES A GRAN TOTAL OF 3 INTERACTIONS GOD DAMN. All that angst packed in 3 freaking interactions. And the next will be season 4.

[aristaspark]

Chaos Theory Season 3: part 3

Yk when I said I was actually ok with dinostar in season 1, then season 2 made me hate them? I'm not throwing lies around, that was actually the case. And season 3? While it has not repared the damage done in season 2 in my eyes, I found all their interactions endearing (I mean, I was always the biggest dinostar besties stan).

So I'm gonna speak about that scene in episode 7 in what I think is good faith and I really wish to know dinostar shippers opinion on it.

Brooklynn! Good luck Superstar

You too Dinonerd

That scene? Adorable. That's the dinostar I love. Absolutely adorable. But am I tripping or is this not the most adorable friendzone confirmation for a potential ship to have ever hit the screen?

I am not going to pretend that all the angst has disappeared btw them, Brooklynn's reaction when Darius implied that she had betrayed them in the last episode shows that there are still unresolved issues between them. But am I the only one thinking that their story has been evolving too quickly in season 3 if it was to be a big focus in season 4?

Kenji and Brooklynn will be a big focus next season (whether they end up together or not), just as Yaz and Sammy will be, it's inevitable.

But Darius and Brooklynn? They're already pretty much on good terms. Darius has forgiven Brooklynn, and it looks like Brooklynn is already on her way to forgive Darius. The only shadow that's left is, as I said, the fact that he abandonned her that night and Darius' confession...

Which they are probably going to adress as soon as episode one hits. They're stuck in an helicopter together, and will spend the first episode together. The team won't regroup with Sammy and Kenji before AT LEAST episode 3. They will have to address the elephant in the room at the start of the season, before we even get a glimpse at the angsty shit show that Kenlynn is shaping out to be.

And so, going back to that scene. The way they call each other Superstar and Dinonerd, to me, seems like the confirmation that they'll remain friends, before we hear them actually say it at the start of the next season. I don't know if you see what I mean? Like, to me it felt like the both reaffirming their friendship. Because that's their besties nickname and it has always been. I feel like that scene was a direct answer to the one where Darius felt anxious about bringing up his confession to Brooklynn. All he had to do was show her that he was still willing to be her best friend by calling her the way he used to do back when they were kids. And by calling him dino-nerd, she showed that that was what she wanted too.

[aristaspark]

Chaos Theory Season 3: Part 2

Wait a minute, a little something btw my three pages long analyses. Remember when I said that the look Brook gave Darius in front of the plane had nothing to do with romance and everything to do with the fact that he'd abandonned her that night?

Flash foward to season 3, Brooklynn's expression change and offended tone when Darius says that the Brooklynn he knows would never betray her friends and she retorts "I BETRAYED YOU???".

This wasn't acting. Brooklynn had no idea Darius knew she was on their side. No matter how much she loves her friend... he abandonned her and she feels some type of way about it. I take it as something I was right about. Dinostar had their sweet reunion, but Darius still has to make it up to her. Set up/pay off yk.

[aristaspark]

Kenlynn endgame: How can I still think they have any chance of getting back together after THAT season?

Chaos Theory Season 3: Part 1

Don't worry I'm not blind. This season was HORRENDOUS for Kenlynn. They killed them in every way you can possibly kill a ship, then burried them, then had Kash dance on their grave.

Not only did they not interact at all this season, but they have made it clear that the plane scene was Kenji's last straw with Brooklynn, he was DONE with her. Done trying to prevent her from ruining her life after she proved one to many times that she was eager to ruin it.

He was the one to run after her to that airport and she chose to push him away again, she chose her work over him once again, she chose to go off on her own again, so now he finally does the only thing that makes sense: he lets her. He has tried too many times already, and it always ended the same, with him being heartbroken. She wants to be a solo player, then he lets her, he will not give her the opportunity to break his heart again. He's given her one last chance to choose him in front of that plane, but she jerked his hand away. He's done trying to get it back.

So why in hell do I think they are endgame? Don't think that's because I'm stupid and can't see that they absolutely ruined the heck out of them.

No, that's actually because that's more or less what I predicted would happen. Sure I didn't expect it to happen exactly in that way, (a lot of my theories were made at a time when I was convinced we would only get 3 seasons) but if you look at my theory on how I thought the show would end the essence is there.

I'm putting it here to be totally transparant: a lot of it IS wrong. The first part is hilarious to look at now.

But the second part? Though I was shook at how much they were willing to destroy the bond between the characters, I knew that Kenji was finally going to set a bondarie with Brooklynn after the plane scene. And don't get me wrong, I'm not delusional enough to tell myself that he's *pretending* not to care. He has lost the ability to care. Brooklynn has simply hurt him too much, too much for someone who was supposed to love him. He can't bring himself to go out of his way and care for her anymore when all she's done is show that she didn't care about him time and time again.

The third part isn't accurate because, as I said, at the time I thought we would only have 3 seasons, so I didn't think we would get a whole season of Kenji being done with Brooklynn as well as a more progressive and far less angsty Dinostar reunion.

But my opinion hasn't change in that already at the time I knew that Brooklynn was going to be the one to have to prove that she was worthy of Kenji. That after all she's put him through, she was finally going to be the one that would have to show that she cared.

If you look closely, their roles have been reversed. I know that it's shocking to see Kenji so easily "not caring" about her, but when we think about it that was what Brooklynn had been doing to him.

I think that season 4 will be Brooklynn's redemption arc with Kenji. You could argue that it will be with Sammy too, there will absolutely be some of that, but Sammy's reaction to Brooklynn was more than anything else a puzzle piece in her arc with both Yasmina and her family that had been going on since season 1.

Because when you look at JWCT, and it's something that one of the writers confirmed on here, everything was written at once (which is why it's so good). From the beggining they knew where these characters had started and where they would end up. Each scene is made to lead up to something.

Take Yasammy for example: Their relationship was stained at the start of the show for very understandable reasons. But then the they made up. And yk, there was that thing with Sammy and her family that was mentionned in season 1 and that carried through season 2, without us ever really getting to know why it was there. And then Yazammy breaks up seemingly because of Brook, but really it's the culmination of all these story arcs that seemed kinda random and aimless at first. Sammy still resents Yasmina for the distance she put between them, and while Yasmina thinks Sammy was in the right in the conflict with her family, she doesn't understand how Sammy could shut them out so easily. We thought they were good after season 1, they were absolutely adorable in season 2, then boom, they were actually not good. Brooklynn was merely what made them realize just how much they couldn't see eye to eye anymore. THIS IS FREAKING AWESOME WRITING.

What does that have to do with Kenlynn?

As I said, these characters are not written randomly, they have arcs that have started in season 1 and that will end in season 4.

Season 3 was the absolute death of Kenlynn, even I can't argue against that. But it's part of their arc. A lot have been set up for them, and season 4 will be where all these set up will pay off.

Kenji broke up with Brooklynn because she neglected him for her work while he was still in love with her, she died a few days later leaving him regretful and heart broken, he finds out she is alive and for a moment he forgets all his rescentment and confusion because she's alive and it overpowers everything else so he runs after her despite everything she did to him, vulnerable as ever... but she chooses to leave him again. He tried everything to get her to stay, and now he has his confirmation, it will never work.

So now we have season 3 Kenji, who is a Kenji who has finally accepted that he is done trying. It really seems like there is no come back from that, even to me this season felt like the end END. But it's not, this season is part of an arc that had started in season 1 (dare I say in camp creataceous 🤣) and that will end in season 4.

But this time the roles are reversed.

I think I'm going to stop here and continue in other posts lol, but here are some points I will mention later because I can already see what some will say:

- Nothing in this season changed my opinion on Brooklynn's feelings towards Darius (on the contrary). Don't get me wrong, they are ADORABLE. But Brooklynn wasn't in love with Darius when he confessed, and she still isn't now. She loves Darius, he is her best friend. That's it.

- Nothing in this season changed my opinion on Brooklynn's feelings towards Kenji.

- I will talk more in detail about Brooklynn's story arc because many things I had predicted happened in this season

And some other things I guess