#classic “apologize for the length - didn't have the time to write something shorter” here

[pb-dot]

It took me until episode 3 of Junior Year, but I've finally found out what I found kind of strange about the Theological (mis)Adventures Of Kristen Appelbees. To get ahead of the Kristen Discourse train for a second, this isn't a criticism of either of the show or Kristen, just an observation about cultural differences that might be interesting for someone who isn't me maybe? Fantasy High spoilers for all three seasons below the cut.

Ok, so this is about what religion is in the Fantasy High universe, and I suppose in D&D in general. At the start of Junior Year in particular, much hay is made over how Adaine's last deity YES!/YES? has ceased to be on account of being abandoned by its first and last follower, Kristen, who also did a so-so job at getting the good word out there. This ties in with the larger mechanics of the divine, which I will concede is very consistent, in that the gods rely on mortals for their ongoing existence, and also are shaped by their followers, see how Galicaea is a bit of a self-hating mess because her (majority high elven) worshippers would Very Much Not Prefer to talk about that whole werewolf/animalistic aspect of their goddess.

Now, this is a very human/sapient mortal/sapient almost-mortal-centric way to structure the universe of your story, which is what we've come to expect from Brennan and his knack for character-centric storytelling and general humanism. It is also, however, the structure that ends up putting what I would argue is an unreasonable amount of weight on the shoulders of the clerics of the world, including our favorite disaster lesbian.

Now, as a teen, I suppose it isn't unusual to feel like the whole world is on your shoulders. Hell, I suppose it's a feeling Kristen is very much used to as the ex-chosen of Helio. Still, even the abstract "my child will do everything right"-pressure kind of pales in comparison as far as mental stress is considered compared to "if I do not Class Well Enough this living thinking entity that functionally lives in my head and who I have personally picked a name for and now have a bit of a fraught relationship with will capital D-die and it will be my fault," which is frankly such a heavy narrative sword of Damocles that it makes me, as a viewer, too stressed. The stakes are too high, and for a school to require a teenager to navigate a relationship with the divine for a passing grade feels unreasonable even on a level past "getting your own school supplies and the school supplies are a frankly unreasonable amount of diamonds and other rare arcane items," or even "Fig has to start going to class" for that matter.

Granted, I'm sure this will read a lot closer to truth or storytelling-friendly truth simulacra for those who have gone through school with a learning disability or autism, ADHD, or other challenges that school has historically not been great at making allowances for, and the way the third episode, in particular, was very good at leading the thoughts in that direction did a lot to assuage my anxiety. "Relax, you're supposed to think this is a bullshit sort of situation to strand poor dear Kristen in, and her ending up in a similar holding pattern as she started Sophomore Year is a sign of her still not getting the help she needs, not an unflattering reflection on her or an unreasonable dickishness of the plot."

Now you may be asking "Hey Peebs, wasn't this supposed to be about some cultural stuff, what's with all the soul gazing?" and yes, you retain stuff well, at least as it pertains to rambling quasi-essays on streaming content. I'll get to the point I'm making anon.

Part of why the above situation and interaction between worldbuilding, character, and plot felt so gravely upsetting to me, I think, is because it does seem to follow what I've come to understand as a uniquely American understanding of religion, or perhaps if I were to make a less sweeping statement, an understanding of religion that differs from my own and from most models of religion in Europe that I know of personally.

Just to lay my cards bare before I go on, I am not religious myself, in most aspects I'm staunchly atheist and/or agnostic. I have, however, grown up around religion, as being religious, and Protestant Christian in particular is viewed as the norm in Norway. The Norwegian Monarch is required by law to be protestant Christian, no-one's forced to go to church as a part of schooling but at least when I was young it was heavily encouraged, leading me to Christmas vacation being heralded with a school-sponsored semimandatory church service where one might sing psalms with lyrics like "Gud Er Gud om alle mann var døde/ Gud Er Gud om alle land lå øde" (God is God if all men were dead / God is God if all fields were barren [alternatively: all lands were desolate]. My translation.) Granted, Norway is a bit of an outlier in Europe in that much of our adherence to religion can be viewed as an adherence to tradition, although I will concede that might be the atheistic contrarian in me speaking.

Either way, this idea of "god's there whether you believe in Him or not, dude" seems typical of the European approach to the Abrahamic religions to me, and to the degree that the individual is considered at all it is in the "ok, so how do I save my own sinful ass in all of this" sense, whether the saving is in a vague uplifting sense Protestants seem to favor or the "or God is going to kick my ass most severely..."-vibe that Catholics seem to go for.

American religion, especially the practice of evangelical protestant Christianity, seems to be a lot more invested in the role of the individual. God needs soldiers as the worrying rhetoric will occasionally go, and to be a good soldier one must not only be A Good Person and Do Good Things, but one must also seek to proselytize and grow God's ranks. The question of religion and its role in society has little to do with tradition and is only interesting in the fate of the soul as a passing concern in the form of cosmic justice or retribution. On a societal level in evangelicism, religion is a question of the soul of society, and the only way to countenance the sources of evil in the world, be they real or imagined, is to spread the word, to convert, and to maintain a level of purity and cohesion that seems to always be just outside of reach.

I can imagine this is a deeply stressful way to live your life, just the thought of not being good enough for a divine being strikes me personally as absurd, but I digress.

It's not exactly a stated dogma of evangelical protestantism that God Needs Humans, but it is very easy to extrapolate it from the way the evangelical movement seems to answer the Problem Of Evil with the seeming cosmically ordained need for human struggle, I.E there is evil because god wants to/needs to test us and/or because god can not rid the world of evil without also ridding humans of their free will. It is perhaps related to how the evangelical blocs will have convictions with religious zeal about otherwise secular questions, such as women's healthcare and foreign politics, albeit part of that is no doubt just good ol' fundamentalism, which isn't a uniquely American idea but boy howdy has it taken root over there.

So that sure was a lot of words to say "The idea of the Cleric being a necessity for a divine being/god to exist in FH seems strange to peebs because Peebs grew up in a culture that's dominated by a version of Christianity that doesn't believe in a personal relationship with God or in the possibility of affecting any change on the divine or His Plan (TM)" huh? Well, I've been trying to dissect my own reaction to the initial Junior Year storyline for a bit now. It has been an interesting journey of discovery since I haven't really been blindsided by an aspect of American culture for a while now. I guess this one snuck under the radar because a lot of American media strives to be secular but not too much so, to not alienate potential viewers and as such ends up being kind of mealy-mouthed and centrist when it comes to questions of faith.

I guess this is another notch in the belt of my "give serialized storytelling that isn't inherently absurd or abhorrent to you three episodes to stretch its legs before you make any judgments"-approach, huh?