Doggone Academy Chapter 212 Discussion

Starting off, the title here is terrible. It's supposed to be Damn Academy, but it could have worked as Darn Academy or something. I have no idea why someone chose this.

The story is about 3.5ish to 4, but YMMV depending on how many FLs you can handle. There's a bunch of them and they drift in and out of the plot. It's not the standard polygamy setup, at least -- the FLs don't want anything to do with each other, rarely cross paths, and when they do the scene gets noticeably uncomfortable. Likely due to abandonment issues MC doesn't have a lot of romantic intentions, even though he is aware of feelings for him. One character mentions he acts like he's prepared to pack up and move at any point, which I thought was fairly accurate.

MC attracts the FLs because he's kind and powerful and handsome and yeah it's one of those stories, though I do think it's more interesting than most. Some eye rolling and cringe is expected in these types of series. The plot is on the character-driven side of things, what kept me reading it was their interactions rather than descriptions about battles and summaries about the world. Mood shifts back and forth across different plot arcs, dark and violent to light/comedic character interactions.

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Premise of the story, with minor early spoilers for summary sake:

Spoiler

MC is an orphan with abandonment issues, who is seemingly left behind again when backstory!FL comes back from the academy and tells him she found someone who can do more for her. More on this in spoilers. After self-destructively following a vision, MC obtains a "magic sword" type of power. It's not clear exactly what it is, it just kinda... is, and anything supernatural appears to be terrified of it. A grand magician investigating the same area rescues him and decides to take him on as her disciple, providing him with training, affection and a much-needed safe space. And enrollment opportunities.

At the academy his power has him placed into the super secret Master Class. This concept could have been refined more and presented clearer, but I like it. The usual top grade elite class with all the publicity is a distraction to draw attention from Master Class students. These are maybe 1 or 2 people each year who are special or talented enough that the academy can't afford to risk other countries or organizations knowing about them and doing something to them. Like hiding a tree in a forest. They get disguises and fake grades to make them look normal and a secret bat-dorm in a magic forest and everything.

Most of the direction of the plot is shaped by his interactions with the FLs or vague visions of the future that slightly guide him where to go. Those are a semi-regular thing thanks to a very deeply rooted magic connection he got from his past with backstory!FL.

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So, the backstory FL. I feel like people are divided on this character. I feel bad for her, personally. A lot more information is given about her over time, so any reviews from earlier chapters may not be accurate. And, she may be slightly crazy.

Spoiler

This is one of those plotlines where she was trying to pull a long-term plan off and it didn't go according to her script. She only directly shows up when MC is unconscious, and her actions show she clearly still thinks of them as being a thing. A few other scenes indicate she hates the current situation they're in.

A little conflicted about that, it was kinda unique to have a situation where the childhood FL actually moved on over the years without being evil or it going into weird fetish territory. It's oddly rare to not have them spend their life obsessing over MC, but I get why.

Anyway, when MC was badly injured from FL looking for a magical prophecy plant I think she actually found it. Later chapters confirm she's seen visions of bad things happening to him. Which provides a motive for her to try things to stop that, okay. What I don't get is what this character was thinking was going happen as a result of her actions afterwards. It raises a lot of questions, and I'm hoping there's unrevealed angles to it, because... wow.

Keep in mind she knows MC had abandonment issues due to his mother, who had ditched him to starve to death so she could have a new, happy family (to be fair FL might not know that last part). Despite that, on this train of logic she figured the best way to keep him safe was by having MC think yet another loved one found something better than him again... And saying she wanted him to meet the guy, which made me laugh, I thought that was a really impressive level of ballsy in that situation. After doing that I guess she went back to the academy to cry to herself and paint sad paintings about MC being her only reason for living?

So, she definitely needed political protection from a dangerous family situation and was likely being monitored because nobility, but how did she really think that was going to go? It's like she was expecting MC to sit and pine for her for god knows how many years and then they'd have a happy reunion scenario later on. And he'd never get close to anyone else. Maaaaybe should have communicated intent to him then? I am really curious to know what the original plan was there, and what happened.

ATM she's stuck sitting in a disguise (FL is definitely another Master Class enrollment) watching MC from the back seats of the art club, increasingly distraught that he's moving on and progressing his own life. And apparently she's breaking into his dorm at night. It was a bit funny how she tried to establish a carefully distanced connection between her fake identity and him and failed when he instinctively noped out.

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The past group's translation is around average. Main flaws are incorrect genders and occasional wrong names and subjects that make some parts confusing. Former is relatively common, latter is rare but noticeable.