Cue Brother Arthur carrying on for the next 15-20 minutes about the importance of perseverance, and pursuing your dreams. I considered writing an actual full speech for him to give, but I truly felt like anything I added was going to become repetitious and boring (which, as we've established, graduations are). Maybe it fits the setting, but I'm trying to write a story for people's enjoyment here, so the meta of writing something that bores me (and likely others) feels counterproductive. XD
I think, at the very least, his introductory statements tell us the gist of what we needed to hear anyway.
Is Rain suddenly going to gush with courage when she walks across the stage to receive her diploma, step up to the podium, and come out publicly and proudly to her entire class, the whole school and everyone in attendance?
That's exactly what I was thinking. Brother Arthur would certainly know not to dead-name Rain. The question then becomes, is he actually the MC here, or just speaking as Acting Headmaster? (My knowledge of High School graduation ceremonies is limited to what I've seen in fiction, so I have only a limited idea of how they are actually conducted.)
We're on to the next round of the Rain Favorite Character Tournament, starting with part 18! You can vote for as many characters as you want, and the top two will advance to the semifinals.
The only thing I remember from the graduation speech made by the person in charge of the school was a bit that went something like,
When you started on your degrees 3 years ago, you would have had to answer any simple legal question with, "I don't know." Now, after more hours of classes and studies than you can imagine, you can look the person who asked in the eye and confidently tell them, "That depends."
This was not my graduation ceremony, but I decided I could confidently give that answer also. I mean, I had sat around in the next room over for many of those hours of study, and heard the recorded study materials. And, OMG, that stuff all depends so much. I had no idea before.
This is a good moment to ask: "Rain" page on TV Tropes repeatedly states that Brother Arthur is asexual, but I do not remember anything like that and I've just ended another re-read of entire webcomic. Was that revealed behind the scenes?
There's a lot wrong with the Characters page. Like, a lot of errors from being wildly out of date. So on the one hand, I feel obligated to mention you can't trust everything on that page. On the other hand, yes, Brother Arthur is ace. Even if it's never mentioned directly in the comic.
That speech is impressively valid for our world too. He says it's been a strange year, and it sure was, but he has no idea how strange it was for us in this world!
The salutatorian is the student speaker whose speech opens the graduation ceremony, "salutare" being Latin for "to welcome."
The valedictorian is the student whose speech is at the end of the ceremony, "valedicere" being Latin for "to say farewell"
Even more useless trivium:
At my school, the salutatorian speech was customarily given in Latin (maybe still is.) Since the Salutatorian rarely knew Latin, somebody in the Classics department did the translation. It generally contained a lot of in jokes, but since very few of the other graduates knew any Latin, either, the graduating students got a transcript with little notes like "hoc ridete" ("laugh here") at the appropriate places, and they could figure out enough Latin to follow along and laugh or boo or hiss or cheer at the right places. The parents and dignitaries didn't get those transcripts, of course, so they got the impression that their darlings were actually fluent in Latin!
I'm surprised they wouldn't just get the next two students to take those roles, but I dunno.
Vs. my school, where I was an absentee valedictorian. I had no intention of sitting through a graduation ceremony and my having a role in it didn't change that.
"Strange year"
. . .
Is Rain suddenly going to gush with courage when she walks across the stage to receive her diploma, step up to the podium, and come out publicly and proudly to her entire class, the whole school and everyone in attendance?
And I bet the strangeness is not over yet. Not if Ru(d/b)y has a say!
When you started on your degrees 3 years ago, you would have had to answer any simple legal question with, "I don't know." Now, after more hours of classes and studies than you can imagine, you can look the person who asked in the eye and confidently tell them, "That depends."
This was not my graduation ceremony, but I decided I could confidently give that answer also. I mean, I had sat around in the next room over for many of those hours of study, and heard the recorded study materials. And, OMG, that stuff all depends so much. I had no idea before.
...mostly because I need the inspiration right now.
It's because of the Characters page. ^^;
There's a lot wrong with the Characters page. Like, a lot of errors from being wildly out of date. So on the one hand, I feel obligated to mention you can't trust everything on that page. On the other hand, yes, Brother Arthur is ace. Even if it's never mentioned directly in the comic.
That speech is impressively valid for our world too. He says it's been a strange year, and it sure was, but he has no idea how strange it was for us in this world!
Valedictorian and salutatorian are the top student and second from the top respectively. :)
The salutatorian is the student speaker whose speech opens the graduation ceremony, "salutare" being Latin for "to welcome."
The valedictorian is the student whose speech is at the end of the ceremony, "valedicere" being Latin for "to say farewell"
Even more useless trivium:
At my school, the salutatorian speech was customarily given in Latin (maybe still is.) Since the Salutatorian rarely knew Latin, somebody in the Classics department did the translation. It generally contained a lot of in jokes, but since very few of the other graduates knew any Latin, either, the graduating students got a transcript with little notes like "hoc ridete" ("laugh here") at the appropriate places, and they could figure out enough Latin to follow along and laugh or boo or hiss or cheer at the right places. The parents and dignitaries didn't get those transcripts, of course, so they got the impression that their darlings were actually fluent in Latin!
Vs. my school, where I was an absentee valedictorian. I had no intention of sitting through a graduation ceremony and my having a role in it didn't change that.