Talk:Andy Kang/@comment-33576678-20171110122715/@comment-33453162-20171227134218

Fearless Diva Average height people can play basketball, that's true, but they play on one of the two guard positions. Usually the point guard. Point guards can be average height, shooting guards are humanly tall, but small forwards are at least 6'6" in adult male teams. And as the majority of people don't grow much after elementary school, it's safe to assume that even in high school, the minimum for a SF is about 6'4" Small forwards have to be able to play on the perimeter, and also in the paint, against power forwards, and collect rebounds against centers. If you are small, no matter how skilled you are, you have zero chance there, therefore you are not fit to play small forward. Basically if Andy with his frame has the skillset of a small forward, he could be a shooting guard. To play small forward having a tall frame is one of the main things you must have.

And the basketball part of HSS is not that far fetched, as on the perimeter, a girl does have chance against the guys, as there physicality has less importance than pure skill. My problem was with the football part. Even if we assume that MC is a taller than average, athletic girl, she is around 140-145 lbs. The cornerbacks, safeties and linebackers she would got hit by are around 200lbs, or even more. They would march over her like a tank on a convertible. Emma being a kicker was believable, it would also be believable if MC was the QB of the team, as QBs are more protected, and got hit fewer times and not with full speed, but MC was receiver or running back and that's impossible. Guys put a huge muscle mass on themselves to not be destroyed by the high speed hits, and MC doesn't look nearly as bulky as a man. But as HSS was a light, fun story, (the first book) I had no problem with that much level of suspension of disbelief.

My problem with Andy's sport plot is it's clear that it was written by people who never went anywhere near a real sport event. There is the him starting after Ben's "accident" thing for example. SF is not a fixed position like goalkeepers and goalies, or QBs in other sports. In basketball when a starter of yours got injured, you just choose the first substitute from the neighboring positions. It's not like "oh, we have only one substitute SF, we have to play him". No. They wouldn't. They wouldn't start somebody who wouldn't be part of the active rotation, the coach would put the first shooting guard, or power forward substitute in the starter. Also, basketball players don't play full games. Even the bests play around three quarters, so if Andy became starter because of only one injury, he would've received a considerable ammount of time on the court anyway.

I really support the diversity that Pixelberry put in the stories (even if it's completely the same now in almost all the stories -> you are either a female, or a male, and your best friend is nice, shy gay guy with golden heart, who is not an LI in either case) But sometimes they seem to make stories with complete disregard of any kind of realism. Andy is one example (unfortunately(?) sports are still about a combination of skill and physicality, and the more the physiciality is a factor, the less the chance females and FTM trans males have against biological males), but there was Kenna too. I shipped her with Val, as they made a cute couple, but still, the way it was represented was a total nonsense. Val was a woman and a commoner. Even if we say, everybody around them was far more accepting than the people in the era the game world was based on, there is still the problem that their marriage made it impossible to Kenna to have an heir, and to form alliances with other kingdoms. Even if their friends were happy for them as friends, they would have tried to convince them not to marry as it was basically a political suicide that no ruler would've done.