The 2008 Jefferson Soccer Arc: Why It's So Amazing

Hey guys, ComicRater here. Today, I will be discussing my favorite Big Nate arc of all time, the 2008 Jefferson Soccer Arc. I will discuss the Plot, why its so amazing, and why its so revolutionary to the strip.
 * I would like to give a big thanks to my friend Swasimcool for letting me make this, it was his idea, but he said I could do it because he didn't have the time to.

Keep in mind, THIS IS MY OPINION. If you have a different opinion, that's ok. Just be polite about it :p

Lets begin, with a basic plot rundown.

Plot Rundown
Here, I will run down the basic plot if you have never seen this arc before. If you want to read it for yourself, it starts September 1st, 2008. You can skip this if you have already read it. Let’s start!

September

During this month, Nate, Francis and Teddy find out there is mold at the school. They celebrate, but this excitment goes down when they realize for a while they have to attend Jefferson, their arch rival of a school. Although the kids there are mean to them, they are still suprised how amazing the place is. This month is mainly them getting settled.

October

This month is when we start to get into the soccer. They are practing on the field a lot. The kids are constantly teasing Nate and his friends. Coach Calohuan (sorry for my spelling) approaches, and asks kindly if they can stop. The other coach basically says "if they don't like it, they can quit", causing Nate's coach to desperatly want to win. They play the game, and its tied. Overtime, still tied. If P.S 38 wants to win, then Nate has to block the goal. The Jefferson kid takes a kick.

November

Nate catches the ball, and they win! They all celebrate. There are different arcs this month when they are still in Jefferson. But, these don't relate to the soccer arc, so I'm not going to talk about them.

December

They find out they are going back to P.S 38. Nate and his friends rub it in the Jefferson kids faces that they won, which is really satisfying. The school is now redone, and looks a lot better everyone, even NATE, reveals that they missed the school.

What an arc!

Why it's so amazing
Now that I have have given you a basic lot rundown, lets talk about why it's so amazing.

    1. It was long, yet good

If you know me, you know that I am not the biggest fan of long arcs, at least these days. I fell these days, almost all the time, they feel stretched thin and that they could easily be streched down to 1 or 2 weeks. But this was different. Yes, this arc was long, but that was for good reason. It had some much stuff going for it! It felt like it need to be long, not forced to be long like these days. I'm fine with long arcs, but that's if they're good. And this one was great.

         2. Character Growth

This had a lot of character growth for the characters. Nate before this, was a jerk, usually. But here, instead of hating him, I think most of us we're on his side. He wasn't as much of an idiot in this arc. Teddy didn't change much, but he didn't really need to. Francis, I'm not the biggest fan of, but here. I like him. It showed that Francis could be nerdy, clueless, funny, and athletic at the same time. And, he stood out a bit still in sports, by including lots of stats in, which was pretty funny.

    3. Color

This strip introduced color. Now before you say 'cOmIcrAtEr, bIg nAtE hAd cOlOr A lOng tImE AgO" I know that. But i'm talking about the daily strips.  And not only was this great. I feel it came at the right time. If we didn't have color, it might have been harder to show how awesome Jefferson looked.

    4. Big Nate Goes For Broke

This plot was used for Goes For Broke, a Big Nate novel. Some people made a big fuss about this, but I don't really care. First of all, a lot of people get introduced to Big Nate from the novel series. Second of all, it didn't reuse the entire plot, because they didn't play a soccer game. They did a snow building competition.

    5. It was more than funny

Not only was this strip fuuny, it was more. It had Suspense! Drama! And it had the right amount, too. If it was all serious and nothing else, then it wouldn't work. But Peirce handeled it well, not overusing the comedy or drama.

Why is it revolutionary to the strip?
So why is it so revolutionary to the strip? Well, this arc showed a lot of things. The main one being that even though Nate and friends are usually down on their luck, they can still have some victory moments. They usually lose at games, mostly against Jefferson, but Peirce showed that it is possible for them to win. And I respect him for that. Also,it showed that even though Nate hates school, he still has some feelings for P.S 38, because he missed the school when he gets back.

So, what do you think. Do you agree? What's your favorite arc? Do you think this one is so great? Tell me in the comments down below. I hope you enjoyed!

This is ComicRater, signing off