kaythefloppa

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"Censorship in media is bad and people should be allowed to write what they choose to" and "Writing a story where SA/abuse is glorified and romanticised is not a good thing to do" are statements that I think should be able to coexist

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rb with whether people assume you’re older or younger than your actual age

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Reblog With A Gif Of Your Favorite PBS Show Growing Up

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Criticizing Jake and the Never Land Pirates for its whole “A good pirate never takes another person’s property” thing like criticizing Sofia the First & Elena of Avalor for depicting the monarchy as the good guys.

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Observe: Every Wild Kratts season after S4 has 20 episodes; 16 regular length, and two one-hour specials, each of them are classified as double episodes (two episodes at once).

Consider: Martin Kratt confirmed the 200th episode to be airing in Season 7. Numerous sources have proven this statement incorrect, most notably, how the Kratt Brothers’ announcements of new episodes at WK Live during Season 7’s run do not add up to the series 200th episode.

Notice: Chris says here that every season (sans Season 3), they will try to do “one or two hour-long specials each season” This was in 2018, before the final 5 episodes of Season 5 aired and whilst the first half of Season 6 (including Amazin’ Amazon Adventure) were in production (with the finale, Cats and Dogs, indirectly referenced as one of the two specials in Season 6’s lineup). Lo and behold, Seasons 5, 6, and 7 have two hour-long specials.

Assume: That future seasons after Season 7 will still follow this tradition, (Season 8, 9, ect.)

Conclusion: The 200th episode of Wild Kratts will air in the 9th season, not the 7th. Specifically the second episode of the 9th season; Either a half-hour episode like the 100th episode (aired in Season 4) was, or Part 2 of a one-hour season premiere (akin to Alaska: Hero’s Journey).

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Headcanons Masterpost

I’ve posted a few of my WK headcanons here but not many of them.

even though it's a show that I deeply think about on a regular(??) basis, but since I've got free time, why not? I'll go in no particular order since my organization skills (or lack thereof) outclass Martin's.

Keep in mind that at the time that I’m posting this, the final four episodes of Season 7 are yet to air on PBS Kids. Any headcanons related to Season 7 will obviously be rendered outdated if contradicted by future episodes. Warning; Very Long [also copied and pasted from a post I just made on the fandom subreddit + my FANDOM blog]

Chris and Martin:

They have the same age gap as they do in real life. Unlike real life however, they’re in their 20’s. They graduated high school and college at the same time Aviva did.

They keep in touch with Christine and Susan (their IRL sisters who I HC exist in this universe).

Both of them are both autistic and have ADHD.

Martin can and has beaten Chris in an arm wrestle, but has also lost to him in a chess match.

Both Martin and Chris despise golf (which is valid because that game fucking SUCKS!)

The first animal he ever named was the frog that he and Chris saved from Zach when they were kids. The frog’s name was “Ribbert” , a mix between “ribbet” and “Robert.”

Chris was bullied a lot by Zach when they were kids. Martin stepped in to defend him.

In general, Martin has more beef with Zach than Chris does. It’s why Zach is always quick to capture Chris to spite Martin, and why Martin in general has less hesitance with putting Zach through the most uncomfortable situations (i.e. that one time where he straight up launches Zach into the sky in the Bumblebee episode). Martin may or may not have straight up beaten the tar out of Zach at some point.

Gavin, Ronan, Aidan, and Nolan AREN’T related to them, but they are close family friends.

Neither 2D Martin or 2D Chris are married or in relationships. They’re married to their work if anything.

This is the most popular headcanon in the entire fandom, but the Creature Power Suits have a side-effect on the brothers that results in them being able to gain long-term certain abilities or traits of animals even whilst deactivated. This is why they are able to see clearly underwater, hold their breath longer, why their facial structures can seem a bit off, and most importantly, why they are able to have certain interactions with some animals (like when Chris STANDS ON TOP OF A MOTHERFUCKING POLAR BEAR AND LIVES!).

The events of their previous shows are canon in the WK universe. The crossovers (Odd Squad, Nature Cat, Molly of Denali) are also canon (for more-info, see this post:)

Zach Varmitech:

Was a nepo baby. A simple explanation as to why and how he turned out to be as awful as he was is because he had parents who didn't pay enough attention to him, and thus, never held him accountable for much of anything. It was often the responsibility of Zach's teachers, or even his peers to tell him "no."

On top of that, the Varmitechs making robotics out of animals was a family business.. They never got in trouble with the law because they had that much money, but it only furthered a young Zach to believe he could get away with anything he wanted. He was of course, very oblivious to the negative reception in the court of public opinion that his family had.

He was an only child.

Him attempting to use frogs as his invention was the first time he ever thought of the Zachbots.

Was classmates with Chris, Martin, and Aviva, who all went to the same school. His rivalries would shift every season. During the school year from August to April, his biggest 'haters' were the Kratts. During the summer, from May to July, his nemesis was Aviva during science camp.

He was largely sent to science camp to broaden his education. One of the few times that his parents were attentive of him.

His rivalry with Aviva intially started out on a frenemies thing wehre they tried to outdo each other. Then it turned to actual friendship, but then it became one-sided. I've seen the headcanon of them being an ex-item but in my eyes, things went south way before they could even cross that river, largely due to Zach's unoriginality, his ineptitude, and his cruelty towards others, especially animals.

He first created the Zachbots at science camp. His first decision was to use them to bully Aviva.

He was a high school drop-out. He claims that it was because he was "too smart" for school, but the real reason for that is because he was denied his diploma (the reason for which he'll take to his grave).

He's canonically 23 years old in the series. He simply looks older than he does both because of early puberty and because of his really poor self-care routines if any (I mean the guy has NOT felt the warm Vitamin D of the sun). The ‘wrinkle’ he had from the 100th episode was not from age, but simply because his skin was drier than the Sahara.

His first act of villainy against the fully assembled Wild Kratts team was when he tried to steal the Creature Power Suits in order to use Creature Powers to capture animals. However, thanks to Aviva's technology, (as well as the fact that they were in their prototypical stage), his plan failed. This explains why he never once tries this in the show, even though he has canonically stolen the suits and discs.

Met Donita, Dabio, and Gourmand at the Finding Your Inner Villain Seminar not long after dropping out of high school.

He and Paisley Paver are second cousins. The Varmitechs and the Pavers used to be in the same organization/family until they split up due to personality conflict. Zach eventually did a DNA ancestry test that not only showed the truth of his ancestry, but revealed that the new villain on the news that the Wild Kratts had faced was his cousin. This was why he was the first to induct Paisley into the ViVs (Very Important Villains). Their scheme in "Our Blue and Green World" was meant to be a project that was going to merge their family businesses back together and establish them as permanent partners in crime. Of course, we all know how that ends...

Zach refused to tell the other ViVs about Paisley's betrayal, feeling embarassed for having allowed Paisley to betray him so quickly. Paisley pretty much becomes a forbidden entity in Zach's life, as he is too emotionally immature to properly deal with how betrayed he feels, or to see things from Paisley's side of view. The truth of Paisley’s betrayal does come out, but it’s completely out of his control, and it forces him to act fast in order to both save his teamwork with the other villains, and get revenge on the Kratts for turning Paisley against him.

He's abso-fucking-lutely gay but EXTREEEEEMELLY closeted and repressed with bad misplacement issues (i.e. his painful attempts to flirt with Donita in Episode 6).

Zach is often sent to jail off-screen, but he's always bailed out, if not by the other villains, it's by a relative (Paisley was one of said relatives, however they both effectively disowned each other).

He intentionally programmed the Zachbots to be intellectually limited so that they don't turn against him. Them taking his orders literally is a very huge side-effect of that decision, one that he considers the lesser of two evils.

This headcanon is very dated (since it circled around back in 2021-2022) but yes, Zach does use NFTs. He is relentlessly bullied by everyone for it. And a more modern headcanon, but Zach 100% uses AI and ChatGPT. You can’t tell me otherwise.

Donita Donata

Is in her early 30's (let's say 31).

Was one of the top female athletes in middle school, high school, and college. Was offered to take on hockey as a profession but turned it down after gaining a bad case of burn-out.

Was also a prodigy in fashion and made that her top priority. Initially she started working on dresses and clothes in a usual way, and became a well-known designer, however, she soon found herself with a lot of competition. Her campaign to use endangered animals in her line of fashion was done out of desperation and was meant to be a one-time thing, but after seeing how many people enjoyed and loved her work, and how much money she could make off of it, she made it a regular profession. She lost a LOT of longtime friends because of this.

Unlike the Varmitechs and Pavers, the Donatas were not proud of their family history. After Shonita Donata had driven the Thylacines to extinction and came dangerously close to wiping out the Tasmanian Devils, their family became infamous, which encouraged her descendants to discontinue her line of work. Donita had brought back that family tradition, and when informed by one of her relatives the very dark history of their family, it had only re-inforced her desire to turn animals into art.

She used ancestry DNA to track down Shabio's descendants to have as her assistant and bodyguard. She eventually found Dabio, who was a member of the mafia (keep in mind, this guy beat up Zach on Donita's command for not returning a loan). She traded a lot of hush money in exchange for them turning him over to her.

She knows a lot of shady people and knows exactly what to say and do to make them do her bidding in order to keep them quiet. This was how she got someone to pay to create the pose-beam, install the vacuum on her jet, and eventually her attack manequins. She also had Zach tweak up her tech for safety (this was after the events of Weird Looking Walrus).

Only rarely does she ever kill her targets. She attempted to skin a leopard once for its fur. However, not only did that get her on the Kratts' radar, it also attracted the attention of a very angry mob. After barely making it out in one piece, Donita decided to simply paralyze the animals and stylize them in a manner that would be fitting for clothing.

Is a lesbian. She's under the assumption Zach is crushing on her (again, it's verrry compulsory on his end) and she turns him down. They get along much better when Zach starts backing off.

Has actually gotten away with selling animals as jewlery (R.I.P. that one frog from Episode 5). Has also gotten bailed out of jail by Zach, Gourmand, and Paisley.

She unofficially gets into a relationship with Paisley Paver. They definitely HAVE plotted together (which we SO should've gotten an episode on!) in the past. Following the events of Season 7, Donita gets less and less notifcations from Paisley, confusing her a lot, and she eventually has no choice but to consider herself dumped. When she ultimately does find out what happened, let's just say that she is the most thirsty for revenge.

Gaston Gourmand

His surname is actually Gourmand. His family being chefs was a coincidence.

Is in his early 40’s (let’s go with 41).

Being a chef ran in the family. However, using endangered species wasn’t. Gaston was informed from a young age of how his ancestor, Gideon Gourmand was responsible for the downfall of the dodo bird, and how since then, the family has dedicated their lives to ethical cooking.

Gourmand went to culinary school. Much like Donita, jealousy played a role in his downfall, as he went to very unethical means to try and outdo those who he wrongly believed had ‘stolen the spotlight’ from them. He started to disregard what he knew about his family history, and secretly use unauthorized animals in his recipies. He got away with this for over a year, until the Kratt Brothers saw him capture endangered condors. Fortunately, they managed to report him to the authorities, where he was exposed for cooking endangered animals, and he was eventually thrown out of school. He swore vengeance on the Kratts since there.

He was cut disowned by his entire family after the fact. By that point, he couldn’t care less. Except for the fact that he was pretty much left with nothing.

When he attended the Finding Your Inner Villain Seminar, that was his rise to fame, as his endangered mushroom salad sold him enough money to purchase a jet, a jet pack, and a dough ball blaster. Zach Varmitech sponsored him, largely to mooch off of his work, but in the end, it helped him get a lot of materials that made it possible for him to hunt endangered species.

Apart from Zach, he’s the glue that holds the villain group together. He mediates an argument as well as he knows how to start one. And he uses food to get on their good sides. Off-screen, he’s partnered with and sponsored Donita and Paisley’s endeavors.

Gourmand’s “side-dish” comment towards Chris was just a very dark joke. Whilst I definitely see where the cannibalism headcanons come from and whilst I don’t disagree with them, I think it’s more in character for him to be enough of a jerk to even joke about it.

Nostril was the Gourmand family pet. In between Seasons 6 and 7, something happened that resulted in them losing custody of Nostril and him falling into Gourmand’s custody.

The reason that Gourmand has been mostly absent throughout Season 7 after the season premiere is because he’s currently trying to find out what happened to Paisley after she mysteriously went dark. Although Zach denies any knowledge, and whilst Donita is up a creek without a paddle, Gourmand suspects something deeper happening, and has gone on a quest in search of her, dropping a lot of his recipe-related schemes in order to find out what happened. She manages to evade him, but out of all the 3 villains, he is the closest to finding out that she went rouge, and is the most likely the one to expose Paisley to the other villains.

Aviva Corcovado

Went to elementary, middle school, and high school with the Kratts and Zach. Befriended Koki and Jimmy Z. in college and introduced them to the Kratts after the fact.

Used to be friends with Zach. Went south. BADLY.

Is Jewish on her father’s side, and Latin American on her mother’s side. Was born in Costa Rica and moved to the U.S. when she was 5.

She’s bi and polyamorous. She and Koki are mutually attracted to each other but they don’t exactly put a label on it. The same applies to Aviva and Paisley post-redemption.

She’s a diagnosed autistic. Her special interest was animals, but especially turtles. Suddenly the design of the HQ makes a lot more sense.

She is 22 years old. Fresh out of college.

Invented a Creature Power Suit for Jimmy sometime in between the events of Seasons 4 and 5 (this was also when she invented Koki’s CPS, which was fully functional in the Season 5 premiere). She kept Jimmy’s CPS in private because she knew he didn’t want one and because he was perfectly effective in the fields without it, and kept it as a failsafe if all else went wrong.

Aviva installed a security system on the Creature Power Discs and the Suits, to where Zach cannot use them, (which only furthers why Zach doesn’t try to activate Creature Powers). When Zach discovers the flaw in Aviva’s design (ghost-programmings that are susceptible to be re-activated), Aviva actually manages to find a solution to that bug in no time. She just holds back from fixing it, mainly to give Zach the illusion of advantage. That way, when she actually installs the Ring Chip 2.0 into the suits, Zach will be humiliated (she does a li’l bit of trolling like that).

Koki

Her full name is Koki Rock (this was based on the headcanon that she shared the same last name as her original voice actor Heather Bambrick before she was recast).

She’s Zambian on her mother’s side (just like me fr) and Puerto Rican on her father’s side. She’s named after the coqui frog, and was born in the U.S.

She went to the same college as Aviva. She was a technology major and the two just clicked together.

Had a summer romance with Jimmy Z, but they eventually broke off and decided to remain friends.

Grew up in a family of 5 siblings. She was the youngest and was often overlooked which caused her to overcompensate to get what she wanted, a habit that she soon unlearns with some months of therapy.

Undiagnosed autistic.

Had a bad experience with bats when one accidentally crashed into her house and touched her. She went over to the hospital for a check-up and the doctors found out that the bat was rabid and was able to cure both her and the bat before any symptoms started showing up. That’s largely what inspired her hatred and fear of bats.

Jimmy Z.

HC adopted from Atarah Derek on Tumblr and the fandom wiki. He’s of Polish descent, with the Z. standing for Zuraw.

He was raised by his grandmother, who he often calls “mom” just by instinct.

Was a man of many hobbies. Cooking, gaming, and piloting. He genuinely could not choose between the three.

Is trans (FtM). Only his closest friends are aware of that (this eventually includes the WK crew).

Undiagnosed autistic, but strongly suspects that he is.

Aviva held applications to pilot the Tortuga. Jimmy Z. instantly won her over because he was skilled.

Jimmy often teaches Aviva and Koki how to man the teleporter in certain situations where he’s absent. However, there are some things he neglects to teach, simply because he’s become so accustomed to it that he can’t find the right way to put the entire process into words. This is why both Aviva and Koki’s teleportations fluctuate between precise and far off.

Jimmy does have a Creature Power Suit but he has no idea. Aviva invented it in private as a failsafe. Jimmy’s proven himself to be an effective member of the team without a CPS and he’s content with it.

I’ve seen one HC from a mutual friend of mine on Tumblr that said that Jimmy Z. was the one who actually created the flash games (Go Cheetah Go, Habitat Rescue, Flower Flier, ect.) in-universe for the Wild Kratts Kids to play; not only is it way easier to make the flash games co-exist with the series proper, but it’s far too in-character for Jimmy to NOT be SS+ HC material so -

Paisley Paver

She’s 26 years old. She may or may not be attracted to Aviva post-redemption (let me have this one).

Much like Zach, she was a nepo baby who came from a long line of notorious capitalists who were always one dollar out of the big house.

Paisley had many siblings, none of whom she was close with.

Paisley’s inheritance of Pave Nature Incorporated was pretty much the plot of Succession, where she had to impress her snobby parents that she was worthy of running the family business. She surprisingly won fair and square, but her siblings accused her of cheating and essentially disowned her.

She went to the Finding Your Inner Villain Seminar. Whilst she didn’t interact with Zach, Donita, or Gourmand personally, she simply overheard them speak about the Wild Kratts, hence her offhand comment in her debut episode.

She and Zach Varmitech are second cousins. Zach reaches out to her with this information and this is partly what convinces her to join the ViVs.

This is a headcanon largely stolen from Athena P’s analysis video from 6 months back; Paisley soon sees how inept Zach’s schemes are and how much of a waste of money they are. So she decides to cheat the system by constantly charging/billing him every time he fails (the Halloween special was not the first/only instance of this). In the scenario where they got what they wanted, cool. In the scenario where they failed, Paisley could walk away with a shred of her dignity and some cash.

The in-universe reason why we don’t see her that often in the series [pre-Season 7] is because she actually does a very good job at staying under the Kratts’ radar and paving several habitats. Post-Season 7, she finds the time to undo that damage.

Has plotted with Gourmand and Donita individually off-screen. Got into a HO-YAY with Donita, but ultimately ghosted her after her Heel-Face-Turn. She saw the most potential in Donita, and thus knew that she’d be the biggest threat to her if her betrayal was ever revealed.

Zach and Paisley’s plans to destroy the Madagascar beach was meant to be a project that would’ve reunited the Varmitech and Paver families as well as their businesses. Obviously that did not go well.

Zach forced Paisey to fire Rex, believing him to be a liability (because he gets along with others just as well as water gets along with gasoline). Paisley had no choice but to let Rex go. She regrets it.

There are two in-universe reasons that we don’t see Paisley post-redemption. 1) she was busy legally changing her surname to Paver (yes, I know the end-credits had it as a nickname but I reject them lol) - 2) she was on the run. Not from the authorities, but from Gourmand. He was the only villain in Zach’s circle who realized something was amiss when Paisley went dark and started to track her down. Paisley fortunately managed to evade him at every turn and keep him from finding her out. However, she soon realizes that if she keeps Gourmand guessing, he won’t be able to capture animals or help the other villains. So she pretty much becomes a decoy. She doesn’t go after Rex out of fear that he’ll be dragged into the mess she put herself into, and out of fear that he won’t forgive her for firing him.

Her absence unfortunately leaves a power vacuum for Pave Nature Incorporated. Her siblings realize this and decide to take it over, hiring Rex.

Rex

He was a construction worker looking for a job. Found Paisley. Got that job.

He got along well with Dabio. I don’t exactly know if I ship them or not but it’s a crime that we never saw them interact.

When Paisley was inducted into the ViVs he tried to get along with them but they overall snubbed him. Zach in particular loathed Rex’s chipper attitude.

Was fired by Paisley as part of Paisley and Zach’s project to merge the Varmitech and Paver businesses back together. Rex became resentful towards Paisley, and eventually sulked out about until there was a change in position in Pave Nature Incorporated that allowed him to get his job back. Whether or not he remains a villain or eventually rejoins Paisley, I’m gonna wait until there’s a canon answer for that.

Dabio

He grew up in a mafia family. Dabio is his alias name, his real name no one actually knows. His bloodline runs back to post-Shabio (Shabio had gotten a lot of pushback for helping kill off the Thylacine population, so he went to America, joined the mafia, took control and was effectively un-touchable for centuries).

Dabio only acts dumb as a way to fool his enemies. He’s not particularly that intelligent, but he knows way more than he lets on.

Was assigned to Donita as her henchman/bodyguard, in exchange for his family getting enough money to escape the authorities.

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The Final Four Episodes of Season 7 Confirmed

On June 1st, 2025, at the start of this month, I made it to Wild Kratts Live for the first time. It was a truly breath-taking experience to see the Kratt Brothers in person in what was essentially a very well put together live-action remake of a Wild Kratts episode.

As per usual, at the end of the show, they announced the future episodes that they worked on. For this month's show, they confirmed that they were finishing up the final four episodes of the 20-episode season. Here is a bootleg clip of the announcement from when I was there.

Anyways, here is what to expect from the final batch of episodes for the 7th season.

The fish-eating loon. This was previously alluded to in other live-shows, but essentially we'll be getting an episode on the loon, a major predator to freshwater and saltwater fish, and likely a loon-inspired Creature Power Suit.

African leopards. This was also confirmed in previous live-shows, however, this is the first instance (to my knowledge) that confirms that the leopard episode we're getting is that of the African leopard, mentioned several times with live-action footage in Season 1, and finally shown in animation in the Season 6 finale. More than definitely will we see a leopard-inspired suit to add to the roster of wildcat inspired Creature Power Suits.

Tree frogs. This animal was not previously mentioned in other WK live shows, but now we know the previously unmentioned animal whose feature episode will be included in the final batch. Martin confirms a Tree Frog Power Suit, so there is no doubt about it.

Armadillo. Another animal previously mentioned to have an episode. An interview with Martin reveals the plot for the armadillo episode, in which Zach challenges the Kratt Brothers to a bowling contest, whilst they're in their Armadillo Creature Power Suits.

Anyways, that's what we can expect. According to a current.org article, Season 7 will end in 2025, a two-year run for a 20-episode season of Wild Kratts as usual, so we can expect the Season 7 finale finale to air sometime this fall.

And now for your thoughts. Which episode are you excited for the most? Which Creature Power Suit are you excited for the most? Which animal are you excited to finally see in the spotlight? Which episode do you think is going to be the finale? And what do you hope to see in each episode?

Personally, I hope that the Tree frog episode brings back Rex. Tree frogs are endangered primarily because of habitat loss and logging. This could be a chance to finally show us what happened to Rex after Paisley's redemption and follow up on those loose threads by showing him threatening the tree frog habitat and either remaining a solo villain, or redeeming himself and getting back with Paisley to help her and the rest of the Kratts save, protect, and learn about tree frogs. Since this is going to be in the last batch of episodes for S7, I really hope they do this so that we can wrap up the Paisley/Rex story arc before the finale and establish a new status quo set in stone when Season 8 comes around (although I'm almost convinced that we won't see Paisley confront Zach, Donita, and Gourmand post-betrayal until Season 8, which I'm fine with).

I also hope the armadillo episode addressed the armadillo migration up north due to climate change, and how the one threat armadillos face in midwestern North America is cars on highway that endanger their species. It's been an ongoing thing happening in my town for the past 5 years that I think the show is very much in bound to tackle and shed light on.

But anyways, let's see what these new episodes have in store!

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Literally me. Every single time.

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“We’re in a fanfic drought” Tell the writers you like their work.

“All Tumblr ever does is write oneshots now” Tell the writers that you’d love to see them write longer things.

“Nobody updates their fics anymore” Tell the writers you love the fic and want to see more of it.

Tell the writers.

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Fanarts of favourite cartoon male villains to which I am oddly drawn to

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“Friends or Aunts is like my third or fourth favourite game show!”

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Hot-take imbound.

Descendants 4: The Rise of Red is a better movie than Descendants 3.

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Spoilers for the one of the new Phineas and Ferb episodes that dropped on Disney + yesterday (better safe than sorry)

If I had a nickel for every animated villain in a kids' show that kidnapped and tried to kill, cook, and eat a duck-billed platypus in some capacity, I'd have 2 nickels, which isn't a lot but it's weird that it happened twice, right?

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I see a lot of people say that Cristobal and Esteban are meant to be foils (cousins of Elena who ultimately betrayed the Castillo-Flores family to serve Shuriki).

Which IS undoubtedly true and is likely a large reason why Cristóbal was introduced, especially in the episode that killed off Shuriki.

I’ve also seen people say that Elena and Esteban are narrative foils. Again, this is also true, and the series itself explores that throughout the second half of the s how.

However I’d argue that Cristóbal and Elena are ultimately foils to one another a well.

Both Cristóbal and Elena

Were members of the royal family in the Castillo bloodline

Were traumatized by the outright murder of their parents (Shuriki killing Raul and Lucia in her invasion, and Cristóbal’s father dying in a shipwreck caused by Sirenas)

This is the important part: Both of them sought revenge against the person/people responsible for their parents’ loss to the point of endangering themselves and/or others. (Shuriki, Esteban, and arguably Victor in Elena’s case and the Sirenas in Cristóbal’s case).

This is where the similarities end and where the differences begin to shine that shows them as foils. Elena actually succeeds in killing Shuriki to both avenge her parents and save herself and her family/friends/kingdom. For all intents and purposes, Elena succeeded where Cristóbal didn’t, but there’s more to that. She forgives Victor and Esteban (granted that the time came and they earned her forgiveness) whilst Cristóbal still persecuted the Sirenas for crimes that they’ve stopped doing. There’s also how Elena and Cristóbal’s respective stories end.

Elena’s final test to become Queen wasn’t by killing Shuriki, capturing the Delgados, stopping Ash and Esteban’s team of villains, or the Four Shades of Awesome. It was by forgiving Esteban and learning from her past mistakes. This is what saves the Kingdom and allows her to be crowned Queen.

Cristóbal on the other hand, sold out his entire kingdom to Shuriki in exchange for gold after previously doing the same during Shuriki’s 41-year rule over Avalor. He didn’t learn from his mistakes, which is what got him imprisoned. And according to Craig Gerber, Cristóbal was actively deposed as the Duke of Nueva Vista.

They’re both two sides of the same coin. Which makes me even angrier at how much wasted potential Cristóbal was in the long run with his ONE appearance in the entire show. He SO could’ve appeared in Season 3, either as one of the final villains alongside Ash and Esteban, or make a cameo in an episode that ultimately highlights these parallels and gives Elena the push that ultimately winds with her forgiving Esteban.

[kaythefloppa]

🍎📚🌈

[kaythefloppa]

Wild Kratts Live - Experience & Thoughts

Just came back from Wild Kratts Live 2.0: Activate Creature Power today. After over a decade of YouTube bootlegs and being on the outside looking in, I managed to finally score a ticket to the live show in Saint Louis. The 9 month-wait was both very long and very short at the same time, but it’s was worth it in the end.

I managed to record a lot, and I do mean a LOT of the footage, but not only are the recordings not in the best quality, but there are too many of them, of too varying length to compress them all into this one post. So much like with the Mufasa: The Lion King live-blog here’s just an assortment of thoughts of mine. Below the cut

During the brief period before the show started and during the interval, there were a lot of slideshows containing creature facts and merch. During that slideshow, there was a bunch of background tracks from the main series playing which was cathartic as hell. This was the closest I’d ever get to actually hearing a few HQ tracks without isolating them. Again, I couldn’t record them because there was no way I could get it in perfect quality, one of those, you HAD to be there things.

There were a lot of kids at the show wearing WK shirts and vest, it was so sweet. One kid was even holding a plushie of Zooboomafoo (yes THAT Zooboomafoo). I obviously thought of that Adam Sandler meme (you probably know which one given this scenario I’m enlisting) but it was above all else, genuinely heartwarming seeing so many kids and their families coming to see this show. Even if I’m not in the show’s target audience anymore, it’s not lost to me just how well this show connects with kids. It makes it even more disheartening given how PBS is being defunded in the new presidency, because that’s over a decade and a half’s worth of this show’s progressive education and interaction at stake (that being said, hearing the news of PBS suing the Trump administration on the SAME weekend that WK live came out was nothing short of cathartic).

On a side-note, I noticed some teens my age who were also at the show. And someone from the other post mentioned it but I managed to meet @doink-boink there as well in person. We just so happened to go to the show happening in the same theater on the same weekend at the same time, and after communicating on our socials, we easily took advantage of that opportunity to see each other. It was amazing. We were both in awe at what we saw and somewhat processing the reality thereof. Utter joy. I was still trying to process the whole thing during the car ride home, but… yeah it happened. And I love it.

The basic story is that Chris and Martin want to activate their Creature Powers, especially Cheetah Powers in front of the audience, but loose their discs in the tall grass. So they miniaturize down to find them. But they have to use their Creature Powers to save their discs from the Zachbots, who were sent by Zach to find and destroy the discs. Sounds like a typical episode, but they make the most out of this seemingly basic premise to make it off-the-wall fun. The best I can describe WK live is like a live action remake of a WK episode, and ironically so much better than Disney or Dreamworks’ live-action remakes lmao. The Kratt Brothers jump out of the animation in their typical “What If?!” fashion and they act the hell out of their roles, if that’s not a sign of how much advantage they take of the work they’re dealing with, I don’t know what is.

There were a lot of moments in the show where animation from the series proper was recycled, but I didn’t mind. It honestly felt like I was watching a clip show, really enticing. At the same time, there were a lot of animation pieces designed specifically for the live show, such as the bits with the crew, the cutaways featuring Zach, the scene with the mini Kratt brothers returning to the Miniaturizer and the activation sequences.

Oh yeah THE ACTIVATION SEQUENCES. They are FUCKING AWESOME. They’re very lengthy and detailed, the meta explanation is to give the actors time to get into their physical IRL suits. But still, it is awesome. Seeing it in person was ethereal. The shots of the arms, legs, chest, and head transforming into the suit, the full background score, and the shading is everything I’ve wanted to see in a theatrical-esque Wild Kratts production. I hope they do something like this for the actual feature film!

Lots of funny moments in the show that genuinely made me laugh out loud. Martin getting chased by a bee that wants to steal his lollipop, Chris catching him in his Mantis Suit, Martin hiding in his boot, it was just funny as shit. The running gag where Zach bumps into the camera especially got me. Also everyone in the audience (largely kids) were booing Zach EVERY time he appeared, it was so hilarious.

Even in all of the silly fun stuff, they still manage to be educational about animals and tie it into the plot, both with and without callbacks to the series proper. It was just, nice. This is definitely something that I would’ve absolutely adored at the age of 9 when the live show originally came out. I’m 19 and I STILL find it charming.

There’s a lot in the live show that outright inspires elements in episodes of the series proper. During the activation sequences, there’s a spinner that points to the animal of which the suit is activating upon. This is shown in both S6 and S7. When the brothers collect and show their Creature Power Discs, there’s an animated slideshow of the brothers in their suits next to the animals, in a similar manner to that in the Halloween special (minus the actual disc). And of course, there’s a Creature Power Suit malfunction that connects the Kratt Brothers together in a rattlesnake body, not unlike their Cat-Dog Power Suit in the S6 finale. It’s the good shit.

One thing that confused me is where [in-universe] the Kratt Brothers were. Because they activate Praying Mantis, Rattlesnake, Hermit Crab, and Cheetah Powers, by touching those animals. Cheetahs, Mantis, and even Hermit Crabs do live in Africa, but Rattlesnakes only live in the Americas. I read they’re an invasive species in South Africa, but that still doesn’t add up. Probably thinking too much about this, am I?

I was screaming like a banshee every time the audience cheered, no regrets.

I also sang the theme song when it was playing, ALSO no regrets!

And now for the part where some of you are probably waiting for. For those who don’t know, at the end of each live show, the Kratt Brothers make announcements about episodes of Wild Kratts that are currently in production around the time of said show; The number of episodes they are making, the animals featuring in those episodes, and the Creature Power Suits that’ll appear. This was what I was arguably excited for the most, mainly because, according to animator Ryan Hopkins, and a current.org article, the ongoing 7th season of Wild Kratts is a 20-episode season that’ll conclude in 2025 bring the overall series to 178 episodes.

Anyways, at the end of the live show, Chris and Martin announced that they are currently finishing up four new episodes, including the Season 7 finale that’ll premiere on PBS Kids. The final four episodes of the season will feature the fish-eating loon, the African leopard, the tree frog, and the armadillo, with Creature Power Suits based on those respective animals. I was aware of the leopard, armadillo, and loon episode from bootlegs of previous shows, but the tree frog one surprised me. I recognized those animals from Go Diego Go, so seeing them in Wild Kratts will be really sweet. I hope it’s red-eyed.

Also, someone in the Discord server mentioned this, but the primary cause for endangerment to tree frogs is habitat loss via poaching. This could be a good way to bring Rex back after his absence from the double-episodes. Include him as a villain out to destroy the tree frogs’ habitat, only to have the Kratts and Paisley stop him, then give him actual closure, either have him remain a solo villain, or redeem himself and join Paisley. Once again, Paisley’s betrayal opens up a lot of loose ends and story potential (the two main factors being the fate of Rex, and the eventual face-off between Zach, Donita & Gourmand vs. Paisley). I’m hoping that the arc is wrapped up before the finale, in order to give time for a new ‘status quo’ with S8. Crossing my fingers!!

Also, Martin Kratt gave information in a previous interview surrounding the armadillo episode, in which Chris and Martin compete against Zach Varmitech in a bowling competition, using their Creature Power Suits. Which is already a funny premise. I anticipate this episode a lot because there’s a lot of interesting things about armadillos, the biggest and most relevant is how they’re migrating to midwestern North America due to climate change. They’re not considered an invasive species and can perfectly co-exist with the flora and fauna of their new environments, but their main threat is cars and vehicles, as many have been found dead on the road. I don’t fully expect them to dive that deep into it, but it wouldn’t surprise me if they touched upon that subject manner a bit, maybe in the live-action segments.

I know the whole “Wild Kratts fan/viewer-to-avid-online-furry-pipeline” joke is one that’s been repeated verbatim and is one of the top 5 popular online talking points when it comes to this show, both from ongoing viewers and from people who haven’t interacted with the show in years (and tbf, I don’t mind that joke much cause c’mon) - but the Creature Power Suits that the IRL brothers wear would make FANTASTIC cosplays. The day that they sell the toy Creature Power Vest and Suits in adult size is the day the earth SHAKES.

Two weeks ago, the VIP tickets for the May 28-June 1 tour were on giveaway. I obviously entered my name but didn’t get the email so I didn’t win the raffle. Sucks, but it was still fun.

CONCLUSION:

This shit was cash.

[kaythefloppa]

Gonna see Wild Kratts Live!