#Amphibia Analysis

[nextstop-fixationstation]

OK analysis time! Matt said that Marcy's affection towards Sasha was more surface level than Anne's, which was described as "complicated." People might assume that this means that Marcy's affection for Sasha wasn't deep, or that their relationship wasn't.

If we're being honest here they weren't presented as having depth to their relationship so much as having acts and services. They're on the level with each other and can interpret each other's needs for a plan but they are lacking somehow when it comes to each other's emotional needs. This is something Darcy touches upon when they say they might not have ever been friends at all, and might be a core conflict between Sasha and Marcy. It's also a good example of why Anne is the actual Heart of their friendship. She connects and makes their dynamic deeper. While Marcy is desperate to keep people together and hates being alone, she admits she lacks a core understanding of emotional intelligence and this is something she admires in Anne. Marcy treats herself as a tool and mostly makes friends by doing things for them and complimenting them. She's kind of the perfect POV character for a journal that gives lore specifically because she's very attentive to things like strengths and weaknesses and team synergy, but isn't necessarily attuned to emotional intelligence. She kind of blocks herself off from feeling certain things too keenly or doubting herself, and masks it using this peppy overachiever persona.

Maybe if Marcy were more emotionally self aware, she would have been even more openly hurt by how dismissive Sasha is of her interests (even though Sasha clearly does like nerdy things), or she would have noticed that her friends don't really care for RP (etc). But in the series what we see is a Marcy so afraid of being left alone that she'll hide every emotion and every hurt aside from what she thinks will make people stay - she delivers compliments, improves infrastructure, says all the right things to earn trust. She's a great twist antagonist! Admitting that her friends don't or can't reciprocate her interests or desires is important to her arc, because it serves as a lesson to her that friendship is more than just doing things together or doing things for each other. Marcy and the others aren't just tools in schemes and plans.

We hear from Anna that Sasha has difficulty knowing when to bring other people to the table, so for someone like Marcy who thinks that she needs to earn everything through acts/upgrades, it makes sense that their relationship remained very surface level. Neither of them pushes the other to see things differently, while Anne does. Anne can acknowledge where people hurt and hurt her, and can acknowledge that this doesn't mean they aren't friends or significant to each other. Anne notes the complexity! It's why she's so compelling.

So, Marcy acknowledging how hurt she is that her friends don't want to do what she wants is significant because she also says, "I believe in you." Love goes beyond the stuff we do for each other. There's a bit of faith, too. What she did isn't right either. Being hurt isn't an excuse.

Darcy isn't just "evil Marcy," the Core is also every temptation for Marcy. Escapism, distraction, perfect friends who go on quests with her whenever she wants. There's a darkness to this kind of insecure attachment that Darcy reveals. Fear of inadequacy and irrelevance. Fear of loss. Fear of change. Fear of what is deeper than skin deep. Maybe my friends will forget me if I move. Maybe I'm just their nerd, just like Sasha's just cool. So their relationship isn't surface level to us, because this nuance is communicated to us through the subtleties of the show's execution. It's a really well acted, well boarded, well written show with fantastic music! It's really amazing!

Sasharcy IS very complicated! But it's complicated because they never dig deeper with each other until it's too late. It's also why it's significant that Sasha is the one to ask, "Can we save this friendship?"

Why is friendship with Marcy so easy? Is it because they got along and there's mutuality here, or is it because they didn't let themselves get any deeper than what was easy? It's so easy for them to just be the controller and the executor.

Forgiveness is hard. Forgiveness takes time. It takes a lot of thought, discussion, and work. Friendship in the long term, deep enough to mean something and hurt when it's gone, is similar. It's not just sentimentality and acts of appeasement.

aaaaand that's what i think matt meant when he was like "marcy's affection for sasha was kind of surface level"! I will admit I was like noooo Matt noooo don't say it was surface level whyyyy but like i had time to think abt it so i'm fine now lol lmk ur thoughts💙

smth i didn't add to my original tweet thread is that i DO find it interesting that marcy appears to specifically empathize with the experience of lonely people who grow up a certain way or doing things a certain way to protect themselves from loneliness. she seems to have an intuitive understanding of people fitting into groups via niches, but is drawn to people who already seem like outcasts as opposed to being able to identify it when someone is surrounded by people they seem to easily connect with. Marcy has this fundamentally insecure and lonely viewpoint that makes her very interesting to read and analyze, and I suspect it also contributes to her popularity. I mean, clearly *I* love her

[owlphibiaisthebest15]

Hi guys! I want to talk about a minor problem I have with Amphibia and how they could've been done better. I will not be talking about any of the big problems that people have already complained about, like Sasha and Marcy's lack of screentime, their character arcs, parents, nobody talking about Marcy after "True Colors", yada yada yada, because we don't need another post like that, and I want to keep this overdue rant as short as possible. This is based on my personal opinions along with a few others, but feel free to disagree with me if you want. But with further, let us begin...

Anne almost always gets way too easily forgiven for f*cking up.

Okay! This one may be a hot take because I have never seen another person complain about this. But this has been eating me away for MONTHS, and if no one else is going to say it, then I will. While this occasionally extends to some other characters depending on the episode. The one I want to talk about most is Anne. Now, at the start of the series, Anne was pretty much a jerk with a heart of gold. She was selfish, bratty, lazy, and irresponsible, but she did learn from the mistakes that she made and became a true hero by the end of the series. While some of these flaws and mistakes are not worth talking about, there are still others that are actually worse than what the show's narrative portrays them to be.

They may not be as bad as leading a toad army to invade the capital city, burying the only thing that could get Anne home, or sending your friends to another world on purpose. Anne has still made some pretty questionable decisions, even to the point where they often cross the line.

Here's a list of some of the worst things Anne Boonchuy has ever done from Season 1 and 2:

Breaking Hop Pop's favorite cane that also happens to be a keepsake of his father and grandfather all while making fun of him.

Manipulating Sprig into taking Bessie the family Snail on a Joyride without reading. Which is like someone taking a car out for a spin without a driver's permit.

Forcing Sprig to marry Maddie despite his obvious discomfort for Pizza Dough and later forces him to date Ivy while he's still engaged to Maddie.

Faking being sick to get out of farm duty, which led the Plantars getting sick themselves and even thought they were all going to die from red leg.

Slacking off while she was supposed to be protecting the frozen townsfolk, while aware of what happens to one of them while they're frozen. Which, of course, led to Polly almost getting eaten by a giant weasel.

Causes massive property damage with Polly while on the streets of Newtopia, and later breaks into Newtopia University in hopes of finding a rad college party. The second one was Polly's idea, but Anne had no problem going along with it.

A team effort along with her frog family. Sending a giant chicken to attack Wartwood. Which BTW can create tornadoes, breathe fire, and even turned their loved ones into stone, all because they forgot to buy everyone gifts. Sure, Anne was against the idea, but she still went along with it.

What do characters usually respond with when Anne admits her mess ups?! "It's okay! You're good! What you did was serious, but it doesn't matter that we almost died, as long as you learned your lesson."

Though Anne still at least got a lot better, as the worst things she's done in Season 3 were covering up some major plot points from her parents, robbing a museum to get a clue on how to find a way back to Amphibia, and tricking Blair the Balloonist into flying a hot air balloon. Though, the first one is still a little f*cked up, but she did have selfless reasons for doing these, and she came clean for 2/3 of these.

But still, 90% of this show is just a lighthearted slice of life cartoon, but when it shifts to its dark story driven and plot twisting side, this is where the narrative (and by some extent Anne herself) gets pretty hypocritical. It's pretty much when Anne messes up and lies to other characters. It's a simple error in judgment. But when other main characters such as Sasha, Marcy, and even Hop Pop do the same to her, first they gotta face hell for it, and then they get their redemption arc.

Yes! They did do some serious sh*t, and Anne had a right to be mad at them. But it seems that other characters are just not allowed to even stay mad at Anne when she does pretty similar sh*t. I mean, yes, she does try to make up for it, and yes, she admits what she's done most of the time, and eventually, she does become a better person from them. But so have Hop Pop, Sasha, and Marcy. But again, they didn't get the protagonists treatment. They got hurt and thrown around like ragdolls because of one or two big mistakes, and even that wasn't enough.

While Anne sometimes faces some consequences for her actions, like breaking Hop Pop's heirloom cane with HP giving her dish duty for a month (Cmon man! You should've given her way more than that!), gets banned from an arcade because she threatened to eat newt kids for cutting in line (which is not important), and most importantly, gets stranded in Amphibia after being peer pressured by her friends to shoplift it, all on her 13th birthday. Which I guess was enough for karma itself to feel so bad for her that she will hardly ever worry about facing any lasting consequences for her misdeeds ever again. While karma beats the cr*p out of others who would dare lie and betray our precious protagonists, even when they have sympathetic reasons for doing so.

Speaking of, this leads to me to clarify something that some fans have misinterpreted since the beginning of the series. The flashback scene in the second episode, "Best Fronds," was intended to show where Anne's distorted views on friendship and some of her toxic traits come from. Not to justify every single bad decision Anne has ever made, like what some fans think.

While I'm not gonna say that Anne was just as bad as Sasha before Amphibia, as it does show that Anne had her own personal flaws that she had to get through without depending on her friends. Who were more enabling her flaws than causing them.

However, while the show does try to show that Anne wasn't exactly much better in their friend dynamic than they were. For the reasons I mentioned earlier, it instead paints Anne as the least toxic one or not being toxic at all. With them only making a handful of moments that show that even after their betrayals, Anne still isn't much better than them. But the usual wacky slice of life narrative in her character development episodes downplays the severity of her actions, with Anne only just getting an emotional lesson after nearly getting everyone killed, and some of the said lessons being brought up in a few episodes to test her character or as examples to show others how much she has grown.

Now, I'm going to do some comparisons between Amphibia and The Owl House. While there are several things that Amphibia did better than TOH and about an equal amount of things TOH did better than Amphibia. One of those things that The Owl House did better than Amphibia was the writers treating each and every character fairly. The characters make mistakes and learn from them without the narrative downplaying the seriousness of their mistakes, and it isn't always "Okay! You're forgiven! What you did was serious, but it doesn't matter that we almost died. You learned your lesson, and that's what matters." While it doesn't give other characters the short end of the forgiveness stick for doing similar sh*t. With that, it also makes the character arcs a little bit better, in my opinion.

However, I'm not saying that Anne's character development was bad or that Matt Braly is treating Anne like how some see Alex Hirsch did with Mabel. The show did alright with changing a bratty teenager with flawed views of friendship into a true and selfless hero. All of what I described seems to what TV Tropes would call "Protagonist Centered Morality," and if I'm being honest, but because of that reason, I don't find Anne to be the most appealing character to me. I'm sorry! I know that a lot of you love her, and she's the second most popular character in the show; with the first being Marcy (my favorite), but I don't even dislike her either. I just feel that the narrative could've done better in treating the characters more fairly, like how TOH did with their characters. I really want to like Anne more than I do now, but for what I described, it makes it kinda hard for me to.

That's it for my opinions on this. This was longer than I thought, so if you read it this far or read it at all. You either think that I have a point and should do more of this or my analysis stinks, and I should never speak my dumb mind again. I'll probably see how this goes either way. If anybody else here still cares about this show.

[foreverlookingatyou]

Marcy Wu, and Why Her Unfinished Character Arc Worked.

I'm gonna ramble a bit about our favorite newtopian ranger, marcy wu!!

so. I, like many others in the fandom, was a bit disappointed with how the show handled marcy's growth and character arc. it felt rushed.. incomplete, and overall messy. I felt that marcy's growth wasn't given the same attention and care that anne & sasha's growth was. coupled with the overall tragedy of marcy's character and role in the story, I was feeling extremely discontented with marcy's character.. until I realized that the show writers may have unintentionally made that the point of marcy's arc.

because LISTEN. out of all of them, marcy was the one who came away with the least positive things from amphibia. she didn't connect with her amphibian charges (she even admits it herself in the finale, and says that she wished she got to know them better), she was more focused on the technical and worldly aspects of amphibia, and while she did come into her own, she wasn't able to address and tackle her underlying core issues in the way that anne and sasha were. --

the two main themes of amphibia are learning to embrace change and letting go. and all the story arcs of the calamity trio showcase this in different ways (that's a discussion for another time, however). of these two themes, marcy's arc leans more towards the letting go aspect. but here's the thing. that was her main problem. marcy's greatest fear is being alone, and her greatest flaw is her inability to let go. marcy couldn't FATHOM a world without anne and sasha. they were her biggest support system, and by moving, marcy was essentially stranded. she had a hard time connecting with people, and she didn't have the social skills that anne and sasha did. so to her, moving was the absolute WORST thing that could have happened. she was unable to live in a world without anne and sasha, and so she didn't. she chose to take matters into her own hands, and as long as she was able to get anne and sasha on board, everything would be fine, right? wrong. we obviously saw how catastrophic that was, both for marcy and everyone around her. it was beat into marcy's head repeatedly how reckless and stupid and downright fatal her mistake could have been, how fatal it was. marcy's biggest lesson in amphibia was that there are some things you will have to let go of. no matter how desperately you latch onto them, there will always be claw marks left behind.

--

my point however, is that this was marcy's only major flaw. marcy was a flawed character, deeply flawed in some ways, but from what I observed, she was never flawed in the way anne and sasha were. outside of her major flaw.. marcy was a pretty well rounded person. and of course, there is growth to be left desired, but most of marcy's (visible) flaws were communication, and the ability to make yourself be truly seen in a friendship.. and they aren't really even flaws. more just things she needs to work on.

unlike anne, she didn't have self-esteem issues. she was pretty confident in her abilities and her interests, as shown by the first temple. surrounded by the right people (which at the time, were unfortunately not anne and sasha), she would've flourished. and in amphibia, she did. because for once, she was allowed to be the person she truly wanted to be. and unlike sasha, she didn't have horrendous control issues. anne and sasha's flaws are what I like to call character flaws, flaws that are innate and come from you; ie, they aren't as a result of other people's actions. anne and sasha were allowed to address and properly correct their character flaws because amphibia (and the places they landed in) was the perfect environment for them to see their flaws and to see the consequences that came with them. sasha learned that trying to control everyone and everything around you will only drive them away, and end up destroying both them and you in the process. her strength came from lifting people up, allowing them to rise WITH her instead of pushing them down like she used to. anne learned that self love is important, and in order to become the best version of yourself, you need to surround yourself with love, and in turn, it will come back to you. anne's heart comes from the people around her. their love allowed her to give love tenfold-- both to herself and the people around her. their major flaws only got resolved because of amphibia.

but marcy? her main flaw, which is letting go? that could not be resolved in amphibia, no. because amphibia only amplified this flaw. because choosing to go to amphibia, making the conscious decision to run away, is the entire reason why this flaw is most prominent. marcy flourished in amphibia, yes, but she was never able to address her major flaw. because of a multitude of different reasons, of course, but also because to marcy, amphibia was another out. another way to run from her problems instead of facing them head on and dealing with the fallout. anne dealt with the fallout. she stood up to sasha, for ONCE in her life, and watched her plummet down a cliff in return. (this is a weak point, but for the sake of parallels, I can't take it out.) sasha dealt with the fallout. she betrayed anne, once, twice, and was forced to go back to wartwood, anne's town, with the knowledge that she and anne are no longer friends, no longer anything. marcy's way of dealing with the fallout.. was not the core. to many, the core may be a physical personification of all of marcy's flaws coming back to bite her in the behind, but I disagree. the core was a cruel, merciless, and downright horrible way for marcy to learn her lesson, yes, but the core was not the fallout. the fallout, that showed marcy the consequences of her major flaw, was in true colors. was in the throne room. was in watching anne and sasha's faces twist into horror and disgust, respectively. the fallout was in living with the fact that everything she did was for nothing, and that she still had to live in a world without anne and sasha, that in her mind, they now hated her. that was when marcy hit rock bottom. and when you hit rock bottom, you have nowhere to go but up, right?

--

marcy did atone. in the core, in the face of everything she could have ever wanted being handed to her on a silver platter, she said no. she swatted aldrich’s hand, and said that for once in my life, I'm not going to run away. I'm going to face this head on. and why did she do that, pray tell? because of anne and sasha. because everything that marcy wu did depended on anne and sasha. because in her mind, even if they hated her, she'd rather face their potential wrath instead of accepting a reality without them. the real them. it's natural, of course. her major flaw was not of just letting go. it was letting go of anne and sasha.

--

and so, the reason why marcy wu's major flaw could never be resolved in amphibia, is because amphibia is a personification of marcy wu's major flaw. sure, she had good moments, and things about it she will always cherish and remember (and less good things that she’ll always remember), but marcy wu could not start getting better, could not start healing, until after she left amphibia. going through that portal meant many things, for all of them, but for marcy, I think it represented her final act of truly letting go. of letting go of her escapism, and her tendency to run away. of letting go of the old version of her, who came to amphibia with the intent of being with anne and sasha forever. going through that portal also symbolizes the end of that version of their friendship, the version that marcy kept chasing after. and I think that’s one of the many reasons why the only way to close off marcy’s journey, at least from our point, is by having her move. the move, and how marcy dealt with it, was what started this entire, crazy journey. and by choosing to have marcy move at the end of the series, even after everything that happened, is a brilliant move from the show’s writers. because it shows that marcy truly did learn from her time in amphibia. she HAS accepted and is taking the steps to overcome her major flaw, and I think more than anything, that is proof of the growth that marcy is capable of. marcy acknowledges that anne and sasha changed, yes, but through her actions and words, she also acknowledges that she changed as well. going through the portal, going back to earth, facing everything is a symbol of marcy's growth. because the marcy we were introduced to would have never done that.

--

going to amphibia changed all three of them. and even though we only get to see anne and sasha’s growth, marcy’s growth is SO poignant as well. I think it was for the best to leave marcy’s arc unfinished, because it shows that she still has a lot to learn and a LOT of healing to undergo. marcy���s final arc in the show has drawn to a close. but her character has not. and the amount of opportunities, possibilities, lessons, friendships, love, and more, are limitless. I also think it's poignant that we're left with a sort of open ended interpretation as to what happened to marcy after she moved. as for her friendship with the girls, I have many thoughts on that, but that’s also a discussion for another time. I think I’ll close it off by saying that moving was good for marcy in a different way as well: it allowed the calamity trio to truly come into their own. their reconciliation with marcy in all in was proof that they want to give their friendship another try, and that they are better off in each other’s lives. but showing that they drifted apart, came back together, and redefined their friendship on their own terms is beautiful. I think even without amphibia, they eventually would have to come apart. not forever of course, but long enough to carve out their own paths and figure out what they want to do with their lives. I know the fandom loves the idea of them being codependent messes together (it’s also a guilty pleasure for me lol) but I LOVE the fact that in canon, they allowed their childhood friendship to morph into something new, something better. in the wise words of anne boonchuy, change can be difficult, but it’s how we grow. but of the things you let go, you’d be surprised what makes its way back to you.

not to get all sappy, but out of all of them, I think I’m the proudest of marcy. and I relate to her a lot! so writing this was extra personal :,)

[agalychnisspranneusroseus]

do u thoughts on the olms having some core looking imagery bc this has plagued me for YEARS. why does that one olm have a fuckinh core eye necklace

I had to look it up because I couldn't remember but, do you mean Parisia??

I'm not sure of it's meant to be a core eye but if it IS and if it's related to the paintings on Mother Olm's wall... all I can come up with is that someone, maybe Leif, was able to actually see into the future with the box (another thing that I don't know where to begin to explain) to even have a visual image of what these future events would look like (how did they even know the appearance of these prophesized heros?)

Like they got them down to a T 😭

There's also the same mural over and over again, both in the First Temple and in Mother Olm's chambers. The fact that most depictions are carved and not painted leads me to believe the olms might have made them.

The temples in general have a lot of olm imagery, but if the olms believe the power of the gems rightfully belong to its users and that taking it from them constitutes stealing (something that would allow for use of the box), then the olms didn't create them. Valeriana created the box, but her order didn't invent the mechanism through which power was extracted from the gems (the temples). We know that because she says her order studied them. Now that I think about it, could it be that the olms DID build the temples precisely to prevent people using their power before Valeriana came up with an artificial way to do so? In that case the olms only saw the calamity trio as the legitimate users of the stones, which would make sense if they know the prophecy can only be fulfilled by three foreigners (morrowind reference! /jk). If that's the case, and if we take into account the prophecy is older than the temples, then they might have been built in order to facilitate the prophecy. The temples themselves make no sense though so don't get me started on those 😭😭😭

I'm sorry I'm rambling about olm imagery but I felt the need to think about it before even beginning to tacke Parisia having a fucking core eye necklace 😭 what does she even need a necklace for?? She's fucking blind 😭😭😭 everyone is blind. No one is ever gonna see her necklace. Anyway I couldn't find any other instance of core imagery so... I can only imagine Parisia represents the worst of the olms, seeing how the prophecy is, supposedly, about the calamity trio saving amphibians from becoming the worst version of themselves. The olms clearly have SOME idea of what this great evil looks like, given the mural. It's possible Parisia wears the necklace as some sort of remider of what's out there.

Okay so I know I already shared some useless lore musings with you that you did not ask for BUT. I HAVE MORE. Now check out this fucking insane mother olm concept art. I know it's extremely cursed but it's soooo interesting to me

Like there are many concepts they ended up not going with obviously (Mother Olm as the LITERAL mother of olms, Mother Olm as a prisoner...) but I thought you'd find interesting that little but up there about rejuvenating goo 👀 another interesting Olms - Core - Leviathans connection, if they all know about this thing and seemingly use it to prolong their lifespans. Who discovered it first? Is it a common substance in Amphibia? Clearly it comes with a cost. I just find the idea that whatever kept Marcy alive is what keeps Mother Olm alive fascinating.

[mdhwrites]

It's actually really annoying when people trash Amphibia for "filler" and some little screw ups that don't matter, but at the same time praise TOH

So the fascinating thing here is... What the fuck counts as filler in Amphibia?

This isn't actually to say there isn't filler mind you, it's just that it's kind of dealer's choice what is and isn't. But let's back up a second so I can explain. I did a blog about how looking back, VERY little of The Owl House ISN'T filler. This was going by the definition that most people CLAIM to be using with Filler where anything that doesn't directly progress the story or main themes is unnecessary and thus filler. So that's the definition I'm going with for Amphibia.

And also as a reminder from that: Filler is Flavor. I consider filler to be a genuinely good thing in moderation to a piece of media. That flavor after all can make a lot of moments stronger than they would be without the extra time and characterization. With Amphibia... Oh dear god that extra time and characterization pays off BIG. S2 alone calls back to parts of S1 at least three times to really sell big moments within it...

Big moments that are also in support of the themes of Amphibia. Not only that but Anne growing as a person is required for the sake of the overall story. Even in S1, her growth is important so as to have not had her come back under Sasha's sway and her and Sasha's relationship is directly addressing how change can sometimes can be necessary, despite being painful. It's important both to the themes and overall plot. In fact, most of Anne's relationships are actively, at all times, discussing the effects community, family and change on someone.

This is what makes it effectively Dealer's Choice when it comes to Amphibia's filler because most segments, not even full episodes, can have some argument as being important to building on themes and relationships of the show which directly alter the decisions characters will make long term and so are necessary. If you think everything with the frogs is filler, you do not have the justification for Reunion. For that matter, you don't have the justification for the Aquarium trip or for True Colors because the questioning and rejection of Marcy and Sasha respectively NEEDS that further context because Anne in episode 1 doesn't care about frogs and cares more about her friends. When Sasha says jump, she says how hi, hence why she was able to be convinced to steal.

As a personal example... I have the hot take that if you watch After the Rain, someone could tell you "Marcy charges the stone" and then you skip The First Temple. After the Rain gets across the change in how Anne and the Plantars view each other, because them genuinely being a found family is important, and addresses what's going on with the music box but actually charging the stone? It says little about Marcy's character, mostly just doing the same thing Marcy at the Gates did and while the expansion of Hop Pop and Anne's conflict is good, it's not technically necessary for anything and you'd get to skip what is, in my opinion, one of the weakest episodes of the show.

Amphibia's filler still doesn't allow for "It's not filler just because you don't care about it," though. I still would recommend watching both but only because I can claim the elements to be redundant can I claim The First Temple as able to be skipped. BUT it still expands so I'm not even strong on that argument because it is still directly addressing the themes. The other half of "After the Rain" with Sprivy and her Mom is talking about differing perspectives, something that connects with accepting others and community so while it's not about Anne, it could still be said to be important to the overall discussion of what is important to Amphibia... But someone might argue that other elements address it so you can skip it.

Amphibia is a complex beast like that. Not to say there is NO filler. They have a Halloween episode that can be pretty much skipped... But also why the fuck would you? That's to me the real sin of bad filler. It doesn't add flavor. However, when you do shit like a Gravity Falls crossover and just pack it full of as much fun as possible, I'm not going to CARE if it's important or not, I'm just going to enjoy it because it's entertaining and I'm theoretically here, watching a kid's comedy adventure to be entertained.

That's, to briefly mention it, part of my issue with a lot of The Owl House's filler. It's not fun and it's not enjoyable. The fandom skips or forgets a lot of episodes because why would you ever want to go back? But I never plan to skip the Halloween episode even if it's very doable to do so.

So to me, I think Amphibia A: is more serialized than people give it credit for, it just does it in a way that is more episodically friendly and B: even when it is doing filler, you don't mind because it's going full blast on fun because it's genuinely happy to be what it's doing. So... Screw complaining about it. And this is coming from someone who still looks at the structure of Amphibia and goes "You could probably have cut a third of this and still managed almost as good of a product."

But I wouldn't want them to. Not when it's such a blast spending time with these characters.

======+++++======

I have a public Discord for any and all who want to join!

I also have an Amazon page for all of my original works in various forms of character focused romances from cute, teenage romance to erotica series of my past. I have an Ao3 for my fanfiction projects as well if that catches your fancy instead. If you want to hang out with me, I stream from time to time and love to chat with chat.

And finally a Twitter you can follow too!

[sundit]

Drives me insane when Sasha’s like ‘omg u were living in a basement.? That’s so gross’ to Anne when sasha herself was chained up in a cell for more than a third of her time in Amphibia. And she just doesn’t mention it?? She acts like she’s been living luxuriously this whole time and Anne has no idea what she was going through and just hshshdhjaj

Why is she like thatttt

[rayinandthoughts]

OWL HOUSE AND AMPHIBIA FANS I GOT SOMETHING FOR YOU(LMK Season 5 spoilers)

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We got a main characther who sacfriced themselves and then met god

AND they got someone close to them (mentor, brother or friend) who got possesed by the big bad.

[problematicsashawaybright]

What kills me is that Sasha's overall decision in true colors wasn't impulsive. The third temple, the dinner, and the battle of the bands imply that the trio were together for at LEAST 3 days before they traveled to the castle. Sasha had time to think about it. She had at least 4 nights by herself after seeing Anne again (and Marcy for the first time) to think about it. She arranged everything and practiced everything in her head. I wonder how she was able to justify everything to herself during that time so consistently. She was with Anne and Marcy for days, they talked about their plans for going to the castle. She could no longer pretend that her plan of taking over the kingdom was in the distant future. This is why I really believe that Sasha not only lies to everyone else by default, but also to herself. She has the ability to feel guilt and empathy, but didn't see any problems with what she was about to do because she had lied so much that she internalized it and started to believe it herself. She thought she was doing the best thing. She thought she had a right to do it. In the throne room scene when she offers to let Anne and Marcy choose to stay or go, she legitimately thinks there's a possibility that after EVERYTHING, they're still going to choose to stay with her. Because in her mind, everything she did was acceptable and justifiable.

[whoistrash]

YES, YES, YES! I'VE BEEN SAYING THAT!!! The amphibia fandom literally praises the calamity trio in every possible way, while completely forgetting about the Plantars, especially Sprig! The, you know, SECOND MAIN CHARACTER. The only friend of Anne's that never stabbed her in the back! He literally takes her home as a complete stranger and shares his family, living space and everything he holds close with her, without hesitation! He then, eventually (rather shortly after) trusts her, loves her and actually acts like a friend. All the time, no matter what, he has her back. AND is the main reason she grown and changed as a person, while Marcy and Sasha, well, do the exact opposite for most of the time. They have their own issues (like, that's the point!), but it doesn't excuse the fact that the trio's relationship is, at times, a very, very toxic one. They learn to deal with it, they all grow, that's a part of the plot, c'mon, but hell, we shouldn't romanticize it that much.

God, let's give Sprig some attention, recognition and love. He deserves it. As a good person. As a loyal, supporting friend. As a genuinely fun, silly, little guy, who's been through a lot, and still faces everything with insane amounts of joy and optimism. As a great brother and grandson. He's my favorite character in Amphibia, and it not only hurts, but genuinely baffles me that he's so... forgotten. He has waaay more screentime than both Sasha and Marcy, and is the main factor in Anne's growth, the factor that Sasha and Marcy failed to be. He may be not an edgy teenage girl, but rather a pink 11-year-old frog, which can be less... i don't know, appealing(?), but it shouldn't matter. Damn. Literally, like, 75% of all fan-made content is for the calamity trio. Maybe more. Probably more. Amphibia doesn't end on them, you know.

I agree with you that sprig deserve more love in fanbase, One thing i don't like about amphibia fandom is that they seems to only care about calamity trio and ignore other major characters who are great in their own way, even sprig, the main reason why anne become better person, feels like ignored by most fans

Which is an unfortunate thing. The fans hype the Calamity Trio as this big thing in the series, and even the show does too, but the three of them...barely have any presence as a trio. The reason I cried more at Anne and Sprig separating is because we HAVE spent so much time with them and watched their adventures as a duo. They are, in a lot of ways, better or worse, the reason Amphibia is the show that it is. It needed Anne, Sasha, and Marcy, but the show wouldn't have succeeded without Anne and Sprig.

[poeticlark]

"Owl house is just deliberately subversive harry potter clone"

What are you talking about?

"The Dragon Prince is just an avatar clone"

What are you talking about?

"Catra's just an azula clone"

What are you talking about?

"Everything is just copying steven universe"

What are you talking about?

"Hunter is just zuko"

What are you talking about?

"Luz and Anne Bunchoy are just the same character"

What are you talking about?

You guys do a disservice to everything you like because you want to compare them by trying to fit them into incorrect quotes and alignment charts. You want to sort things into boxes and you think its analysis?

[knave-of-clubs]

Overthinking Amphibia Timeline estimates because I enjoy suffering

My usual disclaimer: I'm a relatively new Amphibia fan, so if I'm late to the party on this topic of discussion that's why–

Extra disclaimer: This whole thing is gonna be a list. I know it's weird, it's how it happened. C'est la vie.

We know Anne's 13th Birthday is the day the Trio gets zapped to Amphibia. No arguments there.

From what I've heard, there's a bit in Marcy's Journal where Marcy doodles her, Anne, and Sasha's zodiac signs above their heads or something, and this puts Anne's birthday somewhere between May 21 – June 20 (though the range could be June 20 – July 20 if Marcy is autistic enough about astrology /hj)

Less definitive date: the Plantars mention "a couple of months" until they can travel to Newtopia, and Anne (reasonably) translates that as 2 months. So a tentative 2 months after Anne's birthday is the start of the travel to Newtopia.

Using agalychnisspranneusroseus' solid estimates in this post there's also maybe a 1-2 month travel time to Newtopia

Marcy states in her introduction that Polly's legs are due in "2 months, give or take." Then they come in during True Colors, so that's 2 months in Newtopia

Matt Braly stated that Anne's return to Earth happens around late-Fall to early-Winter, which is supported by Anne's convo with Gabby in "Hop 'til you Drop" where it's said the Trio was missing for 5 months (would place them somewhere in the range of October to December depending on Anne's Birthday)

Then there's, of course, the Christmas special, which confirms that Anne and the Plantars were present on Earth for Christmas! Which puts us right about at the end of the year (or beginning of the next) when everyone's heading back to Amphibia (also this might be the episode that confirms the year 2019 for everything before this, because Matt confirmed the date)

(Now, I'll be honest, I have zero clue on how the fuck everything works from here on out)

Logically, with the amount of travelling the group does, I wanna put an absolute minimum of 1 month (maybe 2) spent in Amphibia the second time around

I can say for sure that we've somehow spent somewhere between 5-7 months in Amphibia by the end, though, because we reach Anne's 14th birthday at the start of Frog-vasion. How do I know this?

Because the epilogue states that it's the ten-year anniversary of Frog-vasion on the same day that Sasha and Marcy are meeting up with Anne on her birthday. Which makes it her 24th birthday, in 2030. Wild.

This is all super messy, and doesn't make a whole lot of sense, but it's the information we have so I dunno bro 🤷🏼

[sars-wulf]

Okay so I’ve seen some people going around saying Sasha Waybright is a jock…

No?

No she is not 😭

Despite being the avatar of the quality of strength, Anne is the jock compared to Sasha.

They literally go to a mini preparatory school (well it’s a catholic school, but close enough! I think one can assume it IS a preparatory school actually since normally public schools aren’t necessarily named after a saint. Orrrr it used to be a parochial (religious) school, and kept the name after transitioning to a public school… we don’t know the history but for my purposes I’m assuming SJMS is a parochial school.)

Prep is defined as someone who is wealthy, upper-middle class, and can be found anywhere. But this is an American subculture and this is an America centric post…(Rahhh!!! /silly)

They can be shallow, ignorant or rude to people not from their socioeconomic background, and display this behavior to anyone not in their in-group. They are also usually white as well.

Guess which human does this in the show?

They often exhibit traits of insecurity, which Sasha does show, as she is insecure in her friendship with Anne and Marcy, and is jealous of Sprig when he presents himself as Anne’s best friend. She also gets angry and possessive upon learning Marcy and Anne are working together.

Preps are often on the cheerleading team or football team depending on gender, and guess what! Sasha is a cheerleader.

Sasha is prep also because she presents herself as not really connecting much with her friends beyond controlling them (preps don’t really interact with other groups beyond their in group). So you could also say Sasha is prep because she didn’t try to interact with anyone outside of her trusted group until amphibia too.

Also Sasha would totally wear those fucking prep outfits. You know the ones.

It’s not just a style of dress, imo, it’s your actions too. When we see Sasha assert her superiority over Maggie, we notice that she has a habit of doing so. To Anne, to Marcy, and to others she doesn’t know. “End. Of. Discussion.”

Preps assert their financial superiority over others, and chances are, Sasha’s parents DO have fuck you money. How else does she get away with stuff so often that she’s built up a rebellious habit?

Now about Anne… she’s the jock. Plays sports, has one brain cell most of the time (in an endearing way, not a demeaning way. She’s actually pretty intelligent, so give her some credit! (Girl chose a HARD SCIENCE WTF)), she didn’t really have much interest in intellectual pursuits in the show and zoned out when Marcy said anything more complex.

However, despite people assuming athletics and academics to be mutually exclusive, they don’t have to be… Anne is just an air head! A herbo, if you will.

Anne is the type to go “want smoothies after, dude?”

Sasha goes “Ew, you want me to do that?!” (Which happened in mother olm so….)

Marcy, the nerd (I’m not explaining this, it’s self explanatory), will info dump about her newest creatures and caverns campaign.

Anyways, that’s my two cents!

Sasha Waybright is NOT the jock, she is the prep of the trio, and I will die on this hill /silly.

[whoistrash]

Yeah. That's one of the things that I don't really like about amphibia fandom - the constant glorification of Marcy (and Sasha) and their relationship/dynamics with Anne. I really, really like Marcy - Sasha's not really my cup of tea - but I also really, really, REALLY like the Plantars. The, well, main characters of the series. Amphibia is a story about two things - found family and finding your true self. Most of the time people keep forgetting about the first aspect.

Let's take Sprig - the SECOND main character, after Anne. He's literally the only person that NEVER stabbed Anne in the back while also calling themselves her friend. Marcy did that. Sasha did that. More than once. And Sprig? Sprig is loyal, brave and caring. He immediately likes Anne, convinces his family to take her (a stranger from another dimension!!!) in and befriends her. Treats her like a sister from the moment he realizes she's alright. From there, he always stands by her side - he's there when Sasha betrays Anne over and over. He's there when she's heartbroken. He's there when she decides to find Marcy and leaves everything behind, alongside his family, to help her achieve that. He's there when Anne fights Andreas, when she doesn't know who to trust anymore, when her best friends proven themselves to be dishonest and/or cruel. He's there when she's helping the rebellion and learning to trust Sasha again. He's there when she's ready to sacrifice her life.

Anne and Sprig's friendship is amazing. It's healthy, strong and beautiful. People tend to not notice it at all, always focusing on the calamity trio, when in reality that little, pink frog was Anne's best friend all along the series. Why don't people like him that much compared to Marcy or Sasha? Because he's silly? Reckless, even? Because he can be hyperactive, loud and rather intensive? Well, he's not an edgy teen girl, that's for sure.

Let's give Sprig the love and recognition he deserves.

Not including Anne, who, as the main character, is on both the Plantars' screentime and Sasha and Marcy's audience attention. This is accurate!

[heart-wit-strength]

Thinking of potential connection between Marcy describing the Core's weakness as "Fear" in THT vs in O&Y the Core projects her, Olivia and Yunan's worst fears against them, two of which (minus Yunan's fear of grubhogs) both Marcy and Olivia's fears were being either disowned and "not good enough" for their friends or mother after failing a purpose.

like a part of the Core obsesses excessively over fear and insecurity in general, and it's almost like it understands it too well, almost like insecurity is what really drives it

[karioke13]

Ok this scene in Amphibia True Colors lives in my mind rent free for a couple of reasons…

Spoilers for Amphibia below 👇

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First off, I love Anne’s reaction here. Not only is it extremely relatable, but it’s also incredibly tragic to watch Anne go through this. I swear Brenda Song did an incredible job voicing Anne. I especially love the raw delivery of the line when she says to Sasha “You’re a horrible person! And I am done being friends with you!” You can really feel the anger and the betrayal in her voice when she says this. You can even hear a little crack in her voice during that line, showing how heartbroken she is after realizing that she got tricked by someone she once called one of her best friend. She even sounds defeated in the end when she tells Marcy that they can’t fix their friendship anymore, almost like she’s give up on even trying to fix their once strong connection that they had together.

Now let’s talk about Sasha here in this scene specifically! Now Sasha, for me at least, has always been interesting yet difficult character to watch, as I myself have met people like her so I have first hand knowledge with people like Sasha. Like for one, after completely ruining the plan that Marcy and Anne set up to back home, Sasha completely turns it south and ruins the plan for them, which ends up costing Amphibia and its ruler. And yet while Marcy and Anne are still in shock of what just occurred, Sasha acts like everything that happened was simply no big deal (ha see what I did there?). She even casually mentions how they could either go back home or help decorate the place. Now you must be wondering “how could Sasha act so casual after betraying Anne and Marcy like that?” And there’s only one answer for her whole reasoning behind it: revenge. In previous episodes throughout season two, once Sasha figures out that Anne and Marcy are going on adventures without her, she’s starting to feel left out. And as we know, Sasha didn’t have the best childhood, due to her parents divorce early on in her life, and their attitude towards her is most likely the reason why Sasha turned out the way she did. All she wanted was to be cared about and payed attention to. This is what makes Sasha such a complicated yet fascinating character to watch, especially during this scene. We see something snap in her finally after Anne says that she’s done being friends with her. Like it hits her. She’s now realizing the consequences of her actions which caused her to lose one of the last people that believed and cared for her, finally hitting her that besides Grime, she has no one left.

Then there’s the importance of the music. I love the instrumental track that plays with the scene because it symbolizes the argument itself that Sasha and Anne have. For instance in the beginning, the music sounds a bit silly, like jokey music, but then it turns into more quiet music which represents Sasha’s belief that everything that just happened is not as bad as it seems, trying to hush up the fact that she just took over Amphibia and betrayed her friends with little to no remorse. But then something changes. And that something is Anne. Beforehand, Anne never really stuck up for herself against Sasha. She always was a doormat towards Sasha and even let her boss her around which would cause Anne to get in trouble. However, once Anne lands in Amphibia, she realizes her worth as a person and we see her grow into this confident, strong person who believes and herself and others. This new confidence she obtains allows her to decide that enough is enough with Sasha’s bullying towards her. And we see it loud and clear in this scene. As Anne’s emotions begin to grow, so does the music. It starts to get just a hint louder until the music stops when Sasha abruptly tries to cut Anne off and it almost feels like she’s cutting the music off too so that SHE can try to control the narrative. However, it’s Anne’s turn to take control and as she finally does so, the music once again grows louder and louder as Anne finally stands up against Sasha, knowing that she can no longer stand with a traitor, she once considered her ally.

Now those are just some of my thoughts and rambles I had because this is one of my favorite scenes of all time in Amphibia. I swear Matt Braly and his crew are such geniuses! Scenes like this truly make Amphibia one of the best cartoons ever made! 🙌🏼💯🔥

[amphibicronus]

I feel like Anne's smart but not genius-level, more like B-average to B-plus.

Plus, she's thirteen. At that age, most people would be coasting and not really thinking about their future.

Her family runs a restaurant and they seem at the very least well-off, so money isn't much of an issue.

One of her best friends is hella academic and the other makes the social choices for the three of them.

Makes sense that she knows enough to get by on most things and doesn't need to study too much, just enough to make her parents happy.

I don't get why people think Anne is dumb like 😭 I get she's silly and not cunning and manipulative like her friends but she did outsmart DARCY of all people, and I think luring the mantis with an avocado to stop the FBI was pretty smart. Like we're all comparing her to an actual gifted kid because she couldn't solve a few puzzles 😭