#and a quick review of amphibia

[ordinaryschmuck]

What I Thought About The Owl House Pilot

Huh. Never thought I’d get to do this again, but oh well.

Salutations, random people on the internet! I’m an Ordinary Schmuck! I write stories and reviews and draw comics and cartoons.

And, above all else, I LOVE talking about The Owl House. I have an entire masterpost dedicated to talking about every single episode of the show and I’m halfway through a six-part review discussing everything that I love about it (Part Four's coming when it’s done. Let’s say…late June. Early July at the latest). I figured that after I’d finished that whole deal, I wouldn’t have anything left to talk about when it came to this series. Then, out of nowhere, the show’s original pilot leaked online…Sort of. It’s just an animatic with the show’s original voice cast voicing MOST of the lines, but it’s very much the pilot episode. It’s just not a finished product and I won’t share a link because I don’t think it’s exactly…legal. BUT I will at least share my thoughts about it because, well…Look at my blog. The Owl House has become the BIG THING that I obsess over for a reason and I love that I got to see what’s basically an alternate version of the show that I love. What do I mean?

Well, a pilot is MUCH different from a first episode. Where the first episode is meant to sell the show to the audience, a pilot is meant to sell it to a STUDIO. It can happen at any point of the story or act as the show’s first episode. Just as long as it shows off the characters, concepts, and tone, a studio can look at it, greenlight it, and allow the show to continue, BUT with some extra notes. Sometimes, those notes can change the rest of the series where others can keep the pilot good enough to stay canon. Some best examples off the top of my head are the pilots for Regular Show and Rick and Morty. You can tell that not much changed from the pilots of those shows and what was initially pitched, but there are clear changes in tone, animation, and even personality. Skips sounds a little more illiterate and Benson being more informed of the consequences of something as simple as rock, paper, scissors in the Regular Show pilot and Rick is noticeably more reckless and unprepared for situations in the Rick and Morty pilot. Nothing is set in stone with a pilot episode, even the ones that are canon. For the case of The Owl House, it’s pilot is no exception. A lot of it is just the same as “A Lying Witch and A Warden” at least in terms of plot and themes, but there are so many changes that show off what the series COULD HAVE been instead of what it was. How different? Well, let’s go through it all.

But real quick, I’m not going to do the “Like/Dislike” format I’ve done for previous reviews. Instead, I’m going to look through this pilot, note the changes it has, and share my thoughts on them. There’s also going to be a few spoilers to what happens in this pilot, so if you haven’t checked it out then I suggest giving it a watch wherever you can find it. It really is interesting to get a peak into what’s basically an alternate version of my favorite show.

With that said, let’s get into it.

Some Things Stayed the Same: Like I said, it’s basically an altered version of “A Lying Witch and A Warden.” The plot is that Eda uses Luz to get King back his “crown of power,” with some bits and pieces carrying over. Certain jokes that must have been too funny to get rid of, specific lines of dialogue that hit just the right notes, and some aspects of the characters’ personalities being just the same, proving that they're already perfect the way they are. It’s the changes, however, that makes for something more interesting. For one…

There’s More of an Emphasis on Comedy: As much as I love The Owl House, I’ll always admit that humor isn't its strong suit. It CAN be funny, really funny. But the jokes don’t land as well as something as Gravity Falls or Amphibia. I can say that a part of that could be because Dana Terrace wanted a more serious show, and we definitely get a sense of how serious it could be later in the series. Here, in the pilot, it definitely seems like there was more of an attempt to make the show comedic. King’s crown isn’t in a warden’s cell held within a magical barrier that only a human can get through. It’s in a Principal’s high school, locked in a human locker that Eda and King treat as something devious. Amity’s friends aren’t preppy mean girls who seem like they could cause conflict to Luz and her friends. They’re characters used for jokes who are amazed by Luz standing up to Lilith. There’s less of an edge and more of a lean towards cutesy fun, waiting until the very end to reveal something heavy. To me, it makes the pilot feel MORE like a Gravity Falls clone than the final product. Because while Gravity Falls has its serious moments, it makes it clear that it was a comedy first, both in the pilot and final product. Any moment of heart or drama was overshadowed by one hilarious joke after the other. Now, “A Lying Witch and A Warden” had a lot of jokes too, but there were also these moments that hinted at something more. You have the oppressive looking prison, the grand beam of light hiding human collectibles, a crazy chase from a threatening looking warden. And yes, the reveal that Warden Wrath was trying to go out with Eda was hilarious, but a warden who tortures a prisoner for speaking her truth gives a hint of how dark this world can be. Meanwhile, a principal sending a student to demon detention feels more like a joke, exaggerating how strict some principals can be.

And keep in mind, I’m not complaining about the pilot leaning more towards comedy. I actually laughed a lot more with it than I did with “A Lying Witch and A Warden.” I’m just trying to explain how the tone is definitely going for something different than the full series. It might have that darker twist in the end, but even that is nothing more than a surprise. I'll get into why later, but while it has darker implications, it doesn't detract from the fun times to be had. Not by much. From what I can gather from the pilot, it’s definitely going for a series with goofy, fun adventures with a bit of heart to it. It’s just missing that personal touch that’s in The Owl House. One good example of how?

There’s Not Even a MENTION of Camila: Before you say anything, this has nothing to do with me being Camila’s number one fan, to the point where I almost made a side-blog dedicated to her (I really should get on that, though…)

I bring up this change because Camila grounds the story in “A Lying Witch and A Warden.” She draws Luz close to reality and is the first thing that comes to Luz’s mind when in real danger, saying, “If I die, my mom will kill me!” More than that, though, Camila is the one real connection Luz has to the human realm. She has no friends nor adventures, but Luz always has Camila, with even the first episode hinting that. So when Luz starts getting herself into trouble or choosing to lie and stay in the Boiling Isles, it lets the audience get ready for the inevitable drama that could unfold when Luz finally tells Camila everything. By removing Camila, though, the anticipation of Luz telling her mom goes away with her. At least, it tells ME that there’s less of a worry about Luz basically running away from home. Either this version of the show is holding off from that for a future episode or that Luz and Camila’s relationship isn’t close enough where it matters. This is speculation, of course, but I still stand by that a sense of something personal with Luz is lost for the sake of having fun and epic fantasy adventures with entertaining characters. It’s still good and entertaining, and the pilot does offer something else that’s personal, but it’s not the same as The Owl House we all fell in love with. Though, it’s notable that our main cast stayed the same.

Luz, Eda, and King: Overall, I’d say that these three, personality wise, didn’t change much. King’s probably the least altered, being the exact same character he was in Season One aside from MAYBE having a design change (It’s hard to tell through storyboards). As for Luz and Eda, they’re more or less the same. There’s a BIG change with Eda (That I’ll get to later), but her devil-may-care attitude is very much the same, as well as her snark and soft nature towards Luz and King. It’s her magic that gets the real boost, being able to do more like teleport across the Isles and turn into a…softer version of the Owl Beast at will. It’s pretty cool to see the power that this alternate Owl Lady has. And then there’s Luz, who’s still the lovable weirdo we all know. Though, this version seems a lot more dim and I’m not really a fan. How does she mistakenly give a book report in geometry class? How did it take seeing Amity’s witch ears to realize that she belonged in the demon realm? Luz had her dumb moments in the show too, but not to this extent. There was still a sense of maturity and cognitive understanding that made Luz feel like someone that seemed weird but intelligent enough to think herself out of a situation. This Luz seems more weird and focused on using brute force on a problem. In a way, it makes Pilot!Luz more of an…emotionally driven Star Butterfly. A fun and capable character, but not the same kind I had made several posts and reviews talking about how much I love/personally connected to her. But, comparatively, I guess it IS the most minor change that could be done to this character. Now let’s move onto BIGGER changes.

The Boiling Isles: The look and feel of the Isles remains the same, but the fact that it’s more connected to the Human Realm is intriguing. From what I can tell, the Demon Realm treats traveling to the Human Realm like it’s going to a new country. You visit, make some memories, and, for some, send your children over to be a foreign exchange student of sorts. Except that racism seems to be encouraged in this regard as the demons and witches don’t see humans worth breathing the same air as them. And some think it’s more than okay to hunt down and kill if one human trespasses into their realm. And the reason for THAT is implied to be Belos’ doing. Er, I mean–*Checks the leaked pitch bible*--Emperor Pupa? Uh…I’ll just stick with Belos. 

And that’s extra fascinating to me because Belos being a witch hunter was a major twist that spoke VOLUMES of the kind of people he represents. To find out that this version is more anti-human makes me curious of what kind of angle the show would have taken. Would Belos have been your bare-bones fantasy villain or would the writers find a different way to tackle his symbolism? And is the reason why the Demon Realm is more open up to the Human Realm because he hopes witches and demons can report about their enemies for a possible invasion? There’s no way to know for sure because that version of the story will never come to be, but it’s interesting to think of all the things we COULD have gotten. The same goes for other characters.

Amity: To think, Amity was considered important enough to be included in the original pitch pilot alongside our main trio. It makes sense. Dana Terrace has gone on record in saying that Luz and Amity’s relationship was something she wanted from the get go, so it’s smart to establish it as quickly as possible. Though the route they take is definitely different. Instead of being enemies to lovers, Lumity, in the original pitch, went for the friends to lovers trope…kind of.

Luz, in this version, is someone so desperate for positive attention and respect that she latches onto the first person in school that was nice to her. Except that Amity was looking for some quiet and just so happened to look like she was supporting Luz when telling everyone to leave her alone. It was an act of kindness, but not one done in generosity. It still meant the world to Luz, though, making her go ALL IN with friendship. Only to be a little too forward and creeped Amity out to the point where she was polite enough to say “Thank you,” but you could see the desperation in her eyes to be anywhere but next to Luz. Yet Luz doesn’t see that. She’s still too focused that someone was actually nice to her that she blindly follows Amity into a new world just to return a weird looking passport. Because Amity’s Luz’s friend now and friends do nice things to each other. Only for Amity to accidentally reveal that she couldn’t care less for Luz and shatter her hopes and dreams in one fell swoop.

In a weird way, I’d say Luz and Amity are off on a better first impression here than in the original series. There’s no attempted dissections or witch’s duels. Just…Amity trying to be polite in Luz’s presence only to act like your typical mean girl when she THINKS Luz isn’t around. Tossing away the drawing is harsh for sure, but here’s the interesting thing: Amity didn’t know she was talking to Luz at that moment. She didn’t even get rid of the drawing until someone drew (haha) attention to it. If anything, it’s worth noting that Amity still kept the drawing on her. Almost like, despite being weirded out by Luz, Amity felt as though the drawing WAS cute and only got rid of it when she thought someone would question her for having it. Can’t have that Little Miss Perfect status shatter over something some human gave her.

Am I reaching as a Lumity shipper? Oh, most certainly yes. But we all know the inevitable conclusion between these two. We know where they’re headed. Dana has been pretty adamant about wanting it from the start and this pilot sets the groundwork well. Knowing where these two will end up, it’s easy to make connections and hypothesize what means what. Plus, look at the face of shock and amazement on Amity’s face when she sees Luz standing up to Lilith. That looks like a girl who’s…feeling things for this human weirdo. They’re not off to a ROARING start, but I can see how things could improve between Luz and Amity. And who knows, maybe this version of these two might end up dating sooner with how quickly they seem interested in each other. Again, am I reaching? Most definitely, but I went without any new Lumity content for over a year so LET ME REACH!

The point I’m trying to make is that this version of Amity definitely seems a lot more chill and polite at the start, even though it’s likely she still has issues of even being FRIENDS with a human. But not everyone starts off polite.

Lilith: Crazy to think that Lilith started out as…basically a one-off villain like Warden Wrath. At least, that’s what I gathered from the pilot. The pitch bible hints that there COULD be more to her, but at the same time she gets sent to a fire dimension and loses a hand. That’s one-off villain energy if I’ve ever seen it. But if she is meant to be something more, I would love to see what differences could come of her being the headmaster of Hexside instead of Bump and how she could either develop into someone better through Luz’s influence as a student or regress into someone worse as she makes Luz’s school life a living hell. Whatever could come from her, it was kind of fun seeing Lilith act as more of a threat with her…out of nowhere ability to turn into a bat monster. It’s a pretty cool design and I love that it was brought out due to Eda’s constant pestering, proving that Lilith is still the same insecure nut that I love. And it is pretty great that this pilot confirmed that Lilith really did dye her hair to look more serious. You CAN’T tell me that’s not why the Lilith we know ditched the curly red hair.

But that’s about it when it comes to changes towards characters and locations. Let’s talk about the potential differences in the ongoing story.

Luz Stays Trapped Instead of Choosing to Stay: I mean, technically she chose to stay by breaking that key for no reason, but that’s more of a consequence of not thinking things through. She didn’t NEED to break the key, Luz could have just as easily pulled it out. Instead, she kicked the dang thing, leaving herself trapped in this new world. And it’s here that I would like to once again point out how this makes Pilot!Luz different and what’s lost by not including Camila. The Luz WE know would have been more careful. She always felt like someone who fought smarter, not harder, even in that first episode. Luz didn’t fight Wrath head on, she rallied a prison riot that distracted him long enough for her to hit a firework ball into his mouth. She’s intelligent and resourceful, where this one…kind of is? It was smart to send Lilith to the fire dimension, but again, not a great plan to break the key. Plus, without Camila, this doesn’t feel like as big of a deal as it could have been. Camila was the first person in Luz’s mind as she destroyed the portal door in the Season One finale. In the pilot, with no Camila, it feels like a non-sacrifice or even that big of a deal. She’s stuck, sure, but Luz doesn’t really seem to care that much. She feels happy being with Eda and King and doesn’t seem to be in that big of a rush to get home. Plus, it’s not exactly complicated to get back. There was a whole line of portal doors in the beginning that Luz could potentially sneak through and there’s not yet an established cannon that makes it seem like getting a new key would be difficult or even complicated. Once more, it gives the impression that this version of The Owl House would be focused less on personal stakes and more like giving Luz that fantasy adventure she’s always been craving for. It would make for a fun show, but not the SAME show. However, it is worth noting that there could be some potential drama. Especially for one twist that was a JOLT to my system.

EDA WORKS FOR THE EMPEROR?!: WHAT?!

I’ll admit, I feel like the reason why this is so shocking is because of the Eda I know and the Emperor I learned to fear. I mean, Eda, the woman who would sooner eat her own fist before even CONSIDERING helping Belos, even before the witch hunter business, was originally meant to HELP him. Of all the changes that the series could have made, this was by far the biggest. Everything that I thought to be constant turned out to be a lie and I was NOT prepared for it!

But again, the reason why I got that big of a reaction is because it goes against everything I knew about Eda. If this was my first introduction to her, it’d be less of a shocking twist and more of a…hook. Like how Invincible’s first episode (Don’t watch if you’re a baby) ends with a character you THOUGHT you could trust doing this intensely dark thing. The rest of the season is leading you to figure out WHY this was done and how the other characters would react, making you want to see more as the show inevitably leads up to this big conclusion that changes everything you once knew. The same applies here, with the reveal making me wonder why Eda would do this, how long she’s been doing it, how it will affect her relationship with Luz, and whether or not it’d be an easy fix. And much like the ending of Invincible’s first episode (Seriously, NOT meant for babies), this hook makes me interested in wanting to see what comes next. Except I never will know because that came from a version of The Owl House that will never exist.

The pilot is interesting because it shows me what The Owl House COULD have been. I wouldn’t say that it’s better than what we got or even that it’s a better first impression than “A Lying Witch and A Warden.” It’s definitely FUNNIER, I’ll give it that, but it doesn’t make the original pitch better, it makes it different. Everything looks the same and sounds the same, but the overall feel of this pilot makes it something that would have had a different story, tone, and ideas on how to develop these characters. Would I have liked it? Absolutely. It seems like a fun time. But that doesn’t mean I like the show we got any less. This was more like…getting a peek into an alternate universe where a show I already love would have been vastly different. And after over a year without any new Owl House content aside from stuff that fans have made, this was a very pleasant surprise that leaves me excited for the NEW fan content that springs from all this.

But that’s enough talking about a show that could have been made. Time to get back to a series that came into existence and I still love so much. See you all then as you all milk this gift that the internet has given you.

[coco-bee]

INTRO POST !!

Hello!! I am Coco :D Welcome to my blog!! I’m here to discuss many different pieces of media through story analysis, reviews, character studies and many more related to media and fandoms! My top 10 fandoms include but not limited to: (not in order btw) 1. Trolls 2. Owl House 3. Amphibia 4. The Ghost and Molly Mcgee 5. Ramshackle 6. Hazbin Hotel 7. Helluva Boss 8. Spiderverse 9. Hamilton 10. Heathers (the musical) More will be covered!! Depending on what I feel like rambling about QUICK WARNING !! I have the tendency to swear and I might come off as a bit aggressive w/ my opinions and thoughts on things for the sake of comedic effect but if that’s not your thing then feel free to leave. I might also cover some heavy topics depending on what I’m discussing. DNI !! -I will not condone homophobia/transphobia/islamphobia/xenophobic and etc -Pedophiles!! I don’t want any sexualization of minors, r*pe jokes and etc (IM A MINOR) -Invalidation of someone’s pronouns, gender and identity -Racists, Sexists, Ablelist and any other form of discrimination BOUNDARIES !! -No traumadumping/vents w/o asking or warning -Stay civil with your opinions in the comments and threads -Don’t call me honey/sweetheart/darling and etc -NO SLURS PLEASE -Stay on topic

This place is meant to be a safe space for people to share ideas!! Thank you and I hope you enjoy it here !! :D

BTW IM ACCEPTING SUGGESTIONS FOR TOPICS TO DISCUSS!! As long as it's involving the fandoms I listed or any piece of (usually animated) media

[mdhwrites]

Extra Jumbled Thoughts: Character Arcs, featuring Anne Boonchuy Versus Amity Blight

SPOILERS FOR SEASONS 1 and 2 of THE OWL HOUSE! AND OF SEASON 1 OF AMPHIBIA! Also, if you don’t want to hear me ramble about how this blog is different from my other writing analysis blogs, skip to the first bit of bold text below. So I’m going to start with a warning. I try to make sure I don’t just make review blogs anymore because I want these to be more approachable. More useful. Simply saying an episode of something is bad or good, especially as White Guy on the Internet #48987532, can be very repetitive and honestly pointless. Not that there isn’t merit in it but without deeper insight, an audience may go “Yeah, that was bad!” without understanding the underlying cause for why it may have been written a certain way or what actually failed. This isn’t going to be one of those. It’s actually not even because of vitriol or anything I have to get out. It’s just because of the nature of character arcs. To provide an example... Is a bitch. Because for you to understand why something does or doesn’t work, you have to get into a lot more of the minutia of the character and what they undergo. That’s also why it’s featuring two characters and not two series. You may not know enough about either one without seeing the show (and many Amphibia fans might not know enough about Anne’s arc to even know why she’s here because a lot of them skipped season 1). I’ll try to include the information needed but I’m also going to be straight forward about saying this is, like the title says, extra jumbled up. Not helped of course by the fact that I’m pitting a main character’s arc against a major supporting character’s arc. Now, admittedly, I’m including Seasons 1 and 2 of The Owl House for Amity while this is STRICTLY talking about Season 1 of Amphibia. So Amity is getting extra time here to make up for the fact that, inherently, she’ll get less because of her role in the story. But uh... *looks at the flat line of Luz’s character that just ends with ‘smiles less’ in bold letters* This is also due to the nature of the two shows. Amphibia is much more about the other world’s impact on the main characters and their changes while The Owl House is about the main character’s impact on the other world and the changes they inflict on it. So the character who should have the most character growth in the former is the main character while the character with the most growth in the latter should be the main’s foil, or in other words a main supporting character. Thus: Amity. And see. There’s a bit of just literary analysis for you. I swear, this blog DOES have a point. And that point is to get me killed because Amity is the NEGATIVE example here. So, let’s go on a journey into what character development looks like, the steps to analyze it, and the over all... curve that happens with a character by the end of it. 1. THE FIRST AND SECOND STEPS So as these arcs have to have a starting point, we need to get into character introductions. There is SO MUCH to say about introducing characters but specifically for those with an arc in mind, the second introduction is almost as important as the first. Why? Well, the first introduction of a character is usually their most extreme, especially depending on the amount of time they have to introduce themselves. After all, the audience needs a quick snapshot of the person to gain an understanding of them unless the reality of them is meant to be a mystery. Part of their arc. I would argue simply revealing who a character actually is rather than the change they undergo is not a strict character arc but more about teasing out a full narrative over time, especially dependent on the narrative role of said mystery character. Put a pin in that for later. This point... Actually Amphibia more than Owl House, at least at first blush. This is for two reasons. The first is that Anne is the main character. We don’t need a drastic introduction to her and honestly, we don’t get one. We get enough of one, how she’ll protect someone in need but reject what she doesn’t like out of hand, be a bitch, be selfish, etc. like that. Anne is not a good person in the first episode but she isn’t a bad one either. Just less caring and more brusque than might be able to be enjoyed by many. There’s a good core there with her quickly growing friendship with Sprig though. Amity on the other hand has an INFAMOUS first step on the scene. It actually starts way more in line with how most of the show is by having her just be a bully. Like not even a special sort of bully. She’s queen bee, top student and she’s willing to be condescending to those weaker than her or failing, especially in her field of magic. It’s a good contrast to the main character’s motto of “We weirdos gotta stick together” and is a great introduction to a foil for that main character. It’s a shame it decides to not just double or triple down, it goes ALL IN. In her first episode’s introduction, where she probably gets comparable time to the time Anne gets in the first half of her episode (Amphibia episodes are split into two halves) she exhibits a brutalness that comes out unreasonably quickly that... Is fine. At first blush. She’s an unhinged, perfectionist, gifted student who will do anything to keep that position. Even murder. The second she loses her top student badge, she goes entirely off the rails for some pretty great animated moments and an enjoyable episode. But for a character with an arc in mind, this is where the second step comes into play. See, if the first step establishes who they are, the second step establishes what it truly is that they need to change and refines the purpose. Some of this happens in general but for a character who is meant to shift, it’s even more important. This is where Amphibia starts to shine. The second half of the first episode starts to imply that Anne’s selfishness isn’t entirely her own. It somewhat comes from an admittedly blunt approach to making it clear that her friendships at home weren’t healthy. They were incredibly conditional and that some of her selfishness comes from the selfishness of those she interacts with. When push comes to shove though, she chooses others before herself. Is it her fault they get in a bad place to begin with? Sure, but she does still go to fix it. It shows a glimpse into the better person Anne can be while staying true to what she was in the first step. Amity fumbles a lot more here. Yes, technically, she also tries to kill the main character in this one. Not so much of her own pushing though. She’s not the one to challenge the main character to a duel. That’s the main character’s fault. Otherwise, now she has a reason to be the normal bully she showed herself to be at the beginning of her first outing. She is crueler than she has to be but Luz can’t do magic, as far as she knows, humiliated her before and the event they’re both at is just a fun tour for Luz but a harsh reminder of her goals for Amity. To be the best and what that looks like. To not be happy about this human being here makes... logical sense. Worse yet, she doesn’t go too far in trying to prove herself this episode. When she cheats, it’s because her mentor slyly had her cheat without her knowing. She immediately is devastated by this, showing a want to be good on her own, not through tricks. Which is good, it shows a nobler heart in Amity, as does her giving Luz encouragement to keep up her studies when shown kindness. It’s good for a bully character who needs to learn to stop taking things so personally. It doesn’t line up with how extreme her first episode is. Even if we include that character introductions are meant to be more extreme, this was a few steps farther than was reasonable for the tone of show (which is saying a lot because this was during the more whimsical portion of the show) or for her character. She really does go from 3 to 15 instantly after all. Which is where the real warning of the second step problem comes into play: Without a DAMN good reason, your first step can come off looking like you wrote the character out of character. And hey, if you’re looking to make a character arc look impressive, look larger than it is, starting with a base that actually isn’t relevant to their normal behavior is a good way to do it. And unfortunately, as we’ll continue... We’ll see a lot of that out of Amity.

2. The Speed of Change, large and SMALL. So as the name implies, arcs need time to travel. A throw doesn’t have much of an arc if you throw the ball and it’s caught less than a second later and character arcs are much the same. If change comes too quickly, it can feel like there was no change. If it comes too slowly, it can be frustrating for the audience as they stop expecting improvement. Now neither here are lightning fast. I would need to be talking about Hunter from The Owl House to talk about an arc that is over and done in a blink of an eye and you’re just waiting for him to accept it. Neither are either perfect, as they both exemplify different approaches to how to do an arc and how to show it off well in this middle portion, as well as some of its stumbles. A quick mention though: This is also sometimes where a character starts their arc after some big moment FORCES them to realize that change is needed. A betrayal by those they thought were right as they showed themselves evil, a friend turning their back on them because their personalities no longer align (put a pin in it), etc. like that are all things that can jump start this process and have them start showing the changes in behavior you want here. Again, not Anne or Amity’s style, and it’s honestly a more common fantasy style (both shows have this theoretically in them too, though one comes too late in the character’s arc to hold much of the blame for it) than the slow burn that both Amity and Anne were supposed to be. So what does this look like for the two of them? Well, for Anne... It’s a lot of hijinks. She’s the main character of a comedy fantasy show. That’s her life. It’s also probably makes S1 frustrating for a lot of people because while she is making progress, it’s hard to always realize what is progress and what is a sticking character flaw of hers. Anne will have MANY times where she shirks responsibility but she only really needs one lesson in not judging others by their cover or her own agenda before being able to pass that onto Sprig in the second half of the season. And that’s where the brilliance of Anne in this section comes into play. She never once stops being Anne but you start seeing more and more her willingness to question why she’s doing something or her having enough self awareness now to pass that knowledge onto someone near her. These can easily be attributed, especially in the moment, to just what the writers needed for an episode. If it’s a Sprig focused episode, seeing as he is as much a main character as Anne, it makes sense that Anne might not screw up as much. Mind you, that’s a REALLY big might. Anne is the reason Sprig gets into trouble all the time in the first half after all because, well, she’s a 13 year old girl stuck in a different world. She wants to explore, wants to have adventures, etc. like that. She wants the hijinks and glory that her genre would commonly bequeath her with and usually needs to save herself or someone else from being eaten by a giant animal because of it. It makes it hard to appreciate in the moment... But when the lead up to the season finale comes and the frogs name her person of the year and all of her worst traits come out... The moment she questions why she was given this honor is when the method of the arc is shown. It’s a genuine slowburn. One that is true to HER. When the frogs say there are better people in town technically than her, you believe it. But the fact that she also ruined her own party to save them all show they aren’t wrong when they say she’s the one to have improved the most. And that improvement, that slow fade from someone who can’t care to someone who can and will care and accept anyone with a good heart, shows itself in all the small details. It’s great for a book report *gestures at the mutliple paragraphs here* but terrible for Twitter. SPEAKING OF-

Let’s get to Amity’s style. I won’t be going to her literal final parts of her arc like Anne because those parts aren’t necessary for this part of talking character arcs with Amity. Hers is a lot less big picture than that as she takes larger strides at a time than Anne did. You can tell there is an arc with her even by the time her second episode is over instead of needing to wait and see what the plan with her is. It’s done pretty well at first though and the cracks in the style aren’t going to show themselves as easily from an episode to episode basis. After all, the cracks in Anne’s style show the minute one of negative traits shows it still needs some smoothing out. If you don’t like one the traits Amity’s showing, well, by the end of the episode, the trait is gone. So what are her next few episodes? Well, her next literal appearance just solidifies that being a fairly stock bully is really her base except in saying in big, neon letters “AMITY HAS A GOOD HEART SOMEWHERE” because while Amity is mean that episode, we find out she used to be friends with one of the outcasts Luz has befriended and that it was her lack of magic at an early age that stopped them from being friends. It reinforces Amity’s focus on magic, grades, what one can do and that she is ruthless in these ambitions. It also makes the first appearance of hers maybe make more sense even though this section will show the problems in claiming those excuses. Put a pin it. In her next episode, she befriends Luz after telling Luz she wants nothing to do with her thanks to a shared interest and Luz coming to her rescue after a fuck up by Luz and Amity’s siblings. It’s a very endearing episode where... Amity doesn’t act like a bully, Like ever. She acts stand off-ish and a bit rude but at this point, she’s right when she points out Luz has humiliated her every time they’ve met (even the previous episode, Luz was ATTEMPTING TO HUMILIATE HER and just failed) so we bridge a gap VERY quickly in this burgeoning relationship. It cools, pun somewhat intended, next time they meet though. Amity is still being nice but they are ostensibly friends now so it makes sense. Honestly, this next episode is more about solidification and doing a bit more of Anne’s arc as she shows her capacity to worry about others. Hell, for how she acted before, you can already see strides because when Luz is at fault for stealing from Amity which leads to Amity’s siblings and Luz’s mentor almost being eaten (and in S2 Luz still struggles with acting brashly and in selfish/fantasy fueled ways so if you’re wondering why I’m not doing Luz, THAT’S WHY)... Amity locks Luz up. With her reasoning being not that Luz will fuck things up harder but that Luz will get hurt. It’s a level of compassion, especially with Amity’s base character in mind, that possibly NO ONE in the show thus far or since has exhibited. Unsurprisingly, this is where the next part of her arc comes into play. Her crush on Luz. And this is also the high point from which this style will fall to its doom. 3.5 The Importance of SMALL Things

I’m not going to go in too hard on Anne’s side of this. There is good here, it’s just hard to talk about, much like a lot of positive analysis is. The things I’m talking about though is going from rejecting bugs, a normal part of frog diets, to relishing them and enjoying them, or bare minimum not blinking at them. It’s a small thing but it speaks volumes about how she’s changing to be a better person and a more accepting one. Her increasing willingness to help instead of avoiding responsibility but also making sure to do it her own way. It’s hard to talk about because the changes are minute. There’s very few small things to note that should be a part of her character because it all is a part of the cohesive picture. For me to REALLY comment on it all, I would have had to rewatch the entire first season before writing this blog, preferably in the same week, which is again better for a book report or video essay than a Tumblr blog I’m doing randomly. And, unfortunately, of the two series I am just MUCH more familiar with The Owl House. Amity shows a lot more of the importance of this because the small things often will define either how believable the base of a character arc was or how much care is being put into it at all. What the actual goal of the arc is. So let’s get into the second half of Season 1 of The Owl House. Technically we already have but barely. Amity’s next appearance is mostly a cameo to show some likely gay panic which will be confirmed later as gay panic so her next real showing is in an episode mislabled “Understanding Willow”. It’s about Amity so it should have been named that because it REALLY is about Amity... And the idea that she was never a bad person. The large part of this episode is her and Willow theoretically coming to terms with having been friends in the past. This is done enjoyably with a trip into Willow’s mind and the pain inflicted by Amity... With a final revelation that the decision to not be friends with Willow wasn’t Amity’s. It was her parents. That she never wanted to stop being friends with Willow and BAM! They’re friends. In theory, the show will explore more of it but uh... Yeah, waiting an almost entire season to make a comment on it, when it’s not even the first or second time they’ve worked together since this, really feels like backfill of “Oh shit, the fandom is right that Willow should kind of still be pissed for almost a decade of bullying.” But we’re not here about Willow. We’re here about Amity. Who, in this episode, chose to take back her old friend regardless of what her parents though. No stress about it, that side of this problem will NEVER be brought back up and Amity will actually continue to think Willow is a much weaker witch than most despite seeing constant proof otherwise. All of the reasons in her base for no longer being friends with Willow are just ignored... Why? Well, if those base characteristics were a lie, it suddenly makes sense. And unlike the rest of Amity’s episodes, she gets a three pack in a row that is all about the lie that has been Amity’s arc. The next one is the reveal that Amity doesn’t want to just be friends, she wants to date Luz. Specifically, she’s afraid of asking Luz out on a date. Reminder: At this point, Luz still only has two glyphs to Amity’s knowledge (Luz gets her third spell this episode), probably misses plenty of class due to her mentor being a LITERAL CRIMINAL and now we have the additional information that Amity has strict parents who push her towards the future she claimed to desire for herself. This is a lot to be worried about. If they ever found out she liked Luz, they’d crack down harder on that relationship than her friendship with Willow. If a friendship with a weak witch is unacceptable, what is dating someone who can’t cast magic without glyphs? Who is socially an exile? It’s something to be terrified about. So when the big bad of the episode, a creature who manifests into your greatest fears, hits Amity... Why is it a facsimile of Luz that shows up? It shows up, reaches into Amity’s pocket and rips the letter that Amity never gave to Luz asking her to the dance in two. It’s powerful, it’s one of the best moments in the series... And why wasn’t it her mother? It doesn’t even have to be a big change. Literally could take no extra time and little extra animation to have it resemble her mother, or at least her mother’s silhouette as that’s all we had at the time for her design, and rip up the note. This isn’t a big ask unless you want NOTHING distracting from the fact that Amity wants to be Luz’s girlfriend. Which, for this episode is... Fine. It could be improved but it’s powerful and still one of my favorite episodes in the series. The fact that the next episode has her destroying all of her social connections EXCEPT THE ONES CONNECTED TO LUZ, the social connections that were DICTATED BY HER PARENTS, makes the previous episode harder to swallow. Especially when it also shows even more that Amity has always had a whimsical and caring side as she hurt her teammates back when she was CAPTAIN OF THE FANTASY RUGBY TEAM (AS THE FUCKING TOP STUDENT GIRL) and so quit and put that behind her with no comment on how her parents feel about it. Or feel about anything Amity is doing as someone literally calls her out for destroying her social life and Amity responds with “I think I just improved it.” And honestly? Any one of the three and I shrug. Maybe any of the two and I shrug. It’s a kids show and Amity is a supporting character. Yes, she’s coming ever closer to a main character even in this first season as time goes on, but some slip ups and some shrugs are to be expected. The fact that three episodes in a row entirely ignore any outside force besides “Luz is cute and I want to be with her” for why Amity is doing much of anything she’s doing, is bad. It’s especially bad because these are small things when it comes to all of this. Now *cracking his neck* let’s get to part 4.

4. Challenging the Arc

So the obvious poster boy for good character arcs I haven’t brought up is Zuko from Avatar. People have talked about him in every way conceivable for how amazing his arc his and for good reason. He goes through effectively multiple character arcs in each season of Avatar and somehow each are better than the last. The reason I bring him up now is that he stumbles, narratively, not analytically, once: When he betrays everyone and sides with his sister to get what he THINKS he has always wanted. The base of his character comes back in a very nasty way for a final hurrah that is ENTIRELY REASONABLE. And it’s in realizing the mistake he made that he finds renewed resolve and reason to be a better person. Anne has this. Amity doesn’t. For once, to explain this, I’ll actually be swapping the two and talking about Amity first as we get into S2 of Owl House and the first time her parents show up properly. In the episode, her parents get Luz and her friends expelled so as to get rid of any distractions Amity is experiencing. In the smaller category, we also find out that Amity’s grades slipping, literally stated, and this greatly upsetting her mother to the point where she is demanding effective repayment for the disappointment. It makes it incredibly clear how manipulative and cruel Amity’s mother is. And in an episode so important to her character, theoretically the one you would expect to set her season long goal of getting out from under her mom’s thumb and not letting her mom control her... She tells her mom to go fuck herself, show’s stronger regardless of letting her studies slide, all within an episode where she is a part of MAYBE a quarter of it at best because there’s so little time spent with her. It’s hard to call it a challenge or a call back to the past when she barely treats it as one. She claims she can’t do anything about her mom but the moment she has reason to suspect her mom has put Luz in danger, it’s time to break the rules and save the girl she has a crush on. In an isolated moment, it can be very satisfying, especially because it’s just good to see a child escape their abusive parent. From an arc perspective... Well, I claimed neither of these characters ever had something so flat as a fastball pitched a foot away but Amity does. Period. And the fact that the pressure here is also the pressure that supposedly formed the base of her character is INCREDIBLY DISAPPOINTING.

And telling. Anything that could actually get in the way of Lumity doesn’t matter. The fact that Amity had a character before she eventually gets with Luz feels almost accidental at this point because of how much is being bled dry, even before the show’s shortening would have affected any of its pacing, for the sake of this lesbian getting a girlfriend. Meanwhile, Anne’s ‘girlfriend’ is back baby! But girlfriend as in best friend! The same best friend who obviously, and explicitly in this episode, manipulated and hurt Anne through their friendship. Who constantly forced Anne to choose her over even her own family. For Sasha, Anne’s reality had to be about her. And... That has been true in the small and large ways. Her trying to force Polly to be more girly? Sasha was a fucking cheerleader back home. Her telling Sprig that friends don’t ask questions and just do as they’re told? Sasha literally will not hear another word from Anne when she doesn’t want to steal the music box that will transport her and her friends to Amphibia. This person is awful. Not pure evil, Amphibia is WAY too well written for Sasha to be a 6-’s cartoon villain like Amity’s mom is, but she is abusive and manipulative in similar ways. And when Sasha tells Anne to side with her despite it meaning the execution of the old frog who took her in, Anne hesitates. After all, this is Sasha. She doesn’t say no to Sasha. She doesn’t fight Sasha. She fights with Hop Pop, the old frog. She’s only known him for a few months while she’s known Sasha since they were little kids. Not only that but Sasha has a real plan and capability to get them home. She even has a better life than Anne does, just like back on Earth. For every reason Anne has been cruel, she has every right to agree to her friend. She even almost does it. Almost decides that the glitz and glamour that Sasha promises is worth a life. But come on. Every good narrative arc always ends with- 5. Payoff

The moment you get to see the character’s new form take shape and be put to use in a way that makes the pain they’ve caused before worth it. It’s when Sprig, the REAL friend that Anne has made, stands up to Sasha and berates Sasha for thinking Anne is so much less than her. Not when Anne is as incredible as she is. And so Anne takes a blade and fights her best friend. We’ll get back to it though. Because if that moment has you going “HELL YEAH!” GOOD! It should. It should be the moment where even without music, sound, ANYTHING other than just hearing that this happened with everything that came before, you should be losing your shit. A good arc, any arc, let alone a character arc, should be able to have this sort of moment. Where just conceptually, the idea and catharsis of it makes anything that happened before worth it. And for Amity... It’s what you’d expect. Though also not quite. I’m not going to be an ass about this and say that we do get ONE episode in Season 2 that does pay off her arc and also show what could have been had the writers cared more about the grander scheme of her life. And that is when Luz calls Amity her awesome girlfriend despite Amity failing Luz. Amity goes on this grand adventure for something that will help Luz get home (if you’re wondering if the division of their worlds has been brought up btw, as of Season 3 Luz has decided that she would have been willing to stick in the human world and give up on Amity while Amity has never brought up the possible problem) but in the end fails. Actually fails so hard as to get some of the resource into the villain’s hands and only by sheer luck did she get any of it back to Luz. But Luz doesn’t care. Luz calls her an awesome girlfriend and assures her that she’s just happy that Amity is safe. It is one of the few truly just good moments of Lumity after they get together and if Amity’s base character was more accurate, it would hold way more weight. And hey, if you accept her base character is mostly looking for love and a girlfriend, this is honestly an even bigger hell yeah than when the two got together and WAY better than when they eventually kiss, a moment I still get frustrated thinking about from a romantic arc’s perspective. That’s probably not helped that romance is literally my main genre. BUT let’s go back to friendship rather than love. Because there’s another side to the coin for Anne: Does she go too far? She beats Sasha in the duel they have after all. Puts a sword to her throat and everything. Now for her to actually finish it here would have been a GROSS break in character and also hurt the idea that she cared about the average person much more if she let her anger boil into a pure murder rage here. Her arc is about caring after all. Caring, acceptance and the ability to see more than the face value of those around her. We saw it first with her protecting her friends, despite knowing it’d upset Sasha, acceptance of the love around her by believing in her new found family instead of the cruel barbs that she always thought were true and then the ability to see more by being able to properly see through Sasha’s sweet veneer.

And somehow, in literally the last two minutes of the S1 finale, I have way more to talk about with the final part of a character arc in Amphibia... Than I do with half a season+ of The Owl House. 6. Paying It Forward

What’s more satisfying than seeing a character arc come to fruition and make for a badass moment? Letting the lessons learned by that character rub off onto others! Amity... I have literally nothing to say about for. She literally FAILED the time she tried to take Luz’s lessons and apply them to someone else and we’ve never seen payoff for that attempt. Otherwise, she hasn’t interacted enough with other characters, especially in a meaningful way, to help anyone. In fact, mostly she’s either been very weakly trying to bring back threads that needed to be followed up on way before now to feel relevant (and just better than they are) or continuing to be told that she has some of her shitty traits, she’s just more accidental with them like still denying Willow is a super strong witch despite everything Willow has literally ever done the entirety of the series. But Anne? Oh... Oh Anne. After she beats Sasha, she gets ready to leave with her found family and you get the impression that while she doesn’t hate Sasha, that she still wants good to come to Sasha, you’re not sure where they lie as friends and I know that that’s a thread that continues into S2 just through osmosis with the fandom. Well... That and because then the place they were fighting on explodes. That’s even hyperbole. Someone literally destroys the supports for the tower they were fighting on. It knocks Sasha to the edge of the tower and she begins to fall and without hesitation, Anne goes to save her. Then Anne’s found family joins her in trying to save Sasha but it’s clear it just won’t work.

All the while though, Anne is telling Sasha not to worry. That things will be okay despite the fact that they’re all literally about to fall to their dooms. Honestly, this moment more than the duel seems to be when everything Anne said before hits Sasha. Sasha realizes just what a terrible friend she’s been and tells Anne “You’re right. You probably are better off without me.”

And lets go. Now, of course, she doesn’t die but from EVERYTHING we’ve seen with Anne before now, the flashbacks to when they were together, how Sasha was WILLING TO KILL A MAN TO EXTEND HER GOALS, you get the feeling that if not for Anne’s growth, they all would have died there. That Sasha would have stayed stubborn about Anne needing to support her. But instead she shows how complex she’s capable of being, and the fact that she’s capable of growth too, because Anne literally extended a hand to her to a place where they could be happier together. As much as I love Anne standing up to Sasha, this is the part of the S1 finale of Amphibia that hits the hardest. I don’t even think it’s because I’m a Sashannarcy shipper. It’s just a supremely well written scene that takes all the weaknesses of S1 of Amphibia and turns them into strengths. Honestly, it makes me baffled that I still haven’t watched S2 when obviously it’s just SUCH A GOOD SHOW. And it did all of that in one season. Anyone who wants to say Amity couldn’t have been given a smoother curve, one that wasn’t lacking in cohesion, honesty, or anything like that, well... 7. The Pins

Honestly, the blog is mostly over but here are the followups now that you have a larger picture as to why they’re problems for all the pins I made before: The mystery character’s character arc: This is what I think Amity’s real character arc is. It’s not about growth, it’s revelation. You constantly learn more and more that all the characteristics that were shown at the beginning of her arc and that helped provide the base of her character were actually all lies. Her character is incredibly different, and this is in part actually from something I brought with the one facilitating her arc. Unlike Anne, who has good people treating her well and giving her reasons to believe that changing as a person would be a good thing, you have Luz CONSTANTLY lying to Amity, keeping secrets from her, fucking up Amity’s life and in general only having less than a handful of times where Luz is doing something positive for Amity that isn’t to make up for having made her life worse. It makes it hard to believe that Luz’s good nature rubbed off on Amity, especially with how insistent the show is that all the rough edges Amity had were purely from outside forces. That that’s not who she is. Which is... Accurate. A mystery character’s arc is different from a normal character’s arc because it’s much more about explaining the reasoning behind their actions rather than growing them into a new version of themselves. Commonly, by the end, the first version you meet is gone because they have no reason to be keeping secrets. This also fits for Amity as all the class, respect, knowledge etc. that defined her character to begin with is fucking gone. She is clumsy, she’s a complete mess who gets embarrassed easily, she has bad grades and she is EASILY not the strongest in the main cast, beat pretty handedly by someone who is even two years younger than her, if not by Luz herself. And not for any reason like giving up magic entirely being something that she thinks would make her happy. It just... I mean, it can be entertaining to watch to many but to me it’s become increasingly infuriating. And for it to have been fixed feels less like they needed 14 more episodes, like a full season 3 would have given them, but instead about at least three more seasons with the glacial pace that following up on any of Amity’s potential went at during S2. Personalities not aligning: Like I said, Sasha has a whole character arc! Maybe once I’ve watched the entirety of Amphibia I can do a follow up and talk about her sort of arc that starts with a wake up call. The excuses for Amity’s first appearance Any excuse about pressures from her family needed to be followed by her family ever being a factor to her. It has literally been a real thing on her mind once and it wasn’t about her mom hating her; It was about her having daddy issues. Because her dad is neglectful and too hands off. I really, really wish I was kidding.

So yeah! Those are my all together way too long thoughts on the subject that I hope were coherent enough to at least be entertaining. Let me know your thoughts, I always love new topics to ramble about that you can send me in my ask box and before I go I want to say that if you like Amity’s arc and what not: Good for you! Honestly, you’re probably a happier person than I am because I want so badly to still love Amity and The Owl House and if you still like them, none of this should make you stop doing so or make you think you’re a bad person, it’s just my ramblings and my insights. And I’m just a random dude on the internet with a bunch of jumbled thoughts. One of which is to wish you a wonderful night and farewell.

[megatraven]

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My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

a little guy

1,637 notes - Posted August 24, 2022

#4

if that scene was just a bit more steamy :) quick doodle based on @buggachat‘s Bakery Enemies AU bc i have brainrot for it, thanks for that kelly <3

2,343 notes - Posted September 1, 2022

#3

mercy main adrien confirmed

2,597 notes - Posted January 26, 2022

#2

Let 👏 Chat 👏 Noir👏 Wear 👏 A 👏 Dress

me and @buggachat drew him in a dress for funsies :) check out her piece here!

3,120 notes - Posted July 29, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

Adrien: Oooh, Plagg, I love you!!!

Adrien: -smooches his head- -smooches his head- -smooches his head-

Plagg: Ah, no you don't. Yeesh!

Adrien: -stops-

Plagg: I didn't say stop

Adrien: -smooches his head-

3,798 notes - Posted February 19, 2022

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[mothicalspoken]

*sing-song voice* I am so ✨screwed✨tomorrow!~

[popculturebuffet]

Amphibia and Owl House Weekly Reviews: Escape to Amphibia and Follies at the Coven Day Parade

Hello all you happy people! I’m Jake I review animation and comics, and today I resume my regular coverage of both amphibia and owl house... at the same time. 

Yup for these titanic shows final seasons, unless disney gives Owl House a fourth season to either make up for past mistakes or to hastily try and make up for them by shoving a distraction in our faces, whatever works, i’m going to be covering them together and given the recent crossover and abudance of refrences hinting a shared universe between these two shows as well as their spirtual poppa gravity falls, it feels right. This does mean while i’ll stilll be giving these eps as much character and plot analysis as humanly possible, I may not do a blow by blow as it’s still an hour of content I have to cover a week, with the finale likely being an hour or 90 minutes itself. I’m still giving the episoides my full attention regardless. 

But before we get this final stretch of normal episodes before a big sized finale for one and three big series ending specials for another, we have some house cleaning to attend to as happens when shows go off the air for several months. Feel free to skip over it and just read the reviews under the cut , otherwiseeee..

1) Don’t Say Gay

Whelp... as usual Disney...

Now if you want some of my first throughts on that, I did a special that covers the topic along with the episodes Fire and Ice from Craig of the Creek and Father Figures From The Proud Family: Louder and Prouder  

But stuff has happened since so if you weren’t aware (which given how gloriously queer my audience seems to be is unlikely), here’s the quick version: Floridia’s state legislation passed a bill that was in short 

Once again holding up that kids aren’t ready to be taught about gay people and shoudln’t know about gay things despite gay parents, teachers and you know CHILDREN existing. 

Naturally people hoped Disney would get involved and they had.. just not in a postive way. As I found out after the say gay all you want special thanks to last week tonight, Disney had not only been backing the senators who got the bill through, made it and fought for it, as I knew when i made the article, but have been doing so for over two years. I’m not suprised, Florida is a conservative state and Disney will play ball with whoever keeps their taxes lowest.. but I am disapointed.

Naturally CEO Bob Chapek.. made things even worse by saying that “we’d change things through our content and we have to remain neutral”, like they were switzerland and not a major fucking country. Esepcailly since as I pointed out in the don’t say gay specail, they have a bad habit of canceling or downplaying queer content to appease bigoted assholes and their wallets... or as my boy alex hirsch put it best

How this affects Owl House should be obvious: Owl House is a heavily queer series with a bisexual protaganist whose love intrest is a lesbian, while also featuring major aromatic and non-binary characters. Disney claimed it wasn’t on brand... which was a thinly veild way of saying not gay enough, as well as part of disney’s long held issues accpeting that shows aimed at kids have multiple demographic appeal much like the MCU and Star Wars. 

Dana Terrance was also utterly rattled, doing a stream with some new original content (which I didn’t get around to listneing to because cold, but will try to by next week), and other nice stuff to combat what her company was doing, looking utterly destroyed by being betrayed by disney for a SECOND time. in a row. jesus christ. 

Thankfully the backlash against Chapek being stupid has worked for once: Chapek walked back his statement, disney is reassesing donor contributions and the company reinstated a gay kiss they pulled from lightyear. The latter is the bare minmum an dwould’ve been a better statement you know, never having removed it to start, so I have my doubts this will stick.. but hopefully this will force disney to put people over profits and it’s very clear the LBGTQ+ community, myself included, are not going to ease up on them anytime soon.

This could mean season 4 or it could mean dana throwing a possible offer in their face for good reason. I dunno. 

2) Merchandising!

Now onto lighter news shortly before their premires BOTH shows got a big announcment: their getting books! For Amphibia we’re getting Marcy’s Journal, which will give me a holy trinity of journals from disney animated properties made real (there is apparently one from ducktales I haven’t gotten so techincally quadrilogy but still). I will be getting this thing as soon as I can... which could be a while but I intend on grabbings it. 

Owl House meanwhile is getting a Light Novel, aka a smaller novel with pictures commonly based around anime, and Dana has confirmed it will be original content not based on any episodes. So while Season 3 is still just three big movies, we may see some things we didn’t get around to in book form. 

So with that we’ve taken care of business, every day, let’s get to the good, the bad and the gravy of this weeks episodes. This is Owl House and Amphibia, together for the last time, full spoilers and analysis under the cut.  Let’s do this!

Escape to Amphibia

Something I noticed about Amphibia after this episode, in part thanks to binging a ton of TotallyNotMark and falling in love with shonen manga all over again, is that when you step back the story is neatly broken down in to 6 parts, sagas, arcs, however you want to put it. We have the first season-long Wartwood arc where Anne slowly grows as a person and we get used to the world, the road trip to get to newtopia, newtopia where we get to know marcy a bit and get to see another side of the world, the temple arc where our heroes return home while also trying to do the same for anne, and with this episode we bring an end to the earth arc, as Anne leaves earth and returns home for the Final Arc, bringing everything together hopefully in a big climax. 

And that’s... why this ep felt off for me. See when the other arcs as they were ended we felt it and there was a bit dramatic moment to make this feel ike the end of one story as it lead us to the next part of the overall epic: Sasha and Grime disappearing with Sasha’s fate and feelings unknown as Anne somberly but hopefully looked to the future with her found family, the Plantars and Anne crying their eyes out as she decides to spend some time with them while Andrias manipulates marcy into his masterplan, and of course andrias winning, stabbing marcy and leaving sasha and grime to unknown fates as our heroes end up stranded on earth. Even season 1a, while not necessarily the end of the wartwood arc, had a big milestone in anne earning most of the town’s love by protecting them while we learned just who sasha was. 

And most of those endings came either at the halfway point or end of a season, a marker to show how far we’d come. And at the time Froggy LIttle Christmas felt like that: terri was building the portal, the it gals and polly were working on frobo, we had setup for the goverment learning more about the plantars via the parade, andrias having his army ready, and anne finally contacting her gf’s parents. All seeds that would surely lead to several more episodes on earth right?

Yeahhhh instead of some more build up before anne goes back... she just goes back after the break, that part of the story ends, and we’re in the final stretch.  And as you can probably wager, I have some mixed emotoins. ON the one hand I do get that matt likely needs the last batch to truly deliver on the end of things, and thus had to rush the earth portion’s ending so he could get to the final battle with andrais. This is what the series has been building to, this is what we’ve been leading to, this is where our energy needs to be. 

On the other.. it feels like they rushed everything BUT anne’s relationship with her parents. Her feeling bad about possibly leaving them again here does work: this time she knows she’s leaving and may not come back and it’s hitting harder, especailly now their closer thanks to her growth as a person. Their gentle acceptance of this and their encouragment when mr. x downtalks her, now having accepted she’s grown into so much more than they coudl’ve imagined, is so fucking beauitful and well thought out. 

That being said it feels weird after mr and mrs b were pumped up so much as characters that they get left behind. It’s for good plot reason, someone needs to tell mr.x what’s really going on and I do feel that’ll play into the climax... but it feels weird leaving these new main characters behind when there’s so much potetial in bringing them to Amphibia. My best guess is Braly might of conisdered it but it cluttered things a bit too much. We’lll see as we go I guess.

The rest of the payoffs though feel luke warm: while Mr. X was an x-cellent nemisis, sending him off after only three episodes not only feels weak, but it felt like they had to make some contrivances for this plot to even work. In his previous apperances he found the plantars thanks to easily found evidence and hard work and at first this ep works on that: for starters his superiors gladly up his budget once he has hard proof and don’t doubt him on a few botched missions: they know he’s hunting people who don’t want to be found and thus they simply outfoxed them. It happens in intellgence. So X and Jenny simply get more toys, some thermal scanners, and catch the frogs when they go to get suplies for terri. That works. 

The problem is he then starts acting stupid. He lets. Anne. Go.

And his reasoning is flawed: “She’s jus ta kid her parents helped her”. He’s directly chased Anne. Nearly beaten her yes, but he knows she’s slippery. And more to the point if that’s the case HE LET HER PARENTS GO. And he sets up a trap at his fbi base expecting her to come to him so why didn’t he just you know CAPTURE HER THEN AND THERE. I expect this from a french moth man ranting in a dome, not from ru fricking paul. And the funniest part is while this is an incredibly weak exit for the character, ranting at a character he shoudln’t be underesitmating when up till now , even if he’d misunderstood the plantars, he’d never overtipped his hand or been a cocky ass. egotistcal yes, but only becaue he deserved it.... I still like the character. I’ve seen blatant and half assed character assasination before

And this ain’t it. It’s just a writing mistep. Trying to add a character flaw that wasn’t quite there. Even if he was assuming Anne was a normal kid like say elliot... he’s had to seen enough 80s movies to know that these kids aren’t incomptent. Matthew Brodrick, teen or not caused and fixed world war three. That alone should tell him maybe don’t underestimate the plucky kid who has been ducking you or blame it all on her parents. 

The other bits likewise feel like they just weren’t paid off right: Frobo is an rc car now.. but got no real build up to being rebuilt and the it gals, while vital to the last two episodes, played no part in him coming back. Wallace Shawn and Molly Jo come back, but don’t reallly do much. It feels like the ep was TRYING to create a sense of finality to the earth stuff.. but hadn’t spent any time actually building it up to earn it. 

And of course most glaringly we, so far, don’t get ANY payoff for th waybrights and wus. We learn nothing about them, they never showed up, the boonchuy’s never bothered contacting them. Easily the most potetial out of the earth stuff utterly wasted and i’ll likely be pissed about that for some time. We could’ve gottne into what they did to look for their daughters, where they are now, why sasha’s parents are divorced, just what their relationships with annes parents were. Instead we got...

So was there anything I actually liked about the episode? Yes. Yes there was. Anne’s parents are a delight as always, and the look mr. b gave his wife while driving... so fucking cute. The fight in the spendco was also fun as hell, as was the accidental marcy refrence. And there were plenty of other good runners from Terry just going with the massive amount of snacks she needed being mistaken for portal ingrdeints, hop pops justified avacado obession, and Molly Jo.. not being a tall suprised frog man is a frog. It wasn’t the worst i’ve seen.. it was just disapointing especially since the season has been batting a thousand up to this point. The pacing was pitch perfect and everything was going fine so to sloppily rush this stuff this close to the finish line worries me a bit especailly since the last time I saw an arc try to sloppily wrap up a bunch of stuff towards the finish it.. it was star vs

So you can forgive me for being a bit gunshy after that fiasco. I still have hope the rest will be good as one mistep in a story does not ruin it.. many do an dthe final shot of the episode does bring hope that it was just that... our heroes returning to amphibia.. and finding it being scoured and stripmined by the forces of the empire. The sheer pain on their faces is beautifully animated as our heroes realize their home.. but their as outnumbered and lost as they were coming here. It’s powerful stuff not only showing how far andrias’ destruction has spread but now letting our heroes soak it in. It gives me as much hope for the final act as it gives them disapair for it. 

Overall: Not a great episode, by any stretch, but it had i’ts moments, including one I didn’t get to which deserves meinoing which is anne pulling a 

It’s not a TERRRIBLE episode but it is deeply disapointing and hopefully i’ts just a bumpin the road and not a sign of things to come. 

Follies at the Coven Day Parade:

In contrast while Amphibia had a bit of a rough rentry, Owl House made a hell of an entrance as it set a deadline for the finale, set up yet another intriguging and terrifying coven head, gave Luz, Amity and Eda all some great moments and FINALLY gave me some solid willow content, and we haven’t even gotten to her headlining episode coming up. 

For starters as i’m pretty sure i’m said before but in case I haven’t I just love this title: it’s goofy, it’s hilarious, and it fits the show well, while also nicely hiding just how much of a gutpunch this episode is. Well barely it came after the mid season finale and even before seeing said finale, it was obvoius just by placing it’d have some underlying issues to adress.

The show does so marvelously. For starters it dances a little sidestep over telling king and eda as she already did offscreen. I do wish we’d actually seen their reactoins and them dealing with it, but I get sometimes you have to compress for time. I’m more forgiving here than with escape to amphibia because it’s compressing one plot point realistically, of course King and Eda would both talk her out of a “you have to choose one or the other” mindset and back her up and of course eda would figure her out if she even tried, versus trying to cram several episodes worth of payoff into one episode and not really landing any of it. Here it’s just the shortcuts you sometimes need to take in storytelling to tell it in the time you have. 

So what I worried might be episodes of Luz trying to hide her angst becomes her dealing with it out front... mostly as she hasn’t told Gus, Willow or Amity yet. Though we do get some prime bits of the Co as Gus and Willow speculate on Bellos face (lovingly spoofing us the fans), and Amity calls Luz a sweet potato, because Gus, being Gus, canm’t tell a spanish to english cookbook from a spanlish to english dictonary. But hey still a cute nickname so it sticks and we see the two be cute together. It’s adorable.

Things soon get less adorable though as Amity finds Luz’s phone, wonders what the video she’s working on (”A it’s not so bad here once you ignore the suplpher” tour that included a hooty skeleton so it’s not working so well), and we have Amity’s b-plot as she ends up with Luz’s phone: invade her girlfriends privacy to try and help her or respect it and leave it entirely. So while Luz is dealing with stuff we’ll get to in a moment, amity visits her only other friend. Willow. Well I mean I guess Gus too but their more friends by proximity. Amity is friends with all his friends, Gus is friends with all hers, they kinda HAVE to hang out together but it’s not the sorta person you go to when you need deep romantic advice. 

It’s also intresting not just because we see willow with her hair up, my baby child, but because it’s the first time they really HAVE hung out since reconclinig and it’s still awkward as hell. But it’s nice to see this fracturced friendship get focus: it was a major part of both characters arc last season and i’ts nice to see it has repaired somewhat: all willow asks for her help is to braid her hair like they used to, which is sweet. It’s a small moment but a powerful one and judging by the outcome, Amity returning just in time to help luz in the climax and having not watched it, Willow gave good advice. And judging by Willows new hair amity gives good braids. EVERYONE WINS. But it leaves a question of if these two are fully good and if they can ever get back what Amity’s parents took from them. It’s this level of writing why I love the show: that the characters have become so developed that just watching one braid the other’s hair is rife with past character stuff, tension and joy. Though I also have to admit after spending two nights out of every week the last few weeks binging miraculous ladybug, i’m up to season 4 full review in april ya’ll, it’s also just refreshing to have plots that don’t rely on the characters being braindead about obvious clues, breaking into their love intrest house multiple times, suddenly undoing their character development or making out with a manequin but OOPSY IT’S YOUR LOVE INTREST AND HE STILL DOSEN’T GET YOU HAVE A CRUSH ON HIM. And yes that last thing actually happened. You can see now why competient writing has me so happy after that. 

As for Luz she and Eda get an episode together that advances both Luz’s issues with her mom and the overarching “Day of Unity’ plot driving the season.. starting with what fans have been waiting for since Eda’s Requieum, me included: King and Luz finding out about Raine. Well King already found out because he read Eda’s diary which leads to the expected reaction

.... fine it dosen’t lead to that but it shoudl’ve. But it does lead to King spilling the tea, finding out he didn’t read the horrifying endinG, rahine’s capture and disappearnce over the past month after the fight with the coven heads, and Luz having a happy shippy coma I get into every time we get more lumity content. 

So Luz naturally agrees to help Eda, who was having her poltergeist pi, god that’d be a godo spinoff, just get david haselhoff to voice him and nights will never be the same, track him (”Eda’s stalking her ex” as king put it). Turns out Rahine is back in the public eye with this week’s celebration of coven day aka EVERYONE LOOK AT HOW GREAT I, EMPREROR BELOS AM AND DON’T QUESTION MY OMNIOUS PLOT DAY. And having overheard Kikimora being given an ultimatium, either visit her family and leave her job or keep her job and her life but be cut out of the family by not visiting palm stings, decides to include her and get her to palm stings. Maybe not the best idea, she might find that ole timeloop cave. She has enough problems without going insane groundhog day style. 

I didn’t expect this but I did thoughtly enjoy it: it took someone whose tried to murder a teenager multiple times out of envy and made her heartbreakingly sympathetic. Does it make the attempted teenager murders okay? 

But it gives them context: She’s been giving EVERYTHING to a job where she gets no respect, her coworkers literally walk over her, and her family dosen’t appricate how hard she’s worked for it. No wonder she resents hunter: to her he’s some brat whose gotten everything she ever wanted just by being born.  Belos has never once planned to kill him... granted that’s because he plans to human sacrifice him instead, but still, being in constant danger of loosing EVERYTHING for one mistake while your boss reguarly forgives some punk kid you hate.... it’s a lot. Again cool motive still murder, but just because a character’s sympathetic dosen’t mean you have to like them or their actoins. It just means you understand them better. 

It also leads to Luz coming up with a crazy plan to make her, eda and kiki very happy: She’s going to straight up kidnap raine and kiki from the parade. The plan isn’t.. AS bad as it sounds: she makes them disappear in a way that isn’t suspscious so Eda gets her person back and Kiki can go on vacation. 

Unfortunately for her, Bellos is already on top of it and already saw this sort of plan coming from a mile away. Given there was a mysterious I love belos float in the parade, to be piloted by king’s ablitity to annoy and hooty’s god complex, it wasn’t that hard to figure out but he was still not only 9 moves ahead with raine, so he never had to worry there, but is able to easily pivot to prevent their turning of kiki with the simple addition of one operative to the float: Terra Snapdragon, head of the plant coven and easily the most terrifying of the four coven heads so far. And given what Darius and Abberwolf were capable of think about that. But in the span of one episode she manages to show herself not only to be stronger but far more terrifying and far less quirky. Terra is expertly played by Debra Wilson who i don’t recognize from anything in paticular but has played amanda waller a few times so yeah, that tracks. 

Terra reveals just how Bellos planned on using Rahne against his will: brainwashing. Yeah if gaslighting his own son-figure wasn’t enough, Bellos isn’t above outright rewriting rahne’s memoreis so they and eda never reconnected and more dammingly Rahne was never unloyal to the bard’s coven. It’s barely holding granted, but it’s enough that when the plan goes off, we get one of the most heartbreaking fights i’ve seen in animation: Rahne Vs Eda. Eda refusing to back down, clearly getting what’s going on and Rahne equally refusing to realize they’ve been used and had their life rewrittten, given bitterness towards Eda that was never there before. While it’s awesome to see the two fight evenly, with Eda not even using harpy mode and only using her glyps defenstively, i’ts heartbreaking: eda KNOWS he’s being braniwashed but is forced to flee and Rahne tells her to go and never return. Resucing them isn’t an option and both are broken up about it. 

Somehow even more heartbreaking is what happens with Kiki. All Terra has to do is dangle a promotion over her head and despite everything luz has done to try and help her and Amity pitching in just to help luz.... she turns on both and tried to kill them. Luz did the right thing, if for selfish reasons , if to prove something to herself, she still tried to help a struggling person make the right choice.. and learned the same hard lesson amity did with hunter: you can only help someone whose ready to be helped. Kiki is too entrenched in her need to be seen and her job to give up on it, too beliving in belos to turn her back on him despite Belos not giving a damn if she lives or dies and gladly letting Terra undermine her. Terra stops the fight which thankfully saves luz.. but also leaves us with two chillling revelations: Luz is ONLY alive because Belos needs her (and amity because dead children is bad pr), and that the promotion.. is getting to live. Kikii would’ve died had she tried to leave, meaning in the end, this was all for nothing. 

Our heroes end the defeated, though at least getting some moral victories. Amity is confident enough in her relationship to do the hard work.. and tell luz she knows she lied, though still does the right thing and didn’t look at the video. In turn Luz realizes she can’t hide this and is honest with her girlfriend even if the truth, that they may have to seperate , hurts a HELL of a lot. 

So we get our final scene which is utterly painful and awesome: our heroes lost, the villians stand on a float proud with only kiki doubtful, and the worst part? Belos gets yet ANOTHER victory , the one he’d been building to all day , with the public: he takes off his mask. What Eda thought was simply a move to distract from their shenanigans.. is instead an earnest attempt to show the people how much he cares. As evil as he is Belos was fearfeul his people would see his cursed face (though in another nice possible fandom nod , just like us Gus and willow are barely phased), but feels warmed enough by their support to show it.. and gets nothing but thunderous applause showing that despite pockets of people against the coven.. the public at large love and support their dictator and whatever he has planned for the “day of unity”. So our heroes are not only facing the strongest witch on the isle, not only are they fighting 12 of the most powerful and deadly witches in existance with only four children, a harpy and a king, and MAYBE another harpy and a powerful other witch, but they have to go against the public. It’s a powerful note of despair to begin this block on: our heroes are outgunned, outmanned, outnumbered, out planned... and an all out stand may not be enough... but Luz is ready to face it one day at a time.. even if she clearly dosen’t know how.. and she only has one month to figure it out. 

Final Thoughts:

if it wasn’t obvious this episode was awesome. Tightly paced, greatly characterized and with an impactful ending that leaves us guessing as we approach the finale and the day of unity. Truly tremndous stuff that badly needs to continue from here. 

Next Week: The episode Jess has been waiting for as Luz and Lilith go hunting for some juicy PHILLIP LORE. Meanwhile in amphibia anne is bad at leading and we get some shipping. EVERYONE WINS. 

If you enjoyed this review, consider joining my patreon, link is right here and every bit helps and next goal is owl house. 

[calliecat93]

I wanted to post some quick blog updates since my blog’s been pretty slow for the past few months.

The reason I launched a semi-hiatus was due to the recent issues with a certain animation company starting with a D and their certain recent moves. As such, for the most part I chose to not post or reblog ANY content related to them because I was upset and boycotting/going quiet on them was the best solution I could think up save for a couple of things I did look at (Amphibia, the Strange World teaser, Turning Red (which was really good!), etc). I’m still debating on if I should resume yet or not, but since that made up a good chunk of my blog content… yeah that’s one reason I’ve mainly reblogged Star Trek stuff.

The TMNT Review project is going through a revamp. Along with RL really kicking me in the ass, I just am having a hard time trying to make these full-length without saying stuff I haven’t already said. The Watchthrough posts went well so I’m going to continue that with S2. I’ve thought of another format, but yeah… needless to say I plan to start ahead to avoid this problem failed horribly.

As for other stuff, at this point I’m making no promises. I wan to do ST stuff, but I just haven’t felt the urge IDK. RTX is in July and that should bring RWBY V9 news. Ice Queendom starts soon… but tbh I’m probably just gonna wait until V9 starts and watch it then once most of the hype has worn off. I just don’t have the tolerance to deal with any sort of fandom drama anymore. I’ve also pretty much quit reviewing for RWBY. IDK, I just don’t have the passion or energy to do a lot of that stuff anymore. As for any other fandoms, nothing to really say. The only show I’m watching right now is RuPaul’s Drag Race and don;t have anything to really post about that.

So yeah… IDK when the blog will get back into the swing of things. I hope soon, but I just feel no energy or want to do much of anything. Maybe I’m just getting old, haha. I hope what I have been doing has been enough for now. Again, I make no promises on anything especially with how unpredictable life has been as of late and it’s probably gonna get busier. But this is still my little corner of the internet where I can escape and indulge in what I love, and I’m not changing that anytime soon.

[drkineildwicks]

Was having concepts for how to do Season Two in Obake Itoko and….

(for context, fic has teen!Obake as Hiro’s adoptive brother with a Lilo and Stitch vibe, shenanigans ensue)

Some of Megan’s classmates include Anne, Marci, Sasha, and Luz (and company)

They are collectively in Dungeons, Dungeons, & More Dungeons servers doing campaigns (for Amphibia and Owl House, respectively) with some crossover when the mood strikes

Luz described her familiar King as a cross between Zorua and Cubone and everyone fell in love with the concept

“Sprig” came over from the fanfiction servers they’re in, he hopped on the servers as soon as he was able (basically turned thirteen and went yaas forbidden internet I’m getting ALL the accounts) and loved the concept of doing campaigns online he’s totally playing a frog-person

Marci’s DM’ing the Amphibia campaign, pitched the plot and then pointed out that Anne, Sprig and Sasha needed to level up first

Sasha: okay so we get magically transported—what if we got separated? WHAT IF I WAS IN *JAIL*???

Marci: okay then I get to be in the library and you guys have to find each other and team up and come find me

It…went off the rails a little bit

Sprig turned his sister and grandpa into NPCs since he’s playing a native to the world, is only allowed on for an hour a day because grandpa has concerns about computers

(also has to be after dinner because school and he helps on the farm, they’re internet friends)

Grandpa starts sitting in on the campaign sessions

Gets into it

WAY into it

“Hop-Pop” went from an NPC to a character real quick

Added some domestic flair and conflict that Marci appreciates initially she was just tossing monsters at them

Hop-Pop is a theater old so he gets real dramatic

Bessie (his familiar) had a several-hours-long intro story that ended up having everyone sobbing

They all would unconditionally die for Bessie

Doesn’t understand the game part, is just here for the story, Sprig does the rolling for him

Marci: wait Hop-Pop WHY are you hiding the Calamity Box?

Hop-Pop: for the DRAMA

Sprig had Polly as an NPC but had to bump her up to warrior training at his sister’s insistence if he’s going to have a character based on her then dangit she needs to be AWESOME

Marci’s also on the fanfiction forums and vibes with Fred, ends up in the BH6 forums and drags Luz in because she’s a BIG fan

Luz stans one (1) skinny skeletal spooky superhero

Because AESTHETIC™

Hiro grouses a little because he was the one who designed the outfit

Buuut since Obake doesn’t like being dragged out to do superhero things she knows the pain of being in a starved fandom

Her second fav is Lizard Guy she’s done some one-shots of her campaign characters meeting him as an ACTUAL lizard-guy

Fred has faved and reviewed all of them

Luz keeps asking her DM Amity if they can add Lizard-Guy and/or Boneman as a one-off character and Amity keeps pointing out that they have NARRATIVE INTEGRITY TO THINK ABOUT, LUZ

Marci obliges during one of the crossover games, Amity agrees just to get Luz to chill

Luz is VERY happy

Amity: I figured you’d try to ship yourself with one of them during the campaign

Luz: we have NARRATIVE INTEGRITY TO THINK ABOUT, AMITY

This all means that when the school dance rolls around, and Megan invites Hiro, they all circle in for the good-natured ribbing

Anne: aw, he’s cute

Marci: does he have a brother?

Hiro, who still isn’t sure if Obake’s the brother or the cousin: *nervous coughing*

And then High Voltage shows up, Obake rocks in with BH6 because Hiro’s in trouble PRIORITIES—

Luz TOTALLY flips her lid, films the whole thing, runs up to ‘Boneman’ Obake and snaps a quick selfie with him

And with Lizard Guy who reads her fics oh gosh oh boy PUNCH ME WILLOW PUNCH ME IN THE FACE THIS IS THE HAPPIEST DAY OF MY LIFE!

Amity: ask ME to punch you in the face, Luz

Gus: don’t you know she doesn’t hold back

Luz shares the pictures on the servers to find that Anne and Marci photobombed some of them

Luz: I don’t care this is still going to be my background pic

Granted I already have Amphibia existing as a TV show Hiro (and Obake) watches so I don’t know if this would work buuut it would give basis as to the campaign the girls (and farm-frogs) are playing

Plus all this is background for like a five-minute cameo but it was fun to brainstorm and is in line with my fanficcing history

Yes Kim Possible went to school with Yugi and Naruto and the Digidestined, your point?

IDK it pleases me

And what is fanfiction but to be fun and self-indulgent?

watch Season 3 have the girls want to do a Ducktales campaign and Obake ends up playing Manny

[its-a-gemfact]

do you have any series you want to watch ir that you can recommed besides su and the owl house?

Hmmm i’ll use this ask to do some quick reviews of ongoing shows i personally love and would recommend:

I know my reblogs don’t show it but i’m actually enjoying infinity train more than toh atm. It’s really maturing over the seasons and developing into something quite thrilling and complex. It’s not afraid to challenge its audience, I found myself getting quite shocked and emotional at parts, as it’s more serious and intense than other cartoons of its kind. I feel like gravity falls and other renaissance shows really made mysterious lore/plot twists THE cartoon trend to follow, so much so that I’m getting a little tired of it. Although infinity train started as that, it really distinguished itself as something unique, which I think toh has yet to do (though i’m sure it will)

My genuine fave ongoing show however is bigtop burger. You’ve probably seen worthikids around tumblr before but they’ve put together the most amazing little show completely independent of any big studio. It is genuinely hilarious, like, my exact sense of humour. Yet it has this sweet, comforting vibe to it? almost nostalgic? It’s just so humble even though the project is obviously brimming with talent. It makes my heart warm and fills my brain with serotonin. You can watch it all on youtube for free and I really recommend that you do so.

I’ve watched a lot of shows recently, but not many of them made it on the faves list. Sorry i’m a harsh critique, I just know what I like ya know?

As for shows I want to watch:

Really wanna see primal? it looks really cool. Dunno why i’ve been sleeping on it, I mean, Its got everything I love: 1. dinosaurs,

I’ve just started Kippo and the age of wonderbeasts. It’s ok atm, not very far through it though, looking forward to seeing if it goes anywhere. 

Amphibia seems fun? might give that a go. I actually have a few pet frogs but that might just mean i’m more critical of it. 

[spongeguyandlelouchvibridankia]

SpongeGuy Reviews Every Disney Cartoon Ever!: DuckTales (2017) (3.6): “Astro B.O.Y.D!”

Now wait: What’s this, you ask? You’re supposed to do the first episode!

Well, a quick explanation: So this marathon goes faster and becomes easier to keep up with, I’m reviewing episodes when they come out as well (for things like DuckTales, Elena of Avalor, Owl House, ETC.). So that way, we can just get this done faster.

So, without further ado, DUCKTALES! WOO WOO!

DuckTales is the 2017 reboot of the original Ducktales from 1987, one in which our beloved disney ducks get deeper stories and funnier jokes. Yeah, I prefer this to the original (tho I saw only a teensie bit of the original, so that comparision will have to wait) but yeah, I like this show about DUCKS, get used to it!

And this episode is a real gem, so let’s get to it!

SUMMERY:  Huey befriends B.O.Y.D. (Noah Baird) while on a camping trip, but the latter malfunctions. When Huey takes him to the lab, Gyro recognizes B.O.Y.D. and insists that he's dangerous. Due to B.O.Y.D.'s malfunctions however, he begrudgingly takes them to Tokyolk to fix him before he becomes a threat; with Fenton providing protection. After being accosted by Inspector Tezuka (Tamlyn Tomita) and getting separated from Gizmoduck while foiling a robbery, Huey and B.O.Y.D. bond further. However, Gyro's former mentor, Dr. Akita (Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa), learns of the android's return and takes control of him to get revenge. While fighting Akita, Gyro remembers caring for B.O.Y.D. like a real boy, and discovers that Akita overwrote his programming and forced B.O.Y.D. to become a weapon. With Lil Bulb's help, Gyro beats Akita and reconciles with B.O.Y.D. Now in control of his programming, B.O.Y.D. starts living life for himself, while Gyro promotes Fenton.

COMEDY: 2 Out of 5

Ok, I know this seems bad: I just said this episode was a gem, yet the comedy is only a 2? Well, here’s the thing: It’s not that the comedy is bad. After all, the 2017 Ducktales is famous for having some REALLY awesome jokes (including one of my all time favorites), and in general every episode has a collection of great gags.

But it’s not that the comedy here is bad, it’s that it barely exists. Perhaps I didn’t notice a few jokes, perhaps I’m remembering wrong, but most of the episode if not all is dedicated to the story beats and action sequences, befitting for what is, in essence, a pretty heavy episode. There isn’t much time for humor, and the little there is (Gyro and Dr. Akita’s “epic” fight, Fenton constantly crashing into things, Tezuka being crazy violent, B.O.Y.D insisting on his acronym) are fine jokes, Jokes that aren’t bad in any way, jokes that are pretty good!

But they can only result in a 2 due to the utter lack of them. And this feels wrong, because the rest of the episode is totally perfect, but at least now I can get to praising it. Just remember: The episode wasn’t not funny, it just didn’t try to be. And that’s ok.

CHARACTERS: 5 Out of 5

There are 4 characters here getting a focus episode: Fenton (who was already a fave), Huey, B.O.Y.D, and Gyro. I wanna dedicated a paragraph to each to talk about how Ducktales treats ALL it’s characters with the respect and development they deserve, be it only a little or a whole lot.

Let’s start with Fenton, the focus character with the least to do and change but still with a lot to show. Fenton has four roles in this episode: To tell B.O.Y.D what he should be so that we can understand that’s not ok; to serve as a contrast to B.O.Y.D as the “good” robot; to serve as a reflection of what Gyro was, and what Gyro perhaps should encourage again, and also as a reminder to Gyro of who he was, explaining to us his treatment of Fenton; and finally, as an extra step in Fenton’s journey. In previous focus episodes Fenton wasn’t TOO keen on being Gizmoduck. It started off as an accident, turned into his destiny in “I Am GizmoDuck”, but was still a problem in the Gandra Dee episode. But now in “Astro B.O.Y.D”, Gizmoduck isn’t just a job, or an annoying side habit, it’s a privilige. Seeing Fenton so happy to go superheroing, so enthusiastic to teach someone else the job, in general just so optimistic ater recent episodes had him down on his luck shows how one of the smallest arcs in the show has been staggeringly amazing!

And that’s just Fenton, the smallest of the 4 arcs here! Let’s talk about Huey. This is Huey’s focus season, the one where he will face a challenge that may break him. So far, he hasn’t had TOO many focus episode, as we’re up to 7 and there will be about 25 episodes, but no need to fear, we’ve been slowly getting that arc. Huey has been competitive and driven so far this season, constantly needing to question things around him and constantly being asked about trust. Trust is a key theme here, and Huey falls on the trusting side, something I think he would normally do since it’s Louie’s job to be the skeptic. And it’s no surprise Huey is trusting of B.O.Y.D when they are so familar. Now, there is a reason why I like Huey’s arc in this, but I must say: I am not on the autism spectrum (at least to my knowledge), so I can’t say if this is good representation, if it even is representation. I really can’t. I have seen MANY people say that this was one hell of an autism representation, and if that’s the case, that’s great! But be it autism or not, Huey’s role in the episode as the one person who trusts B.O.Y.D is one any of the triplets would have taken, only thanks to good writing it could ONLY be Huey, since Huey gets what it’s like to be different, which he always was. He was the most mature, the “nerd”, the one who is less likely to cause shenanigans, the one whose always thinking. But what I love about him is that unlike most of these kinds of characters, he can feel too, and it’s not a joke. His compassion and trust for B.O.Y.D are lovely and I wouldn’t be shocked if this episode is instrumental in his arc.

Next we have B.O.Y.D himself (or I guess just Boyd now)! Boyd is the protagonist of sorts, and I really enjoy his role here! Before this episode Boyd was just sort of a cute character we all enjoyed in that one episode with Louie and Goldie. The fandom went wild for him, and soon enough he had his own episode here, and BOY(d) did they deliver! Boyd is a Pinocchio of sorts, wishing only to be a real boy, and to have a friend. He gets one from Huey of course, but his real boy status is the true quest. The great thing about the episode is the way it portrays how we look for validation from others, and how even the people with good intentions in our lives can have bad influences. Fenton tries to help Boyd by making him a superhero, but that’s not who he is. Tezuka wants to stop Boyd because he is dangerous, as does Gyro at first, and Akita wants him to be dangerous, but Boyd doesn’t want any of those things. As Huey points out, only when Boyd was allowed to be himself, a real boy, then nothing went wrong. So often in life people try to pull us in different directions, thinking they know what’s best for us. And while guidence and validation aren’t wrong (after all It’s Gyro’s loving words that save Boyd), it’s Boyd’s decision to be himself that makes him finally happy in the end.

But of course, we can’t speak of this episode without speaking of Gyro Gearloose. Like many who had experienced at least a little DuckTales, I had enough duck knowledge to know that Gyro was a happy go lucky and optimistic inventor, more Fenton than whatever this Gyro was. I wasn’t TOO much of a duck fan to be bothered by this, and I did like some of the jokes it brought, but it DID feel a little weird to see him become a... Well, jerk. But of course, when DuckTales does something there is a reason. Just like Gandra became an actual character and just like Daisy became an actual person, so did Gyro. In fact, this episode deals with the fact that Gyro was once like Fenton: Bright eyes, optimistic, wanting nothing more than to make people happy with his work. Boyd was supposed to be a good boy, Gyro never wanted him to be a weapon. And it’s this little revelation that sheds light on his entire character: Gyro takes shit from no one because when he did he lost everything. Gyro says his inventions are wildly misunderstood because Boyd was. Gyro’s inventions keep going evil exactly because of that: Thinking that he made Boyd evil when it was Akita who changed the robot explains why they keep going wrong now. Gyro’s anger at Fenton is anger at himself, since he fears another mistake (no wonder he didn’t want Fenton to be Gizmoduck). In other words, it ALL makes sense now. And who can blame him? But, like the Gepetto he truly is, Gyro ends up caring for Boyd after all, and seemingly deciding to be less cynical about life. So, in a way, Boyd isn’t the only one that got life.

STORY AND HEART: 5 Out of 5

What I said above is probably good for this as well, so I’m not sure what to say here. I mean, I already talked about how beautiful the story is, how lovely the ideas are. THAT HUG Gyro and Boyd share is wonderful, the setting is fun, the action beats add a lot. I mean, it’s a near perfect DuckTales episode. Not much to say!

I don’t usually do this, but @suspendersofdisbelief​ thank you for gracing us with this masterpiece. I hope I did it justice.

FINAL SCORE: 12 Out of 15

If it wasn’t for the fact that I love Amphibia THAT much, and the fact that I know Ducktales gets EVEN better, this would be number 1! Anyway, next time we finally tackle the new adventures of Winnie the Pooh!

https://docs.google.com/document/d/194d3gsPrhlOsFPYsXU-lJirY4sWncrBl/edit#heading=h.dfyq7ib3oe7s

[ordinaryschmuck]

What I Thought About “For the Future” from The Owl House

Salutations, random people on the internet who are already skipping past this! I am an Ordinary Schmuck! I write stories and reviews and draw comics and cartoons!

…So, “For the Future” got leaked, like, two weeks ago. And everyone hated that.

Well, the people who were going to pirate the special anyways due to their “legitimate” reasons loved it. But for the fans who wanted to support The Owl House while it was on its last legs? Yeah, needless to say, people were angry.

And the special got leaked for dumb reasons, too! Some dumb-dumb from iTunes accidentally put the episode up early for people to buy and then proceed to spread like wildfire. Because when you make a mistake like that, you need to correct it the SECOND that after it’s been made. Let it linger, and you’ll come to regret it.

Some compared it to the situation with Amphibia and the episode “True Colors,” but I wouldn’t really say it’s THAT bad. There, it was carelessness on Disney’s part to delay the episode SUPER last minute and not warn iTunes to do the same. Here, it genuinely seems like an accident caused by some dumb dipstick not paying attention. It’s one of those situations where NO ONE could have prepared for it, least of all the fans who found out too late that the leak happened and spoilers were already flooding EVERYTHING. Miraculously, I made it through the whole two weeks by only seeing ONE genuine spoiler. I’m honestly amazed by that.

And for those saying they have “legitimate reasons” for pirating the special, there’s no legitimate reason to LEAK it. Doing that is disrespectful for the show and the people who work on it, hurting the viewership and numbers they need to know people liked it. Plus, if you don’t care about that, it ruins the fandom experience, because it leaves fans with no outlet to share theories and thoughts about the special without fear that they’ll lure in anyone ready to spoil everything. I remember when the trailer finally came out, I felt SO hyped yet SO angry because I couldn’t talk about ANY of it. That’s what happens when you leak a special from a series people love.

Now, the question is this: Was it worth it?

Well, no. It’s never worth ANYTHING to screw over a show like this. But was it worth the wait? I mean, despite the quality of the special, it’s always worth waiting to support The Owl House the RIGHT way.

But to humor the dinguses who leaked “For the Future,” let’s dive in and see how good it really is.

*Spoilers below…even though you probably already know everything that happens by now*

WHAT I LIKED

Showing Us What Happened: Off to a great start already!

A part of me, going in, was a little hopeful that the special would begin with Luz and the others coming to the Boiling Isles and learning what happened as they went on. I figured that the expectations of what the Collector would do the second he has the freedom to go nuts would have been too high to live up to, so it'd be for the best...not to show it. With that said, I don't mind that the writers did. It gives us a taste of what's to come while, to my surprise, living up to so many expectations I had. We get to see the damage the Collector causes, what they do to the people on the Isles, and how a few people react to it.

Plus, a few bonus stuff within that.

Lilith Going to Save King: Have I ever mentioned how much I adored Lilith changed since Season One? This woman went from snobby to throwing herself at a literal god to save her nephew. It backfired immediately, but at least she was kind enough to try.

Though, quick note, maybe don't show Lilith getting transformed. Hooty is fine because he never turns back, but if Lilith is going to change back off-screen anyways, you might as well not change her at all. We see a lot of others get spared off-screen, so why NOT make it the same with her? Speaking of which…

The Collector Turning People into Puppets: It's not the worst fate in the world, but it's not the best. Sure, everyone's still alive, and the Collector--THANKFULLY--doesn't torture them. Yet that doesn't change how this is something truly twisted. These people...are not sentient. About anything, really. They're only truly "alive" when the Collector is playing with them, and even then, they're not really all there. They're more like toys, which is pretty much the point. To the Collector, these people are nothing more than playthings to a higher being--Holy s**t, Tinella Nosa really DID call that, huh?

But, yeah, this is a decent way of establishing how the Collector is unlike any threat before. People might not be able to change back unless HE wills it so, meaning that for the characters to win, they need to convince the Collector to turn everything back to normal. Which, judging by how this episode ends...Yeah, good luck with that.

Oh, man, I just referenced something heavy. Time to balance it out with something sweet, STAT!

Eda and Raine’s Moment Together: You'll do.

This moment is short, but through visuals alone, there is SO MUCH that's delivered. There's the elation that they're both alive, Raine's worry (and maybe regret) for Eda now missing an arm, Raine already knowing and accepting that Eda's gotta go save King, and Raine being amazed (and possibly a little aroused) by the sight of Eda as a harpy. It's honestly everything I could have asked for and more, given that it's a perfect scene where the music and facial expressions say so much that words can't. What more can I say about it, really? Nearly two minutes in, this special got me hooked.

There’s Someone or Something in the In Between: And nearly three minutes in, and the special has got me INTRIGUED.

I'm honestly surprised how I almost forgot about that...person? Thing? Whatever they are/it is, I forgot about them because SO MUCH happens in this special that it nearly slipped my mind. And I truly hope the same won't be for the writers because I WANT to know what the deal is with this thing. Because from what we can tell, they're...trapped? Looks like it. It even looks like they were trying to get Luz's attention for help. I'm not sure what's going on, but that's what's fun about it. Not knowing something and wanting to figure out what it means is the basic, bare-bones necessity regarding storytelling. As long as we eventually get a satisfying answer, I don't mind being left in the dark for now. As long as, again, we DO get an answer. But I'm not worried about never getting one. These writers are pretty good at making one connective narrative this season.

Hunter’s Anger: For instance, this. Hunter's rage over wanting to kill Belos is not only justified in every conceivable way, but it also functions to make "For the Future" the direct carry-over from "Thanks to Them." Now, that's to be expected, but I'm glad that, even though Hunter's NOT the main character of this story, the writers didn't forget or gloss over what happened. The poor boy lost his best friend, who was the first thing ever to give Hunter any sense of true joy. I would honestly question a few things if he didn't act even the tiniest bit bloodthirsty. So, I'm glad the writers gave Hunter time to process his pain and anger rather than making him stoic or emotionless throughout "For the Future." I honestly thought they were going for the ladder, so I'm more than grateful to be wrong for once.

Luz Still Choosing to Stay Back in the Human Realm: Just as I'm grateful that THIS carried over too.

Luz's problems from "Thanks to Them" weren't fully addressed, so it's great that a good chunk of "For the Future" is about her learning to let go of her guilt. Even better, it's Camila who's the one to do it. I'll talk about their big scene together later, don't worry. But for now, I want to gush over how perfect it is that Camila's the one in the main cast who's trying to help Luz with her problem. The woman went from begging Luz to stay in the Human Ream to accepting that Luz would want to remain in the Boiling Isles. And not wanting to have Luz make a mistake she'd probably regret for the rest of her life, losing the close friends and family she's made there, Camila does all she can to make Luz feel better about herself. What's more spectacular about this is that Camila doesn't reveal Luz's turmoil to her friends. A.) It would put more strain on them than they already need. B.)It's not her place to. She respects Luz's privacy, and even when asking for help, she does nothing more than imply what's wrong. She wants to fix this herself because, well, she's a mom. Moms help their babies when they need it the most. And...dang it, if I didn't love Camila already, I love her even MORE now! It's so good!

Camila’s Hungry for Vengeance: Same thing with this. I’m right there with you, Gus. I’d PAY to see Camila beat the snot out of Belos with her bat.

Camila Trying to be Supportive: Emphasis on trying. Camila's still freaked out by pretty much everything around her and has a MILLION more questions every time she's greeted by something new or strange, but for Luz's sake, Camila does her best to be supportive. It's more evidence of why Camila's such a great mom. She might not fully get what to love about the Boiling Isles, but she tries. She tries than actual irredeemable monsters that cause true pain to their family. Speaking of...

Belos: Oh, I'll get to what this f**ker does soon enough, don't worry. But first, I want to discuss how much I liked what the writers did with Belos in this special. The fact that he's haunted by the sins of his past and completely ignores them says pretty much everything you need to know about Belos. He doesn't care about these spirits trying to guilt him. If anything, he gets angry, standing firm that he has nothing to be ashamed of, and there's nothing some random spirits will change about that. Nor does he care about life. He has these backup grimwalkers that are all nothing more than flesh puppets to him. These things can be people of their own, and Belos uses them to further his life and finish his misguided agenda. This man is bitter evil to the end, and I'm all for that. I like irredeemable villains.

Plus, I adore that despite the Collector being the primary threat this season, Belos is still the main antagonist. The dingleberry manipulates the situation to his desires, only now he's using the Collector as his latest tool. I am totally one-hundred percent on board with this decision because while the Collector is a decent threat, Belos makes more thematic sense as the show's big bad. His ideals go against everything the series stands for, about freedom, acceptance, and that it's ok to be whoever you want to be. He takes away and perverse so much of that, and it's all a part of why he's the best villain Disney's had in a while.

...Felt weird praising a scumbag like him for so long. Let's talk about a character that's actually a good person.

Willow Trying to Keep a Happy Face: I did NOT expect Willow to get as much attention as she did. Surprisingly, she manages to have the most engaging sub-plot in the special to me. Speaking as someone who tries their best to be upbeat despite tragedy, wanting to bring good vibes despite the current heartache, I can confirm it's not a healthy mindset to have at times. It's noble to lift spirits up, but it's for your own good to admit that...you're not feeling good. It makes me grateful for Willow's subplot, not only because of its great lesson but because it offers us so much more insight into her character than Seasons One and Two combined. Don't look at me like that. You know it's true. We all know that Willow's a kind person, but seeing how much that kindness puts a strain on her makes for something relatable and engaging to a lot of people.

It's also neat how her story connects with Hunter's. Willow wants to help cheer up Hunter, and Hunter wants to reassure Willow that he IS happy because he has her. It's truly sweet stuff while adding more fuel to the fire with this ship.

But as cute as they are, they ain't the OTP.

Luz and Amity Talking About Palismens: Such a sweet moment between these two!

The backstory behind how Amity got Ghost doesn't offer much that we already didn't know, but it is sweet that she says it to help cheer Luz up. After Luz helped Amity out of her goth phase, she's doing the same, offering the same amount of kindness Luz has been delivering for years. It's...perfect, to be honest, as it shows how much these two will always balance each other out when one is more in the dumps than the other. I love it, and weirdly enough, I love the pain I felt when Luz moved away when Amity kissed her head. Because Luz is so dead set on leaving at this point, she's already trying to create distance between herself and Amity. It hurts to see but in the best way possible...but that DOES mean I could use a little sweetness. Let's double back a bit and discuss a pair that ISN'T romantic (unless you ask my buddy @l-egionaire).

Gus and Willow’s Little Moment: We REALLY needed more scenes like this with these two. We get a story about Willow cheering Gus up when he had a bad day. Through this, we REALLY get a good sense of their bond and why they make good friends (again, unless you ask @l-egionaire). They're...screw-ups who, a lot of the time, rely on each other to get out of their darkest days. Moreso with Gus than Willow because she's basically the older sister he never had (@l-egionaire, I'm sorry. I know it must be killing you to have me say that). It's genuinely adorable, and it's great that we at least got ONE scene this season about these two cute kiddies.

And while on the topic of cute kids…

The Collector: ...What? They're surprisingly adorable.

I might have said it before, but I adore how the writers make the Collector a kid. A kid that can kill us all if he wants, but still a kid. To the Collector, they don't really understand that what he's doing is wrong. It's all a game of pretend where they're a hero surrounded by friends who love him. It's very much NOT the case, but...Ok, do you know how a five-year-old would go out and mess with ants? It's like that. To the ants, it's f**ked up that this gigantic, unstoppable creature is killing them without mercy, but to the kid, they don't really see what's wrong with what they're doing. It's not like they're hurting a person. They're just hurting something small and insignificant. Well, to THEM at least.

It's why I can't really say the Collector is evil or even a villain. Not anymore, at least. I mean, would YOU call your kid evil for messing with something they shouldn't? Or would you say they're misguided and needs to learn what's good or bad? I'd say that describes the Collector perfectly, and I'm not the only one who thinks that.

King Guiding the Collector: A pretty smart move from a writer's standpoint. The Collector, in many ways, is a lot like King. At least, King if he didn't have Luz and Eda checking his ego every ten minutes. It's why King understands the Collector better than others: King KNOWS what it's like to be a kid. Since, well, he IS a kid. King's just one that was raised better and was given more of a moral conscience. So, not only does King try his best to lay boundaries for the Collector, but he's doing some ego-checking too. It's clearly exhausting, as the Collector doesn't easily take no for an answer, but it's something that still, albeit slowly, works. It's why I have no problems with King saying they can reason with the Collector. Mixed in with the understanding and the effort he made in reasoning with them, it makes sense.

Plus, how can you hate a kid who finds the perfect karmic justice for two old broads?

Odalia and Terra’s Roles: Both of these ladies deserved worse. Especially Odalia (I'LL GET TO THAT!). With that said, these are perfectly serviceable punishments. These are two women who hate children just as much as they hate receiving orders. So to have them forced to do everything a child says less they want to be destroyed is a great idea, even if I wish they suffered just a bit more. Because, you know, they deserve it for being such easy-to-hate characters...And since I've brought that up...

Matt: THANK FRICK THAT I DON'T HAVE TO CALL HIM MATTHOLOMULE ANYMORE! My spellcheck thanks you, writers!

Anyways--HOW DID I GO FROM HATING THIS STINK WEASEL TO LOVING HIM?! I'm not kidding. The kid's so...funny! He's a funny character whose false confidence and huge ego make for some good laughs! That was very much NOT the case in his introduction, what with him being, as I've said, a stink weasel, but the writers managed to make it work this time. Mainly because they actually wrote him to be a decent human being...You know what I mean.

A character like Matt works better when he's on the side of good. Use that ego and false confidence for someone that's a bit of a dick, and you're going to make a character that people will hate very effortlessly. That can be fine, as a character that people love to hate can be as enjoyable as one that we love to...love, but you got to do it carefully. Make them too despicable, then they're just going to be more annoying than funny, which was definitely the case for Matt in the beginning. And if you don't make them despicable enough, they'll be funny, but they're practically on their way to being one of the good guys anyways, so you might as well follow through on it. So, making Matt a good guy works better for the character and the audience. But that's just one Hexside student. How's the rest going?

New Hexside: Turns out pretty funny.

Now, initially, not at all. We quickly learned how Hexside reacted to the Day of Unity and the Collector's domination, and it really gets to me how real their reactions are. The fear and panic felt prevalent, and you feel bad for these poor kids as they're forced to witness the end of the world, helpless to stop it.

But after that delicious drama, it's not too long until the jokes come flooding back as we witness what happens when children are left in charge of a school for a few months. The results are exactly what one would expect, with everything being a beautiful series of chaos. The kindergartners are savages, kids eating paperclips, and the students raise a radical statue in Principal Bump's honor that wildly misrepresents him (although that underrated character very much does deserve a statue). It's all pretty good stuff that succeeded in getting a laugh out of me. But some things can be both funny AND heartwarming.

Amity Reuniting with Ed and Em: Like THIS little family reunion that I had hoped to see for MONTHS.

First, you get a touch of something heartwarming as Amity tearfully hugs her brother and sister, with Emira being the one to spin Amity around in an adorable display of affection. And then you have Ed...who runs at Amity in a full body cast, screams in pain as he forces his arms to bend to hug her, and reveals that he's like this because he fell in a well. This boy is the best kind of stupid, and I appreciate every bit of it. I have not laughed this hard with the show in...forever, so believe me when I say that I love this scene for that.

But that's enough wholesomeness and hilarity. Let's get to the ominous and...anxiety building.

The Collector’s Book: This is probably the closest we're going to get to any backstory or explanation of what the Collector is, so, you know...Appreciate it for what it does.

And as interesting as it all is, the lines that the Collector crosses out...gives me fear:

"But should they meddle in our affairs, we'll clean the planet and scorch the air."

Considering how this special ends, I am very much not looking forward to figuring out what THAT means.

I changed my mind. Can we go back to New Hexside? Things are fun there.

Boscha: ...Is it too late to change my mind on changing my mind? It is? Ok...

So, Boscha...I kind of like what they're trying to do with her. Would the special have benefitted by cutting her out? Maybe, but we get more out of Boscha here than the entire series. Now, I'm one of the few people who never cared that she didn't get any development. She was a static character that made for the perfect antithesis to Amity and rival to Willow. But that doesn't mean I'm against the writers trying something, and they...sure did try something. And that's making Boscha go bat-s**t insane without Amity. Ever heard of codependency? Because that's what Boscha's going through. She is so reliant on having relationships and people being with her that being forced to work on her own drives the girl to near insanity. It's why Boscha was willing to team up with the first little psycho she met. If the alternative was to be alone, then it's better to work for a lesser cause than a just one. At least, that seems to be the logic Boscha operates on, and to be perfectly honest, it makes me wish we had time for one more episode to dive deep into this idea with Boscha. What we get is a taste, and a dang good one at that, making it a little disappointing that we'll never explore this side of her again. As is, it's...fine. I like what the writers wer going for, but I just don't LOVE it. It's one of those ideas that would have benefited with more time, especially if the writers were going to force redemption out of her. And you want to know what else would have benefited from more time?

Eda, King, and Lilith’s Subplot: If "For the Future" was just ten minutes longer, I would REALLY adore everything about this little section of it. As is...Well, there's still a lot to love.

I love that Eda and King are still together. I genuinely didn't expect them to be this close this soon, but I'm not complaining. Eda and King sticking together despite this awful situation is something that all I'm here for, and I do adore that out of everyone in the Isles, it's these two that manage to live safely while under the nose of a god who has the potential to destroy everything with a temper tantrum.

I love that Eda's still keeping good spirits despite how dire things have become. She's joking around and taking the same risks she would take on any occasion. She even risks a lot by coming out to talk to Raine, which is just all kinds of bittersweet and absolutely in character for Eda.

And I LOVE that Eda's still cursed. I honestly thought the Collector would take the Owlbeast out of her, but no. She still has to deal with it, and Lilith is the one helping Eda brew potions, which is another little detail I can't help but admire. After causing her sister to deal with years of torture thanks to the curse, Lilith is paying things forward by making the potion Eda needs to stay normal, and it's great. Everything about this is great...My only complaint is that I wish this special was longer.

So much of what happens with Eda, King, and Lilith happens off-screen. Stuff like Lilith changing back, them all finding themselves in this comfortable situation, and researching how to beat the Collector are essential things for the story, and we don't get to see it happen. They don't show that stuff as a way to cut corners with a season with so much to do and little time to do it, and I can understand that. It's why I don't really HATE this for what it is. I just know that this section of the special would be a lot better if we saw more.

Ok, that’s a lot more negativity than usual in the LIKES section. Let’s go for more positivity.

The Return of the Memory Tweezers: I always love it when a series nears its end, it brings back something established in a previous episode. Especially a good one.

And that's what this is: A great callback that has plot relevance. Luz needs to remember something she's seen only once, so they might as well bring out the thing that gives a perfect memory...Let's hope none of the photos get destroyed. Luz has enough problems as it is. Being brainless isn't one of them.

And as much as I want to keep this positivity going…it’s time to get into it…

Belos Taking Over Raine’s Body: Does Dana Terrace hate Raine Whispers or something? Why does she take joy in letting them suffer?!

Once I saw Belos loom over Odalia and the other puppets, I felt so excited. FINALLY, that woman is going to get some real punishment for being the big b-word that she is! And then Belos jumped into Raine...and all that excitement turned into despair.

Odalia was RIGHT THERE! She would have made for a PERFECT meat puppet! Look at this:

That's some quality meat right there...That might be the most risque joke I've made when talking about this show...Ah well.

Anyways, as much as I do not like this, I can't say I hate it. Well, I DO hate it, but that's why I love it. I'm SUPPOSED to hate that Belos did this to Raine, just as I'm supposed to dread the gut wrench of a reunion when Eda finally clues into what happens...Yeah, not looking forward to that.

Can we go back to being positive?

Gus Knew Hunter was a Grimwalker: Oh, yeah. That'll do.

Fans called this one, but it's still pretty cool to have it confirmed. It kind of recontextualizes how Gus tried to cheer Hunter up with Cosmic Frontier. He gave Hunter something to connect with that also happens to help with his inner turmoil. It's pretty powerful, and it's reason #456 of why I love The Owl House: Future episodes make previous ones better now that you know what's going to happen.

There. That was pretty positive. Can we keep the positivity going?

Kikimora: No? Ok…

So, a LOT of people do not like Kikimora. She might be the most hated character in the series if Odalia Blight didn't exist (SHE WAS RIGHT THERE!). With that said...I love Kiki. She's such a chaotic little gremlin that I can't help but adore her antics. Take what she does in this special, for example. Her current grand plan is to be the queen of teenagers. It's so petty and ridiculous that I can't help but love it. If you hate her, I can't stop you. But I can't physically hate someone this chaotic.

Also, Kikimora is pretty adorable when not wearing a cone of shame. And Camila calling Kiki a little red kitten is the best. Man, I love Camila.

Camila and Luz’s Talk: I REALLY love Camila. I might even be IN love with her?

Can you be in love with a fictional character?

Never mind, I just heard what I asked. Let's, uh...pretend I didn't ask that and move on.

Joking aside...this scene is magical. Camila is far from a perfect woman or mother. She admits to that here and now, acknowledging her mistakes, apologizing for them, and promises to do better. It might not make her perfect, but it IS what makes Camila the best cartoon mom to me. She's a woman who tries her damnedest and owns up to mistakes she's made rather than deny that she's made any, like a wannabee meat puppet that I know (SHE WAS RIGHT THERE!). If there's any mother you want to aspire to be, it's, without a doubt, Camila. A woman who shows love when it matters the most, even if there were a few mistakes along the way. I appreciate her for what she is, and you'd better believe Luz does too.

Luz Wanted to be Understood: In "Hunting Palismen," Luz is asked a question: What does she want to be? That question never got answered, and after so many twists and turns, I forgot that was an issue for Luz. So, to have "For the Future" bring it back and finally answer what Luz wants to be. And I am blown away by that answer.

It's an obvious one, in hindsight. In the first episode, it's apparent that Luz's problem is that no one understands her. Not her teachers, classmates, or even her mother. So to have this moment of realizing how it feels to be understood by Camila, to have someone say, "I know how much it hurts to be you," it's an epiphany that Luz didn't know she needed. And the look on her face, mixed with the beautiful colors, makes for an image that gives me goosebumps for the pure joy I felt. And the joy keeps on coming. + Palisman

Luz Gets Her Staff: And she's frickin' happy about it!

GENUINELY happy! In "Thanks to Them," every time Luz smiled, it NEVER reached her eyes. You always saw the sadness she tried her hardest to fight. But here? Luz is grinning ear to ear and being her old goofy self again. And it is EUPHORIC to see my poor girl be the Luz I remember. I don't mind a main character going through an emo phase, just as long as it's just a phase. Funny enough, I prefer my favorite characters to be happy, not miserable.

Hunter’s Powers: The same goes for Hunter. The boy's a SUPERHERO! A lot of us predicted that he'd still do that dash thing with Flapjack inside him, but seeing it is a whole different thing together! Again, I love seeing my favs happy, even if there's a bittersweetness to Hunter's new joy.

But the positivity train doesn’t end there…

Stringbean: I LOVE HER ALREADY!

Stringbean is the cutest little bugger ever, and the fact that she shapeshifts is amazing. As far as we know, no other palisman can do this, making her the most unique one to ever exist. And that's perfect because a unique witch like Luz deserves a palisman that's as original as her. Plus, the others guessing what she might be is a great shout out to fans making the EXACT same theories.

Man, what a perfect, hopeful end to such a great--

Collector Wants to Play a New Game: MOTHER F**KER!

Yeah, believe it or not, the stakes somehow got HIGHER now that the characters are dealing with an ANGRY Collector. And I'm scared. I'm scared of what an angry Collector could mean for the future...pun unintended.

WHAT I DISLIKED

It Got Leaked: I'm not kidding. That's my ONLY complaint regarding "For the Future." We didn't deserve a special THIS GOOD early. I am so glad to have the patience to wait and even MORE relieved that I didn't get spoiled that much because watching this special with a more-or-less fresh mindset is an experience that proves why it's important to wait. The hype of counting down the days, even counting down the seconds, to watch a premier is all a part of the experience. I can't blame people for being a LITTLE impatient, especially if they thought it'd be better to watch it and not worry about spoilers, but to those who leaked it? You get a good ol' fuck you from your pal Ordinary Schmuck. This one is extra special because I didn't censor it.

But, not to worry. There's a chance to redeem yourself. Disney put up the entire special on YouTube, and you can watch it--FOR FREE!--if you live in these regions:

The US

The UK

Australia

Mexico

And other countries

If it's locked out of your region for some reason (and you're apparently so against getting a VPN), then I guess that's the ONLY excuse you have to pirate it. I don't condone it, but I learn my lesson on Reddit. Don't tell fans not to pirate The Owl House. They'll be extra salty about it. However, if you're NOT locked out, there's no excuse to NOT watch it. Clearly, paying for stuff is an issue for people, but since "For the Future" is now free and RIGHT THERE, why not watch it? Like, stow your hatred for Disney just a second, so you can give the people who worked tirelessly on this show the respect they deserve. Because if the views aren't getting close to the millions by the time I post this review, then I'M gonna be salty.

And, yeah, that's the only complaint I have regarding "For the Future."

...

…Also, some obviously cut corners due to not having enough time. Stuff like Boscha's redemption and the stuff regarding Eda, King, and Lilith happening off-screen are big ones to come to my mind. I'm not bothered by this because I fully understand why it's done, but it does leave one a tiny bit irked.

But, seriously, that's about it.

IN CONCLUSION

"For the Future" is another solid A episode! But are you really surprised anymore?

If I had to pick, I'd say I like "Thanks to Them" a LITTLE bit more, primarily because that one feels more like a standalone episode. With "For the Future," it feels more like set-up. It's still GREAT with some fantastic character moments, some surprisingly great scenes of development, and by somehow raising the stakes MORE than they already were! I may want it to stand out more on its own, but it's still necessary as we lead into the grand finale. Plus, considering how the writers have so much to do and very little time to do it, I don't mind a full special of set-up, even if a few corners were cut along the way. I'm still left with something great that I'll be watching and rewatching as I dream of what comes next in the future.

While also hoping, for the show's sake, nothing else gets leaked...Seriously, if ANYTHING about special Numero Tres gets leaked online, I might actually blow a gasket.

[the-a-j-universe]

Regarding your recent Amphibia review two quick heads-up: Hop Pop's dream of becoming an actor was first teased in season 1 ep. 1b, because he was reading the book "So, you are a failed actor", with other minor clues leaft throughout season 1, so it wasn't completly out of the blue, even if this was the first time he mentioned it out loud. Also, in a blink and a miss cameo, Polly's grim fairy tale book was a gift for Sprig by their mom. Foreshadowing perhaps? Keep up the good work 👍😊

Okay, cool Thank you.

I’m thinking of doing a rewatch on a watch together kinda sight soon if people would be into that. I need to reacquaint myself with the specific details of season one.

[ramblingguy54]

26, 29, 30, 36?

*cracks knuckles*Alright, let’s do this.

26: The late Robin Williams & Hayao Miyazaki are two particular people in my life I’ve idolized for what happiness/imagination they’ve brought into others lives. Robin Williams untimely passing still hurts for me to look back on because this man made it his mission to bring so much joy into other peoples lives through his acting on the big screen, whether it was dramatic or comedic. That’s what I found the most impressive about Robin’s range in acting. He could be an over the top funny individual, but Robin’s acting chops were in a league of their own. Whether he was behind the microphone having the time of his life as Genie on Aladdin or giving a powerful dramatic performance on Good Will Hunting as Will’s therapist, I could feel the unconditional kindness. There was something about Robin’s acting power that would usually manage to reel me in. Even if I never knew him in real life, obviously, this man just radiated with so much kindness that I felt from his entire presence on screen. It’s seriously unfortunate what became of Robin Williams in the end with his unexpected death, but his legacy has inspired me to be kinder to others in real life. As for Hayao Miyazaki, this guy is a huge factor in why I got into loving anime related stuff all the more, as his creations in storytelling and the art itself for the movies were beyond unlike anything I still have yet to seen be topped quite frankly. It’s so easy for me to get emotionally lost in his films like My Neighbor Totoro, Princess Mononoke, Castle In The Sky, and Spirited Away. This man never ceases to amaze me with how usually impactful and in depth his films are. They’re so full life that it’s easy to lose sight of whats happening in the actual story at times. Mayazaki understood how to breathe a ton of humanity into creating such resonating works of fiction. Have a much greater appreciation for them in my adult years. There’s a reason why they inspired companies, like Pixar, to create immersive stories of their own.

29: Favorite films range from Zootopia, Wreck It Ralph, M. Night Shyamalan’s Unbreakable, Aladdin (1992), The Secret Of NIMH, The Lion King (1994), The Incredibles, UP, Ratatouille, Wall-E, Finding Nemo, Inside Out, Kung Fu Panda 1 & 2, How To Train Your Dragon Trilogy, Toy Story 1-4, The Great Mouse Detective, Lilo & Stitch, The Emperors New Groove, A Goofy Movie, Good Will Hunting, The Fox And The Hound, The Land Before Time, The Brave Little Toaster, Frozen, Shrek 1 & 2, Coraline, Paranorman, Kubo And The Two Strings, The Muppets (2011), Princess Mononoke, Castle In The Sky, My Neighbor Totoro, Kiki’s Delivery Service, Spirited Away, Porco Rosso, Summer Wars, Beauty and the Beast (1991), Winnie The Pooh (1977 & 2011 iterations.), The Peanuts Movie, The Princess And The Frog, The Jungle Book (2016), Scooby Doo On Zombie Island, Harry Potters’ 1-7, Christopher Nolan’s Batman Trilogy, Wonder Woman, Sam Raimi’s Spiderman 1 & 2, The Black Panther, Thor & Thor Ragnorok, The Avengers, Avengers Infinity War & Endgame, Spiderman Into the Spiderverse, Captain America Trilogy, Iron Man Trilogy, Star Wars Episodes 4-8, and The Breakfast Club to stop this list from getting any longer. =P

30: Favorite TV shows range from Cowboy Bebop, Avatar The Last Airbender, Yu Yu Hakusho, Digimon Adventure 01 & Tamers, Teen Titans (2003), Batman The Animated Series, Ed, Edd,& Eddy, Samurai Jack, Courage The Cowardly Dog, The Powerpuff Girls (Screw that garbage reboot.), Chowder, Bojack Horseman, DuckTales (1987), DuckTales (2017), Gravity Falls, Code Geass (This series has shaky writing in a number of areas, but that ending was beautiful.), Amphibia, Steven Universe, Oban Star Racers, Made In Abyss, Stranger Things, Gargoyles, My Hero Academia, Naruto (I’ve got a soft spot for this series despite my MANY problems with its story later on.), Pokemon (Serious nostalgia overload!), Dragonball Z (My very first anime series I got into through the Toonami block. A real shocker I know. LOL!), Gurren Lagann, Kill la Kill, The Promised Neverland, Death Note, Chip N Dale Rescue Rangers, Sonic SatAM, Talespin, Darkwing Duck, The Grim Adventures Of Billy & Mandy, Robot Chicken, A Pup Named Scooby Doo, Kim Possible, Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood, and Fullmetal Alchemist (2003).

36: My three dream scenarios I’d like to fulfill? 

1: Become A Voice Actor

Been interested in voice acting since I was a young teen, but have been in a conflicted state over these recent passing years in my life on whether or not I’d like to approach that route. There’s a lot of commitment I’d have to put into auditioning my butt off for roles I may or not get. Then comes the consistent practicing to keep my vocal chords in shape, so I don’t get rusty whatsoever. The industry for this kind of job can be hard to get recognized in too by how many other notable well known VA’s there are already. Not to mention, from what I’ve researched up on being a voice actor doesn’t bring in the money naturally, as it’s more of a passion job which that’s terrific and all, but if I want to partake in this profession I’ll have to juggle a job along with that which putting all those factors in my head honestly makes me intimidated. Ahhh well, it’s just something I’ll have to wait and see on if I can make that idea into a reality or not. No need to rush myself, of course.

2: Taking Up The Mantle Of Reviewing Shows & Films For A Living

Fiction, just like for many people, has been a great deal of helping me in my life moments of stress, solitude, depression, and anger. I’d love nothing more than to further express that to anyone out there in reviewing in great detail certain films or shows that I’ve come to love over these years in my life so far. Mostly for animation though, as its been a gateway for finding many gems of quality films or series. It never ceases to surprise me on how creative and powerful animation can be with its inventive ways of getting me to become an emotional mess. While I do enjoy live action series and films they pale in comparison to the beauty animation has brought into my life, since my early childhood of watching shows on Cartoon Network, Toon Disney, and Nickelodeon to a smaller degree. I’d like to think I’m good enough with how I present my reasons on why I feel so strongly connected to these stories showcasing characters trying to find hope in their own hard times. I try my hardest to take moments of my own life and find ways to connect it with whatever story I’m getting into next, so it can be all the more a special experience for myself. It’s important to put whatever character resonates with you most in their shoes for why you feel their emotional journey connecting with your own life on every conceivable level possible. That will make it when you write these kinds of reviews a very empowering read for others to feel either heard in their own feelings or simply giving others a new perspective to consider on this piece of fiction you’re discussing. Seeing some of my own particular analytical posts in the past here on Tumblr garner some attention from people gives me a boost of feeling better about potentially making this choice.

3: Starting A Family Of My Own…?

I can’t begin to tell ya how many times I’ve gone back and forth for getting married in the distant future to become a father has sped through my mind. On one hand, it scares the crap out of me to be taking up that big of a responsibility. However, on the other hand its deeply fascinated me emotionally of creating life through love for your significant other in starting your own family tree. I’d love to be able to raise kids of my own to pass on the lessons I’ve learned in life to make them become better people in the distant future, while showering them with unconditional love and affection. That would fill me up with such an indescribable joyous feeling to hear their own dreams and desires on what they want to accomplish in life. While I’d be a strict parent, I wouldn’t be a hard headed one quick to dismiss their own complaints if they had problems with how I handled things, once they start to get older. The kind of parent I’d want to be is an understanding open minded one who doesn’t judge their son or daughter for when they have an issue with me. Just because I’m a parent in that scenario doesn’t put me on a pedestal of immunity from criticism. Granted, I certainly don’t want to be a doormat for them to try taking advantage of either, but it’s also important to not let your parental role go to your head, too.

Although, I don’t plan on even trying to make this last dream of mine happen anytime soon. This is something that is MUCH later down the road that I wish to have happen. However, I won’t lie and say that I haven’t considered just staying content as a single guy for the rest of my life relying on close friends to bring me joy equivalent to this dream. While I adore the concept of creating life through love and being a father, there’s a shit ton of responsibility that comes with it. The life of a parent is not just putting your all into it. You gotta give more than just 100% when wanting to be a parent. It’s a serious test of your spiritual endurance, which I’m not sure is something I’ll ever have the courage to do, but then again things can change in life on the flip of a dime, so I’ll see how this all plays out for myself. Maybe I’ll stay happily single or I’ll happily be raising kids.

Gee, I wonder why this dream of being a parent resurfaced in my head recently this year? Oh yeah, it was thanks to this character here.

Seriously, Della Duck holds a real special place in my heart for making me feel these kind of feelings yet again. Darn you space mom! LOL.

Thanks for the ask, man.

[shehulksworld]

More changes to everything (Quick reminder video)

Hello Broly army it's your favorite black shehulk adult content creator Yolanda kikou a.k.a Yobrolli and it is just an Quick reminder video

To let you guys that i changed my bio on my YouTube, Twitter, Twitch, and Instagram etc etc,

And as for what happened in 2020 and 2021 about not seeing my favorite old video games i grew up and new too like wild arms 3, destroy all humans and many others

plus your BrolyQueen has a boatload of video games like alot and more than one console so please be patient and i will came those games back when i feel like it.

As i say every single time i will say  it for all three tribute videos leading into amphibia season 3 while some light hearted moments will be shown there will also be some dark moments and sad moments as well

Regarding the destroy amphibia world, anne, sasha, and marcy in super saiyan calamity transformations, the core, king andrias past, all in, the hardest thing, the prophecy and so much more,

Remember amphibia third tribute part 1 premieres at 2:37 pm, part 2 premieres at 3:40 pm, and the final one part 3 premieres at 6:50 pm local time on june 3 see you there don't miss it,

And i'll miss amphibia 😭 i love this show, thank you for the laughs and amazing enjoyed and video games, star wars, cool anime references, story, setting, worlds, wonderful characters, and brilliant voice actors,

Even though i started watching in 2021 to this year 2022 it hurts to see it go thank you matt braly for creating such an amazing wonderful excellent Disney cartoon 😭.

Also this my art new Deviantart drawing i drew for the new amphibia episode the core and the king this  weekend as you can see i'm so excited yeet :D

Also hopefully if there's another game awards i'll be able to co stream like i was trying to do like i did the last time this year.

Also i got creators monthly again for  my YouTube channels Yolanda kikou and Video game Music 0.2 this is awesome and i make to dominating review in again this year.

Also before i go i also added the 🔞 in the about section of my channel and social media pages to go along with the bio and even though i say some rated E vids will stay some will go i will be deleting more from my YT studio going forward,

Plus This is a channel becoming a  rated t and rated m tribute, gaming, and videos youtube gaming community channel after all.

But Anyway my adult audience i play vrchat now and i added it to my steam gaming playlist on youtube so if you wanna add your Queen on vrchat my name is the same as my youtube name Yolanda kikou (adults only friends and favorite content creators),

And for those that are new to my channel and social media pages like Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, and many others you can call me Yolanda kikou, tina_blue_vampire, she hulk, blue mary, aisha clan clan, chun li, or Cammy

Which ever you wanna talk me cause Yobrolli bogard The Queen of Brolys is just my fanmade persona and a fanart name i came up with for a fanart original dragon ball character

i drew on Deviantart from November 9, 2019 that is a saiyan clone of 4 people myself, dbz Broly, Terry bogard from fatal fury, and Cammy white from Street fighter.

Also my 8 year youtube anniversary is this April 17 Easter sunday this week so i will be returning to live streaming on YouTube that so see you broly army and have an amazing legendary day bye bye 👋👩.

[ordinaryschmuck]

What I Thought About "Follies at the Coven Day Parade" from The Owl House

Salutations, random people on the internet who most likely won't read this! I am an Ordinary Schmuck. I write stories and reviews and draw comics and cartoons.

AND IT'S BACK! After six months, Disney's latest hit that they shunned, called The Owl House, has made its return! And the fandom lost their gosh dang minds while waiting for it! It's not like we could have watched other shows to fill the void in the next six months. No, no. People had to add more Hootys to the Owl House, adding more scars to Hunter's face, bald Annes, LEGO Edas, and this one dumb schmuck who thought he could write a drabble a day during his fourth year of college (Seriously, what was I thinking).

Not to mention the dozens of people who shipped Hunter with everything but the kitchen sink.

And there's the f**king sink. Gosh dangit. WHY COULDN'T HUNTER HAVE BEEN THE ONE CONFIRMED TO BE AROMANTIC?! And why did I have to draw that?

Whatever. The series is back, and now we don't have to rely on MoringMark to keep us sane in its absence. Now, with that said, let's see how "Follies At the Coven Day Parade" reintroduces us to the sadder side of Season 2!

...Yup. This half of the season's the sadder half. Might explain a lot about what happens in this episode, doesn’t it?

Spoilers below.

WHAT I LIKED

Luz Making Another Video for Camila: A solid way to start after how we left things off in "Yesterday's Lie" while also showing Luz's motivation for this episode...and maybe the rest of the season. The first time Luz made a video for Camila, I think there's a reason why she deliberately chose to stick around the Owl House and show off the people inside. And we see that reason here. Luz may not mind the day-to-day wackiness of the Boiling Isles, but she knows Camila will have a heart attack if she sees what happens to a student who gets detention. The fact that Luz probably getting detention a lot back in the human realm might not do much to ail Camila from said heart attack.

Also, Hooty shedding his skin to wash it or something will undoubtedly give anyone nightmares, let alone Camila.

Still, this was a nice way to begin the second half of a season. It continues from the events of "Yesterday's Lie" while showing Luz has to try harder to convince her mom to let her stay. Or at least visit the Boiling Isles.

The Kids Theorizing About Why Belos Wears a Mask: There are two things to love from this.

One, this shows just how much these kids are, well, kids. They're goofing off, coming up with crackpot theories about what Belos has under his mask, with only Amity being the closest because, of course, she is. She deals with what's more likely, not what's more fun.

And two, this actually comes into play later when Belos actually reveals his face. Don't worry, I'll get into that. For now, I just want to allow us all the time to appreciate how well-tight this series and its script are. Something as simple as kids shooting the s**t turns out to be an integral moment of foreshadowing, and I loved how easily it went over my head. Yeah, that's right. A kids' show managed to have a solid use of foreshadowing in a way that surprised this grown adult. Granted, I'm a person who ate a crayon when he was eight, but the point still stands: These writers know how to tell a good story.

Amity Learning Spanish: These writers also know EXACTLY WHAT THE FANS WANT! Seriously, I cannot begin to explain to you how precious it is that Amity is learning Spanish for Luz! It shows how committed Amity is to the relationship, where she wants to find out as much of Luz's culture as is available to her. And that's everything a ride or die Lumity shipper like myself could ever hope for!

Plus, she calls Luz a sweet potato! COME ON! COME ON!

Luz Kisses Amity on the Cheek: COME! ON!

I'm telling you, we're one Lumity episode away from a full-on kiss on the lips. And when that happens, prepare for all social media sites to snap like a twig!

Eda and King Know About the Promise: On the one hand, I would have loved to see Luz tell Eda and King rather than having that confrontation off-screen, especially when Luz directly lied to them the second she got back. BUT, on the other hand, I am so glad that Luz isn't keeping this big promise she made a secret from the people she loves. Lesser writers would milk that type of thing for unnecessary drama, and I'm glad that Dana Terrace and her talented team are above that. Granted, Luz still keeps the secret from her friends and Amity. But even that doesn't last long.

Besides, it shows how much Luz cares for Eda and King for them to be the first to know the truth. They're practically a second family to her. The least Luz could do is tell them something that could potentially jeopardize it. So, not only is telling Eda and King the truth a great moment of dodging a cliche, but it also shows a great deal about their relationship.

Luz’s Reaction to Raine: On the topic of relationships, can we admit that we're all Luz here? She's a die-hard shipper like the rest of us. So, of course, she'd be obsessed with the idea that Eda once had an ex. One that Eda had a spy keep tabs on...which is a tad bit creepy, but at least it paid off on knowing what happened to Raine after that fight with Darius and Ebberwolf.

And Luz is all there for the idea of bringing Eda and Raine together. Which, yeah, that's adorable. But it also shows a lot more about how much Luz cares about Eda. She wants a mentor to find happiness and would do anything to give her that. Especially if that means partaking in a kidnapping.

Why Luz Wants to Help Kikimora: But it's not just shipping that motivates Luz. When she sees Kikimora worried about not seeing her family again, you can see in Luz's expression how badly she connects with it. Luz wants a solution where everyone is happy, getting an ending where she can get everything that she wants. Luz might have trusted Kikimora too much, but you understand why. She's pretty much on panic mode 100% of the time, thanks to her promise with Camila, having only the briefest of pauses to worry about someone she loves. It's really heavy to think about, making you feel for Luz so hard.

Man, I wish there was a moment of levity, so I didn't have to think about how bad Luz is hurting...

Edric Selling Fireworks: ...This will do.

I consider this another moment of the writers knowing what the fans want. And Edric selling illegal fireworks that got his dumb ass in the hospital for testing out? Yeah, that's about a lot I could ask for from him.

Willow Working Out: Again, THESE WRITERS KNOW WHAT WE WANT! Ever since Dana confirmed that Willow works out on the weekends, fans clung onto that like a life preserver in a sinking ship! So, I'm betting that it's great to see visual confirmation rather than just taking Dana's word for it. It also adds an extra 'screw you' to any jerks left who thought that Willow was fat. She's not. She's buff as FU--

Amity and Willow’s Talk: --UDGE, do I adore this scene! This season needed another Willow and Amity one-on-one session, and the writers delivered. Amity, who is beyond worried for her girlfriend, goes to the one person she can vent these feelings to. Willow listens, offers advice, and even provides a distraction for Amity to focus on (while also explaining why Willow's hair is different in the promos. Cool). But I want to focus more on...a certain reaction from Willow.

When Amity admitted that she was glad they could do things like talk and braid hair again, I believed her. However, note how Willow doesn't say, "me too." She just hums and lets Amity continue the braiding. Heck, Willow doesn't even look as happy as Amity does. Willow just looks down with...not a frown, but a smile either. It's more like acceptance. Willow accepts Amity, willing to let her have this moment even if Willow herself isn't exactly comfortable. It speaks volumes about Willow as a character and her relationship with Amity. She's still not willing to forgive and forget just yet (yet being the key-word there), but she isn't going to let Amity suffer. That's not who Willow is. She's the type of person to act better than to let a grudge define her. And that's just wholesome.

Terra Snap-Dragon: But enough about wholesomeness. Let's talk about the latest villain added to this show's roster, whom the fandom will undoubtedly turn into a GILF. I'M CALLING IT NOW!

To be honest with you all, Terra Terra-fies me! Ha! Puns to hide the fear.

But, no, seriously, something is unsettling about this woman. She's one of those "nice" types of villains. She doesn't act malicious (for the most part) as she moves and speaks with a kind and caring smile. A smile that's fake as f**k, but at least she uses it to hide her heinous actions, making them seem not as bad as they would have been. Oh, Terra's still bad, don't get me wrong. But she could have done much worse. For instance, she could have killed Raine. But instead, she drugs them, making Raine still alive and well. Just...not without their core memories. It's sick and twisted, but at least it's drugging Raine instead of lobotomizing them, making Raine a shell of a person they once were.

Still, with how easily Terra could have crushed Luz without Amity's interference or how quickly Terra dealt with Kikimora and Princess, it is clear that Terra is NOT a person you want to mess with. She may try to act nice at first. But if you get on your bad side, pray that she'll show mercy to you.

Raine: And trust me, it's weird to consider what happened to Raine as merciful. Because, as I said, they're still the same Raine. They act caring enough to talk to Kikimora about her nerves, crack a few jokes, and still have stage fright when the center of attention. It's just their memories are changed, and that's almost worse than being held prisoner in...whatever the hell that coven brand wrapped them in. But, at the same time, it's a preferable position. Eda just needs to reach out and grab that part of Raine that still remembers who they are. We already see evidence that the effects of Terra's drug are possible to fight off and that their feelings for Eda are almost enough to do it. They still let Eda go after the fight, not wanting her to get caught and shedding a tear when she leaves. It shows a sign that the real Raine is still there. But, as is, they're a shadow of their former selves. And that idea is enough to break anyone's heart, including Eda's, who only leaves because she has no choice.

Yeesh, things got heavy again. Can we have another moment of levity?

Hooty and King’s Escape: Thank you.

Yeah, this was funny. Seeing these coven guards run away in fear of a float of Belos is just comedy that writes itself.

Amity Helping Luz: You love to see an awesome girlfriend in action.

Personally, I love that, despite her issues, Amity is still there for Luz and doesn't bring up the video until after the crisis is over. It shows that she understands a little something known as priorities, trusting that they'll talk about it when the time is right.

Luz and Amity vs Kikimora: But as cool as it is to see one awesome girlfriend in action, two is even better!

Seeing Luz and Amity work together in a fight is, ONCE AGAIN, everything a fan like me could want! The way they move in unison, come up with power-moves and hold each other's hands when things get too intense is...PERFECT! It's a perfect moment that goes on just long enough to make their fight against a well-trained witch and her dragon believable while still giving us that epic goodness.

Luz and Amity Talk: Unfortunately, the epicness has to come down sometime.

First, can we all appreciate that Amity never watched the video? Because I sure do. Amity all but crucified Luz for thinking she read Amity's diary. It makes sense how much Amity prioritizes privacy, so she wouldn't cross that line, no matter how badly she might want to. But that doesn't mean she won't confront Luz about it.

When Amity asks Luz about the video, she makes it clear she won't pry but still states that she can't help if Luz won't let her. It's a genuine moment of communication that not a lot of shows take advantage of. Most would let Luz keep the secret indefinitely, hurting Amity more by telling the truth after months of indirectly lying. And it makes me so happy that Luz came clean. Well, sort of. She does admit to Amity what happened with the portal but still hides how upsetting the whole ordeal is. When Amity confronts Luz, she looks away, almost about ready to cry. But when she turns back, Luz is smiling, almost as if to say, "Yeah, my life is beyond confusing at the moment, but I'm fine!" Except that she's not fine. She looks about ready to throw up from her anxieties at any second, with one bad day being all she needs to crack and crumble. But she doesn't tell Amity that. Instead, Luz tells Amity what she wanted to know, keeping a brave face for everything else. Amity could through it. We know she can. But ut for the moment, she'll let it pass. For now.

Belos’ Announcement: And from the wholesomeness, we go to the downright malice.

Now, this scene shows what makes Emperor Belos an effective main antagonist. Listen to how he announces the Day of Unity. We know it's bad, and our main cast knows it's bad, but the rest of the Boiling Isles doesn't. And it's all because Belos doesn't present the Day of Unity as something to be feared. He states it as a solution, saying that it will bring them all to a form of utopia. And, to provide a bit of trust to his community, he finally reveals what his face looks like, letting everyone know how badly wild magic may have scarred him and that he's willing to share that with his subjects. His speech and his face reveal are something that proves he's more than just a dictator. He's also a diplomat. One that knows how to work a crowd, hiding his malicious intentions behind nice words and grand gestures to distract them from who he really is. Something that real-life dictators do, and that's what makes Belos an effective threat. He seems plausible to happen.

“We’ll take it one day at a time”: This is a great way to end the episode. Everything is in a state where no one knows what to do or how to fix things. Raine is brainwashed, the Day of Unity is in a month, and Luz still doesn't know what to do with her mom. And yet, they end on this statement, "We'll take it one day at a time." There's a sense of hope to those words. Despite how bad things are now, our characters will get through it. They just need to take it slow and work through each problem as best as they can.

It's not a happy ending, but it's a hopeful one. And I couldn't have asked for a better way to end such a perfect episode...That is, if the episode was perfect.

WHAT I DISLIKED

Kikimora: Yeah...I didn't buy Kikimora wanting to leave the Emperor's Coven for a second. I honestly thought that with how heavy-handed Kikimora was acting, she was actually planning to pull a double-cross. But, no, she really was considering leaving. Which makes no sense. She nearly killed children just to get in Belos' good graces. I sincerely doubt her own family would have been enough to make her reconsider things, considering how quickly she chose against them the second Kikimora realized a promotion was possible. I guess there's no one better to use for an inevitable betrayal against Luz, meaning the real problem isn't how they wrote Kikimora in this episode. It's how they wrote her in the series. If the writers wanted her second thoughts to be believable, show Kikimora being somewhat objecting to ideas made by Belos instead of showing blind loyalty for him. Also, you know, DON'T HAVE HER ALMOST KILL CHILDREN! There is a spark of character development in how she now looks scared to be working for Belos, but her role in this episode still falls short...Even shorter than her.

A-OH! Got her! Haha...but seriously, the writers kind of fumbled this time around.

IN CONCLUSION

I'd say that "Follies at the Coven Day Parade" is an A-. Kikimora might not have been best utilized, but everything else works so well. The episode delivers on everything fans could ever want, presents new character and story developments, and shows why these characters and their relationships are so endearing. It's the best possible way to return to the new season, making me excited and terrified for what's to come next. And given how that's pretty much the theme of Season 2, I'd say "Follies at the Coven Day Parade" did its job right.

(Oh, and I also saw the new episode of Amphibia. It’s a solid mix of being wholesome, awesome, and hilarious. Anne’s parents are still the best, and Mr. X is as entertaining of a villain as he is a competent one. And the ending felt very ominous while leaving me curious to see what happens next. A definite A+ for sure…and, yes, this is how I’m reviewing both shows from now on. Because Disney just HAD to play them both back to back)

(Them sons of witches…)

[ordinaryschmuck]

Do you want to know the real reason why last week’s episodes of Amphibia frustrates me? It’s not because I want more episodes like “Fight at the Museum,” something that’s heavily story-driven and exciting. It’s because if these writers are going to try to blend episodic slice-of-life storytelling with serialized fantasy, then the least they could do is make the more slice-of-life episodes be like “Temple Frogs.”

With that episode, it’s more than just the main plot that moves forward. We learn more about Anne’s life on Earth while showing how messed up it was that she disappeared other than making a joke about someone thinking she died.

Think about that. A thirteen-year-old disappeared with NO ONE knowing what happened, let alone the parents. Here, we know how much the Thai community in Anne’s town missed her, while also showing how messed up Anne’s parents got with her absence. Something other than the main plot moves forward and development shines despite the fact that “Temple Frogs” is basically a celebration of Thai culture. That’s what I want from episodes where the main story takes the back seat. Even if progress isn’t fully made with Anne getting back to Amphibia, we still see SOMETHING getting developed. It’s like how in Season Two of The Owl House where Luz found a huge clue about how to get back home, but had that plot shelved as the series brought up other narratives.

Other narratives, being the key word there. I’m fascinated about what must have happened when Anne left, and I’m glad to get an episode that acknowledges how much her family missed her. Almost as much as I’m fascinated about how much this episode shows off about Thai culture.

As much as I love The Owl House, I will say that one thing Amphibia has a leg up on is cultural representation. It’s cool that Luz is Dominican, but there’s not much acknowledgment of that outside of her and Camila talking in Spanish a hand full of times. There have been a couple episodes in Amphibia, not strictly “Temple Frogs,” that shines a light on what it is to be Thai. Mostly because Matt Braly is Thai-American, and wanted to show more of a culture he believes is underrepresented. It’s pretty cool of him, and it’s why I wouldn’t trade “Temple Frogs” for the most epic, story-driven episode of the series.

So, in short, both episodes this week are great, and it’s nice that SOME progress is being made again.