#i love pre-series phineas and ferb stuff

[wherevenusholdssomeofficespace]

Lawrence and Candace

I think Lawrence and Candace's relationship is severely underrated. While to a certain extent it's partially because we spend less time with just the two, but what we do see is incredibly sweet.

The first episode we really get of them together is Lawrence teaching her how to parallel park. And then driving together in a Lawrence. While he's initially nervous, he tried to not let it get it to Candace, and by the end he's having fun, and has completely confidence in her. He's really proud of her and it's clear they both mean a lot to each other. They really are father and daughter with a lot of the same expressions throughout the scene. He really is proud of her.

The second episode I can think of is with the father daughter race. They always lose, and Lawrence's laid back personality contrasts with Candace's competitive one. But while Lawrence spent most of the episode, not actually with Candace, it makes it clear just how important Candace and Lawrence's relationship to each other. Lawrence enjoys spending time with Candace. Sure Candace doesn't LIKE losing, but she's still committed to it despite her usual aversion to potentially humiliating events.

In My Sweet Ride, we have Lawrence fixing up an old car just for her. She doesn't even have her license yet. Sure, he falls asleep part of the way through. But he genuinely was like, I'm going to build a car for her. Not only that, the same one he had as a kid.

It's not like they have a perfect relationship. Candace is A LOT and Lawrence is very laid back and often doesn't really get what's going on with Candace exactly. And Candace is often annoyed and impatient with him. But it's clear they care a lot about each other and are more willing to be patient with the others eccentricities. Even when Candace is complaining about her dad's stories she's still usually, somewhat, respectful.

Now I'm going to get a little bit... fanficy but bear with me.

Now in regards to in show, the Flynn-Fletchers are meant to show a healthy blended family dynamic. While this can come in many forms in reality, in Phineas and Ferb it comes in the form of what is functionally a nuclear family. Mom, Dad and three kids. Anything outside of that isn't important and is in fact probably takes away from the message that they are just like any other family.

But that doesn't mean I don't think it's worth completely ignoring. I mean, this is where fandom comes in isn't it?

We know from a line in Skiddley Whiffers that the Flynn-Fletcher kids have known each other for at least 6 years (or since the boys were about 3 or 4, and that Ferb has lived in the US for over half his life (so since he was 4 at most). While it's not clear exactly when Ferb moved to the US, or when Lawrence and Linda got married they've been a family for a while. Ferb and Phineas have known each other most of, if not as far, back as they can remember. To them this is pretty much how it has always been. This isn't true for Candace, who is 5 years older than Phineas, who therefore probably has some memories of a time before Lawrence and Ferb. While Lawrence already had a toddler son, Candace would have been a grade school aged girl. Phineas, at the very least, is very personable and gets along well with almost anyone.

But Candace is a very anxious person, and seems to have been an anxious kid too. "When I was small the world was such a strange place", the first line of Ducky Momo is my friend tells us one of the VERY few things we know about little Candace was that part of the reason for her attachment to Ducky Momo was that Ducky Momo comforted her when she was an anxious little kid. Now, the details Flynn-Fletcher family's backstory are unimportant, but no matter how things went down its very likely that Candace did have some big "confusing" changes in her childhood based on the two things we DO know: She and Phineas are full siblings, and Lawrence and Ferb came into their lives when Phineas and Ferb were at most 4.

This is CANDACE we're talking about there is no way she wasn't anxious about something. Whether it be not trusting Lawrence, or not thinking Lawrence would like her, there is very little doubt in my mind that Candace would take a bit to be completely comfortable with Lawrence. If Phineas and Ferb wasn't, well Phineas and Ferb, it would make for some easy drama for there to be tension between Candace and Lawrence by the time of the show. Phineas and Ferb isn't that kind of show of course, but that doesn't make their relationship any less sweet.

There's no way of knowing exactly how things went down, and quite frankly I don't need the show to confirm anything to me. Whether Lawrence somehow miraculously got Little Miss Anxiety herself to immediately like him and trust that he liked her unconditionally, or if he had to earn her trust because Candace worried he would hurt her family, or that he would leave because he didn't like Candace, the result is the same. Candace could not have been an easy kid to start parenting as an elementary schooler. This is a girl who went to Mars because she thought everyone hated her, got 50 patches in one day and joined the fireside girls to see a band, read all of Sherlock Holmes in one night. She is, quite simply, A LOT. But Lawrence and Candace ended up close by the time of the series.

There is a disconnect between them. Lawrence doesn't really always understand what Candace wants (in part due to the same sort of emotional oblivious Phineas also has). But that same disconnect exists between every member of the family to a certain extent. But ultimately Lawrence and Candace ARE father and daughter. She expresses annoyance with him, but he patiently keeps trying anyway. He may not have realized she still liked her Mary MacGuffin, or that constantly losing upset her, but he still makes an effort. To Candace, Lawrence is just her somewhat embarrassing, often boring, dad. But Candace still enjoys spending time with him and the things he does for her. And he's proud of Candace and loves spending time with her too.

[sauntervaguelydown]

for the fic commentary: All Our Urgent Restless Sighing, the whole chunk starting with "so you gonna start your own temple?" up until the end of that section because I feel like there's a lot of interesting Catholic-adjacent thought behind it. I can smell it. (also I had to go look at your author page to find the fic i wanted and how and why do you have 16 phineas and ferb fics??) or the part at the end where they're like 'so what did YOU get propositioned with during the war?'

busy BUSY weekend but I'm back at a desk with time to kill again

I LOVE that you asked about this, the temple stuff is one of those things that's really fun for me to think and write about, but which doesn't usually interest other people as much.

I love thinking about religious worldbuilding, as you can tell from my everything. I'm not actually catholic myself, but I'm from an Episcopal background which has enough in common that I can see why it might ping that way. Also I do know. a lot. about catholicism.

In general, and specifically in Banners, I think of pre-war religion as being a bit like modern day christianity, in the sense that there are more strict and less strict groups, there are outlier cults, there are spiritualists, there are folk religions that involve as much (if not more) magic ritual and superstition as actual worship. The functionists are explicitly a religious fundamental group who had power over the senate for a while, so that's also pretty similar to modern America.

I made up the Church of the Thirteen off the cuff, because I thought there ought to have been a sect that worshiped the Primes as borderline gods kind of like they do on Caminus, but since you have actual living Primes running around starting shit, that makes it hard to take a hard line "all primes are demi gods, all the time" stance. So I went with conservative original thirteen worship, more in the vein of TFP. But worshiping previous primes naturally lends itself to pro-prime propaganda, and I think this church would have had an equally political influence as the Functionists, but with different policy goals. To Deadlock, this style of religion encapsulates everything wrong with organized religion: the deification of politics, the pomp and circumstance, the elevation of one mech over another with the justification of "divine hierarchy".

Okay that's out of the way. So the thing they're actually talking about is this: It is traditional for a Prime to choose a church to hold all the sacred rituals and rites that a Prime is supposed to do in the holy-figure function of their job. Choosing a religious seat for the primacy is an ENORMOUS political move, like uhhh maybe choosing a supreme court judge in terms of what policies it endorses. Traditionally you choose a church in the capital city--you don't have to, but it makes logistics VERY difficult if you don't because so many functions require the state and religious functions in tandem. Then you narrow it down by churches that are physically large enough (and rich enough) to host the appropriate amount of pomp. Iacon has been the capital for several dynasties, so it has a LOT of churches per capita. Right after a Prime ascends, under normal circumstances, all the churches scramble to get up to snuff in the hopes of being picked. There's a lot of wasteful spending. I think The Thirteen had the seat last time around, with Sentinel--I don't think Zeta ever properly picked one, he just defaulted to the previous decision, so the Thirteen has had it twice in a row and a bunch of Nails came back to re-populate it after the war, so they're anxious to get a foothold back in the running of the planet.

As to what's going on with Optimus, well, it's just that. Okay mostly it's that I thought it would be hilarious to have a hard-line agnostic Prime. But also, JRO plays a lot with the truth and fiction of religion in his series, and it felt very true to the material to have this debate about what god is between these two characters. The ambiguity of what god is. The subjectivity of experience with what should be "divine". I feel so warm about the way that Deadlock blooms really for the first time with Optimus around this debate. He bonds with Ratchet in canon by having those uncomfortable but raw arguments that touched on religion. And it's also that this is a personal interest and passion for him. He doesn't need to be agreed with, he just needs to be heard and engaged with. In MTMTE, it's his ditzy hippy persona that needs to be peeled back so that the angry stubborn person inside can be exposed. In this fic, it's the posturing disinterested Deadlock persona that needs to be stripped back, so that the genuinely passionate and invested person can be exposed.

I also have very distinct and complex ideas about how Deadlock/Drift's relationship with religion works, but I think that's slightly beyond the prompt and also this is getting to be a WALL of text

[authenticcadence18]

DO you have some phinabella fic recs? 👀 After finding your blog i rewatched PnF and i'm craving some phinabella content now.

I SURE DO, ANON!!!! I SURE DO!!!!!💕 And welcome to the blog!!! :D

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FIRST OF ALL! Anything written by FrsdGirl on AO3 is FANTASTIC. She writes pining phineas sO VERY WELL and in general I love her characterization!!!! Most of her stuff is pre-Act Your Age and canon compliant! (So lots of mutual pining😌)

A few of my favorite fics of hers are Ice Cream and Dances, Time, and Picture Perfect. They’re all very sweet and FULL of that Phinabella dramatic irony we all know and love😂

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SECOND OF ALL!!!!!! Anything written by @palizinhas on AO3 is ALSO FANTASTIC!!!!!!! They write really, REALLY great Phinabella stuff (a lot of it is canon divergent!).

They have a couple of series: PnF SW which features a few one-shots taking place after the Star Wars special with Star Wars Phinabella (i am a SUCKER for Star Wars Phinabella); and Phinabella Musings, which features a few one shots that HURT but IN THE BEST WAY (and then the hurt pays off in the end so. Ah!!!). They’ve also got a couple canon-divergent oneshots!!! 5 Missed Chances is one of my favorite Phinabella fics EVER.

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THIRD OF ALL!!!! @elizabeth-against-the-universe on AO3 has some LOVELY Phinabella stuff!!!

Her most recent Phinabella fic, How To Earn Your Emotional Bravery Patch Without Realizing It, is a speculation on what could have happened if a certain scene in “Summer Belongs To You” had gone differently!!! It’s so sweet!!!!

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I have also, uh, written some Phinabella fic, if you are interested in checking it out😅.

Can’t Help Falling in Love is a canon-divergent multichap (and my pride and joy😂). If you like Phinabella, music, and Ferb being the best, I think you might like it!!! And I’ve posted some one-shots too! “Hi, Mrs. Garcia-Shapiro...is Isabella here?” is probably my favorite out of all those (it’s a speculation on how AYA could have gone differently)!

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I hope this helps, anon!!! And each of these authors have additional fics I did not list here!!

[mollyscribbles]

Owl House rewatch thoughts

* Hard to say from what little we see of her, but I think Luz' mom might have been less worried about her daughter reading fantasy and more about the "multiple incidents of bringing uncontained live animals and explosives to school" thing.

* If Eda considers Luz' Azura book as being only useful as kindling, it means she's not inclined to view human books as something she can make snails on.  Considering how unique her portal to the human realm is treated, where did Amity get her Azura books?  I've seen people suggest the author travels between realms, but if that were the case, Amity would've been able to get the latest volume from a local store rather than needing to borrow Luz' copy.

* Suggestions for other species that escaped from the Boiling Isles: the platypus and peacock mantis shrimp.

* "Weak nerd arms" ok really identifying with Luz here.

* Really love this take on Chosen One stories.  Because yes, there is an appeal in being told you're special, you're unique in the best possible way, but ultimately this is a story about people who aren't "special" so much as outcasts who do their best with the situation they're in.  Which is something that a lot more people can aspire to be.

* The fact that this was a set scheme(as the multiple fake maps would indicate) rather than a trap specifically designed for Luz indicates that even people who've spent their lives on the Boiling Isles would be drawn to the idea of being a magical chosen one. I bet Amity's not the only one to have an interest in fantasy literature around here.

* Oh wow Amity's first appearance outside the credits is . . . something.  It's easy to forget just how far she grew in one season.

* Eda's not a *bad* teacher, so much as she has yet to learn that teaching requires expanding on a concept you introduce and explaining your reasoning.  "Here is what you can learn from tasting snow" instead of just "here, taste these different kinds of snow"

* Hm.  For someone who despairs at the concept of the school teaching blind obedience, her teaching style kinda relies on it.  Bit of a hypocrite there, Eda.

* Gonna be honest, the first time I watched this and King mentioned Eda sneaking a drink of elixir, I thought it was going to turn out to be a magic-looking flask.

* It seems slightly odd that King's apparently known Eda for a while but didn't have any idea of the curse.  Maybe she was just REALLY good about keeping up with her elixirs pre-series.

* Really like the metaphor for a chronic illness that's kept under control by medication.

* If the Emperor's Coven provides access to all forms of magic, you'd think others aspiring for a spot would be permitted a multi-track education at Hexside.  That might be why none of them seem to be that impressive at magic when they're supposed to be the "best of the best" -- even if they have *access* to all forms of magic, they've only had training in one specific field during the bulk of their education.

* lbr, Lilith's cheating was worse because at least Eda told Luz what she was doing.

* You'd think Willow and Gus might have caught on that Luz didn't have permission for them to come over when she told them to hide from Eda.

* It's nice that Eda realizes raising a kid with a "screw the rules" mindset will result in a kid who breaks her rules sometimes.  Cleaning up the mess she caused is really the correct punishment for Luz; directly dealing with the consequences of her actions but otherwise considering it a lesson learned.

* Reading to kids in the library is an A+ way to shift Amity from "Jerk" to "Jerk with a heart of gold" territory.

* Prediction: At some point, Luz will return to the human world (probably only briefly but Eda won't know at the time) and Eda will come across the "Coping with empty nest syndrome" book Luz got her from the library.  She'll cry.  King will cry.  Hooty will cry.  Every viewer will cry.

* Pretty sure that, given what the world is like, if any of them ended up questioned about their actions during the body swap episode, they could just say "Oh yeah I was body swapped that day. What'd I get up to?" and everyone would consider this a perfectly logical explanation for them acting out-of-character.

* HC that Hexside is fully aware some illusion-track students skip class by having an illusion of themselves attend in their place, but they figure a student maintaining a decent replica of themselves for the duration of the class period requires enough effort to count as a form of class participation, so they just let everyone think they're getting away with it.

* Gus and Willow are really ride-or-die friends.  Always nice to have.

* Probably some of the mystery appeal will be gone from the Human Appreciation Society once a legit human is just attending classes on a regular basis; being able to get definitive answers to questions rather than spending your time speculating would cut back on the draw.

* I love all the details they include on this show -- a lot of other shows would just stick in scribbles while panning past pictures instead of writing out all of Eda's incident reports.

* The pallisman is a neat concept; sort of like a mix of a wand and a familiar, a magical control that will have opinions of its own.

* Given Bat Queen apparently has enough of, um, a biological aspect to have kids, I wonder if that means Owlbert is capable of laying eggs.  Or having eggs with another owl/pallisman if the male pronouns are anything to go by.

* I mean even Phineas and Ferb didn't question Perry laying an egg when he uses male pronouns so could go either way in terms of what Disney would allow.

* Reading the book fair signs, it looks like sci-fi is a popular genre in the Boiling Isles.  Makes sense, since what we'd consider Fantasy would be more contemporary/urban fantasy to them.

* Getting the vibe that someone on staff had a less-than-amicable experience co-writing with a friend to inspire this one. And/or experience with shitty contracts.

* The Hexside requirements also required knowledge of basic runes, but given Luz apparently had no issue with that I'm guessing she just picked those up offscreen.

* "I've seen worse" is the ideal admissions response tbh.  Like . . . she pulled off the required spells and the headmaster has seen decades of students' awkward first attempts.  It probably counts as a good day when no one's admissions test resulted in needing to bring in someone from the Construction Track to repair the building.

* It's very reminiscent of D&D that the majority of the cast has the response of "This is clearly a trap.  Let's check it out!"

* You'd think that carnival fortune tellers wouldn't have the same appeal in a world where it's something you study at school.  Unless it's viewed the same way as those "magic" shows they have sometimes where the tricks all involve chemical reactions.

* Kinda surprised a school that teaches kids fire spells doesn't have some kind of fire suppression system in place.

* Hrm.  Guessing the mind guardian went back and undid their own damage offscreen; otherwise they'd have had to go re-do the repairs before leaving.

* Good they had the wifi and charging cable coming through the portal to explain why Luz' phone still has service and the battery's not long dead.

* Luz, how have you survived this long with your instinct for pushing buttons.  The same as the rest of humanity in a world full of buttons, I suppose.

* Probably if they thought about it, the best criteria for picking Grom royalty would be less who's the most skilled at magic and more who has the most low-key fears. . . . nvm, having a Stay-Puft incident would cause them to reasonably scrap that approach.  Maybe appointing someone who obsesses over grades would have better odds of producing a relatively-simple-to-combat exam paper.

* I'm thinking the letters are written by Eda, who doesn't intend anything sinister by it so much as being the type to cover her bases when pulling off a scam and realizing Luz' mother would need some evidence to indicate her daughter was safely at camp.

* The band-aids clearly have some healing spell built-in, considering they've been used to heal inanimate objects.

* someone on the writing staff has a long-standing rant about Quidditch they've been holding back on.

* I know that normally the humor in the cut from "she's finally growing up." to Luz planning the heist would be that she's doing something that sensible adults would consider to be a bad idea, but if Eda saw her just then she'd wipe away a tear of pride and go "Her first self-planned heist! They grow up so fast!"

* Eda's the one who talks about cheating at stuff, but Lilith has a habit of playing *dirty*.

* I would like to say I appreciate them going with a more serious credit sequence because it was disconcerting with Star Vs when a dark ending was followed by "I THINK EARTH'S A REALLY GREAT PLACE"

* Lilith may have made a 30-years-late attempt to redeem herself, but I really don't trust her.  I don't quite want her dead, but she DID spend decades trying to force her sister to join the Emperor's Coven as a prerequisite for curing her curse.

[mysteriesofmarcy]

The formula of the modern cartoon

WARNING: LONG POST AHEAD!

All shows have some kind of formula. Some, like Phineas and Ferb, make it more obvious than others. But they all have one. I'll use Star vs the Forces of Evil as an example for this post because it seems to have all the elements I will talk about.

First, you have your pilot episode (Star Comes to Earth). This is the introduction to your characters and your world. Usually, the pilot takes place on the occasion of a big change in the protagonist's life. This is different from 2000's cartoons, which are mostly all slice of life and will usually premiere on just a normal day in the life of the characters.

Next, you have season 1a (Party with a Pony thru Sleep Spells). These episodes are mainly slice of life, with low stakes, minor villains, and simple plots. They serve the purpose of introducing more of the characters and the world that the show will take place in, as well as getting you invested in the show. There might be one or two episodes where the stakes are very high (Mewberty), but all in all, this will be a glimpse at day-to-day life in this universe.

Then you have the mid-season finale (Blood Moon Ball and Fortune Cookies). This episode will introduce the main conflict of the series. In this case, BMB introduced the main romantic conflict, while FC introduced the main villain. The protagonists will come out mostly unscathed, but the villain will not be dead. They will merely bide their time until the season finale, which I will explain in a minute.

Next, you have season 1b (Freeze Day thru Interdimensional Field Trip). Again, the stakes will be relatively low, but this is when things can begin to have consequences. Characters might reference the events of previous episodes, they might meet up with old friends (or enemies), and there might be some lasting effects from the mid-season finale. There will also be some lead-up to the season finale (i.e. Buff Frog getting fired in Mewnipendance Day).

Next we have the pre-finale episode (Marco Grows a Beard). Usually, this one starts out as a normal episode, but it will throw in a twist ending that leads into the finale. In this case, that twist ending was Ludo getting fired.

Now we're finally at the finale. In the finale, there will likely be new (usually temporary) alliances; the protagonist will team up with someone (often their original enemy) to take down a common foe (the villain who first showed up in the mid-season finale). In this case, Ludo and Buff Frog both attempted to team up with Star against Toffee. Any main conflict introduced in the midseason finale is going to be addressed again here. In this case, this episode addressed both the battle against Toffee AND Star's love for Marco.

The second season will premiere with an episode dealing with the aftermath of the finale (Ludo in the Wild) and introducing the new normal (My New Wand!) The new normal will be pretty similar to the old normal for our protagonists, with a few minor changes that make everything more complicated. The antagonist, though, will be dealt a major setback that they will have to work past.

It will take the antagonist at least half the season to get back in the game, leaving the show with enough time to do a few more "normal" episodes (Mr. Candle Cares thru Page Turner). This time, more and more actions will have consequences, and several subplots will begin or continue. (Star vs seems to alternate between the romantic stuff and the villains lurking just beneath the surface, so these plot points include Marco and Jackie's friendship blossoming, Tom trying to make up for whatever caused his breakup with Star, Star learning more about her family history, Ludo fighting his way through the wilderness and amassing a new army, and hints of Toffee's return.) There will also be continuations of minor subplots from season 1, including: Marco's rivalry with Jeremy, Britney's rivalry with Star, Marco teaching Star about earth life, Glossaryck teaching Star more about magic, Janna harassing Marco, etc. Enemies will become friends. Friends will become enemies. The protagonists will mature a little more. Life will continue to happen.

Next, there will be the pre-mid-season 2 finale (Naysaya). I've already talked about the pre-finale episode, so please refer to that description. This time, though, the stakes are higher, and the solution will be harder to implement.

Then there is the mid-season 2 finale (Bon Bon the Birthday Clown). This is where they will make a major change that will take the rest of season 2 to fix (i.e. Ludo stealing Glossaryck and the book of spells). This change will likely be a direct result of the next big move by the antagonist.

Season 2b (Raid the Cave thru Collateral Damage) will look similar to seasons 1 and 2a on the surface, but something will feel different (as a result of the aforementioned big change.) It's clear by now that things will never be quite the same again as they were at the beginning.

Then there will be the season 2 pre-finale (Just Friends) and finale (Face the Music and Starcrushed). The stakes will be even higher than they've ever been, and someone (usually the protagonist) will have to make a very hard choice under a dwindling time frame with very limited information. This will be the beginning of a drastic change in the show (in Star's case, it was moving the main setting of the show to Mewni.)

Any future seasons will probably follow a very similar formula. The premiere will see the aftermath of the previous season's finale, as well as giving us more information about what was going on. The villain of the season will rise up early, strike in the mid-season finale, gain power throughout the season, and lay down a crushing blow in the season finale. The rest of the episodes will be reflective of the new status quo. Other subplots will come and go as the writers dictate.

In season 3's case, The Battle For Mewni (which could have easily been the series finale) was the premiere that nicely wrapped up Toffee's (and Ludo's) storylines. Meteora was the main villain. She rose up early in season 3 (Princess Turdina), struck in the midseason finale (Monster Bash), grew in power for a few episodes pre-finale (Skooled! and Tough Love), and delivered her final blow in the finale (Divide and Conquer). They also kept the other major plot going by having Star and Tom rekindle their relationship (starting in Club Snubbed) while still giving hints that Star was pining for Marco (culminating in Booth Buddies).

In season 4's case, the premiere (Butterfly Follies and Escape From the Pie Folk) and the post-premiere (Moon Remembers) dealt with the aftermath of the season 3 finale. Mina and the MHC were the villains. Mina rose up early (Down by the River), they were shown at work in both subplots of Junkin' Janna (Mina by stealing the boot from Janna and Tom, the MHC by wasting Eclipsa and Star's time), the MHC struck in Cornonation, and it all came together in the series pre-finale (Gone Baby Gone) and the finale (Sad Teen Hotline thru Cleaved).

Other things of note as the series progresses:

Finales and premieres are often multiple part episodes, and the chances of this get higher as the series goes on. For example, Storm the Castle directly led into Ludo in the Wild and indirectly led into My New Wand! Bon Bon the Birthday Clown indirectly led into Raid the Cave. Just Friends indirectly led into Face the Music, which itself indirectly led into Starcrushed, which directly led into The Battle For Mewni. Then each episode in The Battle For Mewni, while telling a different chapter of the story, picked up where the last one left off. Tough Love, Divide, Conquer, Butterfly Follies, Escape From the Pie Folk and Moon Remembers all tell one continuous story. And Sad Teen Hotline thru Cleaved also tell one continuous story.

The stakes get progressively higher as we learn more about the world. In Blood Moon Ball, all Marco did was ruin Star's night at the dance. In Storm the Castle, Toffee nearly killed Marco. In Bon Bon the Birthday Clown, Ludo kidnapped Glossaryck and stole Star's family history, and nearly killed Star, Marco, Jackie and Janna in the process. In The Battle For Mewni, Ludofee actually took over Mewni for a short time and ruled with an iron fist (or in his case, a wand hand), and he levitato-ed anyone who stood in his way. In Divide and Conquer, Meteora went on a rampage, destroying Mewni and sucking everyone's souls. And in the series finale, Mina tried to kill all the monsters in Mewni, as well as Star, Marco, Moon, River, and Eclipsa.

The tone gradually becomes darker as the characters mature. Season 1 Star was cute, naive, and goofy, while season 4 Star was serious, smarter and focused. Season 1 Star didn't take Ludo all that seriously, while season 4 Star worked tirelessly to defend monsters from the likes of Mina and the Magic High Commission.

Slice of life episodes, as well as special occasion episodes, can be inserted anywhere. Occasionally there will be a break episode in the later seasons (i.e. Stump Day and Holiday Spellcial). This episode will often feel out of place.

A villain who appeared in season 1 (whether that is the original villain or the one who became a threat in the midseason finale) will continue to be present throughout the series. Their plot may go in a different direction, but they will still be there. (In this case, that villain is Ludo.)

What I say in this post isn't just true of Star vs the Forces of Evil. It's true of many cartoons these days. Some other examples with a similar structure include Gravity Falls, Steven Universe, Milo Murphy's Law, and Adventure Time, among others.

[joyofcrime-elinorhigh]

Don’t Hug Me, I’m Scared REVIEW:

  Hello there everybody! My name is JoyofCrimeArt and I do review-y type stuff on rare occasion! I've been a fan of online original content ever since I was a kid, ever since I first got into "Homestar Runner" back in 2010 (before that most of my internet time was spent playing flash games online and listing to Phineas and Ferb songs on Youtube.) Me and my brothers fell in love with Homestar Runner, as well as the various spin-off series that came from Homestar like the "Teen Girl Squad" and the "Strong Bad Emails." While I'm sure there where some web series I had seen before then it was Homestar that was the first big one and ever since I have been enamored with online original content. As time went on I became fans of other online web series, like Death Battle, TOME, RWBY, and many many others. There is something I find just magical about online original content. It's completely unfiltered content. Online you can do or create anything you can imagine, have it run for as long as you want it to (assuming you have the money or dedication to keep producing it) without the threat of it "not meeting the right demo" or "not pulling in high enough ratings." If you can imagine it and have the gumption to put in the hard work you create anything you want to. It like the artist equivalent of the American Dream. You can do anything you want, and be as creative as you want to be! Sorry if that came off as a bit long winded and cheesy but that's how I feel about this exciting new medium. And while there are tonnes of web series I would like to talk about in a review at some point, (and hopefully I will get to some of them in the future) for today I want to talk about a web series that brings whole new meaning to the word "creative," Don't Hug Me I'm Scared.   "Don't Hug Me I'm Scared" is a British web series created by Becky Sloan and Joseph Pelling. Also TomSka was an executive producer for episodes 3-6. Which...actually explains a lot. Basically DHMIS Is a six part miniseries that ran from July 29th, 2011 to June 19th 2016. The series is basically an education series in the style of "Sesame Street" starring three puppets named "Red Guy," Yellow Guy," and "Duck Guy." (And yes those are there official) names as they learn different educational lessons from different "teachers" in each episode. Now if you haven't seen the series yet I highly suggest you check it out before continuing the review because this is the kind of show where the less you know going in the better, plus combined the series is only about a half hour long. However, I feel like I must warn you, this series is not for young children. It is for adults. (Because come on, it something online and it looks wholesome. Of course it's actually fu*ked up.) Don't go into this series unless your in the mood to see some messed up sh*t. So before you advance be aware, SPOILERS!  Anyway, you back? Okay, so for those of you who already know the show or don't care about spoilers, the show is really a dark parody of pre-school televisions that should either be classified in the horror genre, the REALLY dark comedy genre, or BOTH, depending on ones personal point of view. Each episode tends to follow the same basic formula about some teacher showing up and trying to teach our main characters a lesson, but somewhere along the way the message becomes corrupted and usually ends with the puppets being traumatized or killed. Episode Two, for example, is at first about time, but slowly but surly ends up becoming about the impending death or everyone and thing. Episode Three starts talking about love and ends up being about cult indoctrination. It's pretty messed up stuff. But I know what you're thinking, who cares? There are tonnes of stuff that take kiddie things and makes them adult, especially on the internet. What makes DHMIS so special? Personally, I think want makes Don't Hug Me so special is the amount of detail and that was put into it. Even without the shock value the series is still a well made and interesting spectacle to see.  So let's talk about the characters. While this form of simple and short form series doesn't lend itself to any complex characterization the main three puppets still have distinct personalities, even if there not the deepest characters out there. Red Guy is the sarcastic and rational one, and always talks with a deadpan tone to his voice. He is the smartest one of the group and is the fastest to figure out that something wrong is going on. Yellow Guy is naive, childlike, and not very bright. He is the most excepting of all of the puppets. He's my favorite character in the series, because by the end you just feel so bad for him (watch the series if you want to know what I'm talking about, I don't want to spoil to much.) Duck Guy, honestly, is my least favorite of the main three puppets. He seems kinda foppish and a bit more likely to kinda acts as the smart one when Red Guy isn't used for that, but overall I feel he's the weakest of the main three characters and doesn't have as much character development.

(...) (What did you say to me, b!tch?)  And I say character development because, shockingly, all three characters do go through some character development as the series progressive. The characters become more self aware, and eventually start to expect something bad to happen once there weird "teachers" show up, instead of just going with it like they did in the earlier episodes. One of my favorite blink and you miss it style jokes in the series is when Duck Guy freaks out when The Computer mentions being able to tell the time, because he remembers the "lesson" about time he already learned from the clock. It's cool because they are learning form past experiences. Also there's individual arcs for the characters as time goes on like Red Guy learning to be less of a downer and being more creative.  The show starts following a basic formula, with a teacher teaching the puppets a lesson through song, then something messed up happening and the world resets. However what I really admire is that this show plays with that formula, starting with episode four onward. The shows starts to lose it's status quo and, as mentioned above, the characters start to become more self aware. The episodes start having frickin' continuity! For real! It's really unexpected and, in my opinion, was a really good idea. The audience where starting to see the formula, and after the first episode where just waiting for the episodes to become messed up. So they decided to create a story to draw the audience in. If they just keep doing messed up things over and over again the show would become boring but the twist of actually telling a story, couple with the brevity of the story, managed to keep the story interesting the whole way through.  The story is...weird. It's very much up for interpretation and cryptic. Sort of in the "Five Nights at Freddies" kind of way. Hints and Easter eggs are hidden in the various episodes and there are tonnes of theory videos online about what it all "really means." So if that's your kind of thing then you'll love this series. there are so many weird hints and recurring motifs that I haven't seen a single theory that covers everything. The final episode feels like the story is solved but heck if I know what the story even was about. I think the point of DHMIS isn't about actually solving the mystery but rather making up your own conclusion. I don't think there is a one hundred percent "definitive" answer, partially because of the theme of "creativity" that is in the series a lot and partially because Becky Sloan in an interview said in regard to fan theories that "they are all correct." and I love it when creators say that. They leave things up to the audience to decide what to take away form the series, instead of telling them.  Don't Hug Me I'm Scared's attention to detail goes beyond the recurring motifs and Easter eggs though. What I really appreciate about the series is the attention to detail when it comes to the parody aspect of the show. Now this is a subjective thing, but I've always felt that the best parodies are the ones that either respect the thing that they are parodying. If you like the thing that your parodying it will give you a better understanding of it and make it easier to parody, cause you know exactly why the thing works and is good. It is possible to parody something you hate if you really get what your parodying, but it may end up coming off as sounding bitter. (Not always mind you, but sometimes.) It is clear that there was respect and love for educational programming like Sesame Street, and thus the parody ends up working a lot better. The high production value also helps the parody aspect. The puppets in DHMIS look really good! They look like they could be legitimate puppets in a real children's educational television program. This ends up making the twist that it's actually a horror story even better because the audience doesn't know what to expect if there going into the series blind. They might stumble upon the video and think it's a clip from some real British television series. The series wouldn't be able to work the way it does now if the puppets looked creepy from the start, there would be no contrast. To be honest the puppets in this show look less creepy than some real children's educational puppet shows.

(That top pic is from 80's direct to VHS education series "Peppermint Park" by the way, and also sorry if I accidentally gave you any nightmares.)  Speaking of which, the production values of this whole show is frickin' incredible! Admittedly the production values for the first two episodes aren't as good as later episodes, but starting with episode three the series becomes amazing to look at. Every prop is is made of felt or cloth and the world is heavily decorated down to the smallest detail. The show also incorporates a multitude of different art styles throughout the series. Sure it's ninety percent puppetry but they also incorporate stop motion, flash animation, purposely bad CG graphics, and even some live action film making in certain parts. Every episode features a different song, and most are really catchy (Though the series tends to focus less and less on the songs as time goes on in order to focus more on plot, which is kind of a bummer.) The humor won't be for everybody, it's that sort of dry and surreal humor found in say, and old adult swim show. It's not for everyone but I really like it. It would be so easy to just make this show a kid show that ends up becoming disturbing, but this show does offer other positives so you can still enjoy the series after on re-watch.  If I had to pick a favorite episode out of the six I would probably say episode three. I like the song, moral, and environments the most out of any episode and I feel like the comedy in that episode is the best of the whole series. Episode three also acts like a nice breather episode as it's one of the least terrifying one. My least favorite episode would probably be episode five. The song isn't that catchy in my opinion and it keeps getting interrupted by the plot, which isn't bad for the episodes necessarily but it does hurt the song.) Also I honestly can't tell what the message is. Most other episodes have a message, even if it is a dark and twisted one, like how episode four is about the dangers on the internet, how it just wants information from you, and how easy it is to get sucked inside it. But episodes five's moral, I just don't really see it. I still like the episode but I just find it a bit subpar compared to some of the other episodes. And no disrespect to you if you love episode five or hate episode three, it's just my personal opinion.  So yeah, I highly recommend DHMIS. It's bright, it's disturbing, it's funny, it has incredible production value for a Youtube series, it has great songs, it has chicken picnic's and aspic, what more can anybody want! While it's in no way the perfect series it's a really creative show that I think really pushes the envelope of what a Youtube series can be, because honestly that's probably the most impressive thing about Don't Hug Me. It managed to become popular without feeling the need to conform to what everybody else on Youtube was doing. It is something completely unique. While there may be tonnes of online gamers and film reviewers (And I'm not trying to knock those type of Youtuber's as I am a fan of many people that fall into that category) but there is only one online surrealist, horror, dark comedy, musical, puppet show! And that's Don't Hug Me, I'm Scared. It's not for everybody, but if your a fan of things like "Too Many Cooks" than you'll love this.  So that's my review of Don't Hug Me, I'm Scared (Hopefully it didn't come off as too rambly and fanboy-y). Have you seen the series? If you have, what do you think? Do you have any theories or interpretations on the ending? What's your favorite episode? Tell me in the comments bellow if you'd like to. I'd love to have a civil discussion about it! I'd love to hear what you all have to think, even if you disagree with what I think. Also I'd love to know what you think about my review style, and what I could do to improve upon it in the future. Please fav, follow, and comment and If you liked the review and I will see you all next time! Have a great day! (I do not own any of the images in this review.) .......Okay, I change my mind. This guy is my favorite character.

https://www.deviantart.com/joyofcrimeart/journal/Don-t-Hug-Me-I-m-Scared-REVIEW-629975791 DA Link

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What are your thoughts on DTVA's shows pre-Phineas And Ferb era: Kim Possible,Lilo & Stitch: The Series,Dave the Barbarian,American Dragon: Jake Long,The Buzz on Maggie,Ying Yang Yo!,The Emperor's New School,The Replacements and Shorty McShorts Shorts

I didn't had Disney Channel until 2006? i think beacuse my cable company at the time didn't did a deal with Disney, so i missed most of those and by the time i got the channel the majority of those shows left the programming

My Disney Toons watching was mostly Disney Afternoon and Disney's 1 Saturday Morning toons in a block in a local channel called Club Disney

But i knew about them thanks to visits to cousin's houses and watched Brandy, Dave and American Dragon, Brandy and Dave are very funny!

Lilo And Stitch is a classic they aired them on that local channel and it was cool, i gasped at the Recess crossover beacuse that was my fave show from the block!

I was neutral on Kim and Jake beacuse i thought them as action shows and when i was a kid, watching shows like Avatar TLA or Batman The Animated Series, i was like "Why everything is so serious and dark, can we go back to Spongebob and Patrick running The Krusty Krab Hotel!" but liked Jake Long a bit more specially on S2, i still thinked the episode where Jake changes Rose's past should have been the series finale.

With Kim i liked the time travel "film", so i need to binge watch it to know if i missed stuff

I think they never dubbed Shorty McShort Shorts here so i don't know but many people say is a boring carbon copy of What A Cartoon and Oh Yeah Cartoons!

The Replacements, i watched it and it was like Disney's version Fairly Odd Parents but i remember having fun with it.

The Buzz On Maggie, no comment since i think i watched it one time with cousins but i don't remember nothing, the only interesting thing is that it was one of the first gigs of Jorge R and Sandra E and is theme that the series was produced in HD and those prints are lost media are interesting.

Ying Yang Yo! was my first exposure to comedic serialized storytelling and i loved it beacuse it was fun, great times on Jetix!

Haven't seen The Proud Family complete but watched on Disney+ launch the episodes featuring racism and sexism and wow this show earned it's return