#sasha waybright character arc

[raineschaos]

reunion and the trouble with toxic friends

in the beginning of this all, we see sasha being a protective force for anne against the bully, maggie. clearly, in a normal sense you see this as your friend standing up for you but in a toxic relationship, you may be manipulated to believe that without them you can’t stand up for yourself. anyway- sasha continues to show somewhat hostility to maggie, who backs off immediately. after anne thanks her, she quickly responds “you just gotta speak their language.”  already, in just these first glimpses at their friendship we can gather evidence of devaluation.

the scene cuts to a biology class where they are doing frog dissection. sasha helps anne get out of another situation that she doesn’t want to be in. when anne wants to follow the teacher’s orders, and go into the sick room. sasha says that they should skip school to celebrate anne’s birthday. so-, a lot of stuff goes down in that situation. we have sasha trying to pose her wants as a kind gesture towards anne. sasha is going to push those wants onto anne and make her also believe that she wants to go skip school.

then we get to them having fun, enjoying their time. until sasha does something that wouldn’t be deemed moral. making anne a little bit nervous. a good healthy bond would not make you feel nervous.

the next thing that occurs is when sasha puts down the party that anne’s family probably has planned for her. not completely terrible but in the act of attacking the family anne belongs to, she finds herself in a position where she feels undervalued and lesser than sasha, giving sasha more control over their situation. sasha uses this power imbalance to becoming even more intimidating, almost even the hostility that we saw her show maggie at the start. as not even anne’s bully could stand up to this kind of intimidation, anne caves in and sasha acts as though she was not manipulative at all, and anne made her decision all on her own accord. and she gets praised for making the decision sasha wants, returning that value to herself and making her friendship feel more beneficial to her again.

in the current time, anne notes this saying “she’s persuasive, right?” she’s somewhat anxious around her friend, of course, she’s overjoyed to be reunited with this friend that has served as her protection for so long but she’s really changed and sasha doesn’t realize that.

however, in this next part, wartwood’s citizens don’t look towards sasha for leadership. their trust is placed in anne, anne who is somewhat nervous still hesitates before saying they should trust sasha. again, as soon as anne makes the choice that sasha wants her too, she is then rewarded with sasha’s happiness and friendship.

another thing that really stood out to me is when sasha notes how close anne has grown with the plantars and then makes anne remember her negative attitude towards frogs in the past. a lot of times in toxic relationships and friendships, they make you feel as though they are the only person you can rely on, or trust, whether or not that is a lie or the truth. when sasha puts down anne’s relationship with the frogs it’s in hopes to sever the connection anne currently has with them so anne isn’t still attached to them once she reveals their plan to return back home.

anne nervously replies that she thinks they’re pretty great and she says that’s sees been living in their basement. sasha quickly says “a basement. yuck”. another was of attacking the thing’s anne is proud of. she enjoys her family in wartwood, but sasha quickly needs to deflect this situation back to her. look at what ive done. look at how much fun ive been having. look where i live. look what we could do. to try and sell anne on the deal that she has negotiated with grime.

anne however is not her old self and loosing a family member is too much stress on her choice to just fall back upon her old ways again. hop pop’s life being threatened makes anne triumph over the pressure sasha has put her under and she goes off to try and save all of the frogs.

now that anne has made a choice that sasha is not happy with, she repeats the whole hostility attack. intimidation. intimidation. giving away peer pressure like costco food carts.

sasha’s bond with grime is not so much like anne’s bond with hop pop. while anne and hop pop are like family, a mentor and a child. sasha and grime have not become so chummy yet, they are more like buisness associates. they both have goals, and they both are going to rely on each other to get what they want.

moving on- anne stands to protect the villagers of wartwood and totally stands up for herself, something that we see her struggle to do back home. however this is not just a bully, this is standing up to a friend. so hooray for character development. sasha then goes to project her wants on anne once againnnn. she’s gotta stop. but this tactic seems to not work, so sasha then goes to her harsher side, projecting more pressure on to anne to get what she wants. sasha then doubles down with the praise until sprig does what i wanted to do in this moment and chuck a sludgeball into her face. because you can’t be doing this to anne savisa boonchuy, alright, back off. sprig’s words really kick anne back into perspective.

the way she has changed, she hasn’t ever let a bully bother her in wartwood, so she shouldn’t just start now. anne gets back up and stands up to sasha with this amazing one liner and she turns back to sprig. sprig who was totally encouraging, stood up for anne when he realized she couldn’t, that’s a healthy friendship. that’s why spranne wins.

sasha when her and anne are hilt to hilt, swords meshing up onto each other lays down with pain in her voice, she doesn’t understand why anne isn’t just following what sasha wants. anne then fights back, breaking through another form of manipulation like the boss she is.

sasha then undermines the plantars. and you don’t wanna do that, because that was completely a buzz word for anne. calling them slimy little frogs completely triggered her sense of determination and loyalty to the frogs. as we see in the fight, anne could’ve lost here, and sasha was hoping that she would, because before that sasha’s combat was mainly aimed in tripping anne, or making her stumble. wanting her to fall and yield. if anne hadn’t gotten back up and knocked sasha off her feet, maybe hop pop would've just been tossed off the tower.

sasha is also super deterministic though. she doesn’t wanna lose this fight, grime told her that is she does nothing will ever go back to how it was. sasha values stability and control, so if she loses the fight she loses a lot of the things she values. poking back with a dagger, she just wants to get back to her sword. she doesn’t want to harm anne. all of sasha’s movements are just to get anne to loose energy or hopefully encourage her to forfeit, much like sasha’s manipulation. when anne finally strikes sasha back down again, sasha gains a scar.

she doesn’t happen to get up from this position of defeat which i think says something about how much she had lost in that fight. it’s almost embarrassing to her to lose this control, loose the stability in the plan, and lose a friendship all in one. when sasha is dangling from the cliff, with anne and the plantars being the only things holding her up, she realizes that she can’t just take something that anne loves from her again.

she realizes that she isn’t the support for anne anymore, therefore in that moment she feels unwanted but there’s also a possibility that she was awoken to how anne felt in their friendship and felt guilty for all of what she did. in letting go at the tower, it shows that she is letting go of that control in a way. if she was tenacious and didn’t learn a lesson i’m sure she would’ve held on, causing all of them to fall. sasha however takes this first step, not a lot of people identify her redemption arc from beginning here, as she is still scheming and is a main antagonist in the season 2 finale, but i believe it does. to truly heal from a moment like this, there has to be the act of letting go. the act of freeing yourself from what that relationship was. anne won in the sense that she’s free from a toxic friendship and won the battle. sasha lost a lot of what she believed to be true, and most off of she realized that anne had changed. there’s a whole other video i could do on just sasha’s development and even just the cliff scene because there’s a whole bunch to unpact about what she know about her character and different theories to why she let go. i used the theory that went along with this narrative, but there are plenty of explanations because us as humans are super non-linear, we make decisions on feelings. feelings based on like dozens of thoughts. so any number of explanations may actually be true.

[mdhwrites]

Did TOH Need More Time For Its Ambitions?

No. Because Amphibia exists. Why can I say that so confidently? Because Sasha and Amity show a VERY clear comparison in how the storytelling in each show is handled and how that shows that even with a similar amount of appearances, TOH is just lacking in actually doing anything with its concepts.

(Quick interjection: Consider this effectively a part 2/rehash on why Anne's arc in S1 is so much better than Amity's arc period, which is a blog I did a LONG time ago that analyzed critical portions of character arcs in general. This one though uses the more obvious pairing and also the two with much closer screen time and narrative importance... though with TOH that term is entirely fucked.)

Both characters are enemies to allies. Both have complicated relationships with the main character and are motivated by that relationship to change themselves for the better. Both have positions in the world and priorities that explicitly makes them opposed to the main character not only ideologically but sociologically. And, above all else:

Sasha's redemption arc, from her first appearance to Turning Point when she explicitly turns full good, is 9 segments. Ten/Eleven if you count Reunion/True Colors as two.

Amity's redemption can range anywhere from seven A plots to nine/ten depending on if A: you count Hooty's Moving Hassle, which I don't, and B: if you count the end of her redemption arc at Winging it Like Witches (when she rebukes her old friends), Escaping Expulsion (when she rebukes her parents) or Looking Glass Ruins, the first episode where she is 100% an ally. Or hell, you could actually for FIVE episodes and say it's Understanding Willow as she apologizes for the past and promises to stop bullying at least Willow at that point, which was her first antagonistic act before.

And mind you... Understanding Willow is in S1. LONG before the shortening took effect. Even the latest one of these puts it at before the shortening. So I think these are fair comparisons of just how the two's arcs were handled with the amount of time spent on them. Which raises the question: What did we get in that time?

Well... We got an actual arc with Sasha while Amity just changes randomly. That's not even really a joke. I'll try to bounce between the two to really highlight the difference, especially in storytelling.

In her first appearance, we get pretty much all possible suspicions about Sasha based on Anne confirmed. She is manipulative, self serving, self aggrandizing and tells people what they want to hear to get them to do what she wants. She is your friend so she can control you. However, she isn't all bad. She could have just ran during the Heron attack but instead helps save the day though it's very possible that she recognized she was better off staying as an equal of Grime's than running off on her own. The Toads are opposed to the Frogs in Amphibia's society though, creating an inherent conflict between Sasha and Anne due to the social dynamics of the world they are in.

Meanwhile, Amity in her first appearance actually makes a strong case for herself. She looks down on those magically challenged, which Luz is, is a bully while Luz is an outcast who has struggled with friends and has a drive to succeed conventionally while Luz uses more unconventional methods. The opposing elements are actually lined up really well between the two but we don't get a lot of Amity's actual personality. She just comes off as an entertaining, almost neurotic bitch. We get more of her personality in her second episode where she is a little more in control of her emotions, shows a potential softer side, and also sets up another sociological conflict in that Luz inherently is on the side of the wild witches due to her mentor and her magic style while Amity is full on the coven train, even to the point to wanting to one day potentially lead the Emperor's Coven. Though, importantly... The only thing that's challenged about Amity's worldview in this episode is the idea that someone she thinks is weak could actually be strong, something that theoretically could have been said to have been covered by the end of Teenage Abomination when Willow proves herself with the seed. Hell, it's also reinforced in an episode I don't usually count for this but is kind of important: Hooty's Moving Hassle. So that's one problem addressed but only tangentially and it's by no means the biggest issue between Amity and Luz. Amity is still a bully after all.

Meanwhile, Reunion goes for the core, both sociologically and personally. The Toads want Hop Pop dead and Sasha doesn't care. Not only that but Sasha assumes that if she tells Anne not to care, Anne won't because in her eyes, Anne serves her. She is the one in charge after all and she won't take no for an answer. Period. We're even shown this explicitly in the flashbacks. The problem is... Anne has gone through an entire character arc to make it so she can stand up to Sasha and challenges pretty much all of Sasha's beliefs. Her need for control, her callousness towards others and her warped view of reality where she is the hero and all else are best off listening to her. Sasha even gives in for a moment in an act of genuine selflessness by letting go of Anne's hand so her and the Plantars can live. It does a lot of work but... It might be considered rushed if that were the end of her primary antagonism.

You know where this is going. In her third major appearance, forth appearance overall... Amity is a neutral entity and a friend by the end of Lost in Language. Honestly, if you wanted to argue that the majority of Amity's arc, especially friends to allies, was three episodes, you'd be actually making a very compelling point. This episode after all is the one where she effectively stops being a bully. She just is now the overly dedicated smart girl. She is explicitly not the antagonist though but instead the victim and the one we're primarily supposed to sympathize with. Then, thanks to Azura, she befriends Luz by the end of the episode. They are already allies and... There isn't much reason for it besides one time teaming up. Sure, Luz has challenged Amity's perceptions but even she calls out in this episode that each time they meet up, Amity gets in trouble or/amd embarrassed. Luz has actually done extremely little to deserve this because all Luz has actually done with Amity before this episode is a declaration of combat and then their last talk in Covention which was just about maybe rethinking if someone could or couldn't do something, not about Amity's morality. Also, Luz is important to consider here. These sorts of arcs involve the MC in a pretty crucial way because they're the one the antagonist wants to become allies with and so the MC needs to accept them. Amity hasn't done fuck all at this point to deserve Luz's attention because she's a bully and is cruel to her mostly besides her final act in Covention. It is literally NARRATIVE TROPES that make Luz forgive Amity and want to befriend. Literally. Nothing about Amity's actions or actual character, Luz just wants to live out her fanfic.

And that brings up the fact that Anne does keep giving Sasha chances but they have an established history and that push and pull of trust is a large part of this. It's the main driving factor for why Sasha will change at all and why the lengths she goes both for manipulation and redemption are important. It's also important to show WHY Anne might have wanted someone like Sasha around. Toad Catcher is not crucial for Sasha's arc, Barrel's Warhammer also shows how much Anne's rebuke of her and choosing the Plantars over her fucks with her mentally, but it does let you see why people follow her. The motivation she can bring them because Sasha does see the best in people... But mostly because people's bests are also the most useful for her. It also doubles down on her good quality that she rarely gives up on someone she chooses to ally with. All while still making it clear that if given the chance, she'll try to get back at Anne because accepting Anne was right is too antithetical to how she sees the world.

And then for both, we get episodes that mostly just explore the characters. A sort of holding pattern for both arcs with Barrel's Warhammer, Third Temple, The Sleepover and The Battle of the Bands for Sasha while we have Adventure in the Elements, Understanding Willow and Grom for Amity. This is also where you can extend this to include Winging it Like Witches and/or Escaping Expulsion depending on where you count Amity's arc as fully ending. For both characters though, the status quote they're primarily in doesn't change a lot. Amity is a tentative ally who has to get dragged into things and is generally a good person but not hanging out with everyone else casually yet. Meanwhile, Sasha is barely controlling her growing rage and insecurity about losing her power over Anne, exacerbated by Marcy coming into the mix and, from Sasha's perspective, siding with Anne. Though, there is a critical difference.

One is actually exploring the character, their motivations and their mindset. In all the episodes I listed for Amity, Amity gets small steps but they're NOTHING we don't already know. She's a generally good person who has a compulsion to succeed until suddenly in Escaping Expulsion that she's let her grades slip. There's nothing about what drives her towards success, no exploration on if these changes are difficult on her, both of which are actually in Battle of the Bands to some extent for Sasha. We don't see how this stuff is affecting her besides her growing crush and if that's getting her to act out. That takes until fucking Looking Glass Ruins to actually manifest while Barrel's Warhammer shows how much the idea of changing is fucking with Sasha's head but also why her behavior is toxic. How her best traits can also be her worst. Amity's traits are barely even being examined. She's just slowly becoming more and more obsessed with Luz and bleeding personality for it by becoming a very generically good person.

THEN we get Sasha's big relapse. Her denial of her arc. The attempt to wrestle back control because she saw an oppurtunity to be on top and took it. This is book 2's ending for Zuko. A moment of weakness where the character's vices means they at least have to question their character arc. If that's what they want or if they want to continue being who they always were. True Colors is this for Sasha, even to the point where she is willing to throw out parts of her past if she can't find a way to keep them. It is that same weakness that makes her plans fail though because once she can try to justify her actions and bring Anne back to her, she can't fight Anne properly and loses for a second time. Again, that push and pull of trust and control.

And Amity doesn't have this. The closest there is to it is Escaping Expulsion... Where she doesn't do shit. Calling that an Amity episode is FRUSTRATING for me because she is barely in it. Not only that, but she doesn't decide to do villainy. Instead, it's that she is a teenager with a controlling mother. But don't worry, despite only showing up for like four minutes of the episode, Amity can just tell her mom to piss off and that's that. It isn't motivated by a push or pull, Amity doesn't want to go back at all and she actively is miserable the entire episode despite having explicitly chosen to be a bully for YEARS before this. After all, her parents only told her she couldn't be friends with Willow. They never told Amity to bully her for years and become queen bitch of the school over all. That was Amity's choice.

And then finally resolution. When the character themselves accepts the change and stops shifting morality. This is actually why I consider Turning Point the end of Sasha'a arc. Commander Anne is follow through but it's just reinforcing the version of Sasha that takes form in this moment. The Sasha, who reading how much her betrayal hurt Anne but how much trust she had for the mean girl, who has to face all she's lost in her pursuit of power, takes the mantle of guardian seriously. It is not a moment of weakness like in Reunion that makes her put other lives over hers but instead a moment self actualization and determination. A moment of strength and one she'll stick to for the most part. She is no longer manipulative, she is a commander, even if she doesn't have the title yet. This is especially satisfying because... Well, we've seen EVERYTHING that motivates this moment. Not just Anne's stuff but Grime's loyalty to her and how much that means to her. Percy and Braddock abandoning her and her trying to use the calculus of war to be okay with that. We can see MOUNTAINS of evidence for why she would choose this over her old self. Over one more time to try to conquer Amphibia like Grime suggests.

I... Genuinely can't really say when this happens for Amity. This actually has way less to do with how many times she rejects her past self and more to do with... Why does she? Why does she ever change in fact? What are her motivations? Because even in Escaping Expulsion, Luz's conversation with Amity isn't "You need to stand up to your parents because you shouldn't let others dictate your life." It's instead, "You should stand up to your parents so I can go back to witch school." And this happens CONSTANTLY. Remember: You can argue her villain role ends on her third major appearance and Luz NEVER talks morality with her. Never has Amity actually learn something.

It actually comes down to an inherent storytelling choice with TOH as a whole: Very few episodes are about anyone other than Luz and Luz actually really sucks at helping people during their episodes. Gus actually has some of the best episodes dedicated to a side character as they're actually addressing a core element of the character... And in his first one, Luz is a bystander. She does fucking NOTHING except maybe give Gus a pep talk. She is mcguffin than anything. With Amity though? Covention is mostly about Luz learning about the coven system. Lost in Language is about Luz and the twins and her want to befriend Amity, not the why she wants to befriend Amity. Adventure in the Elements: About Luz having a Winter Adventure where Amity is a perfectly good person. Understanding Willow is actually one of the better ones because at least for that one, Amity makes her final choice because she's nostalgic for an old friend. Grom has her only stand up though when Luz in trouble. Winging it Like Witches? It's just Luz being in danger that motivates her. Escaping Expulsion? Luz being in danger. Looking Glass? Luz needs her.

This is why Amity feels like she changes just for a pretty girl. Luz actually does NOTHING to ever try and change Amity. To ever actually interact with Amity's arc. Reaching Out will be the pinnacle of this where Amity has suddenly written off the entire coven system, one of the only things besides Luz we've been told she cares about... And Luz has never once talked to her about the coven system or Belos. Because Luz has barely actually talked to her about her besides to call her cool and pretty. It is remarkable how little Luz actually interacts properly with Amity and how few real conversations they have, especially about their differences and feelings about each other. Each time Sasha and Anne are in the same room, you know their philosophies and relationship is going to come up in some way. It's too omnipresent for both to ignore. Meanwhile... There's a lot of episodes where Lumity exchange cute jokes and that's it, despite the main plot focusing on those two characters for that episode. And remember: TOH's A plots explicitly have more time to include those sorts of slower conversations. Oh, and, you know, one of these pairs are just friends while the other GETS INTO A ROMANTIC RELATIONSHIP.

And the pinnacle of all of this: Amphibia does this amazing character arc while also making it plot relevant and REALLY important to its themes. Sasha is a primary antagonist for two seasons technically. She genuinely challenges both the message of change being good from a meta perspective but also challenges Anne's own character arc from a narrative perspective. Her degradation of care is contrasted by how Amphibia makes Anne care so much about others that it makes it harder and harder for her to write off Sasha despite what Sasha did. Then, Sasha changing her perspective and treatment of others, while keeping the core of herself true, is what helps keep Wartwood alive while Anne is gone while also demonstrating the power of change but also that you don't have to change literally EVERYTHING about you.

Meanwhile, it was a fucking meme in the TOH community that if Amity was on screen, nothing could happen and that stayed almost true for literally half the series. Not only that but Amity's complete change for Luz doesn't really feel coherent with the themes of self acceptance and not changing for others. It tries because the show posits that Amity just needed a better environment to go back to being the good person she always was but A: that's never explored because challenging her environment is not actually a part of what motivates her changes, just B: Luz is the whole reason for her change and she changes effectively into Azura, Luz's favorite character. That doesn't feel like becoming her own person and instead changing literally every aspect of yourself for your partner which... Yikes. To put it mildly.

You can cut EVERYTHING to do with Amity out of the show and you lose literally nothing except representation. You cut Sasha out of Amphibia though? You do not have the same story. Period. You have to rewrite a good bit because despite her lack of appearances, she is important. A lot of elements of Amphibia are important like that.

And Amphibia did it with smart storytelling that actually explored its own elements, not because it had three full seasons. Not when Sasha takes up so much less time of her show than Amity does.

This is all because Amphibia actually was interested in telling a character arc instead of just kind of weakly being able to claim it had a character arc. You can even extend that to almost literally any element that TOH and Amphibia both did. And not because of time, simply because one is written a hell of a lot better and was more interested in actually telling its story rather than making a bunch of statements that Twitter could freak out about.

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

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

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

A Twitter you can follow too

And a Kofi if you like what I do and want to help out with the fact that disability doesn’t pay much.

[we-dont-talk-about-potato-nonono]

Kid Sasha and Adult Sasha :)

[ryminsteddiesashanne]

Sasharcy but it's Hugo and Varian

[marcyuwu]

So why is it that she’s here, sitting at the lunch table with her study partner, ears burning red as the speakers blare some vague, generic love song with none other than the Sasha Waybright standing in front of her? 

“Call me crazy,” her study partner whispers, “but I think Waybright’s asking you to prom.” 

Impossible, Marcy thinks, her heart fluttering wildly in her chest. That can’t be what’s happening, cause Sasha is supposed to ask Anne like she’s always talked about. I accepted this already, what– what is she doing? 

“Marcy Wu,” Sasha croons, and everyone is watching them, eyes on the most popular girl in school as she makes her move, setting the stage for promposals all across the board. “Will you do me the absolute honor of being my date to prom?” 

~~

or: sasha attempts to ask marcy to prom, over and over and over again.

[spop-romanticizes-abuse]

their crimes and problems with their redemption arcs under the cut!

catra:

crimes:

War crimes

Abuse of power

Corruption

Reckless endangerment

Psychological abuse

Assault

Terrorism

Attempted regicide

Attempted mass murder

Attempted world domination

Attempted cataclysm

Conspiracy

Mass destruction

Abduction & kidnapping

Unlawful imprisonment

Brainwashing

Theft

Torture

Treason

Usurpation

Coercion

Stalking

Mutilation

Aiding and abetting

Illegal use of weapons

Espionage

Crimes against peace

Crimes against Etheria

Altering reality

how was her redemption arc carried out?

she was only redeemed in the final season and her arc wasn't as drawn out as it should have been.

she never faces any consequences of her actions and is forgiven by her victims almost immediately, either after a vague apology or no apology at all.

she continues torturing and abusing people around her, especially her love interest, adora. her redemption arc doesn't mean anything since she never actually changes.

the diamonds:

crimes:

Multiple planetary conquests

Mass invasion

Mass terraformation

Attempted omnicide

Crimes against the universe

Cruel and unusual punishments

Unlawful executions

Slavery

Oppression

Propaganda

Abuse of power

Mass murder

Terrorism

Ecocide

Genocide

War crimes

Hate crimes

Corruption

Psychological abuse

Brainwashing

Unethical experimentation

Mass forced confinement

Mass destruction

Mass forced transmutations

how was their redemption arc carried out?

same as catra, their redemption was done during the final few episodes of steven universe, and it was way too sudden to be realistic.

they never face any consequences of their actions and still gets to retain their positions as cosmic rulers.

they do, however, seem to put in some effort to change, although it's not clear if this is helpful. steven also does not seem to forgive them.

lilith clawthorne:

crimes:

Malediction

Attempted murder

Child endangerment

Hostage-taking

Kidnapping

Coercion

Malefic

Treason

Cheating

Torture

Abuse

Assault

Aiding and abetting

how was her redemption arc carried out?

she only had to make one sacrifice and that was the extent of her redemption arc.

she is also forgiven too quickly by the people she had hurt.

she does change for the better, and proves to be an ally to the heroes (albeit being an underutilized character).

sasha waybright:

crimes:

Abuse of power

Psychological abuse

Attempted murder

Treason

Terrorism

Harassment

Vandalism

Theft

Usurpation

Animal cruelty

Conspiracy

Kidnapping

Incrimination

Sabotage

Child endangerment

how was her redemption arc carried out?

we only see the beginning of her redemption, the rest of it happens almost entirely off-screen. this was a lazy choice, as we never see an actual “arc”, only the beginning and the end of it.

she is almost immediately forgiven by her friends. there is some lingering suspicion in some episodes, but not enough for everything she had done prior to that season.

however, she also seems to have turned into a better person and doesn't repeat any of her past toxic behaviour.

[badass-queer-couples-battle]

Sword gays showdown, round 2, bracket two

Propaganda:

For Wyll:

He's a warlock so primarily a magic user but he is introduced by stabbing someone with his rapier and even if you stat him to do other things he still gets a Very Good Rapier as part of his personal quest, that's how intrinsically tied to the blade he is. His pseudonym is the Blade of Frontiers and it is mentioned constantly, by others and by himself in the third person. His strength score is negative and his dexterity is just okay so if you really want him to be useful you have to jump through a couple of hoops to make his WILDLY high charisma affect his swordplay. As it should because as all good swordsmen understand, fighting with a rapier is 90% style and panache. He's even bisexual

Known as The Blade of the Frontiers, he's dedicated his life to fighting evil with his rapier and sketchy demon contract. He's a very good boy. 

His epithet is The Blade of Frontiers so I think that says enough but if it isn't he's introduced waving a rapier around and warning his enemies about the Blade's sting so that's epic.

For Sasha:

Incredible character, canonically bisexual, has not one but TWO matching swords with heron designs on them, AND is pivotal in the themes of Amphibia. 10/10 one of the characters of all time.

Sasha is only confirmed to be bisexual via an easter egg in the finale of the show, but she also LITERALLY dual wields swords in the season 2 finale 

Sasha is a thirteen year old girl dropped in lot a fantasy setting and kept in a dungeon for months before talking her way into a leadership position of the very same army that imprisoned her. Swords are her main weapon for the entire series (by the end of the show she dual-wields). She also has an extremely interesting arc in my opinion (protagonist’s toxic best friend to enemies to double agent to leader of the resistance movement to besties again but she’s grown as a person this time). 

[flower-boi16]

Amphibia vs Helluva Boss: Growing vs Woobifying

So recently I've just finished watching Amphibia. Let me just say I do have some complicated feelings about the show that I don't want to talk about here (saving that for another post), although I have my issues with the show It does have some genuinely great aspects to it that do make it worth watching in the end. One of those aspects is Sasha Waybright; Aka one of the best-written characters in the show.

Watching Amphibia and seeing Sasha's character development reminded me of Stolas from Helluva Boss, except done better. In this post I'm going to compare Sasha to Stolas and why Sasha is a better character than Stolas. So, why am I making this comparison? Well simple; they are both heavily toxic people who are abusive to their victims (Anne and Blitzo respectively). They are both heavily flawed people and although they do care for their victims deep down (even if for Stolas it was a retcon but eeeeeh), they still aren't good people.

So, what's the difference? Well, it's simple; Sasha grew, Stolas didn't. Amphibia made Sasha realize how much of a toxic, selfish POS she's been being towards others, especially Anne, and the show never coddles her and tries to paint Anne as the abuser for standing up to Sasha. It doesn't try to paint her as an UwU soft girl at all, instead, the show makes Sasha actually grow as a person, realizing her mistakes and making amends for them, as well as making things up with Anne.

Anne is also never painted as being in the wrong for standing up to Sasha as well. Amphibia made Sasha grow as a person and realize her mistakes, becoming less of a toxic bitch obsessed with control. Now at the end of the series, she's leading a resistance, which is actually a great way to end her arc, because now while she is in control of something, it's no longer because she was obsessed with being in control, she's leading an army to stop an evil king and save both Amphibia AND Earth. She's in control, but now it's in a good way instead of a bad way, if that makes any sense.

Compare that to Stolas, who the narrative repeatedly coddles and ignores his mistakes in favor of painting him as an UwU soft boy. Stolas has not gone through ANY character development so far where he becomes a better person, the show never makes him become a better person. It instead constantly paints Stolas as an UwU soft boy who did nothing wrong despite him being an Unsympathetic character due to him being a shitty person.

The show never calls him out for his mistakes after Season 1, Blitzo is painted as in the wrong for not loving him for some reason and we are supposed to feel bad for him because...he can't sexually abuse his victim anymore.

Amphibia shows a toxic person realizing her mistakes and growing as a person, meanwhile Helluva Boss shows a toxic person who NEVER realizes his mistakes and is repeatedly coddled and woobified by the narrative into being an UwU soft boy despite him being an objectively bad person.

I know sexual abuse and being a toxic friend are two different kinds of bad and they definitely are not on the same level, but my point still stands regardless. And Amphibia is a KIDS SHOW mind you, yet it has better writing than this show for adults.

[interstellar-elf]

Earthspark season 2 theory *SPOILERS AHEAD*

So everyone is kind of dismissing ES s2 at the moment because Starscream is in the episode synopsis, the main villain of S2, but I'm convinced this is an obvious bait and switch.

I'm thinking of this on the level of Sasha Waybright from Amphibia kind of antagonist role. We already know that Starscream suffered under Megatron in s1, and I really don't think that will be dismissed in s2. I kind of feel like the episode synopsis for these episodes are rather lacking, and Starscream in at least the first third of s2 will be the antagonist, but will eventually come back to help the Maltos and the Terrans to stop the true antagonist of s2, which I feel will be revealed as the Quintessons. They're already setting it up by episode 2, so I won't be surprised if we get a full on Quintesson invasion by the near end of s2.

Additionally, I think Starscream's whole arc in s2 will be trying to be the leader of the Decepticons while understanding he still hasn't healed that much from Megatron's abuse and Megatron realizing that he hasn't changed as much as he wanted or having Megatron get killed sometime in the 2nd or 3rd batch of s2, with Starscream having to reconcile with the fact that Megatron is gone (as I feel like Megatron will be killed off for good). I also feel like that Spitfire and Aftermath will be the key to "sympathizing" Starscream, as the Chaos Terrans are basically Sparklings to him and his comrades, he'd probably fill the role of a parental figure to them the most. I also kind of feel like the Chaos Terrans will die by the end of s2, though I kind of hope not.

I mostly tie all of this to the fact that season 2 of most animated series nowadays are often full of lore drops and sudden twists in characters. This is especially clear if we get bait and switch villains, such as the case in Amphibia where it might have been clear that Andraias was the true villain, we were still convinced that it was someone else the entire time. For Earthspark, I feel like we'll be told that Starscream and the Decepticons are the main villains but we'll get inklings of this not being the actual case.

[spopsalt]

So what’s your opinion on Sasha Waybright (Amphibia) redemption arc and story. Since she does have a similar character to Catra?

Welll I've only seem a little bit of Amphabia, but from what I've seen, it's way better than Catra's (The bar is low but yk what I mean) Since she actually shows gulit for what she's done meanwhile Catra never feels gulity

[wren-writes-things]

I mean personally for me I would appreciate at least 2 Sasha episodes in Season 3a to help flesh out her arc more cause I LOVE her but I feel more screentime around 3a (and maybe) a bit around Season 2, would have done wonders for her arc. It’s almost criminal how little we know of her bad homelife other than her parents are divorced.

What would you personally add to Sasha’s arc?

So my biggest issue on Sasha’s arc (and honestly most of season 3 aside from Andrias) is just how much is left unsaid. And a lot of that does come down to her family.

Everything we see regarding Sasha is her learning to turn a set of poor coping mechanisms (seeking control, aggression, etc), into something that could benefit those around her (being a leader). The problem is that there are just large chunks of that development that are missing, specifically the origin and most of her improvement. Which are both kind of important.

Now I will say I think these flaws stem from an aspect of the show that in some scenarios (namely True Colors) was incredibly important. And that was the use of Anne as the protagonist, and really the only character you ever see the POV of. What I mean by that is that unless a character directly explained their motivations on screen in front of Anne, you really don’t know it (even then you still got Sasha’s POV though so this isn’t a strict rule). The thing is though is that this doesn’t necessarily apply to season 3

Anyway yeah back on topic, like I said a big thing for me would be stating Sasha’s perspective on things back on earth. I’m not for suggesting a full backstory episode because I don’t see that flowing well with the overall show. However starting a Sasha centric episode with a final flashback to the day of the that they stole the music box (similar to Reunion and True Colors) I believe would work quite nicely to address Sasha’s dynamic with her parents and her friends. Additionally Anne speaking with the Waybrights and Wus (not Zeus autocorrect, no one wants to speak with Zeus ever) instead of writing a letter could allow an outside perspective on how both families were handling their missing daughters. This also avoids the issue of addressing this situation in Sasha’s apology to Anne (which seemed to be what the writers kept getting hung up on based on interviews).

That being said I’m not certain how exactly I would handle Sasha’s family dynamic. I don’t think it was necessarily healthy aside from the divorce based on her actions in The Third Temple flashback and throughout the show. But… I don’t think I’m necessarily qualified to handle that topic without a lot of research. Might come back to it though because I have at least a guess that I find interesting.

Anyway, I think my next big thing would be just making season 3 more Sasha centric. (And honestly if I were doing a full rewrite I would probably take tharrb’s approach and split S3 into two seasons, I think there just wasn’t enough time to address everything even if you took out the filler episodes especially with how large the main cast of the show is). Season 3a has a lot of potential ways that it could go but overall her arc was one of the most important ones to develop in that period.

Specifically I would want to show her developing a connection with the rebellion members and learning to lead the rebellion in a way that took all members concerns into account without endangering the group. And also her dealing with her feelings regarding Marcy and Anne. Which is a lot of aspects hence why I said you honestly would need to divide season 3 up.

My one additional point because I have opinions about it, is addressing the full reason why Sasha had her change of heart. Because I was reading on the topic and it just kind of bothered me.

Like that is a pretty important aspect of the show to address and for some reason it just never is mentioned. Which is especially weird considering that she clearly had a change in perception by the season 3 finale and that is just such an interesting development that I want to see.

Anyway yeah, there’s a few other aspects to my overall take on Sasha. Like honestly I probably would have added another episode focusing on her in season 1 but my main issues with her arc are in season 3 so that’s most of what I addressed. Also this was very general so if you want further exploration of any topic I am always open to explaining it.

[ordinaryschmuck]

You're allowed to like Sasha Waybright. I don't mind if you like Sasha Waybright. Sasha Waybright can be your favorite character of all of fiction and I don't mind that.

...But never come to me, a guy who has Amity and Hunter in his top five favorite Owl House characters, and tell me that Sasha has a better redemption arc than Amity and Hunter. Sasha's redemption arc was all kinds of messy, going back and forth with making me wonder if the final conclusion SHOULD be that she gets redeemed, primarily in episodes like "The Third Temple" and "The Dinner." "The Third Temple" is an episode of Sasha proving to Anne that she's a different person, only for it to end with it being planned from the beginning that the whole thing was meant to be a sham. Granted, this leaves the episode in this space where it's up to interpretation of how much Sasha does and says in this episode is all an act or if there's some truth behind it. But when it comes to a redemption story, especially one so late in the series with a character who only appears in FOUR EPISODES at this point before things go to hell, it's best not to let things up to interpretation. And then you have "The Dinner," an episode that makes the point abundantly--EXPLICITLY--clear that Sasha has not changed and doesn't WANT to change. And when an episode like that happens TWO EPISODES before the big season finale, one that acts as the turning point of her character, I feel like some things were lost in the mix.

And then you have Amity and Hunter, two characters that grow, develop, and better themselves in EVERY. EPISODE. THEY. APPEAR IN. There's rarely any backsliding, they gain more layers into WHY they are the way they are as people, and their outward change always reflects their inner change. Amity four appearances in feels like a different character than in her first. Hunter feels different after four appearances than he did in his first. Sasha feels the same throughout her time on the show, until Season Three where she finally decides to change and most of her growth and development happened OFF SCREEN. Because Amphibia is a show that prioritized characters doing silly nonsense instead of character growth. We could have gotten an episode about Sasha's motives or the growth of her character, but Sprig going to college and Hop Pop being an actor were apparently more of a priority.

*HUFF*...Sorry. Someone showed me a post about how Sasha is better than Amity and that just made me frickin' lose it.

[mdhwrites]

Honestly I personally believe Sasha Waybright character arc was better written and engaging than Hunter and Amity’s arcs combined mostly because there was more agency in her arc and while the other two characters who go from enemies to allies to friends just didn’t engage me as much as Sasha’s.

I’m especially dissatisfied with Hunter and how his story while interesting wasn’t as cool as it could’ve been

So I've talked a lot about this in the past but the angle I'll take this time is simple: Sasha is more compelling as a villain to ally arc because the show let her be a villain.

That might sound simple but it's clearly something TOH itself struggled with. One could argue that ALL of the redemptions in TOH follow a pattern of one bad action followed by them being tenuously on the same side and then on the same side. Amity is out of character for her first episode and then Luz is actually at fault for Covention, even if Amity takes it too far. Then Amity is weirdly antagonistic during Hooty's Moving Hassle and then NEVER AGAIN. Three episodes into knowing her and she is now the person we are supposed to sympathize and want around and her biggest crime feels entirely out of character for the rest of her portrayal.

Hunter is similar. His first appearance is not Hunter. It's the Golden Guard who is WAY more fun a character than Hunter ever was and kind of a bastard. Then the mask is removed in his second real appearance (not counting the stinger in Escaping Expulsion) and he is someone to start sympathizing and working with. He is the sad but mad boy by his third major appearance and his second appearance makes him somewhat sympathetic, just like Covention did for Amity... Or For the Future does for The Collector despite lines like "I can't wait to play amongst the bones!" in Hollow Mind that feel, drumroll please, OUT OF CHARACTER TO THE REST OF HIS WRITING!

Lilith is the only to subvert this... Kind of. No, they actually go out of order but still the same essentially with her. Her first appearance makes her sympathetic and not properly a threat because she's still willing to play ball with Eda for a one on one competition, then she spends the second half of S1 just palling around in shenanigans she should not be allowing but is because... Fuck you. Then we get her one truly evil action in kidnapping Luz, coupled also with having been the one to curse Eda but that's also used to show she's a good person now so the kidnapping is the bigger deal here. Then... She's just a good guy afterwards.

This all makes for the most shallow, bullshit uses of this trope I think you can do while being allowed to claim you did it. After all, a key point to all of these redemptions aren't "Then they sided with the good guys," it's just "Then they're a good person." They don't bring who they were as a villain with them. The strengths that led to their villainy are just gone and they're hard to say what they were in the first place, what they add to the narrative in their redemption and joining of the main party because who were they before they joined. What are they actually fighting against as a person instead of just deciding not to be evil anymore or wanting the cookies that the light side offers?

It'd be like if after Sasha was redeemed, she was as bad as Anne at being able to lead and use people. If the show went "To better erase all the crimes she's done, not only will we say Sasha only is a bad person because her father is Ultra Satan but also she now is entirely incompetent in what she was good at before." Amity loses her intelligence. Her plans are always the most straightforward after she starts getting a crush on Luz and she canonically started having her grades slip. Hunter is the most pathetic character in the main cast with I think zero wins in his belt besides his first appearance despite being the only one with combat training. Lilith is just... Sad in how much they reduce all she was for over forty years of her life to go "Now she's a silly nerd girl. Fuck ambition."

And, of course, their bad sides being blamed on mother, uncle, mother kind of for Lilith actually, just that the exposition for that comes after her redemption, and the Archivists and Belos for the Collector. They aren't bad people, they just were forced to spend time with the wrong people. Now that they're nerds and led by nerd Jesus, everything is okay.

There is a VEEERY real problem in TOH of Us vs. Them mentality that comes from these arcs that's really gross. Swap Luz to a white, male jock and suddenly the show becomes WAY MORE UNCOMFORTABLE!

Sasha dodges all of this because no one tries to excuse Sasha. Sasha never tries to pretend she's anyone other than who she is except for when she's explicitly putting on an act. This means everything compelling and good about her as a villain can cleanly transition to when she is a hero, even if it's hard to believe that which the show even calls out.

There is no Sasha's Angels in TOH. That might be a weird one to reference to you because it doesn't include much Sasha but it nails on the head what makes this trope so exciting. To Anne, Sasha letting others do the work while she gets to theoretically kick back looks like the same old Sasha that she now is suspicious of. Someone who is self serving and so Anne lashes out. However, it's not the case. Sasha's ability to manipulate always came from being able to read a person's weaknesses and strengths. She's a MUCH better manipulator than Belos in this way because she doesn't leverage on you or for you to already be siding with her. She can read you like a book and tear apart your pages until she plays with your spine. And as a hero, that's going to mean she's a great delegator. She's the sort who would go "Nah, we don't need to save them from what you see as certain doom. I know he can deal with it." And she's right. Not because of blind faith but because of the same skills that made her villainous.

Something that wouldn't hit nearly as hard, or feel reasonable on Anne's part, if we didn't get so many examples of this being who Sasha is. Of the fact that Sasha uses other people for her own means. And even now, you can claim the same... Except it's not for her means. It's for their needs.

It actually is part of what makes her becoming a therapist so pitch perfect. A good therapist can call you out when you're trying to hide behind something to not get to the core of your problems. They can catch what is at the root of your issues even as you don't see it yourself. They also can see your value and use your strengths to help combat those problems after helping you identify them. It's actually pretty close to how she tried to get out of Toad Tower in her first appearance. Bring in someone, earn their trust, use their passions against their weaknesses and make them better. The only difference is that now she cares about making them better.

Amity, Hunter and Lilith could never have such a satisfying future because again: What are their strengths? Hell, post redemption, that statement stands true. You can call Amity good at magic I guess but Hunter and Lilith are pathetic people who kind of luck out in being useful at times and that's really it. These aren't people who have anything going for them. They're as good as goons with one of them being an elite in a one off episode as far as villain forces go and that's not very compelling for a redemption of this sort. Not unless you're really going to get into that and A: Lilith was one of the strongest mages on the Isles and studied her ass off so you'd think she'd mocked less for sucking at her job and being a fucking moron and B: they didn't even try for half a second with Hunter who I don't really know if they intended to make look as pathetic as he did skill wise.

So their futures are just random factoids introduced during the story. Does Amity being an inventor say anything about her redemption? No. In fact, it really sucks because Odalia would have LOVED her daughter to follow in her father's footsteps because that's the most profitable option for their company. Good job show. Hunter just takes up the job that connects him with the only thing we know is explicitly Caleb related, no conjecture needed, which sucks for a character who was supposed to be his own person. Then Lilith is... A historian. Because she likes that I guess. Does that have anything to do with her time as the coven head? No. Her ambitions? GOD NO. It's just a random choice that puts her in line with the inoffensively nerdy cast.

And before ANYONE says anything about the shortening, I want to say I've done a blog comparing the fact that Amity, in S2A (so before the shortening) has as many appearances as Sasha does in Sasha's entire redemption arc. You didn't need more time to do this better, the show needed to actually commit to its concepts. Actually needed to be willing to do its tropes rather than slapping it on for marketability and to make lazy analysts happy.

Because enemies to allies is not one of those tropes you can half ass. Not unless you want none of its power and boy, these are some weak character arcs. At least we've got Sasha.

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

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

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

A Twitter you can follow too

And a Kofi if you like what I do and want to help out with the fact that disability doesn’t pay much.

[wellwrittenevilbitch]

Who is the better written evil bitch!

Propaganda

Sasha:

- she understands shes a horrible person, unfortunately, teenage power trip

-tried to kill her friend!!! multiple times!! with swords

-literally school bully

-even after a redemption arc she still blames marcy 

Fyodor:

He's so evil, he's blown up children, and killed a lot of people. But also, he's such an amazingly written character, balancing perfectly with Dazai, who is like the good version of him with how similar they are in both thought process and looks. He is a terrorist with plans of ridding the world of all evil, which to him is people with abilities. He has no mercy, and manipulates everyone around him. Needing to be constantly in control of people, or else he refuses to be near them, since he lacks trust.

[onyx-archer]

I Don’t Really Like Sasha Waybright: A Look Into Redemption Arcs

Oh boy, it’s time for me to make another analysis piece based on some dumb Disney cartoon. This time though, it’s about the Frog Show™ and not the Owl Show™, because I also like Amphibia, warts and all. (yes, that was an intentional toad pun)

As the title would suggest though, we’re going into territory about a character I’m not particularly fond of, despite how much the fanbase seems to collectively like her, and that’s Sasha Waybright. I’ve never really been a fan of her, which some people I know have found somewhat amusing given that I tend to like similar characters. While that is sort of true, I’d argue it’s not quite true either. It’s complicated. In order to really get into it, I’m going to have to talk about spoilers for several shows... so spoilers for Amphibia, The Owl House, Gravity Falls, and The Ghost and Molly McGee. As always, it’ll be under the cut.

Oh, and before I get under the cut, I just wanna say one thing real quick for the people who see this under the Sasha Waybright tag: I’m not trying to shit on your good time, I’m tagging the post with her name because it’s largely about my opinion of the character (and to a lesser extent, Sasha ships, but I won’t be tagging the ships because that’s not relevant enough for the bulk of the post).

Anyway, onto the meat of the post:

Watching Amphibia is something that came about for me because I enjoyed The Owl House immensely, and because Matt Braly also worked on Gravity Falls (which was, until TOH wrapped, my favorite show). The show has a charm that took a little bit for me to really “get,” but I’ve since come to really appreciate the show in a lot of ways. Particularly, I think “The Hardest Thing” is singlehandedly one of the best finales of all time, and I’d personally rank it higher than both The Owl House’s AND Gravity Falls’ (though I don’t really like GF’s finale, which I’m gonna make a post about eventually). I think Amphibia’s emotional moments are genuinely better than the ones in TOH, but the show is still not quite as good over all. This isn’t meant to be a dig at Matt and his team, I still love Amphibia, but it’s not my favorite show, y’know?

As far as the cast of Amphibia is concerned, I grew to like Anne a lot as the series progressed, and she exhibited a strong character arc from a bit of an entitled brat that shirked responsibility into a responsible person who is empathetic to the needs of others. Her and her found frog family are a highlight of the show, and lead to some great comedy and emotional moments. When Marcy debuted, I was instantly like “yes this is my favorite character” because she’s just a genuine delight to watch, and I’m really sad she didn’t get used more as the series went along.

Sasha, on the other hand, was a character that I just never clicked with. The first impression I had of the character was that she was going to showcase the opposite end of the development spectrum, where she would gradually become a worse person, or that her negative qualities would be highlighted more so than her positive ones. I wasn’t entirely wrong by the end of Season 2, and when we got to her sort of redemption in Season 3, the show kind of lost me a bit.

The problem I have with the character is basically rooted in the fact that she enters the show a kind of toxic person, and then she just kind of decides to change because one of her friends got mortally wounded, and she feels guilty over stuff that happened as a result of her treacherous actions earlier in the story. She was willing to do whatever it took to get home, even if it meant manipulating people and killing those who stood in her way. She had no issue with the idea of killing the Planters, and often showed she didn’t care if she hurt people until it was too late. I get this was done to emphasize that Sasha needed to grow up, change, and become a better person... but I still think the way it was done leaves a lot to be desired.

The issue is more so how it was built up. For basically two seasons, we get to know this girl who is all kinds of toxic, and the show works hard to showcase that she’s not above lying to her close friends about her intentions to get what she wants. She learned nothing from the events at Toad Tower, despite suggesting Anne would be better off without her in the end of that whole thing. The next time we see her, she’s pissed that Anne didn’t side with her, and that she sided with frogs, which she has been told are lower on the societal/racial hierarchy by the toads. There’s a racism allegory in there somewhere, but I’m not particularly interested in getting too deep into that can of worms.

She then shrugs off Percy and Braddock’s desire to leave when facing the Narwhal Worm in “Barrel’s Warhammer,” despite saying she would leave if they wanted to. She then basically plays Anne and Marcy for fools by inciting a rebellion in Newtopia in “True Colors.” She put up the front of being better to Anne and Marcy because she wanted control, because she’s made to be the toxic “friend” that craves control. Sure, she has moments where she clearly feels a bit bad for being like this, but she doesn’t learn her lesson until one of her friend is nearly killed in front of her. She only cares about the consequences of her shitty behavior after she has to face losing someone she cares about for real.

Now, I know someone would likely point out that a lot of characters that can come off as mean or toxic have similar moments of revelation... but I don’t really think this is the case.

Let’s take one of the biggest points of comparison for Sasha from The Owl House, Amity Blight, and compare elements of their arcs from “jerk” to “good person.”

Amity obviously starts the series as something of a bully character, with a need to be seen as “the best,” and is willing to humiliate Willow to remind everyone how great she is. It takes her being humiliated by Lilith and Eda’s cheating during her and Luz’s duel, and Luz showing how determined she is to be a witch for Amity to soften up. She recognizes Luz is doing her best, despite being a magicless human in a world of witches and demons, and softens up. She’s still wary of Luz until after Luz helps her deal with the corrupted Otabin in “Lost in Language” for her to really see that Luz is a good person. From here, she gradually continues to become a better person, because Luz’s positivity has that effect on her.

By the time she has to face the consequences of trying to uphold her reputation nearly causing Willow to lose all of her memories, Amity realizes that she’d become a bad person, and actively begins to truly improve. She attempts to mend the rift between her and Willow that was caused by her parents demands as a kid, and she eventually distances herself from Boscha during the events of “Wing It Like Witches,” saying that she made her social life better by cutting Boscha out of it. Her growing feelings for Luz culminate in her finally standing up to her mother’s abusive ass to save the person she’s grown to love, who is also the person that lit the fires of change within her. She accomplishes this in a way that is organic. Seeing her go from stuck up to a girl doing her best to make her girlfriend happy just makes me smile.

Let’s use another example: Pacifica Northwest from Gravity Falls.

Pacifica starts her time in Gravity Falls as a foil to Mabel, serving as the bratty rich girl who thinks she’s above everyone. She gets humbled a few times as part of a gag, but when “The Golf War” and “Northwest Mansion Mystery” (which is my favorite episode of the show btw) take place, Pacifica begins to showcase some added depth. We see first hand that she has a lot of expectations placed on her by her parents, and they have a Pavlovian response to an abusive method of control via her father’s bell that she is conditioned to see as “you’re acting out of line for a Northwest.”

When she learns that her family’s current situation (the Lumberjack Ghost) is a result of the family’s poor attitude about “common folk” and lies told in the past, she is visibly shaken that her family is as bad as Dipper said it was. She then decides she wants to break free of her family’s twisted values, and while we don’t get to see that pay off much, she’s still seen as a better character by the end. This is one of the reasons I’m bitter that Gravity Falls only has 2 Seasons, as I feel like this would have allowed us to see Pacifica become an even better character, among other characters. To briefly mention shipping, part of the reason I love the idea of Dipcifica is because it highlights how Dipper had a profoundly positive impact on Pacifica’s life, even if just for that one episode, because it’s through her interactions with him that she was forced to confront how her family truly is, and how she desires to improve as a result. It’s kind of like... a straight prototype for how Lumity panned out, ironically enough.

To use a more modern example: Andrea Davenport from The Ghost and Molly McGee.

Andrea’s not really a character with a full blown arc, but she is far from the worst person around. She’s a girl who has her moments that reflect Pacifica’s early days, but with a more livestreamer mindset, and she has more compassion from the outset than Pacifica. She does things so her parents will praise her, much like Amity, but is also fully committed to helping people who are nice to her. Even though her and Molly got off on the wrong foot, the fact that Andrea is shown to be Molly’s friend when things get bad for Molly and her family around “Home is Where the Haunt Is,” Andrea uses her social media influence to help raise money to save the McGee’s house.

Season 2 of the show, thus far, has shown Andrea to be a good person, and is super supportive of Libby during “A Period Piece,” despite their past history. In the most recent episode of time of writing, “Davenport’s On Demand,” Molly gets Andrea into coding, and makes an app to help her family’s business. When she learns how the app is threatening the livelihoods of the other businesses of Brighton, she decides to delete the app, and works with Molly (and, unknowingly, a reluctant Scratch) to do so. It’s at least somewhat clear that Andrea actually values Molly’s opinion at this point, and seems to be positively influenced by Molly’s chipper vibes. While it’s not the most drastic character arc or anything, and actually feels like it’s missing a little bit of context, it still works because Andrea is has more room to grow, as the show is not finished yet.

Something the three I just mentioned all have in common is a positive influence on their lives. While it can certainly be argued that the positive impacts aren’t super comparable, insofar that they have varying degrees of depth of impact on said characters, it’s undeniable that there’s a moment where, because of a positive influence in their lives, the three girls begin to change for the better. Think of it like a sort of Olive Branch to become a better person, and they take it. How far they get in that journey of self improvement is not important, because they got the chance to improve and took it. They all feel earned to some extent, in my opinion, because there’s a bit of a gradual curve to seeing how they act.

Sasha, on the other hand, doesn’t feel like she earned her sudden chance at redemption. While she certainly puts on a good show, and makes good on her desire to change for the better, I find that because we had two whole seasons of her being a pretty crappy person, only to have the show give her one episode to improve as a person before Anne gets back to Amphibia and works with Sasha again... it just feels like Sasha got replaced at some point, and while the character looks and sounds like her, we didn’t really see much of the transformation, and I find that extremely jarring.

Pacifica is a character that, in basically 2 episodes, managed to get the depth needed to make her shift into a better person feel like we got to see her improve in real time. We even have a comic where we get to see Pacifica improve a bit more helps too.

In the case of Andrea, we see how her need for validation from her parents has affected her, and that’s why she’s so obsessed with the instant gratification of her online following’s praise, and why, after Molly helped her like, once, she was so quick to call Molly her best friend. Plus, there’s still more time for her to improve even more, as The Ghost and Molly McGee is currently airing it’s second season at time of writing.

Amity is the one that has the best arc of the ones mentioned, because we see her gradually change. They showed a gradual shift in her character, and the reason for that shift being Luz also lead into the best lesbian romance we’ve ever had in almost anything ever, period. We get a full display of how Amity grows as a person, and that helps make her shift feel believable and earned.

Sasha doesn’t really have that moment. She changes as a result of a bad thing happening to her. While you could say that is a realistic response, we don’t really get much in the way of a change. One day she decides to be a better person, and then we see her as a better person. While I’m not saying we needed a whole ass season dedicated to Sasha improving as a person, it’d have felt a lot better from a writing stand point if she was given more than a single episode to actually turn over a new leaf.

While one could easily argue that Sasha had moments throughout the show of expressing some semblance of doubt in regards to how she was acting, and that she showed signs of regret for being the way she was, she continued to be that kind of person anyway. She continued to manipulate people, and try to control things, until Marcy got a sword shoved through her chest. And while that’s not the worst reason for a change, people don’t just change who they are overnight, or even a few days. She needed more time to show that the change was something that she had earned, rather than just tell us “Sasha’s gonna be a better person starting... now!”

As for me mentioning ships... I feel like this is one of those instances where I know I’m going to get a little heat for saying it, but like, it genuinely feels like some people give Sasha a pass because she’s confirmed Bisexual, and we are sorely lacking positive queer characters in popular culture as a whole. I could make a whole ass post about queer characters (because man, as a queer person, I have a lot to say on how we view queer characters on the whole), but that’s for another time. I’ve never really liked Sashanne, Sasharcy, or Sashanarcy (I’m 10000% fine with polycules and polygamy, and if you aren’t, you can fuck right off), largely because I feel the romance well is too poisoned by Sasha’s past actions. I don’t really fuck with the idea of enemies to lovers much, and while they weren’t “enemies” persay, I feel like Anne and Marcy having dealt with Sasha’s more toxic side for as long as they did would make them wary of entering a romantic relationship with her, even if she didn’t regress into that mindset during said relationship. The shipping thing is totally a personal opinion though.

Anyway, hopefully I got across my feelings on Sasha as a character, and why I’m not the biggest fan. If you have anything you need me to try and clarify, then by all means, ask away via reblogs or replies. Otherwise, I look forward for the shit I’m gonna get for disliking a popular character. I guess I’ll see people in my next post lol.

[your-local-ruebit-hole-detective]

You see someone say that Sasha Waybright had a messy arc and two days later it's revealed in an analysis post that they think that because they completely and fundamentally misunderstood her character