LET ME EXPLAIN FROG FUTURE AU TO YOU ALL. Basically it's an AU in the future surrounded around Sashannarcy's future child, her name is Sam 🤩 And she has two best friends, who find themselves in a bit of a pickle.

⬆️Sam uses she/they pronouns and they're Omnisexual! Now personality wise she's very chaotic, think of younger Eda. She's actually pretty smart, but let's her emotions get the better of her and cloud her judgment, causing to sometimes act impulsively. She isn't afraid to speak her mind though!

Next up we have Molly! (Big thanks to @bunnibee513 for naming her!) Molly is actually trans and uses she/her pronouns, she is also lesbian! She's the mom friend of their trio, she's a very calm and collected person. Yet she's afraid of hurting people's feelings, and sometimes she takes on more then she can chew. She's extremely loyal to people she's close to and puts others before herself. She's just such a sweetheart and I love her! She's also Terri's future child!

Next we have Cecilia! (Lol ignore the second picture 😝) Uses she/him pronouns, and is deminsexual. He jokingly bullies her friends (don't worry isn't full on mean she knows what lines not to cross) it's his way of showing that she trusts them and loves them. Now even though she'll jokingly be mean to her friends, he's actually very nice and respectful towards new people. He actually closes himself off to new people a lot, she has a huge fear of rejection!

Now don't worry, they actually have a good friendship! Their way better then pre-calamity trio was lol. They also have these super ugly neon colored friendship bracelets they all made when they were little, and just decided to never take off 😭😭😭 They're all just so aksueueirk and I love them so much! Anyways, I think it's time we start talking about a bit of the plot for this au.

So it starts off with Sam, they're having a normal day. When they suddenly start hearing voices inside her head, and y'know instead of going to her mom who has a psych degree she decides that they can handle the problem herself, cause she doesn't want to bother anyone. So they decide to go to their basement (or attic still don't know) and she's looking around when she stumbles upon Marcy's old journal. (I'll explain the journal later) but anyways, they read all this stuff about what happened in amphibia, and eventually gets to a part about the core. Who's voices are at this point literally screaming at her to go amphibia (or something still not sure) so she goes to her two best friends. And when they all meet up they're all walking around when they see a music box, almost identical to the one in the journal. So they decide in the heat of the moment, 'hey let's go to another world!' And they buy the music box. Sam tells her friends that they don't have to go with her but they both insist, and decide to meet up later to see if the box even works. Anyways she's back home getting stuff ready, and their parents find out. Now Marcy, Anne, and Sasha obviously don't want her to go because, WELL WATCH THE SHOW AND YOU'LL SEE WHY! but anyways they go back and fourth on this, and during this the core is once again screaming so due to everything, she kinda just snaps and runs off. So they meet their friends, and she's like "WE NEED TO USE THE BOX NOW" and they do and boom they're in another world. (Amphibia)

Now let me explain the journal, since this is an AU Anne gives Marcy her journal back, which has some pages left, because right after Anne left earth she stopped writing in it. So Marcy decides to take over and she gets to the part where the crew believes that they're done with the core and king Andrias. And she runs out of pages but just shrugs it off saying that she'll get another notebook to finish it. (Spoiler alert she never does.) So in Sam eyes, it seems like 'oh, they had access to the box, but probably decided to stop using it and hide it' so obviously this causes a bit of a rift with Sam and her moms. And the core isn't helping with that, but yeah, that's basically it! Sorry if I bore you guys with this lol I just love this AU! If you have any questions FEEL FREE TO ASK I STILL HAVE A BUNCH MORE I LEFT OUT, SO I'LL PROBABLY HAVE ANSWERS TO THEM!! but yeah that's frog future au 🤩

Here's a fun question, how would your swap au versions of the calamity trio and the canon versions react to each other based on where they're at by the end of their respective season ones?

I love this question so much. Gonna use C! for canon and then AU! for Alternate Universe. We're going to assume that the AU! counterparts are in a slightly better emotional spot then where we left off at, maybe a few days after Reunion. Also assuming that Canon!Trio had the same pre amphibia stuff as the AU!Trio.

okay so starting with the easy one.

Sasha strikes me as the person who would absolutely hate to be around themselves. I think it starts with the two of them trying to one up each other passive aggressively before things grow increasingly more aggressive. Until they come to blows

C!Sasha: I had a entire floor of Toad Tower all to myself and servants waiting on me hand and foot

AU!Sasha: While I got shit done. Half the continent knows my name while you were a big fish in a small pond. Plus I didn't spend half my time in a cell.

C!: At least I didn't lose to Marcy.

AU!: Oh cause losing to Anne is less embarrassing? And my Marcy managed to destroy your little tower and its toads by herself.

C!: At least my Anne didn't ditch me.

It pretty much immediately comes to blows after that.

Marcy: The Marcy's immediately geek out upon seeing each other and after establishing whats different in their timelines briefly debate whether they should wait for a third Marcy from an AU where they dropped near toad tower to show up. Ultimately the debate is moot cause they are too excited to talk about things and compare notes.

AU!Marcy talks about how things have been pretty rough for her but she's made a lot of good friends in the valley and has been adopted by the Plantars. Also that she's been learning magic.

C!Marcy says that's weird cause in Newtopia she's just been thriving and absolutely crushing every challenge that comes her way. Also brags about her friendship with the king. Also super psyched about the magic and shows off her crossbow.

As C! is talking AU! starts to realize that she is still totally lost in escapist mindset and hasn't really faced any great trauma yet. AU!'s brand new older sister instincts kick in.

AU!Marcy: Hey, you know that trope where a character gets cloned and ends up basically being family to each other?

C!Marcy: Yeah, that's a really sweet trope.

AU!, now hugging C!: Great so we're sisters now and I'm going to take care of you.

C!, slightly misty eyed: O-okay

Anne is the funniest so I saved her for last. So both of them are in denial and just acting like everything is good. They bond over both having spent time in Wartwood. C! talks about the Plantars and how good they were to her.

There's a little drama when AU! says how Hop Pop tried to steal the box in her version of things, and C! says that HP would never do that to her and that Hop Pop actually sent the box out to some contacts of his. AU! can tell C! got duped, but ultimately decides that C! probably wouldn't believe her and it isn't worth the fight.

They make small talk until basically this exchange happens.

AU!Anne: Yeah, its been wild I never thought I'd start dating in a place like this...

C!Anne, incredulous: Dating? Who are we dating? One of the frogs?

AU!: What? No! We're dating Marcy.

C!, blushing and eyes wide: Marcy!? Wait, you're gay?

AU!: No, we're gay, have you not figured that out yet?

C!: Woah, just because I thought Mrs. Croaker was hot doesn't mean-

AU!, now also incredulous: You thought what?!?!

(i’m not even going to apologize for the long post, if you get tired of reading it’s fine)

i was thinking about marcy, the timeline of amphibia, and the point when marcy decided to not try to go back home. she didn’t always plan to stay forever, she genuinely was trying to find a way back even if she didn’t want to. she decided to try and stay forever after she was left alone and Andrias took advantage of that vulnerable moment to convince her of following his plans. and he obviously hid a LOT of stuff when he told her the plan

i’m gonna explain this, bc i realized many people assume marcy knew of andrias’ plans since she got to amphibia and that she always planned on trapping the girls when in fact that’s not the case

So, first main event in our timeline: Marcy has a breakdown and finds the box,  convincing her friends to get it and they all end up in Amphibia even tho Marcy didn’t actually think it could work. Marcy then becomes useful to the city of Newtopia, which is basically the only reason she’s respected and deemed worthy, at least at first, and Andrias sees a specific use in her so he starts manipulating her to gain her trust while he has malicious motives behind his treatment of her. We now know despite all this, he also had a soft spot for her because she reminded him of Leif, but this doesn’t change the underlying motives he had when he befriended her

After a while, Anne and Marcy reunite in Newtopia and they catch up. Marcy definitely seems genuine when she says they need to find a way home and to find Sasha, it doesn’t seem like she’s lying, especially because at that point she still doesn’t have any big information about the box and travelling between dimensions so she really can’t have any plans on staying (she can only dream and hope that things can stay that way)

Forward a couple days, and Anne basically leaves Marcy alone during her Newtopia visit, she’s only spending time with the Plantars even tho she hasn’t seen Marcy in months, she leaves all the work to Marcy when she actually could have helped in other ways (yes i know Marcy said it was fine but Anne didn’t have any interest in helping at all, and they make it clear this was also their dynamic back home, so Marcy was just used to doing all her friend’s work). And then she literally abandoned Marcy to go back with the Plantars knowing this meant she was getting separated from Marcy again and who knows what could have happened. They could have stayed separated for 5 months for all they know, Marcy was right, it made more sense for Anne to stay so they wouldn’t lose each other again, and they would send someone for the box when it was ready.

Now, I don’t blame Anne for the way she acted. I understand that she was sad about leaving the Plantars because she knew she didn’t have that much time left in Amphibia, but she still hurt Marcy a lot. Marcy let Anne go and do what she wanted instead of what was logically better because she saw Anne in pain, and she didn’t want to hurt her. I’m also guessing Marcy was feeling guilty for being accidentally responsible for taking them to Amphibia so that’s another reason she let Anne go

Also let’s be real, if Anne stayed with Marcy, she would have been down the whole time and would have been only talking about how much she misses the Plantars and wouldn’t have enjoyed her time with Marcy. It would have been an uncomfortable situation for both of them, but that’s what frustrates me.

It seems like Anne wasn’t making an effort to be with Marcy and enjoy her friendship with Marcy because she was too focused on the Plantars and they were her priority. And we also now know that both Anne and Sasha didn’t make much effort to engage with Marcy’s interests and really see her and understand her. Anne did start changing this dynamic with some of the time she spent with Marcy in Wartwood, but yeah. Which, again, I really understand where she was coming from and i don’t blame her, but she didn’t even realize how much she was hurting Marcy and the whole situation is complex

Now onto the next point before this gets incredibly long, the moment Anne leaves Marcy behind is when Andrias comes in and tells Marcy that it’s always hard to let friends go and that he has an interesting proposition. Qe all know what that proposition is, he is about to tell her about the box, about the different dimensions and how he can help her travel with her friends forever when she charges all the gems and gives him back the box. And that situation is so messed up. This isn’t Anne’s fault, but it coincides with her leaving Marcy with no hesitation which obviously would make Marcy believe that she’s unimportant compared to the Plantars (she has....a lot of self esteem issues and we see that througout the show)

Andrias knows how much this hurts Marcy because he made her trust him, so he knows everything about her and her friendship with Anne and Sasha. He knows that she’s so terrified of being left alone and losing her only 2 friends, that she wishes to be transported to another world. He knows the level of desperation in which she has been for a while, even if she doesn’t always show it. And he uses that to his favor. He starts off by reminding Marcy that Anne is leaving, he reminds Marcy of the pain that must cause. And then he tells her what she wants to hear: that there is a way to not lose her friends and be happy with them forever

Andrias glosses over all the horrifying details of his plans, and he simply paints a beautiful picture of a future where Marcy and her friends are all happy together. Remember that ever since Marcy saw that box she genuinely thought it would be a good thing for all of them, and i feel like at this point she still felt that way, especially when this father figure that she fully trusts tells her this perfect story of how they can all be happy and free. Plus, she saw how much Anne has grown and how much she loves the Plantars so of course she was convinced that she was doing her friends a favor too!

Also I’m gonna quickly point out that whatever Marcy and Andrias found in that ‘secret’ passage, Andrias obviously knew all about it, he always knew everything about the box, and he was playing dumb so Marcy would trust him. I’m not sure what they found there but it was probably just information on how the box works and how the temples and stuff worked and what they did. Like, yes, she knew more about the box than her friends, but that wasn’t part of “tricking“ them. It was just information that she genuinely took with the goal of getting her friends home. After accepting Andrias’ proposition, that’s when having that information became tricky, because even tho she never had bad intentions, that information gave her some sort of power, y’know? Her motives changed from “i actually need to get me and my friends home :(“ to “actually what if we could travel through dimensions and be happy forever????“

So anyway, I wanted to write more stuff but this is already too long for me and also I started this like a month ago and the show is already over so I don’t know how relevant it is or if anyone is going to read it but if you got this far, I love you and please reblog :))

Daughter of the Deep HPA Crossover

What if various Disney children/ characters went to Harding Pencroft Academy? It's like a Hogwarts Au for HPA? What house would they be in? What would their dynamics with other character be like? Would their stories change from having this different experience and background?

Following this I would like to present to you: The ___ Society (I'm waffling between 'Horizon' and 'Axolotl' or possibly something else)

Dipper and Mabel Pines, following the remarkable events of their summer in Gravity Falls, found a club once they arrive at HPA.

Dipper, a cephalopod, and Mabel, an orca, soon find others that relate to (or will soon relate to) their remarkable adventures.

They could become the fun upper classmen who the others can go to for advice. Some impossible happenings on? Congrats you have the king and queen of impossible in your corner!

My most solid roster for The Society is...

Marco (and later Star) from Star vs The Forces of Evil, who are both sharks

Anne, Sasha, and Marcy from Amphibia who are orca, shark, and cephalopod respectively

And Luz (and later Vee), who are a dolphin and orca

Other ideas I had:

Hailey and Scott from Hailey's On It as a cephalopod and dolphin respectively but we don't know much about them yet

Milo, Melissa, and Zack from Milo Murphy's Law as a cephalopod, dolphin, and orca respectively

I could also see Lunella from Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur, other Rick Riordan characters like Percy Jackson or the Kanes, characters from The Ghost and Molly McGee, etc. The Horizon is literally the limit here!

Luz as a pirate after the events of season 1? Marcy building submarines so that amphibian kind can explore the depths of the ocean for the first time (you know... salt water and all)? Star developing many nautical based spells and overall becoming more tactically minded and disciplined after essentially military training? Anne absolutely hating scrubbing the frog tank before the music box incident and overall having a better sense for farm care?

Amphibia and Owl house cross over idea ramble!!

(( This is based off of the season finale for Amphibia so spoilers beware! ))

- Amphibia crew is grown up and has lived their adventure and they decide to go on a vacation together around the area where Luz lives cause it has neato museums and great woods!

- I'd say takes place after Owl House. I'm not sure how it's gonna end but I'll go with the assumption the magic is okay, everyone lived, Belos is defeated, the door is fixed, and Luz is allowed to live there at least part time.

- They probably have some left over magic in them cause I say so and kinda accidentally trigger the door.

Because of their past contact with the crystals they are actually a little compatible with magic?

- Once they go outside to text/call their family to tell them what's going on, they go back in to explore cause! Why not? Not every day this happens and it'd be important to make sure no world ending schemes are going on a g a i n

- Woah! This place is cool why not hang out? At least for awhile they do have the summer off

- Big sister figures!! for Luz! She needs them and it'd be cute to see her and Marcy ramble- Sasha could help her out with her emotional stress along with Combat training, her and Anne just hanging out doing normal stuff or teaching her about stuff

- Also they just. Collectively adopt the Blight kids they need good parent figures and I'm sure Sasha sees herself in Amity in some ways.

- Marcy getting to have a magical wizard adventure without the hook ups!!!

- Potential side plot idea? Oops! Her time being Darcy has kinda accidentally made her like. Part amphibian? Creature thing. And being in a world of high magic is kinda bringing those traits up to the surface. ( This is based off of that one scene where we see Darcy's blood is green )

- Everyone thinking the girls are gonna have a hard time adjusting and then they just are like. Totally fine because they've already been through living in the safety hazzard that is Amphibia. They're just

Anne: So is the food only bugs?

Luz: ..nno?

Anne: THIS IS AMAZING

- What better way than a adventure in a Demon realm than to refresh old bonds and then for all three of the Chaos Trio to officially start dating?

- Marcy has totally read that book series Luz and Amity likes

- Thing I think would be cute: Anne's parents meeting up with Luz's and they bond over their kids getting stuck in magical worlds. Also how PROUD they are of how much they've grown

Kinda a side ramble:

- Ever since Amphibia all three girls have become very to the point of carrying emergency or just plain handy stuff with them in their bags where ever they go.

- Call it trauma, just being so aware of things they'd need in the wild, or just. Being a mom friend? But they have so much stuff they can fit into a regular bag over years of practice.

- They have stuff like a electric lighters, solar charging bricks, snacks, SPARE SHOES , unfoldable bags, pocket knife, extra reading, game console, emotional support stuffed animal, med kit, etc etc.

- In Sasha's case she usually keeps her swords in excellent condition and in the car or on her person. ( Saving the world has it's perks even if some people think it's a conspiracy ) Both out of respect to Grime and a safety thing

- Thing that would be interesting: The Collector is aware Ann is set to become a god when she dies and treats her like a equal or higher power? I'm sure she gives off some sort of magic reading. But also like they want her to be FREE or her mortal shell or something: so uh oh spaghetti-o she's kinda on the run if the Collector ever bumps into her through dreams or something

Sasharcy week day 4! Future AU! this is my future au ! a little bit of story here, sasha and marcy are university students (sasha wants to be a music manager, Marcy is studying various tophics and languages ) they're on a date! My future au it's mostly sashannarcy tbh! (it has cute moments of marcanne, sasharcy and sashanne too)

Notes from the Amphibia panel!

• Matt Braly got into animation when a Pixar guy came to his school to inspire him. Then he took figure drawing classes, went to CalArts for 4 years, worked at Dreamworks storyboarding, and started pitching shows.

• Jessica Chandra went from live action to applying for the Nickelodeon animation internship. Then she worked on Tangled before Amphibia

• Roxanne Cole did character design at first and then switched to storyboards--then Matt reached out to them

• Joe Johnston followed Matt's path, even being college roommates--but before that, he and Matt went to California Summer School for the Arts (now Interspark)--along with Alex Hirsch and others. He got Matt to work on part of SU.

• They start with a clip! It's an animatic for the Marcy Theme Song Takeover, and Haley Tju sings

• IT ENDS WITH HER SINGING "HOPE NOTHING BAD EVER HAPPENS TO ME"

• What are challenges in balancing the show's tone, after the s2 finale?

Joe: The tone kinda marches along with you as you go, esp with s1 and s2, and it's been pretty easy.

Roxanne: I came on for season 3, so my experience is watching the tone evolve from the beginning to the end, which is a lot of fun. Stuff about when are we getting into plot, into fun episodic moments (there's plenty of both). The characters are complex and flawed, albeit fun and goofy.

Jess: We had to bolster our design team and add to our schedule to make Matt's vision come true.

• Favorite episode you've directed, and more specifically, favorite scene?

Roxann: it would be from season 3...

Joe: From season 2, is Bessie and Microangelo, since it's funny and lighthearted

• How does Amphibia explore Loss?

Matt: Loss is one of the many feelings that is part of this cocktail called life. It will be something that everybody deals with. These intense things that the characters go through create realistic scenarios. The running theme of Amphibia is that the price is paid and every dream costs something. It will get heavy. Kids love to see these things explored. You want the full spectrum of the human experience in the show.

Jess: I agree. Watching this, I was like but why, Matt, why? It is part of life, and I think it's gonna be interesting to see how this is gonna affect all the characters and how they deal with it.

Joe: being 13 is tumultuous, and it's all about change and loss.

Roxann: I'm trying to be real careful because I know more about s3...Anne from s1 to s2 has become a completely different character and they [characters] are gonna change more in s3

• What do you love most about your role on the show?

Matt: It's less about what I can do and more about inspiring others... it's good to see people do their best work because they're motivated and have a rapport.

[Jess, Roxann, and Joe agreed, that the people are important.]

Roxann's first directory experience was on season 3.

• How do you decide what needs more budget? How do you balance action and comedy?

Joe: You can plan ahead a little, and roll with the punches. Jenn Strickland storyboarded everyone when they fought the robots.

[It got boring and I zoned out. They discussed distributing episodes to boarders.]

• What inspired some of the episode

Matt: Studio Ghibli, Legend of Zelda

Jess: Movies that came out recently, Jurassic Park, Star Wars, magical world genre

Matt compartmentalizes. Which is why Anne does that as well.

[They discussed their hobbies outside work. Matt has none.]

A season takes about a year to produce. They are produced stacked so that you don't have year-long gaps between airing. Episodes are done in production order usually.

Holiday episodes are out of order because of when they need to air. (Christmas special might be out of order).

• Out of all the roles, which goes underappreciated or doesn't get enough attention?

Roxann: Production gets glossed over. Artists have terrible time management and production keeps them on track

Matt: Revisionists, who "spackle" everything and go unrecognized. Basically, they clean the boards and get underpaid for it.

Jessica: The Checker! At the end of the production line, they catch ALL the errors. They're also called continuity editors. Often people will forget the right number of props, such as swords.

• What is it like, balancing episodic comedy and story art? Both dealing with heavy topics and making them approachable.

Matt: it's designed to be an episodic show, one that you can watch out of order if needed--although jumping in can make you a little lost later on. He wants self-contained AND long-form stories. (This is probably why we have lore-bomb episodes matched with plot arc episodes). He was inspired by Steven Universe's pacing, especially with the buildup "to a fever pitch"--and he hopes they can do the same.

• Is there a story you haven't told yet, that you have always wanted to tell?

Matt: Had wanted to tell a story about someone stuck in the hospital, since he was stuck in the hospital once. (Might be the inspiration behind Marcy in the tube, implying she won't get out quickly).

Jessica: Mrs. Boonchuy's childhood--coming to America, raising a child...

• What are your feelings about pitching boards?

Matt: I personally really like it. The energy in the room when you're pitching a new board.

Roxann: It's not my favorite thing. I was more involved in the animatic process, and recording scratch was the only pitching I did. (She pretended to be Hop Pop and took psychic damage at her recorded voice).

Joe: I really enjoy pitching (he's great at it, does voices and plays music)--especially when you have time to prepare.

In the chat, the top questions were about LGBTQ+ representation. All were ignored in favor of the

• They showed the s3 trailer rough, with music written by JAKE NEUTRON

It's really quiet and sad

"Making friends and enemies" showed Marcy and Sasha respectively

Lots of reused clips

MARCY HAS A CRUTCH AND IS MOVING

So, there’s an Amphibia Swap AU where Marcy is in Anne’s place, Anne in Sasha’s and Sasha in Marcy’s.

And this came to me: What if the reason they ended up in Amphibia was the same, with Marcy being the one saying she just found the perfect birthday present for Anne when she really wanted to avoid moving away and losing their friendship, and these differences to both canon and the AU occurred?

- The three girls all retain their backstories, personalities and respective connections to the gems in canon, but what happens to them in Amphibia is switched around like in the AU: Marcy is taken in by the Plantars, Anne is taken prisoner by Grime and his army at Toad Tower, and Sasha becomes a close advisor to King Andrias, wanting in on his plans.

- In place of Domino II, Marcy meets Joe Sparrow and adopts him during one of her and Sprig’s quests. Anne instead adopts Domino II at some point during her time at Toad Tower… to the toads’ worry and detriment.

- Anne still has the box when they end up in Amphibia, as she was the one that opened it, and it was in the Toads’ possession until Reunion, and Anne’s feigning having sided with Grime and his army so she can find Marcy and Sasha.

- Upon returning to Wartwood, Marcy explains that she found it at a store in her world and it was supposed to be a birthday present for Anne.

- Andrias and Marcy bond during the latter’s stay in Newtopia with the Plantars when they search for information about the music box that brought the girls to Amphibia. After the search, this is when their game of Flipwart occurs, which leads to the Core wanting Marcy as its host after she beats him.

- Upon learning what’s happened to Anne, Sasha starts to feel bad about how she treated her back on Earth and promises that she’s going to make up for it when all this is over.

- Rather than try to take over Newtopia by force, Anne wants to put an end to Andrias’ plans to conquer the Multiverse, after discovering them during a visit to one of the robot factories, and of the three girls she is the only one to know of his true intentions.

- At the end of the True Colors part, Marcy is the only one still connected to her gem, and is the one who escapes with the Plantars, while Anne is stabbed by Andrias and Sasha winds up escaping with Grime.

- Sasha has a harder time trying to win the townspeople’s trust in Wartwood than in canon.

- Back on Earth, Marcy goes to her house to reunite with her parents… only to discover they already moved months ago, and a new family had just settled in, leaving her and the Plantars to have to find somewhere else to stay, leading to her winding up at the Boonchuys’. And yes. It IS as awkward as it is emotionally draining.

- With Marcy still connected to the Wit gem, the Core had to make due with Anne until Andrias can have Marcy captured alive so they can have her powers fully drained.

And those are just some ideas I have personally for how I’d handle the Amphibia Swap AU. Hopefully you guys like some of these ideas; I just thought it’d be fun to throw in my two cents with this.

Hello everyone I’m back to talk about Sasha Waybright again

(And her friends too!)

Honestly there are so many things I could say about the opening to “The Third Temple” with the three Amphibia girls as kids. But something that sticks out to me in particular is that after Sasha stands up to the older girls, she’s about to walk away.

And that crossed me as really strange. Generally, after standing up for someone else, the person talks to whoever they were trying to help, at least to see that they’re okay. That’s something I think even most children would agree is the logical next step. Sure it happens a lot that some mysterious character will stand up for someone and then disappear. But Sasha’s not a mysterious character, nor does she want to be alone. After all she agrees to swing with Anne and Marcy when they invite her.

I think part of the significance of this scene is that it highlights who Sasha thinks she is, and what she has valued about herself ever since she was young. I’ve seen it said in analyses far and wide that Sasha is a typical “hero-type” character, and that she wants to be that for others. But she hasn’t succeeded in that because she’s always been missing what comes after the “saving” part, and being there for people when there’s nothing to save them from.

This continues to be true when Sasha’s older as shown in Reunion. She initially seems like a good friend when she defends Anne against Maggie, but as soon as there’s no one to protect her friend from, Sasha stops thinking about what Anne needs of her, and instead only what she wants.

And then later in that episode, Sasha decides that Anne might be “better off without (her)” after seeing that others are trying to save her. On top of that, those are people who earlier tried to save Anne FROM her. The way her expression changes when the Plantars grab her says it all to me.

Sasha was always the protector friend, more importantly she was the protector friend and nothing else. Now that Anne has others to fill that role, Sasha feels she isn’t needed anymore. In that moment she feels worthless.

And even when they try to reconcile, this pattern continues. And on top of that, Anne and Marcy sort of enable Sasha’s idea that she’s only meant for saving them. First, Sasha protects her friends in the third temple and gets her praise for it. Which that isn’t wrong on her friends’ part, she deserves recognition for her perseverance there.

But then in the dinner, both Anne and Marcy aren’t super respectful of Sasha in a calmer, more civil situation. I find this especially obvious when they exclude Sasha from their “inside joke.”

And THEN they only reconcile with her after they’re all made to fight something again. This will only be further instilling in Sasha that if she wants friendship, she has to be fighting in some way or another.

In Battle of the Bands a stride is made when Sasha learns that it’s not necessarily about putting up her best “fight,” but instead it can be just to have a good time with her friends. It could be argued that she does sort of swoop in and “save the song” however, but seeing her let go and realize that she can be a good friend and at that a good person even when she’s not winning anything is progress.

Still, I think it’s going to take more than that for her to break out of her cycle. I can’t entirely blame Sasha’s friends for it, or say that they should be doing anything different to help her. Obviously they could have been kinder to her during The Dinner, but I can’t fault them for responding positively when Sasha fights for them, even if it’s reinforcing her ideas.

But while they probably haven’t realized it, Sasha’s friends do see her as only the protector just as much as she does. And it’s not that they want her to be that and nothing more, but Sasha is so stuck in who she thinks she’s supposed to be that she never gives anything more, so the cycle continues. I think if there’s going to be any hope of breaking this, Sasha has to come to the realization herself, or with the aid of someone completely outside the friend group. It’d be someone who could both encourage Sasha to be there in those quieter moments when there’s nothing to fight, and say that she is worthy of being there. (Maybe like a therapist ‘cause we all know she needs one :P) It’s also possible that Marcy or Anne could tell her, but that’s a pretty big realization to put on a couple of middle schoolers, especially since they deserve their space from her right now.

Conclusion: gal has low self worth please help her.

Amphibia- The Owl House Comic Con panel Summary

Lasting time 47-48 minutes

The first thing we get to see in the panel is a Sneak Peek of the first episode of the Ghost and Molly Mcgee. This is when Molly moves to the house and Scratch puts the curse on her for not wanting to leave. This plans backfires because Scratch realizes that Molly isn’t scared of him and wants to be his best friend.

The panel then starts with Matt Braly, Dana Terrace and Rick Cometa (TOH art director). 

Matt Braly and Dana Terrace are both very excited to be in the Comic Con panel. Dana talks about how she always wanted to do a crossover between Amphibia and The Owl House.

The Owl House

Dana Terrace and Rick Cometa talk about how they created the city that Luz and Hunter pass through in Episode 6 ¨Hunting Talismen¨. Rick Cometa talk around 7 minutes about the process of creating a new location and coming up with new character designs.

Many concept arts about the city are shown in this part of the panel. Rick explains how with Dana they wanted to create this place that looked both ugly and beautiful at the same time since the city is located in the arm pit of the Titan in the Boiling Isles.

One of storyboard/animatic sequence of the scene that Luz and Hunter walk through the city is shown too to demostrate the difference between the storyboards and the final full animated version.

The city/town is based of a real place in the real world. 

Dana talks about how she likes ¨making gross things look pretty¨ while refering to the city from the episode.

Some concept arts from characters from Episode 5 and Episode 6 (Both from Season 2) are shown.

Amphibia

Matt Braly says he is very excited that fans now know about how Anne and the Planters are on Earth. It was twist the crew kept secret for more than an year. He is happy that Anne’s parents get to be fully fleshed out characters.

Matt Braly said that time passes the same both in Amphibia and on Earth. There isn’t any difference on how time passes in the two dimensions.

A sneak peek of Season 3 Amphibia is shown: It’s about Anne meeting her parents after being missing for months. She doesn’t want to tell them about Andrias and the rest of the terrible things that happened. The Plantars meet Anne’s parents too- the clips ends with Anne’s dad faiting after meeting the Planters

Matt Braly talks about how Anne’s mother is voiced by her own mother.

There used to be a sequence we get to know Anne’s parents back in the ¨Reunion¨ Anne’s father didn’t like Anne hanging out with Sasha, thinking it wasn’t a good influence for her. This scene was scrapped since it wasn’t considered important and for time restrcitions.

Amphibia- The Owl House crossover

The voice actors and the creators read a script they wrote for the panel for what it would be a crossover episode.

Summary of the plot: Luz Noceda is trying to create a spell that would help her get back to Earth. Eda is hanging out with Luz and asks her to show her the spell. Accidentally they are transported to Amphibia thanks to the spell.

Meanwhile in Amphibia, the Plantars and Anne are searching for ingredients to prepare a plate. Polly ends up waking up a giant badger monster after confusing his nose with a mushroom. The monster starts chasing the characters through the woods.

The Plantars suddenly meet Luz and Eda who just walked through the portal. Luz and Anne get along very quickly seeing they both have many things in common. The badger monster approaches, Anne, Luz, Sprig and Polly work together to defeat the monster.

After the battle Anne asks Hop Pop if Luz can stay for an sleepover. Hop Pop asks Eda if she’s okay with that. Eda replies in a way that makes Hop Pop get very embarrassed and blush. 

Suddenly Luz and Eda are forced to leave because the Portal to the Boiling Isles is closing. They both say goodbye to each other and Luz and Eda return to their respective dimension. Hop Pop asks if anyone has seen his wallet, implying that Eda stole it right before leaving Amphibia.

The ¨episode¨ ends with a scene of Amity talking to herself about what she is going to say to Luz after the kiss she gave to her (Episode 5 Season 2). When Luz and Eda get back, Amity escapes before Luz can see her. Luz finds out that Eda stole Hop Pop’s wallet but now they aren’t able to get back because the portal is closed.

(End of the Crossover)

Voice Actors Interviews- Highlights

Brenda Song (Anne’s voice actor) says it took her time to get used to the characters and the world of Amphibia. She says that she is very proud of how much the characters have grown. She was blown away by the events in the Season 2 finale. She add how much she likes reading the scripts.

Justin Felbinger (Sprig’s voice actor) talks about how he shares many similarities with Sprig’s character. He loves trying out new things and going on adventures like Sprig does. He says he loves Sprig and Ivy’s relationship cause of how similar they are.

Bill Farmer (Hop Pop’s voice actor) talks about how he understand why Hop Pop lied to Anne but he should been more honest with her about what happened.

Amanda Leighton (Polly’s voice actor) loves how much Polly has changed both physically and in character. She says she look adorable with her new legs.

Sarah-Nicole Robles (Luz Noceda’s voice actor) says the episode she found most difficult to record was the Season 1 Finale of The Owl House.

Wendie Malick (Edalyn’s voice actor) likes how Eda found her own family taking care of Luz and King. She likes how Eda is both rebellious and sassy.

The panel ends with the crew talking about how they record weird sounds for the characters and the process of recording. There are some funny moments and jokes here.

Tagging  @sunny-deejee @aeteater @randombook4idk @ailykat @luna--dragon @finalfroevo @andrewmoocow @whothehe @tomb-bloom-noctem @smllstfx @aaaa-aaaaaaaaaaaaaa

Why do I feel about Darcy the same way I felt about Moonstone-Corrupted Cassandra?

I mean, what happened to Marcy is still horrible, and I'm still worried about her and still hoping that Anne and Sasha will save her, but at the same time... y'know, I can't help but love Darcy too!

Yeah: somehow I have that strange feeling again with Darcy that I felt with Cass after she got corrupted by the Moonstone: I hated that she changed for the worse, but I couldn't help but love her at the same time!

I know Cassandra and Marcy are two different characters: one is a young woman with a tough, tomboyish personality, who is desperate to find her destiny, the other is a loveable, klutzy nerdy girl, but what they both have in common is that they both made bad decisions and became puppets for the real villains of their respective shows.

And I know I said that I see Sasha as the Cassandra of Amphibia, and she is what would have happened if Cass started out evil, but turned good halfway through the show, but Darcy gives me Moonstone Cass-vibes as well!

So yes, while I still feel bad for Marcy, I just can't help but love Darcy, like how I loved Moonstone Cass.

And again: Amphibia is what Tangled would have been like if Zhan Tiri went after Varian instead of Cass!

What do you think of a Gravity Falls x TOH crossover? Or a Gravity Falls x Amphibia crossover?

I think the fun thing about the commonality between all these series is the existence of cross dimensional transportation so there is a lot of ways about this sort of AU. It is also really funny to consider that Mable and Dipper are almost the same age in their story as the Calamity trio, since the end of summer is their 13th birthday and we start Amphibia off on Anne’s 13th

GF x TOH Au - Gus ends up in Gravity Falls.

I think a real simple way to connect these two is that some of Gravity Fall’s weirdness is just stuff leaked out from the boiling isles. Eda uses it as a dumping ground. 

I think a fun crossover episode where one of our favorite human loving witch Gus ends up sneaking into Eda’s portal to explore the human realm. He ends up stuck both by the lack of a portal back as well as the Natural Law of Weirdness Magnetism. 

I think Dipper and Mabel probably find him and try to help him get back home. There’s a great running joke after the twins explain that gravity falls is weird for the human realm and filled with all sorts of strange goings on, only for Gus to mistake every mundane human thing as something strange and arcane, and every cryptid in the woods as a familiar sign of home. 

It would ultimately be a pretty short and sweet one to three-shot fic exploring this one time the twins met a witch in the woods. I don’t have anything that would be larger than that. 

GF x Amphibia AU - Marcy’s Portal Hunt

This would be post Amphibia’s plot in an AU where Marcy’s family have moved up to Oregon. She hears about the weird magic junk that happens in a middle of no where place and goes to investigate hoping to find a way back to Amphibia to reunite Anne and Sasha with the Plantar’s and Grime respectively. 

Get some ‘a few years later’ explorations of the Gravity Falls characters while also getting to see a side of Marcy standing on her own again after having to move away from her friends.

My Opinion about Amphibia’s season 3: Acknowledgement of Marcy & Sasha ( and how it compares to an similar aspect in season 2)

  Something i been feeling about Amphibia season 3 (both A &B) regarding Marcy and Anne’s denial

    Its have benn argue that Anne has been in denial with what happened in TC, alongside saying that her trauma  is sublte and is not how often is potrayed on media. While valid takes i can respect, i do not (fully) agree with it, especially comapring to season 2 & Sasha.   I admit, Sasha wasnt that well handled in S2, however, i can argue that her presence and acknowledgement of what she did in the finale definetly wasn’t “ignored”

    Starting by the season 1 finale itseft, Reunion, Sasha basically sacrificed herself for Anne, and we and our main cast saw her being rescued by Grime, they had some closured about sasha’s well being, yet we saw that anne was devastaded by it, she cried, a lot, and the plantars went on hugging her, even was they returned to Wartwood, Anne was still very sad with what happened and the season ended on the Anne hugging the plantars, as together as an family move forward.   Yet is not over, in the season 2 premiere, we had na scene dedicated on emphasis to the audience that Anne havent recovered entirely from Reunion, she had an traumatic flashback an an very devastaded expression thinking about it and most importantly, she saying she is fine, with the visible uncomfortable expression, showing signs of repressing emotions of how she feels, Giving the viewer an clear clarification about how Anne’s state of mind is and something that will be keep in the back of their minds throught the season.   As we head to Marcy at the Gates, Sasha’s influence on Anne is not only seen again, as she says they are passing through dificult times, but also how it affected Sprig, the reason why he was suspicious of Marcy was because of his experience with Sasha, the aversion that Sasha gave to him about Anne’s friends, it becomes na subplot of the episode. Then we get na scene, about Anne and Marcy sitting down and talking about Sasha; we got Marcy asking about Sasha and Anne being visibly uncomfortable and not giving full clear details, yet it shows that she is repressing emotions while giving acknowledge to Sasha, as setup in the season premiere, but also later they comment about how much important she is to them, but also at that they need to make their own decisions without her, yet still have na objective to find Sasha and get home.    There was an emphasis seen, an repression on emotions and details due to Anne’s trauma, the incentive to be more independent of Sasha yet the goal to finding her and be together again as an Trio, all ending in a loud speech. Sasha’s influence can be seen in ”sleepover to end all sleppovers”; the episode is all about trying to give the best sleepover that could be equal or even better than Sasha’s, which led to the episode dealing about how sasha influenced Anne and Marcy, how they figured themselves out without her, to convince themselves that they can be as better as Sasha, yet ends with that they will reunite with Sasha again. Importantly, we have na scene of Anne getting an cut on her finger, na cut that makes her remind of Sasha, which causes the episode to shift into exploring the forbitten basement and the conclusion that Anne and Marcy don’t have to act like sasha to have fun.

    Anne and Marcy visibly miss her, even if not seen in all episodes, mostly because of scene where the emphasis where to show Anne’s repress emotions and trauma and Marcy feeling kinda lost without Sasha as an leader. Those scenes were significant enought to always remind the viewer, to clarify things out, to reveal that Anne and Marcy are affected by Sasha’s absence in a deep way, even if not seen in episodes prior and after.   I don’t think i need to explain the episode from “The third temple” to “battle of bands”, not does those episode has sasha, thus addressing “Reunion” by nature, but it shows the setups from earlier in the season, how anne and the plantars don’t trust Sasha and how Anne wants to make her own decisions without Sasha taking things over. Its the payoff that the season estabilshed, from the very beginning, with its substancial emphasis and acknowledgements that makes the viewer have an clear understanding of how Anne felt Unfortunately, this kind of clear yet suble writing doesn’t stay as consistent in the next season.   Comes season 3, after the shocking ”True Colors’ season finale, where it was revealed marcy’s real intentions of her basically be the reason the trio was send to Amphibia, besides her goal to doing the same thing to other world, to top it all off she gets stabbed by an giant flaming sword by King Andrias, while she was trying to send Anne and the plantars to earth to be safe; her final words being for apologizing for all her grave mistakes. Marcy was, for the perspective of our main characters, apparently killed in front of their eyes, without any closure or seeing her safely afterwards, even if unconscious. this kind of ending, by previous events, lead to an even worse shock and breakdown to Anne (& Sasha), something that would be carried over to the season premiere in more detail, as the finale ended in the middle of an literal highway. Or so we thought.   To start this topic, lets look at the premiere, after getting off the highway, anne wents to her home, at the way there Hop pop ask for their next move and brought up if Marcy was killed, not even being able to finish the “killed” part, Anne protests that she got to be alive and that they will go back to her and Sasha, while quick and more brief that the season 2 premiere, is still an good setup for the future and shows aspects of denial to Anne, she does not want to think about the worst outcome to Marcy, later on Anne mentions to not ever bring up the betrayals of king Andrias, Sasha and Marcy to her parents, showing not only that she does not want to think about it right now but is also worried about her parent’s reactions over it, once again an good setup for the future and by the end of the episode Anne with brief yet determination says that she will reunite to her friends.   While overall maybe too brief and not as emphasized as “Handy Anne”, the season premiere “The New Normal” setups for future plot points about Anne’s feelings for the events of “True Colors” alongside her denial and repressing emotions over it. However, afterwards, until “Froggy Little Christmas”, not only there was no resolution over Anne’s feelings, but not even her, and the plantars, Anne’s parents and other humans brought up what happened with Marcy and Sasha.    To start with the other humans, certainly they were aware of anne’s two best friends, some of them were Anne’s classmates, so it would be logical to expect aleast an passing mention of Marcy and Sasha, but it didn’t happened, they were never an concerm, infact anne’s disappearance wasn’t explored that realistacally, as some of them didn’t even knew they we missing, examples as Anne was travelling, not seen around or just casually mentioning they thought she was dead was shown. This thing, however, it will not fault the show, as the subject of disappearance is heavy and delicate for an kids shows, so i still appreciate that the show acknowledge that Anne was missing as lighthearted as they can and that in its core, it wasn’t emontinally ignored, as it was dealt necessarily as serious with the characters it was most important, Anne’s parents, who were shown great signs about how their daughter going missing affected them; tears, hugs, questions. Overprotection & all.    What i will fault ,its how it doesn’t even appears Marcy and Sasha existed in worlds, the classmates don’t even bring them up, the friends to Anne’s family doesn’t too, and i not saying they need those characters to have emphasis about the two missing girls, is not their role in the story, but just an passing mention would be totally welcome, they are the ones who can brought them up briefly without feeling kinda unsensitive and weird.     Speaking of weird, anne’s parents didn’t appeared to be worried to Marcy and Sasha all that much, throught the season until “Escape to Amphibia” where they just say to Anne go back to amphibia and bring them back as an encouranging speech to their daughter, but even though it fits their arc with Anne, it went as quickly as it came to Marcy and Sasha’s acknowledgement to them.     At first, when Anne was avoiding telling them about king Andrias and his robots, it was understandable, as it could be argued that Anne’s parents thought it was an simple mix up of the two girls with the plantars while teleporting to  earth, and that those two weren’t in danger back in amphibia and could safely wait to go back home, but after it was revealed that amphibia was home to an evil king who was willing to send killer robots after their daughter, besides herself having blue power, one would think that they would show an worry or concerm about the wellbeing of Sasha & Marcy and maybe bring them up to Anne once in a while (NOT every episode of course). It doesn’t mean Anne would answer their questions, but it would show an acknowledment of both parties about their unsure fate and how they persist in their minds in a clear substancial way to the viewer, just like past season.   The Plantars, while not as weird, is still noticiable, if we comapre to last season “Marcy at the gates”, the show was open to show how the felt about Sasha and her actions, Sprig felt aversion and as because of it, suspicious of Marcy, fearing she would be another backstabber, while also be open to Anne about how she help about Sasha in ”Reunion” after some days, when spring started; Hop pop prefers to not think about it, being able to move on from it and be eager to meet Marcy, while Polly didn’t ever thought much about Sasha, simply because she didn’t liked her. For them it made sense, the Plantars had only knew sasha for less day, and she tried to kill them at the said period, they didn’t had much of an care or good impression of Sasha, yet were trying to help her not fall from toad tower and were understanding and conforting Anne over her cry to what happened between her and Sasha, and aleast Sprig asked how Anne felt an few days after the fact. There was an acknowledgement of what happened in "Reunion”, even after days and weeks from the aftermath. It was sparse but substancial enough to show how they cared about Anne’s feeling regarding it and how they felt about it themselves, without lefting much doubt to the viewer.   But as we view their relationship with Marcy, as i said, it becomes noticiable. The plantars had an bond with Marcy, they liked her, they lived together for days and marcy helped them through the journey, certainly they view her as an close friend to not only Anne, but to the family. they, like the girls, were shocked about Marcy in True Colors, from her plans, objectification of Sprig and later saving his life, it was certainly an wild ride to them, yet besides their horrified expressions over her stabbing and later hop pop briefly asking if she was killed, they never brought her up in a substancial matter, one would think of an scene of the plantars showing disappointment yet concerm over fate, yet it didn’t happened.     I will admit, an scene like that can be argued to not be important to the overall story, so it isn’t truly need, but in the very least, na brief scene of the plantars, or Sprig, asking about how  Anne is feeling about the ”Marcy incident” would had happened, just like how it did about the ”Sasha incident” in Handy Anne, thus an substancial acknowledgement of both about Marcy to the viwer to notice. But it didn’t happened.

    Now lets talk about the “Anne-lephant" in the room: 

“Anne Boonchuy...” -Andrias, probably   At the start of the season, Anne appears to be in a denial state, She persisted, althought just for one brief scene, that got to be alive and that she would get her & Sasha back home, as i said before, an great setup for the season, even if less dramatic than in Handy Anne. Myself was excited about how they would deal with Anne’s denial in the show, but they didn’t in any substancial clear form, no scene of her having na quick traumatic flashback, no scene of her not wanting to talk about it and  avoiding questions about her friends, those scenes just don’t happen, not even na brief scene of her feeling sad and being reminded of her friends. She doesn’t answer or avoid to answer anything, because as i exclaimed before, nobody ask and questions her about her friends. while denial can be dealt with many forms in real life, in a visual medium, on a show that had scenes dedicated to the main character repressing emotions about difficult things, the sudden lack of addressing Anne’s emotions, or even address the lack of addressing of said emotions, after the urgency of True Colors can become very odd, maybe even make the viewer thinks she not only wasn’t affected by her friends in the season 2 finale but her lack of acknowledgement of them can make of think she isn’t that worried of the dangers they might be in, especially after she saw her childhood friend she knew the longest, basically be killed in front of her own eyes, besides one brief denial line, that the lack of addressing later, makes it sound more as na blind certainty on anne’s part than her being in denial over her friend appearent death.   I fully aware that it can be argued that Anne’s lack of sleep and overworking is because of her friends, but the show not acknowledging Marcy & Sasha makes it be too suble on that, inevitably turning the emphasis being more on getting the plantars home and defeating King Andrias and his robots, with bring back her friends as an side bonus, which can be detrimental to the viewer experience of the first half of the season.   Then it comes Froggy Little Christmas, where in the very end, the two girls are acknowledged in a clear seen way, with an letter to her parents written by Anne in a alone time at night, while it will say that Anne writting an letter to the missing girls’s family is an very heavy subject and i so proud of her for that, what we get from that letter is basically the same stuff we knew, Anne belives Marcy and Sasha are alive and that she will bring them back home, there wasn’t an more clear showing of how she felt over the aftermath of Marcy & Sasha’s betrayal and especially how she is feeling after seeing Marcy getting stabbed and “dying" in front of her eyes. Not much depth about it, at most it can be seen that she is uncomfortable to think about and that the hard feeling of being apart reffers to her friends, but in the way how the season was structured, the former can be seen as an sudden yet expected feel of her brief denial in the premiere and the latter as how she felt being seperated from her parents for so long. I will, however, go with the benefit of the doubt and belive it was how she felt being apart of her friends.   While the premiere has brief setup scenes, and Froggy Little Christmas has an substancial yet ”recap” ending scene, this doesn’t make up for how ignored Marcy and Sasha has been in earth episodes, it felt very weird, an setup that basically went nowhere, not an sitting down and talking scene that moved the plot point forward into an new goal, like last season. they just setup an denial that never went much in depth, especially in how the season was constructed and scripted.   And there was opportunities for some substancial acknowlegment, notably in “Escape to Amphibia”, where anne gets playfully “stabbed” by her mother, and while the intent of the scene was just of an “mean yet funny” joke to the audience, but due of the aforementioned lack of acknowledment to Marcy & Sasha, it makes some viewers to be excited to finally some addressing of Anne feeling over Marcy’s stabbing, only to be disappointed it how it was just na referencial joke, seeing more the ”mean” than the ”yet funny” of the joke, some even see as the crew saying they are aware of lacking attention about Marcy’s stabbing but won’t treat it seriuosly (which is an line of thinking i don’t belive myself btw).   I could also say the same about Sasha, but not only was she kinda shafted to one episode, but she knew Marcy was to be sent to be healed, althought i would nitpick that Turning Point put much more emphasis on how Sasha has wronged Anne than her feeling over Marcy, i will not fault the limited time of the episode, even if i wanted aleast an small scene or line of Sasha being particularly troubled over Marcy’s mistake and fate, in the end its just an nitpick of mine and not important. As we head to the second half of season 3, the problem regarding the acknowlegement becomes less of an issue to Sasha, as she becomes part of the main cast, althought i think her reunion with Anne wasn’t as emotional due of the latter basically not addressing Sasha in S3A, thus some of Anne’s action felt too sudden or forgiving than expected, but there was aleast an acknowlegement than Anne is still hurted by Sasha, thinking she is manipulating her again, and how both of them as issues that they will have to address later due of the resistance’s sake, which while is once again an avoiding regarding their feelings, it was executed well enough, thanks to the scenes before, the clear addressing and how it was follow up in ”Sasha’s Angels” with Anne’s lack of trust in Sasha leadership stlye and issues of how she appears to not cared about the amphibians of wartwood and in “Olm Town Road” where Sasha has the will to give others an second chance due of her own mistakes with Anne. Both episodes adress parts of the issues between Anne and Sasha in a clear way that while isn‘t in all episodes but emphasized enough to the viewer not be left in much doubt worrying that it will be not addressed in the future. 

But what about the acknowledgement of Marcy? Did it get better? Did our main character expressed any advance or closure with how they felt about Marcy’s grave mistake or stabbing? Unfortunately, it didn’t get any better, the problem is still the same from season 3a, Marcy ain’t mentioned or brought up in a substancial way, even if acknowledged slightly more frequently in season 3b. Her first mention in season 3b is in “Commander Anne” where Sasha explains to Anne that is is alive but taken as prisoner, to which Anne express relief, is brief and the only time in the episode Marcy is mentioned, but otherwise an great setup for an future episode that could pontentially dive more deep into how Anne felt about her friend after True Colors, especially now that Sasha is part of the main cast, but it didn’t happened, the episode went on and the characters didn’t had any sitting down and talking scene about Marcy like the did to Sasha in Marcy at the Gates, or an episode where Marcy, even if absent, is very important to the plot as due of her character or an acknowledged that things felt wrong without Marcy like Sleepover to end all Sleepovers. We didn’t get any of that, at most just another brief mention by Anne in ”Mother of Olms”, where she mentions Marcy as her friend, which still reveals that after all, Anne views Marcy as her friend, but once again, we already knew that from the beginning of season 3, as Anne keep saying she will bring back her friends home, which already said that she still view Sasha and Marcy as friends back then. The rest of acknowledgement to Marcy is just when Sasha questions that herself and Marcy would have cool anime powers and some brief mentions that i will explain later. Besides that, it can be argue that Marcy is been in mind during scenes where the characters plan to how defeat King Andrias, however, due of little she is acknowledgement in the season, besides none of those mentions being any emphasized about how characters cared and felt about Marcy, it does the same thing to the firs half of the season, where it inevitably turns the emphasis on just recruit resistance member and defat King Andrias before he invade other worlds, with rescuing Marcy just being an not mentioned bonus, which once again can hurt the viewer experience, where due of the lack of scenes dedicated to the characters talking how the felt about Marcy after True Colors, it can makes not only it appear that Marcy’s garve mistake didn't affect her friends, but also that they aren’t worried about her being prisoner, It isn’t the intention of course, but due of the lack of scenes like the one talking about Sasha in Marcy at the Gates, it can makes them feel oddly and uncharacteristically insensitive. As of the rest of Marcy’s ackowledgements, its in my opinion vey telling, the episodes ”Temple Frogs” and ”Fight or Flight” only mentions Marcy when is convenient to the plot, an way to Anne know something she would otherwise not even knew. How she knows newtopia glyph? Marcy’s journal. How she knows Domino 2 is an alpha? Marcy told her about it. While i can understand her mention in ”Fight or Flight”, as that even if sudden, Marcy was setup as an character to loving to talk and rant about stuff from amphibia, thus one can think that she told Anne about it offscreen. The one i take most issue is her mention in ”Temple Frogs” where Anne mentions having her journal, the reveal came out of nowhere, since there wasn’t any scene before where Anne got Marcy's journal in hand, no setup before whatsover that would need Anne acknowledge Marcy outside of an plot convenience, and  not any other scene afterwards in other episodes, She having her journal just came and went magically, never to be brought again in a emotional manner, just like Marcy. Until, of course, Marcy gets conveniently brought up emotionally in the finale, after not having any scene like that in the entire season, thus making the eventual reunion between the trio and the Darcy reveal feel more shallow emotionally than it could had possibly been. While it wasn’t perfect and still sparse, for this show in season 2, Sasha got brought up and felt her influence & absense to the characters in an substancial clear manner, with scenes and an episode dedicated to it. They didn’t need to suddenly mention her when it was most convinient to the plot and then not acknowledging again or when they were about to see her again in the same episode or arc. The charcters had flashbacks, talking moments, where they bring up Sasha not because is convinient, but is becuase is natural to them talk about her, due of being one of their best friend and being missing. The season had episodes where the was scenes where Sasha’s influence was felt without our cast finding her in the next episode or arc. 

It wasn’t perfect, i sympathize with Sasha fans during that season, but **Comparatively** to the final season, it felt much more natural by characters when Sasha was brought up and how they talked about her, than with Marcy ( and Sasha in S3a) in the whole season 3, after an much urgent finale of True colors, comapred to Reunion. Once again, i don’t want angst or marcy and sasha being mentioned in every single episode, far from that, i want them being acknowledged in an natural yet clear substantial manner that makes sense to the characters, tone, and passing that the show established before, in the season that came before. This season didn’t show an improvement, but an worsening in quality in that aspect that season 2 wasn’t that much great either. Now, they only have time to finally bring up Marcy, address her mistake, how her friends felt afterwards and her stabbing, in the final 4 episode in the series. Emotional moments that could had been pace in a much natural and satisfying way throughout the season, is being relogated to the final batch of episode, ever. Thus not reaching the emotional potential it could had, due of viewers questioning the clearly weird and off restraint the season had about acknowledging Marcy’s fate and terrible mistake in any way, that suddenly gets into attention conveniently when it was needed to the plot than being natural to their characters. Not speaking of Darcy themselves, the true villain of the series, the one who possessed Marcy’s body and want to conquer earth, have not meet our protagonists and barely got any screentime. Now, we got a great piece of their character in “The Core and the King”, that explained things well. But our main cast not even knowing they exist until the final battle, where it will have so many things and plot points going on, it feels to me like an huge of missed opportunities to not only interactions between the heroes and villain, but also Darcy’s character overall, who will probably only first meet Sasha and Anne at the very end of the “Beginning of the End” and be defeated in the episode afterwards in “All In” ( I will be suprised if Marcy is still possessed in “The Hardest Thing”, and i fear not in a good way) I truly **HOPE** the final batch of episodes can give an good explanation, or aleast an sastifying payoff that justify those odd writting choices that myself and many other take issue with. Personally, due of how mcuh it will happen in the finale, from an core robot and the FRICKING MOON falling, i can’t help but worry it will be rushed or not even brought into attention. I still have faith in the Crew of the show, and i don’t take any of those issues personally to them or this show, I still love amphibia, this come from an legitimate concern for the show, but i can’t simply not say that i haven’t been dissapointed with some aspects of Season 3, that in some capacity hurted my experience and that i think the finale will not make up for it.

Anyway, that is my rant, soory if this upset anyone, but is my honest opinion that i been feeling to an aspect of season 3, that i think is major to the viewer experience, based on the same established aspect in season 2.

Owl House/Amphibia Weekly Review: Flashbacks, Flashbacks and Full Metal Alchemist (TTBK, ROE, and TCATC)

Hello all you happy people and welcome back to my weekly coverage of Owl House and Amphibia’s final full seasons!  Before we get started this week, a bit of news: to keep spoilers to a minimum, Amphibia will NOT be on VOD for it’s final two episodes till sunday. I took it as maturely as you’d possibly expect

Granted I DO understand why: These last two episodes are the very end of the series and are likely to be packed with twists, turns and big reveals. Having EVERYTHING up on twitter before it’s tv airing wouldn’t be fair to the people who watch it when it airs live. Just because I use DisneyNow dosen’t mean EVERYONE does that. I mean most of us use that or rely on it in some way, so it’s still frustrating.. but unlike Disney’s 80 some horrible decsions, this one makes sense and is clearly something matt either agrees with or requested. it won’t effect these reviews any since I usually do them the monday or sunday after the ep comes out. , but I thought all of you deserved a heads up in case you hadn’t heard. 

So with that covered it’s time to dip into the episode proper and this week BOTH shows had flashbacks!

Yes it’s the werid occasion both crossed over. But even werider while owl house was, as is standard, crazy good, AMPHIBIA was the clear winner this week, with an intresting bit of plot progression in the first ep and an utterly gutting character defining flashback in the second. 

Amphibia IS an excellent show and I look forward to it... but I can’t deny season 2a’s plot progression has been slow, which is normal for the show but feels weird this close to the goal. We only have three segments left before the finale kicks into gear with The Beginning of the End, with the show mostly just building up allies in time for the final battle, not taking time for Anne to learn her powers or anything. Owl House by comparison?

EVERY episode of the season, and most of the show does something to move the plot foward and this season has been going at a mile a minute with every ep inching us closer in some way towards the finale.. and it wasn’t even INTENDED to be the last full season of the show, it just happened that way. Not only that Owl House CONSTANTLY manages to pull out suprises every episode. Now granted a work shouldn’t be measured by how good it is at shocking. If it was M. Night Shamalyn’s career wouldn’t have bottomed out, somehow dug itself out then bottomed out again. Just being twisty isn’t good.. but it’s the way owl house does it that works: constantly keeping you on your toes while every twist, as with the major one this week, makes sense and most are foreshadowed or set up in some way. In contrast while Amphibia has an INCREDIBLY dense and well thought out continuity with things I never thought would come back or thought forgotten croping back up i’ts usually pretty easy to see where most plots are going. It’s not a bad show in any respect, it’s one of my faviorites and I will miss it, it’ sjust got a hard road going up against what may be the greatest animated series going right now, and that’s with heavy compettion from the likes of legend of vox machina, invincible and tuca and bertie. So i’m happy Amphibia won for once as I felt bad a geninely GREAT show kept loosing every week sipmly because it couldn’t keep up with one that’s simply just a bit bette. I love both dearly and just wanted to articulate why till now Owl House dominated most weeks. And even then one overtaking the other isn’t a sign the other ep is bad: Them’s the breaks kid is  aneeded breather and a good ep with lots of sweet backstory bits. i’ts just not as much of a standout as the core and the king is, while root of evil is just plain suprising and intresting. So all in all a great week. Let’s see why under the cut!

                                            Them’s The Break’s Kid

 So this one was a bit of a breather. Like any good episode of The Owl House we’re still moving right along, footloose and fancy free: the opening and closing of the ep have important plot bits for later i’m happy to dive into. But the creamy middle is a flashback with stakes we know will get resolved: Bump can’t get fired because he becomes principal and Eda can’t be expelled because much worse things are going to happen to her that require her to still be in school. Most of the tension just comes from knowing what’s coming for our heroes and how we can’t do anything to stop the trauma coming to these bright young witches. 

And like with Any Sport In A Storm this isn’t a bad thing. The last episode was an emotional sledgehammer to gut, and while it had SEEMINGLY lighter plot progression, character wise Luz went through a LOT that both informed her character and made us ugly cry. And next week is well.. Hollow Mind. 

So having an episode that while still imporant is mostly hyjinks and hunger games with a young Rahne and Eda... that’s fine. It’s why I’m always here to call bullshit on people calling any episode that dosen’t have a ton of plot advancement “filler”. For starters Filler in anime was originally around to help catch up with the manga, and nowadays isn’t even done as much as most anime just take breaks instead to help conserve material, which they always should've done anyway. It’s literally time filler as Bogs, the head of the huntlow serve ri’m in, explained in a long rant someone helpfully showed me during a discussion, which also explained that stuff. And i’ts something i knew. Filler is also not ALWAYS bad. A lot of the times.. yeah you get fake namikens, full arcs that mean nothing, and sometimes just straight out padding of canon storylines. But filler can be used for good: to help add bits to parts that were lacking in the manga. Reading the DBZ parts of the dragon ball manga recently, I was suprised by how much of the sayian saga was filler.. and how much those filler bits added: the traning on kami’s lookout, more of goku’s journey to snake way , more of gohan’s traning in the wilderness, the bug planet. 

All stuff that helped add flavor instead of feeling like padding. We also got driving cars which will never not be good. So yeah, some filler is bad and should feel bad, but others can be fun, even filler arcs like yugiohs weird as hell virtual world arc is still fun thanks to having a diffrent set of rules and letting characters like tea, tristan, sernity and duke who didn’t get to duel either that often or at all in canon do something, even if it was still largely down to the characters we actually cared about. So yeah filler can suck but it can help.

And the episiodes people consider “filler” of a tv show.. aren’t. They were put there for a reason and by the creator’s choice. It’s FINE to questoin if this ep was REALLY necessary as some eps can be just plain bad or the arcs can feel rush. Star Vs season 4 was REALLY guilty of this having things like the quest buy ep.. when they REALLY needed a tighter story overall. But often these eps can be massively important later without realizing it, as with this week’s amphibia where a one off ep from SEASONS ago not only came back earlier in the season but comes back AGAIN with this one. We’ll get to that in a second. 

But more importantly.. sometimes you need breathers to just take a friggin break. IF a show is ALL INTENSE ALL THE TIME EVERY SECOND it can get exausting. Sometimes you need a break in the action or a bit of the action that’s more pure fun instead of terror like Legend of Vox Machina’s “Scanbo”, which til it’s climactic fight is mostly just everyone’s faviorite bard getting into some shit, to help break up the drama. And in the case of steven unvierse which out of all the shows i’ve watched has gotten this bs accusatoin the most... it’s intentinal to help us both care for beach city so when shit goes down we care about EVERYONE and not just the characters we know. To help us see what Rose thought, despite all her faults and what helps change the gems: That humanity is special and that just by living our lives and feeling how we feel, we’re something unique. You are something unique. 

What it was a good speech.. oh right I was reviewing  a show wasn’t I? 

SO yes the opening does give us some advancement as Luz experiments with some incomplete glyph combos of phillips the echo mouse coughed out. We have a tiny tornadno, a tiny fountain, petrification (done on Gus’ beefy bob... i’d be more inscnesed if gus hadn’t clearly forgotten it for several weeks. At this point he’s asking for it to get comically destroyed), and a monster arm. Thankfully this monster arm is quickly dealt with instead of being hinteda t to return and then just.. vanishing for an entire series. Eda pokes it down and then hooty eats it to finish it. And nothing but the letter from king’s maybe dad is getting out of the stygian nightmare that is his stomach. 

Anyways, as for why Luz was gamblign at at least one was related to the door but even if it dosen’t help with that at least give her more combos to work with. I”ve said this before 

I feel we’ve needed more of the glyph combos. They were introduced in episode 2 of this season, we got one with invisiblity.. and then didn’t get a new one luz could use (she likely didn’t memorize something as complex as Phillips teleport just by looking at it.. probably), until LAST EPISODE. Even with Lilith showed up despite being shown to be extra skilled with them, she hadn’t made any new ones either. It feels VERY wrong to introduce an intresting new expansion to the glyph system.. and then not do anything with it for most of the season. You don’t even have to show luz fully mastering it just have her mention she made a new one. I”m not asking for xialoin showdown levels of new thing a week... I should cover that show by the by really good stuff, but anyways i’m not asking for a new thing a week, i’m just asking maybe every other week. This thankfully brings us up to 6 combos, and while 1 can’t really be used (the monster arms), as Luz can’t control it, the tornado and water fountain CAN probably be tinkered with to be more powerful, with the tiny tornado already useful as a trap, while as much as she’s understandably reluctant to use it after it almost happened to eda, petrification, IS a very useful tool, being a one hit ko in the worst cirucmstnaces, and being good for busting down doors and stuff., as beefy bob was also shown to be extra crumbly after. I DO want Luz to get these at a decent clip, as they did with the first four glyphs, I just feel the clip hasn’t been steady enough, especailly given the reason she makes these is to try and get home, so she has a practical reason for doing these. It’s also weird lilith hasn’t shown off any as again, she INVENTED the combo. Credit where it’s due though: three useable ones in one episode is clearly a course correction for this.

Anyways to get Luz’s mind off her mom and to get her to take a break, Eda decides to weaponize one of her chargers greatest weaknsses: wanting more Eda lore. Thus it’s time to tell Luz the story of how she met luz’ step parent. And we know rahne’s alive and well so none of this “OH THEY WAS FATALLY DYING SYKE” shit.

The flashback is enjoyable as hell and like I said a good breather between dead dad depressoin.. dead dad pressoin and whatever horrors await next week.  It takes place 7 months before Eda was cursed. Eda and Lilith are still think as theives and it’s cute.. and as I mentioned earlier also heartwrenching because we know how this ends. We see Eda help her sister study, the two gigle and joke together, and Eda gladly take the heat so her sister dosen’t get in trouble when their late.. and it’s again just so damn painful knowing that not only is Lilith quitely resenting her sister just a little despite loving her.. but that resintment is goign to consume her and that while the two are on good terms now, not only did they have two solid decades of hatred, resintment and one trying to catch the other, but they still haven’t quite gotten back where they used to be. 

Speaking of which we also catch a glmpise of Darius, Alador and Odalia.. and their.. happy> Their all being freinds and stuff.. and again it’s nice at first till you realize that just a few months after this SOMETHING happens that causes Darius and Alador to split. And the server talked a lot about this, what might have caused it. My guess is a diffrence in philosphy: Odlia clearly wants to make money, Alador wants to push what abominations can do.. while Darius relies ore on pushing it naturally. We see it int heir powre sets: alador creates abomination equielvints of cyborgs, while Darius merges with his, pushing it’s limits sure but in a way that’ smore natural.. unesettling but entirely natural. I could see the three, once a happy throuple, coming apart over this and leading to the bitter hatred we see today.. well from the men we still haven’t figured out how odalia feels.... or if she has feelings besides rage, entitlement and “I should abuse my kids today”. 

Anyways turns out the former principal, Faust, is both UNGODLY scary, and also dean bitterman in it’s purest form, wanting to kick people out for the smallest thing while Bump, then VP, tries to rein him in. Also bump is in healing. 

Anyways, their given a simple task: attend the coven workshop whose name I forgot, which is renamed by the person in charge to be HECK, which sounds better. It’s also apparently really, really boring which tracks for school events. Unfortunately the person running it.. is Terra

The only reason they don’t is the unlucky coven guard working with her has to keep reminding her when she treis to do lethal things to chidlren..

Anyways that’s not why your here. After eda makes a child think he killed her...

She meets Rahne and the two have instant chemistry, and they make Eda’s drink taste better. I honestly didn’t take them for a rabble rouser even with the whole “starting a rebllion” thing, given how for a bard their deeply shy, but it does explain why they’d be attracted to eda and vice versa and they help her get through the contest. 

Naturally though the finale.. .is a blood sport because Terra really shoudln’t of been around children, and wouldn’t be were her boss not a sociopath who likely finds this shit hialrous. I just love the image of Belos quitely chuckling to himself as he does once every 30 moons at the thought of a child dying. 

Naturally our heroes end up on opposite teams and end up having to fight, naturally team up against terra and naturally don’t ge ta ribbon. Terra is impressed enough though that Eda gets a “I can do what I want, eda” letter form terra while Bump is kept from loosing his job, eventually taking Fausts in what I assume was a wizard duel that somehow involved bump decpaitating his mentor like it was highlander, as is hexside tradition. Overall the flashback isn’t bad, as we get to know Rahne, who also transfers to hexside after since they lost their scholarship and their parents prefer the warmth of bonesburough anyway.

And tha’ts really.. all I have to say. Analysis wise while it’s intresting Rahne comes from privlage, explaning likely why unlike the working class eda  they chose to try and work in the system at first before it became clear the system was too broke for that to work, but that’s about it. Oh and we get to see some new mystery schools and these background characters

We have adorable purple girl, and more importantly a friggin slime monster, a MUSHROOM MAN (love mushrooms) and most importantly of all

I love that tiny pig child and want to know what he went on to do in life. Same with all of them. This is also why the shows lack of monsterous main characters outside of kinga nd hooty annoys me: the show is SO fantastic at making monster characters.. yet just dosen’t. I get WHY: It’s so the show can have representation via gus and willow, amity isn’t a monster so her character is as human as possible to avoid any attempted “she’s not a lesbian” copouts by disney, and eda being cursed means she looks weird anyway. So I get why it can just be annoying. But overally ti was a fun flashback I just don’t have much to say. 

The ending though.. f

I didn’t see it coming and it was well set up so you didn’t. As one post I saw on twitter pointed out it was a misdirection: Dana set it up so we’d think more about how the brainwashing function.. and not ask the question of if Rahne was even brainwashed or were they faking it. But the hint WAS there: in Follies they DO blow into their tea before drinking it, so Rahne was indeed faking it when Eda showed up and trying to push her away. Not getting you know, she loves them, isn’t going to get up and this can only end terribly. And given previes for next ep have Luz blundering into what appears to be them and their co conspirators trying to get into belos head only for hutner to interput them and have two teenagers end up in his brain instead, i’m wagering yeah. The show set this up well and didn’t wait too long knowing fans might get smart, but left enough so people could figure it out or at least have a chance. I’m sure one of you did so kudos to you random person. But yes this twist is a MASSIVE game changer...

We find out SECONDS later that DARIUS is part of it, with the crew wisely using show don’t tell: the tiny abomination has his hair, so we know it’s probably him.  While I was suprised by his sympathetic side I did’nt think it was leading here and even then it just raises MORE questions: is he on Rahne’s side because he thinks their right, or is it out of pragintism, to save his magic or because he feels belos has lost his mind. We wont’ know but i’m dyin to find out. I was also shown the banners from Rahne’s debut in his hideout.. and it was pointed out the ones for Rahne, Darius, Eber, The four handed oracle coven head and the mirror earined ilusion one ALL have singes. It COULD wind up being jack squat but given the oracle guy is the only other non-with in the coven heads, it’s VERY probable. We shall see but wherever this goes i’m excited. All in al la solid ep.. just one tha’ts overshadowed a bit by i’ts start and finish. 

Edit: Okay so when writing this I was so tired I forgot to ACTUALLY TALK ABOUT THE GIANT FUCKING MAGICAL CANON. So

                Let’s Talk About the Giant Fucking Magical Canon

So yeah while the witches being used as batteries was something I figured, and was proven right as there was plenty of evidence (the mass recuritment, the need for 9 covens specifically, the fact the emperors coven was exempt from said mass recuritment), what I wasn’t expect was a giant fucking canon pointed at the moon! And it has a sacrifical alter in the middle! I knew nothing good wa scoming from the day of unity but holy shit. And it may not be a canon but whateve rit is it’s even more unsettling.. and we still don’t knokw exactly what the plan is! Good god! Okay now after these messages some frogs. 

                                                         Root of Evil

This one was suprising in a good way. I was actually complaning while watching this with someone that series didn’t have a ton of momentum going into the final episodes. Oh sure the new setting was dire, darcy and andrias are a looming it dosen’t lack stakes or gravitas, but the series slower pace, usually an asset, felt a bit off as the endgame approached. We got progress with the olm two parter and stuff sure but it was stuff we expected: the powers are the key to beating the core, the toads join our heroes. It was done in intresting ways, I was far from board, but the shows greatest asset, it’s slow build, was rapidly hurting it. It also likely dosen’t help that ducktales failed to have a proper build up for i’ts finale, star vs rushed it’s and this show itself felt like it ended the earth arc clumisly without paying off a ton of setup it’d had going up to that point. 

Thankfully this one uses it WELL by both injecting a swerve I did not see coming, and feeling like it’d be vital to the final battle. We’l lhave to see if that’s true. It also corrects a mistake from one of those shows I mentiond: See early on Star Vs had an  episode named Monster Arm, where the monster of the week was an arm that tried to pull a little shop of horrors on marco, that star seemingly got rid of but both that episode and a later one implied would be back. And the shows response to this clear setup was...

Similarly season 1 of amphibia had Children of the Spore, aka that “one time” Hop Pop tried brainwashing his kids and got the whole town infected by a spore named Gary, played by the always fun Tony Hale. But to my delight the spores came back earlier this half of a season... and the show FURTHER elaborated on this return, and pulled some intresting twists with this episode, one of my faviortes of this batch

the setup is simple and given the name seemingly telegraphed: Hop Pop feels no one else appricates plants as Loggle being buff as hell and pulling an alex armstrong gets more views. And seriously this show did a fucking full metal alchemist refrence and i’m here for it. 

They end up off road, end up in a cultish town dedicated to plants, and given ther’es one plant/fungus we have’nt seen in a while who needs to come back.. you could see that. But then the episode went in a direction I didn’t see coming. See gary controlling the townsfolk was obvious. Even if they didn’t show the eyes, the name, the fact they were mia, and the midsommer/wicker man vibes of the twon all pointed to it. But just like it’s sister show did the show knew you’d think that, and thus wouldn’t be ready for the next twist: it’s willing. Yeah turns out Gary ended up here after Hop Pop justifably tried murdering him, having glommed on to a beetle as we seen.. and the people of farmington WELCOMED his posessoin as it makes them closer to nature and the plants, allowing them to see theings they coudln’t with his spores helping the crops. gary was fine with it since while he’d never considered a willing host. .their easier to manage for obvious reasons: he’s now in no danger, they get help. It’s nice. 

Granted he then of course tries to kill our heroes but they escape.. but end up having to go back because Andrias, having sent a drone to track them, found out about farmingon and wants it sterlized. Our heroes save them and while Gary is greatful.. he still plans to kill them. Which is a great gag. He holds off though as Anne mentions the spores.. which in another great twist AREN’T him. he had no idea what andrias was up to and agrees to hlep both because it’s clear they won’t be safe as long as he’s in charge and to find him.

Overally this ep was fantastic: it nicely builds up atmosphere, has tons of great twists, and nicely uses something from ALL the way back in late season 1 to payoff. Matt Braly is approaching echiro oda levels of payoff.. approaching because the man has paid off things TWENTY or more years later, but still he’s close to the master and that’s a lot. 

                                        The Core and the King

We knew this was coming and we knew it was going to hurt.. which I have a feeling i’ll be saying again next week for hollow mind. But like Hollow Mind depsite the pain, I really looked forward to this one.. and it did not disapoint. 

The cast for the ep did suprise though: We have Zeno Robinson, whose primarily voiced kids, teens and tweens up till now, Jason Fucking Ritter, aka DIPPER, and er.. Sabrina’s va from miraculous ladybug. Okay not AS big a name on the last one but still a pretty neat choice, all bringing their a-game for a tearjerking saga that andrias reflects on as he burns an old painting of his friends. 

What I liked though is that things were far more complex than it seemed, both eerily paralelling our three heroes in the present and showing WHY Andrias became the monster he is today, and much like seeing Eda and Lilith be all pally knowing what would happen shortly after, it’s painful seeing Andrias HAPPY. The jokey, goofy, funloving persona he puts on.. was once his real face instead of a mask he wore. He was the hardworking beloved prince with his best friends Barrel, yes THAT barrel complete with hammer and Leif, with leif being confirmed to be a plantar by pioneering thier hunting dance. The three are geninely happy.. which given two are dead in present day and Andrias hates both, we know’s not going to last. 

And it doese’nt as Andrias fucker of a dad who also wants him to abandon his friends.. intorduces the core, and reveals SUPRISE, our prosperity is built on commiting lots and lots of genocide with the box! “Aren’t you happy son? Son/ Son why aren’t you happy about the genocides? “Sighs” the boy ain’t right”

While “Villian’s parents sucked and raised or abused them in a way that lead to them becoming like this” isn’t new, it dosen’t make it any less intresting: Andrias’s dad was a monster who saw other worlds as only resources and saw their divine right of kings bullshit as glorious instead of horrifying. And tha’ts how Andrias is NOW: he calls his ancestors “glorious conquereors”, rejects friendship, and is fully devoted to the core’s plan after doubting it before. Leif escaping, more on that in a second lead to him to try and be what his dad wanted: a copy of himself. But he’s not. Even at his most evil he’s still boastful, goofy and depsite himself cares about marcy, preventing the core from erasing her from it’s head. It’s a tragedy of the character that enhances him: that what he is now is to attempt what he felt he always shoudl’ve been.. when who he really used to be was a good person and someone who coudl’ve changed thigns had fate gone another way.

And the other way is equally painful: Leif gets a vision from the box.. and it isn’t pretty, showing the moon going all majora’s mask with her powerfless to stop it and naturally the dictator for life’s reaction to her concerns is

Instead of her stealing the box being a big heroic move with tons of build up like we thought.. it’s Leif betraying andrias, geninely, by taking the key to it and running, but ti’s not that simple: She geninely hurt him.. but also had no choice. It’s belivie in her vision, which could or could not be true (and seems to be accurate), or possibly let the world die but let her friendship, and possibly more, with andrias live. In just one episode we care about this character despite not really knowing her... and i’ts painful to watch her do this, to run.. and for barrel to choose neither side. The parallels are also striking: three heroes, one who will do the right thing no matter what, the other who chooses to double down on the more toxic part sof theirs vels nad fight it and another whose desperation to loose neither costs them. The diffrence is while Anne had others to support her, Leif is alone. While Sasha had a chance to change, Andrias changed for the worse and doubled down on his worse tendencies to make it up to his dad, and barrel like marcy was punished horribly... and it remains to be seen fi marcy will get the second chance he was denied. 

The one thing that was like we thought was that Andrias did indeed have it warped.. but in a much more heartbreaking way, feeling his only friends betrayed him when really.. they did the right thing at the hardest cost and neither wanted to. He listened to the wrong voice in his ear.. and in the end it’s left him alone with his abuser and the other voices who begain this cahin of harm, in a ruined planet with only finishing the goal as ALL he has left in his life. It left him with nothing... and he’s painfully aware of it.. and thus does the right thing for once and saves marcy. Will he get fully redeemed?

But he may have a chance of dying a hero... after living long enough to see himself become the villian

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Y’all want a sneak peek of my taylor swift inspired marcanne slow burn? I’m giving it to u anyway

“Breathe. It’ll be okay. You’ll be okay.”

“But what if I fail?”

Anne put both of her hands on Sasha’s shaking shoulders. They both looked in the mirror as she spoke

“You won’t. I promise. You studied hard. You know every single bit of that test.”

Sasha continued to shake as she picked up a hairbrush and ran it through her hair, nearly dropping it in the process. Sasha was never one to show weakness, she always felt the need to be perfectly in control. But around the people she trusted, she allowed herself to fall apart and reveal her anxieties. The only people she trusted enough were Anne and…..her.

And right now Anne was watching her get ready to take her final exam fully unraveling with nerves. After they had gotten back from Amphibia, Anne and Sasha were way behind on their education. Sasha especially as she had been gone for longer and fought through a war with a brain injury. When she got back, she fell behind and failed out of high school. While Anne had thrown herself into her studies and graduated early, Sasha repeated a grade and finally opted to take her GED test instead of risking failing another. With the day of the test upon them, Sasha could only think about all the things that could be on the test that she didn’t know.

Anne gently took the hairbrush from her shaking hand and brushed through her long blonde hair. She hummed the tune of one of the awful thai love songs her mom always sang to hopefully give Sasha something else to focus on. She brushed her hair up and pulled it into her trademarked ponytail. She was so used to doing Sasha’s hair that she knew exactly how she liked it done and did it successfully on the first attempt. As she did, she noticed her squirming in her seat, strangely quiet, something that was rare for Sasha.

“Hey Anne?” She spoke finally

“Hm?”

“If I pass this test-“

“WHEN you pass this test. You’ll do great!”

Sasha bit her lip, looking anxious.

“So… assuming I make it to graduation… I want the people I love there you know? And I don’t have many people as my parents don’t really want to see me.”

Anne brushed out her bangs so they lay neatly and out of her eyes.

“Of course, screw them, you’re successful all on your own! I and all your friends will be there cheering!”

Sasha deeply inhaled as if bracing herself to say something difficult. “Anne?”

“What?”

“I invited her.”

There was a heavy silence as Anne’s hands stopped, the bobby pin pressed against Sasha’s cheek, waiting to be slid into her bangs.

“Oh.”

“You won’t have to talk to her or even be near her. I can see if I can get tickets for opposite ends of the room. I know you don’t want to be reminded of her, but you’re both my best friends and I want her there. She’s helped me just as much as you. I promise this isn’t a scheme or anything. I respect your boundaries. I just want only the people I care about there.”

Anne took a deep breath and shoved her emotions down, those she could deal with later. Right now she just wanted to fix the anxious expression on her best friend’s face.

“Of course Sashie. It’s your decision! I’m sure it’ll be fine, I’ll just sit in the back or something, cheering extra loud!”

Sasha smiled and stood up as Anne let go of her hair. “Thanks Anne! You’re the best. Wish me luck!”

Anne fixed one more uneven strand of hair sticking out and gave her a kiss on the cheek. “Good luck!! You’ll do amazing!”

And she picked up her bag and left, leaving her standing in Sasha’s apartment. She plopped down in the chair in front of the vanity where Sasha was just sitting and put her head in her hands. How was she supposed to handle this seeing her, after all these years and everything that had happened?

So now that you caught up with Amphibia and cause it'd be fun seeing you answer an Amphibia question, do you think it does a better job conveying important information on screen than Ducktales inspite of usually having their episodes at 11 minutes instead of 22 like Ducktales and why?

Oh absolutely.

I cannot stress enough how much I love the way the conflict between Anne and Hop-pop in regards to the music box was handled. My favorite part of that plot was even though Anne said she forgave him at the of After The Rain, deep down she was still hurt and struggled to truly forgive him for lying about and hiding the music box.

The conflict isn’t one-sided either. Both of them have their reasons for what they did, at the end of the day Hop-pop was the one who messed up, but he did what he thought was right to protect his family. He owns up to hurting Anne and that he made a mistake by never telling her what he found out about the box and it’s potential dangers.

Having there still be tension between them during the majority of First Temple was a great way to show how sometimes forgiveness takes awhile to be accepted. Sometimes a simple apology isn’t enough.

The best part of this conflict is at the breaking point when Hop-pop is begging Anne to tell him how he can fix this and help her forgive him and Anne straights up tells him, “I don’t know.”

That type of response is completely believable and real.

And then this wonderful conversation that happens afterwards,

“I just need time... Look, I want things to go back to the way they were but... but...”

“I’m sorry, Anne. You take all the time you need. Maybe it’s enough to admit we’ve still got issues instead of pretending they don’t exist.”

“I think that’d be good.”

Anne knows Hop-pop is sorry, but knowing that somebody is sorry sometimes isn’t enough to fix things. When someone hurts you as badly as Hop-pop has hurt Anne, that’s a wound that needs time to heal.

And the fact Hop-pop is willing to let her take her time and no longer force her to forgive him shows how much he’s grown to love Anne as his own kid and how much he understands Anne as a person. He loves and respect her and he’s gonna give her the space she needs to let herself forgive him.

This show is so good at having people talk and acknowledge their issues and actually work on those issues. Which is more than what DT tried to do.

One of the things I’ve been enjoying about Amphibia is how they aren’t afraid to acknowledge the conflicts they’ve created, they deal with those conflicts and the characters learn from those conflicts and it shows.

This is done really well when it comes to Sasha’s story, who is a really well written character, and how the other characters react to her presence. The constant suspicion the Plantars and Anne have about Sasha the entire time she’s around because of what she did to them back in the season one finale? Completely valid and justified.

Anne continuing to stand up to Sasha and letting her know Sasha can’t push her around anymore? Amazing.

Sasha trying to put on an act that she’s changed and is only following Grimes’ plan but we still have those moments she could possibly be having second thoughts about her loyalty? Again, really well done.

I really adore the way Anne, Sasha and Marcy have all been written, between their personalities, stories, growth, and arcs, they’re all unique and so far been done really well.

Amphibia is such a fun time and it’s so good to watch a show and feel like every episode is worth it. They take time for their silly episodic episodes but they never forget the story they’re telling nor the tensions and conflicts that follow it, and it’s an amazing watch.

One final thing is that I am so happy that the Plantars don’t talk about how they’re family every five freaking seconds. I swear to god DuckTales said the word family every other sentence and preached it like it was some type of religion and it was like omg pls stfu about how you’re family and how amazing your family is and actually SHOW us how you’re a family. The way DuckTales treated its family concept is a whole thing and while I don’t dislike the entirety of how they handled it, we definitely did not need the show to shove its family message down our throats I can tell you that.

The Plantars just are a family. We see how much Hop-pop, Sprig, Polly and Anne love each other, how close they’ve become, how much they would sacrifice for each other, how much they’ve grown, and how much they care for one another. We are SHOWN all that and seeing a family be a family is so beautiful and the found family message of the show is so well done because Anne is just a part of the Plantars. They love her and she loves them.

There’s no preaching, no shoving anything in anyone’s faces, no saying “we’re family” every 2 seconds, none of that, it’s just... A family.

The Plantars are family and we will show you how they are a family.