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cf56 · 1 year

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My thoughts on episode 6

SPOILERS for season 3, episode 6 of the Animaniacs reboot

My goodness, this episode was a well-needed pick-me-up! I loved everything about it!

Watching this episode will greatly reduce my potential of being spoiled further, since this is where like 70% of the unmarked spoiler screenshots I've seen come from. People just love posting their out-of-context Warner abominations.

Even from the first moment I saw it, I thought the mini tongue Wakko was kind of cute.

And Yakko heeling his siblings, just like it's supposed to be! I loved the twist of them actually being kind of friendly, just needing an older brother to keep them in check. That's what the Warners should be about.

HE HOLDS THEM BY THE SCRUFF LIKE A MAMMA KITTY!

LOOK AT THE TINY WAKKO HEAD! *melts of cuteness*

And a clever way for them to come back, with the mention of jelly donuts.

Great cold opening. The alien Warners are cute in a terrifying kind of way. But that could also describe the regular Warners just as well, couldn't it?

Let me talk about all of Murder Pals right now.

The first segment had me dying laughing because of how random it was and how it just happened in like 20 seconds. I liked the unobtrusive randomness of all three segments. And the animation.

Groundmouse Day Again was very good. I was genuinely engrossed in the entire plot, which, I'll be honest, doesn't usually happen for me with Pinky and the Brain segments.

I laughed pretty hard when Brain pulled out the calculations for how much wood a woodchuck can chuck. It's definitely a joke that's been done before in other media, but it was such an unexpected trope breaker that Brain would respond to Pinky's "I think so, Brain" with an actual, serious explanation. And just the fact that he also cared about this and already had the calculations put together. A rare moment where Pinky and The Brain are genuinely on the same page.

I had a good chuckle when The Brain went through 20,000,000 attempts to take over the US, and then said he just had to do the same thing for every other country. Say what you will, but the guy is dedicated.

I like how this episode broke down Brain's desire to rule the world. He gets the one thing he wanted, over and over again, but he can't enjoy the benefits. He gets so good at it that he succeeds every time. It just looses all meaning for him, and I believe that's what led to him valuing Pinky more as a friend by the end of the segment.

Although I do wish they had built up to this moment more directly throughout the episode to make it feel more earned.

I thought the thing Brain would need to do to break the loop might be valuing Pinky's friendship or getting a kiss from him or something. It turns out that was indirectly the case, as focusing on Pinky allowed him to uncover the true cause of the time loop, which he would have found right away if he just bothered to participate in Pinky's nighttime routine.

It does seem like Brain should now be well-equipped to take over the world for real outside of the time loop, but I guess most of his plans were time-dependent and had to take place at certain moments on that day to work.

It was an entertaining segment.

And now, my favorite segment of the episode. One of my favorite Animaniacs segments of all time. I had been looking forward to "The Island of Dr. Warneau" since the previews, and this one actually met and far exceeded my expectations.

I like that Wakko's first reaction to being hit with a coconut is to ram the tree with his own head.

Hatless boy

Ratto, Saffo, and Ditto were SUPER CUTE! I know the point was that they're off-brand Warners who are probably supposed to contrast with the regular Warners in a negative way, but I don't care. Hearing the Warner voices be so mild-mannered and cute melted my heart. Hearing them sound so timid in regards to their "brother" also broke my heart.

I liked that the Warners were genuinely nice to them despite probably feeling distaste over their opposite personalities.

"Yep, and get revenge on anybody who hurts your family." Now THAT'S more like the Warners I know.

I LOVED that Yakko keeps a picture of Scratchy in his wallet, and he seemed embarrassed when asked the reason, and the reason is never explained, so it probably does mean what I think it means! He really does care!

And Wakko, of course, has a special love for Scratchansniff and so keeps many pictures of him on-hand. Or, on-belly.

You know I love seeing some Warner history/lore being directly touched on. This is all very accurate to how it actually went down, right down to the detail of Scratchansniff having hair and ripping it out once the Warners showed up.

Imagine fleeing to an island to obsessively make nicer copies of the creatures you think ruined your life, and then those very same original creatures happen to randomly show up on your island because they got flung off a whale watching ship.

I thought it was clever how Yakko got out of the situation by mimicking Ratto's voice.

I loved seeing the Warners and pseudo-Warners unite as a family at the end!

I was terrified that there'd be some twist right at the very end that the Warners would just leave them on the island and reject them as true family, but I'm so very happy they didn't actually do that. Such a heartwarming ending!

The Warners actually killed Scratchy's brother! At least he'll have a valid reason to hate them now.

This segment was so much more than I was expecting. I thought it would just be a parody segment with Scratchansniff standing in as the in-story villain. But, no. It was actually directly connected to the Warners' real backstory and weaved really nicely into their history. I never expected that out of this segment or any segment in the reboot. I'm super pleased with it.

I have no idea how this episode can exist in the same season as episode 8. I don't want to bring in the negativity of yesterday, but I just have to say how much of a shame it is that this season has so much good in it, but I will always have a hard time looking back on it completely positively because of that one moment. You can call that unfair, and it is, but I really can't understate the impact that episode had on me, and I can't ignore my genuine emotions. I don't know how they could make so much genuinely good Warner content and then sour it all with that. It shows that they do understand the characters, but only sometimes? How does that work?

My one major complaint with this episode is, once again, no musical numbers. I've seen 7 out of 10 of the episodes in this season, and in those I've only seen, I think, 2 songs from the Warners. I know the three episodes I haven't watched all have major songs in them, but that's still unacceptable for Animaniacs. Music is such an important part of the spirit of this show, and when there's a truly good song in an episode, it really brightens my mood and leaves me happy singing it over and over again in my head. Last season did so well mixing in great songs on history and geography and science, just like the original did, but season 3 hasn't really done that at all. Did they just forget? I think it's part of why the mood of this season as a whole feels off to me. They should be making use of these legendary voice actors while they have them.

It's going to be hard for me to decide between episode 3 and episode 6 for the top spot in my ranking of episodes for the season so far. Episode 3 had a fantastic song, which episode 6 lacks, and probably better humor. Episode 6 has a more memorable Pinky and the Brain segment, and they really went for my heart by giving us a healthy dose of Warner lore, and some really fun and wholesome moments with the sibs. I think episode 6 just edges out episode 3 for me, but it's a really hard call.

My current ranking of season 3 episodes:

Episode 6

Episode 3

Episode 4

Episode 2

Episode 1

Episode 5

I really encourage you to add to the discussion of this episode if you want, but don't say anything about any of the episodes that come after. Thanks for caring about my thoughts on things!

Yeet the Wakko

#animaniacs #animaniacs reboot #animaniacs 2020 #animaniacs season 3 #animaniacs screenshots #animaniacs analysis #animaniacs spoilers #animaniacs episode 6 #cfposts

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honhonluigi · 3 years

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I say we take a second to appreciate the positive. The writing of DR is a shitshow, yeah, but what are your favorite things about the series?

Honestly, I like some of the writing in DR. If it was all just terrible writing, then I wouldn’t play the game. It’d be the anime all over again-- nothing but terrible writing and horrible characters and I’d just avoid it like the plague. Nah for the most part, I think the writing is pretty good. The plot is a really interesting concept. The lore about Despair is fucking stupid, but the backstory of Hope’s Peak is good, and the Kamukura Project is great. The fact that Hope’s Peak’s own hubris and cruelty and ambition is the thing that eventually brought them down is a really good twist. The individual characters are written well, including the way they interact with each other. There’s just a few characters/relationships that are written horribly that stick out: Maki, Chiaki, KaiMaki, Junko, Shuichi. And they stick out because they’re written so horribly compared to the rest of the game. The same writing is also responsible for characters like Nagito, Hajime, Izuru, Kokichi, Kaede, Celeste, Kyoko, Makoto...And that just baffles me. How can you write characters that are so fun and interesting, and then shove these horrible Mary-Sues down my throat? (Fanservice! That’s how! Fanservice is the devil of all fictional media!)

But my favorite things about the series--

1. The characters. This is DR’s absolute strongest point. If I don’t like the characters in something, then I’m never going to enjoy it, no matter how interesting the lore or plot is. I love the majority of characters in DR, and the ones that I hate vehemently are the ones that actively strive to ruin the story with their awful writing. Other than them, the rest of the characters are good. They’re consistent, they’re solid, they’re interesting, they’re fun to learn about and interact with (even if their backstories are wtf???? sometimes). I hate Byakuya, but he’s written well. He makes sense as a character and he serves his function. Same with Hiyoko. So I still don’t view those characters as ‘negatives’, because they’re well-written, and I don’t dread it when they speak. They’re fun to hate. Every piece of media needs someone you can hate. Most of the characters are super fun and interesting. I love seeing content of them, hearing them speak, learning more about them, etc. I would never have played the games if I hadn’t liked the characters. Plus, I find more and more that I like large-cast media because there’s so much more opportunity for character. You get such a large ensemble of different personalities and it’s fun. Plus, if you have a bunch of completely different people, the odds are more likely that I’ll love at least one. Whereas in most main-character + love interest focused media, I hate both the MC and LI, and so the whole thing is ruined for me. In large-cast media, I can hate the main character and/or their lover, but love the rest of the cast and go through it for them.

2. The plot. The backstory and plot surrounding Despair is the stupidest fucking thing I’ve ever heard. Completely unbelievable. Outlandish. Ridiculous. But, the plot as a concept is really fun. The idea of the killing game and being trapped there and having nothing to do but make friends or kill each other leaves so much room for character growth and fun drama. It’s like those “mysterious mansion dinner party murder” books but better. And the backstory and plot surrounding Hope’s Peak is actually fairly decent, and interesting, if you take the ‘Despair’ bits away from it.

3. The moral ambiguity. This might not be DR’s strongest appeal to people, but it is the most important thing to me in any piece of media. I need moral ambiguity. I can’t get interested in a piece of fiction if there’s absolutely no sense of moral ambiguity at all. If it’s just black-and-white “good hero defeats evil villain”! Then I’m going to be bored and angry and I’ll never read/watch/play it. There’s nothing I despise more than black-and-white hero stories. I need moral ambiguity. It’s a theme that I prize above everything else in fiction. I need my fiction to reflect the greyness of the real world. That real people aren’t good or evil, they just have motives and they act on those motives according to their personalities. That no one is good or bad; bad people do good things, good people do bad things, etc. DR2 is literally that theme, tied up in a nice little bow. None of the characters are ‘good people’ after Despair (except the little Mary Sue!!!), but they all are shown to be worthy of life and friendship and love anyway. They show that they can do good things as well. Plus, there’s the theme of all the murders being “for good reasons”, and you have to decide for yourself if that’s true or not. And the question of “are they really evil for committing a murder when they were forced to by threat of Monokuma?” Hajime is the closest thing we get to a morally ambiguous protag, and that’s why I love him. Makoto is definitely a ‘good person’, but his character isn’t used to preach some moral theme about goodness. He falls in love with Kyoko, who’s the second shadiest person in the cast. And he’s best friends with Sayaka, who is the shadiest person in the cast. And he defends them, even when they do bad things. This theme right here, about being allowed to do bad things and have it be recognized by the writing and other characters, is what separated Sayaka from Chiaki for me. It’s why I like one and hate the other.

This is also why I hate Shuichi. His character is used for nothing but toting around this moral stance of Kaito’s black-and-white good-and-evil “belief”. Shuichi’s character arc outright destroys any of the moral ambiguity in DRV3. And this is a huge part of why I hate Junko. She’s just a purely evil villain with no other personality and no motives. She has no opportunity to show ANY good traits at all. She’s just pure evil, for evil’s sake. Literally. And honestly, this also serves to make Chiaki more obnoxious too. Being the only faultless one in a cast full of ex-terrorists? Fucking lame. And the writing portrays her like she’s a perfect angel hero, who never does anything wrong (even though she does a lot of selfish, shitty things in the game and she’s a horrible person too), because of course! you’re not allowed to hate Mary Sues. There can’t be any such thing as flaws in a Mary Sue, and they can’t do anything wrong, otherwise you’d have a valid reason to hate them! And you can’t hate them because they’re the best character!!!! Anyway, you might be thinking “how come you hate Maki? She’s the definition of moral ambiguity!” Nah bro, she’s the definition of denial and hypocrisy. She and everyone else ignore and deny and cover up all the bad shit she does and insist that she’s a “good person” for absolutely no reason. She never shows any good sides. Then she and everyone else go around talking down to and hating every other cast member for being “bad” when idk?? They’re not fucking serial killers so I’d say they’re better off. And we’re not allowed to acknowledge her flaws or hate her for them, because it’s all part of her tragic backstory!!!

#Although I guess I can't talk about anime plots in context #Because I'm not Japanese and I don't have their culture #And I have it on a very good source that their culture greatly affects the plots and villains and backstories they come up with #So of course I'm not going to understand it properly #But that doesn't mean I have to like it #Someday I will write an in-depth review of all the DR games and characters #and maybe a hate-piece about the anime too

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