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i-like-media · 10 months

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S3 - E5 - The High School Reunion

Nahhh you see, I'm not buying the episode's ending narrative of Dan always having been liked. Not with both Chris and Dan talking about them getting bullied/ridiculed. As someone who grew up with undiagnosed ADHD/Autism, my ignorance has always been exploited to be the butt of the joke. And I don't think the ending is any different from that. (strap in, it's a long one)

In this episode we learn Dan bullied Chris back then too, but we ALL know Dan is a very reactionary guy who acts largely on "setting things straight". It's not that outlandish to think Dan either acted his frustrations from getting bullied out on Chris OR Chris being caught in the crossfires of Dan getting back on someone.

And Chris honestly had it Terrible... Just look at how much he's been with his class and done for them, and how little they remember him.

Elise wants Chris to have a good time and reunite with old friends (to get rid of Dan), so when Dan shows up she locks him in a locker... And he responds like this:

He's BEEN in those lockers before. His classmates PUT him there.

And he desperately wants Chris to see nothing's changed.

But Chris only remembers High School positively on his end... (even though he got wedgied too) So what gives?

It's because Chris stayed ignorant, but Dan didn't. Dan likely used to be just as ignorant as Chris, trusted people, and got hurt because of it. He learned not to trust people and to assume everyone's out to get him, because it's easier than getting humiliated or tricked, again. Chris never did! He always assumed it was just his friends goofing off, even though he got hurt in the process. And we can feel that in a later scene too.

Yes, Dan could be saying this because he genuinely thinks the costume is dumb, but if they both were getting bullied, Chris would very likely have been ridiculed for wearing it! So in his messed up Dan way, he DID try to save Chris, because HE'S learned to not trust any smiling faces.

Which is very apparent in the next scene, where he's strung up from the ceiling after he'd fallen.

If you watch the episode, "BACK OFF" doesn't sound like his usual overly confident and aggressive tone. For a second, he sounds a bit frightened. He's constantly struggling to get out and doesn't say anything besides threatening people to leave him alone. People start listing all the ways he's taken revenge on them..... and then start cheering. Now, usually in a show like this, the main character would stop struggling and be baffled by the positive reception of his appearance.... but not Dan. He keeps warning people to stay away and keeps struggling.

People are laughing and cheering as they try to get him down, and he starts panicking. some tense music picks up as he flails, music usually used (in other cartoons too) when a character is in a scary situation.

He falls to the ground, looks up at everyone laughing

And runs. He doesn't try to fight anyone, he just runs.

And Elise and Chris respond with this:

"So your classmates actually LIKED Dan?"

"High school was somehow not as I remembered..."

So what happened here? Well, that's how they got bullied. That's how it started. And that's often how autistic people get bullied, too. They pretend to be nice to gain your trust, and then exploit that trust to belittle you, bully you and put you into humiliating situations. All while keeping up the "nice" act to make said autistic person doubt themself about whether or not the hurt they feel is warranted or not.

Chris isn't remembering High School wrong... Dan was right. They haven't changed. Even though they remember Dan fondly, he was never their friend. He was their play thing. Their personal jester to poke at and make fun of BECAUSE he reacted and lashed out. Chris never did, which is why he was never deemed "interesting" enough by his peers to be remembered.

Dan even says it himself in the scene after, trying to explain to Chris why it's all fake, but after all these years, Chris is still too ignorant to see it.

Dan is explaining to Chris as clearly as he can, how these people used and bullied them. They took advantage of their struggle to read social cues and used them both for entertainment.

At the end of the day, they exploit Dan's struggles with social cues again to convince him they all genuinely liked him for who he is (conveniently leaving out all the times they pushed him in lockers)... While in reality, he was only ever good for bringing entertainment. What's even sadder, is that Chris envies him. He still can't see the full picture and wishes he could be in that spotlight.

Showing that ultimately it's not JUST the classmates that haven't changed, but Dan and Chris haven't either.

And it's another reason as to why they're still together after all these years. The only real friends they HAD were each other.

#dan vs #dan vs revival #dan vs chris #dan mandel #chris pearson #essay #analysis #dan vs analysis #cartoon analysis #dan vs high school reunion #episode analysis #bullying #long post

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nerdy-arty · 3 months

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youtube

New video WAHOO!!!

#my art #fan art #amphibia #video #video essay #character analysis #analysis #cartoon analysis #Youtube

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new-kit-on-the-block · 2 years

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I don’t think enough people talk about how weirdly competent and efficient Spinel was when she decided that she wanted to wipe out the crystal gems

She poofed all the core members of the crystal gems at the same time and got rid of their memories, reverted Steven’s gem back to the way it was when he was a kid, effectively getting rid of his control over his powers almost entirely, and forced a giant drill into the ground that slowly injected venom into the earth, which would kill all organic life on the planet in 48 hours

Say what you will about her as a character but she set the stakes higher than any other villain in the series with the exception of the diamonds themselves, all within less than 10 minutes

Not to mention she did all of this immediately after 6000+ years of complete inactivity

#spinel #spinel su #spinel suf #su #suf #steven universe #steven universe future #steven universe the movie #steven universe movie #su movie #thoughts #media analysis #cartoon analysis #su analysis #suf analysis #su movie analysis

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ananicoleta · 4 days

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Tired: Tom and Jerry are enemies who hate each other and only form temporary alliances when they want to achieve a common goal.

Wired: Tom and Jerry are best friends, but Tom has to act like he hates Jerry to protect them both from his owners.

Inspired: Tom and Jerry have a complicated and complex relationship that cannot be forced into restrictive parameters such as "friendship" and "rivalry". The term that best defines their relationship is "frenemy", but even that word simplifies their dynamic considerably. To say that Tom and Jerry are best friends, but act hostile towards each other simply to keep a façade for Tom's owners would be grossly inaccurate. There are many cartoons where Tom is mean, sometimes even cruel, to Jerry simply because he can (without his owners telling him to) or when Jerry annoys and/or tries to get Tom kicked out of the house just for fun. At the same time, stating that their relationship is based solely on hate is incorrect as well. Every single time when they finally managed to get rid of each other, Tom and Jerry have found themselves bored out of their minds and unable to operate properly. They need their chases, their dynamic, their typical formula (aka each other) in order to normaly function. For them, their relationship is both a source of familiarity (which they find comforting) and a source of unpredictability (which manages to keep things interesting). That familiarity and that unpredictability is what keeps them going and what keeps them coming back to each other everytime. To summarize, Tom and Jerry aren't your typical friends or your typical enemies. They don't trust, don't really like and don't really get along with each other (save for a few occasions). But, at the same time, neither of them would be able to live without the other, they wouldn't be Tom & Jerry then, and the thought of losing one another is equally terrifying and equally unbearable for both of them.

#why yeas my tom and jerry obsession is back how could you tell?#lol anyway #*throws this into the void*#tom and jerry #tom cat #jerry mouse #tom and jerry analysis #character analysis #relationship analysis #cartoon analysis

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gijha · 10 months

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Personal Opinion

Let’s talk about Porky Pig’s Feat, by Frank Tashlin.

Some time ago, I’ve seen some people talking about this short regarding the ship and what that interaction meant if we consider Looney Tunes shorts as a lineal continuity of the characters (as actors growing in their careers).

In this scene, we see Daffy talking about Bugs with great admiration. “Bugs Bunny! My Hero!” and says he can escape any situation (lol, he has the same expression he does when he’s in love with the hen in Stupid Cupid by the same director), but when they talk to Bugs, he is in shackles just like them.

Some people say that that’s when he falls from Daffy’s mental pedestal and that’s where their animosity starts out of disappointment, but??? Come on, who is he? Syndrome from The Incredibles??

They are more likely to work together as a team to get out of there, and I can easily see Bugs admiring Daffy, too. I don’t think he does Daffy’s jump in the water for no reason (Hare-um Scare-um, 1939).

The animosity, coming from Daffy specifically, and the rivarly only start in Rabbit Fire, 1951, as a response of YEARS of Bugs’ increasing popularity in hand with Daffy’s decrease of popularity in the eyes of the public (the real public). Chuck Jones saw this development in real life and used it, showing how Daffy would react at being left behind by the one who was supposed to be his equal, someone he admires and likes being admired by.

#duckrabbit #personal opinion #Bugs Bunny #daffy duck #daffy x bugs #bugs x daffy #duckrabbit anniversary #looney tunes #looney toons #the looney tunes #Warner Bros #merry melodies #cartoons #cartoon analysis #otp

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slymewizard · 7 months

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Ok so since my post about analyzing Ice King and Simon got a lot of attention, and I am an avid seeker of all things attention, I’m gonna give my thoughts on Finn’s development.

I think one of the biggest tells of how much Finn has grown is what he looks like as an adult…ok that sounds obvious but stick with me here.

In Mortal Folly, this is how Finn sees his future self.

There are a few things in particular to note about this design. First off is how angry he looks. Early season Finn was a complete bloodknight and lived for the thrill of combat, so imagining himself in the future as a fearsome and terrifying warrior makes sense. He looks like a badass with his huge muscles, bandages, giant sword, cape, and hair draped over one eye. Finn’s arm in this future also looks absolutely badass. It has a lot of moving parts, its super complex, and just looks super intimidating and cool, definitely something that early season Finn would fantasize about. All of this is indicative of how Finn sees being a hero. Its about being strong, being feared, being able to destroy all in your path. To him, being a hero is about being a fearless, edgy warrior.

But years and years after this episode when we see what old Finn actually looks like,

HE LOOKS COMPLETELY DIFFERENT.

And this difference represents how much he developed through the series, and how his values changed as he grew up. He’s still super buff, but not to the cartoonish proportions of before. His outfit is a lot simpler, and so is his arm. His robotic arm is just a segment of metal and a claw. This represents Finn’s growth in realizing that substance is more important than style. He became a simpler man which allowed him to focus on what really matters.

His tattoo of Jake covered in flowers is also representative of his emotional growth, although thats a less obvious difference from old-future Finn. A lot of episodes of Adventure Time focus on how Finn is TERRIBLE at processing emotions. Throughout the series, he’s so focused on being a hero and a warrior that he doesn’t let himself process his emotions in a healthy way, TO THE POINT WHERE THE SYSTEM BY WHICH HE REPRESSES HIS MEMORIES HAS A NICKNAME. But Jake’s tattoo shows how much better he’s gotten at that. He’s no longer afraid of showing supposed weakness through his emotions, and he now literally wears them with pride in the form of a tattoo across his chest. He no longer wants to be a fearsome killing machine, he wants to be a loving and emotional defender of all he holds dear, which he reminds himself of everyday in his tattoo.

But by far the biggest indicator of maturity here is his demeanor. Old-future Finn for the few seconds we saw him appeared angry and ready for a fight, but every single scene that now-future Finn appears in, shows him wearing a huge warm smile on his face. He ironically grew up by learning not to take everything so seriously. Finn is no longer a bloodthirsty knight who lives for the thrill of battle, he’s a big lovable goofball who’s content with just going wherever fate leads him. This sort of overlaps with the tattoo in that it shows that he isn’t as averse to emotions as he was early on in the series, but while the tattoo displayed how much better he processes negative emotions, his cheerful demeanor displays how much better he is at showing positive emotion.

Heck, even his long flowing hair that he once kept hidden in his hat could be seen as a metaphor for how much more open he is with emotions!

ANYWAY MY POINT IS THAT FINN IS A HIMBO NOW AND ITS TIME TO ACCEPT THAT.

#adventure time #fionna and cake #finn mertens #cartoon analysis

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lil-oreo-crumbles · 3 days

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“You’re a Disappointment,” An Analysis

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Seven years. Seven. Years. And it only just now finally hit me what Toffee truly meant when he called Marco a disappointment in Storm the Castle, and I feel pretty silly for not realizing it before.

Before Storm the Castle, Toffee has only seen Marco on two significant (canonical) occasions, Fortune Cookies and Mewnipendance Day. (As you may remember, Marco was MIA during Marco Grows a Beard, considering he was… physically trapped in that bathroom as his beard overwhelmed the house)

Fortune Cookies:

The entire plot of the episode, besides the ever enjoyable introduction to our favorite lizard, is Star once again being amazed by another Earth oddity: fortune cookies. She believes that the fortunes are genuine predictions of the future and are infallible and to be relied on for all of her future decisions (not helped by Marco who did influence this misconception by messing with her). This immediately establishes in Toffee’s mind— after learning from Buff Frog that she believes the messages in the messages in her cookies are fortunes— that she’s naive, impulsive, easy to stray, and immature. Of course, he very quickly learns about her impulsivity, fighting prowess, and stubborn will, but her naivety is what sticks out to him in this moment, and it’s what he takes full advantage of. (Note: I don’t think he actually looks down on her for these traits alone and expects her to be mature at all, I think he sees those traits going hand and hand with her age. She’s only 14, after all. Nevertheless, they are still traits he can use to his advantage to further his goals.)

This is something that Star has in common with the monsters Toffee has found himself within the company of. The only difference here? These are grown adults who he expects to have a bit more dignity under their belt, ESPECIALLY Ludo. While I’m sure he’s grateful that Ludo was naive enough to hire him with clever wordplay alone— overall assisting to further his goals— he can’t help but feel annoyed by the plain stupid amount of immaturity he possesses.

I think this is less so with Ludo’s army. Even if they share very similar traits, he knows they’ve been living under Ludo’s childish tyranny, and probably has a bit more faith that they can be molded into proper soldiers. Though, his patience is still worn extremely thin by their shenanigans.

Toffee takes advantage of this by planting a fortune in her bag, “Love is Always the Answer.” While I personally believe there’s a deeper meaning, it’s not relevant right now. But anywho, the core purpose is to let Star’s guard down enough so Ludo can gain ownership of the wand.

While Star believes the message hook, line, and sinker, Marco immediately sees past the ridiculousness of the fortune in such a dire situation. “What? Not in this case! Fighting is!”

“Really? Now??”

He immediately sees past the fortune, relying on logic to reason that such a simple trick is just that: a trick. Clearly Star’s pacifism isn’t working, and they need to make the rational decision to fight. He’s immediately proves himself to be the level headed one of the duo, the one who keeps his head on straight and is clearly the maturer of the two.

Marco saw right through the trap and displayed common sense and logic. And he was later vindicated when it was revealed to Star that the fortune cookie was a trap.

And I can guarantee you Toffee noticed this, and it was only further cemented in the next time Toffee sees him again.

Mewnipendance Day:

In this episode, Star is celebrating what she knows as “Mewnipendance Day”, also known as the Great Monster Massacre, where the first Queen of Mewni attempted to wipe out monsters from the face of the planet, an attempted genocide of innocent people who lived on the land she stole from them.

Star explains the entire story from the Mewman’s propagandized perspective, going through a pop-up storybook to demonstrate the beginning and the end of the massacre. She gives an explanation of the beginnings, skips past the actual genocide and fighting itself, and ends with “And the Mewmans won!”

And guess who’s the only person who notices and brings attention to it? Marco Diaz himself.

“Wait, but you just blew past all the important stuff.”

Once again, Marco is the one who’s calling out important things, looking deeper and more critically at the situation, opposed to everyone else who just goes along with it. He shows very clear and obvious signs that he’s more mature than his peers.

And let’s not forget, Ludo and Toffee are watching all of this through the surveillance device (the “all seeing eye”). Sure, Toffee is a tad distracted by the book he’s reading, but with how intelligent he is I’m almost positive that he’s multitasking here.

And Marco only proceeds to exceed expectations, actually going through the book and starting to see, at least in part, the true reality of the situation, calling it out and bringing it to Star’s attention.

“Star, I know the monsters are bad and all, but this seems… unfair.”

Marco demonstrates that he is willing to see past biases and to see reason. He sees past the blatant propaganda and revisionist history, at least in part.

Overall, he is actively more mature than the others with common sense that aids in critical thinking skills and nuance beyond what’d Toffee would expect at his age, especially contrasted against Star. And I think taking off rose colored glasses and seeing the monster massacre for what it really is (again at least in part) really helps with Toffee’s perception of Marco as some levity amongst the childish people he’s been surrounded with.

That is, until their third interaction in Storm the Castle.

Storm the Castle:

Toffee clearly sees Marco as a competent fighter, considering the double imprisonment with not only the chair that confines him but the crystal box prison too. He knows Marco is more competent and mature than most people in his vicinity

At least. He did.

During Storm the Castle while Marco is imprisoned, he takes on the traits seen with Ludo, his soldiers, and Star. He’s acting immature, he’s being impulsive, and he’s talking back with what he assumes is witty dialogue. He’s trying to act all tough guy, which clearly doesn’t work with Toffee. Toffee humors him a little bit during the sandwich dialogue, releasing him from the chair, and Marco immediately takes an impulsive swing at him, leaving him to punch the crystal and immediately writhe in pain at the impact. Marco then immediately throws away Toffee’s genuine attempt at offering him a meal. Toffee is a monster, and being a monster in Mewni means that food, especially good food, is invaluable, because it’s so hard to come by. Seeing Marco waste and make a mess of it without a second thought is probably the nail in the coffin.

Marco isn’t the slightly more mature young boy Toffee assumed he was. He had witnessed from afar Marco’s knack for nuance and critical thinking, a breath of fresh air amongst incompetence.

But as soon as they get one on one all of that is immediately washed away.

Marco is acting like everyone else he’s come across lately, openly defying the nuanced maturity Toffee had witnessed previously. He’s just like the others. He’s being childish. He isn’t special.

“You’re a disappointment”

It’s not some profound statement, there’s no weight behind it. Toffee had no expectations for Marco and wasn’t planning on using him for his goals. Marco just genuinely was not who Toffee assumed he was by his previous actions. Toffee was mildly genuinely disappointed to learn just how kiddish Marco really is. He really expected better.

I also think this explains why Toffee didn’t bother to put him back in the chair restraints. He really didn’t need to go that far with trapping him in the first place.

I don’t think Toffee is surprised, or even phased by it, Marco is a 14 year old child after all. I don’t even think Toffee’s expectations for his maturity were big, period, just the slightest bit of relief that Marco was a breath of fresh air amongst the sea of incompetence. But no. He wasn’t, as far as Toffee concludes at least. This one interaction completely killed any hope Toffee might have carried, and he would just roll his eyes for even allowing himself to put even a little faith in someone.

“Well, that’s unfortunate. Anyways…”

I know there were tons of theories on this, but the actual answer, as far as I’ve figured, is incredibly simple lol. And now that I’ve finally realized what that line really meant, I think it’s important to share.

#svtfoe #star vs the forces of evil #toffee of septarsis #toffee svtfoe #svtfoe toffee #marco diaz #marco svtfoe #svtfoe marco #svtfoe analysis #analysis #cartoon analysis #I can’t believe it took me seven years to realize this #it was in front of our faces the whole time #has anyone else noticed this ??#it feels so painfully obvious now that I point it out

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tiredtransalien · 10 months

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The speculative biology of crystal gems

So i dont know why i thought this but this randomly popped into my head but i was wondering how crystal gems from steven universe work on a biological level and so i got a theory to share. As we know the crystal gems form is just a physical hologram that can be touched and touch things, And that the crystal gems themselves are their gems, Now i also read all tomorrows and so of course i bet you can see where this is going. So what if the crystal gems are like the gravitals, so basically the crystal gems in my theory are almost microscopic organisms that once born are put into a casing (gem), and that the injectors (which intentionally look like bacteriophage that inject dna into bodies) inject crystal gems into earth and perhaps thats their form of asexual reproduction, them birthing a gem and encasing it while injecting it into a planet to absorb organic material to make up their hologram.

#speculative biology #spec evo #alien species #alien #media theory #media analysis #xenobiology #alien biology #speculative evolution #sophont #steven universe #crystal gems #su future #cartoon #cartoon analysis

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lilacslug · 8 months

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Hello, this is essentially my unfiltered, nonlinear thought process when trying to answer the question: Why is Prismo alerted when Cake leaves Simon's head? There are quite a few tangents, but typing this all out helped me understand the Adventure Time world greatly, and deleting parts of it after hours of research would make me too sad. I hope it can be helpful and interesting to other people as well. Warning: it is quite long.

THE BEAM

What sparked this entire post was when I saw someone comment on the fact that in season 9 episode 12 Fionna and Cake and Fionna, it’s shown that Ice King didn’t naturally come up with the concept of Fionna and Cake. Their adventures are beamed into his head while he’s asleep. While we have no idea what the beam is and if anyone is behind it or not, it does have a few implications for the new series.

The first thing that came to me was the idea that a version (the original version) of Fionna and Cake DO exist in their own dimension in the multiverse. There’s no reason not to assume this.

Now, what if The Crown acts as a sort of antenna and can receive multidimensional-signals due to its structure. The center gem of the crown (the one that also supplies the wearer with magical powers) is one of the 9 gems used to power the enchiridion. As we all know, the enchiridion has the power to create wormholes between dimensions. Perhaps this connection with the Enchiridion gives it this innate ability. (and, if I remember correctly, that would’ve been its original use, before becoming a monster’s eye and then part of the crown)

If this were true, what would that mean for OUR Fionna and Cake? Are they true real beings with their own dimension? Or are they in some sort of pocket dimension? Our Fionna and Cake are clearly different characters than Fionna and Cake prime. Their world exists entirely inside of Simon’s mind. In Adventure Time, There are these spaces called Imagination Zones. Typically, Imagination Zones act as spaces only 1 person can access, and the zone is a manifestation of their psyche. If they were to imagine say, a giant fish with wings, it would appear in this zone. If Fionna and Cake are anywhere, it seems very safe to assume they live somewhere in Simon's Imagination Zone.

THE IMAGINATION ZONE

To get to the bottom of whether or not Imagination Zones, and thus Fionna and Cake's world, exist as a fully fledged dimension, we need to analyze Cake’s crossing over.

Simon, when trying to contact Golbetty (as I’ll be referring to this being from now on) used multiple powerful artifacts to do so, the most notable one being the enchiridion. This would suggest a creation of a wormhole was required to allow Golbetty to enter this world, or for Simon to enter Golbetty’s space. But, perhaps due to the the ritual being cut short, the hole created opened a momentary wormhole between the Fionna and Cake world and Simon’s (the Earth Dimension, which is the dimension Ooo is located in. Most of the show takes place in this dimension). Notice how when she crosses over, its through Simon’s head. While this is to be expected of a being that exists in another being’s mind, it also reminiscent of other spaces in the adventure time world. Notably: Lumpy Space.

Now, Lumpy Space are clearly very connected to the Earth Dimension. Lps travels to Ooo all the time, and while bringing outsiders into Lumpy Space is looked down upon, it’s not physically impossible, as we’ve seen in season one episode two, Trouble in Lumpy Space. Clearly, it is not uncommon for different dimensions to sync frequencies and connect (explained later in this post)

While a bit of a tangent, I believe its worth noting that these dimensions tend to be less complex and/or expansive than Ooo. Lumpy Space being comprised mainly of the anti element “Lump” the Crystal Dimension (the dimension Lady Rainicorn is from) of crystal, and the Pillow World of pillow, illustrates this. Lumpy Space also doesn’t have a proper ground, and is multiple clouds of lumps collected together.

With Lumpy Space, there is an actual living being (a frog) that acts as a bridge between the dimension and the prime universe. So, Simon becoming a bridge between his Imagination Zone and the prime universe isn’t that far fetched.

If we analyze other Imagination Zones, something interesting emerges. While they typically do not sync with Ooo and allow for cross over, there are some exceptions. For example, in season 1 episode 23 Rainy Day Daydream Finn is able to experience a knife storm, lava, and more from Jake's Imagination Zone. While Finn was unable to see any of it, he could feel them, suggesting there was some sort of connection. However, there was something limiting the amount of contact possible. This could be explained by the frequencies between the main dimension in Jake's Imagination Zone and the Earth Dimension not fully syncing.

THE SYNCING OF DIMENSIONS

Here is an exert from the Adventure Time Chronology

The physics behind the concept of the Multiverse is somewhat explained in chapter four of the Wizards' Enchiridion, albeit in a very hand-wavy pseudo-scientific way. To prevent all of the dimensions from catastrophically colliding with one another, all particles in a specific dimension have their own unique "frequency". Particles with different frequencies reside in different dimensions. Adjusting this frequency allows for interdimensional travel.

So, perhaps Jake's Imagination Zone's frequency was approaching Ooo's, but they did not quite match.

But here’s where things get a little hairy: if Fionna and Cake are merely from just another dimension, why then, is Prismo alerted to Cake’s arrival to Ooo when its clearly established that interdimensional travel (under normal circumstances) isn't something to be worried about. I have a few theories

THEORY ONE

The original Fionna and Cake's dimension was destroyed (presumedly by Golb). Perhaps the beam of light that Ice King was receiving was somehow transporting the living beings that existed in that dimension into Ice King's mostly vacant Imagination Zone. The beam of light from Fionna and Cake and Fionna was red. This color is associated with both Golb and Grob Gob Glob Grod, two powerful cosmic entities, perhaps suggesting the beam of light was coming from one of them or a related being. We see in the trailer an unnamed red being that looks similar to both of them who's job it is to get rid of Fionna and Cake. Perhaps there is a group of powerful beings who follow these similar motifs in design. Maybe this mysterious being works under Golb, and is seeking to finish the job. He could be a "Scholar of Golb" something the Lich refers to himself as in Season 9 Episode 13 (although he claims he is the last Scholar of Golb). This is the weaker theory in my opinion.

THEORY TWO

Imagination Zones are not merely other dimensions. I believe they can be thought of as smaller, weaker, multiverses. Why do I believe that?

Firstly, it is canon that the prime multiverse takes place in the dreams of the primordials. I personally do not find it much of a stretch to imagine that if multiverse=dream, then a dream that takes place within this dream would=a smaller, weaker multiverse.

Secondly, we have already seen Ice King/Simon's Imagination Zone. We didn't see the entire society of Fionna and Cake that we saw this series. This actually isn't the first time we've seen an entire different dimension existing within someone's Imagination Zone. May I direct you to the season 5 episode 16 Puhoy.

PILLOW WORLD

Puhoy is an episode that is very open to interpretation. As a little refresher: When Finn got dumped by Flame Princess, he got very sad and essentially buried himself deeper and deeper into a pillow fort he created. He eventually found a one way door that lead to a Pillow World. Time in Pillow World went by much faster than it does in Ooo. In a few minutes Ooo time, Finn had spent an entire lifetime in Pillow World. He died of old age, and passed by Golb on his way back to the Earth dimension. Two prevailing interpretations are that 1. Pillow World is a dimension that Finn's frequency briefly synced up with and was able to cross into. 2. Pillow World was a dream. Theory 1 is most prevalent now due to the aforementioned run in with Golb. Theory 2 is also plausible as it explains the time dilation. Finn experienced all of this after being very sad and burying himself in pillows and blankets.

What makes the episode so controversial is the fact that Finn dies on screen in Pillow World and wakes up in the Earth Dimension fine, forgetting everything he had just experienced. I've seen some people suggest that perhaps Finn traded Golb his memory of the Pillow World for his life back in Ooo, but we do not see any evidence of this in the show.

I am going to suggest this alternate theory: Pillow World is/was a dimension in Finn's imagination zone (perhaps created via dreaming). As he was just in an Imagination Zone, his physical body still existed in the Earth Dimension the entire time. So when he "died" in the Imagination Zone, his soul/projection/etc could still be returned to his physical body. And due to the nature of his death being of old age, he would not die. As to why he cannot remember Pillow World for more than a mere second, when he passes through the space between the physical and metaphysical (where Golb resides) Golb heads towards where he came from to destroy that dimension, as Golb does.

IN CONCLUSION

How does this support the idea that Imagination Zones act as small multiverses? Well, we've already seen a dimension in Finn's Imagination Zone in Rainy Day Daydream. It is reminiscent of what we've seen from Ice King and Jake's. If Pillow World truly was another dimension within Finn's Imagination Zone, that is two examples of Imagination Zones with multiple dimensions.

IN FACT, the multiverse takes place in the dreams of the primordials, so perhaps every single character's Imagination Zone is a dimension within a larger multiverse.

What does this mean for the question at hand? Well, to put it simply: perhaps interdimensional travel is not concerning, but intermultiversal travel is for unknown reasons.

THEORY 2.5

Perhaps Imagination Zones are not separate multiverses, but their own unique space. In that case, travel out of an Imagination Zone could potentially be dangerous just by definition.

Well, thank you so much for reading. I would love to hear others thoughts and have a discussion on these topics :)

#adventure time #fionna and cake #adventure time theory #fionna and cake theory #adventure time analysis #fionna and cake analysis #fionna campbell #simon petrikov #cartoon theory #cartoon analysis #spoilers

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clyde49 · 3 months

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I have been thinking about the Space Ghost Coast To Coast episode “Lawsuit” and I wrote up a whole tho about it. It's a long read but I'd appreciate feedback if anyone has it, agree or disagree.

Lawsuit is a good episode on its own but if you hold it up to the original space ghost series, it becomes either one of Coast to Coast's sloppiest uses of unjustified retcons or the best uses of the “unreliable narrator” trope in the series, and given the esteem of the writers behind the episode, I'm going to give them a benefit of the doubt I may not of given to other guests writers. Appropriately for this episode, I think I have a good bit of evidence that makes me doubt the Twins in this episode. I'm going to start with some smaller numbered details and work up

One thing that really jumps to me, even if you haven't watched the original series, is the Twins going on about how much they hated being superhero sidekicks in general the whole episode before going “We should have gone with Birdman�� at the end. Birdman who's repeatedly shown to be worse than space ghost the entire series. If working with Space Ghost traumatized them, working with Birdman could have only done worse for them.

Ok one thing that jumped out to me on rewatch after watching the original show is Jan and Jace saying, and I'm pulling the abridged quote from Snard, “So we're suing you, for back wages… and, for preventing us from receiving the schooling which might have provided us with a future!”

If you watch the original Space Ghost series, Jan and Jace are constantly doing homework. I'm not even joking. It comes up in multiple episodes that when not on sidekick duty Jan and Jace were working on homework and Space Ghost was making sure they were doing it.

And for the matter It's clear in the original series Space Ghost isn't making Jan and Jace be his sidekicks and they are fully aware of the risks of being Space Ghost's wards. In the original series he clearly values their safety, tells them repeatedly to stay out of danger just for them to ignore him, and on multiple occasions is established to be willing to die for them. The Space Ghost behavior in this episode wasn't in the original series, and is a surprisingly major break from Coast to Coasts established sitting as a bizzaro sequel to the original series in sequence behind space stars. They've never retconned the original series so hard in coast to coast before or since (if you take everything in the episode completely at face value), opposed to how the show would usually just fill in empty information from the original series and any charter changes being reasonably explained as changes that just occurred over time or aspects from the characters that were not yet revealed. Hell even the Brak Show, which looks like it's retconning the original series a boatload by having Zorak and Brak in highschool together, was stated by Andy Merrill to exist as an alternate pocket timeline past Brak and Zorak were sent to that doesn't affect or take president over the countuity original series. But this episode, at face value, has the biggest recons in all of the GPI era.

2. Jan and Jace sure are on the same page with Zorak and Moltar in this one huh. For as much as it's discussed how irresponsible Space Ghost was for leading them into danger, they have no ill will towards Zorak and Moltar. Despite the fact Zorak and Moltar were among the people who repeatedly kidnapped them with the intentions to kill them in the original series. Even more so than it being suspicious from Zorak and Moltar, it's really unusual that the twins don't have any negative reaction to the villains

3. And speaking of villains, and this is a detail that turns the entire episode on its head, we need to talk about Dr nightmare. Dr Nightmare is a space ghost villain that in his original episode had robot duplicate puppets of Jan and Jace he used to trick Space Ghost. He was able to make the robots look so much like them and mimic Jaces voice well enough Space Ghost couldn't tell the difference. This was part of the brain theft attempt They talk about throughout the episode.

With the invoked context of the original series I can't say with complete confidence Jan and Jace are actually even in this episode.

4. How the case wraps up. It's so on the spot convenient the alien super scientist Dr Nightmare says he was the child of Space Ghost's Human boss huh. Like there couldn't have been any other reasons Dr Nightmare could have decided to back out when it comes up Space Ghost’s legal defense is backed by Turner. It's clear the talk show isn't the actual court proceeding, this episode is about Dr Nightmare trying to get Space Ghost to pay “Jan and Jace” off out of court. To me the “I'm Ted Turner's son” sounds like a “I need to iron my lawn” excuse.

5. Honestly knowing what Space Ghost's others bad guys are like and their behavior throughout this era, I'm not convinced Jan and Jace actually show up in the coast to coast era at all and that their appearances aren't just Dr Nightmare trying to torment Space Ghost with the notion he's hurt the people closest to him without realizing it and they will never forgive him for it. It's clear Dr Nightmare could very plausibly pull it off sutch a stunt, and if he wanted revenge on the now unkillable Space Ghost, it may be one of the few ways he could hurt the Ghost in a way that matters.

6. The fact Jan and Jace aren't aging is specifically yet vaguely handwaved as the result of space radiation or something followed by Jace having his voice drop. I almost feel like Dr Nightmare was playing Jace again and he had a voice actress as Jan who was instructed never to break character if she wanted to see her money for the role.

7. Oh yeah, the court video where Space Ghost is horrible to everyone. Honestly I don't trust the video's validity with the context of everything else going on here. For all we know Dr Nightmare (or anyone else who hates space ghost that could impersonate him) could have been Space Ghost in that clip. Also the fact Moltar already had it on hand when it was “just found” when we already know he was siding with Dr Nightmare on the case. Like I talked about in point one, The clip is very ooc compared to the original series, even compared to other fake clips from the original series in c2c.

As for Space Ghost not disputing it, I'm going to point to the fact Space Ghost is established to have serious memory issues in Coast to Coast alongside being fairly gullible. I don't think it's hard to believe he would trust video evidence over his own memory and start self incriminating based on the new information. If anything I think Dr Nightmare was betting that he would, as false confessions in legal settings, especially from people with established psychological vulnerabilities, are a lot more common than you think.

I know my analysis here isn't perfect and is quite speculative, and it could just be nothing but recons in this episode, but I think it's worth something I even thought about it this hard. But in general I feel like Jan and Jace are exaggerating in this episode if they are even actually Jan and Jace, or else this episode is a bit of a glue stain on an otherwise surprisingly constant continuity.

I don't know if this episode has a commentary or not or because I don't have the third space ghost DVD yet, nor have I looked up anything the episodes writers have had to say about it. But this is my take on the episode as someone who enjoys the original space ghost cartoon.

#space ghost #cartoon network #space ghost coast to coast #adult swim #sgc2c #cartoon analysis #media analysis

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oscill4te · 7 months

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hyper fixation moment!! So... these 2 cartoons, 'The Oblongs' and 'Cramp Twins' are very similar to one another. both are book-to-tv adaptions made by lesser-known artists that did not do so well rating-wise and were thus canceled. Both aired around the same time, the early 2000s. Both cartoons heavily explore motifs about family, environmental pollution and corruption/class division (especially in the oblongs, but it is explored in the cramp twins with Wendy and her family. The Swamp People are seen as lesser-than and Soap City had a plan to destroy their land. In The Oblongs, the division is very apparent- the Valley people and the Hills People). In each show, the main characters fathers work for a chemical-company that takes advantage of their workers and threatens to fire their employees over the smallest objections to unfairness in the work place. Both cartoons just have a very cynical vibe and sense of humor in general, with very flawed characters that can be hard to root for at times (A quality I personally really love, because it feels more real- sometimes characters truly only have their own interest in mind which feels refreshing to see).

In both series, characters appearances are affected by the chemical pollution around them. In the Oblongs, characters are born with severe defects while in the cramp twins, the characters and even the animals in the series will have technicolored skin due to the chemicals in their town. I love both of these cartoons very very much. I want to explore the similarities between both deeper one day and hopefully write something more coherent than this.

#the oblongs #cramp twins #old cartoons #cartoon analysis #txt #ct posting #writing about this has made me happy bc i been thinking abt this for months lol :) i wrote it down and all my ideas came together at once

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scrabbleknight · 9 months

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Maybe aging works differently for drones? Or maybe the DDs' aging process changed somewhere along the way through the process of becoming DDs?

It could also just be that they have a completely different perception of time. Mentally, they are in their 20s because again, they're robots and they don't age in the traditional manner. Physically, they could ALSO be in their 20s but only because they don't have a 10s or less (as in, they're born teenagers/young adults). Again, this is because robots don't age.

Actually, thinking about it again, it can make sense somewhat when taking account of the human girl Tessa who is in her 20s.

Let's put it like this. For the record, I'm making up ages as I go along here.

Young girl Tessa finds broken WDs and fixes them. They're now her personal butlers. Tessa: she looks like a young teenager (10-14 years old); N, J & V: approximately a few years old at most (like 3), mentally teenagers (13+).

They become Disassembly Drones (MD) and go off to kill WDs. Tessa: not shown so I'm guessing a young adult (17+); Uzi: very young (baby, possibly a few months to a year); N, J & V: Older but still physically young (like 7-10), mentally young adults (20+).

Present day happens and everyone finally meets. Tessa: mentally and physically an adult (25-30+); Uzi: an angsty teenager both mentally and physically (14-16); N, J & V: Much older physically (25+) but mostly mentally unchanged (20+).

Again, aging is weird when you take account of robots. But there's no reason to assume that the Murder Drones grew up normally when they were technically a mass-produced product. Uzi doesn't count despite being a WD too because she grew up outside of the influence of the parent company, J.C. Jenson. So she could grow up more naturally instead of immediately being part of the workforce like N, J and V were. Tessa is the only one that can be properly, though roughly, measured using human comparisons.

This has been a write-up by Scrabble. I write fanfics and occasionally awkward analyses like this.

#murder drones #uzi doorman #serial designation j #serial designation v #serial designation n #tessa murder drones #murder drones v #murder drones n #murder drones uzi #murder drones j #cartoon analysis #age difference #aging difference #murder drones analysis #robots #worker drone #disassembly drone

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new-kit-on-the-block · 11 months

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I just love how absolutely integral Pearl is to the entire plot of Steven Universe

You could just say that Pink couldn't have faked her shattering without Pearl and leave it at that, but on rewatch, I noticed that it actually went a bit further than that

(somewhat long analysis below the cut)

In the first chronological scene that we see of Pearl, she was by Pink Diamond's side as she was checking out the condition of her new Earth colony

Pink, in an attempt to break the ice, asks Pearl "Did you ever imagine that running a colony could be this dull?" to which Pearl responds "I could imagine it if you would like me to, my Diamond."

At this, Pink looks away in obvious disappointment, which Pearl picks up on. I didn't notice it the first time around, but I realized that Pearl actually made note of Pink's reaction and adjusted her behavior accordingly, but we're not there yet, just bear with me

Pink then asks Pearl about any updates on Earth, and Pearl tells Pink that her first Amythest soldiers are starting to emerge, which obviously excites Pink

They go down to the ground floor of the moon base and use its hologram function to witness the Amythests emerging up close

Pink is initially excited to witness it but quickly grows disappointed that she can't actually interact with them due to it only being a hologram

Pearl notices this and offers to have them warped down to Earth, which Pink declines, stating that it would be ridiculous for a diamond to go down to her own colony personally

And then Pink wistfully asks "But could you imagine me down there, laughing and playing with them?" Pink doesn't expect an actual response, but Pearl remembers Pink's reaction from earlier, and instead of saying that she could imagine it, she actually does imagine it by showing Pink a hologram of her having a great time with the Amythest soldiers

Pink is immediately intrigued by this sight, but once again declines by saying that she would never hear the end of it from Blue and Yellow

And this is the exact moment when Pearl, in her first-ever act of free will, changed the course of history

Pearl simply responds with "They won't find out because you look just like a quartz." Her hologram changes so that Pink instead looks like a quartz soldier

This was interesting to me on rewatch because it meant that not only was Pink's plan to fake her own shattering entirely hingent on Pearl, but Pearl was actually the one who invented the persona of Rose Quartz in the first place

And even after that, there were several important moments that were either pushed along by or entirely dependent on Pearl

The entire reason that Rose became so fixated on allowing gems to have free will was because of Pearl's first attempt to fuse with her, you can immediately see after the failed attempt that Pearl had sparked something inside of Rose

And on the topic of fusion, Pearl fusing with Rose in front of Greg out of jealousy is what caused him to try and fail to fuse with Rose, which ended up bringing the two even closer together

Some of the highest-rated episodes in the show are Pearl-centric, with the exception of Jail Break, which was Garnet-centric

But if you really want to go there, Pearl attacking Sapphire is what created Garnet in the first place

Over and over again, Pearl and her past continue to affect the main story in really big and important ways, I would even be willing to say that, aside from Steven himself, Pearl is the most important character in the show plot-wise

And I just think it's really great how a gem that was specifically designed to serve others mindlessly, a character that often got so overlooked by the fandom in the early days, ended up having such a huge role in the story

And it was all centered around Pearl actually gaining a sense of agency over her own life

#pearl #pearl steven universe #pearl su #steven universe #su #steven universe analysis #su analysis #cartoon analysis #media analysis #character analysis

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tomato-jump · 3 months

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A little rant about ok vs great character ‘breaking scenes’

Full disclosure, 1) I’m not a writer this is just my opinion, and 2) I really enjoyed hazbin hotel this isn’t slander power to the hazbin fandom right now shit is crazy I’m just talking about writing

Ok so, I’m sure that the pacing and writing issues in Hazbin are kinda obvious, they don’t take away from the show and I enjoyed it a lot, but it’s there. In my opinion episode four was the show at its best, a lot of people I’ve spoken to agree that episode four is one of the strongest ones (I haven’t seen 7 and 8 yet tho so idk) and specifically angels ‘breaking point’ scene outside the bar/club. Scenes like that are really important for character building, because they, in essence, show you how the characters are feeling. Angels scene was okay, it was impactful, but it wasn’t great, so I’m gonna compare it to one or two other scenes that serve a similar purpose and explain why. (Here’s a hint it’s about subtlety if you couldn’t tell when you watched it)

“This is my escape, where I can forget about it all and how much I hate…everything”

That’s a great line, it’s impactful, but god it’s lazy. Like I get it, but it’s kind of a nothing line, yknow? Like, its abstractttt, but think about it within the context of angel’s character and it doesn’t really mean anything. It’s not subtle, and the key (in my opinion emphasis on opinion) to good writing, especially for big character break scenes, is subtly. This scene is relying so heavily on the shock factor of Angels fucked up storyline to carry all the emotional weight. It’s so horrible that it just has to be impactful, but that means it doesn’t really hit any better or worse with context, which if you really want a good breakdown scene for, it kinda has to. It just kjnda….is a line. That’s this whole scene in a nutshell. It hits, its sad and it’s impactful, but only because his story literally makes it so by default, saying he hates everything doesn’t mean anything to his character. If that doesn’t really make sense, lemme put it like this; if you want a really good scene serving the purpose that this one is trying to achieve, it needs to hit better or hit differently the second time you watch it. Rewatch hazbin again and it’s the same scene, and the same can be said for most of it’s dialogue actually, which while isn’t detrimental to the story, shows that most of its dialogue isn’t really serving a purpose to the story, if each line mattered then each line should mean something once you know the whole story, if that makes sense.

Ok, now I’m gonna compare it to a much better scene from Helluva boss (to prove that Vivzie can do this stuff)

“You didn’t even care-!”

“I did care!!”

Bro ok, instantly this is better. Like this whole scene is so much better it’s a little weird that they were written by the same person. Why? Well, obviously on first watch it’s impactful, it’s got that ‘ghasp he left him to die?!?’ Shock factor, but the real shit comes from the sweet sweet context. What do we know about Blitzø? He’s scared of love, and everyone he has ever cared about he has hurt. He pretends he doesn’t care (a lot like Angel) all the time because he can’t be vulnerable and he can’t let people close to him. He does care. and the more you know about Blitzø the more that like hits because of it. Angel has a similar scream line when he shouts ‘it’s not an act! It’s who I need to be….’ But the problem with that one is that it doesn’t change or feel any better with more or less context, because we know everything we need to know about Angel already. The audience isn’t getting the same sense of satisfaction or payoff for these lines with Angel like they are for Blitzø because Helluva isn’t just telling you about these characters, it’s showing you. Blitzø could have gone ‘I didn’t leave you to die! I had to make a difficult choice and it haunts me and this the effect it had on me and blah blah blah’ but he doesn’t, he panics and tries to explain and he keeps repeating in the scene that he was trying to get help but he can’t explain it all and he just can’t. That’s good writing. Because where Angel jumps into this fully formed explanation of why he’s acting this way, Blitzø doesn’t because Blitzø can’t. Show not tell yknow?

Blitzø’s scene feels different when you know more about his character, to put it simply.

A really good example of this kinda writing is Steven universe, I genuinely can’t explain it unless you’ve seen it but

“Well I think you’re pretty great”

I don’t even have the words for how brilliant this scene is, every time you learn something new about pearl this scene just gets better, it’s so fucking good. She doesn’t even say anything, its all implied and I love it.

However, I am aware Helluva did have a season and a half to flesh out Blitzø, hazbin had three episodes,so I admit a lot of this is just down to the pacing getting in the way, but my point still stands.

Ok I’m going to sleep it’s 12:07 wtf

#hazbin hotel #hazbin characters #helluvaverse #cartoon analysis #character analysis #hazbin hotel analysis

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