Breaking down the episode by each point I listed in the original post, followed by any additional points I come up with as I stew on it all.
Poorly written: This is a more general criticism that's going to pop up in... every other section, but it feels important to say that this season has been a lot of ups and downs. Some arcs have started bad and ended good, some have done the reverse, some never managed to be good, and all the actually good stuff isn't really major character arcs or story moments. It's usually just good character building. This episode doesn't have much character building, it's almost all action action action, so the otherwise fine character writing starts to suffer under the strain of constant plot.
Padded like crazy: 36 minutes is the longest any episode of MTLB has been, tied with episode 7, but there were multiple scenes I watched and thought "That could have been cut and nothing of value would be lost". Laurance finding that booze cabinet had no consequence despite taking up so much time, and the whole montage of disguising Laurance's ship REALLY didn't need to be there, we just needed the dialogue explaining that they were disguising it. The montage is cool and well animated, but it's a cool well animated moment that doesn't contribute to the story being told. It just spends time that it doesn't really have.
Unnecessary character abuse: This point is probably the one that gets to me the most out of this list. When this series started I LOVED Aphmau. She was my favorite character coming out of the earlier episodes, and Lumi only managed to get second place. But then... something changed. Aphmau started being less involved in her own story, bounding between three different parties all trying to kidnap her, and never being able to enact her own agency without it being taken from her. It sucks to see this happen to any character, but especially one who had a great starting point.
And that leads us into a scene like this. Where Aphmau can spend 3 minutes getting physically and verbally abused on screen before she is belittled and has her life threatened in a very targeted manner. It's. A lot. It made me uncomfortable to watch it. Not because I can't handle a character getting hurt on screen (more on that later), but because Aphmau was already spending the entire episode, and the one before this, and the one before that, and the one before that, all imprisoned. It happens. Constantly. And to see a character be abused after that constant imprisonment and agency removal just makes me feel bad. She can't even do anything. She's barely done anything.
And ultimately... what purpose does this serve? What narrative is furthered by this? Why is this here?
Well, I have a guess for that later, but I want to cover a few other points before tackling the biggest problem with this episode.
Audio Issues: I watched this video live on my TV and my speakers fucking hated it. I had to adjust the volume mid episode multiple times. Some voice actors microphones were louder than others, the music was never consistent in volume, and at one point it was so loud it drowned out the dialogue. I have auditory processing issues and am willing to accept that some of this might just be me being sensitive, but the imbalance of microphone volumes and music volumes is something that needs to be fixed. It's a very simple element of the experience, but when the audio is imbalanced it becomes distracting from the story you're trying to tell with that audio.
Inconsistent models: This is a very minor point in the grand scheme of things, but combined with everything else, it shows a general lack of polish on this entire episode. That in one scene Laurance is covered in soot and burn marks and in the next he isn't. Aphmau's necklace disappears and reappears at will. Combined with the audio issues this episode feels like it just needed a little more time in the editing bay. But the creators were too worried about making people wait any longer, so they pushed it out before it could get a final thorough once over.
A lot of wasted time: There were scenes that just felt a few seconds too long. And a few seconds here and there that's fine, but when it feels like almost every scene could lose 1-3 seconds if not upwards of a full minute in egregious cases, that's when it becomes a problem. That's when the audience feels like watching your show is a chore instead of an enjoyable experience.
A few other points I just remembered: What the hell was up with all the "lol everyone thinks Zane is a woman" jokes? Was that an extension of the MyStreet bit? Was it Jess trying to push her transfemme Zane headcanons onto us? Was it just another excuse to waste my time? I don't know. It just was strange.
The Wolf: I'm sick of them. You can only bait a mystery for so long before I get sick of it. The Wolf is another contributor to the feeling of my time being wasted by this series. The reveal is not going to make up for how much time this character has spent just Being Mysterious. Very few characters can actually work while having their whole thing being a mystery, you're not writing Mystogan, Jess. If the identity of the wolf had been revealed in this episode, I would not have this complaint, but the fact that they feature so much in this episode and we STILL don't get to know who they are is just frustrating instead of exciting.
I hate Edwin and I refuse to let the show change that. I have since he showed up with his original diet Peebs voice, and I have no plans of stopping. Not really a criticism just. I was annoyed they tried to give him redemptive qualities and I cheered when Aaron punched him in the face. One of the best parts of the episode.
Speaking of Aaron and the best parts of the episode, his almost death scene was amazing?? The pacing, the timing, the deliveries from all vas involved, the animation and artwork at hand to show each wound Aaron took, it was good. It felt appropriately brutal as well, something that was built up to, and a true breaking point for Aaron's character. They even played the Aaron dies music. [Explodes]
Uh. That's a whole other post. Ignore that.
Anyways, this scene really works as an escalation of the military threat, and unlike the scene with Aphmau, doesn't feel unnecessary or discomforting. Because Aaron is an active character, while Aphmau has been passive. Aphmau gets kidnapped, things happen to her, meanwhile Aaron rescues her, he's the one actually taking action, he's driving the plot. As a result he feels a lot more involved in the narratives progression and the scene of him being brutalized doesn't feel as much like watching someone kicked while they're down, it feels like something he's properly earned after all the build up.
Another thing that adds to this is that Aaron gets to fight back. He gets to run. He gets to actually try to struggle for his life, and there's a sense that were he not simply outnumbered and scared for Aphmau's life, he might have been able to get away. He at the very least tries. When Aphmau is brutalized, she doesn't even get to try to fight back without being rebrutalized for her efforts. It's sickening to see the difference in how these two characters are treated.
I asked earlier what purpose does Aphmau's abuse serve in the narrative. And I can think of one. To further Aaron's role in the story. To further his character's development. Because that's all Aphmau has become now, a vehicle to Aaron's character growth. It's the thing that has dragged down Aphmau's time and time again in these series. It's very disappointing to see happen to one who genuinely had some of the funniest characterization in a while.
All of Aphmau's suffering is so it feels more cathartic when Aaron finally stands up for her. All of the things Aphmau is forced to go through is so that it'll feel better when Aaron saves her and tells her it's okay. All of Aphmau's character development is being lost in order to prop up Aaron's same arc about learning to love people by being protective to a self sacrificial degree.
Everything Aphmau was as a character has been completely lost by the all encompassing power of the writers own love for misogynistic tropes.
