Welcome to Hopping Over the Bar where I keep myself accountable/sane by rewatching Amphibia while studying for the bar.
Day Two of the Bar Exam. The multiple choice. The endgame.
Today I watched The Hardest Thing. The Core Goes Kamikaze. No hesitation from the girls to save Amphibia, and the cool uniforms and power ups. Really just a great sequence of fighting in general. Each girl gets a chance to shine on their own, but together…a triumphant celebration of their newer, stronger, better friendship. Andrias makes…well not even a step to redemption, but he stops on the path he's been walking so long. And a great Reunion Callback. But even that is not enough, and so Anne's growth takes her to the ultimate final sacrifice, although at least Sprig gets to say goodbye (shout out to Frobo, who has been a real rock these past few episodes). Thankfully there is a literal deus (god) ex (in) machina (the machine) who has an intriguing offer for Anne. Although in the ultimate sign of growth…she knows her limits, while expunding beautifully on change. For now. But there remains a cost, one final change…it hurts. It really does its all beautifully done of course. Sasha and Grime, Marcy and the Newts. Anne and the Plantars and one final bow. And the timeskips, all in character, a logical progression of the change and great design and inspiring final words. But it still hurts, it hurts to see them separated. The kind of hurt that only comes from a great show with great characters taking its great themes and marching to the logical conclusion, no matter how much it hurts. And the credits man, these fucking end credits somehow get me more than anything else, the moss on toad tower, the final shot, man.
Connection: I was gonna make a joke about the Bar Exam being the Real Hardest thing, but idk feels cheap now. Idk ramming the moon into a planet is a tort.
A Final Note: As someone who watched this show live, and loved it, and built lasting friendships around it, it has been occasionally disheartening to see how little conversation this show generates, compared to in the past. But that just fits with the theme of the show doesn't it? Things change, times changes, people change, but the show, and the connections it brought, yet remain. On a more present note, thank you all for reading these. Bar Review and then the Bar Exam are tough. Scary, time consuming, all encompassing, terrifying. But at the end of every day I knew there would be a fun episode of frog show to watch, and people who supported me besides. I conceived of this Bar Review/Rewatch Hybrid early in law school, after I finished my first rewatch right before starting, and I had avoided rewatching to keep this special. It worked, it was a great decision, in large part because of you all. Thank You,
