Thoughts on the episode “the drool of young”? I could say so much but my main thing is how like. It could have worked if they just did what patty was doing!
(sorry in advance for the long post. I don’t know how to do the continue reading button thing on my phone)
So I rewatched the episode and I do agree that they probably should have told the truth and done basically what Patty had said from the start. Or they could have destroyed him like Twinklestick suggested. Either way it would have worked. I’m just saying. It’s not like Fangbone and Bill haven’t caught a body before. And Fangbone was more than willingly to do the job.
However, it’s completely understandable why Bill went the route that he did.
This is the evil wizard(whose been trying to kill them since he first met them and all barbarians)’s younger self.
Fear for this guy’s abilities if he gets angry or provoked. (We see how he uses his powers as an adult and he is able to use his powers when young so whose to say he’s not able to do the stuff he is going to do in the future but on a smaller scale?)
If they are nice to him then it should help save the world by making his future self nice too. Doing anything to make D-rool feel any other emotion that is not positive could possibly set him off.
One thing I will say that would have immensely helped in making D-rool not become evil is if any one of them actually talked to D-rool about stuff and got to actually know him. Like when Patty told him that his pranks weren’t funny if he was the only person laughing, he says that he would lay off the pranks and she was very surprised by it. My thoughts on this moment is that everyone even Patty is still kinda seeing D-rool as the person he’s going to be in the future and not the one in the moment being the innocent ish person that he is despite acting like a jerk. D-rool doesn’t know too much on how his behavior is being a lot and not welcomed because Bill keeps enabling and somewhat encouraging him and the others all kinda unenthusiastic parroting Bill except for Patty. Bill, the person who is arguably the closest to D-rool, doesn’t think to ask D-rool about himself only focusing on maintaining this charade and actively preventing the future from happening. This is not sustainable because one day he’s going to slip and cause the spiral into evil like we saw in the dance. Also Drool planted that seed of doubt in D-rool’s head so I do think if he didn’t find out during the dance then he would have found out about the lies eventually. Bill’s approach to D-rool is reacting more in the moment then actually planning ahead to better maintain everything. This part is something I need to think over because I’m trying to think deeper into Bill’s personality and based on everything I remember, this is inline with his past actions. It makes sense if you think of this like a battle’s he and Fangbone have because Bill often has to think on the fly and D-rool is arguably a threat. I don’t think he’s ever really planned for an extended future in the show or books with the exception of the bribe bag in the finale. They are still kids though so I’m probably thinking way to deep into this.
D-rool never had any friends so he thinks that what he’s doing is right and no one else but Patty corrects him. Like he is bad but is oblivious to it, but if no one else helps to even mention it then they are just as bad as they think he’s being.
Also this episode happen before the Breaker of Oath’s one and that was the episode where Drool’s backstory was revealed. In that episode, Bill felt more sympathetic for Drool and I think if he had known about that then he wouldn’t have acted so fake friendly. I think he would have been more genuine about being D-rool’s friend while still lying but I think Bill talking to everyone at the dance to convince them to keep pretending would be a little different.
I’ll be honest and say that this is one of the top 3 episodes that I have a hard time watching back. I think it’s partly because of Bill desperately trying to appease D-rool so he wouldn’t be evil. I do think it’s funny in an ironic way that Bill who’s trying his damnest to prevent D-rool from becoming evil and keep him alive is responsible for Drool remaining evil and alive. Despite this episode being a hard watch for me, it is one of my favorite Patty-centric episodes. It also makes me wish we had more episodes and that we got a Groundhog Day style episode with Bill or even with Fangbone and their other classmates.
With this episode, I can not really blame Bill for how he chose to deal with the situation as he is a kid and dealing with a legitimate threat. Lets not mince words here, D-rool from everyone’s point of view (even Patty) is a threat mainly because of his future self’s actions and how he currently acts does not help his case. But because of this, I have to commend Patty for being the brave one who took it upon herself to do the right thing, call out D-rool’s behavior when it got bad, and tried to teach him how to be a good friend/decent person. It’s not easy trying to show the right way when everyone else kinda enables it(Fangbone doesn’t count necessarily here since he genuinely wants to kill D-rool but Patty and mostly Bill keep preventing him. I got to applaud Fangbone for holding back at some of those moments.)
Also Patty looking sad at D-rool turning evil and also revealing that she was(even if she didn’t want to) in on it was so well animated. Some of the budget had to have gone in that shot. Thought it was interesting to bring up.
This episode also helps develop Patty more into a character. We see more of her personality and genuineness. I think she is probably the fourth most fleshed out character but I could be biased.
Honestly it would have been a kindness to destroy him with the pillow filled with doorknobs shaped like knives. Like if this was a genuine timeloop then Bill would have cemented D-rool into becoming evil if it were not for Patty.
Also I feel like D-rool liked Patty not only because of her personality and the way she stood up to him but because it was Patty’s glitter and art stuff on the toe was what made Drool feel goodness in his body which is the whole reason why D-rool is even existing in the future technically.
I think this episode also highlights a character flaw in Bill. And that’s going to be his lying to protect himself and the greater good which ultimately backfires on him in the end. I can’t exactly say if the amount of lying that Bill does is enough to count as a character flaw but we do have two full parts of episodes (Drool of Young and The Hound Of Hounding) that showcase Bill’s lying at the focal point and I do think his trickery with lies throughout the show still apply to some level. There are circumstances within each episode that help the lying not seem like an insane thing to do because I feel like a lot of people would do the same thing Bill does in those two episodes but I do think it’s something to think about. Please do take everything I say regarding Bill with a grain of salt because it’s been a hot minute since I’ve been Bill’s age so I’m not 100% sure and I most definitely can be wrong.
With everything said, I think this episode should have been a two parter or just a straight 22 minutes episode. It would help expand the school lore, develop everyone’s characters, and truly show the stress everyone’s feelings with the knowledge of the situation they’re in. I think if there was more to this episode then this would have been a great mid-season finale or a season one finale if there were more episodes of Fangbone. (Mainly because school events specifically dances are kinda a big thing on shows and something happens in them that helps end the season or midseason. I could just be insane or wrong though)
Random thought but D-rool kinda reminds me of those young kids who are kind of entitled and rude because their parents aren’t attentive or actually parenting them and they think that their actions are ok.
These were all the thoughts I could muster about the episode.
