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Hi! New to your blog but not to BF5. Just curious about your opinions on the episodes Behind Enemy Lines and Shadow Runners. I have a few nitpicks with the show myself even though I loved as a kid and still enjoy it now. ✨

oh hi sorry you tripped and fell into the ditch that is my blog. hope ur ok ^^;

one of my favorites! and... one of my least favorites.

warning that there's probably going to be a lot of hyperbole, both for my love of 'behind enemy lines' and my hatred of 'shadow runners' (feel free to stop reading.) since i watched them in one sitting.

just because i dislike a lot of s2 doesn't mean i don't enjoy the show, either, there are lots of things from s2 that i'll happily cherry-pick and incorporate into my hcs, it's just that the execution for s2 left a lot to be desired. ik i can be really exaggerative or sound harsh when i make these big rant posts so im hoping it doesnt sound like i think anyone who likes s2 has bad opinions. if anything, i'm getting the sense that i'm the one with the unpopular opinion given ive received other asks that are along this line of questioning, so. oh well !

'behind enemy lines' is a default w because it's a season one episode *and* it has vandals in it. i love the chemistry between the vandals and the bf5, it goes so hard and it's such a joy to experience after watching two krytus-centered episodes in a row.

details like getting to see the vandals tweaking their own cars, talking to each other outside of a battle zone, and exploring both the vandal homeworld and some of the worldbuilding ('shavax' and the whole ritual for the great hunt.)

i also love just seeing the vandal models, there's so much thought put into their designs that i feel is lacking for both sarks and red sentients. just to name some, but the spikes on kalus' armor looking like claws and sever's old teeth being incorporated into his harness and bracers were both really nice touches. it's a nice nod to the animals they're based on without being over the top or in your face about it. i have similar appreciation for hatch and krocomodo's designs too.

this episode is also the second b-plot to feature krocomodo trying to usurp kalus, and the start of stanford's "i hate this planet" arc (a la monster mosquito bite) - very fun!

(it was also a fun touch to see vert try and sneak up on the two vandals with the strongest sense of smell, and have repercussions immediately come to him for not being as careful as he should've been. it's a nice detail, especially since kalus and sever also very much enjoy *playing* with their food - which is part of the reason vert survives as long as he does, realistically.)

got to see a lot of kalus' big cat agility in this episode, grimian can get fucked

as for the human side of things, since this is an earlier episode of s1 we got to see some more of the growing pains of the team trying to work together. when they're all still together at the start of the episode, we got to see some of the banter between vert and his team ("cmooon agura :((" is something i need to make a soundbite of. i love it.)

i liked the way we saw vert pull back a little to let agura do her thing, but in a way that was fruitful for team maneuvers. it isn't just because vert got written out or is totally lobotomized like he is in s2 episodes. it's also a good foreshadow for the fact that agura is put in charge for one of the first times without vert around to guide her.

even if not a fully cohesive team just yet, the show of team dynamics is actually enjoyable. the slight competition between stanford and agura really showing when it comes down to whose turn it is to lead in vert's absence was really well done, especially to show off more of stanford's whininess without being annoying; the scene of spinner, sherman, and zoom all turning to agura for direction was really cute.

for vert, i love watching that man get shoved around. he's such a little shit at the start of the episode, and all his one-liners and insults are *insufferable* but i love him.

this is back when vert actually felt like a *character*, too, and so it's not like he's just being reduced to quips and the occasional act of heroism. he's very clearly impacted by the events happening as the episode goes on.

what i really like about 'behind enemy lines' is that it kind of feels like an episode where the reality of what the bf5 are doing starts to sink in. for vert, i know i've said in other posts it seems like he doesn't have many growing pains or have as many faults to work one as the rest of the team - but this episode is an exception, and one that pulls it off really well.

i've also said before that vert feels 'naked' without his team, and this is where it *shows*. episode seven: long enough to have gotten comfortable with the routine of battle zones, but early enough for something like this to leave him shaken without turning him off from bf5 completely - plenty of room to grow, while still being intimidated enough by the raising stakes that he has to lock in and take his situation seriously.

he looks more scared in any shots of this episode alone than he does in *any* of the episodes from s2 - even when we're being told that he *should* be scared in those moments.

there's a lot of set ups in s2 where the stakes should feel high and the loss should be devastating, enough so that vert would be intimidated or feel a sense of danger - whether he wins or loses against krytus. but it's never pulled off well; vert treats krytus more like an annoyance, or a mild grievance after 'ascent of the red sentients'. no episode in s2 feels like it carries any tension whatsoever.

but in 'behind enemy lines', you can see it sink in - in real time - as vert begins to realize that his cool boy act won't save him. it's an episode where a lot of the tech sage has given them is demonstrably put the test as well (*animated* battlesuit absorbing impact as vert, y’know, plummets through a canopy from hundreds of feet up; saber becomes visibly chewed up and beaten as it gets damaged; vert's fear, exhaustion, and adrenaline being some of the only things getting him through the hunt. you know it's serious when vert can't even take the opportunity to give kalus a sick burn /s.)

it's vert's first time *really* feeling alone and helpless. which is a good thing!

it reminds him of the importance of his teammates - again, in another post i talked about how in s2 vert is far too comfortable going off on his own or only with one other teammate, and it feels like he became far too comfortable doing so.

but 'behind enemy lines' is a very good showcase as to why vert needs his team: he's a leader, without his team he's just alone. on an alien planet. with enemies much bigger than himself, armed in ways he isn't, with the tactical advantage of knowing the terrain far better than himself. vert gets the shit kicked out of him in this episode, *repeatedly*, and each time he retaliates he's forced to get creative with the few resources he has available. and it's shown on-screen that each time he's kicked down, it's harder and harder for vert to get back up.

(more creative attacks !! characters being forced out of their comfort zones, using techniques that they're not familiar with. improvisation. and more about the creativity of how the *cars* fight each other too, with the weapons that are unique to each of them - fusion *kills* that in s2 and all the fights become boring as hell.)

i wish we saw the cars get tore up more often. this is one of the first big damages we see dealt to saber, and the only other one (off the top of my head) is stanford's canons getting fucked up later on. the only one i don't want to see damaged is the chopper, mostly because it probably means zoom is dead for that to happen lmao

and yet, despite the nitpicking, insults, jabs, and unserious shit vert was saying throughout the episode, it's clear that vert was actually listening to whatever kalus said. keeping track of information being given to him, trying to use info was given to him to his advantage. you cannot convince me that vert listened to a single word krytus was saying in 'shadow runners' or 'better off red'; he looked like his eyes glazed over every time krytus started talking. but with kalus, there's that level of respect and understanding that kalus had an advantage that led to vert truly *listening* - and that being what save his ass towards the end of the episode.

additionally, the things being mentioned by kalus do have a *genuine* relevance later in the episode - because the episode was actually written well! (ie; the vandalian puffer plant.)

honorable mentions that don't really have a place in the above, but i still loved:

- this is back when vert's love for his car was still a very big part of his personality, in a way that went beyond being a 'car guy' in the generic sense that they all are by s2. he's very precious about his car, and it's a motivating force that gets him back on his feet when he's ready to collapse. it's quite literally what revived his competitive streak.

- shermie <3 <3 loved this being one of the earlier opportunities for sherman to show off his big beautiful brain! it's still early enough that he didn't have a lot of confidence in himself, and so it's a cute bonding moment between him and agura when she encourages him to have a look at the zone - having faith that he'd be able to find something, as it wasn't something he'd offered up by himself.

- also just as a personal preference, i much prefer how sherman sounds at the start of s1. his voice is a lot softer, a little higher, and helps to keep him distinctive from KRYTUS. i was *devastated* when i put two and two together, and since then i've been unable to *unhear it*./ i also don't like that, since krytus has a stereotypical 'yelling villain' voice, sherman's own voice is anywhere close to that. if sherman's voice had stayed softer and higher like it had in s1 they'd've been way more separate from each other </3 (but im also biased because the softer voice just supports my characterization of sherman icl)

and i guess it's probably telling how much i enjoyed watching this episode, considering i stopped taking notes halfway through just so i could stare at the screen. there is not. a single moment. where i didn't have something to comment on for 'shadow runners' (and 'better off red'.) putting a cut here just to avoid spamming the tag with all my hatefulness again. opinions on 'shadow runners' underneath lol

'shadow runners' was kind of boring. i'm skipping anything to do with the fusion mechanic because i've already said before i don't like it and i'd rather pretend it didn't exist (though i do think a 'fusion jump' being how they repeatedly access the shadow zone is stupid.)

i didn't rewatch 'shadow zone' to go along with this, so maybe there was a point in that episode explaining why vert and zoom decided to *not* tell the rest of the team about the shadow zone's existence? but i thought that was weird. i can't think of any *good* reason to keep it a secret, and if anything given how dangerous it is and apparently how easily accessible it is it's probably one of the bigger concerns that you should make sure your team are aware of. the fact that a lot of time was wasted on the team trying to figure out where vert had disappeared to *as it is* was only more complicated by the fact that none of them would've even considered the shadow zone because, oh yeah, they didn't know about it. pointless filler.

tezz subplot about 'decoding' euphemisms and idioms was unfunny. idk, i'm aware this is more of a pet peeve. my gripe with it is that he's complaining about the phrases not being straight to the point/efficient, but it's like... russian also has a lot of figurative language. it could arguably be just a *tezz* thing, not a russian thing, but the huge emphasis of the misunderstanding so that it could give tezz a lightbulb moment later really distracted from some of the other events unfolding in the episode. there were other ways to perpetuate the theme of 'codes' and 'hidden meanings' without that.

the fucking 'idiom translator' to go with it was also stupid. it also just *wouldn't* have worked the way the show was trying to convince me it would've. (yes, it's a kid's show, i need to give more leeway, i'm aware.) it was a random machine to show off tezz being a genius because idk no one else is allowed to have brain cells anymore.

it felt like a lead-up to him being the special exception (again) later in the episode.

but to the main point of the episode... any time krytus was on made me miserable. i was vert. vert with all those disgusted or fed-up expressions and eyerolls. that was me.

so, the whole reason krytus and vert need to work together is because krytus will go 'supernova' and destroy the multiverse. yeah, rich as FUCK dude.

this part i'm about to rant about isn't actually meaningful it's just another nag i had throughout s2: red sentients having antimatter as their core is dumb as all hell, because antimatter annhiliates as soon as it comes into contact with matter. which krytus' shell, confirmed to be crystal, obviously is.

the shadow zone *is* a cool concept. i like it. it's very reminiscent of dark matter, which is kind of like the invisible scaffolding of the universe. (i assume the zone takes inspiration, isn't directly copying the properties of dark matter, etc.) however: it largely ignores both matter and antimatter, so in the back of my head during this entire episode i wasn't able to get over the fact that krytus was going supernova for no reason.

oh, the shadow zone's gamma (iirc mentioned in 'zone ep with rawkus?) is eating away at krytus' shell, once his antimatter core is exposed to *literally* nothing, a literal absence of matter, he'll implode! isn't that... checks notes... the same reaction the hadron crystal and the antimatter crystal would have... because, oh, that's right, it's *those two* things that undergo annihilation if they come into contact with each other. as established somewhere else in the season.

TL;DR: all that jargon just to say that *thematically* they fucked up the whole symmetry and mirroring that blue and red sentients were set up to have in 'axis of evil' and 'ascent of the red sentients'. i understand that the whole point of krytus almost exploding is to create tension, a scenario that forces krytus and vert to work together, etc. but as someone who greatly enjoys continuous motifs, themes, and iconicity for both characters and overarching stories, this was a big L

and that brings me to the actual episode content.

why the fuck did krytus suddenly do this big 180 in demeanor when it comes to vert. is this the episode that solidified this as a ship to people?

"reason over emotion... that's what makes us both such strong leaders" and then i've never seen krytus be a good leader *ever*. OR krytus use reason before anger. the attempts to find kinship with vert are weird and poorly toned, he has multiple moments of 'softening up' when he addresses vert - even has an unearned, out of place moment where he acknowledges vert to be more challenging of an enemy than he'd first assumed. it all felt very forced.

this could've just been krytus' really fucking bad attempts to manipulate vert or get vert to lower his guard, since, again, the b-plot for this episode is trying to ambush each other at the end. however, if that was the case, it was very poorly demonstrated in the episode. likewise, if vert was aware krytus was trying to manipulate him (and play along with it), then it could excuse some of his lame ass dialogue, but it felt more like he was just, once again, becoming very flanderized. vert said almost nothing of substance in this episode except twisting krytus' words back against him (unfortunately consistent in 'better off red' as well.)

it felt more like vert was being used as a stage to express this new side of krytus that was being ham-fisted to the audience. like last minute the writers decided they wanted the rs5 to be sympathetic after all, or have a change of heart which would make sense given s2 ends with blues/reds in harmony, even if krytus specifically is frozen. it's just executed very badly and highkey that's a boring choice to make if that is the case.

it was also a conversation that kalus felt *way* more deserving to have with vert. this whole 'i have come to respect you as a fellow warrior, you're a good leader, i enjoy the challenge you pose to me, we are in a way equal' diatribe would've been far more believable if krytus had more *history* with vert. but krytus also lacks most of the traits he was trying to praise vert for/say they had in common; *kalus* having this conversation with vert would've hit way harder and had a much more successful outcome - and i believe vert probably would've had more to say to kalus in return. they've been fighting each other since the start of s1, the timeline has to be at least a year or two (which is a long time for a kid's show); there's history and hardship they've been through, forced temporary truces over, joined together to fight bigger enemies, etc.

for the show to act like *krytus* of all fucking characters is anywhere near that standard to have a 'meaningful' moment lowkey left me feeling robbed lmao

again: could've just been a manipulation tactic that wasn't working, but it was cringe as fuck and is one of my *biggest* issues with 'shadow runners'. it didn't feel like krytus and vert were on the same page at all - and why would they be? nothing has happened for krytus to earn that.

there should've been *lots more* tension and bad coordination, fuck ups, battles going wrong, more injury and costs between vert and krytus too. they're both leaders of their 5, yes, but that doesn't magically put them in perfect sync with each other or be able to fight well together. they don't have similar fighting styles, they didn't communicate with each other very much when in fights with the speedsters, etc.

the stakes for this episode, experientially, were super fucking low. krytus was about to implode and blow up the multiverse or something, and it just felt boring. there were plenty of opportunities to make the stakes *feel* raised - possibly some of the highest they should've felt in s2, given the gravity of the situation - this was supposed to be a scary, unfamiliar scenario for both. krytus looked scared because he was facing permadeath, sure, but vert was about as glazed-over as i was watching.

if i was supposed to gaf about krytus in 'shadow runners' it was NOT working.

vert was also just, apparently, immune to shadow spread this episode too. his saber took a few hits, but he was untouched. that was disappointing, because i'd been looking forward to vert suffering similarly to how zoom did in 'shadow zone' - especially because, as i mentioned in 'behind enemy lines', vert should've been *uncomfortable* being on his own. being separated from his team. being stuck in a dangerous environment and being forced to ally with a 'very strong' enemy.

(granted, the bf5 as a whole feel like they got over their fear of the rs5 quick. krytus was admittedly aura farming in 'axis of evil' and 'ascent of the red sentients', but it felt like once the bf5 beat rs5 once or twice, they were reduced to villain of the week material as opposed to the ultimate evil, overarching villain they were supposed to be. so that's another L)

also, why didn't krytus know to find a way to patch himself over? it's almost like he's not as smart as he brags about! huh. strange. if they were trying to achieve something by showing krytus relying on vert (and vert's team) to come up with the answers or help him in some way, idk what they thought was coming out of it. he just looked dumb as hell not knowing something about his own 'superior' body.

the mobi's involvement was *absurd*, by the way. what do you mean we've been seeing the bf5 covet and protect that thing with their *lives* for the entire series, and suddenly zoom's in the driver's seat?

i get wanting to include zoom (i don't. i really don't. other episodes have been just fine shoving stanford or sherman/spinner out of the way so that tezz or aj could be present. but i'd also take zoom over tezz this episode.)

the mobi was *so* unnecessary. the buster tank literally shoved red sark out of the way just by backing up into them, and for a second, the writing team remembered that these cars have unique abilities that made them exceptional in combat! yes, that's another dig towards fusion being stupid and having no place in the show. yes, the team had been cornered and stuck in 'kromax's legendary ambush technique' and *supposedly* couldn't have gotten out of there on their own - they very much could have, and demonstrably would've been able to in similar scenarios in s1 - and yes, the whole point of that 'hot sauce' code was to show that the bf5 had their own secret plan, but it just *sucked*.

if anything, it was out of character to risk losing the mobi to the red sentients like that. mobis are, stated canonically, huge battleships that can cause irreparable damage. bf5 have been wary this entire time of letting something like that get into rs5's hands. it was a whole point of conflict in the latter half of 'legacy'.

'shadow runners' didn't really *need* the bf5 to have their own plan to counter the rs5. given that they even included a bit about morse code because - you guessed it - the episode's theme is *secret codes*, it would've been fine if the bf5 just got out of dodge like they always do without some 'trick up our sleeve' mobi involvement.

(and again: tezz being the only one to get vert's 'hot sauce' hint, and making the rest of bf5 look like *idiots* in the process, was annoying. what do you mean not even agura or sherman put it together?)

BUT all that being said, there were some parts of the episode i did enjoy - though not nearly enough to balance things out.

- vert's disgust at having to team up with krytus the whole time is funny and was a saving grace for most of the time they were on screen together. even if i felt vert had been lobotomized

- kyburi. anything about kyburi. she's so aura. she's genuinely my favorite red sentient, i think. she had a lot of really good close-up shots in this episode too, she looked great. and idk why but the rs5's 'secret code' - "may the fire of kromax bring us together as one"/"the fire of kromax unites us" - lowkey sounded like a marriage vow and i think what made me like the idea of kyburi and krytus she makes him *leagues* more tolerable whenever they're on screen together, it's the one thing i like about krytus; his dynamic with kyburi. sorry krytus fans. i know fandom hc he's gay (i think?)

- vert looking disheartened that *tezz* of all fucking people got the code. he looked so fed up that he had to give tezz credit for something. that's funny to me, because i do like the long-suffering vert & annoying borzoi tezz dynamic (hc, platonically.) again, just didn't like that *no one else* got it. his disappointment and distress were the same as mine.

- also the ending scene of vert being a little shit and letting stanford get ticketed because of the "oh my god stanfords horn is so annoying" scene earlier in the episode. 1500hz isn't deafening, but it hits the human range of hearing that's most sensitive - which is why everyone was suffering whenever stanford used his horn.

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