Why Manga Asura does not Work as the final antagonist
Regarding the final bit of the Soul Eater Manga, there is a LOT that does not work.
Crona sacrifice and sealing the moon might sound good on paper, but it doesnt fit the themes of the story. Maka never really managed to hit the final note of her character development that anime Maka did, and at the very end regressed, as she rejected her father out of spite. Kid making peace with the witches was nice, but the manga never really delved into the conflict between shinigami and witches in full and what it truly involved, so the conflict being resolved was sorta half baked.
But one of the things i dont really see brought up that often is how the final villain Kishin Asura does not work. At least not the manga version of him.
He is frankly speaking, a terrible final antagonist for the manga. Not just as an actual character, but also on a thematic level.
Asura as a character all throughouth the story before the heroes encounter him on the moon, has been all about 2 defining aspects about him, two things that has defined his very being.
Overwhelming power, and fear. The Kishin that became THE moster of legend for the Soul Eater Universe, who killed and consumed his own weapon along with two other of Shinigami's Warlords(who may or may not have been great old ones as well) is legendary for his overwhelming power... But also being a massive coward.
Such a coward was he, that he eventually devoured his own weapon, his partner, rather than even risk the possibility that he might turn against him.
On paper, he sounds he is the perfect foil as an antagonist for the Soul Eater protagonist, especially the main character Maka. For a story that is defined by people opening themselves up to others, even despite the pain that might very well ensue from that, to have the villain be one who gave up on everything out of cowardice, and sought ultimate power in hope that it would lead to total safety for him rather than taking a risk on the dangers of life and bonds makes perfect sense.
However, there is a problem.
Namely that while Asura has the overwhelming power down pat, the coward is essentially a complete informed attribute.
While Asura has moments where he is seemingly terrified on the moon, this is not genuine fear. He is simply mocking the protagonists by showing "Fear" and basically saying "oh, how scary" in face of his foes.
It's not genuine fear. There is not a moment on the moon, where Asura is genuinely, honestly afraid of the protagonists.
Hell, not even at the very end, as once again he's being sealed away, does he show a lick of fear at the prospect of once again being sealed away in darkness.
Instead he shouts definatly that fuck you guys, i'll be back!
This complete of lack fear has two massive problems.
The first is simply that he's a BORING character.
Manga Asura is a boring villain. He is every single, bland, overpowered final boss that plagues shonen as a genre, withouth anything that makes him stand out from the mold.
As such seeing his conflict with the heroes is basically them beating up on a brick wall... Only at least most villains in this mold does have the satisfying moment where they do break, while Asura remains undefeated, thus leaving no sense of closure.
He has no charisma, he has nothing interesting to say, and he is not particularily fun to watch.
He is basically the exact opposite of his animated portrayal, who was a giant coward... But also had a surprisingly poigaint amount of things to say, having debates with his father during their final battle where the two beings who fundamentally could not understand bravery, tried to give their own viewpoints of what this bizarre thing could be.
And of course, because anime Asura really was a giant coward, and all his fear was absolutely genuine, when he finally breaks down at the end, it feels satisfying on a story level, because we understand how he ticks, and what has lead up to this point.
But it goes beyond just the fact that Asura is a far more engaging and dynamic character in the anime.
There is also the themes which the story embodies, which are explicitly rejected by the manga version.
Asura Looks down on Humanity, regarding them as Shingami's puppets, and scum.
More speciffically, the real reason he looks down on them is because of their, in his eyes, weakness.
When facing his brother, the only thing he cares about when comparing the two of them is strength.
Because that is the metric by which he lives his life.
He sought out strength with the goal of never having to be afraid again. He wanted to be strong to feel safe, to never have to feel fear, ever again, because in his mind, if he was the strongest, nothing could challenge him.
He rejected all bonds because he was scared of the possibility of being hurt.
In other words he is thematically the opposite of all of Soul Eater's main heroes.
He is the opposite of Kid, as a warning of what the Shinigami could become if he gave in to all his worst aspects.
He is the opposite of Black Star, as a man who sought the absolute top, but threw away everyone and everything that ever mattered to him to get there.
He is the opposite of Crona, who's is able to draw strength from one, single bond with another human being that is defined by love between the two of them, hard and painful though it might be at times.
But the single person who Asura is an opposite to is Maka Albarn, who represents absolutely EVERYTHING that Asura has rejected, and looks down on.
Maka is not a particularily strong warrior as far as Soul Eater's powerlevels is concerned. While far, far above the normal human limit in every physical regard, compared to the likes of endgame Black Star and Kid, she way below them in overall combat capacity.
But that is not why Maka is a great fighter. Maka is strong, not because of her base power being stupidly high, but her ability to bring out the best in everyone around her.
This is encapsulated by her abiltiy to bring out the best performance of every single person on her side through soul syncronization... Something she is only able to do thanks to her partner Soul, and the trial and tribulations she went through to get here, including both falling on her face along the way, as well as rejecting her feelings of inaduquacy when compared to the sheer power gap between her and black star.
And of course, her defining relationship in this series, her bond with Crona, is about doing the exact opposite of what Asura did with his own bonds to his partner and father, and comrades.
Asura killed and absorbed 4 of his own friends, and tried to do the same to his father, because he feared those bonds and the uncertainty they had... He rejected the best things in his life because he could not handle the fact that they were not certain things, that they could in fact go wrong... So he sacrificed them in exchange for the ephemeral safety of power.
By comparison, Maka refused to give up on her relationship with Crona, no matter how much logical sense it might make, and how much the people around her migth tell her it was the better option, because Crona mattered to her. The bond they shared mattered to her. The love she had for Crona was stronger than the fear of being hurt.
This is the reason why Maka is the Hero of this story, while Asura the villain.
In other words, even if Maka and Asura does not have a deep and complex relationship like many heroes and villains do, thematically speaking, they are the exact opposites.
Asura represents everything that Soul Eater sees as bad. Fear of others, cowardice, power for the sake of power, and rejecting an uncertain future.
Maka represents everything Soul Eater sees as good. Love for others, Bravery, seeking power not for the sake of yourself but for those around you, and having the guts to embrace the future, regardless of how uncertain it might be.
It is the reason why the anime final fight, despite some hickups and misteps getting to maka's charge up the hill and the final punch, works.
This was the climax of the story, and in the end, the story rejects Asura's claim of ultimate power being the key to safety from fear.
It brought all of Soul Eater's themes together in one, final sequence where Asura's ideals are broken to pieces in the face of Maka's hope, dreams, and love for everyone she cares about, just as decisively as his face was.
One of the Manga's climax's themes, is that Asura was... Kinda proven right by this ending.
The heroes did not in the end manage to overcome him, thus in it's own way, proving his faith in his own power right.
Rather than ultimately stating that power is ultimately meaningless, ephemeral, and not what actually matters in life, Instead Asura's strenght is allows him to live on to fight another day.
This his quest for power, and the sacrifices he made for it... Was actually kinda worth it in the end. Becasuse he was right. His godlike powers DID keep him safe and alive in the end, with the hope of one day breaking loose and continue his onslaught upon the world strong in his heart.
And that is one big denouncement of ALL of Soul Eater's themes, and it's overall message.
The Ballad of Donna and Cam - The rapprochement. An Analysis.
It’s hard to pick favorite scenes, but this one is high up there with all the other wonderful moments between Donna and Cam. What I find most interesting is the framing and blocking in this entire episode and specifically in this scene. The distance and rapprochement is manifested within the frame using varying techniques. It’s beautifully done and I want to take a closer look at it.
The first moment we finally see them sharing the same frame, the full shot exposes a visible distance between them. This is the beginning of the rapprochement sequence which is about to follow. It’s like a tentative dance that will eventually bring them closer together, sitting next to each other.
But it is not only the visible distance which underlines their strained and distant relationship. It is the lighting, the movement between the shadows and the light. Donna is the one we can hardly make out. She is merely a presence. While Cam in her bright yellow shirt sitting in the moonlight demands our focus. Despite the darkness and the distance displayed within these first shots and moments, there’s also the romantic and playful lighting of the string of lights in the foreground framing them both. These lights forge a sort of gate or gantry which could be interpreted as a symbolic threshold. It’s that distance within the gate which they have to overcome and it also serves as a distancing device for the viewer since the direct view of them is constricted. The framing, the lighting, everything leaves the viewer equally in the dark and at a distance. This allows for the viewer to pay close attention to the dialog and gives the characters an intimate and private space.
The string of lights also function as these little beams of hope and they give the scene a certain gentleness and sweetness. There’s hope for these two. Very tentatively Donna moves to the front of the frame and leans against the gate. Visually she’s Cam’s foil in every sense just like in real life. Even in this scene they complement each other. Step after step, beat by beat they talk and open up to each other. Then Donna makes her way towards Cam. It’s interesting that Cam is the one who’s in the fixed position, not moving and not closing the gap. She remains still, waiting for Donna to relax and to find the courage to close the gap. And finally after the first few steps, we see Donna’s beautiful face in a shoulder close-up.
They are both not hiding in the shadows anymore and as their conversation deepens, their distance slowly fades away. At this moment, the distance is reduced mainly for the viewer who gets to see both characters’ emotional responses during the conversation thanks to the shoulder close-up. But while the viewer is brought closer, there still remains a physical distance between the characters.
Cam opens up about Joe and not wanting kids and Donna tells her it’s ok to not want kids. Without even realizing it, they ease back into a place of comfort and trust, a place they once shared, a place which never really disappeared. It was just put on hold, but their intimacy and their understanding of one another was always there. Following these last beats, the show then cuts to another full shot which leads to Donna taking that final step towards Cam to close the distance.
This screenshot above is one of my favorites since it is full of promise and hope. Cam throughout these last moments right before Donna sits down next to her, exudes such longing for her to sit next to her, it’s written all over her face and her entire body. The way she moves her hand to the free spot next to her. The way she looks down almost nervously to that same spot. She communicates silently and with just minimal gestures and tries to show Donna that it’s ok to come closer. And then it happens. Donna closes the distance and sits down next to her and we see them both in close-ups in one frame.
The beauty of these close-ups lies in the shift of deep focus. When Donna starts with, ‘I miss him’, she’s in focus and Cam remains blurred in the background. As soon as Cam answers, ‘So, do I’, she comes into focus. It’s an effective way to avoid cutting between their responses and keeping them in one frame for the entire dialog. After keeping them apart for the entire episode, this is their moment. Avoiding any cuts allows the scene to breathe. It’s almost like a soft dance between the two.
The dance continues when Donna says, ‘I miss you too’, and while she and everyone waits for Cam to answer, the focus shifts ever so cautiously to Cam and her saying, ‘I’m here.’ At that exact moment we see Donna close her eyes taking in those words she’d been longing to hear for so many years now. It’s a beautiful tender and quiet moment which allows, despite the close-ups, for a lot of privacy since we only see the characters’ outlines in dim lighting. This is their moment and as much as those two cannot look at each other yet and thus a certain distance remains, they acknowledge their grief over the broken friendship, their grief over Gordon and they manage to find each other again in their shared moments of silence.
Eventually, they find true comfort in their deep understanding of one another. They share a laugh. Amidst all the grief and the heaviness, they share an honest and heartfelt laugh which lets them connect and gives them a moment of comfort. They can just be. Even if it’s just for a moment. This, right there, is when the healing begins.
i’ve promised i’d make a full, detailed breakdown of the strengths and weaknesses of season 3A, when Escape to Amphibia had aired, and so, it is time.
3A has been very frustrating to many people, and I fully understand why. Subsequently, I also understand why so many were hopeful that it would all be great at the end, and why others loved it.
For me though, the ending has only solidified my opinions on this season. Namely that as a piece of Comedy it is great, arguably the most consistently funny the show has ever been with hilarious jokes all the time. As a self contained story the season is a mess, with rushed plots, badly handled climaxes, and way too much filler. And finally as a continuation of season 1 and 2, and a followup to the supposed game changer that is True Colors, Amphibia season 3A is abysmally bad.
If you come to the frog show to laugh, you’ll love it. if you just want to see Anne be happy with her well written families, you’ll adore it. if you come here for the overarching myth arc, you’ll probably not be too fond of this part of the story. And if you come here for the relationships between Anne, Marcy and Sasha, then chances are that you absolutely hate this part of Amphibia, and with good reason.
Whichever you fall into, I will try and cover everything good, and everything bad about season 3A below. Also, LONG post below the cut, and full spoilers for everything that happened in this season.
Season 3A had a lot of things it had to achieve, and it had a lot of character and story threads it needed to wrap up before the second half of the season came to shift the focus towards the endgame.
It had to bring about Darcy as the final Big Bad, it had to show the events leading up to Sasha’s face heel turn, it had to deal with Andrias preparations for his coming invasions, and it had to deal with Anne’s return home to her family and everything that came with it.
Now let's get Sasha and Marcy’s stories out of the way first, before I get into the mountain that is Anne’s Story this season.
Turning point is my favorite episode in season 3A, closely followed by Olivia and Yunan.
It had one simple job. It had to showcase how the events of True Colors affected Sasha, and how she dealt with losing absolutely everything, in large part due to her own flaws and choices. It also had to show how she made the decision to be better, and truly become a Hero.
And frankly, in my opinion it succeeded with flying colors.
Turning point is the moment Sasha’s entire storyline has been building up towards. Every moment of her love showing through, every moment of doubt, her betrayal of Anne, and Anne in turn smashing her own heart to pieces, and her choice to ultimately stand and die against Andrias simply to buy Anne and Marcy has all been building up to this one single episode. And it’s great. It is a worthy followup to True Colors.
On Marcy’s end Olvia and Yunan also had one job. To show the aftermath of Marcy getting killed, and the culmination of her entire storyline with Andrias ending with her becoming a literal puppet.
And just like Turning Point, it is absolutely great, showcasing Marcy’s regrets, her sadness, and above all her fears that she, just like Sasha, has broken her relationships to pieces. It’s not AS good as turning point(largely due to having to devote a lot of time to the titular duo, rather than being exclusively Marcy focused) but just like Turning Point, it serves as the natural ending of Marcy’s storyline in Newtopia, where the girl who was Andrias puppet, now becomes bound by the strings of the real puppeteer.
just like Turning Point, it is an excellent followup to True Colors.
Which finally brings us to Anne’s part of the storyline.
But before we fully delve into that, i want to make a quick comparison between season 3A of Amphibia, to season 3B of Avatar the last Airbender, because it will serve as a very nice point of comparison to how to write this kind of story to perfection, and also because it is astonishing just how similar these two stories are.
Both Amphibia and Avatar season 2 finales end at the scene of their heroes greatest failures, and the following stories is about the aftermath of the villains winning a decisive and total victory that allows them to consolidate their hold on power.
Both have the main cast split into separate storylines that are still connected.
Both of them involve their protagonists going home after 2 seasons of them trying to achieve that goal.
Both of them then have them finally interact with parents who have only appeared very briefly in flashbacks, but who’s shadows have loomed large since the series began.
Both have the villain send a deadly assassin to hunt down and kill the hero while being discreet about it.
Both half seasons try to balance silly, fun stories, while the threat of a darker story is always looming in the background, leading up to the end of the half season where the reality of it all comes back in force leading to a much darker second half.
And it’s astonishing how in terms of it’s story, Amphibia season 3A manages to stumble at nearly every single point where Avatar managed to stick to the landing.
However, saying that Amphibia season 3A is just a subpar Avatar season 3A isn’t fair. because there are points where Amphibia manages to do things better than Avatar, and there are plenty of missteps where Amphibia fell on it’s face even outside of this comparison.
Now, before we get into the plot, let’s begin with 3A’s biggest Strength. It's a comedy, and really good one at that. 3A is hilarious. absolute comedy gold. If you judge Amphibia mostly on it’s Humor you’ll probably love the season, for being the most consistently funny part of the show.
However, Amphibia is an overarching story driven by it’s characters, and so we have to ask, how does it fare in that department?
Well, there are 5 different subplots in Anne’s story.
1- Dealing with the aftermath of True Colors.
2- Her overall relationship with her families, and how she tries to balance them in the face of everything while going through the ups and downs of a familial relationship.
3- Andrias trying to Kill her, and subsequently, her newfound powers.
4- Trying to get back to Amphibia to beat Andrias once and for all.
5- Dealing with the FBI wanting to capture the Plantars.
Starting with Anne dealing with the aftermath of True Colors, we get right into the BIGGEST issue with season 3A. It is an issue that frankly poisons the entire thing, all the way up to the season finale, and it is by far the thing fans are most upset about.
Because while Anne HAS changed as a result of True Colors, the season essentially pretends that Anne’s relationships with Marcy and Sasha, and the complete destruction of those relationships DIDN’T happen.
This is a HUGE issue with this season, and frankly it’s one that many, many people just can’t look past. To use another comparison, it’s like how the first two Witcher games essentially pretends that Yennifer and Ciri don’t exist, and how practically no one of Geralt's many, many friends ever bother to mention to the amnesiac witcher that “Hey, you have a girlfriend and a daughter, maybe should go try and find them”. Just like that case, Anne has two people who are more important to her than anyone else except her family, and all through the season she doesn’t care to mention them, or show a single sign(outside of the new normal and one moment i’ll get into below) that she’s worried about them.
The narrative AND the characters essentially pretends that outside of a very select few moments, Sasha and Marcy don’t exist, because if they were brought up, then the mood would darken very quickly, and it would be very, very hard to balance the implications and the supposedly Devastating impact the season finale had on Anne, with the cheerful and funny atmosphere the show tries to have this season.
Not only is this terrible storytelling, but it also completely works against the main thesis of this story, that Amphibia is about the relationship between these girls. Because frankly, the way the story is written, Anne has moved on.
Marcy and Sasha’s storylines worked so amazingly well, because despite only being one episode each, they both understood, and worked with this fact in mind. That the relationship between the girls was the big, important thing that this entire series has all been carefully built around.
But meanwhile, Anne just doesn’t showcase that she cares about either of them, or their fates, right up until christmas episode decides, oh she cares after all.
I’ll be blunt, these three letters that Anne sends aren’t earned in the slightest. AT ALL. They are a climax to an arc that should have happened this season, but flat out DIDN'T. Anne in this season should have had to at least TRY to come to terms with the events of True Colors, and how she feels about Sasha and Marcy at this moment. But that didn’t happen, and so here at the penultimate episode of the season, Anne sends a letter because she learned something about family, which frankly just goes to show that she didn’t understand Sasha and Marcy at all. Both of those girls WANTED to stay in Amhibia, and away from their parents forever, and maybe, just maybe, there are deeper reasons for that we haven’t delved into yet.
If that is what they were going for, then that is one thing, and I will happily admit I was wrong when we finally get some insight into Their parents and their relationships, but the fact that this is the ONLY time in the entire season after the premiere where Anne shows that she cares, just makes the entire thing ring, so, so hollow.
And what really sucks is that this IS a good, logical endpoint.
This season SHOULD have had moments that were all leading up to this moment, moments where Anne almost against her will reminisced on her old friends, moments where she’s worried, moments like how she broke down crying in Amphibia talking about her mom.
But there isn't any of that. AT ALL.
And I know what the creators were going for, I know they have said that Anne is Compartmentalizing HARD. But they needed to actually SHOW that, not TELL us about it.
We needed moments where the mask cracked, where Anne Showed that no, she was not fine, but she forced herself to act like she was.
As it stands, it is an entirely valid reading of Anne in season 3A, that she has flat out moved on from Sasha and Marcy, and that saving them is a very distant secondary concern compared to stopping Andrias. And the fact that you can read it that way, is a TERRIBLE mistake on the part on the writers, given that the ENTIRE rest of the series is supposed to be about showcasing that Anne DOES love and care about them still. It’s always going to stick in my mind that Anne spent months, not thinking about, nor showing any signs of worry about Sasha and Marcy.
I won’t say it completely knee caps the rest of the series, because i still do believe in their bond, thanks to the amazing job the rest of the series did in establishing it, but man, whatever Anne’s reaction to seeing Sasha again, be it shock, anger, worry or otherwise is going to be jarring as HELL compared to her attitude in season 3A.
and it didn't HAVE to be.
Now to point 2, and a much, much better part of the season. Anne’s family.
Now, in this post Mortem, i'm going to compare Amphibia 3a to Avatar’s 3a a lot, and it will mostly be in regards to how Amphibia stumbles, where Avatar runs. But the exception is here, because if there is one part that Amphibia does better than Avatar, it is how much better and fleshed out characters the Boonchuys are, compared to their counterpart from that series, Ozai.
Now admittingly, their overall role is a bit different in that Ozai is the big bad, but in terms of season 3A, both of them serve the role of the parental father figure the protagonists in question have been striving to be reunited with since episode one.
And if there is one, chink in the perfection of Avatar’s greatness, it’s Ozai. The Firelord is a good final villain for Aang to face, and the way he influenced his children has a lot of story weight, but as a character, there really isn’t much to Ozai. He’s an evil, warmongering tyrant, that is the ultimate embodiment of everything wrong with his imperialistic society.
He is a character that entertains the audience with just how over the top evil he is, the spectacular visuals of his firebending feats, and the fantastic performance of Mark Hamil. To compare him to Andrias, he is much, much less interesting, less developed, and frankly nowhere near as good a villain as the old salamander is.
By comparison, the Boonchuys are a blast. Character wise, they are far and away the best part of 3A.
Through this seasons we explore the two in full, we learn how they tick, we learn their desires, how they handle stress, how long it took for Anne’s mom to give her up for dead after holding out hope for months, we learn how they still take great pride in their culture and associates with their fellow Thai immigrants, we learn their strengths, their personal flaws, and how they react to suddenly having to guard a family of aliens, but do it anyway despite their hardships.
They are VERY well developed characters, and absolutely worth watching. But even here, with these two winners, Amphibia stumbles several times. But to explain why, we need to go over Cloakbot, the Amphibian equivalent of Avatar’s Combustion man.
Cloakbot’s narrative role is to be Andrias way of cleaning up the loose mess that is Anne Booncuy. Symbolically however, he and his existence symbolizes how Anne isn’t able to be honest with her parents, and so she lies to them, not trusting them with everything, and trying to handle everything herself, because her ability to fully put her trust in other people has been severely damaged in True Colors.
Narratively speaking, the entire first part of 3A is great. it’s easily the best part, and it follows the natural story structure of set up-build up-pay off… all the way up until right before the end.
The story introduces a conflict, a large part is fueled by Anne’s own shortcomings, and she has several encounters with her foe, leading up to a moment where she has to come clean and make up with her parents.
Cloakbot serves his purpose as a villain very well… but he still falls short of Combustion Man, not due to anything he does, but because while the Western Air Temple ended brilliantly, Anne-Sterminator… Well it makes a massive mistake.
Anne-Sterminator would have worked absolute wonders as the first big climax of Anne’s arc this season… but then, when Anne actually has to tell her parents exactly what she’s been keeping from them, we skip it.
The simple fact, is that for this story to work, we NEEDED an episode where Anne just explained everything to her parents. We needed to see her actually talk about Sasha and Marcy. And since their big, character climax is to ultimately let Anne go off on her own, back to Amphibia, we NEEDED to hear what the Boonchuy’s thoughts on all of this was. We needed to see them discuss what they just learned in private, to get their thoughts on it all, and where they stood on the matter at that moment.
Without that, their eventual choice to let Anne go in Escape to Amphibia, lacks a lot of the punch it should have had, though admittedly it’s at the very least somewhat built up through the season, so it’s nowhere near as bad as Anne’s out of nowhere letters.
Still, even with this easily avoidable shortcoming, Anne’s parents are still a great addition to the story.
I just wish their daughter was as well handled this season.
However, the show's refusal to showcase this talk between Anne and her parents is yet another example of how Amphibia refuses to talk about Sasha and Marcy, because it wants to have it’s lighthearted tone, and pretend the fully dark aspects don’t exist at the moment.
it was such a blatant, giftwrapped opportunity for the writers to show that Anne still deeply, deeply cared about Sasha and Marcy, and the fact it skipped it, more than anything goes to show how much Anne’s 3A story refuses to commit to actually following up on True Colors.
and on to point 3. Andrias attempts to kill Anne, and the show exploring her powers.
Andrias attempts at killing Anne this season is very much one of it’s better parts, as the old Salamander not only manages to be hilarious, but also goes to show that he is a great villain. There isn’t much to complain about here.
But you know something i CAN complain a LOT about?
Anne’s complete, and total aversion to exploring her powers.
This is one of the single, worst written parts of Amphibia, and I would go so far as to call it a blatant plot hole, that Anne doesn't even TRY to figure out her powers.
It is completely unbelievable that a teenager, in particular one who is constantly under threat from deadly foes, would NOT experiment with her powers, and try and figure out how they work. ESPECIALLY when by all accounts, she can turn these powers on as she pleases.
It is terrible writing, and it also creates a lot of forced situations, because there are SO many times in this season, where Anne could solve this problem by just turning her hair blue, and unleashing her awesome powers. and she doesn’t even try.
When i predicted what would happen in Escape from Amphibia, I based a lot of my assumptions on the idea that this would finally be the episode where Anne was forced to just fully unleash her powers and that the episode would be about that, because being assaulted by a task force of the FBI really is a point where any sane individual would bust out their superform.
However, what actually happens, just highlights how stupid the show has gotten by making the choice for Anne to not use her powers at all, despite having every single reason to do so. There are two moments where Anne SHOULD have used her powers, and she doesn't. Seeing the Plantars being taken by the FBI loses ALL weight when you realize that Anne at Any point could turn her Calamity Powers on, and wipe the floor with them, and similarly the scene where she and the rest of the crew is jailed, also becomes incredibly stupid when again, Anne could break out at any point if she tried to.
It is flat out awful writing, and while it might not be as frustrating on a character level as her refusal to even acknowledge Marcy and Sasha’s existence this season, it is even more stupid from a logical level.
The simple fact is that the creators wanted to explore her Calamity powers in 3B, and wasn’t prepared, or interested in writing their stories this half season with the fact Anne now has high level superpowers she can turn on and off whenever she wants to. It is flat out dumb, “this show is for kids” level of writing.
and now to point 4, how the show botched the actual return part.
Now this point is pretty easy to summarize. The problem is that enough episodes and time were not devoted to it.
There was an ongoing story that was handled relatively well, but when the endgame came, it all came down to Terri the scientist.
That’s not a problem in an out of itself. The fact that Terri was introduced in one episode, and the next time she showed up two episodes later, she already had the solution in hand, having come to it offscreen, is.
It is LUDICROUSLY rushed, and it’s pretty clear the writers went, “oh shit, we’re at the halfway point, we need to get back to Amphibia NOW!”.
We needed at least 1 more episode with the focus being to build the portal for it to not feel completely rushed and sloppy.
As it stands, while this storyline had some nice moments and characters, the simple fact is that Terri was introduced far too late into the season. And it’s not like the show didnt have episodes it could have dropped to focus on it.
and finally, there is point 5. The FBI plot.
Now I want to make it clear that I LIKE Mr X. he was thoroughly entertaining, and pretty funny. If I was rewriting season 3A, I would NOT cut him or his subplot.
The problem with the plot is the finale.
Because frankly speaking, the ending of Escape to Amphibia should have been a terrifying ending, just from a logical perspective.
Anne, her family and her friends have commited quite serious crimes, big enough that I have no doubt the government would not bat an eye at all of them “disappearing” with no questions. But even ignoring that, they are all guilty of having broken into a military base, which in the USA carries a minimum sentence of 6 months, and given all the other shit they pulled, probably way more.
And that's without taking the alien harboring into account.
Frankly speaking, Mr X holds all the cards, and has an entire squad at his command, in the room. This really should have been a tense, dark moment, a mirror of how Anne left Amphibia behind.
Unfortunately it’s all ruined at the end, where instead of arresting them, he just sighs and preps to let Mrs Boonchuy yell at him, destroying ALL tension. Even if he carts all of them off to jail immediately afterwards, the danger the show built up by involving the legal government has been completely eroded as a threat from a narrative point of view.
I think it’s dumb as hell how they got there, but I could at the very least have appreaciated if all that build up actually led to an ending where there ended up being a price for defying the government. As it is, Mr X, for as entertaining he was, ended up being little more than yet another of the many one off villains Amphibia has, the only thing that made him different was that he stuck around a bit longer.
Frankly speaking, as i’ve said a lot before in this post, the show just wasn’t willing to explore the darker implications of the story ideas they brought up. There was a chance here to have 3A end of a dark, yet interesting high note, but the show just wasn’t interested in even trying to repeat True Colors on Earth, and that frankly is really, really disappointing.
One of the reasons True Colors is so good and memorable, was that it promised a decisive shift into a more mature story, where Amphibia would explore the darker aspects of it’s world and it’s characters.
Season 3A, completely drops the ball in that regard.
Season 3A ends on the promise that NOW things are getting back to basics, that THIS is where it will finally pay off everything it set up in True Colors. It essentially gives up, and says, ok you sat through 3A, now pretend that the tone from True colors is still here and strong. It is jarring as hell, and not in a good way.
Which brings me to my final comparison to Avatar Season 3A.
Do you know why Day of the Black Sun, and the way it heralded in the darker aspects wasn't jarring?
Because while it had episodes like the Headband, Sokka’s Master, and Nightmares and DayDreams, it also had episodes Like Awakening, The Puppetmaster and the Beach. It struck a balance. And so, when the time came to get back on track with The Day of the Black Sun, Avatar still had the tone that Crossroads of Destiny had set, half a season before.
Commander Anne, will not have that. The tone that True Colors set is GONE.
Amphibia could have balanced 3A with dark and lighthearted episodes, but the fact is, it didn't. It rejected darker moments at almost every turn.
And it doesn’t even work from the perspective that this is a brutal shock either, because while Anne and The Plantars might be shocked by what happened to Amphibia while they were goofing off on Earth, the Audience is not. We saw this kind of destruction in Olivia and Yunan, and while it’s certainly been kicked up a notch, it’s not particularly shocking.
Amphibia desperately wants you to forget that a couple of episodes ago Hop Pop was goofing off in Hollywood, while Sprig was playing superhero. And I might be more inclined to forget that, if Anne’s storyline hadn’t completely butchered the tone True Colors set.
Now, I'm sure 3B will actually be pretty good given it’s a return to the plot we actually care about, but I also firmly believe that when people watch Amphibia in the future, people will say to newbies that they should just skip most of season 3A. Because frankly, the overall story will probably flow much, much better without it.
In the long run, it will be regarded as the Weakest part of Amphibia. The part full of episodes you can, and probably will just skip on repeated viewings. I know I certainly will.
