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youroomwasquare · 5 months

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Marcy Wu, and Why Her Unfinished Character Arc Worked.

I'm gonna ramble a bit about our favorite newtopian ranger, marcy wu!!

so. I, like many others in the fandom, was a bit disappointed with how the show handled marcy's growth and character arc. it felt rushed.. incomplete, and overall messy. I felt that marcy's growth wasn't given the same attention and care that anne & sasha's growth was. coupled with the overall tragedy of marcy's character and role in the story, I was feeling extremely discontented with marcy's character.. until I realized that the show writers may have unintentionally made that the point of marcy's arc.

because LISTEN. out of all of them, marcy was the one who came away with the least positive things from amphibia. she didn't connect with her amphibian charges (she even admits it herself in the finale, and says that she wished she got to know them better), she was more focused on the technical and worldly aspects of amphibia, and while she did come into her own, she wasn't able to address and tackle her underlying core issues in the way that anne and sasha were. --

the two main themes of amphibia are learning to embrace change and letting go. and all the story arcs of the calamity trio showcase this in different ways (that's a discussion for another time, however). of these two themes, marcy's arc leans more towards the letting go aspect. but here's the thing. that was her main problem. marcy's greatest fear is being alone, and her greatest flaw is her inability to let go. marcy couldn't FATHOM a world without anne and sasha. they were her biggest support system, and by moving, marcy was essentially stranded. she had a hard time connecting with people, and she didn't have the social skills that anne and sasha did. so to her, moving was the absolute WORST thing that could have happened. she was unable to live in a world without anne and sasha, and so she didn't. she chose to take matters into her own hands, and as long as she was able to get anne and sasha on board, everything would be fine, right? wrong. we obviously saw how catastrophic that was, both for marcy and everyone around her. it was beat into marcy's head repeatedly how reckless and stupid and downright fatal her mistake could have been, how fatal it was. marcy's biggest lesson in amphibia was that there are some things you will have to let go of. no matter how desperately you latch onto them, there will always be claw marks left behind.

my point however, is that this was marcy's only major flaw. marcy was a flawed character, deeply flawed in some ways, but from what I observed, she was never flawed in the way anne and sasha were. outside of her major flaw.. marcy was a pretty well rounded person. and of course, there is growth to be left desired, but most of marcy's (visible) flaws were communication, and the ability to make yourself be truly seen in a friendship.. and they aren't really even flaws. more just things she needs to work on.

unlike anne, she didn't have self-esteem issues. she was pretty confident in her abilities and her interests, as shown by the first temple. surrounded by the right people (which at the time, were unfortunately not anne and sasha), she would've flourished. and in amphibia, she did. because for once, she was allowed to be the person she truly wanted to be. and unlike sasha, she didn't have horrendous control issues. anne and sasha's flaws are what I like to call character flaws, flaws that are innate and come from you; ie, they aren't as a result of other people's actions. anne and sasha were allowed to address and properly correct their character flaws because amphibia (and the places they landed in) was the perfect environment for them to see their flaws and to see the consequences that came with them. sasha learned that trying to control everyone and everything around you will only drive them away, and end up destroying both them and you in the process. her strength came from lifting people up, allowing them to rise WITH her instead of pushing them down like she used to. anne learned that self love is important, and in order to become the best version of yourself, you need to surround yourself with love, and in turn, it will come back to you. anne's heart comes from the people around her. their love allowed her to give love tenfold-- both to herself and the people around her. their major flaws only got resolved because of amphibia.

but marcy? her main flaw, which is letting go? that could not be resolved in amphibia, no. because amphibia only amplified this flaw. because choosing to go to amphibia, making the conscious decision to run away, is the entire reason why this flaw is most prominent. marcy flourished in amphibia, yes, but she was never able to address her major flaw. because of a multitude of different reasons, of course, but also because to marcy, amphibia was another out. another way to run from her problems instead of facing them head on and dealing with the fallout. anne dealt with the fallout. she stood up to sasha, for ONCE in her life, and watched her plummet down a cliff in return. (this is a weak point, but for the sake of parallels, I can't take it out.) sasha dealt with the fallout. she betrayed anne, once, twice, and was forced to go back to wartwood, anne's town, with the knowledge that she and anne are no longer friends, no longer anything. marcy's way of dealing with the fallout.. was not the core. to many, the core may be a physical personification of all of marcy's flaws coming back to bite her in the behind, but I disagree. the core was a cruel, merciless, and downright horrible way for marcy to learn her lesson, yes, but the core was not the fallout. the fallout, that showed marcy the consequences of her major flaw, was in true colors. was in the throne room. was in watching anne and sasha's faces twist into horror and disgust, respectively. the fallout was in living with the fact that everything she did was for nothing, and that she still had to live in a world without anne and sasha, that in her mind, they now hated her. that was when marcy hit rock bottom. and when you hit rock bottom, you have nowhere to go but up, right?

marcy did atone. in the core, in the face of everything she could have ever wanted being handed to her on a silver platter, she said no. she swatted aldrich’s hand, and said that for once in my life, I'm not going to run away. I'm going to face this head on. and why did she do that, pray tell? because of anne and sasha. because everything that marcy wu did depended on anne and sasha. because in her mind, even if they hated her, she'd rather face their potential wrath instead of accepting a reality without them. the real them. it's natural, of course. her major flaw was not of just letting go. it was letting go of anne and sasha.

and so, the reason why marcy wu's major flaw could never be resolved in amphibia, is because amphibia is a personification of marcy wu's major flaw. sure, she had good moments, and things about it she will always cherish and remember (and less good things that she’ll always remember), but marcy wu could not start getting better, could not start healing, until after she left amphibia. going through that portal meant many things, for all of them, but for marcy, I think it represented her final act of truly letting go. of letting go of her escapism, and her tendency to run away. of letting go of the old version of her, who came to amphibia with the intent of being with anne and sasha forever. going through that portal also symbolizes the end of that version of their friendship, the version that marcy kept chasing after. and I think that’s one of the many reasons why the only way to close off marcy’s journey, at least from our point, is by having her move. the move, and how marcy dealt with it, was what started this entire, crazy journey. and by choosing to have marcy move at the end of the series, even after everything that happened, is a brilliant move from the show’s writers. because it shows that marcy truly did learn from her time in amphibia. she HAS accepted and is taking the steps to overcome her major flaw, and I think more than anything, that is proof of the growth that marcy is capable of. marcy acknowledges that anne and sasha changed, yes, but through her actions and words, she also acknowledges that she changed as well. going through the portal, going back to earth, facing everything is a symbol of marcy's growth. because the marcy we were introduced to would have never done that.

going to amphibia changed all three of them. and even though we only get to see anne and sasha’s growth, marcy’s growth is SO poignant as well. I think it was for the best to leave marcy’s arc unfinished, because it shows that she still has a lot to learn and a LOT of healing to undergo. marcy’s final arc in the show has drawn to a close. but her character has not. and the amount of opportunities, possibilities, lessons, friendships, love, and more, are limitless. I also think it's poignant that we're left with a sort of open ended interpretation as to what happened to marcy after she moved. as for her friendship with the girls, I have many thoughts on that, but that’s also a discussion for another time. I think I’ll close it off by saying that moving was good for marcy in a different way as well: it allowed the calamity trio to truly come into their own. their reconciliation with marcy in all in was proof that they want to give their friendship another try, and that they are better off in each other’s lives. but showing that they drifted apart, came back together, and redefined their friendship on their own terms is beautiful. I think even without amphibia, they eventually would have to come apart. not forever of course, but long enough to carve out their own paths and figure out what they want to do with their lives. I know the fandom loves the idea of them being codependent messes together (it’s also a guilty pleasure for me lol) but I LOVE the fact that in canon, they allowed their childhood friendship to morph into something new, something better. in the wise words of anne boonchuy, change can be difficult, but it’s how we grow. but of the things you let go, you’d be surprised what makes its way back to you.

not to get all sappy, but out of all of them, I think I’m the proudest of marcy. and I relate to her a lot! so writing this was extra personal :,)

#amphibia #amphibia analysis #marcy wu #I wrote this to distract from the pain that is the rest of the finale #one day I’ll talk about the found family ever.. if I can get through it without absolutely SOBBING #baby's first tumblr analysis btw so please be nice 🙏

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dantevhell · 2 months

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Ask you about Amphibia season 3? Okay.

What did you think of the decision to have Marcy in a coma and then possessed for 90% of season 3?

Oooh. Now that. Now that is what I call a sore spot, buddy. Warning: this is gonna be a long post

Simple answer? It was okay-ish

More real answer: it was a disappointment

I genuinely was very excited to see possessed marcy, I was excited for it since the little s3 opening preview after true colors official airing and well... it felt like for me things peaked at olivia and yunnan... and then went absolute downhill from there on.

I love the possession trope, I love possession arcs, I think marcy being possessed would be a very good writing idea bc it represented SO WELL how abuse worked. Like tell me what screams "marcy was groomed by an adult and is being abused" than her after being almost killed, having her bodily autonomy being ripped away from her! It was a good metaphor! It was perfect!

Like LOOK AT THIS. LOOK AT THIS AND TRY TO TELL ME THIS DOESN'T LOOK LIKE AN ADULT GROOMING AND ABUSING A CHILD! YA CAN'T!!

Olivia and yunnan brought a lot of interesting stuff to the table: how olivia and yunnan felt about marcy (and this is another can of worms to me to rant so let's not even begin), how ANDRIAS felt about marcy, how marcy was healing from her almost death experience and how her body was dealing with it, how she was dealing subconsciously with her guilt, what made andrias and the core think about making marcy the host etc etc! Like so many good stuff! And i felt like after this ep. All these things there were little snowballs that could become an avalanche of events... instead turns into dust.

I HATE how darcy was a character that instead of being used to showcase how marcy feels about all those events and instead of showing MARCY'S emotions about being betrayed ... it was used to showcase andrias emotions and to make him look sympathetic and allow him to have an atonement arc... I hate it so much.

Like don't get me wrong I loved the complexity of him being part of cycle of abuse so intense that it affected all his other relationships, I loved that he cared about marcy! I love that he cared about her because it showcased how abuse is complex! How an abuser can care about his victim but still feel such pleasure in hurting them!

I love these scenes because it shows exactly that:

Care

And sadistic pleasure:

Like these scenes were great! The complexity of him loving her but also still torturing her and having a mixed reaction of loving/hating seeing her suffer. Mwah chef kiss! But every scene where he was around darcy was made to showcase how he was regretting his choices and making him look like an poor man who had no other choices then kill and torture this child like...that's obviously not true...

These scenes? Oh I hate these scenes:

I wished marcy's possession was used to show how MARCY felt about herself and her guilt, about how she felt about her relationship with andrias and his pain towards him, about how she losing her autonomy felt, i wished they showed her escapist fantasy created by the core waaaay before the finale!!!

If yall wanted to show a scene that focused on marcy while still showing andrias complexity why not create a scene of how their flipwart match went? Or any bonding scene from >> HER << point of view? From a scene that focused on >> HER <<

Now at fear of repeating myself too much a resume of everything i said: marcy s3 arc was not truly about her but only a device for us to create sympathy towards andrias, her abuser, and all the scenes of him reminiscing about her and their relationship (like this one)

Should have been scenes focused on her point of view instead.

The only moments where the core/darcy was used to truly further marcy development/emotions were:

- during the beggining of the end where darcy told Sasha and Anne about how they rejected marcy's interests

- during her escaping her fantasy land

- and in the ending where she told everyone what was the cores intention with becoming the moon

But aside from that? It was wasted potential in my opinion

Ps: (Andrias should've died and marcy deserved to show even the slightly amount of anger towards him as well. As a little treat)

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ilovetvtoons · 2 years

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I maybe overdue for an Amphibia Analysis at this point, but I've been thinking about this scene from "Sprig's Birthday". And what was going on in Anne's head during the entire episode is pretty oblivious, but looking back on and thinking long and hard on "The Beginning of the End" makes me feel like that there might have been another hidden meaning to Anne's words here than what we originally thought.

When talking about how she and Sasha ignored all of Marcy's interests and possibly her needs here. The look on Anne's face and the tone of her voice says it all. She deeply regrets the way she treated her and thought about how this lead poor Marcy's current situation.

While Anne was still upset with Marcy for getting her and Sasha stuck in Amphibia on purpose, and found a more meaningful friendship with Sprig. Marcy is still Anne's first ever childhood friend. They have known each other, cared for each other, and trusted each other for years. But realizing that's she's been ignoring Marcy's needs only after the worst has nearly happened to her possibly made Anne feel like she has failed her as a friend big time. And as a result, she became desperate not to fail Sprig in the same way.

For example, In the the episode "Sprig's Birthday" she goes out of her way to try to give Sprig the best birthday ever, even doing various activities that she knows that he loves doing, and is perfectly willing to do everything she can to give him an amazing day. She even gives him a telescope as a gift at the end, which that she knows that he loves. But she's so desperate to give him her definition of a great birthday that she basically regresses more into her Season one self and acts almost like the way Sasha did to her in Reunion.

Though unlike Sasha, Anne didn't get too forceful with Sprig until he claims this Birthday was only his "3rd best". This along with not knowing that it was his birthday made Anne feel like she still wasn't good enough to consider herself Sprig's best friend. She wanted to prove that she is a better friend than the person she once was, and she believes that by giving Sprig his best birthday ever which to her would have meant that she has done it. And was crestfallen when she felt like she failed to do so, until Sprig gave her a pep talk about why she's his best friend and why he considers it his 3rd best birthday. While Anne never mentioned either Sasha and Marcy or even referred to them even once throughout the episode being as it completely focused on the more healthy friendship between Anne and Sprig at this point as this episode is clearly a parallel to "Reunion". Being betrayed by both of her childhood friends had its consciousness, but so did her Pre-Amphibia dynamics with them, and maybe it went a lot deeper than we thought in this moment.

Though while Anne may not have fully understood why Marcy did what she did during the episode at the time. "The Beginning of the End" shows that she did think long and hard about why she went behind their backs with her plans. And since "Temple Frog's" reveal that Anne is currently possessing Marcy's Journal, it's possible that reading through it in between the events of "True Colors" to "Sprig's Birthday" made Anne further realize she and Sasha weren't being very good friends towards Marcy. But after nearly an entire season of dodging the subject and keeping her actual thoughts of Marcy's betrayal and current state hidden deep in her own mind. It wasn't until it was finally time for the final battle for the fate of Amphibia and rescue Marcy when Anne and Sasha were finally ready to really start talking about her and her actions. While Sasha is understandably still upset with Marcy for getting them stuck in Amphibia on purpose, Anne finally admits that she and Sasha could've been better regarding Marcy's hobbies and personal issues. Though while Sasha begins to see Anne's point and they've taken Marcy for granted but remains uncertain if Marcy can be forgiven so easily. But Anne knows that forgiveness isn't easy, but with her experiences of being betrayed especially by Sasha, Marcy, and Hop Pop. She knows that it can take time to truly forgive someone who has hurt you.

Forgiveness isn't easy but it's worth it for those you care about, and Marcy is no exception to this. Cause as I mentioned above, Anne loves Marcy and she regrets the way she acted towards her and how it took almost losing her for good to even realize it. And she wants to be a better friend and person to her and those around her than the person she was in the past.

While I'm not 100% sure if my theory about that scene in "The Beginning of the End" and Anne's behavior in "Sprig's Birthday" are in some ways connected. But maybe there will something in Marcy's Journal about this. So maybe we'll see if I'm right or not.

#i'm not really sure if i'm right #this is just something that came to me #and which i've thought a lot about #amphibia #amphibia analysis #analysis #discussions #amphibia discussions #amphibia theories #theories #anne boonchuy #sasha waybright #marcy wu #sprig plantar #sashannarcy #spranne #long post

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mdhwrites · 8 months

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It's actually really annoying when people trash Amphibia for "filler" and some little screw ups that don't matter, but at the same time praise TOH

So the fascinating thing here is... What the fuck counts as filler in Amphibia?

This isn't actually to say there isn't filler mind you, it's just that it's kind of dealer's choice what is and isn't. But let's back up a second so I can explain. I did a blog about how looking back, VERY little of The Owl House ISN'T filler. This was going by the definition that most people CLAIM to be using with Filler where anything that doesn't directly progress the story or main themes is unnecessary and thus filler. So that's the definition I'm going with for Amphibia.

And also as a reminder from that: Filler is Flavor. I consider filler to be a genuinely good thing in moderation to a piece of media. That flavor after all can make a lot of moments stronger than they would be without the extra time and characterization. With Amphibia... Oh dear god that extra time and characterization pays off BIG. S2 alone calls back to parts of S1 at least three times to really sell big moments within it...

Big moments that are also in support of the themes of Amphibia. Not only that but Anne growing as a person is required for the sake of the overall story. Even in S1, her growth is important so as to have not had her come back under Sasha's sway and her and Sasha's relationship is directly addressing how change can sometimes can be necessary, despite being painful. It's important both to the themes and overall plot. In fact, most of Anne's relationships are actively, at all times, discussing the effects community, family and change on someone.

This is what makes it effectively Dealer's Choice when it comes to Amphibia's filler because most segments, not even full episodes, can have some argument as being important to building on themes and relationships of the show which directly alter the decisions characters will make long term and so are necessary. If you think everything with the frogs is filler, you do not have the justification for Reunion. For that matter, you don't have the justification for the Aquarium trip or for True Colors because the questioning and rejection of Marcy and Sasha respectively NEEDS that further context because Anne in episode 1 doesn't care about frogs and cares more about her friends. When Sasha says jump, she says how hi, hence why she was able to be convinced to steal.

As a personal example... I have the hot take that if you watch After the Rain, someone could tell you "Marcy charges the stone" and then you skip The First Temple. After the Rain gets across the change in how Anne and the Plantars view each other, because them genuinely being a found family is important, and addresses what's going on with the music box but actually charging the stone? It says little about Marcy's character, mostly just doing the same thing Marcy at the Gates did and while the expansion of Hop Pop and Anne's conflict is good, it's not technically necessary for anything and you'd get to skip what is, in my opinion, one of the weakest episodes of the show.

Amphibia's filler still doesn't allow for "It's not filler just because you don't care about it," though. I still would recommend watching both but only because I can claim the elements to be redundant can I claim The First Temple as able to be skipped. BUT it still expands so I'm not even strong on that argument because it is still directly addressing the themes. The other half of "After the Rain" with Sprivy and her Mom is talking about differing perspectives, something that connects with accepting others and community so while it's not about Anne, it could still be said to be important to the overall discussion of what is important to Amphibia... But someone might argue that other elements address it so you can skip it.

Amphibia is a complex beast like that. Not to say there is NO filler. They have a Halloween episode that can be pretty much skipped... But also why the fuck would you? That's to me the real sin of bad filler. It doesn't add flavor. However, when you do shit like a Gravity Falls crossover and just pack it full of as much fun as possible, I'm not going to CARE if it's important or not, I'm just going to enjoy it because it's entertaining and I'm theoretically here, watching a kid's comedy adventure to be entertained.

That's, to briefly mention it, part of my issue with a lot of The Owl House's filler. It's not fun and it's not enjoyable. The fandom skips or forgets a lot of episodes because why would you ever want to go back? But I never plan to skip the Halloween episode even if it's very doable to do so.

So to me, I think Amphibia A: is more serialized than people give it credit for, it just does it in a way that is more episodically friendly and B: even when it is doing filler, you don't mind because it's going full blast on fun because it's genuinely happy to be what it's doing. So... Screw complaining about it. And this is coming from someone who still looks at the structure of Amphibia and goes "You could probably have cut a third of this and still managed almost as good of a product."

But I wouldn't want them to. Not when it's such a blast spending time with these characters.

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I also have an Amazon page for all of my original works in various forms of character focused romances from cute, teenage romance to erotica series of my past. I have an Ao3 for my fanfiction projects as well if that catches your fancy instead. If you want to hang out with me, I stream from time to time and love to chat with chat.

And finally a Twitter you can follow too!

#amphibia analysis #Amphibia

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onyx-archer · 1 year

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I Don’t Really Like Sasha Waybright: A Look Into Redemption Arcs

Oh boy, it’s time for me to make another analysis piece based on some dumb Disney cartoon. This time though, it’s about the Frog Show™ and not the Owl Show™, because I also like Amphibia, warts and all. (yes, that was an intentional toad pun)

As the title would suggest though, we’re going into territory about a character I’m not particularly fond of, despite how much the fanbase seems to collectively like her, and that’s Sasha Waybright. I’ve never really been a fan of her, which some people I know have found somewhat amusing given that I tend to like similar characters. While that is sort of true, I’d argue it’s not quite true either. It’s complicated. In order to really get into it, I’m going to have to talk about spoilers for several shows... so spoilers for Amphibia, The Owl House, Gravity Falls, and The Ghost and Molly McGee. As always, it’ll be under the cut.

Oh, and before I get under the cut, I just wanna say one thing real quick for the people who see this under the Sasha Waybright tag: I’m not trying to shit on your good time, I’m tagging the post with her name because it’s largely about my opinion of the character (and to a lesser extent, Sasha ships, but I won’t be tagging the ships because that’s not relevant enough for the bulk of the post).

Anyway, onto the meat of the post:

Watching Amphibia is something that came about for me because I enjoyed The Owl House immensely, and because Matt Braly also worked on Gravity Falls (which was, until TOH wrapped, my favorite show). The show has a charm that took a little bit for me to really “get,” but I’ve since come to really appreciate the show in a lot of ways. Particularly, I think “The Hardest Thing” is singlehandedly one of the best finales of all time, and I’d personally rank it higher than both The Owl House’s AND Gravity Falls’ (though I don’t really like GF’s finale, which I’m gonna make a post about eventually). I think Amphibia’s emotional moments are genuinely better than the ones in TOH, but the show is still not quite as good over all. This isn’t meant to be a dig at Matt and his team, I still love Amphibia, but it’s not my favorite show, y’know?

As far as the cast of Amphibia is concerned, I grew to like Anne a lot as the series progressed, and she exhibited a strong character arc from a bit of an entitled brat that shirked responsibility into a responsible person who is empathetic to the needs of others. Her and her found frog family are a highlight of the show, and lead to some great comedy and emotional moments. When Marcy debuted, I was instantly like “yes this is my favorite character” because she’s just a genuine delight to watch, and I’m really sad she didn’t get used more as the series went along.

Sasha, on the other hand, was a character that I just never clicked with. The first impression I had of the character was that she was going to showcase the opposite end of the development spectrum, where she would gradually become a worse person, or that her negative qualities would be highlighted more so than her positive ones. I wasn’t entirely wrong by the end of Season 2, and when we got to her sort of redemption in Season 3, the show kind of lost me a bit.

The problem I have with the character is basically rooted in the fact that she enters the show a kind of toxic person, and then she just kind of decides to change because one of her friends got mortally wounded, and she feels guilty over stuff that happened as a result of her treacherous actions earlier in the story. She was willing to do whatever it took to get home, even if it meant manipulating people and killing those who stood in her way. She had no issue with the idea of killing the Planters, and often showed she didn’t care if she hurt people until it was too late. I get this was done to emphasize that Sasha needed to grow up, change, and become a better person... but I still think the way it was done leaves a lot to be desired.

The issue is more so how it was built up. For basically two seasons, we get to know this girl who is all kinds of toxic, and the show works hard to showcase that she’s not above lying to her close friends about her intentions to get what she wants. She learned nothing from the events at Toad Tower, despite suggesting Anne would be better off without her in the end of that whole thing. The next time we see her, she’s pissed that Anne didn’t side with her, and that she sided with frogs, which she has been told are lower on the societal/racial hierarchy by the toads. There’s a racism allegory in there somewhere, but I’m not particularly interested in getting too deep into that can of worms.

She then shrugs off Percy and Braddock’s desire to leave when facing the Narwhal Worm in “Barrel’s Warhammer,” despite saying she would leave if they wanted to. She then basically plays Anne and Marcy for fools by inciting a rebellion in Newtopia in “True Colors.” She put up the front of being better to Anne and Marcy because she wanted control, because she’s made to be the toxic “friend” that craves control. Sure, she has moments where she clearly feels a bit bad for being like this, but she doesn’t learn her lesson until one of her friend is nearly killed in front of her. She only cares about the consequences of her shitty behavior after she has to face losing someone she cares about for real.

Now, I know someone would likely point out that a lot of characters that can come off as mean or toxic have similar moments of revelation... but I don’t really think this is the case.

Let’s take one of the biggest points of comparison for Sasha from The Owl House, Amity Blight, and compare elements of their arcs from “jerk” to “good person.”

Amity obviously starts the series as something of a bully character, with a need to be seen as “the best,” and is willing to humiliate Willow to remind everyone how great she is. It takes her being humiliated by Lilith and Eda’s cheating during her and Luz’s duel, and Luz showing how determined she is to be a witch for Amity to soften up. She recognizes Luz is doing her best, despite being a magicless human in a world of witches and demons, and softens up. She’s still wary of Luz until after Luz helps her deal with the corrupted Otabin in “Lost in Language” for her to really see that Luz is a good person. From here, she gradually continues to become a better person, because Luz’s positivity has that effect on her.

By the time she has to face the consequences of trying to uphold her reputation nearly causing Willow to lose all of her memories, Amity realizes that she’d become a bad person, and actively begins to truly improve. She attempts to mend the rift between her and Willow that was caused by her parents demands as a kid, and she eventually distances herself from Boscha during the events of “Wing It Like Witches,” saying that she made her social life better by cutting Boscha out of it. Her growing feelings for Luz culminate in her finally standing up to her mother’s abusive ass to save the person she’s grown to love, who is also the person that lit the fires of change within her. She accomplishes this in a way that is organic. Seeing her go from stuck up to a girl doing her best to make her girlfriend happy just makes me smile.

Let’s use another example: Pacifica Northwest from Gravity Falls.

Pacifica starts her time in Gravity Falls as a foil to Mabel, serving as the bratty rich girl who thinks she’s above everyone. She gets humbled a few times as part of a gag, but when “The Golf War” and “Northwest Mansion Mystery” (which is my favorite episode of the show btw) take place, Pacifica begins to showcase some added depth. We see first hand that she has a lot of expectations placed on her by her parents, and they have a Pavlovian response to an abusive method of control via her father’s bell that she is conditioned to see as “you’re acting out of line for a Northwest.”

When she learns that her family’s current situation (the Lumberjack Ghost) is a result of the family’s poor attitude about “common folk” and lies told in the past, she is visibly shaken that her family is as bad as Dipper said it was. She then decides she wants to break free of her family’s twisted values, and while we don’t get to see that pay off much, she’s still seen as a better character by the end. This is one of the reasons I’m bitter that Gravity Falls only has 2 Seasons, as I feel like this would have allowed us to see Pacifica become an even better character, among other characters. To briefly mention shipping, part of the reason I love the idea of Dipcifica is because it highlights how Dipper had a profoundly positive impact on Pacifica’s life, even if just for that one episode, because it’s through her interactions with him that she was forced to confront how her family truly is, and how she desires to improve as a result. It’s kind of like... a straight prototype for how Lumity panned out, ironically enough.

To use a more modern example: Andrea Davenport from The Ghost and Molly McGee.

Andrea’s not really a character with a full blown arc, but she is far from the worst person around. She’s a girl who has her moments that reflect Pacifica’s early days, but with a more livestreamer mindset, and she has more compassion from the outset than Pacifica. She does things so her parents will praise her, much like Amity, but is also fully committed to helping people who are nice to her. Even though her and Molly got off on the wrong foot, the fact that Andrea is shown to be Molly’s friend when things get bad for Molly and her family around “Home is Where the Haunt Is,” Andrea uses her social media influence to help raise money to save the McGee’s house.

Season 2 of the show, thus far, has shown Andrea to be a good person, and is super supportive of Libby during “A Period Piece,” despite their past history. In the most recent episode of time of writing, “Davenport’s On Demand,” Molly gets Andrea into coding, and makes an app to help her family’s business. When she learns how the app is threatening the livelihoods of the other businesses of Brighton, she decides to delete the app, and works with Molly (and, unknowingly, a reluctant Scratch) to do so. It’s at least somewhat clear that Andrea actually values Molly’s opinion at this point, and seems to be positively influenced by Molly’s chipper vibes. While it’s not the most drastic character arc or anything, and actually feels like it’s missing a little bit of context, it still works because Andrea is has more room to grow, as the show is not finished yet.

Something the three I just mentioned all have in common is a positive influence on their lives. While it can certainly be argued that the positive impacts aren’t super comparable, insofar that they have varying degrees of depth of impact on said characters, it’s undeniable that there’s a moment where, because of a positive influence in their lives, the three girls begin to change for the better. Think of it like a sort of Olive Branch to become a better person, and they take it. How far they get in that journey of self improvement is not important, because they got the chance to improve and took it. They all feel earned to some extent, in my opinion, because there’s a bit of a gradual curve to seeing how they act.

Sasha, on the other hand, doesn’t feel like she earned her sudden chance at redemption. While she certainly puts on a good show, and makes good on her desire to change for the better, I find that because we had two whole seasons of her being a pretty crappy person, only to have the show give her one episode to improve as a person before Anne gets back to Amphibia and works with Sasha again... it just feels like Sasha got replaced at some point, and while the character looks and sounds like her, we didn’t really see much of the transformation, and I find that extremely jarring.

Pacifica is a character that, in basically 2 episodes, managed to get the depth needed to make her shift into a better person feel like we got to see her improve in real time. We even have a comic where we get to see Pacifica improve a bit more helps too.

In the case of Andrea, we see how her need for validation from her parents has affected her, and that’s why she’s so obsessed with the instant gratification of her online following’s praise, and why, after Molly helped her like, once, she was so quick to call Molly her best friend. Plus, there’s still more time for her to improve even more, as The Ghost and Molly McGee is currently airing it’s second season at time of writing.

Amity is the one that has the best arc of the ones mentioned, because we see her gradually change. They showed a gradual shift in her character, and the reason for that shift being Luz also lead into the best lesbian romance we’ve ever had in almost anything ever, period. We get a full display of how Amity grows as a person, and that helps make her shift feel believable and earned.

Sasha doesn’t really have that moment. She changes as a result of a bad thing happening to her. While you could say that is a realistic response, we don’t really get much in the way of a change. One day she decides to be a better person, and then we see her as a better person. While I’m not saying we needed a whole ass season dedicated to Sasha improving as a person, it’d have felt a lot better from a writing stand point if she was given more than a single episode to actually turn over a new leaf.

While one could easily argue that Sasha had moments throughout the show of expressing some semblance of doubt in regards to how she was acting, and that she showed signs of regret for being the way she was, she continued to be that kind of person anyway. She continued to manipulate people, and try to control things, until Marcy got a sword shoved through her chest. And while that’s not the worst reason for a change, people don’t just change who they are overnight, or even a few days. She needed more time to show that the change was something that she had earned, rather than just tell us “Sasha’s gonna be a better person starting... now!”

As for me mentioning ships... I feel like this is one of those instances where I know I’m going to get a little heat for saying it, but like, it genuinely feels like some people give Sasha a pass because she’s confirmed Bisexual, and we are sorely lacking positive queer characters in popular culture as a whole. I could make a whole ass post about queer characters (because man, as a queer person, I have a lot to say on how we view queer characters on the whole), but that’s for another time. I’ve never really liked Sashanne, Sasharcy, or Sashanarcy (I’m 10000% fine with polycules and polygamy, and if you aren’t, you can fuck right off), largely because I feel the romance well is too poisoned by Sasha’s past actions. I don’t really fuck with the idea of enemies to lovers much, and while they weren’t “enemies” persay, I feel like Anne and Marcy having dealt with Sasha’s more toxic side for as long as they did would make them wary of entering a romantic relationship with her, even if she didn’t regress into that mindset during said relationship. The shipping thing is totally a personal opinion though.

Anyway, hopefully I got across my feelings on Sasha as a character, and why I’m not the biggest fan. If you have anything you need me to try and clarify, then by all means, ask away via reblogs or replies. Otherwise, I look forward for the shit I’m gonna get for disliking a popular character. I guess I’ll see people in my next post lol.

#Amphibia Discussion #Amphibia #Amphibia Spoilers #Amphibia Analysis #Amphibia character analysis #Sasha Waybright #TOH Spoilers #The Owl House Spoilers #Gravity Falls Spoilers #GF Spoilers #The Ghost and Molly McGee Spoilers #TGaMM spoilers #analysis #Pacifica Northwest #Amity Blight #Andrea Davenport #comparing characters

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calamitybomb · 1 year

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Can we talk about the fact that we got a lot of foreshadowing about Anne's powers?

For example, her blue hair first 'appeared' in Stakeout

And she also had 'magic powers' in the episode. So this could have been foreshadowing her powers.

And during the s2 intro, during the fighting scene with Sasha, her sword shined blue

And after her powers are revealed, we can see her sword shining blue at least twice

During Newts In Thighs

And during All In

So yeah I kinda think they were foreshadowing stuff.

#amphibia #amphibia s3 #anne boonchuy #calamity powers #calamity anne #foreshadowing #amphibia s2 #amphibia anne #amphibia analysis #anne amphibia

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queercoded-disney-villain · 1 year

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Marcy changes to a fantasy outfit immediately. They reject their school uniform, their connection to earth, without a second thought. Their skirt mirrors their old one, and their hair clip stays, but everything else takes on the norms of the new world they’ve come to. The world that they wanted, that they found, that they’ve always wanted and always wanted to find. Because Marcy always wanted to escape, always wanted to be a hero like in their favorite games. And they got a chance to, and their two best friends must love this chance just as much.

Marcy tries to change Anne. They bring a Newtopian designer so she can embrace the fantasy world just the same. But Anne doesn’t want it. She takes one practical token to symbolize how she’s changed. It’s a token of Amphibia, the world that she loves. She keeps the rest, because she’s finally happy being herself. She keeps her old outfit so she can see the self that she’s come to love every time she sees a mirror.

But it’s Anne’s outfit from earth, from school, from when she didn’t love herself. Does that mean she hasn’t changed? No. It’s because she didn’t have much of an identity on earth. She was whoever Marcy and Sasha pushed her to be. Now she doesn’t have them. She’s become herself in Amphibia, in that ragged old uniform, and it’s grown with her. It’s changed from a meaningless requirement to something that’s hers, that’s her. “Finally me and it’s no big deal.”

Sasha’s different. The first time we see her, her outfit hasn’t changed at all since Earth. She hasn’t changed at all since Earth. She’s static in a cell, where she can’t change. She’s manipulative and the same old Sasha. Any other outfit doesn’t represent a change in her, just a change in her status and position. Everything is still overwhelmingly red and pink. Sasha doesn’t want to change. Until Season 3, when she becomes a battered resistance fighter and becomes the best version of herself. She overcomes her need for control and changes her skill for it into a quality of leadership.

But Marcy changes, too. Their gleeful fantasy is stripped away into an oppressive gray wetsuit that channels the thing possessing them. All that remains of Marcy is a strip of skin, an evil grin, piloted by the thing that isn’t them.

Marcy’s fantasy outfit stays in their mental fantasy world. As the Core tries to show them their perfect world, Anne and Sasha have changed too. Instead of the now-meaningful uniform, instead of the resistance fighter’s fit, they wear the clothes of their favorite game characters. They’re stripped of their identities, turned into Marcy’s fantasy fantasy. But now they know that it’s not right. They reject it, and reject the worst version of themself.

So yeah. Outfits in Amphibia.

#amphibia #amphibia analysis #anne boonchuy #sasha waybright #marcy wu #ive been thinking about this a lot during my rewatch #thought id put it here as long as im procrastinating

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xenia12 · 2 years

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Greetings, frog Tumblr! Welcome to my impulsive, salt-induced Amphibia rant!!

This where I’m gonna ramble about Anne’s nonchalance and near indifference towards Marcy’s whole situation despite, not only supposedly wielding the “heart” gem (which embodies empathy, selflessness, and responsibility), but also the fact that she has been friends with Marcy since before kindergarten and has previously been very protective of her.

So STRAP IN, frogs, newts, toads, and hummuses alike cuz HERE WE GO

[in TV announcer voice] Brought to you by unhinged screaming in a discord server with @froggythesculptor.

Alrighty, we’ll start with Anne’s relationship with Marcy in “Marcy at the Gates”!!

When Marcy is about to jump in and save Sprig from the barbariant queen, Anne stops her and says she can do it herself. Marcy argues and asks about why she won’t let her go before Anne shouts, “Because I just got you back, okay?!” She then adds:

So worried and sensitive, right? Well, let’s move onto “True Colors” :)

When Sprig is dropped by Andrias, Anne is so overcome by grief and rage that she actually activates her powers for the first time. She didn’t even see him hit the ground, yet still seems broken by the perceived loss.

However, when Marcy, her life-long friend, gets a giant flaming sword through the chest, uses what she thought would be her last breath to apologize, and collapses lifelessly to the floor, Anne simply shouts her name then basically goes, “Oh, I’m home now. Anyways-”

She has the shiny eyes here but doesn’t shed even a single tear until “All In” after Marcy is freed. Like, girl, you watched the friend that you’ve probably know longer than anyone except your own parents get brutally murdered 5 feet in front of you. How are you fine???

Of course it’s understandable for Anne to feel betrayed by Marcy after her truth is revealed. After all, she’s been trapped away from her home and family for 5 months and near-death experiences have become a worryingly routine thing for her in Amphibia.

The thing is that, with Sasha, despite her trying to knowingly and intentionally kill Hop Pop (and at one point Sprig), Anne still later said that “Sasha and I might be going through a rough patch, but that doesn’t mean I don’t care about her” (S2 E6). Plus, after Sasha showed a little remorse then let go of her hand at Toad Tower, letting herself plummet so her friend could get away, Anne was sobbing just a minute later. She even saw Grime catch her so she knew Sasha was going to be okay.

The most logical conclusion Anne should’ve come to after going through that portal was that Marcy was dead. Yet, we’ve seen her get far more worked up about someone that, not only also betrayed her, but was clearly saved and alive. And, in earlier episodes, Anne seemed so much closer to and more protective of Marcy than Sasha… So I’m honestly confused.

As far as season 3 episodes 1-15, I wanna believe that Anne was simply in denial and didn’t want to bring it up, but it’s stuff like her being “stabbed” by the toy flame sword (in “Escape to Amphibia”) and simply laughing that make it hard for me to genuinely think that. When I just saw that happen through a screen I froze and stopped breathing for a second and it took me a bit to compose myself after. But Anne lived through both the actual event and the reminder yet didn’t react?

Also when Sasha passingly mentioned that Marcy was still alive, just captured, Anne simply sighed and said “thank goodness” before changing the topic. Like????

Now for “The Beginning of the End” :D

When first faced with Darcy, Anne (and Sasha kinda, but her reaction is more expected/normal for her tbh and imma not focus on her here anyway) was initially confused but, once she knew the jist of what was happening, she was just angry. She didn’t take a second to mourn or feel bad for her friend and skipped straight to getting mad. I was expecting some sort of guilt for not getting there earlier and maybe even an attempt at an “I know you’re in there!” speech (I wouldn’t want it to work but I feel like Anne would’ve been one to try that), but guess not.

Insert text “Yeah, we gay. Keep scrolling.”

BUT THERE IS HOPE!! Marcy’s Journal is gonna have a section written by S3 Anne, so we might get some Annegst >:3. I doubt they can entirely salvage this with just a book (the show is the great majority of the story, after all), but something is better than nothing lol.

#This turned out to be 779 words long *laughs in normal*#Also idk what happened to that intro tbh #but it was fun to write!!#Amphibia #Marcy deserves better #anne boonchuy #marcy wu #darcy wu #amphibia analysis #I think lol #rant

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sparkthespork · 1 year

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I’m once again talking about Sasha Waybright because I’m sad

And I’m sad because I realized that Sasha worked to redeem herself not entirely sure that she would see Anne ever again. She had no idea that Anne would ever find the means to travel back to Amphibia without the box, and even if she did end up going back to Earth by herself, there was no guarantee that Anne would want to be her friend again.

Ultimately Anne only ended up working with Sasha when there were greater matters at hand. First in True Colors after Andrias’s betrayal, and then when she came back to Amphibia and tried to put their conflict aside and focus on the rebellion. If there wasn’t a literal frog war going on, there was a good chance that Anne would have never spoken to Sasha again, even if she did redeem herself, and I think Sash was aware of that.

(Couldn’t find a better pic than this one but wider context this is Sash when Anne is about to cut off her handcuffs so she can fight in True Colors)

Even from the very start of that arc with just the SHEER JOY in her face here when she’s first asked to fight by Anne’s side. She’s done nothing for it yet but she’ll take what she can get because her relationship with Anne feels salvageable for a moment only for them to be separated again, and far from repairing their friendship.

When in Turning Point. Sasha said that she wanted to be “someone who deserves (Anne),”she probably meant more to become that person in Anne’s honor rather than to for certain have a future as her friend. She wanted to be someone who was deserving in general, because Anne showed her the consequences of being someone who wasn’t. And to become that person for Anne’s sake since Sash finally saw what had truly made her admirable, remarkable, an irreplaceable friend.

Of course they did end up making things right in the end but thinking that there was a moment there where they very well never could have, and part of it happening was just the luck of Andrias being a traitor and trying to take over the world and Anne being able to come back to save it. But Sasha still would have tried to improve herself regardless, even with that pain… making me tear up tonight :,,,,)

#amphibia #amphibia analysis #amphibia sasha #sasha waybright #disney #amphibia anne #anne boonchuy #disney channel #based on personal experience #I have been living the Sasha reads the journal moment #for the past 2 months #and then some #still not out of it #sasha amphibia

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funkylittledemondude · 2 years

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Yay!! Amphibia on Disney+!

Wait a minute. The way those colours line up kinda reminds me of something…

Hmmm….

HMMMMM….

HMMMMMMMMM……

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borkthemork · 2 years

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Bork, I feel like fore the Sashannarcy dynamic for the finale, it’s the true meaning for “if you love something you got to let it go”. But this term is more subjective, to me, if you love something but it hurts the thing, you have to let it go for them. I feel like the reason Sasharcy is so much closer than they are with Anne (from what’s implied) is because Anne needed time to really think about her identity after amphibia. she sort of relayed on the planters, just a bit. What’s your take?

So the ending to me is very interesting. I have seen a few people discuss the merits of the flash-forward, of the idea of the trio separating, and it gave me a specific memory back in May 2021 over my friend and I's discussion over the trio's aftermath.

And here is my main verdict:

The slow drift of the trio was a very realistic yet optimistic way to go about tackling their aftermath post-Amphibia.

The trio had been friends for a long time. That is for certain. We have seen the trio fight together in an anime reunion, we have seen Anne and Sasha talk in episodes like Sasha's Angels over residue from their friendship. However, from personal experience, the baggage and codependency from the trio's past interactions still need to be taken into consideration.

After all, Mr. and Mrs. Boonchuy confirmed that only a month had passed since Sasha and Anne had started healing their friendship, and even then ten or so years of codependency is understandable. That's a lot of past interaction to parse through as a growing, coming-of-age teen learning to set boundaries for themself.

If one had been in a codependent relationship where betrayals and forgiveness were encountered and given, there still would be a lot of residue left. And for the girls, they would have to learn how to transition out of it. However, this doesn’t mean that they separated completely from the beginning, or even became fully separated if I wanted to be frank.

From what the flash-forward implied, it seemed that Sasha, Anne, and Marcy did interact a lot in the beginning years, but as different pathways and social groups opened up to them the trio started to deviate. And to be fair, this is a pretty realistic portrayal. You can't really stop a friend from choosing the paths they know are encouraging them to grow — and it doesn't show that Anne put these two at arm's length. It just means that the trio kept up-to-date with one another, but as time went on, as they went through high school, college, and jobs, they began to get busier and busier.

Their texts and communication were probably still there, but not as frequent as they'd like. This is implied by Marcy asking Sasha about her interactions with Anne or about Sasha's psych degree, it doesn't sound like what a close friend would ask unless Anne completely fell off the radar or if all three hadn't been keeping up to date with one another except for a few hangouts or webcomic reads now and then, but I digress.

What is important is that this deviation allows for the girls to naturally grow into their own identities and support systems outside of each other.

They took on piercings, taught themselves about what career paths they wanted, got to do webcomics, helped out kids, bought a car, realize what makes them happy, and everything. They began to dive into different friend circles that fit with them, into what adults wanted to experiment with their newfound awareness, and overall carve their lives out as they go.

They formed into new people from their experiences with Amphibia, naturally taking shape when they got back to Earth, and came back together as a friend group of their own accord rather than through tragedy.

And the thing is that this was all by choice.

They chose to reunite, they chose to hang out again. They chose to catch up on their lives despite the natural separation and distance, and that is the most realistic portrayal of a friendship I could ever describe to you.

#amphibia #amphibia spoilers #amphibia analysis #the calamity trio #anne boonchuy #marcy wu #sasha waybright #asks #Anonymous #bork speaks

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sonofrose · 1 year

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Ok, ok, I... realized something.

Hear me out, and get ready because this'll be a doozy.

Marcy is the one responsible for saving everyone, all thanks to a long term domino effect that started here.

Ok, ok, listen listen.

When Marcy met Andrias (as shown above) her cheerful personality endeared her to him, and because of this Andrias doesn't kill her right then and there like The Core wanted instead suggesting the Three Temples scheme.

A lot of time later, Marcy reunites with Anne, and Andrias starts the temples plan, and to go to the temples Marcy learns the ancient amphibian language.

Then she and Anne do the Temples and learn the lessons, and during the second temple Marcy unintentionally keeps Anne from fully loading the gem.

They meet back up with Sasha in the Third Temple and later The True Colors incident happens, Anne discovers her powers and Marcy activates the Box allowing Anne to escape to Earth, which of course leads to her getting impaled.

BUT! Here's the thing:

This gets Andrias distracted allowing Sasha and Grime to escape and form the rebellion, and more importantly Andrias actually regrets doing it.

On Earth Anne can have time to decompress and reflect back on everything, learn to use her powers at least a little, and discover Leif's last clue, and thanks to Marcy's notes on the Amphibian runes, which led her to The Mother of Olms.

Back with Marcy, the regret of hurting her starts to affect Andrias and he starts second guessing himself, when The Core posseses Marcy the regret grows stronger.

Fast foward to All In and Leifs letter makes it back to him, and when the letter talks about Andrias learning to love again it is Marcy who comes to mind.

Leading to Andrias losing the will to fight and finally let himself be defeated.

(Wow, actually looking at a still of it, that really was a gruesome blow)

AND, because he refuses to fight Darcy gets distracted from their fight with Sasha, giving her the opening to cut the wire connecting the Core to Marcy, freeing her.

Heck, once Andrias finally realized the error of his ways and decided to stand againt his father and the Core, that could also be tied to Marcy's influence.

Look back to all of it.

Every key moment where things could have been over for the stars it was Marcy who unintentionally kept things how they should.

Sometimes it felt like fate conspired againts Marcy, but at the same time it looks like Marcy herself is an agent of fate that allowed for most of the major developments that lead to the Prophecy being fulfilled.

Everything would have gone to hell in a hand basket if not for Marcy.

#amphibia #marcy wu #marcy monday #amphibia analysis #this has been in my drafts for way too long

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raineschaos · 2 years

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reunion and the trouble with toxic friends

in the beginning of this all, we see sasha being a protective force for anne against the bully, maggie. clearly, in a normal sense you see this as your friend standing up for you but in a toxic relationship, you may be manipulated to believe that without them you can’t stand up for yourself. anyway- sasha continues to show somewhat hostility to maggie, who backs off immediately. after anne thanks her, she quickly responds “you just gotta speak their language.” already, in just these first glimpses at their friendship we can gather evidence of devaluation.

the scene cuts to a biology class where they are doing frog dissection. sasha helps anne get out of another situation that she doesn’t want to be in. when anne wants to follow the teacher’s orders, and go into the sick room. sasha says that they should skip school to celebrate anne’s birthday. so-, a lot of stuff goes down in that situation. we have sasha trying to pose her wants as a kind gesture towards anne. sasha is going to push those wants onto anne and make her also believe that she wants to go skip school.

then we get to them having fun, enjoying their time. until sasha does something that wouldn’t be deemed moral. making anne a little bit nervous. a good healthy bond would not make you feel nervous.

the next thing that occurs is when sasha puts down the party that anne’s family probably has planned for her. not completely terrible but in the act of attacking the family anne belongs to, she finds herself in a position where she feels undervalued and lesser than sasha, giving sasha more control over their situation. sasha uses this power imbalance to becoming even more intimidating, almost even the hostility that we saw her show maggie at the start. as not even anne’s bully could stand up to this kind of intimidation, anne caves in and sasha acts as though she was not manipulative at all, and anne made her decision all on her own accord. and she gets praised for making the decision sasha wants, returning that value to herself and making her friendship feel more beneficial to her again.

in the current time, anne notes this saying “she’s persuasive, right?” she’s somewhat anxious around her friend, of course, she’s overjoyed to be reunited with this friend that has served as her protection for so long but she’s really changed and sasha doesn’t realize that.

however, in this next part, wartwood’s citizens don’t look towards sasha for leadership. their trust is placed in anne, anne who is somewhat nervous still hesitates before saying they should trust sasha. again, as soon as anne makes the choice that sasha wants her too, she is then rewarded with sasha’s happiness and friendship.

another thing that really stood out to me is when sasha notes how close anne has grown with the plantars and then makes anne remember her negative attitude towards frogs in the past. a lot of times in toxic relationships and friendships, they make you feel as though they are the only person you can rely on, or trust, whether or not that is a lie or the truth. when sasha puts down anne’s relationship with the frogs it’s in hopes to sever the connection anne currently has with them so anne isn’t still attached to them once she reveals their plan to return back home.

anne nervously replies that she thinks they’re pretty great and she says that’s sees been living in their basement. sasha quickly says “a basement. yuck”. another was of attacking the thing’s anne is proud of. she enjoys her family in wartwood, but sasha quickly needs to deflect this situation back to her. look at what ive done. look at how much fun ive been having. look where i live. look what we could do. to try and sell anne on the deal that she has negotiated with grime.

anne however is not her old self and loosing a family member is too much stress on her choice to just fall back upon her old ways again. hop pop’s life being threatened makes anne triumph over the pressure sasha has put her under and she goes off to try and save all of the frogs.

now that anne has made a choice that sasha is not happy with, she repeats the whole hostility attack. intimidation. intimidation. giving away peer pressure like costco food carts.

sasha’s bond with grime is not so much like anne’s bond with hop pop. while anne and hop pop are like family, a mentor and a child. sasha and grime have not become so chummy yet, they are more like buisness associates. they both have goals, and they both are going to rely on each other to get what they want.

moving on- anne stands to protect the villagers of wartwood and totally stands up for herself, something that we see her struggle to do back home. however this is not just a bully, this is standing up to a friend. so hooray for character development. sasha then goes to project her wants on anne once againnnn. she’s gotta stop. but this tactic seems to not work, so sasha then goes to her harsher side, projecting more pressure on to anne to get what she wants. sasha then doubles down with the praise until sprig does what i wanted to do in this moment and chuck a sludgeball into her face. because you can’t be doing this to anne savisa boonchuy, alright, back off. sprig’s words really kick anne back into perspective.

the way she has changed, she hasn’t ever let a bully bother her in wartwood, so she shouldn’t just start now. anne gets back up and stands up to sasha with this amazing one liner and she turns back to sprig. sprig who was totally encouraging, stood up for anne when he realized she couldn’t, that’s a healthy friendship. that’s why spranne wins.

sasha when her and anne are hilt to hilt, swords meshing up onto each other lays down with pain in her voice, she doesn’t understand why anne isn’t just following what sasha wants. anne then fights back, breaking through another form of manipulation like the boss she is.

sasha then undermines the plantars. and you don’t wanna do that, because that was completely a buzz word for anne. calling them slimy little frogs completely triggered her sense of determination and loyalty to the frogs. as we see in the fight, anne could’ve lost here, and sasha was hoping that she would, because before that sasha’s combat was mainly aimed in tripping anne, or making her stumble. wanting her to fall and yield. if anne hadn’t gotten back up and knocked sasha off her feet, maybe hop pop would've just been tossed off the tower.

sasha is also super deterministic though. she doesn’t wanna lose this fight, grime told her that is she does nothing will ever go back to how it was. sasha values stability and control, so if she loses the fight she loses a lot of the things she values. poking back with a dagger, she just wants to get back to her sword. she doesn’t want to harm anne. all of sasha’s movements are just to get anne to loose energy or hopefully encourage her to forfeit, much like sasha’s manipulation. when anne finally strikes sasha back down again, sasha gains a scar.

she doesn’t happen to get up from this position of defeat which i think says something about how much she had lost in that fight. it’s almost embarrassing to her to lose this control, loose the stability in the plan, and lose a friendship all in one. when sasha is dangling from the cliff, with anne and the plantars being the only things holding her up, she realizes that she can’t just take something that anne loves from her again.

she realizes that she isn’t the support for anne anymore, therefore in that moment she feels unwanted but there’s also a possibility that she was awoken to how anne felt in their friendship and felt guilty for all of what she did. in letting go at the tower, it shows that she is letting go of that control in a way. if she was tenacious and didn’t learn a lesson i’m sure she would’ve held on, causing all of them to fall. sasha however takes this first step, not a lot of people identify her redemption arc from beginning here, as she is still scheming and is a main antagonist in the season 2 finale, but i believe it does. to truly heal from a moment like this, there has to be the act of letting go. the act of freeing yourself from what that relationship was. anne won in the sense that she’s free from a toxic friendship and won the battle. sasha lost a lot of what she believed to be true, and most off of she realized that anne had changed. there’s a whole other video i could do on just sasha’s development and even just the cliff scene because there’s a whole bunch to unpact about what she know about her character and different theories to why she let go. i used the theory that went along with this narrative, but there are plenty of explanations because us as humans are super non-linear, we make decisions on feelings. feelings based on like dozens of thoughts. so any number of explanations may actually be true.

#amphibia #reunion #sashawaybright #anne boonchuy #amphibias2 #amphibias1 #amphibia analysis #analysis #show analysis #sasha waybright character arc #well-written character arcs #character arc #antagonist #cartoons #disney #sashanne #sasha and anne

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ilovetvtoons · 1 year

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While the show already made it clear about Marcy's insecurities about being separated from Anne and Sasha. But these words in this little Marcy's Journal review definitely confirms that Marcy is not only afraid of separating from them, but also fears that their friendship with her wasn't even genuine and they would ditch her at the drop of a hat.

And thought she did like The Plantars and bonds with them, the words above also hint just a subtle bit of jealousy towards them (though far from the obvious way Sasha was) and feared that Anne would leave her be with them, and unfortunately "A Day at the Aquarium" confirms she was right. While she really didn't want to, Marcy gave Anne the chance to be with her Frog Family, which she easily accepts and runs off to them without a second thought. Which proves to be a mistake as Anne leaves an emotionally vulnerable Marcy to Andrias's "proposition" when she was at her lowest.

So of course Marcy was quick to accept this deal, not fully aware of what he was really up to. Anne and Sasha are the most important things to Marcy, but has a deep fear of separating from them particularly due to there neglectance of her needs and interests leading her to believe that friendship wasn't strong enough to withstand time and distance if she left them. As mentioned above, Marcy risked everything to bring Anne and Sasha to Amphibia, and either of them refusing to join her side or even want to stay with her over others meant it was all for nothing. Which of course all leads to the events to come in "True Colors"...

#amphibia #amphibia analysis #analysis #amphibia spoilers #marcy's journal #marcy's journal spoilers #spoilers #marcy wu #anne boonchuy #amphibia discussions #discussions

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mdhwrites · 11 months

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So in one of your posts, you mention that Marcy from Amphibia is one of the more awkward elements of the show. I know you haven’t finished the show yet, but I was wondering if you’d be up to elaborating on that?

Marcy’s writing really bothers me, but I’ve never been able to articulate why, and you’re really good at writing analysis, so I’d be really interested in hearing your thoughts on her.

I can try but it's one that I've admittedly struggled to pin down entirely, especially because episodes with Marcy in them seem to kind of change the ENTIRE flow of Amphibia whenever she's around and it's kind of awkward. I do want to say that after having just watched The First Temple literally just now that Marcy isn't a bad character. She's not as flat as she could be, her personality is consistent and she's plenty likable. Honestly, in 90% of shows, she'd be a really solid of the cast.

But... If Willow is a plot device surrounded by characters, Marcy is a character surrounded by people.

What I mean by this is that part of what's impressive with Amphibia is that despite being more over the top and more comedic than something like Randy Cunningham or The Owl House, a lot of its stuff is actually pretty grounded. Everyone feels real to some extent with not only a full character but personality, beliefs, etc. like that. They fit into archtypes but they're more than that and a lot of episodes are powered simply by these great people reacting to an inciting incident of some sort or the world around them. It gives a very human quality to all of it and is why the episodes I usually like less is when they lean REALLY hard into one element of a person, thus making them feel less like people and more like a character in a story.

Marcy is the smart nerd with dreams of grandeur and grand fantasy. She's the larper in a lot of modern shows: She's a nerd and DAMN proud of it. But... She also never escapes that to be more than just her archtype. Worse yet, it's an archtype that's dangerous. Proving someone is smart is often a really easy way to make someone sound or appear cringe and their lengths for it are pretty hit or miss.

But the worst part for her, the reason she throws such a hard wrench into things is that... Marcy Wu is really close to Mary Sue. WAIT A SECOND THOUGH! A definition I've heard for Mary Sue is that they suck so much attention to them and have EVERYTHING revolve around them when they're around that everything else suffers. They are a narrative black hole.

Marcy isn't quite that bad, don't get me wrong... But you can absolutely feel the rest of the characters become worse around her... Even as she doesn't interact with them. Marcy in all of her appearances so far for me feels like she interacts with Anne at most but otherwise is entirely independent of everything going on around her. There's no give and take with Marcy as she trudges towards the narrative goal of an episode which is far less natural, and far more stock, than Amphibia usually manages.

And because there's no push and pull, everyone else has to kind of just deal with Marcy being there. Anne has to entirely ignore that Marcy is capable and Sprig has to turn into a jackass and Marcy won't notice until the end of the episode. Marcy will just continuously smart for an entire episode to make Anne jealous and feel bad but she's not actually interacting with Anne in anyway.

Then there's The First Temple where... Marcy may as well not be there. That entire episode, she could be replaced with a ticking clock for how long they have to survive each puzzle and not much changes because the main thrust of the episode is actually Hop Pop and Anne. The conflict is good if handled really awkwardly and uncomfortably, which admittedly fits the tone of being in the room with two people who won't talk about their problems but it didn't make me feel anymore at ease. Worse yet, Marcy dismisses their problem before minutes later realizing that the pain Hop Pop was in was going on and throwing the game which... Isn't really earned.

Now if they had actually focused on her being in the zone and needing to snap out of it, that'd be one thing but that's not even a part of the second puzzle. Frankly the second puzzle in general is awkward as all the characters, to make Marcy look more brave, are suddenly REALLY afraid of any sort of danger. It's how they are in the ENTIRE episode which... I guess works if you haven't watched almost literally any of S1. These are not exactly simple folk who fear lightning from the sky but even POLLY is terrified of any threat in this place, at least until she has a sword.

And that sort of awkwardness isn't new with Marcy. It's there in her introductory episode. Really, the only episode so far that doesn't have Marcy causing problems like this is when she's explicitly acting like Sasha. Which really just reminds you that a character who has had LESS SCREENTIME at this point... Did it way better.

Sasha is the opposite of Marcy in this and I get that's part of the point of the trio's dynamic but it's to such a severe extent that... It really feels like Sasha and Anne have a real relationship while Marcy is just 'the smart one' to round out the trio.

And yes, again, I know this is actually part of the point but that happens at the END OF S3. That's a long time for a payoff to this when right now she's just kind of an awkward wedge not only in the trio but in the show's very writing style, tone and vibe.

Now I do want to pull back for second. If I were grading on a curve, Marcy's episodes would be closer to the bottom for me so far with the one where she does the least, her solving the riddle, probably being the best because Anne still feels very natural in that episode. But they're all fine at worst episodes. None of them make me angry or dislike the characters or the plot or anything like that.

The worst elements of Amphibia are still rocking a 7/10 for the most part. Marcy simply one of those elements, especially when compared to... Really any character in the show, including pretty much THE ENTIRETY OF WARTWOOD which makes out more like a sore thumb.

And while a sore thumb won't ruin your day, it will put you on edge and the stress might affect other parts of your body, just like Marcy does to the rest of the cast.

#amphibia analysis #Amphibia #amphibia marcy #Marcy Wu

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