#maystery Monday

[mysteriesofmarcy]

Maystery Monday #5: Underestimated

So today the queen poems from Star vs came to mind.

We have classics like

Tick tock, the clock talks

But secret are its powers

The only one to break its spell

Was Skywynne, Queen of Hours

Important poems, like

Eclipsa Queen of Mewni

To a Mewman king was wed

But took a monster for her love

And Away from Mewni fled

And new ones, like

The immortal monster

Will long be haunted

By the darkest spell

Of Moon the Undaunted

But I noticed something.

Star's poem says

Star the Underestimated

Was queen for just four days

Her one decision on the throne

To give it all away

And that got me thinking. This wasn't the only time Star was underestimated. From The Banagic Incident:

Marco: Sorry, I underestimated you.

Star: You... underestimated me?

Marco: Ehmmmm, yeah, I did. Sorry. This stuff looks delicious though!

Star pushes the ice cream out of his hands

Marco: Why did you --

Star: There was a fly on it.

She's not the only one either. In the Amphibia episode All In!, Andrias tells Anne that "From the moment you walked into my throne room, I underestimated you."

And there are several points in Gravity Falls where Dipper and Mabel are severely underestimated. Instances that come to mind include

Headhunters, where nobody believes Dipper can solve the case of the murder of Wax Stan

Irrational Treasure, where nobody (including Dipper) believes Mabel can solve the case of the true founder of Gravity Falls

Gideon Rises, where Gideon doesn't believe Dipper can stop him without his journal

And Weirdmageddon III, where Stan doesn't believe the Mystery Shack Gang can (or should) save Ford

I'll also throw in The Stanchurian Candidate where Dipper tells Stan "We don't think you can do it" and he proceeds to (almost) win on his own

So in short: to be a protagonist in a modern cartoon, you must be underestimated.

And I'm sure this trend also shows up in other shows, but these are the only examples I can think of right now.

#amphibia #gravity falls #gf #maystery Monday #star vs the forces of evil #svtfoe #mystery monday #skywynne butterfly #skywynne queen of hours #eclipsa butterfly #moon butterfly #star butterfly

[mysteriesofmarcy]

Maystery Monday #4: Season Themes

Today I bring you a connection that I did not make on my own, but rather I heard on the True Colors episode of The Wartwood Gazette podcast. And that connection is: each season has a Calamity Power theme.

Season 1 follows Anne on her journey to be accepted by the town of Wartwood. She is slowly accepted, and eventually respected, by her Amphibian neighbors.

First Anne developed a relationship with the Plantars,

Some episodes, like Anne or Beast, Best Fronds and Flood, Sweat and Tears, are mostly about her friendship with Sprig

Other episodes like Stakeout are mainly about her and Hop Pop

Then episodes like Girl Time were about Anne and Polly

Cane Crazy, Hop Luck, Taking Charge, and several other episodes showed Anne bonding with the whole Plantar family

And then later with the rest of the town,

It started with Breakout Star, when Anne's acne caused her to get noticed by the mayor and become a celebrity

Lily Pad Thai and Wally and Anne were episodes where Anne spent the whole episode bonding with one particular townsperson

And some episodes like Snow Day and The Big Bugball Game had Anne bonding with the town at large

And eventually, Anne became beloved by all of Wartwood.

In Toad Tax, she became a town hero

In Snow Day, she became a town protector

Prior to Anne of the Year, she was voted Frog of the Year

And in Reunion, the whole town looked to Anne for advice.

Prison Break is a special case. But if we look into it, it is kind of a microcosm of the season as a whole. In other words, Prison Break is a one-episode version of Anne's journey in Wartwood.

Sasha had previously connected with several of the guards assigned to her so much that she convinced a lot of them to quit, and the rest adored her

She even helped Grime become a better leader

And by the end of the episode, she became the second in command at the tower and the entire tower listened to her.

Marcy did not have an episode this season (and for good reason). But if she did, I think it would have started like New Wartwood, with her making improvements to Newtopia (including what we saw in Scavenger Hunt), but ended like Prison Break, with her becoming very popular among the locals. If she had a second episode, it would have shown her going on daring missions for the king, beating Andrias and everyone else at flipwart, and running some DnD campaigns.

Season 2 was basically one giant puzzle with several smaller puzzles inside. The giant puzzle in this case being, how to get the girls home. The smaller pieces were:

From Fort in the Road thru Wax Museum, we waited to solve the puzzle of getting to Newtopia.

At the end of Marcy at the Gates, Marcy threw in another piece: getting all three girls back together again.

When The Plantars Check(ed) In, the puzzle became how the music box worked.

Then when that was solved as of A Day at the Aquarium, the next piece became the three temples.

That puzzle was solved in The Third Temple, which is also when they solved the puzzle of finally getting all the girls back together.

And the final piece was actually using the music box. Which Andrias handed them, but not in the way they expected.

If you're looking for a microcosm of this season, look no further than each of the three temples. Each temple had three tests, which made up the larger puzzle of beating the temple. Notice also that each part had to be complete in order to beat the temple, just like each part of the season 2 puzzle has to be complete in order to get the girls home, and each piece of a puzzle must be in place in order to complete the puzzle.

EDIT: I've just realized that there is another episode that functions as a microcosm of this season: Scavenger Hunt. There were three puzzles, that each needed to be solved using Anne and Marcy's special skills, that all came together to become one message.

Season 3 was a bit trickier, because a) the podcast episode was recorded right after True Colors, so they couldn't provide the answer, and b) it didn't seem to have much of a theme for the first half. But, looks can be deceiving.

The first half of this season was about Anne having to find the strength to:

keep the Plantars alive on earth

take more responsibility at home

find a way to get the Plantars home

and keep their identities a secret

and to defeat the enemies that were specifically after her and her families.

Notice how I said defeat, rather than just dodge, which is what they did in season 1.

Notice also how I said the enemies were after the Plantars and Boonchuys, which is also a step further than season 1 when they were mostly just giant monsters who didn't care what they ate.

And the second half of the season (plus Turning Point) was Sasha's time to shine, as she and the Wartwood Resistance spent the time gathering an army, complete with an underground recreation of the town and help from all corners of Amphibia (including several past enemies), all for the sole purpose of taking down Andrias (and The Core, but she didn't know it existed yet).

And a good microcosm of this season is -- well -- both finales. Escape to Amphibia brought together all the friends the Plantars had made on earth, and The Beginning of the End brought together all the allies they had made in Amphibia, for one final battle. And then All In put "All" the forces "In" one place for the final final battle.

And then there was The Hardest Thing. First, Anne, Sasha and Marcy had to decide to save their friends. Then, they had to figure out how to defeat The Core. Then they actually had to fight it and try to physically stop it. When that didn't work, Anne had to sacrifice herself to save Amphibia.

Then after Anne returned, everyone had to find the strength to say goodbye to the friends they had made. And then everyone had to figure out how to move on, and the Amphibians also had to rebuild their society while honoring their heroes.

And speaking of honoring heroes, that's how I'd like to end this post. Here in the US, the last Monday in May is called Memorial Day. It's a holiday to celebrate all the brave men and women who lost their lives in defense of America.

So, I thought it only fitting that today's post be dedicated to three brave heroes who lost their own lives in defense of Amphibia:

Igor the Brave

Barrel the Brave

Anne the Selfless

#amphibia #mystery monday #maystery monday #calamity powers #memorial day 🇺🇲 #Igor the brave #barrel the brave #anne the selfless #Anne isn't selfless far from it

[mysteriesofmarcy]

Maystery Monday #1: Marcy's Intentions

Since I had trouble thinking of a topic for this week, I decided to try and answer a question that will probably be answered in the next two weeks: did Marcy actually intend to trap herself and her friends in Amphibia? And if so, why?

Obviously if we listen to her, she says that she didn't think it would actually work. But if we listen to Sasha and Andrias, she did get them stranded there on purpose.

And when Anne dives a little deeper into Marcy's possible motivations in this week's episode, we learn what may have been her motivation. And The Core provides a little more insight when it says that it doubts Marcy was ever really friends with Anne and Sasha. Of course, given what we know about The Core, friendship seems to be the one topic it doesn't understand very well.

Let's start with a few observations.

Right after Marcy at the Gates premiered, I and several others theorized that she may have known what the Music Box does before gifting it to Anne.

We know that Marcy was very much attached to Anne and Sasha, if her actions in True Colors were any indication.

We know from Marcy's VR nightmare in Olivia and Yunnan that she knows what she did was super dumb and wants to make things right with Anne and Sasha.

We know from Anne's conversation with Sasha (and from various other flashbacks) that the two of them kind of took Marcy's friendship for granted and ignored all her interests. But this likely made Marcy even more desperate to save the friendship because if her best friends were like that, they were likely the only ones who tolerate her brand of weirdness, and you can imagine what the kids were like who didn't tolerate it. (Although if the fandom is any indication, all Marcy needs is to find the right people.)

These instances are probably what The Core saw when it said that "It's doubtful you ever were [friends]". Logically speaking, it would be right: Sasha and Anne's actions toward Marcy (especially Sasha's) would seem to indicate that their friendship was never real in the first place. Between Marcy trying to get both of them into D&D and failing, Anne not remembering anything about insect migration patterns, Anne and Sasha always falling asleep during Marcy's favorite movie (and violating the sleepover mantra "Never ever go to sleep"), and Sasha even saying she didn't care about it, it's clear that Anne was right about the two of them ignoring Marcy and taking her for granted.

Marcy may have felt betrayed because of this and acted out because of that. Or, as she implies in True Colors, she may have felt the need to cling to something stable in her life at the time when she was about to be uprooted from the only home she probably ever knew. Or, as she straight up says, she may have not even thought the Music Box would do anything when opened. I think all of these were contributing factors.

But, and this is the important thing here, just like Anne and Marcy accepted Sasha back in season 2 despite her mistakes, Anne and Sasha will still accept Marcy back in season 3 despite her mistakes.

That's all for this week! Tune in next time on Maystery Monday!

#mystery monday #maystery monday #marcy monday #amphibia #marcy wu #anne boonchuy #sasha waybright