#Amphibia The Second Temple

[amphibia-a-day]

Day 1111 of Amphibia Screenshots

Episode: The Second Temple

[roxiefandoggo]

Criminally underrated character

[agalychnisspranneusroseus]

Thinking about the First Temple and how the lesson Marcy was supposed to learn was about humility but she's never shown to be particularly arrogant before. In fact, I'd say she's the opposite - while trying to solve Andrias' puzzle with Anne and Sprig, she always listened to Anne and took her suggestions into account, even when they made no sense. She never thought "actually, maybe I should handle this" or even "I don't think that'll work - let me try something else". She let Anne take charge and followed her everywhere, and she was genuinely surprised to learn Anne could possibly feel jealous of her. Sure, she's very confident in her intellectual abilities, but I think her flaw, if any, is that she tends to lose track of the bigger picture. She dismisses Anne's suggestion in Wartwood to just let things flow with the townsfolk instead of "improving" their town without their imput, not because she thinks she knows better than the wartwoodians, but because she genuinely thinks they will like it and that, if they liked it, they would like her in return. And she WAS following the mayor's lead, whom she didn't know was a corrupt criminal.

Rather than "humility", I think the Temple's lesson would be about widening her perspective and not missing the forest for the threes. She's not arrogant, she just gets very passionate about some things and loses track of everything else. She didn't accidentally hurt Anne and the Plantars in the Temple because she was so hell-bent on proving she was intellectually superior to it that she neglected her companions' safety, but because she lost track of them. If anything, I think it could be a commentary on how self-centered she can be, a little bit of foreshadowing to the revelation that she brought her friends to Amphibia for selfish reasons, while making Anne steal her supposed birthday gift - which was meant to serve Marcy's purposes all along. That was the epitome of not thinking about others because she's too focused on her own goals.

But I don't think she had any malocious intent when she did that. I think she almost like... forgot to think about Anne (and Sasha). Ignoring other people's perspectives isn't a decision she makes, but an impulse she needs to learn to control, and I don't think the lesson of "humility" is all that fitting. Maybe I'm splitting hairs, because it's not like "humility" as a lesson doesn't work - it shows Marcy she needs to slow down and not assume she can handle every task so easily. I agree on the "slowing down" part but idk if the second part makes much sense? If anything, I think "empathy" would be a better lesson to learn, but then again, that doesn't sound much like something fitting for the "Wit" Temple, and maybe the Temple is meant as a one-size-fits-all and is not meant to offer any personalized lessons, rather it's supposed to filter out any possible incarnations of Wit that may have ill intent or plan to use the power of the gem(s) for selfish purposes. A humble incarnation of Wit would probably also be one that doesn't let their companions get hurt for power or arrogance.

But is that really the lesson the Temple teaches? Because what I actually have a gripe with is how the Temple actually just straight up cheats. How is that a lesson on humility? "You will be lied to and betrayed and no matter how smart you are, you won't be able to sort through that" sounds more grimdark than lesson-teaching. How is that even a lesson? Sounds like the Temple's lesson is "life isn't fair and you need to accept you're sometimes doomed to lose for reasons outside of your control" can be interesting but I don't see how that relates to "humility". To my understanding, humility has more to do with accepting you're subject to the same rules as everybody else and that you're not "above" everyone, that your goals are not above other people's wellbeing. Accepting there are things outside of your control can be humility. It's not about accepting there are forces outside of your control playing outside the rules that will fuck you up and you just have to take it because "oh, you're not above us, little girl". If anything, that sounds more like a lesson about not trusting people will play fair and being ready to tackle that. It would have been different if Marcy just lost the game "legally", but the Temple cheating muddled things up a little.

Tbh I think the only Temple lesson that made sense was the one for Heart. Anne learning reaponsability - yes, yes, very important. Marcy learning humility... eh... kind of? But not exactly. It's not contradictory to her character but that last Temple trial made no sense, and idk if "humility" was THE lesson she needed to learn, but I accept it as a one-size-fits-all kind of thing. Sasha tho?? What did she even NEED to learn determination for?? 😭😭 girl was already determined! Or ar least I think it was determination idk I can't remember. Another lesson that would have benefitted from being more about "empathy" or "responsability" or just generally anything about putting that strength to better use. If the Temples were trying to filter out people who would use the gems' power for evil, then how does "determination" help? What if my dude was determined to do evil? Like, I don't know, Sasha herself???? Stupid fucking Temple didn't help jack shit

[kiwibirb1]

Anne not charging that all the way will definitely bite her in the butt later.

[hithereyougood]

Second temple: WHY IS THE BLUE GEM NOT CHARGED FULLY? ARGHHHHHH

Third temple: Conflict but fun

The Dinner: Conflict but fun

Battle of the Bands: It’s NO BIG DEAL, YEAH NO BIG DEAL

True Colors: Fun! 👍👍👍👍👍👍 I’m not crying or sobbing.

[writesailingdreams]

The Second Temple/Barrel's Warhammer

No real Marcy thoughts beyond she doesn't think well under pressure or situations that need immediate answers without taking time to reflect (she's like Luna from MLP: FiM that way).

What actually predominated on my brain:

more emotional about The Second Temple than The First Temple - Anne's whole thing was more moving to me than anything that happened with Marcy

I continue to be interested by why this Temple is so mysterious liminal and why it has a specific guardian kind of. Why is Valeriana's order so (seemingly) settled at this Temple?

archway entry to the temple being a frog shooting its tongue at a fly was A+ background architectural design and storytelling

brought home the emotionall instinct of Anne v. the intellectual know-how of Marcy

I noticed that a lot of Anne's moments of growth are paralleled in some ways to Sasha. Not necessarily in the same trajectory of growth, but usually when something significant happens that shows off how Anne's changed, there's a complementary Sasha episode showing off how she's handling her journey in Amphibia. The only exception I can think of is Toadcatcher. Anyway, it's a neat narrative structure.

Sasha "we're the best team in this world or any other world"

loved the environment of the Second Temple. Winter world yessss!

Anyway, Anne's my girl and I love her. Her impulsive kindness really impressed and moved me. I love her so much.

[vinililacart]

This is just for practice, study and fun! I hate this arrogant, immature and disrespectful mentality of "i fixed it" "mine is better" etc and i don't want to be associated with them.

Calamity trio re-imagined! (edit video link) notes in read more

- I made the colors more saturated to match my art style

- Designs inspired by Valeriana's phrase: "Think of your memories of Amphibia, of how much this world means to you. This will allow the stones to resonate with your hearts... once again!"

Anne

- Lotus hair and frog eyes as in the concept art

- Lotus flower headband

- Heart-shaped gems as the blue gemstone represents heart

- Shoulder pad inspired by the Plantar's house and the blue mushrooms that are very distinctive in this region

- I made the boots more similar to the dragonfly costume's boots

- Vines on gloves and boots as they are a natural and common element in the region where Anne lived

- The boot leaf is the same as Leif's, the first Plantar

Sasha

- As Sasha herself said, "I am not that person anymore!", so I was heavily inspired by the new Sasha's outfit from the third season

- But I still decided to leave some elements of the official design on the arm, inspired by the design of the battle of the bands and her design of the second season, as they were important moments for her

- Now the heron circlet is bigger and has a scar on their eye, matching Sasha and Grime

- A cool eye patch with the eye symbol

- Toad eye!

Marcy

- Changes the hue to another shade of green

- I gave the same hairstyle as the battle of the bands outfit and kept the green barrette

- Newt eyes!

- Now the tiara has the shape of corals and a gem like the brain-like mushrooms (from the first temple) in the middle, as the green gemstone represents wit

- All armor is inspired from General Yunan and King Andrias' armor

- Shells throughout the design as they are very distinctive in this region

- Her skirt is a mix of my redesign with the design of the band battle outfit, and with the wave print like Lady Olivia's dress

[thisbelongsto-nohbodys]

Sasha: "Mar-Mar, if I don't get my jacket, I'm gonna freeze."

Marcy: "Can we both wear it together? Like in a jacket cuddle?"

Sasha: O///O "...that's an option."

Marcy: Yea, Anne and I shared a jacket back on Amphibia.

Anne: Oh yea, in the mountains during the second temple. I remember that. Us sharing the same fuzzy-pede jacket, cuddling, sharing body heat—

Sasha putting squeezing into her jacket with Marcy: Okay okay, no need to brag. It just means that I have Marcy-cuddle time to make up for.

[theguardiandragon1]

Co-Author: @mage-of-words

It’s time for the second temple. Sasha and Marcy are forced into an arena and must face the deepest parts of themselves and relive some memories they both would rather have kept them in the back of their mind. Will they survive and improve their powers as the champions or die in the process.

[heart-wit-strength]

Speaking of the temples, it always bothered me how the second temple was like “Anne must take responsibility for her role in getting the trio stuck in Amphibia”, only for true colors to say “nm it was actually all Marcys fault.”

This also intrigues because Valeriana being all-seeing and stuff I do wonder if she knew Marcy was behind everything.

How would things go if Marcy or Andrias's beans were spilled (or hinted at) at the second temple and Anne was left to deal with suspicion and starting to doubt her friend's lead

[discet]

So an earlier post of yours talked about how the show ignored a lot of Marcy’s baggage when it come to her going back home. To be frank, in regards to Marcy’s arc, I feel like the the theme of change becomes…dogmatic? I don’t know how else to put it. As you said, the last thing she did in true colors was save sprig and get the plantars to safety before getting stabbed, but the show ignores all that to focus on her misteaks. Marcy is severely punished for not wanting to change, and is blamed for all the suffering she endured. Her accepting change is treated as a cure all for her trauma, and all the signs that her parents aren’t good to her are just forgotten about. I apologize if I come across as too negative.

Naw I think we're on one mind on this.

Ultimately the core issue with Marcy's arc, when you brush everything else aside, is that she was created as a plot device first and a character second.

Marcy and Sasha are both used to show Anne(and the audience) the dangers of refusing to accept change. Sasha represents how this can push someone into toxic behaviors, while Marcy represents how how this can push someone into denial. Salt and analysis below

Sasha is stuck on the past; refusing to let go of her control of the group and the dynamic they've had since forever. She does stuff far more heinous(trying to kill Hop Pop/Sprig) and betrays Anne's trust(Reunion, True Colors especially) However, Sasha is given a chance to grow from her mistakes and be better. Earn that redemption and change. Allowing her to come full circle on her arc.

Meanwhile, Marcy's fear of change is of losing the only friends she has ever had coupled with the fear that she lacks the social skills to find new ones. Marcy kidnaps her friends out of desperation and doesn't come clean about it out of fear. Both of which are very human mistakes born ultimately of attachment.

Marcy is disproportionately punished by the narrative for her actions. She is not given an arc to prove she has changed. She is not given the opportunity to effectively combat the forces that hurt her and threaten her friends. Outside of the journal, her removal is not mourned by the narrative. Anne and Sasha barely spare her fate more than a thought between the two of them until it's time to confront Andrias (Yes, I know this is not the creators fault, it was Disney's, its still a flaw in storytelling).

Marcy was used as an inciting incident, a plot device to find the temples, a plot device to give Andrias the box, a plot device to push Andrias' arc forward, and then was not effectual at any point in the finale. (Her internal battle against the core does not impair it, her super calamity form ultimately does not save anything as as cool as it is).

I will end on one thing I do really appreciate about this mess though. As much as I am not a fan of separating found family at the end of the adventure trope, I think there is some really great mirroring going on with where Marcy started and where Anne and Sasha finish. Anne and Sasha are forced to say goodbye to the people they care about in Amphibia, the same position Marcy was in with the both of them at the start of the series. They have to make that same hard decision to move on and accept that change.

Like, I have mixed feelings about its execution, but as a storyteller I can really appreciate the full circle ness of it.

Bluh. Frustrating. Thanks for the ask though, but I'm gonna go work on the awiw AU for a bit.

[amphibia-a-day]

Day 1123 of Amphibia Screenshots

Episode: The Second Temple

[tooningin]

Amphibia season 3 rewrite

New Normal: Mostly the same, just replace the quarantine song with a scene that involve Anne and Sprig reflecting on True Colors

Turning Point (22 min): Don’t hammer it in our faces every 30 seconds that Sasha feels remorse, we can clearly see she does. Also make Wartwood more distrusting

Adventures In Catsitting/Croak of Duty (Im not sorry): Sasha and the Wartwood resistance bond building and trust gaining lets goooo

Fight at the Museum/Temple Frogs: Integrate Dr. Jan telling Anne and the plantars about the vase into the ending of the former episode 

Sprigs Birthday/Below Battle Grounds

Below Battle Grounds: Sasha and Grime discover the Plantars’ basement and try to convince Wartwood to go through with this  change

Fixing Frobo/Anne-Sterminator: Nothing changes in Fixing Frobo. Anne Sterminator, simply have her opening up to her parents about everything (The opening or Mr. X mentioned she did, but I would’ve liked to see it)

Confronting Old Warts/Olivia and Yunnan: 

Confronting Old Warts: Sasha backstory, we cry, and this is when she gets her new look

Toad out of the Bag/If You Give A Frog a Cookie:

Toad out of the Bag: News has spread of Anne’s return to her friends’ parents and they got questions

Froggy Little Christmas: Andrias sends Darcy out for a test drive on Earth, messing up Anne’s Christmas plans for her mom. Towards the end, they send out that Anne, The Plantars, and her parents defeat. They then go home happily, but then see Darcy lounging on a chair in the kitchen. They give a sinister “Hi Aaaaaaaaaannnnneee”, the screen cuts to everyone’s’ horrified faces and the screen goes black 

Escape to Amphibia: Anne and the Plantars prepare to return to Amphibia, qnd in the process Anne and Darcy duke it out (Darcy unfortunately gets away). The rest of the episode is essentially just a more abridged version of ETA

Commander Anne/Sasha’s Angels:

Commander Anne: Anne is conflicted: she’s very happy Sasha’s alive and has been able to manage, but remains very suspicious. They both also express far more concern over Marcy.

Sasha’s Angels: Their argument gets more focus, and throughout the episode, Darcy (With a slightly weakened connection due to the fight. Here there’s no wire BS) lurks, planning their next move. Anne and Sasha have the conversation they had in the actual episode, but then a drone with a large trap swoops in and grabs the 2 girls. Mrs. Croaker, Maddie, Toadie, and Loggle try to save them but to no avail. 

The drone lands at Andrias’s throne room, and Darcy comes out. 

Darcy Strikes Back!: Anne vs Darcy Electric Boogaloo, this time with Sasha.

Marcy is saved, yaaaayyyy-

The Core, with the remains of stone power it got through possessing Marcy, is able to take on a new shadow form.

Olm Town Road/Mother of Olms:

Olm Town Road: Things are AWKWAAAARRD between the girls

The themes of second chances in this episode are primarily used for Sasha and Marcy. The latter is wracked with guilt over what she did, and the former emphasized and wants to help, but has her own feelings of bitterness and lingering resentment. In the end the 2 manage to help each other.

Mission: Cloak!/Down by the Bog

Mission Cloak: Resistance mission involving Cloak Bots. We explore more of S and M’s dynamic without Anne, M&M, plus flesh out the newt wives.

Down by the Bog: Grime is emo and not happi. Sprig’s like “Suck it up man” and we get a backstory of how Grime lost his eye. 

The Core and The King: Expand on what the actual episode showed us.

The Beginning of the End: The girls begin to wonder if their friendship can truly be saved, but Saving the world’s far more important

All In: Mostly the same, Marcy just has much more of a role

Hardest Thing: Mostly the same

[mdhwrites]

So, what do you think would have happened to Amphibia if its third season got shortened down to three hour long specials like Owl House did?

So A: this question is flawed. The shortening wasn't told to TOH's crew post S2. They were told WELL in advance. Dana is on record (source) for having said as much. The news came down on episode 7 of S2. Reasonably, this probably meant not a lot of S2A could have been changed due to deadlines but I don't know how all this works that well. For the sake of this, I'm going to mostly assume that something could have started changing starting episode eight and more drastic changes could be done after the mid season hiatus.

B: TOH needed S2B to mostly look identical to setup for going into the human realm, for having the Day of Unity as the finale and for the Collector to be set up as a villain by then. There are maybe two episodes you could change but nothing that is emblematic of the problems of S2B as a whole. Here's an entire blog about that. Btw, I published that blog before the finale came out and my opinion is mostly that that blog is kinder than it should have been.

C: I am not going to say this is a better version of Amphibia. Some might though. A lot of people think S2B and S3 of Amphibia is loaded with what they see as filler. Even I agree that you could probably cut a fair amount and not lose the core of the show. I'm about to demonstrate that. Also, just inherently because of a faster pace, the show would have to be more about the trio, or feel that way at least (again, I'll get into it), which the majority of the Amphibia fandom argues is what the show should have done anyways. So yeah, it's kind of an interesting conundrum.

D: I'll mostly talk about the weaknesses of this rewrite once I'm done. For anyone who needs a refresher though: S2, Episode 7 of Amphibia, the last one before this change, is one after Marcy at the Gates and has the segments "Scavenger Hunt" and "The Plantars Check In." Oh and before I get to the three specials, I'll mostly just be trying to slot in episode segments because that feels the most fair to actually capture a reasonable timeline for the show. Like I'm not coming up with cheats to handwave issues that this change would cause. As such, I'm not going to do something like cut The First Temple in half just for the sake of claiming more time. Once we get to the specials, that will change because those episodes' structures would have inherently changed, kind of like how The Hardest Thing has a different structure due to its extended run time. Until then though? I'll mostly be trying to effectively Mad Libs this off of what we already have despite the fact that the creators would have, at least if they're responsible, made changes to work within their new time frame. I'm going to give myself one unreasonable shift in return for this handicap effectively of not being able to change the core structure of the show or its plot points.

ANYWAYS. With that out of the way:

For the sake of pacing, you probably do Lost in Newtopia and then the Sleepover to End All Sleepovers as episode 8 because we can't literally go straight into leaving Newtopia and one could argue that the sleepover is important foreshadowing. However, the next episode is then a double whammy of A Day at the Aquarium to say farewell to Newtopia and still have that touching confirmation of the found family before then skipping Night Drivers and going straight to Return to Wartwood for the second segment, bringing us up to nine.

Then I would actually move Toad to Redemption into the first slot for episode ten because it is thematically important and a good rallying moment for Wartwood. You could also replace with Ivy on the Run for the sake of Sprivy and just make episode 13 into episode 10 by making After the Rain be the mid season finale. It's dramatic enough to do so and lets:

The First Temple opens S2B and episode 15 of the normal show, New Wartwood and Friend or Frobo stays too in order to help setup Wartwood's relationship with humans besides Anne and to get Frobo in. That brings the count to 12.

Then you do episode 17 as episode 13, Barrel's Warhammer and The Second Temple, because we do still need a bit more time with Sasha to prep for True Colors and The Second Temple is obvious. However, I'd probably swap their positions because then episode 14 is The Third Temple (so you don't have two temples literally back to back, even if the two are different episodes like in the actual show) and The Dinner... With Battle of the Bands being cut. It's Sasha's weakest episode, is just kind of reinforcement of a few elements and some expansion on the three's relationship, though mostly Anne and Sasha. The Dinner is needed though to get Sasha with the other two and heading to Newtopia because...

There is a quarter season finale now with True Colors. It is ABSOLUTELY the most radical choice in this rewrite and you could arguably say that it's not fair because Disney wouldn't have allowed them to have that episode as anything but a season finale. This is the only 'cheat' I'll give myself since I'm not altering episodes drastically or the like to fit in with the new time frame. Plus side: They'd have the compelling pitch that in five episodes, they CAN get back to Amphibia to make that the season finale. Otherwise there isn't really much to change before S3 because so much has to wait on the major turn of Andrias becoming the main villain. That version of this outline though, that S2 doesn't change at ALL, is... A genuine nightmare on a lot of fronts and honestly less reasonable than thinking this would be allowed and I'll get to why after the outline. Oh, there is one change that needs to happen unfortunately: Frobo probably doesn't make it in this version after this. Polly and him unfortunately just aren't important enough to really get the wrap up they do in S3. It does mean that mechanic Polly during the ending probably has an RC robo or the like with her to help explain where her being a mechanic came from.

Anywhos: Episode 16 is The New Normal... Mixed with Anne-sterminator. Anne is honest about the danger they're in from go and instead of the quarantine montage, we get her actually beating the Cloak Bot first try to show how far she's come to her parents and to show off the new powers alongside their cost.

Then you do Fight at the Museum followed by Turning Point for episode 17 to start the ball rolling on getting back as well as get Sasha into place and finish up her arc.

Episode 18 has Temple Frogs because the Plantars DO need to still connect with Earth and Temple Frogs is EASILY the best episode of that as it explores how different Anne is from the start of the show and how that isn't entirely a good thing because of the things she's now ignoring, fits thematically with the show as a whole and is just a lot of fun. The other side meanwhile is Olivia and Yunan. I would almost not advocate for keeping this episode for a lot of reasons but it's kind of necessary in order to set up for:

The Core and the King is in episode 19 because Andrias' backstory is REALLY important to how he is beat and to also understand what the Core is and what the kingdom of Amphibia can do. What the stakes are to all of this. It is also the one segment in the actual show itself that explores the villain so you can't really cut it. The other half of the episode though is If You Give a Frog a Cookie because we need Terry.

Especially because you might have noticed that I didn't include Mr. X. There just isn't room for them for the most part which luckily... Is okay. He's fun but his parts can be mostly replaced either with faceless people or Terry. You can also just go with his first appearance actually being him taking the Plantars in this episode. Maybe there's been foreshadowing at the end of Earth segments of someone watching. Something that only takes a few seconds but builds up to honestly having Escape to Amphibia be mostly the same as it was but with a reduced cast and less familiarity with Mr. X as a villain.

So that covers S2. Now there are 3 45 minute specials on average to cover all of S3B. Or more so there's two specials to cover the seven episodes between Escape to Amphibia and The Hardest Thing because Amphibia's finale already had an extended time slot. As 45 minutes is effectively two episodes each, you need to save on three episodes. Six segments.

That's... easier said than done because the segments are actually incredibly important to Amphibia's storytelling and these specials could technically be split into four segments each but more likely they actually have to tell a through line story per special. You can't jump AS MUCH as you could before.

So Special 1 starts with effectively Commander. The reintroduction to Wartwood and the finalizing of Sasha's new self after her character arc is not something you can really leave out. Plus side is that Commander Anne is a really efficient eleven minutes to introduce what Amphibia is like now and you probably don't do the pampered brat routine with the Plantars which is not a real loss. The theme of this special though is allies so the target of Sasha's mission when Anne gets back changes.

The goal is now to free Mother Olm. This way you can skip the Olms themselves and still get the prophecy and foresight from Mother Olm that sets up the finale. It also allows a smooth transition into meeting with Mother Olm in general. She warns them they'll need allies once they're done and we get a montage of the a lot of what people consider filler in S3 with getting allies, though mostly the Toads, Newts and the Killerpillars probably. You could also do this with people splitting up so that each one gets a truncated version of the full segment to get them. Then the final portion of the special is Sasha and Anne hoping their efforts paid off before Sprig shows Lief's hidden room to get Lief's letter.

Then Special 2 is effectively episodes 16 and 17 of S3. Just consolidating the army, heading out, then protecting Earth after midway through the special everything goes wrong. Not really anything even has to be changed here really except just smoothing out the transitions between segments. Admittedly, the Plantars probably rely more on Domino 2 to replace the loss of Frobo and unfortunately Polly just doesn't have a lot to do in All In.

Then Special 3 is literally just The Hardest Thing. Pretty much no changes I think because the elements for it have still been covered.

And that's it. It's not by any means perfect of course. Elements are rushed and some elements probably feel neglected or abandoned entirely. I already mentioned Polly but this version also means Sprivy is ignored post S1 effectively and just has a nice come back at the end of the finale (which is a good argument for Ivy on the Run over Toad of Redemption for the filler segment in episode 10 of the rewrite). Worse yet... Sprig is kind of ignored and Anne and his friendship is mostly left fallow. I admittedly don't think the show does the best job keeping it burning post S1 but S1 sells it HARD already as part of the stable base of the show so it's not a big problem. It also harms the connection to Amphibia itself so a line like "They aren't Amphibia's greatest treasure" doesn't hit as hard.

It would almost certainly feel actually rushed... Which is a fuckton better than what happened with TOH because TOH doesn't feel rushed. Its three specials are incredibly bloated with plotlines THEY introduce, or S2B introduced, that go nowhere. Or hell, resolutions that mean nothing, like how Luz finishes her character arc THREE. FUCKING. TIMES. Even people who love TOH still will admit the majority of For the Future is filler. That it does nothing to actually move anything forward, wrap much of anything up that couldn't have been left alone (besides Stringbean but that moment is cut off at the knees immediately by the finale's dream sequence) and those are people who won't bring up how Willow had her power problems resolved literally two seasons ago. S3 is so bankrupt on what to do to fill the time that they bring it back anyways, alongside Kikimora who has NO REASON to still be a villain we're dealing with.

That is the HUGE difference here. TOH doesn't actually feel like we're missing out on anything with its S3 besides fluff and maybe a bit of exploration on the whole Grimmwalker thing. The specials just don't feel like they actually know what to do in the first place though. It makes it feel like we're mostly missing out on filler but there's already so much of that in these episodes. Even the elements that could have been expanded, like Belos backstory, the human realm shenanigans and the Collector's redemption are rough because none of these are from before the shortening. Only Hunter's arc is really something stared BEFORE THE SHORTENING. Belos' backstory and the contradictory nature of The Collector, like how he absolutely knows what death is during Hollow Mind and is a complete evil fucker there... Are written in S2B. They were included and written as part of the shortening. Hell, the human realm and the Collector as a whole weren't even planned for S3 supposedly. They were things they wanted to do but didn't have a place for them and so just jammed in these MASSIVE new elements that needed more time than was available with no care for the fact that they had NO TIME. (I don't have a source for this unfortunately.)

Admit you didn't have a plan for your show without admitting you didn't have a plan.

That also brings up an element that I brought up at the top: How much the story might have actually changed. I'm having to work off of the main outline provided by the show but it's entirely possible that The Core might not have been included. That Earth might not have. Changes would have happened to the overall story and it's kind of impossible to reasonably guess how. After all, I wouldn't have guessed that an all powerful child and a trip to the human realm would have been responses to a shortening for The Owl House.

So I did my best and I still stand by that this would still be a fine to good version of the show. That it wouldn't have been impossible to tell a full narrative with the time given. One that is still thematically coherent, has a strong finale that doesn't contradict itself and still has plenty of fun in it to counterbalance the higher focus on the more dramatic elements.

That's still a LOT better than can be said for TOH's finale, let alone its three specials.

======+++++======

I ended up just rewriting the outline as a way to give it more thought instead of copy and pasting the first one I wrote. *whimpers*

I have a public Discord for any and all who want to join!

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.

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And a Kofi if you like what I do and want to help out with the fact that disability doesn’t pay much.

[ordinaryschmuck]

It felt like it's been a while, so I had a randomized marathon of Gravity Falls, DuckTales (2017), Amphibia and The Owl House today. All for the sake of my mental and emotional health.

Here's what I watched:

Eda's Requiem (Starting strong, I see...)

The Last Adventure (REALLY strong)

Something Ventured, Someone Framed

The Life and Crimes of Scrooge McDuck

Roadside Attraction

Follies at the Coven Day Parade

A Day at the Aquarium

Soos and the Real Girl

Who Is Gizmoduck?!

The Second Temple

Taking Charge

The Living Mummies of Toth-Ra

Some great ones and even a few underrated gems in this marathon.

[verdantflamingo]

Sasha - the heart of the trio

Hello everyone who is ready to read this, I would like to leave here some of my thoughts regarding the animated series Amphibia (2019). Please note, I am writing this after watching the episode: Barrel's Warhammer (2x34?, in Czech it is probably numbered differently, they published it as two connected chapters, so I don't know…), well anyway, in conclusion, I haven't seen the whole thing yet, so all my non-watching theorizing will be based on just the chapters up to this episode.

The main idea I want to break down now is the Calamity Gems and their "masters" in this case the mistresses. Probably none of us will dispute that the green stone - (Wit) rightfully belongs to Marcy.

She is very smart, inquisitive, determined to get to the bottom of everything, so much so that sometimes she overlooks everything that stands in her way… Which we learn from her already in the first introduction… Yes, she is without a doubt the pillar of intelligence of our trio.

But how did she get her stone? Did she solve all the mysteries of the temple, trick him, outsmart him? No. She had to suppress her ego, her desire to be the smartest, she had to show humility. She had to stop walking over corpses as was her usual habit. The idea that the more one knows, the less one actually knows, is somewhat carried over here. Which is great. Yes, it wasn't exactly the smartest way the director show it, but the idea is there. The whole series kind of doesn't have a very good storytelling ability, you have to guess the points, what the authors wanted to say… But about that another time.

We have two stones left, and in the following sentences I will try to explain why, in my opinion, it would be better if our heroines exchanged them.

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The second stone that our group charged is a blue stone: Heart. Anne wins him over for her empathy, devotion to others, and for the newly charged responsibility that she only learned with the Plantars.

And in a way it makes sense. Anna was very irresponsible when she first came to Amphibia. In some moments she was really terrible to the point that I was surprised that they actually chose such a character as the central one.

I'll allow myself a small remark outside: Actually, we meet Sprigg first, he is actually introduced as the main character, which makes sense, because he is the more morally mature and more typically main character than Anne…

Anyway, I'm not saying that learning responsibility isn't beneficial for Anne. If it was just these two, then I have nothing against Anne as a heart at all.

But there aren't just two.

Sasha has by far the best performance of the character in the entire series. She is mysterious. From Anna's flashback, we learn that she is manipulative, rude, and hates being contradicted. But we also learn that she fiercely protects her friends and that she knows how to deal with people and frogs, and that she is a true leader, just for now not exactly best one.

She takes a leadership role in their group of friends and I'm curious to learn more about why she is the way she is and why these three became friends. At first glance, they are really quite different…

Well, for many reasons, even though I'm not there yet it's clear that Sasha will charge the last pink stone, acording to wiki the red stone: Strength.

Well, no doubt, Sasha is strong. And persistent. There is no doubt about it.

So why don't I think she should be the wielder of the power stone?

Because it has no meaning to her. From my point of view so far, there are no really challenge for her to get the stone. Sasha has held both pillars of the rock since the beginning.

Yes, this might be the moment when I should first finish watching the entire series and then quack, but… Yeah, I don't know what she'll have to put herself through to showcase those qualities, but while the other two lacked the other stone qualities to begin with, Sasha really had both, so whatever she has to overcome, it won't be in the same vein as Marcy and Anne.

On the other hand, Sasha sure has a heart. She loves her friends very much, their loss certainly destroys her, and she quickly established a relationship with Grim. And she definitely LACKS RESPONSIBILITY. Both in her behavior towards those around her, and mainly towards her two friends.

And Anne is undoubtedly physically strong and definitely, beyond all doubt she LACKS PERSISTENCE in many ways. I'll elaborate on that.

I'll start with Anne. In the very first chapters we understand that he lives in Sasha's shadow. That he submits to her in many ways and doesn't stand up for his opinion. She lacks the strength to stand up for herself.

But at the end of the first season, he is able to stand up for himself and others and defeat Sasha. So, apart from physical strength, she also learned mental strength, which is very important.

As for her persistence. Yes, there are activities in which Anne shows tremendous persistence, such as fighting someone, protecting her friends, not giving up, etc. But at the same time, she's lazy, she has trouble staying focused, and I think that's getting better over time. So if the final task involved something like that, that would be cool and I think it would work. Also, it makes more sense to find wit and strength first than heart, it's like they skipped something…

I'll also just mention the physical strength base of both girls. We know about Anna that she plays tennis, which is a solo game by the way, just to mention, and she took regular martial arts. She is a very athletic girl. On the other hand, Sasha draws on her years as a cheerleader, which is a very physically straining activity, but it is definitely not a traditional combat activity. Plus, it's mostly team-based, and it's also about cheering and supporting…

I think it would make more sense with Anna if the strength was especially in the sense of inner strength, but mostly I think Sasha would be a better heart.

And finally, a poll: I'm curious how many people have the same opinion and how many people will send me to the shack with my theory.