#backswamp boys

[anniekinsart]

an unfinished sketch of Ghary and Renzo ^^ (I've got another one with Billy, we call them the Backswamp Boys)

Ghary belongs to me, Renzo belongs to @cruisie

--and this is their actual height difference xD

[popculturebuffet]

Amphibia Weekly Reviews: Spider-Sprig/Olivia and Yunaan: Look What Happens, Nightmare Time

Hello all you happy people! I”m Jake, I review stuff and things and it’s that time of the week again. And i’m actually on time this week! 

And good thing too as this is the big one as Sprig Fights Brad Garret! Oh and of course we finally get some huge answers in the main plot, some gold old fashioned nightmare time, and a name we’ve all be waiting for. Sadly it’s not Mr or Mrs.B’s as Jeff apparently isn’t his name. God dammit show this isn’t told from the prospective of a 6 year old and his stuffed tiger sidekick, we need parent names!  But it’s time to figure out whose been watching us this whole time and if a hero can save us, so i’m not going to stand here and wait. Join me under the cut for a full review with spoilers. 

Spider-Sprig: Behold the Fantastic Frog Man! 

I’ll admit I was excited about this one, as I telegraphed back when I talked about the solicit for this one: I love spider-man, I love superhero episodes, and I loved the concept of Sprig taking up a superhero identity to put his natural frog ablities to use. The costume helped, clearly taking from Spidey’s own prototype outfit in the mcu, but using the blue beetle’s color scheme. 

So it's not a huge shock I liked this one. It’s an eleven minute fun romp about Sprig as a superhero fighting comedy legend Brad Garret while throwing a bunch of nods to the Rami Spider-Man movies I grew up with. No outright homages but the villians design, the sketching scene and the big bus scene all scream to me that Braly and Co were big fans of Rami’s films. This episode may not be the emotional flex the previous slice of life episodes this season has been, but it’s still a hell of a treat and a nice fluffy episode before we get to the utter nightmare waiting in the second episode this week. 

Being more of a fun side episode, this one naturally has a pretty simple setup: After a fun intro where our heroes watch a tokusatsu style superhero film about a bug man who fights for those who hate and fear them, eventually earning their acceptance because of their noblility (Basically x-men meets kamen rider... or that weird one season spider-man show if you prefer. You do you), Sprig longs for his own glory on earth like Anne got at home. Problem is things are vastly diffrent: Anne was in an isolated backswamp town, in a world pre communication and whose only goverments are a bunch of toads they fought for moral reasons anyway, and a king who left day to day managment of the smaller towns to said toad while he worked on his evil master plan, and who at most would’ve brought anne to them right away had he found out about her, as she was vital to his plans and his manipulation of marcy.  In constrast Sprig is stranded in LA, one of the biggest and most populous citeis in america, in a world where a picture can go up for everyone to see in minutes and spread like wildfire like that. Even before they had a fabulous beauru of investigation agent on their butts, it wasn’t remotely safe for them to be public with what they are. It’s undrestandable Sprig also wants to be accepted for who he is but it’s just not fesable. So far only a select group of people know and all of them found out by accident, and it was just lucky that Dr. Jan, the IT GIrls and the entire thai community of Anne’s part of LA happened to be very good people. 

Sprig isn’t satisfied though so he decides to become a superhero himself, and we get a very Sam Rami Spider-Man style costume sketching sequence before he puts together his outfit, becoming FROG MAN! Probably more of a Frog Boy but eh, Peter was 15 when he called himself spider-man, and miles is doing the same at the same age so fair enough. We also get some fun with Polly as she’s not a fan of the superhero genre, poking fun at alll the backlash superhero movies get from a section of the online community,  and we get the best exchange of the episode tha talso sums up the superhero genre in a nutshell

Polly: You can’t fix systematic problems by putting on a costume Sprig: Watch meeeeeeee

Sprig goes on patrol and spies a cranky old man in the neighborhood giving some kids a citation for having a lemonade stand. Why is it every saftey monitor in Disney history after Filmore is a power hungry dickhead? I mean it’s only been really two, Elliot and this guy, but it’s weird it happened twice. This lovely person is Robert Otto, the local saftey guy for the neighborhood who doesn’t take kindly to vigilantes. As I haven’t remotely hidden he’s voiced by Brad Garrett, a comedian I genuinely love and admire whenever he pops up despite avoding his breakout role in everybody loves raymond like it was tetnus. 

 He also proves to be a bit of a gloryhound, trying to stop a runaway bus with his face and only making it worse. Sprig thankfully pulls an aweosme webbing style stunt by wrapping his tounge into a web and using it to harmlessly bounce the bus. God damn , I didnt’ know amphibia frog tounges were that long or had that much prenhinsile strength. This naturally gets our hero the praise he deserves..and even more naturally makes Robert entirely jealous, especially when Bobby Jo, a ten year old or so from his beat, walks right by the guy to thank Sprig. 

Sprig lights it up, doing good deeds across town and even showing up on Conan before he closed up the show. Anne finds out and flips her bushy hair while sprig is getting more and more self absorbed, becoming more and more booster goldish, ironic given whose color scheme he’s borrowing. 

Robert meanwhile gets the supervillian origin story you all knew was comiing and not just because the trailer spoiled some things, stewing in a junk yard and finding the Annsterminators arm, which now it’s detached fits perfectly on robert’s arm and gives him an extending arm with lasers. Robert decides to get his revenge and puts on a trench coat and green goggles, clearly aping the Spdier-Man 2 versoin of Doc Ock.  His last name is even a nod to the good doctor, while is first is a nod to Brad’s role from that show I don’t watch. 

So the next day Spirg is basking in the attention when Robert attacks, clearly mad Raymond dosen’t call him anymore, and Sprig is excited for his first superhero battle. Said battle... is fucking awesome as all the series fights thus far has been, and perfectly gets the astetic and pacing of a good superhero fight.. while also not glossing over the colatteral our hero and his nemisis leave in their wake. We also get a fun bit where the two strike a pose with kicks and everything.. only to recoil in pain.

The two fight and wreck up the place for a while before Bobbi Jo calls BOTH out, citing how the two aren’t heroes, and are just wrecking up the place. And she has a point: Sprig COULD’VE tried talking Robert down to avoid a fight first, and then would’ve been in his rights to have the fight. While in most supervillian cases their attacking a city or something, Sprig was the sole target here and could’ve lead Robert away from civlians like most superheros would. Instead he priotized getting a cool fight over people’s saftey. And robert.. well he’s just an asshole woh felt overshadowed by an 11 year old and wasn’t disliked because Sprig showed up: he was disliked because he treated people like crap and took his job way too seriously. Robert COULD have used his new powers for good and to genuinely help people but CHOSE to attack sprig instead. 

This gets sprig to wake up and smell the cup of roasted coffee, and he apologizes to Bobby Jo and decides to fix the collateral damage, which Robert also agrees to. The two successfully fix what they broke and Sprig makes a new friend in Bobby Jo while Robert will probably make some neat new friends in jail for property damage. They can teach him how to make a shiv, how to make toilet wine and how to deal with a corrupt overcrowded system that treats him like cattle. We wrap the episode with Sprig talking to Anne who gets ready to chew him out , but Sprig’s already learned his lesson and admits he made things worse, and Anne realizes she missed a hell of a day so she lays off.. until Sprig admits he cut up her clothes to make the outfit. Oh that Sprig. 

Spider-Sprig is just pure fun: it stilll has some neat character work but it’s mostly about just having a great premise, some fun actoin and a good moral in being a hero because it’s the right thign and not for the glory. It’s a simple one but a good one for a superhero story. I also hope Sprig wears that scarf again because that scarf is dope. 

Olivia and Yunnan: OH GOOD GOD

So from a fun, sweet little superhero pastiche to pure fucking horror. I mean ther’es SOME jokes but this is easily the darkest the series has went and keep in mind the last season ended with a child being stabbed in the gut on screen.  This episode somehow manages to TOP THAT. You can probably tell that just from the image above that this one probably need a content warning it didn’t get which is strange both because of the whole True Colors debacle.. and said debacle giving them a content warning they can already use. Maybe they didnt’ want to blanket it over the whole episode, maybe sci fi stuff gets a pass I don’t know but this one is fucking brutal. You’ve been warned. Let’s get into the nightmare time shall we?

So we open with a flashback to 5 and a half months ago: We see Marcy on crutches after falling down some stairs, getting her first good look at the world and it’s majesty. We also get some more depth to Lady Oliva’s character: as it turns out she’s from a long line of servants to the crown who have done so to protect this sacred land and it’s beauty from those who’d harm it. Marcy vows to help her do so in return. 

Naturally as you’d imagine this leads to a gutwrenching smash cut to how badly things have gone since as her ladyship looks out.. and sees things have gotten really SATAM really fast, with Andrais having strip mined the once beautiful nature of amphibia to build more factories. Seriously given Matt is a sonic fan and just how much the scenery, complete with toxic waste barrels, reminds me of SATAM, I can’t imagine this was a concidence. I can however want him to do a sonic show after the upcoming one wraps as I think he’d be awesome at it. 

Her Ladyship is naturally pretty crushed to see everything she protected her whole life, everything she worked for die for a man she greatly respected but now wholly fears. And what a coincidence Andrais has one of his frogbots ask Olivia to go see him, where she runs into Yunan. Turns out neither has talked to him since Anne disappeared, as he’s been cooped up working on his plans.. and when they find him he’s not doing great as he’s trying to convince his master NOT to use Marcy for whatever dark purpose the thing has in mind, which to them looks like he’s gone mad. 

He has some new jobs for them though: He needs Oliva to oversee the factories as they finish strip mining the planet and Yunan to capture some frogs to help run his factories. Likely while he can run them with just robot labor, it’s likely more effective to use the frogs as easy slave labor and save the robots for more conquests. He also tells them to give anyone who tries to stop them a stern talking to.. JK he wants them to die slow die fast now. 

Naturally being asked to directly oversea the anthises of everything she’s worked for her whole life after only staying this long because she had no choice is the last straw for Olivia who decides to openly defy the king. Yunan wonders if she’s really talking treason.. before whisking her away... not in the fun  way but because talking about it directly in front of his throne is kinda dumb. But Yunan agrees. She didn’t sign up for this madness or a mad king and agreees to whatever Lady has planned. Olivia figures they need an actual stratgest for this; Olivia herself is clever but clearly was outplayed by Andrias himself and knows it and Yunan is good at stabbing thigns, sneaking around and doing that thing with her tounge olivia likes, but not so much strategy. She’s an arrow, she needs someone to guide her shot. 

That someone is Marcy. Yunana isn’t enthused since 2/3 humans they’ve met are outright traitors, including Marcy but it’s clear Olvia sees the bigger picture: Marcy didn’t betray her friends out of malice, but out of pure desperation.  She’s not going ot betray them especailly because none of this trio had any idea what Andrias was really up to. He played ALL of them. And since Olivia clearly dosen’t know how to outplay them and Yunana really dosen’t, they need someone who at least has a chance of doing so. Oliva is able to get Yunan to agree by saying she can’t POSSIBLE get them into the castle depths without being scene. Her response is exactly what you’d expect

Oliva heads deeper underground, there’s too much panic in this town, into the forbidden section of the castle we saw back in the slumber party ep. We also finally get some contexxt for the creatures down here, or at least the start of it: turns out while unsettling their all harmless, with a moss man even giving Yunana  a flower as a token of friendship> Turns out this si where the previous royaltiy used to store their interdimensional prisoners, and thus the moss men and phantoms come from other worlds. This also might explain the skipman as that might of come not from earth itself but another world with similar tech. 

Our heroes continue their descent into the creepy basement, and unknowingly get spotted by a thousand eyes watching them all through the night as they find Marcy’s pod. After yanking her out Yunan tries slapping Marcy awake, then procedes to shake her like a polaroid picture. While Oliva reconsiders having kids with Yuann she properly helps Marcy recover with some tea and a blanket. Marcy is straight up high , likely because the pod had her on a shit ton of sedatives. 

The trio try to leave.. but turns out the Watcher with a Thousand Eyes, while stuck in the wall isn’t defensless and pumps some mist into the area before taking our heroes to what appears to be outside.. and into their greatest nightmares. First up is Oliva who faces the greatest nightmare of all: parental disapproval. Specifical her own deep seated fears she’s failed her mother and her family legacy by letting Andrias strip mine things. While she has had no way to stop this till now, guilt isn’t remotely rational. The Watcher kicks it up a notch by turning her mom into a corpse tornado with nasty crooked teeth. I.. I have no jokes here this thing is legitly disturbing and well deisgn. 

Marcy starts to regain cohernce and notices that the fears being genorated are holograms. That dosen’t make it any better for Yunan though as she’s up next and encounters a grubhog! 

While this is a joke for a second Yunan has good reason to fear the thing as she had an incident as a kid where one shoved her entire arm in it’s mouth. I’d be scared too.. and given the pattern set by Oliva’s nightmare, the grubhogs quickly turn into horrrifying monsters straight out of HR GIger’s 2nd grade notebook. 

Marcy tries to logic things out.. but ends up in her own personal hell. And unlike the other two, which revealed more about their pasts and characters, this time we know EXACTLY whose waiting for her: Anne and Sasha, who in Marcy’s nightmare won’t forgive her for what happened and the turn into a horrifiying two headed merged abomination. 

Thankfully this unreleased nightmare on elm street sequel gets a repreive as Yunan happesn to bump into one of the projectors.. the eyes on the wall themselves. Marcy quickly advises them to take them out and our heroes face their fears by punching them in the throat. 

So with that our heroes can escape and everything is better and i’m just lying to make myself feel better because what happens next.. is easily one of the most disturbing things i’ve seen in a kids cartoon. And I grew up with the rugrats where angelica is tormented by a deep voiced nightmare of her possible future sibling, i’ve seen things. 

Andrias shows up to stop them, because as it creepily turns out the watcher didn’t tap into their brains or anything as it’s revealed Andrias had one of it’s eyes in his crown.. and it’s been watching our heroes this whole time. And if you thought that was creepy you aren’t ready as the Watcher itself descends shreiking like a  metroid boss and throughly disturbing our trio. 

We also finally find out just what the hell this thing IS and what it’s real name is: The Core. After decades of research, using the mossmen’s medical technology and some unknown one aquired from the phantom beasts, Andrias’ ancestors found a way to stop death. The Core is a hivemind, a collection of amphbia’s greatest minds working in unison for their horrifying grand design, whatever it may be. I’ll still call it the watcher with a thousand eyes sometimes both because I love that refrence and because the Core.. is kind of a weak name. It’s not TERRIBLE but for something this horrifying and powerful, for what’s clearly going to be the final boss of the entire series.. it’s pretty mundane. 

It then horrifyingly yanks marcy into a thorne it has set up, something it and Andrias have been working on. Even having been spoiled by the Season 3 trailer, serously they should NOT have included that shot... it’s still utterly horrifying as Andrias explains thing: his master needs a vessel and while he TRIED to get it to take someone else, revaling that as warped as the man is he does care about her in his own twisted way, but she was too perfect a vessel: someone smarter than even the cores greatest servant and the reason they’ve gotten this far. 

So with Yunan and Oliva looking on in horror we get the scene: marcy desperately struggling to no avail to break free as a crown slowly descends on the poor girl.. before we get some sharp constrast shots as it descends on her and she screams in pain, only blacks and reds as we watch her agony.. before a signal shot of the poor child SCREAMING as she’s engulfed in flames, soon after red ones and zeros fillign her suit. 

Oliva asks what the hell the Core’s plan is.. and Andrais says it can now tel lher itself.... as it sickingly makes some cracking nosies and smiles, saying hello and saying goodbye to marcy. 

We end on some red text over some ominous music as even Matt wasnt’ dumb enough to put the cheery and fun season 3 end music after.. that. Good... christ. It’s an amazing sequence but just.. shit. Fucking shit. 

Olivia and Yunan is one of the season’s best thus far, an utterly horrifying episode that slowly builds up dread and shows just how bad things have gotten back home and what’s at stake should Anne and her rag tag bunch of misfits fail to stop Andrias and The Core: desolate worlds strip mined of life to keep the conquest going. And there’s no telling if there will be any amphibia LEFT even if they win. And somehow they manage to go from that to make it evne worse, taking one of the most beloved characters in the setting.. and putting us through her utterly horrifyiing possesion by an utterly creepy enemy. The reveal the watcher is a hive mind is an intresting one, somethign I can’t wait to see more of.. even with the circumstances. 

Next Time: THANK FUCK nothing as traumatizing.. I hope. Hop Pop goes to Hollywood to act and stuff and Anne may have found a way back. More plot stuff but not.. THIS. And given the descriptoin for the holiday episode.. I feel it’s only a matter of time till anne meets this new abominatoin using her friend as a meat puppet. *Shudders*. If you enjoyed this review follow me for more, and feel free to join my patreon

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[cruisie]

You've done our bois RIGHT HYATTT DAMMMMM

an unfinished sketch of Ghary and Renzo ^^ (I've got another one with Billy, we call them the Backswamp Boys)

Ghary belongs to me, Renzo belongs to @cruisie

--and this is their actual height difference xD

[rozeliyawashereyall]

THE SILLEEESSSSSSS

Jesus Christ Renzo is tall.

an unfinished sketch of Ghary and Renzo ^^ (I've got another one with Billy, we call them the Backswamp Boys)

Ghary belongs to me, Renzo belongs to @cruisie

--and this is their actual height difference xD