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just-barely-a-somebody · 1 year ago

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Yk I read this post and was like ‘hm that sounds real valid’ and decided to quickly rewatch his scenes rq to refresh myself. Imma be honest I still dislike him as a person but love him in terms of how he’s written.

Please note that this is entirely focused on what we have seen of him in canon, and I am in no way trying to dictate the way in which others enjoy this show or his character.

For anyone who may disagree with what I have to say, I intend to keep this discussion civil, and I hope that others will as well. Everyone is entitled to their own opinions and interpretations.

So buckle up buddies, I’ve got an in depth analysis of Orbo and his actions (With hints of film analysis learned from a class that I’ve been taking this semester)

Disclaimer: this is very long, and I genuinely spent hours on it because I find analyzing this to be interesting. Also I finished writing this at 12 at night, so apologies if anything is unclear or otherwise a mess.

Our introduction to him as a character starts off very strong with the first thing out of Orbo’s mouth being “Heyy Scrabby.” While at this point the fandom has likely become entirely used to calling Scarab this, it is still worth noting that when Prismo first called him Scrabby he angrily muttered that “No one calls me that anymore.” This immediately establishes Orbo as someone entirely willing to disrespect Scarab’s Boundaries.

A noticeable difference between Orbo and Prismo calling him Scrabby, however, is that Scarab doesn’t fight back when Orbo calls him this. He doesn’t even acknowledge it, instead just responding with coldly stating Orbo’s name. While I’d understand if some people decide to take this as a form of endearment, I believe that Scarab’s cold response shuts that down. My guess is that this is really because of the significance power imbalance within their dynamic; Orbo is his boss, and Scarab is not in a place to talk back and potentially worsen his situation.

Another observation in merely the mise en scene is that Orbo literally drops down onto a pedestal. This can be interpreted in so many ways, and there of course is no single correct way. My personal interpretation is that this is perhaps how Scarab thinks of Orbo, as someone who has been put on a pedestal in a way such that he is given (taking from the google/dictionary definition of being put on a pedestal) “uncritical respect or admiration; [being treated] as an ideal rather than a real person.”

I really like how the writers then ended this scene with having him give such a laid back “You’re up mate.” It make the viewer already see hints of how nonchalant he is about things that Scarab considers to be serious business.

So merely from his introduction his introduction we can get that: He doesn’t show Scarab respect, he likely gets away with it because he is a ‘higher up’, he is put on a pedestal, and he’s probably not taking this seriously.

Now we have gotten to the moment where those screenshots of Orbo, as OP said, “comes off as concerned in a caring way” How about we look into everything else that brings context to these expressions? (I will come back to this later)

It starts off with Orbo listing Scarab’s recent actions, “Ignoring our calls, Giving yourself missions, persuing your own monomanias” (Monomania: exaggerated or obsessive enthusiasm for or preoccupation with one thing.) I will admit that he is entirely right to say that Scarab is “whiffing that ball lately.” Even with what he says to be correct, he is still belittling Scarab’s actions and motivation.

Meanwhile with his actions he is circling around Scarab while increasing in size. In film, the amount of screen that characters take up can be a large indicator of their power within any given scene. With Orbo pointing out what Scarab is doing wrong, he has further set himself up as being in a position of power in relation to Scarab. I personally have absolutely no doubt that this is on purpose, he is Scarab’s boss, and I imagine that from his perspective he needs to get Scarab under control, so right off the bat Orbo uses both his actions and his words to build himself up as being ‘better than’.

Scarab of course tries to request for more time, but Orbo doesn’t even let him finish that point before brushing it off with a “Pfff” and once again showing Scarab disrespect.

In this moment, Scarab tries to tell Orbo that he is “onto something really important.” and what does Orbo do? With a smile he tells Scarab to “just be cool.” Once again, intentionally or not, disrespecting Scarab’s work. Simply brushing off his concerns in a way that puts Scarab as the uncool, uptight, auditor.

I honestly find that to be an interesting difference between the two of them. Scarab, in a lower position but with a larger need to put others to justice, and Orbo, in charge of him and trying to get him to drop it.

In comes the part where Scarab brings up that it is Prismo that Scarab is after for having created his own unauthorized universe, and what does Orbo respond to this report of illegal activity? “Prismo? Nah that guy’s cool. He wouldn’t do that” Not even for a second does he consider if Scarab is telling the truth. Orbo is once again brushing off Scarab’s concerns, and using only how cool he considers them as his reasoning, and frankly it brings into question if Orbo even cares regardless of if Scarab is correct or not.

How about we return to those screenshots?

“Concerned in a caring way” I will agree with OP that it does indeed look like that, and it even made me rethink my view of him as a character when I first read the original post. However, upon rewatch these expressions read to me not as someone concerned with someone they care about, but instead I see this as someone who is more worried about about outside appearances, about keeping up a facade of unquestionable authority.

Well there is little need to leave my previous question unanswered when right after Orbo calling Prismo a cool guy, Scarab offers how he can get proof of Prismo’s wrongdoings, only for Orbo to straight up tell him, “I don’t care. Leave it Scrabby.” Y’know it might just be me, but I don’t think Orbo really cares about anything Scarab has to say that might even vaguely put his authority into question.

I believe both me and you know that our stubborn beetle boy did not, in fact, leave it. With some sass he says Orbo’s name, and with just that he had Orbo defensive of his power, telling Scarab to watch his tone. Instead Scarab escalated it to the singular place that might get a reaction out of Orbo, The Boss. Who is implied to be Orbo’s superior, and the only other known being that could overrule Orbo’s decisions.

And a reaction he got. Orbo’s response to the threat of his power being overturned is to violently roll into Scarab at full speed.

I would like to say that I understand if anyone decides to disregard this moment for reasons such as: Orbo was just teleporting Scarab to the next setting we see them in, that Scarab’s more than tough enough to take it, or that it might not have even physically hurt Scarab in the slightest. Those are all valid reasons, in hindsight.

I would like to ask, dear readers, when you were first watching this scene, did you expect the sudden action? Did you really perceive it as harmless and non-violent? Or did you question how our antagonist would continue to antagonize after seemingly being ‘evaporated’? As of writing this, I don’t know about you, but I certainly wondered how we’d see him again.

Now then, let’s finally get to the real goldmine of making me want to roll Orbo off a cliff /silly

I’d like to call to attention that our third and final Orbo scene starts off with a long shot of Scarab reforming. Not only does his body language of being ducked over and wailing in some sorta fear makes me believe that even he didn’t know what being hit by Orbo could do other than cause harm. With it, the long shot itself once again makes Scarab feel small, both relative to his surroundings and when it comes to his own say in what happens to himself.

He offers Scarab his ultimatum: Scarab isn’t allowed to see The Boss, but instead only now after threatening to go through the higher up can Scarab make his case to Orbo and have him actually listen to it.

Scarab takes what is at this point his only option. He keeps it straightforward, and even points out the blatant favoritism of how others overlook Prismo’s failings because of how he is viewed positively as a cool dude. Scarab even goes out of his way to say that he respects Orbo’s authority, and is only looking to finish his job.

Scarab only gets a single clap from one of the beings who had gathered in the background before Orbo’s arguably most iconic line, “Nice speech, say goodbye to your legs.”

(I just wanna say that my tumblr literally crashed and I lost a lot of what I had written after this, like I WAS ALMOST DONE, but no, now I gotta do my best to make the same points as previously. I had such a banger conclusion sentence but I can only remember shambles of it aughhh. It’s late for me and now I want to cry.)

Sure it may not have been the best speech, but in no way could it really be so unconvincing that it be deserving of the loss of legs.

I have seen some people say that this was just the only way he could get Scarab to listen, or that Scarab is tough enough to handle it. Well how about we look into those possibilities? Let’s assume that somehow this is a normal punishment for disobedient gods, the audited ones do get egged after all. We see how Scarab reacts, we hear how he lets out a gasp of fear, this is entirely something that would have at least greatly affected his entire career. What we have is Orbo still entirely prepared to cripple Scarab.

The way that I see it, Orbo’s only intent within all 3 of his appearances (as of season 1) is to sustain his own power and control over Scarab. What Orbo is really doing is abusing his power to control those deemed “Uncool” in order to sustain the authority of himself and others, such as Prismo, that Orbo is the one to decide are “Cool.”

Too bad for Orbo, however, because to his dismay, The Boss drops in anyway. The last we directly hear of Orbo is only him saying, “Aw nuts, it’s The Boss.”

After that all we know is that Scarab’s punishment being what we see it to be was Orbo’s decision, though only after Prismo put in a good word for him. It is unclear how this solution was worked out, and even less clear how well Orbo might’ve imagined it go to put Scarab in the same space of the god that he had relentlessly chased after.

It will be really interesting to see how his character might get expanded in season 2. I’d be perfectly fine if I turn out to be completely wrong and we find that Orbo really is just the chill guy that he tries to be. I also hope that others will be open to whatever other potential possibilities of how the writers may use his character, I really just want to remain open minded.

I’m doing my best to remain open minded to hearing any other takes on his character, so feel free to tell me your thoughts (Just please keep it civil)

There we go, that is everything I can think to say on the topic. Apologies if anything is unclear, it is literally 12 at night as I finish typing this up, my brain has turned to mush, and I don’t want to look at this again for at least another 24hrs. Gn <3

THE EXPRWSSIONS HE HAS WHEN TALKING TO SCARAB HAS ME CRAZY the way they say so much with so little.

THIS IS YOUR SCARAB HATER??? From just a few frames he comes off as concerned in a caring way, how did we get to a point he's portrayed as an evil, abusive, narcissistic boss??

It's so clear that Orbo doesn't hate Scarab, I firmly believe he gets fed up because Scarab refuses to look outside of his own point of view and any attempt to bigger the picture with him falls on deaf ears, that he's more likely to listen under threats rather than just words he obviously doesn't care for.

(I DON'T AGREE with threatening or actually tearing his legs off, but it's to consider ORBO'S POTENTIAL POV. I feel that's more likely than him just being a huge asshole who hates him for some bs reason)

#long post #just saying #Maybe I’ll change your mind #Maybe not #just my personal thoughts #damnit i lost a really good conclusion when my tumblr crashed #this was probaby a waste of time #but hopefully at least a few people might like reading my imput #fionna and cake #orbo #orbo fionna and cake #orbo adventure time

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