#toadie's character development is so fascinating to me

[probablyaseamonster]

Hello, my username is ProbablyASeaMonster (internet name undetermined) and Swamp and Sensibility is my favourite Amphibia episode

[shiplessoceans]

Season 3 done. I binged it in two days. Ummmm omg?

I am so team Greg and Tom it's insane. I feel like Shiv did the thing that invalidated women do, which is that when they finally meet someone who respects them and treats them like an equal, they gravitate towards it, and then realise they can't respect someone who isn't constantly challenging them.

The character of Greg is so genius. The bumbling facade hides his absolute determination to climb the ladder at any cost . If you separate his awkward personality from his actions he is downright Machiavellian. There is no-one he won't cross, no moral line he won't subvert in order to get the best outcome for himself. He's a bit sniveling, a bit toadie but only insofar as it works for him.

And the twisted thing is that the Roy family taught him that.

Tom's interest in Greg is fascinating. I feel like something shifted during the Nero and Sporus discussion. Someone finally listened to Tom's concerns about prison. Someone seemed to care and he's been desperate for that. But I believe Greg only listened because he was concerned for his own wellbeing.

I think everyone underestimates Greg at their own peril because he, unlike them, has nothing to lose.

No reputation, no power, no family, no respect, no connections...and most importantly in the Roy family:

No Ego.

He had a basically decent childhood from what little we can determine and doesn't carry the damage the Roy kids do from their upbringing.

There is precious little that can be used to exploit him. If he ever gets in a position powerful enough where he doesn't have to answer to anyone he will be unstoppable.

I don't think he and Tom will rule together, much as I would like that because ultimately Greg would throw Tom under a bus if it got him what he wanted. And he'd stammer the whole time about how he's sorry but "uh man I just...I had to make a call you know? And you taught me like...this is what I had to do right? You get it though don't you?"

I hope the other kids get out from under Logan and leave him alone with no legacy and go off to do their own thing. But I'm mostly intensely interested in what's gonna happen with Tom and Greg.

Prison? Nero and Sporus running the corporation together? Greg at the top? Logan dying suddenly?

Haven't started season 4 yet but I cannot wait to find out what the endgame is.

Also! Regarding Logan and his kids... There's some buried trauma in there no doubt. While he said to Roman that he isn't a violent guy, I feel like that's not true. Also Roman's practised ability to completely ignore that it happened at all is a red flag and I'm willing to bet, not the first time he's covered up some type of abuse. Given his strange psycho-sexual issues and stunted emotional development I'm worried we're gonna discover someone in the kids childhood was an abuser. Hell we know Mo-Lester was a predator and according to Connor, was around the kids a concerning amount of time.

Trying not to look anything up so I don't get the new eps spoiled for me so apologies if some of this is already widely accepted or completely wrong. I've blacklisted spoiler tags so that I don't have anything ruined for me and have managed to avoid discourse so far.

Cannot wait to get up to date so I can dive in though!

Finally got into Succession fam. It took 4 attempts and this time I made it past the pilot (Roman betting that kid about the home run always made me wanna stop watching) and have binged the first 2 seasons in a week.

THAT ENDING TO SEASON 2 THO.

And my favourite character is Tom. He's fascinating. What a singularly unique personality he has and cannot help but assert, while also spending so much energy desperately trying to be what everyone needs him to be.

I think Greg's a bit of a sleeper. He's either gonna be cannon fodder to some big play or accidentally end up running the place.

Kendall is... So freaking complex. I am never sure how to feel about him.

But that moment where Logan smacked Roman and Kendall yelled at him not to touch him made me pause. At this point in the story Kendall has absolutely no spine and is basically a broken human being. There's something to that, some big 'thing' that they all shut down and refused to speak about. That's a learned behaviour. I feel like that's gonna come up again.

Shall post more thoughts as I begin season 3.

[picturejasper20]

Amphibia Week-Day 2-Favourite character

One of the strongest aspects of Amphibia are the characters and their relationships. This series goes beyond just exploring the main characters: Secondary characters have their own background, personalities and conflicts that complement the main character’s growth too. A good example of this is ¨Anne and Wally¨. The episode focus on Wally but it’s about Anne’s insecurities as well. If have to choose my favourite character, or well, characters, that would be the main girl trio (Anne, Sasha, Marcy). Yes, it’s a very common choice, not surprising considering a huge part of the show is about their complex friendship and the toxic elements that are present in it. I’m going to talk about each main girl, explaining briefly the reasons why i like them so much.

Anne Boonchuy

Anne is main star of the show and the audience main P.O.V. of the story. Unlike other protagonists in animated shows, she starts as a selfish, self-centered, lazy, mean and irresponsible. Matt Braly talked a few times about how he wanted Anne to be written this way, thus creating a character that heavily dislikes being stuck in this fantasy dangerous world. While Anne is a bit more simplistic than Marcy and Sasha, she still someone easily to care about due to her character arc and growth over the course of the three seasons. The main of her arc is about self acceptance, forming her own identity and being more confortable with herself. It’s a conflict many can easily relate to, specially when you are used to have other push you around. I think another thing i like about her character is that she feels very down to earth. She isn’t positive about everything all the time. She also has this mischievous side to her, which makes her a funnier character.

Marcy Wu

When it comes to Marcy, it’s not difficult to guess why people like her. She is funny, adorable and awesome in some ways. She is a very relatable character for me and many others in the fandom. One of the main reasons is because she shares traits that are common with neurodivergents such her passion for topics she likes, her wanting to learn about everything, her clumsiness, her escapism and her issues with connecting to other people. In many ways Marcy is a desconstruction of the fantasy isekai hero you usually see in videogames and anime series. She gets accepted quite easily in Newtopia, is given a special treatment by the king and she is considered a hero in the city. Marcy implies in occasions that for her this feels like being stuck in those videogames she likes so much to play. Her living in Newtopia is dream come true for her. All this is used to critize her extreme escapism that goes to the point of unintentionally doing harm to others like tricking her friends and making them get stuck in Amphibia for months, She later gets betrayed by her adult figure in this world, King Andrias, who turned out to had been manipulating her Marcy the entire time. This happens in ¨True Colors¨, episode in which she gets crushed by the reality that Amphibia isn’t like those videogames she used to play.

Sasha Waybright

Sasha is an very interesting case of a character since while on the surface she reads as a mean girl, the series goes beyond that archetype and develops her in a way that makes her stand out from those other characters. Sasha’s main conflict is her affection for the other girls vs the need she has for being in control of every situation. Anne has expressed how Sasha has been pushing her around for years, sometimes making her do things she didn’t like. Much like Marcy, Sasha has abandonment issues and is afraid of losing the people she cares about just like it happened to her parents. What’s fascinating about her is that she doesn’t see herself entirely as a bad guy. She talked to Toadie that she pushes her friends around because she wants for is best for them, meaning that she believes she is helping them. Ultimately, her arc is about her realizing how she has been toxic towards Anne and Marcy all these years (especially Anne). And now she is trying to make up for this by being more compassionate, let other be themselves, and be firm only when she needs to.  ------ Aside from the main girls, i really like the Plantar family, the old trio (also called divorce trio by the fandom), Anne’s parents, Grime, Olivia and Yunnan plus some Wartwood secondary characters

[angermango]

For the send me a character meme could you do CS? Thank you!

First impression: eh he’s just some weird-looking minion who sells stuff what a slimeball how forgettable

Impression now: This creature was honest-to-god the best character in the entire show and deserves more recognition I mean he was the brains behind a lot of the show’s plots and was great fun whenever he was on screen I would sell my soul to an intergalactic megacorp headed by the Emperor of Darkness himself if it made people appreciate him too.

Favorite moment: Hmm, I don’t know why but I think a lot about that scene from the Phantom Star episode (EDIT: shit shit i fucked up it was the Masher episode) where at the end he tells Nightmare the plan didn’t go through (ED: Masher got janked) and even though Nightmare laughs it off he looks all cowed and upset. It was one of those rare moments when he’s interacting with someone other than Dedede and Escargon and shows an emotion other than sly/smug, and it really makes me wonder just what his relationship with Nightmare is and how he perceives his place in it. I wish the show explored him a bit more than just leave him to be some disposable plot-supporting role.

Idea for a story: hohohoHO~ now that’s a trillion Deden question son. I would love a good story continuing after the show which might see him survive and interact more with the rest of the cast in the light of losing his home, master and job, and perhaps even reform (There’s already one story like this I’m a HUUGE fan of and would infinity/10 recommend to yous ;3c).Failing that, any sort of backstory/character analysis thing that might help develop his past, why he works so loyally for Nightmare and just what kind of guy he might actually be behind the screen (i’m certain he can’t be the polished salesman he presents himself to be all the time). I would also love to explore how demons in HnK are an artificial species tailor-made to be subservient to a master yet despite this they are not born inherently evil, and how CS fits into all of this and what he thinks.

Unpopular opinion: He’s not just some forgettable one-dimensional toady to Nightmare, and he could have easily been far more fascinating as a character in HnK canon if you gave him the chance.

Favorite relationship: His hate/tolerate relationship with Dedede and Escargon, mostly for the great exchanges they had which were just full of stealth insults, snark and hamminess from start to finish. I just found it interesting that despite clearly looking down on Dedede, CS actually seemed to kind of enjoy talking to and doing business with him (even if he was just messing with him or conning him most of the time), as if the time they spent bitching at each other forged weird a ‘friendship’ of sorts.

Favorite headcanon: Simple one, but I firmly believe he’s a demon made by Nightmare. It would explain why he’s so loyal and looks like Nightmare, and as a result of this and his unusually high intelligence (compared to other demon beasts) it makes him see Nightmare as a father as well as a boss, but also complicates how he views his place in the company and himself existentially.