Amphibia - The Shifting Symbolism Of The Polaroid

Amphibia - The Shifting Symbolism of the Polaroid

I love how the photo of the three girls is important even now and how it means something completely different to each of them. It’s outgrown the meaning it once had. The first time the audience sees that photo is in the opening where it’s stuck in a branch in the rain while lightning strikes. It’s the first hint that we get that Anne’s friendships back home weren’t as sunshine and rainbows as it initially seemed. The dynamic of the people in that photo wasn’t the healthiest despite the genuine care they clearly had for each other. That first sighting and these last ones show their respective growth.

When Sasha sees the photo in this episode she deflates. Looking at it reminds her of the old her and she’s not proud of who she was. It also reminds her of the doubt she has that she’s actually changed. It’s no longer the tether for her that it was at the beginning. She doesn’t carry it around like she used to because she is no longer dead set on returning to the way things were. She knows that can’t happen and doesn’t want it to. She wants to be better, different.

For Anne this photo is a reminder of how far they have all come. That who they were isn’t what matters but who they are now and that is punctuated by her leaving the photo inside her locker. It is always where she can find it just like the memories that they have made but they have all outgrown that old dynamic and left it behind.

For Marcy that photo is a tether. A light in the dark. She now knows that she can’t keep holding onto the past and Sasha and Anne but that doesn’t mean that what they had can’t help her through the dark times. She may leave them behind to move when she goes back to reality but those memories will always be with her. That love and care will never leave.

Amphibia - All In Thoughts

I love Amphibia. The amount of hype I had coming into this episode was unreal and I have to say it didn’t disappoint. You could see the love and care that the crew put into every second of this episode and I was left breathless. I started watching Amphibia at the start of the pandemic and it’s been a very important show for me over the past few years. I’m really glad that I’ve had the chance to watch this show since before season 2 started airing and that I’m going to be able to watch it come to completion. I’d like to dive right into my thoughts because there are a lot.

I want to start with Sasha because I really thought her part of the episode was masterfully handled and the perfect completion to her arc.

Sasha has been consistently well written since the very beginning and they have yet to disappoint. And in my opinion Sasha is the best written character. Her arc really came full circle in this episode in so many ways.

The decision to have Sasha be the one to fight Marcy was brilliant and it draws interesting parallels between the two. The core is a collection of minds that couldn’t let go. They couldn’t abandon their control over Amphibia or those closest to them (namely Andrias) and they are confronted by Sasha who has learned to grow past that need for control and power.

The battle between Sasha and Darcy was incredible. The animation, music, lighting, and dialogue all hit home how important this fight is for Sasha’s character. Sasha teeters between crippling guilt and unbridled rage throughout the fight which clashes with Darcy’s overconfidence. Their respective weapons of choice and fighting styles, Darcy’s fluidity vs Sasha’s brutality, convey this contrast well. All the people who worked on this fight scene were clearly having the time of their lives.

Sasha’s unyielding determination has always been her strongest asset and that moment where she got back up despite her very serious injuries so that she could save Marcy, defeat the core, and protect those she cares about was such a powerful moment. It harkened back to the Third Temple and the little girl who stood up for two kids she didn’t know that ultimately set her on this path and brought her to this moment. Her determination that had lost its innocence and would hurt those around her earlier in the series has regained its selflessness and is bolstered by the experience, maturity, and love that she has now. It is ultimately what saves the people she cares about most as well as the world.

Keep reading

The Beginning of the End Thoughts

Wow. Just wow. I knew the Amphibia series finale was going to emotionally destroy me but what I wasn’t prepared for was the fact that it had me tearing up within the first minute of The Beginning of the End. Marcy was already an incredibly relatable character but that opening scene hit me in a way I wasn’t expecting (it hit too close to home. I am way too much like Marcy) and really made you understand why Marcy did what she did. 

Marcy is a character who is incredibly lonely. Anne said it herself in this episode that she and Sasha never gave any of Marcy’s interests a chance or paid attention when she would ramble on about them. That opening scene of Marcy being so excited about this movie that she loves, quoting it and info dumping about it to the two, wearing a blanket as a cape, and trying to hide her disappointment when they don’t share any of her enthusiasm touched upon her isolation in such a poignant way in such a short amount of time. 

Many people can probably relate to Marcy. I know that I have experienced that same thing multiple times in my life. Marcy has always been heavily neurodivergent coded but this just encapsulated that experience in less than one minute. She went through life not being able to connect with others very easily and found connection and understanding in media. All of her attempts to share that experience were met with halfhearted or nonexistent reactions. She wants to share this connection and experience with people she cares about. But she is left alone watching the movie every time while Sasha and Anne sleep. That disconnect is something that makes everything so clear and painful.

For Marcy it wasn’t a matter of if the friendship fell apart after she left but a matter of when. I can’t blame Marcy for this. Was her decision rash? Yes. Was it selfish? Yes. Was it the wrong choice? Yes. But do I understand it? Yes. 

She was a scared and lonely thirteen year old child who didn’t want to lose the few people who did hang out with her.

I will admit that I was a little scared about how the show would handle Marcy in these last few episodes because she is the only one of the three that hasn’t completed her personal arc but this episode wiped those worries away completely. If they could craft such an emotional and relatable minute of animation that could make everything about Marcy’s decision, character, and friendships snap into place then I knew they could do her character justice in the final two episodes.

This is why I could never get behind people saying that the trio was best splitting ways after Amphibia because of all the betrayals. Sasha, Anne, and Marcy were going to fall apart as a friend group before they went to Amphibia and they spent the majority of their time in Amphibia apart. They are the definition of sometimes you have to grow apart before you can come back together. They had to fall apart as friends and grow as people separate from each other before they could come back together as true friends. Just like Anne said.

Anne points out that Sasha herself is proof of this. Sasha did genuinely care for Marcy and Anne but she wasn’t a good friend (that line where she tells Marcy she didn’t care about the spoiler hurt so much) and the core also calls her out on it too. But Sasha grew during her time in Amphibia to where she is kinder, more understanding, and legitimately supportive with the entirety of “The Three Armies” serving to hit this point home. And if Sasha can change, the girl most set in her ways, then so can Marcy. And if Anne and Sasha’s friendship could be salvaged then so could their relationship to Marcy.

This goes into one of my favorite parts of the episodes (outside of it making me somehow love Marcy even more) getting to see Sasha and Anne as true friends. I really like their dynamic now that they have patched things up and both grown significantly as people. Sasha supports Anne at every turn and tries to help even when she very obviously has doubts about Anne’s plan of action. But you also get to see little pieces of the good parts of their old friendship and how it is enhanced by their new dynamic such as when they used their old dance to become so in sync that they could beat Olivia and Yunan. 

Now onto Anne and Sasha finally coming face to face with Darcy. This scene was everything I wanted. The core taunting Anne and Sasha with the personal information they know about them and knowing what will hurt them the most. Sasha’s genuine hurt and anger over Darcy implying that Sasha and Marcy were never really friends to begin with. Anne managing to outwit the core and buy herself some time. The tragedy of the three friends’ situation. 

The core being revealed to the girls has been a long time coming and I wasn’t disappointed. They knew exactly what buttons to press and how ruthless to be. It’s still so creepy because of the mannerisms and memories that it has from Marcy. It really hammers home how morbid this sock puppet routine of theirs is. I can’t wait to see even more of them in the next episode.

I just hope that Sasha doesn’t actually get mind controlled because she needs to be there with Anne to free Marcy. They both need to play an active role in that moment for their friendship to come together. I’m sure that will be the case but that made me a bit nervous. I’m sure I’m worrying about nothing because Amphibia nails its finales.

While the decision fills me with way too much anticipation I believe ending on Andrias and the Core invading earth was the perfect place to stop. This is really the final chapter and I can’t wait to see how it ends. All In is 48 minutes and all these episodes did was prove that I’m not ready. I thought I was prepared but then this episode made me tear up within the first minute and I realized I was doomed.

Amphibia also knows exactly when and how to change its end credits and these ones hurt so much. The soft piano rendition of Marcy’s theme over the scene of her watching her favorite movie alone while Anne and Sasha sleep was a gut punch. This really emphasized the tragedy of Marcy’s story, her isolation, her escapism tendencies, and how her naivete and loneliness led her to this point.

There’s also the fact that I don’t think their dynamic was 100% one sided. It’s true that they didn’t show the care and appreciation they should have towards Marcy’s interests and this was shown many times throughout the series before this point but Sasha and Anne bring up things Marcy has said or interests of hers up when she isn’t there at multiple points. They took their friendship with Marcy for granted and should have shown more active interest in what she would tell them about. I just want to point out that they did care just not in the way Marcy needed but now they are at a point where they can both recognize this and rectify it because of how much they have grown.

That episode may be one of my top five of the series. It does such an amazing job with Marcy and has such great music that I can’t help but be blown away. I didn’t think I could relate any more to Marcy but here we are. It also sets up so much going into the final two episodes that I can’t wait to explore. 

Scattered thoughts

I love Grime in these episodes.

Sasha and Grime have a few wholesome moments. I have missed their dynamic recently.

I liked that The Three Armies came to the conclusion that Anne can’t solve hundreds of years of systemic and class issues between the toads, newts, and frogs. The three factions can’t solve them right away either but they can start.

I loved Anne being named mediator of the year at her school.

I think series finales can be hard to talk about right after the fact. So many emotions, expectations, and hopes are built up going into it that it can cloud your perception of the finished product the first time you view it.

For some aspects of Amphibia this was partially the case for me. I can say that my thoughts on the finale have morphed since I first watched it. I want to say up front that overall I loved the finale and I love Amphibia and now that time has passed I think I can explain my revised thoughts on the earth epilogue.

I actually do agree with my write up here. But I want to set the record straight on a few things in my initial earth epilogue thoughts. There are some things I stand by. I don’t think the dialogue got across that the three girls stayed in contact after amphibia. Considering that the Beginning of the End and All In had a huge emphasis on the girls wanting to stay friends after all this and how much they wanted to make their friendship work despite the distance I felt this fumbled the ball in showing this. But I understand and will defend the choice to have them drift apart. 

This fits the themes of the show and it is a bittersweet and realistic moment. Amphibia is about change and it is also about the friendship of three girls that fell apart and they were forced to grow as individuals so that they could come together as true friends.

In a way that’s also what they did here (except their friendship naturally drifted apart instead of broke). They drifted apart and grew as individuals and went down different career paths and they were able to find each other again. And they still deeply care about each other. That ending reunion and the photo at the end show this.

The trio drifting apart doesn’t negate the feelings they share for one another. Their friendship still means so much to each of them and they still care deeply about each other. Nothing is permanent and that’s okay. It doesn’t make the memories or connections any less meaningful.

Do I wish the trio stayed close and never drifted apart? Yes. But that doesn’t mean I don’t like the themes and ideas that this portrayed.

The argument that Amphibia isn’t realistic and thus the realistic ending doesn’t fit the show doesn’t hold much water in my opinion. Amphibia is a larger than life epic that has magical anime powers, an amalgamation of multiple minds that have conquered death, 1000 year old newt tyrants, and much more but it manages to be full of real, heartfelt moments that capture the experience of life.

And it's those smaller moments that speak to real experiences that make this show work as well as it does.

For example, The Beginning of the End was a spectacle that held the long awaited first confrontation between Anne, Sasha, and Darcy and the beginning of the battle against Andrias and the Core but the moment that everyone was talking about and empathizing with was the flashback.

The flashback was a snapshot of what the calamity trio's friendship was like back home that showed Anne and Sasha's indifference to Marcy's interests and passions. This flashback portrayed an experience a lot of people who watch the show can relate to and it is what made their reunion in this episode even more of a gut punch than it would have been before (more of my thoughts on this moment are here).

This show wouldn't be as special as it is without these moments.

The show has always been grounded in the characters and in its life lessons about change, friendship, and growth/growing apart. And I think it managed to get that across perfectly with this ending now that I’ve had time to sit with it.

I saw this tweet:

And can I just say that it’s amazing how everything from episode 3 comes back around in episode 9. Vander inadvertently dies because of Powder’s actions and in episode 9 Silco dies because of Jinx’s actions. Vi is restrained and helplessly watches her family “die” in both episodes. She witnesses Vander, Mylo, and Claggor’s deaths while trapped under rubble in episode 3 while she is tied to a chair and has to watch Jinx fire her rocket at the Piltover council effectively killing whatever was left of Powder in episode 9. The whole “we will show them. We will show them all.” Line coming back around and being a large factor in Jinx’s final decision. The hopefulness in piltover being juxtaposed with the hopelessness in a Zaun. And so much more.

All the foreshadowing and mirroring within these two episodes alone is incredible. This show really is a masterpiece. I just had to gush about it for what is probably the millionth time. This show really hit me hard.

She-ra Season 3 Re-watch Thoughts

I don’t think there’s a single bad or even just okay episode this season. I loved every single episode. I think this is when she-ra became great. There were kernels of the potential the show had here and there throughout the first two seasons (especially the episodes promise and light spinner), but this season really capitalized on all the tension built from the first two. It had a strong focus on the effects of abuse on Adora and Catra. This led to Catra and Adora’s moments of truth. Both aren’t yet able to break free from the effects of the abuse, but while Adora makes steps toward trying to work through it Catra starts to give in and become what her abuse made her. It’s a tragic arc for both actually.

Adora’s guilt complex and crushing expectations make it so that she can’t see her own worth past what she does for others. She starts to stop taking the blame for what others have done with her telling Catra “You made your decision. Now live with it.”. She’s realized she can’t save Catra from herself. If Catra is to be redeemed Catra has to make the decision. Catra falls into denial of her own faults and lets the pain of abandonment fuel her. And in the end every moment breaking Catra down lead to this conclusion. The breaking point for her was when everything she actually wanted was right there, Adora was by her side and shadow weaver was proud of her, and then it was all yanked away.

Adora right after her breakthrough with not taking fault for Catra’s mistake sadly has a major setback when Angella sacrifices herself in Adora’s place. The lesson Angella imparted on Adora was what Adora needed to hear. It was that Adora, not she-ra, was the one who inspired the rebellion and Angella. It is Adora’s courage and character that makes she-ra a hero not she-ra’s abilities. And it’s really sad that this doesn’t have the intended effect because Adora feels like she should have died in Angella’s place and now Glimmer has lost a mother because of it. It gets even worse in season 4 when Glimmer and her fight and there is a rift between them. Adora’s guilt becomes overwhelming.

Season 3 was a turning point for the series. This is where things became serious, where the lines between characters and their opposition to each other was cemented, where mysteries that effect the main characters and change their world start to get revealed, the stakes and consequences are real and everything isn’t fixed by the end. This season finale was game changing. It once again has the Catra and Adora dynamic at its heart and it’s once again complicated and crushed by shadow weaver. The shadow weaver, Catra, and Adora dynamic is the most complex and complicated of the entire show.

Catra’s pain and anger over shadow weaver’s abandonment of her in the fright zone and her preferential treatment of Adora making it so that Catra misplaces her anger about shadow weaver onto Adora is so heartbreaking and emotional. The emotional climax to the season in my eyes is the confrontations between Adora and Catra in the portal reality. All the pain, anger, and sadness is just on full display.

The scene where Adora tells Catra “Everything will be okay as long as we stay together” played right next to the “Promise” scene with the music box playing showing the corruption or distortion of an innocent childhood promise that has brought about so much pain into both of their lives was so impactful to me. And Catra’s breakdown where she tells Adora “I won’t let you win. I’d rather see the whole world end than let that happen.” hurt so much. I kept replaying that scene once I finished the season. I think that scene and the episode “Remember” are my most re-watched until season 5 came around (though it may be promise and the cliff scene that are my most re-watched. I’m not entirely sure.). This show excels at its emotional moments and confrontations. It’s fights aren’t really flashy and it makes up for it by making them highly emotional. The two fights they have in the final two episodes of this season are no exception.

I couldn’t believe what had happened. Everything about this season blew me away when I first watched it. The way shadow weaver revealed Adora’s origins, Adora’s struggle with how everything about her life was forced upon her, Catra’s breakdown over shadow weaver’s abandonment of her, corrupted Catra, both of Adora and Catra’s fights, the entirety of remember, Angella’s sacrifice, and much more. I liked almost everything about this season. The tone was pretty consistent and there weren’t any moments or episodes that I found to be in jarring contrast with the rest of the season. This is actually the season that is the most tonally consistent. I can’t say enough good things about the character drama. Thinking about Catra and Adora’s arcs this season always makes me emotional. I just feel so much for both of them. It’s so tragic how they both got to this point.