Best Of Animation 2021 - Where I Really Come From (Invincible)

Best of Animation 2021 - Where I Really Come From (Invincible)

“Finish high school I guess”

When I read that line in the comics for the first time I thought it was meant to sound defeated or unsure. Mark had just been beaten within an inch of his life by his father, who he loved, and wasn’t sure what to do with his life. I thought Mark was feeling defeated. But when Steven Yeun spoke the line in the show there is a much more hopeful tone to his voice that I think brings so much to the character and this moment that my initial interpretation lacked.

Mark is unsure of his future and he is hurting from his fight with his father but his spirit isn’t broken. He still has hope for the future and he still wants to do good. Mark’s spirit and drive are unbreakable, or invincible if you will, just like the title of the show. It brings new meaning to the moment and his actions that will follow.

The voice acting, animation, music, etc all come together to create an unforgettable experience that improves upon the source material. That final line reading by Steven Yeun blew me away in hindsight because it’s something so little but it has such a massive impact on the story and Mark’s characterization that I personally didn’t get when I read the comics (The comics are phenomenal and I highly recommend reading them so saying the show improves certain aspects of the story is high praise).

One rather impressive feat is how well the show translates how the invincible comics portrayed violence.

The invincible comics were well known for their bloody and visceral fights and translating that to the screen could have been a tricky task. Violence is something that could easily become gratuitous and be purely used for shock value if used incorrectly. The show sidesteps this by having every use in this episode serve a purpose. At no point does it distract from the personal conflict that drives the episode- the clash of ideologies and upbringing between a father and his son. 

For example, seeing the destruction in the city after Mark is punched through a building. We see Mark pulling a severed arm from the building rubble after he fails to save the building and a daughter soaked in the blood of her crushed father. All this shocks and horrifies you in the same way it does Mark. That is the arm of a mother he failed to save and it happens right after he tells the mother’s child not to be afraid. We are being faced with the same hard truth that Nolan is trying to beat into Mark. That Mark can’t protect himself let alone anyone else. 

And the same can be said about the train scene. This scene is easily the goriest and most brutal sequence of the entire show (which is saying something) but it very effectively gets across how fragile humans are to Viltrumites. Mark comes out of the ordeal physically unscathed while hundreds of people die. They splatter against Mark almost like a bug does on the windshield of a car (though much more mentally scarring). Nolan even compares humans to pets and talks about humans being lesser than viltrumites further accentuating this point.

There are a lot more examples but anyone who’s seen the episode I think understands. These scenes are gory and intense but they are used very effectively within the context they are being used. If you were to remove any one of them (at least in this episode) something would be lost.

JK Simmons is excellent at getting across that Nolan is trying just as hard to convince himself of these lessons he’s trying to beat into Mark. Each step he takes is him trying to prove to himself that he sees these people as inconsequential collateral in the viltrumite’s conquest like his upbringing taught him to believe.

The photo above may have become a meme but it is an excellent scene that puts Nolan’s desperation on full display. It conveys the conflict between who he’s become from his time on earth and the loyal viltrumite he was so well. And it leads into the best moment in the entire episode.

“What will you have after five hundred years?”

“You dad. I’d still have you.”

This whole episode was amazing. It is easily one of my favorite episodes of television ever but it was this moment that hit the hardest.

Even after everything Nolan has done- all the people he’s killed and how brutally he’s beaten Mark- Mark still loves his father. 

This episode manages to expand on what was ultimately a single issue fight and really dig into the core tragedy of it. 

The one moment I think the comic does better is the moment when Nolan flies away, leaving Mark alive, and crying once he reaches space. I don’t think it was clear enough that he was crying. A lot of people I know didn’t catch on to that fact and a few reviewers didn’t either. In the comics it was very clear and purposefully put into stark contrast so that no one could miss it. This is a little moment but it is one thing I wanted to point out due to how significant that tiny moment is for Nolan’s character.

I’ve seen a lot of people trash Invincible’s animation online and while I do agree there are instances of noticeable CGI that can take you out of it there are also incredibly beautiful and breathtaking sequences of animation as well. A lot of this episode has amazing animation. They spared no expenses on the fight. Here are a few of my favorite moments.

This episode isn’t short on spectacle but it also hits all its smaller moments as well. I’ve mentioned a few above but I want to shine a light on a smaller one near the end of the episode.

The moment I’m talking about is in the hospital when Debbie tells Mark she’s proud of him. She goes to touch his face and he turns away. There’s so much pain in that small moment. Mark is hurting because of the betrayal, the trauma of the events, and because he failed and lost his father even though he tried his best. It’s these smaller moments in the aftermath of the fight that works really well.

When it is trying to set up future events it distracts a bit from what the episode is trying to do but I’m grateful it takes the time to have the quieter moments that get across the heartbreak of the characters, especially Debbie and Mark.

Despite everything going on Invincible never loses sight of the vulnerability and humanity of these characters.  

I can’t wait to see the rest of the Invincible comics animated and brought to life for a new audience. Trust me this is just the beginning. It gets even better from here.

Extra Thoughts

I love the way JK Simmons emphasizes “believe” when he’s telling Mark the truth about Viltrum. “But I believe in our cause” He’s talking about the past but he makes sure to emphasize that this is a present belief which I think plays into how a lot of JK Simmons’ performance hints that Nolan is also trying to convince himself of the rhetoric that he’s spouting at Mark.

I really like how the Viltrumite’s uniforms are white. White is usually associated with good and purity. It’s typically seen as heroic which can be seen in the rhetoric that Nolan is regurgitating to Mark. He’s speaking of the Viltrumite’s actions and conquest as a good thing. It’s all painted in a positive light. There’s a dissonance between how the history is relayed to Mark and how it is seen on screen. Everything Nolan says is sanitized and belays the bloody reality of everything that happened. I just really like this detail.

The score for this episode was fantastic and I really hope it gets released at some point.

I didn’t want to put this above due to the fact I want to stay positive but I wasn’t a fan of Mark and Amber getting back together. With how the show did their relationship I would have preferred them staying broken up. I don’t hate Amber’s character and would actually like to see her friendship with Eve explored and I would have been interested in seeing her be friends possibly with Mark instead of a relationship. I just don’t think they wrote the relationship well enough to get me invested and it’s pretty clear even without reading the comics that they aren’t meant to be endgame. (If you like their relationship then great. It just wasn’t for me)

I know I already said this but I can’t wait for season 2 and 3!

Sasha is a very complicated character to say the least. She’s heavily flawed and due to these flaws she’s hostile to the idea of change but that’s why her arc works so well in the grand scheme of Amphibia. 

Season two in particular has so much ground to cover in her arc and I want to dig into how much each of these episodes managed to get across about her character.

Sasha is fascinating in part because of her complex relationship to control and power and how it directly conflicts with her care for others. It’s made very clear at multiple points in the series that Sasha does genuinely care for other people.

She cares for Grime and won’t abandon him in Toadcatcher even when facing down Yunan, she cares for Anne and her decision to let go to prevent dragging Anne and the Plantars down with her in Reunion shows that, she cares about Percy and Braddock and shows conflict over losing them in Barrel’s Warhammer, she cares for Anne and Marcy in True Colors when she tries to hold off Andrias so that they could make it home. 

Sasha cares deeply about those close to her but it always comes into conflict with her fear/resistance to change and her flaws. In every situation/episode mentioned these two parts of her come into conflict in some way yet she views them as deeply intertwined.

The episodes focusing on Sasha are usually really good because of this complexity. Season 2 is where this conflict is put under a microscope.

When we first see Sasha again in Toadcatcher she is grappling with the fallout of Reunion and Grime points out that she is training to avoid the reality that her friendship with Anne has irrevocably changed, things can never go back to the way they were. She’s not upset that she lost the fight but that she lost a friend.

Sasha is struggling with this and can’t accept the change or Anne’s independence from her. She wants to regain control over her friendships and force things back to the way they were. She hasn’t learned that those lines of thinking are faulty, instead she doubles down on them.

She next appears in Barrel’s Warhammer where she and Grime go to get the rest of the toads onboard with their coup on Newtopia but to be the leaders of this coup they need to go on a suicide quest for Barrel’s Warhammer (it is literally stated in the show to be a suicide mission). Sasha is more determined than ever to get the warhammer and gain power once she hears that Anne and Marcy are working together to get home without her.

She sees that Percy and Braddock are afraid of this suicide mission and gives them a signal, an out, they can use to let her know they want to stop the mission and go home. She is being genuine in this moment. Her voice softens and she doesn’t use any of her usual tricks. But when the moment of truth comes and she sees them use the signal she puts the mission before them.

She puts her life and the lives of her comrades at risk to prove that she doesn’t need Anne and Marcy and continue her quest for power. In her own words “I am not gonna fail. Not while Anne and Marcy are getting by without me.” She is upset because she believes that Anne and Marcy are doing fine without her, that they don’t need her like she wanted to believe.

I think that this outlook on need is important. She wants them to need her. If they need her they can’t leave her and she’s afraid of this rejection, of this abandonment. And if they don’t need her then she can’t need them. Sasha can’t show this need. It’s vulnerable. It’s a weakness in her mind and she can’t show weakness. She has to be fine on her own.

She pushes her team too far in her mission to reassert control and loses Percy and Braddock because of this. She seems genuinely effected by it. She’s starting to realize her actions have consequences. That she can’t force her wants and desires onto other people and expect them not to push back or leave when it hurts them. Grime’s speech about some people not being willing to pay the necessary price for success rationalizes her actions and prevents her from fully coming to this realization. 

The true cracks in her resolve to follow through with her plans don’t start showing until the Third Temple. She has a moment of doubt about betraying Anne and Marcy after all the faith they showed in her. She starts to question if power is what she really wants if it comes at the cost of her friendship with the two like it did with Percy and Braddock.

There’s the implication that Sasha isn’t faking as much as she would like to believe she is during this reunion and it continues on for the next handful of episodes leading up to True Colors.

Sasha can be a tricky character to pin down because it can be hard to tell when she is being genuine or not and even trickier to tell when she is lying to herself or truly believes what she is saying. Sasha is just as good, maybe even better, at lying to herself as she is at lying to others.

There's the idea that Sasha isn't as sure of herself as she would like others to believe. Doubt about her actions has started to creep in. The anger, spite, and fear that she has been running on for most of this season has started to dissolve.

Her spite towards Anne after Reunion was a major driving factor in her plans for the coup and after their heart to heart in the Third Temple that spite has dulled. She doesn't want to lose her friendship with Anne and Marcy. But she hasn't fully accepted that her actions have consequences and is trying to convince herself that she can have power and keep her friendships too. (This is most obvious in how she acts after her coup/betrayal. She puts her arms around Anne and Marcy and tells them they can help her rule and seems shocked and upset when Anne ends their friendship.)

Interestingly enough Battle of the Bands sums up her complicated relationship with control and how it relates to her friendships really well. She wants Marcy and Anne to succeed and with her in control she thinks she could ensure that would happen. She thinks she knows what’s best for them and tries to force it onto them but Anne has learned to stand her ground and push back when needed.

When Anne won’t let her be in control she decides to take her own path where she has all the power over what happens. She gets into a situation where she has all the control only to learn how empty that is without those she cares about and that having someone who will do everything you say without question isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.

She later comes to learn through Toadie that sometimes supporting her friends in their own endeavors can be just as meaningful even if they don’t come out on top. We see her give up that control she so desperately clings to and support her friends.

This is the lesson that Sasha needs to learn. In a way this was showing her what she could have if she could let go of having total control, compromise, and accept change. It makes what happens in True Colors and the consequences of her actions hit her all the harder.

In her mission to force things back to the way they were and resist change she loses everything she could have gained. She gets what she thinks she wants at the cost of everything that actually matters and she is hit with the realization of how empty it is.

She is finally forced to confront her own terrible choices and their consequences when Anne finally severs their friendship. To make matters worse she comes to the realization that her coup was unintentionally a good thing when it’s revealed what Andrias plans to do with the music box.

When she tries to warn Anne she is understandably ignored. Everything bad that happens in True Colors is in part her own fault. She is forced to confront the lies she keeps telling herself and finally realize the lasting consequences of her actions.

I really liked how the culmination of her arc this season is her promising to have Anne’s back in the fight against Andrias and hold him off so Anne can get back home. She finally gives up control to someone else by deciding to have their back and tries to take responsibility for her actions and set things right. (it only took until it was almost too late)

And it’s this moment where we last see Sasha this season, trying to hold Andrias off so Anne, the Plantars, and Marcy can escape, that brings me to a major aspect of Sasha’s character that I haven’t talked about yet because it is best covered as a whole and that is how self-destructive Sasha is. Yes, this can be seen as Sasha’s protectiveness and deep care for her friends shining through, and that is part of what these actions represent, but when her actions are considered across the series there is a clear pattern that can (and is likely meant to) be read as passive suicidal tendencies.

Sasha doesn’t actively try to kill herself but she constantly puts herself in dangerous situations where she knows that she could end up dying. Or she ends up in situations where she accepts death. The biggest examples of this are Reunion, Barrel’s Warhammer, True Colors, Turning Point, and All In.

In Reunion she notices that the tower is collapsing and that she is dragging Anne and the Plantars down and she makes the decision to let go of Anne’s hand. This would have ended in her falling to her death if Grime didn’t catch her and she wasn’t expecting Grime to do that when she let go. She had no way of knowing that would happen.

In Barrel’s Warhammer she is told by Beatrix that going after Barrel’s warhammer is a suicide mission and she doesn’t hesitate to accept. She is told multiple times by Percy, Braddock, and even Grime that she should abort the mission or they will all die but that doesn’t phase her. She’s made the decision in her mind that she will only accept two outcomes: she succeeds in getting Barrel’s Warhammer or she dies trying.

In True Colors Sasha decides to hold off King Andrias while Marcy and Anne go through the portal without her. She was willing to be left behind with a tyrant who just tried to kill Polly and Sprig, two children younger than her, that she knows won’t pull his punches and most likely wouldn’t hesitate to kill her (which is later confirmed in the worst way when he stabs Marcy). She once again tries to sacrifice her life for her friends.

In Turning Point she claims that she will fight until her last breath to defend Wartwood and do the right thing for once. She faces off against Andrias’ robot by herself and accepts that she won’t make it when she’s restrained. She is once again saved by Grime (he really is the only reason she made it through the series) and kept alive by the citizens banding together to help them fight off the robots.

In All In she dares Darcy to do her worst and finish her off after she is beaten on the floor. Darcy would have gone through with it too if it wasn’t for the fact they got distracted by Andrias, giving Sasha the time she needed to drag herself from the ground and make the decisive blow.

It’s these indications of passive suicidal tendencies coupled with the implications of a turbulent/dysfunctional family life, self-hatred and self-esteem issues, anger issues, struggles with showing emotions that can be seen as weak, fear of abandonment, etc. that make it obvious that Sasha struggles with mental health issues.

These struggles are inform a lot of her character and are integral to her arc of learning self-love and forgiveness in season 3. It also sets up the end point of her character in The Hardest Thing- becoming a child psychologist. She does this specifically to help kids work through their baggage so they don’t go down a destructive path like she did.

Sasha’s arc in season 2 is complex and layered. I stand by my opinion that Sasha should have had more episodes dedicated to her but the writers don’t waste a second of her screen time and manage to get all the conflict of her character across in the limited episodes they were given.

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.

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.

Amphibia - Earth Epilogue Thoughts

This was originally going to be about the entire last episode but then it got way too long so I’m breaking it up into parts with this one coming out first because, while this is the last section of the episode, it is somehow the section I finished first.

I can’t believe Amphibia is over. It was an amazing ride from start to finish with some of the highest highs I’ve seen in animation. When I first started watching the show in May of 2020 I wasn’t expecting how attached I would become to the world and characters and it really did help me through a turbulent time in my life. I’m really happy that this show has garnered the following and been given the love it deserves.

I had to sit on this for a few days because it was hard to process all that had happened and I have a lot of thoughts on The Hardest Thing. I am conflicted about some aspects of the finale but overall I loved this goodbye to the series. Amphibia has once again made a season finale that will stay with me long after that first watch-through. This one was a bit difficult to get through because I had so many emotions about a series so important to me ending but I’m really happy that it existed and got to be a part of my life so I wanted to get this out there.

I just hope all of you could get the enjoyment and connection to Amphibia that I found these past two years watching the show because it really was a wonderful experience and this is an amazing show.

I’m glad I took a few days to sit on this because the Amphibia cast and crew have been very active on social media and some of the things said have eased a few issues I had with the finale. One of them was that Matt Braly came out and said that Marcy did visit after she moved away and that all the girls did stay close after Amphibia even if they slowly drifted apart over time. They still keep up with each other on social media and try to show interest in what they are each doing. But I will stand by the fact that the dialogue in the episode doesn’t get this across.

The way the dialogue is makes it sound like they didn’t talk hardly at all after Marcy left and she was out of the loop and Anne and Sasha drifted apart soon after. Marcy asking if Anne and Sasha hung out after she moved doesn’t seem like the kind of question that would be asked if they kept in close contact and Sasha’s comment that Anne and her drifted apart in high school makes it sound like they drifted apart 1-2 years after amphibia (given that they were 13-14 pre-timeskip and would have entered high school the next year). I know logically that the girls would always be close and important to each other even if they lost contact due to time and distance. That’s why I didn’t understand the dialogue choices and still don’t entirely. 

Amphibia is about change but the entirety of the show was also about the friendship of these three girls falling apart and forcing them to grow separately as individuals before coming back together as true friends. A huge part of The Beginning of the End and All In was all about Sasha and Anne coming to understand Marcy and wanting to make their friendship with her and each other work despite their past issues. Season 3b is dedicated to Sasha and Anne rebuilding their friendship into something stronger than before (Anne literally says “just look at what you and I have now”). So to make it sound like they drifted apart so casually bothers me. I don’t think I can get behind how they had Anne and Sasha’s relationship drift apart like that especially since they live so close together and likely go to the same school during this time.

I understand that this is a friendship that wouldn’t easily be broken. That is exactly why the dialogue bothered me because I don’t think it properly conveyed that.

It’s not an issue with the message. I love the message that people do grow apart and that they can come back together again. I love how they meet up on Anne’s birthday, bring her presents, catch up, and take a new photo. I love the idea that things aren’t permanent and that sometimes you will grow apart but that doesn’t make your experiences together and the love you share pointless, it just takes on a new meaning. I love that all these years later they could come back together and reconnect.

I love all of that. My issue was that the dialogue made it seem like they drifted apart soon after Amphibia which didn’t sit right with me. But with Matt’s tweets about the subject and assurance that this will be shown in Marcy’s journal I have hope that this could be addressed.

Now for the things I loved about this epilogue. There are a lot.

The first thing I want to talk about is how perfect each girls’ profession is. Marcy creating a popular webcomic is a great outlet for her love of fantasy and escapism. She can put all that passion and love that initially blinded her to the consequences of her actions in Amphibia into something healthy and connect with many people through her work. She can find that connection through media that she tried so desperately to establish in the flashback in The Beginning of the End (that flashback makes me emotional even mentioning). And Sasha even read her webcomic trying to show interest in Marcy’s passions which I loved.

This is once again really relatable. I know a lot of gifted kids who excelled academically and had great things projected for their future in science and engineering only for them to burn out and discover their true passion was tied to the media they consume and creating something of their own. Marcy has always been relatable and this just hit it home.

Sasha becoming a Child Psychologist to help kids work through their emotional baggage was really fitting. I liked the nod to how all of her actions in Amphibia were brought on by her baggage from home. She was struggling with the effects of her parent’s divorce and the breakdown of her relationship with them. Her inability to understand the relationship between Anne and the Plantars, the jealousy/bitterness she shows towards Anne’s relationship with her parents, her need for control, etc all stemmed from a turbulent home life. The fact that she’s using the lessons she learned in Amphibia and her own mistakes to help kids work through their own issues so they don’t take that same path is heartwarming.

I do wish we got some sort of expansion on Sasha’s home life outside of implications, the two separate letters, and interviews because we got at least some insight into Marcy’s parents and situation that kept her from wanting to go home but with Sasha it is all subtext. We also don’t get a clear motivation for why she’d want to go back outside of “it’s where she’s from” and I feel there should have been some expansion to this point to round out her arc. 

This didn’t hurt this episode for me but it makes Sasha’s ultimate decision to go home and leave behind Amphibia and Grime not feel as integral to her arc as it is Marcy’s (because it was very clearly the trajectory of her arc after the True Colors reveal) or as earned as Anne’s (she’s self explanatory. Her goal has always been to go back home and she has missed her family and home since day 1) for me.

I also think Marcy’s parents should have been shown. Her parents deciding to move is what kicked off the entire story so it seems odd not to show them at all.

It didn’t hurt how much I liked the episode. It just felt weird that they were teased with Anne sending the letters and the phone call with the Boonchuys in All In only to never appear.

Anne becoming a herpetologist who works at an aquarium was perfect. It makes complete sense. She can be surrounded by what she loves and create a homage to an important, formative part of her life. The “Get Lost in Amphibia” sign with the Plantar farm, toad tower, the three gems on the wall, mother olm above the doorway, and the frog she named Sprig all hit in the most bittersweet way. The Plantars and Amphibia will always be a part of her just like it is for Marcy and Sasha. She just found a different way to build it into her life and career.

I think the idea that they could come back together after all the time and distance that has come between them is really beautiful and it makes me tear up. I love this idea. I love how they meet up on Anne’s birthday, bring her presents, catch up, and take a new photo. I love the idea that things aren’t permanent and that sometimes you will grow apart but that doesn’t make your experiences together and the love you share pointless, it just takes on a new meaning. (My conflict comes from the things I pointed out above.) 

This aspect of the epilogue makes me really emotional especially considering Anne’s narration “But of the things you let go, you’d be surprised what makes its way back to you.” The girls reuniting and hugging with Sprig in the foreground and the Amphibia setup around them was the perfect ending frame for this show. 

There’s also more than one interpretation of this ending line. There’s the obvious one that the girls always find their way back to each other but it also has to do with how Amphibia has come back around and stayed in their lives long after they left it behind. That last shot is a recreation of the picture on the calamity box as well which brings it all full circle.

It’s also all of their adventures surrounding them and bidding them farewell. They spent months of their lives here and it has irrevocably changed them. So having one final goodbye even if they can’t see their found family again tugs at the heartstrings.

Amphibia is and will always be a big part of the girls and they all have things to help them remember it by. Anne has her job and setup at the aquarium which is one big homage to her second home. Sasha has the twin heron sword patch on her jacket and ornament on her rear view mirror along with the heron on the back of her jacket and the ax beetle guitar sticker on her mirror (and she was supposed to have a Grime eye tattoo on her wrist). She has reminders of her time there all over. And I am convinced that Marcy put aspects of their adventures in Amphibia in her webcomic. They all carry their experiences and memories with them even if they can’t return. And I love seeing how they all carried those experiences into their new life back on earth.

(I wish I could get a higher quality photo of the new polaroid)

I would be remiss not to talk about that final shot in the credits of the new bff photo the girls took. It’s a beautiful bookend to their story. The polaroid was such an important thing for every girl throughout the story but it grew and changed in significance with each of the girls. This new one symbolizes their new change in dynamic and friendship perfectly.

Anne is in the center rather than Sasha. Before Amphibia Sasha was the leader of their group. She made herself the center because of who she was. But now Anne is the center, the heart, of the group. Because she is the glue that holds them together. She is a big reason for Sasha and Marcy’s individual growth. They have their hands interlocked to show this but also because they will always be connected. Even with time and distance they will find each other and come back together because they are irreplaceable parts of each other’s lives.

The fact that our first sighting of the group was this polaroid stuck in a tree in the rain during the opening and that this is the last sighting of the group right before “Complete” appears in Thai bringing the series to a close is so poetic. This friendship started turbulent and bound to break apart but because of their individual growth their bond is unbreakable. They may not have talked every day over the past ten years but their importance to each other has never waned and the possibility of being close once again after this moment of connection is there. It’s open to the individual.

I love this series and I love these characters. I know this series will always hold a special place to me and I hope others manage to find connection in it as well.

Also Sasha Waybright is Bi and I love it.

I’ve talked on and on about how Arcane episode 9 was set up within episode 3 multiple times but this time I want to talk about another brilliant similarity within the episodes. That of Vander and Silco’s deaths. 

Both Vander and Silco are restrained and struggle to get free so that they can protect their daughter in some way which leads to their final actions (Vander fighting off Silco’s men and Silco trying to shoot Vi). Both have their daughter kneeling and holding their father’s face while he dies in their arms. And both end on a wide shot of the daughter mourning the death of their father before their next actions cause things to fall even further apart (Vi lashing out at Powder and Jinx firing the rocket at Piltover. Both have or will have devastating consequences).

Vander and Silco are both faced with a choice in their final moments which is interesting because it says so much about the two as individuals and their impact on their daughters. Vander can kill Silco or save Vi and Silco can kill Vi or let things play out. Their final actions were both meant to protect their daughters. But where Vander chooses to save what he loves rather than destroy what he hates, sacrificing himself, Silco chooses to kill what he hates to protect what he loves, attempting to kill Vi. This plays into what the fathers were while raising their daughters. Vander was a protector who tried to keep the peace and shield those he cared about from harm whereas Silco was an avenger who struck out at those who harmed him and the undercity. This choice is a perfect encapsulation of that and leads to their daughters following in their footsteps. Vi is a protector and Jinx becomes an avenger.

For a short summary the main things that make these scenes so different are what the father’s say to their daughters in their final moments, the lighting, and how the father is framed with respect to their daughter. 

Their different framing in the wide shot is particularly fascinating. Vi is draped over Vander as he lies lifeless on the ground. The flames bathe the scene in light and bring the placement of his body into focus. Vander’s body is between Vi and the flames even as she’s draped over him. It seems symbolic of his final actions and how he tried to shield Vi from falling victim to her hatred and anger. 

Jinx is on her knees in front of Silco with him above her and the shadow of his chair cast over her. His body is shielding her from the much more gentle light of the candles and blocking out all behind it with almost everything cut out of frame other than the two of them. It’s framed more like an isolation of the two with Silco and his chair cutting them off from the rest of the world instead of the moment alone that the world doesn’t encroach on that Vander and Vi’s wide shot is.

This is such a complex show and I want to go further into the similarities and differences in these scenes but that is taking a lot longer than I planned so I decided to put out a much shorter version in the meantime.