#my analysis

Because I love them and there hardly is any talk about their friendship, here is my analysis of Gordo and Miranda from season 1 to season 2.

Season 2

First Kiss:
Gordo and Miranda are both annoyed by Lizzie because all she talks about is Ronny. They walked down the hall talking yet again.

Mom’s Best Friend:
Gordo and Miranda call each other and suggest they start hanging out with their parents. Two times they’re at the Digital Bean together before Lizzie gets there. They are seen talking and eating together

Working Girl:
Gordo and Miranda hangout together while Lizzie worked. Miranda called Gordo for help on Matt’s crush on her. She could have called Lizzie who is Matt’s sister. Later they go to the McGuire’s house together even though Lizzie’s working. Matt asks Miranda if something’s wrong and if it’s someone else and he looks at Gordo. Looks like Matt thought Gordo was getting in the way of his crush on Miranda.

The Longest Yard:
Miranda and Gordo went to the library together. (Like, they were just picking up books, but they wenttogether. It’s such a simple thing but the fact that they were there together makes it all the better.) That’s another example of them hanging out without Lizzie.

Just Friends:
They arrive at Lizzie’s house together twice. Since Lizzie doesn’t go to the dance, Miranda and Gordo are left to go without her. (They could have been each other’s dates, but I don’t think they were :/)

Those Freaky McGuire’s:
Miranda and Gordo arrive at school before Lizzie again. Miranda asked him a question and they probably talk causally a lot. In between classes they’re seen together looking at the same book. (Why weren’t they with Lizzie? Myabe they couldn’t find her cause she was “Matt.”) 

In Miranda Lizzie Does Not Trust:
Gordo guessed why Miranda was frustrated in the beginning which means he knows her well. Gordo is concerned and worried after Miranda was accused of stealing. When Lizzie talked to her on the phone, he kept asking whether everything is okay. He cared for Miranda too.

Over The Hill:
Gordo and Miranda leave Lizzie in the hall and walk probably to class together. (They gotta stop leaving Lizzie, lol)

You’re A Good Man, Lizzie McGuire:
It is confirmed, Gordo and Miranda talk wiithout Lizzie. At the McGuire’s, Lizzie said “I have two of the best friends in the entire world” and Miranda said, “You know, Gordo and I were just saying the same thing.” That meant one of Gordo or Miranda’s parents drove them to Lizzie’s house and they were talking about it then or maybe when they just arrived.

Just Like Lizzie:
Gordo and Miranda walk away toegther at school again. They could be going to class or to their lockers. (So they hang around each other a lot. Plenty of time to become better friends.)

Lizzie In The Middle:
Gordo told Miranda they’ll be leaving the McGuire’s. Maybe they went to the Gordon’s or the Sanchez’s. Later they are walking down the halls, with Lizzie trying to catch up. Fed up, they leave her together. (How many times was that? Like, a thousand.) Gordo and Miranda probably ranted to each other.

Inner Beauty:
When Gordo said Lizzie and Miranda eat a lot, Miranda took it personal. She probably cared a lot about what Gordo thinks and listened to him. Gordo was concerned for Miranda when he asks her why she’s not eating and when she almost fainted, he offered to get her water. When talking to Lizzie, he sounded so concerned and worried. He even considered stopping the video. Later, Gordo apologized and told her he didn’t mean the comment. He never would intentionally make her feel down about herself.

Moving On Up:
Miranda was very supportive of Gordo going to high school because she knew it would be good for him and it’s what he wanted. But later she missed him just as much as Lizzie did. When Gordo says he missed both of them, Miranda perks. She looked happy that she was missed as well.

Party Over Here:
Gordo told his parents he’d be at Miranda’s house so it’s a normal thing for him to be there, hanging out.

A Gordo Story:
When Miranda heard Parker turn down Gordo because he’s short, she looked sad. Not to mention she called Parker a witch. She was not happy that someone could be so mean to her friend. It made Miranda sad seeing Gordo worked up about being short. At the dance she called Gordo her date. (Before Lizzie does, but that’s besides the point.)

My Fair Larry:
Gordo offered to help Miranda with the music for her party and he kind of took her side about Larry. (That maybe Larry doesn’t even want to go.)

The Gordo Shuffle:
On the phone, Gordo told Lizzie he can’t wait for Miranda to come back from vacation. And yes, I know he said that because he was tired of hearing girl talk, but come on he can miss his other best friend too.

READ PART ONE HERE

[Please don’t take this as a put down to Lizzie and Gordo. I’m just a rare Mordo shipper who wants to show people that they have a great friendship as well.]

Because I love them and there hardly is any talk about their friendship, here is my analysis of Gordo and Miranda from season 1 to season 2.

Season 1:

Pool Party:
At the end of Pool Party, Lizzie refuses to answer if Gordo’s a complete germ, but when he asks Miranda what his germ rating was, it doesn’t even take her a second to answer. Miranda isn’t afraid to be honest with him and she knows him well enough to answer right away.

Picture Day:
Gordo looks out for Miranda, telling her to watch out when a kid is about to pour green paint on her outfit

I’ve Got Rhythmic:
At the beginning of the episode, Gordo is seen filming Miranda at school by their lockers and then Lizzie walks over. Either Gordo and Miranda got to school before Lizzie or they were hanging between classes without her. Later they sit with each other on the grass talking about Lizzie. They come to each other when they need to solve/figure out a problem. (And it always seems to be about Lizzie.)

Election:
Gordo comes to Miranda and says he missed her at the debate and wished she was there. He was the only one who noticed she wasn’t there. Miranda says it’s his fault Lizzie turned into a monster so Gordo agrees to talk to Lizzie for Miranda. It’s when Gordo saw how upset Miranda was, he decided he’d do something about it.

Bad Girl McGuire:
Gordo and Miranda walked down the halls together agreeing Lizzie’s gone crazy when she turned “bad.” They film a video for her most likely at Gordo’s house (and later at the McGuire’s for Matt’s scene). They must of had fun pretended to be Mr. And Mrs. McGuire and hanging out overall.

Between A Bra and A Rock Place:
Gordo is in all of Miranda’s classes. (He was directly talking to Miranda, but he could be in all of Lizzie’s too.) Their probably partners for most of the class assignments and they see each other all day at school. (Before school starts, all their classes, lunch and even after school.)

Random Acts of Miranda:
Miranda is angry at Lizzie for writing a bad review about her. Miranda doesn’t realize how bad she actually was until Gordo advises her to watch a recording of the play. She agrees to it, which shows that she listens to Gordo.

Obsession:
Once again, Miranda goes to Gordo to consult Lizzie. They are seen walking down the halls alone together, talking without Lizzie around again. Miranda doesn’t mind listening to Gordo talk about the competition and Miranda says she’ll be there cheering him on. (She really supports him.)

Gordo and The Girl:
Miranda is bothered by Gordo being out in a date. She’s shocked. Miranda likes Gordo because he’s different. At school, Miranda still couldn’t wrap her mind around him on a date. Maybe because she doesn’t like the idea of him hanging out with someone else. Miranda was just as upset as Lizzie when they thought their friendship with Gordo was over.

Come Fly With Me:
Miranda knows little facts about Gordo. He watches movies with subtitles, his middle name is Zephyr, and he blinks a lot. When Miranda and Gordo argued about him blinking, Lizzie smiles at them like it’s normal.

Lizzie Strikes Out:
Miranda and Gordo sat at lunch alone. Miranda offered to help Gordo with his fear of bowling. In the hall after talking to Lizzie, Miranda and Gordo walk off together. Gordo and Miranda are in the school yard helping him get over his fear. Later they’re at the Digital Bean together and Miranda reminds Gordo he doesn’t have to be good at everything and he can do things just to have fun. When Gordo bowls and gets a gutter ball, Miranda is so happy for him and gives him a hug. Gordo thanks her for all her help and she is so proud of him. Summary: Gordo and Miranda probably spent tons of time together without Lizzie.

Last Years Model:
Once again Miranda and Gordo walk off together leaving Lizzie. (Where they go? Who knows. But they probably talk a lot when’s Lizzie’s not around.)

Facts Of Life:
Gordo and Miranda are both in Glee club. Gordo knows Miranda doesn’t like coconut that’s why he ate the donuts.

Scarlett Larry:
Gordo and Miranda were partners for square dancing. They picked each other for ballroom dancing as well.

Lizzie and Kate’s Excellent Adventure:
Miranda and Gordo could have volunteered to be Lizzie’s partner, but chose each other, maybe for a change? They must have really wanted to work together because they didn’t help Lizzie from being partnered with Kate Sanders. They worked at the Sanchez’s house and probably made the Tamales with Miranda’s mom. (A great chance for Mrs. Sanchez to get to know Miranda’s friend better.)

Gordo’s Video:
Gordo realized how much his video made Miranda upset, so he changed her voice and edited for her. You see, he never wanted to make her upset because Gordo  “always has her back” and Miranda needs him to remind her of that.

READ PART TWO HERE

[Please don’t take this as a put down to Lizzie and Gordo. I’m just a rare Mordo shipper who wants to show people that they have a great friendship as well.]

Rules against Class E students don’t work for the most part - A fairly detailed analysis

So to start this off, let’s list out all the cons the kids got for dropping to Class 3-E.

• Fairly poor learning environment: old wooden building with no air conditioning and heater for summer and winter season accommodations, located at a mountain top, likely with poor transmissions.

This is fairly bad itself if you look at it in a third party perspective. However, it was never specified in the school rules against 3E students modifying the building themselves in accordance to their comfort.

And as I have stated in the first chapter of my fanfic TARGET ON, although through the perspective of our queen Miki herself:

In the Gakuhou episode, we’ve literally seen Class E repairing the partially wrecked school building by themselves, and Gakuhou just let them be. I bet he wouldn’t even blink an eye if the kids had installed an air conditioner or heater in their classroom, using their own money. (Karasuma’s initial proposal to do the same was rejected because the cost would then be covered by the government).

And with the way the current generation of 3E students are, learning in an old wooden building is the least of their concerns… well, except for the lack of air conditioning and heater, that is, as well as the 1 km distance towards the main building when attending monthly school assemblies during lunch break.

• Discrimination - considering this whole thing being like the “worst” that could happen to a 3E student is a tad bit confusing.

Our lovely @/blazardragon had translated this part of the character book, where it specified that majority of the shit-talking 3E students have been receiving are from Class 3-D students, which we have seen plenty of times in the manga.

And it’s a fairly realistic scenario, actually. Non geniuses 3A kids are way too busy with keeping up with their studies (aka attending cram school and such) to even waste their time on mocking an irrelevant class.

3B students are booked and busy, maintaining their grades while making sure they’re at their best conditions when doing their club activities. Like the sport aces are mostly in that class and as we’ve seen in the interaction Sugino had with his former baseball teammates, they didn’t even bother with talking shit to them lol.

And I highkey feel like that 3C students would tend to forget that they even have the power to discriminate against 3E students however they like. Most likely because they’re just… a normal class. Not too high and not too low, just vibing comfortably in the middle. Being in a class like that would reasonably make one forget that there was even a harsh system in that school. For proof, we have the retaliation chapter, where Kaho belatedlyrealizes that she can actually put the whole blame towards Maehara without being questioned because he’s just a mere scummish 3E student.

And as for Class 3-D students:

Pretty much self-explanatory now, is it?

Aside from the monthly assemblies in which of course everyone would shit on the kids as the dean was literally prompting them to do so, on a usual day, it’s just the same 40 students with recycled comments Actually, maybe not all 40 3-D students. Some reasonable kids could just not bother to specifically approach a 3E kid to talk shit about them.

So unless one is a sensitive soul that gets affected by every damn negative thing said about them, regardless if it’s the same old tauntings, I don’t think the current generation of 3E students would care so much about the discrimination they faced in school if we’re being honest here.

• The so-called hierarchy between Class E and the other 3rd years - in which, based on my understanding from Gakuho’s brief explanation of the concept, is when 3E students could never talk over any main building student.

Which, let’s be real here, is a completely useless rule since 3E students are literally located a whole kilometer away from the main building 3rd years and are never allowed to stay within the main campus, except for the mandatory school assemblies… that occurs monthly.

“But they could still encounter each other whenever they enter/exit the school and outside of the school campus.”

You think that the 3E kids wouldn’t make the effort to avoid them when they go through the gates, now? Or that they don’t make sure they wouldn’t encounter any main building student off campus??

Of course they would lol. Who would wanna let themselves be ridiculed on public??

What happened in the retaliation chapter was just stupidity on Maehara’s part lol. He literally called Seo an idiot, the very virtuoso from Class A with anger issues, so what else does he expect?? He dated a bunch of girls after Kaho too, so why the hell did he willingly choose to come back to her life, knowing he’s a Class E student with little to no rights against a student from a much higher class?? His choice hence his fault.

• 3E Students are forbidden to participate in school club activities - another loophole found in this 3E policy lol.

As revealed in the baseball arc, despite being kicked out of the school baseball team, Sugino was still able to join a local baseball team in their town without actually violating the school rule. Then the same would go for the other 3E kids who got kicked out of their old clubs, especially for the athletes who can just easily join a local team.

Like it was Gakuhou, of all people, who revealed that information and even commended Sugino for working hard despite his disadvantages.

When I tell you that this man DOES NOT CARE about people finding loopholes in his system

• Students who are still in 3-E by the end of the 2nd semester will not be permitted to graduate - basically when a 3E student have been failing to rank within the Top 50 until December. Their last chance to rank was the 2nd semester final exams, in which had they succeeded in ranking high, they are allowed to transfer back to their old class and then spend the remaining school year only preparing for their high school entrance exams.

To be honest, this is the only 3E con that is actually a con of being a 3E student.

But then again, our current generation of 3E students pulled a 180° and managed to all rank within the top 50, decided to stay in Class E, and still graduate along with the other 3rd years.

And as for the previous generations of 3E students, maybe not all, but some of them could have just easily brushed off not graduating from Kunugigaoka, transfer to a more normal junior high, and graduate there instead.

Failing to graduate, regardless of what school one is from, could be very hard for a lot of students. But at the same time, there are also students who don’t make a big deal out of not graduating, especially from a very academically challenging prestigious school like Kunugigaoka.

So what do we get from this section? The disadvantages of being a Class 3-E student aren’t really a disadvantage with the amount of loopholes you can find in the implemented rules.

Continuing with Amphibia liveblog.

I watched “Escape to Amphibia.” It may not be fully fair to compare it to “Not What He Seems” in Gravity Falls - especially since I haven’t finished Amphibia, and especially since different shows will have different narrative desires. I’m going to compare them anyway. I hope people forgive me for comparing apples to crab apples.

“Escape to Amphibia” appears to be the major action turning point, the drama, the reveal, the showdown where lots of which has been built up breaks loose. We’ve been waiting long for the return to Amphibia. Here it is. That’s similar to “Not What He Seems,” where everything breaks loose, and we get the season-and-a-half built up reveal of what Stan is hiding and who the Author is. Functionally, it seems these two episodes intend to operate the same way.

However, “Not What He Seems” comes off better from a satisfaction standpoint. This is because it’s the buildup of mysteries that we’ve always had. Literally from Episode 1. We’ve wanted to know who the Author is. We’ve wanted to know what Stan is up to. GF has always promised that this would be in the scope of the show. Fans are at their wit’s end to get the explosion and reveal.

But that isn’t the case with Amphibia. We didn’t get introduced to Mr. X, a major antagonist of S3, until S3. We didn’t expect an urban-centered showdown with a group of friends we’d never met ‘til S3. So it can’t compare to the excitement, investment, relief, and thrill of “Not What He Seems.” It doesn’t feel as natural or as much of a payoff.

Now, both shows introduce FBI agents late in the game. GF works because they aren’t main antagonists. They don’t overdo their presence. Their simplicity is their strength. They’re more “background” and means to an ends (rather than the flamboyant personality and direct, ongoing antagonist Mr. X is).

In GF, the FBI reinforce what the heart the show has always been - character relationship investments (Stan, Dipper, and Mabel’s love and trust). They add tension to the mysteries central to the show. But Mr. X is both too colorful a personality, distracting us from the emotional tensions Amphibia introduced us to (Anne, Sprig, Hop Pop, and Polly’s love for each other, which wasn’t touched in “Escape to Amphibia”), and Mr. X is too “basic” - a straightforward villain type. So the FBI becomes more intrusive to the narrative of Amphibia, rather than reinforcing the emotional centers.

To be clear, Mr. X would be a cool character in other shows. I could see him in many cartoons where people would fall in love with him. I would, too! But he doesn’t match the tone of a show that was initially about the rural, daily lives of talking frogs.

And to be clear, the group coming together to bust the frogs out of the FBI compound was fun. It was cool to see everyone we’d befriended in S3 become relevant. It also highlights the diversity Amphibia S3 has intentionally included (ex: racial diversity, and intentionally placing women in scientific positions). The diversity feels natural and nicely done. For instance, Amphibia has always been a story where women are central and important, and they set it up that way with Anne and her two girl friends. I loved that. The trio of characters isn’t the overdone “two boys and a girl” cliche that drives me batty. It’s about three girls, which feels very real to me. I am always stoked when children’s media have girls’s relationships highlighted and central.

Now. Despite this being a complete tonal shift, I admit I loved the Star Wars vibe when Anne fought the FBI agents with the pseudo-lightsaber. It just looked cool. Black suit. Red saber. Heck yeah. Also, it feels more relevant, not just because Anne and her parents sparred earlier in the episode (so dorky! so pure!), but because we’ve seen Anne fighting with swords before. It’s an established skill she has. It’s a skill she’s grown in Amphibia, though if the show had shown the learning curve more, this moment might have been even MORE satisfying. But it was fun! It hit at guilty pleasures, so I couldn’t complain.

The moment where Anne opened the portal with her blue powers was epic and cool (the blue powers I’ve always liked, btw - well-established magic in this world, plus tying back to the music box we’ve always known about and wanted to learn about). And when the frogs stared out at a changed Amphibia, it was heartbreaking. It shows there’s no going back to the idyllic norm of S1. That makes me sad because S1 is what got me invested in the show, but it’s extremely well-done, and I give kudos to the writers for shoving wrenching emotions in.

If I read this episode right - and I’ve only been writing qualifiers to be careful - it’s a good analogue to “Not What He Seems,” and maybe I can write a more confident, robust analysis later.

P. S. Sprig with his red hair tuft and beanie - his human clothes - were always real cute.

P. P. S. I ship Hop Pop x Avocados.

dandelion-reblogs:

kingofthewilderwest:

dandelion-reblogs:

kingofthewilderwest:

Oh yes. The ending to the cute show about a teen girl stuck in a pastoral frog world.

In which our main character got magical girl Blue powers to fight a robotics-enhanced immortal newt king invading urban Earth through magic. While her best friend fought their third bestie who was mind-controlled by the evil collective consciousnesses of generations of ancient newts. And her parents used FBI-sanctioned guns to fight giant herons. In which our main character stopped the moon of the amphibian world, which was used for advanced technological experiments, from hurtling into the planet… died… met God through a computer text chat… and was offered the job of being Deity Replacement.

Yeah.

I definitely could have predicted that ending.

Well, Wally is a newt, and kings might be expected in this setting, and we know Anne is from an urban Earth setting, and there’s very subtle foreshadowing of her powers in Episode 1 while fighting the mantis, I think, and there’s giant dangerous wildlife early on…parts of it can be guessed at, but not in this exact arrangement.

I guess I can’t be 100% sure if you’re making a serious discussion point or adding a second jocular remark on top of me, so sorry if my response goes unintended directions! I read this as serious intent, so gonna respond as real discussion! Because discussions and chatting with cool folks is fun! <3

I think some of what you wrote is like looking at an ingredients list with flour, eggs, and milk, and saying, “It’s going to be a pastry.” But the very generic endpoint category of “pastry” doesn’t mean we predicted anything because that’s so vague. A fantasy setting having a king isn’t really predicting, is it? What I’m looking at is whether we’re going to create a carrot cake, blueberry muffins, or a croissant - at the very least, get in the ballpark category of “it’ll be a cake.” And it’s not that the end result is a cake that makes it unpredictable - it’s when they add pickles, Cheetos, and tomato soup to the recipe.

Of course, given the premise of S1, we know that the music box’s lore will get addressed, that the girls will go home, things like that. It’s the “how” that I’m teasing as tonally unexpected. A robot army invading Earth, provoked by the collective consciousnesses of ancient newts overtaking Marcy’s body, and Anne stopping the advanced research base moon from hitting Amphibia and meeting a deity on a computer chat - that’s the pickles and Cheetos in my cake.

To be clear: Mostly my original comment is a tongue-in-cheek, loving-teasing remark about how much Amphibia expanded beyond its season 1 scope. It’s not criticism or dialogue, it’s an in-joke, love-laughing at how much the story grew. I want it to be something people can smile at, not the least of whom are those who adore the story’s growth and end.

That said, I do have opinions about whether or not Amphibia expanded too far beyond the scope and tone when season 1 told me, “We’re making a pastry.” I’ve made liveblog remarks about it. I’ve chatted in depth with folks on discord. But if anyone’s interested in me making a more official post on tumblr now that I’ve finished the series, I’d be happy to do so.

I made my comment on impulse, rather than a well-organized response, but, yes, it was intended to be sincere, not a joke. Judging by your previous posts on the matter, I had interpreted your original response as somewhat negative, and felt compelled to state the shift wasn’t totally out of nowhere. (emphasis on “totally”: as you stated, big parts of it couldn’t be predicted from Season 1) The pastry metaphor was certainly illuminating. If I recall correctly, even dedicated theorists had no clue about the foreshadowing about the Three Stones Deity from Anne’s post dental-visit rambling, because it was so bizarre. I believe I’ve read speculation or extrapolation that Disney over-emphasizes comedy in its shows to the point plot-heavy, complex series (e.g., Amphibia, The Owl House) have jarring tonal shifts between higher-comedy first seasons and later, more serious season. If that is true, then perhaps executive meddling is behind the big shift in scope and tone between Amphibia’s Season 1 and Season 2-3 (or, rather, starting about midway through Season 2; I believe that’s when things got significantly ‘serious’) On a peripheral note, I wonder if Cartoon Network has the same problem of demanding comedy-heavy shows to the exclusion of variety in tone, or even shows that are simultaneously funny but also serious. (e.g., like the ‘silly’ episodes in the original Teen Titans, some Kids Next Door episodes with absurd exaggerated premises that are nontheless played very seriously, the occasionally absurd premises or Looney Tunes-esque sight gags of Courage the Cowardly Dog) Additionally…yes, I would be very interested in a “more official post” on Tumblr now that you’ve finished the series. It’s good to support Tumblr’s meta communities.

Ooo, those are good thoughts. I like what you said about corporate oversight impacting narrative-based animation. I think this holds especially true for animated series that have been forced into the “children’s media” bubble when the showrunners wanted an “all ages” or older demographic. It’s increasingly easy to see warring between creators wanting mature elements and areas of society being incapable of processing that animation extend beyond children. The first seasons become ways to gain approval while playing it safe, proving to their overlords this show will fly; then, once established, they’ll grind into the deeper meat they were hoping to.

When watching Amphibia, I had expected a growth in narration akin to Gravity Falls, my bias there being that it comes from Matt Braly and that the first season’s tone isn’t extremely different. So I expected growth, increasing stakes, and narrative-centric drive, but I felt jarred by certain shifts incorporating new elements. It’s the combination of elements especially that felt wonky to me. The best analogy I can make is Tales of Arcadia… it’s odd, maybe disparate, to incorporate magic-based trolls, high-tech aliens, and semi-legendary medieval figures in one interrelated franchise. It’d be less tonally awkward to write those as separate stories. But do those semi-oddly combined elements provide their share of entertainment? Yes!

I believe that a show’s first season should be an appropriate taste to what the whole show’s scope and tone will be (room for growth, of course, but setting expectations). And so something like Trollhunters, going from low stakes troll adventures to an epic battle at the end with trolls makes sense. But going from trolls to aliens was bizarre. (And 3Below is one of my favorite shows of ToA!!)

I’ll make sure to place more cues in tags to convey my emotions. It’s true that I wasn’t fully throttled about some shifts in Amphibia, so it makes sense you thought I was being negative, and I appreciate you looking at a positive angle on a show. Shows like this warrant the positive angle. I want to clarify for all folks now I didn’t hate *any* of it either and don’t feel like it warrants complaints. I wasn’t disenchanted by directional choices. It’s more like… I have lots to chew over in Season 3? “Chew over” is the word. It’s not something I would have written. But did it entertain me delightfully start to end? Absolutely! The big drama that occurred when Andrias entered Earth and he had that showdown with Anne was thrilling, and the farewell between Anne and Sprig as emotional as I’d hoped. In many ways, Amphibia’s unique combination of elements will make it more meaty to talk to with others, adding to the fun of being in fandom. Thanks again for chatting. I’ll see if I can squeak meta out of my work hours sometime.

dandelion-reblogs:

kingofthewilderwest:

Oh yes. The ending to the cute show about a teen girl stuck in a pastoral frog world.

In which our main character got magical girl Blue powers to fight a robotics-enhanced immortal newt king invading urban Earth through magic. While her best friend fought their third bestie who was mind-controlled by the evil collective consciousnesses of generations of ancient newts. And her parents used FBI-sanctioned guns to fight giant herons. In which our main character stopped the moon of the amphibian world, which was used for advanced technological experiments, from hurtling into the planet… died… met God through a computer text chat… and was offered the job of being Deity Replacement.

Yeah.

I definitely could have predicted that ending.

Well, Wally is a newt, and kings might be expected in this setting, and we know Anne is from an urban Earth setting, and there’s very subtle foreshadowing of her powers in Episode 1 while fighting the mantis, I think, and there’s giant dangerous wildlife early on…parts of it can be guessed at, but not in this exact arrangement.

I guess I can’t be 100% sure if you’re making a serious discussion point or adding a second jocular remark on top of me, so sorry if my response goes unintended directions! I read this as serious intent, so gonna respond as real discussion! Because discussions and chatting with cool folks is fun! <3

I think some of what you wrote is like looking at an ingredients list with flour, eggs, and milk, and saying, “It’s going to be a pastry.” But the very generic endpoint category of “pastry” doesn’t mean we predicted anything because that’s so vague. A fantasy setting having a king isn’t really predicting, is it? What I’m looking at is whether we’re going to create a carrot cake, blueberry muffins, or a croissant - at the very least, get in the ballpark category of “it’ll be a cake.” And it’s not that the end result is a cake that makes it unpredictable - it’s when they add pickles, Cheetos, and tomato soup to the recipe.

Of course, given the premise of S1, we know that the music box’s lore will get addressed, that the girls will go home, things like that. It’s the “how” that I’m teasing as tonally unexpected. A robot army invading Earth, provoked by the collective consciousnesses of ancient newts overtaking Marcy’s body, and Anne stopping the advanced research base moon from hitting Amphibia and meeting a deity on a computer chat - that’s the pickles and Cheetos in my cake.

To be clear: Mostly my original comment is a tongue-in-cheek, loving-teasing remark about how much Amphibia expanded beyond its season 1 scope. It’s not criticism or dialogue, it’s an in-joke, love-laughing at how much the story grew. I want it to be something people can smile at, not the least of whom are those who adore the story’s growth and end.

That said, I do have opinions about whether or not Amphibia expanded too far beyond the scope and tone when season 1 told me, “We’re making a pastry.” I’ve made liveblog remarks about it. I’ve chatted in depth with folks on discord. But if anyone’s interested in me making a more official post on tumblr now that I’ve finished the series, I’d be happy to do so.