The Giraffe Scene In The Last Of Us

The Giraffe Scene in the Last of Us

This scene is probably the most well known and well regarded scene in the Last of Us. I recently replayed the game and somehow the emotions hit me even harder this time around. The Last of Us is largely a tragic tale about the loss of innocence. Ellie throughout the game has to commit increasingly horrible acts to survive and experiences tremendous loss. The toll on Ellie is incredibly noticeable during the opening of the spring chapter. She’s withdrawn and melancholy. Ellie seems to have lost a bit of herself after what happened at the close of the winter chapter. That moment when she first pets the giraffe you get to see the innocence that both the gamer and Ellie though was lost. Ellie is once again showing wonder and excitement with the world that was last seen at the beginning of her journey. No matter the trials and hardships she has gone through Ellie has managed to hold onto the part of her that finds the world worth living in. She still manages to see the beauty in what others would find mundane. The hope that this scene brought to the characters within the tragic tale was enough to make me and many others tear up. I don’t think I’ve seen a scene in a video game convey the emotions of the characters without dialogue as well as this one. This is just a part of why the Last of Us is considered great.

Breaking Down Catra’s Breakdown in Fractures

I really love Catra’s breakdown scene. Every shot has a purpose and meaning behind it and so does the music. I don’t think there was a wasted moment.

 It starts on a closeup shot of her face making sure we can’t really see her surroundings and it’s clear from the get go that her smile and words don’t completely match up with how she feels by the obvious bags under her eyes. There’s more going on here. 

Then it cuts to a shot of the screen with Hordak on it. There is a small screen in the lower left corner that is cracked once again hinting at everything not being “under control”. The cracks in Catra’s facade are becoming harder to hide from the people around her and the full extent of her deteriorating mental state is hidden from the audience.

The transmission ends and immediately the camera zooms out to reveal all of the destruction around Catra. The music swells to what is a sinister note then fades to a quieter decidedly more tragic tune. The full extent of Catra’s emotional decline isn’t shown until Catra is completely alone. Catra is framed rather small in comparison to the large, destroyed room. Her pain is bigger than she can handle and everything is starting to become collateral. 

The shot changes to a closeup view once again but this time it’s of Catra’s profile from the middle of her chest to the bridge of her nose, her eyes are out of frame. Catra removes her mask right now both literally and metaphorically, but we still can’t see her eyes. Her full emotions aren’t completely clear yet. We’ve only seen the destruction and anger.

 The mask falls to the ground and Catra quickly follows. She falls to her knees with her head bowed to the ground and starts crying. 

It cuts to her face and we finally get to see her eyes again and all we can see is her emotional anguish. The sad/tragic music swells as Catra’s breakdown continues mirroring the outpouring of emotion. It went from soft when Catra initially removed her mask and the more Catra’s facade slips the louder the music gets until the facade is completely gone and the music crescendos. The shot is a close up, nothing else is in frame. Catra is so alone and in denial that her real feelings, the sadness and pain, can’t be seen by anyone else. She makes sure that it can’t be seen by anyone else. All anyone else will see once this is done is the outward destruction.

This whole scene is so powerful from the framing, to the music, to the dialogue, to the animation. Everything about this scene is amazing. It’s framed so tragic. This is Catra’s low point. She is hitting her rock bottom.

The Symbolism and Motifs Behind Adora and Catra’s Designs/Looks

Adora 

(Hair down)

The biggest visual motif that is used for Adora is her hair. When she is Adora her hair being up symbolizes her being constrained by her destiny, obligations, responsibilities, past abuse, etc and every time she has a breakthrough or is freed from one of these her hair is let down. This first happens in Destiny part 2 when Adora breaks the sword and for the first time in 4 seasons Adora’s hair is down and she has “freed” herself from her horrible destiny. In season 5 this happens more frequently. In Save the Cat Adora’s hair comes out of her ponytail when she is saving Catra, when she has resolved herself to mend their relationship and reconnect. She has once again “freed” herself from the guilt and emotional pain that came from having to believe that Catra was lost, of being able to reconnect and keep childhood promises and make new ones. And another big one in Heart part 2 after Catra and Adora confess to each other her hair once again falls out of the ponytail symbolizing Adora finally being able to reach for a future that she wants and being “freed” from the obligations that she thought she had to neglect her needs and sacrifice herself for others. Adora’s hair coming loose is (clearly through the examples mentioned) meant to symbolize emotional breakthroughs that Adora has. Adora is a character that isn’t that in touch with her emotions and struggles to comprehend things beyond what she was raised for, battle and war, so each breakthrough is her gradually breaking free of her upbringing.

(She-ra’s look season 1-4)

(She-ra’s look in season 5)

It’s interesting to note that She-ra’s redesign follows the exact opposite motif with her hair, but symbolizes something similar. She-ra’s redesign looks a lot more like Adora does than her original design and this is meant to show how Adora has made she-ra her own. She-ra is no longer what the first ones intended, she is not the sword, she-ra is Adora. Another detail is how the new design incorporates certain aspects of each of the most important people in her life: the heart on her chest for Bow, the wings on her shoes for Glimmer, and her new mask for Catra. She-ra and her meaning have been altered by Adora and her experiences and I really love that fact. This is Adora taking back control over something that was supposed to be used to manipulate her. Which is a core part of her character because of the struggles she has with her abuse at shadow weaver’s hands. This is a part of the culmination of Adora’s arc of discovering she is more than what she can do for others. That her destiny, the destiny of she-ra, is in her own hands. That the manipulations of people trying to use her isn’t what has made Adora the person and hero she is today, but the personal connections she forged and her own personal drive to do what she believes is right.

Catra 

Season 1-3 look

season 4 (and beginning of season 5) look

Season 5 look

(under prime’s control)

(once she joins the rebellion)

One of my favorite recurring motifs with Catra is the literal mask that she wears and that in this season after she decides to save Glimmer the mask is gone from her design completely. The dark exterior that Catra uses to hide her feelings and pain is gone and she has finally decided to be true to herself. Same with her eyes. Catra has heterochromia which is used to outwardly display her dual nature and warring inner conflict between her love and hatred of Adora and in the 5th season it’s used to portray her struggle between self betterment and sliding into old habits and self destruction. This is shown very clearly in the episode “Taking Control”. Whenever Catra is lashing out at Adora she’s turned so that her blue eye is the only one in frame and when Catra is being vulnerable or showing regret her yellow eye is the one that’s in frame. When she decides to use the chip to discover Horde Prime’s plan and protect Adora her yellow eye is the one in frame further emphasizing her decision to change. I really liked this detail in the episode. There is also the very obvious one in the season 3 finale where the blue eye is the one covered by the corruption in season 3 symbolizing Catra’s decision to commit to her villain role. Her darkness had won over her light. And it comes full circle once again in the series finale. Once Catra makes the decision to go back for Adora and stands up to shadow weaver her blue eye is the one shown in side views. Showing that she has overcome what had been her biggest shortcoming in this series, pushing others away to protect herself.

I just really loved how they used Catra’s character design to its fullest and didn’t waste details. It’s really easy to just be like “wow this looks cool” and then do nothing with it, but the she-ra crew was like “wow this looks cool now let’s do something with it”. For example when Catra gets her redesign in season 4 her hair is a lot less poofy and her ear tufts are gone and it’s tied into her character progression. Catra got rid of her ear tufts because shadow weaver had used caressing them as a way to manipulate Catra and her feelings. Catra now associates them with negative emotions and weakness and wants to “cut off” any possibility of feeling that kind of emotional pain again. The darker colors of her clothes also reflect her decision in the previous season. Catra’s main colors before this season were much lighter reds, but now it’s a deep, dark red showing her descent into the darkness when she opened the portal and her denial. Her color scheme changes once again in season 5. Her shoulders have maintained the darker red, but the dark sleeves that she had are now gone making it so that the lighter reds overcome or overshadow the darker red symbolizing how the light inside of her has overcome the dark. Yet it’s still keeps the colors darker than season 1 because Catra has done things since then that have made it so that she can’t go back to being that same person before she committed her mistakes. She’s a much healthier person though and has come to accept her mistakes and try to move forward in a better healthier direction (again symbolized by the color of her clothes).

I also want to point out Catra’s design in save the cat. In Save the Cat Catra is in all white and grey with her hair slicked back perfectly in place. The more Catra comes to her senses and is freed from primes control the messier her hair gets. It is similar to Adora’s hair motif, but with Catra’s hair becoming messier it can also symbolize her embracing/remembering her mistakes and the messiness that comes from trying to move forward in a more positive direction. When brainwashed and under primes control she doesn’t even remember her mistakes because Prime has “washed” away the pain along with the memory. Also white is typically used to symbolize purity but in this context it feels very out of place. This isn’t who Catra is. The reason she goes back to the red is that once again it symbolizes her decisions and choices. Catra can’t undo the mistakes so she “wears” them and acknowledges them after this episode. This is why in the transition episode Catra is wearing grey undergarments. Catra isn’t at the point where she can face her mistakes even though she has admitted them, symbolized by the transfer from white to grey. Her clothing being undergarments alone shows how vulnerable and insecure Catra is feeling about these mistakes. The very next episode after she resolves to face her mistakes she goes back to her red color scheme, again with less of the dark red than in season 4 showing her decision to change and go down a “lighter” path.

Catra and Adora - the Importance of the “Cliff” Scenes

What have now been dubbed the cliff scenes are all very important to Catra and Adora’s relationship development. And I want to talk about four of them in particular. The one in “Promise”, the one in “Remember”, the one in “Save the Cat”, and the one in “Heart Part 2″. All of these are perfect examples of Adora and Catra both as individual characters and their relationship.

 In the first cliff scene Catra returns and cuts Adora loose. She lets Adora fall. Deciding to stop oscillating between wanting Adora back and hating Adora for “leaving” and commit fully to her role as Adora’s opposition. She’s giving into the anger symbolized by her walking away from the cliff and into the black nothingness of the virtual world disappearing, like their friendship. Adora is left hanging onto the thin ledge of the cliff with everything crashing down around her. This is Adora trying desperately to hang onto her friendship with Catra even when it’s all crashing down. Despite the fact that Catra is trying to sever their friendship, when Catra cuts the web.

 In the second cliff scene Adora reaches out to Catra trying desperately to save Catra from herself, but Catra once again denies Adora’s help and lets go of the ledge herself. She’s gotten to the point where her jealousy has become so all consuming that she would rather fall to her destruction than accept Adora’s help. Adora can't save Catra from herself. She’s done all she can. If Catra wants to get off the metaphorical ledge she has to decide to help herself. 

It’s important to mention that in both situations Adora feels bad about how everything turned out. In “Promise” Adora apologizes to Catra for things that were out of her control such as the other cadets and shadow weaver showing her preferential treatment in comparison to Catra. In the one from “Remember” Adora tells Catra she won’t leave her again. But Catra also decided not to go with Adora. It was a two way street. It’s not just Adora’s fault for the crumbling of their relationship despite that Adora herself believes this to be the case. On Catra’s end her responses in these scenes come from a place of pain and hurt. Catra will not be able to reach out or grab Adora’s hand until she admits acknowledges the real source of her pain instead of blaming Adora alone. With the final two the necessary shift happen on both sides. 

In “Save the Cat” the “cliff” scene is when Catra, controlled by horde prime, jumps from the ledge and Adora quickly follows and jumps as well. There is no reaching out for one another but there is a marked difference in that when one falls the other follows. There’s still a gap, as symbolized by them falling at different times and not being able to grab each other’s hand, but they are making an attempt to bridge that gap. This is the closest they have come to an understanding and it’s a start to being able to fully reconnect and be honest with themselves and each other. Right before the fall Catra tries to reach out to Adora, she is done pushing her away, but she still has things to resolve before she can reach Adora. 

Then there is this fourth and final one. Catra is now the one reaching out for Adora who is in a helpless situation. Catra is the one asking for Adora to stay and for the first time since the start of the series one saves the other from the cliff. They finally come to an understanding. Neither is lying to themselves anymore and they’ve decided to stop lying to each other. The most important difference between this time and the past three is that Catra is the one reaching out. In the past three scenes it is Adora trying to reach out to Catra (or is the first to reach out) and Catra is the one to refrain from doing so. This is why Noelle said the bravest thing Catra does this season is ask Adora to stay because until this point Catra has been too afraid to actually reach out to Adora and decide to stay herself. Catra in this scene has already decided to stay with Adora this time no matter the outcome. She’s decided that she won’t leave whereas the past few times she was the one who left. This is Catra’s most emotionally vulnerable moment. She’s laying herself bare despite the fact that there may be rejection. That Adora will leave before Catra. That Adora may, like Catra did before, refuse to take her hand. And Adora is, for the first time in the series, reaching out her hand to allow someone to stay with her in a dangerous situation. Adora up until this point has pushed people away and tried to shoulder the dangerous burdens all on her own. Right here she is accepting that she can’t do this alone. That it’s okay that she can’t. And that wanting to not be alone when everything is crashing down is okay. That wanting a future, which she has just decided to reach for, is okay. Adora is more than what she can do for others and Catra is more than what others think of her. It’s a very beautiful resolution to their arcs.

Just to add on I would also like to note that Adora’s hair doesn’t come down during the scene where she fights Catra and for the first time in the series acknowledges that she isn’t at fault for what happens. Considering how her hair coming down usually happens during emotional breakthroughs for Adora this would be a fitting scene for this to happen, but I think it’s important to realize that Adora herself most likely doesn’t feel like this breakthrough is freeing like all the other ones. She, in this moment, has to face the fact that she can’t save Catra from herself. And considering the fact that Adora feels like she has to fix everything and save everyone to prove that she has worth this probably felt, at least somewhat, hollow to her.

The Symbolism and Motifs Behind Adora and Catra’s Designs/Looks

Adora 

(Hair down)

The biggest visual motif that is used for Adora is her hair. When she is Adora her hair being up symbolizes her being constrained by her destiny, obligations, responsibilities, past abuse, etc and every time she has a breakthrough or is freed from one of these her hair is let down. This first happens in Destiny part 2 when Adora breaks the sword and for the first time in 4 seasons Adora’s hair is down and she has “freed” herself from her horrible destiny. In season 5 this happens more frequently. In Save the Cat Adora’s hair comes out of her ponytail when she is saving Catra, when she has resolved herself to mend their relationship and reconnect. She has once again “freed” herself from the guilt and emotional pain that came from having to believe that Catra was lost, of being able to reconnect and keep childhood promises and make new ones. And another big one in Heart part 2 after Catra and Adora confess to each other her hair once again falls out of the ponytail symbolizing Adora finally being able to reach for a future that she wants and being “freed” from the obligations that she thought she had to neglect her needs and sacrifice herself for others. Adora’s hair coming loose is (clearly through the examples mentioned) meant to symbolize emotional breakthroughs that Adora has. Adora is a character that isn’t that in touch with her emotions and struggles to comprehend things beyond what she was raised for, battle and war, so each breakthrough is her gradually breaking free of her upbringing.

(She-ra’s look season 1-4)

(She-ra’s look in season 5)

It’s interesting to note that She-ra’s redesign follows the exact opposite motif with her hair, but symbolizes something similar. She-ra’s redesign looks a lot more like Adora does than her original design and this is meant to show how Adora has made she-ra her own. She-ra is no longer what the first ones intended, she is not the sword, she-ra is Adora. Another detail is how the new design incorporates certain aspects of each of the most important people in her life: the heart on her chest for Bow, the wings on her shoes for Glimmer, and her new mask for Catra. She-ra and her meaning have been altered by Adora and her experiences and I really love that fact. This is Adora taking back control over something that was supposed to be used to manipulate her. Which is a core part of her character because of the struggles she has with her abuse at shadow weaver’s hands. This is a part of the culmination of Adora’s arc of discovering she is more than what she can do for others. That her destiny, the destiny of she-ra, is in her own hands. That the manipulations of people trying to use her isn’t what has made Adora the person and hero she is today, but the personal connections she forged and her own personal drive to do what she believes is right.

Catra 

Season 1-3 look

season 4 (and beginning of season 5) look

Season 5 look

(under prime’s control)

(once she joins the rebellion)

One of my favorite recurring motifs with Catra is the literal mask that she wears and that in this season after she decides to save Glimmer the mask is gone from her design completely. The dark exterior that Catra uses to hide her feelings and pain is gone and she has finally decided to be true to herself. Same with her eyes. Catra has heterochromia which is used to outwardly display her dual nature and warring inner conflict between her love and hatred of Adora and in the 5th season it’s used to portray her struggle between self betterment and sliding into old habits and self destruction. This is shown very clearly in the episode “Taking Control”. Whenever Catra is lashing out at Adora she’s turned so that her blue eye is the only one in frame and when Catra is being vulnerable or showing regret her yellow eye is the one that’s in frame. When she decides to use the chip to discover Horde Prime’s plan and protect Adora her yellow eye is the one in frame further emphasizing her decision to change. I really liked this detail in the episode. There is also the very obvious one in the season 3 finale where the blue eye is the one covered by the corruption in season 3 symbolizing Catra’s decision to commit to her villain role. Her darkness had won over her light. And it comes full circle once again in the series finale. Once Catra makes the decision to go back for Adora and stands up to shadow weaver her blue eye is the one shown in side views. Showing that she has overcome what had been her biggest shortcoming in this series, pushing others away to protect herself.

I just really loved how they used Catra’s character design to its fullest and didn’t waste details. It’s really easy to just be like “wow this looks cool” and then do nothing with it, but the she-ra crew was like “wow this looks cool now let’s do something with it”. For example when Catra gets her redesign in season 4 her hair is a lot less poofy and her ear tufts are gone and it’s tied into her character progression. Catra got rid of her ear tufts because shadow weaver had used caressing them as a way to manipulate Catra and her feelings. Catra now associates them with negative emotions and weakness and wants to “cut off” any possibility of feeling that kind of emotional pain again. The darker colors of her clothes also reflect her decision in the previous season. Catra’s main colors before this season were much lighter reds, but now it’s a deep, dark red showing her descent into the darkness when she opened the portal and her denial. Her color scheme changes once again in season 5. Her shoulders have maintained the darker red, but the dark sleeves that she had are now gone making it so that the lighter reds overcome or overshadow the darker red symbolizing how the light inside of her has overcome the dark. Yet it’s still keeps the colors darker than season 1 because Catra has done things since then that have made it so that she can’t go back to being that same person before she committed her mistakes. She’s a much healthier person though and has come to accept her mistakes and try to move forward in a better healthier direction (again symbolized by the color of her clothes).

I also want to point out Catra’s design in save the cat. In Save the Cat Catra is in all white and grey with her hair slicked back perfectly in place. The more Catra comes to her senses and is freed from primes control the messier her hair gets. It is similar to Adora’s hair motif, but with Catra’s hair becoming messier it can also symbolize her embracing/remembering her mistakes and the messiness that comes from trying to move forward in a more positive direction. When brainwashed and under primes control she doesn’t even remember her mistakes because Prime has “washed” away the pain along with the memory. Also white is typically used to symbolize purity but in this context it feels very out of place. This isn’t who Catra is. The reason she goes back to the red is that once again it symbolizes her decisions and choices. Catra can’t undo the mistakes so she “wears” them and acknowledges them after this episode. This is why in the transition episode Catra is wearing grey undergarments. Catra isn’t at the point where she can face her mistakes even though she has admitted them, symbolized by the transfer from white to grey. Her clothing being undergarments alone shows how vulnerable and insecure Catra is feeling about these mistakes. The very next episode after she resolves to face her mistakes she goes back to her red color scheme, again with less of the dark red than in season 4 showing her decision to change and go down a “lighter” path.

My Thoughts on Young Blood, Old Souls

I am honestly a bit mixed on this finale. There were parts I really love, but there were parts I feel conflicted about and things I felt were missed opportunities. I just want to air my thoughts because I’m not sure how I feel about this episode. 

There was so much build up to this finale and I felt they wrapped everything up a little too neatly. There were things I expected to happen and things I felt were rushed. Eda was saved, Lilith defected from the coven system, Lilith and Eda seem to have reconciled or at least started that reconciliation, Luz got away from the emperor despite destroying the portal and not holding up her end of the bargain, Eda was returned to her normal form, Willow and Gus managed to turn the people against the emperor’s will, and more. This is going to be a mix of like, dislikes, and preferences because I feel like for every negative there’s a positive within that plot point or character moment. This is just my opinion. If you loved this episode and everything about it that’s great! I just felt there were things I would have preferred be done differently or been done later in the show. 

For starters the Eda and Luz relationship in this episode was fantastic with some genuinely heart wrenching scenes. This dynamic has been strong all season and seeing what was built up in Agony of a witch being paid off was really nice. Eda’s relationships with everyone close to her really shine this episode actually. When Luz and then later King echo Eda’s sentiment in the first episode about sticking together and being all they have I couldn’t help but get emotional. They have all had such major impacts on each other. I’m not sure what to say about any of this that hasn’t been said on tumblr already. These were great moments and deserve the praise they are getting.

Lilith is the one connection I am a bit iffy on and only really because I feel we should have gotten more time with her and Eda in the season and had more flashbacks of the two of them when they were younger before this episode. I think if we’d had flashbacks of the two of them getting along and being best friends as children it would heighten the tragedy of them being on separate sides of the law, the reveal that Lilith cursed Eda, and make her decision to go against the coven system and emperor Belos seem less awkward pacing wise. Lilith seems to be driven both by her desire to cure Eda and, what was more clearly evident in the episodes leading up to this one, her fear of emperor Belos. Her turn makes sense with Belos going back on his promise to her but there wasn’t really a moment where she seemed to decide to put aside her fear of Belos and do what’s right. They really want to show that Lilith is now on the real path to redemption instead of trying to make things how she wants them to be, Eda with her in the emperor’s coven and free of the curse she inflicted on Eda, without thought to what Eda truly wants. My one thing is that I felt this realization was rushed for example Zuko and Catra are given 13 episodes where they are forced to realize that upon getting what they thought they wanted they still feel hollow, that the people they’ve hurt and tried to enforce their will upon are really the people they want/need to help, that they need to change their ways, and then standing up to the figure they fear to do what they believe they need to. I guess it’s no use comparing the two with Lilith because these are two different shows. I just wanted to express that I wish there was more breathing room for this realization and change of heart to take effect. I do wish the “sharing the pain” spell was set up earlier in the season, but I think it was fairly well done within this episode. I am really excited about how this will play out going forward because now Lilith is going to be living at the owl house with Eda, Luz, and King. This is going to explore some interesting dynamics and provides a set up for Eda and Lilith working through their problems and reconciling next season. I think this is only the beginning of Lilith’s redemption and the siblings’ reconciliation. 

I think the emotional core of the episode was strong. It knew it wanted to be about the connections that the cast has with Eda and it ran with that. The problem was that it tried so hard to set up so many things that I think distracted from this point. It decided to set up emperor Belos, his plan, a possible uprising among the people, luz having to find an alternative way home, Belos not being invincible, etc. These are all great ideas, but I don’t think the episode had the time to fully and believably set all of this up.

I wasn’t surprised Eda was saved, but it seemed a bit too easy. I liked seeing Luz’s progression from where she started by facing those same guards she did in the first episode. In that episode she was mostly powerless and now she is able to take on the entire prison. That’s where my first issue is. Eda seemed to be having difficulty with the guards in the first episode and as we’ve discovered Eda is an incredibly powerful witch. The argument can be made that Eda wasn’t trying in that first episode but you’d think she’d try hard enough to where there wouldn’t be any danger of herself and her companions being caught or hurt. That didn’t really seem to be the case though because she needed the help of Luz to escape in the pilot as well. This is probably just a case of the writers not wanting to reveal how overwhelmingly powerful Eda was until Agony of a Witch, but it makes the power scaling feel a bit wonky to me on rewatch. Especially with how much Belos has been talked up and feared by all the people around him it felt odd that Luz could crack his mask and that he let her get away when he could have easily stopped her, Lilith, Eda, and King. He just didn’t seem as powerful as I think he should have. This is probably set up for next season I’m guessing. This was built up to be the moment that we see the overwhelming odds the heroes are against for the series, but it didn’t feel like that. It made belos seem less imposing and made me question why he was so feared. If Luz could crack his mask what was stopping Eda or anyone close to her power from rising up against Belos other than propaganda? The Eda we saw in Agony of a Witch, which was a severely weakened Eda I might add, should be able to fight Belos on even footing based on what we saw. I just feel like Belos had his imposing and all powerful facade broken too quickly after his introduction. 

That being said I liked his portrayal. The air of uncaring and single-mindedness that he brought was so interesting. You really got the feeling that he wasn’t threatened by Luz or anyone on the boiling isles (now the fight sort of shattered that but still). There were also hints at things not being as they seemed with Belos like the fact that Luz’s magic repellent cape couldn’t repel his attacks which could lean into the theory that Belos is human and what he uses is technology not really magic or a combination of both. I really loved the way his body would distort when he would move and seemingly teleport which gave him an unnatural and creepy feel. His voice acting also went a long way with emphasizing every trait I just discussed. Matthew Rhys does a fantastic job. I’m very excited to learn more about him and his plan for the day of unity. There’s still so much mystery surrounding everything about him that I think was well maintained in this episode.

There’s also the citizen uprising which was teased. This was another plot point I felt the show was going to build on later rather than have it in this episode. Everything about Belos and his coven system seems deeply ingrained in the boiling isles and there were only a few people who seemed to question it up until this point. The delinquents, Luz, Eda, and some unnamed witches that Belos petrified between this episode and last. Everyone else seems to buy into the coven system even Willow, Gus, and especially Amity don’t really question it. They seem all too happy to accept their place in the coven system. And with Amity it is her life goal to be a part of the emperor’s coven which makes her farther from questioning Belos and the system than the other two. The closest we got was in Willow’s introduction with her being unhappy in the abomination track, but the problem is fixed when she’s moved to the plant track. She was also the one giving Luz the history of Belos and the boiling isles and she didn’t question anything she talked about. Now her and Gus speaking out against the emperor in this scene makes sense. They care about Luz and Luz cares deeply about Eda so they want to help in any way they can. Being able to start an uprising amongst the people against what emperor Belos is saying when we haven’t seen anyone outside a select few meaningfully challenge his ideas about how magic should be used doesn’t make that much sense at this point in the story. If we had seen someone other than Principle Bump change his mind on the flexibility of the coven system and questioned emperor Belos’ claims it would have made this scene more believable to me. Yes a few of the people in the crowd were freed from a prison by Eda, but these people were considered outcasts and looked down upon so I don’t really think their opinion would sway the crowd as much as it did. Most of these people don’t know Eda. They only know what they’ve been told and they’ve been told that she’s a dangerous witch who has failed to adhere to a coven system that they believe is the only way to live. Now I know I just spent quite a while talking about my problems with this scene and while I wasn’t the biggest fan of it I do think it was a good character moment because it shows Gus and Willow’s growth. Willow in her introduction wouldn’t be able to do any of this. She wouldn’t be able to stand in front of a crowd and say that what Belos is doing is wrong. Willow has grown a lot this season and this scene did a lot to show that. I loved that.

I know I sounded really critical in this and I don’t want anyone thinking I hated this episode or this show. I really like this show. I just had a lot of complicated thoughts on this episode in particular. If this wasn’t the finale of the season I think my thoughts would change quite a bit, but as it stands this is how I feel. If anyone has anything they would like to add or give their opinion on feel free to leave comments. You don’t have to agree with me on any of my points. This is just my opinion you can have your own.