Well, Im Even More Excited For This Episode Than I Was Before (which Was A Really High Bar). This Looks

Well, I’m even more excited for this episode than I was before (which was a really high bar). This looks like it’s going to give each girl the attention they deserve and I really like the choices the crew made story-wise that we get to see in this promo.

I actually really like the decision to have Sasha and Darcy have a confrontation without Anne (I’m sure Anne will be a part of it at some point but they need this one to happen first in my opinion. Anne will probably start the fight with them but they will be forced to split up because of all that is happening). Sasha is the one who has more to make up for between the two of them and they clearly set that up with Darcy’s line "Dear friend? Don't be silly, you're not friends. Not anymore. In examining Marcy's memories, it's...doubtful you ever were." which was clearly directed at Sasha.

Also since Grime is here I am pretty sure we are going to see him sacrifice himself for Sasha. Grime and Sasha are my favorite duo in the series so this will be devastating if it happens. I just really want Sasha and Marcy friendship development because they are the dynamic in the trio that has the least development.

I also love that we are going to get a separate storyline for Marcy trapped inside the Core. I said it in my “The Beginning of the End” Thoughts that I was initially nervous about how they will cover completing Marcy’s arc and that this episode assuaged that fear but seeing that they won’t be cutting any corners is really nice. 

I’m sure that Marcy’s portion of the episode will focus on her having to let go of all the escapism and fantastical things within the core and break free due to her own choice. She will choose to leave the room the core has her stuck in and stop running from her problems, facing them head on.

Anne fighting with the others on earth fits since that’s what all of season 3A was building up to. I have already predicted what I think will happen with Anne’s arc but it can’t hurt to reiterate. I believe that she will be the one in the trio to get the sacrifice play. Season one was Sasha, season two was Marcy, and it would stand to reason that season 3 would be Anne’s turn. She’s also been growing into a leader and learning to fill her hero role so this could be the perfect end to those story threads.

I love Mr. and Mrs. Boonchuy and I can’t wait to see them next week. They are the best.

Promo for the 1-hour Amphibia special event "All In". Premieres Next Saturday, May 7 at 8 pm on Disney Channel.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

Amphibia Season 3B Thoughts (Part 1)

Because of Tumblr’s image limit I split my thoughts into 2 parts. This part will cover “Escape to Amphibia” to “The Root of Evil”. (part 2 link)

With Amphibia entering its endgame next week I’ve decided to look back at all the episodes of season 3B so far and give my collected thoughts on each episode (I plan to do the same with The Owl House. Hollow Mind was insane). I’ve had a lot of fun with Amphibia as a show and want to finally give it the attention it deserves because I’ve had the luck of following this show since before season 2 began airing. I binged the first season on Disney+ in 2020 around the time that lockdown officially went into effect and I’ve been hooked since. This wasn’t a show I followed since the beginning like Korra or She-ra but I got into it early in its run and it holds a special place for me in the lexicon of cartoons I have watched because of this.

Matt Braly said on twitter that this week’s episodes were the last “fun episodes'' of the show before it officially entered its endgame. That coupled with his statement that the finale is pretty much a three parter that begins with “The beginning of the end” has made it so I would like to cover the final 3 weeks worth of episodes in one post (we’ll see I may become too excited to wait) and split my 3B review/thoughts into 2 parts.

Escape to Amphibia

Okay, I want to get this out of the way because it’s a bit nitpicky and just my personal preference. I said in my Amphibia series thoughts post that I thought this should have been the season 3A finale and I still stand by that statement. Would that have hurt me because of the cliffhanger it would have ended on? Yes, but I think that this would have been the best point to end 3A on because it would truly feel like the beginning of the end of Amphibia, the closing of the earth chapter of the story and the beginning of the endgame. 

I really love the Christmas episode but it felt like an odd point to end 3A on considering how close to the endgame Amphibia was. Though it is on brand for Amphibia considering 2A ended on “The Shut in” which was a halloween themed episode. With that nitpick out of the way I’d like to talk about the actual episode which I really like.

I really liked how the episode made the music box theme and design make sense on a lore level and really expand what I initially thought was just a cool design choice. The music working as coordinates for other worlds was such a unique detail that I wasn’t really expecting for them to incorporate. In hindsight this was really obvious but at the time I was shocked.

I like that the episode chose to focus on Anne’s struggles to say goodbye to her parents. The first time she went to Amphibia she didn’t get to do that. She disappeared without any knowledge about where she went or if she would ever be able to get back. There was no closure on either end. Her avoidance boils over because she can’t ignore the seemingly insurmountable tasks she must complete and the reality that her making it back home isn’t guaranteed this time either. She’s going to be saying goodbye to her parents for maybe the last time and that hurts. 

Anne’s parents are once again the MVPs of the season with their heartfelt assurance and support helping Anne forward. They are just so supportive. This is probably redundant because everyone knows this by now but Anne has the best parents. They made her a care package and helped her go against the FBI and knew how important getting back to Amphibia is to her even through her conflict. (They are also telling Mr. X about everything which I think brings credence to the theory that earth and Amphibia will have to fight together. If that’s the case Anne’s parents really are the MVPs on the earth side of the story)

This episode was full of visual callbacks which helped sell that this was the endgame. Everything has changed, all the characters have impacted each other in some way, and nothing can ever be the same. The contrast really emphasizes the passage of time. The two most striking visual callback are when Anne uses her powers and stomps on the ground to knock the FBI agents over and the final shot of Anne and the Planters overlooking what has become of Amphibia.

I really like the scene where Anne activates her powers and strengthens the portal. The visual parallels are really fun. The scene above is very reminiscent of Sasha during the third temple and I think that is intentional. Sasha’s redesign has her incorporate blue into her armor along with the red which symbolizes how Anne has changed Sasha and how she is incorporating the lessons she has learned throughout Amphibia and through Anne into herself. The effect on each other is mutual. Sasha was not a good friend to Anne before this point but her good traits (when not taken to the extreme) have rubbed off on Anne and in some ways inspired her like she said in “The Third Temple”.

The second parallel, the final shot with Anne and the Plantars overlooking Amphibia was so jarring and it was even more shocking because this is the exact same view that they saw when they first exited the valley and the world was opened to them. The contrast between those two moments is amazing. 

This really sells the feeling that this episode marks the beginning of the end of Amphibia. It also makes sure that the lasting impact of True Colors is felt. We saw it in “Olivia and Yunan” briefly but it hits differently when it’s through the eyes of Anne and the Plantars. We’ve spent more time with them and these are the characters we first explored this world with so even though this wasn’t the first time we saw this in some ways it felt like it was (hopefully that made sense).

Side note: I loved all the Star Wars references. I’m a massive star wars fan so seeing Anne in the dark hallway with the red light saber and knowing it was a homage to Darth Vader’s scene (you know the one) in Rogue One just elevated it for me. This was just pure fun.

I don’t have much that I wasn’t a fan of. It’s more there are things I wish we could have seen more of. I really liked the dynamic of Terri and Dr. Jan in this episode and wish that they had interacted earlier.

Commander Anne/Sprivy

I had fun with these episodes. I have the same problems with them that I’ve seen a lot of people voice about how it makes Anne less capable than she usually is so that they can rush Sasha being given back command but I do believe that Sasha was the better person to be in command because of her experiences as a lieutenant in the toad army and her natural cunning and leadership ability. 

Anne knows that she isn’t aware of all the things that Sasha is and she’s not quite ready to jump into a leadership role immediately. She’s having to go from earth and leaving her family behind again to leader of a rebellion in less than 24 hours. That’s a lot of pressure to put on anyone so Anne struggling to fill the role is natural.

Having Anne and Sasha form a partnership rather than a commander and subordinate role was smart. Sasha has a knack for warfare and leadership that Anne doesn’t have but Anne is more in tune with the feelings of those around her and can understand their needs. They both have different, complementary strengths that make them equals. The execution was a little off but the points the episode makes and the conclusion it comes to are all things I agree with based on the characters. (I wrote in my Amphibia series thoughts about how well Sasha’s experiences and traits make her transition to rebellion leader work)

I love Sasha’s new character design. The blue incorporated into her previously completely red outfit shows how Anne has changed her and how she has accepted it as part of herself now. Her hair is down in contrast to her usual updo and shows how she has loosened her stranglehold on having control and is more open emotionally (a very literal representation of “letting her hair down”).

She is also noticeably more muscular now which matches her strength gem and shows her dedication to training that has been talked about in every season (she literally wore weighted clothing all the time as shown in the third temple and was nonstop training in toadcatcher). This redesign is also just really cool.

I liked the idea that Sasha immediately gave up control because she doesn’t trust herself with all the power. She believes that she ruined everything last time (to be fair she sort of did) but she neglects to give herself credit for how much she has changed. The old Sasha wouldn’t have relinquished power in the first place and would have fought every step of the way to keep control. The fact that she is so afraid of falling back into old habits shows that she’s different.

Sasha has been faced with multiple crossroads throughout the series and until “Turning Point” she always made the wrong choice. Her decision in “Turning Point” and her continued attempts to be different than she was before is what I believe redemption is all about, continually choosing to be a different, better person every step of the way.

I appreciate that Anne thought that Sasha’s insistence that Anne needs to be in charge was a new manipulation tactic because even though Sasha has changed Anne hasn’t been there to see it happen. Sasha has betrayed Anne twice and no amount of verbal assurance that she’s a new person can change the damage that has been done in such a short amount of time. 

Now for “Sprivy”. I liked Sasha in this episode (not that surprising) because even though she’s turned over a new leaf she isn’t suddenly a completely different person. She calls Sprig and Ivy “Twerp and twerpette”, is completely done with their clingy fledgling relationship very quickly, and is still prone to anger (though she does hold it back much better). 

I don’t have much to say about this episode outside of this, the fact that I like that Wally’s father comes back as the rich benefactor that is supporting wartwood and Sprivy learning that they shouldn’t let their new relationship dictate all their decisions was nice because first relationships can be hard to find that balance in.

Sasha’s Angels/Olm Town Road

First up “Sasha’s angels”. This episode was fun but didn’t contribute to the plot nearly as much as I would have hoped. I had a lot of fun with Toadie but I was a lot more interested in the Anne and Sasha part of the episode even if it didn’t get much focus comparatively. Sasha’s redemption and reconciliation with Anne have been a long time coming so I appreciate all the points in the story where they are allowed to adress the cracks in their relationship. 

Anne doubts Sasha’s intentions when it comes to waiting for Mrs. Croaker’s team instead of charging in to save them. She understandably doubts that Sasha sees the frogs as individuals she cares for instead of disposable pawns like she did with the toad army. This is understandable considering how Sasha frequently saw others as stepping stones for her to use to gain control. But it’s made clear once again that Sasha truly has changed. She does care about those “beneath” her but she knows that she can’t charge recklessly in because that could make things worse for everybody. 

Anne really did show Sasha how to trust others to do things rather than take control and do everything yourself but she hasn’t been here for months and hasn’t had the chance to see the way the others have grown so she is also understandably worried. It’s not that she doesn’t trust them its just that her last time seeing them they would not have been able to escape the way that they did. It’s another case of seeing how Anne has changed the people around her, the frogs have learned to stand up for themselves and Sasha has changed her leadership mindset for the better, and how the others can help Anne.

Now onto “Olm Town Road”. Sasha steals this episode. She very clearly projects onto Lysil and Angwin and it adds another layer to Sasha’s guilt over her mistakes. Sasha’s anger on Lysil and Angwin’s behalf reflects her own guilt and desire for redemption and fear that she doesn’t deserve this third chance that Anne has given her. If they can’t find redemption then how can she? (though if we’re being honest Sasha is at least on her third chance, so her spiel about second chances is a little comedic in this context)

I like that they aren’t totally ignoring Sasha’s mistakes or downplaying her desire to make things right. There hasn’t been a big blow up or a confrontation like I think some people expected, I expected more pushback myself before the episodes started airing, but I think the Amphibia crew has done a good job showing how this has effected them in every interaction they’ve had so far. 

Sasha continuously overcompensates while trying to prove she’s changed and become the person “Anne deserves'' and Anne has doubted Sasha’s intentions and motivation on more than one occasion. Anne isn’t the type of person to blow up at someone. Her actions in “True Colors'' weren't the norm but they were necessary. She was standing up for herself and Sasha deserved to be told off for betraying Anne yet again. And if Sasha was to show that side of her again in 3B I have no doubt that Anne would blow up at her once more but Sasha has been genuinely trying and Anne can see that.

Anne wants her friend back as seen in her journal and if Sasha is willing to try then Anne will meet her halfway (this and Anne saw the start of change when Sasha fought with her in True Colors). This has always been Anne’s character. I can understand wishing there was more conflict because of how devastating the second betrayal was and how final her severing their friendship seemed at the time, but I don’t think this is out of character.

I also believe there is some guilt on Anne’s part for their last fight on top of the Newtopian walls. Anne was understandably angry but she was being vicious in their last fight, going for headshots and kill blows (crew members even pointed it out on twitter afterwards). Sasha was obviously holding back, constantly on the defensive and not even trying to go on the offensive, and could have ended the fight at multiple points if she wanted to (like in the photo below) but she chose to try and reason with Anne. I think Anne recognizes this and feels bad about it. She thinks they both screwed up in their last encounter. 

And Anne got to see the start of Sasha’s change. “Turning Point” was obviously the true start to Sasha’s redemption where she was at a crossroads and finally made the right choice, but “True Colors” was where she first decided to have Anne’s back and hold Andrias off so that Anne and Marcy could make it through the portal. We got to see them work together (in a “the enemy of my enemy is my friend” sort of way). Sasha 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. Anne got to see Sasha’s good qualities shine through even if it was only for a moment.

Sasha’s moment of standing up to the Olm leader also shows a moment of growth. Sasha has stood in that very position and yelled at leaders before in “Barrel’s Warhammer” as shown below.

In “Barrel’s Warhammer” she is standing on top of a toad soldier, not caring who she has to walk on for power, and yelling at the leaders because they don’t want her and Grime to lead after hearing that Anne and Marcy were working together in Newtopia. In “Olm Town Road” she is standing atop a drill, a symbol of corruption and greed, that the leader is arguing is planted and defending Lysil and Angwin, two olms she just met, claiming that she doesn’t care what the Olm’s think of her if they can’t see what’s right in front of them, pointing out their hypocrisy.

Overall I had fun with these episodes and really liked how Sasha was used in them (she easily stole the show) but they weren’t exactly what I was expecting if I’m completely honest. The Plantars were kind of just there and they have a tendency to lose relevance within this half of the season. They haven’t had much focus in season 3B (Sprig gets a few episodes later but this doesn’t entirely fix the problem) and they don’t get much growth with anyone outside of Anne save for “Grime’s pupil”.

This was also a really odd cut off point for the episode. I remember watching this when I came out and being confused by that decision. It works better when you can go straight into “Mother of Olms” like I did on this rewatch. I think this odd ending point also played into why people were frustrated with the episode “Mother of Olms” because they had a week of anticipation and build up for what ended up being only 2 minutes worth of plot progression.

Mother of Olms/Grime’s Pupil

“Mother of Olms” was an interesting episode because on the one hand it did finally reveal the prophecy to the characters in the show and we got the implication that Anne could activate Sasha and Marcy’s powers on the other this is a prophecy that any fan that watches youtube or is active in the cartoon community would already know about. 

I watch VGMarkis’ videos (which are phenomenal by the way. I recommend watching his episode breakdowns. His channel is linked) and so I already knew about the prophecy before this episode which sadly made this less enjoyable for me. That and I’ve never been the biggest fan of gross out humor which this episode was chalk full of (though I did enjoy the magic school bus homage that the journey to mother olm’s brain evoked).

But on a much more positive note the music, colors, and animation in this episode were all phenomenal. I’ve always loved the softer color palette that amphibia uses for its world and characters and the coloring for mother Olm and the cave surrounding her were all really pleasing to the eye. The music that played when mother olm recanted the prophecy and answered Anne and Sasha’s questions was great and makes me wish that Amphibia could get  its score released (there are other great tracks like Sasha’s theme, Marcy’s truth, Anne’s powers, etc). 

On a rewatch I actually like this episode a lot more than I did the first time. It hasn’t jumped up to be among my favorites of the series but I wasn’t disappointed like I was when I first watched the episode. I think sometimes expectations can be built sky high when waiting a week, especially for an episode that promises plot progression in a show like Amphibia. I had a lot more fun with this episode and liked the reveal of the prophecy much more. I could sit back and take in the visuals and music without anything clouding my expectations which really helped me.

The extra ramblings of mother olm are also a lot clearer on re-watch. Mother olm talks about how Anne, Sasha, and Marcy are meant to save Amphibia from their worst selves while the screen shows them fighting off what has been confirmed to be “a symbolic representation of Amphibia’s greed and corruption”. This once again hammers home the themes of the show. Amphibia is about change and growth and becoming your best self. Anne and Sasha have both changed for the better from their first appearances and they have changed the characters around them for the better as well. 

This is also the case for Marcy (not to the same degree as Sasha and Anne but still). She helped Newtopia and effected Yunan, Olivia, and is implied to have at the very least seeded doubt into Andrias. This whole show is about change for the better and bringing out the best in others so it could be setting up Andrias to do “one good thing” with his life. I don’t think he’s had enough moments of doubt and genuine connection to set him up for a full redemption but having him do one good thing would be fitting.

Marcy is the only one of the three friends that still has an arc to undergo. Anne and Sasha have gotten to the point where they have been able to work through their toxic traits and have made genuine connections. Matt Braly said that Marcy didn’t make any genuine connections in her time in Amphibia and this hurdle is part of her character arc. I really want to see how this will be handled. I have faith in the Amphibia crew so I’m not nervous.

Also Sasha was pathetic this episode and it was really funny. The fearless leader of the rebellion who has never had to put her name in the book of cowards tried to sit out this mission because it was too gross. 

In the first 2 and a half seasons because of Sasha’s limited screen time every episode she was in was very plot and character focused. She didn’t really get the chance to be ridiculous in the same way everyone else was because her episodes were heavy in drama and angst. Now thanks to her upgrade in status to the main cast she gets to have these types of moments and I couldn’t be happier.

I unironically loved “Grime’s Pupil”. It wasn’t the episode I thought I would come away enjoying more between the two but it was. I really like the decision to pair up Grime and Sprig. They haven’t had much of a chance to interact in the series and none of their interactions have been one on one until now. I am biased because I love Grime and I have wanted more of him since the show returned to Amphibia. His dynamic with Sasha is my favorite in the entire series but I have wanted to see how he interacts with other characters when he’s outside of Sasha’s orbit for a while now.

Sprig and Grime was such a fun dynamic to explore. I didn’t really think that much about the level of animosity Sprig must have felt towards Grime for years until this episode and I liked how it handled Grime and Sprig learning to respect the people that each of them had become. Grime is no longer the tyrant who only wanted power and didn’t care for the people beneath him and Sprig isn’t a helpless, weak frog that toads are conditioned to believe all frogs are.

I love how exaggerated Grime and Sprig’s expressions would become in this episode. They got to have some of the most fun and dynamic animation in 3B. I liked how the exaggeration was used in the fights as well to emphasize Grime and Sprig’s strengths in their fight against the Hybeenas (I don’t know if I spelled that right).

I also enjoyed being able to see Sasha and Anne being friends and in a partnership leading the rebellion. Anne filling in Sasha’s blind spots when it comes to the feelings of Sprig and Grime and backing her up in her decree that made Sprig and Grime work together was just fun background development. That and the fact that we’ve gotten to see them be a lot more casual with their touches and interactions (like holding hands in “Mother of Olms”, Sasha slinging her arm around Anne’s shoulders, the “drumroll please”, etc). There isn’t the weight or awkwardness that was present in season 2 and we are seeing two people who are childhood friends interacting.

We get to see some cracks in Sasha’s usually put together facade (let's face it Sasha is a mess underneath. We all know it) during the cheer at Sprig and Beatrix’s matchup. “I’m very busy Hop Pop!” and not changing the cheer makes me question how exactly she is coping with the stress she is under. This is just a little thing that I would like to see more insight into if possible.

The Root of Evil

“The Root of Evil” was unexpected because I would have never in a million years thought that a cartoon airing on Disney channel would have an entire episode paying homage to Midsommar. I remember watching Midsommar in theaters when it came out (I am a fan of many A24 films and appreciate their horror) and so I understood all the references.

This scene in particular gave me chills. Anyone who’s watched the movie knows  what this is referencing and lets just say it’s not nearly as fun as this makes it out to be which should say something.

I really like how season 3 is bringing back aspects from seasons 1 and 2 so that the story really feels like it is coming full circle. This is a plot point I knew was going to come back when I first watched “Children of the Spore” and I’m only shocked that it didn’t come back earlier.

I appreciate that this is a Hop Pop centric episode. There isn’t any real new development on his end though which I wish was rectified. The Plantars feel superfluous at times and when they do get the spotlight it doesn’t really further their development as characters or their relationship to others (Polly is sort of just there in 3B). I understand that season 3B has a lot of ground to cover and I think the decision to focus on other characters and plot points works because of this. I just feel that most of the episodes focusing on the Plantars this season haven’t packed the same punch that episodes in seasons 1 and 2 did.

Side note: I love the Major Armstrong reference. This actually isn’t the only Fullmetal Alchemist brotherhood reference this show has made. My favorite is probably Anne pointing at Sasha when being dragged out of the throne room in “True Colors” being a reference to the scene where Edward swears to come back for Alphonse when he sees him at the doors of truth.

Also there continues to be Hop Pop death flags. 

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.