It was between this and a personal defense of Magical Girl Friendship Squad, I suck at percentages, but either this beat MGFS by one vote, or only one vote went toward MGFS, and if it's the latter, it's giving me hope that reviewing is now becoming more about how we feel about the product, not what people want us to feel about the product, then again the likes of Dazz will forever neuter that dream.
So, Butch Hartman. Enough said. There was a time I liked Fairly Odd Parents, but I found myself hating it, and it was well before Butch became a shit-heed. Hell, even the older episodes bug me as far back as the beginning, and that sentiment is slowly extending to this.
I watched this show back when it was new, a case can be made here because I actually saw it on television (I know it's a bit silly to bring up, but I don't want to come off as a mere hater.) People get mad when they say I don't like Avatar, but I can say with certainty I've seen every episode at least once, I respect the show, but I'm not a fan of it.
I can say I saw the show well before its divisive final season, many of the episodes I saw came from them, I don't think I saw any from the Butch season, unless the second appearance of the ghost pirate boy, Danny splitting into two versions of himself and one where Jazz begins helping Danny happened then.
If there's one thing I can say, I'm not going into this blind. So here we go.
The Obvious
Now you'd probably assume Butch is a big reason I hate this show, and, okay, so it is. He said he made our childhoods, so in a way the art is embodied by the artist, hence association.
Okay just to make this clear, I'm aware Butch only played a big role in the last season or so, people like to say Steve Marmel made the show great. Well good, I hate Steve Marmel too. I alluded to this in my Spike Animation retrospective, but for the sake of keeping you all to speed, Marmel is... partisan, to say the least. This didn't go for Danny Phantom as by that time people were more concerned with the Bush administration, but something happened way after.
It's impossible to distance Marmel from his political views, so this goes beyond difference in perspective. Marmel's the kind of guy who would've shot up his local Chic Fil A if Trump won in 2020. Marmel hasn't done anything new since 2018, so it's safe to say he's relying on welfare checks, I mean I guess. With his constant Biden praise/Trump bashing, I'm guessing he had done something truly vile and wants to cushion the blow. Also he uses TikTok.
None of you made my childhood, you were just an unfortunate part of it.
Oi, Contrivance
Not to mention, sometimes I feel Danny is too blase´ when it comes to most things, either that or everything's incredibly contrived, like how the world came crumbling down for one girl for the sake of creating a rival. Even as a kid, I felt it was incredibly forced, and we're supposed to feel bad for Danny? Well I don't feel bad for any of them because the genesis of that conflict was forced.
But you think that's bad? The entire show was built on contrivance. What dumbass puts the on switch to your ghost portal on the inside of it? Even if you're a dolt of a father, you'd know the right place to put the on switch on anything. Steve Marmel made Danny Phantom great? He couldn't come up with a natural plot flow to save his life.
Not to mention, the show had the worst use of clues, implications, and anything related. Sure you can't pick up on them when you're like... I dunno, six? Worst offenders here are the DALV group, spelled backwards is ran by one of the main antagonists Vlad. Then there's an episode where Ember returns after everyone becomes obsessed with a downtempo tune, it sounds like You Will Remember My Name, it's just like the plot Ember's first episode kinda, but the kicker is her reveal, a phony cruise called Mbersback Cruse, Ember's Back, even I could piece that together. They think we're idiots.
The Style
Is this gonna be a hot take? Dunno, duncare.
I'm just gonna say this outright, I hate the visual style used in both Fairly Odd Parents and this. It sounds harsh, but most of you already know how much I hate J.G. Quintel's style.
While I hate the latter in that it's somehow uglier than the bean smile style used in other similar cartoons (save for Adventure Time because the people there didn't know how to draw), for this, I feel it doesn't fit with the nature of this show. It worked for FOP because it was more of a dialog-oriented show and the visual gags fit along with it. This is a more serious show with humorous moments, and I can't take it as seriously with this style, plus ugly.
Otherwise forgettable characters
Many of the characters are the sum of their parts. Mostly memorable, but what use is that? I feel Butch, or Steve or whoever only focused on essential characters, many of them can be summed up by the archetypes they represent. I recognize them based on how they look, but I can only get so far with naming them.
It's a bit all over the place with the ghosts, from dock hands to princesses to genies, well okay that's just me, but this is about why I personally don't like Danny Phantom. There is one character that I frankly don't like, depending on how the fandom views her, this hot take would be enough to burn a hole through the ground, I mean I guess.
Not to mention, they're inconsistent with how they want the ghosts to be. Are they meant to actually be dead people? Or are they following the principals instilled by the later seasons of The Real Ghostbusters where they're more or less monsters? Are you telling me werewolves are real in the Phantomverse?
Sam Part 1, The Character
Yep, just yep. If a character is the cause of someone going through a life changing transformation, it'd be impossible for me to get them on their side. At least Mabel Pines gave us a much better finale. Sam was frankly too headstrong, and was the kind of independent that got on my nerves. Now look, striking out is fine, but it's always gonna lead to a mixed reaction. As I got older, my perception of Sam became tolerant to nonexistent.
Stop me if you've heard this before, a goth who has overly happy parents. What's worse? A goth girl who's neglected, or a girl who's motto is "Noone understands me an' shit" You can ironically take the former in any direction, whereas the latter is incredibly predictable, bonus points if the parents are oblivious. It seems everyone always pines for the goth ones in these shows.
But I'm not hating her entirely for that, there is one other really big dealbreaker here. I don't care if you're male, female, nonbinary, pansexual, homosexual, transsexual, African American, and all else out there, but the one thing I hate more than anything in this world, is activists. Preachy, holier than thou, at home with the Proud Boys and/or ANTIFA, annoying as hell and indirectly ruining the legitimacy of their cause, even worse if they have a celebrity's hand up their ass, isn't that right Paul McCartney with Lisa Simpson?
Now ordinarily I wouldn't hold this against a character if they went through it later down the line, but Sam and activism happened as early as the first episode. The fact they tried to portray it as over the top made the episode hold up poorly, since everyone's blithering idiocy blurred the line between satire and legitimate. Plus she's a vegetarian, and I am fucking scared of it (3OH!3 reference)
Worst things I've seen of her, whether it be her own fault or that of the writes, basically going banana sandwich and making her one of the best players in an adventure game, going on a downtrodden path, only thing I liked about that episode is the scenes with Mr. Lancer (if that's his name), interesting to see Danny trying to make up for unfinished work, and him being a gamer. We've seen the story about the girl being a high-tier gamer (or player in general) countless times, try to have the old-fashioned adult take that place.
The episode where we're introduced proper to Danny's rival (who I immediately forgot the name of) where they look after sacks of flour for a parenting class. Her aggressive approach to raising children is somehow worse than running a babysitting service, and at least it'd give people a chance to cool it, or maybe I'd be better off not raising kids. Sam here gives me the vibes of parents who raise their kids as gender neutral, or Desmond, forcing them to be something they don't choose to be. Psychological child abuse.
And yes, she encouraged Danny to trek into the portal and was the one who led him back in during the Genie episode. I don't get the names, but I do remember what happened in the episodes. There could've been a good opportunity to make a difference and have a dark conclusion, Sam realizes she may have been a toxic friend and that perhaps Danny would be better off without her. I'm just saying, even Ed, Edd n' Eddy could've made that kind difference had the show's worst season never happened. Even Hey Arnold! explored Helga possibly going on without Arnold for the most part.
But as Butch depends on god, well you get the idea. This segues into-
Part 2, Romance
Full disclosure, I'm not interested in dating, if someone comes along or I'm introduced then that's fine, but I prefer to be independent.
Now let's go off topic for a bit, Gravity Falls, The Loud House, Hey Arnold!, Ed, Edd n' Eddy, Magical Girl Friendship Squad, Invader Zim and Twelve Forever, what do these have in common? Either a lack of dependence on romantic subplots or using them in a more toxic fashion to contrast with what it's meant to be.
When it comes to shows that teeter closer to action, when it gets down to shipping, things fall apart. Avatar: The Last Airbender, Sokka forgot about Yue gradually when he got with Suki, and I doubt he took what he learned with him, Adventure Time, implications between Marceline and Bubblegum Princess weren't thick enough, and by the end when they kiss I was like (oh now?)
Star Vs. The Forces of Evil, you can do an entire thesis on how badly shipping fucked up the show, but since talking about it now is pointless in a dedicated essay, I might as well sum it up here while I could. The fandom became tainted when the creator worked extra hard on shipping the main characters. People began hating another character because she potentially served as a spike in their fever ship. They conjured up an LGBT girlfriend for said character just to push that ship, then the season 4 finale, yeah everyone's dead but hey, that ship came true. This kind of shit would ruin the show for anybody.
And psyche, this kind of shit didn't plague the show to the extent Star did, but it still felt apparent. This is a fault attributable to many shows that feature shipping, let's break it down:
- We have this non-conformist girl who's part of the main character's circle of friends.
- Guy pines for the popular girl, though it's obvious it won't happen.
- Suddenly the guy crushes on the main girl.
- Signs are more apparent than they ever were before.
- We have Sam who's one of Danny's friends.
- Danny pines for... Pauline? But it's obvious nothing will happen between the two.
- Suddenly Danny realizes he may love Sam.
- There's a ring, bond is stronger than ever when Sam fucks up Danny's life for the second time.
No comments:
Post a Comment