LTA: The Perks of Being a Contrarian

The only reason animation-related content hasn't stagnated is because of the glut of new content. However, it's a different tune with a very similar mix, just praising what's good and going after what's bad, hardly anything ever in-between.

This isn't something that just happens to be, at this rate it feels like it's enforced. Any opinion straying from the norm is met with backlash, and I don't need to mention the pettiness of many a-detractor.

I had talked about he who has been named far too many times because he's currently the most relevant contrarian, and that has been treated as a fuck-up, against other key factors that are worse by comparison.

In this context I bring it up because one thing would lead to another. If we work to suffocate a contrarian review it'd set a bad example, people who know better would be too afraid to offer stronger counter-points to popular opinions, less they want to be edged out and ridiculed.

This goes back to toxic positivity, where people only focus on the good of what they talk about and never the bad, slowly nurturing the more toxic nature of their own fandoms. In this case, reacting harshly if anyone dare say anything negative about something people view positively.

Hell, it borders on cult territory, where excommunication comes from anyone questioning the doctrine.

It goes for the other extreme as well, people are so fine-tuned to major flaws in bad content that they just focus on what's obvious rather than look deeper into the real ins and outs of a film.

This is dangerous, because if we abide to either extreme, only a few different videos would suffice, people would go at you for beating a dead horse or worst case, call you a rip-off, when all we were doing is what the norm was established to be.

At this point, these norms are what's guaranteed for that sweet Patreon moolah.

Eau Contrarian

With how limited the scope of content is, contrarianism is more welcome than anyone is willing to admit. Counter points can help bring an outsider perspective on something, i.e., something new to talk about. Hell, it can show one's dedication to a show/movie as we're able to pick up on every nuance it has, whether it's good or bad.

The world won't end because we dislike some crappy Lauren Faust cartoon, the DC one.

By suffocating the right to a contrasting opinion, you make the reviewscape more authoritarian, and I don't mean like through one comment, I mean a full video where you decide to break away from the mainstream because you feel differently about something.

Everyone is different and is brought up different, so they can associate experiences with the content they watch, hence developing a unique opinion that may or may not be popular.

Extremes shouldn't cut it these days, if you're gonna go at someone for some poorly executed opinions, rather than just go after the opinion, why don't you take a stab at a contrarian review and build a stigma with it, and don't half-ass it.

Welcome to the Machine (music video review)

 Welcome to the Machine is one of my favorite songs of all time. As someone who's indecisive on all time favorites, I can say with certainty this is a favorite I can call off the top of my head.

Pink Floyd and their artistic visions need no introduction, it's common knowledge how deep they go, but I imagine we're smart enough to see the point behind The Wall. You may think at this point I'm gonna deride the band here, but I'm not, and I do bring up The Wall because the director of it comes here, well director of key segments anyhow.

Enter Gerald Scarfe, a cartoonist who stands as one of the still standing old greats. He is primarily known for directing the animated segments on The Wall, as well as handling the art direction on the initial album. He had also directed a music video for Welcome to the Machine.

This is interesting as music videos wouldn't become prevalent until the 80s, most you see are short films and The Beatles' visualizers. What this was meant to be was a visualizer for the band's live performance during the In the Flesh tour. As something in the background for a live show, it's a fitting combination, action occurs on all fronts, but on its own... is kinda basic.

My biggest issue with the video is how slow it feels. The most build-up we get is with that giant metallic creature at the start, but afterwards we have imagery that's somehow both too vague and too obvious. We get the idea they're telling us something in relation to, I dunno, fragility? I get the point behind the entire song, but I feel it's not best reflected here, perhaps if the metallic creature was behind a majority of the happenings in this I can put it to some clear meaning.

In terms of it being too obvious and too vague, we can come up with our own ideas, but we don't know for sure what the initial intention was. I'm just saying, if The Wall is anything to go by they make their intentions clear. This feels more like a feast for the eyes, but it's so slow you'd feel yourself going in and out of focus most of the time.

I did say it works with the live shows, but when you just have the video, the visuals don't do the song justice.

Welcome to the Machine uses synths to simulate machinery noises, the kinds of noises you'd picture in your head, but with how slow the imagery is, as well as its lack of a punch most of the time, it doesn't fit that well. It doesn't help that the lyrics are mostly specific, and the imagery contrasts with it.

Welcome to the Machine is either a discussion on the futility of rebellion, or a rockstar's slow descent into the corporate music industry, no longer about them but what the higher ups want them to be. I hardly got that from this video.

The video is still very well animated, and for something that might've been done with a deadline attached, I think it'd be better to see as a backdrop to a live performance.

LTA: Toxic Positivity and Authoritarianism.

 Two positive ions make a positive, two negatives make a positive, a negative and a positive, yields a negative. On the second, the negatives make up a bulk of the equation, so frankly, a negative has more power than two separate positives.

This was inspired by some tweets that popped up in my Twitter home-feed, I follow a guy who follows the poster of the original tweet. If you know me, you know of my incessant postings related to the worst of Enter's critics, and needless to say, the original poster's a total douche. My introduction to it came from a reply, to his original, frankly, douchey decrying Enter because of his adamance to not focus on key elements to series development, and for not doing positive reviews anymore.

I'd ignore stuff like this if I could, but based on why I left that group, it's just more evidence in favor of my delusional reasons.

To get number one out of the way, yes, Enter's turning down very important aspects to developing a series, but why not set yourself up for a lifetime of laughs or a solid cautionary tale and let him dig his own hole? This is the kind of thing you'd just watch, but people like him actually get mad over something that doesn't affect them. He has no influence, no connection to the animation industry, he's not petitioning people to give up the norm, people already don't take him too seriously at this point.

That, and the fact people left him because he just so happened to speak negatively about shows they like boils down to rampant pettiness. If you follow me on Twitter you're bound to find examples of this. Bringing this up because of the irony they never caught. People got on Enter for taking cartoons seriously, now they take cartoons too seriously and hate people for not liking them, and now take any opposing thought as an attack on their gov-er, creative process.

Authoritarianism: The enforcement or advocacy of strict obedience to authority at the expense of personal freedom.

The ideal cartoon community: The enforcement of positive discussions and the right opinions to have on cartoons, and strict obedience to key figures at the expense of the freedom to make content how you want.

This day and age, you can no longer maintain consistent reviews without people considering you part of the bigger crowd, and with fans they'd expect you to have the same opinions they do. It sounds like a conspiracy, but with the people I meet and the content I see, I'm beginning to wonder.

I blame TUH POSITIVITAH

The people who preach positivity, tend to be the most negative people I encounter. Those I've seen tend to knock down anyone who doesn't agree with them and dogpile in a singular area over someone being, shock and horror, different, not necessarily good, but different. Who are you to judge what someone talks about? Sure the content you go after sucks, but isn't positivity about avoiding the negative?

A lot of the time, positivity is hollow, and leaves you with little room to go. I've yet to see anyone find the positive in a bad TV show or movie, just what's popular and loved due to ongoing stigmas. Here's some irony, if you really wanna show your understanding and passion for animation, be negative.

A good reviewer finds something nice to say about a popular cartoon, a better reviewer is able to find the flaws in a popular cartoon. Or just honor your positivity and don't be a petty douchebag.

I use MrEnter as an example because he's the only one at this point that fits the bill, unless ConfusedMatthew is still around and pushing the brand he was known for. By judging people for how they go about their discussion on animation, you're suffocating the potential for further discussion, and once the elements you allow are gone, the community will slowly go with it.

Not to mention, by focusing the worst aspects onto one person, it's as if you want to avoid addressing your own faults. Why be aware of your own shortcomings when you can at least not be Enter? If we met in school, I'd tell you to your face that you're no one I'd ever look up to.

LTA: Steve Drain

I had read about Steve Drain years ago on the Real Life Villains wiki, then all these years later he suddenly popped into my head. Turns out something major happened with him a few months ago. So between King of the Hill and getting an idea out of my head, let's get this through.

Also because he directed so little movies I have no other reason to bring him up.

But First, Background

Steve Drain was the leader of the Westboro Baptist Church. For those who don't know, you know those protestors you see heckling gay people, army funerals and AIDS funerals? There you go.

Drain was a director of documentaries, which you probably never heard of and given his associations are bound to be as scarce as the Basement Tapes. Drain was the kind of guy who sought the truth anywhere he could. Cautionary tales would tell of consequences for those that took too much from the hand of life, so he went right to the Westboro Baptist Church for his next documentary.

Time after, he became a hard-core convert and brought his family down with him.

You could say that Drain was already a fundy Christian who found his people, but he was already mostly liberal. You could say he was easily swayed, but he was quite intelligent. You see, intelligence is second to logic. What I mean by that is that Drain analyzed the sayings of the WBC's former grand poobah Fred Phelps, and considered his beliefs so airtight he took them at face value.

If you seek to analyze what you know, it'd blind you to the emotional aspects. Drain had no rebuttals to the anti-gay doctrine, when it's more of an emotional deal, the LGBT are people at the end of the day, and it goes to show how science can be corrupt.

To say he rose through the ranks is astounding, especially since he wasn't born into it. Guy was a monster, he just didn't know it yet.

Fact of the matter is, he has to be one of the most evil parts of the WBC. Let's put it into perspective, Phelps used to be a champion of civil rights, hell, the WBC weren't predominantly anti-black, and when you take into account the heyday of the church, it was around the time LGBT rights were still well away and the moral majority was still a thing. He essentially had a warped militant perspective of the bible. Shirley Phelps-Roper was born into what her father taught so she never knew any better.

Drain on the other hand, to reiterate, he wasn't born into it, he took Phelps' word at face value and focused less on the emotional implications and more on whether or not they can be debunked, he brought his family to the church for conversion, oh yeah, he's also apparently super sexist. He worked to overthrow Phelps-Roper all because he felt women were inferior.

As another pro to Fred, he stuck by his daughter, and was more into keeping the hatred to the protests. He got excommunicated.

Only way this would be okay is if Drain was actually a double agent seeking to destroy the church from the inside, which we know wasn't true. Perhaps Drain was a dickbag all along, and just wanted justification for striking out.

Another aspect is that he doesn't believe for his actions he'd go to heaven. Wasn't the point to please god in their misguided attempt at promoting purity the hard way?

His treatment of a certain daughter should go without saying, okay he didn't do what you thought, Lauren Drain just wound up questioning the point behind all of this, and got the boot. She isn't antagonized and surprisingly is still a Christian, which is cool because even Christians hate the WBC.

So why are we here?

In December of 2020, Drain and all else of his family that remained were booted. Whether or not they were kicked out or left on their own volition is up to debate. Some claimed that Drain went on to become a minister at a church in Mississippi, but this is speculation. One other popular theory is that the pandemic made it harder for protests to occur and that caused already shaky ground to crack further.

We can only hope now that Drain would at least try to apologize to Laura, unless he has too much pride.

Final Thoughts

What we have here is the seeds for, honestly, a kick-ass meta psychological thriller film. It all falls into place. Also horrible people.

Episode review: Hank's Back Story

King of the Hill is fantastic, but not perfect.

King of the Hill wears its views on the sleeve, Hank Hill is passionate about his views and that makes up a good bulk of his character, but in spite of that he is still likable at the end of the day, which is what helped the show earn appeal from people on both ends of the political spectrum, it had an audience, but it had enough to entice people outside of it. Did you know the reason for Fox Kids running a promotion with King of the Hill was due to the audience at the time consisting mostly of kids?

Also on the topic of spectrum, it's astounding how a right-leaning show has more appeal than the left-leaning The Goode Family. The center to the right work on better appeal while the left abides to basic comedy, no wonder promotion is their main drive these days.

However, with so many seasons, clunkers are to be expected. The title gave it away, but I'm not going to talk about any Peggy-centered episode or the other more infamous ones. Reviewing is my passion, not my source of income.

Useless Divider

The worst thing an episode of King of the Hill could be is something without enough substance. For every bad episode I can at least understand their intent. It's Not Easy Being Green, not an environmental nut, but the big takeaway was honesty, especially on something important to other characters. Episodes focused on the Hank and Luanne dynamic, Hank learns to show more kindness to someone in need of it, and I have a feeling Peggy and Luanne are the era's equivalent to Sia and Maddie Ziegler.

Point is, I have takeaways even from episodes I don't like, take a guess what I'm trying to say about this.

The point behind this episode is that Hank has to live with the fact that he has no ass, no seriously, due to a lack of development on his glutes his spine is more vulnerable, leading to back pain. Only other point of interest is a lawnmower race, but you can take one or the other out and the only connection would be Hank's ability to take part, which could be easily changed.

One takeaway I got from this episode was Dale, who does what's essentially the equivalent to kicking a paralyzed man while they're already knocked down. Now look, this is par the course for Dale, and Bill and Boomhauer while I'm at it. This wasn't the first time they hazed Hank, and wouldn't be the last. I know they did worse when Hank went blind, and probably more before then.

But why am I not complaining about those? Because the episodes themselves had more to them, the hazing was just a part of it. Even if not there was a payoff to justify it. If my only takeaway was the hazing, chances are the episode was just too bland for my blood.

Next thing I recall is the mower race, and for the sake of throwing out what I recall, Dale does a grand bulk of the cheating here, to Hank mainly, from using nitrous to stabbing a hole in the water cushions Hank used for support for his ass or lack thereof.

And of all that, none of them finish first, though Dale places ahead of Hank. Part of me wants to be happy they subverted expectations, but another part of me is saying that this is a rip-off, or maybe it just wasn't well thought-out.

A minor nitpick, but they say Hank can qualify for next year's race in spite of placing seventh. It's down to the top 3, 5 at max, but I may never know how they do things in Texas.

Overall

The biggest issue with this episode is a lack of true substance. It felt like a slow day in the writer's room bringing a subpar script. You could say it can explore Hank's work affecting his health, but a few seasons later we revisit Hank's back and the episode is much better.

I... draw a blank for a closing statement.

New World Order: Watch+Review

I like the concept of religious films, or maybe I just hate atheists more, thanks Brad Jones. I would love to do a review of Left Behind: The Movie, but only if I can find it in the wild. For now, let's settle for something incredibly obscure.

I doubt this is religious, just felt like spouting more pointless self-trivia I guess.

Background

New World Order was directed by Jay Lee, never heard of him? Me either. You can find him tied to a number of generic horror flicks, but this is where he got his start as a director. Before then, he was a location manager and production assistant on scant projects. I don't have the highest expectations so far.

The movie never had any major distribution, so our only major company credit is Shoreline Entetainment, a sales company specializing in independent distribution, of varying degrees. While they're a well-established name these days, back then they handled z-grade, zero-budget garbage. Apparently they sold The Uniderground Comedy Movie, that obscure stinker by that Sham-Wow guy.

Their most major project in their early days was Dark Asylum, which was produced by Shoreline's founder Morris Ruskin, and I do want to see it, but the fact it's owned by LionsGate means they'd charge for rentals, I mean probably. Online or physical, it'd lead to giving money I'd never see again.

The film stars Lauren Fox, her most notable roles before then were in In and Out and Pi, but it seems she had dropped off. Somehow they got George Takei in this, everyone else has pictures to their credit, but there're too many to list and I never heard of them, if I listed them all it'd be longer than my actual discussion on the movie.

But speak of the devil

We start with the illuminati, no seriously, a triangle with an eye is the first thing shown, followed by occultist, religious and organizational imagery (you can apply to get yourself off the rolls in masonry if you're in good enough standing), set to stock footage of World War II and others, I'm guessing it's meant to represent popular conspiracies, but since this is right at the start I'm blind to their intent so far.

I'm reminded of The Republic, an aborted web series created by Ken Penders of all people. But even that was more cohesive than this.

We then meet our protagonist reading a diary entry by an occult novelist, and I had to get that from IMDb if I ever had a chance at following it the way I'm meant to. The narrative is split between the reader, our protagonist maybe, and the writer.

It goes to footage through the battery tunnel toward the MetLife building, I pass it nearly every time I go to work, it's not special. But I question how much perspective we see from the writer. Following more stock footage of New York, which goes to show how little of it has changed between 2000 to now (and though this movie was produced in 2002, little had truly changed.

Anyhow, the stock footage is useless as it goes right to the woman from the start discussing something with someone else. So far everything feels clunky, there's no solid progression. One second a book is being read, one second we go through different sections of New York, one second a conversation is occurring between the protagonist (I think) and an RA, one second someone else is introduced and the RA happens to leave.

Even Demon Island had better progression, at best the slower scenes happened closer to the end.

All I can say about this is that I admire old architecture.

So this is our protagonist, it seems, one who's been looking into the works of occultist authors. I'm expecting a twist, I don't know what kind just am. A common phrase you'd hear throughout this movie is "Noon blue apples", and it turns out this isn't traceable to real entries. In fact, this is the alternative title to the movie, which yields actual results, at least on Letterboxd. IMDb has the entry under New World Order for the record.

For now, the movie isn't that interesting, just spilling stuff in relation to the occult, but maybe it'll get better, this is only the first five minutes, let's give this another shot.

One hangup I have is that they're already interested in knowing more about the occult and have basic knowledge on it already. If you wanna peak my interest, have the protagonist already be blind to things like politics and... stuff, and as she looks more into them, finds it hard to keep to her beliefs.

Things of interest otherwise, the shop they go to looks fake but has a nice vibe, and the guy she's with gives me James Rolfe vibes, from the borderline thinning hair to asking for Rolling Rock. Most I picked up on the dialog was Hamlet and its connection to conspiracy.

Now, I'd like to say I'm interested in conspiracies myself, albeit unconventional ones. Like how the cartoon community is seeking to stifle MrEnter so they can prevent others from following his example and only present homogenized content meant to preserve an authoritarian atmosphere for cartoon reviews. Like how people only hated Donald Trump because he prevented the first female president from becoming so. Like how they only got Joe Biden so once he's no longer fit to serve they could give Kamala Harris his spot. Like how people are working to stifle Christians, they just write it off as nonsense to cover the trail. Like how Brad Jones is actually a grifter on religious and political content.

In other words, I'd like to believe I'm in the desired audience this movie is aiming for.

Eris, to give the protagonist the right name, hears interference on her walkman, or portable radio. I've seen transistor radios, this doesn't look like one here, and receives a message implying the inability to see the truth behind life. Then we just get jogging, before, and after, and the only thing significant is a masonry icon, and the number 58 apparently, but wait, this is actually alluding to a falsified sports event, which was all part of a mockumentary.

The Noon Blue Apples alludes to a painting, this predates the DaVinci Code, even the book if you could believe it. But then, we get an intensive looking in a bookstore scene on conspiracy stuff, but then again it's implied this was part of an assignment. All I got from this is that someone may have the hots for Eris.

It then goes to a sermon out of nowhere, no progression of Eris from the bookstore to there, unless this is showing us where conspiracies are the most common.

In another cut, it's Eris back to her room, and with her roommate, a discussion on late actor Vic Tayback's connection to the Kennedy assassination. Is this gonna be more hoakey than ROCK: It's Your Decision? Probably not. They then go into a discussion on Paul McCartney actually being dead, though at this rate with his ego and how he helped to destroy Lisa Simpson, all I'm gonna say is that the wrong Beatle died.

Here's another problem, all else from here on out is an information dump. Now sure, this movie is about conspiracies, but that's its downfall. It would be more interesting if a singular conspiracy had been the focal point from the start. My best hope is that she becomes obsessed with conspiracies. This may be shown as she hears conspiracies nonstop again through the interference on her walkman.

If you're out of the loop on known conspiracies, it'll be hard for you to follow along here. I get what they're going for here, but it really does feel like an info-dump, and I don't really know how I'm supposed to feel at this point. All I can gather is that everyone in this world is crazy, one you push the right buttons. There's less substance than Night of the Twisters, but at the very least it's not a boring lack of substance.

It feels as though they want to make the conspiracies feel as stupid as possible, while holding some kind of validity, where the points are delivered at face value with no expectancy of anyone buying it. This is a good approach to sharing beliefs, just share, don't cram, and by cram here I mean go on and on.

Then all of a sudden, well after constant research, Eris is all up in them conspiracies, and either her friends are the same, or not, I really don't know. They really need to get organized. They can call this movie Conspiracies for Dummies and get away with what it had.

I get where they're going with this and I appreciate the dedication on explaining these conspiracies, but some organization, even singular dedication, would've made it better.

But I kinda get my wish, noon blue apples is brought up and it's enough to cause the typical drop something in shock cliche. It was about a half hour before we got back to this, the remaining runtime is more than that so, go figure. We get more of the same, but at least now we get it in the main point of the film.

A bulk of the discussion is handled by a guy named Zeus, who has the same energy as a college professor at a liberal arts school, in other words, it's cool.

And this is a recurring theme for a stark bulk of the movie, going back to other conspiracies. I'm hoping this is a character deconstruction, that's the only means for justification. I'm not gonna lose my mind over slowburns, but I just want some stronger consistency, so I'm jumping around a bit, less I want to make this redundant.

I think I found something though, they throw in clues to conspiracies. The aforementioned masonic symbol, the 58, and I found an obscure one, Bob Dobbs, Church of the Subgenius. So if you're not in tune with the discussions, this is like a glorified I Spy of conspiracy symbolism. But with those constant interference messages, maybe her mind is getting fucked up?

There is a decent build to suspense, not suspense to something, but suspense in general. They were cutting it close here, less than two minutes to the hour mark.

The flow is getting a little better here when Eris feels something is wrong, leading to a decent joke when she sees her roommate again, and hey, the suspense grows ever more stronger.

So soon she gets a lead on the message, noon blue apples is an anagram basically stating "I am the messenger of god.", then whatever of the conversation, as we still have much of the movie this won't cut it for the conclusion.

One fault I noticed is the echo effect, it sounds clunky, you gotta be there.

And for now, there isn't that much else to talk about, all that's left is further deciphering Noon Blue Apples and possibly more explaining, plus whatever the ending may hold. But so far it's more engaging than Night of the Twisters. I'm willing to sit through to the end, and hey, insanity is a slow burn.

After what seems to be a long nightmare sequence of a night club and a graffitied bathroom, it seems Eris is reaching the end of her journey, where she is given a misanthropic anecdote about the expendability of the human race. The tension is levied with a little humor, Eris' one question to whom she is brought to is on the Paul McCartney theory.

After a while of losing myself in the narrative, we cut back to what I assume was a long dream sequence had during an interview with a clergy woman, but this cuts away too, I guess to convey the loss of sanity. She finds Zeus dead in the fashion of Jesus Christ, and his associates come to Eris, who has been driven insane with all she learned.

This goes back to a conspiracy on a typo regarding a biblical translation, where what was actually stated was that the world was wrought by female gods. We get to the New World Order aspect on Eris being invited to share what she knows. Turns out Zeus may've faked his death which was in order to get Eris to share.

At this rate I'm expecting her to die or just lose, but she puts up a decent verbal fight, even what sounds like wooden acting from Zeus has a nice delivery to it. The ending, while bitter, actually fits for the journey Eris took. She is driven to the roof by the cops due to them carrying a two striked cross (which I forgot the name of), and they went into detail on how it was used to shape geometrical imagery, with geometry being deemed a dark art. And then suicide. Why not? I do love how the people Eris fraternized with had the decency to leave after the fact, even Zeus was kind enough to pull the other girl away before she can get the book.

It's the little things. Also apparently nothing was in the book, perhaps to drive home the general futility in exploring conspiracies? They cut to four people, seemingly at random, but I do recognize at three of them from earlier in the film.

But you wanna know the biggest twist of all? It turns out Noon Blue Apples was actually just a masonic prank. The biggest drive to insanity was "It's just a prank bro" several years in advance. They saved this from being totally contrived by having it play out during the climax and before Eris' insanity truly took hold. So good on them.

Closing thoughts

The movie is a slow burn. It starts out a bit boring if you don't have the interest in popular conspiracies but when it hooks, it hooks. The movie is kinda like a conspiracy-themed ROCK: It's Your Decision, but the horror isn't by accident here, it's an effective deconstruction of one's psyche as they try to get to the bottom of a major conspiracy.

It may seem over the top at times, but that usually happened when Eris got further down the line.

It's sad this never got a major distribution deal, it would've held its head high above other movies at the time. I'm not asking for a Hollywood distributor, anyone could've done it, LionsGate, First Look Media, DEJ Productions, hell Artisan Entertainment's best films are its psychological deconstructions, they distributed Pi.

This is one of the most underrated films I've ever seen, and if you have the patience for it, you're bound to get a lot from it. I wrote the review as I watched it, so you caught my interest gradually increase in spite of all the babbling, but then again I had nothing to add to it since they were just discussions on conspiracies.

The technical aspects are a little off and even some scene cuts can come off as jarring, but that's just marginal issues, I don't think the director intended this movie to get that far, so way to craft a hidden gem Jay.

Episode review: The One Where Beast Boy Hulks Out

 Here's a bit of trivia, the plot of this episode made up the very first YouTube video posted by Dakari-King-Mykan, the Teen Titans' equivalent to Chris Chan.

We all have our kinks. Mine is transformations, though if you read my editorials on the She-Hulk subculture you'd know that. I bring it up because transformation is a focal point to this episode. Much like the one where Robin trips balls, this is another episode I'd consider good then, but disappointing now.

I had gone into this episode a bit in my discussion of the show in general, but I feel a solitary discussion is in order.

The Plot

After a fight at a chemical plant, Beast Boy takes on a radical personality shift. Already I see a red flag. He and the enemy in this, Adonis, crashed into a mysterious substance and the personality shift happened thereafter. In the back of my head, I knew something would be up. A better way to go about this was to not have the mutation become chemical. Perhaps due to constant anger, Beast Boy would slowly devolve, shown through more primitive habits he develops.

But no, we have a mysterious substance, and an expectancy that something will be amiss.

So, Beast Boy becomes an asshole, and gradually more irritable, culminating in a confrontation between him and Raven, then leading to a temper tantrum, and yes, it is a tantrum he throws, an ace in the hole for a hulkout, which happens. I like the idea, in principle, but here it feels very cliched.

But on Adonis, if the show had the shipping bug, Adonis would've worked better as a rival, with Beast Boy attempting to one up him by mimicking his behavior, only to wind up devolving because of it and lose sight of what he was. I had claimed they should've made Beast Boy's mutation permanent and have him merge his old personality with his new body, both works.

We then get into what'll make up the stark remainder of the episode. The Titans assume Beast Boy attacked Raven and consider him a threat, leading to a so-so confrontation. After that, it becomes clear that there's another beast on the loose, and it's Adonis.

At that point it dawned on me, they wussed out by keeping the situation domestic. This could've been a solid framework for a story where Beast Boy is framed for destroying the town by a rival but then another thing dawned on me, the writers of this show simply don't have the mental capacity for longterm drama, and damn does it show with these episodes.

Conclusion

The episode is both rife with missed opportunities, and rather barren. Around the point of the first transformation, it's one mere, bare basic, plot point stretched for the remainder of the runtime. We do never see Adonis again, at least in a major role, and another bit of disappointment, they missed an opportunity to discuss what it really means to be a man, not to be some beefed up douche but willing to be good to others and stick up to bullies.

You can't stray from an expected premise unless you can make it good, and they didn't. To sum up, this episode is the equivalent to the werewolf transformations in the Twilight film series, bare basic and so lifeless you'd forget about it as quick as it happens.

Other Teen Titans episodes are negligible by my standards, so we're reaching the end here. Given that I discussed the last episode of the show proper... I feel like going to the source.