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alibi_shopI'm still very much into this, and I think it probably still works great for its intended younger audience, so when I say it's lowered its ambitions I only mean it's not currently doing so many things that tickle my literary nerd interests. That first season was a hard act to follow, and this half-length season is coasting to some degree by just being really good.
Some things I think they set up well before, that don't advance much further here and I hope they eventually do: the whole fantasy planet and its mysterious past; the various Princesses having pretty different attitudes toward the whole quest; Entrapta's process of becoming a powerful villain without having a clue that that's what she's doing; Shadow Weaver's fall from grace among the bad guys. I think part of what's slowed things down is that everyone now knows each other, so whereas a lot of last season's plot was driven by having to find the next major character and find out how to relate to them, now there's a lot of hanging out together and finding out how friends can annoy each other—which doesn't do much for the story, but doesn't exactly play to the series' comic strengths either, because the writers are better at bringing these characters to life when they have stuff to do and not just lines to say. (I noticed this more because whenever people are reacting to each other's lines by making faces, the art style shows a lot more of its manga influence, which I hadn't seen so much before.)
As before, the villains get most of the best character stuff. Catra is getting more malicious but you still feel for her, whereas Scorpia and Entrapta show two different versions of how someone can feel no ill will toward anyone (and be adorable) but still be doing wrong because they won't look past their main interest. Lauren Ash as Scorpia is always a joy(*), and the show manages to make her crush on Catra a plot point without breaking its rule of (so far) never having any romance per se—it's still a kid's world where being in love with someone is the same thing as wanting them to be your best friend, which is a big deal too. And Entrapta, who loves to build machines and would do it for the forces of good except evil asked first, has the potential to convey a challenging idea—that someone can be perfectly nice and smart, but not see the world the way you do at all—better than in most stories for any age group... but she's mostly in the background at the moment.(**)
(* Scorpia is also a great example of how the show approaches ideas about diversity from funny angles: we've been told she doesn't fit in because she's "different", but there's never a hint as to whether that's because of being six feet tall and butch, having giant claw-hands and a tail, or being socially inept. On this show, any of those things could be normal or not.)
(** One of my favorite season 1 scenes is when Entrapta is first captured by the villains, who are slow to realize that she can easily escape at any time, and is only hanging out—and even putting herself back into chains—because she thinks this is a game. There's obviously a kinky subtext to this but it's not inappropriate at all, because the adult version of that game is in a way just borrowed from kids; it's also always funny to see different characters have completely different ideas of what a scene is about. There's nothing as weirdly hilarious as that in season 2, but I know the writers have it in them.)
On the hero side, there's a sweet episode where we meet Bow's two dads (a total non-issue for everyone) and find out that he's been terribly afraid to come out to them as... an indifferent student who's into sports and adventures, unlike his 12 scholarly brothers. Like so much in the show, it works for grown-ups as a joke about preconceptions, but it's also enjoyable in itself for anyone who likes getting to know these characters better—plus it's nice to see Marcus Scribner do more than comic relief.
Noelle Stevenson and company are doing something cool.
Some things I think they set up well before, that don't advance much further here and I hope they eventually do: the whole fantasy planet and its mysterious past; the various Princesses having pretty different attitudes toward the whole quest; Entrapta's process of becoming a powerful villain without having a clue that that's what she's doing; Shadow Weaver's fall from grace among the bad guys. I think part of what's slowed things down is that everyone now knows each other, so whereas a lot of last season's plot was driven by having to find the next major character and find out how to relate to them, now there's a lot of hanging out together and finding out how friends can annoy each other—which doesn't do much for the story, but doesn't exactly play to the series' comic strengths either, because the writers are better at bringing these characters to life when they have stuff to do and not just lines to say. (I noticed this more because whenever people are reacting to each other's lines by making faces, the art style shows a lot more of its manga influence, which I hadn't seen so much before.)
As before, the villains get most of the best character stuff. Catra is getting more malicious but you still feel for her, whereas Scorpia and Entrapta show two different versions of how someone can feel no ill will toward anyone (and be adorable) but still be doing wrong because they won't look past their main interest. Lauren Ash as Scorpia is always a joy(*), and the show manages to make her crush on Catra a plot point without breaking its rule of (so far) never having any romance per se—it's still a kid's world where being in love with someone is the same thing as wanting them to be your best friend, which is a big deal too. And Entrapta, who loves to build machines and would do it for the forces of good except evil asked first, has the potential to convey a challenging idea—that someone can be perfectly nice and smart, but not see the world the way you do at all—better than in most stories for any age group... but she's mostly in the background at the moment.(**)
(* Scorpia is also a great example of how the show approaches ideas about diversity from funny angles: we've been told she doesn't fit in because she's "different", but there's never a hint as to whether that's because of being six feet tall and butch, having giant claw-hands and a tail, or being socially inept. On this show, any of those things could be normal or not.)
(** One of my favorite season 1 scenes is when Entrapta is first captured by the villains, who are slow to realize that she can easily escape at any time, and is only hanging out—and even putting herself back into chains—because she thinks this is a game. There's obviously a kinky subtext to this but it's not inappropriate at all, because the adult version of that game is in a way just borrowed from kids; it's also always funny to see different characters have completely different ideas of what a scene is about. There's nothing as weirdly hilarious as that in season 2, but I know the writers have it in them.)
On the hero side, there's a sweet episode where we meet Bow's two dads (a total non-issue for everyone) and find out that he's been terribly afraid to come out to them as... an indifferent student who's into sports and adventures, unlike his 12 scholarly brothers. Like so much in the show, it works for grown-ups as a joke about preconceptions, but it's also enjoyable in itself for anyone who likes getting to know these characters better—plus it's nice to see Marcus Scribner do more than comic relief.
Noelle Stevenson and company are doing something cool.
