User blog comment:ThatGuy456/A Guy's Thoughts: Slight Shortcoming/@comment-9300845-20181124023051

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Great write-up! I've always looked forward to your essays regardless of infrequency or your perceived mediocrity.

I'm as much disappointed as you are with how Gumball/Penny and Darwin/Carrie have been handled. At least with Penball, the show tackled their relationship post-"The Shell" in a very timely manner (i.e. "The Burden" and "The Bros," which dealt with Darwin's jealously, and it was resolved nicely.) I'm more miffed at the fact that Penny hasn't been given a lot of opportunities for a major starring or supporting role in episodes, not just as Gumball's girlfriend, but also as a partner who participates in his adventures. I mean, why aren't there more episodes like "The Blame," in which Penny joins Gumball's crusade to unban video games?

I don't know if you're aware of this, but double episode featuring Gumball and Penny's break-up was considered at one point, but the idea was ultimately scrapped. Obviously, we're all thankful this had never came to fruition, but it certainly does give one food for thought.

As for Darwin and Carrie... I'm kind of conflicted on this pairing's existence. For a long time, I've been somewhat anti-Carwin and skeptical of the pairing because of my perspective of the characters, and I wasn't convinced they would pair up well at all. I was under the impression that Darwin was a little too young to understand being in a romantic relationship, and that Carrie wouldn't care much for that kind of sappy and sentimental crap. Of course, it took "The Scam," then "The Matchmaker" for me to switch sides. Still, I don't know why the show didn't capitalize on Carwin when it was still fresh, like with Penball a couple seasons ago. A part of me wonders if Carwin was made canonical in order to pander to shippers. If not, was it done so neither Darwin or Carrie would be left without a romantic partner at the end of the show's run?

As much as we may like to crap on the show for handling/mishandling its couples, I believe there's a silver lining to this. The show has never allowed its romantic aspect to overshadow its predominantly comedic roots, unlike what's happened with Adventure Time and Regular Show (or so I've heard. I've barely even watched these aforementioned shows, but there were complaints of too much focus on romance.)

I don't know whether or not this is an unpopular opinion, but I don't mind Rob being reduced to be something of a joke villain post-"The Disaster/The Rerun." That said, his arc should've concluded with those episodes, and that "The Ex" wasn't a very good episode (although I believe it could be salvaged had the writers been much more careful with handling Rob and Gumball's characterizations and their relationship.) I've had in mind a very different of direction on how Rob would be utilized, and the gist of it would his pretty much accepting his fate and metaphorically fading into the background, only to later emerge as Gumball's unlikely ally in whatever happens with the Void and that prophetic painting.

You've named Richard/Granny Jojo/Frankie, Alan, and Tobias' respective arcs as examples of the show actually committing to finish what it's started. Perhaps it's their virtue of their modest impact on status quo has allowed them to wrap up nicely. Whereas with major arcs, it seems to fumble with them. Introducing major status quo shakeups may have put the writers in a tricky position of balancing between standalone stories with episodic comedy and stories with deeper continuity.

It's strange to think that the show was eager to shake up its status quo at one point, and now it seems to be averse to continue doing so in seasons 5 and 6, especially with three of its most major arcs. We can only surmise as to why.