User blog comment:Mattalamode/Second Opinion: The Promise/@comment-30307603-20170211174733

First of all, thanks for the shout-out! I need those clicks Now, I've been waiting for this post for a while, and needless to say, I believe it held up. While I do agree that this episode was made to show that Gumball isn't as peachy-clean as Season 1 lets on, as you mentioned, the writers take it too far. Now by no means would I say it's as bad as "The Dream", but it's still very noticeable.

The thing about Gumball's jerkish antics is that there needs to be a counter-balance to it, in my opinion. Take "The Traitor" for instance - I think it's a much better take on the whole Gumball "is a jerk" concept. Sure, some of the things he does to expose Alan can be said to be "mean" at times, but he makes up for it by performing surgery for Alan's sick mother at the end of the episode; and for a 12-year old he did a [REDACTED] good job.

However, I do agree that "The Promise" isn't the worst episode yet. I can rationalize Gumball's desire to be with his brother, and while Banana Joe didn't deserve it, the last 3 minutes were kind of funny. I think those who are claiming that Gumball's too mean in this episode haven't seen the real stinkers ("The Hero", "The Dream", "The Boombox").

Looking forward to your stance on "The Extras" next time.