User blog:Mattalamode/A Second Opinion: Gumball Wiki Individual Appeals: Part II

Alright, five more episodes to take care of! There's no escape, the cycle never ends, death is the only respite, oh, God.

Sorry, I just kind of pushed the final edition of "Individual Appeals" a whole week over; I don't think I can handle the stress of writing two articles, one twice as long as the other, in one week. I value my mental health, however marginally, but that's not important, it's more that I'm trying to fill up space in lieu of a proper introduction to make myself look all the more intelligent by virtue of the sheer verbosity and quantity of words which I apply.

But enough of the process I just described and onwards to the actual article!

Russ: "The Saint" and "The Ex" (Regarding Abandoned Character Integrity)


"They were both episodes where they abandoned character integrity for the sake of comedy, and honestly I will not go as far as to say I hate the episodes, but they're just really off-putting to watch, and they re-enforce what began to irk me late S2-onwards with Gumball's character, and even when Season 4 and 5 felt like a return to form, The Ex just felt like it fractured the over-arching plot for the sake of comedy. (A genuinely interesting meta plot, that I think could really get into Top 10 lists or something one day, as I am a big fan of fourth wall breaks and I like how meta the show has been getting.)

"At the same time though... I can see why it would be liked. For late adapters to the show who started S3 onwards, who like that cynical part of Gumball's character (not exclusive to-keep in mind), there's also the 'I will always love you' parody scene which was a great reference, and also a moment I see someone's reasonings for enjoying. I swear Rob's rant at Gumball almost feels like it's echoing how some of the fanbase feels too, so there's that cathartic bonus to it. It's like you said on your blog once-- it was a way to introduce Rob back into the show, but if they've not got something planned, I consider the interesting plot they had fractured, and really hope that it's turned around. Even if it means at the end of the series. It's going to be a shame in retrospect if they don't, so for now I consider it 'fractured' and not 'ruined.'"



Yes, I've covered both, I know. But there's a good point here, and it raises that classic conflict of whether or not the extent to which TAWOG employs its humor is worth it if it operates at the expense of character development or meaningfulness. The issue is that there's no objective way to look at the issue - this is a conflict arising entirely out of personal taste, and to be honest, I love Season 2 and Gumball's raging cynicism.

The issue, however, with episodes like "The Saint" and "The Ex," is that they exist in future seasons that worked on fixing Gumball's moral compass, so seeing him revert seems slightly out-of-line. I do, however, think that they find a more specific angle than just Gumball being utterly destructive that makes the episodes operate differently.

"The Saint," for instance, operates in such a way where what Gumball is committing is so farfetched and insane that it transcends the audience feeling embarrassed to see him acting out; you're suspended in that comedic disbelief and the sheer extent of Gumball's insanity. Basically, this isn't like Season 2's grounded levels of sadism, this is something far exceeding that. Just... far, far, far exceeding that to a point where Gumball sells Alan's parents, destroys his social and lovelife, and eats his meatball - an act so stupidly minor that it almost stings even more.



"The Ex," however, is a lot harder to defend because it inhibits that good old moral gray area. It's not that Gumball is deliberately being terrible, but his character's motives are so haphazard that he stops caring about anything aside from impressing Rob to an extent where he unintentionally ignores everybody else. He's not being deliberately destructive to others, he's being destructive to himself. (I mean, the end result is Rob vowing to destroy Gumball again, which... shouldn't be considered the proper end goal.)

The difference here is that he's not intentionally ruining everybody else, as in Season 2 episodes like "The Boombox," and I think that's where the chief issue arises. Instead of coming across as an intentional part of the episode's design, it feels lazily done, and while the main objective is the same - Gumball acting out to some ridiculous degree and degrading his integrity - the fact that he's so oblivious of that makes the outcome all the more questionable.

At the same time, though, I think it's because of that that I can't get too upset at the show using Gumball as it does - it's thinking exclusively in terms of comedy and pushing out as many great jokes as it can with the premise that it's given. Framing the whole thing, for instance, as post-breakup woes is honestly brilliant and perfectly in-line with the show's humor code. Gumball is merely being used as a tool to play out the scenario, which, while admittedly bad practice, is crucial to the crux of the episode. You either have to take it or leave it, and it's a necessary step for the show wanting to employ Rob more in the future.



Ultimately, it's either this, or they never created "The Disaster" and "The Rerun" as to prompt it to ever happen. The show raised its stakes infinitely too high, and if it wants Rob to ever have any prominence after that, they have to do something like this to cause those episodes to lose their meaning. If anything, I'll go so far as to say it's an issue with those episodes rather than this one, because as perfect as they are as story-telling, it's incredibly harmful to the prospects of any further escalation for Rob's story arc. The ultimate success of "The Ex" thus becomes whether or not future Rob episodes succeed in raising the bar, and a failure to do so will cause everyone to hate it when they should be hating the source. Radical thoughts, I know, but there's some truth to it. It's like when an artist creates his masterpiece and will never be able to ever create something to such a degree - it's a mesmerizing cripple, and "The Ex" is an optimistic rebound.



(Nice, I ignored Penny and Darwin in this type-up as they were in the episode. Suck it.)

Circling back to the main concept, though, of abandoned character integrity... it's a double-edged sword. "The Saint" offers up an example of its use without much consequence, but "The Ex" doesn't. For this reason, the former works perfectly in my book because we're not invested meaningfully in any of what's happening, but the latter still has a bit of work to do for me to ultimately declare it a success. All we have to do is wait.

Leave a comment, Russ, I won't rip you apart, I promise.

MarvinDarwin: "The Pressure"


"There's no episode of this beautiful show that I completely hate, but still, there are episodes I dislike. An example would be 'The Pressure.' The whole episode seems unnecessary to me because Darwin is being 'tortured' for no reason and Masami doesn't even have a crush on him, she just wants to use him. Continuity: 0%."

"The Pressure" is a bit of an oddity. It's definitely not a great episode by any means, but it succeeds because of how light, meaningless, and playful all of it is. I mean, the outcome is a long bait-and-switch wherein Gumball and Darwin kiss and collectively make half of the Wiki staff pop a half-chub, but even that comes as more of a surprise than ripping the enjoyment out of the viewer's hands. (Looking at you, "The Apprentice.") This is an episode that understands that it doesn't mean anything.

If that's too vague of an explanation of why the episode works - it really is pretty vague - the episode's plot actually works pretty interestingly. The whole idea plays with that stage of adolescence in boys' minds where girls go from gross, cootie-ridden she-beasts to chicks, and Gumball and Darwin are torn between them pursuing their earthly desires (I'm short on proper phrasing, spare me) or being bros averse to hos, which Tobias and the other guys are pushing them towards. While I do think the episode would've benefitted from a bit of tension, or should I say pressure - Gumball just sort of folds midway through the episode and Darwin doesn't actually have to figure himself out so much as Masami forces him along - the outcome actually has quite a lot of ambition to it.



In our debate, Guy talked a lot about how Season 1 explicitly experimented with Gumball and Darwin being naive kids off on expectedly-juvenile adventures, and "The Pressure" definitely falls into that category. This is a very distinctly Season 1 effort, but it works with the characters and manages to hit its humor on the head. Everything is just fully-conceived and plays out as intended, and it shows.

Look, "The Pressure" is never going to be considered a great episode or a brilliant bit of commentary - that title seems to be reserved for "The Worst," unfortunately - but there's something about how at ease the whole thing is. The episode felt like it was very much in the groove instead of all over the place, as is the course for most other episodes that early in the show's run, and thus it stands out both in comparison and effort. Long story painfully reduced: "The Pressure" is good.

"The Box"
"This episode honestly felt like a rehash of the much more superior "The Check", only instead of a check it's with a box. Unlike the aforementioned episode, this episode is literally devoid of any humorous content minus the portal gun scene and the famous Mr. Robinson line at the end."

Oddly enough, I kind of have opposite sentiments - if anything, I think those two aspects of the episode are the weakest. Something something gross-out something something lazy ending... I could go on, but I have to retain your attention, so let's get more defensive.

While the kids' bits weren't anything too special, "The Box" offered an enjoyable chance for the show to take a shot at how Nicole and Richard's minds work, and their visions are by far the best parts of the episode. For once, Nicole's imagination allows us to see the character without the inhibitions of trying to look like a good parent in front of her kids (and subsequently failing) - it's just pure, undiluted insanity, and she takes it all the way to the end, even with the implications that millions of dollars outweighs living the rest of your life with no sense of security. If that's not power-hungry and supremely immoral, then I don't know what is. Meanwhile, Richard's segment managed to actually elevate the humble "Richard is dumb" card into another plane of existence. While it's admittedly short on the laughs, you have to admit that the whole scene made for some surprisingly compelling, high-intensity television.



Heck, even the less successful scenes had something else going for them. However dull Anais' might feel out of familiarity, the reveal of its cause - Richard finding a biohazard gun in the box and squirting it around the house accompanied by some campy jazz interlude - is perfectly executed in how masterfully it underplays the tension of the whole zombie scenario. And Gumball's scenario, despite marking the grand entry of gross-out into Season 5, which... ugh... had the delightfulness of Gumball idiotically deflecting all of the concerns of his diagnosis by praying on the slim chance that his ailments will lead to superpowers, even if the only solid joke in the unpleasant aftermath is Gumball's overhyped laser vision.

For me, "The Box" is the very definition of middle-of-the-road, but I honestly forgot how funny it was at times upon watching the whole thing again. It's one of those episodes that sort of sneaks up on you and that you almost underrate. Not... quite, but almost.



"The Cycle"
"Making Harold, a literal god among men, a complete BUTTHAT for literally no reason whatsoever isn't what I call particularly funny. The episode itself wasn't that funny, Richard's "roasting" session being more depression inducing than laugh inducing (really, saying PWNd in 2017?) and I'd say the best part in it was Harold's little buying spree."

"The Cycle" is a tricky episode because the first half is flawed in almost every way whereas the second half manages to twist the whole ordeal into something of a lot more worth. Personally, I don't think it does enough at undoing the almost-entirely humorless massacre that is the first 6 minutes, but that it was able to undo any of that is worthy of some praise.

I'm sorry, I'm doing that thing where I passive-aggressively compliment the show while still acknowledging that it's bad. Though to be fair, "The Cycle" is, like, not very good.



The episode is interesting in how much it completely dichotomized Richard and Harold, though. There's no Rob-Gumball dynamic where the bad guy has a sympathetic edge at all - here, Harold's completely heinous, through and through. It's not as effective of a technique at making the episode feel particularly balanced, but the extent at which the show goes along with it proves the decision to be intentional instead of a mistake. So in that regard, there's some clear initiative.

I also don't think the show was trying to go for Harold being a comically-overblown douchebag, instead making him grating on the level of how painfully small-scale his initial acts of misdemeanor are, which feels almost realistic. While there are a lot of issues in terms of those acts actually being funny - the entire flashback sequence is physically painful - it's incredibly effective in allowing the audience to sympathize over Richard even more.

Additionally, there's that his minor offenses make way for the sheer ridiculousness of how devastatingly exuberant his mind is when there's actually money motivating it. That's why it works so great at redeeming a lot of the first half - it goes from pulling punches to firign on all cylinders, but by that point, you're just kind of there to enjoy the insanity.



That being said, if Harold was insane the whole time, the episode would struggle in a different way entirely - it would be an overdone plateau, and there would be nowhere for the episode to really go. From that angle, in it being an episode that truly couldn't be written any other way, "The Cycle" kind of cornered itself into a matter of, "Does it really deserve to be an episode or not?" And honestly, for some reason, I give it the benefit of the doubt, and I don't know why. Maybe it's the heinous part of me that likes dissecting what makes things work and what doesn't, and "The Cycle" makes for a heck of a case study, but I legitimately think that some parts work well enough to make the episode impossible to write off in its entirety.

Oh yeah, and also, "really, saying PWNd in 2017?" my butt, YTP is a dying medium, give yourself a long, honest look in the mirror, ponder what led you so drastically astray in life as to lean on derivative content "for the lulz" instead of providing even the slightest bit of originality to proceedings, however wont your behavior seems in meandering along the same, woeful predictability, upgrade your comedic outlook, and fight me like a man instead of slapping together some all lower-case, two-word remark with limited punctuation and a virtual monopoly on vacuous buzzwords in the comments, you soporific dullard.

Conclusion
Whew! Did it. Now I just have seven more articles, then eight more articles, then who knows what else, then I'll be able to ascend into a higher plane of existence. Thanks to everybody for all of the suggestions - as always, it's been an exhausting but fun effort, and I hope I was able to defend all of your choices to some capacity.

Next week, we'll be taking a look at "The Egg," which is actually the first Season 3 episode I'll be discussing in a standalone article. Huh.

For the other "Individual Appeals" articles from the past two weeks, click HERE and HERE. Stay vigilant.