User blog comment:ThatGuy456/A Guy's Thoughts: Slight Shortcoming's Sequel/@comment-37651071-20191208224057/@comment-30307603-20191211035329

Hello, CD234. Thanks for reading!

Yeah, there was certainly a momentum to her usage in Season 3 and even early Season 4 if episodes such as "The Bros" and "The Romantic" are anything to go by, so there is certainly praise to be given to the writers for at least attempting at some point. It's a shame that such momentum fizzled out and it came to a point where their relationship felt non-existent most of the time and "The Shell" felt pointless in its existence in the series.

There is definitely potential for Darwin and Carrie as a couple, and it is a shame the show threw it out like that, especially with the fanfare "The Matchmaker" brought about it. I am still baffled by what the point of Darwin and Carrie as a couple is if "The Drama" is literally all the show has to show for it. It just makes everything so hollow.

I don't like "The Ex" either, and I do believe it's a damaging episode for the Gumball-Rob dynamic. However, I do feel that both "The Future" and "The Inquisition" work to mitigate any damage that episode may have caused and that both progress Rob's character in a natural way after the events of "The Disaster" and "The Rerun." He has moved on from antagonizing Gumball and is instead using his knowledge of the fourth wall to tackle a greater threat. He is legitimately making an effort to better himself and do Elmore a service so that its residents don't have to suffer in the Void as he did. A few extra episodes to fill out the details would be nice, but everything necessary is in place.

"The Inquisition" isn't a perfect episode, but there are a lot of brilliant ideas in it that ensures it has my respect. It is a great episode for progressing Rob as a character and bringing his story full circle, and there is a lot of great meta-commentary at play. My stance on "The Inquisition" could be a mini-essay in of itself, so to save space, I'll just go ahead leave it there.

I'm not sure if I could say the same about Rob, but Penny and Carrie really did have their arcs cut halfway.