User blog comment:ThatGuy456/A Guy's Thoughts: Slight Shortcoming's Sequel/@comment-31194372-20191208102253

Yay, new post! Sorry for the uncharacteristically late response, though I suppose timeliness hasn't really been a significant factor in most of my recent creative output.

For the most part, of course, I agree with your sentiments. This is a conversation we've had quite a few times: Gumball's inability to rise to the occasion in light of dramatic changes it brought about became a source of frustration in its final seasons in a lot of ways. At its worst, it made crude efforts at one-upmanship, as in the case of "The Parents" trying to extend upon potential conflict brought to light in "The Choices" (unnecessarily, might I add), but at best, stuff like the show's handling of Penny and Carrie happen.

Penny's gradual disappearance from the narrative is perhaps one of my biggest grievances regarding the show, and while I initially took that as the writers underestimating the sort of commitment they needed to make for a convincing relationship, the fact that their handling of Carrie and Darwin's relationship was even worse just made a lot of this stuff feel cheap and greedy. By that point, it became very clear, soulless fan service, and the best the writers could muster was an episode afterwards where nothing new is said. I realize "greedy" is something of a strong term, but it's clear that Gumball's writers are smart and that they know what they're doing, especially if Rob's character arc means anything at all; it's hard to really place the blame on anything aside from their disinterest in the series' shortcomings, which is a difficult pill to swallow when episodes like "The Web" or "The BFFS" make it into fruition and take up episode slots that could've gone towards something more substantive.

With that being said, I like "The Transformation" quite a bit more than you do. It's by no means a comprehensive episode, and I feel like criticism of it is valid (the lack of anything regarding Penny's fragile emotional state was, indeed, glaring) considering how much rested on the episode simply for how it addressed a subject that Gumball had left in the dark... but I feel like there's no way it could make everyone happy for that very reason. The fact that it didn't feel like it existed out of obligation was enough to win me over; everything about it feels like it was written with thoughtfulness and sincerity rather than falling into "The Drama's" ass-pully fan service. As for "The Mess," I think it's a strong episode but one that could've benefited from being earlier in the season, and thus not Penny's final major appearance.

I agree, too, that Rob was handled well. I know that there's a lot of people unhappy about his weird stint with "The Ex" and "The Spinoffs," but I never really took issue with it; they were lighter efforts just to keep Rob somewhat relevant instead of tucking him aside until he'd come back at full force. It's certainly odd to see such an important character delivering two inconsequential episodes, and I'm not really gonna try to defend "The Ex" even though I find it quite enjoyable, but I could never consider something like "The Spinoffs" as a knock against Rob—it's the series at its best. There was certainly a better way to approach the whole situation, but two seasons is a lot of time to fill, and I feel like the writers would've had to make another significant gear-shift in his character arc just to take up space between "The Rerun" and "The Future," and I couldn't imagine what that could be without becoming a rehash.

Sorry if this comment is really crappy, I'm very tired and burned-out at the moment but didn't wanna let you down. Looking forward to more from you in the future, Guy. I bequeath the torch of the Wiki blog section to you; keep it alive!