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It's funny how racially diverse the cast of high guardian spice is given that no white person would name their child after a spice anyway episode 4
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thread the last @__MoBlack/1459948109547593737
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Thyme probably doesn't like her mom which is why she's a lil snippy
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I think as the show develops, I will have to qualify my claims of "lack of conflict" to "lack of systemic conflict". Because we are starting to see some of the characters go through challenges. They are just all interpersonal
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I don't think it's the voice actors fault something somewhere did not go right
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we're doing family drama now
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I need more space than twitter to describe what's with it so we will pin this too
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it does not matter how we got here just roll with it
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We spent like 3 episodes not doing much and now we're frontloading all the characters' problems and insecurities into this one. And it would be better if these were more reasonably paced
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So I did a really bad job of explaining what was happening but in a nutshell we did all the characters' family dramas? So Thyme and her mom don't get along, Parsley's parents want her to help raise the family instead of going to school, Sage's mom is conservative
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and they work to varying degrees? But they all rely on the assumption that the characters are bottling up their feelings and problems, which is not something that the show has established in the previous episodes.
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It felt as thought it was relying on the assumption that if you've seen Steven Universe and the kind of story it popularized, you'd know that seeing kinda perfect relationships means there's more to it. But you can't do that you have to actually build that
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In terms of execution, Sage's story works best. We know from previous episodes she's been struggling with old and new magic, we know she's being bullied. She just hasn't really acted like it's bothered her all that much until now
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Parsley's story was presented as a... possibility in her introduction? But it wasn't really established until the beginning of this one. And Thyme's just wholesale just started now. So those work next and least well in that order
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There are also persistent problems with the basics. Like, editing choices that make no sense, dialogue that isn't mixed properly, music and sound design that just... doesn't work. After I finish I need to read into what kind of production challenges the show ran into
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But here's what I'll say, I do feel things. The stories are at their core relatable. It hit a lot of things I think about a lot these days. Just not in the most effective way
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And, in a way, I prefer jarringly introducing all this interpersonal conflict to no change from episodes 1-3. Because that tells me the show can explore conflict if it wants to. It won't just get stuck in magic pretty squishy land forever. There will be contrast in places