jules

Octonauts’ setting is a double edged sword- because they give every organism a voice, they can make people empathize with bacteria, coral, and other things people forget to see as living beings. However, that also means they portray consumers/predators as the bad guys, even when they try not to have a bias. Which means for when the urchins had to be eaten, they couldn’t be portrayed as alive (or at least at the same level of consciousness as other animals).

For the record, I do think their setting of making every animal talk is good for helping others understand issues a species might face, especially for man-made causes like pollution and climate change which the show covers. it’s definitely something I think should be taught bc I still know a lot of people my age or older who end up mistreating animals simply because they don’t communicate in the same way we do.

On the flip side, Wk uses predator/prey relationships to show off the different abilities an animal has. I was honestly very surprised with how they handled the topic of death? For a couple animals, their life cycle is taught by following a particular individual of the species, from the start of their journey to the day they die. And even though they passed on, their offspring can continue the journey their parents started. I think that’s a good way to look at it imo. Every animal has a role, and even in death their life is not wasted. They even bring up the fact it can be dangerous to be a predator, since prey animals have developed a bunch of defense mechanisms, and losing to those could mean dying. I’m glad they cover death along with life, and they handle it well considering it’s a tricky subject esp for a younger audience. I think it can be summarized well in this clip from the king cobra episode

They also touch on it in the episode where kid musky is introduced (forgot the name but Chris basically goes on a monologue abt the human perspective on prey/predator relationships and how hard it can be to watch. I thought that was neat)

That being said: I do think sometimes the deaths are a little mean, and the fact they’re so comfortable with it after s1 sort of gives you a shock when you remember the rating. Like we JUST met and named the snake in the clip and then bro dies🫡 not to mention the life cycle episodes getting us attached to an animal for 22 minutes and then they die at the end. Juice’s death was even played for comedic effect (at least I think it was. It made me laugh. Maybe that’s just me LMAO)