#kat's commentary

I am making this post because I ran out of images in the ask I was drafting.

Also madabapf please let me know if you'd prefer I didn't do commentary posts. I don't wanna break your boundaries as per The Artists' Code™ of solidarity and mutual respect.

Soooooo...

Okay, I'm just gonna--

I'm being absolutely fed.

Heyyyyy who made that post calling Tarvek Gil's official "evil vizier"? I think maybe you were noticed!

Also I'm completely thriving. Gil just said Out Loud theoretically within Tarvek's hearing range (I wish) that he trusts Tarvek. With no caveats or specifiers or limitations.

(He also maybe implied that he's actually trusted Tarvek since the Si Vales Valeo which happened ages ago. Which, like, I knew that and you knew that but I didn't think he knew that!!! And here he is! Saying it out loud!! With words!!!)

In fact, he goes on to say that he trusts Krosp, or at least trusts that he'll do what's right for Agatha, a clarification that he notably did not provide in his statement about Tarvek. Which suggests that he no longer feels the need to offer that clarification about his trust in Tarvek.

I am flourishing right now. Life is beautiful and nothing hurts! (Ignore what's happening to Seffie right now.)

Gil is very smart!!! He's just also a bit of an idiot sometimes. Normally especially he acts stupid around people he really really likes. (I would also describe the way he's been seen and described to behave around Tarvek literally always as "acting stupid" but that could be nothing 👀)

Yay! Dragon-based transportation!

[Sadly that Tarvek expression does not look like the expression of someone who just heard what Gil has just been saying... sigh...]

Poor poor Seffie, who is having a breakup with someone she didn't even know it was possible to be together with like that. Still, I'm somewhat enthused to hear that she's having the reaction to this that I thought she would have to this. It suggests even further that this plotline is saying and going where I think it is. [I am rooting for their relationship so hard you have no idea.] But hey, Seffie knows now! That's very important! Because I'm pretty sure she was completely clueless about it before. So, a kind of progress, at least.

I assume we'll be picking Seffie up on our way over and get some more perspective from her. Looking forward to it. It's definitely about time for a Seffie arc. Let's get that girl some Character Development! It's time to reassess priorities and evaluate personal motivations and reconsider some assumptions! Which is more important; familial obligation to Grandmamma or friendship/relationship with Colette? Which is more important; duty to her family or loyalty to her close friend? Which is more important; obedience or freedom?

And furthermore!! Whose good opinion actually matters more to her; Colette or Gil? Who would she actually want to spend the rest of her life with; a long-term very close friend or a guy she kinda knows? Which relationship status would actually be more valuable; wife of Paris Herself or wife of the leader of the Wulfenbach Empire (which is currently tied heavily to the political powers of the nacent Storm King and The Lady Heterodyne, much of which is based on his relationship with them)? And who does she care more about; her dear friend Colette Voltaire who has always been supportive of her or Gilgamesh Wulfenbach who she has been trying and failing to court while he's been focused on other people?

What has she been prioritizing and what should she be prioritizing? It's time for her to ask herself these questions!

It's time for a crisis of identity and a breakaway from the default way of her life! It's time to get mad at her family and crash out and cut her hair (and change her eyeshadow) and yell! It's time, Seffie! Go off!!

This was not meant to be a Seffie post but I actually have a lot of feelings about her potential upcoming arc and I've not actually posted about it before so it came out. Whatever, I can be deranged about Seffie and seffette (aka parisian coffie) and gilvek all in one post, it's fine.

I'm so normal about this. So normal about them.

Big fan of whatever this thing is!

What a funky creature!

I have decided I very much like this method of storytelling. Because I mean the show is for kids so you have to make it understandable to them. And some shows will make everything very morally simple and easy to digest to avoid confusion.

But LMK seems to have decided that instead they were going to tell the complex story but just write the important stuff in all caps. They just made it so you never have to read between the lines because they tell you everything you need to know eventually. I very much like this. It makes it the sort of show you could watch in the background and still be able to keep up.

The animation is really smooth and nice (less so in season 5, unfortunately) and it rarely feels constrained by the limits of lego characters. Most of the time I completely forget that I'm watching legos because I get so sucked into the story. The only thing that really sticks out oddly and reminds you that you are watching legos is the copious indulgent giant mech and cool vehicle scenes. Most things are resolved in the end via giant mech. It can be a little jarring, but I do not begrudge them this because it's still cool as heck and a delight to watch.

The characters are all really great and compelling and nuanced (even if it takes a while for that to be revealed) and they interact with each other very interestingly. They banter and butt heads but also fall in sinc and get along. You can tell that the relationships are very close and that these people care about each other. Whenever this show invokes the power of friendship I believe it, because it shows that power in softer ways throughout the show. I believe that these characters care strongly about each other because they show me that. They aren't always communicating well or understanding each other, but I believe that the care is there every step of the way. The narrative puts a great deal of emphasis on the value of companionship and the importance of standing together. It even puts a spotlight on the corrosive effects that longterm isolation has on the mind of a person, that being alone too long is damaging. One of the thesis statements is that we're stronger together. Essentially, that people need people.

The characters also mostly have compelling individual character arcs that guide them through the conflicts of the story. Some characters have their arcs less explored, but the arcs are present and important nonetheless. These characters grow and evolve and learn and hurt and heal; they are not stagnant.

Part of the story is thematically about intentions and consequences. Characters are pointed out to have made grave mistakes whether by action or inaction, intentional or otherwise. The events of the series have consequences on the characters and how they see things and how they move forward. The protagonist, MK, in particular is increasingly haunted by the things that have happened and what they might mean. And while he's stewing on that he doesn't realize that he's hurting the people he cares about by pushing them away. And we realize that the important thing about these characters is that they are not alone. That they can and should rely on each other and share the burden and confide in each other. That the load is lighter when carried together, that the path forward is less daunting among friends, that the journey can be manageable by walking it side by side. And sometimes a character will experience such a heavy burden that they forget this ideal, because they don't want to hurt anyone by making them hold it; but the truth remains that it is better to share the hurt than to hide yourself away from your loved ones, for you will hurt them with your absence. And it's all very compelling and poignant and I'm obsessed! It's very important!

I love how this show handles its characters and my only real complaint is that I want to see more of them. (I have latched onto an important side character that doesn't come up as much in the later seasons and I miss him. Bring him back to me. I know you've concluded his main arc but there's still so much you can do with him. There are many instances where you can deploy the boy. Please. Next season. More of him.)

Overall I would describe it as a thematically poignant and fascinatingly complex series that is executing the story it's trying to tell very effectively. If you can accept the presence of giant mechs as just being a thing then it's a great watching experience. Absolutely delightful. I will be haunted by the messages it has conveyed to me. I am probably going to rewatch it all soon. I greatly anticipate the next season with hopes for more moments with my faves and delving into even more of the complicated backstory. Like sure, I know most of the important backstory stuff (at least in theory) but the amongst the characters the ramifications have yet to be explored and I am very hyped to watch that disaster unfurl itself upon my screen. There have been many hints and glimpses of an event that's going to have a serious impact on the dynamics once revealed and this show is really really good at foreshadowing, actually, so I'm pretty confident that the show is planning on going there. I'm not kidding about the foreshadowing, I had vague disconnected spoilers before watching and right from the start they were leaving hints about things that wouldn't actually come up for a few seasons. So like, the story isn't subtle when you need to know something but it likes to leave little hints earlier than necessary that reward you for paying attention in the long run. I really like what they've been doing so far and the show seems to be stepping into a narrative place that is very much venturing into the unknown and I cannot wait to find out where we go with that.

It's something they've been hinting at since we first met Macaque! It is very obviously something that haunts his whole character! It is clearly something that remains unspoken because the characters involved are deliberately skirting around it!

The most explicitly they've acknowledged it is with the memory the 100-eyed-demon shows Sun Wukong in the Pavillion, and even that is just flashes of light and snatches of conversation! (Although the fact that this is what Wukong is shown is very interesting because I had the impression that the 100-eyed-demon tortures people by showing them the things that they regret the most) The closest they get to discussing it is Macaque sarcastically asking Wukong "fun memory?" after breaking him free, presumably not knowing which memory it was, and Wukong responding "no". But it clearly weighs on both of them and I'm not normal about this!!!

If they don't address it in season 6 I don't know what I'll do with myself but I assume screaming incoherently will be involved! They've got this huge horrible thing between them and MK doesn't even know about it! And while Wukong not telling him makes sense, him not exactly being the most forthcoming of entities, Macaque not mentioning it seems particularly strange!

In the earlier seasons Macaque had been trying to get MK to see that Wukong wasn't the uncomplicated hero he thought he was, trying to get MK to trust Monkey King less, but while he's telling his story of abandonment and betrayal he never mentions that The Hero literally killed The Warrior! He never brings it up! That would be so so damning, to kill someone who was that devoted to you, but he doesn't mention it! Later on MK even asks him directly what happened between them and he just says nothing! They were in the memory scroll! He absolutely could have showed MK what happened! But he didn't! (Also the fact that they didn't even run into the memory of that whole saga by accident suggests to me that either Wukong saw it earlier and tore it to shreds or Macaque himself was specifically avoiding it. Both of which say a lot about the amount they are avoiding thinking about it!) I have so so many thoughts about this!!!