This huge contradiction in 5 season of “Samurai Jack” bothered and buffled me pretty long time. Genndy Tartakovsky in all interviews stated that the seven sisters are humans, and one of the main points in 5 season was exactly the fact that Jack kills exactly humans. But for some reason in 9 episode the sudden cliche happens, where the author and his team try to make Aku to be their father. Simple question — if Aku is allegedly their biological father (not even just a creator at best), then how they can be humans, if they are demonic mutants then? Might I remind you, that Aku is a supernatural, genderless, asexual and always lonely creature, who despises humans, other mortals and needs no one. Moreover, although I can easily debunk the perception of Aku as “irredeemable pure evil”, but if to consider this one-dimensional and absolutistic worldview of 5 season, it’s easy to not notice pretty hypocritical narrative “Aku is the evil and must be destroyed, because he was born from a part of the Absolute Darkness (then Aku was born that way and didn’t asked for this, he has no choice from the beginning, from the start of his existence, but nobody cares about this tragic aspect of the character — might I remind you that Jack’s father accidentally created Aku and rejected him, causing his aggressiveness; and Aku must be destroyed only because of his origin and nature/past, great — i.e. nobody cares about Aku’s tragedy), while the seven sisters are poor and innocent, they are not like their bad daddy, who even didn’t know about their existence, they are good even though they are born from a part of the evil (if Aku is the evil, then how he can beget/create a life? Moreover, the life, which can choose a path and be good-natured?)”. Another huge contradiction is the behavior of their fanatical mother. If to assume that her seven daughters are Aku’s, then why she was incredibly cruel to them instead of mad adoring and boasting? Why she never told to them, who their father is, and how he is awesome and hence they are awesome? Why she never claimed for Aku’s throne as a mother of his heirs? She sadistically abused her children psychologically and physically. She always referred to Aku as “OUR lord and master”, she told to her girls that they are (she, the cult and her kids) are just servants. Her daughters also referred to Aku only as to a deity. And they had no superpowers and no supernatural traits (they look like regular humans, they have red blood, they don’t feel pain during death of their other sisters, Aku’s blood doesn’t leave their corpses to return to Aku, Aku’s blood doesn’t transform their corpses into some necromorphs also, animals don’t show fear or aggressiveness toward them, while they did it toward Aku and infected Jack). Then what a hell is going on?! The funniest thing is that this “twist” is absolutely impossible, if you remember the canon of the classic four seasons. Aku’s blood is deadly and poisonous, it easily melts a metal and iron, it absorbs a living being from inside and kills. Shortly saying, Aku’s blood would kill this fanatical mother and her daughters, i.e. absolutely no “hybridization” or giving superpowers or whatever. This guy worked with Tartakovsky and gave some answers about it, and... it is unstated, whether Aku’s blood, drunk by the fanatical mother, created the seven sisters or just infected them during their mother’s already existed pregnancy. Hence it is unstated, who their father is. More plausible some unknown human.

I never thought about this small moment of the Aku's Fairy Tales episode before. Like, what is this place? It has this large throne for Aku specifically along with TV with various cartoons. Is that some sort of a cinema room? Or is it some sort of a conference hall? What is that?

Like, Aku can discuss something with others through his magical mirror or any other magical and regular technology from his castle. There's no need for him to teleport exactly to this building. From another side, maybe it is indeed some conference hall, which can be some sort of a cinema during free time, especially for kids, and also a special hall, where citizens can discuss something with Aku, while he rarely can teleport to there for more intimidation or whatever (if he wants), but mostly he'd look like a hologram, sitting in his castle. Maybe also some stand up thing in George Carlin style or whatever.

Huh, accidentally noticed this funny coincidence. Jack rides blue stripped T-Rex against giant spiders like 5-6 years before 1 season of Primal. Maybe just an easter egg, I don't know.

Small addition to this, this, this, this and this posts, where I analyzed the morbid aspects of Balto-2, Aniu and the husky-father, Aniu's nature and the whole Balto's past and parents in the sequel's version, also analyzing the information from interviews with the writer. For short reminder: Aniu is very ancient white wolf deity, revered and worshipped by wolves, in ancient times she was a regular grey wolf, who loved her pack and pups, but after death she became this white totem spirit, much later she mated with random stray mutt and left him (i.e. the stray mutt has no idea about Balto's existence and never cared about possibility of offspring), she gave birth to Balto and was with him few time until young Balto accidentally got lost and was adopted by Boris, and all it was a part of a grand design and prophecy. And, yes, Balto is a demigod, a half-spirit, and the writer of Balto-2 confirmed that Aleu inherited her abilities from Aniu, making her part-spirit as well, i.e. Aniu's death and Balto's accidental separation from her have zero connection, since Balto was her only cub and was only with her, these events are two separeate events and happened in different and distant time moments.

Here I want to focus on the small moment in the conversation between Aleu and Balto. Again, the writer of Balto-2 most likely simply didn't write a backstory of the reason for Balto accidentally getting lost (storm, avalance, flood, wild animals etc), since the writer doesn't remember and didn't give a proper answer in the movie itself.

However, what caught my attention is Balto's wide knowledge that hunters hunt and kill wild animals for meat and fur and then Aleu's sarcastic and actually disgusting question "Did the wolf teach you how to know, when a human wants to kill you?"

(I mean, did this brat think about that Balto saved her life the same way this "wild animal grandmother" potentially saved Balto's life in the past, for example?!).

(from another side, looking at this thing on the bag, the event with the hunter was planned by Aniu and the spirits for their prophecy to happen, so Aleu was safe...)

Like, yes, if to look at the context, Balto just explained to her the nature of hunters (what is weird, because he should explain it much earlier and that hunters can do the same with own sled dogs), and his such reaction was 'cause he worried about Aleu's life, while Aleu said it with emotions after being near death and due to reaction at "horrible reveal".

Plus, through the line "I was accidentally separated from her when I was young, so I never spent much time with the wolf" Balto himself debunks the idea that hunters killed his wolf-mother and even took away her fur and that she taught Balto to understand the intentions of humans this way and that humans were the reason of why Balto was separated from Aniu and hence became orphan. Or else he'd mention all this directly. He doesn't even mention that hunters could chase him and Aniu, Balto fell into something, while hunters didn't notice him etc. Not to mention that in such conditions Balto would hate humans and dogs even more than he should in the sequel, he'd never deny his wolf side, he'd never want to be a sled dog and to be accepted by humans and dogs, he'd go away with a wolf pack and would be proud of his wolf heritage. Or else he's a disgusting hypocrite.

And in this scene his facial expressions show no fear, no pain, no trauma and no grief. Just sadness that he accidentally got lost at the very young age and nearly never knew the she-wolf. In fact, if you watch the whole scene, Balto always turns away with shame and disgust, when he needs to discuss that he's part wolf and that his mother is a wolf, he even never calls her as "mother".

But let's assume for a second that hunters (or one hunter?) could be the reason of why Balto was accidentally separated from Aniu. Not death of the mother, not kidnapping of puppy Balto from the den etc, not chasing him and the mother, just the reason that led to Balto getting accidentally lost.

And even with such scenario I see nothing what could and would make impossible for young Balto and Aniu to reunite. Aniu is a spirit for centuries, she can disappear and turn into a mist or fog, hence there's nothing dangerous for her in encounter and confrontation with hunter(s), the encounter with them is deadly for exactly young Balto, so she easily could distract hunters and lead them away from Balto (and the den) for long and safe distance, then disappear, maybe merging with trees or rocks and hence hiding, and return to Balto and move him into another safer place, so no one will notice them, Aniu has no scent and no tracks just like other totem deities.

Like, Nava is still a living mortal wolf, not even a spirit, but he can avoid wounds through becoming a fog and hiding in trees, for example. That means, even as a mortal she could do that.

Plus, there's question, why Aniu made a den and raised Balto in areas with huge chances of meeting a hunter (ah, yes, grand design...). Like, Nava's pack lives far far away from humans and stuff, they started to suffer quite recently due to hunger and lack of food.

So, even in such tiny moments the sequel fails and raises tons of questions, again only confirming my thesis that the idea to make Balto's mother to be his wolf side is the worst idea and decision of the sequel, where her divine nature is the final nail in the coffin. And Aniu is the main villain of this all, she never wanted Balto, she never loved Balto, she abandoned Balto and ignored him all his life and ignored all his suffering and pain.

Some sort of a small addition to this post. Recently I realized how actually strong Balto's jaws, neck, paws and body are thanks to the wolf blood in him. Boris is a snow goose, and their weight is 3 kg, and Balto easily lifts him up, holds and transports in his jaws and very gently, without harming Boris. And Balto clearly trained long time.

The medicine box weighs 20 pounds (9 kg). A single wolf can carry and drag 10-18 kg in its mouth without any struggle and for long distances. That means, Balto would have zero struggle with carrying and dragging the medicine crate alone.

Again, there's no need in the sled team at all. In fact, Balto wouldn't be dragged down by the box, 'cause it's not heavy for him at all, but let's explain that he was a bit weakened after falling from the mountain for a while.

Plus, he was strong enough to drag and pull 15 kg leg of the grizzly bear (370+ kg) to its falling, and he wasn't afraid to attack the bear. So, another aspect Boris could roast in Steele's tragic and contradictional ballad about Balto.

The reason why Balto fell from the mountain is because he jumped on this ice part of the mountain on full speed and stopped on it with the stopped crate in his teeth.

I never thought that deep about such simple detail, added mostly for comedic lines, but if to tell seriously, there's interesting layer and several questions. And it blew my mind after realizing. And it is something what the sequels forgot, even pretty good Balto-3 Wings of Change (although in Balto-3 it is a minor nitpick, because it doesn't affect the story).

The original movie hinted several times that if not all animals, but wild carnivore animals have own languages other species don't understand. For example, the grizzly bear only roars, wolves only howl (and most likely growl), moose only grunts or whatever these sounds are. Sled dogs sometimes bark (in scenes from humans perspective, while among each other it is a human-voiced sounds of bark mimicking — in fact, the same thing about Steele's growls and Balto's growls, what cements it as exactly dog language), Boris the goose once honks. The young polar bear Luk only softly hoots and grunts, i.e. he speaks in bear language,

so his older brother Muk often translates Luk's words for others, speaking both in own bear language with his brother (especially under water) and in some "common" language with Balto and Boris.

And all animal characters of Nome understand humans. I have no idea, what this "common" language is, but in the context of the original film it is something connected to domestic animals, i.e. in wilderness there's no such "common" languages. Boris even sarcastically jokes with facepalming that he starts to understand bears, not only dogs.

So, does it mean the goose and the bear cubs speak in dog language like Balto? Huh... interesting... We will return to this later. With these aspects the thing is that wild animals have own languages, so they don't understand each other. This moment actually raises the question, how Balto's parents met each other and started communicating and bonding in the first place, if logically they don't understand each other due to different languages,

and in the original film sled dogs were afraid of wolves, and despite all those jokes about wolf language toward Balto they don't know and don't understand wolf language at all, so they think it is hungry and ferocious wolves howl,

when it was Balto who howled like a wolf after self-acceptance and embracing his wolf nature.

As well as it is unclear, when exactly Muk and Luk were adopted by Boris, and when and how Boris and Muk learned the dog language or "common/domestic" language is another story. The only reasonable explanation is that they learned this language from Balto. And if Balto knows and speaks exactly the dog language, and he speaks very good and confident, how we can see in the movie, and he helped to Boris and the cubs to learn his language for better communication, it is another great hint that exactly Balto's mother was a sled dog, and Balto was born in Nome and never lived among wolves, hence he doesn't know wolf language, what also rhymes with the early White Wolf scene, where the symbolical White Wolf teachs Balto to howl.

Plus, the tauntings from Steele and his gang with mock howls with dramatic yearning and parodying a wolf pack really get several layers — as I told before, in its core it was the cruel dirty joke toward Balto's husky mother for having a pup with a wolf (what also was confirmed by the director of the original film), but the jokes about specifically wolf language hit Balto from two sides in such context — it is both cementing stereotype "Hey, you are a half-wolf! You have to know the wolf language! Translate that for us!" and also belittling and devaluation "Oh look at that! He is half-wolf, but doesn't know his inborn wild savage language! He doesn't even know how to howl! He's defective and deficient wolf! Shameful abomination!".

But what we have in the sequel? For whatever reason wolves normally speak instead of howling and growling, i.e. for whatever reason they speak in dog language, so Balto and Aleu understand them and can communicate and speak with them, when the pack lives miles away from human territories near the ocean... WHY?! How can wolves speak on this language?!

Plus, let's dive a bit deeper, because in addition to the crucial contradictions and questions and morbid aspects I brought up, for example, here, here and here, there are even more. In the sequel there was this idiotic idea to make Balto's mother to be his wolf side, Balto lived only with wolf-mother and never had a father, and then young Balto accidentally got lost and was taken in, adopted and raised by Boris the goose, while the mother-goddess literally abandoned him and didn't try to find and to return him, and Balto himself didn't leave Nome to find her and join a wolf pack.

And Balto described the she-wolf's voice and then joked that it is miracle that he barks instead of honk like a goose...

WHAT?! In the context of the original film with these different animal languages it gets way crazier. First of all, in the sequel it only cements the version that Aniu (aka the ancient great white wolf goddess) simply mated with the random male stray mongrel and left him with thought he simply experienced a vague surrealistic dream vision and it wasn't something real, i.e. she made Balto with him through deceit and without his knowledge, will, permission and wish.

Second, how Balto can know and remember her voice instead of howl and soft growls?! Balto should remember her howling she made in his nightmares, in the forest before encounter with the fox spirit and in the sequel's finale. Third, if Balto's mother was a wolf, why does Balto speak in a dog language instead of a wolf language and partially goose language, if his parental figures were exactly the wolf and the wild goose, who raised him, and there were no dogs and humans in the sequel's lore, who would take him in and care and teach?! Balto should severely struggle with speaking in dog language, meeting constant teasings and mockery from bully dogs about being bad in a dog language and speaking only in wolf and goose languages.

And fourth, if Balto remembered Aniu's voice, that means she spoke with him in a dog language in the den... why the hell she spoke with her young son in a dog language instead of a wolf language?! And this question grows bigger especially in the context of those fan-theories "Aniu was mortal and died, and that was the reason of why Balto is a lone orphan" (ah, then why the spirits chose exactly her? She's stupid and irresponsible, since she decided to mate with a random unknown dog and raise her offspring alone instead of a pack, and there would be tons of potential candidates in ancient times), because logically she would want him to be a wolf and to live in a pack.

Okay, as the revered ancient deity she can know tons of languages, especially with the fact that Aniu herself is a part of the Great Guardian Spirit, whose other forms are other totem spirits, but why to speak with your own son in a dog language instead of a wolf language, unless you prepared to abandon this unwanted nameless half-breed bastard for greater plans to suffer among humans and dogs for the prophecy and the grand design with birthing the chosen one Aleu?!

And it is even funnier, if to go with the idea of Balto-2 fans that the metaphorical male White Wolf from the original film and Aniu are the one and the same character — like, she spoke with her young son in a dog language, so thanks to her he doesn't know a wolf language, she abandoned him and ignored him all his life, so he suffered among humans and dogs, rejected own wolf nature and refused to go with friendly wolf packs that accepted him, but during the encounter at the bottom of the ravine "she" howls to him, i.e. speaks with him in language he doesn't know, and "she" demands from him to speak and answer her in wolf language, i.e. through howling, and she left him again (instead of revealing herself and comforting him) until he answered with howl.

By the way, in this context it looks like in the sequel she took pity on him and switched back to dog language in his dreams and in the sequel's finale, yet even this way Balto for whatever reason didn't recognise her voice he remembered since deep puppyhood…

I never thought about it before, but it is really something very weird. Speaking again about Balto's sniff abilities. When Balto and the friends travel in wilderness, he sniffs the air for finding the lost sled team. Later he does it again and stuff (also for returning home with them). And here's my question — why does Balto always point out "Steele!" after catching the scent of the team?! Like, seriously, he calls exactly Steele's name thrice. Why not to say "The sled team" or "The sled dogs" or just "The crate/box"?

And I checked the official novel, and there's nothing of these "Steele!.."-fixed callings at all. Because it gives the weird implication that either Balto has hidden obsessive crush toward Steele (yeah, truly the face of a person unencumbered by intelligence, but we discovered it already, for example, here and here)

or Balto caught exactly and only Steele's scent all this time...

Ah, WHY?! And I don't even want to go further with the mad idea that Steele walked in the ice cave Balto will lead the team later.

Like, this idiot told with boasting to other sled dogs something about how he swam in cold river or whatever (huh... imagine, if Steele really walked on this ice bridge and then just fell into the abyss with the river and still survived...)

By the way, in this particular scene Balto should notice the red/pink/orange/yellow warm color from the lantern in the first place and much earlier.

There's no need in sniffing etc. Balto would notice this warm shining from long distance and much earlier. I mean, Balto for sure sniffed various scents — wolves and grizzly bear, for example, i.e. he can see and understand that these scents are familliar and these aren't, they're different and new.

Plus, at first you could argue that Balto simply memorized exactly Steele's scent, because (aside of Jenna) Steele was the only dog Balto interacted closely the most, but no, before his journey Balto was close to other sled dogs during the run,

he was near their dredger as well, and he lives since his puppyhood in Nome, so even if he didn't come close to them and didn't interact with them, he still perfectly knows the scent of nearly every dog and human of Nome.

I can buy the idea that among the whole sled team Balto knew the name of exactly Steele, yet since Steele's team wins for 4 years already, it is still hard to believe the other teammates aren't famous at least in terms of names (and Steele briefly meantioned the names of the trio near Balto at least). Yes, they can be unaware of Balto's name and heritage, but he can't with all his love to sled races. Or else humans and dogs really worship only to Steele, so only his name is so widely known, I don't know.

Some sort of a logical addition and a sequel to this, this, this and this posts, where I debunked various things about Balto-3 some fans misinterpreted or made some misconceptions about.

At the start, let's find the chronology of the events in the trilogy about Balto. The original film happens in between January and early-February of 1925 (IRL the first victim of diphtheria died in 28 December of 1924, while the epidemy came into active and official/noticed state in middle-January, especially since 21 January of 1925, Balto's sled team arrived with the medicine to Nome 2 February of 1925).

The beginning of Balto-2 happens in late-April of 1925, while the finale of Balto-2 happens in somewhere between September-October of 1926 (orcas or killer whales live in Alaska since April until September or at best mid-October and then migrate through Bering Strait, and since Balto points out the winter will be way earlier at this time, it is September for sure).

Balto-3 happens in somewhere between middle-March and early-May of 1928 (snow geese appear on Alaska in May to make nests and lay eggs exactly in late-May).

Now about minor visual bloopers: 1. In the original film Rosie's dad had brown hair, while Rosie's mom had black hair.

In Balto-3 Rosie's mom suddenly has red hair instead of black.

From another side, technically, such color change is possible, if Rosie's mother had genes of red hair in her family, but I still think it is a blooper. Or this woman from Balto-3 is Rosie's paternal aunt, I don't know. 2. I remind, Balto-3 happens 3,3 years after the original film. During these 3+ years Rosie and the bear cubs should become older and look older.

Polar bears leave their mothers, when they become 3+ years old.

In the original film Rosie was 8 y/o, according to the official novel,

hence in Balto-3 she's 11-12 y/o.

Now let's talk about few moments, which can be seen as a missed opportunity, as if these characters were forgotten and lacked a potential etc, when they actually aren't. 1. Rosie should have more screentime in the story, it would be great, if she had more cute scenes with Balto and Jenna, not only small opening sequence. But let's not forget that now Rosie is healthy and goes to school (remember Dixie's line to Steele after the race that her young owner girl is still in school?), so she is older now and hence spends more time in school for understandable reasons.

2. I heard how some people complained that Nikki, Kaltag and Star and their teammates don't participate in the race against Duke's plane and just were small easter eggs in few scenes. However, logically it can be explained in fact.

(among easter eggs you also can notice Morse and Doc, Sylvie and even Scotty dog from Balto-2)

First of all, they are now way older than in the original movie. Balto-3 happens nearly 3,5 years after the events of the original movie. When in the original film before 1925 aka since 1921-1922 they already won 4 years, i.e. they were 5,5-6+ y/o in the original film already.

Second, after the deadly Nome-Nenana-Nome relay they're most likely severely exhausted in cold and run (compare Nome-Nenana-Nome from the original film to Nome-WhiteMountain-Nome, which is 1/5 of Nome-Nenana path or even smaller and shorter, some maps even show White Mountain much closer to Nome than the map in Balto-3),

it affected their health, so they experience it all these years and hence can't run that fast and in long distances anymore (IRL relay as an example). I.e. they are veterans in some senses.

Ralph and Kirby after fast run from Nome to White Mountain and back were exhausted and felt pain in paws and back.

3. Some people, apparently Balto-2 fans, were curious, why Balto-3 totally ignores Aleu, as if she never existed, since nobody mentions her, nobody worries about her fate etc. Well, better to kick Aleu and her film into full oblivion, so Wings of Change did the right thing... At least, Aleu was briefly remembered in 2-3 small scenes of You Don't Have To Be A Hero song, that's enough.

But let's try to look at it a bit more open-minded. Balto-3 happens 1,5-1,8 years after Balto-2, i.e. the characters reflected it all already. And if there's no surrealistic nightmares and ancient creepy totem spirits with vague riddles and dark messages, everything is fine with Aleu and the wolf pack.

Not to mention that the characters have own personal life and stuff, so they don't need and don't have to think about Aleu 24/7 and always bring her up, there's no point in it and in remembering Balto-2 at all.

Once I made the theory about Balto's wolf song, now I want to discuss another element. Treat it like a theory or interpretation, if you want. Let's return to the wolf pack, which was ready to accept Balto as a part of their family, and once I even told about a possibility of them being Balto's family, and that the leader could be Balto's father. Too bad Simon Wells gave no commentaries about them, because this particular small scene tells a lot, and it would be very interesting to see the early versions of this scene in storyboards and scripts, maybe some extended and deleted scenes. The only weird thing about them is this pup, which couldn't be born during winter, and it is unlikely the pup would survive such winter. Maybe the pup didn't exist in early versions, so there were three or four adult wolves instead, and they had bigger role. Because in the final version it is pretty hard to identify them. Like, the leader is obviously a male, and he is pretty different in fur color and the largest in the pack, the other three wolves... maybe all three grey ones are his offspring, maybe the light-grey wolf is the leader's mate, so the grey-wolf and the cub are their pups, maybe the grey wolf and light-grey she-wolf are a couple, and the pup is their, not the leader's. I once saw the workprint of this scene from the Amblimation crew video, but it was in pretty low quality, so it was really hard to tell, whether it had the pup or not, although I personally didn't notice it, I noticed only three adult wolves.

Previously I mentioned (here and here) the interesting parallel and symbolism. Balto wants to be a dog, denies his wolf nature and refuses to join the friendly wolf pack, whose male leader offers Balto to become a member of their family. Boris is Balto's father figure, who supports Balto and helps him to find and to accept his true (wolf), and Boris is white. And later Balto encounters the White Wolf, who is a male, white and the symbol of Balto's true (wolf) nature and self-acceptance, and in the scene with the White Wolf Balto recalls the crucial words of Boris. Simply saying, Balto's adoptive father helps him to accept his wolf half, Balto's wolf side is portrayed as the large magnificent male white wolf, previously rejected by Balto in during the interaction with the wolf pack, who has similar movements the White Wolf had.

And let's go a bit further with it. Whole Balto's adoptive family, his father (Boris) and two brothers (Muk and Luk), is white and of different species — the goose and the polar bears. This moment is pretty interesting subtle hint that Balto's mother was a sled dog, while Balto's father was a wolf. And together they are four, and the wolf pack has exactly four members.

And even if this particular wolf pack isn't Balto's family, but just the mirror for Balto's family (and Balto's adoptive family), what if Balto had one or two siblings? Then what happened to them? They could die at the very young age, or they were adopted, because they looked more like dogs, while Balto wasn't adopted due to looking like a wolf.

Small addition to this post. We all know the mesmerizing moment under the hospital, where Balto comforts Jenna with the Northern Lights trick, made from the light and broken color bottles.

Whether Balto discovered this trick himself or Boris (and/or Balto's husky mom) taught him this and used to cheer him up in his puppyhood, it doesn't matter.

Later Jenna uses this trick for Balto as the act of hope that never dies, the hope he is alive and Rosie and the kids will survive.

Personally, I think, this scene would be much better, if Boris and the bear cubs participated with Jenna in bringing the broken bottles and the lantern for creating the Northern Lights and stayed together in this scene.

Such moment would work perfectly both for nailing this symbol of love and hope, for growing bond between Jenna and Balto's three friends and for demonstrating Boris's paternal love toward Balto.

Because, in my opinion, it is the wasted opportunity, the movie gave impression as if it forgot that Boris and the bear cubs watched and heard all those bad news along with Jenna, and that Jenna could need help with her wound. They should be with her in this scene, and we'd feel they find and learn more about each other.

In one of the early versions of the script there was a deleted scene, where Jenna finds Balto with hurted paw and helps him to move most likely to his ship, and they discussed Boris and the cubs, and this moment kinda explained, how Jenna can know the names of the bear cubs near the lake scene.

In some senses a small addition to this post. I recently realized a weird moment in the dredger scene. Like, as we know, Jenna got injury and was seriously weakened, so Boris and the bear cubs transported her to Nome. Most likely, they arrived at evening and to the dredger, so other sled dogs (especially Doc) saw it and helped her to move to the dredger, where she can relax and get warmer and stuff.

So... these dogs saw how this wild goose and the polar bear cubs, the friends of the stray half-wolf they bully and reject, helped and basically rescued the wounded domestic purebred dog from wilderness,

but apparently didn't allow them to join her and them in the dredger as an act of gratitude and honor

and then mock on Jenna and Balto instead...

What the disgusting hypocrites. Looking at this moment, Boris and the bear cubs sat near the dredger's window all these minutes, they probably saw Steele, running and moving into the dredger, but the most importantly, they saw all his fake actor parodying and heard Steele's tale about Balto's death...

and Boris, who has the critical thinking and knows Balto well and treats Balto as his beloved son, shows no bright emotions after these dark news about the death of his son and doesn't call Steele out for both his fake "sorrow" acting, for his cruelty toward Balto (both the alley scene, the boiler room with the butcher scene and the finish line scene with putting Balto in grave danger) and especially for tons of contradictions in Steele's story and in lack of details.

Like, really, Steele says "I went on, dragging the medicine alone, all alone. And then suddenly that wolfdog appeared. Balto... He demanded I let him take the medicine. You know, he just wanted so much to be a hero in your eyes... And then he grabbed the crate, but he couldn't handle it. He couldn't see that patch of ice, and the snow, the wind, and the log, and the cliff... He didn't have a chance, I'm sorry... and then... He made me promise to take care of you, Jenna." — even before this final line to Jenna Boris should call Steele out.

Something like "Hey, Balto isn't that stupid or blind to not notice vulnerable and thin ice, to stay on the edge of a cliff and to irresponsibly grab "allegedly very heavy box for him" during powerful winds and near the abyss! What actually happened there?! And how the hell you both happened to be near a cliff or the edge of a cliff?! Why you was near the edge of a cliff?! Why did Balto go to the edge of a cliff, if his goal was to bring the medicine safe?! You forced him to do this or what?! How Balto with the box happened to be on a far distance from Steele?! Why Steele didn't help Balto, if he is so noble and strong?! How and why Steele has Jenna's bandana, if Balto had it in the first place?! Jenna gave Balto her bandana! You really want to tell me Steele wouldn't fall with both Balto and the box, if he grabbed Balto in attempt to rescue him and the crate?! What actually happened to Balto?! He fell from a mountain?! How and why?! He slipped away from it due to ice and winds or what?! Or he was buried under these logs or was thrown by them away from this cliff into abyss or what?! If it was an avalance, why to not say that in the first place and directly instead of these vague words and playing comedy?! And Balto would ask to care about Rosie! About Jenna's little girl!". That would be awesome roasting in fact.

You can argue Boris was afraid for own life, and Steele could later attack and kill him and the polar bear cubs outside of Nome, but I am pretty sure Doc and Jenna would protect Boris and join him as well in opposing to Steele. I mean, Doc was the only one, who asked questions twice, and Steele clearly disliked that,

and among dogs Jenna was the only one, who realized that Steele's a liar — she knows how Steele hates Balto and how he previously ruined all Balto's chances to reach of a happy life and acceptance by humans and dogs, she knows how gloryhound, sadistic and manipulative Steele is, maybe his teeth and body still had Balto's scent, what would hint Steele attacked him, while Balto did nothing and stuff.

Maybe finally the lead dog of the rival team also told that Steele hurted them and kicked out from the race for the sake of own victory, since there were several witnesses, including their musher.

Like, yes, they don't have enough proofs that Steele killed them or whatever, but at least his anger reaction at all this could be great hint that he is the attempted murderer, who planned to kill Balto and the team and he is the main reason of the kids' deaths.

By the way, the moment and the fact that later Steele shows no PTSD, depression, apathy, grief and sadness anymore about the mass deaths of his team and the death of the children in Nome, but instead with blatant flirt, happiness and boasting he tells to others how he gloriously overcame all obstacles for returning to Nome, catching and eating a bone, are both the brightest hint of "There's something wrong, he lies, and he did something horrible to Balto and the team with the box"

and also the demonstration of what's wrong with all these dogs, why they aren't any better than Steele — they ignore how he praises himself instead of honoring his tragically died team and the dark fate of the sick children that won't get the medicine and will die, and these dogs themselves are more interested in worshipping Steele instead of thinking about the kids, which potentially could be owners of at least few of these dogs (I don't know, Sylvie and Dixie, for example). They are rotten and disgusting just like Steele.

Some sort of addition and logical continuation of this, this and this posts. It is something I wanted to discuss in details, so maybe there are people, who think the same, but whose voices weren't heard. There's the one very weird angle about the original film and its fans — for some reason everyone is totally okay with Balto's idiotic pacifism-passiveness to death, hits and attempts of murder and with Steele's lame, undeserved and anti-climatic "defeat", as if everythnig is fine, and there's nothing morbid. And if you dare even to doubt in it, they will look at you like at some cruel traitor and heretic and attack you like some religious fanatics, over-confidently and blindly (dogmatically) saying you're wrong and immature and stuff, and that Balto is "too good and kind to hurt someone, he is saint or whatever" (excuse me, but from what Care Bears creche these people went?! seriously, they all mourn on how "poor Balto gets beaten by horrible Steele", but once you point out that the protagonist should dodge attacks and kick his ass, they are like "Whaaat?! No way! You are bad for saying so!"). I don't know, it is some form of gaslighting or some similar crap for sure. Am I only one, who sees that there's something wrong?!

Seriously, what's wrong with people, who fanatically defend the antitoxine fight scene (and Balto's stupid behavior beyond comprehension) and Steele, and what's wrong with Balto here, so he allows Steele to harm and to kill him and wants to befriend with this psychopath?! Every excuse I heard from such people doesn't stand up to any criticism or logic. I can easily debunk this nonsense in order the most loud ones: 1. "Balto wanted to keep his strength and to not be exhausted" — nonsense. Balto would keep it, if he at least dodged the attacks, exhausting Steele. With all Steele's attacks and hits he was more exhausted and weakened. 2. "Balto didn't want to get wounds, he wanted to survive just like wild animals do, avoiding fights and making peace in a pack." — nonsense. Balto got wounds and hits, when Steele bit him, and it happened exactly because Balto allowed him to do this. Even animals, if there's no other way to resolve the conflict and avoid a fight, brutally put their aggressive pack member in his place and either banish or kill. 3. "Balto didn't want to slow down the rescue operation, so if he fought, he'd make things worse" — nonsense with shade of victimblaming. Exactly Steele already severely slowed it down way before Balto's arrival and now continues to do this, also killing his owner and teammates with cold and hunger. 4. "Balto wanted to prove to the dogs he is kind and good and can be trusted" — nonsense. These idiots were betting and sadistically giggled, when Steele kicked him. And Balto saw and knew what they did, earlier they participated in bullying and bullied him as well. 5. "Balto wanted to remind them about the serious duty aka saving lifes of sick children" — nonsense. Balto stated clearly that he needs exactly the medicine for saving Rosie and others, to help the team is a secondary thing in fact — it was their wish to go with him or to stay. 6. "Balto wanted to awake the dogs' nobility, so they will see his goodness and Steele's badness" — for f*ck's sake, they all knew Steele's monstrous nature all along! These hypocrites knew Steele's a monster way before Balto and before the beginning of the movie! They hated him all along! Both Steele's own team and the rival team he kicked from the race and harmed earlier! And looking at the boiler room near the finale of the film, they easily kicked him! All this time they could put Steele on his place, but tolerated and swallowed his crap, participating in bullying, until they found out he's a liar *applausing*, and none of them begged Balto for forgiveness!

No wonder, why his mother chose to love a wolf... And Balto isn't smart, if he craved to be accepted by these scumbags... 7. "Balto wasn't brave and confident enough to fight Steele, he was afraid of Steele" — nonsense. Balto was ready to fight Steele in the alley twice (firstly for protecting Boris, later against Steele and his gang after they mocked on his mother for mating with a wolf), in the boiler room and near the finish line, he wasn't afraid of Steele. His line "Just leave him out of this, Steele!" blatantly states Balto isn't afraid of him and is ready to fight, he challenges Steele for a fight.

8. "Balto didn't want to escalate the conflict, because Steele could order to the dogs to attack Balto, so Balto had no chances against several dogs" — nonsense. First of all, the movie gives no visual or verbal hints of Steele's potential order for attack or any desire from the dogs' side to tear Balto apart at the first bark of Steele. Second, at best only Nikki and Kaltag would participate in the fight. Third, in the alley scene Balto demonstrated he was ready to fight four dogs, implying, he would easily defeat Steele and his three lackeys, he was fearless, and he's faster than all of them. And he is f*cking half-wolf, so he is obviously stronger than all of them. And Balto wasn't afraid to attack the grizzly bear with high risk to get fatal wounds into chest and stomach from the bear's big and sharp claws.

9. "But the main thing is to save the children, not to defeat some villains! They're just obstacles on the hero's path! Balto wanted only to save Rosie and the kids, the ending is great in that! That's the victory of Balto, not over Steele!" — so what?! For saving lifes you are not allowed to defend yourself, your own life, and to defeat and punish those, who try to take away those lifes?! If Balto wants to save Rosie and the kids, he himself has to be alive and healthy, hence he should never allow Steele to attack and to hurt him, he should never allow Steele to attack the medicine box. If Balto died and the box was destroyed, then everything would be lost. And why to add a villain in the first place?! Wild animals, deadly epidemy and hazardous cold weather are enough for this, there's no need in a villain, a villain (especially such type like Steele) has no reason to exist by this logic. 10. "But keeping the villain alive and abandoned by others makes the movie less cliched and more family-friendly and warming especially near the end! And it makes the protagonist kind and good, since he didn't hurt anyone! This scene shows Balto's true kind nature and selfless care for others and Steele's bad nature and egocentrism!" — extremely stupid argument. First of all, the movie is already the drama about kids deaths in epidemy and xenophoby/speciecism. Second, the antagonist commits atrocities through entire movie. Third, a main character doesn't become worse or "less good/kind/nice", if he/she defends own life and health and fights evil for protecting others and punishing this evil. Fourth, by this logic let's change the TLK 1994 ending for more "family-friendly vibe in the end", let's not allow Simba to fight Scar and keep him "saint pacifist" in the same way Balto was, let's not kill Scar, but just collectively leave him in his cave to sit and think on his bad behavior like planning and then murdering his brother, attempt of murdering his nephew, usurping power and also using lies, propaganda and revanchism for using hyenas as his weapons for keeping this power, tyranny etc. WTF?! Do you understand how stupid this is?! Seems to me, such Steele defenders are either "I can fix him, I am for all good against of all evil, we don't have to stop evil by evil, or there will be more evil" thinkers or bullies themselves, who don't want for their kind to get some punishment for their atrocities, or just "high ground moral" hypocrites, which always ignore pain and suffering of victims, but start to yell and punish these victims, when they finally brutally punish their tormentors and bullies (and for a victim it is totally justified — horrible people absolutely deserve this, I see nothing wrong with brutal beating, mental and physical breaking and smashing various abusers, tormentors, bullies etc, because these critters understand only own language), saying "But you are a good boy/girl! You don't have to be like them! You have to overgrow and forgive them! You are higher than them! You're bigger person! They are just playing! It is the problem in you, they rightfully call out your sins! How dare you to defend yourself and fight back! How dare you to show negative emotions! Or else you are bad just like them or even worse! To be nice is not a being weak!" and all other disgusting crap, full of double standards.

The only more or less interesting argument is that "It is cooler that the villain becomes the reason of own demise or defeat, and it is funny how Steele digs grave for himself without even realizing that". In some aspects it kinda makes sense, because if he accepted Balto's help, either running with him in pair like two lead dogs or just following him, humans still would consider exactly Steele as the main hero simply because he is the older and more experienced lead dog that ran in many races before in contrast to younger and inexperienced Balto. Plus, well, his musher would praise exactly him, because he didn't see, who actually led the team. Same for the version, if Balto ran in the team since the beginning, i.e. if he was allowed to run after he won the run in Nome. But everything else makes zero sense. it is a bad writing, when a protagonist does nothing for self-defense or fight or opposing to evil, and where every obstacle disappears by itself, without any effort from a main character, as if he is under insulting divine plot armor. Like, then why should I relate to him, if everyone solves a problem for him, and if he swallows all crap?! And if the villain does everything for own undoing, then why the movie isn't called Steele, which by this logic is the main character with arc of falling into madness and lack of morality?!

But I tell that again. There should be no suicidal empathy, there should be no tolerance to evil. If someone hurts you or tries to take away your life, if someone torments and hurts others physically and with really serious verbal insultings, you are fully allowed to defend yourself and punish such person, smash their faces etc. You have no moral obligation to be kind to those, who tries and wants to hurt and to destroy you. Simply saying — goodness has to be with fists. Not everyone deserves your kindness, and not everyone can change and admit own mistakes. And Steele is exactly this irredeemable abomination, which deserves the most brutal beating and even death. He always was this abomination. And he should be killed without any mercy. But we'll talk about it in details later. Speaking about the interviews with the director. One of his depictions of Steele was "Never having had to try very hard, he is not ready for adversity when it confronts him, and his grip on right and wrong goes away as soon as he is rattled." Actually, even before the infamous antitoxine scene Steele already demonstrated the behavior of a very dangerous and unhinged sadist and psychopath with tendencies to hurt with risk of death, and certain his acts toward Balto can be considered as an attempt of murder, not just verbal and physical bullying or abuse. 1. The opening scene with sled races fully demonstrates and even cements already in the beginning Steele's evil nature, confirming, he was always evil — for getting all glory and victory, for staying the adored champion and hero to his death, Steele will hurt and even kill every potential rival. Seriously, although at first glance it looks like just an attempt to frighten and intimidate, but it is pretty clear that Steele was ready to bite and hence to injury the dog from the rival team, the dog dodged by luck, but still was scared.

Really, look at this. He was aiming specifically to bite his paw. The dog dodged it just by a miracle.

And, well, due to this bite trick the rival team, the dogs and their musher, they stumble, get tangled in the harness, fall at high speed, crash and knock each other down, including overturning the sled with the musher, which could cause them all to get fractures and injuries even from the runners of the sled.

And the rival musher saw it, and looking at his reaction, Steele does it not the first time, he did that before. 2. Later Steele uses the same bite trick near Balto in the Rosie's hat scene.

Balto's fast reaction saved Balto's life and health, so he perfectly dodged Steele's attack, jumping toward Rosie's head (where this friggin reaction was in the grizzly bear scene and in the antitoxine fight scene, I ask?!), or else Steele would bite him and hence made serious wound on Balto's paw, Balto would fall and possibly crash into something (humans or boxes), getting serious wounds.

Wow, at this time Steele was aiming to bite in neck or head/face...

In fact, if Steele bit him, Balto could fall under paws of Steele and his dogs and also under the sled itself, so Balto really had the risk to die.

As well as Steele's team could be injured as well. 3. In the alley scene Steele throws a rock into Balto's head, so Balto also gets thrown away to those planks and beams.

It could cause a serious wound of especially head for sure. 4. And then the smashing paw scene. By doing that, Steele literally puts Balto in grave danger, because after Balto's unintentional growl (well, for some reason, the moron musher heard a growl instead of a whine and didn't notice Steele's aggressiveness and malice) at the human all townfolks of Nome would decide to shoot Balto.

"He can't be trusted! He is half-wolf! You saw his teeth! He could turn on me!" = "Let's shoot this dangerous wild animal for showing aggression toward not only a dog, but to a human!" 5. Then this jump. If Balto didn't dodge, Steele would jump on him and hurt him, not just break the tree.

So, yes, Steele made attempts of murder even before the infamous antitoxine scene. 6. Then this infamous antitoxine fight scene I so hate. These two hits and one bite (I remind, before this Balto got powerful hits from the bear with risk of deep and fatal wounds from big and sharp claws and then the bear almost crushed his chest = risk for broken bones and ribs etc, and he wasn't afraid of it, and now Steele hits him into these same body places the bear hit him previously).

And here we go! At first the attacking the medicine box

and then the two confident, clear and blatant attempts of murder he doesn't even hide anymore! Both the throwing Balto to the ice rock, so he gets head injury and gets knocked out for a while, and then pulling Balto to the edge of the cliff for throwing him away to his death (and only Jenna's friggin bandana like deus ex machina saves the day and Balto). And when Balto lied moveless, Steele sadistically laughed, thinking Balto is dead. I repeat it again, already two open attempts of murder!

What was in the heads of the filmmakers, if they forbid Balto to fight or at least to dodge these attacks in such conditions?! What was in their heads, so they force Balto to act like a holy idiot, who would be ready not only to turn his other cheek for another punch, but even to open his own butt for Steele by this logic, so he apparently has a crush on Steele, not Jenna?! And what's in heads of those fans, which defend Steele and this scene, as if everything is right?! Am I only one, who sees how morbid and f*cked up this is?! What's in heads of those, who find Steele not being brutally punished and killed as a good story decision?! No one living soul will give even a glimpse of normal explanation! Inhale and exhale... 7. After the antitoxine scene Steele literally attempts to murder Balto again and also tries to murder own sled team and owner and to destroy the medicine box only for preventing Balto to "steal" Steele's glory and the status of a hero. Yupp, he ruins Balto's trails to path and lures the team to the edge of the mountain, so they all will fall and die and stuff, the medicine won't arrive to Nome, the kids will die. And all this only for keeping own status of the hero and "If I don't bring the medicine, then no one will".

And the cherry on the top of the cake — Steele was there and hid near, Steele watched, how the sled team struggles to not fall, how Balto and the box fall from the mountain, so the team (the musher and the dogs) will freeze to death in snow storm.

Or else why Steele in details told in his "tragic story", how desperate for love and glory Balto grabs the medicine box and falls from the mountain and dies?! Steele planned it and watched it for being sure Balto is dead, the medicine box is destroyed, and the team is lost to cold death with no chances for anything else. Third blatant and nearly successful attempt of murder of already several characters. And all for own and sole and personal glory.

And people still defend him?! Just because he is a dog?! He deserves to be beaten like Spitz in Call of the Wild (either the book or 2020 film) at minimum. I also never understood, why Steele's death was deleted, and why his "defeat" in the final film was so childish, safe, family-friendly and anti-climatic. I always thought it is due to budget limits or whatever. Not to mention that the scene itself still had this stupidity with Balto's over-compassion toward Steele, when dogs order him to give his collar to Balto, and when Steele tries to murder Balto again and then dies, as well as the stupidity that Steele dies due to own stupidity in the comedy style of those students from Tucker and Dale VS Evil movie (for real, Steele just missed during the attack and got caught by the collar). But the answer actually exists. According to Simon Wells, it was the order of Steven Spielberg to keep Steele alive for "symbolism, how Balto and Steele switch roles in the end without very cruel and dark finale". And with all respect to the legends of animation and cinematography, but it is one of the insultingly dumbest story decisions and explanations I ever heard. The aspect I recently realized — in contrast to the deleted scene from the early script with Steele's death, in the final movie nobody among dogs knows that Steele is an attempted murderer. In the end they just conclude "Oh no, you lied to us that everyone tragically died, but you just left them, they are alive!", but that's it, nobody knows what he has done. Do you get it now? Do you finally understand now the full scale of the problem?!

I remind, he tried to murder Balto, his teammates and owner (well, I wouldn't mind, if Steele ate this d*ckhead actually) and also destroy the medicine box for sabotaging the rescue operation, killing the sick kids and getting all glory for himself. As I always told, Steele deserved brutal punishment and beating, not this childish and harmless "leaving alone" crap. And looking at how dangerous and unhinged he is, he should be killed, because even although he is "ignored and left" by all, he can escape to some other town (I mean, travelling alone many miles of wilderness to Nome, he even wasn't eaten by bears, wolves or lynxes somehow), and through lies and manipulation he can become a "king of a village" again, where he'll have followers, who really consider him as the true hero, who ran "the longest and the most hazardous part" of the relay, but was overshadowed, forgotten, robbed, betrayed and wronged, as well as he still is able to do something horrible to Balto and his friends, because, most importantly, humans don't know that Steele is the attempted murderer. Funny, but even his musher doesn't know this. That's why forbidding Balto to beat Steele and keeping Steele alive are the most idiotic decisions in the story. Basically keeping extremely dangerous terrorist with sadistic and homicidal tendencies without punishment and alive, so he can again put the characters in grave danger and return to throne.

For sure, in the original Balto movie the comedy sequences (excluding Boris) and humor were very clunky, forced and awkward, and along with fight scenes it was always the weakest part of the movie. But what's about dramatic moments? Well, unfortunately, not everything is perfect in drama and story aspects, because the 70-minutes film wastes its time for absolutely pointless comedic scenes (the three dogs, whose whole scenes are mix of hypocrisy and verbal and physical abusing Star, and 99% of Muk and Luk scenes) and plot scenes, which are just plot devices with lazy ways for one or another event of the story to move and to happen, and if you remove them or replace with something else, it will change nothing and even make the story stronger and better. The brightest moment is the ruining tree marks scene (I'd even argue that Steele watched at how the sled team and especially the box and Balto fall into abyss — because that's what he tells to other dogs in his "heroic tragedy" story), but I discussed earlier about this scene and its holes in the movie version, and how the novel made it better. So, let's dive into the others. The first scene that comes to my mind is the grizzly bear scene. For what this scene was made?!

It lacks normal and epic action and fight (while the novel version made the grizzly bear scene and the antitoxine fight scene great), in the movie Balto sucks in this scene (just like in the movie version of the antitoxine scene), the grizzly bear is just one big-lipped alligator moment, which comes out of nowhere and that's it, he desintegrates by himself, not because of the protagonist's effort, bravery or sharp mind.

So, why this scene exists? To show that Alaska is deadly dangerous? Well, then the protagonists should encounter wolverines, wolves, lynxes, moose, boars and polar bears etc, but they encounter only this one bear. Then for what?

What makes this scene so pointless and stupid is that its whole purpose was to force Balto to go alone for searching the sled team,

because if either Boris and the bear cubs or Jenna went with him, there'd be no troubles with Steele at all (or on the contrary, there could be more intense and interesting dynamics with how Steele attempts to murder not only Balto and the team, but also Jenna).

In the early script the grizzly bear survived the lake and later confronted Balto near the medicine box after the White Wolf scene, but for now it is unknown, what core and resolution were there, so in the final version of the film the grizzly bear exists only for lazy plot device for forcing Balto to go alone in his life-changing journey. The problem here is that Balto initially actually went alone,

he was confident in going alone into frozen wilderness since the beginning,

other characters joined him by own wish in the very last moment.

In fact, I would even argue that if Boris and the bear cubs stayed in Nome, the grizzly bear most likely wouldn't attack Balto and/or Jenna, because they aren't his prey and food or rivals in fighting for food. So, there'd be no confrontation, wounds and swimming in ice water.

From what I know, Simon Wells felt regret that he "kicked Jenna from the story too early, since she was a strong female character and deserved more role, screentime and impact", but it is actually doesn't change things, 'cause through her friggin bandana she again (already third time) saves the day and Balto and depraves Balto from character-growth and awesome scene of how he kicks Steele's butt finally. Not to mention that exactly Balto is the main character of the story, hence he has to solve problems by himself, there should be no all-mighty girl bosses, which save the day and stuff. And, well, Jenna wouldn't be good in running in sled.

In conclusion, the grizzly bear scene is bad from all sides. It is totally pointless, forced and unneeded. If they so wanted the deadly and scary grizzly bear, they should give him more screentime and make him the one, who attacks the sled team and also beats Steele and maybe even kills and eats him (or falls with him into abyss from mountain), since the ending with the golden collar was cut. Balto would have two enemies he had to fight for self-defense and protecting the medicine box, the sled team and potentially Jenna or whatever. The second scene, which absolutely makes no sense, is the picking the fastest dogs into the team for bringing the medicine.

Why to spend this run in the first place?! First of all, it affects nothing, it changes nothing, because the main villain runs, while the protagonist stays humilated and rejected loser in shadows again. So, this scene is a waste of time and in fact another forced way for demonstrating Balto's pain and tragedy.

Second, it makes no sense, because there's only two teams, and only Steele's team wins all these 4 years, hence everyone knows, which team has the fastest dogs, which musher will run, and this musher would never allow Balto to run just like Steele, or else they won't be these adored and worshipped champions anymore.

The funniest thing is that they spent this run in early morning, but they moved from Nome only at night. That means, if they didn't spend this stupid run, but moved to Nenana exactly at very early morning, Steele's team wouldn't be lost in blizzard and successfully arrive to Nome with antitoxine.

"Argai" was one of my favourite childhood shows, I enjoyed to watch it on TV back in very early 2000s, and it had memorable characters and interesting setting and story, mixing fantasy, distopia, futurism, technologies and magic. Plus, it had interesting concept about time-travelling — there's no paradoxes and parallel timelines, and you can die only in your timeline (example: if you're from the future, but die in the past, you'll just teleport into the future, i.e. into your time), i.e. after defeating the antagonist both from the future and the past, the future wasn't changed or destroyed, it just was free from the tyranny, the characters kept their lifes and memories etc (the show also hints the principle of self-consistency). Some elements raised questions, and I could go deeper into these moments (mostly it is the antagonist's imbalance and too powerful abilities, the past version of the antagonist and also the fact that she for whatever reason didn't keep her victims and hence sources of immortality in her kingdom, her secret tower in enchanted forest, in spaceship or prison-planet — like, if one of victims dies or awakens, Oreale herself will die), but not in this post. The story was finished and good, and I hope, the show won't get some revival or new seasons. I don't want to see, how my childood shows get destroyed. Here I kinda want to look at the main antagonist, the Dark Queen aka Oreale, the white king cobra with rubine eyes and purple mantle.

Although she has this trope of an"arrogant, sadistic and powerful dark lord that laughs at everyone", she still has interesting and pretty unique (at least, for the time the show was released) traits in personality and arc. The show gives no information about her past, she only once tells that in her country/kingdom every fight is only to death, i.e. only one has to survive, no mercy, no diplomacy etc, pure victory or death, what kinda implies she is the product of her culture and traditions of her ancestors (probably her people and ancestors shared similarity with vikings). She is ancient and immortal sorceress from pre-12 century (already in 1183 she was experienced queen and witch with army, i.e. way before her confrontation with the protagonist prince in 1250), the warrior queen, who not only rules and leads army, but also fights, using horse and weapons, not only spells. In Middle Ages she defeated all her enemies and rivals (in fact, it's interesting moment — through the entire show exactly she destroys and kills various dictators and tyrants or becomes the reason of their death both in the past and in the present/future) and continued her expansion on the continent, hence she ruled these centuries. However, for whatever reason at some point she hid in shadows, apparently getting new knowledges and building her robot army and main space ship, and near the end of 20 century (I don't know, why, I always thought she ruled all these 825 years, and, well, if not, then more sense to attack the exhausted countries after WWI or WWII) she attacked the most powerful county and conquered it, killing rulers, usurping and creating own totalitarian dictatorship with eternal prison-planet for all who are against her to their deaths and with technologies for torturing and reading thoughts and memories, then she starts the global bloody war, using chemical weapons and lasers, so only 1/10 of Earth survives, people live only in her city, all other continents and countries are destroyed, i.e. only ruines in jungle, swamps, lakes and forest etc, only in few on these places savage tribes of cannibalistic mutants live. Not to mention the Dark Queen attacked other planets, either conquering them or destroying, so only one planet still has guts to oppose her and keeps own authonomy. So, after late-1990s she rules like 80-90 years or whatever. And, yeah, Oreale is very cruel dictator, she's that type of dictator — if Oreale fails, she will destroy everything she ruled, i.e. she was ready to destroy Earth to ashes, if she dies. And she was okay with drying rivers and burning forest etc.

What I find interesting about her — she was never afraid of death. Not in terms of immortality, she indeed wasn't afraid of death. The source of her fear was the other thing — if someone will deprive her of her free will and right of choice, if someone will take away her right and freedom to choose life or death and stuff i nfavor of some prophecy (or divine fanfiction, if you well). She tried to do everything to be this free and invincible ruler of the world, so her fear to lose it to some vague prophecy and hence for preventing it to play with the enemy from the past, who also followed the prophecy, became her demise. Her lines "If I must die, I'll decide myself, when and how! Only I decide my path and destiny!". When there's no predetermined events, she herself started these events, creating the enemy — actually, the funniest and ironic trick was exactly in the fact that one of her victims (young beautiful girls) had beloved, others didn't have. And, well, all these thousand years Oreale was alone, no mate or sibling or dinasty or heir, what confirms her being asexual, she wanted only immortality and ruling the world. The only two male characters she had some feelings to — her devoted servant Geko and Lucifer, her mentor. And here's my question — who is the creator of the prophecy? The show vaguelly mentioned it was some unknown ancient monk, but I doubt it is true. Logically, it could be Merlin, because he had the "foreseeing" ability in the lore, and in the last episode he also tells to the main characters about how every tale ends — you know, how brave and noble prince saves his beloved and the world, how light defeats darkness, how good defeats evil etc. But I have another answer — it could be Lucifer, who was also Oreale's mentor in the show. Like, he knew about the prophecy all these centuries, he is beyond time and universe, but for whatever reason he didn't tell about it to Oreale like "Hey, there's some mortal idiot made vague prophecy. It can become real, so don't take it too seriously, don't allow it to manipulate you, and better just destroy the book, or else someone else can make it real, don't underestimate your enemies and don't play with them", she discovered it only in 2075 after the protagonist's arrival to the future, and exactly Lucifer fed to her this idea about the battle of fates, the battle for her future and her path, he fed to her this idea, as well as he stated clearly that if she wins, she will rule Hell with him like his equal and beloved queen, but if she fails, she will die and be erased to nothing, she will in oblivion, in the void of nothing. And when she is defeated and lost everything, he just abandons her to die and cease to exist. And what's interesting, when the protagonist sneaked into Oreale's space ship for saving his beloved, Lucifer did nothing, he literally allowed to the prince to do this and hence to win. Personally, I think, this "prophecy" simply was his last test for Oreale, for showing her skills and inner strength, how loyal and stoic she is to her worldview, how much she controls her path and future, her life, how easily to fall into this fear of some destiny or whatever. She wanted everything, she reached for this, she succeeded in it, but in the end she lost everything and was lost in the void and oblivon.

The comedic scene with the butcher served only for demonstrating Balto's skills, talents and kindness, but in certain aspect it was quite confusing. From one side, this scene kinda states humans don't know Balto chills with a goose, hence being very kind and peaceful animal. From another side, the butcher's behavior toward Boris makes no sense.

For the butcher to yell toward Balto for "stealing the goose" makes no sense, because Boris is not even the butcher's goose, hence Balto isn't a thief.

Boris is just some random wild goose that surprised even the butcher himself that this goose is alive. And the butcher actually had already dead geese that were his indeed and prepared for cooking etc, i.e. most likely domestic geese with certain medical examination and special treatment, making them safe for eating by humans without risks to their health and life.

So, it is very irresponsible from the butcher's side to decide to slaughter and to cook a wild goose that appeared on his window from literally nowhere — he would poison or infect citizens and stuff, creating another epidemy.

Balto not only saved the life of his adoptive dad, but also prevented another (although in theory only potential) epidemy in Nome.

Thematical addition to especially this and this posts (for whole picture with the summary and compilation on the topic with all links to interviews and posts on the topic and analyzing all elements here). Since Balto-2 made huge and the worst mistake, making Balto's mother as his wolf side and stating that young Balto accidentally got lost, it birthed tons of contradictions and questions. One of them — if Balto's mother was a wolf, Balto would never deny his wolf nature, instead Balto would leave Nome and crave to find his lost mother, joining a friendly wolf pack, he'd never crave to run in sled and to sacrifice own life for humans and dogs, which rejected him all his life.

As well as the idea of Balto's mother being a wolf (for now for a second excluding the morbid nature of divine Aniu and whole Balto-2 thing, but partially including stupid fan theories like "wolf-mother died due to humans and dogs") just makes Balto hypocritical and disgusting character in first and then second films. However, in attempt to defend this "wolf-momma" concept and the sequel some people kinda tried to excuse, why Balto didn't leave Nome all this time — allegedly he stayed in Nome and tolerated abuse, bullying and cruelty, because "there is much warmer in Nome, in Nome he has better feeding, there's no threats, there's much safer, there's no dangerous animals"... Really?! Let's debunk, I guess: 1. Warmer? Until the finale of the original film Balto lived in outskirts of Nome since deep puppyhood. Balto lived on a heavily ventilated, leaky old ship, in this brown old rag and near the ocean in the open air.

Interesting, these ones are warmer or not? Hmmm... probably, Rosie's family gave him this blue blanket as a better replacement (the beginning of Balto-2 happens 3-4 months after the original film)...

...While Balto-3 happens 3 years after the original film, so the blue one could be not suitable anymore, so they gave to Balto this new one, the red blanket, knowing, he often likes to chill here. (or it is still the one from the original film, just... washed, sewn up, fixed and improved?)

And near the water it is always colder, especially during the northern winter with severely cold and powerful blizzards.

Not that different from a den in woods, probably even colder. 2. In Nome there's not much safer for Balto. All along Balto could be killed by dogs and/or humans as a pup, he had tons of chances to be shot by humans all this time, especially due to Steele's malice and many attempts of murder.

Not to mention that some wild animal like a hungry polar bear or a moose or a hungry wolf/wolves could go near the town (interesting to watch, how Balto would fight them, if they decided to attack and eat Boris and the polar bear cubs). 3. The case with food is actually pretty complicated and raises lots of questions. Shortly, no. Balto is not well fed in contrast to dogs, in Nome Balto was in much worse conditions than domestic dogs in this case, so this aspect is also already debunked, but I want to dive a bit deeper. In the first and the third films we once see Balto drinking water.

Interesting, what happened to the previous (metal) dish during these 3+ years? Or maybe there are two dishes, one for water, one for food, but both dishes can be used for both?

If during late autumn, entire winter and early spring there's no problems with water (Balto can eat snow, or Boris could put snow into his dish, so it melts into a water), in spring, summer and autumn there're problems with getting water, when there's no rain — like, Balto lives near ocean, hence he needs to visit Nome and drink normal water from, I guess, barrels and buckets, because it is much closer than woods with rivers.

With food the things are even more bizarre. I can assume Rosie fed him sometimes, but it is not enough. Logically, Balto would eat scraps from garbage dumps, but with such poor food he wouldn't become such enduring, fast and strong, with normal senses, bones, fur, body etc, he wouldn't be healthy. Or Balto could even steal some meat from the butcher's storage, but it seems unlikely due to his personality. Another version (the most plausible, since we briefly see a big bone) is

that Balto ate various beached sea animals like seals and cetaceans and also Balto hunted, catched and ate coastal fish, crustaceans, rodents and wild birds (interesting, what did Boris think about it?) — it makes a lot of sense, but it means that Balto fought and took away someone's life (not just ate carrion/corpses), hence he shouldn't and wouldn't allow Steele to attack him, Balto would prevent it immediately, Balto wouldn't behave like a pacifistic idiot near the grizzly bear and Steele, Balto would never care about their feelings and lifes (if it was ever the case).

I want to make it clear — I am not a fan of these series, mostly I payed attention to these series, because my friend watched them, and because I find certain aspects of the creatures interesting. Hence treat this post just like some sort of a headcanon or fan theory, since the show gives no answers, as well as some sort of "What-If" thing, if 5 season was different, 'cause I think it could make the show and its final season more interesting. Maybe someone covered it already, I don't know, I just write what I personally notice and think.

Okay, in the first like three seasons the creatures are mostly like some deadly primal animalistic force, driven by instinct, only their leader, the Mind Flayer, which controls whole ecosystem and creatures of Upside Down, has higher intelligence and is the most powerful creature of Upside Down, it/he even has no typical physical body, just a dust, particles, through which this entity can control everyone physically and mentally, the hive mind, where everyone knows everything. The spider-like form gave me thoughts about ubiquitous puppetmaster, who is everywhere and knows everything through all creatures, this whole organic network can know all, if one member of this organic network knows. And in fact the whole appearance and nature of Mind Flayer actually gave impression that he/it is from some other place and got mental and physical control over habitants of Upside Down, he is very different from creatures of Upside Down, and without him Demogorgons and other creatures of Upside Down would be less aggressive and hostile toward humans. Maybe he/it forced them or maybe there was some sort of pact like "You are under my will, while I give you ability to regenerate, to returm to life and even be immortal, and even someone from our hive knows something, you know it as well" (the moment with dead demogorgon-dogs, for example), while Mind Flayer gets also various information and knowledge through this symbiosis, adapting and becoming better and keeping (in his view) more peaceful existence, natural order that is terrifying and unknown for humankind, where the entity is very hostile, ruthless and dark, but not something evil.

It seems to me the profit for this formless entity is not only in bodies as shelters/vessels (and tools for attacking, defending, and extracting information), but also as sources of various knowledge that are interesting and useful for him, in which he also adapts better, for example, in new worlds. Well, maybe this hive mind under his control is also, in his understanding and view, an ideal and conflict-free way of safe existence and, in his opinion, the only effective one. If he sees in this symbiosis such a conflict-free method of coexistence, then it turns out that in the eyes of the entity that many viewers accused of sadism and wickedness, humans are really inadequate aggressors, clinging to an unnatural order with the tenacity of stubborn sheep. I won't be surprised that Mind Flayer discovered Demogorgons on their start of moving to first step of becoming some sort of civilization and intentionally prevented them from this way of evolution, because in evolution and higher intelligence he didn't see a positive side (creative nature, empathy, support, tendency to make world better and care about each other), only a negative (destruction, corruption, hunger for power and egotistical oppressing and brutal submission of others), so he kept this animalistic way of life with symbiotic hive ecosystem.

As for Vecna... Before how his backstory was revealed he was pretty decent, dangerous, really brutal, cruel and calculating sadist, especially looking at how he captures in illusions, crushes mentally and physically his victims and kills them, I thought he is some more sentient habitant of Upside Down, maybe some spawn of Mind Flayer or his more human-like form, I don't know. There was great potential. And then we see the backstory of Vecna... And I didn't like many aspects, especially how he somehow survived in Upside Down and didn't die, mutating into this humanoid, how he gave the spider form to Mind Flayer (as if he also took control over Mind Flayer and uses the entity and habitants of Upside Down for own goals), and also this retcon "Oh this new villain was actually here all along since beginning, he designed this all! He is the first human kid with these special abilities!". At first he gives impression of some sort of Magneto with this "Humans were horrible toward me all my life, their kind and way of life are inferior, corrupted and wrong, so I will erase all humankind!" thing, so he kinda sees some sort of beauty in spiders, animalistic world and in Upside Down, but later you see he is simply egotistical, power-hungry megalomaniac psychopath, not that different from humans he so despises. Like, he doesn't kill those, who know about Upside Down and its creatures, he doesn't destroy some ways for humans to arrive into Upside Down, the place he so likes and lives with these creatures he feels with like kindred spirits and wants to protect or whatever, he simply wants power and control over others. He has no morals, no attachments, only his ambitions and ego, his view of himself as someone superior and special, where others are tools and weapons. So, there could be really interesting line and dynamics, how Vecna himself is trying to manipulate the Mind Flayer, playing precisely on shared views on the world and natural order, consciously or unintentionally hiding his egocentrism, thirst for revenge and power and psychopathic tendencies under mutual help. At first he found a like-minded person aka the Mind Flayer and found the Upside Down the better world, but later he spat on the animalistic utopian world and the way of the Mind Flayer. On the other hand, Vecna would have wanted to become radicalized, thus desecrating the life way of the Mind Flayer. I.e. ironically, Vecna would have ended up behaving like the humans he hated, against whose way of life he had initially trampled, and whom the Mind Flayer viewed as threat and aggressors. No matter how you look at it, Vecna himself has already been defiled and corrupted by the human society in which he grew up, and whose patterns he embraced anyway, and therefore no matter how much he refused it, preferring an animalistic world and hence a world under the will of the Mind Flayer, sooner or later and consciously or not, but he would have been captured by human ambitions, so as a result, he would have carried the negative sides of human nature into Upside Down, rather than the positive ones (which, in theory, could probably have been carried by Eleven, who did not become embittered).