would his mom even be home to care?
its interesting that this is the first ep you dislike. the first one i couldn’t stand is s2e8 (which sucks bc steel and ven-ghan’s scenes in that ep are very important! thats the ep that makes vengie see steel in a new light! thats the ep where vengie says ‘you turned on ja’em mk’rah’ and steel answers ‘no jim perished during an experiment’!). anyway ill spare you my whole spiel abt that.
for “me myself and extroyer”, i find the episode does enough well that i don’t mind it. am i rolling my eyes at how extreme they make the public’s reactions? yes. however, the continuity and characterization are p solid. continuity-wise, the max steel movie returns from “lights camera max”, as does max’s stage fright from “full metal racket”. characterization-wise, i love that, while steel is talking a mile a minute in his head, he is still respecting max’s request to give the speech. similarly, i love the reinforcement that max is somewhat uncomfortable with hero worship while steel drinks it up.
i also liked the ‘prison as an alibi’ premise. its a fairly unique twist on the ‘villain steals identity’ plot—typically the hero either evades arrest or breaks out of jail or goes undercover and brings the villain to justice themself.
also, again, the characterization.
max respects authority (with the occasional exception of forge’s), that’s a pretty reoccurring trait, but his arrest challenges that by asking: ‘do you still respect authority even when you know its wrong? even when that wrongness is negatively impacting you?’ and max’s answer is a disgruntled ‘yes’, which is fascinating. there’s very few protagonists that wouldn’t answer ‘no’ to that question.
there’s nothing new revealed about steel’s relationship with authority. its well-established that steel hates authority, so obviously he’s proposing bombastic break out plans and casually gliding between the cell bars. what is notable, however, is that he’s again respecting max’s decisions/autonomy. in s1 if steel wanted to do something and max didn’t, steel would just go off and do it anyway, sometimes forcing max along. but max decides ‘we’re not breaking out’ and so steel… doesnt. he’s not passive—again, see him slipping in and out of their cell and annoying max with the harmonica—but he doesn’t just ignore max and do what he wants. i love steel’s character development ❤️
this episode calls attention to how amicable the cops and max steel are. there’s some of that in the park sequence: specifically the bit where, as max is struggling out of his own crater and preparing to pursue extroyer, one of the cops grabs max, tells him to take a break, and forces him into the festivities, letting the police handle extroyer. but its really obvious with how they treat max and steel during their arrest and time in prison. these guys know what max steel is capable of, they’re picking them up as a suspect from a bank robbery, but their attitude is so relaxed. trusting. the cuffs dont fit on strength mode? ‘hey, do you mind?’ ‘oh yea sure’. thats not the tone i’d expect if they were seriously considering max a threat on a ‘spree of wanton destruction’, as the news puts it. (also the cuffing in general feels like such a formality. like everyone there prolly knows that those cuffs wouldn’t hold max if he seriously tried to break ‘em, but theyre all playing along anyway). even once theyre actually in prison, their security is so lax. like they didnt even know max took down the door (nor do they care once they find out).
and i like it cuz the trust feels deserved. forge doesn’t care about max and steel’s day-to-day heroics, aside from the initial grief he gives them for being in the news. the general public only knows about what gets reported in said news. but max and steel have been helping these cops for around a year now, often without news coverage. so yea, of course if max says he’ll comply with the arrest, they’ll take him at his word.
also, the gag of max accidentally taking down the cell door and going “oh sorry my bad”, then propping the bars back up will never not make me laugh.
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