// MAJOR SPOILERS FOR THE MOST RECENT EPISODE
Why Iām disappointed in the Uranus & Neptune convo in The Earthās Core, Part 3
I want to start by saying that a) no I donāt hate Neptune and b) I think Neptune and Uranus reconciling is GOOD!
Iām just disappointed af in how it happened!!
For one, it almost feels like Neptune is literally just saying Uranus feels bad because his attitude about it isnāt good enough? It feels like telling a bullying victim that itās because heās reactingā¦? Like itās his fault?
Heās not being genuinely supportive it seems like heās literally just bulldozing Uranusās feelings and saying move on! get a better attitude! laugh about it too! without actually digging into why Uranus doesnāt like it and trying to understand Thatā¦ which isnāt what I expected from Neptune. If theyāre really best friends, why isnāt he trying to understand/empathize?
Saying ājust change your perspectiveā is not supportive and doesnāt HELP either when this is something Uranus has dealt with for billions of years? Neptune might cope with it that way, but he and Uranus are NOT THE SAME PERSON and they should not be expected to deal with it the same way. If Uranus wants the jokes to stop completely they should STOP! This is the solar system heās lived in for 4.5 billion years why is that so hard to understand?? Why are they acting like the jokes are okay and itās URANUS who needs to change???
And he started it out by essentially saying āeveryone has problems right now youāre not specialā which isā¦ an interesting methodā¦ and sure everyone else might also have problems but is it really important to point that out when he already feels overlooked and like an afterthought?? It feels like an excuse more than anything, because itās likeā¦ pushing aside how Uranus feels?? Which, again, is not what I expected from Neptune.
Neptune calling him his best friend at that point is funny because what friend treats an emotional situation like itās such a flippant thing? What kind of friend ignores the core problem and acts like the way heād deal with it is the only healthy way?? Like Uranus HAS to become okay with the jokes and thatās the only optionā¦
OR, guess what, or they could *stop* saying them?? And if itās a case of Neptune knowing the rest of the Solar System wonāt, then LET him leave without any sort of mental games?! Whatās the use in staying somewhere that doesnāt respect you?
And it doesnāt help that it goes from Neptune dismissing his feelings to Uranus doing an abrupt 180 heel-turn (about the name Caelus, about everyone making his name a constant joke) without any warning or indication of it. (It literally ends the first part of the scene before on a random line from Neptune where he said āwho cares?ā WHEN ITāS OBVIOUS THAT URANUS HAS CARED ABOUT IT?????? THIS WHOLE TIME?)
It feels like this is just Neptune using humor for everything (which he's done BEFORE) in a way that doesnāt fit with what Uranus needs (itās already been shown that he doesnāt react well to making jokes of it, i.e. the Battle of Planet X episodes and how Neptune tried to confront him in those), AND rather than actually following the characters theyāve developed and showing that it doesnāt work and that Uranus needs some other method of comfort, they twisted URANUSās character to fit it!! They changed his character so that Neptuneās way of confronting him would work! That is so weird!! And off-putting! I suppose if you look at it from the start and realize that Neptune has never tried to get anyone else to stop the Ur-anus jokes (the Early Solar System episodes) that makes sense, but it makes their friendship just so shallow because why isnāt he when itās clear Uranus doesnāt like it?
I think that Neptune affirming that he would follow Uranus away from the Solar System and that heās his best friend and he wouldnāt forget him are GOOD THINGS, and they fit his character, but sandwiched with everything else in this scene, it honestly makes very little sense to me because heās *not* acting like it! Heās acting like Uranusās actual issues are trivial and solved with a simple attitude switch when itās not that SIMPLE!! Iād understand this more if they were trying to show that Uranus and Neptune are incompatible friends in how they prefer to handle things and need to work to actually maintain a friendship, but they very obviously arenāt!! Neptune is fine with accepting the bad to a degree thatās almost impossible! Uranus obviously isnāt? So why are they twisting his personality so he does?
It feels like there should be more TALKING in between, but they just skipped straight to the resolution without building anything else between! No other talking other than the first, unless theyāre trying to make us think Uranus and Neptune talked more when we didnāt see?? No matter how long they may have been traveling, it makes NO SENSE for him to have changed his mind that quickly! Heās disliked his name for BILLIONS of years. Thatās impossibly long for us to comprehend!!! It feels frankly IMPOSSIBLE that heād change his mind so quickly.
Not to mention this comes AFTER the episode where he realized just how little Jupiter knew about him (him only being able to spout scientific facts) despite the fact that heād tried to be friends with him and Saturn for seemingly billions of years? Uranus is really *that* emotionally stable to immediately start joking about it? Because heās dealt with the pain of his name being made fun of (by everyone!) for BILLIONS of years, but one conversation with Neptune where he dismissed his feelings and said *heād* feel fine and dandy about it if he had the name, and Uranus is suddenly a-okay with it all? *And* not only okay with it, but making multiple jokes about it on his own (not just his name, but his smell, which heās ALREADY been shown to heavily dislike and hate talking about?) and laughing at Neptuneās jokes? Out of NOWHERE?
It almost feels like he's just shoved himself too far in the opposite direction in an attempt to just forget all the hurt that they inspired before. (Which people do!)
And NO Iām not saying Uranus canāt ever become okay with the jokes about his name (though I think from what we saw of his character before this it was *highly* unlikely), nor am I saying that itās wrong of him to do so, Iām saying that this feels like something that would come an entire seasonās worth of character development later! It feels like it should take more time! But itās all forced in ONE SCENE!! One scene thatās already split in half by the other plotlines in this episode! Itās like they wanted to skip straight to a Uranus whoās moved past his problems but they didnāt want to do the WORK or the character development to get there, so they shoved it all into one conversation that makes no sense!
Also, they didnāt bring X up at all (other than Neptune saying thatās who he was trying to find) despite the fact that he was the final blow to Uranus and Neptuneās friendship (at least on Uranus's side) and was the catalyst for Uranus LEAVING AT ALL!! Iām not saying Uranus needed to start preaching about him, Iām saying that he should have been BROUGHT UP?! Ignoring that completely makes their reconciliation feel incomplete, because youāre ignoring a huge piece of HOW they fell apart! (At least for Uranus, again, because as far as we know Neptune never felt like Uranus was anything but his best friend!) How was X not brought up at all? Uranus didnāt even mention that he was giving up on finding him, he just happily started making jokes about himself?? And then they just turn around and start heading back to the Solar System without any sort of additional discussion? Uranus gives up just like that without any kind of mention of his reason for leaving? When his name wasnāt even the ONLY ISSUE HERE????
Iām just so freaking disappointed in this but at the same time i guess it's what i expect from SolarBalls at this pointā¦ hurried resolutions in which the actual problem is completely glossed over and ignored.
Note that is my opinion and that you can disagree with me, but this entire interaction has just left a bad taste in my mouthā¦ so thatās why Iām very disappointed with how it went (to say nothing of the fact that it was a very short set of scenes sandwiched in between other plotlines rather than the standalone episode/arc it deserved). You donāt have to agree with every point, you donāt have to agree with me, but this is how I feel about it š
