Does the panther undermine Annie's strength?
Apr 24, 2019 0:48:18 GMT
SoWeirdBoy and Mischievous Monkey like this
Post by stardotstar on Apr 24, 2019 0:48:18 GMT
I was trying to think about why Annie's story doesn't really work as well as Fi's, and I hit upon an inconsistency in the "Never Give Up" scene: Annie delivers an impassioned song about individual strength--always getting up when you fall down and choosing to win--and then she suffers an external attack, flounders, and then is rescued by two friends whose external efforts allow her to come back strong to finish the empowering "Never Give Up" song. I enjoyed the song as a kid, but now I'm thinking it doesn't have anything to do with the scene. Annie doesn't actually win because she tries hard after failing. The finale of Captain Marvel captures this sentiment very well by actually having the hero be individualistically successful, trying hard to defeat the villain after a series of being knocked down and choosing to get back up--someone should make a Captain Marvel fanvid with "Never Give Up"--but Annie's victory being dependent on friends doesn't work with that song; it'd be better with something like Queen's "Friends Will Be Friends".
That got me thinking: Maybe the panther dynamic is inherently flawed with the way the show tries to frame Annie as an individualistic hero in the same mold as Fi?
Fi has friends and family who help her out, and her father's ghost showing up to help is a recurring element, but it's not an innate part of the premise the way "Annie has a panther guardian" is. Fi is often in it on her own, and there's no magic safety-net for her on the order of the panther. I suspect the panther was based on Rick's ghost, but Rick isn't always there and doesn't always have much ability to help out. Until the season two emergency wrap-up has him literally rescue Fi from falling to her death, the most he is able to do is empower her to fight her own battles as an illustration of faith providing answers in moments of need inline with underlying Christian themes.
It's like the giant eagles in Lord of the Rings. Tolkien wrote them as illustrations of God providing help in moments of extreme need, and then people ask why the fellowship didn't just ride the eagles to Mount Doom and skip two thirds of the plot. It's a cute nitpick joke, but there is a real reason the plot is written that way. It's like Annie's season is based on the concept of those eagles consistently being there to bail her out of trouble.
And, like, a friendship-based show can work. Cartoons like My Little Pony and Steven Universe are successful by making an honest effort at exploring friendship dynamics and modeling healthy behavior, while wrapping these themes around epic fantasy adventures, so I feel like season three of So Weird could have worked better by radically changing the structure of the show to be about friends helping each other out, but the show suffered by clinging to aspects of the Fi seasons. Like, the Fi seasons worked for the whole package, while season three changed enough to make it fail at doing what the Fi model did without changing it enough to make it stand as its own thing.
What do you think?