Scene Analysis #12: Andrias’ Backstory-Amphibia season 3 episode 14b

Scene Rating Scale:

9/9: Flawless! Outstanding scene!
8/9: Great scene! Totally Rewatchable!
7/9: Pretty good. Not as perfect as I expected though.
6/9: Decent. Doesn’t ruin the movie/episode.
5/9: Mid.
4/9: Pretty bad. One of the weakest scenes of the movie/episode.
3/9: You hear that? It’s the wind of lameness.
2/9: One of the worst scenes of the film/episode.
1/9: Horrible, unwatchable, and unacceptable.

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Hello, hello, hello, my wonderful friends! Mr. J is in the house with the last “Amphibia” scene analysis for you all today! This afternoon, I will be reviewing one of the most interesting scenes of King Andrias’ backstory from the episode “The Core and the King”. Aside from my overall positive opinion of the episode, I thought this scene was intriguing to watch. It gives further depth of Andrias as a character and as an antagonist and fully explains how he is so obsessed with conquering Earth for its resources. However, I personally believe this would have been so much better if it was a full 22-minute episode—not 11 minutes.

As you can see in this clip, his father Aldrich gaslights his son into believing that friendship is harmful to their way of life and that it can tear him away from what he thought was more important. We can see how innocent Andrias is in this scene, genuinely caring about his childhood friends and having fun with them. Plus, he is very eager to please his father even though the latter only cares about the spoils of war that can be utilized in conquering other worlds. The fact that Aldrich coldly scoffs at the idea of friendship and casually manipulates Andrias shows that he doesn’t even love his own son.

Andrias literally grew up in a toxic household, and judging by the way the flashback ended, he grew up embittered, depressed, and miserable. How he managed to bottle up his emotions for a 1,000+ years with a Santa Claus persona is beyond me. It makes you feel sorry for the guy.

Thus, this flashback gives extra layers for his character. But as I mentioned earlier, this should have been a full episode. As good as this episode segment was, his character change felt rushed and too fast-paced. It’s like they made him into a bad guy within a few minutes…just like that. There had to be more scenes where he talks more to his father about his former friends, what his destiny is, and then see how it psychologically affected him as he got older. I would have loved to see that.

I do admit it is a well-done scene that finally shows us how Andrias became the bad guy in the first place, but I’m starting to think that this is a little too late to give him a backstory in the final season. He has been hated for stabbing Marcy at the end of the season 2 finale, and then he gets a tragic backstory a season later? It makes it hard for some people to forgive him for what he did even after watching this episode.

Plus, it makes him a whole different character as opposed to how he was portrayed in season 2. There, he was actually a sly, deceitful, power-hungry backstabber who waited for the right moment to strike where it hurts and to reveal his true colors.

But in this season, he felt like a slightly different character, thanks to this episode. I’m not saying that it is a bad thing; I’m just stating my observation in regards to his slight change of personality. I certainly think that it saves him from being a generic, one-note villain with no greater goal other than taking over the universe. Just my opinion.

Other than that, this is a fairly good scene for what it’s worth. I’ll give this a 7/9. Great voice acting, good animation, and a decent soundtrack.

Peace!