I want to emphasize that I still adore this series. I may not like season two (up until the finale, at least)...but Centaurworld has given me so much joy and inspiration over the past year, and if any of this footage looks like your cup of tea, I'd still recommend the show.
Season 2 felt very much like the show thought they had 3 seasons, and mid production was told, "nope, you only get 2." It's why I think the finale works since it wraps up the larger world and nowhere king. But the early season felt like it was started and then an emergency pivot happened.
I felt the same way! In the "research phase" I was SO sure I would find out about a production issue, where deadlines or seasons got swapped around. But to my surprise, I discovered that MND and co. were told the amount of episodes they'd receive from the get-go, and they had the whole story planned out from very early on. MND even said that, while the schedule was definitely hectic, they worked hard to prevent crunch (which was great to hear!). So, surprisingly, this change of direction doesn't appear to have been caused by an emergency pivot. Just wanted to share, since I was also so curious about what could've happened behind the scenes!
Yeah looking back at the show it does kind of feel like season 2 could/should have been split up into 2 seasons, one focusing on or resolving the main casts chararacter arcs, and then the one for the final act with the Nowhere King, his backstory (or mabe they couldve put part of that into season 2 both for horses arc and to tease whats coming in the final season) and then the war against the Nowhere King. I've seen other shows do similar stuff, so it shouldnt have been impossible, devoting one season to basically a single character or confrontation of some sort. Haikyuu spent a full season on 1 volleyball match, and it worked there. Also, turning season 2 into season 2 and 3 wouldve meant more Centaurworld, and I'd have liked that too.
@@The_Sin_Squad Seriously? I just just took it as given that execs had denied them an expected third season, I didn't even look it up or anything it seemed that clear to me
I think maybe while they were writing for Season 2, the scope had grown more than expected, and since they were still on two seasons, they had to cut stuff. Maybe they cut some of those connections out on accident, not realizing that it happened. Like when you're so focused on something that you miss crucial details.
@@animafanfall I think they had a decent story planned out, but someone made the mistake of telling them Comfortable Doug was funny. And even worse, they based the whole season around him... not really, but it seems like it sometimes. He got 30 seasons of off-screen Flanderization in just one season. Actually, I'm not sure if it counts as Flanderization, because in season one Flanders isn't even a Christian... (or at least he doesn't mention it) it was that other family that was so righteous they got Enoch'd or something... it was a little unclear, I always assumed Homer was hallucinating, but that family is literally never seen again. Anyhow, Flanderization is about one trait getting bigger and more pronounced, but neither the trope namer or Doug really fit this, as new bizarre and sometimes conflicting traits are added at whim for both. Well, whatever was going on, it was a bad idea to focus on his "humor" rather than finishing Wammawink's arc or whatever else they cut.
while I do get the point they were trying to make about the symbolism of Horse's inner & outer transformation, it still felt like they were leaning too heavily on her Centaurworld side as she stays in her poofy beach ball form & is apparently stuck like this rather than finding a balance between both sides of herself from the 2 worlds she's now connected to. Just because she began to recover from her trauma doesn't mean she's lost all parts of herself from the human world - because not EVERY part of herself from the human world was bad. How cool would it have been if she had elements from both her old & new looks in her final appearance - such as when she escaped the Nowhere King's mind she came out with her sharp angles & muscular physique from the human world but the bright colours and markings from Centaurworld as well as her magic powers. It would've brought the theme of balance together so much more strongly!
I think it's because the wibbwy wobbwy physique IS her true self, the real person she truly actually is. Pedaling back on her transformation wouldn't make much sense.
Zulius was the only character who CONSENTED to the idea of his backstory being shown too. That whole backstory magic arc was "I'm going to invade all of my friend's privacy without their consent but because I realized that "we all just go through stuff" they just forgave me and look we're all okay now. :)" Like I was so viscerally uncomfortable with all of that because yeah I wanted to see their backstories but not like that. Not in a way that has Horse just peering into the deepest parts of their mind without consent.
Yeah same I just don't think that horse from season 1 would ever do that it felt very out of character sure she's a bit pushy but I didn't see her as one to push boundaries like that I think I would have liked it better if the characters told horse their backstory either through the episodes where they feel as though they can trust her or in like a camp fire scene where are they can tell scary stories that are just actually their childhood giving them a way to vent without outright saying it's what happened to them I feel as though it would have made more sense for the series and characters and wouldn't have given a uncomfortable feeling to the audience
@@Pugkin5405yes but why? Her apology to me wasn't very satisfactory which is why I still feel icky about that episode I don't feel as though horse actually felt bad about pushing boundaries
I think Horse learning that she has backstory magic made her realize her purpose: she's the bridge of empathy that will unite both worlds. Other characters like Wateraby helped to bridge the gaps like when she got humans to agree to help fight with centaurs, but Horse with backstory magic is able to use her newfound empathy to understand almost anyone even Nowhere King. Good video by the way. It got a few laughts out of me and you make some thoughtful points.
waterbaby literally sings about this when she said horse needed to be a unifier and a bridge connecting those who reject what needs to be done, so i’m taking your theory as canon
Yes ! I’m so glad I was not alone in feeling this way about season 2. I knew something was off and not as enjoyable as I watched it but I wasn’t sure how to put it into words .
They could have used the backstory episode to build on Horse realising that all of the herd lost their original families and found an untraditional family without roles, but one where they all loved each other. That it doesn’t matter who you were before or what you “contribute”, but that you can give and feel love. But ya I dunno they didn’t really do that.
Im glad it wasn't only me who was upset with horses arc ""resolution "" especially being someone who also doubts their own place in the world it feels like such a cop out to essentially force the charcter to forget about that and acknowledge that other people go through stuff horse was really denying the other herd went through things just Trying to explore and get validation on where exactly she fits
14:20 This. I have PTSD, and to hear MND say "your trauma doesn't matter cuz everyone has issues" is nine kinds of messed up. I really hope you do find your place, or make your own. I hope you are happy.
@@WobblesandBean After all the empathy shown in Centaurworld, that's what you think Megan was going for? Why would you think that? I really don't think she intended for anyone to feel that their feeligns don't matter. That's a hurtful and mean spirited thing to say.
@@peritube2519 If I may jump in, while an author/writer/creator/etc may INTEND for a certain lesson or theme, it's the execution that determines if the audience can pick up on it as intended. If some audience members feel that a character resolution is unsatisfactory, unfair, or even hurtful, then that means that the execution wasn't completely successful. I myself believe that Centaurworld could have used another draft or two to ensure that its execution could be... let's say, better understood.
@@randomspider725 Yea I agree with that. What I didn't like is how Amelia implies that Megan Dong is just an awful person for not successfully hitting the mark: "I have PTSD, and to hear MND say "your trauma doesn't matter cuz everyone has issues" is nine kinds of messed up." Like WTF? There's a difference between good intentions not done well and straight up bad intentions, you know?
@@peritube2519 I don't see your point. The execution turned out to be offensive, the intention behind it does not change the fact that it's messed up. So what's the point of judging that person for what they said?
I really like this video. It really points out what season two lacked. Season 1 felt like they were really focusing on the relationship between the team. this second season just felt like they forgot to have them actually bond over their insecuries, and just mentioned they had them, I guess. I kept waiting for that season 1 feel of them actaully growing closer.. but it never felt that way. Still loved the nowhere king wrap up though lol.
I feel that way too! I would've liked to see more fun group interactions and their growing friendships with each other, but instead their connections felt very opaque.
You know what I hate? That the centaurs’ backstories were used as excuses for their flaws. The Nowhere King wasn’t given that treatment, so why should the others? Why should Durpleton be excused for essentially kidnapping and forcing someone to be his ‘son’? Why should Glendale be excused for stealing, as well as (also) kidnapping people? The message that your past doesn’t excuse your actions needs to go both ways to be effective.
And they didn’t show it well with the Nowhere King. Actually they showed The Nowhere King and should be allowed to destroy both worlds, and that everyone else was wrong in trying to stop him. You’re not supposed to prove the omnicidal monster is right!
@@Master-Works "they showed The Nowhere King and should be allowed to destroy both worlds, and that everyone else was wrong in trying to stop him. You’re not supposed to prove the omnicidal monster is right!" Are you fucking high LOL
I thought the original through-line of "Unity/friendship/belonging can take many forms and still be in good balance - like the human and animal parts of centaurs" was so, SO strong. I was excited to see another interpretation of it in S2 - even if it was going to be darker or less positive in general, I would still be on board. But everything in S2 felt like this weird mashup of unrelated conflicts and "haha you thought we were going to take this SERIOUSLY?" And as a result, I've watched S2 only once. While I've watched S1 straight through maybe 10 times. It's such a stark contrast :(
14:20 This right here sums up my own anger about this. I, like Horse, have been through trauma. I was diagnosed with PTSD at a young age, and it's been a struggle my whole life. For Meghan D to say "your trauma doesn't matter cuz everyone has problems so shut up and stop being selfish", is the most appalling message I've seen in an animated story since Raya.
I don't think that was what Megan was trying to say. The show has a lot of heart. It doesn't make sense for them to suddenly go "whoops no we lied. We don't care about you!". Megan seems like a sincerely thoughtful person. It's more likely that you are misinterpreting the show. Also they should have been given more episodes to flesh out all the character stories. 8 episodes is not enough for an entire season on this show's scale.
@@peritube2519 Then she shouldn't have spent so much time in Season 2 on unfunny, worthless plot cul-de-sacs and focused more on that non-existent "development" you claim she'd have put in if she had more time. She knew the constraints and the number of episodes she was given from the get-go. Everything we saw in S2 was entirely her choice. What happened is quite clear; Horse has trauma, Meghan made Horse say "gee whiz guys, I sure was being selfish by wanting to talk about my trauma", and then _never mentions it again._ Like it or not, and whether Meghan intended that to be her message or not, that's how it comes off, and that's how a lot of the audience is going to perceive it as. You don't get to tell someone who has PTSD that they're misjudging this. You've never met Meghan, you can't comment on her strength of character any more than I can. You shouldn't put someone on a pedestal just because they made a cartoon you like.
@@WobblesandBean That's your opinion, I thought some episodes were really funny. There is no way you could fit this size of a story in the episodes they were given. Netflix gives shows a budget and they have to choose how to finish the story and between animation quality and other things. If you can't finish a small character arc in a few episodes then just do a one episode story like the Becky apples episode. I don't unerstand people like you who call something terrible when we still got one really amazing season and a still-good but not as great second season. Toxic person. Editing to reply to your edit: "You've never met Meghan, you can't comment on her strength of character any more than I can. You shouldn't put someone on a pedestal just because they made a cartoon you like." You mean just like how you can't put someone in the trash because they made a cartoon you don't like? Why is only the negative acceptable to you? "You don't get to tell someone who has PTSD that they're misjudging this." And you don't get to speak for everyone who has PTSD. You seem to think you're the only one in the room who has it. The world does not revolve around Amelia Bee and what Amelia Bee wants and thinks.
I had a great time with both seasons, but I'll admit the second season wasnt as consistent as the first one. The Nowhere King was still pretty great tho. edit: and looking back I think the focus on him (them?) may have been the reason why the show kind of lost track of the rest of its characters, or rushed what it did have for them.
It's so weird to me the way the second season is paced, as if they ran out of material and were grasping for content when hardly anything was accomplished. If greater depth in Centaurworld was too much to handle with what I suspect were a lot of cuts from Netflix, I wish they would've just switched to the human world and developed Rider and the General instead. At least then the lack of songs would've felt more natural and the Rider betrayal at the end could've felt more earned. Hell, might've made Rider's stabbing more tense if we could care about her past what she means to Horse.
I was so excited to see more of Rider this season, but almost all of her screentime felt wasted and her idolization of the general felt odd and out of nowhere. I remember seeing one person say that her arc might've been better if they would've shown the effects of her being a child soldier instead of a war obsessed kid. It made sense with horse, since she's a war horse who was likely bred/trained for war which makes her feel like it's her only purpose, but according to centaurworld's timeline with the nowherr king, Rider wouldn't have been exposed to war until recently.
Centaurworld was... weird and inconsistent, in a lot of ways. I tend to approach stories less through character arcs and more by asking what themes the story is building as a whole. Centaurworld frames itself for a lot of the first season as about Horse having to learn how to do things outside her comfort zone, having to convince people and connect with them instead of just pushing through any obstacle with brute strength. She can't do magic on her own, and her very first song is her awkwardly convincing people for the first time to party up with her. Waterbaby basically has a song where she says "ok here's what this show is about" and yeah, she talks about how Horse is going to have to convince people of things they don't want to accept, a real challenge for someone as socially inexperienced as Horse. ruclips.net/video/pOsQPAiS3io/видео.html The nowhere king is also hinted to be the kind of villain that contributes to that kind of story, that you can't beat just by punching. A kind of conceptual, corrupting villain. The flowers sing his name, his musical themes are carried on the wind and seem to be somehow corrupting the very world itself to stand against the protagonists (or maybe im just reading to much into that taurnado?). But then those themes get almost entirely dropped. The show is instead about being true to yourself, which... well it isn't out of nowhere, they were definitely building those, but I sure wasn't getting the message that they were the central message of the show for the first sections. By the end of the first season Horse has gotten all the keys without convincing anybody. Some of them she actually just got by punching. They acknowledge that in the second season by wasting a bunch of our time doing the convincing all over again, but god do those sections drag. They're clearly not the central themes of the show anymore, and just lampshading how drastically you dropped those threads doesn't really make it any better. The nowhere king also turns out to be nothing like he was hinted at. He's all about being accepting yourself and the consequences of failing to do so, and in fairness he executes those themes really well. Even if they are all dumped on us in a ham-fisted flashback sequences in one double-length final episode that is basically the entire second season all on its own. Good story, not great writing. More improtantly to what I'm saying, he's also kind of disappointing in the nature of his threat in-universe. He's dangerous because he's a big dude and he makes dangerous creatures. Except by the end of the season they've gotten his key so he can't make dangerous creatures anymore, so... he's just kind of a big dude. The main threat he poses to the protagonists is that he's gonna bodyslam them, like, really hard. Why were the flowers singing his name on the wind in the first season? Seriously, it's not like that's a power he has. It's just... A Thing that happened? OK I guess. The general is another question, you can talk about the threat he has, but once they've figured everything out at the end of season two (using Horse's extremely convenient Please Exposit Your Backstory For The Camera powers) I really do think they could just punch the problem real good and solve things. The Nowhere King isn't all-powerful, the minotaurs aren't really a threat to them, they could definitely just solve this situation with force and have it be plausible. It's not a situation that challenges them, it's kind of just a neat story that we've all learned happened and then the show ends. Finally, Comfortable Doug. Good god, comfortable Doug. Someone needs to go around and staple a reminder to the forehead of all writers everywhere that says "If you make a character who's joke is that he ruins some structural part of the show repeatedly, the reward for succeeding is that you've made your show proportionately worse." Just, who the fuck was like "oh man, you know what would be funny? A joke character whose entire joke is that the pacing goes to shit every time he shows up." Well it sure does! You've succeeded on a mid-tier joke and I want to stop watching every one of the many, many times he shows up.
And you know what's even worse? Comfortable Doug was IMPORTANT to the story all along! The moletaurs can just go between worlds and it's how reality travelling was first a thing.
this probably says more about me than the show but so much of it gave me really intense body horror icks. horse losing autonomy over her physical presentation, undergoing a transformation that everyone else loves but she feels deeply dysphoric about? that doesn't read as her finding her "true self" to me. so much of season one specifically is so scary in how little agency horse has and how little respect she is given by her new "herd". there is so much toxic codependency on ALL SIDES of this show and it's so uncomfortable to me as a person who's been in too many deeply toxic real world relationships
As someone who has dealt with body dysmorphia the transformation stuff was very strange (especially since in the finale when in the Nowhere Kings backstory she goes back to normal? Meaning that its her true form)
yesssss i was so disappointed with s2 (besides the last episode) and as far as i was concerned wamma's arc was over after s1. frankly i found the backstory magic thing to be a really lazy way to exposition dump all the character trauma and the fact that none of them wanted to share it just makes it feel really gross and unearned. i heard that both seasons were produced at the same time as is often the case but idk the difference feels like night and day. i was profoundly disappointed and it made me sad :(
"i heard that both seasons were produced at the same time as is often the case" I read somewhere (interview maybe?) that season 1 was planned out and produced before covid while season 2 was produced after covid lockdowns started. They feel so different so I'm not surpised if that was the case.
This is why it's hard for me to like shows that use "let's be mean to the character and make them learn that they aren't the centre of the world somehow" arc, because it never works. I felt so bad for Horse never resolving her issues because of "others have worse than me" and wammawink being treated poorly just to never get any words of affirmation from her more mature friends, she really did a full 360 and ended up alone once again (and randomly got to be friends with Rider and Horse bc happyend magic). I still love the show and I believe that maybe it could've been written a bit better if it was just one long standalone season because I feel like they didn't had any ideas for the 2nd season but still wanted to resolve the nowhere king mystery.
On my second rewatch this summer, I felt like Wammawink was shoehorning herself into Ryder and Horse's relationship. Because we didnt get to see Horse acknowledge the difference in her relationship with each of them, and we didnt even really get to see her acknowledge Wammawink. I felt bad for Wammawink bc at the end when she was like "we all get to be friends!" It felt like she was still desperate to be a part of Horse's relationship and closest inner circle.
I love this show so much but it feels like it could have been even better with some small changes and, like, one more episode. And this video captured exactly what my problems were. (Also my one and only problem with the finale could have been fixed by just giving horse healing tears. I know it's a minor thing but it immediately removes any cheapness from Rider's survival.)
RIGHT?? They should have let her stay dead! After what she did to Horse, she lost all good will from me, and I felt that her death would have been so poignant. But instead, it's cheap and meaningless.
I love Centaurworld with all my beating heart but there's so much stuff I could nitpick about it. The episode about Horse discovering her backstory magic and the backstory of the herd members felt half-baked. It felt like they crammed every single backstory without fully developing it. The emotion lasted for only a few minutes before it went 'Aight that's done next character please!'
Yeah like, I love side stories. I love episodes that show our characters in different situations than we normally see them in. BUT the second season felt so unfocused that I was often like "okay but how does this serve characterization of anyone here or the narrative? I liked the show overall and I enjoyed the stuff with the Nowhere King (i'm a big fan of such eldritch nightmares), but idk there was a good chunk of the show I just didn't enjoy, especially the bird place episode, i just ugh i did not like that one Also i'm starting to feel like we don't always need backstory for every character even in the main cast (though tbh I never really felt like most of The Herd was emotionally compelling. Like I feel like we could have reduced the number of secondary characters there to one or maybe two and still had a good number of jokes while focusing more on Horse and Wamawink and Rider, but i guess that's partially because this show *wasn't* my humor style at all)
Totally agree, it felt like the majority of s2's episodes WERE side story rather than having a few side story eps in between more serious plot progression eps. Like, the show Kipo had a similar "travel to different groups and build up our army" plotline toward the end of the show, and imo it managed to balance side story and main story more effectively while also making its gag characters a little more interesting through gradual development. I still like both shows, but Kipo's final season feels like it's building to its finale, while Centaurworld's final season feels like it's constantly detouring from the path
I really hate the way horse basically was forced to conform to the dynamics of centaurworld. I get that she's hiding from the trauma of the world by being reckless, but her brash persona, love for violence and admiration for strenght were what drew me to her character. Female characters are not typically portrayed like that in media. It was also fun to see her constantly losing her patience with the silliness of centaurworld. The problem is that she was fundamentally changed by centaurworld and molded into another silly puffy centaur. Its like they brainwashed her into being more girly for some reason. I really hated her transformation and how she basically got forced into it. The whole point of her being a warhorse is how she is anathema to the sillyness and pageantry of centaurworld. Why did she have to change in order to fit their mold?
Just starting the video, and although I dislike fart and poop humour, Durpleton was my absolute favourite charcter after the lovely Wammawink. I thought right from his first fart song, that it was a good metaphor for issues you can't escape. One can't eradicate their colon. Anyway, back to the vid!
lol same! I hate potty humor, and Durpleton's fart song (i know it's supposed to be about his dad but i still hate it), but Durpleton was my favorite. He's such a fun character:)
The moment they turned Horse into a marketable plushie version of herself I hated it, because I assumed that it was going to signal a decline in her personality, her capability, and her arc... And I absolutely hate that I was right. >.< Not to mention the unintentional moral: "You should assimilate yourself with your new friends if you want to be accepted."
Season 1 of Centaurworld absolutely blew me away with how tight and well paced the entire story was, and I have to say, it was really disappointing that they didn’t carry that into the second season. We might never know the reason for that, but it does help to be able to put more words to the general feeling of “this pacing is off” and this video does that perfectly.
I felt it was kind of a strange choice to cram all the info about the Woman, the Nowhere King, and the General into the finale rather than spreading it out throughout the season. (Why does the Woman never get a name also?? Like if we only saw her through The Nowhere King's eyes it could be a commentary on how he viewed her but like, we get other scenes with her, she could have had more of an identity and even served as more of a foil to Horse and Rider but instead she doesn't even get a name :/ Ig it's supposed to be playing off NK's and General's names but like, those are titles they created/embraced at least, they didn't just call the General "Man".) The whole season I was like "okay so they introduced the Nowhere King and hinted at his backstory so I bet next episode is when they'll start explaining stuff about him!" and then they just. Crammed it all into the finale. Like don't get me wrong, I loved that whole part of the ep, but I can't help but feel it would have been better if we'd gotten to see bits and pieces of it throughout the season rather than having a big lore dump in the finale. Like, the Nowhere King only came into being a few decades ago given that the Woman isn't even that old, surely we could have spent the season hearing from characters who were around during the origins of the war or even before, and then had the whole story come together in the final eps. It would have been more valuable than the amount of screen time devoted to the Horsetaurs and Birdtaurs, at least
I still think I just... got too sold on my own idea of what season 2 would be. But my only gripe with the show is that horse had to change who she was completely, but the centaurs did not. I know her strength probably came from trauma, but I wish they had gone to horse and rider's world in the second season and taken an arc that did place horse in the confident leader role, teaching the centaurs that strength isn't a bad thing when it means fighting for what you care about. She could have regained her former form, the one she preferred, but maintained the softness she learned in centaurworld. IMO season 2 should have been a season of growth for the centaurs, not primarily for horse, and a season of themes compromising. It would have matched the tone of the Nowhere King too - learning that the two worlds have good and bad, and maybe the answer isn't to wholly belong in one or the other, but to instead find yourself somewhere between. and accept yourself for who you are, because appearances and internal being are two different things. I love the show, and the finale is incredible, but I really didn't like the arc of season 2 much either. it felt unnecessary, which was odd since season 1 presented such a beautiful arc.
Excellent video, as usual. I second a lot of your opinions on this wonderful, yet flawed show. Extreme tonal whiplash and abandoned arcs definitely left their marks, but overall, centaurworld is a wonderfully unique show that deserves attention. Also, I was unprepared for the hard cut to the general drowning the elk, I choked on my drink, great job with that 🖤
First things first: I think you beautifully summarized how well Centaurworld Season 1 did with Wammawink and Horse, and in general explaining foils and comparisons between characters and their relationships to another. Also really funny editing XD While I dont see them as a ship, Wammawink and Horse have a good dynamic with another that played off well. Its also nice to see someone else acknowledge how Wammawink's "babying" negatively affects the crew, leaving them unself reliant. Season 1 had a magic that touched me deeply, balancing tonal whiplash with moments of seriousness. The magic that Season 2 just....doesnt have. Like S2, while botching any characterization that Wammawink and Horse been through, spends time just poking fun at them, Wammawink being seen as desperate and clingy, Horse being super self centered and ruining a lot of "recruitment efforts", My mind Refuses to remember the birdtaur episode and Comfortable Doug (who it seemed like the writers assumed people loved him? but I hated him so much at the end). Forcing relationships to work together (Zulius and Splendib just...okay) , having random zany moments for no reason (with not the same charm as in S1), the infofump of "backstory magic", and etc etc, but I can only assume theres some production stuff that affected the writing and tone. I also felt weird about Stabby and Durpleton like,,,the lizard guy is in his 40s but is being babied by force and for no reason just accepts it. Also....the lack of really new songs. Some of the songs being reused worked but man...the songs were so important in S1 the ball dropped har I feel. In any case, I still have a special place in my heart for S1, and cherrypick what I liked in S2 (Ched and Durpleton Backstory, Nowhere King)
I completely agree. The first season was really good (awful potty humor aside), but the second season SUUUUUCKED. Unfunny, inconsistent, everyone's Flanderized, the songs were bad, it was just....man, what happened?
@@vickypedia1308 It was the worst. Sure, it may be emotional, but the writing is bad and doesn’t make any sense. And what bothers me is that They proved the racists right. They also proved the omnicidal monster right and that it was wrong to stop him from eradicating both words. YOU AREN’T SUPPOSED TO PROVE THR OMNICIDAL MONSTER RIGHT!!!
@@Master-Works My dude, it sounds like you severely lack basic comprehension skills when it came to the finale. How did it prove racists right? How did it prove genocide is right? Are you listening to yourself? Damn you best be trolling right now LMAO
One thing that kills me is how efficient season 1 was with their storytelling. Things about the characters are shown/implied in tandem with the story. Season 2 opens with a montage of Horse failing as a recruiter, and it felt like the story had broken free of the "go to place/accomplish task" model as things get more complex. Instead, they keep reiterating the same thing, and burn a full episode on weirdly petty meta-gags about fans. As season 1 implied, Horse starts developing stronger magic - I honestly expected there to be a role-reversal conflict where Wamawink becomes the better "general" while Horse proves to be a shaman candidate, or something. I still _like_ Centauworld, but S2's pacing/storytelling are oddly out of synch with S1. Even the songs go from advancing the story to exploring various concepts, which is fine! It just leaves less time for plot, which is then further put on a back-burner as setups get no payoff. The few character arcs that do get explored are ones that were already spelled out in Season 1. Ched had a bad childhood encounter with horse-taurs, Derpleton has a mean dad, and the two appear to be younger/closer to each other compared to the rest of the herd, from the way they interact. It's nice to have those hints confirmed, I guess, but not what I was really curious about. The show even makes it a joke that nothing is said about Zulius while retreading ground that's been covered. (There's also the uncomfortable half-message about consent that is picked up and dropped in a single episode.) The root of Glendale's severe anxiety is fine, if weird; still a bit lost on why having a particularly strong spell would cause her to be shunned. The show itself points out Wamawink's reduced role - it wasn't oversight. _So what was it?_ I really wonder what happened between the seasons. The crew are all massively talented, so was there interference from Netflix that resulted in fewer episodes and more filler? And seriously, what happened to make them so salty about their fans? Who hurt these creators???
Your commentary is on point as always. I couldn’t finish the show because of my own reactions to the issues you mentioned (including ’why so many fart jokes?!?’). Thanks for putting it into words. Your editing was _fantastic_ this time too. Very deep cuts at times and very funny but not too much or too quick. Congrats, your hard work is paying off! Thanks for spending so much effort on your videos for us to enjoy!
Thank you so much for this video, you've put a lot of the things that missed me in s2 and left me feeling so disconnected and unmotivated by s2. Most people I know just loved the finale in its entirety (which is fine! I'm glad they had fun I love my friends and respect their opinions too) and left me feeling like (ironically) I couldn't voice my concerns to explore them with anyone because I didn't want to ruin the mood. So the show to an extent has been unfortunately festering slowly in my mind. But seeing someone voice these directly is really cathartic on being able to go back and rewatch and appreciate the show for the potential it had again while making peace with the things that alienated my interest.
It wasn’t just Netflix, the director has been proven insane. She doesn’t work properly in the mental department. If you ask me, I would say it doesn’t beyond thinking that she is capable of murdering someone. She could obe day kill someone, if She hasn’t already. She might have gotten someone killed indirectly
While watching season 2, I felt something was a little off and I took to looking for online reviews to see if something they could say about it would help me able to verbalize it for myself. So far, yours is the only one to thoroughly and eloquently detail what exactly had made me feel like it wasnt as good as the first. I know it's just your opinion but I genuinely love how you explained and executed this entire thing! Absolutely love your videos, keep it up! :D
God it's so painful when writers forget to include the final bits of a character arc and just have the character show up in their resolved state. RIP to my girl lapis ;~; finished her character arc somewhere off-screen
...Comfortable Doug had more screen time than Rider herself...Moletaurs had more screen time than humans and even other centaurs. Seriously...what's up with the creators and Moletaurs? Season 1 was great. Season 2 felt so rushed, unfunny, unsatisfactory, minus episode 6 (which takes place in the human world and not centaurworld, that says a lot). Honestly f*ck Comfortable Doug. Lmao.
"Starkly compressed" is a great way to describe season 2, it was kind of a let down because while there were moments that made me emotional it wasn't nearly as intense or fulfilling like with season 1. So much of season 2 seemed to revolve around funny character moments and jokes that a lot of the weight of what made some of the more intense or thoughtful moments almost non existent. I felt the same way with the Nowhere King and especially using Woman as the crux of his story with 0 insight into her feelings and thoughts beyond her first song in season 1. She is just there for character development which makes her killing him on the spot during the finale sorta... I dunno not as moving? I don't want to say cruel, because I understand but there's so many questions that this season brought up with every single character and none of it was resolved. It was really disappointing.
I'm not at all timely here but I was elated to find this essay!!! I have SOOO many naunced thoughts and criticisms for season 2, but by far the core of season 1 for me was ALWAYS Horse and Wammawink's developing dynamic. other parts of the show made me emotional, but these two were what made me CRY, what made my heart swell with emotiona and meaning. they were the direct venue for the true message of the show to sink in. and by all means, I would've loved to have given this season to the rest of the herd, too - I'm not sure if they ALL needed to have tragedy define their backstories, I'd probably be fine if some of them remained fairly simple characters - but either way, this would've felt so much better given the time needed to find and feel the weight behind each one. I've always throught spreading them out, revealing or hinting at each backstory through a thematically relevant episode that challenges and exposes each herd member on their flaws, would've been a far better focus for season 2 to take than the tertiary characters/recruitment plot. Zulius especially - GOD I wanted to see him work through his highly masked insecurity and social anxiety, I thought that would've been so fascinating to see with a character that confident. plus, it feels VERY unbalanced with just how many new background characters are added to the show this season, 2 - something that's... generally not very advisable after the halfway point of your media. I wasn't sure how exactly I was supposed to feel emotional about the people of this world coming together in community and harmony, when I'd hardly had time to bond with half of them and most of them served as a rude inconvenience to the protagonsits' goals at best. as for Horse and Wammawink, it's just... so tragic that their arcs were underdeveloped for most of the season, and then dropped entirely. I didn't want things to just, be perfect between them after season 1 either, so the inclusion of Some kind of arc is definitely better than none - but I found it SO hard to get invested in their plights this season. plots about codependency, jealousy and desperate validation seeking are ONLY emotionally fulfilling if there is enough time given to the pain and depth that makes the characters feel this way, along with a satisfying conclusion that shows them working through their boundaries with each other, otherwise... it just feels grating, uncomfortable and empty. (see: Wreck it Ralph 2.) I always knew Wammawink got done dirty by season 2 - I get the feeling from the birdtaur episode that the writers predicted her to be one of the fanbase's least favourites and wrote season 2 with that in mind - reducing her screentime AND her integrity. but this video essay genuinely makes me SAD about it, like-- she doesn't get any kind of comfort or conclusion to this frivilous anxiety she's been visibly stewing in the entire season, nor does she get an affirming experience that boosts her confidence in herself and her relationships, helping her grow out of her dependency and step into a role of self love and celebration, surrounded by friends she can trust. it's sort of depressing! she deserved better. the backstory magic is obviously an attempt at affirming Horse's role as the bridge/mediary, allowing her that greater sense of empathy that lends well to her personal growth And her quest, a theme I LOVE for her - but this definitely feels like a cheap way of accomplishing that, and I really don't think the narrative made her earn it. on top of that, self-sacrifice is never really a theme that was particularly important to her arc, so having the rest of her emotional journey be "concluded" when she decides to offer her life to rush into the Nowhere King, it's just like, well... okay....... this sure is some season finale drama I guess. she's really missing that nuance that the first season was so devoted to giving her, and now just feels desperate and reckless, this time in a way that doesn't really serve her arc. couple of notes, though - I'm not at all a fan of toilet humor myself, but actually really appreciate how it's employed in Durpleton's arc specifically. instead of elaborating, I'll just recommend everyone go watch the movie 'Swiss Army Man' to get some good good deconditioning done. and secondly, I'm just a tad uncomfortable with Durpleton and Stabby's dynamic being referred to as 'ageplay' - a better term here would be age regression, which, in a healthy (and *definitively* non-fetishized) dynamic, can be a beautiful way of healing from childhood trauma. my partner wrote an incredibly moving essay on this - you should be able to find it by googling '"Centaurworld": An Experiment in Childish Maturity' - Fern M.K., storyspirit, substack.
This comment was such a fantastic, cathartic read; thank you for such a poignant analysis! And you're so right; I apologize for the use of the term "ageplay" when I should've used "age regression!" (No shade whatsoever to those who participate in ageplay, and I know ageplay can also provide a healing experience from trauma! But "age regression" would've been a much better word to use here.)
Great video! It's hard for me to be too disappointed in how season 2 was handled, because I just loved how they handled the Nowhere King so much but they definitely could have done a better job at building up Horse, Rider, and Wammawink as foils to him and the Woman. I think Derpleton and Stabby were handled the best out of the herd that season, in terms of balancing the goofiness and the seriousness of the situation. Each ally should have corresponded with the personal growth of a teammate (they could start with Zulius and the Birdtaurs since his backstory was already set up in season 1, and then go from there) but it all just ended up being TOO jokey for the most part, and not really entwining the goofs with the character arcs. I have no idea why the show kept dunking on Wammawink in season 2 either (like the birdtaurs saying she's their least favorite and Horse just being so casually dismissive of their relationship)
i am so glad for this video. i loved centaurworld s1 and the finale was amazing but it felt so.. lower quality than the rest. way too much time was given to shit like the birdtaurs and the coldtaurs and holetaurs (??). there was a noticeable lack of music that was character-intrinsic or even progressed the plot, and one of my biggest gripes was how much of the music was just.. expository almost without talking about how the characters were feeling. i was super upset with how much attention was dropped from wammawink, especially after how well she was developed in s1 and how nicely things were set up for further development. the fact that she was treated so horribly by the birdtaurs AND horse without any repercussion or apology made the amount of investment i had for her feel like a joke. i feel like netflix is partially to blame because it really feels like they were initially told they'd have a third season only to have it cut last minute, which might explain how poorly timed everything is. but still!
Welcome back! I know you've gone through quite the process to produce this one and it came out lovely. I must admit it's been a while since I watched the show...even though it only came out a year ago(?!!? christ), but I was able to regain some of my initial thoughts and feelings through looking at the footage you've chosen. Remember really digging season one and being kind of "huh okay" about season two, which is a bit of bummer. Really like what Megan and her team brought to the table and I hope we see more of her in the future. Things take time to get right and getting a whole show, with character arcs that 100% pass muster is always a miracle when it happens or if it even does happen; I think it's a myth. Gotta wonder what outside forces (deadlines, pandemic, stress of first-time show-running) played in having the show end up as it did, but c'est la vie. It's very interesting to hear your thoughts and I have no doubt this will start up some conversation again. Your editing continues to be top notch and I'm pretty sure the "I'll call you" gag one shotted me.
the seasons being cut so short, for me, really highlighted how hollow and unfulfilling the idea that this guy helped contribute to lets say, what? hundreds of thousands of deaths over a love triangle that he's 2 thirds of, and when he sees his wife again there's like no palpable sense of awe there. Like he's just kind of like " oh! hey, didn't know you'd be here " like bruh....horse's mom and dad DIED...... like.......LOTS of ppl and critters are DEAD....
Simple, like Horse said it wasn't Love. He never really loved her. It' was more like a Stalker. She is pretty and was nice to him once, so he became obsessed with the idea of her and his idea of a the perfect live. She says she likes the adventures and free centaur world. He only thinks about how he can keep them both in the castle, to which she said she doesn't like it so much it's boring. But he doesn't care, he doesn't listen. He comes up with this whole crazy plan of splitting himself right after she tells him she likes him. Because it is not about her. It's about HIS perfect live with his trophy wife.
@@Master-Works Yes he did. She said one thing and he didn't listen. His dream of living an human live where he has the power was more important. She never knew that the General was him. So he probably lied about his whole live to her and kept it secret that he abused the elk in the basement. Neither side of them had any respect of her after she sacrificed herself to end the war. They both just continued and didn't take Responsibility or did anything else that would feel like remorse for they actions. At the end when they both become one elktaur again. He didn't say sorry not to the world not to her.
I really disliked how the first 3 episodes seemed to just be milking the success of season one. People say they could have used more episodes (to a degree I agree) but considering the beginning of season 2 they could have used THOSE episodes instead of “Here’s a stage play of season 1!!!” 😭
thank you for that wammawink saying babygurl compilation, it is something i woulnd't have typed out into search on my own but a great thing to have watched. > 6:56
This is exactly why season 2 felt so disjointed. The finale was heartfelt but it's like there were so many speedbumps and characters went through internal developments inbetween the viewers having bathroom breaks. Zulius didn't even get a flashback. Glendale is some kind of manic villian. She's killed before; those cannot just be throwaway jokes! The birdtaur stuff really ripped into Wammawink hard with no one coming to her defense. I was fully expecting Becky Apples to gain a voice as well.
Just wanted to add that Stabby's character "arc" in S2 was creepy. Like I don't know what the writers wanted to achieve for that character (who was literally nothing more than a throwaway joke in S1's ending) and I'm not sure if the writers knew either. If the purpose of S2 was to put more focus on the other core cast of Centaurworld, why add on a new character last minute with a creepy relationship with Durpleton?
6 months late, but have similar feelings! and also, the "backstory magic" scene had some really weird and concerning principles about consent... like why did horse deliberately choose to look into the pasts of her friends who were uncomfortable about it? meanwhile, zulius was like "hell yeah, lets look at my past!" and everyone was like "haha, no. by the way zulius, you have a narcissism problem."
it's crazy how well you retain our attention. i never heard of this series before and you made it so interesting to me by the way you speak of it. i hope you keep doing what you do!
One thing worth mentioning in regards to Horse's arc derailment is that; postponing focusing on your own problems by instead only focusing on helping with other's problems is also a real world maladaptive coping mechanism, lol! I agree that the time dedicated to each story beat felt a bit all over the place in the second season, and I really did not enjoy the whole self-referential thing with the birdtaurs watching their "show" (And why did they give Wammawink such a hard time?? Was that a reflection of how real life fans of Centaurworld where reacting to her character? I was so confusing for me) Really enjoyed your essay! You always manage so express your opinions so eloquently and your edits are super fun.
well but why give her the maladaptive coping mechanism without her learning better by the end of the season? and btw the birdtaur thing was just based on how they thought the fandom might react to her based on other fandoms, they wrote both seasons before season 1 was released
Really interesting video! I also was very unsatisfied with season 2 after mostly enjoying season 1, but couldn't have articulated why nearly as well. I would have just said something like, 'I just kinda find Wammawink's herd to be really annoying whenever they're on screen, didn't like episodes centered around them, and also feel like the birdtaurs should have been a 10 second gag instead of an entire episode and tons of reoccurring appearances.' But you summed things up much better, and upon reflection, I kinda agree with all of your points.
you really nailed this! I had some nebulous feelings regarding season 2, and this really put it into words. The only way I could say it before was that it felt "rushed," but this makes much more sense. thank you for this video, the series is wonderful, but this is such a big problem with season 2. Almost feels like they intended more but had to make room for "wacky hijinks" with the heard. Durpleton was great, but ya, everyone else... seems like they got dropped.
Thank you! I love centaurworld and was super excited for season two and while it wasn't terrible it was disappointing.. I never had the words for why but you laid it out perfectly! Thank you
This show really needed another season to develop pretty much EVERY main character more(besides horse, she needed something other than just more time as this video essay showed)… I would have loved more Rider focused episodes, more time to add some depth to the herd, giving woman and the nowhere king more screen time to actually learn about them and build some presence. Especially woman. Also some episodes about the herd and developing them would be nice! Either that or just drop the backstory episode! We get little peeks into who the characters are or why they are the way they are but nothing about them actually changes, besides the few scenes like durpleton confronting his dad and the 2 seconds where ched got his validation as a tulip dancer they mean nothing. Those tiny little payoffs are such small moments that don’t make the backstories worth it in my opinion. The backstories are mostly pointless as the show is currently. I think they should have been developed more or removed entirely
I was so disappointed at the end when they made horse a shaman out of nowhere for literally no reason. Bare minimum i wish they would've made wamawink the shaman and made horse an ambassador or smthing 😢 would've made more sense while still keeping then together at the end, what do I know tho 😢
It is really sad season 2 just tried to parody itself. Everything was doubled down on to the silly side of season 1 and on showcasing FaN FavOrItEs. Season 2 could have easily been good continuation of Wammawink's and Horse's arcs, if the point was to showcase how the herd itself becomes independent through Wammawink letting them do so and showing how much better they "belong" in the mindset of Centaurworld than Horse by succeeding in recruiting forces through the first 6 episodes in Centaurworld. The other 6 should then be at the human world, where Horse would keep feeling out of place as the humans are weirded out by her (And it would also be a good chance to explore the General better before the reveal and also giving Wammawink the change to sort out her feelings regarding Rider's relationship with Horse). Meanwhile all of this the herd reach a point where they start to abandon their toxic coping mechanisms and truly be there to support Horse, not for the codependency, but because they are able to help someone without asking something in return, which would later play into Horse's resolve in the Horse VS the Nightmare King dilemma. But yeah, can't fix what has already happened and was always out of my control. A shame that what I find an easy story structure just didn't happen in the writing room.
Awesome video!!! I was unfortunately sooo disappointed with this show as a whole as it had countless major issues and annoyances and you did a great job laying out the story side. The birdtaur stuff was the most cringe moments of my life and the choppy arcs really fell flat in the end for me.
you really put into words everything i felt about the story part and i didnt know how to explain. but in adittion to that, one thing that bummed me a lot was the songs too, season 1 had some pretty cool songs, the highlight being nothing good and i was excited to see what new songs we would have the second season, sadly we only had reprises pratically. I know songs arent that important, but in a musical i cant help but wish for more.
Hey, I just found your "Capitalism, Poverty and Ratatouille" video essay, went to twitter and found your reflection about how people dismiss our hobbies/interests that are related to media. My undergrad thesis was on Brooklyn Nine Nine and (de)Toxic Masculinity and people gave all kinds of funny looks. I just wanted to say that your content is awesome and I'm fascinated now seeing aaaaaaall of those videos that I have available to watch now and I'm grateful that you do it. Hopefully I'll be in position to become a Patreon soon!
Zulius just not getting an arch actually really upset me as a gay fan. Like the most outwordly gay character on the show just doesnt get an arch at all? Also I remember watching the seaon and he kept talking about it i assumed he was going to be the last one ane I was really excited to see more of him and then he gets nothing. Also I hated him getting (back??) together with the tiger centuar out of no where. I mean im glad he got to be openly gay, but i feel like he deserved better.
THANK YOU. Bruh I really needed someone to talk about this show the editing was hilarious but also I would LOVE to hear your thoughts on the elephant in the room: The No Where king. WHY. WHY TF DIDN'T WE GET MORE OF THE WOMANS SIDE OF THE STORY?! LIKE- sure goof around as much as you want but- man this season I think that there was budget issues or something something HAD to have been going on behind the scenes...
You have blown my mind wide open with this video. I did have slight issues with S2, but nothing major. I wasn't even thinking of these things. Once again, that's why you're The Sin Squad, and I'm but a fan. Amazing video.
I'm just upset they didn't let Rider die it would've at least been a more understanding ending to me. They gave us the emotional mourning of her dying next to Horse and then she just isn't dead like what? No. Why?
No, but seriously why did we have three different "cut-back to Rider dying" shots if you're just gonna pull a "welp she has a head-bandage now, so she's fine" 😭
i still quite liked season 2, but this is an interesting video that helps me understand why someone may not like it so much! i definitely wish there was more of wammawink's arc in season 2, i related to her a lot, and i would have loved to see more of the herd and their development. what we got was still enough for me to like it, but thinking about it, it would have been nice to see more than we got
Season two just felt so... meandering. Like I was actively getting annoyed and just wanting the characters to get a move on with things, there was no real sense of urgency despite them all being made aware of the stakes at hand. I LOATHED the birdtaurs like it was so unnecessarily cruel to a fan favourite character and wammawink wasn't even given the opportunity to prove em wrong- nah instead it was a long drawn out joke bout fandom culture. It's a frustrating season because there were ideas THERE, the trashtaurs were interesting, the backstories, Horse developing more magic, seeing the other world more. The villain was really interesting! But my god there needed to be way more screentime with the General. Also tf was up with those human thieves Rider encountered?? Was that just wasted time? Come to think of it there were so many weird scenes that were weird time wasters that served little to no purpose in the story where more interesting things could have taken place instead. justice for wammawink though
I'M SO SORRY IT'S BEEN SO LONG! 🔥I spent the latter half of 2022 scrambling to meet a deadline for my graphic novel, and then I got sick OTL But I can at least say I'm 1/3 done with the script of my next review, and I'm gonna have the video out by the end of March or I'll eat my entire couch (Thanks for watching!!)
Centaurworld is a perfect example of a show trying to do a multi seasonal series like Adventure Time but it didn't have the time/budget to have multiple seasons and were given what they could. It's very unfortunate
I felt like Wammawink in the second season not only became the character I first expected her to be in Season 1 (but was pleasantly surprised to be wrong about), but also they kept taking shots at her over and over. It was like the team had taken some of the early feedback from S1 and internalized it, Flanderizing her and turning her into a punching bag. I really liked her in S1, but in S2 she felt off, and the show only reinforced that with "Wow, isn't she being annoying? Everyone's annoyed by her" moments.
Creators can claim "my characters are totally not gay" all they want but as long as there is (purposeful or not) textual evidence there's not much they can do about it.
That still doesn't make what fans interpret or headcanon correct. You can ship the characters all you want, but all you have to go off of is what's there originally. The issue with fan interpretation vs author confirmation is fans will only ever see what they want to see and ignore evidence against their own analysis. Regarding romance, two characters glancing at each other can spark fans to think they're a couple. "My characters are totally not gay" is not merely a claim, it's a fact if the author of the work says so. Horse and Wammawink don't need to think of each other as romantic partners to have a deep, meaningful relationship. Horse doesn't seem to understand romance anyway.
@@moonlightwite it a headcanon, no one said it was the only correct way to interpret there relationship. A creator may have a final word on what is canon or not but will never stop a person interpretation and analysis of there work. The creator can say “there not gay” as much as she wants, ain’t gonna stop people shipping over to character that deeply care for each other. This is an animated show there is no absolute truth, this isn’t school test with right and wrong answers
@@r.i.pmydog7723 Rab's voice recording clip cut off the part of the interview where Megan says she's fine with seeing Wammahorse as romantic. She said it was not her original intention but that a romance could be possible. That part of the interview went on for awhile though, so I can see why she cut it short. IIRC that interview was also uploaded to youtube.
Great breakdown of the series. I didn't catch some of the themes upon watching it before. I loved watching the difference in how horse thought Becky Apples was and the real crazy version of her. I feel like they didn't really need the birdtaurs. I found myself waiting for every episode with them to end.
The moments of expressed pain over not getting a conclusion is something I feel on a personal level. Knowing the conclusion is right there but they missed it and they can’t go back. Like taking a wrong turn on a highway.
Excellent video and excellent comments! Personally I feel like the Nowhere Kings story was basically the only part I liked. Of course insights into the heard were really nice but in hindsight they barely had any emotional weight because of the poor writing... It was just dissapointing.
My opinion, season 2 threw the character personality wamawink had out the window. I feel some archs were went through way too fast. I still like centaurworld, season 1 was amazing! Season 2 lacked... Something... I don't know, something felt like it was just brushed off and avoided being flushed out. I kinda wished they took time to do what they seemed what they wanted to do, maybe had extended it into a season 3 instead of just 2 seasons.
I guess before the backstory jumping, Wama could’ve said to Horse that she sympathizes with her not feeling that her actions matter, and she offers to be more supportive of her trying to contribute (which comes to fruition in the hootenanny rally). Horse then tells Wama that she’s sorry for making Wama not feel as important as Rider, and that she values Wama just as much and will try to be more receptive going forward.
I'm so glad that I'm not the only one that felt like season 2 suffered a bit story wise. I've seen several comments assume they just had to cram everything into season 2 because they had suddenly lost a season 3 but to me I always felt like a majority of season 2 was just filler (for lack of a better term). To me it felt more like the show was kinda just padding their time until they could just get the season 2 finale out. There are lots of parts of season 2 that just felt like a complete slog to go through like all the stuff with comfortable Doug suddenly being important for no reason other than he was kinda funny, or the entire episode making jokes and references about the shows fanbase, or them trying so hard to be funny instead of letting it be naturally funny, even when I personally feel the whole season should have had a more dark tone because a literal WAR was coming
Totally agree with you. While there were some good elements of season 2, it felt like a different show; a different story, and it was so all over the place. I finished it feeling betrayed. You put into words where I feel it fell short excellently! It's just baffling that a first season could be so tight and phenomenal only to be followed up by something so unfocused and bloated. It probably could strongly suggest an originally 3-season deal that got cut short because of course it would (thanks Netflix...), because even the already-fast pacing suffered from that "hastily cobbled ideas tumbling down a hill and off a cliff" feel.
Silliness of the show aside, it really was an incredible and unique show and you brought up so many good points! But you also made me realize why the deal with stabby felt so... Uncomfortable to me haha
God I love your videos. You always say the things I was feeling but couldn't really put properly into words. I was so let down with season 2 because the first season was so promising and really gave me so many things to ponder within my own traumas and fears. Season 2 just fucking slipped on a damn banana peel and smashed into the core of the earth.
Really fair view on a series I (and clearly you as well) adore. I wonder if they were told they had to wrap it up in two seasons and that's what led to some of that. Cool to see someone care about a show "made for kids" Great vid as always!
Gonna be honest? I never liked Centaurworld. The super dark plot lines like The Assisted Suicide Whale combined with the constant fart jokes gave me too much emotional whiplash. This video going in depth about the more serious plot lines while basically ignoring the baby humor gave me a new appreciation for the show. I think that if it had been made for a slightly older audience, it would have been more my cup of tea, but I think I’m ok with the fact that it is what it is.
Season 1 was an absolute master piece. Nearly every episode, scene, and line felt like it had a purpose. Except some parts of the bear taur episode, and we didn't need the fart song because... really, but also everything it told us about Durpleton was stuff we could put together about him already anyways. But basically it didn't feel like there was a lot of filler and pointless nonsense. Nearly everything was ether character development or progressed the story. Season 2 barely felt like any story progression or character development was happening at all aside from the backstory episode, until suddenly war breaks out. The recruiting didn't feel like it paid off cus the hootenanny brought everyone together and just kindof forced most of them into the battle anyways. And it takes itself a lot less seriously in a bad way. Taking some of the most emotionally charged moments that made season 1 so good and turning them into jokes. And the bird taurs... exist. I like the idea that they watch everything from above and treat the world as a show. And it works well as an implied coping mechanism to the war like almost every other herd is shown with. But the social media stuff was awful. I really hate when shows try to force that crap in. And it doesn't even make sense in universe no matter how hard they tried to make it fit. It's just a massive immersion breaking unfunny joke that permeates the entire second season. Cut out the social media stuff from them, but keep the fandom and escapism stuff in there. Maybe even focus on escapism a little more with them cus that only slightly implied to a very specific subset of people, And cut a lot of their screentime. They'd fit a lot better that way and not be so agonizing to watch. Also I don't understand the point that them hating Wammawink serves. It would've been way funnier and made way more sense if they hated Ched, and would've given an opportunity to explore Ched's insecurity more. And I would've preferred more screentime with the trash taurs. Glendale's backstory.... wasn't really a backstory at all. I get the joke of wamawink's helicopter but it was really out of place. They could've done more to make it look like some sort of spell but then if it's a spell there's a lot of places she could've used it throughout the show but just didn't... Anyone who would get that joke already understood wammawink was a helicopter mom so it just kindof feels patronizing, and completely disconnected from the show's reality. It was just bad. It shouldn't have been in there. And Durpleton getting hit multiple times in the battle and not getting inured at all really killed any feeling of suspense and danger, and also makes no sense given that we know for a fact minotaurs can kill other centaurs... It just shouldn't have happened. You can't throw a fatal attack from a minotaur at a character and just say "magic cartoon physics" when the entire world has been built around how traumatizing the war against the minotaurs was. How were they not just steamrolled if they have no magic and axes bounce off of centaurs like they're made of rubber?
I found a lot of the jokes over the top so I'd skip through some of the joke bits and try to figure which parts were character development and lore... and I'm just now realising how much I missed as a result of doing that!
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I want to emphasize that I still adore this series. I may not like season two (up until the finale, at least)...but Centaurworld has given me so much joy and inspiration over the past year, and if any of this footage looks like your cup of tea, I'd still recommend the show.
10:05 This is why I adore your channel 😂
How can you? It sucks
Season 2 felt very much like the show thought they had 3 seasons, and mid production was told, "nope, you only get 2." It's why I think the finale works since it wraps up the larger world and nowhere king. But the early season felt like it was started and then an emergency pivot happened.
I felt the same way! In the "research phase" I was SO sure I would find out about a production issue, where deadlines or seasons got swapped around. But to my surprise, I discovered that MND and co. were told the amount of episodes they'd receive from the get-go, and they had the whole story planned out from very early on. MND even said that, while the schedule was definitely hectic, they worked hard to prevent crunch (which was great to hear!). So, surprisingly, this change of direction doesn't appear to have been caused by an emergency pivot.
Just wanted to share, since I was also so curious about what could've happened behind the scenes!
Yeah looking back at the show it does kind of feel like season 2 could/should have been split up into 2 seasons, one focusing on or resolving the main casts chararacter arcs, and then the one for the final act with the Nowhere King, his backstory (or mabe they couldve put part of that into season 2 both for horses arc and to tease whats coming in the final season) and then the war against the Nowhere King.
I've seen other shows do similar stuff, so it shouldnt have been impossible, devoting one season to basically a single character or confrontation of some sort. Haikyuu spent a full season on 1 volleyball match, and it worked there.
Also, turning season 2 into season 2 and 3 wouldve meant more Centaurworld, and I'd have liked that too.
@@The_Sin_Squad Seriously? I just just took it as given that execs had denied them an expected third season, I didn't even look it up or anything it seemed that clear to me
I think maybe while they were writing for Season 2, the scope had grown more than expected, and since they were still on two seasons, they had to cut stuff. Maybe they cut some of those connections out on accident, not realizing that it happened. Like when you're so focused on something that you miss crucial details.
@@animafanfall I think they had a decent story planned out, but someone made the mistake of telling them Comfortable Doug was funny. And even worse, they based the whole season around him... not really, but it seems like it sometimes. He got 30 seasons of off-screen Flanderization in just one season. Actually, I'm not sure if it counts as Flanderization, because in season one Flanders isn't even a Christian... (or at least he doesn't mention it) it was that other family that was so righteous they got Enoch'd or something... it was a little unclear, I always assumed Homer was hallucinating, but that family is literally never seen again. Anyhow, Flanderization is about one trait getting bigger and more pronounced, but neither the trope namer or Doug really fit this, as new bizarre and sometimes conflicting traits are added at whim for both. Well, whatever was going on, it was a bad idea to focus on his "humor" rather than finishing Wammawink's arc or whatever else they cut.
Okay, the quote about Zulius being too complex to explore, therefore he never gets to be more than the Comedy Gay™ is some top-tier malarkey.
while I do get the point they were trying to make about the symbolism of Horse's inner & outer transformation, it still felt like they were leaning too heavily on her Centaurworld side as she stays in her poofy beach ball form & is apparently stuck like this rather than finding a balance between both sides of herself from the 2 worlds she's now connected to. Just because she began to recover from her trauma doesn't mean she's lost all parts of herself from the human world - because not EVERY part of herself from the human world was bad.
How cool would it have been if she had elements from both her old & new looks in her final appearance - such as when she escaped the Nowhere King's mind she came out with her sharp angles & muscular physique from the human world but the bright colours and markings from Centaurworld as well as her magic powers. It would've brought the theme of balance together so much more strongly!
The entire thing is stupid
I think it's because the wibbwy wobbwy physique IS her true self, the real person she truly actually is. Pedaling back on her transformation wouldn't make much sense.
@@mertensiam3384but the human world is part of her too, but I guess that takes the form of rider ?
Switching between both maybe?
Zulius was the only character who CONSENTED to the idea of his backstory being shown too. That whole backstory magic arc was "I'm going to invade all of my friend's privacy without their consent but because I realized that "we all just go through stuff" they just forgave me and look we're all okay now. :)"
Like I was so viscerally uncomfortable with all of that because yeah I wanted to see their backstories but not like that. Not in a way that has Horse just peering into the deepest parts of their mind without consent.
Same, it made me so uncomfortable
i was so confused during that entire scene, like "is this _really_ what we're doing? are you _sure_ about that?"
I mean, yeah. That's meant to be the whole point
Yeah same I just don't think that horse from season 1 would ever do that it felt very out of character sure she's a bit pushy but I didn't see her as one to push boundaries like that
I think I would have liked it better if the characters told horse their backstory either through the episodes where they feel as though they can trust her or in like a camp fire scene where are they can tell scary stories that are just actually their childhood giving them a way to vent without outright saying it's what happened to them
I feel as though it would have made more sense for the series and characters and wouldn't have given a uncomfortable feeling to the audience
@@Pugkin5405yes but why? Her apology to me wasn't very satisfactory which is why I still feel icky about that episode I don't feel as though horse actually felt bad about pushing boundaries
I think Horse learning that she has backstory magic made her realize her purpose: she's the bridge of empathy that will unite both worlds. Other characters like Wateraby helped to bridge the gaps like when she got humans to agree to help fight with centaurs, but Horse with backstory magic is able to use her newfound empathy to understand almost anyone even Nowhere King. Good video by the way. It got a few laughts out of me and you make some thoughtful points.
She has little empathy. She sucks
waterbaby literally sings about this when she said horse needed to be a unifier and a bridge connecting those who reject what needs to be done, so i’m taking your theory as canon
I’m SO glad you put into words why the second season felt so….. unsatisfactory. Loved this essay!!
I agree that the season was unsatisfying, and it's one of the reasons I hate season 2
Yes ! I’m so glad I was not alone in feeling this way about season 2. I knew something was off and not as enjoyable as I watched it but I wasn’t sure how to put it into words .
Silver lining: rider’s reaction to the absurdity around her was hysterical.
They could have used the backstory episode to build on Horse realising that all of the herd lost their original families and found an untraditional family without roles, but one where they all loved each other. That it doesn’t matter who you were before or what you “contribute”, but that you can give and feel love. But ya I dunno they didn’t really do that.
Im glad it wasn't only me who was upset with horses arc ""resolution ""
especially being someone who also doubts their own place in the world it feels like such a cop out to essentially force the charcter to forget about that and acknowledge that other people go through stuff
horse was really denying the other herd went through things just
Trying to explore and get validation on where exactly she fits
14:20 This. I have PTSD, and to hear MND say "your trauma doesn't matter cuz everyone has issues" is nine kinds of messed up. I really hope you do find your place, or make your own. I hope you are happy.
@@WobblesandBean After all the empathy shown in Centaurworld, that's what you think Megan was going for? Why would you think that? I really don't think she intended for anyone to feel that their feeligns don't matter. That's a hurtful and mean spirited thing to say.
@@peritube2519 If I may jump in, while an author/writer/creator/etc may INTEND for a certain lesson or theme, it's the execution that determines if the audience can pick up on it as intended. If some audience members feel that a character resolution is unsatisfactory, unfair, or even hurtful, then that means that the execution wasn't completely successful. I myself believe that Centaurworld could have used another draft or two to ensure that its execution could be... let's say, better understood.
@@randomspider725 Yea I agree with that. What I didn't like is how Amelia implies that Megan Dong is just an awful person for not successfully hitting the mark: "I have PTSD, and to hear MND say "your trauma doesn't matter cuz everyone has issues" is nine kinds of messed up." Like WTF? There's a difference between good intentions not done well and straight up bad intentions, you know?
@@peritube2519 I don't see your point. The execution turned out to be offensive, the intention behind it does not change the fact that it's messed up. So what's the point of judging that person for what they said?
I really like this video. It really points out what season two lacked. Season 1 felt like they were really focusing on the relationship between the team. this second season just felt like they forgot to have them actually bond over their insecuries, and just mentioned they had them, I guess. I kept waiting for that season 1 feel of them actaully growing closer.. but it never felt that way. Still loved the nowhere king wrap up though lol.
I liked season 2 but it did feel rushed. I wonder if there were more eps if it would be better.
I feel that way too! I would've liked to see more fun group interactions and their growing friendships with each other, but instead their connections felt very opaque.
Why? What is there to love?
@@meloncholy428 Why? What was there to even like?
You know what I hate? That the centaurs’ backstories were used as excuses for their flaws. The Nowhere King wasn’t given that treatment, so why should the others? Why should Durpleton be excused for essentially kidnapping and forcing someone to be his ‘son’? Why should Glendale be excused for stealing, as well as (also) kidnapping people? The message that your past doesn’t excuse your actions needs to go both ways to be effective.
And they didn’t show it well with the Nowhere King. Actually they showed The Nowhere King and should be allowed to destroy both worlds, and that everyone else was wrong in trying to stop him. You’re not supposed to prove the omnicidal monster is right!
@@Master-Works "they showed The Nowhere King and should be allowed to destroy both worlds, and that everyone else was wrong in trying to stop him. You’re not supposed to prove the omnicidal monster is right!"
Are you fucking high LOL
@@peritube2519 Do you want it to be proven we everything should be killed and destroyed?
@@peritube2519 Who who isn’t high would actually watch this? Or make it, for that matter?
Not that I entirely disagree, but mass murderer is a bit different from stealing random stuff and casual kidnapping for a gag
I thought the original through-line of "Unity/friendship/belonging can take many forms and still be in good balance - like the human and animal parts of centaurs" was so, SO strong. I was excited to see another interpretation of it in S2 - even if it was going to be darker or less positive in general, I would still be on board. But everything in S2 felt like this weird mashup of unrelated conflicts and "haha you thought we were going to take this SERIOUSLY?" And as a result, I've watched S2 only once. While I've watched S1 straight through maybe 10 times. It's such a stark contrast :(
14:20 This right here sums up my own anger about this. I, like Horse, have been through trauma. I was diagnosed with PTSD at a young age, and it's been a struggle my whole life. For Meghan D to say "your trauma doesn't matter cuz everyone has problems so shut up and stop being selfish", is the most appalling message I've seen in an animated story since Raya.
Hey, what was bad about Raya? I remember it very vaguely.
@@WobblesandBean I fully agree, I'm so glad to see someone point it out!
I don't think that was what Megan was trying to say. The show has a lot of heart. It doesn't make sense for them to suddenly go "whoops no we lied. We don't care about you!". Megan seems like a sincerely thoughtful person. It's more likely that you are misinterpreting the show. Also they should have been given more episodes to flesh out all the character stories. 8 episodes is not enough for an entire season on this show's scale.
@@peritube2519 Then she shouldn't have spent so much time in Season 2 on unfunny, worthless plot cul-de-sacs and focused more on that non-existent "development" you claim she'd have put in if she had more time. She knew the constraints and the number of episodes she was given from the get-go. Everything we saw in S2 was entirely her choice.
What happened is quite clear; Horse has trauma, Meghan made Horse say "gee whiz guys, I sure was being selfish by wanting to talk about my trauma", and then _never mentions it again._
Like it or not, and whether Meghan intended that to be her message or not, that's how it comes off, and that's how a lot of the audience is going to perceive it as. You don't get to tell someone who has PTSD that they're misjudging this. You've never met Meghan, you can't comment on her strength of character any more than I can. You shouldn't put someone on a pedestal just because they made a cartoon you like.
@@WobblesandBean That's your opinion, I thought some episodes were really funny. There is no way you could fit this size of a story in the episodes they were given. Netflix gives shows a budget and they have to choose how to finish the story and between animation quality and other things. If you can't finish a small character arc in a few episodes then just do a one episode story like the Becky apples episode. I don't unerstand people like you who call something terrible when we still got one really amazing season and a still-good but not as great second season. Toxic person.
Editing to reply to your edit: "You've never met Meghan, you can't comment on her strength of character any more than I can. You shouldn't put someone on a pedestal just because they made a cartoon you like."
You mean just like how you can't put someone in the trash because they made a cartoon you don't like? Why is only the negative acceptable to you?
"You don't get to tell someone who has PTSD that they're misjudging this."
And you don't get to speak for everyone who has PTSD. You seem to think you're the only one in the room who has it. The world does not revolve around Amelia Bee and what Amelia Bee wants and thinks.
I had a great time with both seasons, but I'll admit the second season wasnt as consistent as the first one.
The Nowhere King was still pretty great tho.
edit: and looking back I think the focus on him (them?) may have been the reason why the show kind of lost track of the rest of its characters, or rushed what it did have for them.
They used up all their creative juice on him and then looked at the other 6 characters they had to deal with and just didn’t have the energy lol.
@@pharoahcaraboo9610 well fuck those characters when you do have a badass like the nowhere king you gotta admit
What was great about season 2?
@@Master-Works the nowhere king
@@andrewmcloughlin330He barely did anything
It's so weird to me the way the second season is paced, as if they ran out of material and were grasping for content when hardly anything was accomplished. If greater depth in Centaurworld was too much to handle with what I suspect were a lot of cuts from Netflix, I wish they would've just switched to the human world and developed Rider and the General instead. At least then the lack of songs would've felt more natural and the Rider betrayal at the end could've felt more earned.
Hell, might've made Rider's stabbing more tense if we could care about her past what she means to Horse.
I was so excited to see more of Rider this season, but almost all of her screentime felt wasted and her idolization of the general felt odd and out of nowhere.
I remember seeing one person say that her arc might've been better if they would've shown the effects of her being a child soldier instead of a war obsessed kid. It made sense with horse, since she's a war horse who was likely bred/trained for war which makes her feel like it's her only purpose, but according to centaurworld's timeline with the nowherr king, Rider wouldn't have been exposed to war until recently.
Centaurworld was... weird and inconsistent, in a lot of ways. I tend to approach stories less through character arcs and more by asking what themes the story is building as a whole. Centaurworld frames itself for a lot of the first season as about Horse having to learn how to do things outside her comfort zone, having to convince people and connect with them instead of just pushing through any obstacle with brute strength. She can't do magic on her own, and her very first song is her awkwardly convincing people for the first time to party up with her. Waterbaby basically has a song where she says "ok here's what this show is about" and yeah, she talks about how Horse is going to have to convince people of things they don't want to accept, a real challenge for someone as socially inexperienced as Horse.
ruclips.net/video/pOsQPAiS3io/видео.html
The nowhere king is also hinted to be the kind of villain that contributes to that kind of story, that you can't beat just by punching. A kind of conceptual, corrupting villain. The flowers sing his name, his musical themes are carried on the wind and seem to be somehow corrupting the very world itself to stand against the protagonists (or maybe im just reading to much into that taurnado?).
But then those themes get almost entirely dropped. The show is instead about being true to yourself, which... well it isn't out of nowhere, they were definitely building those, but I sure wasn't getting the message that they were the central message of the show for the first sections. By the end of the first season Horse has gotten all the keys without convincing anybody. Some of them she actually just got by punching. They acknowledge that in the second season by wasting a bunch of our time doing the convincing all over again, but god do those sections drag. They're clearly not the central themes of the show anymore, and just lampshading how drastically you dropped those threads doesn't really make it any better.
The nowhere king also turns out to be nothing like he was hinted at. He's all about being accepting yourself and the consequences of failing to do so, and in fairness he executes those themes really well. Even if they are all dumped on us in a ham-fisted flashback sequences in one double-length final episode that is basically the entire second season all on its own. Good story, not great writing. More improtantly to what I'm saying, he's also kind of disappointing in the nature of his threat in-universe.
He's dangerous because he's a big dude and he makes dangerous creatures. Except by the end of the season they've gotten his key so he can't make dangerous creatures anymore, so... he's just kind of a big dude. The main threat he poses to the protagonists is that he's gonna bodyslam them, like, really hard. Why were the flowers singing his name on the wind in the first season? Seriously, it's not like that's a power he has. It's just... A Thing that happened? OK I guess. The general is another question, you can talk about the threat he has, but once they've figured everything out at the end of season two (using Horse's extremely convenient Please Exposit Your Backstory For The Camera powers) I really do think they could just punch the problem real good and solve things. The Nowhere King isn't all-powerful, the minotaurs aren't really a threat to them, they could definitely just solve this situation with force and have it be plausible. It's not a situation that challenges them, it's kind of just a neat story that we've all learned happened and then the show ends.
Finally, Comfortable Doug. Good god, comfortable Doug. Someone needs to go around and staple a reminder to the forehead of all writers everywhere that says "If you make a character who's joke is that he ruins some structural part of the show repeatedly, the reward for succeeding is that you've made your show proportionately worse." Just, who the fuck was like "oh man, you know what would be funny? A joke character whose entire joke is that the pacing goes to shit every time he shows up." Well it sure does! You've succeeded on a mid-tier joke and I want to stop watching every one of the many, many times he shows up.
And you know what's even worse? Comfortable Doug was IMPORTANT to the story all along! The moletaurs can just go between worlds and it's how reality travelling was first a thing.
this probably says more about me than the show but so much of it gave me really intense body horror icks. horse losing autonomy over her physical presentation, undergoing a transformation that everyone else loves but she feels deeply dysphoric about? that doesn't read as her finding her "true self" to me. so much of season one specifically is so scary in how little agency horse has and how little respect she is given by her new "herd". there is so much toxic codependency on ALL SIDES of this show and it's so uncomfortable to me as a person who's been in too many deeply toxic real world relationships
As someone who has dealt with body dysmorphia the transformation stuff was very strange (especially since in the finale when in the Nowhere Kings backstory she goes back to normal? Meaning that its her true form)
Wammawink is by far my favorite character. Seeing her get sidelined was so disappointing.
yesssss i was so disappointed with s2 (besides the last episode) and as far as i was concerned wamma's arc was over after s1. frankly i found the backstory magic thing to be a really lazy way to exposition dump all the character trauma and the fact that none of them wanted to share it just makes it feel really gross and unearned. i heard that both seasons were produced at the same time as is often the case but idk the difference feels like night and day. i was profoundly disappointed and it made me sad :(
"i heard that both seasons were produced at the same time as is often the case"
I read somewhere (interview maybe?) that season 1 was planned out and produced before covid while season 2 was produced after covid lockdowns started. They feel so different so I'm not surpised if that was the case.
What was there to like about the last episode! It didn’t make sense. Sure, it might be considered emotional, but emotional doesn’t equal good writing
I like the nowhere kings story but I don't remember much about the rest of the season at all
It doesn’t make any sense
It was filled with songs I didn’t like at all, i felt too silly …😢 they tried to united the centaurs there, but I cared very little about them
This is why it's hard for me to like shows that use "let's be mean to the character and make them learn that they aren't the centre of the world somehow" arc, because it never works. I felt so bad for Horse never resolving her issues because of "others have worse than me" and wammawink being treated poorly just to never get any words of affirmation from her more mature friends, she really did a full 360 and ended up alone once again (and randomly got to be friends with Rider and Horse bc happyend magic). I still love the show and I believe that maybe it could've been written a bit better if it was just one long standalone season because I feel like they didn't had any ideas for the 2nd season but still wanted to resolve the nowhere king mystery.
I felt that season 2 ruined the entire thing. The nice parts from season 1 doesn’t compare to the bad stuff in season 2
On my second rewatch this summer, I felt like Wammawink was shoehorning herself into Ryder and Horse's relationship. Because we didnt get to see Horse acknowledge the difference in her relationship with each of them, and we didnt even really get to see her acknowledge Wammawink. I felt bad for Wammawink bc at the end when she was like "we all get to be friends!" It felt like she was still desperate to be a part of Horse's relationship and closest inner circle.
I love this show so much but it feels like it could have been even better with some small changes and, like, one more episode. And this video captured exactly what my problems were.
(Also my one and only problem with the finale could have been fixed by just giving horse healing tears. I know it's a minor thing but it immediately removes any cheapness from Rider's survival.)
RIGHT?? They should have let her stay dead! After what she did to Horse, she lost all good will from me, and I felt that her death would have been so poignant. But instead, it's cheap and meaningless.
Or the same amount of episodes, just less recruitment episodes and none of the bird stuff.
I love Centaurworld with all my beating heart but there's so much stuff I could nitpick about it.
The episode about Horse discovering her backstory magic and the backstory of the herd members felt half-baked. It felt like they crammed every single backstory without fully developing it. The emotion lasted for only a few minutes before it went
'Aight that's done next character please!'
You do realise that everyone with a half a mind think you are a total f-word, right?
Yeah like, I love side stories. I love episodes that show our characters in different situations than we normally see them in. BUT the second season felt so unfocused that I was often like "okay but how does this serve characterization of anyone here or the narrative? I liked the show overall and I enjoyed the stuff with the Nowhere King (i'm a big fan of such eldritch nightmares), but idk there was a good chunk of the show I just didn't enjoy, especially the bird place episode, i just ugh i did not like that one
Also i'm starting to feel like we don't always need backstory for every character even in the main cast (though tbh I never really felt like most of The Herd was emotionally compelling. Like I feel like we could have reduced the number of secondary characters there to one or maybe two and still had a good number of jokes while focusing more on Horse and Wamawink and Rider, but i guess that's partially because this show *wasn't* my humor style at all)
Totally agree, it felt like the majority of s2's episodes WERE side story rather than having a few side story eps in between more serious plot progression eps. Like, the show Kipo had a similar "travel to different groups and build up our army" plotline toward the end of the show, and imo it managed to balance side story and main story more effectively while also making its gag characters a little more interesting through gradual development. I still like both shows, but Kipo's final season feels like it's building to its finale, while Centaurworld's final season feels like it's constantly detouring from the path
I really hate the way horse basically was forced to conform to the dynamics of centaurworld. I get that she's hiding from the trauma of the world by being reckless, but her brash persona, love for violence and admiration for strenght were what drew me to her character. Female characters are not typically portrayed like that in media. It was also fun to see her constantly losing her patience with the silliness of centaurworld. The problem is that she was fundamentally changed by centaurworld and molded into another silly puffy centaur. Its like they brainwashed her into being more girly for some reason. I really hated her transformation and how she basically got forced into it. The whole point of her being a warhorse is how she is anathema to the sillyness and pageantry of centaurworld. Why did she have to change in order to fit their mold?
Preach, please
Havnt seen anyone else agree with me on this yet
Just starting the video, and although I dislike fart and poop humour, Durpleton was my absolute favourite charcter after the lovely Wammawink. I thought right from his first fart song, that it was a good metaphor for issues you can't escape. One can't eradicate their colon. Anyway, back to the vid!
Interesting
lol same! I hate potty humor, and Durpleton's fart song (i know it's supposed to be about his dad but i still hate it), but Durpleton was my favorite. He's such a fun character:)
The moment they turned Horse into a marketable plushie version of herself I hated it, because I assumed that it was going to signal a decline in her personality, her capability, and her arc... And I absolutely hate that I was right. >.< Not to mention the unintentional moral: "You should assimilate yourself with your new friends if you want to be accepted."
I hate this show too
Honestly the Nowhere King's story was the only thing in season 2 that blew me away. Everything else was mid, bad, frustrating or at best not terrible.
What do you fall something that is not terrible, but not good either?
@@Master-Works I use words like "OK" or "decent"
@@draccqueen1770 Maybe neutral
Season 1 of Centaurworld absolutely blew me away with how tight and well paced the entire story was, and I have to say, it was really disappointing that they didn’t carry that into the second season. We might never know the reason for that, but it does help to be able to put more words to the general feeling of “this pacing is off” and this video does that perfectly.
god, yes, it felt so. underwhelming. the nowhere king finale was dope as hell though.
It was still bad, though
I felt it was kind of a strange choice to cram all the info about the Woman, the Nowhere King, and the General into the finale rather than spreading it out throughout the season. (Why does the Woman never get a name also?? Like if we only saw her through The Nowhere King's eyes it could be a commentary on how he viewed her but like, we get other scenes with her, she could have had more of an identity and even served as more of a foil to Horse and Rider but instead she doesn't even get a name :/ Ig it's supposed to be playing off NK's and General's names but like, those are titles they created/embraced at least, they didn't just call the General "Man".)
The whole season I was like "okay so they introduced the Nowhere King and hinted at his backstory so I bet next episode is when they'll start explaining stuff about him!" and then they just. Crammed it all into the finale. Like don't get me wrong, I loved that whole part of the ep, but I can't help but feel it would have been better if we'd gotten to see bits and pieces of it throughout the season rather than having a big lore dump in the finale. Like, the Nowhere King only came into being a few decades ago given that the Woman isn't even that old, surely we could have spent the season hearing from characters who were around during the origins of the war or even before, and then had the whole story come together in the final eps.
It would have been more valuable than the amount of screen time devoted to the Horsetaurs and Birdtaurs, at least
I still think I just... got too sold on my own idea of what season 2 would be. But my only gripe with the show is that horse had to change who she was completely, but the centaurs did not. I know her strength probably came from trauma, but I wish they had gone to horse and rider's world in the second season and taken an arc that did place horse in the confident leader role, teaching the centaurs that strength isn't a bad thing when it means fighting for what you care about. She could have regained her former form, the one she preferred, but maintained the softness she learned in centaurworld.
IMO season 2 should have been a season of growth for the centaurs, not primarily for horse, and a season of themes compromising. It would have matched the tone of the Nowhere King too - learning that the two worlds have good and bad, and maybe the answer isn't to wholly belong in one or the other, but to instead find yourself somewhere between. and accept yourself for who you are, because appearances and internal being are two different things. I love the show, and the finale is incredible, but I really didn't like the arc of season 2 much either. it felt unnecessary, which was odd since season 1 presented such a beautiful arc.
It sucked, and the finale was horrible
Excellent video, as usual. I second a lot of your opinions on this wonderful, yet flawed show. Extreme tonal whiplash and abandoned arcs definitely left their marks, but overall, centaurworld is a wonderfully unique show that deserves attention.
Also, I was unprepared for the hard cut to the general drowning the elk, I choked on my drink, great job with that 🖤
First things first: I think you beautifully summarized how well Centaurworld Season 1 did with Wammawink and Horse, and in general explaining foils and comparisons between characters and their relationships to another. Also really funny editing XD While I dont see them as a ship, Wammawink and Horse have a good dynamic with another that played off well. Its also nice to see someone else acknowledge how Wammawink's "babying" negatively affects the crew, leaving them unself reliant. Season 1 had a magic that touched me deeply, balancing tonal whiplash with moments of seriousness. The magic that Season 2 just....doesnt have.
Like S2, while botching any characterization that Wammawink and Horse been through, spends time just poking fun at them, Wammawink being seen as desperate and clingy, Horse being super self centered and ruining a lot of "recruitment efforts", My mind Refuses to remember the birdtaur episode and Comfortable Doug (who it seemed like the writers assumed people loved him? but I hated him so much at the end). Forcing relationships to work together (Zulius and Splendib just...okay) , having random zany moments for no reason (with not the same charm as in S1), the infofump of "backstory magic", and etc etc, but I can only assume theres some production stuff that affected the writing and tone. I also felt weird about Stabby and Durpleton like,,,the lizard guy is in his 40s but is being babied by force and for no reason just accepts it. Also....the lack of really new songs. Some of the songs being reused worked but man...the songs were so important in S1 the ball dropped har I feel.
In any case, I still have a special place in my heart for S1, and cherrypick what I liked in S2 (Ched and Durpleton Backstory, Nowhere King)
I completely agree. The first season was really good (awful potty humor aside), but the second season SUUUUUCKED. Unfunny, inconsistent, everyone's Flanderized, the songs were bad, it was just....man, what happened?
Yeah when season 2 came out i kinda noticed a decay in the show quality but you can't deny that they did a really good job with the ending
The ending is horrible! It doesn’t make any sense! And they didn’t do a good job at tackling racism!
@@Master-Works the ending was the best part of season 2 tho
@@vickypedia1308 It was the worst. Sure, it may be emotional, but the writing is bad and doesn’t make any sense. And what bothers me is that They proved the racists right. They also proved the omnicidal monster right and that it was wrong to stop him from eradicating both words. YOU AREN’T SUPPOSED TO PROVE THR OMNICIDAL MONSTER RIGHT!!!
@@Master-Works My dude, it sounds like you severely lack basic comprehension skills when it came to the finale. How did it prove racists right? How did it prove genocide is right? Are you listening to yourself? Damn you best be trolling right now LMAO
One thing that kills me is how efficient season 1 was with their storytelling. Things about the characters are shown/implied in tandem with the story. Season 2 opens with a montage of Horse failing as a recruiter, and it felt like the story had broken free of the "go to place/accomplish task" model as things get more complex. Instead, they keep reiterating the same thing, and burn a full episode on weirdly petty meta-gags about fans. As season 1 implied, Horse starts developing stronger magic - I honestly expected there to be a role-reversal conflict where Wamawink becomes the better "general" while Horse proves to be a shaman candidate, or something. I still _like_ Centauworld, but S2's pacing/storytelling are oddly out of synch with S1.
Even the songs go from advancing the story to exploring various concepts, which is fine! It just leaves less time for plot, which is then further put on a back-burner as setups get no payoff.
The few character arcs that do get explored are ones that were already spelled out in Season 1. Ched had a bad childhood encounter with horse-taurs, Derpleton has a mean dad, and the two appear to be younger/closer to each other compared to the rest of the herd, from the way they interact. It's nice to have those hints confirmed, I guess, but not what I was really curious about. The show even makes it a joke that nothing is said about Zulius while retreading ground that's been covered. (There's also the uncomfortable half-message about consent that is picked up and dropped in a single episode.) The root of Glendale's severe anxiety is fine, if weird; still a bit lost on why having a particularly strong spell would cause her to be shunned. The show itself points out Wamawink's reduced role - it wasn't oversight. _So what was it?_
I really wonder what happened between the seasons. The crew are all massively talented, so was there interference from Netflix that resulted in fewer episodes and more filler? And seriously, what happened to make them so salty about their fans? Who hurt these creators???
Your commentary is on point as always. I couldn’t finish the show because of my own reactions to the issues you mentioned (including ’why so many fart jokes?!?’). Thanks for putting it into words.
Your editing was _fantastic_ this time too. Very deep cuts at times and very funny but not too much or too quick. Congrats, your hard work is paying off! Thanks for spending so much effort on your videos for us to enjoy!
Thank you so much for this video, you've put a lot of the things that missed me in s2 and left me feeling so disconnected and unmotivated by s2. Most people I know just loved the finale in its entirety (which is fine! I'm glad they had fun I love my friends and respect their opinions too) and left me feeling like (ironically) I couldn't voice my concerns to explore them with anyone because I didn't want to ruin the mood. So the show to an extent has been unfortunately festering slowly in my mind. But seeing someone voice these directly is really cathartic on being able to go back and rewatch and appreciate the show for the potential it had again while making peace with the things that alienated my interest.
it's a shame netflix cut their seasons short, they would have had more time to properly flesh out their arcs
It wasn’t just Netflix, the director has been proven insane. She doesn’t work properly in the mental department. If you ask me, I would say it doesn’t beyond thinking that she is capable of murdering someone. She could obe day kill someone, if She hasn’t already. She might have gotten someone killed indirectly
While watching season 2, I felt something was a little off and I took to looking for online reviews to see if something they could say about it would help me able to verbalize it for myself. So far, yours is the only one to thoroughly and eloquently detail what exactly had made me feel like it wasnt as good as the first.
I know it's just your opinion but I genuinely love how you explained and executed this entire thing! Absolutely love your videos, keep it up! :D
God it's so painful when writers forget to include the final bits of a character arc and just have the character show up in their resolved state.
RIP to my girl lapis ;~; finished her character arc somewhere off-screen
😅😅😅….yeah. Really, I only remembered she had fun with Steven after the jailbreak.
...Comfortable Doug had more screen time than Rider herself...Moletaurs had more screen time than humans and even other centaurs. Seriously...what's up with the creators and Moletaurs? Season 1 was great. Season 2 felt so rushed, unfunny, unsatisfactory, minus episode 6 (which takes place in the human world and not centaurworld, that says a lot). Honestly f*ck Comfortable Doug. Lmao.
"Starkly compressed" is a great way to describe season 2, it was kind of a let down because while there were moments that made me emotional it wasn't nearly as intense or fulfilling like with season 1. So much of season 2 seemed to revolve around funny character moments and jokes that a lot of the weight of what made some of the more intense or thoughtful moments almost non existent. I felt the same way with the Nowhere King and especially using Woman as the crux of his story with 0 insight into her feelings and thoughts beyond her first song in season 1. She is just there for character development which makes her killing him on the spot during the finale sorta... I dunno not as moving? I don't want to say cruel, because I understand but there's so many questions that this season brought up with every single character and none of it was resolved. It was really disappointing.
I found the way of killing cruel, unjust and inhumane
I'm not at all timely here but I was elated to find this essay!!! I have SOOO many naunced thoughts and criticisms for season 2, but by far the core of season 1 for me was ALWAYS Horse and Wammawink's developing dynamic. other parts of the show made me emotional, but these two were what made me CRY, what made my heart swell with emotiona and meaning. they were the direct venue for the true message of the show to sink in.
and by all means, I would've loved to have given this season to the rest of the herd, too - I'm not sure if they ALL needed to have tragedy define their backstories, I'd probably be fine if some of them remained fairly simple characters - but either way, this would've felt so much better given the time needed to find and feel the weight behind each one. I've always throught spreading them out, revealing or hinting at each backstory through a thematically relevant episode that challenges and exposes each herd member on their flaws, would've been a far better focus for season 2 to take than the tertiary characters/recruitment plot.
Zulius especially - GOD I wanted to see him work through his highly masked insecurity and social anxiety, I thought that would've been so fascinating to see with a character that confident. plus, it feels VERY unbalanced with just how many new background characters are added to the show this season, 2 - something that's... generally not very advisable after the halfway point of your media. I wasn't sure how exactly I was supposed to feel emotional about the people of this world coming together in community and harmony, when I'd hardly had time to bond with half of them and most of them served as a rude inconvenience to the protagonsits' goals at best.
as for Horse and Wammawink, it's just... so tragic that their arcs were underdeveloped for most of the season, and then dropped entirely. I didn't want things to just, be perfect between them after season 1 either, so the inclusion of Some kind of arc is definitely better than none - but I found it SO hard to get invested in their plights this season. plots about codependency, jealousy and desperate validation seeking are ONLY emotionally fulfilling if there is enough time given to the pain and depth that makes the characters feel this way, along with a satisfying conclusion that shows them working through their boundaries with each other, otherwise... it just feels grating, uncomfortable and empty. (see: Wreck it Ralph 2.)
I always knew Wammawink got done dirty by season 2 - I get the feeling from the birdtaur episode that the writers predicted her to be one of the fanbase's least favourites and wrote season 2 with that in mind - reducing her screentime AND her integrity. but this video essay genuinely makes me SAD about it, like-- she doesn't get any kind of comfort or conclusion to this frivilous anxiety she's been visibly stewing in the entire season, nor does she get an affirming experience that boosts her confidence in herself and her relationships, helping her grow out of her dependency and step into a role of self love and celebration, surrounded by friends she can trust. it's sort of depressing! she deserved better.
the backstory magic is obviously an attempt at affirming Horse's role as the bridge/mediary, allowing her that greater sense of empathy that lends well to her personal growth And her quest, a theme I LOVE for her - but this definitely feels like a cheap way of accomplishing that, and I really don't think the narrative made her earn it. on top of that, self-sacrifice is never really a theme that was particularly important to her arc, so having the rest of her emotional journey be "concluded" when she decides to offer her life to rush into the Nowhere King, it's just like, well... okay....... this sure is some season finale drama I guess. she's really missing that nuance that the first season was so devoted to giving her, and now just feels desperate and reckless, this time in a way that doesn't really serve her arc.
couple of notes, though - I'm not at all a fan of toilet humor myself, but actually really appreciate how it's employed in Durpleton's arc specifically. instead of elaborating, I'll just recommend everyone go watch the movie 'Swiss Army Man' to get some good good deconditioning done. and secondly, I'm just a tad uncomfortable with Durpleton and Stabby's dynamic being referred to as 'ageplay' - a better term here would be age regression, which, in a healthy (and *definitively* non-fetishized) dynamic, can be a beautiful way of healing from childhood trauma. my partner wrote an incredibly moving essay on this - you should be able to find it by googling '"Centaurworld": An Experiment in Childish Maturity' - Fern M.K., storyspirit, substack.
This comment was such a fantastic, cathartic read; thank you for such a poignant analysis!
And you're so right; I apologize for the use of the term "ageplay" when I should've used "age regression!" (No shade whatsoever to those who participate in ageplay, and I know ageplay can also provide a healing experience from trauma! But "age regression" would've been a much better word to use here.)
30:30 I KNOW! The birdtaurs did not deserve all that screen time, my least favorite part of season two
Great video! It's hard for me to be too disappointed in how season 2 was handled, because I just loved how they handled the Nowhere King so much but they definitely could have done a better job at building up Horse, Rider, and Wammawink as foils to him and the Woman. I think Derpleton and Stabby were handled the best out of the herd that season, in terms of balancing the goofiness and the seriousness of the situation. Each ally should have corresponded with the personal growth of a teammate (they could start with Zulius and the Birdtaurs since his backstory was already set up in season 1, and then go from there) but it all just ended up being TOO jokey for the most part, and not really entwining the goofs with the character arcs. I have no idea why the show kept dunking on Wammawink in season 2 either (like the birdtaurs saying she's their least favorite and Horse just being so casually dismissive of their relationship)
i am so glad for this video. i loved centaurworld s1 and the finale was amazing but it felt so.. lower quality than the rest. way too much time was given to shit like the birdtaurs and the coldtaurs and holetaurs (??). there was a noticeable lack of music that was character-intrinsic or even progressed the plot, and one of my biggest gripes was how much of the music was just.. expository almost without talking about how the characters were feeling. i was super upset with how much attention was dropped from wammawink, especially after how well she was developed in s1 and how nicely things were set up for further development. the fact that she was treated so horribly by the birdtaurs AND horse without any repercussion or apology made the amount of investment i had for her feel like a joke.
i feel like netflix is partially to blame because it really feels like they were initially told they'd have a third season only to have it cut last minute, which might explain how poorly timed everything is. but still!
they knew how many episodes theyd have from the get go. they just didnt plan it well enough
@@felinoidrose seriously? that makes s2 even sadder bc it reeked of being rushed
It was also the Directors fault. It has been proven several times that she is mentally ill.
Welcome back! I know you've gone through quite the process to produce this one and it came out lovely. I must admit it's been a while since I watched the show...even though it only came out a year ago(?!!? christ), but I was able to regain some of my initial thoughts and feelings through looking at the footage you've chosen. Remember really digging season one and being kind of "huh okay" about season two, which is a bit of bummer. Really like what Megan and her team brought to the table and I hope we see more of her in the future.
Things take time to get right and getting a whole show, with character arcs that 100% pass muster is always a miracle when it happens or if it even does happen; I think it's a myth. Gotta wonder what outside forces (deadlines, pandemic, stress of first-time show-running) played in having the show end up as it did, but c'est la vie. It's very interesting to hear your thoughts and I have no doubt this will start up some conversation again. Your editing continues to be top notch and I'm pretty sure the "I'll call you" gag one shotted me.
the seasons being cut so short, for me, really highlighted how hollow and unfulfilling the idea that this guy helped contribute to lets say, what? hundreds of thousands of deaths over a love triangle that he's 2 thirds of, and when he sees his wife again there's like no palpable sense of awe there. Like he's just kind of like " oh! hey, didn't know you'd be here " like bruh....horse's mom and dad DIED...... like.......LOTS of ppl and critters are DEAD....
It didn’t make any sense. And the Woman felt like a horrible person and wife
Simple, like Horse said it wasn't Love. He never really loved her. It' was more like a Stalker. She is pretty and was nice to him once, so he became obsessed with the idea of her and his idea of a the perfect live. She says she likes the adventures and free centaur world. He only thinks about how he can keep them both in the castle, to which she said she doesn't like it so much it's boring. But he doesn't care, he doesn't listen. He comes up with this whole crazy plan of splitting himself right after she tells him she likes him. Because it is not about her. It's about HIS perfect live with his trophy wife.
@@QueenOfDarknes5 He didn’t treat her that way
@@Master-Works Yes he did. She said one thing and he didn't listen. His dream of living an human live where he has the power was more important.
She never knew that the General was him. So he probably lied about his whole live to her and kept it secret that he abused the elk in the basement.
Neither side of them had any respect of her after she sacrificed herself to end the war. They both just continued and didn't take Responsibility or did anything else that would feel like remorse for they actions.
At the end when they both become one elktaur again. He didn't say sorry not to the world not to her.
@@QueenOfDarknes5 The Elk respected her and reggreted a lot of things
THE RETURN OF THE QUEEN
I really disliked how the first 3 episodes seemed to just be milking the success of season one. People say they could have used more episodes (to a degree I agree) but considering the beginning of season 2 they could have used THOSE episodes instead of “Here’s a stage play of season 1!!!” 😭
thank you for that wammawink saying babygurl compilation, it is something i woulnd't have typed out into search on my own but a great thing to have watched. > 6:56
This video is really done! As a die hard Wammawink fan, I really wish we had gotten more development from her in Season 2.
I know who you are
This is exactly why season 2 felt so disjointed. The finale was heartfelt but it's like there were so many speedbumps and characters went through internal developments inbetween the viewers having bathroom breaks.
Zulius didn't even get a flashback. Glendale is some kind of manic villian. She's killed before; those cannot just be throwaway jokes! The birdtaur stuff really ripped into Wammawink hard with no one coming to her defense.
I was fully expecting Becky Apples to gain a voice as well.
The finale still sucks
Just wanted to add that Stabby's character "arc" in S2 was creepy. Like I don't know what the writers wanted to achieve for that character (who was literally nothing more than a throwaway joke in S1's ending) and I'm not sure if the writers knew either. If the purpose of S2 was to put more focus on the other core cast of Centaurworld, why add on a new character last minute with a creepy relationship with Durpleton?
I feel it's only creepy when you had a decent relationship with your parents and were not in an army all of your life
6 months late, but have similar feelings! and also, the "backstory magic" scene had some really weird and concerning principles about consent... like why did horse deliberately choose to look into the pasts of her friends who were uncomfortable about it? meanwhile, zulius was like "hell yeah, lets look at my past!" and everyone was like "haha, no. by the way zulius, you have a narcissism problem."
"It's a sad situation, because while Horse has Wammawink AND Rider, Wammawink... kind-of only has Horse?"
Been there. Beeeen there...
it's crazy how well you retain our attention. i never heard of this series before and you made it so interesting to me by the way you speak of it. i hope you keep doing what you do!
One thing worth mentioning in regards to Horse's arc derailment is that; postponing focusing on your own problems by instead only focusing on helping with other's problems is also a real world maladaptive coping mechanism, lol!
I agree that the time dedicated to each story beat felt a bit all over the place in the second season, and I really did not enjoy the whole self-referential thing with the birdtaurs watching their "show" (And why did they give Wammawink such a hard time?? Was that a reflection of how real life fans of Centaurworld where reacting to her character? I was so confusing for me)
Really enjoyed your essay! You always manage so express your opinions so eloquently and your edits are super fun.
well but why give her the maladaptive coping mechanism without her learning better by the end of the season?
and btw the birdtaur thing was just based on how they thought the fandom might react to her based on other fandoms, they wrote both seasons before season 1 was released
Really interesting video! I also was very unsatisfied with season 2 after mostly enjoying season 1, but couldn't have articulated why nearly as well. I would have just said something like, 'I just kinda find Wammawink's herd to be really annoying whenever they're on screen, didn't like episodes centered around them, and also feel like the birdtaurs should have been a 10 second gag instead of an entire episode and tons of reoccurring appearances.'
But you summed things up much better, and upon reflection, I kinda agree with all of your points.
you really nailed this! I had some nebulous feelings regarding season 2, and this really put it into words. The only way I could say it before was that it felt "rushed," but this makes much more sense. thank you for this video, the series is wonderful, but this is such a big problem with season 2. Almost feels like they intended more but had to make room for "wacky hijinks" with the heard. Durpleton was great, but ya, everyone else... seems like they got dropped.
Thank you! I love centaurworld and was super excited for season two and while it wasn't terrible it was disappointing.. I never had the words for why but you laid it out perfectly! Thank you
It was terrible.
YES! YES! THIS EXACTLY! I knew I had a problem with Wammawink and Horse’s character progression and this sums it up perfectly.
The way wammawink was handled hurts me so deeply. She’s my girlie and I love her
Horse sucks
This show really needed another season to develop pretty much EVERY main character more(besides horse, she needed something other than just more time as this video essay showed)…
I would have loved more Rider focused episodes, more time to add some depth to the herd, giving woman and the nowhere king more screen time to actually learn about them and build some presence. Especially woman.
Also some episodes about the herd and developing them would be nice! Either that or just drop the backstory episode! We get little peeks into who the characters are or why they are the way they are but nothing about them actually changes, besides the few scenes like durpleton confronting his dad and the 2 seconds where ched got his validation as a tulip dancer they mean nothing. Those tiny little payoffs are such small moments that don’t make the backstories worth it in my opinion. The backstories are mostly pointless as the show is currently.
I think they should have been developed more or removed entirely
I was so disappointed at the end when they made horse a shaman out of nowhere for literally no reason. Bare minimum i wish they would've made wamawink the shaman and made horse an ambassador or smthing 😢 would've made more sense while still keeping then together at the end, what do I know tho 😢
It is really sad season 2 just tried to parody itself. Everything was doubled down on to the silly side of season 1 and on showcasing FaN FavOrItEs. Season 2 could have easily been good continuation of Wammawink's and Horse's arcs, if the point was to showcase how the herd itself becomes independent through Wammawink letting them do so and showing how much better they "belong" in the mindset of Centaurworld than Horse by succeeding in recruiting forces through the first 6 episodes in Centaurworld. The other 6 should then be at the human world, where Horse would keep feeling out of place as the humans are weirded out by her (And it would also be a good chance to explore the General better before the reveal and also giving Wammawink the change to sort out her feelings regarding Rider's relationship with Horse). Meanwhile all of this the herd reach a point where they start to abandon their toxic coping mechanisms and truly be there to support Horse, not for the codependency, but because they are able to help someone without asking something in return, which would later play into Horse's resolve in the Horse VS the Nightmare King dilemma.
But yeah, can't fix what has already happened and was always out of my control. A shame that what I find an easy story structure just didn't happen in the writing room.
Awesome video!!! I was unfortunately sooo disappointed with this show as a whole as it had countless major issues and annoyances and you did a great job laying out the story side. The birdtaur stuff was the most cringe moments of my life and the choppy arcs really fell flat in the end for me.
you really put into words everything i felt about the story part and i didnt know how to explain. but in adittion to that, one thing that bummed me a lot was the songs too, season 1 had some pretty cool songs, the highlight being nothing good and i was excited to see what new songs we would have the second season, sadly we only had reprises pratically. I know songs arent that important, but in a musical i cant help but wish for more.
Hey, I just found your "Capitalism, Poverty and Ratatouille" video essay, went to twitter and found your reflection about how people dismiss our hobbies/interests that are related to media. My undergrad thesis was on Brooklyn Nine Nine and (de)Toxic Masculinity and people gave all kinds of funny looks.
I just wanted to say that your content is awesome and I'm fascinated now seeing aaaaaaall of those videos that I have available to watch now and I'm grateful that you do it. Hopefully I'll be in position to become a Patreon soon!
Zulius just not getting an arch actually really upset me as a gay fan. Like the most outwordly gay character on the show just doesnt get an arch at all?
Also I remember watching the seaon and he kept talking about it i assumed he was going to be the last one ane I was really excited to see more of him and then he gets nothing.
Also I hated him getting (back??) together with the tiger centuar out of no where. I mean im glad he got to be openly gay, but i feel like he deserved better.
Wammawink is my favorite character.
I just feel the need to voice that ever since that episodes with the super bird fans.
THANK YOU. Bruh I really needed someone to talk about this show the editing was hilarious but also I would LOVE to hear your thoughts on the elephant in the room: The No Where king. WHY. WHY TF DIDN'T WE GET MORE OF THE WOMANS SIDE OF THE STORY?! LIKE- sure goof around as much as you want but- man this season I think that there was budget issues or something something HAD to have been going on behind the scenes...
After "356 days" the phrase "baby girl" is so tainted X(
I agree
You have blown my mind wide open with this video. I did have slight issues with S2, but nothing major. I wasn't even thinking of these things. Once again, that's why you're The Sin Squad, and I'm but a fan.
Amazing video.
I'm just upset they didn't let Rider die it would've at least been a more understanding ending to me. They gave us the emotional mourning of her dying next to Horse and then she just isn't dead like what? No. Why?
No, but seriously why did we have three different "cut-back to Rider dying" shots if you're just gonna pull a "welp she has a head-bandage now, so she's fine" 😭
i still quite liked season 2, but this is an interesting video that helps me understand why someone may not like it so much! i definitely wish there was more of wammawink's arc in season 2, i related to her a lot, and i would have loved to see more of the herd and their development. what we got was still enough for me to like it, but thinking about it, it would have been nice to see more than we got
Season two just felt so... meandering. Like I was actively getting annoyed and just wanting the characters to get a move on with things, there was no real sense of urgency despite them all being made aware of the stakes at hand. I LOATHED the birdtaurs like it was so unnecessarily cruel to a fan favourite character and wammawink wasn't even given the opportunity to prove em wrong- nah instead it was a long drawn out joke bout fandom culture.
It's a frustrating season because there were ideas THERE, the trashtaurs were interesting, the backstories, Horse developing more magic, seeing the other world more. The villain was really interesting! But my god there needed to be way more screentime with the General. Also tf was up with those human thieves Rider encountered?? Was that just wasted time? Come to think of it there were so many weird scenes that were weird time wasters that served little to no purpose in the story where more interesting things could have taken place instead.
justice for wammawink though
IT'S BEEN SIX MONTHS, SIN. TIME FOR A COMEBACK! PLEASE.
I'M SO SORRY IT'S BEEN SO LONG! 🔥I spent the latter half of 2022 scrambling to meet a deadline for my graphic novel, and then I got sick OTL But I can at least say I'm 1/3 done with the script of my next review, and I'm gonna have the video out by the end of March or I'll eat my entire couch
(Thanks for watching!!)
@@The_Sin_Squad is your couch gone now?
Centaurworld is a perfect example of a show trying to do a multi seasonal series like Adventure Time but it didn't have the time/budget to have multiple seasons and were given what they could. It's very unfortunate
I felt like Wammawink in the second season not only became the character I first expected her to be in Season 1 (but was pleasantly surprised to be wrong about), but also they kept taking shots at her over and over. It was like the team had taken some of the early feedback from S1 and internalized it, Flanderizing her and turning her into a punching bag. I really liked her in S1, but in S2 she felt off, and the show only reinforced that with "Wow, isn't she being annoying? Everyone's annoyed by her" moments.
ohmYGOD ahauhauhauha, the bit where Horse gets edited to fall back into the void, and then Kronk shows up. The editing in this essay is incredible. A+
Creators can claim "my characters are totally not gay" all they want but as long as there is (purposeful or not) textual evidence there's not much they can do about it.
And that's the beauty of literary critical analysis
Death of the author baby!
That still doesn't make what fans interpret or headcanon correct. You can ship the characters all you want, but all you have to go off of is what's there originally. The issue with fan interpretation vs author confirmation is fans will only ever see what they want to see and ignore evidence against their own analysis. Regarding romance, two characters glancing at each other can spark fans to think they're a couple. "My characters are totally not gay" is not merely a claim, it's a fact if the author of the work says so. Horse and Wammawink don't need to think of each other as romantic partners to have a deep, meaningful relationship. Horse doesn't seem to understand romance anyway.
@@moonlightwite it a headcanon, no one said it was the only correct way to interpret there relationship. A creator may have a final word on what is canon or not but will never stop a person interpretation and analysis of there work. The creator can say “there not gay” as much as she wants, ain’t gonna stop people shipping over to character that deeply care for each other. This is an animated show there is no absolute truth, this isn’t school test with right and wrong answers
@@r.i.pmydog7723 Rab's voice recording clip cut off the part of the interview where Megan says she's fine with seeing Wammahorse as romantic. She said it was not her original intention but that a romance could be possible. That part of the interview went on for awhile though, so I can see why she cut it short. IIRC that interview was also uploaded to youtube.
Great breakdown of the series. I didn't catch some of the themes upon watching it before.
I loved watching the difference in how horse thought Becky Apples was and the real crazy version of her.
I feel like they didn't really need the birdtaurs. I found myself waiting for every episode with them to end.
The moments of expressed pain over not getting a conclusion is something I feel on a personal level. Knowing the conclusion is right there but they missed it and they can’t go back. Like taking a wrong turn on a highway.
Excellent video and excellent comments!
Personally I feel like the Nowhere Kings story was basically the only part I liked. Of course insights into the heard were really nice but in hindsight they barely had any emotional weight because of the poor writing... It was just dissapointing.
The story didn’t make any sense
So glad I wasn’t the only one whose ship senses tingled in Season One
My opinion, season 2 threw the character personality wamawink had out the window. I feel some archs were went through way too fast. I still like centaurworld, season 1 was amazing! Season 2 lacked... Something... I don't know, something felt like it was just brushed off and avoided being flushed out. I kinda wished they took time to do what they seemed what they wanted to do, maybe had extended it into a season 3 instead of just 2 seasons.
Season 2 sucked
I guess before the backstory jumping, Wama could’ve said to Horse that she sympathizes with her not feeling that her actions matter, and she offers to be more supportive of her trying to contribute (which comes to fruition in the hootenanny rally). Horse then tells Wama that she’s sorry for making Wama not feel as important as Rider, and that she values Wama just as much and will try to be more receptive going forward.
I'm so glad that I'm not the only one that felt like season 2 suffered a bit story wise.
I've seen several comments assume they just had to cram everything into season 2 because they had suddenly lost a season 3 but to me I always felt like a majority of season 2 was just filler (for lack of a better term). To me it felt more like the show was kinda just padding their time until they could just get the season 2 finale out. There are lots of parts of season 2 that just felt like a complete slog to go through like all the stuff with comfortable Doug suddenly being important for no reason other than he was kinda funny, or the entire episode making jokes and references about the shows fanbase, or them trying so hard to be funny instead of letting it be naturally funny, even when I personally feel the whole season should have had a more dark tone because a literal WAR was coming
Season 2 aggressively felt like they wrote the last lullaby first and worked backwards from there
Okay but the last lullaby was good as hell
Totally agree with you. While there were some good elements of season 2, it felt like a different show; a different story, and it was so all over the place. I finished it feeling betrayed. You put into words where I feel it fell short excellently! It's just baffling that a first season could be so tight and phenomenal only to be followed up by something so unfocused and bloated. It probably could strongly suggest an originally 3-season deal that got cut short because of course it would (thanks Netflix...), because even the already-fast pacing suffered from that "hastily cobbled ideas tumbling down a hill and off a cliff" feel.
Silliness of the show aside, it really was an incredible and unique show and you brought up so many good points! But you also made me realize why the deal with stabby felt so... Uncomfortable to me haha
God I love your videos. You always say the things I was feeling but couldn't really put properly into words. I was so let down with season 2 because the first season was so promising and really gave me so many things to ponder within my own traumas and fears. Season 2 just fucking slipped on a damn banana peel and smashed into the core of the earth.
Honestly, I just watched for the songs and gags. And the heartwarming reunion moments.
Really fair view on a series I (and clearly you as well) adore.
I wonder if they were told they had to wrap it up in two seasons and that's what led to some of that. Cool to see someone care about a show "made for kids"
Great vid as always!
Gonna be honest? I never liked Centaurworld. The super dark plot lines like The Assisted Suicide Whale combined with the constant fart jokes gave me too much emotional whiplash. This video going in depth about the more serious plot lines while basically ignoring the baby humor gave me a new appreciation for the show. I think that if it had been made for a slightly older audience, it would have been more my cup of tea, but I think I’m ok with the fact that it is what it is.
Yessss this show was always too much of a mess for me to engage with it, one of the most unwatchable things I've ever tried
Season 1 was an absolute master piece. Nearly every episode, scene, and line felt like it had a purpose. Except some parts of the bear taur episode, and we didn't need the fart song because... really, but also everything it told us about Durpleton was stuff we could put together about him already anyways. But basically it didn't feel like there was a lot of filler and pointless nonsense. Nearly everything was ether character development or progressed the story.
Season 2 barely felt like any story progression or character development was happening at all aside from the backstory episode, until suddenly war breaks out. The recruiting didn't feel like it paid off cus the hootenanny brought everyone together and just kindof forced most of them into the battle anyways.
And it takes itself a lot less seriously in a bad way. Taking some of the most emotionally charged moments that made season 1 so good and turning them into jokes.
And the bird taurs... exist. I like the idea that they watch everything from above and treat the world as a show. And it works well as an implied coping mechanism to the war like almost every other herd is shown with. But the social media stuff was awful. I really hate when shows try to force that crap in. And it doesn't even make sense in universe no matter how hard they tried to make it fit. It's just a massive immersion breaking unfunny joke that permeates the entire second season. Cut out the social media stuff from them, but keep the fandom and escapism stuff in there. Maybe even focus on escapism a little more with them cus that only slightly implied to a very specific subset of people, And cut a lot of their screentime. They'd fit a lot better that way and not be so agonizing to watch. Also I don't understand the point that them hating Wammawink serves. It would've been way funnier and made way more sense if they hated Ched, and would've given an opportunity to explore Ched's insecurity more. And I would've preferred more screentime with the trash taurs.
Glendale's backstory.... wasn't really a backstory at all.
I get the joke of wamawink's helicopter but it was really out of place. They could've done more to make it look like some sort of spell but then if it's a spell there's a lot of places she could've used it throughout the show but just didn't... Anyone who would get that joke already understood wammawink was a helicopter mom so it just kindof feels patronizing, and completely disconnected from the show's reality. It was just bad. It shouldn't have been in there.
And Durpleton getting hit multiple times in the battle and not getting inured at all really killed any feeling of suspense and danger, and also makes no sense given that we know for a fact minotaurs can kill other centaurs... It just shouldn't have happened. You can't throw a fatal attack from a minotaur at a character and just say "magic cartoon physics" when the entire world has been built around how traumatizing the war against the minotaurs was. How were they not just steamrolled if they have no magic and axes bounce off of centaurs like they're made of rubber?
I found a lot of the jokes over the top so I'd skip through some of the joke bits and try to figure which parts were character development and lore... and I'm just now realising how much I missed as a result of doing that!