History Recap / AmphibiaS3E25TheCoreAndTheKing

* ItsPersonal: Leif's betrayal and his regret over losing the Music Box and dooming their advanced society to gradual decay cut Andrias so deep, he extended his {{Wrath}} towards her to the frog species of Amphibia as a whole, angrily muttering that they would need to be "kept in line", with the implicit statement that frogs being the bottom of the social ladder is solely due to his still-simmering anger towards his old friend's abuse of his trust to undo all that his family had created. By the same token, it's greatly implied that his [[DisneyDeath attempted murder]] of Sprig was due to [[StrongFamilyResemblance how much he resembled Leif]], though Andrias apparently remains unaware of their familial connection, showing that he's willing to kill somebody merely for ''looking'' like his old friend.

* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: Amphibia's ancient civilization and its rationalization of its destructive way of life has a lot of parallels to modern civilization's relation to GlobalWarming. Amphibia's civilization are comparatively a cultural and technological ''marvel'', but they thrive on overconsumption of resources and ecological destruction, and their population have been indoctrinated by generations of living with this to the point that they have no overt moral issues with it and just regard it as the way things are. Furthermore, when the civilization's elite and political leaders who have the power to make relevant change are presented with ''hard'' proof that their exploitative way of life is fundamentally-unsustainable and will surely spell their civilization's destruction if it goes on, they at best fail to realize which part of their society needs to be changed to circumvent the fault[[note]]"But how will we invade [other worlds]?"[[/note]] or at worst they dismiss the evidence entirely as nonsense, effecting little to no impactful change, and dismissing the voices of those citizens who speak out (Leif) in favor of maintaining the status quo without any long-term foresight. Makes you wonder if Earth is destined to become a post-apocalyptic farm world where only ruins and shadows of modern civilization remain, all thanks to the hubris and negligence of those who held the power to effect change for the sake of survival but didn't act.

* AlienArtsAreAppreciated: Zigzagged. Darcy chooses the name after going through Marcy's memories of RPG games and finds both of them appealing. However, they laugh at how Earth technology is beneath them after tearing apart Marcy's phone.

* DeliberateValuesDissonance: The people of Amphibia a thousand years in the past are shown to have zero issues with invading and pillaging other worlds and enslaving their inhabitants while many of the people of modern-day Amphibia are just as opposed to the idea of conquest as modern human society. Leif stole the Calamity Box for Amphibia's sake, she had no concerns with her friend leading the subjugation of a supposedly primitive species.

* DownerEnding: After Leif escapes with the Music Box, Andrias is reprimanded by his father for allowing this to happen. Angry over her betrayal, Andrias sends Barrel to the outskirts for failing to stop Leif and disavows his friendship with both of them, planning to keep the frogs under heel going forward for Leif's actions. And in the present, Darcy has completed her optimization process (implicitly including some slight memory wipe) and is eager to conquer Earth alongside Andrias, continuing to manipulate Andrias by having his father tell him that he's ''almost'' proud of his son.

* EtTuBrute: Andrias thinks Leif betrayed him by stealing the Calamity box and doomed Amphibia’s legacy.
* FauxAffablyEvil: The Core/"Darcy" has picked up some of Marcy's mannerisms and personality traits due to having possessed her body, such as her clumsiness, fondness for affectionate nicknames, and favorite foods, her with even the name, Darcy for "Dark Marcy", coming from one of Marcy's favorite video games, but it's still [[AndIMustScream keeping her trapped inside her own mind]] and seeks to conquer the Earth and exterminate humanity.

* {{Foreshadowing}}: InUniverse, coming into contact with all three Calamity gems at once has them inflict this on Leif, showing her visions of [[CallForward Andrias' strip-mining of the landscape and the royal palace floating above Newtopia]]... before switching to a vision of [[ColonyDrop the Amphibian moon apparently crashing down to their planet]], greatly implied to be a harbinger of events yet to come. It's uncertain what exactly results in such an event, but it's implied that this is the 'fall' that the Olm prophecy describing the girls' destiny alludes to.
* {{Gaslighting}}: Aldrich suggests to his son to leave behind his friends, and suggests that once he becomes king, Leif and Barrel could potentially betray him, placing in Andrias a seed of doubt. And, when Leif does steal the Calamity box (because she had a vision of terrible things to come of conquering Earth), Andrias ends up believing she did betray him after all, and believes his own father was right.
* GivenNameReveal: This is the first episode to reveal the name of Marcy's Core-possessed form, of which she calls herself "Darcy".

* {{Hypocrite}}: Leif's vision of the future is dismissed as rubbish, compared to the ramblings of the olms. Yet, after she's stolen the music box, Aldrich makes reference to the same prophecy as proof that the music box will return, showing that not only do he and the Core believe it's real, they will follow it when it benefits them to do so. It's implied that they know ''damn well'' that the prophecy and the danger Leif saw to Amphibia is real, they just don't care because their plans involve going beyond the borders of their world for good, hence why in the present Andrias has no issues with draining 'this pitiable little mud ball' of all its resources with his strip-mining.

* ItsPersonal: Leif's betrayal and his regret over losing the Music Box and dooming their advanced society to gradual decay cut Andrias so deep, he extended his {{Wrath}} towards her to the frog species of Amphiba as a whole, angrily muttering that they would need to be 'kept in line', with the implicit statement that frogs being the bottom of the social ladder is solely due to his still-simmering anger towards his old friend's abuse of his trust to undo all that his family had created. By the same token, it's greatly implied that his [[DisneyDeath attempted murder]] of Sprig was due to [[StrongFamilyResemblance how much he resembled Leif]], though Andrias apparently remains unaware of their familial connection, showing that he's willing to kill somebody merely for ''looking'' like his old friend.

* NeverTrustATrailer: The [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YwWBa3L7lSo season 3 trailer]] apparently has the Core asking Marcy if she was ready to say goodbye to her childhood friends before TheReveal of [[GrandTheftMe Darcy]]. In this episode, it's revealed that line was actually being said by Aldrich towards Andrias a thousand years in the past, criticizing his friendships with Leif and Barrel as being detrimental to his duty, and the end of the episode confirms that Aldrich has become one of the minds within the Core, and is implicitly now residing as part of the collective within Marcy's body.
* NiceJobBreakingItHero: It's revealed that since Amphibia was a MetalPoorPlanet, it gets the resources to build its technology by strip-mining the worlds it invades. Unfortunately, due to Leif taking the Calamity Box, requiring the remaining material to be conserved until it's regained, Andrias is forced in the present time to plunder Amphibia's own resources in order to build his forces back up. As such, it was Leif's only fault that Amphibia ended up becoming a PollutedWasteland in her vision.

* OriginsEpisode: This episode shows Andrias backstory, his first meeting with the Core before he was crowned king, his friendship with the frog and the toad, and the events that would lead to the dissolution of that friendship and the loss of the Calamity Box.

* VillainEpisode: For King Andrias showing how his friends' "betrayals" and his fathers toxic influence eventually led to his StartOfDarkness and transition to the brutal dictator he is now.

* AbsenteeActor: The fourth episode in the series to not feature Anne and the Plantars, and the first and only that isn't Sasha-focused.

* GreaterScopeVillain: PlayedWith. Aldrich, Andrias's father and the previous tyrant king before him, is long dead physically by the start of the story, but his views and actions have shaped Andrias into the would-be multiverseal conqueror he's become, and his mind is revealed to be part of the Core's [[MindHive collective]], meaning he's still technically part of the present narrative.

* RewatchBonus: Andrias' sadistic attempt to give Sprig a DisneyDeath back in "True Colours" gets another aspect to it here, revealing that Sprig bares a StrongFamilyResemblance to Leif, his distant ancestor and the one who both stole the Calamity Box and betrayed Andrias' trust and friendship, [[IDidWhatIHadToDo for the greater good]]. Andrias wasn't only reminded of his BerserkButton by Anne by accident, he was holding somebody who greatly physically resembled said frog as well, though he's implied to be unaware of their familial connection... which arguably makes it worse, since Andrias was willing to kill what he thought was an unrelated frog merely for ''resembling'' Leif, again showing how badly warped he's become since her betrayal.

* ColonyDrop: Leif has a vision of Amphibia being wiped out by a meteor, possibly Amphibia's own moon given its shape and size, seemingly as a result of their abuse of the music box.

* SelfFulfillingProphecy: Amphibia becoming a PollutedWasteland only makes sense as a result of Leif acting on her vision, and the OminousFloatingCastle seems the perfect way to prevent anyone else from escaping with the box like Leif did, implying that Leif's attempts to stop the horrors she saw caused them to happen.

* NiceJobBreakingItHero: It's revealed that since Amphibia was a MetalPoorPlanet, it gets the resources to build its technology by strip-mining the worlds it invades. Unfortunately, due to Leif taking the Calamity Box, requiring the remaining material to be conserved until it's regained, Andrias is forced in the present time to plunder Amphibia's only resources in order to build his forces back up. As such, it was Leif's only fault that Amphibia ended up becoming a PollutedWasteland in her vision.

* NiceJobBreakingItHero: It's revealed that since Amphibia was a MetalPoorPlanet, its gets the resources to build its technology by strip-mining the worlds it invades. Unfortunately, due to Leif taking the Calamity Box, requiring the remaining material to be conserved until it's regained, Andrias is forced in the present time to plunder Amphibia's only resources in order to build his forces back up. As such, it was Leif's only fault that Amphibia ended up becoming a PollutedWasteland in her vision.

* {{Foreshadowing}}: InUniverse, coming into contact with all three Calamity gems at once has them inflict this on Leif, showing her visions of [[CallForward Andrias' strip-mining of the landscape and the royal palace floating above Newtopia]]... before switching to a vision of [[ColonyDrop the Amphibian moon apparently crashing down to their planet]], greatly implied to be a harbinger of events yet to come. It's uncertain what exactly results in such an event, but it's implied that this is the 'fall' that the Olm prophecy describing the girl's destiny alludes to.

* WhamShot: The most horrific of the events in Leif's vision is '''[[ColonyDrop Amphibia being struck by what appears to be its moon]]''', something never even alluded to previously, save a vague allusion to a 'Fall' during the Olm prophecy that describes the girl's destiny in Amphibia. And given that the same vision also shows the mural depicting Anne, Sasha, and Marcy, Newtopia Castle rising above the city, and Amphibia being strip-mined for resources, the chances this won't happen don't look good.

* CallForward: Leif does the same dance that Sprig taught Anne in "Anne Hunter". She also escapes with what is implied to be the same Moss Man from "Wally and Anne". Additionally, her going to the olms would play onto Mother Olm referencing having never met a frog in over a millennia from "Mother of Olms". Meanwhile, the toad is Barrel, already with his eponymous warhammer. More ominously, the same vision that features Amphibia being obliterated by a ColonyDrop ''also'' features [[MechaMooks Mecha-Mook]] factories and mining Frobots turning Amphibia into a PollutedWasteland and [[Recap/AmphibiaS2E36TrueColors Newtopia Castle being launched]], implying that the vision is a SelfFulfillingProphecy.

* CallForward: Leif does the same dance that Sprig taught Anne in "Anne Hunter". She also escapes with what is implied to be the same Moss Man from "Wally and Anne". Additionally, her going to the olms would play onto Mother Olm referencing having never met a frog in over a millennia from "Mother of Olms". Meanwhile, the toad is Barrel, already with his eponymous warhammer.

* WhamShot: The most horrific of the events in Leif's vision is '''[[ColonyDrop Amphibia being struck by what appears to be its moon]]''', something never even alluded to previously. And given that the same vision also shows the mural depicting Anne, Sasha, and Marcy, Newtopia Castle rising above the city, and Amphibia being strip-mined for resources, the chances this won't happen don't look good.

* CallBack: The slashed portrait the Sprig saw in "[[Recap/AmphibiaS2E18TheSleepoverToEndAllSleepovers The Sleepover To End All Sleepovers]]" makes a return. Turns out it was a portrait of Andrias with Barrel and Leif when he was young, with him having slashed it following Leif's betrayal and Barrel's exile.

* CallBack: The slashed portrait the Sprig saw in "[[Recap/AmphibiaS2E18SleepoverToEndAllSleepovers Sleepover To End All Sleepovers]]" makes a return. Turns out it was a portrait of Andrias with Barrel and Leif when he was young, with him having slashed it following Leif's betrayal and Barrel's exile.

* CallBack: The slashed portrait the Sprig saw in "[[Recap/AmphibiaS2E18SleepoverToEndAllSleepoverss Sleepove To End All Sleepovers]]" makes a return. Turns out it was a portrait of Andrias with Barrel and Leif when he was young, with him having slashed it following Leif's betrayal and Barrel's exile.

* CallBack: The slashed portrait the Sprig saw in "[[Recap/AmphibiaS2E18SlumberPartyToEndAllSlumberParties Slumber Party To End All Slumber Parties]]" makes a return. Turns out it was a portrait of Andrias with Barrel and Leif when he was young, with him having slashed it following Leif's betrayal and Barrel's exile.

* UsedToBeASweetKid: When Andrias was the prince of Newtopia, he was cheerful, compassionate, and and very good friends with Leif and Barrel. Unfortunately, due to the combination of Leif's betrayal, pressure from his father, and the intimidation of meeting the Core, he ended up being warped into the twisted king he is in present day.

* WhamShot: The most horrific of the events in Leif's vision is '''[[ColonyDrop Amphibia being struck by what appears to be its moon]]'''. And given that it also shows the mural depicting Anne, Sasha, and Marcy, Newtopia Castle rising above the city, and Amphibia being strip-mined for resources, the chances this won't happen don't look good.