Fanfic / Watching Amphibia

Spoilers for Amphibia will be left unmarked here. You Have Been Warned!

Watching Amphibia is an Amphibia fanfiction written by randombiwriter. The fic revolves around the characters of the series (except for King Andrias and the Core) watching episodes of the series. There is a break every four episodes for the characters to sink in what they have learned from watching said episodes.

The author has confirmed the Boonchuy-Plantar family and the Earth characters were transported at the start of "Escape to Amphibia", Sasha, Grime, and everyone on Amphibia (except Marcy, Olivia, and Yunan) were transported right before "Commander Anne", and Marcy, Olivia, and Yunan were transported during the climax of "Olivia & Yunan" before Marcy gets possessed by the Core.

As of June 19, 2022, randombiwriter ceased writing involvement due to creative burnout but would end up handing the story to authors Marcanne4Life, beckettlovescastlealways, Deadeyerob, and AstroZ (formerly Hamza9236) who would continue the story. Deadeyerob would later quit the project, and a call for a new writer to join the project was held to replace them, with Naho_Saenoki and Raine_on_Mars being chosen. They likewise started a Discord server channel for the purpose of brainstorming and, following "Wax Museum", issued an open invite for beta readers. Raine and Astro would later quit the project.

The original fanfic can be found here. The redux can be found here.

The redux would undergo an unannounced hiatus starting in late July of 2023, with comments on the Discord server indicating that all of the remaining writers have been preoccupied with work and suffering writer's block, with beckettlovescastlealways now acting as the defacto lead writer, and all three struggling with how to move forward and contemplating scrapping certain elements. As a result, blc would state that, until they can deal with their own workload and unless someone else could offer assistance, the fic would be made dormant.

Tropes applying to the series:

In General

• 0% Approval Rating: With their past actions in full view for everyone, several of the characters, particularly from Wartwood, end up eliciting this reaction.
  • Hop Pop is a downplayed case. While many acknowledge that he's ultimately a single parent to Sprig and Polly and is doing his best to care for them and Anne while also dealing with a struggling fruit stand, his more extreme actions end up eliciting irritation at best, disgust at worst, from the majority of the viewers. Anne in particular, while still caring about him, displays a lot more insecurities and bottled up resentment towards him for his behavior and accidentally claiming she's "not a Plantar", being unaware Hop Pop called her his "adopted Granddaughter" in "Lost in Newtopia". Even Marcy ends up getting pissed enough to allow Darcy to take control briefly after seeing him lie to Anne about the Calamity Box.
  • Toadstool gets a lot of heat from the viewers for his rather shitty behavior back in Season 1, particularly due to the fact that many of his antics came at the expense of Wartwood. While the people of Wartwood do know he's changed at least as evident by "Toad to Redemption", the people of Earth and those outside of Wartwood don't, and even the citizens are still a little sore.
• Adaptation Expansion: Enough to justify it's own page.
• Adaptational Gender Identity: In canon, there's little to suggest Anne is anything other than cisgender. Here, Anne is explicitly male to female transgender.
• Adaptational Jerkass:
  • Toadstool's antics in Season 1 were already quite douchey, particularly his embezzling the tax money in Wartwood meant to go to Toad Tower, but it's made worse here by virtue of the fact a lot of his mayoral decisions weren't vetted with the Toad Tower before he enacted them, including his tax increase in "Plantar's Last Stand", with Grime pointing out that a lot of his antics likely wouldn't have been approved had they been known about. Were it not for Toad Towers collapse at the end of Season 1 and being preoccupied with the Frog Rebellion, Grime points out Toadstool would have likely been arrested for his stunts.
  • Downplayed with Maggie. In canon, she was still The Bully and hinted to be somewhat racist based on her comments about Anne's thai food, but it was largely basic jerkassery, and she did get two Pet the Dog moments via sincerely wishing Anne a Happy Birthday and giving genuine respect to Anne for defeating Andrias. Here, she's a Hate Sink, not only retaining her canon negative traits, but is also transphobic, ableistic, homophobic, and just an all around awful person. The Redux plays it straighter, as while the original version had the occasional scene of Maggie having some standards like defending Anne punching Marcy's abusive ex-boyfriend and even giving Anne her respect following "Toad Tax", the Redux largely ignores/abandons that, Maggie only really being relevant whenever she decides to try and insult the Calamity Trio.
• Adaptational Villainy: Due to their absence throughout the majority of the series in canon, and no details about them being revealed until the post-series guide book "Marcys Journal A Guide To Amphibia", the Waybright and Wu parents personalities were largely unknown at the time of writing the original and the redux. Said guide book would eventually reveal that, while Mr. Wu is controlling and the Waybright's are divorced, they do ultimately love and care about their daughters, and are there alongside the Boonchuy's to welcome them home after "The Hardest Thing", the Wu's even doing their best to halt their move out of state for Marcy's sake while she was in the hospital. Here, building off the initial implications from before the guide book, both sets are portrayed as abusive in one way or another, the Waybrights depicted as constantly fighting to the neglect of Sasha, while the Wu's are depicted as overly controlling and restrictive to Marcy while disapproving of some of their behaviors suggesting they're on the autism spectrum.
• Adaptation Relationship Overhaul:
  • While in canon Sasha never does get the chance to reconcile with Percy and Braddock before having to leave Amphibia, here she ends up reuniting and reconciling with them shortly after watching "Taking Charge".
  • Whereas one of Marcy's laments before going back to Earth is that they didn't get to know Olivia and Yunan too well, here Olivia has taken on a mother role for Marcy, and resents Andrias for what he's put Marcy through above all else.
  • While their canonical relationships wouldn't be revealed until the release of the guidebook "Marcys Journal A Guide To Amphibia", canon has Sasha and Marcy have loving parents who, while not perfect, care about their daughters and were worried about them when they went missing. Here, both sets are abusive in one way or another, the Waybrights being heavily neglectful of Sasha and caring more about status than her wellbeing, and the Wu's being emotionally abusive and highly controlling of them while disapproving of things that suggest they're neurodivergent or LGBTQ+.
• Adaptational Sexuality: In canon, Anne and Marcy's sexualities are unspecified. Here, Anne is explicitly a lesbian, and Marcy had a boyfriend at one point but also likes Anne and Sasha, suggesting they're bisexual.
• Age Lift: Played with. At the time of the original fics release, the canon birthdays and ages of the Calamity Girls were for the most part unknown, so it was written to have all three be 13, with the order they were born in reflected by how the three acted, with Sasha as the oldest, Anne as the middle child, and Marcy as the youngest, which the Redux incorporated into their expanded backstory for the trio. In the middle of the Redux however, "Marcy's Journal" was released, explicitly stating Marcy was the oldest of the trio, having turned 14 halfway through Season 3, while Sasha was the middle child, and Anne the youngest.^*  While both were 13 throughout the entirety of the series and 23 by the Epilogue, the series began shortly after Anne's 13th Birthday and ended on her 23rd Birthday, the Journal giving general ranges for their birthdays via their Zodiac signs, with Sasha's being in March-April, and Anne's being in May-June The Redux opted to keep the original age ranges however for the backstory they planned out, with it instead stated Marcy was 12 for the first half of the series, but had and missed a Birthday while they were in Amphibia.
• Call-Back: Whenever Hop Pop suggests Anne is remotely attracted to a boy, she hits or kicks him like she did in "Quarreler's Pass"
• Deliberate Values Dissonance: The cultural differences between Humans and Amphibians are in full view during the screening.
  • Many humans are surprised at the freedom and danger kids can get involved with. As the people of Wartwood point out though, Amphibia is a Death World, so kids need to be able to survive dangerous things at a young age.
  • After Maggie outs Anne as trans, the non-Plantar Amphibians are confused as to why such a big deal is made about changing ones gender, since changing genders is a relatively simple and easy thing for Amphibians.^* This is Truth in Television, as studies have shown that various amphibians change their genders based on various stimuli like enviromental factors or chemical changes.
  • When everyone sees Sprig is set up to date Ivy despite already being engaged to Maddie and told to forget about the latter, Dr. Jan asks if Amphibia doesn't have polyamory. The amphibians reveal that polyamory has been illegal in Amphibia for a millenium now, which Marcy notes coincidentally coincides with how long Andrias has ruled. The original has everyone think this was just Andrias being a dick, while the redux has Sasha filing that information away for later. The redux ultimately downplays this example by having the Amphibians ultimately not caring about that law, in turn being accepting of Anne, Sasha, and Marcy's Relationship Upgrade even if they think it's a little unconventional. As Olivia tells Marcy, they ultimately care more about the kids' happiness than any "law of the land".
• Everyone Has Standards: Even Grime is disgusted at Bog, Fens, and Mire for stealing the Wartwood citizens stuff as compensation in "Toad Tax". The original had Beatrix feel the same.
• Failed a Spot Check: Turns out Grime was under the impression that Sasha, Anne, and Marcy were all older than they actually are, though how old depends on the version.^* In the original he thought they were 18, in the redux he thought they were 16. Upon finding out he was the only one who failed to realize they're all 13 and still kids, he can only feel embarrassed, made worse since he let Sasha drink alcohol without any issue.
• Guilt Complex: Marcy develops one upon seeing what Anne and Sasha had to go through upon coming to Amphibia, blaming themself for what happened to them and apologizing repeatedly since it was their idea to steal the Calamity Box. While they do have a point in that they're the one who sent them to Amphibia in the first place, Sasha and Anne regularly reassure them that they had no way of knowing about what they went through, and can't blame themself for every bad thing that happened while there.
• Harmful to Minors: A running theme with the viewings is that, for everything the Calamity Trio has experienced, they're only 13 years old, and shouldn't have to deal with the level of danger and trauma they've been subjected to, which in turn has caused Troubling Unchildlike Behavior. The entity that brought them to the viewing wanted this reaction, so as to let everyone know the three of them need serious help with their mental health.
• Hate Sink:
  • Maggie, being The Bully, doesn't hesitate to take potshots at the Calamity Trio the moment an opportunity arises, even when verging on Too Dumb to Live territory since she even acknowledges Sasha could kill her if she wanted to. She usually gets what she deserves though.
  • The Wu and Waybright parents, who are horribly abusive towards their children, and when they actually appear, cause nothing but arguments, fighting, and stress when reuniting with Sasha and Marcy.
• Internal Reveal: Quite a lot here with Marcy and Olivia finding out about the Frog Rebellion in "Breakout Star" and Bee and Oum finding out in "Best Fronds" that Sasha and Marcy forced Anne to steal the Calamity Box.
• Kid Hero: Deconstructed via the viewings. Anne, Sasha, and Marcy have all accomplished amazing things while in Amphibia, but multiple times throughout the viewings it's lamented the three of them are still only 13, and shouldn't have had to deal with so much stress and trauma from such a young age.
  • The viewings in turn highlight how the three of them all suffer severe mental health related issues as a result of both preexisting issues and their time in Amphibia, and that their young psyches aren't equipped to handle said issues, resulting in mental instability for all three.
  • Even though Amphibia is a Death World where kids have to survive dangerous things already, the trios guardians in Amphibia all realize just how badly the three have suffered for people so young, and lament that despite all they've done, they're still children.
    • Hop Pop regularly laments how his actions ended up hurting Anne, and he unintentionally isolated and starved her despite what should have been blatant warning signs in retrospect.
    • Grime is aghast when he realizes how young Sasha actually is, having been under the impression she had been older than that, hence his allowing her to fight alongside him and even drink alcohol. Upon realizing how young she truly is and hearing her admit he reminds her about her dad, he ends up becoming more protective of her and regrets not realizing sooner how young she was and letting her be burdened with so much, even if he has trouble expressing himself.
    • Olivia and Yunan both lament how horrible an idea it was letting Andrias make Marcy a leading figure on missions, and feel incredibly guilty for failing to protect them from him, especially after having to watch them get stabbed by him. Olivia even outright apologizes to Marcy and admits that she and Yunan should have done better by them than they did.
• "Let's Watch Our Show" Plot: The basic premise of the fic.
• Like an Old Married Couple: Anne and Marcy both are shown to treat Domino as if he was their own kid which leads them to get into an argument while watching "The Domino Effect" over Anne wanting to replace Domino with Domino II.
• Limited Wardrobe: Lampshaded by Sasha in regards to Anne after "Girl Time". After seeing Anne in a fancy-looking dress, Sasha starts arguing with Anne about the fact that she somehow always ends up in her school uniform again, leaves in her hair and missing shoe included, despite clearly having access to other outfits. Marcy adds to it by pointing out how they tried giving Anne a new outfit in "Bessie & MicroAngelo", but says Anne had a "himbo moment" and just stuck a chest plate over her usual outfit. Everytime Sasha brings it up though, the conversation gets muted and dropped till she sees Anne in another outfit.
  Sasha: (shaking Anne after seeing her dress in "Hop Pop and Lock" while blushing) At this point you’re fucking with me, Boonchuy, you had that the whole time, and you still insist on wearing that awful uniform?
  Anne: Why would I wear it?!
  Sasha: Because you running around with leaves in your hair still is going to give me an aneurysm.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Marcy has this frequently when seeing how much Anne was suffering during season 1 due to their actions.
• Noodle Incident: Maggie mentioned once walking in on the Chess Club during the period Anne, Sasha, and Marcy had gone missing, and saw the entire club chanting around a shrine dedicated to Marcy with red paint on their face, saying it looked like a "cult thing".
• Odd Friendship: Sasha still has one with Toadie, so when she hears Polly offer to kill him in "Plantar's Last Stand", Sasha protectively grabs him and holds him away from Polly thinking she'll do something even now.
• Parental Substitute: In addition to the canon ones of Hop Pop with Anne and Bee & Oum with Sprig & Polly, there is also:
  • Grime fully steps into a fatherly role for Sasha after she says she stayed with the Toads because Grime reminded her of her father.
  • Olivia also ends up stepping into more of a motherly role for Marcy as the story goes on.
  • Dr. Jan notes many people mistake Anne for her daughter, and both admit to Dr. Jan being a pseudo-mother to her. The redux includes Terri in this thanks to their closeness to Dr. Jan.
  • The Redux has Oum and Bee act as this to Sasha and Marcy, the two being treated like daughters by the Boonchuy's and allowed at their house a lot due to their own troubled home lives.
• Poor Communication Kills: Something the viewers come to realize is that, when it's not because of Andrias' manipulations, a lot of the problems Amphibia faces is due to their own communications issues and not relaying info with each other in favor of just following orders, something not helped by the racial division between the Toads, Newts, and Frogs.
  • The Frog rebellion was something no one in Newtopia nor Wartwood even knew about.
    • Newtopia didn't know due to Andrias keeping them in the dark, with even Marcy and Olivia unaware of it due to serving as his advisors and kept in the city. The only one who knew was Yunan, and only because Andrias had her on the front lines before suddenly calling her off in favor of sending Grime, and Yunan had been under the impression Marcy and Olivia knew.
    • Wartwood meanwhile never saw the rebellion nor knew of its effects due to Yunan being out there quashing any insurrection, only ever finding out at all because of Andrias ordering Grime execute Hop Pop for being the figurehead.
  • One of the reasons for the Frog rebellion was because of the frogs being mistreated by the Toads, particularly tax collectors like Bog and his crew. Problem is, Toads like Bog and his crew are going against orders and breaking the rules with their antics, with the Toad Towers being kept in the dark about it, and leaving Toads in general to be blamed by the Frogs, something Grime, Percy, and Braddock come to realize after seeing Bog's actions in Wartwood.
  • Like in canon, Hop Pop being the face of the rebellion is a complete fluke, owed to his decision to run against Mayor Toadstool in the election. However, he was more accurately set up as a scapegoat, as Yunan notes that many of the locations where rebellions were occurring upon seeing Sasha's map were towns that had requested permission to partake in the election between Hop Pop and Toadstool, Grime noting that his tower simply received orders to stomp out all rebellion at said locations, no questions asked. Yunan begins to question how many of said rebellions were actually instigated by Frogs and not Toads, with Olivia then realizing Andrias had gone over the heads of the war councils and generals in favor of getting rid of any opposition before it could begin, with Hop Pop being the unlucky one since he had been the first Frog to dare challenge the status quo by running against an established Toad mayor.
• Shout-Out: When Anne is questioned on her decision to set up Sprig and Ivy despite the former still being engaged to Maddie in "Dating Season", Anne references the "has two hands" meme.invoked
• Take That!: Toadstool's antics in "Hop Popular" cause Hop Pop to compare it to something he heard about while on Earth, namely the infamous "rigged election" accusations for the 2016 Presidential Election, quickly comparing Toadstool's similar behavior to Donald Trump's.
• Transparent Closet: Everyone knew Anne was a lesbian before even she figured it out, much to her disbelief while watching "Dating Season". Even Domino gives her a deadpan stare when she asks who else knew.
• Trauma Button:
  • Andrias tends to be one for Marcy, thinking about him in any capacity sending them into a bout of self-loathing. Made worse when forced to acknowledge the scar on their chest from when Andrias stabbed them, doing so risking sending them into a panic attack over having nearly died.
  • Seeing the herons while watching "Prison Break" causes the citizens of Wartwood to have this reaction due to the heron attack years ago.

Tropes applying to the Original

• Adaptational Jerkass: Oum and Bee Boonchuy are notably more aggressive towards those they think hurt Anne, lashing out at Hop Pop for his treatment of Anne in Amphibia, and wanting Anne to stop being friends with Sasha and Marcy after learning they made her steal the Calamity Box in "Best Fronds".
• Crossover: Has this with The Owl House from "4th Break" to "5th Break" with Luz, Eda, King, Hooty, and Amity joining the group in watching the series (being from after "Knock, Knock, Knockin' on Hooty's Door" and before "Eclipse Lake") with the table read crossover at SDCC 2021 taking place during mid season 1 here.
• O.C. Stand-in: Vince and Cheyenne were two background characters from Earth introduced in "Reunion", with no actual characterization outside of their appearances suggesting they were punk rock fans. Here, they're given some more characterization, Vince moreso than Cheyenne, suggesting they're rather chill and mellow individuals. Vince in particular is depicted as having a personality akin to a Mellow Fellow, and given a backstory of his and Anne's parents trying to set them up to date, which is referred to as the "Wedding Incident", and is something both would very much like to forget.
• Reincarnation: A minor subplot is that both Barrel and Leif were ultimately reincarnated as members of the cast, and watching the series is causing Past-Life Memories to stir up. Specifically, Barrel was reincarnated as Anne, and Leif as Sprig.
• Shout-Out:
  • In "Sprig vs. Hop Pop", Terri at one point comments on having seen two kids built a roller coaster in one day.
  • "Croak & Punishment" reveals that Anne is related to Molly McGee and Hilda, and "Trip to the Archives" reveals that Marcy is related to Marinette Dupain-Cheng.
  • Sprig and Grime's interaction while watching "Snow Day" results in Grime trying to strangle Sprig while saying "why you little".

Tropes applying to the Redux

• Adapted Out: Certain aspects from the original have been removed.
  • In the original, the entity that brought everyone together abruptly changed Sasha into her post-Character Development outfit as a result of Real Life Writes the Plot. Here, she's in the outfit from the outset.
  • In the original, Oum and Bee were initially outraged at Sasha and Marcy for being a Toxic Friend Influence to Anne, and considered not letting her see them anymore. Here, with the knowledge that canon has the trio as Childhood Friends, the two are close enough to Anne's parents that they consider them akin to family, and Oum and Bee are more concerned that the trio are going through their own issues and need someone to talk to them.
  • In the original, a minor subplot was the belief Anne was unintentionally being abused by Oum and Bee, and the two being angry with Hop Pop for mistreating their daughter while in Amphibia. Here, the former is dropped, and the latter has the two more understanding of Hop Pop, but still upset with him to an extent.
  • The reincarnation subplot has been excised overall.
  • The new authors have confirmed The Owl House characters and the table read crossover with Amphibia at SDCC 2021 will not be included here due to some not being familiar with the show and due to already having loads of characters in the series already.
  • While she was present in the original, the redux so far has Beatrix seemingly absent from the viewing, only being referenced by Grime in passing. Turns out she was present, but had just been keeping quiet due to wanting to get the viewings done with as soon as possible.
  • Grime strangling Sprig during the viewing of "Snow Day" is removed in favor of admitting Sprig is likely right about Toad Tower just brushing Wartwood's concerns off.
• Adaptational Angst Upgrade: In addition to having their own neurosis from before going to Amphibia, the events of the series are shown to have a much greater mental toll on the Calamity Trio, the physical and mental scars greatly impacting them to different extents, made worse by being forced to watch them again from an outside perspective.
  • Anne largely bottles her issues and resentment up for the sake of pushing forward and trying to forgive, but ends up exploding and lashing out at others when she reaches her limit, made worse when getting too angry could cause her Calamity Powers to flare up and lower her inhibitions, as the bruises on Maggie can attest.
  • Sasha is filled with a great deal of self-loathing, possesses suicidal thoughts over both her home life and her actions in Amphibia, and has her emotional barriers all but destroyed.
  • Marcy is left a bundle of anxiety and guilt, constantly apologizing and blaming themselves for everything the others went through, suffering immense PTSD over Andrias impaling them with his sword, and is constantly mentally tortured by hearing Darcy pray upon their insecurities.
• Adaptational Gender Identity:
  • While discussing why humans place so much emphasis on gender identity, Grime mentions that Beatrix is trans-male-to-female, and has been since they were tadpoles.
  • Like Anne, there's little to suggest in canon that Marcy isn't cisgender. During Break 11, Marcy confides in Anne and Sasha that they've been questioning their gender identity lately, and think they're nonbinary, the narration shortly after switching to they/them pronouns once Marcy is certain they are.
• Adaptational Jerkass:
  • Sprig. Whereas in canon he ultimately put aside his differences with Sasha for the sake of combating Andrias, and had no hard feelings against Marcy, especially since they saved his life after Andrias nearly dropped him to his death, here Sprig is heavily distrusting of the two of them once he notices Anne getting close to them again, constantly taking pot shots at Sasha in particular, and acting as a Shipping Torpedo when the three of them get together, the entire time thinking they're just traitors who will only hurt Anne. Justified in Sasha's case as he isn't aware of Sasha leading the resistance back in Wartwood like was when reunited with her in "Commander Anne".
  • Valeriana. In canon, she was a helpful, if enigmatic, sage like figure, with her harshest behavior a result of her being a Trickster Mentor and giving Anne a Secret Test of Character. Here, she's very acerbic and dismissive of the girls, even believing them to be The Poorly Chosen One due to Sasha and Marcy having "fallen" after they gave up their powers at the temples. It's implied that as a result of watching the exploits of the Calamity Trio and being more aware of their flaws, she lost any faith in them being able to protect Amphibia like the Olm's prophecized. Considering "Marcys Journal A Guide To Amphibia" all but says she was the creator of the Calamity Box, and has remained in Amphibia as a ghost out of regret for it's creation, the implication is that she's disappointed the people prophecized to finally put an end to her mistake can't do it.
• Adaptational Nice Guy: Oum and Bee's characterizations falls more in line with their canon friendliness in contrast to the originals' Adaptational Jerkass. Rather than being angry at Hop Pop's treatment of Anne and wanting Anne to stop being friends with Sasha and Marcy, they're more understanding of the circumstances overall, and more express disappointment and hope that they can work to be better.
• Adaptational Seriousness: A lot of the more comedy focus episodes are treated as much more serious events by the viewers. Most of the series' Black Comedy elements effectively remove the "comedy" element and treat what were originally funny, if dark, moments as entirely serious affairs. The constant mention of Frogs dying and various skeletons being spotted around Amphibia for example is treated as a lot more horrific by those unfamiliar with them, while those that are have been Conditioned to Accept Horror.
• The Alcoholic: Sasha's mother is implied to be this during "Sprig vs. Hop Pop" with Sasha claiming her mother's kitchen is 95% alcohol. Later confirmed outright, with Sasha lamenting to herself how she often enabled her mother's alcoholism so as to get as much freedom from her as possible. Sasha can even smell the wine coming off her when she shows up in "Break 13".
• Ascended Extra: Terri has a more prominent presence and is implied to hold mutual feelings for Dr. Jan, the two serving as mirrors to Olivia & Yunan and Grime in being parental substitutes for one of the trio, Anne in their case.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Marcy is the sweetest of their friend trio and doesn't really have a mean bone in their body. Piss them off though, and there will be hell to pay.
  • Once Maggie tries mocking Sasha for her parents divorce and claiming they don't love her, Marcy flips and starts wailing on Maggie, managing to give her a bloody nose and cut lip before they're pulled off her.
  • After learning Hop Pop buried the Calamity Box and betrayed Anne's trust, Marcy is overwhelmed with rage at him, long enough for Darcy to take control and attempt to attack him. Anne has to tap into her Calamity Powers just to restrain them.
• Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Much to the surprise of everyone sans Marcy and Olivia, while Yunan may be a little off kilter and a Miles Gloriosus, she's the youngest Newt to ever achieve the rank of General in the Newtopian Army for a reason, having a keen strategic mind and regularly capable of good insight when it comes to territory and long term planning.
• Cassandra Truth: After watching "Combat Camp", none of the other viewers buy that Tritonio was being genuine in his teaching of Anne and see him as just a petty thief who exploits kids. As Tritonio makes clear when he goes to Anne to apologize for involving her and her family in his plans though, he did truly mean every word he said to Anne, it just didn't change the fact that as he learned in life, it's every Newt for themselves. When Anne rebukes that thought by pointing out how she'd have never made it far without her friends and family, Tritonio can only say that she is a better person than he is.
• Demoted to Extra: In the original, Vince, Cheyenne, and Gabby, all minor Earth characters that debuted in "Reunion" for the former two and "Hop Til You Drop" for the latter respectively, frequently commented on the viewings and interacted with the friend trio. Here, said comments aren't attributed to them, and it was unclear if they were even present until the viewing of "Breakout Star".
• Disabled in the Adaptation:
  • While Anne tries to hide it, the injuries Fens did to her arm in "Toad Tax" never properly healed, causing her pain in her left arm when she moves it too much. She tries lying to the others when they see her get the injury and saying she's okay, but Marcy notices her twitching in pain and how she's been using her right hand more often despite being a lefty.
  • Downplayed, but this is part of the reason Anne keeps bringing up how Grime still had her shoe. While nothing was mentioned about it in canon, here, Anne notes that walking around with no shoe for several months left that foot in a lot of pain, and that the rest of her body felt pain from the uneven footing.
  • Downplayed, but the Calamity Trio are noted to have a lot more scars littering their bodies than just the ones they canonically got, most evident during the viewing for "Marcy at the Gates". Dr. Jan even notes Anne showed her more than a few she kept hidden from her parents.
• Disney Creatures of the Farce: After watching the scene in "Cursed" when Anne communicates with a crow, Sasha and Marcy joke that Anne must be a Disney princess.
• Dramatic Irony:
  • Everyone present ultimately believes King Andrias to be the Big Bad, tying back many seemingly innocuous incidents as ultimately occuring due to Andrias' orders. What no one, not even Marcy, Olivia, nor Yunan due to Laser-Guided Amnesia, knows is that Andrias is only The Dragon, and actually answers to The Core.
  • While Marcy is worried about their Hearing Voices, they comment how they doubt Andrias saved their life out of the goodness of his heart. As many readers who've finished the series will note however, he did, as Marcy was the first genuine friend he'd had since Leif and Barrel, he'd actually talked The Core out of just killing them when they first came to Newtopia, and tried convincing The Core not to use them as a host, but was browbeat into doing so, his motivation to finally stop listening to the Core and pull a Heel–Face Turn being his desire to save Marcy and atone for all the horrors he did while following The Core.
• Everyone Has Standards:
  • Mr. X may dislike the Plantars and Boonchuy's, but he is just as disgusted at Maggie's outing of Anne as trans as the others.
  • Sasha may dislike Hop Pop, but even she's horrified and feels bad for him when it looks like he got "Red Leg" in "Contagi-Anne". Similarly, she expressed minor concern for Sprig when he almost got eaten by a bat in "Fiddle Me This".
  • Maggie is an unrepentant bully, but she actually defends Anne's beating the shit out of Marcy's ex-boyfriend Ryan after he'd harassed Marcy for weeks and got physically abusive.
• Genre Savvy: While she likes Marcy, Olivia, and Yunan, Sasha is more than well aware that all three of them are currently in enemy territory outside of the viewing, so she takes care not to reveal too much about the rebellion lest the information accidentally make it back to Andrias once they go back to Amphibia. Mixes with Dramatic Irony considering Marcy got possessed by The Core and both Olivia and Yunan got fitted with slave collars after failing to save Marcy, meaning Sasha is right to be cautious about what she says lest Darcy access Marcy's memories.
• Hidden Depths: Grime was actually a thespian when he was younger, with Beatrix telling everyone he loved making professional production-quality costumes. It's something he's rather embarrassed about though in the present, turning beet read when he sees Sasha laughing at the idea he was a "theater nerd".
• He Was Right There All Along: Parodied. When watching the viewing for "Bizarre Bazaar", everyone is surprised to see Valeriana, Tritonio, Bella, and Beatrix, among many others, have been present at the viewings too. When Sprig asks why none of them ever made themselves known, Bella says they just didn't have anything to say, with Beatrix adding that some of them just wanted to get the viewings over with rather than waste time commenting.
• Hearing Voices: Marcy occasionally hears voices disparaging them whenever they think of anything remotely happy, initially chalking it up to self-loathing. This opinion changes though when watching "Grubhog Day", where they remember how Yunan is afraid of Grubhogs, but can't remember where they learned that. This causes them to confide in Anne and Sasha about how they don't remember what happened after getting stabbed by Andrias, and that they doubt Andrias saved them out of the goodness of his heart, making them fear the voice is something put inside of them. Of course, the readers will already know, and it's later confirmed, that the voice is The Core speaking to them as Darcy, putting them down so they'll continue being it's vessel and blocking their memories of its existence.
• History Repeats:
  • Played with, as while the circumstances are similar, the end result is inverted. While watching "Family Fishing Trip", Sprig once again tries to act as a Shipping Torpedo for a family member thinking he's doing the right thing but ultimately failing. Whereas the attempt with Hop Pop and Sylvia he comes to admit he was in the wrong with and realizes he was being a selfish child, his attempt with Anne, Sasha, and Marcy he refuses to admit to being wrong about, seeing Sasha and Marcy as traitors that will just hurt Anne again, and ignoring the idea he was in the wrong while justifying his actions to himself.
  • Invoked by Valeriana. When she explains the prophecy to everyone and how she considers the Calamity Trio to be The Poorly Chosen One, she notes how "Strength" and "Wit" tend to be the first to "fall", and believes the same has occurred of Sasha and Marcy after they gave up their powers to recharge the Calamity Box. It's implied that Andrias, Barrel, and Leif were meant to be a Calamity Trio too, but "Strength"/Leif and "Wit"/Barrel "fell" after Leif saw the vision of Amphibia's destruction, causing her to take the Calamity Box and send it to Earth, and for Barrel to suffer Conflicting Loyalty and do nothing, resulting in their relationship with "Heart"/Andrias becoming strained and allowing Aldrich to manipulate him into following the will of the Core, in turn making Andrias "fall".
• Insecure Love Interest: Marcy is fully aware they have crushes on Anne and Sasha no matter how much they try to deny it, but their immense guilt over getting them all trapped in Amphibia combined with a sense of self-loathing causes them to think they don't deserve the two of them and is horrible for even thinking they could be in a relationship with them after everything.
• Inspector Javert: Tied into Adaptational Jerkass, Sprig is quick to judge everything Sasha and Marcy do after seeing them again as possibly being hurtful to Anne, acting as a Shipping Torpedo when he notices the three inching towards a polyamorous relationship. While he initially is willing to let his concerns fade so long as Anne is happy after he realizes he screwed up by outing them, he secretly continues to be very judgmental of them, especially after he sees Anne distance herself from them after "Break 12" thinking they hurt her again, unaware Anne is upset Sasha hid the fact she'd been Driven to Suicide at Toad Tower. Watching "Marcy at the Gates" likewise ends up giving him conflicting emotions, as when he sees how broken up Marcy is watching themself, he feels he has to apologize, but he's not sure for what, if for the way he's been acting, or for ever trusting them in the first place, instead opting to keep his mouth shut until he knows for sure if either are even how he truly feels now. And while he's willing to sit with them during "Break 13" to keep them calm, he outright tells them he's only doing it for Anne's sake, and that he doesn't like or trust them, even if he finds Marcy slightly better than Sasha.
• Internal Reveal:
  • Thanks to Valeriana being present, everyone in the viewing is made aware of the Olm's prophecy during the viewing for "Quarreler's Pass", albeit an abridged version.
  • A rather minor one, but Anne and the Plantar's learn from Terri while watching "Wax Museum" that the Skip Man the Curator had used to belong to Dr. Franks, and had ended up in Amphibia after the other portal activated. This in turn leads to Sasha learning from Anne that, when they opened the Calamity Box on Anne's birthday, other portals opened at the same time, but were too unstable to remain open.
• Irony: Several of the viewers note during "Wax Museum" that, despite being the roughest and harshest of the Calamity Trio, Sasha is the only one of the group lacking a body count, compared to Anne and Marcy's considerably large body counts.
• I Wished You Were Dead: During their shouting match after Sasha lopped off her hair in front of her, her mother Cynthia punctuates her ranting by admitting she wished Sasha was dead, since everything had been "easier" then.
• Kids Raiding the Wine Cabinet: Played for Drama. The canonical one-shot, "Make it stop", is set before the series' events, and focuses on Anne finding Sasha come over to her house late at night, clearly intoxicated. While Anne is initially set to admonish Sasha for drinking at their age, she stops once Sasha breaks down in front of her asking why the alcohol isn't making "the pain" go away like her mother always said it would. It's left intentionally ambiguous what exactly is the pain Sasha is referring to, just that whatever it was it was enough to drive her to steal from her mother's stash of alcohol, and when Anne tries to get Bee and Oum for help, Sasha, even while drunk and throwing her guts up, orders her not to. While Sasha seems perfectly fine the next morning, all it does is leave Anne with a sickening feeling in her stomach over what might have caused that to happen.
• Laser-Guided Amnesia: While Marcy, Olivia, and Yunan all experienced the events of "Olivia & Yunan", their memories of what happened have been sealed away imperfectly. As far as they know, the last thing they remember was Marcy being stabbed by Andrias and placed in a rejuvenation tank. Certain parts of the viewings can cause them to remember things they theoretically shouldn't know, such as Marcy remembering Yunan's fear of Grubhogs while watching "Grubhog Day", but the more important details such as the truth behind the Moss Man in "Wally and Anne" causes them physical pain trying to remember, something Sasha and Grime both take notice of.
• Missed Him by That Much: The viewing for "Bizarre Bazaar" has the Calamity Trio realize that they were all at the Bazaar and had just missed each other, with Anne and Sprig having gone to find info on the Calamity Box, Sasha and Grime working security for it, and Marcy and Yunan having been sent by Andrias for some rare Flipwart sets. Sasha lampshades how they could have easily met up that night and avoided so much drama later.
• My God, What Have I Done?: After Break 12, Anne ends up lashing out at Sasha and Marcy, the former upon realizing she had been Driven to Suicide at Toad Tower and didn't tell them, the latter by finally indulging Marcy's Guilt Complex and blaming them for everything. She ends up regretting it though after seeing how much her lashing out truly hurt them, that both hadn't meant to hurt her but were going through their own issues, and, by "Marcy at the Gates", just how bad a mental space Marcy was in to the point they can't even talk and are struggling to sign.
• Named by the Adaptation: Sprig and Polly's parents went unnamed in canon. Here, their mother was "Lily" and their father "Castor".
• New Game Plus: The redux starts out as a revamp of the original, expanding on some ideas, removing others, while adding in an arc of sorts of actually using the viewing to change things. The redux officially catches up to the original after the viewing for "Snow Day", meaning all content after that viewing is original to the redux.
• Noodle Incident: A lot of the Calamity Trio's misadventures back on Earth get referenced during the viewing, with only small bits of context to go on.
  • Sasha and Marcy recall once finding Anne asleep in Sasha's backyard in 45 degree cold wearing only a tank top and shorts. Anne says it's because she can't stand heat while sleeping, whereas Marcy is a "furnace" and Sasha, not liking the cold, tends to snuggle up to the closest heat source in her sleep.
  • Bee mentions having to put time limits on turns for the girls whenever they play Uno, Battleship, or Monopoly due to how competitive they get. Only other hint is Anne grumbling over how they got a battleship stuck in the ceiling one time.
  • Anne once punched a customer in the face. The fact that customer happened to be Sasha's ex boyfriend who tried flirting with Marcy right in front of her had nothing to do with it.
  • Anne mentions Sasha once going outside with a baseball bat to check on something making noise, using it as evidence to suggest the three of them have "white guy in horror movie" moments.
• Oblivious to His Own Description: Sprig tries acting as a Shipping Torpedo for Anne's relationship with Sasha and Marcy, thinking they're traitors who are just gonna hurt Anne in the end, culminating in his outing their relationship to everyone. As everyone else glares at him in anger and disappointment, he continuously fails to see how he just betrayed Anne's trust by outing her and has ultimately just hurt her again.
• Orwellian Retcon:
  • In the initial rewrite for Chapter 1, Andrias was mentioned to be in the viewing group too, with only Marcy noticing him. This was later admitted to being left in by accident and later removed, with it later clarified that Andrias is not there right now. He finally shows up after the end of "Marcy at the Gates".
  • It was eventually decided to include details revealed in "Marcys Journal A Guide To Amphibia", prompting the writing team to go back and make numerous edits to both explicitly and implicitly reference the details in the book. An example would be going back and changing Terri's pronouns to "they/them", as the guide all but said Terri was non-binary. That being said, they did admit that some things would have to be Adapted Out, as they would only be contradictory to the plans they made for the future of the fic, implicitly details related to Sasha and Marcy's families.
• Politically Incorrect Villain: "Villain" is pushing it, but one of the ways the Wu parents are shown to be abusive is their intolerance for Marcy's behaviors that suggest they're neurodivergent. When they finally see Marcy again during "Break 13", they show no care for the fact Marcy is in the midst of a panic attack and has been rendered temporarily mute, Mr. Wu even saying Marcy is "not one of those reta-" before the scene cuts away.
• Pokémon Speak: Sasha lampshades this when watching "The Big Bugball Game" after hearing Chuck saying something besides "I Grow Tulips" or some variation.
• The Quiet One: Like in canon, Jenny doesn't actually talk, instead just staying at Mr. X's side while he does the talking. So it comes to everyone's surprise when, at the updated intro for "Handy Anne", they actually talk and ask a question about the moon while noting it's symbolism in the intro. While Olivia is quick to brush it off as Jenny being silly, readers will know Jenny is right on the money about the moon.
• Relationship Upgrade: Anne, Sasha, and Marcy all confess their feelings for each other during the 6th break and decide they want to be in a relationship, though they're unsure exactly how that'll work out once the viewing is over.
• The Resenter: A downplayed case, but Marcy subconsciously resents Anne and Sasha for constantly treating them like a third wheel and feeling like they're being ignored. With Sasha in particular they feel like Sasha only hangs out with them because of being mutual friends with Anne, and these lingering feelings of resentment fester until Marcy lets slip that they think Sasha doesn't have to "pretend" to like them anymore.
• The Scapegoat: During "Break 13", Sasha willingly turns herself into one for the Wu's and her own parents, letting them all think she was the one who stole the Calamity Box and that it was her idea to run away, so as to keep the Wu's anger off of Marcy and not make Marcy have to suffer more under them than they already are.
• Shared Universe: Building off the fact that Amphibia exists in the same world as The Owl House, and that Eda was canonically married to Stan Pines for a brief period, the viewing for "Wax Museum" has Oum and Mr. X lament invidually visiting a certain roadside attraction in Oregon, all but said to be the Mystery Shack, the former because Bee convinced her to visit once, the latter due to apparently working for the same team as Agents Power and Trigger in investigating anomalies caused by Stan's work in the basement. The latter in turn establishes the events of Gravity Falls as taking place four-to-five years before Amphibia, as Mr. X mentions experiencing the events of "Scary-oke".
• Ship-to-Ship Combat: An invoked case In-Universe. After watching "Civil Wart", the people of Wartwood quickly notice some parallels between Constance and Anne, and in turn Hunter and Allistair to Marcy and Sasha, leading into a debate over which one Anne should be shipped with. The Calamity Trio can only express embarrassment and frustration at this, and while it looks like Oum is gonna get everyone to stop shipping her daughter... she then says Anne is obviously with Sasha, with Bee then saying Anne is obviously with Marcy. Soon, everyone in Wartwood, aside from the Plantars, are in another shipping war. Fortunately, the next episode starts before it can escalate too far.
• Shipping Torpedo: Sprig is highly distrustful of Sasha and Marcy after their betrayals of Anne and tries to get them to stop dating in an effort to protect Anne.
• Spotting the Thread: When Marcy first unleashed Darcy, everyone noticed their eyes glowing orange, and quickly believed that their eyes being like that was a sign of Marcy's calamity powers, like Anne's turning blue or Sasha's pink. When viewing "Marcy at the Gates" though, they spot Marcy's eyes when they save Sprig, but see they turned green, not orange, making them realize that Marcy's worries about something being inside of them have a lot more merit.
• Superpowered Evil Side: How Darcy ultimately manifests inside of Marcy. While initially just a voice in Marcy's head content with putting them down in the hopes of browbeating them into being the vessel for The Core, once Marcy gets enraged enough after learning Hop Pop betrayed Anne's trust, Darcy manages to take control and tries to attack Hop Pop, Marcy's eyes turning orange and glowing, as they begin referring to Anne as "Heart". It takes Anne using her Calamity Powers to restrain Darcy long enough for Marcy to reassert control. By "Marcy at the Gates" however, Darcy is reaching the point that they're causing Marcy immense pain and actively fighting to take control from them instead of just browbeating them.
• Traumatic Haircut: A self-inflicted version occurs in "Break 13" with Sasha. After her mother shows up and drunkenly starts giving her thinly veiled insults in the guise of concern, in particular claiming her looks were the only thing she had going for her, Sasha, desperate to not have another breakdown, grabs a knife and lops off a good portion of her own hair, nearly cutting her scalp before Anne stops her. Anne later fixes it up more when they're alone since Sasha's cutting was uneven, giving her much shorter hair implied to be closer to the length she sported in the canon epilogue.
• Unreliable Narrator: Invoked by Maggie during "A Caravan Named Desire". She accuses the viewings of lying when it flashes back to Anne's role in a school play as a kid, insinuating it's fake because of Anne being presented as a girl from the outset when she's trans. While Maggie was only using it as a pretense to be transphobic towards Anne, even deadnaming her by calling her "Andy", Anne had somewhat feared someone would ask about that, prompting the deity that brought them to state that, a few minor changes aside, the viewings are completely accurate.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: After learning Sasha was Driven to Suicide that night at Toad Tower and inadvertently used Anne to try and kill herself, Anne lashes out at both Sasha and Marcy, finally telling the latter what they've wanted to hear and blaming them for the issues. As a result, Marcy is left in the midst of panic attack, and begins inflicting Self-Harm by cutting their leg with a piece of broken glass to distract from the pain, Sasha even pointing out that now that Marcy has done it even once, it could become a dangerous addiction for them.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: Something made apparent to many during the viewings is that, while Hop Pop means well, he has a bad habit of either taking things too far, or making some pretty big screw ups and then doubling down on them. While some like Oum and Bee are able to understand Hop Pop's circumstances, namely having to provide for three children with only a vegetable stand, many repeatedly express disappointment or disgust with him for some of his more extreme blunders.
• Wham Line: The end of the viewing for "Marcy at the Gates" would see some more individuals brought into the viewing, some people that, for the most part, the Calamity Trio are not happy to see.
  Sasha: (Several realizations hit her as she stares out into the room. Her Parents are in the room. The figure that hugged her was Lexie. Marcy's parents are in the room. And a familiar blue newt is towering over everyone.)
• What Are Records?: Played for Laughs while viewing "Fort in the Road". When they see Anne make a comment about not knowing what "disks" are since she's not from the 90's, Terri claims disks aren't that old, mentioning how their dad got them a DVD player when they were a kid. All the teens from Earth however only have the vaguest memories of physical media being a thing, with Sasha noting Marcy as the sole exception due to them playing retro video games like the GameCube. When Terri in turn says the GameCube isn't old, Sasha points out it's over twenty years old, and way before their time, causing Terri to ask Dr. Jan if they're old. It's made funnier since Terri is only in their early 20's, making their feeling old a typical feeling many millenials started having in the 2020's.
• You Remind Me of X: It's implied that the reason Sasha dislikes Hop Pop is because he reminds her of the more negative traits of her father, as she thinks to herself while watching "Dating Season" that Hop Pop's attempt at marrying Sprig and Ivy just to make a profit is similar to her own father suggesting she make friends with people outside of Anne and Marcy for similar reasons.