Maybe they can put their history aside until they get through this thing. You know, for the band? For the band. For the band?
Anne and her friends team up to enter the Wartwood Battle of the Bands contest.
Full Recap
TBA...
Tropes:
- Accidental Misnaming: Mayor Toadstool calls Albus Duckweed "Gooselily".
- Band Episode: It's all about the major characters forming a band.
- Battle of the Bands: As the title indicates, this episode involves a battle of the bands.
- Bait-and-Switch: Grime drags what looks like an Iron Maiden onto the stage, laughing evilly, and seeing what happened last episode, one would think it's some incredibly dangerous instrument that the girls have to stop from killing them all. He then opens it, revealing a golden harp, and plays a three hour melody about the serenity of nature.
- Be Careful What You Wish For: Sasha is at first fine with forming a band with Toadie, since his Extreme Doormat nature has him blindingly agree with everything she suggests and lets her be in complete control, similar to how she was with Anne and Marcy on Earth. But this attitude of his quickly gets on her nerves to the point she wants him to share his actual opinions with her instead of just agreeing with everything she says.
- Breather Episode: The last breather of the season before the epic finale. At least fans now have two songs to jam to while waiting.
- But Now I Must Go: Even though the girls lost the battle, Anne thanks her friends for all they've done for her and that she's going to miss them. Everyone understands that Anne, Marcy, and Sasha need to leave to go back home. Or so they think...
- Characterization Marches On: The last time we see Toadie get some protagosnism, he was freaking out upset because Toadstool didn't want to accept his dream job, and was even controlling over that, and then passing out at the thought that the Mayor would leave him alone. Here, even when we see Toadie quite freaking out because he wasn't forming a band with the Mayor, he adjusted well with Sasha, and even he of all people taught Sasha the same lesson he had to learn in his last episode. This implies that Toadie, between chapters 28 and 35, came to terms that maybe is okay to let things go.
- Control Freak: Sasha of course likes to be in control at all times, but the episode does give it a more sympathetic angle. Sasha admits to Toadie that not being in control makes her crazy, and she even finds it's exhausting sometimes.
- Dark Horse Victory: Even though the girls wowed everyone (including the Plantars) with their performance, Grime wins thanks to his harp solo. Even Anne, Marcy and Sasha are stunned.
- A Day in the Limelight: While Sasha is the central focus of the episode, Toadie basically shares the limelight with her.
- Expository Theme Tune: Although not a theme song, "No Big Deal" explains how far Anne has come ever since being teleported to Amphibia. The song is such an earworm that some fans think this should have been the theme song for the show. Heck, it definitely sounds like a theme song for a Kid Com, and Amphibia is one of the animated sitcoms that is currently running on Disney Channel.
- Extreme Doormat: Toadie stopped having original opinions a long time ago, and he is just content with doing whatever Toadstool tells him to. Sasha is at first happy to boss him around, but she eventually finds his lack of free will annoying. Toadie explains his attitude as supporting the ones you care about.
- Foreshadowing: While Anne is explaining to Wartwood about how they're going to bring the music box to King Andrias, Marcy is shown to have a peculiar expression while her friend is talking.
- Freeze-Frame Bonus: Zechariah Nettles (the ghost from "Night Drivers") can be seen in the background of the group photo at the end.
- Funny Background Event: As Toadie talks to Sasha backstage, you can see Mayor Toadstool pick his nose and wipe the finger on Duckweed.
- Garage Band: Anne, Sasha and Marcy formed a band called Sasha and the Sharps. They played in school talent shows back on Earth.
- Green Thumb: Chuck manages to grow singing tulips who perform for the concert.
- Group Picture Ending: At the end, Anne has a photo of everyone at Wartwood taken as a memento of her, Marcy, and Sasha's last day before going back home.
- Hidden Depths:
- Who would have thought that of all people, Grime was an accomplished harpist?
- Toadie is able to help Sasha see that even if you think you know what's best for the people you care about, sometimes (win or lose) you just need to support them.
- "I Am" Song: Anne's song "No Big Deal
" is about how she has come to love Amphibia. - "I Am Great!" Song: Sasha's song "Heartstomper" is about how awesome and tough she is.
- Look Behind You: When Sasha wants to abruptly join Grime in the contest, the latter does not want to, and uses this trope to kick the former out of the doorway.
- Magitek: Sasha's guitar comes equipped with a pink crystal that serves as an amplifier.
- Meaningful Appearance: Marcy describes her outfit as the concept of metamorphosis. This ties with how she, and Anne, both changed into new people after their time in Amphibia.
- Musical Episode: Wartwood is having a battle of the bands.
- "Not So Different" Remark: Implied. When Sasha explains that the only thing she wanted was that the girls to succeed with her, Toadie tells her that understands the feeling. This is because, in his last chapter, he was also trying to make Toadstool succeed and get the Captain of Toad Tower, with him. He knew how that felt, and he knew that it wasn't okay to be this controlling. So he tries to help her understand.
- Only One Finds It Fun: When Mrs. Croaker warbles her pet spider Archie like a theremin, only Duckweed enjoys that performance as he giddily gives it a 10.
- Pass the Popcorn: Polly eats a bucket of popcorn as she watches Sasha and Anne arguing.
- Sequel Hook:
- At the end of the episode, Anne says the girls are going home tomorrow, which leads into the big season finale coming up next. And contrary to her final speech, the box is technically not fully charged yet...
- There's also Marcy's face during that scene where she noticeably isn't smiling like Anne and Sasha are and instead looks uneasy, indicating she knows more than she's letting on.
- Shout-Out: The teaser art for this episode is modeled after the teaser poser for Scott Pilgrim vs. The World.
- The Song Before the Storm: The Sharps' song "No Big Deal" is this, given that it serves as one last hurrah before things go completely off the rails in the next episode.
- Start My Own: Sasha decides that it would be better if she made her own band explaining that her Control Freak tendencies will clash with Anne and Marcy's ideas and make things worse for everyone.
- Strange Minds Think Alike: Anne's song includes an epic guitar solo for Sasha. During the performance, Toadstool comments that it better have an epic guitar solo coming up.
- Sudden Eye Colour: When Marcy excitedly says what her outfit is supposed to be, her eyes go wide and show dark brown irises.
- Tears of Awe: During "Battle of the Bands", Captain Grime enters the music competition with his harp. As he plays a piece "dedicated to the serenity of nature", the crowd watches him in awe. Three hours later, tears are streaming from the audience's eyes. This is enough to name Grime the winner of the competition.
- Tempting Fate: The Sharps' song explains the trip to Amphibia is in fact, "no big deal". Cue the next episode...
- Title Drop: Battle of the Bands is on the Wheel of Fun.
- Villain Song: "Heartstomper" by Sasha. Unfortunately in the episode proper we only get a snippet, but you can hear the full song posted on YouTube here.
- Wheel of Decisions: To decide what to do as entertainment for the girls' last day in Wartwood, Mayor Toadstool spins a wheel of activities. It falls on Battle of the Bands (to the disappointment of Soggy Joe, who was looking forward to "Massage Train").
- Wingding Pupils: Frobo's eyes turn into question marks when Sasha tells her that he's producing both too much and not enough fog as the fog machine for their performance. His eyes also change into cents when Polly tells the girls that she and Frobo are charging them by the hour.
- Write What You Know: In-Universe, Anne wrote a song about her adventures in Amphibia.
