Recap / Amphibia S3-E31 "The Hardest Thing"

It’s time for the journey to end.

While Earth has been saved from Andrias's invasion, the Core has one last trick up its sleeve, taking control of the Red Moon and trying to crash it into Amphibia. To stop the Core's final act of spite from destroying the world, Anne, Sasha and Marcy must now unlock their Calamity powers to their full potential - but such action may come at a heavy price.

Full Recap

Following the aftermath of the previous episode, the people of Amphibia celebrate the defeat of Darcy and King Andrias. However, unbeknownst to them, the Core is still alive inside Darcy's helmet, using built-in rockets to fly itself to Amphibia's moon and connect to a platform on its surface. Eyes open all along the moon's surface and massive rockets propel the body toward Amphibia. Andrias explains that, at the height of their civilization, the moon was converted into a base for Core's pet projects, with one of them being a plan to destroy all life on Amphibia by crashing the moon into its surface. Marcy, having been controlled by the Core for so long, knows why this is the case: it is afraid of being destroyed or becoming irrelevant. It will do anything to prevent that from happening and claim the stones as their own, even if it means destroying an entire civilization.

Mother Olm appears and tells the girls that the prophecy has come to pass. Mother Olm continues explaining it's less a prophecy and more of a cry for help, and explains how that help is within the power of three gemstones. The three are aware that using the full power of the stones will render the music box powerless again and may strand them in Amphibia forever, but they will not leave Amphibia in its hour of need. As everyone rushes inside the castle to use the music box, Mother Olm pulls Anne aside to tell her that, should their power fall short, a single person can call upon all three stones and be granted a power that can defeat any foe, at the cost of their life. Though hoping the situation will not come to that, regardless, Anne asks how the spell works, to which Mother Olm responds, "You have only but to ask."

In the castle, Valeriana is waiting for her, ready to reconnect the three to the stones completely. When the connection is restored, Anne, Sasha, and Marcy gain new, even more powerful Super Modes, ready to take down the Core once and for all. As the Core unleashes its defense robots, Anne, Sasha, and Marcy tear through their foes with ease before turning on the moon itself. While Andrias watches on, Aldrich speaks to him through the crown, begging for help. Despite being caught by Grime, Andrias insists he's doing what he must and commands a hoard of Frobots to head for the moon. However, instead of attacking, the Frobots end up helping the girls push the moon back in the opposite direction. Andrias, now doing things for himself, breaks his connection to the Core once and for all by crushing his crown.

Despite Andrias's help, however, the girls find their power simply isn't enough, the moon's engines overpowering their attempts to force it back. To make things worse, Marcy and Sasha can feel their powers fading, lacking the same stamina Anne has gained through repeat use. Seeing as there is no other option left, Anne decides to call upon the power of all three stones; she may die from their overwhelming power, but saving their lives and all of Amphibia is worth the price. Sasha and Marcy immediately refuse this idea, but Anne points out that since the beginning, she's been following Sasha and Marcy's paths, letting them take the lead, and now it's their turn to do the same for her. Tearfully, Marcy and Sasha give up their stones to Anne, who sends them back to Amphibia after receiving a group hug and being told that she had better return alive.

After returning to Amphibia, Marcy and Sasha deliver the news about Anne making a sacrifice, leaving everyone in shock and denial, especially Sprig, who demands Frobo take him to Anne. Anne unlocks the spell within the three stones by asking for the power needed to save Amphibia. Hearing her wish, the stones shatter and transfer all their power into Anne. Before she can make a move, Sprig flies up to her, begging her not to go through with it, saying that she changed his life, as Anne responds with the same. Anne holds his hand as he tearfully lets go and leaves. Wishing Sprig farewell, Anne fires a massive beam at the moon, reducing it and the Core to rubble. Upon seeing this, everyone celebrates the Core's defeat for good this time. With Anne's body now turned white from the power burning through her, Sprig and Frobo take what's left of her back to Amphibia. With everyone looking at her in tears, Anne, who can still manage to speak, tells Sprig not to cry, and that saving the world was worth the sacrifice, her only regret being that she never got to see Love Choice 2'. As the Plantars chuckle at this, Anne's body begins to dissipate into leaves, marking her death.

Anne wakes up on a mysterious floating island in some purgatory or alternate dimension that's the same as one of the posters from her bedroom. Inside a small house, she spots an old computer, where a message pops up greeting her. The computer responds as the cosmic guardian that's been watching over countless worlds for eons. To communicate better, the guardian takes the form of her cat Domino and talks to Anne verbally, who tells her she is neither dead nor alive and has created a copy of her body before she passed on, and wants to offer their title as guardian to Anne, seeing that Anne is the only mortal that has used the stones' power for good in all 10,000 years of their existence. Anne refuses this deal, seeing as she is still young and has a whole life ahead of her to make changes and overcome obstacles, just like her friends did. Convinced by this, the guardian allows her to return to the world of the living, saying it can wait until she fully lives 78 more years before retiring and handing the mantle to Anne.

Anne wakes up back in Amphibia restored back to life, where she sees her friends still mourning her earlier "death". Coming upon the group, Sprig and the others are surprised and ecstatic to see Anne alive again and all run in to hug her. Sprig then notices Anne's pocket glowing, revealed to be shards of the Calamity Gems. With everyone celebrating, Andrias looks at the remains of the moon, happy that the conflict with the Core is finally over.

Marcy speculates, based on their size and glow, that the shards will likely only open a portal once, and should probably be used soon; once they go home, it'll be for good. With this, everyone bids the girls farewell, understanding that they have their own lives to get back to. Marcy says goodbye to Olivia and Yunan, who claim that thanks to her, they found each other. Marcy also says goodbye to Andrias, who is surprised by her kindness and responds with, "Take care, kiddo." Sasha and Grime try to depart as fellow soldiers, but break down crying, openly stating they will miss each other dearly and Grime promising Sasha to find Percy and Braddock and let them know she'll never forget them and that she's sorry for everything. Finally, Anne shares her goodbyes with Polly, Hop Pop, and Sprig, who is still taking this moment not as well, but says goodbye, saying that they won't forget one another. Anne gives Sprig her phone as a souvenir. With everyone having given their farewells, Valeriana opens a portal to Earth. With Sprig giving her one last hug, Anne follows Sasha and Marcy back home. Having used the last of the stones' power, the music box crumbles to dust and fades away for good. When Hop Pop asks what they do now, Olivia says they will build a better world while Grime affirms they will do it together.

Roughly 9 months later, Amphibia has been rebuilt with the environment healed from Andrias's industrialization. Andrias has abdicated his throne and is seen helping to replant the flora he devastated, albeit under guard and while wearing chains alongside Triple B, though he's fine with it. Polly has grown into a frog, with Wally still unable to get used to it. Maddie is shown to have started a pharmaceutical business with her sisters, using her potions. Loggle has returned to his scrawny shape, which he blames on taking a cheat day. Grime, Olivia, and Yunan have become dignitaries for toads and newts respectively. Joe Sparrow and Bessie have fallen in love and had a trio of adorable sparrow-snail baby hybrids. Toadie has become the new mayor of Wartwood, with Toadstool as his aide. Hop Pop has started a business selling the California avocados that he had gotten from Los Angeles, with Frobo helping garden them at the Plantar Farm. Sprig is shown keeping a journal of all the creatures he's encountered, with the aid of Anne's phone. Everyone meets in the center of Wartwood to unveil a new statue of Anne in honor of her saving Amphibia. After being told by Ivy about a new continent untouched by any amphibians, Sprig, looking at the Anne statue and thinking of her encouragement, jumps onboard to check it out.

10 years later on Earth, Sasha picks up a still-clumsy Marcy up at the Los Angeles International Airport. Marcy has become a promising web comic author, while Sasha has become a child psychologist, using her own experience to help children work through their issues. Sasha reveals that she and Anne stopped spending as much time together as they used to once they entered high school, but are still very close friends. Anne is revealed to have become a herpetologist and now works at the Aquarium of the Pacific. She is seen teaching a young class of children about the Pink South American Tree Frog, whom she has named Sprig after her best friend. After putting the frog back, Anne is greeted by Marcy and Sasha, and the three young ladies leave to hang out and celebrate Anne's birthday as they did 10 years ago.

The credits roll showing various locations of Amphibia: the heart of Wartwood with Anne's statue; the cliffs near Newtopia where the girls went home, their signature weapons (racket, heron sword, and crossbow) placed there as a shrine; the remains of South Toad Tower, now grown over by plant life; and the Plantar Farm at night. At the end of the credits is a retake of the trio's "BFFs" photo, depicting Anne in the center holding hands with Sasha on Anne's left and Marcy on Anne's right. Thai script reading "The End" appears, and with it, the end of the series as a whole.

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Tropes:

• 11th-Hour Superpower: Anne, Sasha, and Marcy take on the full power of the stones, compared to the small fragment Anne had access to previously. This gives them new Super Modes eclipsing anything Anne had demonstrated prior, striding invincibly into every single wall of gunfire the Core could possibly throw at them. Unfortunately, this also gets Deconstructed, in that because Sasha and Marcy only recently got their powers, their bodies aren't used to channeling that power like Anne is, so they burn out quicker than her. This prompts Anne to take all three stone powers and use them to destroy the Core once and for all.
• All Up to You: The girls' Calamity powers are the only thing strong enough to stop the Core and its lunar base. However, since Sasha and Marcy aren't as adept at using their powers as Anne is, they run out of steam before the moon can be destroyed, forcing Anne to take their powers alongside her own to finally stop the Core's reign of terror.
• All Your Powers Combined: Even with the full might of the Calamity Gems and a small army of Frobots, the girls simply aren't able to exert enough force on the moon to counteract its rockets, and to make matters worse Sasha and Marcy start losing their Super Modes because they don't have Anne's experience in using them. To stop the Core, Anne absorbs all the energy of all three gems, destroying them, and channels it into a single, destructive beam which almost totally vaporizes the moon.
• Ambiguous Clone Ending: Anne's body fatally overheats and disintegrates after using all the Calamity Gems herself to destroy the Core for good, but the Gems' guardian sends her back with a new one after she declines to watch over the cosmos. It's not quite made clear whether Anne's consciousness was preserved and put into a new physical shell or destroyed with her previous body and leaving a total simulacrum to return to Earth and live out her life in her place. Either way, Anne reckons she'll have an existential crisis down the line.
• And the Adventure Continues: The segment of the Distant Finale in Amphibia ends with Sprig and Ivy about to explore a new continent together.
• Animation Bump: There are a few spots where the animation quality noticeably increases:
  • When Anne, Sasha, and Marcy unlock the full power of the stones, and take the fight to the Core in orbit.
  • When Anne and Sprig hug goodbye for the final time.
• Artistic License – Space: An astronomical body like a moon falling onto a planet would cause catastrophic geological and tidal effects greater than what is displayed well before collision due to the interaction of gravity and mass. This is even given a nod when Amphibia seemingly starts experiencing earthquakes before it's revealed to be Mother Olm burrowing up from underground. Said moon would also likely break apart well before impact due to the Roche Limit, as it would have reached well within the minimum distance which a large satellite can approach its primary body without tidal forces overcoming the internal gravity holding the satellite together. All this can be excused by the fact it is an artificial creation specifically designed to crash into the planet, so it has been presumably reinforced to that end.
• Artistic License – Education: Sasha becoming a psychologist and Anne a herpetologist at 23 is unlikely. Clinical psychology requires a Master's degree at minimum for a professional counselor position, calling yourself an actual psychologist requires a doctorate plus several years of internships. While herpetology doesn't strictly require an advanced degree, most positions will be difficult to obtain without one. One could argue that Anne was gaining experience at the aquarium while working on her degree, but Sasha is a bit more difficult to justify.
• Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence: When Anne dies destroying the Core, her soul ends up in an astral plane where she meets the entity that created the stones as a test to see what mortals would do with unlimited power, acting as a multiversal guardian. It wishes to invoke this by having Anne replace it so it can retire, but when she turns it down due to being a kid who will probably screw things up, it decides to wait until she lives out her full lifespan.
• The Atoner: Andrias in the end. Not only does he turn against the Core when it requested his help, but is last seen helping to replant the flora of Amphibia.
• Babies Ever After: Bessie and Joe Sparrow are revealed to have fallen in love and have given birth to three beautiful babies. Although, this doesn't really make sense considering they are two completely different animals.
• Back for the Finale:
  • Valeriana returns after a very long absence.
  • Sylvia also appears relaxing by Hop Pop's side in the Distant Finale.
• Bait-and-Switch: When the Core contacts Andrias once more, he activates the Frobots... to help Anne and company destroy it for good. Grime is surprised at this.
  Grime: I don't believe it! You're...
  Andrias: Finally doing something useful?
• Batman Can Breathe in Space: Sprig, along with Sasha and Marcy upon giving up their stones, have no trouble breathing in space. For the latter two, it could be argued that the magic of the stones was keeping them safe from asphyxiation.
• Big Damn Reunion: Downplayed. After nine months in Amphibia, Grime, Olivia and Yunan arrive in Wartwood to witness the unveiling of Anne's statue commemorating her deeds, along with several other characters from the town including Sprig and Polly. On Earth, ten years after Andrias's invasion, Sasha and Marcy meet up again after the latter moved away to catch up with each other and meet Anne at her new job as a herpetologist. However, both worlds do not reunite by the end, although the possibility is not explicitly discounted, and both sides are shown to be fondly remembering their time together.
• Bilingual Bonus: The Thai text in the end credits translates to "Complete" or "The End."
• Bittersweet Ending: The Core has been stopped, both worlds are safe, and Amphibia is ready to build a better society. However, the Calamity Gems are gone, their last bits of energy used to send Anne, Sasha, and Marcy back to Earth after tearful goodbyes. The worlds are seemingly split for good. Nine months later on Amphibia, the environment has been restored and Wartword has rebuilt. They honor Anne with a statue before Sprig joins Ivy in exploring a new continent. Ten years later on Earth, Anne, Sasha, and Marcy have moved on with their lives: Marcy is now publishing a webcomic, Sasha is a child psychologist, and Anne is working as a herpetologist at the Aquarium of the Pacific. The trio reunite for Anne's birthday and take a new "BFFs" photo.
• Black Comedy Burst:
  • The Guardian is amazingly blunt in telling Anne that she was "saved" in the sense that she's an exact copy made after her original body was disintegrated.
  • As it sends Anne, it casually mentions how long she's expected to live, which Anne only notices as she's going through the wormhole.
• Body Backup Drive: After giving her life to sacrifice the Core, Anne's consciousness is "saved" by the entity that created the Calamity stones. She feels like she might experience an existential nightmare later on.
• Book Ends:
  • Wally walking out of Stumpy's matches exactly how the first episode "Anne or Beast?" began.
  • Andrias tells off the Core using the exact same line Anne used to tell off Sasha in the first season finale.
  • The same frog from the first episode appears, still being carried away by the dragonfly (and claims that he likes it now).
  • General Yunan's final line involves her boasting about her huge list of titles (aka her Establishing Character Moment), only to be cut off in the middle by Olivia.
  • Following the Time Skip, Ivy greets Sprig the same way she did in her introduction; with an ambush attack.
  • The final shot of the credits is a new BFF photo of Anne, Sasha, and Marcy, complimenting the one Anne had with her when she first came to Amphibia.
• But Now I Must Go: Now that both worlds have been saved, Anne, Sasha, and Marcy return to Earth. But since the stones only have enough energy to get them home, doing so means they can never return to Amphibia again.
• Call-Back:
  • In her seemingly final moments, Anne jokes that her one regret was being unable to watch Love Choice 2.
  • While saying good-bye, Sasha asks Grime to find Braddock and Percy and tell them she's sorry and will miss them.
  • Joe Sparrow and Bessie finally got together after it was hinted they were attracted to each other in "The First Temple".
  • Pictures of the carnivorous tomato plants, grubhog and Anne as a bird can be seen on Sprig's bulletin board along with a menu from Thai Go.
  • Following the Time Skip, it's shown that Hop-Pop indeed managed to cultivate the avocado seeds he brought back from California.
• Calling the Old Man Out: When Aldrich speaks to him from the Core, Andrias finally stands up to his father, rejects his offers to join his ancestors, and crushes his crown to cut off any communications with him.
• Call to Agriculture: As a condition of Andrias' atonement, he abdicated the throne and is helping to replant Amphibia's flora.
• Cathartic Crying: When Grime and Sasha bid farewell to each other, they try to be stoic about it before finally caving into their emotions and start ugly-crying.
• Clone Angst: The Guardian effectively brings Anne Back from the Dead by saving her consciousness just before she disintegrated and creating a copy of her body. Anne acts as if she simply survives, though she acknowledges an existential crisis may be pending.
• Colony Drop: As per the ending of "All In", the moon is now plummeting towards Amphibia for an unknown reason, despite Andrias and the Core's invasion having been thwarted, just as Leif foresaw 1,000 years ago. Andrias reveals that the moon is dropping because the invasion was thwarted, as it's actually a machine designed by the Core and being induced to collide with the planet by the Core-controlled helmet on the moon itself. This means that Leif's prophetic vision was actually a Self-Fulfilling Prophecy, since stealing the Calamity Box and sending it to Earth kick-started the chain of events that lead to the invasion being thwarted and the Core's last spiteful stand.
• Color Failure: Anne's body turns a whitish-gray after she uses the full power of the Gems.
• Colour-Coded for Your Convenience: The new retaken picture of the three girls at the end of the credits is next to three drinks that are each the respective colors of the gems.
• Cry Laughing: Before Anne's final moments, she jokes about missing out on watching Love Choice 2, making the Plantars laugh a little as they're sobbing over her current state.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: A very slow one when the three girls battle against the Core. Dozens of Mecha-Mooks stood no chance against three girls with Calamity Stone powers. The second half of the battle, its army has been destroyed and it's at Anne's mercy. The Core thinks Anne can do nothing against it, but it doesn't have any powers of its own to stop her. Once Anne takes all three gems, they go down much more pathetically than, say, King Andrias did in the previous episode. The Core's death is more of a brutal execution than a straight-up fight.
• Curtain Call:
  • Before stepping through the portal, Anne, Marcy, and Sasha bow to the friends they've made on their journey, as their tearful frog friends applaud the girls as heroes while yelling out their goodbyes and thank-yous.
  • This can also count as a curtain call for the fans that have stuck with Anne and her frog friends until the very end, and gives fans an opportunity to give the show one last round-of-applause.
• Dangerous Forbidden Technique: Anne summons the power of all three stones combined in order to destroy the Core, but at the cost of her body being destroyed.
  Mother Olm: Summoning such power...comes at a price. The life of the user.
• Deader than Dead: With the Core annihilated, every newt who ever assimilated into it upon death is now completely and utterly gone - mind, body and soul.
• Disney Death: Anne goes through this upon using the combined powers of the Calamity Stones, being brought back to life after she promises to take up the mantle of the Guardian after another 78 years alive.
• Distant Finale: The epilogue opens some time after the trio returned home.
  • Amphibia has been rebuilt from its ruined state while Andrias has abdicated from being king to now being a farmer alongside Bartley, Branson, and Blair. Polly has fully grown into a frog, while Sprig goes to explore unexplored lands in Amphibia alongside Ivy.
  • Ten years later on Earth, Marcy, who is now a webcomic artist publishing a popular work, returns to L.A. and catches up with Sasha, now a psychologist helping people with emotional baggage, who both head to celebrate Anne's birthday, who is now working as a herpetologist at the Aquarium of the Pacific.
• The Dog Bites Back: Andrias finally rebels fully from the Core and crushes his crown to cement it.
• Double-Meaning Title: "The Hardest Thing" is obviously referring to how hard it is to move on from the past, though it's also a pun on how something incredibly hard (the moon) is crashing down.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: It's a Bittersweet Ending in that Anne, Sasha, and Marcy are forced to return to Earth with their Calamity powers gone, but Amphibia is saved, both worlds rebuild, and the girls eventually reunite.
• Earth-Shattering Kaboom: In order to both get revenge and reclaim the Calamity Gems, the Core initiated its final plan of doing this to Amphibia by ramming it with the moon. Fortunately, thanks to Anne using the full power of the gems, the moon is what goes kaboom (along with the Core).
• Easily Forgiven:
  • Downplayed with Marcy. Her goodbye to Andrias is a little terse and he's clearly surprised he even got that much. In the Time Skip Marcy can be seen with a blue newt pin on her bag, indicating she still thinks of him.
    Marcy: Goodbye, Andrias.
    Andrias: (surprised that she's even talking to him, but then turns away in shame) ...Take care, Kiddo.
  • Subverted with Anne. Even though she still sympathizes with Andrias' situation, she doesn't exactly forgive him for everything.
• Epic Fail: Marcy somehow trips over a pebble in space, which prevents her from intercepting Andrias's Frobots. Luckily, they're now on the girls' side thanks to their master's Heel–Face Turn.
• Everyone Has Standards: The Guardian is very interested in having Anne be their replacement, but they openly acknowledge that it's Anne's decision and they'll accept it even if she declines. They even state that they're not a jerk.
• Evil Is Petty: With the invasion stopped and the Core being reduced to inhabiting Darcy's helmet after its defeat, it flies up to Amphibia's red moon, revealed to be a large creation similar to the Core's original body, and controls it to smash into Amphibia and destroy it, denying the heroes a total victory out of sheer spite towards them.
• Existential Horror: Played comically when the Guardian casually lets Anne know that she did technically die, but her consciousness was 'saved' before doing so. Anne wisely decides to put the impending existential crisis aside for the time being.
• Expository Hairstyle Change:
  • Nine months after Anne leaves Amphibia, Sprig's hair is longer and now sticks out of his hat, Ivy now lets her wild hair loose, and Polly (grown into a frog) now has a full head of orange hair.
  • Ten years after returning from Amphibia, Sasha has cut her hair to shoulder length while Marcy has grown hers out. Anne has kept her hair largely the same, but has it tied back in a bushy ponytail.
• Extra-Long Episode: This episode is 29 minutes in length, making it longer than the other half hour episodes, but shorter than the one before it.
• Extra-Strength Masquerade: Implied with Anne and the other's fight in Los Angeles, with a news broadcast in the Distant Finale speculating that it was a hoax given how quickly the whole thing passed.
• Final Battle: The war may be over, but the Core decides to come back for one last hurrah with the heroes. Subtlety be damned, one way or another, the Core's time is up.
• Foreshadowing:
  • Back when Leif had warned about Amphibia's demise by the moon dropping, the Core strangely didn't seem to mind such an event and still pressed Andrias to continue their world-conquering schemes. This episode reveals that it's because the Core themself is the reason such an event can happen.
  • When describing the Core, Mother Olm called it 'an unnatural thing that does not sleep and will not die', and in this episode it's revealed that the red moon of Amphibia is a massive modified creation that houses the Core's machines, covered with its Hellish Pupils. This means that the Core has been able to watch Amphibia from the moon at night, turning many scenes of the show into a Rewatch Bonus.
  • In "Adventures in Catsitting", an out-of-it Anne said that Domino was the 'Alpha and Omega, an interdimensional being beyond all time and space'. In this episode, the Guardian behind the Calamity Gems takes the form of Domino in order to communicate better with Anne, towards the end even having the Calamity Gems where its normal and third eye would be.
  • In "The Beginning of the End", it's revealed that not even the Core, the collection of Amphibia's greatest minds and the dynasty that has used the Calamity Gems, knows how the Gems really work. We find out in this episode that they were created by a higher being.
• Formerly Fit: Loggle utimately loses his muscular body after slacking off on his workout regimen, and goes back to his scrawny self.
• A Form You Are Comfortable With:
  • The Guardian takes the form of an old computer and later Domino, stating its true form would destroy Anne's mind. When Anne claims she can handle it, a brief glimpse of the Guardian as some kind of pulsating Energy Being utterly terrifies her.
  • The realm itself is also a more detailed recreation of a poster in Anne's room.
• Freeze-Frame Bonus:
  • Apothecary Gary can be seen sitting next to a potted mushroom in the background, indicating that there was another of his kind being held by Andrias and Gary rescued them offscreen.
  • After dying, Anne's single shoe spends the rest of the episode on her right foot instead of her left.
  • On Andrias's cloak in the epilogue is Leif's leaf and the robot pin Marcy gave him when they first met.
  • Stumpy's is now serving Thai tea pancakes with maggots.
  • Sprig's note board has various references to his adventures with Anne, as well as a note read "Gotta ribbit, ribbit, jump on it," which is taken from the "Welcome to Amphibia" song by Celia Gray.
  • Besides several references to their time in Amphibia in their outfits, Sasha has a Bisexual Pride heart sticker on her rearview mirror.
• Gem Tissue: When the deity behind the Gems is sending Anne back, its form now has three gemstone eyes, one for each color of the stones.
• Genre Savvy: Marcy, as usual. She lampshades the Set Bonus power of the Calamity Gems as a classic video game trope, and refers to their superpowered space battle as "the coolest, most anime thing" she's ever done.
• A God Am I: The Core, when fighting the girls, claims itself to be a god. Fittingly, it's finally killed by Anne wielding the combined powers of the gems together into one god-like blow that obliterates the Core without any way for it to avert it, and afterwards meets the entity who created the gems in the first place and is offered the job of taking its role on after passing its Secret Test of Character, proving the Core's claims to merely be its own self-delusions in the face of the power of an actual god-like being.
• God Job: Evidently, the title of Cosmic Guardian is a transferable position, and the current one wants Anne to replace it. It even mentions "Bagel Fridays" as if it's an actual office job. Anne turns the position down because she thinks she's unworthy, but the Guardian returns her to her life assuming she'll be up to it after a full natural life.
• Godzilla Threshold: Anne is told that the Calamity Gems hold a secret ability: their combined power can be used for almost anything...but at the cost of the user's life. As such, it's a last resort. Anne ends up having to do so, and indeed does die from doing so and has to be brought back by the Guardian.
• Go Out with a Smile: Before her body disappears because of her Heroic Sacrifice, Anne is smiling happy to have made the decision that would save everyone from the Core. She even tries to comfort a devastated Sprig with one last joke.
• Grand Finale: This is the last episode of the whole series.
• Greater Need Than Mine: When they hear using the power of the gems to stop the Core could drain them completely and leave them stuck in Amphibia, Anne, Sasha and Marcy immediately decide to go along with it.
• Hard Light: The full power of the Gems allow Anne, Sasha and Marcy to create energy constructs to use as weapons.
• Heel–Face Turn: While he may not be completely forgiven for everything he's done, Andrias finally does the right thing by defying the Core and helping the heroes try to stop the moon. It ends up getting him a Redemption Earns Life as he is seen in the epilogue replanting the flora he devastated, albeit on a prison work detail.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Since Sasha and Marcy are less used to the Calamity powers than Anne is, they quickly run out of steam while she's still going, leaving her no choice but to summon the full power of all three stones. After she defeats the Core, her body completely disintegrates. If the entity hadn't saved her soul and put it in a new body last-minute, Anne would've died for good.
• He Was Right There All Along: The Reveal that the red moon is a massive machine of the Core's creation that houses several of their pet projects and can also store their consciousness turns it into this, as the red moon's visible presence throughout the show, such as at pivotal points like "Reunion", as well as on the promotional posters and the altered intro of Season 2 turns it into an Evil Overlooker watching over the events in Amphibia and a symbol of the Core's overarching presence throughout the show.
• Holding Hands: While Olivia and Yunan are saying good-bye to Marcy, there is a Wham Shot of them holding hands, implying a Last-Minute Hookup between the two of them.
• Hot Skitty-on-Wailord Action: Bessie and Joe Sparrow had several snail-bird hybrid offspring together.
• Hour of Power: Sasha and Marcy finally achieve their full Calamity powers. Unfortunately, due to not being as experienced with them as Anne is with hers, they find themselves burning out quickly.
• Humans Are Flawed: Or Amphibians Are Flawed. The Guardian notes that Anne was the only one who used the Calamity Gems for good in the 10,000 years they were in the hands of mortals. Anne herself turns down the offer to be Guardian of the Multiverse because she herself has made a lot of mistakes over the years.
• Imagination-Based Superpower: When the girls unlock the full power of the Gems, they quickly form weapons and energy constructs based on their personalities, like a tennis ball and racket for Anne, cheerleading pom-poms for Sasha, and a twenty-sided die for Marcy.
• Immediate Sequel: The episode starts where "All In" left off with everyone returning to Amphibia after defeating King Andrias, and revealing how the Core got itself on the moon.
• Implacable Man: The fight against the Core starts with Anne, Sasha, and Marcy receiving their Calamity powers. Then they are intercepted by the Core's small robot army. The robots don't stand a chance.
• Implausible Deniability: Mayor Toadstool claims he wasn't worried that Anne, Sasha and Marcy wouldn't step up for Amphibia while mopping his Overly-Nervous Flop Sweat.
• Improbable Weapon User: When using their Calamity powers to fight the Core in orbit, Anne manifests a giant tennis racket, Sasha pom-poms, and Marcy a twenty-sided die.
• Inelegant Blubbering: When Grime and Sasha are saying their goodbyes, they at first try to keep it stoic and dignified, but their emotions overwhelm them and they both cry Ocular Gushers while sobbing about how much they'll miss each other.
• In Mysterious Ways: The Guardian created the Calamity Gems as a Secret Test of Character to see how mortals would handle ultimate power, but didn't directly intervene when the Newtopians started to abuse their power, instead merely sending the prophecy and Leif's visions, and later choosing Anne and the other girls to defeat the Core.
• Interspecies Romance: Joe Sparrow (a bird) and Bessie (a snail) end up starting a family.
• I Regret Nothing: Before dying, Anne makes perfectly clear that she doesn’t regret pulling a Heroic Sacrifice to save everyone from The Core. Even her “regret at not getting to see her favorite movie sequel” is more a joke to comfort her loved ones one last time.
• Irony:
  • The Core's Rage Quit in response to their loss and throwing a temper tantrum over it, but on a grander scale, is the exact same thing they mocked Andrias over in "Froggy Little Christmas", showing how the Core is Not So Above It All, but is ultimately more evil and malicious in its breakdown than Andrias was.
  • Marcy, the most intelligent of the Calamity Trio, ends up becoming a webcomic artist in the Distant Finale, if a successful one, while Anne and Sasha become a herpetologist and a psychologist respectively.
  • The Core calls themself a god and is a means for a dynasty of old newts terrified of death to live forever while using the Calamity Gems for subjugation and extermination. As Anne finds out, that is literally the exact opposite way a mortal is promoted to godhood.
• I Should Have Done This Years Ago: Andrias admits to this when he finally goes against the Core, and by extension his father.
  Aldrich: You Fool! You could've been immortal! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!
  Andrias: (crushing the crown in his hand) Something I should've done a long time ago… standing up to YOU! (destroys the crown)
• It Has Been an Honor: As Sasha and Grime are saying their good-byes, Grime says it was an honor to serve with Sasha - just before they both breakdown crying.
• It Only Works Once: The Guardian provides Anne and the other girls with shards of the Calamity Gems so they can return to Earth, but they're single-use only and the girls have to leave quickly because they have no idea how long they'll last for. Once they return to Earth, the Box and Gems disintegrate completely.
• It's All About Me: Marcy, thanks to the Core's possession of her, knows that above all else it fears being irrelevant, and when Anne and company defeated it in the previous episode, it decides to be a Sore Loser rather than try to change and tries to force the moon to crash into the planet.
• Just a Kid: Anne uses this to justify turning down the Guardian's offer for her to take on its position, pointing out that she's made a lot of mistakes, and may not be the best Guardian at this point in her life.
• Kid Hero All Grown-Up: Ten years later, we find out what Anne, Sasha and Marcy have been doing with their lives. Marcy started her own webcomic, Sasha became a child psychologist and Anne became a herpetologist at the Long Beach Aquarium of the Pacific. In any case, Anne’s heroing days are behind her. Likewise, Polly, Sprig, Maddie and Ivy have all visibly aged up as well, becoming young teenagers or child frogs after the Time Skip and Sprig and Ivy decide to go on another adventure to explore a recently discovered continent.
• Last Episode, New Character: The Guardian.
• Last Minute Hook Up: While bidding Marcy farewell, Olivia and Yunnan reveal that they have become a couple.
• Last Request: Before leaving, Sasha tasks Grime with finding Percy and Braddock to tell them that she's sorry and that she'll miss them with all of her heart.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall: The Guardian claims to be a simple spectator, but quickly states that they aren't part of "the demographic".
• Locked Out of the Loop: Due to her possession by the Core, Marcy has no idea who Mother Olm is, or of the prophecy.
• The Magic Goes Away: The Calamity Stones are destroyed when Anne asks them for their full power in order to save the world that she loves. While the Guardian provides the girls limited versions to allow them to return home, they're single-use only and the Box disintegrates after they leave.
• Meaningful Echo: When Andrias finally gains the courage to defy the Core (and his father), it screams at him, asking what he's doing, to which his response is, "Something I should have done a long time ago; standing up to YOU!" This is exactly what Anne said to Sasha in "Reunion".
• The Mind Is a Plaything of the Body: When the Guardian takes on Domino's form to spare Anne from what it truly looks like, it starts displaying actual cat-like behaviors, even licking itself.
• Mix-and-Match Critters: Bessie and Sparrow Joe's offspring are part-snail, part-sparrow.
• Mood Whiplash:
  • Anne, upon returning to life, sees everyone saddened by her Heroic Sacrifice, and walks up to them and casually asks what they're all looking at. Cue emotional reunion.
  • The sadness over the girls leaving Amphibia, likely forever, is undercut by Polly's excitement over growing her first hair.
• Mythology Gag: A note on the post-Time Skip Sprig's board reads "Ribbit, ribbit, jump on it". This is a lyric from "Welcome to Amphibia" (what was originally intended to be the show's theme song).
• The Needsof The Many: When told the stones hold a power that can defeat any foe, but at the cost of the user's life, Anne doesn't hesitate to ask how to use it. Even when all that power leaves her on death's door, she doesn't regret it for a second.
• No Body Left Behind: After Anne makes her Heroic Sacrifice, her body soon disintegrates into leaves and almost entirely vanishes.
• No Endor Holocaust: The full ramifications of destroying the machine that served as Amphibia's moon aren't explored, and Amphibia still seemingly functions without it some time later.
• Not Hyperbole: The Guardian tells Anne it took on the form of her cat Domino because if she saw its true form, her mind would explode. After everything Anne has dealt with, she feels it can't be that bad, so the entity momentarily turns into its true form, and visibly creeps Anne out.
• Not Afraid of You Anymore: Andrias finally stands up to the Core, crushing the crown it used to give him orders.
• Not So Stoic: While saying good-bye, Sasha and Grime try to act professional like a pair of soldiers...before breaking down crying saying how much they'll miss each other.
• Not Now, We're Too Busy Crying Over You: After returning to life, Anne asks everyone what they're crying about, with Hop Pop blowing her off this way, though Sprig immediately realizes what's going on.
• Now, Let Me Carry You: When Anne decides to sacrifice herself to stop the Core, she notes that she's always let her friends lead her around, but now it's time for them to follow her lead.
• Ocular Gushers: Sasha and Grime's farewell to each other is filled with an extensive amount of tears.
• Official Couple: Olivia and Yunan have finally become a thing in the end.
• Oh, Crap!: In response to the moon coming down on Amphibia, all Anne can say is "Oooh crud."
• Once More, with Clarity: The first few seconds of the episode take place during the last couple minutes of the last episode, revealing how the moon started coming down: while Olivia was declaring the Resistance was victorious, the Core (inside Darcy's helmet) came out of hiding and launched itself up to the moon, activating its planetary thrusters.
• Only Evil Can Die: Ultimately, the only deaths to occur were of those that were on the villainous side—the Core and all the minds in it courtesy of Anne (who also gives her life, but is revived by being "backed up" shortly after). Nearly all the other major villains (Sasha, Grime, and even Andrias) by this point have redeemed themselves one way or another and are allowed to live.
• Orbital Shot: The camera circles gracefully and epically around Anne and Sprig as they are sharing one final hug before her departure.
• Pet the Dog: Inverted. Despite everything he's done, Marcy still gives Andrias a small but sincere goodbye. Andrias is so shocked he can barely muster a "Take care, kiddo" in response.
• Planet Spaceship: The red moon of Amphibia is actually a gigantic moon-sized machine capable of moving through space. It is also a carrier which could unleash legions of monstrous robots on top of likely being one itself for the Core.
• Please, Don't Leave Me: Sprig tries this with Anne when she plans to sacrifice herself to stop the Core. Unfortunately, he's too late to stop her from absorbing the power of the stones.
• Rage Quit: The Core did not take their defeat well and tries to destroy Amphibia as revenge. Sasha even calls them a Sore Loser.
• Real-Place Background: In the future Anne becomes a herpetologist and works in a frog-themed section named Amphibia of the real Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach, California.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: The Guardian really wants to retire from the God Job they've been doing for at least ten thousand years, but while they want Anne to replace them, the Guardian doesn't force her, and instead sends her back to live out her natural lifespan on the logic that a lifetime of Character Development will make her even better at the job. They even provides one-shot versions of the Gems so that Anne, Sasha, and Marcy can return to Earth, and they're also implicitly the one who let Anne harness their full power to destroy the Core because she asked for the power to save the world she'd come to love. They even say that they're not a jerk when Anne asks if she has a choice.
• Reformed, but Not Tamed: Downplayed - Sasha's certainly come a long way with regards to her character during the "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue, but she's not above loudly chastising another driver neglecting to use their turn signal on the road.
• Refusal of the Call: Anne rejects the offer of the Cosmic Guardian, saying that she's Just a Kid who would screw it up. The Guardian decides to let her live her life completely before asking her again.
• Retired Badass: Implied with Yunan who now works as a newt dignitary while reminiscing about her warrior days.
• The Reveal: Amphibia's red moon is actually a massive machine created by Andrias' ancestors, and the 'Fall' that Leif foresaw from the gems was the Core controlling it to smash into Amphibia as a final act of petty vengeance against the heroes for thwarting its plans.
• Rewatch Bonus: The Reveal that the red moon is a massive machine that can house the Core's consciousness turns the moon's presence throughout the show as well as many promotional materials and artwork, into an Evil Overlooker and ever-present reminder of the true stakes of the girls' presence in Amphibia.
• Rule of Funny:
  • Marcy trips over a pebble in a zero gravity environment. She even lampshades how illogical that is.
  • Loggle lost all his newfound muscle mass because he took one cheat day.
  • Bessie and Joe Sparrow could somehow produce half-sparrow half-snail offspring despite being completely different species.
• "Save the World" Climax: This time around, it's Amphibia that has to be saved from the falling moon that Leif foresaw from the Calamity Gems.
• Secret Test of Character: The Guardian allegedly created the Stones to see how mortals would handle a source of unlimited power. And apparently, Anne was the first person in thousands of years to pass that test by asking the stones for the power to save Amphibia even if it costs her own life.
• Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: The prophecy Leif saw when she touched the Calamity Gems is revealed to be this. By stealing the music box and sending it to Earth, she started a chain of events that eventually led to Anne, Sasha and Marcy finding the box, being empowered by the gems and transported to Amphibia to serve as their champions and eventually thwart Andrias and the Core's invasion of Earth. In response to this, the Core induces a Colony Drop from the massive machine hiding as Amphibia's red moon, aiming to wipe out the planet entirely as their last spiteful act of vengeance against the heroes — the very thing that Leif saw that made her so afraid of their misuse of the box that she stole it and hid it on Earth.
• Set Bonus: When Anne, Sasha, and Marcy wield the full might of the Calamity Gems together, they're granted far greater power than Anne ever wielded with her connection to a single stone. Marcy lampshades it as a "classic synergy buff".
• Shoo Out the Clowns: Anne's parents don't appear in this episode, and neither do all the allies back on Earth, to build up to the Core's final gambit and Anne's big sacrifice.
• Shout-Out:
  • The Core, now inhabiting Darcy's helmet after having lost their human host, committing an act of massive destruction for petty reasoning, smashing Amphibia's red moon into the planet to deny the heroes victory, makes the situation analogous to The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask, aided by the fact that the moon is revealed to be a massive machine covered in the Core's Hellish Pupils, just like the Moon of Termina has a humanoid face on it.
  • The three girls in their Calamity forms have a striking resemblance and color scheme to the protagonists from Magic Knight Rayearth, another series where three middle school girls are transported into a fantasy world they are destined to save, which Matt has cited as a huge inspiration for the show.
    • Additionally, the girls leaving Colorful Contrails as they fly brings to mind another trio of powerful little girls.
  • Anne calling upon the full power of the gems, them shattering into nothingness, and her life being spent in the process alludes to the Silver Crystal from Sailor Moon.
  • Anne's ascension to a higher plane of existence is an almost beat-for-beat reference to the end of Puella Magi Madoka Magica. Domino even becomes an expy of Kyubey (and, on the other end of the scale of Magical Girl works, Cerberus's true form).
  • Marcy has a chibi bag charm of Sakura Haruno and an expy of Katsuki Bakugo.
  • The scene of the frobots trying to help the girls push the moon away is similar to when the various Londo Bell and Neo-Zeon pilots tried to help Amuro push Axis away from Earth in Mobile Suit Gundam: Char's Counterattack.
  • The entirety of the girls taping into the full power of the stones to stop the moon from dropping down is similar to where Sonic and Shadow in their super forms try to stop the Space Colony ARK in Sonic Adventure 2. Anne even gives up her life to finish the job like how Shadow gave up his.
  • Andrias' Call to Agriculture after the Time Skip is similar to what happened at the end of The Infinity Gauntlet with Thanos taking up farming after realizing the titular Gauntlet couldn't give him what he truly wanted.
  • Sprig keeping a journal of all the creatures he's encountered, and the style they are drawn in particular, can be easily compared to Ford Pines.
• The Shrink: In the Distant Finale, Sasha has become a psychologist, helping kids overcome their baggage.
• Shut Up, Hannibal!:
  • When Andrias turns against the Core and helps the girls, the Core berates him through the crown, telling him that he could have been immortal, and questions what he's doing. He replies that he's doing something he should have done long ago by standing up to his father, destroying his crown.
  • When the Core sees Anne about to use the full powers of the stones against them, she replies to their comment that she's using "Amphibia's greatest treasure" against them that the stones aren't the world's greatest treasure, with an image of the friends she's made along her journeys showing what she thinks the greatest treasure truly is.
• Soiled City on a Hill: The closing credits show that the ruins of Newtopia and the flying castle have been abandoned whilst Amphibia's inhabitants rebuild elsewhere, showing that Amphibia's dark past has been fully put to rest once and for all and it can never again threaten Amphibia's present.
• Sore Loser: After the invasion failed, the Core is willing to use the "moon" to destroy all of Amphibia to get revenge and take the stones back. Sasha even calls them that, with Andrias agreeing.
• Status Quo Is God: Loggle sadly returns to his regular, pre-muscular form from before the rebellion in the Distant Finale, presumably because he took a cheat day.
• Suicidal Cosmic Temper Tantrum: The Core is having one of these, big time. They're so angry about the failed invasion that they're willing to crash the moon into Amphibia and destroy themself, just so long as they take all of Amphibia with them.
• Swapped Roles: In the Distant Finale, Toadie is the new mayor while Toadstool is his trusted deputy. Voters don't bribe themselves, after all.
• Taking You with Me: The Core is inducing a Colony Drop via the massive machine that masquerades as Amphibia's red moon, an act that's implied to be mutually destructive to themself as much as the planet, but they clearly don't care as long as they deny the heroes their total victory over them.
• That's No Moon: As per the Trope Namer, the promo shows that the red moon is actually a mechanical creation that's linked to the Core, which it is now inducing to smash into Amphibia as a final act of spiteful defiance against the heroes' victory.
• This Is Gonna Suck: Anne notes that she'll be having an existential crisis later in life after being told that she actually did die and that she was revived as a sort of backup copy.
• Time-Passage Beard: Both Grime and (the former) Mayor Toadstool have facial hair following the Time Skip. Meanwhile, Andrias's beard has grown a bit longer and a little unkept.
• Title Drop: The episode title is referenced in Anne's voiceover speech at the end of the episode.
• Tomato in the Mirror: The stone deity tells Anne that she technically died, but they managed to save her by copying her consciousness right before her Heroic Sacrifice. Anne lampshades that that will cause her existential dread later.
• Too Powerful to Live: Quite literally. As demonstrated by Anne’s Heroic Sacrifice, summoning the energy of all three stones at once will grant the user the power to defeat any enemy. But there’s a catch: because said godlike power is too much for a mortal body to handle it, this will eventually kill the user in the process.
• Tragic Keepsake:
  • Anne gives Sprig her phone as a memento to remember her by as she prepares to leave Amphibia, potentially forever. In the Distant Finale, he's shown to be making a book based on the photos of their adventures together in it.
  • Grime, in the Distant Finale, has Sasha's silver sword on his back now that Andrias is using Barrel's Warhammer as a walking stick. The other sword has been left at the cliff where the girls departed, along with Anne's tennis racket and Marcy's crossbow.
  • It's implied that this is at least partly the reason why Andrias now has Barrel's warhammer. Alongside it are Leif's leaf and the toy robot pin Marcy gave him when they first met, both seen on his cloak to commemorate some of the very few friends he ever got to make as he serves out the rest of his days tending to the land.
• Triumphant Reprise: "No Big Deal" plays out in an epic rock orchestra as the Calamity Trio use their newly acquired superpowers to tear apart the Core's monstrosities.
• Trying Not to Cry:
  • When Sprig brings back Anne on death's door, Grime can be seen stoically holding back a tear.
  • Both Grime and Sasha try to be professional in their goodbyes, desperately trying not to break down, only to fail miserably.
• Try Not to Die: Sasha's parting words to Anne before she and Marcy go back to ground.
  Sasha: You better come back alive, Boonchuy!
• The Unreveal: There are a few points left unknown by the show's ending.
  • It is not clarified what connection Tritonio's 'family sword' had to the Calamity Gems, nor how he came about it. Likewise, where Leif got the idea to hide the Calamity Box on Earth and leave a secret message on a jar for the heroes to later find is unknown, as said action implies a degree of foresight over their future actions that runs counter to Leif accidentally putting in motion the events that would cause her vision of catastrophe for Amphibia to become a Self-Fulfilling Prophecy.
  • Andrias is no longer Amphibia's ruler, but it's not shown or mentioned if anyone replaced him, or if Amphibia now has a different kind of leader such as a president instead. Neither Olivia, Yunan, nor Grime are implied to be the Head of State in the new post-Core Amphibia.
  • The fates and outcomes of several characters on the Earth side of Amphibia are left unseen, such as the various allies the Plantar's accumulated like Dr. Jan, Humphrey, or Mr. X. This is especially the case for the Boonchuys, given how prominent they'd been to the Earth narrative.
  • The fate of the giant herons left behind when the castle returned to Amphibia is unstated.
  • Sasha and Marcy's parents are still not shown with no indication on their relationship with their daughters or how they reacted to them going missing for months. More importantly, if Sasha came to terms with her home life.
  • Likewise, Beatrix, Tritonio, the Olms and others are left unspoken about in favor of Wartwood's current state.
  • In a deliberate case, it's left unknown if there are any attempts being made to re-establish dimensional contact with Amphibia without the Calamity Gems. Terri still has the coordinates for their world and Mr. X's backing so the possibility is out there, but in the meantime, everyone on both worlds have moved on with their lives, not dwelling on the past for the sake of their future.
• Villainous Breakdown: The Core has apparently completely snapped after their invasion was thwarted and they were forced to inhabit Darcy's helmet to survive, being willing to wipe out all of Amphibia to spite the heroes for their own loss, despite the fact they could have crawled away and survived unnoticed. Indeed, they enact their plans immediately after Olivia announces the defeat of Darcy publicly, almost in response to the assertion that they could have lost. They lose their composure entirely when Andrias turns on them, screaming at him in disbelief how he could refuse immortality. Their last moments are simply spent staring in wide-eyed shock before they're completely destroyed.
• Voice of the Legion:
  • Mother Olm's voice become excessively deep when she says using the Secret Spell comes with a price.
  • Rather than just Anne, all three human girls gain a deep reverb to their voices when they gain Super Modes from the power of the stones to fight the Core.
• Wave-Motion Gun: Anne uses the full power of the Calamity Gems to create a gigantic energy blast that completely destroys the red moon, and the Core along with it.
• We Named the Monkey "Jack": Anne names her pink South American tree frog in her exhibit at the aquarium after Sprig.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: Despite the "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue, several characters do not appear or have their current status addressed, especially on the Earth side of things.
  • There's no mention of whatever happened to the herons left behind on Earth.
  • It's unclear whether or not Terri continued her portal experiments.
• "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue:
  • On the Amphibia side:
    • Roughly nine months have passed since Anne defeated the Core and the environment has returned to its original state.
    • Andrias has abdicated his throne and is seen helping to replant the flora he devastated, albeit under guard and while wearing chains, though he's okay with it. It also appears that he might be going blind due to his hazy looking eyes. He's joined by the Triple B's, also in chains.
    • Apothecary Gary found the other mushroom that was the source of the spore collars and seems to be living peacefully with them in Wartwood.
    • Polly has grown into a teenage frog, with Wally still unable to get used to it.
    • Bog and his fellow tax collectors have started a hybrid moving/junk removal service, with Jalinda apparently serving as their secretary.
    • Maddie and her sisters are shown to have started a pharmaceutical business using Maddie's potions.
    • Loggle has returned to his scrawny shape, which he blames on taking a cheat day.
    • Grime, Olivia, and Yunan have become dignitaries for toads and newts, respectively, with Yunan having given up her position as a general while it's hinted she and Olivia are married.
    • Joe Sparrow and Bessie have fallen in love and had a trio of adorable sparrow-snail babies.
    • Toadie has become the new mayor of Wartwood, with Toadstool as his deputy.
    • Hop Pop has started a business selling California avocados, with Frobo and MicroAngelo helping garden them.
    • Sprig is shown to have turned the Plantars' basement (Anne's old room) into a place where he keeps a journal and records of his adventures with Anne, using her phone as a guide to draw the creatures they've encountered. After being told by Ivy about a new continent untouched by any amphibians, he jumps onboard to check it out.
    • Wartwood has erected a statue of Anne in honor of her saving Amphibia, putting it in place of the old town statue.
  • On the Earth side:
    • Ten years have passed since Andrias's invasion, with it being referred to as the "Frog-vasion", though some people wonder if it was actually a hoax.
    • Marcy is publishing a webcomic.
    • Sasha has gained a Psych degree, using it to help kids with emotional baggage.
    • Anne has become a herpetologist and works at the real life Long Beach Aquarium of the Pacific, where she is in charge of a frog exhibit named after Amphibia. She has also named one of the frogs after Sprig.
    • Sasha, Marcy, and Anne reunite for Anne's twenty-third birthday.
• Who Wants to Live Forever?: Both examples are zigzagged as opposed to played straight.
  • The Core requests Andrias's help, saying that he can finally join it if he does. He instead chooses to help the heroes, crushing his crown to show he's defying the Core. But then again that's a rejection of the Core and its abuse as opposed to immortality itself.
  • The Guardian has been doing their job for at least ten thousand years, and is getting pretty tired of it, and they want to at the very least retire (which very well may not entail death), and when Anne rejects their offer to replace them, the being decides to return her to life, saying that they can wait 78 years more for Anne to continue to grow as a person until she's ready for the role.
• Wonder Twin Powers: When the girls unlock their full Calamity powers, complete with new outfits and a major boost of power over what Anne demonstrated previously, Marcy theorizes that the power boost is a result of them being used in tandem.
• You Are Too Late: Sprig tries to preempt Anne's Heroic Sacrifice, but Anne has already absorbed the power of the stones by the time Frobo flies him up there.
• Your Days Are Numbered:
  • The Guardian casually reveals to Anne that she'll live another 78 years (i.e. to age 91), but that’s already longer than the average human lifespan.
  • According to Word of God, the blow Anne dealt to Andrias that damaged his cybernetics also shattered the implants that maintained his longevity, meaning that his age is finally catching up with him (hence the scraggily beard and blind eye he was shown having in his last scene). Rather than repair his cybernetics, however, Andrias has chosen to live the remainder of his life repenting for his actions by replanting all the foliage he devastated.

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Change can be difficult, but it's how we grow. It can be the hardest thing to realize you can't hold on to something forever. Sometimes, you have to let it go. But of the things you let go... you'd be surprised what makes its way back to you.

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