LC's Sidetrack: The Book of Marcy Wu
Art by Crosshot: Nothing like a good book with a compelling story to read.
Amphibia's heroes get some focus as Marcy's journey through the strange world is seen through her very eyes.
Tropes that appear in this chapter:
- Adaptational Angst Upgrade: As we see and the Guardian explains, Sasha's definitely gotten this treatment as she grew more insecure in her friendships with Anne and Marcy. She came to feel like a third wheel between them, particularly after the two of them became a couple and she tries to keep them stranded in Amphibia just as they finally had a chance to go home. The Guardian compares Sasha to Canon!Marcy due to this.
- Adaptational Badass: Due to training with Yunan growing up, Marcy is a more lethal fighter, being able to flawlessly perform Neck Snaps on her enemies.
- Adaptation Name Change: Domino 2 becomes known as the original Domino.
- Affectionate Nickname: Marcy creates one for each of her surrogate parents: she calls Olivia "Mothlivia", Yunan "Mama-YuYu", and Andrias "Dadrias".
- Alternate Self: Liza the Witch Newt, Maddie's previously mentioned magic teacher, is Eda's Amphibian counterpart, a Laos warty newt. Lilith has her own newt counterpart named Curator Lilipad who works at the Newtopia Museum, and Scooty, a centipede version of Hooty, lives with Liza connected to the door of her cart.
- Alternate Universe: The Guardian mentions that The Owl and The Frog is one to the LCU, on account of Liza being an alternate version of Uodeela and by extension, Eda.
- Apology Gift: As part of her plan to gain back Anne and Marcy's trust, Sasha presents the Calamity Box to them.
- Blood from the Mouth: Lampshaded when Marcy starts to taste blood as she passes out from blood loss.
- Blood Knight: Sprig notes how bloodthirsty Sasha is after witnessing her attempt to execute Toadstool in front of all of Wartwood for stealing the town's taxes.
- Breaking the Fourth Wall: At the end of the chapter, the Guardian begins talking to the readers to explain several of their opinions of how the story's events are going so far before admitting they're the same being Hooty and Belos became aware of and showing a teaser for the third quarter of Book 2.
- Break the Cutie: Marcy doesn't take it well when Sasha launches her coup, disappointed and hurt that her friend would keep her and Anne stranded in Amphibia rather than going home to Earth. Andrias' betrayal, however, is what breaks her heart:Marcy: (tearing up) I... I trusted you... I loved you! (She falls to her knees.) Everything I've known about you... it was all a lie, wasn't it?! How could I have been such a fool?!
- Call-Back: Every past event mentioned in "No Big Deal" and the events of Anne, Sprig and Marcy ending up in the Demon Realm is highlighted and given in full detail.
- The Cameo:
- Percy and Braddock appear at Marcy's 13th birthday party and spend their time watching Polly.
- Bog, Fens, and Mire appear with Sasha when they confront Toadstool about the taxes, the former two holding Toadie back.
- Albus Duckweed announces Hop Pop as the winner of the mayoral election while Wally, Loggle, and Mr. Flour comment on the consequences of a frog winning could potentially have.
- Cast from Hit Points: Marcy points out at the third temple that overusing their Calamity powers will harm the girls by draining their own energy. Since Sasha's had her powers longer than Anne or Marcy, the damage is more physically evident with her.
- Continuity Nod: Scooty's statement to Liza about parallel universes brings Soos' statement to Wendy in "Reunion" to mind.
- Crush Blush: Anne and Marcy do this when confessing to each other, and Sasha blushes so hard when Marcy's expressing concern over her after the third temple that she has to turn away from her.
- A Day in the Limelight: The Amphibia cast is given some screentime, with Marcy acting as the protagonist. Her childhood in Amphibia and relationships with Anne, Sasha, Lady Olivia, General Yunan, and King Andrias are all fleshed out.
- Dreaming of Things to Come: Since the day she arrived in Amphibia, Marcy had the same nightmare of her drowning while Anne, Sasha, and Andrias just watched before being surrounded by six orange eyes. It acts as a vision of her falling under the Core's control and turning into Darcy.
- First Kiss: Turns out Anne and Marcy shared theirs the morning after the incident at Toad Tower when Anne comforted Marcy over the possibility of Sasha changing for the worse.
- For Want Of A Nail:
- Not long after she and Marcy met Sasha, Anne dug up the Calamity Box from a sandbox in the park where they met.
- Instead of meeting General Yunan while journeying to Dawnblood Island, Marcy met Yunan as Division Officer Longclaw before she met King Andrias.
- Rather than her robot pin, Marcy gifts Andrias a Pokémon sticker during their first meeting.
- Marcy didn't find Joe Sparrow in the wilderness of Dawnblood Island: Yunan finds Joe and gives him to Marcy as a present on her 13th birthday.
- Since Anne got sent to Amphibia early, she didn't adopt her cat Domino, so the kill-a-pillar she rescues is the original Domino instead of "Domino 2".
- Instead of Hop Pop, Sasha joins Marcy, Anne, Sprig and Polly on the temple quests to charge the Calamity Gems. She later joins the latter three in returning to Earth in his place.
- The Ghost:
- Anne and Marcy mention their "witch friends" when choosing to give Sasha another chance.
- Hunter and Rose are indirectly mentioned when the Calamity Guardian brings up all the blonde Child Soldiers in the story. They also mention Luz and the Calamity trio's Owl and the Frog counterparts along with Uodeela.
- How We Got Here: The end of the chapter ultimately reveals that everything we read was Marcy's life flashing before her eyes as her surrogate father stabs her with his Laser Blade.
- In Spite of a Nail: Many events in Amphibia still occur as Marcy grew up, such as her first meeting with King Andrias, her reunion with Anne and Sasha, bonding with Joe Sparrow, Anne and the Plantars losing the annual potluck even though Marcy helped them, Anne finding a kill-a-pillar and naming it "Domino", Anne having "girl time" with someone, Anne, Marcy, and the Plantars charging the Calamity Gems at the three temples, Sasha's kicking off the toad rebellion and being stopped, Andrias announcing his plans to conquer Earth, and Marcy being injured at his hands opening a portal to Earth for Anne, Sprig, and Polly to use.
- Internal Reveal: Sasha revealed to Anne and Marcy that she had recovered the Calamity Box and the girls had informed Sasha and King Andrias about their brief stay in the Boiling Isles.
- Love Confession:
- Anne and Marcy's during the Firefly Festival after the encounter with the Love Doves is shown.
- Sasha confessed her love for both Anne and Marcy after beginning her coup on Newtopia with Grime and the toad army, asking them to stay and rule Amphibia with her as queens. Naturally, both girls reject her because she betrayed them.
- Mama Bear: Ever since she met Marcy, Lady Olivia has felt a maternal connection over her and came to see her as a daughter, with Yunan developing the same kind of affection. Both of them are quick to comfort Marcy after Andrias reveals his true colors, and Olivia screams in horror at seeing Andrias stab Marcy in the ending.
- Mythology Gag:
- Anne and Marcy's first meeting, as seen in Marcy's Journal: A Guide to Amphibia, acts as the opening scene.
- Sasha's Love Confession to Anne and Marcy is directly based off of Boscha begging Amity to be friends with her again in "For the Future", which aired a week before the sidetrack was published. Maddie's description for Liza is also based off of the one the Collector used for Eda.
- Noodle Incident:
- Out of Focus:
- The sidetrack takes place in Amphibia, giving the audience a break from the Clawthornes and their drama in the Boiling Isles. So not counting the teaser, the entire main cast is absent.
- Hop Pop doesn't participate in the temple quests, so Sasha takes his place.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: With the threat Andrias now posed by announcing his plans for conquest, Yunan frees Sasha and Grime from their bonds and offers to pardon them for their attempted coup if they help defeat Andrias, which the two accept.
- The Reveal:
- Marcy's been having the same nightmare about drowning since her first night in Newtopia, which is actually a premonition of her possession by the Core.
- Sasha met up with Anne and Marcy sometime after they got stuck in the Demon Realm, giving them the Calamity Box as a peace offering for the events at Toad Tower.
- Anne and Marcy told Sasha and King Andrias about their brief stay in the Boiling Isles.
- Sasha's overused her Calamity powers to the point that they've started to drain her own energy, hence why her eye color is fading.
- Sasha has feelings for Anne and Marcy and confessed to them after she started the toad rebellion in Newtopia, asking them to stay in Amphibia with her rather than going back to Earth.
- King Andrias plans to conquer the Isles along with Earth. Based on the context, he fought Belos when Philip met with him and lost, getting scarred as a reminder of that fight.
- Anne got sent back to Earth with Sasha, Sprig, and Polly, Marcy still getting impaled by Andrias in doing so.
- The Calamity Guardian is the mysterious voice Hooty heard and Belos sensed.
- Running Gag: Teenage characters having a goth phase comes up again, this time having been intentionally invoked.
- A Scar to Remember: Andrias has a scar on the left side of his face, which serves as a reminder to the loss he took from Philip Clawthorne.
- Shout-Out:
- As a gift to Andrias during their first meeting, Marcy places a Wooper sticker on his robe.
- Marcy mentions the "Deliciousville" line from the Squirrel Boy series premiere.
- Anne and Marcy consider team names for themselves after learning about Sasha's powers, such as "Power-Frog Girls" and the "Totally Butterflies".
- When the Calamity Guardian mentions all the Alternate Timelines they can see, they all but namedrop the one where Luz got sent to Amphibia with the Calamity girls.
- The Stinger: The teaser for Book 2's next storyline, the "Return to the Boiling Isles" arc, contains the following: the Grim Goblin continuing his attacks, Luz fighting Terra again, Donna returning to the cabin she was rescued in, Shawm giving Eda an offer from the Emperor's Coven, Puck facing off against Meteora in London, Seth being interrogated over Star, the Inner Demon's return, Luz and Amity somehow possibly ending up in another realm, Boscha being re-admitted into Hexside with Gavin and Angmar joining her, the Bat Queen fighting the EC, Willow and Skara starting up their flyer derby team, Odalia facing Arthur in court, Nina and Viney having emotional strife, the Blight twins arguing over Mel, Donna attending a party, Gus going goth, Luz and Hunter fighting the new Golden Guard, someone leaving graffiti saying "The CATT's will rise!", Belos being haunted by spirits from his past, and Beocrow fighting someone outside Pour-ta-Geist.
- The Talk: Both Anne and Marcy got the Amphibian version from their surrogate parents. Hop Pop's conversation with Anne was so awkward, she stayed with Ivy and Felicia for a few days.
- Uncertain Doom: Since Sasha got sent to Earth, Hop Pop will either be captured and detained in Newtopia Castle or escape to Wartwood with Grime.
- We Can Rule Together: An subversion and an aversion.
- For the subversion, Sasha confesses her love to Anne and Marcy and asks them both to stay in Amphibia as her queens, but both girls refuse because she's keeping them from going home and attempting to conquer the country.
- For the aversion, Andrias tells Marcy that he had hoped she'd join him in conquering The Multiverse as father and daughter, but he knows very well that with her morals, she would have just rejected the offer.
- Wham Episode: Sasha and Grime launched the toad rebellion to take over Amphibia and failed, Sasha confessed her love to Anne and Marcy only for them to reject her for her treason, Andrias claims the Calamity Box and announced his plans to invade Earth and the Boiling Isles, and Marcy sent Anne, Sprig, Polly and Sasha back to Earth before getting impaled by Andrias.
- Wham Shot: The ending transitions from Marcy hearing the Core's voice to the Calamity Guardian addressing the readers.
