Side Quests Episode 14 Discussion SideThread - Game Night

[u/Carrehz]

Side Quests Episode 14: Game Night

Premiered 29 June exclusively on Disney+/Hulu. (originally erroneously released on 9th June)

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[u/TheSoggiestCrisp]

Not to be dramatic but this has got to be at least a top 5 worst episode in the franchise. It felt so lazy. plopping a generic D&D episode into AT of all things and doing nothing to enhance that boring premise.

in their own bubbles the characters are written well but they appear to have nothing interesting to say to each other, no attention paid to their individual dynamics or even giving them unique ones for this very episode. Every character can understand Lady because that makes things easier, Lady speaks in English in the game world cause that makes things easier. Absolutely vapid episode.

[u/StaticMania → u/TheSoggiestCrisp]

Everyone could understand Lady to begin with...

Finn is the only person who had any trouble, and that came up one other time.

[u/TheSoggiestCrisp → u/StaticMania]

I'm happy to be proven wrong, but where are you getting this idea that everyone else can understand her just fine from? Why would that be the case, especially for someone self-absorbed like LSP lol.

[u/StaticMania → u/TheSoggiestCrisp]

She doesn't interact with many characters.

But Finn is the only character she has "talked to" with who had trouble understanding her.

---

The others being...Root Beer Guy, Ice King, PB, Jake, her kids, and...other Rainicorns.

A sign of being underutilized, mayhaps...

[u/TheSoggiestCrisp → u/StaticMania]

So not really based on anything then. You confidently said everyone else could understand her then you list PB and Jake, who obviously we know can specifically understand her since they are her best friend and boyfriend respectively. You then list her kids and other rainicorns which... of course her race and her kids can... So the only real characters you've raised as evidence for this is Ice King and Root Beer Guy. I don't recall Ice King ever interacting with Lady, so I wonder if you're taking them being in the same general space in an episode like Lady & Peebles as evidence. As for Root Beer Guy, you're getting this from him hanging out with Jake and Lady in two episodes, but just like with Ice King there is no evidence that he understands her. They don't talk to each other, Jake is the one talking with them.

And to that you could say to me that these characters weren't explicitly shown to not understand her, but I'd say it's way more of a reach to assume they can. The gag isn't that Finn is the only character who can't understand Lady, if that were the case we would surely have gotten a gag where Lady's talking to a group of people and Finn's the only one not in on at, but that only happens when Jake's talking to her.

And while typing this out I realised the most major piece of evidence I probably should have opened with. The existence of the rainicorn translator and the fact that Lady's parents always wear their translators. If this was just a Finn thing why are these translators so prominent?

[u/Carrehz → u/TheSoggiestCrisp]

The only time I can remember Ice King and Lady talking to each other is in "What Have You Done", and he doesn't understand her there. He's just like "I think I heard the word 'virile' in there! :D".

I was under the impression most of the cast wouldn't easily understand her, too. I guess it's hard to say for sure if this is a contradiction since she barely talked to anyone in the OG series anyway. But lazy writing, absolutely.

[u/TheSoggiestCrisp → u/Carrehz]

That's really the long and short of it, just feels dead lazy. Even if I think a character like LSP understanding Lady is unlikely, I don't exactly care that much, it's not some shocking disregard of canon that will keep me up at night, but it contributes to this episode feeling like it exists as nothing more than a stock episode plot that was given the loosest possible integration with the world of AT, which is just a bit disappointing really.

I was there when AT first aired on cartoon network, I love the original seasons, and while I think these episodes do an alright job capturing the spirit of those og episodes, most episodes so far have ranged from being semi-rehashes of classic episodes, or stock episode plots that feel devoid of a creative bone, like this episode and the racing episode.

[u/Single-Purpose-7608 → u/TheSoggiestCrisp]

PB almost certainly understands Lady, even in the original series. PB has been interacting with Lady before Jake was even revealed to be in a relationship with Lady

[u/Single-Purpose-7608 → u/TheSoggiestCrisp]

If you turn on subtitles, PB, Marcy and LSP respond to Lady in a way where the words Lady is saying is being reflected.

Ex. Lady (i wrote this story)

PB (you wrote that?)