The BIG Problem with Bluey's “The Sign”

No, this is not clickbait. I am about to tear into everyone's favorite cartoon. 

The Plot

In the 20 minute Bluey episode The Sign Chili's best friend Aunt Frisky is getting ready to marry Bandit's brother Rad, a relationship we saw begin in the episode Double Babysitter. Meanwhile, Bandit and Chili are getting ready to sell their house and move to another city, following Bandit's opportunity for a higher paying job. Bluey of course is distressed by the idea of having to move away, and Chili isn't thrilled by the idea either. Bluey's teacher, Calypso, reads her a story about how everything will work out in the end and Bluey believes that means that they won't have to move if she can just find a way to stop it. She gets in her head that if she removes the "For Sale" sign in the front yard that the house will no longer be for sale and they won't have to move. 

Meanwhile Aunt Frisky and Rad get into a fight and Aunt Frisky decides to call off the wedding and runs away, leaving it up to Chili to pile Bluey, Bingo, Muffin and Socks into the car and chase after her. Since Aunt Frisky was going to remove the sign for the wedding Bluey believes that if the wedding is off that the sign will remain so she's doubly invested to find her and get the wedding back on. Needless to say Chili finds her best friend through a series of coincidences (Including a very illegal break of confidentiality from a cop) and the wedding is back on full of dozens of cameos from previous characters (We'll talk about that later) but Chili explains to Bluey that the house has already been sold and that taking down the sign wouldn't stop that. 

Later, just as the Heelers are pulling out of their driveway for the last time, Bandit gets a call telling him that the couple who bought their house has backed out, which as the audience we learn that it was due to the nonsense that happened during Chili and Aunt Frisky's chase. Bandit, knowing how much his family doesn't want to move, steps out of the car and pulls the sign out himself declaring that they are staying. 

Hooray? 

My Issue

So why am I here complaining about all this? Bluey got her happy ending, the status quo has been restored, and all is as it should be, right? 

That's the issue. 

For years now children's entertainment has been challenging the idea that everything has a neat "happily ever after", moving more towards the idea that things happen that we may not like, even bad things, and teaching how to cope and understand those bad things. Bluey was no exception, even hitting a little harder than most other shows with some of its topics. The perfect example is the controversial and temporarily banned episode Onesie, where Chili's sister Brandy is subtly hinted that she wants children but for some reason can't have them. When Bluey finds out that Brandy wants something she can't have she states how unfair that is and is told that it's how life goes sometimes. At the end of the episode Brandy is still without children and is making steps to cope with this loss, including coming to visit her sister and her insane daughters, one of which turns into a cheetah and mauls her. 

During the wedding cameos in The Sign we see, without dialogue, Chili hug a very happy and very pregnant Brandy, meaning that whatever she had going on was fixed offscreen. That's the problem though: That one cameo undid the lesson and emotional investment we got from Onesie by saying that "Hey everything works out the way you want in the end!". Unfortunately not, in real life some people who want children can't have them and sometimes you have to move even if you don't want to, both of which were lessons that were completely lost in this episode. 

As a person who has dealt with similar issues both as a child and as an adult I find the entire "Everyone gets a happy ending" insulting. To me this isn't what Bluey is about and it isn't a lesson I want to be teaching children in a show that has done so well in teaching harsh life lessons in such a beautiful and understanding manner. 

A Deal's A Deal

I made a deal with another writer here, Spencer, that if I was going to rant about Bluey that I had to say something nice about it too. So here it is: 

The entire chase sequence with Chili and the girls is nothing short of comedy gold. Everyone shines as this stressful road trip is compounded by having four little ones along for the ride. They do as children often do: get in the way, cause more issues than necessary, and are in general not helpful, until they are. They are the ones who ask the questions, no guile in sight, that help them find Aunt Frisky in the end. Socks even spots Aunt Friskie's car while they're at a roadside bathroom (Good eye) and keeps the chase going. This is classic Bluey comedy and I was rolling when they were hot on the trail and Muffin needed to go to the bathroom stopping the chase in its tracks. 

-JOE

The Problem with Star Wars Resistance

Working my way through the Star Wars canon, I finally arrived at the Sequel Trilogy era. People may have their issues with it, but I enjoyed the sequels and have fond memories of seeing them in theaters (The Last Jedi was the setting of my bachelor party). So when people told me that Star Wars Resistance was a flop, I took it with a grain of salt. That being said, it still fell short for me.

My biggest problem with Resistance is that I don’t think I was its target audience. I know people call Clone Wars or Rebels a kid show, but it still has deep themes and stories relevant to Star Wars fans of all ages. However, Resistance felt like it was exclusively geared towards kids. The stories were very episodic, with very few threads to follow through from start to finish. In fact, I’d say about 90% of the series was filler. Not great for engaging long-time, adult Star Wars fans, but great for kids with short attention spans. In addition, other than a few isolated incidents, there weren’t even many life/death moments, despite it being Star Wars. Even the stormtroopers shot their blasters to stun most of the time, instead of to kill. 

One of the great things about Clone Wars was the integration of characters we knew and how it was woven into the canon of the Prequel Trilogy. Even Rebels kind of had this, in a prequel sense, leading up to A New Hope. However, Resistance felt very separate from the Sequel Trilogy. Other than a few appearances from General Organa, Poe Dameron, and General Hux, we didn’t get a lot of overlap with the movies… even though they happen at the same time. Don’t get me wrong, there were some references to the movies (like the destroyed Dreadnought from The Last Jedi) and BB-8 leaving to go on a mission with Poe (leading into The Force Awakens). But despite those minor instances, everything in the movies felt distant.

To avoid going out on a negative note, I want to talk about a couple things I liked. First off, Tam and Sinara. They were two of the few characters who got some development and growth through the series. I kept wanting to know more about Tam’s inner conflict during the second season. And to see Sinara grow from a pirate to a rebel was inspiring too. All because of the power of friendship. Speaking of which, the other thing I liked: Neeku. He might be annoying at times, but who couldn’t love Neeku? He’s so wholesome, innocent, and unassuming. The perfect friend for anyone who needs to feel a little love. 

So it’s not the perfect show. Still, it’s wholesome. And it was worth watching, even if it’s just the one time. If you want to check it out but you’re skeptical, maybe watch it with your kids, as it’s probably the most kid-friendly Star Wars. In the end, it was part of the journey through the Star Wars timeline. And I’ve enjoyed this journey through a galaxy far far away.

The Problem with Love and Thunder

SPOILERS AHEAD FOR THOR: LOVE AND THUNDER

When I went to see Thor: Love and Thunder, I didn't really know what to expect. We’ve known for three years that Jane Foster would return wielding Mjolnir. Other than that, I mostly went in blind (even with seeing the trailers beforehand). Like many movies and shows nowadays, Love and Thunder came under criticism right from the start (always gotta complain about something). But overall I actually enjoyed it. Before I get to that though, let’s start with the problem….

Like I said before, I didn’t know what to expect going into Love and Thunder. For that reason, I was pleasantly surprised. I think it all comes down to expectations. If you go in expecting a serious superhero movie about Thor’s life after Endgame, you’ll be disappointed. If you go in realizing it’s a superhero rom-com, it’s much more enjoyable. It’s just what Marvel has been doing, trying their hands at other genres: superhero kung fu (Shang Chi), superhero horror (Multiverse of Madness), and superhero comedy (upcoming She-Hulk). It’s a gamble, but they have the money to take some risks. So if a superhero romantic comedy (with a sprinkling of tragedy) isn’t your thing, you won’t like Love and Thunder. And that’s okay. We all have different tastes.

As far as actual problems with the movie, I had a hard time jumping around. Sure, that’s the nature of the Bifrost, but we went from planet to planet repeatedly through the movie. Not really spending much time in any particular place. It was a bit jarring to go from New Asgard to the shadows to the god council. Just a lot going on.

Speaking of lots going on, there were so many moving parts, especially in regards to characters. We had the core four characters: Thor, Jane, Valkyrie, and Korg. But then we had the Guardians of the Galaxy, a number of Asgardians to keep track of, and the random gods when they went to see Zeus. A handful of Asgardians I can understand… but the gods were a bit underwhelming to me. I don’t feel like Zeus’s lightning really made much of an impact in the final battle (it was more about Mjolnir and Stormbreaker again)... so we ended up with screen time of random gods that we’ll never see again. In some ways I feel like the only point of introducing the gods was to reveal Hercules in the credit scene.

Now for the good stuff. First and foremost, Jane Foster. When Natalie Portman didn’t return to MCU after Dark World, we all assumed she was done. The throwaway line in Ragnarok about their breakup was all we were going to get. Only a couple months after her cameo in Endgame, we learned she’d be returning for this movie. Her story in this movie was probably my favorite part. It gave us some history on where she’s been, it gave us more Darcy (who I love), and it gave us a definitive ending… with Jane succumbing to her cancer and entering Valhalla, we have a happy, albeit tragic, end to her story. 

The music for this movie was great too. The soundtrack has a Guardians of the Galaxy feel, as it used classic rock (including four popular songs by Guns N’ Roses) and a good handful of others, underscoring the epic moments of the movie. I grew up in the wrong decade to regularly familiarize myself with Guns N’ Roses, but this movie sold me on some of their songs. 

I also loved the villain. Gorr was so devious, but he wasn't meant to be evil, per se. Just hurt. A grieving father who had spent time worshipping gods who didn't care. I mean, how many of us have prayed and had those prayers seemingly go unanswered? It's easy to get discouraged and doubting... especially if the god in question tells you (Gorr) that you don't matter to him. Tragic and heartbreaking. And then to get his daughter back, only to die from the curse. It was awful.

In the end, the movie was cute. Not every Marvel movie is going to be a mind-blowing blockbuster. If each Marvel movie and each Thor movie is just trying to outdo the last, it’s not sustainable. And like I mentioned before, Marvel is trying some new stuff. Some of it is working (like Shang Chi) and some of it isn’t. In the end, I maintain that this is a romantic comedy and I recommend you into it with the appropriate expectations. 

The Problem with Animorphs

I recently finished rewatching (for the first time in 10 years) the Animorphs TV show. Among Animorphs fans, this TV is infamous for how it flopped, not like the Avatar movie we don’t speak of, but it gets a bad reputation nonetheless. I remember being super excited for it as a kid and as a kid I’m sure it was amazing, but I was seven when it premiered, so honestly I probably wasn’t too hard to impress. All the same, I don’t think the TV series deserves as much grief as it receives. It certainly has its problems (which I’ll cover) but it has it’s redeeming qualities too.

Let’s start with its problems. The biggest of which is the time period it was made; produced as the books were still being written in the 90s, CGI was expensive and problematic, especially for their low budget. Nowadays even the cheesier CGI is still pretty good. If a movie or TV series was produced for Animorphs now, you could ditch the Andalite and Hork Bajir puppets and have CGI aliens that would look realistic and be much cheaper to create.. In addition to the limited alien special effects (which is why Ax and Visser Three were constantly in human morphs), all the bigger animal morphs were limited. We never saw actual fight scenes between the battle morphs and the controllers. But here in the 21st century we’ve had realistic CGI animals in Narnia, Jungle Book, and Lion King just to name a few. An Animorphs series made nowadays could easily have some Hork Bajir/Gorilla fights.

Besides special effects, there’s another big issue that the Animorphs series had: lack of direction. Like I mentioned before, the TV show came out alongside the books. I don’t know what kind of input (if any) K.A. Applegate had in the episode plots, but there was no clear cut plot, besides going mission to mission. Granted that’s how the first 30-40 books were, but at least there was an endgame in mind. This resulted in most of the episode plots being pulled from the first 20 books and a running plot about the Andalite disc that Elfangor gave to Tobias (which turned out to just be a message to Tobias from his father). No show has a perfect idea of where they’re headed when they begin (especially a kids’ show) but Animorphs really seemed to be in the dark.

Now for the good: the characters. The characterization and acting of our six Animorphs was spot on. Marco’s dry wit, Rachel’s toughness, Jake’s calm leadership, Cassie’s soft nature, Ax’s enthusiasm over anything human, and Tobias’s tortured distance (granted, that mostly came in the books after he was trapped as a hawk, not before). As I’ve been reading the books and watching the TV show, I’ve come to appreciate how well the actors performed. Especially considering the above problems. 

In the end, Animorphs is a book series about humans, morals, and human relationships. The TV show didn’t really have a chance to get into morals, but they did a phenomenal job showing us what it’s like to be human… even when you’re an Andalite. It was a victim of the time period it was made, but it's still worth watching.

If you want to check it out, the Animorphs TV series is available for digital purchase on Amazon Video and iTunes. 

iTunes: Volume 1, Volume 2, Volume 3

Amazon: Volume 1, Volume 2

The Problem with Armageddon

When it was announced that Flash would premiere with a five-episode crossover, I was excited. Especially once they announced Black Lightning and Batwoman would be appearing. And Mia Queen! In a COVID world, the idea of doing a crossover across one show instead of the current five was a great idea. That being said, I was underwhelmed and confused by the crossover. It felt disjointed in many ways, which left me disappointed.

My first and biggest grievance with the Armageddon crossover event was the timeline. Or rather, timelines. We ended up with three different timelines by the end of the fifth episode and it wasn’t clear how they all worked together. First, we have the timeline where Despero has come from 2031 to stop Barry from causing Armageddon. In this timeline Joe is dead and only Barry knows he’s supposed to be alive (how does he retain that memory when everyone else’s memories changed with the timeline?). Second, we have the 2031 that Despero came from… but in this timeline Barry is the Reverse-Flash and Team Flash has no memory of him being a good guy. So how is this Barry’s future if it’s another timeline entirely? And finally we have the restored timeline with Joe alive and Thawne fading away. That timeline I have no issue with. 

Was that confusing enough to follow? 

Welcome to how I’ve been processing the crossover.

Second complaint: Batwoman, Sentinel, and Ryan Choi were vastly underutilized. I’ve enjoyed Ryan Wilder as Batwoman, in many ways more than I liked Kate. So to see how she’d be brought together with the other heroes was exciting, since none of our other heroes know Wilder’s Batwoman. But instead, we had her in the future already friends with the alternate Team Flash. I suppose that’s fine and Barry can bring that information back to the present day for future crossovers. So despite Alex, Wilder, and Ryan appearing in this crossover… not much happened. Also, what was with changing Ryan Choi’s whole personality in this future?

Speaking of Ryan Choi’s playboy personality, I really didn’t care about Part 4’s subplots. Maybe these plots will surface as a result of the Reverse-Flashpoint bleeding through into the new timeline, like Flashpoint’s memories arising during Season 3 of The Flash. But for now, I really don’t see the point of Allegra and Chuck’s story, Batwoman’s potential pregnancy, and Ryan Choi’s player side. But I guess we’ll see what the rest of Season 8 brings us.

Now with any of my “problem” posts, I like to be fair and mention what I did like. For this crossover, what I really enjoyed was the returning characters. We didn’t get any colossal battles like we did in Crisis on Infinite Earths, but we had some small scale team ups. Which I kind of like better. It reminds me of back when Cisco and Joe teamed up with Laurel and Quentin. Or when Oliver and Ronnie/Stein helped Barry against Reverse-Flash. Or Barry and Kara’s musical episode. These smaller scale crossovers mean more to me, as it reinforces the universe of shows we’re enjoying. They were all combined in Earth-Prime for a reason after all. So one or two returning/crossover characters per episode was basically perfect. 

Besides Atom, Black Lightning, and Green Arrow 2.0 returning, I’m glad they brought Mia back for another reason. Her show, Green Arrow and the Canaries, was never picked up, leaving the fate of her brother unknown. Now it looks like they’re going to use the other shows to fill in those gaps, starting with her appearance in Armageddon. Just like how Legends finished off the loose ends from Constantine, I’m excited to see where Mia’s story will take her next. Superman & Lois? Clark’s other incarnations (Tom Welling, Christopher Reeves, etc.) have time-traveled. Or maybe more Flash or Legends? I guess we’ll see what the rest of this season brings.

The Problem with Yu-Gi-Oh! Arc-V

The name of this blog post was originally going to be “Why I Stopped Watching Yu-Gi-Oh!” I’ve been watching Yu-Gi-Oh! Arc-V and I was going to wait to write this post until I was done… but I couldn’t wait any longer. Last year I wrote that Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal was my least favorite of the franchise so far… but I think Arc-V may have overtaken it there. I mean, what was with duelists ALWAYS clasping their hands together whenever they fusion summon? But anyway, onto the real rant… and then a couple things I’ve liked I guess.

First off, the duels felt really drawn out and they overlapped with other duels at weird points. Maybe the original series did this and I just don’t remember, but there was literally a duel with Yuri vs. Yugo happening simultaneously with Yuya vs. the Professor. The only times I remember this happening in the original series or GX was when the second duel was only minor action. We didn’t see a play-by-play, just the highlights. As a result, some of these duels ended up taking multiple episodes. Not just a two-part episode, but they’d go on for a while. In the original series, Yugi fought with Marik for five episodes at the end of Battle City, but that was the big bad of the story arc, not some random underling.

The whole concept of “dueltaining” bugged me. With technology that allowed the duelists to physically interact with their monsters, I suppose it’s a natural progression of the game. It’s not just about competing, but it’s about being an entertainer… kind of like pro wrestling. However, the problem I had was Yuya’s determination to end the interdimensional war by entertaining everyone so much and teaching them to have fun. When he met the Professor, I was seriously worried he was going to beat him by entertaining him. Unfortunately, not everyone can be talked down. Not everyone will listen to reason. I had this same problem with 2021’s run of The Flash and Supergirl. Barry Allen literally talked down four god-like forces of nature. Yeah, that’s the ideal resolution to a conflict, but it’s not realistic. 

I also didn’t care for the reinventing of previously known characters. I actually enjoyed the idea of this multiverse (but I’ll talk about that in a moment), but we had variations of Jack Atlas, Aster Phoenix, and others from across GX, 5Ds, and Zexal. It was cool to see some new doppelgangers of them, I suppose, but it felt unnecessary. Why not just include Jack from 5Ds and expand the story? Why make Kite, Jack, and the rest go through the same character development again?

As promised, I will address a couple things I liked. Despite what I said about doppelgangers a couple seconds ago, I actually really liked the concept of the multiverse. Digimon did it. DC and Marvel do it all the time. It gives a franchise the freedom to reinvent itself, but keep within the same continuity. I’d have liked it better if the Fusion Dimension had been the original and GX series, the Synchro Dimension the 5Ds series, and the Xyz Dimension the Zexal series. But I already addressed that above. And the general concept of the split dimension being reunited is very much like "Crisis on Infinite Earths" (maybe even inspired by it?). But a great idea… poor execution.

I also really liked how this series included all current summoning methods. OG Yu-Gi-Oh and GX only had fusion and ritual summoning (did everyone just forget that ritual summoning is another unique method of summoning? There was no Ritual Dimension), 5Ds had synchro summoning, and Zexal had Xyz. However, right from the start (even before the multiverse arrived) we had all the summoning methods featured. For all its faults, this fact showed continuity in the franchise… even though I still don’t like how they reinvented the doppelgangers.

Anyway, I still have 10ish episodes left of Arc-V. Because of my personality, I’ll finish out the series (otherwise I’d have stopped 20 episodes ago). But I’m not gonna continue with VRAINS or Sevens. At least for now. In the meantime, I’ll go back to the original series and watch some Duelist Kingdom and Battle City. Maybe revive my interest in the franchise. I guess we’ll see.

The Problem with Digimon Adventure 02

I am the first to advocate for Digimon as a series and I always will be. That being said, during my most recent watch of Adventure 02, I definitely struggled a bit. It’s still in my top three Digimon anime series of all time (and I’ve seen them all), but that doesn’t mean it’s without faults. So here are a few things about the series that irked me--aside from the fact that finding part of the season on DVD seems impossible.... sigh.

My first gripe about 02 is regarding Angemon (and Patamon’s higher forms in general I suppose). He was the trump card of the first season and he was often able to take down Digimon of higher levels than his own. However, in season 2, he was unceremoniously stripped of powers. It made sense at first when none of the others could digivolve to champion level either. But then they had to make an excuse for why his powers couldn’t be used against the control spire Digimon. I get it; Angemon could have beaten all of them and rendered DNA digivolving unnecessary, but still. Angemon and MagnaAngemon are chronically underutilized.

Second and similar to the first, Gatomon basically got stripped of her champion status. Again, I get it; they had to put her on par with the others, since the others couldn’t digivolve to champion. But she went from taking down multiple champion-level Digimon in Myotismon’s castle to basically just making cat puns. And then while everyone else was digivolving to champion, she was stuck with armor digivolving to stay at all relevant.

Now I understand there were various writers and that left some unanswered questions by the end of the season. Honestly, by the end of the season I felt like they wrapped things up pretty well, tying it all together. That being said, the Dark Ocean still bugs me sometimes. We saw the silhouette of Dragomon at the end of “His Master’s Voice” and we all just accepted that it was never going to be resolved. But it would have been nice. We had all of Tri and Kizuna to get some sort of an answer too. And yet, nothing to explain what the Dark Ocean really was.

Again, the various writers for the series probably caused this, but I struggled with the inconsistent use of ultimate-level Digimon. Perhaps some of it was just dubbing errors (I’ve only ever watched the English version), but there was no indication that ultimate level was off the table until it was explicitly stated in “Fusion Confusion”. And yet in “His Master’s Voice” we had Angewomon and in “Davis Cries Wolfmon” it’s implied that Gatomon tried to digivolve again--also we saw Patamon and Gatomon reach all the way to mega level in The Digimon Movie. After the end of the series I guess they got their power back so they could reach ultimate level in Tri and Kizuna. But it was just a little odd with 02.

Now that I have my griping out of the way, I want to make sure I end on a good note: the things I loved about Adventure 02. Having a human enemy in the Digimon Emperor (and later Oikawa) was brilliant. Human enemies were later utilized with Tamers and Data Squad in the form of Yamaki and Kurata, but the Digimon Emperor (and his redemption) were something special. There hasn't been anything else quite like it since.

This season also introduced us to new types of digivolution, besides the linear pattern. As far as anime is concerned, armor digivolution and DNA digivolution were basically never used again and non-linear evolutions weren’t used again until the 2020 Adventure series, but they were a brilliant addition back in the day. But the idea of non-linear digivolution lines have been with the franchise since the beginning, so it was only natural for them to appear in the anime at some point, besides just dark digivolutions.

Finally, one of my favorite things to come out of Adventure 02 was the countless numbers of international Digi-Destined. Those of us watching during season 1 wished for a Digimon partner and the idea of Digi-Destined outside of Japan made that fantasy even better. How many Digimon fan stories have come out of this idea? How much more relatable did this make the series? Seriously, it only increased my love of Digimon to meet Willis, Michael, and all the rest.

The Problem with Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal

A few years back I wanted to get back into Yu-Gi-Oh. I got some new cards and I started watching the anime again. I started up with the original series and just recently I finished Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal, the fourth anime series in the franchise. There were definitely high points of it, but it’s also my least favorite of the franchise so far.

Before I get into what made it subpar, I want to discuss what I liked. First off, it was a breath of fresh air to see a protagonist who wasn’t a naturally gifted duelist from day one. Yuma loved dueling, but he kind of sucked at it. As opposed to Yugi, Jaden, or Yusei who were dueling prodigies from episode one, we got to see Yuma grow and learn from Astral as the series progressed. By the end of the series, he was a formidable duelist on his own, but it took work, just like real life.

Now for the downside… First off, the series felt disjointed. We started out with a simple premise with Astral needing to gather the number cards to regain his memories. And even in the first half of the series, even when filler hit, it brought us closer and closer to the confrontation with Dr. Faker, who was also hunting number cards. However, by the second half of the series things weren’t so straightforward. At first it was about fighting the Barians. Then it was about the Barians’ memories. Then it was about Don Thousand. Also Shark was a Barian all along? It felt like the second half of the series didn’t know what it wanted to do. I felt like I was getting whiplash sometimes.

I also didn’t like how Zexal seemed disconnected from the rest of the franchise. Yu-Gi-Oh and Yu-Gi-Oh GX both felt like they were taking place in the present day, so it was relatable. Almost as if I could picture myself dueling in Battle City or studying at Duel Academy. Even with Yu-Gi-Oh 5Ds, it was established that New Domino City was in the same universe as the previous series, just set in the future. It gave a sense of continuity. So what’s the deal with Zexal then? There were references to legendary cards like Blue-Eyes, Dark Magician, and Flame Wingman, so it kind of acknowledged the previous series… but it was still unclear what was up. Was it in the future past 5Ds or was it in an alternate timeline? Digimon did similar things when they would start a new continuity each season.... but at least those alternate Digimon timelines were set in the present day still.

Now for my final gripe: What even was the Power of Zexal? Was it just about getting the power of that “shining draw” or something? Yugi and Joey were able to do that by calling it the heart of the cards. Yuma and Astral got a weird Power Rangers suit, but what did the Zexal Morph even do? The series was named after the power, but the power felt essentially useless. I just don’t get it.

Overall I’m glad I watched it, but mostly because it gave me a base understanding of Xyz monsters. Although those were kind of odd too.