Amphibia Spoiler Review: The Root of Evil/The Core and The King

Content warning: I am going to very briefly talk about the word “savages” in this review. As it’s a slur for indigenous people, I wanted to give you a heads up. Take care of yourself, my dear reader!

As we speed towards the end of Amphibia, these episodes are ramping up more and more. Allies are coming together and a character’s backstory is revealed in “The Root of Evil” and “The Core & The King.”

Something I discussed frequently while Anne and the Plantars were on Earth was Anne putting together the Earth Avengers. It was her team to help her get back to Amphibia. This has also been the story for the last few weeks as we’ve watched her and Sasha continue this effort with the frogs, toads, and olms. “The Root of Evil” was another entry bringing Apothecary Gary and the people of Gardenton into the Wartwood Resistance. Slowly but surely, our heroes are building an army to fight back.

Still, there is one story point in particular that I’ve wanted to discuss. I haven’t written about it yet in my recaps, because I try and stay away from future episode spoilers in case you, dear reader, don’t want to know what’s to come. But I’ve finally reached a line with “The Root of Evil” where I want to talk about an upcoming episode and talk about my theory for it.

Spoiler warning for an upcoming episode’s title and synopsis. If you do not want to know about it, this is your time to step out of this review now.

In two weeks, the title of one of the segments is called “The Three Armies.” The synopsis of this episode is “Anne and Sasha must convince the frogs, newts, and toads to work together.” My theory is I think this synopsis is supposed to be a bit of a red herring. I’m sure that will be the plot, but I have a suspicion we’ll get a much bigger reveal.

Anne and Sasha have already been working on uniting Amphibia against King Andrias. That’s the entire point of episodes like “The Root of Evil.” Different communities are putting aside their biases and squabbles to save the very heart of Amphibia. Hop Pop and Apothecary Gary are now allies despite definitely not being friends. Last week, Sprig and Grime teamed up to help pull Beatrix and the toad army into the resistance’s ranks. I theorized that the marauders Toadie stood up against will eventually realize that Andrias will backstab them at some point. The olms are with Anne and Sasha. The only group really missing are the newts, but we know from “Olivia & Yunan” that not all the newts are with Andrias. Everyone is realizing there is a bigger threat than their personal problems. This is making them all come together to form one community, the way they used to be one thousand years ago like in “The Core & The King.”

But if they’ve already been coming together, why would the writers need to rehash this storyline again in “The Three Armies?” I think by the time we reach that episode, the three different groups will be Anne with her Amphibia team, Andrias and the Core with their frog bots, and then it will be revealed that the third army is actually everyone on Earth.

We last left Mr. and Mrs. Boonchuy confronting Mr. X to warn him of the coming danger. This isn’t the first time the synopsis of an episode has been somewhat vague to hide the plot. Heck, the summary of “Marcy at the Gates” is “The family must defeat an entire ant army before they enter Newtopia.” Which yes, that is the plot, but it’s also one of the most important episodes of Amphibia bringing Marcy into the series, introducing Newtopia as a set piece, and showcasing the newt culture and their views of outsiders. I think “The Three Armies” synopsis is intentionally vague to hide the reveal of the Earth team coming back into the mix of the story.

And if I’m completely wrong, it doesn’t take away the importance of episodes like “The Root of Evil.” Anne, the Plantars, and Sasha are building their much-needed army with everyday people wanting to protect their homes. Every single one of these characters are going to come back in some way. Because there is always a much bigger, more dangerous enemy than their small disputes among each other. They have to put it to the side to stop Andrias and the Core.

It reminds me in a lot of ways to another show Matt Braly worked on, being Gravity Falls. Apothecary Gary is like Lil Gideon. Gideon is never fully redeemed. He’s still an antagonist at the end of the series. Dipper and Mabel team up with him and temporarily drop their squabbles because Bill Cipher is a much bigger threat to all of them. I can see Amphibia going this same route.

Some people will change along the way which was the point of Grime’s story last week. “The Root of Evil” gave us Hop Pop and Apothecary Gary burying their qualms for the time being from season one. Perhaps they will realize their shared love of gardening is enough to start a friendship at the end of the series. These are all very essential steps to fighting Andrias and the Core.

As a total side note, something to know about me is that I am the biggest wuss that has ever wussed. I do not like horror movies at all. I sometimes get creeped out by Halloween commercials. Luckily, thanks to my horror-loving roommate, I have absorbed some horror knowledge. I am aware there are definitely some Midsommar jokes here as well as maybe some Children of the Corn too. If these were funny for someone like me who knows so little about the horror genre, I hope the people who do love it thought this episode was a riot! I mean my roomie died laughing when I showed her a picture of Anne and the Plantars in their little dresses.

According to the Amphibia wikia page, “The Core & The King” is the 100th segment of the series. Boy, was it a heck of a 100th entry!

Part of me wishes this was a 22-minute episode, mostly because it was so good. I wanted to see more of the past. I wanted to get to know Barrel and Leif. I wanted to see their friendship with Andrias, how it started, how they came together, and what they do on a normal day. When my biggest problem with the episode is “I wanted more,” then that’s a very good problem to have.

It also showed some very impressive economic storytelling from this crew. Every single moment in “The Core & The King” is not wasted. Every piece of dialogue is thoughtful and carefully planned. Every image on-screen contributes in some way. It would be so easy to overstuff this episode. On the other hand, it would be just as easy to not give enough information in the 11-minute time limit. This crew found that sweet spot to quickly form the relationships based on previous knowledge and story shorthand. That’s insanely hard to do because this episode could be a mini-series of its own.

The colonization storyline is so intense and creepy. They even use the phrase “savages” to describe the humans of Earth. Savages is a derogatory term and slur often used in our history for indigenous people. You can read more about that here and how it’s considered the N-word for them. Hearing it made my skin crawl. But uncomfortable word choices like that really show how Andrias’ father, Aldrich, and his ancestors created this entire society around colonizing (though we need to stop using this word in media in general as it is a slur.) They view everyone as the lesser. It’s alarming that Leif’s recommendation to stop invading caused an uproar in court. They have recruitment signs in the streets. This is the norm of Amphibia and only a big act could get them to change.

Which is exactly what Leif did. If the leadership wasn’t going to stop, she had to take away their one item that would save other realms from the corruption of Amphibia.

Though, it’s telling that Leif’s suggestion to let Amphibia be self-sufficient actually worked! While Andrias changed an entire society by burying their conquering ways out of necessity, Amphibia thrived without invading other planets! This way of life for the last one thousand years actually worked. It’s a great template for when the show ends. Some things need to be fixed like the toad subjugating the frogs, which was interesting to see the groundwork for that when Andrias sent Barrel away. But the peaceful, self-sustaining system does work.

It makes me wonder if this is another step to setting up Andrias’ possible redemption. He led Amphibia during peacetime so he’s had one thousand years of practice being a peaceful leader. It’s getting hard to tell how much of his personality prior to “True Colors” was an act. His younger self seems to be very similar to how he was presented in season two. And since then, he’s struggling more and more with the Core’s wishes. I think Leif’s words echoing in Andrias’ mind at the end is not only a reminder to him but to the audience that Andrias is actually a good person deep down.

Good people can do bad things, and bad people can do good things. These traits make for the best well-rounded characters. Heck, even Anne did some crappy stuff early in season one by taking advantage of the Plantars’ kindness! Andrias has had a thousand years living as a peaceful ruler not invading other worlds. I think he’s realizing that’s a path he rather have over his father’s wishes to invade again.

At the core (pun intended) of this episode is Andrias, Leif, and Barrel’s friendship. It’s so palpable radiating off the screen setting up the tragedy of it all. Andrias has the chance to break this generational cycle put onto him by his ancestors for a different life. That is also the pain of this tale. Even if Andrias does redeem, Barrel and Leif are gone. He doesn’t get to mend those relationships that were once so important to him. It hurts to see those three love each other only to watch them all fall apart because of greed.

“The Core & The King” also pretty much cemented that Leif is somehow related to the Plantars. Their dance to lure creatures to them was a family secret passed down through generations for Sprig to teach Anne. I do like this reveal because it does add an extra layer of destiny to the Plantars. While they were everyday people who heard their call to adventure and took it, it also gives it a level that they were always supposed to be here as well. Just as destiny was tied to Anne, Sasha, and Marcy, that also extends to Sprig, Polly, and Hop Pop too.

 I’m glad we got to spend some time with Darcy. As we’re pushing up against the end of the show, it’s right about the time we start getting to see her more. She’s chilling to watch mixing Marcy’s chipper personality with the cold, calculating machinations of this robotic monstrosity. She’s such a drastically different villain from Andrias or the bad guys of the week. This is very much the Big Bad (TM) moving the final chess pieces into place. The Core is tightening its grasp around everyone. We’re going to barrel towards either a very satisfying demise for the Core or a very tragic end for Marcy.

I should add I cannot see them killing Marcy off, though I wasn’t expecting them to stab her either so we’ll see I guess!

Also, I absolutely thought for a moment that Andrias wasn’t going to wake up the Core at the end and let it just keep on sleeping. That would have been a crazy plot twist!

Some random thoughts to round out The Root of Evil and The Core & The King:

-Don’t ship Leif, Barrel, and Andrias as a polycule, Hope. Don’t do it, me…

-OKAY I’M DOING IT! I’m absolutely shipping these three as a polycule! I want to read ALL THE FANFICTION. I might write some of my own once the show is done and I finish my big project.

-Loggle going full Col. Armstrong from Fullmetal Alchemist was a perfect moment.

-Also, Loggle, you are rocking that dress, my dude! I love you so much.

-My Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask loving heart got that reference as it is one of my favorite Zelda games!

-For the last few weeks, I thought about writing an updated version of my essential Amphibia episodes article. I missed some big ones like “Quarrel’s Pass.” But the more I think about it looking back on seasons one and two, just watch everything. It’s all important!  

-Darcy is so campy and I love her.

-Zeno Robinson is great as young Andrias. He does a fantastic job hitting a lot of the same cadences that Keith David does for adult Andrias. Fantastic job all around for the cast and crew on that vocal work and direction!

-I adore Jason Ritter! It’s so great to hear him again in a Disney show! His Barrel is so funny and such a sweet baby! Please give me a mini-series with these three!

-I will say I’m starting to miss Olivia and Yunan. I hope they’re okay because I love them.

I can’t believe there are only four weeks left of Amphibia. It’s reaching this surreal point where I know my comfort show is almost complete. As this amazing story sets up to turn the final pages of Anne and the Plantars, I can’t help but feel so emotional for everything to come.