Favorite Western Animated Drama Episodes

So. A couple of days ago I put up some of my favorite animated shows. But I have a problem. Normally to talk about a show I need to watch the entire show or at least enough episodes so that I have something to say. Most of the television, movies, music heck any type of media I talk about on this blog is stuff I would have watched any way. Heck that's sort of my policy if I watch something and it gives me something interesting to talk about well there is a post. With Tv shows it's mostly stuff I've binge watched, that's left such a strong impression that it's on my mind years after I've seen it, or stuff that's ongoing and so the guilt of having not watched it all is abated.

That's a long way of me saying I don't have it any me to watch the typical 60 some odd episodes of the shows right now but I still want to talk about them so let me get into some of my favorite episodes. Or at least my favorite episodes.

Gargoyles: The Avalon Arc (Season 2 Three-Parter)
The Plot
A one shot character from the pilot comes to New York seeking Goliath, the show's protagonist's aid. During the pilot stuff went down and as penance this character and his friends swore an oath to look after those that survived the betrayal, namely the gargoyle eggs that were hidden away under the the castle. When the call comes without telling anybody he's leaving Goliath goes.

What follows is epicness explain in what  what happened in the intervening years as well as how an old enemy became near omnipotent.

In an attempt to save what was left to save they sought sanctuary on Avalon, yes that Avalon. But the island itself is magic, much coveted magic. Using mystical artifacts The Archmage, a bumbling, yet treacherous blackguard  of last season used time travel to gain unfathomable power and wishes to use the island as a power base laying siege to it.

Tom pulled an R2D2 and sought Goliath's help to defend the now grown "eggs", who unlike Goliath and his ilk are not warriors.

The Reason I Love It
Gargoyles was famous for its continuity. A problem a lot of serial media has is it tends forget about various aspects of the continuity. Have you ever read a comic were a problem is squeezed for all its drama when you know that the character is buds with someone who could solve it in five minutes, but the writers forgot that Doctor Strange is well an actual doctor and that Mr. Fantastic can do just about anything given enough time and tech.

Gargoyles didn't do that. Every character mentioned is out there somewhere, doing something. And this is the pièce de résistance of that skill. Sure a lot of the main characters take a holiday, but guys we haven't seen since the pilot come back and have had actual off screen character development.

Okay time for backstory while Tom, our R2D2 is the knight the actual leader of the Avalon group is the Magus, aka. they guy who in a blind rage cast the curse that imprisoned Goliath and his friends in stone. A third party betrayed them both and and a furious magus acted in haste. The ruse wasn't hard to pull of because he had some enmity for the gargoyles prior to the betrayal.  But that's all the pilot what's striking here is after realizing his mistake he has spent his life trying to repay the debt owed.

People change.

Batman Beyond: Season 2 Episode 5 "Hidden Agenda"
The plot
Terry Mcguiness's, AKA the new batman's, best friend Max invents a program to correlate all the known data about Batman until she finds out who it is. After a gang member starts hassling her she turns the program around and ends up right smack in the middle of problems.

Why I love it
Mostly I dig Max, and this is her episode.  It's weird especially in Superhero shows to have platonic relationships. Terry already had a girlfriend and just hung out with Max because she was a mutual friend. And neither character is presented in away where that doesn't seem to be the case.

This is the episode where thier relationship changes as she joines the Elderly Wayne as the voice.

Also this seems like the idea that would work in an age of computers. Heck I could probably set something like that up with Google Alerts. Glasses and a slouch aren't going to cut in the 21st century.

Reboot: Season 3 Episode 8 "The Episode With No Name"
Okay Season 3 of reboot has five distinct parts.

• Little Enzo's Story
• System Hopping
• Access to The Net
• The Webriders
• The Return to Mainframe

All four of them are interesting but the second is really episodic, mostly trying get the audience used to the fact that Enzo isn't the same guy he was at 11. Well he is but bigger and meaner and with a gun... that has nuerovisual targeting.

Or to put it in a way his girlfriend, AndrAIa does when asked if he ever smiles. "If he does run."  

The Plot

"The Episode with No Name" is the transition from the more episodic..episodes back to the narrative and it gives the audience a host of new info to compute that turns the series on its head. After being pick pocketed, Matrix winds up in a bar. Being the dude he is and in the mood he is he tells everyone to scram unless they want to be filled with holes. Everybody but one guy listens. Turbo the leader of the guardians. Think of them as international cops/Norton Antivirus. Remember Reboot takes place in your computer. He's been looking for Matrix who's been M.I.A. since the first part of the story, at least from everybody else's perspective. We the audience know where he's been and why but heck his whole arc is the search for home.

Most of the "good guys" have been infected/brainwashed by a super virus and Turbo is the last traditional guardian to hold out but even he is compromised. To him Matrix who "technically" is also a guardian is his last hope.  Turbo thought that Matrix was Bob, his mentor but Bob's also M.I.A. The whole of the internet under threat. These three are the only ones that can save it.



Why I Love It

All of the plot stuff doesn't pay off until the last season, but two badasses in a bar makes for a pretty good episode. 

Oh, and the episode name isn't for show. In a b-story featuring AndrAIa we get an old fashioned draw complete with the "The Ecstasy of Gold" or as close as you can get to it.



But beyond that, part of Enzo's character is that he's leagues away from anybody he cares to talk to, save AndrAIa. Chatting with Turbo, he let's his gaurd down... a little, and we the audience get to see that yeah Little Enzo is still in there somewhere and beyond all the anger and fury, he's completely despondent about how it all went down. In short he meets a new friend and through that regains some hope that it will all work out in the end.