Justsomeordinarydude on DeviantArthttps://www.deviantart.com/justsomeordinarydude/art/Spell-It-Out-The-Loud-House-A-Reaction-Review-682629466Justsomeordinarydude

Deviation Actions

Justsomeordinarydude's avatar

Spell It Out (The Loud House): A Reaction/Review.

Published:
3.1K Views

Description

Spell It Out

I’m very conflicted with this episode, so as such, I have a lot to say about it. This was a generally good, if highly flawed episode overall. I’ll start off by discussing the aspects of the episode which I liked. First of all, Lucy’s personal struggle in this story was handled very well. Lucy is, despite being a gloomy goth, is actually one of the nicer and more passive of the sisters. She rarely, if ever, means anyone any ill harm and whenever she does, she usually has a justifiable reason. That was certainly the case here, as the episode went to great lengths to demonstrate how she was being walked all over by her family. As such, Lucy’s decision to take revenge against her siblings through the use of her grandmother’s spell book was actually quite relatable and understandable. The episode, to a significant extent (perhaps even to too far an extent, but we’ll talk about that later) really manages to portray Lucy’s dilemma and highlight her emotional pain in an effective manner. So, Lucy then casts some spells, or at least thinks she is casting them, on her sisters to gain some satisfying payback. Even when trying to obtain vengeance, she still doesn’t come across as overly mean. Her revenge basically amounts to a few mild pranks, such as making Lana’s butt itchy or Lisa’s hands sticky. Of course, it turned out in the end that Lucy’s spells were not real, as there were alternate explanations for all the ‘spells’ she cast and the effects they had. But she still felt guilty because of her intentions for payback, but is clearly sorry for the consequences she dished out, as even at her most angry, Lucy (despite embodying a goth persona) does not want to truly witness anyone, especially her own loved ones, experience suffering.

The only spell she casts which has any serious effect on any of her siblings was the one which rendered them voiceless. But even then, it is made clear in the episode that Lucy did not intend for the consequences to be so grim. She is regretful when she finds out some of the misfortunes of her siblings as a result of being voiceless, such as Lynn being kicked out of the rowing team or Lori’s social life taking a detour. She, utterly convinced her spell not only worked but was responsible for her sibling’s suffering, was willing to reverse the curse and project all the effects back at herself, essentially sacrificing her own voice for her sibling’s happiness, even after they mistreated her. It was a truly effective way to not only portray Lucy’s actions and motivations as understandable, but also prevent her from coming across as too mean, vengeful or selfish. Lucy is clearly one of the more reasonable and friendly Loud siblings (some of you might argue it’s not hard to be that, but even still), and her character arc within this narrative was executed very well. She is shown to be a very forgiving, caring and selfless soul behind all the darkness and expressions of misery.

Also, there were some funny moments in this episode. When Lucy gives up on finding a useful spell and throws the book against the wall, it bounces back at her, only to flip onto the page which gives her the spell she wanted. Shen then rather humorously reflected on how that must have been a sign from Great Grandma Harriet (though a simple light flicker would have done). Some of the consequences the loss of voice the other siblings suffer from also lead to some fairly funny scenes. For example, where Lynn gets kicked off the team or when Lincoln “dies” in an online game. Also, there were the backfires of Lucy’s earlier spells. For example, how she made Lana get an itchy butt, only for her to use Edwin as a scratcher. Also, how she ended up stuck to Lisa’s head after trying to make her sticky. So, at the very least, this episode contained a decent amounts of laughs.

But for as many strengths as this episode has, there are also some notable weaknesses. For starters, the way the other Loud siblings are portrayed within the first act of the narrative makes them appeal as unsympathetic jerks. Now, obviously for the setup of the plot to work, there has to be a demonstration of the other siblings acting in a manner which annoys or upsets Lucy. However, the extent to which the siblings are portrayed as vexatious and odious is rather problematic, as it comes across as incredibly forced for the sake of the plot, and doesn’t do the rest of the main cast any favours after the fans already became frustrated with the show and its characters because of episodes like Brawl in the Family. Plus, it makes us as viewers question whether or not the direction the narrative later takes, that being Lucy feeling the need to apologise for her actions and doing so, was the right direction, as some people may argue she had no reason to apologise as the other siblings got what they deserved. The problems stems from the fact that the writers opted to use the easy method of setting up the conflict of the narrative. They went and made the rest of the siblings overly obnoxious and thoughtless just so they could make the protagonist’s motivations more understandable more easily. While this did help to present Lucy and her characterisation in a more positive light, it also degraded the likability of 9 other main characters. Show how the other siblings can be seen as annoying to her, by all means, but do so in a way that doesn’t take it too far neither comes across as forced.

This whole issue, at least partially, relates to a more general problem the show has. Often the writing forces all the other Loud siblings barring the main protagonist (usually Lincoln, but in this case, Lucy) to act in unison in a way that creates difficulties for said protagonist. For instance, in One of the Boys, they all (at least, in Lincoln’s head) acted in unison in opposing Lincoln and causing inconvenience in his life just so the setup of him wanting 10 brothers instead could be established (for example, making the tomboyish girls more feminine than usual to make Lincoln feel more excluded). Although, that episode turned out to be Lincoln’s dream so that example may be a little more forgivable. How about how uncharacteristically mean they all became in BITF, even Leni, the nicest of the sisters, just for the sake of the plot? Way to butcher characters and make them more unlikeable just for the sake of a nonsensical narrative. Then there’s NSL and the way all the sisters antagonised Lincoln. Lisa was even taken out of character (seriously, she abandon’s her opposition against superstition after just one occurrence?) a little just so she could act in unison with the rest of the family in antagonising Lincoln. Arguably, the worst example of this is Study Muffin, where everyone (even Lynn Sr and the pets?!), in spite of their ages, personalities, or already established relationships (seriously Lori, cheating on Bobby?) became romantically obsessed with Hugh… just because. Because the plot required them to all act that way to create the conflict which was intended. Now they did it yet again in this episode with everyone, even Lincoln, walking all over Lucy. It gets annoying to watch this happen over and over again, as it not only feels like a forced way to get the plot going, but it also makes the characters seem inconsistent and, in some cases, less likeable. It’s a bad habit the show has, and I really wish it would shake it off.

Someone made an argument that this episode suffers the same flaw as BITF, by having the only innocent character feel they were in the wrong when they weren’t. While this story certainly doesn’t execute its resolution or message as badly as that, I can understand where that perspective is coming from. In that episode, Lincoln concludes he is better off leaving the house and letting the sisters settle their issues without getting involved, even if any rational person would intervene and resolve the situation in a more suitable manner than just allowing the people in question to keep fighting until the tension naturally dies down. There were so many problems with the ending of that episode. Here, Lucy begins to feel guilty for the effects her spell seemed to be having against her siblings. But the problem with this is, because the setup of the narrative so effectively made the other siblings come across as unsympathetically jerkish, the resolution doesn’t quite work as well as it should have.

Other minor flaws of the episode include how lazy the design of Great Grandma Harriet was. She looked literally just like Lucy. I know there’s such a thing as strong family resemblance, but come on. Also, speaking of that, there were 2 lookalikes in one scene, as there were two girls who looked like Polly Pain (Could it be? Another returning date from Dance, Dance Resolution in one week?) and most lazily, a palette swapped, blonde haired version of Ronnie Anne (Actually, why not just have Ronnie be one of the girls on Lynn’s team? Those two knowing each other would be pretty cool and would actually explain why their characters are so similar).

But I will give the episode this much. It ended on a much better note than BITF. In that story, the resolution was truly atrocious. It actually had Lincoln accept DEFCON 5 and the sisters learnt nothing despite their actions clearly being unjust. Here, there is a legitimately touching resolution, where Lucy confesses what she did, only to find out she was not responsible for their misfortunes after all. Then, after their conversation lead everyone to realise the error of their ways, there is a mutual apology. Whether or not you agree Lucy had any reason to apologise, at least we can all collectively agree it was good that the rest of the sibling group said they were sorry for what they did and expressed intent to work on fixing their treatment of Lucy. The resolution didn’t function perfectly, as I covered, but the writers honestly did try this time. It’s not like with BITF or NSL where it seems like they either weren’t trying to manage the quality of the writing, or just had misguided intentions when developing the story. While it wasn’t a flawless execution, at the very least, there was a (mostly) satisfying ending, where the siblings say sorry and apologise to Lucy for their past treatment of her. It could have been better, as it could be argued a simple sorry (and a minor good deed, in addition) isn’t enough to make up for what they did, but it also could have been A LOT worse, as the siblings could have become mad with Lucy and lashed out against her had they have not taken the route of revealing Lucy’s spells were not real and there was another explanation for the kids being voiceless, as well as for the other spells she cast. Think about this: The episode could have ended with only Lucy apologising and not the others, and them being angry with her for her retaliation, and her being painted as solely the one in the wrong, with them being portrayed as completely innocent and in the right (this was the mistake of BITF, and to a lesser extent, NSL). So, it could have been much worse than what it was. Plus, the Loud siblings do aim to make it up to Lucy a little bit, by allowing her to watch her favourite TV show, with them watching with her (the significance of this is more understandable after having viewed the episode, as an earlier segment shown one of the ways the sibling were walking all over her was by how they all voted against watching her favourite show in favour of something else).

Anyway, it was highly flawed, but still worth watching overall. It was reasonably entertaining and I finished watching the episode on a generally satisfied note.

Final Rating: 6/10. 

Image size
936x415px 483.37 KB
© 2017 - 2024 Justsomeordinarydude
Comments4
Join the community to add your comment. Already a deviant? Log In
Arkham-Knightmare's avatar
Many compare this episode to BITF, but to me its more along the lines of Sounds of Silence where it has a similar premise and morel, like Lincoln ignoring his siblings. The only differences is that he was not doing any harm whatsoever while this episodes makes it look like Lucy has malicious intent with her false spells. Only in Sounds of Silence the sisters get back at Lincoln, while in this episode, they feel sympathetic to Lucy. I don't know, that often bugged me. But at the same time, it is not bad as previous episodes since Lucy does feel regret in the end, yet I feel they could have taken some elements from Sounds of Silence to teach Lucy that she lives in a loud family just like they did with Lincoln. At Karma did get the best of them in that episode. Do I feel Lucy was bullied in this episodes, honestly no, given that she's always in the shadows and does not seem to mind, yet they make it noticeable here. But it's not enough to fully get my attention since it seems kind of forced here. Still not a bad episode that I would put on my worst list, but it is tolerable at the very least, since I've seen Loud House episodes that are just insufferable on how it seems to gang up on Lincoln most of the time. Really that seriously has to stop.