Kipo and the Wunderbeasts season 3

[zorealis]

I finished watching the newest season of Kipo and here's what I thought. There was a lot I liked, but a few things I thoughts fell short.



I really loved the found family vibes throughout. I really liked the portrayal of Scarlemagne's growth and finally choosing to accept himself as being part of the Oak family. I wish he wouldn't have sacrificed himself at the end though, I felt he had genuinely changed and really wanted to see what his relationship with the others would evolve to.

Benson/Troy were very cute. I liked that they were just allowed to be cute and no one made a big deal of a queer couple.

I think the thing I'm most conflicted over is the portrayal of Kipo and Emilia's relationship. Kipo's upbeat perspective of giving everyone a chance to find the good in themselves is positive, but this is a trope that has been done a lot. I was disappointed by the need to make it a requirement to give everyone a second (or third, or hundredth) chance under any and all circumstances to be good (like always). Emilia repeatedly showed she had no interest in re-examining her beliefs or respecting anyone's boundaries-- we even see her kill her brother for behaving as Kipo does. While I didn't want Kipo to kill Emilia in cold blood, I never really saw her recognize that she needed to stop Emilia before trying to befriend her. In the end, it felt like she left the dirty work to her friends instead of learning when it is appropriate to set boundaries.

Comments

[pauraque]

I just finished this show too, and I did enjoy it overall but I agree with your criticisms, especially regarding Emilia. I felt the way the characters responded to her was very black and white--Kipo wants to give her endless second chances, while Wolf and Hugo want her dead. I would have like to see some recognition that there was a middle ground where you don't throw yourself into harm's way just to give a proven dangerous person yet another chance, but you also don't sink to their level and resort to violence as the answer. Emilia accidentally being imprisoned by the fungus creature forever wasn't a very satisfying resolution. I felt it made it too easy, fixing Kipo's problems by random chance rather than challenging her to grow.