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Intro

Hello there, I’m Katapultman! I started watching "The Amazing World Of Gumball" in the beginning of July this year and, as of publication, I've just finished Season 2. I was inspired by some great people on this Wiki to write my own analysis on an episode. Now, for anyone who is interested in reading, do keep in mind that this is my first analysis and constructive criticism is greatly appreciated! With that short intro in mind: onto the analysis!

The Prologue

"The Hero" is sort of an experiment for the writing staff of "The Amazing World of Gumball" to try and create an episode that expands the most on characters like Richard (even though he's been expanded upon already in "The Job" and "The Treasure,” which I'll get to later) and to give some much-needed insight into the father-son relationship that Gumball and Darwin have with Richard. It tries, and it doesn't completely fail, but it has some huge problems.. For a first go at writing an emotional episode, they didn’t do all too bad of a job, but they weren’t entirely successful either. Let’s take a look at why.

The Direction

From the very beginning of the episode, you can tell it’s going to be a "feelsy" episode that explores Richard's character like it has never been explored before - with a sense of seriousness. The premise is fine, but the direction in which the episode was going was a complete shamble of jokes and emotional scenes.Though not ruining the episode, they create a mixture of uncertain emotions.This problem, combined with the borderline cruel actions of some of the characters, leaves the viewer wondering who to support. Of course the writers made Richard a target for sympathy in order to remedy that, but after overanalyzing, I came to the conclusion that they mademuch of an effort for us to root for Richard to the extent of painting the main characters in colours we've never seen before (I’ll elaborate more on that shortly.) This brings down the entirety of the episode. The constant actions partaken by some of them to instigate sympathy towards Richard are completelyand go against their personalities excessively.

It would've made for a much better episode had Gumball not been acting like the complete opposite of his character until the end of the episode. Don't get me wrong - sometimes Gumball does push the limits - but at least there is somebody to stop him or it has some sort of a comedic twist/lesson. In "The Hero," it has neither of those to create a character balance.

This brings me to the obvious second problem...

The Characters

The characters throughout the episode behave simply: their most negative traits have been put up-front and common sense is thrown out the door. Almost every single character is portrayed in a bad light, which in turn leaves some of the episode's jokes being plain awkward. The jokes themselves were funny, but by the manner of which they were executed, the result was a weird and unbalanced mess.

I'll try and do my best to dissect each character, providing adequate and correct feedback.

Gumball, the main protagonist, although usually shown to be an optimistic, imaginative, and good-spirited kid, is the complete opposite of that throughout "The Hero.” It’s a full 180 degree shift, per se.

Now think about this.

Why is Gumball shown to adopt such an inexplicable style throughout the episode. Why is he made out to be so unrelatable and selfish, as if he’s acting without any feeling of remorse towards his deeds?

The in-universe explanation: Gumball's ego.

Now, some people might refute that statement by saying that even though Gumball has a huge ego, he still cares about his family throughout "The Hero" and the show entirely. And those people areright, because as an example, as soon as Richard seems to be plummeting to his "death" in the episode, Gumball's instinctive reaction is to mourn for him. That’s good, now it’s time for the reconciliation part, right? Or better: what if we just play the whole thing off as a joke?

And there lays the problem that has stuck with me ever since I first watched that scene. I'll be using it as an example, considering it contains almost all of my issues with Gumball's character and the episode as a whole. I'll be dividing this part into two separate segments - one covering Gumball before the scene and one that covering the aftermath/the finale.

Segment 1:

As said by many before me, the major gripe with the episode is Gumball and his straight-up cruel behaviour. That is correct on its own, but this cruelty stems from, as said above, Gumball's obnoxiously large ego. I think that the writers have hyperbolized this evident flaw in Gumball's character to a point where he's unrecognisable.Think about it, would Gumball really forsake his father's love just for his own pride, after all the things the family as a whole has been through? I may have watched S1 and S2 only once but I think that this seems highly improbable.

A fair counterpoint to this would still be that Gumball may not have assessed the seriousness of the situation at hand. Although not false, a major point still stands: Gumball's personality flaws in the episode have been exaggerated to the point that they've overcome his identity as a character just to make Richard even more of a target to empathize with, making Gumball a much less likeable character.

Segment 2:

In this section, I'd like to talk about my reaction to Gumball's personality drifts, along with the finale of the episode. As said above, the second after Richard states he's alive, Gumball reverts back to his old self. Of course this is played off for a joke, but in my opinion it could've been an opportunity for an earlier reconciliation, rather than dragging the episode along. Not only that, but the joke just wasn’t needed at all, considering the severity of the situation at-hand. Maybe I'm being too critical towards this point, but I still think Gumball is the main drag of the episode.

The finale is one of the few saving graces. It's the ultimate test of trust between Richard and Gumball, which was executed simply, but perfectly - the climax of a broken father-son relationship mended by the echoing sounds of a once-simple past, inciting an unprofound level of determination. That, accompanied with the eerie presence of a life-threatening situation which serves to make the impact even more powerful, is the most outstanding moment in the episode for me. The message got clear in the end, but the culmination to it was admittedly misdirected. At first viewing of the episode, it was heartwarming, and to my surprise, even after being so cynical towards the episode, it’s still one of my favourite moments in the series.

Darwin, the "sidekick" to Gumball's misadventures and shenanigans,is shown to be the most empathetic out of all the Wattersons, which in and of itself makes him the most relatable one. Not much can be said about Darwin in this episode, apart from the fact that he bridges the conflict between Gumball and Richard, although I think thisparticular image is worth pointing out, of which I have two possible explanations:

First of all, the dialogue leading up to the shot was Gumball saying how Richard had reached his limit "a long time ago.” Taking that into consideration, this screenshot could be pointing either towards Darwin questioning his own judgement, or to him being in disbelief as to what Gumball is saying. Although nothing special, I thought I'd at least include something original in the Darwin section.

Anais, the sort-of tritagonist of the series, the "kid who happens to be a genius " as Guy has pointed out. For the little screen time Anais gets in the episode, she manages to create quite the impact. For starters, she is furious with Darwin and Gumball when she realizes they hurt their dad's feelings, but why is this? Doesn't Anais herself also criticize Richard often?

Well, Anais, like her mother, was too quick to jump to conclusions. While the reason why Gumball and Darwin made a mockery out of Richard was purely out of peer pressure, their refusal to apologise is what I think made Anais angry the most. I strongly believe even if Anais was in Gumball and Darwin's position, she'd still defend her father's dignity in some sort of way, mainly because she doesn't seem like the type of person that would succumb to the effects of the everyday problem of peer pressure like Gumball and Darwin.

Nicole, despite being the ultimate bearer of authority in the household and despite getting as much screen time as Anais, doesn't have the same effect. Though Anais may have been annoying towards Gumball and Darwin, Nicole is on another level entirely. Throughout many episodes of Season 2, Nicole's aggression has been exaggerated for comedic effect like in " The Limit .” In "The Hero," though she may have not made such a visual spectacle, you can still sense her rage in her drastic actions towards Gumball and Darwin. It's weird seeing Nicole all happy at the end of the episode when at one point she was willing toher children. She may be a bitangry at times, but she'd never do something so drastic against her family. Eh, who knows, I'm probably reading in too much on something that was done purely for, eh.. "comedic" purposes.

Richard, the father figure of the Wattersons, is shown to be inept in almost every task he partakes in. That leaves a window of opportunity for ridicule against him, but as is shown to be in episodes like "The Castle,” Richard isn't actually being mocked. Sometimes there may be a sigh from Nicole, or a disappointed face from Anais, but nothing too drastic or mean-spirited, so it's an interesting turn for the show when it decides to explore Richard's feeling of worthlessness. That's the beauty of the show and mainly Season 2; it adds a lot more depth and realism to characters you would have otherwise expected to be portrayed in a one-sided manner.

Richard's song is one of the most heartwarming scenes of the show for me. It perfectly shows that his family is his greatest achievement, his reason for living. All of the episodes that were about expanding Richard were pointing to this song - it’s his climax. He has been living a sheltered life which has stripped him of all traces of common sense, can't hold a job by virtue of the laws of the universe, and has possibly rid his family of a great and carefree life, but the thing that keeps him going every time is his family's unbound love for him.

Even though he may not be the best role model, when push comes to shove, they accept him for who he is. After the first scene in "The Hero", Richard doesn't go out on a limb and get angry or bitter; he's just saddened that his life has been leading up to nothing but disappointments. That goes to show how much of a mature person he is, and it’s genius hidden development on the writers’ parts (even though it may be unintentional). So in the end, that is why making the characters act like lunatics was ultimately useless.

Final Thoughts/Notes

So, here we are, at the final part. It's been a wild ride for me to write this analysis, but in the end, I think it turned out fine (except for the fact that I keep repeating myself in a lot of my segments, for which I apologise). As a first step, it may not be the best, but it's still not horrid. A special thanks to ThatGuy456 and Mattalamode for their great deal of help. I've never written something that has required this much thought to be put into it in my life, so this analysis was also a journey of self-discovery that taught me to be more observant, or that even the simplest things on the surface may hide unimaginable depth. Anyway, if you've come this far, I'd like to sincerely thank you for reading my analysis, and if you've enjoyed it (or disliked it - I can already see why), it'd be helpful to my own work ethic if you leave a comment. But that's all from me, cheers!

(By the way, this is an edited version of the old one, so I hope the edit is for the better!)