Its Been Like That Lately

I wonder what happened with Tsukasa in this timeline? Why is the hole on his face? Why are his shorts and feet BLOODY?

right?? peak tbhk giving us more questions than answers lol I’m so excited to find out!!

I’m personally still operating under the assumption that the clock keepers changed something in 1968, which is when amane was trying to use the clock to mess with time in some mysterious way, so maybe they let him change in a way he was previously unable to? or in a different way than he did originally?

what seems to be true right now:

1. amane did not die when he was four

2. tsukasa still made some sort of deal with the god

so, operating under the assumption that something changed in 1968, whatever was changed then was after tsukasa made the deal to save amane’s life.

the backwards letters in tsukasa’s speech bubbles also imply to me he is way more god-influenced than the tsukasa we met in the red house arc!! this could be because kou and nene never went there to convince him to go back in this timeline?

but there’s something interesting you mentioned!! which is tsukasa’s appearance is very different here!!

he seems to be wearing the same shirt, but his suspenders and socks are gone, and his clothes are dirty. original red house tsukasa seems unscathed despite all his time there.

I think his clothes could be covered in blood, but they could also be covered in ash? maybe he was pushed back into the fire he set? why has the red house/the god stopped taking care of him? why is he in the school and not the red house? why was tsukasa originally spat back out somewhere in town and not on the property of the red house itself?

I definitely think amane got the clock to work and is responsible for this—I find adult amane incredibly suspicious!!

the watch he gave tsuchigomori is stopped, like the clock keepers clock originally was

and it’s incredibly suspicious he was talking to students about the tsukasa rumor with a reassuring smile on his face. this is hanako after all!! his calm, reassuring smiles are historically often untrustworthy!! (also in all honesty this is kind of a hope… I love when amane goes off on his own moral compass being a little unhinged)

the clock keepers specifically sent hanako back when he was feeling rejected by tsukasa and claiming tsukasa was an imposter, not his brother. maybe this is the future that happens when amane acts on that feeling, rather than how conflicted and forlorn we see him feeling about tsukasa in the original 1968.

it’s devastating, but I love the possibility that a past made through a boy’s grief and sense of rejection and pain has led to something like this… a more worn down, more haunted tsukasa.

is this who tsukasa becomes when amane doesn’t believe in him?

(honestly kind of hoping it’s something else though, bc it’s almost too sad to think of amane not believing in tsukasa, to the point of sending him back there…)

OK SO CAN WE TALK ABOUT THE WHOLE EYES BEING IMPORTANT TO THE CHARACTERS THING. because this chapter had a whole lot of that. ohhh boy it had a lot!!!!! it did!!!!!

FIRSTLY. akutagawa. for a while, his eyes have been pitch-black. last chapter, they regained their light, as he remembered atsushi. and then they're pitch-black again in this chapter-- as the person who brought light to them, to akutagawa himself, is gone.

SECONDLY. dazai. as he tells akutagawa he can "certainly" give him a reason to live, at the same time, he himself looks like he has no reason to live, as if he's not living at all. his eyes are dark and dead. pitch-blacm just as akutagawa's were at the start of the manga, and this chapter, but with none of the determination or bite akutagawa has. just emptiness.

THIRDLY. (child) akutagawa. his eyes aren't empty, nor pitch-black at first. they're dark, with light within. he has not been shown light, nor has he been pushed into the shadows. they become purely fully of light when dazai claims he can give akutagawa a reason to live.

his eyes turn his signature pitch-black with his time in the mafia. he was not given a reason to live. he was given fear, pain, emptiness, and desensitivity to brutality. the chance of light and goodness in his eyes from when he was a child is erased by the port mafia-- by dazai.

his eyes become like dazai's dark, lifeless ones as dazai trains him. any chance at light, or goodness, or happiness, or true life is sapped from him and replaced with violence, abuse, the mafia, dazai, dazai, dazai!

atsushi is what brings akutagawa that light. and when atsushi is gone, the light is gone.

"the light in somebody's eyes" is a phrase meant to refer to someone's spark of life. their reason to live. akutagawa says that killing atsushi "became [his] sole motivation." but when atsushi dies, that takes the light out of his eyes. his reason to live vanishes along with atsushi.

atsushi is akutagawa's reason to live, isn't he?

I'm starting to believe that Dazai's Good-bye speech was legit meant to be a misdirect for Fyodor, but then Chuuya went brlbrl and Dazai's actual feelings got involved, so he cut it short

i'm so normal about gear 5 luffy (no)

Oda's death becomes even more tragic when you realize Dazai did get there in time to save him.

The first time.

After Ango's betrayal, Dazai reached Oda in time to save him from the poison. Dazai probably spent that night thinking he was going to lose Oda, he sat by his bedside until he woke up again. Sure, he played it cool, like he was just there to update Oda when he woke up, but anyone could have done that.

Dazai stayed, because for awhile he probably didn't know if Oda would ever wake up again.

But he did and Dazai saved him and he could finally let go of the dread clutching his heart, because he made it.

He was on time. He saved Oda.

The first time.

spiraling about the framing here… the way tsukasa is specifically positioned with these two marks so visibly on display, one so temporary it’s drawn like it’s already fading deeming him guilty and the other so solid and near-permanent deeming him the most important and beloved thing in hanako’s life… the way the guilty mark is on his hand marking what he does (if we take hands to represent actions) as making him guilty but the mark of love, which as we know from sumire could be anywhere on his body, is right on tsukasa’s face... the way love is so much stronger than guilt and blame

it reminds me so much of:

I know we don’t have confirmation that he’s talking about tsukasa here, but even if it’s just thematically, the faded guilty stamp and the permanent yorishiro seal are so reminiscent of amane defending this person unrelentingly, never budging, and paying little to no mind to tsuchigomori’s condemnations of this person’s actions. the faded stamp and bold seal contrasting so heavily to say “actions are so fleeting and always changing but love is unwavering.” amane protects this person despite what they’ve done to him. amane kills tsukasa and tsukasa comes back marked as the pinnacle of hanako’s love. actions and guilt and blame are so complicated in tbhk, but love always endures. and it’s all shown so succinctly in this one image of tsukasa this chapter

ok watched all of elusive samurai season 1, general thoughts

cue my latin teacher saying "they all died, it was a very long time ago" about all the characters. i have no idea how the series ends but basing it on a real guy who did not succeed is very interesting. theres a time limit of 20 yrs before tokiyuki dies so i wonder if they're going to follow through with that

the cg horses and specifically the dog hunting scene are the bane of my life but everything else is so gorgeous. going insane from the animation, and the style changes are sooooooooo cool im in love. the peacock feather ?? divine bird ?? wing effects that are drawn around tokiyuki are so gorgeous. generally any sequence with him fighting is crazy to watch

interesting eye and god themes going on (buddha, yorishige's future visions, takauji's eye, those random flashes of insight that some characters get when they see through their opponent's attacks, edit: how could i forget the emperor's laser eyes)

also a meta commentary about stories???? it's very story within a story of them ... hmmm...

very absurd and sometimes dark, the gore and moments of terror are executed well again i would give my life for the animators who draw certain decapitation sequences in this anime

overall 7/10, some of the jokes and fanservice feel out of place and put me off from enjoying it more but everything else is woah

So, due to Saiki's manipulation, humans are stronger and more resilient than they otherwise would be. Saiki says that in his world, small people can defeat much larger opponents in physical combat, so it's not like this rule only applies to already strong characters. Kurumi is small and thin and can still effortlessly throw a table. Despite everyone's strength being multiplied, Kaidou is still incredibly weak. He can hardly throw a ball two feet and his punches feel like tickles. Would Kaidou have been even weaker if it weren't for Saiki's manipulation? His lack of stength is already significant by real world standards. Was Kaidou supposed to have chronic asthenia and/or a condition that causes weakness?

New part of IM comic tomorrow at 2:00PM EST…..

Revisiting the Scratchansniff-Warners relationship, Part 2: The positives, where it all went wrong, and what it all means

Welcome to part 2 of part 4 of Overanalyzing the Warners. Here's a link to part 1.

In the first part, I focused on Scratchansniff as a character and why he was a terrible fit as the Warners' psychiatrist. In this part, I'll look at the other side of it: the almost fatherly relationship he developed with them over time, and how it all suddenly came crashing down.

Warning: This post is extremely long. I've said previous posts of mine were long, but this is several times longer than those- it's 4576 words. You may want to set aside some time for this or break it up into parts to read at different times.

I've talked about this topic in great length, and this post is meant to be the culmination of all of it. So, in addition to reading part 1 of this 2 part analysis, I would encourage you to read my other two important posts about Scratchansniff and his relationship with the Warners:

In this post, I did an episode-by-episode analysis of Scratchansniff's relationship with the Warners and marveled about how it all went wrong.

In this post, I went in-depth in analyzing Episode 5 of the original series, "Taming of the Screwy", taking a look at a pivotal point in the Warners' character development and their relationship with their p-sychiatrist.

In general, Scratchansniff's relationship with the Warners can be broken down into three phases.

Phase 1: Episodes 1-53 of the original series. Scratchansniff first establishes a relationship with the Warners and they get to know each other better in an up-and-down process where they sometimes act as allies and sometimes as foes.

Phase 2: Episodes 65-82 of the original series. Having warmed up greatly to the Warners, Scratchansniff becomes somewhat of a father figure to them, taking them out on trips and having almost entirely positive encounters with them overall.

Phase 3: Episode 87 of the original series and everything since. The relationship suddenly and inexplicably goes downhill, with the Warners and Scratchansniff mutually seeming to not like each other much at all. This continues into the reboot, with Scratchansniff acting antagonistic to the Warners and the Warners seeming unenthusiastic in their helping of him in season 1. In season 2, the Warners seem to trust him as a father figure again, but he's only pretending to like them in what is actually part of a scheme to get his stuff back.

Phase 1 is what I've already covered most extensively, so I won't talk about it as much in this post. Besides the two episodes that I already covered in-depth, Episodes 1 and 5, there isn't much of great impact to discuss here. The Warners have their usual hijinks. Sometimes they interact positively with Scratchansniff, such as when they get him a present for his birthday seemingly unprompted, and other times they pester him unnecessarily, such as when they ruin his date in Episode 53, "Drive Insane".

It can't really be said that Scratchansniff is the bad guy in any of these interactions. I mean, the guy was just trying to have a good date, and, even though the Warners arguably improved it, never really did anything to deserve them showing up and deliberately trying to ruin everything. Well, he didn't do anything in that episode to deserve it. This still does take place after he betrayed their trust in Taming of the Screwy, so it makes sense why the Warners would be antagonistic to him sometimes. I would describe this phase overall as the "rebuilding trust" phase. Scratchansniff blew his chance to meaningfully help the Warners in a therapeutic sense, but that doesn't mean his relationship with them is forever dead. Quite the opposite.

Phase 2 begins in Episode 65, the Warners' 65th Anniversary Special. While that episode is packed with Warners lore items, the only thing relevant to this topic is how Scratchansniff chaperones them at the event. This is the first instance of him acting fatherly to them.

Episodes 69, 71, 79, and 82 show the same. In 69, he takes them out to the carnival. In 71, Wakko approaches him because he wants to participate in his bingo game, which no one else attended. It could be argued either that Wakko just really wanted to spend time with Scratchansniff or that this was his subtle way of making the doctor feel better about no one attending his bingo game, or both. In any case, it's clear that Wakko genuinely likes being around Scratchansniff by this point. In 79, the Warners invite Scratchansniff to their party, and he both shows up and has a decent time. In 82, he takes them out for another trip and has a great time singing Wakko's two-note song.

Now, hold on a minute. Where did all of this come from? Why are the Warners and Scratchansniff suddenly all buddy-buddy, after spending half the series antagonizing each other? How did Scratchansniff regain their trust even after betraying them? I think it might be rather simple. The Warners took a liking to Scratchansniff simply because they were able to spend a lot of time with him, and he didn't always completely hate their guts while they did so.

That's sad, isn't it? It's a really low bar to friendship. By all normal metrics of trust, Scratchansniff never did a single thing to deserve the Warners' admiration. But you have to look at what the Warners have been through. From the moment of their creation, everyone around them hated them with a burning passion. Their creator went crazy in the process. Their main director, Weed Memlo, despised them from the start. Plotz and other studio leadership always saw them as a nuisance at best and a cataclysmic, terrifying force of nature at worst. Their co-star Buddy hated them so much he tried to kill them 65 years later. People literally screamed and fled at the mere sight of them on the lot. This was years before the creation of other famous toons like Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck who might have been their allies. They had literally not one person to trust or like or have any sort of positive relationship with, except each other.

All the while, they seem somewhat oblivious to this total mistreatment, because it's the only thing they've ever known. In their childlike naivety, they thought this was just how it was supposed to go. They thought that the people who clearly hated and feared them actually liked them, because they never saw any example of a person who truly did. This explains a lot of their behavior then and later on. They pester everyone, including those they like, because they think it's an expression of fondness. If the Warners truly dislike someone, they just avoid them. And it takes a lot to get the Warners to truly dislike someone. Even people who they legitimately should dislike, who were never anything but mean to them like Plotz, they still eventually take a liking to.

So then they meet someone like Scratchansniff, who still dislikes them but doesn't outright hate them or flee when he sees them, because his job forces him to interact with them. Compared to everyone else the Warners have ever met, well, he's a saint! Of course they would take a liking to him. A similar process happened to Scratchansniff on the other end. Forced to interact with them often because of his job, he eventually became familiar with them. Scratchansniff is quite a lonely guy as well. He doesn't seem to have any family or friends, and even his dates dislike him. By being around the Warners, he came to realize that they were good kids at heart, as much as he didn't want to admit it to himself. This is when he embraced them on his end of things, and that's when he became a father figure. He couldn't commit completely, though. Deep down, he became aware of the inequities that molded the Warners into what they were. However, surrounded by people who didn't, and still being a stubborn old man, he knew that if he admitted to himself the awful treatment the Warners had always received, he would come to despise himself for his part in it. So, he didn't admit it fully. But he still felt bad for them, and that's why I believe he did things such as take them out to the carnival, for no reason other than to make them happy. It can also be noted that Scratchansniff takes them out for his own enjoyment- he takes them to a wrestling show, something that he is very passionate about but the Warners don't like. They're so embarrassed to be there that they put bags over their heads, but they still went. The Warners are Scratchansniff's only real friends that he can take with him to events he enjoys.

On that note, this is another important reason I believe the Warners formed such a bond with Scratchansniff. In all the phase 2 episodes, you can see one thing being consistently implied: the only time the Warners are officially allowed off the lot is when they're accompanied by Scratchansniff.

In other words, Scratchansniff is their only legitimate ticket to freedom. Now, why would it matter to them whether they can get off the lot legitimately or not? They do it all the time regardless. That's exactly the point, and how I inferred something critical about the Warners' characters: they want to be officially included. During the events of the series, they are able to consistently escape the tower and go absolutely anywhere they want whenever they want. Despite this, every single time there's an opportunity afforded to them to do things the right way and be included without breaking the rules, they take it. The only way this would make sense is if they have a personal desire to be able to do things without breaking the rules, and the only reason they do break the rules so often is because there are almost no situations where they're included within the rules. All that to say- being able to go off the lot without being relentlessly chased is important to them, and the only way they can do that is if they go with Scratchansniff.

The point is, the relationship between Scratchansniff and the Warners was forged from unwilling familiarity. The Warners have almost no friends, Scratchansniff has almost no friends, and so, when they're forced to spend a lot of time around each other, they naturally become fond. Wow, that was a much more concise way of stating everything I wrote in the massive block of text above.

What is the relationship actually, really like at this point? Do the Warners regard Scratchansniff as a true father figure? Does he look at them almost like his kids? I've always hesitated to call him a true father figure to the Warners because of how large a part he played in their unfair treatment by the studio, even during Phase 2. How can a man who truly loves them not do more to break them out of that horrible cycle of abuse?

On a meta level, though, that is the part Scratchansniff is meant to play. He's inserted as a parental figure in episodes where either the Warners need to be placed in a situation more relatable to the normal kids watching the show, or when they need to show more traditional childlike traits than they usually do when they're on their own. "I'm Mad" is a great example of this. The Warners need to go on a roadtrip for the plot to work. It's a very relatable plotline for the kids watching, but the Warners would never end up in that situation without an adult father figure to take them somewhere. That's Scratchansniff.

Also in that segment, the Warners can be seen acting much more like regular siblings to each other than they usually do. Basically, when the Warners need to be portrayed more like actual kids, that's when Scratchansniff is inserted as their parental figure. But I don't think that was initially meant to imply the existence of a strong father-child bond between Scratchansniff and the Warners. When writing, the creators of the show may have been just as surprised as the characters themselves that this relationship seemed to be forming so naturally. Just like in-universe, it may truly have been a relationship formed out of circumstance.

I'd be remiss if I didn't spend at least one paragraph highlighting Wakko's especially close relationship with Scratchansniff. From the segment "Ups and Downs", which is actually in Phase 1, he seems to regard Scratchansniff as a really close friend, despite the doctor's lack of reciprocation. I think this is just due to Wakko's nature. Unlike his siblings, he isn't really out to cause any trouble or mischief. He's just kind of flowing along with the current of life. And because of his status as the wacky one, he tends to see crazy things as normal while being very fascinated with the mundane. Scratchansniff is very mundane. Wakko seemingly goes out of his way to spend alone time with Scratchansniff, such as at the bingo game. In that situation, with Wakko as the only patron at the event, Scratchansniff could have very easily closed up shop and said no to letting Wakko play. He decided to go through with it anyway. It's possible that Wakko becoming close with Scratchansniff first was the opening needed for all three Warners becoming close with him.

By the events of Episode 82, "Wakko's Two-Note Song", everything seems to be going swimmingly. The Warners like Scratchansniff and he clearly likes them. Going out on trips with each other seems to have become routine. There are no hints at any cracks in their relationship at all- if anything, it seems like it's just becoming stronger and stronger. Oh, how I wish it had just ended with this episode. Then, maybe, by the time of the reboot we'd see that the Warners have embraced Scratchansniff as their true father figure, he's officially adopted them, and they live a nice family life in a real home. It didn't end there.

Phase 3 starts with Episode 87. I'll be honest, it's a little weird to call this a "phase" at all. That's because, instead of following the logical progression it had been to this point, this is where it completely goes off the rails. It goes from a strong relationship to almost no relationship. Imagine if Wreck-it Ralph 2 had started with Ralph and Felix being at odds again, with absolutely no explanation given as to why. Imagine if Star Wars Episode 5 had started with Luke back on Tatooine living as a regular farmboy. That's what happened here. You have a very consistently followed, logical development of a relationship over 80+ episodes of a TV show, but then in Episode 87 it just all goes away.

As with all the segments and episodes I'm mentioning, I'd suggest you just go watch "Anchors-a-Warners" yourself to get what I mean. But if you need a summary, Scratchansniff tries to go on a cruise to get away from the Warners, but is horrified and legitimately terrified to see that they've followed him on board.

They do everything they can to harass him and ruin his life in the meanest ways possible, for no reason that was ever shown. Scratchansniff did nothing to deserve it. It's the Warners at their worst, written so poorly that they just straight-up seem like the antagonists. Usually they seem like kids just out to have some harmless fun. In this episode they feel malicious. There's a few poorly written episodes like that in the original series, but this one is so much worse because of who they do it to. Because of how it tanked what was previously a thriving relationship with no reason given, reversing all character development both Scratchansniff and the Warners had received over the many episodes of Animaniacs before this. It feels like a bad episode from season 1 that they inserted into season 4. In fact, it's my theory that this is exactly what it is. By this point Animaniacs was nearing the end of production, and it's known that they used some scrapped scripts from the earlier seasons to fill out the last. I think they took this one, which was rightfully rejected years earlier, and made it into an episode for season 4 without much thought.

It wouldn't be so bad if it was followed up by... well, anything. This is the last major interaction the Warners have with Scratchansniff in the original series. Wakko's Wish isn't canon, but even there they don't seem to be close with him at all. Let me reiterate that the building of the Scratchansniff-Warners relationship isn't just a piece of crazy fan headcanon. It's very obviously and deliberately built up. In Phase 1, you kind of alternate between episodes where the Warners antagonize Scratchansniff and episodes where they're more friendly with each other. In Phase 2, though, there isn't a single negative interaction between them. That's why Anchors-a-Warners is so jarring.

Fans were disappointed by Scratchansniff's portrayal in the reboot, as they wanted to see a resumption of the wholesome relationship they had been building before and not see the doctor brought back as your run-of-the-mill cartoon antagonist. I certainly share those desires, but is it really hard to understand why the reboot writers wrote it the way they did? If you watch the original series and assume that every episode happens in chronological order, that is where the relationship left off. Not as family, but as enemies. We can only hope that they redevelop it in the future to leave it on a good note in the end.

So, why do I think it was left off like that? I think it can be attributed to the rocky end of Animaniacs. The network was dissatisfied with their product, which was attracting too many adults, and was relatively expensive to produce. The number of Animaniacs staff working on the show was cut significantly in the later seasons. I think, being slowly forced out like that, Tom Ruegger and other writers probably lost passion for the story they had been trying to tell. It's a huge shame that we never got to see a real conclusion, with Scratchansniff embracing the Warners as true family. I think that's the way it was intended to end up.

In-universe, though, what happened? Are there any hints that might tell us how the relationship went sour? I think there might be one. At the end of "Wakko's Two-Note Song", Scratchansniff has embraced Wakko's way of making music and is trying to make a song by honking his car horn. Mr. Plotz hears this and remarks that "the poor guy's finally lost his noodle."

Perhaps Plotz believes that the psychiatrist spending so much time with the Warners has, instead of taming the Warners, actually made Scratchansniff insane. So, the next time he sees him, Plotz chews him out for failing to do his job and orders him to go see a psychiatrist of his own to bring him back up to level. In the midst of this humiliation, Scratchansniff became paranoid that Plotz was actually right, remembering how he used to be and believing that the Warners made him insane. This caused him to try to cut off close contact with the Warners, becoming cold to them the next time they met. The Warners, hurt and confused by the sudden rejection, became angry and got their revenge by picking on Scratchansniff like the old days, only increasing Scratchansniff's bitterness towards them and sending the relationship plummeting back to how it was before. This is why they're so hostile to him in Anchors-a-Warners. None of that is rooted in canon besides the one moment I showed above. It's all speculation, but it's the best answer I can come up with.

That's the end of my in-universe speculation. I'd like to touch upon the greater societal impact that Scratchansniff may have had. Before Dr. Scratchansniff, there were no or almost no reoccurring, seriously taken psychiatrist characters in cartoons. You wouldn't see Bugs Bunny sitting on a therapy couch for anything other than a quick gag. I won't pretend like Scratchansniff's character is meant to be taken very seriously or that any of his therapeutic interactions with the Warners were much more than jokes. However, it was a long-lasting, mostly positive relationship between doctor and patient that was thoroughly explored. Imagine being a kid in the 90's who has to go to psychotherapy. You probably feel ostracized, probably bullied if anyone knows about it. Then a new super popular cartoon comes on the scene where the main characters regularly go to therapy and have a long-lasting relationship with their psychiatrist. Maybe it made it a little better.

And maybe that's what this is all about. If I were to distill Animaniacs down to one statement, I'd say it's meant to show the perspective of the little guy. It shows the world from the perspective of kids, from the perspective of pets, lab mice, the neurodivergent, the flame on a candle.

Before I started writing this post, I was under the impression I usually am with these kinds of things- everything I'm talking about is fan theory, and the creators probably didn't intend more than half of it. Fans, especially fans who look as deeply into things as I do, tend to go way overboard, finding meaning where none was ever meant to exist. I very much do not think the English teacher overanalysis of every little detail in every creative work is generally the most correct way to look at things, from the point of view of what the creator intended. I do it for fun, of course, but as an author I know that most of the most profound symbolism and hidden meanings in my works are things that were completely unintentional, that I only find after I reread them several times. That's especially true in a silly comedy cartoon like Animaniacs, right?

As I got deeper into writing this, though, I realized that there might be more there than I first thought. Mental illness, or "insanity", is a consistently reoccurring theme in this show. The first segment in the first episode starts with the Warners getting acquainted with their psychiatrist. Their psychiatrist is their closest ally and favorite enemy, the one that around 10% of the episodes in the series focus on. A psychiatry office is one of the default settings for the show.

Insanity is mentioned in the intro to every episode (totally insaney!). Before most episodes, the Warners' backstory is shown in Newsreel of the Stars. In their expanded backstory shown in certain episodes, it's revealed that their animator went insane creating them.

Everyone else, at least the adults, around the Warners call them destructive and insane, ostracizing them from society. To anyone with half a brain watching, though, it's immensely clear that the Warners aren't anything more than hyperactive children with no strong adult guidance, using the god powers they never asked for to act out for extremely understandable reasons. The show consistently shows instead that the adults around them, the stuffy business types calling them insane, are the true unstable ones. They're blinded by prejudice, trying the same thing over and over, banging their heads against the wall trying everything to solve the "issue" of the Warners, except the solution that was extremely obvious the entire time. The Warners just need someone to care for them. Even the one who's supposed to be the expert in the field of mental health can't figure out this very basic idea.

Think back on the history of how we as a society have treated mental health issues. First, hundreds of years ago, we tried to lock the crazies away in asylums. Get them away from society so they can't harm us and we don't have to think of them. Then things progressed to aggressively trying to treat these mental disorders, with lobotomies and shock therapy and every horrible thing in between. We became obsessed with trying to take the neurodivergent and make them "normal."

What happened to the Warners? First, they were locked away, separated from society. Then, they were aggressively treated with the explicit aim of making them "normal." Their psychiatrist, as I covered in part 1, probably got his degree around the 1930's or 40's, using extremely outdated tactics that inevitably would fail to give the Warners any real help. You can see the parallels.

The Warners live in a world where it's extremely clear how everyone mistreats them, yet they're always made out to be the crazy ones. Animaniacs shows it for what it really is, from the perspective of the marginalized, from the perspective of those who were driven mad by the environment they were born into. Even though the truth is extremely obvious to them, no one can ever see their side. Animaniacs is meant to show how treating mental illness with the intent of making the patient normal is nothing more than banging your head against the wall. It will never help them or you. If you truly want to get them help, then help them. Help them exist in society the best they can, and only then will you start to see some of the improvement you hoped for in the first place. Like I said in the last part- the Warners could have been tamed, but if you want to do that, taming them cannot be your primary goal.

This is one of the few things I've spoken on in my overanalysis series that I believe has a strong chance to be fully intentional. In fact, now that I've laid it out for myself, the symbolism of Animaniacs seems kind of obvious. We've grown as a society recently, getting on the path to accepting mental illness and neurodivergency for what it is instead of jumping right to ostracizing it (though there's still a ways to go). Animaniacs, on the other hand, was trying to get this in our heads 30 years ago.

Bringing this back around to the main topic, I'll say something I've said many times before- I hope the Warners get a happy ending. I hope they embrace Scratchansniff truly and he embraces them. I hope they get out of the tower for good and can live the lives they want. It doesn't have to be the focus of an episode or anything. Just, to end the reboot off, show a 30 second scene of them being happy and free. That's all I want.

And so, finally, mercifully, that's all I have to say on this topic. At least until I think of more in a year from now. The next installment in Overanalyzing the Warners will focus on the Warners themselves, specifically their sibling relationship. That won't be out for a long while, though.

If you have anything you want to add, comment on, correct, or say about this post, don't hesitate to leave a reply or send in an ask. In any case, thank you for reading all of that. It continues to surprise me how much support I receive for these insane lore ramblings about this children's comedy cartoon. Thank you.