Lunar Sea Spire podcast episode 418: Cursed! and Fiddle Me This (from Amphibia)

GC13 and David discuss Cursed! and Fiddle Me This from Amphibia.

Finally, Maddie gets her time to shine. She may be well-versed in the dark arts, but she’s a good witch at heart (Azura crossover when?), and would never curse someone just for breaking up with her by text.

And Sprig is good with the fiddle. Like, really good. With a competition the next weekend, a mere nine days of training is all it takes for him to put on a flawless performance. Except for being eaten by a bat.

The Recruitment of Hazel: Grace of Infinity Train’s Apex at Work

Even before Infinity Train gave us season three, focusing on Grace and the Apex, it had already showed us Grace hard at work trying to recruit a kid into the Apex. So of course Grace would try it again in her own season of Infinity Train, and this time her target was a kid named Hazel.

It goes so well for her at first, only to be utterly derailed by the end. Even before Infinity Train’s curve balls though, Grace was struggling to keep up the deception necessary to recruit Hazel. Compassion is a very difficult emotion for Grace, but it eventually turned her away from the Apex, and all the better for her.

Lunar Sea Spire podcast episode 417: The Great HBO Max Purge (a news update)

GC13 discusses the latest news after the great HBO Max purge.

It wasn’t something any of us wanted to see. Numerous cartoons were removed from HBO Max, including such Lunar Sea Spire favorites as OK KO, Infinity Train, Mao Mao: Heroes of Pure Heart, and Summer Camp Island.

Nothing more has come out officially, but Owen Dennis, creator of Infinity Train, has shared what we was able to learn and it’s the most up-to-date information we have.

Cartoon Network August 2022 Ratings Report

Now August was a much more normal month—Cartoon Network only aired premiers for two series: Teen Titans Go and Victor and Valentino. Except this wasn’t an ordinary month at all, because Cartoon Network burned off the last twelve episodes of Victor and Valentino after its removal from HBO Max with a whole host of other cartoons.

Lunar Sea Spire podcast episode 416: Agony of a Witch (from The Owl House)

GC13, Soren, and David discuss Agony of a Witch from The Owl House.

This is it, the lead-in to the season finale. Lilith and Eda throw down with an impressive fight scene, and Eda finally learns why her sister was so insistent that she join the Emperor’s Coven.

Of course, it’s not the penultimate episode of the season if it ends with everyone happy, and Lilith has us covered—King even made a cake. Don’t worry though Luz: the cake was King.

You Don’t Have to Hocus-Focus: How The First Day Changed Principal Bump and The Owl House

Principal Bump had a great story arc through the first two seasons of The Owl House, but what was the single greatest moment on that arc? It had to be The First Day, when Luz convinced him to allow multi-track studies at Hexside—that would end up putting him quite clearly on the side of The Owl House’s good guys.

Of course Emperor Belos would quite rather nobody multi-track, because committing to a coven early means you have a lot of time to rationalize your decision to join a coven. The Owl House is sneaky like that. But thanks to Luz and The First Day, Principal Bump eventually decided to stop playing Belos’s game.

Lunar Sea Spire podcast episode 415: Wing It Like Witches (from The Owl House)

GC13 and Soren discuss Wing It Like Witches from The Owl House.

If this is the obligatory sports episode, don’t you regret that we never got the obligatory beach episode? Luz is so good at breaking down tropes. We could have learned a lot from her (though nothing’s going to top the montage explaining what montages are).

So, put on your Ricky soundtrack and get to hunting for that rusty smidge—there’s not much reason to play the rest of the game, is there?

The HBO Max Purge: The Losses of Summer Camp Island, Infinity Train, Mao Mao, and OK KO

I don’t normally do news, but I couldn’t keep quiet about this. HBO Max has purged a lot of their animated shows, including fan favorites like Summer Camp Island, Infinity Train, Mao Mao, and OK KO. They’re gone now, apparently headed for a tax write off. Maybe they’ll stay available on Prime Video, maybe they won’t, but so much for HBO Max.

You’re all sad, and I’m sad too. Summer Camp Island’s sixth season will eventually air on Cartoon Network, this much we know, but what happens after that? And Infinity Train, Mao Mao, and OK KO have already been cut short by executives past; their time has already gone. All of these shows are gone from HBO Max, and are in the process of being scrubbed from company sites, but let’s hope they linger at least somewhere.

Lunar Sea Spire podcast episode 414: Family Fishing Trip and Bizarre Bazaar (from Amphibia)

GC13 and David discuss Family Fishing Trip and Bizarre Bazaar from Amphibia.

A family-building episode, and a plot-advancing episode. Oh so slowly, anyway. Maybe as slowly as Anne is picking up parasailing. At least she has Sprig to show her how it’s done, and to maybe accidentally try to kill Sylvia. Whoops.

So Hop Pop is actually a terrific actor. He had the entire bazaar eating out of the palm of his hand. But not the hand he had the blue shell in. That would be dangerous. And unbalanced.

There Was No Pearl Swap: One of Steven Universe’s Most Popular Theories

You can’t be blamed for watching Steven Universe and thinking that, just maybe, Pearl used to belong to White Diamond. A white-skinned Gem with her gem in her forehead? What does Steven Universe want you to think, anyway?

Well, White Diamond doesn’t need a Pearl to feel superior to; the only reason she ended up with one was to punish Pink, and to give her a more sensible one—that is to say, one that was just as rigid as she was. It’s a good thing for Steven Universe that White failed on that one too, because Pearl turned out to be more than she could have ever imagined.