User blog:Justsomeordinarydude/Net Gains (The Loud House): A Reaction.

Net Gains

Sorry I couldn't get out my episode predictions before the premiere of this episode, but I just had my laptop repaired this week, and all of my software and files were on it so I couldn't really produce anything properly. But now it's back and I'm in the process of recovering the software needed for continued production and I aim to play catch up for the next week or so. Anyway, enough about that. I will have made an episode predictions post for the rest of the episodes this month before the end of the coming week.

As for this story. You all know my stance regarding Lynn Jr. She is a character I have spoken about enough in previous discussions and episode responses. She's a lovable and interesting character who has just been the unfortunate victim of countless poor portrayals in the show. NSL is the main source of the hatred aimed towards her by fans, though many other instances of her less-than-charming behaviour have also served to turn some fans off her. Lynner-Takes-All only further divided the opinion of the fandom towards her, too. But with this episode, I think we can all safely agree that this is a significant step in the right direction. While it may not completely redeem the character in the eyes of many, and there are some people who are likely always going to have a bit of distaste for her, I certainly believe this episode has at least reduced the amount of hatred she has. I've even seen a few more fan-works of her recently, and a few people stating they now like her (and some even claiming this story made her their new favourite).

The episode itself has a lot of merit to it. Most notably, the journey Lynn's character goes through as the narrative progresses. One of the recurring proposals people place fourth when discussing how her character could improve is how she needs to learn that winning isn't anything, and that she should learn to be a better sport, as well as a person who cares more about others. Well, the resolution to this plot ticks all of those boxes, as Lynn comes to sacrifice her desire to win at basketball in order to make sure that she and her new teammates all partake and have fun at the event. After getting a taste of her own medicine (her new competent partners hogging the action from her in a match, after she did the same to her less able teammates earlier on), she realises the jerkish nature of her previous actions and actually sacrifices her deeply ingrained passion for always winning at everything for the sake of her new teammates and friends. Considering the lengths Lynn has gone to in previous stories (and lesser, poorly written ones) and the hardships this attitude of hers has inflicted upon others, this progression of her character must be deeply appreciated in how far it is upgrading the humanity of her being. She contributed to what Lincoln went through in NSL just because she feared he was bad luck and this would negatively affect her chances of winning at sports. She gloated all throughout Lynner and even suffered from a dose of sanity slippage upon the mere occurence of losing for once. This was the Lynn Loud Jr which many grown to detest. But this story highlights the fact that she is not as irredeemable or despicable a person as some haters would have you believe. She is capable of placing the needs of others above her own, and prioritising the handling of her relationships with those closest to her over the compulsive drive to constantly win at everything. It's great to see an episode which actually proves Lynn has some positive attributes to her name, as she has been dealt with the short end of the stick when it comes to representation in the series far too many times at this point. While this story is unlikely to completely diminish the hate-dom she has gained (one episode single-handedly undoing the dirty work of 2 seasons inflicting damage to her character is a bit of a ridiculous hope at this point), hopefully this is a start to her finding her redemption in the eyes of the fans.

Aside from witnessing Lynn's betterment as a person proceed in this narrative, we also found out some other things about her. Despite being seen as one of the dumber siblings, she is shown to have great persuasive skills. Specifically, she was shown to be excellent at playing Flip like a fiddle and "encouraging" (or manipulating) him into doing whatever she wants by appealing to his desire for cash and profit. Speaking of Flip, he worked pretty well in this story and the role he played as Lynn's team manager, who's disinterested in the sporting competition and is mainly only there to make money. John DiMaggio does a great job voicing the character and providing a few entertaining moments as always. Of course, I'm not surprised Flip knew those prisoners, since despite being an entertaining antagonistic entity, he is a pretty despicable human being when it comes down to it. Then we have the new teammates of Lynn's, The Turkey Jerkies, consisting of Maya, Paula, Amy and Diane. All of whom have some form of problem, disability or hindrance which prevents them from being fully competent basketball players. It is pretty admirable of these girls to compete in sports and actively want to partake in spite of the fact that their handicaps and vices restrict them from being able to legitimately compete against most teams they oppose. Special mention goes to Paula, who plays despite having to use crutches, and admittedly, the image of her playing and overcoming this disability of hers is quite powerful. All these new kids are friendly are likeable enough new characters, and they are serviceable supporting characters in this story who serve an important purpose in forcing Lynn to realise it is not about being the best (as they clearly are not), but about having fun when playing. That's all they are really there to do, and Lynn learns to look at things the same way. Much like the city kids in City Slickers, there's not really much else to say about them as we discover very little about them (other than their negative traits which hinder their playing ability, and what is required for fulfilling their role in the plot) and the content of their characters. But they seem likeable enough as it stands. Who knows? Maybe they'll appear again at some point.

Anyway, this was a pretty solid and satisfying episode overall. By no means was it anything groundbreaking, and I'm sure some people will still not view this enough as far as the reformation of Lynn Jr's character is concerned, but there was enough merit, in terms of character development, storytelling and entertainment value for this product to be deemed worth watching.

Final Rating: 8.5/10

Side Note: So yeah, this was an episode I think we were all hoping for, simply so we could see the show's most loathed and critiqued character in a more positive light. Perhaps now more people will at least entertain the possibility that maybe Lynn isn't as bad as some say, and that rather than being an irredeemable monster, she's just a flawed but still noble and ultimately well meaning human being with a lot of energy and passion. Anyway, now that I've caught up with reactions, I should probably still get to work with a (Late) episode prediction post, as well as a brief discussion on the news concerning the announcements for season 4 and the Casagrande spin-off. I'll get to work on that stuff fairly shortly...