User blog:Justsomeordinarydude/The Crying Dame (The Loud House): A Reaction.

I liked this episode, as it reflects on the positivity of the bond shared between the Loud siblings. Despite the parents insisting they don't use Fenton the feel-better Fox as a means to cheer up Lily, given how they consider it to be unbearably grating and even seem to infer it is somehow demonic, the siblings are determined to cure Lily of her sadness and constant crying. Granted, at first they were motivated by selfish reasons for helping their baby sister primarily, as they simply couldn't tolerate her crying, and later resort to disposing of the doll once they become annoyed with it constantly playing all the time. However, as the narrative progresses, the Louds abandon any selfish motivations and desires and demonstrate how they, as a collective sibling group, are good-natured and caring at heart, as they eventually come to realise their mistake, and understand that by taking Lily's fox toy away, they have made her deeply depressed and discontented. When coming to this conclusion, the Loud siblings go to great lengths to retrieve the toy they initially attempted to dispose of, and when they fail to do so, resort to other measures in order to cheer up their sister. Lincoln in particular even goes out of his way to dress up as Fenton the Fox and imitate the jingle/dance the toy performed, with all the other sisters joining in the sing along, too. In spite of their own desires, preferences, and distaste for the toy, the siblings put their baby sister's needs above their own and made the situation right in the end. Some might argue it's a bittersweet ending, since the Louds have to continue enduring the annoying fox toy jingle for their sister's amusement, but think about it. Lily is a baby. Eventually (probably shortly) she will grow out of the need for Fenton the Fox to make her happy. It's a short term solution for a short term problem. I'm sure despite Lincoln's fears, they will not need to be performing the fox toy jingle for the rest of their lives.

Of course, an interesting question worth posing about this whole plot is: why was Lily sad and constantly crying in the 1st place? She may be a baby, but she's not normally shown to cry that much, but at the beginning of this episode, she is shown to be in such a poor emotional state that she cannot physically stop crying. But the reason for this is never explained. Has Lily been experiencing something exceptionally nerve-wracking or distressing recently which is causing her to be a lot more upset and weepy than usual (unexplored plot point)? Or has she just been characterised as more of a typical crybaby than she normally is just for the sake of the plot (honestly, it sucks when writers resort to completely changing characters for the sake of a story which doesn't suit the characters they are using)? Even before being introduced to the fox toy, she was tearful. What initially caused her to be in that state? You would think a way to truly help Lily deal with her state of emotional imbalance would be to discover the original source of he sadness and resolve the cause of her crying from there. That way, Lily feels better and that end is met without a need to rely on her newfound dependence of an annoying fox toy.

A few other little side notes. The parents seemed very content with detatching themselves from the whole situation. I know you two cannot stand that irritating toy, but you're just going to distance yourself from the problem your youngest daughter is facing? Either tolerate the toy for her sake, or if it really is that unbearable, seek another method of curing her intense sadness? Be responsible parents; the kids may not have the best solution, given how galling the toy is, but at least they're trying to help Lily. Speaking of the toy, what was the deal with that final shot of Fenton the Fox's face suddenly becoming the sun? Talk about complete randomness... Also, it was neat to see a little usage of continuity for once (the picture of baby Lori with her deformed head shape and webbed feet, keeping consistency with the picture of her we saw back in Not A Loud). If only continuity could be used more often, when stories in the show could most benefit from it. Also, how can the toy be so loud that it caused annoyance across the entire household at all times? Surely, it would only be audible when within the same room as it, so the Louds shouldn't have been pestered by it all the time and driven to desperate measures by it. But apparently, the noise it generates travels across the entire house. Weird, huh?

But now I'm just nit-picking. In spite of my complaints, the bottom line is The Crying Dame is a really strong episode of the show, which represents the Loud siblings in a highly positive light. All the siblings have their moments in this story and they all show how they do care for one another and will go to great lengths to make each other happy. I also like the fact that Lily has received a focal episode. Given her status as 'the baby' it is easy to dismiss her as nothing more than 'not a real character' with any further development or personality. But here, she is heavily featured in the story and receives a lot of instances to show her emotions, reveal what makes her happy or sad, and so on. This show, mostly (Brawl, NSL, and some of Lynn Jr's portrayals are examples of this not always being the case, unfortunately), does such a great job with making its characters 3-dimensional, likable, and fully realised, and even the baby is not an exception. Some people might be annoyed by this one, as the parents lack involvement when they should be taking action, and the resolution, while heartwarming, is not necessarily the most creative or ideal one that could have been reached (resorting to mimicking the chant played by the lost toy for Lily's satisfaction). But in spite of that, I still found this story to contain a lot of merit, and gratifying to watch overall.

Final Rating: 8/10 (GREAT).