User blog:Justsomeordinarydude/Shop Girl Reaction

Originally uploaded 29/6 via DeviantArt

This one was very entertaining. I can see some people perhaps being a bit sour on this episode because it involved the Loud siblings acting mean and aggressive towards one another, and also because they were trying to change Leni, the resident kind one, into another of them. And as we all know, that’s just the worst, isn’t it? (INSERT DECLARATION OF PREVIOUS STATEMENT BEING BLATANT SARCASM HERE) In truth, however, that’s the nature of the show. The very lyrics of the opening theme state as much. You’ve got to expect a certain level of presence of aggressive behaviour to be displayed by the sibling group against each other sometimes. That’s how sibling relationships conventionally are. Not perfect. Full of conflict and fighting, though stable and healthy relationships will usually have the fighting not be overly destructive or vindictive. What would you prefer? A perfect relationship between the siblings all the time? Let’s face it, that would result in an incredibly tame and boring show.

Anyway. There were many laughs to be found in this story. Some of the demonstrations the Louds provided Leni when aiming to teach her to be more ‘assertive’ were genuinely amusing. We all knew she was tough for a six year old, but wasn’t it pretty unexpectedly awesome (as well as a little shocking) to see her attack and fully overpower her 17 year old sister Lori? Also, Lynn showing her strength when taking out the entire sibling group at once in one charge, as well as her charisma when dancing alongside Lincoln after they celebrate Leni using what she learned from them to beat everyone in the mall to get her hands on the discounted clothes she wanted. Lola always trying to be nice at the end, only for her hot-headed temper to cause that to backfire and Lincoln to remark that she should stick to what she knows was also a solid ending gag. Leni going on a rampage was kinda funny in a sense, and the violent humour never became overly mean-spirited or unnecessarily over the top, based on one’s subjective outlook. The ways in which Leni falsely interpreted the suggestions of her siblings to be more forceful and demanding by merely tapping one of them on the shoulder and politely asking, rather than be aggressive and unforgiving as they were clearly intending her to be, were also moderately amusing… but also reflective on the strengths of her character. The episode presents Leni as someone who, without even thinking about it sometimes, just likes to do the right thing and be the altruistic, selfless person in the room who just wants to sympathise with the misfortune and offer a helping hand. I recall one of her strongest stories to date back from season one, One Flu Over The Loud House, as there she was willing to sacrifice her health status to tend to her sick sisters. Here, she’s the same. She just seems to have a need to help others, even if it doesn’t benefit her materialistically.

I found the conclusion very reflecting on the character’s greatest virtues, as well as generally heart-warming overall, though a little dragging. Leni’s selfless giving comes back to reward as a number of people she helped out in the mall returned to provide her with gifts and applause, and one lady even offered her a new job. It demonstrated quite strongly why Leni was great the way she is, and the advantage that comes with actually being kind-hearted and giving. Although, one minor complaint was just how many people came up to her and just how long the scene dragged on. After a while, I was thinking “yeah we get the message, how many more people are going to come and see Leni and give her something? We’ve already had about ten of them!”Anyway, that’s just a nitpick.

Though in spite of all that, there is one factor which majorly lowers the ranking of this episode for me, and that is the obvious plagiarism. This story is all about Leni being deemed as too weak, passive and opposed towards using violent means to get what she wants or to avoid being mistreated, so she gets taught to be more ‘assertive’ (or aggressive). That sounds an awful lot like my recent Fan Fiction titled Pushover or Payback, except it’s about changing Leni’s passive nature instead of Lincoln. Clearly the writers have seen my work, stolen it, and repackaged it into a Leni story. Considering that…

Final Rating: 0/10

 

…

 

Okay, I’m obviously kidding. The writing for this episode most probably long predates me starting my fanfic. Besides, unfortunately very few people have actually read it to date (www.deviantart.com/justsomeord…). I’m not going to drop the score for that. One legitimate gripe I have, however, is the fact that the premise for this episode is nonsensical. Here’s the thing. I’m expected to believe Leni is truly this passive, anti-aggressive, ridiculously sweet and kind-hearted, altruistic individual who acts like a pushover. While the intention behind Leni’s character may have been something along those lines, and for the most part, she is like that, there have been a number of occasions in the series where Leni has shown she is not always the overly kind, selfless and peaceful, non-aggressive saint she was in this story. Obviously, Brawl is one of the prime examples in proving my point, as she was one of the main instigators of all the conflict and fighting in the house over a simple dress. Also, The Sweet Spot (“NO! I WANT IT!”), No Such Luck, Driving Miss Hazy, It’s a Loud, Loud, Loud… Loud House, and not to mention, all the fight cloud scenes involving the sisters throughout the show. While some episodes have stuck to characterising Leni as the kind and sweet one, not every story has. In fact, a lot of them have provided character moment for Leni which directly and confusingly contradict her portrayal here. It appears the inconsistent writing for some of the characters is affecting the plausibility of otherwise strong narratives at this point. This is a wider problem which needs to be addressed. In future seasons, it may be worth establishing a greater sense of consistency regarding what the characters are actually like so that stories relating to their characters and developing them based on what has been established can actually work better and make more sense. If Leni is supposed to be the sweet one who never uses aggression to get what she wants, why does she spend so many episodes fighting with the other siblings over petty squabbles anyway? I guess you could perceive Leni as the generally sweet and kind one who still has her limits and can resort to violence on occasion based on what we’ve seen of her so far, but the inconsistent character development still hinders that overall outlook on her character. See what I mean?

But other than that, there’s not much internally wrong with the story. For pure enjoyment reasons, I’m going to give this episode a fairly high rating, even if it doesn’t stand as strong as part of the series as a whole as it does on its own terms and merits. Unfortunately, this is a great episode slightly held back by the sins of the show it belongs to.

TRUE Final Rating: 8/10