Bravest Warriors

[Lord Il]

Just curious to hear some thoughts on Bravest Warriors, the new series by Adventure Time creator Pendleton Ward.

For those not in-the-know, Bravest Warriors is (so far) an exclusive YouTube release which came out around the end of 2012. A second season is due to follow soon. Production values are quite good. If you're already familiar with the strangeness of Adventure Time, expect the same from this latest work.


(Oh, and Catbug has to be the cutest creation to grace the world!)

[LumRanmaYasha]

First off, Bravest Warriors gives hope for high-quality web-original animation. The production values are about as good as Adventure Time's and has some great boarding and direction. If web-cartoons are more high-quality like this then some really fantastic shows should be created within the next few years.

As for the show itself, I find the story it's been developing a little intriguing, and it's dealing with it's plotline much better than how Adventure Time treated the Lich King returns plot, but episode to episode it's really not that engrossing to me. There are a lot of really clever ideas and concepts, but the humor just falls flat. Furthermore, the focus on "random" elements as a way of world building is the same kind of stuff Adventure Time has done, and it was never particularly funny to me. It's also problematic, that aside from maybe future Chris I'm not very invested with the characters or their problems, although the season finale warmed me up a little to Chris and Beth.

I think there's a lot of things to like, and it's level of "maturity" is a little higher than Adventure Time's for the most part too, but I really feel it's one of those cartoons, web or otherwise, that is just "there." I'll watch the next season, but it's not one of those things where I am pumped to see a new episode, and I think that overall the writing should develop a little bit sharper to help the show really stand out and become truly unique.

[Daxdiv]

(Oh, and Catbug has to be the cutest creation to grace the world!)

You're damn right about that. I've been watching random episodes and I feel like I need to rewatch this series to get a better vibe since I do kind of like reading the monthly comic from Kaboom! line of comics.

[Silverstar]

A friend of mine told me that Bravest Warriors was being made into a web series. I had already seen the pilot short on Random! Cartoons and if that and Adventure Time is any indication of what the webisodes are like....tcha, you know what? It's just easier for me to say that I'm not a fan of Pen Ward's storytelling style and leave it at that. Ward seems like a nice enough guy in interviews and he's done some decent work on shows like Flapjack and Chowder, but I haven't enjoyed any of his own series to date. For me, Pen Ward like is CN's Butch Hartman: Hartman did some funny stuff on some of the CN shows like Johnny Bravo, but I don't like anything he's done on Nick with him at the helm.

[Lord Il]

One of my nephews brought it to my attention today that Jhonen Vasquez has wrote an upcoming episode of Bravest Warriors, "The Puppetyville Horror." It's slated for release January 23rd.

[Daxdiv]

Did anyone else see the latest episode? I thought it was pretty on par with Jhonen's past work.

Also, the episode was light on Catbug, which could be good, since even though I like Catbug, He seems to be hammered into everything BW's related. I mean, even the Annual for the comic will focus on him & he didn't even start appearing in the comics until the webtoon exploded.

[LumRanmaYasha]

I haven't seen Jhonen's episode yet, but I will say that season two so far has been a tremendous improvement on the first. I've really got some great laughs from every episode so far.

I also think they need to tone down on the Catbug stuff. He's okay in small doses, but it's obnoxious how he takes up so many scenes. I'm not even sure why he's even popular honestly. I know it's because people find him cute and whatever, but for the most part he just spouts a bunch of nonsense one-liners, and I think it gets old after a while. I do enjoy his unassumingly violent side (kinda like with Peppermint Butler in Adventure Time), so if they continue to use him, I'd rather they focus his jokes on that part of him more.

[LumRanmaYasha]

Funny enough, Jhonen's episode was the weakest of this season so far to me. Huh. Oh well, still a good ep, and it did have his classic disturbingness to it too. This season of Bravest Warriors just continues to be on a roll.

[Daikun]

I wonder when the horse returns.

[Lord Il]

I also think they need to tone down on the Catbug stuff. He's okay in small doses, but it's obnoxious how he takes up so many scenes.

The popularity of Catbug has exploded to an all time high and I'll admit it's not necessarily a good thing. He's a cute character and all, but I feel his increasing appearances are their way of buying up more ratings. And he certainly does need to be toned down(too much of a good thing?) - perhaps to the level of Impossibear. Impossibear has some randomly funny lines and appearances and has little screen time by comparison.

Funny enough, Jhonen's episode was the weakest of this season so far to me. Huh. Oh well, still a good ep, and it did have his classic disturbingness to it too. This season of Bravest Warriors just continues to be on a roll.

From when I read his comic books a while back, I was expecting something maybe a bit more darker with Jhonen's written episode. It was still fun though and a good addition to season 2.

I wonder when the horse returns.

Things were left fairly open with Beth's horse in the See Through Zone and he was definitely kicking some ass there with his newfound abilities. If I were to take a guess, we might see him return with some sort of ties with getting the Bravest Warriors' parents back (if it's decided to persue this part of the story further!)

I haven't done a voice credit check but Beth's horse sounds VERY similar to the narrator voice in G1 Transformers. It has to be the same guy.

[Daikun]

I also think they need to tone down on the Catbug stuff. He's okay in small doses, but it's obnoxious how he takes up so many scenes.

You're probably not going to like the latest episode, then.

Frankly, I'd say this new episode is the first genuinely bad one in the series. Thank you, Jhonen, for providing some balance by not having him at all earlier, because THIS is freaking OVERKILL.

[Daxdiv]

This episode proves why you don't let Catbug do any missions for the BW. I did like how Chris & Wallow decided that sending Catbug was a bad idea.

[LumRanmaYasha]

Yeah...that episode was pretty obnoxious. Not so much because of Catbug alone, but the jokes weren't great either. Though, I was interested in seeing RoboChris and the alien from the pilot episode back from Random Cartoons as part of Catbug's away team. I wonder if they'll be recurring characters like Plum? But yeah, the writers really need to stop overusing Catbug and Impossibear, or at least write better episodes when they want them to be leads. Hopefully the next episode will be better.

[Lord Il]

I did like how Chris & Wallow decided that sending Catbug was a bad idea.

Yeah, I found that especially amusing when considering how weak this latest episode delivered.

Kinda hoping they just gave Catbug the spotlight in this one only to give the little guy a break for a few episodes.

[LumRanmaYasha]

Newest Bravest Warriors was a step up from the last. I'm very intrigued by this new plot development, though I wonder what this'll mean for Chris and Beth's relationship. I guess I can look forward to Plum appearing more, though. I wonder who's responsible for messing up the timeline...for that matter, why did Chris and Beth's fate have to altered like that in order to help get it back on track? Should be an interesting storyline, at the very least.