Hello everyone! Welcome to another Classy Critique, where we discuss important animation topics and reviews, but only fancier! Right now, we’re finishing up the StickNodes Movie review! This review will cover episode 11. Originally, it was going to cover 11 and the series as a whole, but that totaled over 5000 words so I decided to split it up. Just a warning, there’s going to be quite a bit of reading involved here, so prepare. If you want to get the gist without reading the whole thing, just look at the conclusion at the bottom, which sums up the episode on a whole. If you want the specifics for the reasonings at the conclusion, then I recommend reading the whole thing to find out. Also, it’s better to watch the episode before/while reading too. That way, you can follow along! 😀

Episode 11:
This episode starts off throwing the audience immediately into the fight between Cyan and Crimson. Fighting, however, is way too fast paced with not enough emphasis on impact. It makes the hits look incredibly weak. Dialogue is also incredibly long, and interrupts the flow of the scene. We see Cyan and Crimson wrestling, then it suddenly cuts back to Roux. The scene is littered with animation and spacing errors, such as a Roux looking to Epitaph, but then looking the other way literally the next frame. Her dress magically disappears as well. Despite detail apparently being as important as animation, there’s an incredible lack of good detail and spacing here. Dialogue between Epitaph and Roux doesn’t flow well at all. Sentences could be structured much better. These things are important for story-based animations. The shot suddenly cuts from Roux saying “I’ll kill you too,” to Cyan and Crimson fighting more. At least give the audience a que that the scene is going to switch. I understand that such cuts are used in fighting scenes all the time, but they aren’t pulled off well in this movie. The fact that the fighting is too fast-paced only amplifies this problem. Pacing has always been a problem, but the fight scene with Cyan and Crimson, as well as the fight with Roux and Epitaph, display it the most. The fighting is all over the place. Choreography is bad. The whole scene emphasizes effects rather than the actual fighting. Because the fighting is way too quick, text in the middle of it completely disrupts the flow and makes the scene feel odd. The fight has potential to be cool, but its speed prevents any focus or impact on any particular cool move/ability. I thought the ships firing at Epitaph would be actually pretty cool, but it happens so quickly without any impact, and Epitaph blocking all the shots with weird space planks is just kind of lame. Not to mention, why are the shots from the ships so small? These should practically be artillery shots, but they’re about the same size of a pistol shot. A cruiser barrage could have been really cool, but this problem, with the addition of impact being nonexistent, gets in the way of things. It makes the fight pretty bad. Also, Roux “rebuilding a world in her image” is incredibly cliche and unoriginal. The spacing and placement of the background with Cyan and Crimson is horrible. They’re all over the place, and then suddenly land on the device that transforms them back into Ralph and Sean. At least there’s actually good music this time around. However, there are no claims for creation of the music, nor are there disclaimers. Music needs to be credited and disclaimers must be made. Otherwise, it counts as stealing.

New paragraph so the amount of text isn’t overwhelming! How is it that Epitaph can take on Roux and this massive fleet, but he gets shot in the back once and just gets knocked down? Character abilities and powers are incredibly inconsistent. More characters are added as users, and the audience doesn’t have any explanation for any of them. None of their names are introduced, despite them getting close-up time. They’re randomly inserted in the story, and it seems yet again like the movie is assuming the audience already knows the backstory of characters without any introduction to them. The “big manly mug” and Sean’s “m8” are both incredibly unnecessary jokes that have no place in the current setting, since Roux is literally going to kill them all once she’s done with Epitaph. There’s a ton of potential with Kaiju actually getting attention and making a speech, but he literally just tells everyone how to stop Charxek and that’s it. Kaiju has so much potential, but that doesn’t mean, in his current state, that Kaiju is a good character. He’s vastly underdeveloped, and not once has it been revealed in the movie that Kaiju is the Origin Being of Time. Nowhere. Believe me, I watched for it. I chuckled at the light switch joke, though. As Epitaph fights more Rouxians, (and yes, the fight is incredibly fast paced and not impactful at all, that’s basically a given at this point.) Kaiju and the users come out from nowhere and come to fight. Roux randomly gets philosophical (badly worded philosophy at that) and rants about heroism and savagery. Roux asks if they all are either mindless savages that just want to kill or heroes fighting for the same cause. She sees Node Spawns, and says “or maybe we’re more like them, simply killing through instinct.” This is where the flaws of this philosophical rant are apparent. “Mindless savagery” is MINDLESS, meaning that it happens through instinct. Saying “or maybe we’re more like them, simply killing through instinct,” is saying the exact same thing as what she said about mindless savages. In addition, there are CLEAR distinctions that show that the Rouxians aren’t fighting for the same thing Epitaph and the gang are. Roux literally said 2 minutes ago that she wants to end the world and rebuild it in her image. It’s also incredibly poor dialogue to say, right after all that attempted philosophy, “let’s have some fun.” It just makes Roux look edgy and it undermines the philosophy of literally 10 seconds ago. The philosophy itself is incredibly flawed, and it looks like a poor attempt to make Roux seem like a complicated character when she’s really not. The collaboration part is a nice touch. It’s got some problems with the background and quality, but it’s a good way to involve the users in the fight. Also, I find it ironic that the best entry is the one with the base figure. It could definitely have been set up better though. The still, pixelated background doesn’t improve things either, and makes the scenery look very bad in quality. Also, Epitaph’s added bits of the fight are WAY TOO fast paced this time around. Action happens way too quickly without much effect or impact. There are all these different Node Spawns that are coming out now, and there was no introduction to them at all. Also, there’s Rouxian tanks now. Nothing is explained, the movie expects you to already know information. This has been a problem for the series since episode one. Roux travels and kills a Node Spawn incredibly quickly, then asks if Charxek can feel Roux killing the Node Spawns. This would be fine if the overly fast-paced fighting didn’t have conflicts with the slow dialogue and text. Cruisers approach the field, and a ton of Node Spawns attack it. Suddenly, they’re in the ship and killing people, and suddenly there’s dead people everywhere and one Rouxian shoots himself in the face. This would be fine, and it could even be emotional, if it didn’t last 6 seconds. I cannot stress this enough: the pacing ruins this movie. It’s gotten to the point where it just even seems lazy.

The camera zooms inside the volcano, and we get a silhouette of Charxek. The animation of the informing Node Spawn is actually pretty good, I liked the hesitation before it let Charxek know that the Origin Beings were alive. Charxek actually gets a pretty cool roar moment, and it could clearly be emphasized more, but instead we randomly get a close up of Epitaph’s face as he’s just standing doing nothing lol. Pacing strikes once again, and Roux knocks Epitaph down and calls him weak. It’s confusing how she wants to become an Origin Being again, but she calls Epitaph a “damned Origin Being” and Kaiju a “wretched Origin Being.” It’s bad writing. Charxek’s entrance is pretty nice, and the Dark Souls music is a good choice for it as well, but there isn’t much of a reaction from anyone actually seeing her. It’s more them backing away when the meteor hits, and no one actually looking at Charxek. Charxek is a pretty big freakin monster, so there’s a lot of untapped potential for reactions to Charxek. Epitaph and Roux don’t really marvel at it, either, which is a loss for more potential. Not to mention, we already know Charxek can speak, so we’re really missing out on interaction between her and Epitaph/Kaiju/Roux/etc. Again, fighting is too quick. Also, it’s incredibly annoying and disorienting to have the music automatically decrease in volume every time there’s dialogue. It’s completely unneeded. It’s text, not actual speaking; there is no need for that. Epitaph as a character also does way too many hand-to-fist gestures. He’s been doing it the entire series. It’s overused at this point. Also, this is when Charxek finally makes a reveal. This is the big baddie that everyone’s worried about. Why is there so much focus on Ralph and Roux then? Ralph making fun of Roux’s butt is completely out of place with the current events. Roux makes a weak comeback and acts edgy.

This is where plotholes of all kind come out: Ralph’s computer. That singular laptop could literally solve every single problem the story has ever faced. It takes Roux, freezes her, and teleports her in front of Charxek. Literally all you would need to do is freeze someone then stab ‘em a couple times. Why wasn’t this taken advantage of earlier? Why was Ralph completely helpless before, but he can now control pretty much everything? The plotholes are strong with this one. The sword goes in front of Epitaph and Kaiju, but Ralph catches it when it’s behind them. What is this spacing? I also haven’t mentioned the crowd effects. They aren’t good. Also, when was Ralph this powerful? He dashes incredibly fast and slashes Charxek in the face. Why hasn’t he been like this before? And why does Charxek fall down after getting slashed once in the face? Isn’t this supposed to be the primary antagonist that everyone wants to stop? Why is Charxek suddenly underpowered? Epitaph attacks after Ralph, and Charxek is suddenly up again. Charxek uses a laser blast, and Epitaph gets pushed back into a cliff. Roux jumps out of nowhere to join him. Roux’s laugh isn’t well edited at all. She also is very angry that “it took years” and now her plan is ruined. During this, a cruiser suddenly pops out of nowhere and is just as quickly blasted by a laser and falls downwards. The scenes are completely unorganized, and there are many clear examples of this. However, focus should be on scriptwriting concerning Roux. According to Epitaph, the Origin Beings were created ONLY THREE YEARS FROM THE EVENTS IN THE MOVIE. This isn’t counting the time it took for harmony to turn into chaos and Roux getting her Origin Being status removed (which should have taken at least 6 months to a year if it’s realistic). Just like the movement, even this series’s events and storyline are all rushed. I understand it’s a reference to StickNodes being created and all that, but quite honestly, it makes Roux as a character look incompetent and whiny. Many villains spend much longer time working for their goals, and some dedicate their lives to it. Roux merely spending two years makes it look weak. Not to mention, it’s overused and cliche. It wasn’t even the perfect plan. Cruisers that can easily be stolen/boarded/destroyed, guards that are incredibly incompetent, and all this to try to find the important sword, crucial to her plan might I add, that was plainly hidden in a hole. Also the Roux laugh sounds like a Sr Pelo laugh. It’s hard to take seriously. Kaiju comes out of nowhere to protect Epitaph, and he engages Roux. Fighting is a bit better and not as fast paced, but still not the best in choreography and pacing. The scene suddenly cuts to Ralph, as they’re fighting against Charxek. It’s less a fight now and more focused completely on effects. A couple tanks and a cruiser are destroyed, but it’s not even that particularly exciting since they’re literally just sitting there doing nothing but blowing up. Chimdi and JackFly (who, mind you, has just literally been introduced and his name hasn’t even been said yet) nod to each other in agreement for something not known by the audience. For some reason, the shot of Chimdi body blocking for Ralph shows up. There’s no buildup for it, and it just happens. A lot of unexplained stuff happens in this series, and the episodes don’t even bother trying to explain. It’s not impactful at all when Kaiju gets stabbed by Roux, since it happens so incredibly quickly. The animation itself isn’t impactful either, and it’s badly made as a close up. Kaiju literally just falls down on his back after that; there’s no dramatic emphasis. Roux says, “Make sure they stay here, I don’t want any more mistakes” to her soldiers. This is completely different than what she was saying before, as she declared she’d “take great pleasure” in killing Epitaph. Why not just kill them both right then and there instead of making the soldiers “watch over them?” How could someone have that sudden decision change in the span of 2 minutes? Then Roux just completely jumps behind Ralph and Chimdi without any introduction, and another fight begins. All these characters are completely weak. Chimdi gets hit in the face and JackFly flies in somehow trying to kick Roux but bounces off. Ralph is in the frame before, but just completely disappears when Roux takes Sean. The POV shots from Epitaph are very confusing and cluttered, and the choreography and spacing is pretty bad. Epitaph flies to stop Roux and hits her in the face with a POV shot, but the style makes it so there is no impact. The entirety of the fights, in fact, look like weak slap fights. There’s way too much emphasis on abilities and powers and not fighting itself.

Somehow, even though Sean was weak and helpless a moment ago, he has enough power to move incredibly fast and trips freaking (I’d say something else but I don’t want this to be censored from the website) Charxek Thar! How the hell? He then jumps to Ralph the next second, even though Charxek was between them, meaning yet another spacing error. Ralph and Sean have this weird moment with the sword, then charge to Charxek. They then stick the sword right in Charxek’s face, killing her. This would have been really cool, if they actually went through Charxek’s head and NOT HER DANG NOSE! There is LITERALLY no way that Charxek, a being of such power (combined with basic anatomy and common sense), died simply by getting stabbed in the Nose! The god dang NOSE! It’s SO STUPID! This is supposed to be the final boss of the episodes, the big baddie of the movie! What if Thanos died because his nose got blown off? “Just cut off Sauron’s nose and you’ll be fine, dude.” It’s completely, utterly idiotic. Animal anatomy shows that their snouts extend. Charxek was stabbed through her snout, essentially the nose, and it killed her. Yea, it went through her mouth too, but multiple dogs and other animals have been shown to survive without the top side of their snout. All it takes is a google and the evidence is there. Unless Charxek’s brain is in her nose (which would be the epitome of stupidity), there’s no way that the final stab could have killed. I don’t want any “oh it’s the magic sword that can kill her, just put it through her once and she will die.” That’s cliche and unoriginal as it is, but even then, that magic weaponry kills with MORTAL BLOWS. Not simply touching them. Take vampires. Silver weaponry will hurt them, but it will only kill them if a mortal wound is struck using silver. Even though Epitaph is clashing with Roux a ways away from Charxek, he suddenly comes right next to Charxek’s body, proclaiming that she’s dead. There are way too many problems with spacing. I understand that victories are great and all, but there were quite a lot of users and Rouxians that died there. Not to mention, considering that Rouxians are converted users, there’s even a ton more that perished. I thought the Rouxian reaction was more appropriate for the situation. It was actually pretty cool to see the Rouxians, who are pretty much programmed to follow Roux and her every command, put their weapons at ease. The users are just celebrating for the most part. Also, a lot of the users barely even participated in the fight at all. The lizard furry dude and Squido weren’t seen fighting once.

Epitaph goes to Roux and says, “I understand you only wanted to do good, but there are better ways to sort things.” First off what the actual hell, Roux wasn’t trying to do any common good at all. Her entire motive was to take back her Origin Being status and then COMPLETELY DESTROY Utopia and make it in her own image, along with capturing more users and turning them into Rouxians. The only “good” part of this is that she wanted to kill Charxek, but that’s not even for doing good. Roux needed to take out Charxek Thar so her plan would work. All of her motivations are focused on bettering off only herself. Yea, she’d make a new utopia in her image, but that’s only so that she can regain her Origin Being status and control the whole world. If there are any different motivations for Roux, literally none of them are shown. There was an opportunity for Roux to explain earlier and actually show some motivations/reasonings, but she was interrupted “in the name of good scriptwriting.” Then, Roux pulls out an edgy “there’s more to it than that, you wouldn’t understand.” Well, the audience certainly doesn’t understand because it hasn’t been explained at all. Not to mention, what is there to understand besides Roux simply wanting to destroy the world and make a new one where she controls everything and gets everything she wants? Perhaps she has more motivations, but since she is so shallow as a character, we don’t know any of them, and she just seems bratty and childish. There actually is really good dialogue after Roux leaves. Kaiju walks up limping and says, “we’ll bring her back, give it time.” Epitaph responds with “you and your time.” That’s actually very well written, and I particularly liked that line. However, the only reason I can actually appreciate the line is because I already know Kaiju is the Origin Being of Time. Since Kaiju is also a shallow character that isn’t expanded on in the slightest and isn’t even described to the audience as a time controller, the audience can’t completely understand that line to its fullest effect. It’s also a major disappointment that Kaiju didn’t use any abilities related to time in the slightest during the fights. The “friend” moment is kinda weirdly placed. I’ve got no problems with it; it actually shows personality and friendship between the two, but it’s odd being placed there right before Ralph pitches in. Also what the actual hell, why is Galaysite in the back? She’s been gone for the two episodes before this fight, why is she in the back? And why aren’t Chimdi and Squido interacting with her in the slightest? That story arc has been completely butchered. The weather joke with memes was kinda funny, but it got repetitive when there was another one made. Not to mention, why the hell is extra thicc a setting for it? I get that it’s for humor, but honestly this series has been emphasizing “thiccness” way too much. Also why hasn’t the laptop been used earlier? It literally controls the weather; it’s the most powerful weapon they got. Epitaph is looking outside as it’s sunny, thinking. Roux fades into view and then fades away. I understand it’s to show that Epitaph is concerned for her and whatever, but it honestly looks more like a meme than anything emotional. Epitaph says “till next time,” and the series finally ends with a pretty decent shot of the setting.

Conclusion: A cliche, unoriginal, unorganized, horribly paced, plot-hole ridden excuse of a final climax. This entire episode uses music and Charxek’s roars as a poor attempt to make up for the utter lack of quality anywhere else. Characters show little to no development whatsoever throughout the whole series. Charxek Thar had her moments, but was ultimately an underused and underpowered villain with little to no explanation for her motivations besides “she’s evil.” Also, it’s rather annoying and anticlimactic to have Charxek die via nose stab by magic sword from two suddenly overpowered dudes. Fight scenes are without impact whatsoever, and they emphasize lasers and explosions more than the actual fights themselves. This could still be ok, if the fighting and pacing in general wasn’t so fast paced, unorganized, and horribly choreographed. Character personalities and motives are all over the place. The film constantly stresses childish humor even during this final fight, and it just comes off as bad. Not to mention, humor certainly isn’t the best in quality, either. Character powers and limits aren’t defined at all, as some can fight tons of soldiers and blast them to bits, but fall over after getting tripped or shot in the back with a simple shotgun. Dialogue is for the most part grammatically destroyed and not well written. Characters suddenly become overpowered/underpowered whenever the horribly organized plot requires it. The movie does have its moments, but once again, one watches a good movie for a good movie, not a good moment. There is absolutely no character growth or maturity at the end of this. No character has learned any lessons; there is no impact. The overhype for the series finale blinds many from its incredibly obvious mediocrity. This episode is simply, inherently, objectively bad. People can still like it, don’t get me wrong, but from a cinematic aspect, it’s bad.

And that’s all! Tune in to the final part, where we take a look at the series on a whole, and try to piece why everyone thinks this movie is a masterpiece when it clearly isn’t! I will be happy to answer any questions in the comments, and I encourage mature discussion in the comments! Thanks! Stay Classy!