It's painful how realistic Johnny is portrayed as a recovering drug addict. The way he pauses as he talks isn't just because of the awkward situation but his brain is so fried he is truly struggling to conjure the words
Plus the sheer awkwardness since Dr. Z is both the guy who utterly traumatized him as a kid but who is also probably the most supportive person he has left
@@jordanloux3883 How did Johnny's dad ruin him? It's been forever since I saw the adventures of Johnny Quest but I thought his dad was always kind to him and tried to give Johnny a stable, as well as exciting, life.
@@willywiggles893 Johnny's dad dragged a child into life-and-death adventures when he was under ten! A big point of the show is about how traumatizing these boyhood fantasies can be in reality.
This is probably one of the realest things in Venture Bros. That the only person left to offer John a helping hand is the man who chased him around his whole childhood.
That awkward moment when you meet a very old friend and realize so much has changed you got only the good memories of the two of you in another life. Except this time it's a sworn enemy.
Time heals wounds. Old enemies can be new friends once what you were fighting over is gone. Johnny's father is gone, and it was Dr Quest that was Z's old foe, not his son, he was just colateral in the whole thing. Now even if it's in the arching system Dr. Z can talk to the last person that remembers him as he was in his glory days.
Ironic like that especially since the cold war ended I have either met in person or talked to online former eastern bloc military personnel including ones from Soviet Union who could have been foes.
I felt this was meant to imply the beginnings of dementia. Though it would be Alzheimer’s disease rather than vascular dementia. I unfortunately lived through this with my grandmother, I have an understanding.
I think it's because they could only imply it was Jonny Quest. By changing Hadji's race and Dr. Quest and Race into one mostly-offscreen person, they can have the plausible deniability Cartoon Network wanted.
@@foxymetroid It’s probably both reasons. In universe it’s Z dementia as Flashback Hadji and Red don’t line up with their actual designs but behind the scenes they did what they did to have plausible deniability and since we would have probably never seen them again anyway it didn’t matter if they looked different
@@foxymetroid But Cartoon Network's parent company owns Jonny Quest. Thing is, it's not dementia, it's just that memories do fade away with time and become less accurate as they go on, especially when it happened like 40 years ago.
@@foxymetroid Considering they actually had Hadji and Race appear and Dr Zin and Jonny Quest have bigger roles their appearances is not the issue, for them to appear they simply have to be renamed which they were. It's actually a joke that Dr Z's memory is becoming less accurate.
Yeah, I genuinely love how they made supervillainy into basically a union. You follow the rules, you can do okay. If you don’t, everyone will destroy you.
I love even a minor character like Johnny is given so much character growth that's only hinted at. In S2 Johnny had hit rock bottom both literally and figuratively, in S3 he's trying to get himself together but still self medicating, S4 he's starting to get professional help, and now in S7 we see him in rehab.
CatholicDragoon I'm putting together a Playlist of all the Action Johnny/Venture Bros Johnny Quest clips I can find -do you know which S3/S4 episodes he appeared in that I don't have in my Playlist already?
@@xtzyshuadog there's also 'The Doctor Is Sin" where you see him appear briefly when Dr. jonas Venture Jr. gets a call from Hadji who action was briefly living with.
Dr. Z's hate was really with Johnnys Father, not Johnny. And here we see that the two didnt really have any harsh feelings towards each other outside of Johnnys loyaty to his dad and Zs hatred for him. Its touching to see them like this.
We got early indications of Dr. Z showing concern and care for him in his first appearance in the Rusty day care episode where he questions why Johnny is so high-strung when he was told he was clean.
@@blackdemonknightAnd Johnny freaking out exactly because he thinks Dr. Z is there to give him an intervention, not to kill him or something. Plus, Dr. Z hams himself up for the kids and is shown to be generally quite supportive to the younger villains.
@@rosesweetcharlotte He is even supportive of villians who had fallen on hard times and trying to get back up as he saw with how he was with the Monarch when grading him on his current set up and rewarded him for being the top earner.
I doubt Dr. Z even hated Benton. Like most villains, they do arching because it's an exciting lifestyle, and they're a bunch of insecure manchildren. Only the Monarch seems to have genuine hatred for his enemy.
@Tin Watchman Well I think jordan r meant emotionally sweet. Red Death's was cool an excuse to hear clancy brown cut loose his super evil voice again but that's a different kind of sweet if you know what i mean.
The venture bros the show that puts a twist on the whole good and evil where the good guys are complete psychotic dicks and bad guys are relatively decent people with some of them have emotional issues
Is great how this show portrays classic hero/Villain arching as something pathetic and absurd. Like they are all so broken people who at some point realiced "We wasted our lives fighting in spandex suits for no reason" and now they only have each others.
I mean you could argue some of it (at least for the heroes) was to legitimately save the world, or at least protect innocents. But yea, at some point the game changed and it became purely self indulgence. Which when given what the indulgence was over makes sense as to why they act like abused, broken people.
This is heartbreakingly tragic. Johnny finally makes it into rehab only after he's so burnt out that he's lost significant cognitive ability. Z couldn't even feel good about arching him right now- he did such a good job of it all these years that there's nothing left to hate in there.
I want Venture Industries to go strong and actually become successful. The "Rusty is a lazy loser" thing got kind of old. A recurring episodic sub-plot(sometimes main plot) format would be what he has invented and who he is selling it to.
I always love the old cartoony segments, especially in a show like Venture Bros. It really shows how dated the whole concept of Good Guys vs Bad Guys really is, and how far we've come. Dr. Z is just one dude with a single pistol and that somehow makes him an evil supervillain, his henchman are all idiots, and everyone stands in empty rooms not moving constantly because animation was in its caveman years. It's even better specifically because Venture Bros likes to make fun of cliches constantly.
@@shadowspider9 it was kinda necessary considering TV in general back then didn't make much money. Few ads, no premium channels and shows couldn't be just commercials
@@shadowspider9 you're right but I'm not sure how much they actually profit since that trend of limited animation stopped in the 80's once cartoons were allowed to be about toy lines and syndication
@@shadowspider9 Something to consider: animation is NOT cheap. At all. In fact it can be very expensive, moreso than some live action shows. Jonny Quest was the most expensive animated series of its time? Topping most live action shows of the sake decade. They were forced to use money saving bits like The Jonny Slide to save money when they could. This is also why the show never had a long run. The main reason they still do animation is that it sells well in the long run.
What? We have learned that the "good guys" are evil, and the evil they fight are evil. Basically, everyone with power over people is evil. Just like in real life. "How far we've come" by your answer it seems we have gone backwards.
I was thinking about that speech that Johnny gave those kids about fathers and how Johnny claims to never had a father. However based on his own definition of a father, Race was Johnny's father.
It makes me think of the first episode of Harvey Birdman Attorney at Law where Race and Dr. Quest get into a custody battle over the boys that is masterminded by Dr. Zen replacing Race with a robot.
I like how Dr. Z's memories are going ( I know this is to avoid copyright). Race Bannon and Dr. Quest are the same person. The dog's name is Buddy instead of Bandit. Haji, is native american for some reason. Its like an old man telling a story.
Actually Race Bannon was in Venture Bros. In the first season, the episode “Ice Station Impossible” featured Race Bannon as he recovered the Goliath Serum and subsequently died. However due to the powers that be at Cartoon Network, the character was later renamed Red Bannon but we fans still know him as Race Bannon.
It's incredible how much these two evolved. At first, Johnny was just a walking punchline, but despite only making a few appearances, he got fleshed out and felt more like a real person. This gave a strangely heartwarming relationship with Z since his old arch is his only real friend.
If anyone is wondering, yes that is technically Johnny Quest though they can't outright say it because Cartoon Network doesn't want people to fully associate ol' Johnny with the washed-up "John." In fact the only time you could say he really was just a reference was in his first appearance since the creators of the show hadn't known at the time if Cartoon Network owned the rights to Johnny fully, they do, and after that they were given the good ahead to make him into Johnny Quest but they were asked to make sure the character is _just_ vague enough and isn't outright said to be Johnny Quest, this being why the receptionist kept insisting his name was John.
It's hilarious cause they haven't used Johnny Quest since the damn remake which they showed side by side with he original. That was the beginning of Toonami. But then they allowed Harvey Birdman Attorney at law which was almost all their Hanna-barbera properties.
@@majdjinn5042 Thats because Harvey Birdman is nowhere near as dark as Venture Bros. Johnny Quest getting caught in a custody battle doesnt permenately change the way you see his character like Action Johnny does.
Especially noticeable how in a previous episode they showed their Hadji equivalent working in an Indian call center but in this episode they retconned it that instead of an “Indian as in from India” he’s a Native American instead
It's especially meta given the whole premise is already riffing on Johnny Quest, with the Ventures being peers of them. They do play on that, with Johnny being a bit of a road-not-taken for Rusty, who's at least far more functional.
Good Omens come to mind, this quote in particular "Aziraphale was The Enemy, of course. But an enemy for six thousand years now, which made him a sort of friend."
I like to think that since Z was a leader, he was homesick. Johnny is kinda like a nephew and he needs to talk to him to keep sane from his stressful life as a Council member. Johnny on the other hand...is fucked up beyond all belief and his life is as if Rusty just gave up on life. He needs someone to lean on or else he'll only keep falling apart. These guys might last together for a while. Helping each other on misadventures and court dates, bonding with ice cream and AA classes, etc. Bottom line, they should have a spinoff episode together if Johnny leaves the clinic.
It's heartwarming. Johnny just needs to lay off the wreckless spending and they should be able to bond outside of arching. Johnny lost his dad, Z is losing his arching rights basically, it just screams an adventure.
And that's the secret, you have to separate your work from your life. It's a slippery slope, the obsession, the hatred can drive a man too do terrible things *inhale-exhale* terrible things.
This is top tier Venture Bros. the only person that would think of Johnny... and it was his arch-nemesis. and it was everything that it could possibly be: awkward, weird but a bit wholesome in it's own way.
Johnny and Dr. Z are a new thing for me, like Johnny if his stories are to be believed (and in the venture bros universe they often are in the case of bad parents and boy adventurers/sidekicks) Johnny's father loved his work more then his own son (something he and Rusty share, though Rusty outwardly lashes out and Johnny medicates to suppress all the fucked up shit he went through) Johnny isn't angry with Z he's afraid of what he represents; and in the end they're able to comfort each other in the wake of overcoming their obstacles (Johnny finally seeking rehab for his drug addiction and Dr. Z in willing to accept retirement after one last go albeit playfully as he sees Johnny as a friend more then an enemy. Just goes to show the difference between Rusty and Johnny is that Johnny is willing to forgive his greatest enemy whereas Rusty hates his father (understandably so cause Jonas was an actual villain of a person, like holy fuck man) after realizing he wasn't all so great over the course of the show. I do hope Johnny stays clean, shaves, maybe gets a comfort dog. He really deserves a break from all the hardship. Great dynamic and i wish there were more like this in tv and comics in general.
This reminds me of the a scene in the watchmen comic we’re the old night owl reminiscences about the old days then says he meet one of his old enemies at the supermarket and they had a talk
I didn't think they could find a way to make Action Johnny even more sad; but they did..... "Can you loan me a couple bucks, man?" from your arch-nemesis, no less. That's just sad.
They have the rights, but the creators of the show are very protective of the brand because the original show was wholesome and this is clearly for a more mature audience.
@@handbanana8459 Its not the creators of the show who are responsible for that, they have no say in it anymore. The decision is being made by the current rights holders (the bosses of the guys making Venture Brothers).
Anyone else thought we were going to see Roboy again? Also I was expecting the dog corpse was going to dropped out of Anubis statue when Johnny lift it up!
Because there is a lot of reality in it for folks that know someone who has hit rock bottom with drugs or alcohol and someone who is getting really up there in years and has few friends left.
The receptionist HAS to have known Dr.Z's history with Johnny.... I like to imagine was perfectly trained for this day, and without skipping a beat was able to non-confrontationally reengage these toxic people in a life changing way.
One thing I got from the Venture Bros was that while Good and Evil exist, it does not mean people cannot be complex. Yes all these villains are terrible people. They have all committed mass murders, tortures, pain and suffering. But they are not just that either. Some have reasons why they turned out so bad, usually jealousy or some slight, and then other enable their hate to the point they forget why they hate...they just do. In Dr. Z's case...he never really hated Jonny. He hated his father. And he enjoyed the thrill of their clashes. But seeing Jonny hurt and broken after decades of what he had done, he now sees the consequences up close. He can feel them, and so close to the end of his own life sees his legacy...one tired, broken man struggling to keep going. Like himself. What price victory.
Knowing that this Jonny is the original one from the original Jonny Quest cartoon from 1964 put a Venture Bros fanfic in my head. Dr Z and the Council interevene on a villain who broke multiple Guild rules and discover that Jessie Bradshaw, a girl Jonny met a few times during the series, was held hostage there and recognises her. After she mentions that for years she thought Jonny was dead, Dr Z takes her to reunite with him and they spend the rest of their lives together.
Fun fact the Anubis mask scene, did actually happened in Johnny Quest(although he was called Johnny quest originally instead of action Johnny)like Word for Word frame for frame. fucking amazing.
He had his own sadness, at least before he adopted RoBoy. He mentioned in that previous meeting with him and the other former boy heroes that he and his wife can't have children. And some melancholy that they burned a lot of their lives fighting. And with his main nemesis dead, Johnny is all he has left of those days.
Anyone else notice the pictures of Sgt. Hatred and Dr. Z on the wall behind him that were taken in an earlier episode? Gotta love attention to detail like that.
I don’t know if anyone remembers but when he was surprise inspector for the guild to give out each rank; he gave the monarch a 5 and showed he has a hidden blade in his left sleeve. When he says I’ll spare your life he might have meant it....
First Dr Z offers johnny and his friends life advice about giving the job up to the next generation of kids. Now he decides to help Johnny in his time of need. Dr Z maybe a villain that's done terrible things. But outside the job he's a pretty good guy
Be kind to people in your life. Sometimes, people you abuse, turn out to be those you love the most. It's lovely to see Dr. Z and Johnny figure it out.
Z's and Red Mantle's were my favorite of the "wholesome" final arches. Radical Left/Right Wing had me laughing. Of course, Red Death's was the most badass.
We known its johnny quest. We know race bannon exists and is canon to the series as well as he knew johnny. Why don't they just let it go. They can do a adult johnny. Warner isn't doing anything with johnny quest.
When they initially made them Johnny Quest and Race Bannon, they thought they were good too, then Warner changed their minds. They don't feel like going through this again.
I wonder if Rusty's kids are the only reason he didn't turn into Johnny. I think Dr Z realizes that Johnny never really had a chance. His hatred was for Johnny's father, and it's clear that Z feels for Johnny's lonely misery. It's a reminder that VB is adult in a way beyond just the violence.
Neglectful father, check. Bodyguarf with licence to kill, check. Kidnapped step brother from India, check. Mad scientist archenemy/uncle, check. Dr. Z did the right thing.
Now I want Johnny Quest feature film produced by J. Publick and D. Hammer. The gorgeous artstyle from the flashback coupled with Foetus score is mindblowing.
Dr Z is one of my favorite VB characters. I love that he lives in a classic “retired old person house” complete with giant outdated satellite dish and huge palm tree.
