It's funny how she thinks "MOM USED TO USE NEW MAGIC SO IT'S GOOD" When you should normally think "She used to but now she avoids it? Maybe there's a reason why"
I think new magic is like close combat in Pokemon very powerful and useful has a drawback making the user weaker and old magic is cross chop or dynamic punch still good but very unreliable.
Given the fact that Sage’s mom is so against new magic I feel if the writers werent so lazy they could’ve like stated that Sage’s mom im a flashback was made mildly aware of the terosoheres causing the rot, and/or witnessed it first hand, which repulsed her so much, that she swore off new magic for herself and her family because she knew how detrimental it was to the world around her… Bc Old magic is equal exchange sp the unput vs the output was nuteralized… But new magic flipped that on its head, but the teachers or the inventors of new magic were too caught up in the hype to notice the effects. Kinda like how people ised to rub arsenic all over their faces in the 1800s tp avoid wrinkles
Sage's sexist comment about boys is the worst thing XD Like "Yeah but boys don't have the same kind of relationships to their friends" Says the girl that literally breaks up with her friend over GOURDS
commenting on the point in/before 5:25 - sage’s mom could actually be a good plot point to branch the difference between old & new magic. there could be a reason why she used to be fine with it but isn’t now, and never explained that properly to sage. maybe since it’s stronger, she accidentally caused a tragic incident so she swore it off since it’s dangerous? maybe she knows something about how it’s draining life? but of course we’ll never know since this show hates expanding on anything that could be interesting
When you've seen the entirety of a show without actually watching the show. I don't know why I find people ripping into this show on how absolutely terrible it is so fascinating. Like watching a train wreck, it's horrible but I can't help but keep watching. I don't know how many different creators I've watched talk about this catastrophe of a show. Every single one of them has had the same overall thought "this show is shit" but each one has a different reason as to why and I love it!
It's an amazing teaching example of what not to do in several different aspects of storywriting, worldbuilding, showrunning, animation directing, storyboarding, PR and marketing, etc.
One thing that really sucks is how Sage uses a nickname against Rosemary that she KNOWS was used by someone who treated Rosemary like crap. What the hell? Why on earth would you call your friend by a nickname a douche used against her all over petty bullshit?
@Queen Kamakura she doesn’t call Izuku “deku” because it’s cute she call him that because “deku” is very similar to a word that means “you can do it” in japan, I think the word was “dekiru”
The whole point of deku's hero name is that he wants to take something that was once used a point of ridicule and turn it into something more than that. Taking a negative and turning it into a positive.
Trying to find the worst character in this show is like trying to find a needle in a needle stack with one piece of hay that represents Slimeboy, because Slimeboy is no where close to a bad character compared to the rest.
The worst part about Sage is how she gets no actual consequences for the most part. Her awful behaviour and attitude is consistently enabled by the show. It’s like if the *writers* think that these behaviours are perfectly okay and justified.
@@D0MiN0ChAn usually they at least KNOW they are, though. like, I would still prefer to be around Aqua (Konosuba) over Sage because Sage is just.. zero self awareness
I think that's the real issue. it's not that she's a horrible person who's one of the good guys, it's that the show ignores this and doesn' develop it or have her learn a lesson. She'd probably still be an interestng character if they kept her flaws but made them, like, actually part of the story and not something to be ignored. Like, have someone call her out for being sexist. Call her out for being SO possessive of Rosemary. Call her out or not talking about things with her friend first rather than get mad when she signs everyone up for a contest. Have her REALISE she's bad and needs to change. SCOTT PILGRIM did this masterfully.
I love how sage talks about “the bond between girls is more stronger than the bond between boys” or something like that then a few episode later rose and sage break up over the most pettiest of reasons and they don’t make up until a week later because Rosemary guilt tripped sage vía having her look at her sad childhood. Meanwhile amaryllis and snapdragon have not argued at all and when sage and snap wanna just hang out together snap tells amaryllis the truth that he currently dose not want to be with her and she understands yet sage has to lie to rose saying “I wanna be alone” while being with snapdragon The power of friendship everybody
The closest Snapdragon and Amaryllis had to an argument was when Snapdragon was have gender identity issues and Amaryllis trying to help but not knowing how. For a character that's ment to be a jerk Amaryllis seems to be the most supportive person in the show.
Not only that, but in the same episode Sage claims that their bond is so deep, she constantly doesn't trust Rosemary to decide whether or not Aster is right for her by herself. Not even a mote of trust!
What's funny is that she started out being the generic nice girl, but as the story progresses, Sage becomes more of an insecure jerk that won't stop crying about her "traditions" and crap. Her blowing up on Rosemary at the party just made her more unlikeable.
Like someone else said, I'd rather have a genetic character or a character made to be a punching bag than an annoying character who we are supposed to root for.
That's something that I realized recently. The Sage from the early episodes was NOWHERE as venomous as mid-season Sage. In fact, early-Sage was portrayed as timid, but also humble. I can handle a bad attitude from a character, but only if they were shown to have even a hint of this at first (e.g. Amaryllis). With Sage, it's a breakneck swerve.
The core of the problem there is she has no idea why her traditions are better. Say you tell me you love some food and you get it from the grocery store. One day I make you that same food and you are blown away by how much better it is. The store brand is shown to just be a cheep easy imitation of the real thing. This is how new V old magic should work. Old should take far more effort but be far more powerful. New magic can effortlessly cure cuts but old can with enough effort regrow limbs. The problem is in the show new magic takes less effort and is also far more powerful. Furthermore, the downside is implied to be the blight but it also cures the blight.
Ya know, ngl, considering the fact that Rosemary is clearly based off Raye's younger self, and how the show just loves to coddle the sagemary relationship, it makes me wonder if Sage is actually based off one of Raye's childhood bffs who actually acted like this? Now I know that's a horrifying thought but from my personal experiences at least, I also remember having toxic friendships growing up because I didn't know better...
If we work off this premise we can go deeper. Sage started as an Old Magic advocate, a literal "Conservative" by the shows standards. If we assume that over time SageMary would become prevalent, we can conclude that Sages character is meant to represent someone that the writer wanted to "save", an old friend who they split up with over ideology. Rose and Sages developing relationship would be a form of wish fulfillment where the writer actually gets to "convert" their friend from their "Conservative" beliefs. I'm fully aware I'm reaching for the fucking sky but I couldn't get the thought out of my head when you mentioned the idea that Sage is meant to represent an old friend of the writer.
Reading in-between the lines is the base foundation of psychology. I'm going to assume that it might be the case. For a petty argument to sound so real, it might be based off of real events.
@@Kuroyami0Fukaikuro Didn't sage started using new magic by the end , so that would mean rays friend has allready been converted. Also the aunt and her wife telling how good the new magic is and demonizing sages mother feels all to specific as well.
How I would try to write her better: First, give a reason for her mother not liking new magic. So, let's differentiate both: old magic comes from yourself, it uses your own energy to power itself. However using too much old magic can weaken the user to the point of exhaustion, or even to the point of kill someone. New magic however comes from the pterospheres, it uses the planet's energy to power itself, but the prolongated use of it drains the planet's vital energy, thus creating the rot. Sage's mother discovered about it, but was threatened by the people who profit with the sales of pterospheres. If she told about what she discovered, they would kill her and her family like they did with other people. She didn't wanted something bad to happen to her family, so she kept her mouth shut since then. That's why she always taught old magic to Sage, while pointing out that new magic isn't that reliable. ____________________________ Now, about Sage herself. Let's actually give her a reason to get mad about Rosemary in the party episode. Let's say that Rosemary was always the "leader" of them two, thus they always did what Rosemary wanted to do first, while she brushed off what Sage wanted to do. Instead of showing them already going to the big city in episode 1, show them living on Peeble. There we see their interactions with their respective families and how none of them allowed the two to go to the High Guardian Academy. Then in that night, Rosemary decided to flee and called Sage to go with her. Sage was reluctant at first, but when Rosemary said that she wouldn't need Sage at all, Sage started to feel guilty and decide to go with her. Now this gives a real reason for Sage to snap out at Rose in the party since she's tired of Rosemary always forcing them to do what she (Rose) wanted to do, while Sage's wills were always neglected.
other people somehow rewriting the show and making their own versions of the story is the only reason i could watch hgs stuff. you did a pretty good job!
Somebody made a remake of the scene where Sage is sexist to Snap, but it feels a lot more natural. Sage is still acting sexist in that scene, but it's clear that in the remake, she is unintentionally sexist because she is trying to sympathize with Snap for "not understanding girl friendships" instead of straight up demonizing him for it. And then, when Snap gets reasonably upset, Sage apologizes genuinely for saying something selfish and stupid. She still unintentionally disrespects him, but she was shown to actually have good intentions.
@@yay29823 Sometimes RU-vid gets rid of comments with links for safety reasons, but the creator is "Jamie De Jonge", and the title of the video is "I rewrote the sexist SAGE scene from 'High Guardian Spice' because I had to".
What’s even worse is that I think the writers intend Sage to be IN THE RIGHT there…. (As in, the message is “Snap is the only good boy because he’s trans”)
Didn’t they also remake the trans scene and the Aster sexism scene? Because I remember the rewrites for those being really well-done, such as putting a more simplistic explanation for the trans scene using cute little magic visualizations, and then Aster believing he needs to put himself in danger before Rosemary because he’s an older brother of many sisters and has been taught to do that.
amaryllis, a side character meant to be a sort of antagonist to the main cast, or at least a not very nice person, is somehow better written than most of the main cast.
@@stlouisrocker100 honestly i would've prefered amaryllis and snapdragon as two of the main characters lmfao, cause like you said, just because one of them is a dick doesnt mean she cant be a protagonist
There's two reasons for that. One, she has nuance. With the main 4 she can be bitchy and mean, but she's also shown to stick up for her friends, so there's a bit of depth to her. All the others are pretty shallow. Two, she's fun. She does what she does with such evil gusto that you revel in her antics. None of the other characters ever bring as much energy or as much fun to the screen.
I'd lean more towards Rosemary being the worst, with Sage as a close second. Honestly, much of HGS is the two of them spamming "hold my beer" at each other on who is the worst. I guess it really comes down to what archetype is worse: The moronic psycho with no awareness or self control, or her petty emotionally immature enabler who is in turn enabled by the script.
Issue is, this is(at least superficially) anime. We've had heroes that fit number one to a T since Shonen has been a thing. It's pretty well accepted that there's gonna be an idiot battle maniac because it gives cool fights and it makes them silly but endearing. Number two is just a clique girl. Weebs, until very recently, were majorly considered social outcasts and thus made fun of. It does not help her case when she starts fights with the goofball that means well over seemingly small stuff. TL:DR Rosemary is closer to the status quo of Goku-esc idiot fighters and Sage is closer to the Bullies that a lot of the people watching had to deal with growing up. Thus, Sage looks worse in general comparison.
the moronic psycho is at least more consistent, sage is flip flopping around several types of terrible person this is probably easier to pick as an episode by episode roster
Rosemary can be seen as charming, jsut overly thougthless and reckless, and her rough spots can be fixed. Her worst problem is she's, wel, stupid. Sage, however, is ACTUALLY kinda nasty. Between her sexism towards men, her EXTREME possessiveness of Rosemary and in general a very selfish attitude, as well as how little she seems to hold onto ehr own values, she's hard to rally like or admire.
I love how this Channel still talks about this show many months after people stop caring. This comes from of a place of love. Absolute love of what could of been and how heart breaking it wasted it’s potential.
I can’t really think of potential this show had, it kinda reminds me of MHA in the sense that the premise is extremely generic and uninteresting but while MHA has okay execution this show doesn’t even know what it wants to be.
@@bernkastel7438 The potential exists in Akazukin ChaCha because HGS is just a disgusting ripoff of that, but instead of just ripping it off, it completely goes in the direction of breaking everything into making the worst show possible as to give Min Ayahana a middle finger meanwhile also giving out a middle finger towards us LGBT+ folks & them constantly lying about the budget being low even though DR Movie did overseas animation & Cam Clarke was a voice actor in it.
@@DespairDoctor Again, just shows that they lied about the budget being low when in reality they definitely had a lot of money on their hands. I mean, heck DR Movie even animated another Crunchyroll original, Onyx Equinox for crying out loud!!!
I would've gone the route of having Sage straight up not trust new magic at all because, by her own words "My parents always taught me that nothing comes without a cost, especially magic." And of course everyone writes her off as a paranoid nutjob with even Rosemary telling her that she's probably worried over nothing, leaving her frustrated by the fact that no one else seems to see how shady the idea of ultimate power for absolutely free is.
I think a good way to incorporate your idea + address the craziness of the HGS world in general, would be if “New Magic” leaned heavily towards combat and destruction, to the point where it corrupts mages who use it too often.
I've made a joke about how the male characters, that we're supposed to hate, had more personality than the main cast simply because their attitudes tell a much deeper story. It isn't much, but that's still more than what this show has to offer.
This show was made by a bunch of misandrists,wanting a genuinely likeable male character is like asking for money from a homeless man,there is no chance you'll get it Well,there is ofc Slimeboy
When you give a bunch of the same people power over a story with no checks, balances, or different viewpoints, then they will probably make a terrible story.
Finally someone who thinks Sage is worse than Rosemary. Yes, Rosemary is a bit more sadist than her, but Sage literally talked trash to Snapdragon because he's a guy. Technically, she was being sexist. So, I don't know why Snapdragon still has a crush on her. Even though, I despise her so much, I like her design, like a lot.
@@akamatsusan9537 That's fine, you can like that xD. I'm m an anime artist, I would just add a design on her hat and dress at least, and maybe change her hairstyle a bit.
Sage: wAaAAAaAaAaAaAaAaAaAaAaAaAaAaAaAAaAaAaAAaA I'm such a baby I cry at the slightest inconveniences and this never goes away and stays as one of my main character traits yet the writers think I'm the best character since Spiderman
Cal: "I'm the most sexist character in High Guardian Spice." Aster: "No. I'M the most sexist character in High Guardian Spice." Sage: "Amateurs." Cal and Aster: "WHAT?" Sage: "AMATEURS!!!"
The show really forgot that they had set up Rosemary as the main character in this story, huh? Sage's personality is infuriating, and any interesting story we could have with her is thrown out the window because of all the holes in the magic system. Personally, I saw their fight at the party less like a catty argument and more like Sage trying to needle her "friend" into changing her personality into something *she* would like better. And instead of trying to keep having fun with her friends at the party, she would rather sulk and mope around to try and guilt trip them. Same thing with Thyme’s argument, trying to get her to say she's right and pick her side in a fight. It's a very childish character that was made worse by the fact that you can tell the writers didn't think they were writing her that way.
@@rb.v yeah at least rosemary doesn't guilt-trip her friends nor complain about every single thing She just needs more development and better writing , but definitely more likeable then sage , she accepts sage for liking things different things from her while sage is being petty and forcing rosemary to change -__-
@@rb.v rosebarb deserves better then sage , if sage even cares about rosebarb she wouldn't blame her for having crush on Aster and not her , that's just pathetic, true friends doesn't judge you for not having a crush on them , jealousy makes sence but like why did they make her so danm annoying and a bastard and on top of that , ROSEMARY is the one at fault in these moments 😭- wth ! Axe girl didn’t blame Snapdragon for crushing on sage despite her being her rival and actually supports him/her ( idk men , Snapdragon seems like a femboy to me more than trans ) like an actual friend even tho she likes him/her , geez , this is what we get when the writers are sexist asf and guiltrippers I don’t even hate rosemary , she's just boring while sage is toxic and praised for it-
One example of a crybaby character who works really well is Usagi Tsukino from Sailor Moon. I mean, the pilot episode literally states that in the title! But she’s also confident, charming, and cute, and grows out of that state to stop relying on others and take things more seriously. But even when she was a crybaby, it was still relatable and came from an understandable place as she was forced into all of these crazy situations where she could literally be killed. Sage has no excuse! She has no way to defend her B.S. points, but Usagi knew how to stand up for herself at least, and could have some cool, adorable sassiness, and actually brought up good points when arguing with others (Mostly Rei, ofc).
I agree. Usagi is adorably scatterbrained and easily distracted, but she has a very pure, compassionate heart and there’s nothing malicious about her, even when she’s being a brat. Her immaturity and ditziness is very relatable, and the great thing is that even as she grows and matures as a character, she never completely loses that inner goofball.
One of my favorite scenes with Usagi/Serena Spoilers for season 1 of the show Is in the final episode of season 1, when Mamoru dies and she tried to give him a goodbye kiss she stops and says something like : Sorry, I can't kiss you , Rei,Ami,Makoto and Minako couldn't kiss the guys they loved , I can't had that privilege.
Hell, they even made being a crybaby one of her fricken powers. When she crys it unleashes a supersonic sound wave that breaks glass and incapacitates anyone who hears it. If you're gonna make a character a crybaby, either have them get over it by developing, or at least make them utilize it by making it a super power or something. Or both like sailor moon did. Sheesh.
AU where Sage slowly becomes more & more toxic to everyone around her until she completely turns into a villain at the end of season 1, and season 2 is the others deciding if she's able to be turned back (or even worth the effort). It would even drastically improve the halloween ep, because she was giving off major "bad witch/evil queen" vibes for someone who's supposed to be a hero. THAT'S how you write a character like her.
I think another reason Sage is more annoying than Cal is that he's *supposed* to be an antagonist. Us not liking him means the writers did their job. Sage is supposed to be one of the people we're meant to like, however, which makes the problems with her character all the more jarring and unpleasant
i find it pretty good that you made Sage into the main protagonist instead of rosemary in the abridged version. not only that, but giving her an actual good character arc that doesn't involve her getting everything she wants. Kinda surprising how so simple things have to change in this show to make it at least tolerable and yet the writers do everything possible to screw up so badly.
you know you never realize how much pain this guy has had to go through until you realize that he probably needs to rewatch the series every time he makes one of these videos
They wanted Sage to be the worst because she was raised by a conservative parent. Sage is pathetic she has no pride in her traditional magic one minute and has tons of it the next (but unjustifiable?) she was shown to be very good in potion creation but isn't competent enough the next second to do something simple? Why didn't her parent's train her to be a badass in old magic and send her to a school with new magic users to send a message like: "Hey!! Because you took the easy way out, you can't be as badass as me!!!!" If Sage knew she was going to enter into a school to compete for the title of Guardian and be at a disadvantage to her classmates, Why didn't she learn about the curriculum from her parents and train herself to stomp the competition?!?! Her whole character is a symbol of incompetence caused by being too traditional.
@@j.c.3059 Wow I would've never thought of that! You really added a whole new dimension to the conversation. You can't possibly waste you talents on simple youtube comments. Publish a book and name that the new title, im sure it'll be a best seller.
What makes it worse was mentioned in the video; we never get her parents' side of WHY they switched and considering Nu Magic is actually sort of dangerous to the planet, I think they have a damn good reason NOT to use is but they still try to paint this choice as bad JUST TOWARDS SAGE instead of showing the way it effects everyone.
@@SuperCosmicMutantSquid From personal experience, I grew up in a deep Black Jewish community, it was a culture shock interacting with the American Christianity traditions and culture once I started High School. I eventually found out my Mother grew up in a Christian family and married into the Jewish. I didn't immediately use that information to become a Christian because everyone else was doing it. That's what Sage looks like to me. "Oh my mom used new magic?!? Ah shit its free game now!!"
You also forgot to mention one other thing near the end of this shit show: apparently, there were Old Magic users at the school (Amaryllis takes charge and has the New Magic and Old Magic users band together to get them all out of a situation), which suggests that there could've been a class for it, meaning Sage's bitching was entirely pointless and that she wasn't even the only person at the school to use Old Magic.
Would have made more sense if there was a “Sage finds a secret society of Old Magic users in the school” plot, but that would have taken away from all the sad crying scenes ig.
@@anerrorhasoccurred8727 that would be amazing. It would give sage a chance to be "right" while still learning a lesson and thyme's apology could be genuine. (Sage still needs to apologize for making them skip lunch)
2:50 I think they do mention the school having old magic classes. but that's at episode 12 of the show. It kinda makes it to where an entire class just appears at of nowhere and conveniently when it's not useful anymore.
@@chimanruler15 wouldn't call it amazing but at least it would've been something like character development which this series lacks Honestly the whole idea of Sage combining old and new magic seems very odd, she should've stayed the old magic expert but taken it to a higher level through theory crafting and experimenting that it would be comparable to the new magic
I feel like my biggest issue with this show’s characters is simply that there’s too many of them, so none of them actually feel like they’re fully fleshed out and all of them are annoying. It would’ve made a lot more sense for them to whittle the main cast down to 4. Keep Rosemary as the spunky protagonist but tone her down and give her Thyme’s ambition and motivations, since the dying forest plot was the only thing in this show I found potentially interesting. Keep Sage as the cautious best friend, but remove all the petty bullshit and allow her to be the reasonable one of the group (essentially, her and Parsley can easily be condensed into one character). Keep Snapdragon mostly the same, but keep him as a male character to add balance to the group & avoid the “only women can be feminine” stereotypes. It would also avoid the “cis men are trash” thing this story has going on, which alienated a LARGE portion of their potential audience. I do think they can still include a trans character, but for the sake of not muddling the plotline they should’ve made the character already know they were trans before the story started. I think Rosemary would be the best contender personally since she’s not distinctly masculine or feminine. As for the final character, I would say to combine Amaryllis and Thyme’s personalities for a character that’s snarky, tells it like it is, and can hold her own in a fight, but doesn’t come off as overly cruel like Amaryllis or just a brick wall like Thyme. The school setting as a whole also felt entirely unnecessary, so I think it’d be much more interesting if Rosemary and Sage set out to find the mystery of the forest and Snapdragon and Amaryllis were eventually roped in along the way. This would allow the team to shorten the story to about half its length and avoid wasting resources on animating crowd scenes and painting like 500 backgrounds, so the animation budget could be used more effectively to make some half decent fight scenes.
This is good. I actually like having Snap just be very feminine and Rose being trans. Having Rose be trans AND a main character would mean she would get an actual personality rather than just her identity which would be pretty good representation(If they did her character well which in this timeline they already haven't but y'know.). Having the only trans character(Excluding Snap since he canonically hasn't transitioned yet) as a BG self insert was a terrible idea which resulted in him being a mouth-piece for Raye(Ray? Idk how his name is spelt) and having no personality other than what the writers wanted on any given day. Having an MC be trans would mean that they would have to actually give her a character. And Snap being very feminine but not trans would also be good because a lot of stigma sits around feminine men so showing the opposite of that stigma would be great.
Suggesting for Rosemary to be trans is incredibly interesting considering she was the previous self-insert of Raye Rodriguez. I’m not kidding, check out his old art.
As a Jrpg player Sage is an insult to the spellcaster job class. Worse that she is supposed to be the smart one along with Thyme & Parsley. Amaryllis is leagues better than Sage & Amaryllis is the bully of this dumpster fire calling itself a cartoon.
As a person who played a lot of MMORPG's to this day, most notable Genshin Impact, Dofus and Wakfu, Sage is an insult to the "Mage" type of character in most games. In Genshin, the equivalent of the mages are the Catalyst users, and by game lore, Catalyst users are usually depicted as intelligent, wise and more level-headed. Characters who are Catalyst users such as Lisa, Sucrose, Yanfei, Yae Miko and Kokomi, are the more intelligent characters in the game and usually serve to have some level of wisdom over the rules of their respective region and their Archon they serve. Sage on the other hand, may well be equipped as a Catalyst user, but she would not fit because of her innate stupidity and her bitchy attitude. (Catalyst users are also known to have a very sassy but conservative and stern attitude)
@@snailandspider9178 Question!!!! How can this ever be a really anime? Seriously? How? Have I overseen something? Because I just read it was a Chrunchyroll production, but Chrunchyroll is not an anime studio but an international media plattform which published anime of other studios so that people are able to watch them. And it is not a japanese platform but a Canadian, I think? So if it is true, and Chrunchyroll made or help at least to create it, how can it be an anime? In my opinion it seems for me like a cartoon, based on the infos. If I talk nonsense here and I'm wrong then you can correct me.
@@MirrorOfEmotions No your right, I heard at first that the creators of High Guardian Spice where calling it an anime but later I saw that they did said it was a cartoon. The real problem was about Crunchyroll saying they were going to use there money to finance anime but instead use it to finance High Guardian Spice, I don't really know the whole story but that what I heard. I didn't change my comment because it's been like 4 month, honestly I almost forget about it.
If it'll make your brother feel better, there was a character from an old show called "The Herbs" named 'Sage' who was a green owl who basically liked to sleep a lot.
I know it has nothing too much to do with "High Guardian Spice". I just wanted to reference one of my favourite programmes that also happens to feature characters named after... well, 'herbs'.
Dude tons of people wears names that everyone hates because of a certain character, imagine all the Lila and Chloé after Miraculous Ladybug, or the women called Karen, or the guys named after any jerk you might think of in any series.
If was gonna "fix" poison teacher, I'd make her so very addicted to new magic that it's taking a toll on her body and mind. She's far younger than she looks and she used to be fairly sane. The tirade keeps her around because they want to witness her continuing decline.
That's a good idea, also one could make her interaction with the resident catgirl, where she threatens to feed her to the plants mean something. That scene looked like she actually figured her out. They could have done interesting things with her, made her a character that isn't wise or intelligent, but clever and well versed in tricking others. Like, she does still poison her students, but it's not actually deadly the first time around. Though she only tells them after and Sage doesn't save them, so they are forced to confront panic and don't react by breaking down to it. Making lessons that make them less likely to get tricked. Stuff like that! ... When Mandrake knocks out the other teachers with magic rape drugs, she could be the one that actually doesn't get knocked out. There are a lot of things they could have done with her, but unfortunately they didn't.
That actually sounds like an interesting concept. Helps that it actually portrays those three in charge as less benevolent than how their stations paint them.
You know, the episode where Sage sees Rosemary's memory about missing her Mom and then tries to "comfort" Rosemary & saying that they should be "friends" again is literally emotional manipulation.
So, the biggest problem I had with the episode 5 conflict had to be just how hypocritical Thyme was. She refuses to use new magic as well, but instead of using that as a building point for a relationship between the two, they instead just use that to start a fight. Doesn't make Sage any less of a bad character, but holy hell that really wasn't thought through.
Yeah...At least Sage was actually TRYING to do the assignment. Thyme was too busy sketching the Rot, yet acted like Sage was the only one slowing their group down.
It’s such a shame because I love fantasy elements and especially magical wizards so to just have Sage be a huge jerk is pretty disappointing. Then again this whole show is a disappointment.
I agree with your arguments for Sage being the worst, but for me it's mainly because of gross man hating. I mean yes, her conflict about new vs old magic is right up there and I hate it, especially if we take it as a metaphor for liberal vs conservative. I'm a woman and I hate the man hating.
It’s one thing to make a jerk character, but when you make a character who is not supposed to be a jerk act like a jerk constantly then that’s the problem. Like the purple axe girl (sorry I can’t remember her name) she is a jerk but on purpose. Sage on the other hand is supposed to be the academically gifted “nice one” but is instead just a huge ah which the writers did not on purpose. That’s when you know the character writing sucks.
I choose to believe the writers were secretly trying to make Sage do a slow burn villain arc. I know that's giving them way too much credit but that would have been kinda awesome.
I admittedly didn’t like Mandrake a lot. I felt like he was trying too hard to be intimidating but ultimately ended up sounding like some edgy 14 year old. My partner mentioned that he was probably based off Teatime from the Discworld novels whos whole thing is that he’s edgy. But the edginess is played up as something to laugh at more than anything. I don’t know man, his everything. His eyes; hair; voice; lines and mannerisms really enraged me for some reason. Then again, my personal favourites are Neppy Cat and Bubbles the Pokémon looking thing. What ever happened to Bubbles?
Well, Mandrake was written by a writing room full of women who didn't have the kind of experience to make an intense villain of his caliber. Or even a male character of any intensity or gravitas.
I would prefer that she was this aloof person who actually stuck with old magic and is confident of her old magic abilities, basically the equivalent to a hipster. Ep5 could have shown what old magic could do as compared to new magic. And she could potentially put amaryllis in her place. But she's just fake, she doesn't have the talent to master old magic, and only does OM because she just wants to be a contrarian in that scene for no reason. Just one simple argument and she flew out of the room crying to play the victim, she doesn't have the level of EQ to hold a conversation, it's sociopathic. And this is a main character that people need to root for or at least be invested in. It's also pretty hypocritical of her to throw a huge crybaby tirade on rose/aster, but in ep8 she has a crush on mermaid snapdragon. So rose can't crush on other people yet sage can do that...okay.
5:50 this scene pisses me off so much. One. Sage didn't have any good points. She acted like she wasn't the problem. Plus Amaryllis technically helped her so I don't know why she's throwing a fit, she would've been there all day if Amaryllis didn't use that spell anyway. Two. That wasn't even a fight between Sage and Thyme. All Thyme said was "Yes." Thyme didn't even say anything hurtful or at least not hurtful enough to make anyone cry. Sage was just sad because she had no points to make her actions right.
Sage could’ve had a different personality altogether. If you want so bad for your main character to have the “I come from tradition but need to embrace the new ideals and I end up doing so that pays tribute to my traditions and allows me to keep up with people” you can’t just fill their story with one contradiction after the other. Like she was like “ok I’ll learn new magic”, but next she’s like “but I wanna use old magic teacherrrr” like one of those kids who asks for more homework. Then yes, one day she’s listening to Parnell, a BOY, talk about feelings (unless the show is like “Parnell is a girl turned boy so aye ok”), but next episode she’s like “BOYS don’t talk about feelings in friendship while girls talk about feelings in their friendship”. Where is this show from? The 1970s???
I've never seen the show, but from what I've gathered is that Sage is supposed to be the sheltered type whose only outlook on the other side of life is Rosemary until she joins the academy. Well maybe in her childhood she mainly controlled what her and Rose did, which didn't really bother Rose until they grew older and so Sage thought that type of behavior was okay. I think it'd be an interesting character development for her to go from a well-meaning yet sort of rude shut-in to someone who tries to understand others and become better at compromising. I'm sorry if this doesn't make much sense, I suck at putting my thoughts into words lol
Speaking of crybaby characters, I think one of the best crybaby characters is Zenitsu from Demon slayer. The character screams and cries about not wanting to fight every episode which sounds like it would get annoying quickly right? Except, when the main characters are in a fight and lives are at stake, he steps up, every single time. And as the series goes on he gets better at handling his fear, he never stops being scared but he stops letting it stand in his way.
Zenitsu is also really the only “simp” character I like. His creepiness is a bit tame compared to other uses of this trope. He has more to his character besides that and that could give a basis of reason (at least what I’m seeing so far in the anime. I’m not sure about in the manga) and he develops as a character as well.
@@nevergonnagiveyouup1180 Plus his "simping" seems really played up to try to avoid missions. And like while he certainly Simps for Nezuko, he is genuinely the only person other than Tanjiro to treat her like he would treat a normal girl, even if she is a demon. And you're right he absolutely develops. As the series goes on he handles his fear better and is more willing to go into harms way if it means protecting people.
agreed. zenitsu really got on my nerves when I first watched demon slayer, but it helped that the show itself acknowledged his behavior was ridiculous multiple times. (plus, other characters got onto him about it. it was very enjoyable to watch tanjiro yell at him every single time he got weird towards women, especially since hes normally so calm and polite lol) having a character start off unlikeable is fine so long as the narrative makes it clear its not condoning their behavior. when it doesnt is when you start having issues.
GOOD VIDEO , apart from being a MARY SUE since the first potions class , SAGE is a DRAMA QUEEN who constantly victimizes herself to attract attention and receive preferential treatment , also when she does bad things like when she killed that poor sea dragon she automatically kills them . other characters begin to justify it by saying "it's not the fault but someone else's", that is the message of the various creators so that you apologize and learn from your mistakes when it is easier to blame others for your own mistakes, WHAT AN ATTITUDE MORE CHILDREN
It would have been much better to explain Old magic as being able to bend the laws of nature, but not completely break them; that would mean it would be less powerful & less useful then New Magic, but it respected the world around it and didn’t use shortcuts. Whereas New Magic could break the Laws of Nature and was able to do things that even Old Magic would deem impossible, however it was more likely to upset the natural balance and cause unforeseen consequences (like causing weird weather patterns or making Magical objects around them act up.) I could even see ancient spirits be angered by New Magic because of how it upsets the Equilibrium, and Spirits could attack people because of that. Not to mention since New Magic uses so many shortcuts, its students are less respectful of the world around them and can even act like their actions don’t have consequences. And maybe the reason why Sage’s mother gave up New Magic was because she could sense what her actions were doing to the world around her, and didn’t want to cause more damage.
Yeah. Rosemary had at least a little droplets of charm in her even though it's very generic and predictable. Sage is supposed to be right all the time, but types of character archetypes can sometimes be wrong too. what's worse is that it's all about stupid stuff that Sage cries over until she is proven she is right. Since that's her entire character, there is no charm to her and thus, in my opinion, the worst character
@@jossuecabrera8611 I know I can be sensitive, but even I quirked an eyebrow at Sage crying because Thyme said "yeah". Of course Thyme is going to agree that lunch is more important! She has other classes to attend and a growing elf needs to eat. I'm guilty of making things harder than they need to be and forgetting to eat because I get wrapped up in my work, but someone needs to stage an intervention with Sage.
I am part of the statistic. The plan was I'd watch the first three, but barely managed the first one. Cal is at least consistent. Also love your explanation on how new magic works.
Sungwon does a great job voicing Cal. It's a shame he wasn't in more episodes. Why not have him interact with Parnell instead of having Parnell tell us that Cal is mean to him? Could they not get Sungwon for more episodes?
Honestly Sage's arc for this should have been accepting and learning New Magic. She tries to remain with Old Magic but because it takes longer she falls behind on her classes. She could also struggle with New Magic until the finale where she finally embraces it. And maybe instead of her cousin flat out showing her the picture of her mom when she did New Magic. Sage could have found it herself and realized her mom was a hypocrite. Not realizing maybe her mom had a reason to stop using it.
The Old vs New magic was a decent allegory for energy consumption (effort and tradition, but it's slower and less profitable, vs immediate profit and comfort that also pollutes), but it got lost in the shuffle.
I've always hated how often characters use the whole "You've changed, you're not the same person I once knew" because they're salty about something. During Rosemary and Sage's petty argument that's basically Sage's entire point, and besides not making sense that's a terrible thing for someone to say, kind of proving once again that Sage is just horrendous. Hearing someone say that you're inferior to your old self is one of the most deflating hurtful things you can say to a close friend.
"Because if having a disagreement with your friend is enough to send you into a crying fit you aren't emotionally ready for the field of battle" Not this being Twitter and the interactions the production team has had on that forsaken app
It's hard for me, as everything you say about Sage is correct. But I give the win to Rosemary because, she's Sage's childhood friend. She's tolerated this their whole youths together. She enables Sage's behavior. She doesn't throw the "you changed" line back at her, meaning Sage has always acted like this. One could argue that Rose is 'on the spectrum' and incapable of understanding the situation, then why is she allowed to be a guardian? I'd conclude Rose is the single worst character, but Sage is the worst part of the show because it's lack of world building may have addressed some of her issues
I haven't seen HGS in a while but if I had the chance to rework it, the main characters would obviously have to be Amaryllis and Snapdragon since to me they seemed to be the most compelling dynamic out of the whole cast. Rose and Sage would just be the side characters that are allowed to be petty and be made fun of.
I just realized that if they had centered the show around snapdragon and mcmoneybags, added some actual intrigue and comedy, the show would've been good.
If they really wanted to have good Rosemary-Sage argument. They could made Rosemary still being in love with Aster longer, with Aster being terrible person and using her, and Sage could try to convince her best friend that the guy she likes is wrong.
Sage is a perfect representation of how damn near everything in this show is at-odds with itself. Sage is not allowed to be wrong because she's "the smart one" ergo she has to be in the right at all times, but someone failed to tell these hack writers that part of the smart one's development is realizing that it's not only expected, but *okay* to be wrong sometimes, being wrong doesn't make you stupid, it gives you a chance to learn, but they're more concerned with creating needless, pointless drama that just drags the plot down.
Semi related to the Thyme situation but if memory calls correctly doesn’t she says she “doesn’t mess with that sh*t” when Sage ask her about new magic? Then what where you doing in class and agreeing with Amaryllis?!?!?
Well, you don’t even have to watch HGS, you just have to look at her…I mean..her design is so…basic. Just a dark blue coat and, yeah… most of the characters have a better design than her. Also I really hate her, she reminds me of my childhood friends :,)
With the festival scene I was surprised that Sage didn't sprout a pair of demonic wings and start blasting magic everywhere. I would have loved to see that happen. The writers were throwing everything else in so why not that?😂
Not only that, when she killed the dragon instead of making her realize her mistake, the teacher said "it's not your fault Sage". Like?? It's her fault though? Don't coddle her dammit! Let her face her own mistake and have her finally learn from it.
A friend of mine suggested the idea for Sage to become the villain. Her whiny and entitled personality only progresses until the story moves forward until she turns evil, resulting in a tragic final battle between her and Rosemary. However, this could only really happen if the writers were self-aware.
I would also say Cal is better written than Sage because at least when he's insufferable, he's supposed to be. He acheives the intent of his writing and nothing more, meanwhile Sage tries to be something and fails due to amatuer writing. It's partly why noone complains about Parsley. Yes, she's a nothing feel-good character, but she's ultimately there to just be a feel-good buddy to the main cast, thus achieving her purpose.
I love how while there is massive debate about who the worst character in the show is, everyone is in total lockstep that the best character in the show is Amaryllis.
I have a great idea for how to rewrite the series. I never liked how cut and dry it was the “chosen ones” the four girls that were “destined to find each other and stop the evil thing” was so cut and dry, especially since they didn’t even have a dynamic, but imagine, Snapdragon has just figured out their gender identity crisis and the four girls try to do some weird Hail Mary quest thing, but they can’t succeed. Until they realize they were made of the wrong members and Snapdragon was the fourth girl, not *insert character here* because she was a girl on the inside the whole time, but they just couldn’t see it until she transitioned. Wouldn’t that be beautiful?
4:01 I hate how that plant teacher looks like the knockoff version of Eda from The Owl House, AKA the better executed show than whatever the heck this dumpsterfire is.
