Out of all the Beach City residents, the one who really
proves to work better in small doses as opposed to having a whole cartoon to
himself is Ronaldo. His gimmick is that
he documents all the weird stuff that goes on in Beach City on a blog and tries
to convince everyone he sees to check it out.
Ronaldo has appeared several times before this cartoon in short scenes
of him doing his thing, and in those scenes, he was pretty enjoyable in his own
obsessive way coming off as a gentle jab at people who pride in making major
theories on certain subjects who are common in many show’s fanbases. Here, he’s still enjoyable, but with so much
focus dedicated to Ronaldo, his character becomes very concerning. He becomes convinced of the existence of a
race called snake people based on certain anomalies he finds. His claims really affect Steven which is already
stupid because he was present when all the anomalies occurred as they’re
related to conflicts from previous cartoons which is even brought up. At least the strong sense of continuity is a
plus for the plot. Anyway, when Steven
finds out the truth behind Ronaldo’s claims and explains them to him, Ronaldo sadly
claims to never investigate the weird again.
The thing is though, even with an insightful moment from Pearl who
explains that it’s normal for humans to feel like they’re a part of something
big to make the most of their lives, Steven still finds it necessary to “fix”
Ronaldo. This is where this cartoon
really gets problematic. With so much
details on Ronaldo’s weirdness investigating given, it’s clear that he has a
very unhealthy lifestyle. There’s
nothing wrong with hobbies or interests, but Ronaldo puts way too much emphasis
on his. He uses them as an excuse to
duck out of work, berates others for focusing on other things and not seeing
what he sees, and sees no problem with stopping at nothing to prove he’s
right. Also, when Steven sets out to
cure him of his funk by disguising himself as a snake person, Ronaldo captures
him and plans to torture him while selfishly admiring that something important
is about to happen to him, further showing the unhealthy and even dangerous
side of his character. Yet, in the end,
when Steven is freed and Ronaldo’s proven wrong again, everyone decides to
leave him to his obsessive ways even though it shows that he clearly needs to
seek help. However, Ronaldo does state a
theory about the Great Diamond Authority that proves to be accurate which gives
him and this cartoon credibility, even though we won’t be going into that until
looks at future seasons of this show.
For that reason, as well as some fun moments and character interactions,
this is still a decent cartoon mostly filled with unhealthy support for an
unhealthily-functioning character. 7/10
The Ranking
- Ocean Gem
- Coach Steven
- Mirror Gem
- An Indirect Kiss
- Space Race
- So Many Birthdays
- Steven the Sword Fighter
- Lion 2: The Movie
- Bubble Buddies
- Monster Buddies
- Laser Light Cannon
- Giant Woman
- Lars and the Cool Kids
- Steven’s Lion
- Gem Glow
- Steven and the Stevens
- Island Adventure
- Rose’s Room
- Cheeseburger Backpack
- Secret Team
- House Guest
- Serious Steven
- Joking Victim
- Beach Party
- Cat Fingers
- Tiger Millionaire
- Together Breakfast
- Frybo
- Onion Trade
- Arcade Mania
- Keep Beach City Weird
Be sure to stay tuned for the review of the next episode where a "Fusion Cuisine" turns out to be a recipe for disaster.
If you would like to check out other reviews on this blog, click here for the guide to all the reviews posted so far.
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