T.K.O.’s House
Among the show’s biggest creative additions is the inclusion of an alter ego from K.O. built from his negative emotions, T.K.O. While K.O.’s an aspiring hero who tries really hard to be the best person he can be, T.K.O. is emotionally unstable and can cause destruction when in control. One thing that made the Season 1 finale so great is how K.O. managed to find a way to use the negative emotions to his advantage while giving T.K.O. himself his own outlet for his rage. This sounds like a fair compromise, but this cartoon starts exploring the cracks in the setup, but brings solid development in the process.
With the power of his mind, it’s revealed that K.O. has created a lot of nice amenities for T.K.O. in the mindscape. There’s a cozy house, tasty food, video games, and especially his own punching bag. However, this great setup isn’t enough for T.K.O. as he keeps trying to break through, mainly when he believes he sees the character who brought him out, Shadowy Figure. In reality, he’s becoming obsessive with finding him and just ends up attacking innocent civilians. Taking note of this, K.O. decides that he must venture into his mind alone to directly confront T.K.O.
Through meditation, K.O. arrives in the mindscape and discovers how in-depth T.K.O. truly is. Among his many issues is how all the nice stuff K.O. has made for him means nothing if he can never be in control. As he puts it, it’s K.O.’s world and he’s just living in it. However, he takes all his frustration out on Shadowy Figure since he’s the reason he exists. When you further explore this conflict, T.K.O. kind of comes off as believable as his own character and not just an allegory for negative emotions. Wondering why he exists is not a conflict to take lightly.
Anyway in an attempt to calm him and keep the good civilians of his home safe, K.O. agrees to help track Shadowy Figure down. He dreams up a device to allow both him and T.K.O. to control their body at once. Portrayed in a literal sense, there’s humorous bumbling around on their way to Shadowy Figure’s current whereabouts in a tree of glorbs under the bodega. Sure enough, Shadowy Figure is there, but K.O. is in no good position to put up a fight. Clearly, K.O. and T.K.O. have the right idea of functioning together, but their execution needs work.
Luckily, K.O. has the right fix for that as he dreams up a better way for both parts of him to work in sync. With a synchronization device he and T.K.O. are plugged into, they form an entirely new K.O. with the strongest display of his power to date. It’s just what’s needed to pin Shadowy Figure down and demand him to tell them why T.K.O. exists. This brings a believable answer that T.K.O. was never created. He always existed as an amalgam of all of K.O.’s negative emotions. Shadowy Figure also says that he only needed him to get glorbs, but T.K.O. shows benefits by pointing out holes in this claim. How can it just be for glorbs if Shadowy Figure is so interested in K.O. and knows so much about him? This brings a lot of implications about their relationship, but they can only be pondered over for now as Shadowy Figure escapes. There’s also a healthy concluding point as the cartoon ends with K.O. and T.K.O. hanging out together knowing they’re both meant to exist and start forming a stronger bond.
Emotional explores are some of animation’s
most fascinating stories, and this one is no exception.
A+
Season 2
Rankings
1. Your World is an Illusion
2. T.K.O.’s House
3. Lord Cowboy Darrell
4. My Fair Carol
5. Point to the Plaza
6. Seasons Change
7. The So-Bad-Ical
8. Plaza Film Festival
9. Let’s Watch the Boxmore Show
10. Be a Team
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