Wednesday, November 25, 2020

Let's Fight to the End - (OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes Season 3 Episode 18) - 'Toon Reviews 40

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Let’s Fight to the End

The current stakes are higher than ever and this show’s nature when it comes to heroes and villains fighting has never been more apparent.  All of this is very fitting as we near the end of the series and bring to life its biggest action piece. 

T.K.O.’s rampage is still going strong, and it’s revealed to be part of an elaborate plan by Shadowy Venomous to absorb all power and destroy the universe.  This is how he convinces T.K.O. to destroy the factory of Pow Cards, one of the real K.O.’s favorite things, resetting everyone’s hero levels.  Even if the cards never really made sense, a power tournament is held to make up for the lost data. 

The tournament itself takes up the entire near half hour runtime and offers so much to take in.  For one thing, there are several appearances from many well-known heroes and villains, many of which haven’t been seen since past roles in single episodes.  It’s a good way of showing the scope of the cast, the variety of the characters and their powers, and blends well with the tournament atmosphere. 

Fortunately, the focus remains on the plot at hand with doing all manners possible to stop T.K.O. from winning and ending the universe.  Rad and Enid, now Lakewood’s most revered heroes, take action to face T.K.O. despite all previous battles in the tournament proving he’s the ultimate fighter.  In addition, there are several instances of the real K.O. inside his own mind, confirming that despite T.K.O. taking over, he can never be gone for good.  His friends actually notice signs of K.O. trying to break free too, although T.K.O. is still fighting too hard for that to happen. 

From there, even bigger events in the battle occur at a fast sense.  Sometimes it brings up cool ideas only to shoot them down too quickly.  Rad and Enid get glorbs to unleash their own turbonic forms, but are overpowered just as they're close to beating T.K.O.  Lord Boxman returns having found inner peace and has an endearing moment with his robot children.  However, when they all try to face T.K.O. with Dendy, they’re defeated without making even a small impact even though their affirmed love is effective. 

As Shadowy Venomous obtains control of Lakewood’s glorb tree, granting T.K.O. ultimate power needed to wipe out everyone, more big events leave stronger impacts.  Everyone, especially Rad, Enid, Carol, and Mr. Gar, show how important K.O. is to them despite him in his turbonic state, inspiring others to do the same.  It doesn’t stop T.K.O. but it does push K.O. further into finding a solution.  During T.K.O.’s rampage, T.K.O. discovers he was a pawn in Shadowy Venomous’ plan and he forces out his father’s dark influence and destroys it.  There could have been more compelling closure for Professor Venomous, but this is fine enough. 

More solid closure however belongs to K.O. when he finds something important deep within the subconscious, a tape recorder.  It may seem random, but its contents of Carol singing to toddler K.O. on remembering that everything will be all right when things go wrong is very fitting.  It’s not just a tie to a mention of the topic earlier in this cartoon, but also the opening scene of T.K.O.’s first appearance, creatively making him stand as an allegory for anger coping.  

This is further supported by a heartwarming scene where K.O. calls T.K.O. to share a revelation.  For so long he was wrong for treating his negative emotions like something he needed to lose or hide away.  They are a part of who he is and should be allowed to be in control as much as his positive emotions.  That is something completely true for us all.  Completing the smart visual metaphor is both parts of K.O. emerging as a new K.O. with altered design touches. 

It is disturbing that literally everyone basically gets killed as K.O. comes to this conclusion.  The fix involving the President of the Universe granting K.O. a wish to fix everything may seem cheap, but it works since his power to do literally anything was well-established before.  Plus, you can’t fault the heart in K.O. using victory in the tournament to grant everyone their best life as his own hero journey comes full circle.  He’s now fully capable of being the strong hero he always set out to be as proven by the last shot of him destroying a Darrell robot the way he imagined doing so in the beginning.

For all the things happening so fast in a major escalation of a cast-sized smack down, the final results leave a lot of great character closure, action, and smart metaphors.  While not everything reaches the best conclusion or gets enough time to shine, for the most part, it’s the best end this underlying story can get. And that’s not even all…

A

Season 2 Rankings

1.      Your World is an Illusion

2.      T.K.O.’s House

3.      Final Exams

4.      CarolQuest

5.      All in the Villainy

6.      Dark Plaza

7.      GarQuest

8.      Dendy’s Power

9.      Crossover Nexus

10.  Lord Cowboy Darrell

11.  Bittersweet Rivals

12.  Beach Episode

13.  Red Action to the Future

14.  My Fair Carol

15.  K.O.’s Health Week

16.  Are You Ready for Some Megafootball?!

17.  Boxman Crashes

18.  Wisdom Strength and Charisma

19.  Gar Trains Punching Judy

20.  I Am Jethro

21.  Mystery Sleepover

22.  Super Black Friday

23.  Point to the Plaza

24.  Project Ray Way

25.  Special Delivery

26.  Seasons Change

27.  The So-Bad-Ical

28.  Monster Party

29.  Sidekick Scouts

30.  Whacky Jaxxyz

31.  Rad’s Alien Sickness

32.  Plaza Film Festival

33.  OK A.U.! Alternate Universe

34.  Let’s Watch the Boxmore Show

35.  Be a Team

36.  Plaza Alone

37.  Soda Genie

Season 3 Ranking

1.      Big Reveal

2.      Let’s Get Shadowy

3.      Let’s Fight to the End

4.      T.K.O. Rules

5.      K.O. vs Fink

6.      Whatever Happened to Rippy Roo?

7.      Red Action 3: Grudgement Day

8.      Carl

9.      Chip’s Damage

10.  The K.O. Trap

11.  We Are Heroes

12.  Let’s Meet Sonic

13.  Dendy’s Video Channel

14.  You’re a Good Friend K.O.

15.  Radical Rescue

16.  Planet X

17.  Deep Space Vacation

18.  K.O., Rad, and Enid!

The end of OK K.O. is just around the corner as the next review showcases the best kind of closure K.O. and his friends can truly get while also serve as a creative take on shows ending suddenly.
If you would like to check out other OK K.O.! reviews on this blog, click here for the guide made especially for them.

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