Radical Rescue
I may not find Rad’s stories to be the show at its most compelling, but there are several instances that make him respectable as a character. With this cartoon featuring some of these instances, this one does a lot more for me than I would expect. In fact, they make this Rad’s true stand out starring role of this particular season.
It all unfolds in an opening scene where a short instance of K.O. going about his work at the bodega leads Rad to give him some advice on coolness and tell him he’d never lead him astray. This may seem overly prideful in Rad’s buff image he’s constantly building up for himself, but this moment becomes more telling from here. Enter two often seen supporting heroes, Bell Beefer and Megafootball Baby, whose simple-minded, insensitive, and judgmental behaviors have a history of influencing Rad. They start dropping statements of what they consider cool or lame with K.O. taking their statements to heart. It’s kind of surprising he isn’t actually hurt by their opinions, especially since he was capable of being hurt over being called a mama’s boy.
Rad, however, knows where this is going, and scrambles to delete from his phone all photos showing traces of what his friends consider lame which includes kittens. Of course, at least one past cartoon has suggested that Rad is quite fond of kittens, and that one element is given significant attention in this cartoon. When no one’s paying attention, he secretly sneaks over to an animal shelter where he’s apparently looked after several homeless cats for a long time. He even has one cat he’s particularly fond of, the little kitten in one of his deleted photos called Teacup who was shown playing inside a teacup. Rad’s easily right at home here, but keeping it secret is undeniably hard for him.
Right now, it becomes even harder when a new arrival to the shelter is the feral Boxmore robot, Mikayla. With the shelter owner oblivious and Rad’s cat-caring skills ineffective, he’s left to deal with her alone and protect the other kittens from Mikayla’s attacks. While trying to get the kittens out of the shelter to safety, Rad gets one of his most respectable moments. He finds K.O. seemingly completely reshaped by what Bell Beefer and Megafootball Baby’s judgements, acting all condescending with calling everything lame. When he even calls what he cherishes lame, Rad is horrified showing a sense of legitimacy and brotherly heart to his relationship with the kid.
He opens up with K.O. on how he’s grown to realize that it was completely unhealthy of him to let himself be guided on what to like, and that K.O. shouldn’t fall into the trap. Now that there is one of the best lessons anyone can learn for promoting individual tastes and suggesting there’s no true mold to fit. Luckily, K.O. was merely playing along in what he felt was a game, accepts Rad for who he is, and helps him save the kittens from Mikayla. After that, it’s Bell Beefer and Megafootball Baby, the judgmental ones, that end up falling apart. With an interesting take on a power battle, Rad fights with honesty instead of physical blows, and nothing they say can bring him or K.O. down, especially not emotionally.
So Rad is able to make his soft side
completely known, and while its tone doesn’t make it a favorite, it does show
how well-rounded he really is.
B+
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. T.K.O. Rules
3. K.O. vs Fink
4. Whatever Happened to Rippy Roo?
5. Chip’s Damage
6. The K.O. Trap
7. We Are Heroes
8. Radical Rescue
9. Planet X
10. Deep Space Vacation
11. K.O., Rad, and Enid!
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