Anonymous writes...

Hello, Greg!

Now that ‘Young Justice: Phantoms’ has aired in its entirety, I feel that now is as good a time as any to give my (unprompted and long-winded, but well-deserved) review of the fourth season of what was once my favorite show. I’m going to be honest and fairly blunt: this season was frustrating.

And no, not in a fun way.

I had so, so, so many problems with how you and Brandon broke this season down. Much like how you guys handled Outsiders, this season’s pacing is glaringly bad. It feels even worse this go-around, but I’m gonna guess (or hope, rather) that that’s only because this season’s arc formula forces a bigger emphasis on the pacing within three-to-five episode chunks, which in turn makes the flaws all the more apparent.

Don’t get me wrongâ€"the season wasn’t bad by any means. I know it did consistently well (better than all three of the past seasons, I believe) on the charts and was almost always trending on the HBOMax page. By all accounts, I completely understand why you and the company would see the season as a metaphorical slam-dunk: because it was. And with all the chaos that’s going on right now with the merger between HBOMax and Discovery, with the shelving of that nearly-finished BATGIRL movie, etc. etc., I know it's up in the air if the show is going to get renewed for a fifth season. All I can say is I sincerely hope it does get renewed.

But with all that being said, I do think it needs to be addressed that getting strong numbers on the charts and accepting the praise whilst ignoring and/or arguing away critics (hate-watchers, you called them) does NOT equal high-quality entertainment.

So let’s start from the beginning.

The notion of this arc-like storytelling seemed like such a good idea back when promotion started for the season, and many fansâ€"myself includedâ€"rejoiced when they were told (by you, Brandon, the crew, etc.) that each arc would be focused around an original Team member. Looking back, I really wished you hadn’t gone down this route. The choice (per interviews with you and Brandon) seemed to mostly be a cost-saving measure with regards to being able to reuse backgrounds, locations, voice actors, etc. etc., while also theoretically allowing you guys to explore characters in a more in-depth manner, more so than previous seasons. On paper, it sounds great. Which is why it’s really a shame that the actual end product didn’t seem to meet anyone’s expectations on that front.

Now, I’ve seen your responses to criticisms about how each arc doesn't seem to actually revolve around the character they’ve been promoted as revolving around. Most of these responses seem to be you just digging your heels in further. Which just leaves me (and many others, the so-called vocal minority) to question whether the show you made is the same one that actually aired. Because no, Zatanna’s arc was most definitely not about or revolving around HER. Raquel’s arc book-ended with her, sure, but that giant chunk that made up the entire POINT of the arc itself? The same arc that had her speaking a maximum of, what, five lines an episode? Yeah, none of that was about HER.

That isn’t to say all of them were like this. M’gann and Conner’s arc was all about them, Artemis’ arc was all about her and her relationship with Jade, Kaldur’s arc was an overarching Atlantis plotline, yes, but it was ingrained around Kaldur’s detrimental needing-to-help complex. It should come as no surprise that those three arcs wereâ€"by far and wideâ€"the better of the bunch. Hence, it should also come as no surprise why SO MANY people found Zatanna’s so-called arc disappointing (because no, the main point was not Zatanna’s connection with her father, it was quite literally all about Child’s reign of terror) and Raquel’s arc was nothing but set-up (you could replace her with any other character and nothing about the New Genesis plotline would have changed). The only character I actually understand not being the primary focus of their arc is Dick, and OF COURSE that’s the one character YOU believe actually got shafted in the end.

I’m not saying Dick didn’t get shafted, because he absolutely did. But we’ve had three seasons of Dick content. He isn’t a character whose backstory we know nothing about. Sure, I would have loved to see more of his psyche explored, would have loved to see how his relationship with the Batfamily has grown or diminished since Jason’s death or Barbara’s paralysis. I would have loved to see his relationship with his comatose Uncle Rick be explored more. But he didn’t NEED an in-depth character-driven story.

Zatanna and Raquel DID.

We knew nothing about Zatanna’s home life outside of her father. Yes, the arc expanded on that. But it wasn’t HER arc. We learned her mother died of cancer (which was told to us through the lens of Zatara, not Zatanna); we learned that her family is Catholic (again, through Zatara); we learned she’s known Khalid since childhood (yet AGAIN, through Zatara). And even with all that information, it ultimately amounts to nothing even resembling character development and it certainly doesn’t have anything to do with Zatanna’s actions (or lack thereof, in all honesty) during said-arc. I mean, not once did SHE get to narrate an episode of her own damn arc.

But Phantom Stranger? A character we just met? Sure. Vandal Savage, a villain that already had an entire episode dedicated to him last season? Yeah, why not! Nabu and Zatara seemed to be the only ones that made sense, really, and even then neither were directly about Zatanna herself. And that’s just the narration aspects!

I mean, not ONCE did she use her own wits or magical prowess to try and fight off Child or accomplish anything of importance: the only reason she wasn’t killed right off the bat by Klarion in the first episode was because he got called away, it’s Phantom Stranger that warps her to Roanoke where she does absolutely nothing but watch before Etrigan comes to help, and then it’s Khalid that is the one that revives her after she gets knocked out and nearly drowns. It’s honestly so strange looking back to Artemis’ arcâ€"where you cited the reason for the major change to Oracle’s backstory was because you wanted her to have AGENCYâ€"after this. Where did all that agency go for this arc? Zatanna certainly didn’t have any when she most definitely should have.

You could say that Zatanna did help out in the fourth and fifth episodes (you know, ignoring how she spent the entirety of the third sitting in a chair questioning Nabu’s motives and accomplishing nothing else whilst her students battled their own inner demons), but that’s really not saying much. Having the lead character in an arc be relegated to backup in the final showdown was just... anticlimactic and boring. The one thing this arc did well was set up an amazing villain, only for her to be thwarted by Flaw’s (fairly obvious, Hello Megan!) weakness.

Honestly, I’m kind of amazed how you guys managed to have Zatanna be more helpful in the last episode of Raquel’s arc and literally ALL of Dick’s arc than she was in all (five!) episodes of her own. Amazed and kind of annoyed.

And then there’s Raquel, who might as well be the display image when someone looks up the meaning of “eleventh-hour ranger.” I’m not arguing her (in)significance in the first three seasons, but merely how, as a result of that decision, we as an audience know practically NOTHING about her. We know that she had Amistad shortly before joining the Justice League and we know she was engaged to someone, making her entire character seemingly just that of a mother and wife, which doesn’t exactly define HER. It’s not like she was either of those things when she became a hero, right? So what made her want to become one? Was it Icon? Was it for justice? For fame and glory? These are questions that SHOULD have been addressed already, but weren’t, and so we as an audience are left to assume that they’ll be discussed and/or alluded to within her arc.

Instead, when the time FINALLY comes for us to get to know this badass, beautiful, versatile character on the most basic, fundamental level, we’re greeted with something just a notch below ableism. Huh? I get you guys were trying to showcase how even loving parents can make mistakes, but for THAT to be the first personal/familial trait we witness doesn’t exactly paint her in the most positive light.

Which wouldn’t inherently be the worst thing. It’s a common trope to show that even the good guys have flaws that they must overcome. But you guys did literally nothing with that until the VERY END (and it's not even like that so-called ‘pay-off’ was worth the buildup, anyway), so are we just meant to not like her during the entirety of her arc? And it SERIOUSLY does not help that you guys chose to compare Amistad’s autism to Orion’s violent outbursts in Raquel’s eyes (which then weirdly turned into some sexual tension between the two of them by the end of the season for some reason). So much for those sensitivity readers you kept bringing up whenever someone criticized how well you handled Violet’s faith and/or queerness, amiright?

Speaking of, since this was in Raquel’s arc and said by Raquel herself (one of the few lines she actually had, sadly enough), the scene where everyone kept misgendering Violet was excruciatingly painful. I know you’ve stated that it was an oversight and a mistake and you're not quite sure how it got past all of you (even those top-notch sensitivity readers, too!), but it’s pretty clear why this happened: you making Violet explicitly non-binary was a spur-of-the-moment decision probably brought on by the complaints on how you merely alluded to it in S3 but never really committed, choosing instead to safely fall back onto the standard she/her pronouns for the rest of the season. Kudos for the explicit confirmation here in S4, but this oversight really tells a lot about how you guys see Violet and, as a result, your non-binary audience. I know ofâ€"at leastâ€"a handful of people that stopped watching right then and there, one of whom I know personally, who’d advocated so hard for a S3 back when it was on Netflix and went to all of the conventions and actually met you at a meet-and-greet panel back during the promotion of Outsiders. They were legitimately heartbroken. I understand this was a mistake (one that I am seriously trying to wrap my head around, because surely you had at least one non-binary consultant for this storyline, right?), but that mistake quite literally opened the floodgates and gave all of the homophobic DC fans even more leverage to use against us. That mistake will forever be ingrained in ‘Young Justice’ and it’s just... really disheartening, I’m sorry to say.

Now, moving back to the actual meat of Raquel’s arcâ€"which was apparently meant to be an important meeting regarding the camaraderie between New Genesis, the Green Lantern Corps, and the heroes of Earth. Obviously, that’s not the point of the arc (it’s set-up for Lor-Zod, really), but it did feel extremely convoluted when the actual meeting lasted all of five seconds with a firm ‘no’ from Orion and the GLs. Like, what? THAT’s why Raquel and the others flew across the galaxy? What, a video call wouldn’t suffice? It just seemed like a half-assed attempt to explain Raquel’s involvement, which does nothing but strengthen my statement earlier that you could’ve switched anyone in for Raquel and nothing would’ve changed.

I know sometimes the plot forces the story one way, but to relegate the plot-focused arc onto the least developed character? Really? It just left us with more questions than answers (and no, in this case, that’s NOT a good thing). Why did she become a hero? Does she have any family outside of her son? Where was Icon during all this? Who was Raquel engaged to? Was it Noble, the obvious choice, thus forcing us to question why the hell that was a secret at all? The entire storyline seemed like one big missed opportunity, and the overall structure of it all did not help in the slightest.

It’s not like this is the only arc with a weak story structure, but it’s by far the worst. ‘Encounter Upon the Razor’s Edge’ was probably the worst example of pacing and prioritization I’ve seen in a LONG time and it was honestly laughable. I genuinely have no idea how you thought introducing yet another character (that played NO PART in this season’s storyline) and centering the ENTIRE episode around him (therefore DETRACTING an entire episode from an already existing, supposedly main, undeveloped character) would make sense from a narrative standpoint at all. I understand you guys wanted to pay homage to ‘Green Lantern: The Animated Series’ with the writers, and I get it made a lot of fans happy to see Razor again, but this stunt was an extreme injustice to both Raquel and the overarching plot. It got to the point where I was so frustrated (and bored, too, in all honesty) that I just wanted her so-called arc to end already.

How you are able to look at either of these two arcs and say with confidence that ‘yes, both of these arcs did actually revolve around their leading character’ utterly BAFFLES me. And don’t get me wrong, I certainly don’t expect you to read this and agree with anything I’ve said. I get that you’re proud of this season and you obviously liked what you and Brandon came up with for each of these arcs. But the evidence to support your claims of Zatanna’s and Raquel’s individual presence just isn’t there, making your repetitive dismissals of these criticisms all the more infuriating.

Moving on, I think I should bring up one of the major themes of the season: mental health. I think the concept itself looks good on paperâ€"showcasing how worsening mental health and depression can affect someone and the people around them, particularly with how people RESPOND to it.

But as we discussed with the arc structure, something looking good on paper does not equate with it translating well on-screen. And yet again, I do sincerely get where you’re coming from. Like Raquel’s ingrained ableism, you wanted to showcase how even your loved ones can miss the signsâ€"you wanted your show to be as realistic as possible (as you’ve stated when discussing this very plotline). But this so-called realism doesn’t make sense in this context.

Everyone around Garfield are superheroes, the majority of whom are superhero adults with YEARS of experience under their belt and one of whom is specifically trained in psychology and therapy. Even among his peers, he had Ed, who was a peer counselor and who ALSO has some experience in a formal professional setting. This so-called realism fell flat for a lot of people watching because superheroes would KNOW the signs of depression. They would SEE and RECOGNIZE what was actually happening and would certainly put more emphasis on helping Garfield even if he didn’t necessarily WANT their help.

I just found it extremely convenient for you (and frustrating for the audience) that when some of the Outsiders actually confronted Garfield about blowing off their missions and lazing about, it was Courtney doing the talking instead of Ed who was RIGHT THERE and didn’t say a word. Or how, when Blue Devil noticed something was off with Garfield, or when M’gann, Robotman, Cassie, Jaime, and Virgil had their little intervention, none of them went to Black Canary until nearly the END of the damn season. And low and behold, she got through to him in one therapy session. It was just so extremely convoluted and could have been wrapped up in the first half of the season if you guys hadn’t made the adult superheroes act so inept.

Maybe then the Razor butt-in plot or the Infinitors/Markovia storyline during Dick’s arc wouldn’t have been as jarring and/or pointless and/or detrimental to the other characters because you’d actually have the time to showcase everything you felt the need to showcase.

Or you could have used that extra time to depict other charactersâ€"it sure would have been nice to see how the Outsiders and/or the Flash Family reacted to Bart being missing (we were TOLD Jay was having a hard time with it after he got back from New Genesis), or how being Doctor Fate was affecting Zatanna, Khalid, and Traci’s lives, or how any member of the Batfamily was doing. I don’t know, it just felt like you guys were building up so much potential inner turmoil for certain characters only for you guys to just never go anywhere with it or make the waiting pay off by showing it on-screen.

But that’s more of a problem with your whole premise of the show than anything. ‘Tell rather than show’ seems to be your guys’ writing mantra these days. The amount of exposition spewed at us this season wasn’t as bad as in Outsiders, but that’s really not saying much.

All in all, I do think the season was okay. Certainly better than S3. But it’s still nowhere near what the show once was back in the S1 and S2. Which really is a shame, because some parts of this season were absolutely wonderful. The first two arcs were pretty great (that fight scene in the dark during Artemis’ arc still gets me, holy crap) and I truly adored Kaldur’s arc, which I’ve come to realize was definitely my favorite. Dick’s arc was fine for me because of all the shafted characters, he was the one that made sense to shaft (though WHY not a single member of the Batfamily appeared at all until the wedding is still a mystery to me. Poor Tim will never get a speaking line, will he?). As you’ve read, it was Zatanna and Raquel’s arcs that ruined an otherwise good season for a lot of us. Had the season not been divided into chunks, I feel like their respective roles would have shined more in the long run.

Now, in spite of my tirades above, I genuinely do hope for a fifth season. I may not agree with or like every decision you make, but I think you and Brandon both have got a great show in your hands and I do truly want the best for it. But the criticisms I’ve stated are still strong and honest criticisms and the misgendering mistake you guys made ruined the show for a good chunk of people. So if a fifth season does come to fruition, I really am hoping for and expecting more.

Maybe that makes me entitled or snotty. I know I probably come off sounding like an arse and you probably didn’t like a single word of what I wrote. Hell, that’s even if this post makes it beyond your moderators. If it does, just know that this (albeit frustrated) criticism does genuinely come from a place of love for the show and a desire for it to get better with every passing episode.

Thanks for reading, and I am sorry if this spoils the mood a bit for you. If it does, remember I’m just some anonymous nobody on the Internet with a bit too much time on their hands.

I hope you have a good rest of your day.