The issue with AYA is literally everything. I cannot stress that enough, there are VERY few parts of the episode that are salvageable. I'll list them here:
1. The Fireside Girl designs are the only good ones in the ep
2. Irving working for OWCA - he DID come into the show by spying on the main gang 😂 so it makes perfect sense
3. Candace going to school to be a lawyer is top notch, only part of that episode I consider canon
Other than that, I cannot find one redeemable quality to that episode. Here's the most glaring problems for me:
1. What the FUCK is up with the boys and their toxic masculinity? This is Buford and Baljeet, who sang a BREAKUP SONG bc they missed each other. Phineas and Ferb, who worked every day to make sure their friends and family felt happy and loved. Kids who would go to the ends of the earth for each other AND HAVE - "we are guys, we do not talk about feelings" 🤢🤢🤢🤢 fuck that shit
2. Their character designs suck I'm sorry. Almost all of them. Doofs hair was literally just colored gray, they just made Phineas taller, and they made Buford SKINNY what the HELL? The designs were bland and bad, esp when you compare them to an episode like Quantum Boogaloo where Doofs body actually changes too. Bodies SHIFT over the course of 5-8 years, esp in adolescents - their designs should have reflected that (and making Buford skinny was nauseating. He wouldn't slim up like that naturally, he'd have the build of a football player or a wrestler just based on his body shape alone.)
3. I'm not big on Phinabella but when it's done right I think it's cute. This was not done right. No communication between them, and Isabella wouldn't drop a friendship (multiple friendships!!) for an unrequited crush - that's not who she is. In many episodes prior she had moments where she had to pick between her crush on Phineas and friendship and she ALWAYS chose friendship. And Phineas just LETTING her slip away? No way, he'd figure out what the hell was wrong. This is the boy who tried to make her an entire goddamn ice cream machine when she got her tonsils out, who spiraled into a panic when he couldn't find her during a zombie invasion, he wouldn't just drop her once she stopped swinging by.
4. Balinger. What the FUCK was that shit? Gingers crush was cute in the show!! And then they made their relationship toxic as hell???? Like they straight up lie and manipulate each other, which is NEVER how that group was. The Fireside Girls were autonomously friends with Phineas and Ferb and gang, they weren't just there bc of Isabella, and they have the same morals as the main gang. The toxicity in their writing low-key just felt like misogyny and it was gross
5. Crazy enough I think the Doof plot was the best part of the ep and anyone who knows me knows that I'm indifferent to Doof most of the time, but again, what the FUCK was up with his design????? Trash. Give him fucking wrinkles you cowards
6. The ending. Phineas Flynn would not stay in the Tri-State Area for college. This kid has traveled the WORLD - he'd be going to places that challenged him, that opened his eyes to new possibilities and adventures. Hell, he'd do online school WHILE traveling the world. He loves Danville - it's his home. But Tri-State State wouldn't challenge him. And frankly it wouldn't challenge Isabella - every single one of those kids could get into Ivy League schools and you're telling me they basically chose community colleges? (Not bashing community colleges but again. They don't match with the characters we've been shown this whole time). No. It's not romantic or cute, it's poor writing in regards to the characters personalities.
6. Ferbnessa 🤢🤢🤢🤢 they have a SIX YEAR age gap - which as grown adults would be fine, whatever, if they got together after they both graduated college. But in this episode Ferb is 18 (BARELY) dating a 24 YEAR OLD. That's disgusting. Depending on when they started dating she would have been 20 dating him at 14. That's fucking nasty, IDC how you spin it. Ferb's little kid crush on her? Chill, cute. Her reciprocating it?????? Disgusting. If it was reversed and it was a 24 year old man and an 18 year old girl everyone would have been up in arms about it. It was also entirely unnecessary in the plotline, we could have had zero ferbnessa and the episode literally wouldn't have changed.
Anyway those are the most grievous errors of the episode, it can burn in the dumpster alongside the second cliptastic countdown
