Birthday Candace Take over?

This is a tiny bit random but I wanted to say my piece on this. There have been two criticism lodged at Phineas and Ferb, most notably the current season that I wish to address/debunk. These have been addressed before but I’ve been thinking about the 2^nd one so I’m here to discuss them.

The first, and easier one, is the summer birthdays. There are quite a few of them. Candace (Candace loses her head), Phineas (clip o rama), Doof, (Raging bully) Linda (Mom’s birthday), Vanessa (Dude, we’re getting the band back together) Jeremy (Cheers for fears), Isabella (Happy birthday Isabella), and if you count minor gags, Monogram (Backyard Hodge Podge), and Stacy (Doofapus). And there was also the one shot Sergei (Mommy can you hear me) and Hildegard (Run Candace run).

Most people see this as just a silly thing, given how weirder coincidences happen in Danville. But some people are actually bothered by this, seeing it as both unlikable a sign that they are out of ideas.

Well for one, if you can buy a secret agent platypus, a magical oldy timey bathing suit, and a giant floating baby head, than you can buy this.

2^nd, I argue otherwise. If you noticed, all the major birthday episodes, such as Cheers For Fears aren’t there just to have a birthday episode. They are there to tell interesting stories for the characters.

Mom’s Birthday, Cheers for Fears, and Happy Birthday Isabella, especially do this giving further depth either to the characters or their relationships. Hell, the first one was one the show’s first great episodes.

As for the others, Vanessa does what I just said as well and it adds to why that episode  is popular. Cadance loses her head does that AND it was an early example of a nice Candace moment. It was even the 2^nd segment in production order.

As for Raging Bully…Doof needs a scaring birthday backstory. The gag birthdays are just gags. So Season 1 had 4 major birthday’s, Season 2 had none to my knowledge, Season 3 had 1, and Season 4 had 2. Which means the first one had the most, and our current season hasn’t had a lot.

Even if you put all the minor birthdays together, Season 3 has 4, and so does Season 4. So…they are all equal except Season 2. The recent Seasons just stick out more due to being recent and most of them are gags or minor.

So in short, most of these are done to tell interesting and cool stories rather than to be lazy. Even if you don’t like the stories, this is still true. I don’t even know why I needed to say this, but I guess I did.

The only problem now is how contrived it is…but this is a show with a secret agent platypus, so we can let it slide.

Now onto the next order of business and one that has been talked about since at least late Season 2:

Has Candace Taken over the show?

Yeah, we’re going there. Plenty of have been noticed that recently, the show has focused a bit more on her than the titular duo. Either they are about her more often or she sticks out more than usual.  This criticism appeared the most in early Season 3 but vanished after she made less appearances and stuff. It’s come back in Season 4 but not quite as strong.

And while I understand this problem, I can explain why it exists and why it’s not a problem. Here is the explanation;

It’s always been like this. This didn’t just happen out of nowhere. Allow me to explain:

First off, Dan and Swampy have gone on record saying that P&F have always been the backdrop, while Candace is the actual plot. They’ve always had this in mind, they didn’t just say it to cover their asses. And yes, they are right.

Let’s go back to Season and look at a few episodes.  First, The Fast and the Phineas. Candace attempts to bust the boys and runs back and forth, dealing Isabella’s mom, getting photos, and yada yada.

Phineas and Ferb fix a car, enter a race, race a bit, and win. Here are more examples:

RUN AWAY RUNWAY: Candace becomes a model but is kicked out duo to phineas’ big idea becoming a hit. Phineas and Ferb make clothes.

LAWN GNOME BEACH PARTY OF TERROR: Candace actually likes phineas’ big idea so when linda comes home, she doesn’t want it to go, Phineas and Ferb build a beach and do a few gags on it

ARE YOU MY MUMMY: Candace goes after the boys, gets hurt, becomes a mummy and is chased. Phineas and Ferb search for a mummy and chase Candace the mummy.

FLOP STARZ: Candace tries out for discount American idol, deals with her brother troubles, realizes they rock before an ending gag stops her. Phineas and Ferb become singer and do other stuff.

TREE TO GET READY: The whole treehouse fight starts cause the boys wanted to fix candace’s treehouse

IT’S A MUD MUD MUD MUD WORLD: The big idea is all for Candace.

I think you get the point.

Now, which one, in all of these, sounds like it has more going on in it?  That’s not to say nothing happens with the boys, Candace just happens to have slighty more. I mean, even at the start, her plot was about to trying to get Mom to see their big inventions only to be proven crazy.

Phineas’ plot was just about making invention to make the most of summer. Sure, there’s meat there but Candace’s looked a bit meatier and had more gags going on, at least from the concept.

Now there is a reason no one really noticed or cared. The show was just getting started, and thus the main gimmick was two boys doing impossible stuff. You are more likely to notice that then some girl trying to bust them.

But as the show goes on, that wears off and you start to pay attention to the other aspect of the show. Ontop of that, they do make Candace’s bits more memorable default, because P&F’s stuff was becoming more typical to us. Not that it was dull, but come on, by Season 3 you aren’t too phased by them making that stuff and thus when candace’s stuff has more meat, you notice that.

Now to be fair, by that point she did have more than a few episodes that focused more around her. Split personality (which has twice the candy), belly of the beast, Canderymy, run Candace run, last train to bustville, etc. But the boys still play an important roll in most of them and have memorable gags.

This is the exact same formula as the episodes I mentioned, but the difference is just how memorable the boy’s involvement is.

Now I can still see why this is a problem since yeah, some of these do have more Candace, especially something like run Candace run. Now I’m mostly talking about episodes that more closely follow the main formula of the show.

I’m not talking about ones that specifically set to develop something different, as The Lemonade Stand focusing on Candace and Stacy’s relationship. Those are specially made to focus on her, while something like Candermy has the boys are more of a thing that helps her.

As for Season 4, it seems to be sticking the Season 1 formula I mentioned, just with her part sticking out slightly more. Happy New Year, Fly on the Wall, and Der Kinderlumper examples. Less people have bitched but I do sometimes hear that.

Even though this exposes the Season 1 formula even more. Though once again, their stuff sticks out less. Though like in Season 3 they are switching things up more, especially since we are getting more focused ones, or more different ones that focus on something different.

But yeah, I can still how this can be a problem, but for me, the boys presence is still felt. They still feel important and the stuff they do still tends to be memorable. Maybe not as much as before but that’s due to the show being on season 4 than anything else.

Now, how exactly did this happen in the first place? There are two major reasons.

The first is that…well there’s only so many things the boys can do, so over time the writers started running out of ideas. So to keep things fresh that make her more noticeable so the plots stay interesting. And yeah they still have ideas but this is to make sure that doesn’t become a big problem.

And yeah, while still remains of high quality, it is obvious they are slowly runung out of ideas and are relying more on humor to keep episodes a float, and thus having Candace’s plot matter more means more chances for humor and you don’t have to fully rely on what the boys do.

So yeah, it is a good thing the Season was shorter than the previous, and that the show is ended now. As much as I would like to see more, I sadly think this issue would become a real problem if they made a Season 5.

The other reason is…she’s just more interesting. Even at the start, she had a lot more going on. There’s a reason Dan and Swampy decided she should be the main story. Here are the reasons this is so:

A high strung teenage girl gives you more changes for comedy than some kid who is happy and builds stuff.

Even from the start, she showed more hints at depth. As the show has gone on, she has become the most complex character on the show, aside from maybe Doof. I can go on about why that is so but just look at her Wiki page and you’ll see all the crazy stuff that makes her rather 3 dimension.

Because of that, she gets more interesting story, and more development. Phineas and Ferb are rather static, and while that works, it means Candace has to pick up the pace. And those are pretty much the big reasons why she is more interesting and thus gets more focus.

However, despite all that, I still do see the bigger issue here. Statically, the focus isn’t as even. A lot of the Season 1 episodes I mentioned do keep an even focus on both even if Candace sticks out more. This happens less as time goes on.

…But my points still stand. The boys still feel important, there’s still a reason ,this has still always happened, and she’s still more interesting. While my favorite episodes tend to have an even focus, or don’t have this is an issue for other reasons

This does seem to be less of an issue in 22 mnute episodes, and specials since there’s more time to give more focus. But not every ep can be like this, (since the show’s format fits 11 minutes better) so tough cheese.

So to recap: Candace has always been the real story, she’s more interesting, while the focus may have shifted the boys are still important, and summer birthdays aren’t a problem.

I know this will spark…arguments in the comments, but I feel this needed to be said. Hopefully you can respectful. And hey, at least the show is ending so this is no longer a problem anyway.

So yeah, that’s all…bye.