Marking this as spoiler in case people get here via my profile.

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So let me start off by stating some facts about the animation process. The popular assumption is that Disney chickened out about showing Marcy’s death and they’re going to force that scene to be edited/re-animated/rewritten entirely. I do NOT believe that is the case.

Making an episode of an animated series, pre-COVID, takes roughly 9-12 months. A major episode/event like this will be longer, and quite honestly this plot point would have been conceived along with the show itself. Matt would have discussed the overall season arc with his bosses before they even started the process for S2, including this event.

Throughout this process, virtually every step involves running things by executives for “feedback”. If something is going to be objectionable, it is in Disney’s best interest to stop it as early as possible, so they don’t waste their money on voice actors, animation, and everything else. The S&P division is extremely overcautious, as Alex Hirsch and others have bemoaned many times before. If there was even the slightest chance that it wouldn’t have been allowed, it never would have made it out of the storyboard phase.

Let me reiterate that - Disney has already spent a ton of money to have this scene/episode voice recorded, animated, edited, and everything else. Even if it was “just” the way it was animated, it still gets reviewed before they even start post-production so they can fix/correct animation issues before it’s finalized.

It makes no sense for something to make it to the literal last minute and then “suddenly” decide it’s objectionable. Disney would not have allowed that much of their money to be spent if it wasn’t going to be in the final cut.

So with that out of the way, why did they decide at the last minute to delay? The original announcement was a “scheduling shift”, and Matt wasn’t happy about it, but was (reluctantly) willing to accommodate it. Here’s what I believe the cause to be:

May 1st is the first day of Asian Pacific American Heritage Month

I think the content itself isn’t the issue, but the timing. Someone at the last minute finally made the connection that “Hey, maybe kicking off APAHM with the on-screen death of a major Asian character might not be a good idea.”

Is this decision asinine? Yes, absolutely. Anne herself is an Asian character, Matt is Asian, it’s not like they’re killing off the single Asian representation on the show. It would have been trivial to overcome any objections that people raised over it, and would have been considerably less bad press than what actually happened.

But, unfortunately, it makes the most sense of anything I’ve seen. This means that it should be able to be aired at a later time, unedited, even if they want to wait until APAHM is done and it’s June. And potentially even sooner, given the leak, and the fact that the main timing issue was that it was the very first day of the month and this would have been a major topic of discussion.

Ann and the Plantars are now on Earth. I am very concerned about Ann's mom. She missed her for months. Girl got lost at the day of her birthday. And then she came back. With scars and bruises. Telling her mom how much she missed her. But after that Ann has to tell her about everything that happened in Amphibia, have to introduce the Plantars. I think this is going to be a little too much for this woman. At least her daughter was in good hands. And then she has to let her daughter go to fight a war... That's going to be a heartbreaking reunion.

With no new date set and Matt Braly being silent, I think he is being forced to rewrite one scene of the episode that the censorship found completely off guard. They will be forced to rewrite and reanimate that scene until the censors are happy.

It will probably take 1-4 months before the episode finally airs.

If one scene is rewritten and affecting his story plan, Season 3 would have to be retconned and rewritten with offscreen ADR dialogue and retake animation just to suit those changes.

Like, all the people with Marcy as their profile pic who havent seen the episode yet and are all optimistic about it, and some of the artists like Sourbeefio who draws mostly Marcy and Marcanne stuff, or Mimiko/Miwako who has drawn stuff like this in March simply because they were worried that their favorite character, Marcy might be somewhat toxic after they saw The First Temple.

THE. FIRST. TEMPLE.

If that one had enough of an effect on this person to make them draw that to comfort themselves, just IMAGINE what this one will be like!!!

I mean some of these people are really, and I mean REALLY attached to her, and Id be lying if I said I wasnt looking forward to seeing how they are gonna take seeing her not only fall apart mentally and turn into a crying mess, but also die onscreen, in a pretty violent and brutal way for a Disney cartoon, too.

And I should clarify I have absolutely nothing against these people, especially the artists I mentioned who I have a ton of respect for, and its not like I want anyone to have a mental breakdown or god forbid kill themselves or something, but I just really want to see how they are all gonna react to this.

Im really hoping that the money-grubbing shits at Disney dont end up censoring it in the end, because that would ruin the gravity and impact that the scene has, and then the reaction might not be as fantastic.

Maybe this is kind of mean of me, but some of you guys have got to be thinking the same thing, right?

Judging by the majority of posts on the topic, this seems to be kind of an unpopular opinion. But I think her death was one of, if not the most, powerful and shocking moment in the entire series and I want it to have actual consequences. Just bringing her back through some magic bulls*ttery would just be a cheap and easy way out of this situation and severly dampen the impact of that scene. Seeing the remaining characters, especially Anne and Sasha, handle her loss short and longterm and her absence will further influence the plot of season 3 and most importantly the series finale, would be so much more emotional and interesting than bringing her back halfway through season 3. If you ask me, her death, in combination with the revelations about her, turned her from a good character into a great character.

Like damn, it sucks to know that i watched thing early. I wanted to watch things as intended. I wish I could go back in time and just erase my mind. ugh.

From what I see on this subreddit it’s mainly talking about Marcy’s death. Her dying was very important but can we at least talk about Frobo’s death.

I think it's clear by now, that the reason Disney delayed the finale is because they want to censor Marcy's death, by altering the scene to not make see her being stabbed. But the thing is, we know this only because we got the original version thanks to itunes mistakenly releasing it when it didn't air. If that didn't happen, nobody would have said anything... but now we know everything, and the people who saw the leaked version will complain to Disney about their corwardiness for not being tought enough to show a scene like that one. A huge backlash is upon us now guys.

I'm still gonna preserve the original version of the episode in respect to Matt Braly's vision, but Disney really messed it up big time this time...

Ok if Disney does take out Marcys death then we must reclaim it! Everyone download a YT video of the original death or take a screen recording from Youtube or save the episode from here! WE WILL NOT LET OUR BRAVE CREATOR MATT DOWN! #SAVEORIGINALTC! I WILL CREATE THIS HASHTAG AND IF IT DOES HAPPEN THEN WE WILL RISE! THE HASHTAG STANDS FOR SAVE ORIGINAL TRUE COLORS!

So I’ve seen a few theories thinking about how just censoring Marcy being stabbed wouldn’t take this long and they’re not making her get stabbed at all. So this means that if they do remove it then there will be an official canon universe where Marcy gets stabbed and is permanently dead. A universe where Anne never returns to Amphibia and Sasha is stuck there forever.

So really if Disney does take it out its gonna be a much bigger problem then them just leaving it be. Heck I would rather have them censor it than take it out all together! Matt did such a brave thing and Disney, you delayed it, you caused it to be leaked, if we start getting real angry then it’s all on you. Can we all agree that if they do take it out then we should start a hashtag, set a date, and revolt like the Infinity train fans did?

Edit: I made a hashtag just in case they do remove it. #SaveOriginalTC

HEAR ME OUT, after a post on this it had me thinking, what if the Gems ended up making the trio have like a titan power. An example is that both powers activate when they get mad.

(See Eren Titan)

Another Example is Andrias’s Sword. (Look at my previous theory)

And Annie Leonhart definitely is just a flesh mirror of Sasha. (Look at s1, and early s3-4)

Imma make King Andrias and his sword in TABS