YMMV / Amphibia S3-E31 "The Hardest Thing"

• Alternative Character Interpretation: Anne and Sasha spent less time with each other in high school because they ended up in different friend groups. Did they just happen to be in different classes and ended up hanging out with their new friends more, or did some underlying baggage and trauma instinctively make them avoid close contact?
• Angst Aversion: For those who believe the theory that Anne was Killed Off for Real and instead replaced by a clone, this can be quite uneasy to process.
• Broken Aesop: Some viewers believe that the episode's message about accepting change and loss was badly contradicted by things like the Anne being brought back after her Heroic Sacrifice, the trio being able to return to Earth after the gems were destroyed, and the Time Skip showing Marcy reuniting with Anne and Sasha after 10 years despite her own arc being about learning to accept being split from them. Though, as Anne says in her ending monologue, sometimes the things you let go will come back to you. As for the other examples, Amphibia is a world of magic, where such events like death and being trapped in an alternate world could plausibly not be all-time.
• Catharsis Factor:
  • Anne, Sasha and Marcy being able to unlock the full potential of their gem powers was an utter delight for the fandom. After all the suffering and loneliness they faced, seeing the three friends take part in a Magical Girl Warrior esque final battle gave so many fans peace. Especially with the Triumphant Reprise of "No Big Deal" playing in the background.
  • After having been gaslit and abused by it for thousands of years, Andrias rebelling against the Core, and especially his abusive father, is immensely satisfying and further clinches his redemption.
  • Anne is able to destroy the Core. As it greatly feared death while trying to commit genocide, it is liberating to see the Core panic for its life.
  • Anne getting resurrected into a new body by the Guardian of the Multiverse after her Heroic Sacrifice.
• Common Knowledge:
  • Many people claim that Anne was Killed Off for Real and replaced by a clone. Never mind the fact that this is only an implication; the Guardian of the Multiverse even noted that Anne could get resurrected into a new body, vague as it was.
  • Unlike the Time Skip shown on Earth, the one present in Amphibia did not take place within 10 years as well, but rather over the course of a few months.
• Esoteric Happy Ending: The implication that the Anne we've spent the entire series with was actually Killed Off for Real and the Anne sent back to the world of the living is a clone. An exact replica, but a clone nonetheless. Anne noting she'll be experiencing existential dread later on in life is played off for dark laughs, but a good chunk of the fanbase was more unnerved than amused, believing that it's far too mean-spirited that the main protagonist, whose Character Development into a noble young lady we've witnessed, won't find closure in Amphibia, return to Earth with Sasha and Marcy, and live a full and fulfilling life, but instead a simulacrum will. Thus, these fans and others prefer to believe the original Anne's soul and consciousness was placed into a new body, which is admittedly helped by the Guardian's vague choice of words that could lend credence to either interpretation.
• Fanfic Fuel:
  • A new and untouched continent has been discovered. Sprig and Ivy can't wait to start a new adventure.
  • Similarly, there are Polly's own adventures as a fully grown frog. Considering her new design as a frog includes a wrench in her back pocket, she probably continued to work on her mechanical skills, not just for Frobo, but there are still some robots around, could Polly be working on more robots or simply improving technology on Amphibia?
  • What happened to all the Amphibians like Valeriana, Bella the Bellhop, or Mother Olm we didn't see after the girls returned home?
  • Who is in charge after Andrias' abdication?
  • Anne, Sasha, and Marcy as well in terms of what they did during the Time Skip and after reuniting ten years later. Many a fic explores the idea of them getting together.
  • How did Sasha's and Marcy's parents react when their daughters returned home? What role did Mr. X and the FBI play? What about the people at their school like Maggie or Principal Murphy?
  • Speaking of the FBI, did Anne's parents continue working with Mr. X or did they simply go back to working the Thai Go restaurant? They've probably gotten many new regulars in the form of the many new characters we met in Season 3.
  • If Anne truly is a clone/copy now, what became of the original Anne after she died? Does she still exist in some form, such as a ghost on Amphibia or on Earth? Is it possible for her to meet Sprig again, or Sasha and Marcy, or even her new self?
  • Will Anne accept the Guardian's offer when she eventually passes away? Will Sasha and Marcy join her as divine guardians?
  • What has the Guardian been doing in the eons that it was defender of the multiverse? And is the Demon Realm under its protection? And what was it doing when Bill Cipher (who was shown to exist in the greater multiverse) "liberated" his home dimension?
  • And most of all: will Anne and her friends ever return to Amphibia? It's not out of the realm of possibility that Terri is still working on a portal, and now that she has Mr. X on her side, she may have been able to perfect the portal over the decade. We might get a reunion after all.
    • The above has also fueled the idea of Terri having made a breakthrough and gifting Anne with a portable device for dimensional travel, leading the girls deciding to go on an interdimensional road trip and visit other worlds like the Boiling Isles, Mewni, and Duckburg, just like Marcy always wanted, but not without a pit stop at Amphibia.
    • Marcy's Journal even supports this interpretation, with Terri calling the Trio down to see something important at the lab.
• Fanon Discontinuity: Plenty of fans prefer to ignore the implication that Anne wasn't resurrected and instead replaced by a clone. Fortunately, the possibility that Anne was resurrected into a new body after her Heroic Sacrifice isn't unlikely. There are also a decent amount of fans who didn't like the finale in general and tend to favor alternatives where the Anne, Sasha, and Marcy actually stay trapped in Amphibia (believing it to be a more plausible ending that still keeps to the show's message, especially if The Guardian is taken out of the equation) or are able to travel between Earth and Amphibia at will without issue.
• Fridge Brilliance: Loggle blames losing all his muscle mass on taking one cheat day, which seems somewhat unrealistic. However, he likely took one cheat day and got used to the comfort of not having to do the meticulous maintenance required to keep an incredibly muscular figure and neglected working out.
• He's Just Hiding: Of a sort. The Guardian claims to have copied Anne just before she died, creating a new Anne that replaced the prior one. Many fans choose to interpret this as her soul being ported to a new body, rather than that the Anne of all the preceding story is dead. Fortunately, this isn't unlikely.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: Marcy is shown to have a chibi bag charm of Sakura Haruno during the ending. In the French dub, Marcy is voiced by Maia Baran, who is also Sakura's French voice actress.
• I Knew It!: A lot of fans figured that Olivia and Yunan would end up being a couple. It’s not stated outright, but it’s made quite obvious that they are.
• Like You Would Really Do It: Although the Guardian says that Anne did die, and that he brought her back by copying her consciousness into a new body right before her death, did you really think that she would be killed off permanently?
• Shocking Moments: While many anticipated Anne having a death fake-out, the fact that she actually died on-screen is shocking. Her death has no blood, but the sight of Anne's whole body burnt to ash and covered in cracks while she's hanging on for dear life is rather horrifying. Thankfully, she does get resurrected, but it's still no less shocking.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: A good number of fans felt like the ending was a wasted opportunity to have Olivia undergo an Awesome Moment of Crowning and become queen of Amphibia, especially since Olivia has demonstrated the potential to be a better leader than Andrias.
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic: Some fans believe the Three Stones Deity falls into this category. Getting bored of your job after untold eons is understandable enough, but turning a blind eye to the Leviathan dynasty using the Calamity Stones to subjugate and/or exterminate countless innocent worlds, which are supposed to be under your protection, for ten millennia, all for the sake of finding a successor isn't. Even when you're finding a successor, you don't just stop doing your job until after you find one and they agree to take the job.

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