Review: Krapopolis “The Tyrannis Crown Affair”

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

In response to a rash of thefts against the rich of the city, Tyrannis puts together the cities first police force, but Stupendous refuses to be a part of it. She soon encounters the thief and they begin an odd affair because of their mutually strong morally convictions and she frees him when he is eventually caught, though Tyrannis plays this off as exiling him instead of him getting away. Meanwhile, Deliria and Hippocampus work to sabotage Hermes’ monster fighting ring, though both for different reasons.

OUR TAKE

It’s the penultimate Krapopolis of the season and it’s pretty much business as usual with another totally fine episode. This show’s premise of seeing a comedic interpretation of how some aspects of society first came into being has been mixed at best, with some stuff being interesting takes like social media being a giant unkillable hydra, but then there are the concepts that are a bit toothless in how it wants to take a bite out of the real life craziness, like the episode about the introduction of money. I don’t exactly expect a Fox animated comedy to have a revolutionary or radical thing to say about such complex topics in the real world, but I guess I was hoping it would be something that didn’t feel so beholden to the status quo. So, you can imagine how I feel about an episode taking a stab at the concept of police, especially in a time where that is being criticized openly more than ever. But to my surprise, we don’t get something that feels beholden to the usual “copaganda” that holds police up on a pedestal as being the only ones protecting society from horde of criminals hiding in the shadows, but as a bunch of people who are a bit too eager to be given lethal weapons and kill people once given that authority.

The focus is instead on Stupendous having bit of a tryst with the thief himself and working to get him free, while making clear that the creation of this law enforcement is really just to pacify the rich who are worried about losing some property. And as this is a Stupendous focused episode, there is a focus on the seeming shift from “honorable warfare”, which she herself acknowledges may have just for obtaining land and resources, towards wanting to protect property instead of people. So, yeah, actually a decent execution of the themes and even takes a swipe at the moral contradictions at hand in the concepts discussed. Oh yeah, and there’s the B plot involving Deliria and Hippocampus, which surprise surprise, involves Deliria dealing with something impacted by her being kicked out of Olympus. I feel like I should do a tally of how many character combos the show has had in terms of plots when the season is all said and done, but I feel like pairing her with Hippocampus has probably happened before but not as often as others. Anyway, one more to go!