Sofia the First S4 E25

## Plot

While cleaning out her closet, Sofia shows Clover some old toys she found. The first are Merlin's Blocks. Anything you build with them will magically float in the air. The more blocks you use, the higher it floats. James once built a castle so big, it flew away. They found it in Freezenburg. There's also her enchanted jump rope. When Amber first showed her how to use it, she (Amber) jumped backwards into a fountain. Sofia had lots of fun playing with her siblings. With all of them going to new schools though, she's worried that those days are over. Clover tells her that they might want to play with her now, so she should go ask. However, Amber is studying diplomacy, and James is practicing his lunge. Baileywick has a cold, and Roland orders him to go to bed. It's Royal Staff Day, so he and Miranda are taking the staff out for a picnic. They all work so hard, and they deserve to have some fun too. Roland is putting the kids in charge of the castle. They can go to Baileywick if they really need help, but they should let him rest. Everyone else will be back by that afternoon. Roland has a peace summit scheduled to finally settle the titular "Elf Situation" running gag. As long as "they" keep squabbling, they'll never get that road built. Sofia wants to play, but Amber and James still want to practice for their new schools. She says that everyone should have some fun in their lives. Yes, they're growing, but they're not grownups yet. When they're busy, it's easy to forget what it's like to have fun, which is something everyone needs and deserves, adults included. Baileywick tells them that the coach their parents took with the staff is having mechanical difficulties. Everyone is okay; they'll just be late getting back. However, that means that they won't get back in time for the summit. The kids have to entertain the elves until they get back. The elves arrive. Arielf is the queen of the tree elves, and Elfabelle is the queen of the river elves. Amber decides to run the peace summit in her father's stead. She leaves to get his agenda. The Elf Situation has never been resolved, because these elves really don't like each other. Sofia has met elves before, but they weren't arguing all the time. They just wanted to have fun. Amber has the agenda, but she can barely read it. Roland's handwriting is terrible. The chefs already prepared the food before they left. Amber can't read the next item on the agenda, and neither can Sofia or James. She leaves to bring it to Baileywick. Elfabelle and Arielf love the sandwiches and lemonade. While Sofia and James rush to serve them, they bump into each other, and the tea set goes flying. However, the elves use their magic together to save it and serve themselves. They actually smile at each other and have fun. However, they go back to hating each other. Baileywick tells Amber that the agenda asks the elves to air their grievances. They both have to be given a chance to say what bothers them, so they can decide how to fix it. Arielf says that Elfabelle broke her great grand elf's best family dish. She says it was an accident, and that Arielf didn't have to break her family's best dish just to get back at her. Yep, that's what started this feud. Too bad they don't have a Looking Back Glass. Sofia and James get them to start having fun again. Amber is appalled at what they're doing, but they point out that it's working. She demands that the elves air their grievances, at which point they start bickering again. They get so mad that they storm out. Amber just ruined the peace conference. Things were going well until she took over. They're determined to save this summit though! They catch up to Elfabelle and Arielf, and get them to have some fun with each other again. Roland arrives, and is amazed that they've solved the Elf Situation. They've really grown up. However, it was not being too grown up that saved the day, and they all play tag.

## Review

Fair warning in advance, don't look at the comment section for this episode's page on the Disney Wiki. Just don't. It's full of toxic assholes who don't understand the meaning of character development, and still hate Amber more than I originally hated Chrysta. Why are we even wasting our lives getting angry at fictional characters? They want Sofia to be queen instead of her. But like the royal wedding episode said, that's not how the law is written. There's also this thing called character development, and the fact that the main characters are still children. Besides, Sofia could definitely keep Amber in line as a royal advisor. These so-called "fans" think season 4 was awful, and seem to only trust what Craig Gerber writes. They're making mountains out of nothing. They're obsessed to the point of insanity, at least in terms of comments, which is saying a lot. Plus their spelling and grammar is terrible. It's hard to articulate your point and get people to listen to you if they can't understand what you're saying, especially if you're not calm at all. It takes a hell of a lot more than just one person to make a show, and the series creator doesn't always know best (Gene Roddenberry, Dan Schneider, etc.) I like Craig Gerber. I also like the co-writers, directors, songwriters, musicians, storyboard artists, actors, animators, etc. They all work so incredibly hard. Look, I get that no one can be happy all the time, or like everything. I don't love every single episode of this show, or Elena of Avalor, or Tangled: The Series, or any TV show; even really short ones like Cybersix or *Wizard Barristers*, or amazing ones like *Avatar: The Last Airbender*. But being negative Nancy isn't going to make me feel any better. There's a difference between venting your feelings in a healthy way, and wallowing in them. And if I could be any Nancy, it'd totally be Nancy Drew. Nancy Wheeler from *Stranger Things* would be a close second though. I know that we probably won't get all of the answers we want, like what Roland's first wish was, what happened to Amber and James' mother, what happened to Sofia's father, etc. And then the series finale finally came out, and I ate my words big time. Sure, a little bit was previously revealed in supplementary material, but that's it. Whining about it isn't suddenly going to convince Disney or Craig Gerber to give the show a spin-off, or a fifth season, or revive it in any way, shape, or form. It's their decision, not ours. I haven't seen such an unruly fanbase since *Star Wars* fans whine about literally everything. And I do mean everything, *Clone Wars* and Dave Filoni included. This is one of the reasons why I didn't want to tell anyone I liked it at first, or this show. And don't even get me started on RWBY. Fanbases can be scary. Don't believe me? Just ask poor Nicole, aka ColeyDoesThings. I love her YouTube channel. I didn't want to be judged for liking "a boy's show" or "a little girl's show". I think I was being kind of sexist and ageist towards myself, and I didn't even realize it. To this day, I still don't know why I believed that as a kid. Thank goodness I discovered things like *Atop the Fourth Wall*, and was able to more or less fully embrace my weird, animated nerdiness, realized it wasn't a bad thing, that nerd culture was becoming more accepted and less stereotypical, and that there's a lot of fellow geeks in the world. Whew! I think I need to watch *Inside Out* after that emotional rollercoaster of a review. Some fans are a little nuts, which makes sense, since that word is derived from the word fanatic.