User blog:Epic~00/Why The Ice Dancers (JACQUES AND JOSEE) are the GREATEST (RR 1 YEAR ANNIVERSARY)



Hi, guys. As you may or may not know, RR ended 1 year ago in the first country it aired in; USA. In commemoration of such a great season, I will discuss something requested a long time ago, that being why I think the Ice Dancers in RR are such a groundbreaking and frankly perfect pair of characters. It's the best way for me to celebrate this 1 year anniversary. Jacques and Josee are probably not just the best characters of the entire show, but probably my favourite cartoon characters of all time. For too long, I have kept SILENT about what it is about these two that COMPELS me so. And don't even TRY to make some complaint about them because I can think of every possible rebuttal to them in any way being bad or sub-par characters. I honestly don't know where to start with them, but I guess I'll start from the beginning.

Contents

Introduction

None Down, Eighteen to Go - Part 1

None Down, Eighteen to Go - Part 2

French is an Eiffel Language

Introduction
It's June of 2015. Fans of TD are thinking about RR every now and again, with it still being another few months till its released. People are praying it makes up for the DISSAPOINTMENT they've had two years prior with AS. People are finding flaws with PI and it's not holding up as well in the general view. It looks like another normal summer day. All of a sudden however... the fandom explodes. The theme song is leaked. We see a lot of heavy responses just to this 20 second theme song alone.

'''"Why did they bring LEONARD back of all the people they could make return???" "I love Noah even though he never does anything. Ew die Owen I hate toilet humour"   "Carrie and Devin are OBVIOUSLY going to win" "Ryan and Stephanie are clearly going to be eliminated really early" '''

The fandom was essentially back on track.

Needless to say, everyone had now started to get really excited about this spin off, much more than we had generally been before. What caught MY eye when watching this theme song though was a light pink background square and a mysterious man and woman with matching outfits and embodying performers that coincidentally happened to look BEAUTIFUL. Even looking at these two mystery characters, I immediately knew they're performers of some kind. Their designs were also much more striking than others. While they weren't the only team with matching outfits (Sisters, Police Cadets, etc.) they did look the flashiest out of all the teams, and immediately caught my view, even despite the fact plenty of other teams appeared in the opening before them. Needless to say I was somewhat looking forward to this season at this stage.

Then the first episode leaked! And my mind just shattered. The introduction to the Ice Dancers clocks in at 15 seconds and they had immediately become one of my favourite teams just in the introduction alone. Don introduces them as they prance out a train door in elegance and they are labelled as Ice Dancers, a name with a real edge. Their designs look FANTASTIC as the combination of so many details makes them look so much more unique than any other. They then go into their introduction and in that short time span of 10 seconds, you already learn so much about them


 * They are confident they'll win as they've won at everything.
 * All they haven't won at is the olympics, where Jacques dropped Josee so they only got silver.
 * This damages Jacques in particular, who runs off theatrically crying that he doesn't want to talk about it.
 * 3/4 of this introduction is them having the most forced smiles imaginable.

That's the most you really learn about a character when it comes to all introductions. Regardless of your opinion on the Ice Dancers, it's clear that from the beginning they are created to be intriguing right from the get-go. From here, there's honestly no way I can construct this properly without going into all 26 episodes. This will be structured where I use the episode in question. I will then have it separated into 3 areas; 'Josee' 'Jacques' and 'The Team'. The first two sections will talk about what these particular characters do that appeal to me in the episode in question. The third section will be evaluating their dynamic as a team, which is just as, if not more important, because this teams dynamic <333333. I will first start in alphabetical order with the second best character of all time; Jacques, then go into Josee, then how The Team dynamic plays out in the episode.



Ok, fine, Jacques, since you asked so nicely. Let's begin from the start!

Jacques
Right from the beginning, we learn straight away so many characteristics about Jacques. He's confident his team know how to win, he caused his team to lose in the olympics, he's implied to have many faults that he can't overcome without his fans, not even denying when Josee says he has many, only questioning why she said the word in that way, acknowledging he's flawed.

So from this, I already know Jacques is vulnerable, slightly unaware of certain social cues by his partner, and determined to win RR, feeling beyond shamed he got SILVER at the olympics. I'm immediately invested in him as they've now presented him as someone who seems to be hiding some things, not even feeling comfortable talking about his failures. And I absolutely HAVE to mention his voice acting at this stage.

Oh my god, Jacques' voice is one of the best I've ever heard in this franchise, probably the best. He's voiced by Scott McCord, the same man who voices Owen and you could actually not even tell them apart besides them having the same scream. The way Jacques speaks and his speech pattern just isn't equated to by any other character. It has this fancy and sophisticated manner of talking that just speaks volume to his personality. Jacques is theatrical and likes to think of himself as suave and his voice just matches it so well. I mean, they put in specific DETAIL with how he said lines. A line like "I don't want to talk about it" sticks out much more for me if it's said like "I-don't want-to talk a-bout eet". It makes his tragic backstory more OTT but in a compelling way too with how much oomph his lines have.



Josee
Josee also is very interesting right from the beginning. She was the partner who was dropped by Jacques at the olympics. At first it looks like Jacques is much more humiliated about this than her, however, although her and Jacques have these show-ready smiles all the time, she seems to come across as more sly, digging into him in the confessional by saying that without their fans, Jacques would never overcome his many flaws. He asks why she says it in a sharp tone but she simply responds "You know why" while smiling. This immediately got me more interested in her, as she says such a confusingly slightly offputting thing to her partner but she retains this smile. This kind of attention to detail with having a character say stuff like this but holding themselves together is done in such a creepy but interesting way. She was being extremely passive aggressive to Jacques while also being aggressive, which is such a realistic and unsettling way to vent your anger. This way of her releasing herself in how she expresses emotions immediately stays in the viewer's mind, not just because by itself it makes Josee suddenly become so dynamic and interesting, but it's also something the show has never replicated before. It's such a small moment but the execution of it made me want to learn more about Josee because she's the only character ever to hide things about herself yet releases things too to get the audience invested. It's like I'm being taunted into becoming interested in her.

Even after this confessional it immediately cuts to Josee staring at the camera with this gritted smile while not makimg any eye contact with Jacques and handing a tip to him. I laughed so hard when I saw it and I even had it as an avatar on the wiki for a while. It's timed fantastically, and little did I know the Ice Dancers would have impeccable timing with their jokes, but I'll get to that later. This joke in particular though is so outlandish but hides itself as it's own minor moment due to the Ice Dancers' theme still playing. I knew Josee would be something for the rest of the season just based on how well they captivated just 30 seconds alone with her.



The Team
As a team, they're very interesting in their dynamic in the first episode. Right in their first moment, they synchronize jumping out of the train first at the exact same time and wave at the same time too. It captures your eye visually because it's two people with colorful matching sequence and outfit. Animation wise, their first moment in screen together excites a viewer due to how well they match. We also learn that Jacques dropped Josee on her head at the olympics, and like I said before, both characters are executed fantastically when it comes to how they react to this. They run the exact same way in the race, staring at the camera with their arms held high too.

When they reach Don they immediately wave both hands as some kind of instinct. They don't even think twice. They just wave at their fans right away. I didn't have to see the rest of the season to know that these two are very determined performers and performing is part of their life. Them waving at their fans despite nobody even being there and even doing it while racing shows this weird connection they have to what they're doing. It's again something you've never seen with a character. It's not even shoved in your face that the Ice Dancers have this connection to their occupation. Their obsessions are present on screen without it being forced into you. Even when they receive plane tickets they prance away from the counter, which is an example of what I mean of it not being forced into you. Victory music being played with a lingering shot of a confused flight attendant and this joke lasting 2 seconds is to make the viewer laugh without even having to think much. It was a weird connection I had with this team where I immediately was able to think things about them and I end up right later on. I was even the first user to predict they would end up 3rd in the end, which I should probably bring up at this point. If you were here July of 2015 then you may have known the fact that I predicted Ice Dancers would get 3rd and suddenly the whole internet had predicted it (some even said 4th lol). The fact they actually got 3rd in the end just goes to show that they were DESTINED to forever be my favourite characters.



Thoughts: Overall a really great opening to the Ice Dancers. What's shown to you is only somewhat major but the purpose of them in the first episode is to keep you interested about where they'll go. Are they gonna be villains because of their unsettling smiles almost all the time? Will they go bald in the end? Will Epic end up preferring them over Harold? Does Jacques not want to talk about it????

Jacques
After it is revealed that Josee has a good luck charm she names Bun Bun that she believes is responsible for everything good in her life, Jacques politely asks if he can rub it while doing his trademark showboating smile, causing Josee to laugh but then sharpy reply "Of course you can't". This joke is hilarious from the perspective of Jacques due to them transitioning right away between a large smile and a confused frown.

Jacques is kind of a softie when it comes to how he reacts to Josee being EXTREMELY ANGER FILLED on the inside. He does not look angry or confused at her outburst over getting third place. He instead has a look of terror. The kind of terror where he hides in himself, his head not being perked up. Clearly lacking confidence and not feeling comfortable when he's in a tense environment. It's honestly an adorable piece of animation, but again another funny moment. He may not have been too prominent but he had cute moments that still had a lot of funny humour behind them.

Josee
In this episode, we learn of Josee's good luck charm, Bun Bun. Very intriguingly she casually denies being superstitious and chooses to believe this rabbit foot is responsible for everything good in her life. This is another highly unique aspect of her and once again makes me want to learn so much about her. Even most people who believe in good luck have admitted to being at least just a little superstitious. For the second episode in a row, Josee once again ends up being such a diverse and interesting character, much sooner than any other character would be.

And it doesn't end there!:D Upon performing a race against the Police Cadets for 2nd place, the Ice Dancers end up getting 3rd. Don congratulates them on a FANTASTIC placing, especially considering they had done better than five-sixths of the teams currently in the competition. But rather than being happy about this, Josee's eye twitches before it HILARIOUSLY transitions into her voice being heard with her throwing knives and cups and all other crazy sh** everywhere from offscreen at her own partner. Oh my god what an icon.

This is the first time you have now gotten to see at least a PORTION of Josee's inner personality. As I said before, the previous episode gets you to be interested in these two characters and wondering what they're really hiding considering the ambiguity surrounding some of their characteristics but it's this episode that delivers on that just for the time being. This hilarious and spontaneous moment delivers enough, not enough for you to understand everything about Josee, but enough to tide you over for what to expect in future episodes. From this iconic moment that only happens in her SECOND episode (<3333), you learn that Josee actually does have a high amount of anger held inside her and even though she previously held it in in a professional and passive way, if she's pushed enough, she'll explode to the highest possible level.

The INGENIOUS part about this moment is that they don't even show Josee's facial expression. Instead, like all decisions involving an Ice Dancer in this show, they do the best possible course of action with this moment. They have Josee engaging in an explosive and outward act that could harm anyone but they put her offscreen. This perfectly manages to make the viewer feel unnerved, hysterical with laughter, and also once again, make them wonder what's next. Its ambiguous but not as ambiguous as last time. It's framed to suggest that Josee's personality will envelope throughout the season slowly rather than just have her open up right in your face, which is.... um, the case for every other character ever? Dammit Josee. You won't stop teasing you with your non-ambiguous ambiguity! Make it stop! You're hurting me with your perfection! End it! You've made this section so long even though if I edgiced you in this episode, you'd probably just get a 2 or 3 visibility! Too amazing, my eyes are burning.



The Team
Like the first episode, the Ice Dancers continue to do synchronized moments that once again look BEAUTIFUL animation wise, especially with the aforementioned fantastic color scheme with their outfits. Even when riding a camel, they make the position of an ice dancing move. On a camel!! They make drinking simple spices look fun!

In this episode we get to watch more of their wonderful dynamic. Josee has a new good luck charm and if Jacques so much as ASKS to touch it, he just gets shut down. Ugh such an interesting dynamic, where will it go from here??? We also see Josee's first tantrum, in coming in 3rd, while Jacques cowers in a corner. These two are so funny together, give them a spin off, Fresh, you will get 1 billion viewers! Do it right now!



Thoughts: Like the previous episode, the Ice Dancers aren't kept too major, but they're still made interesting and just really funny. Their humour is honestly so original and meshes so well with them. We also get SLIGHTLY more of a major version of them, telling me that I would be getting more and more with each episode. The simple grace of them just pleases me, even when Josee gracefully throws a knife violently<3

Jacques
In this episode, Jacques forgets to bring oars in order for him and Josee to paddle their cheese, causing the Police Cadets to overtake them in the paddling race to the finish line. As Josee passively aggressively yet still aggressively calls him out on this (<3), Jacques makes a desperate smile, hinting that he doesn't feel comfortable showing that he's done wrong and goes through this particular situation awkwardly.

Eventually, the Ice Dancers catch up to the Police Cadets. Missing paddles doesn't stop them. It even transpires that Jacques once got rabies from a squirrel but dressed as a St Bernard in a performance they won in, as they've won everywhere but the olympics. He done this just so foam coming from his mouth would make sense. In spite of any injury, he will STILL devote himself to what his job is. The great thing about this is that it shows that Jacques truly has been stuck with this really dedicated job. And considering we know by this point he cares about his fans a lot and he has been performing for so long, this dedication is beautiful and I know that he in particular is striving to make up for past failures by winning all the time. So this just really resonated me and it's the first time with a character that they used past context with the character in order to make their scene speak more volume. He charmed me in this episode just as much as Josee had previously. He was definitely a good complement to her as a partner. He may again not have done too much, but he continues to be fantastic regardless.



Josee
Oh, wow. Her lack of words gives me a million words with this episode!

Josee starts her first individual moment off with a bang. After sliding to a flight attendants counter, Josee asks for two tickets to Paris, asking if there's any free upgrades for olympians. The flight attendant swiftly responds they have that for all gold medal people, which again, is another fantastic callback to what we already know about her. They animate PERFECTLY Josee's reaction to this, by smiling with tensed eyebrows and grunting "Economy is fine!" without even opening her mouth and twitching her eye, not even like a cartoon character would, but specifically animated the same way a human would. Ugh she's such royalty.

Josee and Jacques later catch up to the Police Cadets to where the cheese floats are. Visibly not phased by MacArthur calling them the smiling silvertons, Josee gracefully raises her hands in the air and tiptoes to a pile of cheese floats and drops like 5 of them down with one kick, with the reasoning being that she hates silver!! SLAY ME OH MY GOODNESS.

Jacques jumps on the cheese float and Josee jumps gracefully onto balancing on his hands. This moment is the first time we see two things happen with Josee. The first is that she openly insults someone for the first time, chanting that the Cadets "stink worse than this cheese float!" It is great that this very small moment happened because it's meant to indicate once again that Josee has slowly cracked just a little.

The second thing we see for the first time is the first time Josee actually makes an angered face. Jacques forgets their oars and she glares down at him but then smiles and LOUDLY PASSIVE AGGRESSIVELY announces "Jaaaacques. You were supposed to get the OARS!" This is another high quality moment. They have Josee glare for just a SPLIT second but then immediately cut to her smiling, which gives the wonderful implication to the viewer once again of how Josee's emotions works and how she hides them, and what signs there are that she's angry. If she says nasty things while smiling, from what we've known in the past three episodes, it's like some kind of coping mechanism for her. If Josee feels angry, all she has to do is smile and say something snide and then she feels better. It's so interesting and complex and I still LOVE her.

In a final race to the carpet, Josee and her team only come in 2nd to the Police Cadets. MacArthur taunts her "Hear victory music? Probably because you didn't win!" This REALLY triggers Josee and they AMAZINGLY make her eye twitch, but twitch it more than she did at the airport. The subtlety of showing Josee starting to lose durability at unfortunate events is fantastic. And all of this still stems from her humiliation at the olympics. Having to not get on first class just because she never won gold, or have someone call her a smiling SILVERton and then lose to that person would DAMAGE someone like her who's so into what she does. Yeah she's still comedic and legendary in this episode but it is still honestly so tragic what we now know about her.



The Team
Oh, boy. Now this will be a long one. It's just so gush-worthy.

Early in the episode, teams depart from the carpet in the order they arrived. The Best Friends leave first, followed by the Police Cadets who manage to overtake them, followed by the Ice Dancers, who overtake both teams and still smile at the camera while performing this task. And then we end up... with a bombshell moment.

Josee explains that due to the Ice Dancers being 'sports heroes' they never know when the cameras will be on them meaning they have to smile all the time. Jacques chimes in in agreement, even admitting they do it in their sleep. Josee acknowledges how it's VERY painful. Wow.....

This moment is HILARIOUS and SAD. It's animated so hysterically, by having Josee stare at Jacques while smiling brightly as he talks about them sleeping in their sleep (!!!) and then ending it with Josee saying how it's very painful. And then they go to the nerve in this 22 minute episode slot, to have this lingering shot of them smiling at the camera. It is an ICONIC moment.

What makes this moment really funny is the timing of the whole scene. The Ice Dancers play out what they say so casually and naturally, yet what they're saying sounds HORRIFYING. The dragged out shot at the end is a necessity to make this scene funny and they did it. At this stage, just every joke involving these two chooses the exact right methods in order to make the jokes as funny as possible. To have a dragged out shot of the Ice Dancers smiling after saying such an out there line makes it correspond with them saying how much pain their general lives have. Wonderful scene that captures all the essence of a funny joke.

It's also a really sad moment too but the brilliant thing about it is that they play it off as a joke with the Ice Dancers smiling as they say all this. So rather than the viewer's spirits being brought down, they instead get to smile at this too with the Ice Dancers, due to the framing of the moment. Had it been the Ice Dancers frowning and noting how sad their lives are, the viewer would feel as though they must sympathise, but by doing it this way, it allows the viewer to understand but also relish in the joy of the moment. That doesn't mean it's not a detailed moment though. It is. To have your life be devoted to something where you're forced to just look happy all the time really makes me feel resonated. It's like a satirical look on how real celebrities live their lives, only it's exaggerated a little. It's again a PERFECT scene like everything else about this team.

Much later in the episode, Jacques and Josee catch up with the Police Cadets, and although they manage to get the lead at first, due to them not having oars, MacArthur and Sanders manage to overtake them. This seems like a simple thing of the Ice Dancers having to go back to get their oars, but no! Instead we get something much more whimsical.

The Ice Dancers, rather than waste time going back, paddle with their legs, mimicking that of a swan boat. Victory music plays and it just feels so warm. This music plays over Jacques laughing that missing paddles won't stop them! Josee adds that they competed in more dire circumstances like how Jacques dressed like a St Bernard when he got rabies just so the foam from his mouth could make sense. You may be confused why this moment is so powerful and strong with me but I'll explain.

At this point in the season, what do you actually know about the Ice Dancers? They have a tragic past of losing their streak of being on top when it comes to winning and that plaguing them ever since, colors like silver or bronze cause them panic and/or distress, they have grace in how they move, they tend to keep things in inside the self, and they really want to make their fans happy, even going so far as to smile all the time just for the cameras.

So to see this scene, of this set of characters losing something valuable for them in order for them to win, but to then PERSEVERE and STRIVE for to get 1st place, and have those fuzzy and cute smiles looking at the camera as they do that adorable paddle, and then to have their confessional be about how this has NEVER stopped them before, and no matter what circumstances, they would ALWAYS keep going. Lose your oars? Paddle in the water like your own boat. Get rabies before a performance? Dress like a dog. This whole scene even has this honestly dazzling music playing. The high tempo mixed with the melodic tune helps me to get invested. It helps immerse me in the Ice Dancers' point of view, and gets me to care because of how much the music cares and most importantly, how much they care.

I've never been the best at sport, but to have these two go above and beyond to complete a racing task speaks so much to me and inspires me so much to never give up so easily, and I haven't since then. This moment honestly brought a little tear to my eye. The Ice Dancers are just such delightfully quirky people who clearly have issues but endearingly hide it in them acting happy. I rooted for them so much in these early stages, and it's mostly down to this frankly groundbreaking part of the season that highly strengthened my opinion of them. The fact they didn't win against their now newly established rivals is inconsequential to me. If anything, it makes me root for them more just for how well done they've been. And they weren't even that main in this episode!



Thoughts: These episodes just keep getting better and better with these two. This episode was about expanding on things about the Ice Dancers, by making them do new things. This is the first time they open up about a flaw they have, it's the first time Josee gets onscreen angry and also insults more openly for the first time, and the Police Cadets are their first interaction and it's a sporty rivalry, which is once again a terrific idea, given the show's format.

Join me for the next 25 days of this ridiculously elaborate review, where we look at these possibilities and see what these angels of ice have to offer. And trust me, something amazing is added EVERY episode to at least one of them. There's more. LOTS more! You will not regret this, my best blog ever! ...okay maybe you'll regret going through the length of this but otherwise you'll really enjoy!