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.

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????

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!