The Clash of Triton (SpongeBob SquarePants)

The Clash of Triton is an episode of SpongeBob SquarePants. It is the final episode of season six.

Plot
King Neptune's attitude clashes with his son's.

Why It Should Stay Locked in a Cage

 * 1) Misleading title: The whole episode gives off an impression that it is gonna be about Triton clashing and that there's gonna be many epic battles, when there are no battles nearby!
 * 2) * The episode's working title that was the much more fitting was "Neptune's Party". Why did they ignore calling it the title it was supposed to be named in order for a title that barely focuses on Triton that much until the last 10-11 minutes? The working title was also used in only a few countries while the rest of the countries title this one, "The Clash of Triton", including the United States.
 * 3) False advertising: The promos for the episode claims that this episode has an epic battle is to take place, yet Nickelodeon promoted this just to give a big middle finger to their audience by presenting us an episode that barely has anything to do with a "battle" at all.
 * 4) *One of the promos that included the scene where SpongeBob tells Patrick to stop using a wobble-board and shining a flashlight on his spatula that he was majestically rising up in the air as he doughtily exclaims to Mr. Krabs "I have the capability!!", just to imitate the appearance of a laser beam shooting from it, turn dark, with only Patrick's eyes being visible and his voice saying "What?" (which obviously sounds similar to when Patrick asked that question to SpongeBob in a later scene where SpongeBob glares at him for throwing the grill lid out, causing a loud crashing sound, speculating a theory that Nickelodeon recycled the same voice clip) as if all the lights immediately turned off at the time Patrick turned off his flashlight, which sounds downright illogical as it seems silly for all the lights to shut off at the same time. It's not like if every single light circuit is connected to another lighting device. In addition, this actually never happened in the episode.
 * 5) Neptune is really hard to bother sympathizing with and he is completely unlikable. He locks Triton up for being a kind soul and for making life better for the most mortal of people. Why would you lock someone up just for doing some really good things?
 * 6) *Speaking of Triton, he himself is no better as he later destroys the Bikini Bottom even though the Bikini Bottom citizens did nothing wrong! Yes, that is what King Neptune wanted. That is all thanks to King Neptune's bad parenting and poor treatment on his only son as he was the one who pretty much wanted Triton to terrorize the whole town and make them feel Neptune's wrath.
 * 7) *There wasn't even a reason given as to why Triton had to destroy their town!
 * 8) * Neither of them gets any repercussions. Instead, it's SpongeBob and Patrick who take the heat for everything they have minimum control over.
 * 9) Speaking of Neptune being an unlikable psychopathic tyrant who unreasonably wants to hurt the people in Bikini Bottom, his mourning over Triton not attending his birthday still does not make anyone else want to sympathize with him because of needlessly cruel he is. Instead he is pulling out the victim card on Triton and guilt tripping him just so he can be a "better God". What are Seasons 6 and 7's beefs with everyone or even a few characters having good intentions or even doing good deeds and/or decisions for others, only for the character (or characters) to get crap for it by either getting talked down to and/or being unfairly punished and berated for it? Those two seasons have a clear habit of this.
 * 10) *Triton destroying Bikini Bottom in your favor is what happens if you discipline kids over reasons you have no reason to punish them or be absolutely harsh about. This is also what happens when you force someone to be as destructive as you as well! Thanks a lot, Triton!
 * 11) The sky from when Triton tries to destroy Bikini Bottom does not change to a fiery red or fiery orange color for that matter, and it shows that Season 6 was clearly on a budget when this episode was in the making.
 * 12) *This may probably be because Bikini Bottom is under the sea.
 * 13) So much of the episode is wasted on unnecessary padding and boring filler that just goes nowhere. We don't even see Triton get freed until the second half where the episode finally gets to the point.
 * 14) *Most of the padding has resulted in a lot of scenes taking too long to go through in the first act.
 * 15) Neptune's party guests are just there with no introduction or story behind them. They are just characters that do nothing but sit in the background the whole time. They are nothing characters.
 * 16) Mr. Krabs is generically unlikable. His plan to exploit Neptune's birthday is really predictable because you can guess what he is doing that for and we're not going to say it. His own subplot of trying to cheer Neptune up goes completely nowhere until the last 10 seconds with Triton and his car crashing into the front door of the Krusty Krab with everyone happy with what they were presented at last.
 * 17) The Bikini Bottom citizens are unlikable at the end of the episode for having a riot against SpongeBob and Patrick for getting the blame for what Triton had done, despite SpongeBob and Patrick saving all of them!
 * 18) The close up shot of SpongeBob gassing out bad breath on Triton's face with a creepy look on his face does not prove to be a really disgusting gross out joke, but it really shows how ugly and awful the animation in Season 6 is visually.
 * 19) *We don't mean to say the animation in Season 6 is awful as in badly drawn, but awful as in the animation feeling more restricted than the seasons that came before and after Season 6, which feels underwhelming.
 * 20) Wasted potential: The idea of King Neptune's son invading Bikini Bottom was an interesting idea of an episode, and could have made some creative gags and even some pretty epic moments, but sadly that was not the case. Knowing this took five writers to write the episode, and it feels no one had that much ideas to get this one right.
 * 21) This episode ended season 6 on a really sour, but really bad note.

Redeeming Qualities

 * 1) Guest star Victoria Beckham did a good job voicing Queen Amphitrite.
 * 2) A few funny moments were sprinkled here or there, such as the scene were SpongeBob tells Patrick to stay quite when they arrive at the Krusty Krab, only for Patrick to throw the lid and acutes a huge noise, which cause SpongeBob to glare crossly at Patrick, as Patrick looks at SpongeBob and says "What?".
 * 3) Although it's difficult to give Neptune any sympathy, he actually missed his son.
 * 4) The scene were King Neptune congratulates Triton for using his powers is nicely done, not to mention the scene were Neptune and Triton hug as Triton says he loves him is a very heartwarming moment, even though Neptune was not a good parent to Triton.

Reception

 * The Clash of Triton was given mixed to negative reception by viewers and critics.
 * This episode is rated 5.2/10 on IMDB.
 * Anim8ball has called this the worst episode of SpongeBob SquarePants, whereas originally he said it was the 6th worst as MoBrosStudios.

Trivia

 * This episode was originally called "Neptune's Party".
 * Sebastian Bach, the former lead singer of the American heavy metal band Skid Row voiced Triton in this episode.
 * This is the only episode from Season 6 that is produced in 2010, and the only one that was made in the 2010's in general.

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