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UHHH AMPHIBIA SPOILERS FOR LIKE THE WHOLE SHOW 

I believe the point of the story was that Marcy saw Amphibia as the perfect escape when that wasn’t really true... She saw it through the lens of perfect fantasy glasses when it was as REAL and scary and horrific as the world she came from. Sure she did do a lot of amazing things, but she only really had an easier time because the king himself was using her.  She was so happy because she had Andrias to support and listen to her, and an immediate escape from her life’s past problems... I’m sure if she hadn’t met Andrias the amphibians would treat her as a strange outsider like Wartwood did to Anne.  Marcy probably would’ve had a much harder time expressing herself and doing what she wanted in Amphibia if Andrias hadn’t manipulated her by giving her his companionship and social power.  She doesn’t have the same people skills that Anne does, and the same manipulation tactics that Sasha had.  She would probably struggle to find her place in Amphibia despite it resembling fantasy media she’d consumed before.

All of this to say... Andrias betrayed her, and fatally wounded her, fully of his own volition.  He manipulated her and used her, fully of his own choice.  The one authority figure who Marcy thought truly supported her, IMPALED HER WITH A SWORD.  AND THEN DID MUCH WORSE BY GETTING HER POSSESSED.  Amphibia might’ve been a good place for her, but what we saw in the show was a façade, a perfect sugary frosting over a dark and tainted legacy of corruption.  We saw Marcy serving a king and his lord who thought of glory first, and people last.  This is why Amphibia wasn’t a good place for Marcy, she thrived in the corrupt city of Newtopia, and when the curtain was pulled back, she saw that this world was the same as the one she came from, with the same horrors and sorrows.. and even though earth was scary, she could go back to somewhere where she did belong, somewhere where any fantasy she chased didn’t have a potential of being too real and too cruel to her.  

I mean, if it were me and I found out horrifying magical amphibian brain transferring and body controlling technology was a thing I’d immeeediately nope out.  Yeah fantasy’s cool but NOT THAT- 

Also, a sortve unrelated thought about Andrias and Marcy... Maybe the plan wasn’t even fully a manipulation tactic or a lie, maybe Andrias was going to take her on his conquests, emotional support for his selfish destruction. His ancestors did keep trophies from other worlds... the moss men, the ghost fish... and Andrias was going to conquer earth next.   Marcy... was his new trophy.  Aldrich would be proud.

To put my complaints with Marcy's arc in particular into more coherent words now that I'm calmer.

It's absolutely true that from a meta perspective that Marcy did seem to end up happy in the end and that she is incredibly strong for it. However, with that being said, the fact that things turned out okay in universe doesn't change the fact that I disagree with the way the ending of her arc was portrayed narratively. Whether or not she ended up fine from a meta perspective isn't really up for debate here. She obviously did and I'm proud of her for that. But I've always had a problem with the idea that the morally correct or healthiest option for Marcy would be to go back to earth. And whether or not the writers intended to send that message (its absolutely very possible they were going for something more along the lines of marcy being strong enough to get through the undoubtedly hard time she'd have back on earth), that's kinda what they did.

Marcy spent a lot of the last episodes feeling guilty for everything she did and talking about how she started this whole mess trying to run away from reality, then she goes back to earth and she at least seems to end up happy there. It reads like your typical "Marcy was selfish and wrong for stealing the music box and needs to suck it up and go live in the real world >:(" take I've been arguing against since forever.

I probably wouldn't feel the way I do if there had been no possible way to stay in Amphibia and if they'd addressed that going back to earth isn't quite fair to Marcy but that she's strong enough to get through it. I probably wouldn't feel the way I do if they'd even just so much as cut back on that guilt Marcy really laid on thick over bringing them to Amphibia. Or if the other girls had stayed in contact with her after they went home since that'd give her a reason to want to go back at least.

But none of those things happened. And whatever the intention was, this ending for Marcy feels like a bad message to send. She was happy and accepted in Amphibia and she left because....why?

They didn't give any indication that there was something back on earth that she'd desperately miss. She spent six months in Amphibia the happiest she'd ever been and never once did she miss earth, and yet suddenly, now that she's started being obviously self critical for "hiding from reality" she's perfectly happy to go back?

Yeah, no, the message definitely reads as "Marcy was wrong when she tried to change her life circumstances and she needs to leave the place where she genuinely has the resources she needs that weren't available on earth and go back to earth so she can work twice as hard as everyone else to pull herself into a decent life. Because struggling through a world that wasn't built for her on earth is The Right Thing To Do and hiding from reality in Amphibia would be Wrong."

There were ways to write Marcy going back to earth permanently that would be fine, but this absolutely was not it in my opinion because I'll just never be able to agree with the idea that living in Amphibia is an immoral or unhealthy thing for Marcy to do when it's blatantly clear she thrived there so much easier than she ever did on earth.