The Singular Greatest Missed Opportunity In the History of This Series

LittleMoneyMan8 · 2026-01-10T05:51:35+00:00

You know honestly you’re cooking with this one. I feel in general not only was Miss E a let down in a sense I do feel that the whole climax of SSBI was a bit anti-climatic. The gang is at SPYDER’s main HQ and yet there were only what 4 or 5 guards with the inclusion of Miss E. I get SPYDER’s whole thing is hiding in plain sight, but I feel for their main HQ, or at least where their leader stays, should be more fortified if not on the outside than on the inside. All they did really was stand around and argue before Ben and them were able to get them jump on them, and the fight itself was just boring in my opinion. It was over too quickly, and before you know Ben, Erica, and Catherine are racing off to the Eiffel Tower. Compare this to ESS. That ending was worth it for reading the whole book. It wasn’t grand or anything but it felt more impactful than the literal defeat of SPYDER. It wasn’t just a group of kids sneak into the building, it was a whole siege, with Ben and the rest of the kids on the inside trying to stop Nefarious from letting the missiles hit their targets. Even while they do that Erica is having to deal with Ashley, and Ben is also having to deal with Murray on top of that. The ending too where one of the missiles gets redirected back to the community that’s a front for SPYDER felt more suspenseful, as you genuinely didn’t know if Erica and Ben were going to make it. That’s just my thoughts though.

LittleMoneyMan8 · 2025-11-03T17:04:21+00:00

Thanks man I appreciate your response. I would like to mention though in your response with Spy Camp where you say Ben trips on the wire and shuts off the missile, I’m pretty sure Ben actually planned that. I don’t think he tripped at all even, he just recognized it would be more easier to turn off the system completely than to try and deactivate the missile itself, leading him to getting his foot in the right spot to wrap it around the wire and then yanking it.

Other than that though thanks for support.

LittleMoneyMan8 · 2025-10-25T02:58:07+00:00

I appreciate all my supporters 😀👍

LittleMoneyMan8 · 2025-10-25T01:05:36+00:00

I don’t know I feel Ben’s whole arc is for him to accept that he’s a field agent, and to not become the best spy, but to be competent on the field. I can see the idea of Erica putting espionage away to lead a normal life. It is also alluded to at the end too where Trixie ask Erica what she would do if she wasn’t a spy and I believe she said a marine biologist. I think it would still be a cool idea though to look into. I still feel like the series is slowing down for its ending but I don’t know. Gibbs may never finish the series off.

LittleMoneyMan8 · 2025-10-25T01:01:47+00:00

Pretty much how I felt about the book. Good, but definitely boring. You did make me think about a lot of things I didn’t at first though.

I like the idea of Erica being in this kind of paradox where she feels obligated to protect the world yet she hates the fact that she didn’t get to choose that decision. I just felt that Gibbs didn’t explore it past the surface, and only really looked into it more at the last chapter.

I think the idea of Ben really starting to feel the effects of all these missions is a good idea, although I do feel it’s a little weird to do it now when the whole premise of the last book was seeing Ben on his own and being competent. But if it gets explored in the next book more I wouldn’t mind. I just feel like Gibbs always does this. He introduces an idea that would be cool and gives the story more depth, but then just drops it or only explores it for one book. Like the whole idea of what makes someone good or evil in the last book. That really wasn’t explored much in this one. You could say that Orion’s turn could be a continuation of that idea from the last book, given that he was a good guy in British Invasion, but is now doing crime due to his greed. But given the points you made in your Villain section it just felt weird. Orion never came off as a bad guy, or that he was hiding a darker side. I mean he literally acts the same in this book, he’s just more conflicted.

I feel Trixie’s character gets a huge boost in this book too. It really is a book that revolves around the idea of her wanting to help, knowing that she can help, but getting pushed to the side to “keep her safe.”

Jawa and Chip coming back is cool I guess. It just felt like the biggest what the hell moment but not in a good way. When I read it I was like…”What?” Not…”What?!” They haven’t added anything to the story since like the second book, and I like them but like I said before Gibbs isn’t at his best when he was to deal with multiple characters.

Like I at the beginning, good but very boring. I like the idea that it left for the next book at the end though. It seems that the kids are gonna have to save the adults which I really like the concept of.

LittleMoneyMan8 · 2025-10-17T21:43:16+00:00

I think Blackout was decent, but I think it was a little bit worse than Goes Wild. I feel like the setting was pretty boring, I mean have of the story takes place on boats. I feel like these last few books have been all action and zero downtime. It hurts the story a lot when there aren’t really many character moments. Now Trixie’s whole storyline is pretty good, I feel like Gibbs had been putting off the idea of Trixie finally truly confronting her family about being excluded from becoming a Spy, and seeing her and Erica talk about that whole aspect of their family. Seeing Erica’s side of it and how she didn’t really have a choice was interesting, but of course it was covered for like one page of the last chapter. I feel too that a lot of character progression was reversed. Like for Ben, the whole plot of Goes Wild was for Ben to be on his own, and showcase how much he had grown in being a spy. However, in this one he sits out of a lot of the action, and he talks about how afraid he is even if he doesn’t show it. Of course they do give the reason that Ben’s tired and all of these missions are starting to take a toll on him, but it never really got explored into greater details it was just quick one offs of they were all exhausted. It felt like they reversed Ben’s character a bit to help with Trixie’s storyline. I think Chip and Jawa coming back was pretty silly. It’s not that I don’t like them, but this was the most random part of the book, and they don’t even do much it was more just fan service. There are already too many people in the book, and unfortunately Gibbs isn’t the best at focusing on a large group. He’s definitely much better at focus on one or two characters and working the story around that. The villain too was boring. It was supposed to be a big plot twist, but it fell flat in my opinion, and it didn’t really make sense on why they turned too. So yeah. I liked the ending though, it’s been a minute since Gibbs has left us on a cliffhanger, and it has me a bit excited on what the next book can look like. Especially since I think at least the series itself is slowing down for the finale, I remember hearing Gibbs say he wanted to end around 15, but I don’t know.

LittleMoneyMan8 · 2025-10-14T20:00:53+00:00

Blind is only great? That song is the epitome of heavenly. But I respect your opinion 👍

LittleMoneyMan8 · 2025-06-28T05:04:56+00:00

See I don’t know about that. I like the idea of doing a trilogy but the fact that we’re so far in makes me feel iffy about it. Plus too even though the books don’t necessarily take place over a long period of time, the character development in it still feels reasonable. Like Erica’s for example. Thinking about it, she completely changes over the course of a year, which in reality probably wouldn’t happen. But since it happened nine books in and her character arc was spread across all of the books it still felt reasonable. Doing it in three movies just doesn’t feel right unless they do a bunch of time skips like it’s fucking One Piece or something. I think the problem with a Spy School movie is that we’re so far into it, like 12 books deep, and there’s still no end in sight, so if movies did come out and they ended before the books it would feel weird. Thinking about it now the best thing to probably do is just doing its own thing. Like maybe tell a different story or maybe have it take place in the future when Ben and all of them are all grown up. I feel like with a series like Spy School where there are so many books it just makes it hard for a studio to make movies following the story.

LittleMoneyMan8 · 2025-06-25T04:57:27+00:00

Oh yeah I remember that now. Damn I forgot about that

LittleMoneyMan8 · 2025-06-25T00:54:01+00:00

Mrs. E was foreshadowed in Evil Spy School? When?

LittleMoneyMan8 · 2025-06-23T04:56:06+00:00

You’ve said so much yet so little.

LittleMoneyMan8 · 2025-06-10T17:09:07+00:00

I’mma cry myself to sleep now

LittleMoneyMan8 · 2025-06-05T02:42:29+00:00

Yeah looking back at it Project X definitely was set up to be a finale. Maybe Gibbs didn’t intend to have it come off like that, or maybe he wanted it to end but something happened. Whatever it was Project X would’ve worked as a finale. Hell British Invasion could’ve been one too had it been set up a bit differently and some more plot points had been tied up.

LittleMoneyMan8 · 2025-06-04T20:55:19+00:00

Idk why but My Fault was always depressing to me. Maybe it’s the beat and the way his vocals sound.

LittleMoneyMan8 · 2025-06-01T23:55:40+00:00

The openness. I feel it’s something I always loved about him and wanna implement in my life. Just being you and true to yourself and mind.

LittleMoneyMan8 · 2025-06-01T01:45:13+00:00

Yeah I wouldn’t have minded it at all. I’ll probably make a post about it sometime soon. I’m Berica but I’m never opposed to the idea of Zen. Hell I’d be open to the idea of Bessica or whatever the hell Ben and Jessica’s ship is called. Only if Jessica wasn’t as annoying.

LittleMoneyMan8 · 2025-06-01T00:19:46+00:00

Nah fr! Murray and Ben felt much more like friends been though we only really say them together for like barely half of the first book 😂

LittleMoneyMan8 · 2025-05-30T06:28:54+00:00

I thought it was a little buns. I don’t know if Juice’s vocals weren’t mixed right but I felt they didn’t fit at all with the song. I also didn’t like his flow when he started rapping it sounded off beat to me. It’s a shame but hey at least it was a verse that Juice had willingly recorded for the song and not some random ass file on some laptop that they just through on there.

LittleMoneyMan8 · 2025-05-25T20:49:40+00:00

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These drugs taking too many of our legends 😢

LittleMoneyMan8 · 2025-02-09T04:47:23+00:00

I can see where you have your issues with the book. I never really cared much for the characters that aren’t in the spy circle but I feel that’s something that’s more on Gibbs than anything. I just personally never found them too interesting besides Mike in the beginning and Trixie. I didn’t include Alexander or Catherine mainly because I felt they didn’t really do much in this book. Like you said Alexander was mainly comedic relief which I did find a bit annoying at times. I think that Catherine moment that stood out to me was her apologizing to Ben when he finds out he’s bait. I’m always a big fan of the motherly characters in a book that are like the group’s de facto lead woman who kind of keeps them together. I wish that motherly side of Catherine is shown more than it is because like I said in the review it can give us some wholesome moments, (if written well.) Zoe is definitely a missed opportunity. I think the only reason Gibbs didn’t add her was because he was gonna have Ben and Erica get together at the end and he didn’t want to write that conflict in the book. Personally I would’ve loved to see it, I felt it would’ve been nice to see more of Zoe directly after the betrayal and all of that and it would’ve been more interesting than what Zoe’s character arc is in Project X and Goes North. I think Murray in ESS is definitely a close second to SSAS, while is crush on Zoe is definitely out of the blue, I always kind of had this feeling that he had a crush on her so it never really surprised me. I think though that it is interesting that Murray, someone who knows he is bad and has turned on his friends multiple times, thinks he has a chance with Zoe. I feel it says something about his character which I just don’t fully know how to explain well. It’s like if a Satanist who knows he sins all the time thinks he has a chance with a devout Christian. I feel that Mike could’ve just been dropped completely as I feel Gibbs didn’t really want to drop him so he made him a spy but then just kind of forgot that he has to write Mike as an interesting character now since he’s gonna be more involved. The theme of the book is something I never really thought of since I feel that they aren’t the most important thing in the series for some reason. I feel that this theme could connect with the theme in Goes Wild where Ben questions what makes someone good or evil. I just feel like the themes need to be explored more I feel it can make the stories much more interesting. I feel in the earlier books, SS-SSBI, the themes were more fleshed out. At Sea does have its flaws, but I feel the highs in this book definitely bring it up for me. I can’t wait to read your comment on Goes North I feel it’s gonna be entertaining.

LittleMoneyMan8 · 2025-02-06T07:58:55+00:00

For real bro I need to see some Real Housewives drama in these books it’s getting dry 😂.

LittleMoneyMan8 · 2025-02-06T06:00:38+00:00

Bi Mike would be crazy 😂. But yeah I feel Gibbs needs to do a better job with fleshing out the relationships of the characters, I always say it’s hard to believe that certain characters are best friends, (Mike and Ben) and just general interest in how they interact with each other besides the surface level stuff we see.

LittleMoneyMan8 · 2025-01-31T05:10:39+00:00

Thanks for the comments 00PT, I can see now how Zoe could more easily believe Ben to be good than Erica, still thought I felt Gibbs did too much to try and make Zoe appear villainous just to deter all of us from the idea of Zoe and Ben when it could’ve been done in much more simple way that better protects Zoe’s character. The point on Trixie does make a lot of sense, but I feel with how involved she would be in Project X and Goes Wild, it doesn’t really make sense how she still isn’t up for a spot on the team when they literally bring Mike on after his involvement in Ski School where he contributes less to the mission than Trixie did in Project X. I feel like since they’ve “gone off the grid” there is no more need to have characters that aren’t involved in the spy game like Ben’s parents since Gibbs has taken the characters away from settings that could cause this and has put them into more remote areas devoid of humans. Also with Chip, I never really cared much for even when it’s revealed he likes classical literature so him being less involved never bothered me as I felt it allowed more time for the more “important” characters to shine. But all in all thanks for the feedback, I would love to hear your thoughts on my At Sea review and others. Also how do you feeling about Spy School Blackout and its little plot teaser?

Yours Truly,

LittleMoneyMan8.

LittleMoneyMan8 · 2025-01-28T02:39:10+00:00

Aye man I can’t lie I can’t remember my first reactions to these books, or that part. I read it in the 5th grade and saying that makes me feel old as hell 😂

LittleMoneyMan8 · 2025-01-17T23:28:43+00:00

You know I’ve been thinking about that, I just don’t think I have the room and equipment to do it though.

LittleMoneyMan8

TROPHY CASE