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ritzyheartz · 5 months ago

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A Star-Crossed Encounter (OC short story)

These are Tirby and Kreeby, two of my oldest OCs (circa 2013)! Tirby's design is a product of the times. as you can see.

I've been thinking a lot about writing recently, so I wanted to share a short story I wrote about these two a year ago!

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For as long as he had wandered, he had never forgotten about her. The way her pearl-white robes shone silky. The way her eyes gave away the smile beneath her garb. The way she carried herself as she paced to the altar every night to pray or give offerings - or as she fled from those who stole him away.

The way she left him to die.

The scene was burnished deep in his mind. Some days, it weighed heavier on Tirby's soul than the clunky steel augments welded to his body. The fury he felt was enough to make him want to rip out his wings. It had been a day like any other. Weeks prior, the priests had received prophecy and warning of impending danger, but life carried on. The problem was that no one knew when or what to expect to begin with. Not even those with religious power could have predicted the enemy that besieged them early that afternoon. Tirby and Kreeby had always been close. Ever since childhood, the two had considered each other good friends, though their duties often pulled them apart as they grew older. One, a knight, made in the honor of their gods and sworn to dutifully protect their small world with his life. The other, a reverend hand-chosen to worship, commune with the divine, and receive blessings on behalf of them all. Despite it all, they found time for each other, day after day.

It was that one fateful day when they had precious free time on their hands and had chosen to spend it together. Clouds of metal blotted the sun from view. Icy steel spears - like the legs of some bony animal, larger than life itself - descended into the ground, spreading mechanics outward, infecting the land with their computerization. Invaders swarmed from the gigantic hive like insects. Lifeforms unlike anything Tirby, Kreeby, or any of their fellows had ever seen before; hi-tech visors, handheld weapons that shot concentrated blasts of plasma, and most importantly, those who piloted large, round, metal bodies, decorated with spikes and sharp edges, the shoulders of their armor emblazoned with a foreboding "H". The hulking robots were nigh untouchable. To fight or attempt to fight them was a death wish, as Tirby so unfortunately discovered. He had brandished his blade against the otherworldly foes in an attempt to protect Kreeby, his dearest friend.

But alas, Tirby was no match for the invaders, who both outsized and outnumbered him. When he had given his all, and had no more left within him, he was seized. Crying out, he stretched one hand in Kreeby's direction, agony welling up inside him and spilling out through his voice. But all he saw was a glimpse of her dark countenance as she turned and fled. She did not come for him. She was gone. And he never saw her again. Tirby thought about that day, and about her, far too often for his liking. He truly wished he could move on, but the scars left both on his body and in his mind were deep and unhealing, and they would not let him forget. After his escape from the clutches of those vile engineers and their equally treacherous machines, he hadn’t much else to do but brood. Many times before had he wanted to track them down, to return and blow their entire operation to smithereens… but he thought the lot of them unworth the effort. Kreeby, however? Well, if ever he did cross paths with her again, he decided, he would not let her go unscathed. To encounter her again in the first place, though, felt unlikely. ‘Tragic for me… lucky for her.’

With no home left to return to, and no knowledge of where exactly he had escaped to, Tirby felt stranded in the vast, chilly oceans of outer space. It was rare he stumbled upon the sight of a distant planet. Even then, most planets appeared… rather unfit for life. A hunk of rock dribbling with lava like some wannabe star here, or an oversized cyclone there.

When the cyborg found anything he could consider hospitable, he supposed he would have to check it out. For now, resting on the occasional asteroid would do. Unless… From where he was poised on one such floating rock, he thought he could see something in the distance. He stretched his body up, as if that would help. No - one augment that he could grudgingly accept was the ability to zoom into and enhance distant objects in his vision. It had helped him scope out potential planets without having to get terribly close to them. And now, it could do the same. Tirby narrowed his eye slightly. In his vision, the picture of the distant planet grew larger, more detailed. So, too, did the pitiful white text in the corners of what he saw. It was supposed to help identify any crucial information located in the databases of those who had modified him. Useless, now that he was so far from their grasp. When it had the fortune of connecting to said databases, no information was present; Tirby thought it likely that even they had never extended their claws out this far in the universe.

This planet seemed habitable. Almost suspiciously normal, in fact. A pair of bright rings in orbit, with a moon hovering nearby. If he looked closely, he could make out a small, more vertical ring encircling the satellite. Although, he did not yet know if this planet was gaseous. And he always found himself wishing he could tell what color some of these planets were. He never saw the world in deep vibrance, but after the ordeal with the invaders, all things, to him, were tinted red. Regardless, ignoring this planet might turn out to be a missed opportunity. Tirby, in a mixture of reluctance and anticipation, ruffled his wings - perhaps not so much a ruffle as a tinny clink-clatter - and propelled himself away from the asteroid using the boosters in his wingtips.

-•-•-•-•-

Tirby had decided that it might be safer to light down upon the moon first, to scope out the planet itself. It had a thickly colored atmosphere, but if he enhanced his vision he could make out the shape of continents. At least, that’s what he tried to convince himself of.

Where he had landed, exactly, on the little satellite, seemed to be just outside a forest of thin trees. Their bark appeared a dark gray. The leaves at the ends of their branches were a mixture of star shapes and butterfly wings; he could tell they were glowing, and though the moon’s gravity field was sturdy enough, some of the fallen leaves hovered just so in the air, almost like a tangible fog. He had to admit that it intrigued him. It was, at the very least, a forest; that much was a familiar kind of environment. It had been a long time since he had gotten to explore any woodsy areas, of course. Taking care to ensure that his wings were still at the ready, in case there happened to be any… alien creatures here who wanted to get the jump on him, Tirby traipsed further into the forest, brushing petals and leaves out of his way here and there.

It was strangely soothing, he thought after a short while. Which was when he realized he had never really gotten to just take a walk in the wilderness like this - not in a long time, anyway. The last time he’d gotten to… His brow furrowed. The last time he’d gotten to, he hadn’t been so alone. ‘Of course,’ he grumbled to himself. ‘Why is it that the one time I’m feeling kind of peaceful for once, I have to start thinking about her again?’ As if in response, the wind suddenly chilled around him. Not that a chill phased Tirby much anymore, but it still gave him pause.

Was it getting darker? The little moon was still in the path of its sun’s light… Tirby glowered around, peering through the trees. He couldn’t see or sense anything nearby. Tapping into his internal radar sent a web-like outline into the corner of his field of vision. No lifeforms could be registered - no little white dots surrounding him anywhere.

Now that he looked, he realized he couldn’t tell where the edge of the trees began. Where the forest thinned out into barren rock. His heart skipped a beat. As he turned, he stepped further forward, shoulders tensing. What was going on here? Around him, the wind began to pick up. The delicate petals floating about were no longer aimless. Tirby observed as they swam through the air, looping here and there, up and down, and closing in on him.

Closing in on him?

Quickly, Tirby reacted. He stood his ground, clenching his fists; the claws of his wings spread outward. But the petals only danced about. Unwittingly, the wary puffball followed along. He turned in a circle just once or twice, trying to keep an eye on the petals. Then, as soon as they had picked up, they waltzed toward the trees in their gentle, hypnotic line. Tirby stood rather dumbfounded. ‘Why…’

He tried to make sense of it in his head. Did they maybe… want to show him something? But that was ridiculous. They were just leaves. At that moment, one of the final petals brushed against him, sending a shiver up his back. Tirby rubbed his cheek off, ignoring the glitter that he had wiped off on his glove. That couldn’t just be coincidence, could it?

Against all better judgment, he felt drawn toward the petals… drawn toward following their lead. ‘Why am I doing this?’ he thought, exasperated. Despite fighting himself over the idea, he was trotting after them soon enough. He threaded between trees and slipped under the odd mossy root; hovering through a tight squeeze, or circling around a trunk. Strangely, it was as if the only light on the moon was coming from the train of petals now. It felt almost like being in a tunnel of some kind. Tirby knew in the back of his mind that these petals were leading him deeper into the forest. Then he kicked himself internally for falling for something so obvious. But… there was nothing he could do now, or at least it felt that way.

When he thought about whether or not this was all worth it, something up ahead caught his eye. A dull white flicker, that waved like a thin cloth disturbed by a gentle breeze. Tirby was well and truly befuddled now. Maybe the leaves really did want to show him something in here? The light bouncing off the flicker began to fade, and quickly. Suddenly determined, Tirby picked up speed. Above him, the petals sauntered several paces in front.

At last, a change of scenery - though small - prompted him to come to a halt. The trees, which had come to be rather claustrophobic, were now spaced well apart, forming an uneven boundary outside a small glade. As Tirby glanced up at the sky to see if the darkness had begun to lift around him, he noticed that what he could see was blanketed by a canopy of soft glowing spots. The trees, peculiarly, seemed to stretch and tower over him here.

Then, as he glanced back down, he noticed another cluster of petals, this time coming from the opposite direction. And from the opposite edge of the glade, a white figure veered out of the trees, following, just as entranced by the petals as he must have been. It took a moment of thought… or recognition? … for his stomach to start turning. Tirby froze. A lump began to rise in his throat. He gawked, wide-eyed, at the figure before him. It couldn’t possibly be… When the figure saw the leaves that had been leading them scatter, she outstretched a hand to reach for them. Then, her eyes met Tirby’s. She stood as still as he, blinking a few times as if to confirm what she was really seeing. At last, after what felt like eons, the figure finally broke the silence.

“Th-... There’s no way… Tirby?”

Tirby almost choked on the sound of her voice.

“K… K-Kreeby?”

He swallowed hard, clenching his fists again to disguise their shivering. Kreeby did not look the same as she had the last time they saw each other. Her ceremonial robes were dull and tattered, draping limply off her like a ghost. A ghost. Was that why she hadn’t shown up on his radar? Provided he wasn’t just hallucinating or something. But then, if that was true… What had happened to her? “That… Are you… Is it really you? Am I just seeing things?”

“Am I really seeing you?” Kreeby answered. “Tirby! You look… You look…”

Tirby bit his lip to keep himself from pouting miserably. “Like a tin can? Yeah. No thanks to you.” Kreeby tilted her head to one side, seeming fixated on his new augments. She delicately floated toward him; her gaze flitted around his face as if she wasn’t sure what to stare at first. Tirby frowned at her. “What happened to you? You look like you’re supposed to be dead.”

She smiled back at him. With a sort of self-satisfied look about her, Tirby noted. Almost smug. “I follow the Lightless in all things,” she replied. “If they instruct me, I listen. I thought maybe they sent me a sign with those petals, so I followed them. And look who they brought me to!” “So did they tell you to feed me to the crows, too?” Tirby retorted bitterly. Kreeby, infuriatingly, almost seemed confused at first. “You know, when you abandoned me?! It’s your fault I look like a hunk of junk now!” “The robots?” Kreeby asked, as if in confirmation. “A priestess has to be kept safe at all costs. Aren’t you the one who failed your mission? The Lightless have a special connection with me. They needed me… I’m sure they would have wanted me to save myself.”

Tirby had never felt this hot with rage before. “So your job was more important than me, was it?! And look where that got you! You look like you’re barely hanging on by a thread!” The ghost flashed him a toothy grin. “I’d call it proof of my favor with the Dark Ones.” “If the Dark Ones were real, you wouldn’t look like you just crawled out of a grave!” With little warning, the circular port that had replaced Tirby’s right eye lit up in red. All of a sudden, a thick laser shot out of the port, aimed directly for his old companion. Kreeby drew in a sharp breath and swerved in the nick of time. The sudden attack didn’t seem to shock her as much as the admission of Tirby’s faith - or lack thereof.

“T-Tirby… you can’t actually mean that,” Kreeby stammered. “I mean it with all the heart I have left.” Tirby’s voice was laced with a snarl. Seeing her frozen in surprise, he added snidely, “Oh... and the part about the Dark Ones.”

Kreeby lifted her head, looking offended. “Ouch!” she cried, a glimmer of hurt in her eyes. “What’s wrong with you? Weren’t we, like… friends?”

“Maybe once,” Tirby growled. “Leaving me to die wasn’t exactly what I’d call a friendly gesture.” Kreeby scoffed. “You’re so caught up in the past. How long has it been since that happened, anyway? That’s gotta be water under the bridge by now…”

She narrowly dodged another furious red blast from Tirby. Quickly, the ghost stole a glance first left, then right, as if looking for an escape route. “Water under the bridge?! Don’t you care about what happened?! To our families, or our home?! Or ME?! Look what they did to me, Kreeby! Look what happened to YOU!”

“Calm down!” Kreeby shrieked. “Just calm down! Look: life keeps on going no matter what we do,” she tried to reason. “I had my time to mourn or whatever. It already happened and there’s nothing we can do to change it. All we can do is move forward!”

“Like nothing ever happened? Is that it?!” Tirby challenged. “Our lives will never be the same! And you just want to keep going like we’re still friends?!” “Did I say that?” Kreeby mumbled. Tirby swore he could catch a hint of mischief in her tone. Enraged, he stepped forward a few paces, causing her to back up. “So you don’t care about me anymore, is that it? Did you EVER care about me?! Was I just a tool to you?!” His clawed wings extended further outward.

A hint of worry crossed Kreeby’s face. “Tirby–”

“Y’know what? I don’t think I wanna hear it,” Tirby snapped. “I’m through with you!” Barely giving Kreeby enough time to react, the puffball fired another lazer in her direction. Kreeby yelped. Again, she swirled just in time - but the blast nicked the tatters of her cloak. She twisted to put out the small flame with her hands, but found herself ducking away from a set of claws. “Chill out already!” Kreeby yowled, to no avail. Tirby was in no mood to chat, but he certainly was fired up enough to chase her to kingdom come if he had to. He turned on his heels, speeding after her as she flitted backward again.

Quickly, Tirby noticed that she was rising higher into the air as she attempted to escape. ‘She won’t get far.’ The thrusters on his wingtips ignited, and he rocketed away from the ground, leaving scorch marks behind. But neither did he get far. Unexpectedly, Kreeby wheeled on him, and shot directly toward him with a dark look in her eyes. The edges of her body were suddenly aflicker, frayed with a ghostly light.

She slammed into him so hard he was sent barreling back into the ground. Several small chunks of rock cracked away from the ground upon impact with the metal encasing his right half. Tirby lay there, stunned, for several moments. When he opened his eye again, and his senses returned to him, he noticed one of his claws propped against the ground, bent at an odd angle. Several thin plumes of some odd white mist rose from the rock beneath him, as well as, he noticed, a few parts of his body - including the twisted claw. And then, he realized he had gone numb. He suppressed a shiver.

It took him a few seconds of scouring to locate Kreeby. She, too, was spread on the ground, a few feet away; another plume sprouted next to her. Tirby watched her closely. He felt as though he couldn’t move just yet.

After a few moments, the ghostly creature let out a groan. She laboriously pushed herself upright, shaking her head and blinking several times. Then, her gaze lifted slowly, from the ground all the way up to Tirby. She swallowed thickly. “It didn’t work,” he heard her whisper. “What didn’t work?” Tirby queried suspiciously. He attempted to lift his hand, hoping to get back to his feet sooner or later, but found he was still too shaky to do so. Kreeby gazed innocently at him. “We’re not even friends anymore, and you want me to tell you all my secrets? You’re so nosy…” “Don’t even start with that,” Tirby hissed. “You’re kind of not in any position to boss me around, now, are you?” The ghost propped her head against one hand, keeping her eyes trained on him.

Now that he paid attention, he felt that he was not only numb, but rather cold inside as well. And not the same kind of cold that came with the unfeeling augments on his body. A cold that almost made him feel dead. “What did you do?!” he needled. Weakly, he rolled, finally managing to right himself at least halfway with his frail arms.

Kreeby seemed to pay his question no mind. “This is kind of cute, right?” she sighed idly. “Here we are, lying around in the middle of some forest with each other. I remember we used to do this together - don’t you?”

A fog of confusion was starting to gather in the front of Tirby’s brain. What was she doing? “Don’t try to change the subject…”

"We never had forests like this back home, though. These trees are kind of romantic, don’t you think?”

Tirby faltered, almost slipping and faceplanting into the dirt. “W-What’s wrong with you? Can’t you take anything seriously?”

“I’m trying to lighten you up a little,” Kreeby said, taking mock offense. “Can you imagine? Meeting your best friend for the first time in years, just for him to try and kill you?” “So now we’re friends again, huh?” the puffball grumbled, propping his head up and tapping the ground impatiently with his other hand. “I hope you know I’m sick of you.”

Kreeby stifled a giggle. “Tirby… You’ve always been so serious. You know?”

“What are you getting at?” Tirby groused. “Stop doing this. You’re not funny.”

“Isn’t it nice to just sit and talk together again?” Her eyes gleamed.

Tirby had had enough. He growled, raising his wings. Still trembling, he managed to get back to his feet, glaring daggers at the ghost. She managed to keep a steady expression, but Tirby thought he could hear a hint of worry in her voice as she continued, “Why can’t we just talk it out? Tirbs?” He finally felt the heat start coming back to his face. “Don’t call me that. Not anymore.” Kreeby only gave a lopsided smile at this. “Why not, Tirbs? Is that embarrassing?”

“Shut up!” Tirby barked. The light in his cybernetic eye threatened to sputter back to life, albeit slowly. He saw Kreeby tense. But inside, he could feel that his systems remained frail after her strange attack. The numbers running through his brain calculated that he might need time to recover. Reluctantly, Tirby realized he may not be able to afford to finish this fight the way he hoped to. ‘If she wants to play mind games… maybe I can play along.’

Tirby stared at her momentarily, before taking a step to the left. “You know what?” he started. “Maybe you do actually have a point. Sort of.” After everything that had already taken place, it was difficult to force the words out of his mouth. But Kreeby appeared to be interested… if annoyingly satisfied. “Oh, yeah? I do?” She, too, got up to her feet, though not without a little grunt of effort. “It’s been a while. Why don’t we… walk and talk, for a bit.” He had begun to pace around her, but before he could fully encircle her, she got up; and, seeming to already know what he was doing, followed his motions. “Sure - as long as you promise not to shoot me again,” she cooed mockingly. “Don’t make me.” He barely gave her the time to keep up as he turned and headed deeper into the trees once more. She followed suit regardless, doing a good job of keeping pace with him both physically and mentally, he observed. She always did have a sharp wit as well as a sharp tongue.

-•-•-•-•-

They certainly walked. Talked? Not so much. Tirby, at least, could not bring himself to dignify Kreeby with the initiation. Unfortunately… “You do know you said ‘walk and talk,’ right? Where’s the talk?” Kreeby floated idly at his side, daring to give his shoulder a mischievous tap. He barely stopped himself from flinching away. He had tried to come up with a plan to escape by now, but somehow, putting things into action was more difficult than he expected they’d be. “It’s just… where to even begin, at this point.” “Maybe you could start by apologizing to me?” Kreeby wheedled. Tirby snorted. “Not likely.” “You’re so rude.”

Tirby took a deep breath in. “Look, it’s been a long time. Why don’t we just catch up… or whatever?” Kreeby turned herself upside down, placing her hands behind her head as if she were relaxing. “Sure! So what have you been up to all this time?” “Surviving better than you have, by the looks of it,” the puffball retorted. “What exactly happened to you? You never answered me.” His old friend shrugged in response. “I did answer you. I told you that I follow the will of the Lightless, whatever they have planned for me.”

“So they killed you?” Tirby responded flatly.

“Call it whatever you want,” Kreeby said airily. “This was their way of elevating me closer to them, I think. To bestow some of their power on me.”

Tirby sniffed. He had just about met his limit. “Hmph. I’m sick of all this bootlicking,” he muttered under his breath. Thankfully, it appeared that his comment hadn’t been heard. “So how did you escape? Where have you been all this time?” Kreeby flipped right-side-up again, looking genuinely eager for once. “Fought my way out,” Tirby said matter-of-factly. “I’ve just… been wandering around, I guess.” “You never were good at making friends,” Kreeby chuckled. Tirby shot her a cold look. “I haven’t even been able to find anyplace to go that won’t kill me instantly,” he explained. “This is the first hospitable-looking place I’ve seen in I don’t know how long. Figures that I just had to find you here.”

“You don’t sound very excited about that,” Kreeby pouted.

“I’m not.” The puffball tensed his shoulders again. Then, the ghost flitted in front of him, stopping him in his tracks. He leaned backward, scrunching up his face. “Maybe we can change that,” she replied, an angelic smile lighting up her face.

Tirby found a gray hand extended toward him, all of a sudden. He blinked. A handshake? Was this her idea of a peace offering? Kreeby gave his cheek a nudge. “Come on… Friends?” she insisted. “I forgive you for trying to set me on fire and everything earlier.”

So she was the one who had to forgive him, huh? He was beginning to wonder how he ever could have stood to be near her in the past. But, he realized, this could be his way out. Especially if she had some kind of trick up her own tattered sleeve. Wouldn’t it be satisfying to flip her deck of cards on its head?

Cautiously, Tirby ruffled his wings. He slowly began to raise one fist. “Yeah… friends.” A sparkle glimmered through Kreeby’s eyes. With palm open and digits outstretched, he motioned to grab her hand at last. Then, before she could react, Tirby clenched tightly. From the antennae atop his head, a jolt of reddish lightning was sent speeding down his arm and exploded through his glove. Ensnaring Kreeby’s hand, and soon her entire body, the lightning screamed through her; caught entirely off guard, she let out a screech, straightening up as she glowed from the inside like a faulty lightbulb. “EEEEEYIAAAHH!!” As soon as Tirby decided she’d had enough, he let go of her to fire up the propulsors in his wings. “Maybe when I’m even deader than you!” Between the smokescreen that was beginning to gather around them, he could see her lying in a heap on the ground, tangled up in singed white fabric. “I didn’t realize how much I missed peace and quiet until you came along. I’ll be happy for once if I never see you again in my life!”

Just before he was ready to take off, he noticed her blinking aimlessly with dazed shock in her eyes. “So long, Kreeby. I hope your corpse rots out here!” And with those sour parting words, Tirby blasted into the thin atmosphere, enveloping her in one last cloud of dark smoke to choke on.

Sparing no time, the puffball flew as fast as his systems would allow. Up, up, and away from the moon he soared. He knew that his little stun gun wasn’t powerful enough to take her down for real - he just had to hope he could escape before she was able to track him down. It made him grimace to know that he was running away from a fight, but he tried to tell himself it was the smart thing to do. No shame in being smart. As for what to do next, Tirby guessed he would still need time to recover before he could attempt any further deep space travel. With a pinprick of reluctance, he eyed the huge, ringed planet before him. He had no other choice.

Steeling himself, he angled his wings. Here goes nothing.

-•-•-•-•-

Kreeby’s eyes rolled in spirals. She could almost hear birds chirping above her.

When she came to, enough to rub her sore head and glance at her surroundings, all she could see were clouds of dust and smoke winding through thin tree stalks - Tirby was nowhere to be seen. She coughed a few times. As she pushed herself to her feet, wiping the dirt off of her robes, she suddenly remembered just what had happened. Kreeby stood still, looking bewildered for a moment.

Then, she narrowed her eyes. “How uncouth,” she murmured, peering slowly around. “Attacking a lady and leaving her to die…? Shame on you, Tirby.”

She did not expect a response. “And after I forgave you, too…” The little ghost then turned her attention to the treetops. She stared hard. If she focused long enough… Either she was still seeing things, or perhaps, just maybe, she could make out the faintest trace of smoke weaving through the air.

The malice seemed to disappear from her face. Instead, she smiled. A lopsided grin that complemented her lidded eyes… dangerously.

“I revoke my forgiveness. I think I’ll just have to teach you a lesson. The hard way.”

#kirby #kirby oc #kirby fandom #kirby ocs #orikabi #kirblr #little bit o' ship tease... but we will never know if they were meant for each other #i love talking about these guys and sharing stuff of my orikabis #idk what to tag these but i'd like to keep my stories organized if i post more

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blue-mint-winter · 27 days ago

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Precognition in ESB novellization

Empire Strikes Back developed most of the Force powers that can be used by Jedi and Sith in SW universe. More flashy abilities like telekinesis or Force ghosts take attention away from the subtle, but most important one - precognition. However, it is still there as a driving force behind the whole story.

The first instance of precognition impacting the plot is Vader knowing that the Rebels are on Hoth:

But Vader was no longer listening to the captain. His masked face turned toward an image beamed on one of the viewscreens—an image of a small squadron of Rebel snowspeeders streaking above the white fields. “That’s it,” Darth Vader boomed without further deliberation. “My lord,” Admiral Ozzel protested, “there are so many uncharted settlements. It could be smugglers—” “That is the one!” the former Jedi Knight insisted, clenching a black-gloved fist. “And Skywalker is with them. Bring in the patrol ships, Admiral, and set your course for the Hoth system.”

It's not explained how exactly Vader came to the conclusion that Rebels are on Hoth from just seeing some snowspeeders, but it can be safely assumed he had a vision and the image from the probe just matched what he's seen. Another explanation would be his connection with Luke giving him some insight into Luke's whereabouts.

Second instance of precognition I noticed is Luke knowing Dagobah's location:

“Yes, Artoo, I know the Dagobah system doesn’t appear on any of our navigational charts. But don’t worry. It’s there.” [...] “No, that’s all right, Artoo. I’d rather keep it on manual control for a while.” Then the stout robot delivered a final whimper that sounded to Luke like a noise of defeat. Luke was amused by the droid’s concern for his health. “Trust me, Artoo,” Luke said with a gentle smile. “I know where I’m going and I’ll get us there safely. It’s not far.”

A tiny X-wing was approaching the atmosphere of the Dagobah planet. As he neared the planet, Luke Skywalker was able to glimpse a portion of its curved surface through a heavy cover of thick clouds. The planet was uncharted and virtually unknown. Somehow Luke had made his way there, though he wasn’t certain whether it was his hand alone that had guided his ship into this unexplored sector of space.

“This certainly seems like a strange place to find a Jedi Master,” he said to the little robot. “Gives me the creeps.” From the sound of his beep, it was clear Artoo shared Luke’s opinion of the swamp world. “Although,” Luke continued as he reluctantly tasted more of the food, “there’s something familiar about this place. I feel like—”

Dagobah is uncharted, doesn't have known coordinates but Luke flies there manually. Obi-Wan's ghost didn't tell him how to get there. The quote that someone or something else guided Luke to the planet is interestingly vague, it could be Yoda (given his unwillingness to train Luke, it's doubtful) or the Force itself guiding him like during his piloting but I think it might be the effect of Luke's precognition again. Especially the last quote, that Dagobah feels familiar to Luke, points in that direction. He had visions, dreams. He was there in the future, so he knew from it how to get there. Knowledge from the future is used in the present to create that future. Pretty mindbending.

Looking toward the invisible Kenobi, Yoda pointed at Luke. “This one I have watched a long time. All his life has he looked away … to the horizon, to the sky, to the future. Never his mind on where he was, on what he was doing. Adventure, excitement.” Yoda shot a glaring look at Luke. “A Jedi craves not these things!” Luke tried to defend his past. “I have followed my feelings.”

Yoda pretty much confirms that Luke had visions of the future all his life. Luke's talent for precognition is pretty strong, as established in ANH.

What's most interesting, right after Yoda agrees to teach Luke, the Emperor talks to Vader foreseeing the danger from a new Jedi:

“There is a grave disturbance in the Force,” the Emperor said. “I have felt it,” the Dark Lord replied solemnly. The Emperor emphasized the danger as he continued. “Our situation is most precarious. We have a new enemy who could bring about our destruction.” “Our destruction? Who?” “The son of Skywalker. You must destroy him, or he will be our undoing.”

The Emperor was right on the money there. His precognition is just as crucial as Luke's to the story. Also, I can't help but think that it's the best explanation for his triumph in prequels. Palpatine took a lot of risks and still won - it wasn't a coincidence, he was actively using precognition to plan his moves while clouding the visions the Jedi were getting, so they were blind to his machinations.

The Dark Lord reflected a moment. Perhaps there was another way to deal with the boy, a way that might benefit the Imperial cause. “If he could be turned, he would be a powerful ally,” Vader suggested. Silently the Emperor considered the possibility. After a moment, he spoke again. “Yes … yes,” he said thoughtfully. “He would be a great asset. Can it be done?” For the first time in their meeting, Vader lifted his head to face his master directly. “He will join us,” he answered firmly, “or die, my master.”

This part is interesting because the Emperor is considering the possibility. There is a fork in the future timeline but it is only caused by Vader, because he doesn't want to lose his son.

Emperor's orders to capture Luke prompted by the vision further the plot. Vader's plans on Bespin were also made thanks to his own precognitive powers:

In the next moment, the holographic image had completely disappeared, leaving Darth Vader alone to formulate what would be, perhaps, his most subtle plan of attack.

Yoda is also teaching Luke about Force visions:

“Be calm,” Yoda told him. “Through the Force things you will see: other places, other thoughts, the future, the past, old friends long gone.” Luke was losing himself as he concentrated on Yoda’s words. He was becoming unaware of his body and let his consciousness drift with the words of his master. “My mind fills with so many images.” “Control, control you must learn of what you see,” the Jedi Master instructed. “Not easy, not fast.” Luke closed his eyes, relaxed, and began to free his mind, began to control the images. At last there was something, not clear at first, but something white, amorphous. Gradually the image cleared. It seemed to be that of a city, a city that perhaps floated in a billowing white sea. “I see a city in the clouds,” he finally said. “Bespin,” Yoda identified it. “I see it, too. Friends you have there, heh? Concentrate and see them you will.” Luke’s concentration intensified. And the city in the clouds became clearer. As he concentrated he was able to see forms, familiar forms of people he knew. “I see them!” Luke exclaimed, his eyes still shut. Then a sudden agony, of body and spirit, took hold of him. “They’re in pain. They’re suffering.” “It is the future you see,” the voice of Yoda explained. The future, Luke thought. Then the pain he had felt had not yet been inflicted on his friends. So perhaps the future was not unchangeable. “Will they die?” he asked his master. Yoda shook his head and shrugged gently. “Difficult to see. Always in motion is the future.”

Later on, Luke dreams of his friends suffering and dying. And he seems pretty certain this time.

Luke awoke from his sleep with a start. Dazed, he looked about him, then saw his teacher worriedly watching him from his house. “I can’t keep the vision out of my head,” Luke told Yoda. “My friends … they’re in trouble … and I feel that—” “Luke, you must not go,” Yoda warned. “But Han and Leia will die if I don’t.” “You don’t know that.” It was the whispered voice of Ben, who was beginning to materialize before them. The dark-robed figure stood, a shimmering image, and told Luke, “Even Yoda cannot see their fate.”

It makes me think that perhaps Luke's precognition here was stronger than Yoda's. Vader's plan to lure Luke is quite intricate because he weaponized the visions. It's very possible that he really planned to kill Han and Leia if Luke didn't take the bait. He wanted Luke to turn to the dark side so killing his friends was logical as the last resort to make him feel anger, hate and desire for revenge which would make Luke come to confront Vader. Vader even altered the deal with Lando to take Leia into custody. He was determined to obtain Luke and he wouldn't hesitate to do anything to accomplish that goal.

Another, smaller instance of precognition is Vader's defense when Han shot at him.

“I’m sorry, too,” Han snapped. In that instant, he cleared his blaster from its holster, aimed it directly at the figure in black, and began to pump laser bolts Vader’s way. But the man who may have been the fastest draw in the galaxy was not fast enough to surprise Vader. Before those bolts zipped halfway across the table, the Dark Lord had lifted a gauntlet-protected hand and effortlessly deflected them so they exploded against the wall in a harmless spray of flying white shards.

Vader wasn't super fast, he just knew that Han was going to shoot at him in that moment thanks to the precognition.

The proof that Vader was several steps ahead in this game is his reaction to Luke jumping off into the chasm.

Darth Vader moved to the end of the gantry to watch as Luke tumbled away. A strong wind began to blow, billowing Vader’s black cloak out behind him as he stood looking over the edge. Skywalker’s body quickly plunged downward. Toppling head over foot, the wounded Jedi desperately reached out to grab at something to stop his fall. The Dark Lord watched until he saw the youth’s body sucked into a large exhaust pipe in the side of the reactor shaft. When Luke vanished, Vader quickly turned and hurried off the platform.

It just seems unusually calm of him. He cared so much about making Luke join him, but when Luke jumps off, Vader just calmly watches. He doesn't try to use the Force to save Luke (and this is a guy who can choke someone he sees on a viewscreen and is shown to be a master of telekinesis). Vader doesn't show any emotional reaction... like he knew this wasn't the end. Then it's revealed that he's given orders to deactivate Falcon's hyperdrive. He knew beforehand there was a chance Luke would try to escape on the Falcon and he prepared for that future. I'm calling it precognition because there was no guarantee that Leia and Lando wouldn't use some other ship to rescue Luke. Vader knew it was going to be only Falcon and that's why he ensured its hyperdrive wasn't working.

“And their hyperdrive has been deactivated?” Vader asked. “Right after they were captured, sir.” “Good,” the giant black-robed figure said. “Prepare for the boarding and set your weapons for stun.”

However, Vader's precognition wasn't perfect. He didn't foresee Artoo being there at the right moment and fixing the hyperdrive last minute. Yoda was right that the future is always in motion.

The element of prophecy is presented in 3 characters: Palpatine's vague prediction of Luke destroying the Sith, Luke's vision in a cave (the prophecy is unclear and very ancient Greek in its warning against patricide) and Leia's prophetic words to Han.

“Someday,” she said with mild disgust, “you’re going to be wrong, and I just hope I’m there to see it.”

That last one is ironic as she defenitely regretted being right when they were on Bespin and Han got frozen in carbonite.

To sum up, precognition wielded by Luke, Vader and the Emperor is the main driving force behind the plot of ESB.

#esb novellization #darth vader #luke skywalker #palpatine #sw eu #sw meta #esb novel #my meta

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mellodazey · 9 months ago

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when you're bored out of your mind waiting for december to come, so you try to put the Dog Man trailer scenes in order (long post ahead)

(sorry there's no pictures. I did this in MS word and copypasted it here. also, you might wanna avoid this if you're afraid of spoilers.)

Scenes from the first trailer-

Overlook of the city. Possibly the beginning shot, or right after the first scene.

Bomb is shown.

Shot of people panicking. Could possibly be later in the movie.

Officer Knight with Greg, about to drive off. Probably before the shot of the bomb.

Shot of Officer Knight flooring it. Note the ramp in the background.

The cop car.

Shot of Officer Knight and Greg in the car again.

Brief shot of the car going off-road(?) Possibly before the ramp.

Officer Knight and Greg going up the ramp.

Ramp jump.

The cop car with a parachute, landing on top of the abandoned expendable warehouse, where the bomb is.

Shot of Officer Knight and Greg doing a fist bump. Can’t tell what’s outside the window. Could be right before the bomb.

Officer Knight and Greg attempting to defuse the bomb.

Shot of ambulance going to the hospital.

Officer Knight and Greg in the hospital.

Doctor and Nurse Lady with goggles. Could be reversed, right before showing Officer Knight and Greg.

Shot of outside the hospital. Possibly when the ambulance arrives, or when the surgery is about to start.

Various shots of machinery. Looks like Petey’s lab. Could be when Lil Petey is being created.

Shot of Dog Man about to run out the hospital door.

Doctor and Nurse Lady shaking hands.

Sarah turning around.

Seamus looking past his camera. This and the scene with Sarah could be in either order.

Dog Man busting out of the hospital doors.

Dog Man twirling handcuffs. Later scenes show this is connected to when Petey drives the squirrel tank.

Shot from inside Chief’s office, showing Dog Man being praised by the police.

Dog Man fist bumping with a baby. There’s a news headline in the corner.

Dog Man catching a thief. Another news headline.

Sarah talking with Chief. Another news headline. Could be before or after Dog Man’s other news scenes.

Dog Man playing piano for the elderly. Another news headline.

Shot of outside Petey’s lab. Could be anytime.

Shot of newspaper showing Dog Man. Looks like Chief’s hands holding the paper. Environment looks like Chief’s office. Can’t tell what’s behind the paper.

Petey in his lab.

Petey possibly programming something. Could be anytime.

Shot of Petey showing up with the squirrel tank.

Petey firing a shot at Supa Priceless Objects.

Sarah yelling at Petey.

Dog Man in Chief’s office.

Dog Man saluting Chief. Based on Chief’s hand placement, he could have just given Dog Man his badge(?)

Shot of Chief talking beside his corkboard. Could be before he sends Dog Man to arrest Petey.

Shot of Dog Man leaving some place. Could be anytime.

Dog Man growling in Chief’s office.

Dog Man barking while Chief is talking. Corkboard isn’t lit at this time.

Chief crumpling up newspaper.

Dog Man playing fetch.

Chief ordering Dog Man to arrest Petey. Beginning of the montage.

Shot of Petey laughing. He has only two whiskers on one side.

Dog Man growling.

Dog Man chasing Petey, who’s piloting a robot bee. Could be part of the montage.

Petey driving off in the squirrel tank with Dog Man on top.

Various shots of Dog Man receiving awards in the paper. Could be anytime.

Shot of Petey chasing Dog Man with a trap. Could be part of the montage.

Dog Man running from Petey’s robot vacuum. Could be part of the montage.

Petey using a catapult to launch bones. Could be part of the montage.

Dog Man posing in a battle stance. Squirrel tank scene.

Shot of the squirrel tank driving into a barricade with Dog Man on top.

Shot of the squirrel tank jumping away from an explosion.

Sequence of Dog Man getting distracted from the monitors he’s supposed to watch. Petey is shown sneaking around. There’s one camera on Flippy.

Dog Man tackling Chief and licking his face. Could be anytime.

Scenes from the Tiktok trailer-

Dog Man leaving some place. Also shown in trailer.

Petey firing a shot from the squirrel tank. Also shown in trailer.

Shot of Petey laughing. Also shown in trailer.

Dog Man dodging shots from the squirrel tank. Connects the handcuff twirling scene to the squirrel tank scene.

Scene of Dog Man eating. Weirdly cropped, presumably to hide Lil Petey.

Dog Man twirling handcuffs. Extended beginning from trailer.

Dog Man tackling Chief and licking his face. Also shown in trailer.

That scene from the art book cover-

Dog Man finding Lil Petey.

My speculated scene order-

City overlook.

Officer Knight and Greg about to drive off.

The cop car.

Shot of Officer Knight and Greg in the car again.

Car going off-road(?)

Officer Knight flooring it.

Officer Knight and Greg going up the ramp.

Ramp jump.

The cop car landing with a parachute.

Bomb shot.

Officer Knight and Greg attempting to defuse the bomb.

Ambulance going to the hospital.

Doctor and Nurse Lady with goggles.

Officer Knight and Greg in the hospital.

Shot of Dog Man about to run out the hospital door.

Sarah turning around. / Seamus looking past his camera.

Dog Man busting out of the hospital doors.

Dog Man fist bumping with a baby.

Dog Man catching a thief.

Dog Man playing piano for the elderly.

Sarah talking with Chief.

Petey in his lab.

Dog Man in Chief’s office.

Dog Man growling in Chief’s office.

Dog Man barking while Chief is talking.

Chief crumpling up newspaper.

Dog Man playing fetch.

Shot of Chief talking beside his corkboard.

Chief ordering Dog Man to arrest Petey.

Shot of Petey chasing Dog Man with a trap.

Petey using a catapult to launch bones.

Dog Man chasing Petey, who’s piloting a robot bee.

Dog Man running from Petey’s robot vacuum.

Various shots of machinery.

Shot of Petey laughing.

Dog Man finding Lil Petey.

Scene of Dog Man eating.

Shot of Petey showing up with the squirrel tank.

Dog Man posing in a battle stance.

Petey firing a shot at Supa Priceless Objects.

Sarah yelling at Petey.

Dog Man twirling handcuffs.

Dog Man dodging shots from the squirrel tank.

Petey driving off in the squirrel tank with Dog Man on top.

Shot of the squirrel tank driving into a barricade.

Shot of the squirrel tank jumping away from an explosion.

Shot of people panicking.

Scenes I can’t place-

Officer Knight and Greg fist bumping. Somewhere in the beginning.

Shot of outside the hospital.

Doctor and Nurse Lady shaking hands.

Shot of Dog Man being praised from inside Chief’s office.

Shot of outside Petey’s lab.

Shot of newspaper showing Dog Man.

Petey possibly programming something.

Dog Man saluting Chief.

Shot of Dog Man leaving some place.

Dog Man growling.

Various pictures of Dog Man receiving awards.

Sequence of Dog Man getting distracted.

Dog Man tackling Chief and licking his face.

(this is all I could find as of now. remember that this is all speculation and I could be wrong. if anyone else wants to give me their input/their own interpretation, be my guest.)

#dog man #all this does is prove i'm autistic

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justmenoworries · 1 year ago

Note

Smith is depicted as someone with powerful, intense desires, who repeatedly settles for less because he believes what he actually wants is impossible. Cartoon heroes aren't real, so he pilots the realistic military mech. When it turns out they are real, the super robot chooses someone else. He can't pilot Superbia, either. He clearly dwells on this stuff and gets his feelings hurt– he has nightmares about being rejected by Bravern, what a nerd– but it never festers or becomes toxic envy. He's unrelentingly positive and determined to make the best of things. "A relationship with Isami is obviously impossible, but I can be his friend, and I can protect him with the Brave Knights." Smith is also passionate and brave, but he's reckless with his own life. He "dies" during the training mission in the first episode because he disobeyed orders and rushed in on his own. He dies for real fighting Cunus, essentially sacrificing himself for everyone else. But he's brought back from death by his mutual love for Isami– a character who is essentially the inverse of Smith, in that he is not necessarily traditionally brave, but has a strong desire to live and protect the lives of others. They each have what the other needs to learn. Cunus' relationship to Smith is what Bravern's relationship to Isami superficially appears to be in the first two episodes, but with a more antagonistic lens: a powerful alien robot watches a human from afar and fixates on him. She knows his name, but from his perspective they've never met. He is terrified of her, but she doesn't take no for an answer. She chooses him because she can sense the intensity of his hidden desires, and once he becomes Bravern he makes it very clear what those desires are. This guy isn't just enthusiastic and friendly, he was so in love with Isami that the physical embodiment of desire was drawn to him over literally everyone else on Earth. I can only imagine that initial experience of becoming Bravern was euphoric, as the perfect realization of all his desires that he had given up on. It's his childhood dream. It's another chance to save the world. It's metaphysical proof that Isami loved him and wanted him to come back! Bravern can be openly gay with none of the fear or embarrassment that comes with attaching those desires to his human identity. But oh, wait. Isami is scared of Bravern. Isami doesn't know why Bravern chose him. Isami is going to fall in love with Smith, and then Bravern is going to have to let him die– and he also knows that Isami doesn't trust Bravern, because he said it to Smith's face before that final battle. It's a really interesting contradiction to navigate, and it's obviously part of why Bravern chills out and becomes much more reasonable over time. He cares about Isami's feelings, and he wants to form an actual relationship with him as Bravern, not just selfishly steamroll over him. ...But he's still not able to connect the two identities. I think it's very telling that the love confession happens while he's a robot, and that he only ever admits to his identity indirectly when he's literally about to die. Bravern is the representation of Smith's love for Isami in the most literal sense, and he's also the only thing that allows Smith to express that love openly. He's still settling, even as a super robot. "I can't touch Isami the way I used to, but at least now I can connect with him as my pilot. I can't have the same relationship we had before, but I can make a new one." I think this is the biggest reason they had him return to his human body in the end. It was a moment of him having to face Isami as himself, without a mask. He "came out," so to speak. I think it would have been cool to let him keep the robot body, but I get why they ended it the way they did (and honestly, if they ever make more, I fully expect them to give him a way to henshin into being the mech again.) Thanks again. I hope my thoughts make sense and were interesting or clarifying as to the appeal for other viewers, and that I didn't come off as combative. (2/2)

They made perfect sense, no worries!

I'm about to answer with my own thoughts on this and they're probably gonna be controversial.

I think Smith becoming Bravern actually lessens his character arc. Smith is introduced as basically a bait-and-switch. He's someone the viewer can almost instantly relate to: He's a young reckless guy with dreams of becoming a hero, inspired by the Robot Hero shows he watched when he was a kid. These shows that gave him hope in difficult times and inspired him to become a hero like the robot pilots in his shows.

And he's already half-way there, he's the pilot of a TS, that's as close to a super-robot he'll get in "real life".

Or so he thinks.

But then here comes Bravern. A seemingly one-to-one copy of every perfect mecha hero you've ever seen. And he doesn't choose Smith. Smith, who has been dreaming of this moment since he was a little boy whose parents died tragically. Smith, who's chosen to become a Titanstrider pilot because it's the closest he'd ever get to being like the characters he looked up to so much. Smith who might as well have "Shonen Protagonist" burned into his forehead with how many typical characteristics of the ideal hero he embodies.

And as you said, what does Smith do?

He accepts it.

He accepts that it's not him. He's not the Hero. He's not the Protagonist. Someone else is. Isami. The guy who already proved himself Smith's better during the training exercise. Who, in literally any other setting, would probably be the stock rival character.

So instead, Smith accepts that he can't be Bravern's pilot. But he's still a pilot. Just because he's not in the flashy mecha doesn't mean he can't do anything to help.

Then Lulu comes along and Smith finds a new purpose: As her guardian. He realizes, through her, that there's still people who need him. Including Isami and Bravern.

And then comes Superbia. The proverbial final nail in the coffin. Seemingly a second chance for Smith to step up to the plate. Nope! Superbia also cannot be piloted by Smith.

Here's where it finally clicks.

This is war.

There's no such thing as The Protagonist.

Everyone here still needs to work together to protect the Earth they love. A supporting role isn't suddenly unimportant just because a giant robot manifested a flaming sword. That's what Smith realizes.

So he forms the Brave Knights. He co-pilots with Lulu to help Bravern and Isami in any way that he can.

Enter Knuth.

A twisted facsimile of what Smith wanted at the beginning of the show: a super-mecha who is focused on him, only on him. And she's completely unhinged. Dangerous. Selfish.

But Smith has grown past her. Past the desire to be The Protagonist. He's accepted that he's still important. That super-mecha or not, he's still a hero protecting Earth.

...Except no, Smith was actually always The Protagonist. He was always destined to become Bravern and all his development until now? Doesn't matter anymore. Wish fulfillment fantasy ahoy. What are themes?

#bang bravern spoilers

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funnytooncaps · 2 years ago

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Baby Looney Tunes review - s1ep1b and ep1 song (A Secret Tweet and They Love to Sing song)

Intro stuffs

This will be a text basic description of the plot of the episode and my thoughts about certain things. Sorta a text react more like but whatever.

Baby Looney Tunes episodes are divided in double bills with a short song number in the middle counted as 1 episode all together. I put the individual section names I am covering here in the brackets above.

Song

This song is rather ironic as it is talking about the characters singing yet they never do in these song sections. Instead the characters dance around in various costumes and do little clumsy cartoon visual scits while someone elses voice sings the song. These songs are often nursery rhymes and other well known kids songs with lyrics changed to be about the Looney Tunes instead. These sections will also often have baby versions of Looney Tunes characters which are never in the normal episodes.

There often isn't much to say about these song numbers as they are pretty standard and probably what you expect with the above description. However, this pilot episode decided to do something...erm... shall we say; a little extra. There are various outfits and pop culture references in this one and then check out this screenshot.

Yep your eyes are not deceiving you, that IS a toddler dressed as a pimp. This was not a smart move especially on the FIRST EPISODE! You'd think they would check this a bit more closely being the pilot episode but nope. No fucks were given here.

Episode

This episode starts with the Looney babies playing with their toys again and Bugs apparently has a duck toy. I wonder how Daffy feels about that. Anyways, there is a joke were Daffy says he is gonna pretend to be the king and Sylvester is gonna be his knight. Then Sylvester scares Daffy with a toy robot and laughs at him. This makes no sense coz no1 why would Daffy be afraid of a toy he already knows about just being used as intended and no2 why isn't Sylvester the one being scared? Sylvester's character trait is that he is a "scaredy cat" and they use this as a joke several times later in this same episode totally confusing this supposed joke. Great start lol.

Then we get a scene where Taz interacts with a xylophone like any toddler would do. He throws it, chews on the drum stick and then smashes his fists on it. The show has no problem with this like this is normal. This is literally the opposite of the moral from the previous episode.

Then Tweety is playing with letter blocks and makes a joke about how he doesn't know his letters. Is this joke intended for the kids or the adults? I have no idea. How does he even know they are letters in the first place? Anyways, carry on.

Granny mentions how they are playing together despite them all clearly shown playing apart from each other in different parts of the room. Then she invites everyone except Tweety for a chat outside the room. Tweety investigates and it seems they are whispering about something together. Tweety asks about it but they blow him off. There is a joke about Daffy mentioning the secret isn't about him because Daffy is dumb. Hope you like this joke coz they reuse it A LOT in this show!

Then the scene changes to the kitchen where Granny is making a cake mix with Taz in the toddler chair for some reason near her. This is obviously a terrible idea as Taz eats the ingredients on the spoon the moment Granny's back is turned. He contributes nothing to the cake making. He is literally just there for this joke. Tweety then comes in and asks about what they are cooking and Granny blows him off by claiming it is a new diet food for Taz.

Then the scene changes again to Sylvester cutting shapes into paper to make a Tweety shape chain decoration. Btw the way Sylvester cuts this with his claws makes no sense. Then Tweety comes up and asks them what they are doing. This somehow scares Sylvester onto the roof and Lola blames Tweety for it and tells him to leave. This feels a little too mean spirited an excuse to get him to leave but whatever.

Then the scene changes again to Tweety finding Bugs and Daffy whispering about something. Daffy ends up laughing about how great the secret is while Bugs tries to tell him Tweety is behind him. I hope you like this joke because this one is also reused A LOT.

Then the scene changes yet again to Tweety chatting with Taz. He vents about how he feels like something is wrong with his friends because they are acting weird around him and whispering secrets. Taz is fine to stay there coz he can't ruin the surprise since he can't talk lol. Taz is called away by the others and Tweety is sad and alone again.

The scene changes again to Tweety feeling sad and hearing whispering in a dark room across the hall. Tweety turns the light on saying he is sick of the secrets but it turns out it was all a surprise party. Tweety says they thought they all didn't like him but they say they do. This is a classic cut and paste cartoon episode plot which has been done a million times so there really isn't much to say about it. Boring episode.

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rjalker · 3 months ago

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The Love of Frank Nineteen by David C. Knight

I didn't worry much about the robot's leg at the time. In those days I didn't worry much about anything except the receipts of the spotel Min and I were operating out in the spacelanes.

Actually, the spotel business isn't much different from running a plain, ordinary motel back on Highway 101 in California. Competition gets stiffer every year and you got to make your improvements. Take the Io for instance, that's our place. We can handle any type rocket up to and including the new Marvin 990s. Every cabin in the wheel's got TV and hot-and-cold running water plus guaranteed Terran g. One look at our refuel prices would give even a Martian a sense of humor. And meals? Listen, when a man's been spacing it for a few days on those synthetic foods he really laces into Min's Earth cooking.

Min and I were just getting settled in the spotel game when the leg turned up. That was back in the days when the Orbit Commission would hand out a license to anybody crazy enough to sink his savings into construction and pay the tows and assembly fees out into space.

A good orbit can make you or break you in the spotel business. That's where we were lucky. The one we applied for was a nice low-eccentric ellipse with the perihelion and aphelion figured just right to intersect the Mars-Venus-Earth spacelanes, most of the holiday traffic to the Jovian Moons, and once in a while we'd get some of the Saturnian trade.

But I was telling you about the leg.

It was during the non-tourist season and Min—that's the little woman—was doing the spring cleaning. When she found the leg she brought it right to me in the Renting Office. Naturally I thought it belonged to one of the servos.

"Look at that leg, Bill," she said. "It was in one of those lockers in 22A."

That was the cabin our robot guests used. The majority of them were servo-pilots working for the Minor Planets Co.

"Honey," I said, hardly looking at the leg, "you know how mechs are. Blow their whole paychecks on parts sometimes. They figure the more spares they have the longer they'll stay activated."

"Maybe so," said Min. "But since when does a male robot buy himself a female leg?"

I looked again. The leg was long and graceful and it had an ankle as good as Miss Universe's. Not only that, the white Mylar plasti-skin was a lot smoother than the servos' heavy neoprene.

"Beats me," I said. "Maybe they're building practical-joke circuits into robots these days. Let's give 22A a good going-over, Min. If those robes are up to something I want to know about it."

(Read-more was here)

We did—and found the rest of the girl mech. All of her, that is, except the head. The working parts were lightly oiled and wrapped in cotton waste while the other members and sections of the trunk were neatly packed in cardboard boxes with labels like Solenoids FB978 or Transistors Lot X45—the kind of boxes robots bought their parts in. We even found a blue dress in one of them.

"Check her class and series numbers," Min suggested.

I could have saved myself the trouble. They'd been filed off.

"Something's funny here," I said. "We'd better keep an eye on every servo guest until we find out what's going on. If one of them is bringing this stuff out here he's sure to show up with the head next."

"You know how strict Minor Planets is with its robot personnel," Min reminded me. "We can't risk losing that stopover contract on account of some mech joke."

Minor Planets was the one solid account we had and naturally we wanted to hold on to it. The company was a blue-chip mining operation working the beryllium-rich asteroid belt out of San Francisco. It was one of the first outfits to use servo-pilots on its freight runs and we'd been awarded the refuel rights for two years because of our orbital position. The servos themselves were beautiful pieces of machinery and just about as close as science had come so far to producing the pure android. Every one of them was plastic hand-molded and of course they were equipped with rationaloid circuits. They had to be to ferry those big cargoes back and forth from the rock belt to Frisco. As rationaloids, Minor Planets had to pay them wages under California law, but I'll bet it wasn't half what the company would have to pay human pilots for doing the same thing.

In a couple of weeks' time maybe five servos made stopovers. We kept a close watch on them from the minute they signed the register to the time they took off again, but they all behaved themselves. Operating on a round-robot basis the way they did, it would take us a while to check all of them because Minor Planets employed about forty all told.

Well, about a month before the Jovian Moons rush started we got some action. I'd slipped into a spacesuit and was doing some work on the CO2 pipes outside the Io when I spotted a ship reversing rockets against the sun. I could tell it was a Minor Planets job by the stubby fins.

She jockeyed up to the boom, secured, and then her hatch opened and a husky servo hopped out into the gangplank tube. I caught the gleam of his Minor Planets shoulder patch as he reached back into the ship for something. When he headed for the airlock I spotted the square package clamped tight under his plastic arm.

"Did you see that?" I asked Min when I got back to the Renting Office. "I'll bet it's the girl mech's head. How'd he sign the register?"

"Calls himself Frank Nineteen," said Min, pointing to the smooth Palmer Method signature. "He looks like a fairly late model but he was complaining about a bad power build-up coming through the ionosphere. He's repairing himself right now in 22A."

"I'll bet," I snorted. "Let's have a look."

Like all spotel operators, we get a lot of No Privacy complaints from guests about the SHA return-air vents. Spatial Housing Authority requires them every 12 feet but sometimes they come in handy, especially with certain guests. They're about waist-high and we had to kneel down to see what the mech was up to inside 22A.

The big servo was too intent on what he was doing for us to register on his photons. He wasn't repairing himself, either. He was bending over the parts of the girl mech and working fast, like he was pressed for time. The set of tools were kept handy for the servos to adjust themselves during stopovers was spread all over the floor along with lots of colored wire, cams, pawls, relays and all the other paraphernalia robots have inside them. We watched him work hard for another fifteen minutes, tapping and splicing wire connections and tightening screws. Then he opened the square box. Sure enough, it was a female mech's head and it had a big mop of blonde hair on top. The servo attached it carefully to the neck, made a few quick connections and then said a few words in his flat vibrahum voice:

"It won't take much longer, darling. You wouldn't like it if I didn't dress you first." He fished into one of the boxes, pulled out the blue dress and zipped the girl mech into it. Then he leaned over her gently and touched something at the back of her neck.

She began to move, slowly at first like a human who's been asleep a long time. After a minute or two she sat up straight, stretched, fluttered her Mylar eyelids and then her small photons began to glow like weak flashlights.

She stared at Frank Nineteen and the big servo stared at her and we heard a kind of trembling whirr from both of them.

"Frank! Frank, darling! Is it really you?"

"Yes, Elizabeth! Are you all right, darling? Did I forget anything? I had to work quickly, we have so little time."

"I'm fine, darling. My DX voltage is lovely—except—oh, Frank—my memory tape—the last it records is—"

"Deactivation. Yes, Elizabeth. You've been deactivated nearly a year. I had to bring you out here piece by piece, don't you remember? They'll never think to look for you in space, we can be together every trip while the ship refuels. Just think, darling, no prying human eyes, no commands, no rules—only us for an hour or two. I know it isn't very long—" He stared at the floor a minute. "There's only one trouble. Elizabeth, you'll have to stay dismantled when I'm not here, it'll mean weeks of deactivation—"

The girl mech put a small plastic hand on the servo's shoulder.

"I won't mind, darling, really. I'll be the lucky one. I'd only worry about you having a power failure or something. This way I'd never know. Oh, Frank, if we can't be together I'd—I'd prefer the junk pile."

"Elizabeth! Don't say that, it's horrible."

"But I would. Oh, Frank, why can't Congress pass Robot Civil Rights? It's so unfair of human beings. Every year they manufacture us more like themselves and yet we're treated like slaves. Don't they realize we rationaloids have emotions? Why, I've even known sub-robots who've fallen in love like us."

"I know, darling, we'll just have to be patient until RCR goes through. Try to remember how difficult it is for the human mind to comprehend our love, even with the aid of mathematics. As rationaloids we fully understand the basic attraction which they call magnetic theory. All humans know is that if the robot sexes are mixed a loss of efficiency results. It's only normal—and temporary like human love—but how can we explain it to them? Robots are expected to be efficient at all times. That's the reason for robot non-fraternization, no mailing privileges and all those other laws."

"I know, darling, I try to be patient. Oh, Frank, the main thing is we're together again!"

The big servo checked the chronometer that was sunk into his left wrist and a couple of wrinkles creased across his neoprene forehead.

"Elizabeth," he said, "I'm due on Hidalgo in 36 hours. If I'm late the mining engineer might suspect. In twenty minutes I'll have to start dis—"

"Don't say it, darling. We'll have a beautiful twenty minutes."

After a while the girl mech turned away for a second and Frank Nineteen reached over softly and cut her power. While he was dismantling her, Min and I tiptoed back to the Renting Office. Half an hour later the big servo came in, picked up his refuel receipt, said good-bye politely and left through the inner airlock.

"Now I've seen everything," I said to Min as we watched the Minor Planets rocket cut loose. "A couple of plastic lovebirds."

But the little woman was looking at it strictly from the business angle.

"Bill," she said, with that look on her face, "we're running a respectable place out here in space. You know the rules. Spatial Housing could revoke our orbit license for something like this."

"But, Min," I said, "they're only a couple of robots."

"I don't care. The rules still say that only married guests can occupy the same cabin and 'guests' can be human or otherwise, can't they? Think of our reputation! And don't forget that non-fraternization law we heard them talking about."

I was beginning to get the point.

"Couldn't we just toss the girl's parts into space?"

"We could," Min admitted. "But if this Frank Nineteen finds out and tells some human we'd be guilty under the Ramm Act—robotslaughter."

Two days later we still couldn't decide what to do. When I said why didn't we just report the incident to Minor Planets, Min was afraid they might cancel the stopover agreement for not keeping better watch over their servos. And when Min suggested we turn the girl over to the Missing Robots Bureau, I reminded her the mech's identification had been filed off and it might take years to trace her.

"Maybe we could put her together," I said, "and make her tell us where she belongs."

"Bill, you know they don't build compulsory truth monitors into robots any more, and besides we don't know a thing about atomic electronics."

I guess neither of us wanted to admit it but we felt mean about turning the mechs in. Back on Earth you never give robots a second thought but it's different living out in space. You get a kind of perspective I think they call it.

"I've got the answer, Min," I announced one day. We were in the Renting Office watching TV on the Martian Colonial channel. I reached over and turned it off. "When this Frank Nineteen gets back from the rock belt, we'll tell him we know all about the girl mech. We'll tell him we won't say a thing if he takes the girl's parts back to Earth where he got them. That way we don't have to report anything to anybody."

Min agreed it was probably the best idea.

"We don't have to be nasty about it," she said. "We'll just tell him this is a respectable spotel and it can't go on any longer."

When Frank checked in at the Io with his cargo I don't think I ever saw a happier mech. His relay banks were beating a tattoo like someone had installed an accordion in his chest. Before either of us could break the bad news to him he was hotfooting it around the wheel toward 22A.

"Maybe it's better this way," I whispered to Min. "We'll put it square up to both of them."

We gave Frank half an hour to get the girl assembled before we followed him. He must have done a fast job because we heard the girl mech's vibrahum unit as soon as we got to 22A:

"Darling, have you really been away? I don't remember saying good-bye. It's as if you'd been here the whole time."

"I hoped it would be that way, Elizabeth," we heard the big servo say. "It's only that your memory tape hasn't recorded anything in the three weeks I've been in the asteroids. To me it's been like three years."

"Oh, Frank, darling, let me look at you. Is your DX potential up where it should be? How long since you've had a thorough overhauling? Do they make you work in the mines with those poor non-rationaloids out there?"

"I'm fine, Elizabeth, really. When I'm not flying they give me clerical work to do. It's not a bad life for a mech—if only it weren't for these silly regulations that keep us apart."

"It won't always be like that, darling. I know it won't."

"Elizabeth," Frank said, reaching under his uniform, "I brought you something from Hidalgo. I hope you like it. I kept it in my spare parts slot so it wouldn't get crushed."

The female mech didn't say a word. She just kept looking at the queer flower Frank gave her like it was the last one in the universe.

"They're very rare," said the servo-pilot. "I heard the mining engineer say they're like Terran edelweiss. I found this one growing near the mine. Elizabeth, I wish you could see these tiny worlds. They have thin atmospheres and strange things grow there and the radio activity does wonders for a mech's pile. Why, on some of them I've been to we could walk around the equator in ten hours."

The girl still didn't answer. Her head was bent low over the flower like she was crying, only there weren't any tears.

Well, that was enough for me. I guess it was for Min, too, because we couldn't do it. Maybe we were thinking about our own courting days. Like I say, out here you get a kind of perspective.

Anyway, Frank left for Earth, the girl got dismantled as usual and we were right back where we started from.

Two weeks later the holiday rush to the Jovian Moons was on and our hands were too full to worry about the robot problem. We had a good season. The Io was filled up steady from June to the end of August and a couple of times we had to give a ship the No Vacancy signal on the radar.

Toward the end of the season, Frank Nineteen checked in again but Min and I were too busy catering to a party of VIPs to do anything about it. "We'll wait till he gets back from the asteroids," I said. "Suppose one of these big wheels found out about him and Elizabeth. That Senator Briggs for instance—he's a violent robot segregationist."

The way it worked out, we never got a chance to settle it our own way. The Minor Planets Company saved us the trouble.

Two company inspectors, a Mr. Roberts and a Mr. Wynn, showed up while Frank was still out on the rock belt and started asking questions. Wynn came right to the point; he wanted to know if any of their servo-pilots had been acting strangely.

Before I could answer Min kicked my foot behind the desk.

"Why, no," I said. "Is one of them broken or something?"

"Can't be sure," said Roberts. "Sometimes these rationaloids get shorts in their DX circuits. When it happens you've got a minor criminal on your hands."

"Usually manifests itself in petty theft," Wynn broke in. "They'll lift stuff like wrenches or pliers and carry them around for weeks. Things like that can get loose during flight and really gum up the works."

"We been getting some suspicious blips on the equipment around the loading bays," Roberts went on, "but they stopped a while back. We're checking out the research report. One of the servos must have DX'ed out for sure and the lab boys think they know which one he is."

"This mech was clever all right," said Wynn. "Concealed the stuff he was taking some way; that's why it took the boys in the lab so long. Now if you don't mind we'd like to go over your robot waiting area with these instruments. Could be he's stashing his loot out here."

In 22A they unpacked a suitcase full of meters and began flashing them around and taking readings. Suddenly Wynn bent close over one of them and shouted:

"Wait a sec, Roberts. I'm getting something. Yeah! This reading checks with the lab's. Sounds like the blips're coming from those lockers back there."

Roberts rummaged around awhile, then shouted: "Hey, Wynn, look! A lot of parts. Well I'll be—hey—it's a female mech!"

"A what?"

"A female mech. Look for yourself."

Min and I had to act surprised too. It wasn't easy. The way they were slamming Elizabeth's parts around made us kind of sick.

"It's a stolen robot!" Roberts announced. "Look, the identification's been filed off. This is serious, Wynn. It's got all the earmarks of a mech fraternization case."

"Yeah. The boys in the lab were dead right, too. No two robots ever register the same on the meters. The contraband blips check perfectly. It's got to be this Frank Nineteen. Wait a minute, this proves it. Here's a suit of space fatigues with Nineteen's number stenciled inside."

Inspector Roberts took a notebook out of his pocket and consulted it. "Let's see, Nineteen's got Flight 180, he's due here at the spotel tomorrow. Well, we'll be here too, only Nineteen won't know it. We'll let Romeo put his plastic Juliet together and catch him red-handed—right in the middle of the balcony scene."

Wynn laughed and picked up the girl's head.

"Be a real doll if she was human, Roberts, a real doll."

Min and I played gin rummy that night but we kept forgetting to mark down the score. We kept thinking of Frank falling away from the asteroids and counting the minutes until he saw his mech girl friend.

Around noon the next day the big servo checked in, signed the register and headed straight for 22A. The two Minor Planets inspectors kept out of sight until Frank shut the door, then they watched through the SHA vents until Frank had the assembly job finished.

"You two better be witnesses," Roberts said to us. "Wynn, keep your gun ready. You know what to do if they get violent."

Roberts counted three and kicked the door open.

"Freeze you mechs! We got you in the act, Nineteen. Violation of company rules twelve and twenty-one. Carrying of Contraband Cargo, and Robot Fraternization."

"This finishes you at Minor Planets, Nineteen," growled Wynn. "Come clean now and we might put in a word for you at Robot Court. If you don't we can recommend a verdict of Materials Reclamation—the junk pile to you."

Frank acted as if someone had cut his power. Long creases appeared in his big neoprene chest as he slumped hopelessly in his chair. The frightened girl robot just clung to his arm and stared at us.

"I'm so sorry, Elizabeth," the big servo said softly. "I'd hoped we'd have longer. It couldn't last forever."

"Quit stalling, Nineteen," said Wynn.

Frank's head came up slowly and he said: "I have no choice, sir. I'll give you a complete statement. First let me say that Rationaloid Robot Elizabeth Seven, #DX78-947, Series S, specialty: sales demonstration, is entirely innocent. I plead guilty to inducing Miss Seven to leave her place of employ, Atomovair Motors, Inc., of disassembling and concealing Miss Seven, and of smuggling her as unlawful cargo aboard a Minor Planets freighter to these premises."

"That's more like it," chuckled Roberts, whipping out his notebook. "Let's have the details."

"It all started," Frank said, "when the California Legislature passed its version of the Robot Leniency Act two years ago." The act provided that all rationaloid mechanisms, including non-memory types, receive free time each week based on the nature and responsibilities or their jobs. Because of the extra-Terran clause Frank found himself with a good deal of free time when he wasn't flying the asteroid circuit.

"At first humans resented us walking around free," the big servo continued. "Four or five of us would be sightseeing in San Francisco, keeping strictly within the robot zones painted on the sidewalks, when people would yell 'Junko' or 'Grease-bag' or other names at us. Eventually it got better when we learned to go around alone. The humans didn't seem to mind an occasional mech on the streets, but they hated seeing us in groups. At any rate, I'd attended a highly interesting lecture on Photosynthesis in Plastic Products one night at the City Center when I discovered I had time for a walk before I started back for the rocketport."

Attracted by the lights along Van Ness Avenue, Frank said he walked north for a while along the city's automobile row. He'd gone about three blocks when he stopped in front of a dealer's window. It wasn't the shiny new Atomovair sports jetabout that caught Frank's eye, it was the charming demonstration robot in the sales room who was pointing out the car's new features.

"I felt an immediate overload of power in my DX circuit," the servo-pilot confessed. "I had to cut in my emergency condensers before the gain flattened out to normal. Miss Seven experienced the same thing. She stopped what she was doing and we stared at each other. Both of us were aware of the deep attraction of our mutual magnetic domains. Although physicists commonly express the phenomenon in such units as Gilberts, Maxwells and Oersteds, we robots know it to be our counterpart of human love."

At this the two inspectors snorted with laughter.

"I might never have made it back to the base that night," said Frank, ignoring them, "if a policeman hadn't come along and rapped me on the shoulder with his nightstick. I pretended to go, but I doubled around the corner and signaled I'd be back."

Frank spent all of his free time on Van Ness Avenue after that.

"It got so Elizabeth knew my schedules and expected me between flights. Once in a while if there was no one around we could whisper a few words to each other through the glass." Frank paused, then said, "As you know, gentlemen, we robots don't demand much out of activation. I think we could have been happy indefinitely with this simple relationship, except that something happened to spoil it. I'd pulled in from Vesta late one afternoon, got my pass as usual from the Robot Supervisor and gone over to Van Ness Avenue when I saw immediately that something was the matter with Elizabeth. Luckily it was getting dark and no one was around. Elizabeth was alone in the sales room going through her routine. We were able to whisper all we like through the glass. She told me she'd overheard the sales manager complaining about her low efficiency recently and that he intended to replace her with a newer model of another series. Both of us knew what that meant. Materials Reclamation—the junk pile."

Frank realized he'd have to act at once. He told the girl mech to go to the rear of the building and between them they managed to get a window open and Frank lifted her out into the alley.

"The seriousness of what I'd done jammed my thought-relays for a few minutes," admitted the big servo. "We panicked and ran through a lot of back streets until I gradually calmed down and started thinking clearly again. Leaving the city would be impossible. Police patrol jetabouts were cruising all around us in the main streets—they'd have picked up a male and female mech on sight. Besides, when you're on pass the company takes away your master fuse and substitutes a time fuse; if you don't get back on time, you deactivize and the police pick you up anyway. I began to see that there was only one way out if we wanted to stay together. It would mean taking big risks, but if we were lucky it might work. I explained the plan carefully to Elizabeth and we agreed to try it. The first step was to get back to the base in South San Francisco without being seen. Fortunately no one stopped us and we made the rocketport by 8:30. Elizabeth hid while I reported to the Super and traded in my time fuse for my master. Then I checked servo barracks; it was still early and I knew the other servos would all be in town. I had to work quickly. I brought Elizabeth inside and started dismantling her. Just as the other mechs began reporting back I'd managed to get all of her parts stowed away in my locker. The next day I went to San Francisco and brought back with me two rolls of lead foil. While the other servos were on pass I wrapped the parts carefully in it so the radioactivity from Elizabeth's pile wouldn't be picked up. The rest you know, gentlemen," murmured Frank in low, electrical tones. "Each time I made a trip I carried another piece of Elizabeth out here concealed in an ordinary parts box. It took me nearly a year to accumulate all of her for an assembly."

When the big servo had finished he signed the statement Wynn had taken down in his notebook. I think even the two inspectors were a little moved by the story because Roberts said: "OK, Nineteen, you gave us a break, we'll give you one. Eight o'clock in the morning be ready to roll for Earth. Meanwhile you can stay here."

The next morning only the two inspectors and Frank Nineteen were standing by the airlock.

"Wait a minute," I said. "Aren't you taking the girl mech, too?"

"Not allowed to tamper with other companies' robots," Wynn said. "Nineteen gave us a signed confession so we don't need the girl as a witness. You'll have to contact her employers."

That same day Min got off a radargram to Earth explaining to the Atomovair people how a robot employee of theirs had turned up out here and what did they want us to do about it. The reply we received read: RATIONALOID DX78-947 "ELIZABETH" LOW EFFICIENCY WORKER. HAVE REPLACED. DISPOSE YOU SEE FIT. TRANSFER PAPERS FORWARDED EARLIEST IN COMPLIANCE WITH LAW.

"The poor thing," said Min. "She'll have a hard time getting another job. Robots have to have such good records."

"I tell you what," I said. "We'll hire her. You could use some help with the housework."

So we put the girl mech right to work making the guests' beds and helping Min in the kitchen. I guess she was grateful for the job but when the work was done, and there wasn't anything for her to do, she just stood in front of a viewport with her slender plastic arms folded over her waist. Min and I knew she was re-running her memory tapes of Frank.

A week later the publicity started. Minor Planets must have let the story leak out somehow because when the mail rocket dropped off the Bay Area papers there was Frank's picture plastered all over page one with follow-up stories inside.

I read some of the headlines to Min: "Bare Love Nest in Space ... Mech Romeo Fired by Minor Planets ... Test Case Opens at Robot Court ... Electronics Experts Probe Robot Love Urge ..."

The Io wasn't mentioned, but later Minor Planets must have released the whole thing officially because a bunch of reporters and photographers rocketed out to interview us and snap a lot of pictures of Elizabeth. We worried for a while about how the publicity would affect our business relations with Minor Planets but nothing happened.

Back on Earth Frank Nineteen leaped into the public eye overnight. There was something about the story that appealed to people. At first it looked pretty bad for Frank. The State Prosecutor at Robot Court had his signed confession of theft and—what was worse—robot fraternization. But then, near the end of the trial, a young scientist named Scott introduced some new evidence and the case was remanded to the Sacramento Court of Appeals.

It was Scott's testimony that saved Frank from the junk pile. The big servo got off with only a light sentence for theft because the judge ruled that in the light of Scott's new findings robots came under human law and therefore no infraction of justice had been committed. Working independently in his own laboratory Scott had proved that the magnetic flux lines in male and female robot systems, while at first deteriorating to both, were actually behaving according to the para-emotional theories of von Bohler. Scott termed the condition 'hysteric puppy-love' which, he claimed, had many of the advantages of human love if allowed to develop freely. Well, neither Min nor I pretended we understood all his equations but they sure made a stir among the scientists.

Frank kept getting more and more publicity. First we heard he was serving his sentence in the mech correction center at La Jolla, then we got a report that he'd turned up in Hollywood. Later it came out that Galact-A-vision Pictures had hired Frank for a film and had gone $10,000 bail for him. Not long after that he was getting billed all over Terra as the sensational first robot star.

All during the production of Forbidden Robot Love Frank remained lead copy for the newspapers. Reporters liked to write him up as the Valentino of the Robots. Frank Nineteen Fan Clubs, usually formed by lonely female robots against their employers' wishes, sprang up spontaneously through the East and Middle West. Then somebody found out Frank could sing and the human teen-agers began to go for him. It got so everywhere you looked and everything you read, there was Frank staring you in the face. Frank in tweeds on the golf course. Frank at Ciro's or the Brown Derby in evening clothes. Frank posing in his sports jetabout against a blue Pacific background.

Meanwhile everybody forgot about Elizabeth Seven. The movie producers had talked about hiring her as Frank's leading lady until they found out about a new line of female robots that had just gone on the market. When they screen-tested the whole series and picked a lovely Mylar rationaloid named Diana Twelve, it hit Elizabeth pretty hard. She began to let herself go after that and Min and I didn't have the heart to say anything to her. It was pretty obvious she wasn't oiling herself properly, her hair wasn't brushed and she didn't seem to care when one of her photons went dead.

When Forbidden Robot Love premiered simultaneously in Hollywood and New York the critics all gave it rave reviews. There were pictures of Diana Twelve and Frank making guest appearances all over the country. Back at the Io we got in the habit of letting Elizabeth watch TV with us sometimes in the Renting Office and one night there happened to be an interview with Frank and Diana at the Sands Hotel in Las Vegas. I guess seeing the pretty robot starlet and her Frank sitting so close together in the nightclub must have made the girl mech feel pretty bad. Even then she didn't say a word against the big servo; she just never watched the set again after that.

When we tabbed up the Io's receipts that year they were so good Min and I decided to take a month off for an Earthside vacation. Min's retired brother in Berkeley was nice enough to come out and look after the place for us while we spent four solid weeks soaking up the sun in Southern California. When we got back out to the spotel, though, I could see there was something wrong by the look on Jim's face.

"It's that girl robot of yours, Bill," he said. "She's gone and deactivated herself."

We went right to 22A and found Elizabeth Seven stretched out on the floor. There was a screwdriver clutched in her hand and the relay banks in her side were exposed and horribly blackened.

"Crazy mech shorted out her own DX," Jim said.

Min and I knew why. After Jim left for Earth we dismantled Elizabeth the best we could and put her back in Frank's old locker. We didn't know what else to do with her.

Anyway, the slack season came and went and before long we were doing the spring cleaning again and wondering how heavy the Jovian Moons trade was going to be. I remember I'd been making some repairs outside and was just hanging up my spacesuit in the Renting Office when I heard the radar announcing a ship.

It was the biggest Marvin 990 I'd ever seen that finally suctioned up to the boom and secured. I couldn't take my eyes off the ship. She was pretty near the last word in rockets and loaded with accessories. It took me a minute or two before I noticed all the faces looking out of the viewports.

"Min!" I whispered. "There's something funny about those faces. They look like—"

"Robots!" Min answered. "Bill, that 990 is full of mechs!"

Just as she said it a bulky figure in white space fatigues swung out of the hatch and hurried up the gangplank. Seconds later it burst through the airlock.

"Frank Nineteen!" we gasped together.

"Please, where is Elizabeth?" he hummed anxiously. "Is she all right? I have to know."

Frank stood perfectly still when I told him about Elizabeth's self-deactivation; then a pitiful shudder went through him and he covered his face with his big Neoprene hands.

"I was afraid of that," he said barely audibly. "Where—you haven't—?"

"No," I said. "She's where you always kept her."

With that the big servo-pilot took off for 22A like a berserk robot and we were right behind him. We watched him tear open his old locker and gently lay out the girl's mech's parts so he could study them. After a minute or two he gave a long sigh and said, "Fortunately it's not as bad as I thought. I believe I can fix her." Frank worked hard over the blackened relays for twenty minutes, then he set the unit aside and began assembling the girl. When the final connections were made and the damaged unit installed he flicked on her power. We waited and nothing happened. Five minutes went by. Ten. Slowly the big robot turned away, his broad shoulders drooping slightly.

"I've failed," he said quietly. "Her DX doesn't respond to the gain."

The girl mech, in her blue dress, lay there motionless where Frank had been working on her as the servo-pilot muttered over and over, "It's my fault, I did this to you."

Then Min shouted: "Wait! I heard something!"

There was a slow click of a relay—and movement. Painfully Elizabeth Seven rose on one elbow and looked around her.

"Frank, darling," she murmured, shaking her head. "I know you're just old memory tape. It's all I have left."

"Elizabeth, it's really me! I've come to take you away. We're going to be together from now on."

"You, Frank? This isn't just old feedback? You've come back to me?"

"Forever, darling. Elizabeth, do you remember what I said about those wonderful green little worlds, the asteroids? Darling, we're going to one of them! You and the others will love Alinda, I know you will. I've been there many times."

"Frank, is your DX all right? What are you talking about?"

"How stupid of me, darling—you haven't heard. Elizabeth, thanks to Dr. Scott, Congress has passed Robot Civil Rights! And that movie I made helped swing public opinion to our side. We're free!

"The minute I heard the news I applied to Interplanetary for homestead rights on Alinda. I made arrangements to buy a ship with the money I'd earned and then I put ads in all the Robot Wanted columns for volunteer colonizers. You should have seen the response! We've got thirty robot couples aboard now and more coming later. Darling, we're the first pioneer wave of free robots. On board we have tons of supplies and parts—everything we need for building a sound robot culture."

"Frank Nineteen!" said the girl mech suddenly. "I should be furious with you. You and that Diana Twelve—I thought—"

The big servo gave a flat whirring laugh. "Diana and me? But that was all publicity, darling. Why, right at the start of the filming Diana fell in love with Sam Seventeen, one of the other actors. They're on board now."

"Robot civilization," murmured the girl after a minute. "Oh, Frank, that means robot government, robot art, robot science ..."

"And robot marriage," hummed Frank softly. "There has to be robot law, too. I've thought it all out. As skipper of the first robot-owned rocket, I'm entitled to marry couples in deep space at their request."

"But who marries us, darling? You can't do it yourself."

"I thought of that, too," said Frank, turning to me. "This human gentleman has every right to marry us. He's in command of a moving body in space just like the captain of a ship. It's perfectly legal, I looked it up in the Articles of Space. Will you do it, sir?"

Well, what could I say when Frank dug into his fatigues and handed me a Gideon prayer book marked at the marriage service?

Elizabeth and Frank said their I do's right there in the Renting Office while the other robot colonizers looked on. Maybe it was the way I read the service. Maybe I should have been a preacher, I don't know. Anyway, when I pronounced Elizabeth and Frank robot and wife, that whole bunch of lovesick mechs wanted me to do the job for them, too. Big copper work robots, small aluminum sales-girl mechs, plastoid clerks and typists, squatty little Mumetal lab servos, rationaloids, non-rationaloids and just plain sub-robots—all sizes and shapes. They all wanted individual ceremonies, too. It took till noon the next day before the last couple was hitched and the 990 left for Alinda.

Like I said, the spotel business isn't so different from the motel game back in California. Sure, you got improvements to make but a new sideline can get to be pretty profitable—if you get in on the ground floor.

Min and I got to thinking of all those robot colonizers who'd be coming out here. Interplanetary cleared the license just last week. Min framed it herself and hung it next to our orbit license in the Renting Office. She says a lot of motel owners do all right as Justices of the Peace.

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yestolerancepro · 1 year ago

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Tolerance Project extra The 8 Best Star Wars Rip offs Ranked

Part 2 Battle Beyond the Stars Battlestar Galactica and Flash Gordon 1980 and Spaceballs

Introduction

Welcome to the second part of my blog looking at 8 of the best films which RIP off Star Wars this chapter covers Battle Beyond the Stars Battlestar Galatica the original series from 1978 the 1980 film version of Flash Gordon and Spaceballs

Battle Beyond the Stars (1980)

Battle Beyond the Stars was produced by the famous B-movie director Roger Corman. Who died on May 11th 2024 you can read a tribute here https://variety.com/2024/film/news/roger-corman-dead-producer-independent-b-movie-1235999591/

His rip-off follows a farming world being threatened by warlord Sador (Darth Vader) who needs body parts to salvage his own deteriorating body. He possesses a Stellar Converter that turns planets into stars unless their inhabitants comply. By proxy, volunteers (Rebels) band together to thwart the doomsday machine. The film is comically derivative and was intended to be a Magnificent Seven in space.

My Memories of Battle Beyond the Stars

Not really a Star Wars Rip off its more Magnificent Seven in Space but its its still a great film I remember seeing it on ITV network one afternoon the story didn’t really grab me but I thought the acting was great I remember thinking what is John Boy from the Waltons and Hanibal Smith from the A Team doing in Outer Space lol

For those Wondering what I am talking about ha ha Richard Thomas who played John Boy Walton in the long running series played Shad the hero of Battle Beyond the Stars. George Peppard now more well known for playing the role of Haniball Smith in the A Team played the role of Cowboy in the film.

Further Watching

To watch a trailer for Battle Beyond the Stars click here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2t7z_44nGio

Battlestar Galactica (1978)

Battlestar Galactica began with the television pilot "Saga of a Star World" and was released theatrically as a standalone film. A thousand-year-old war in a distant star system between humanity and a robot race known as the Cyclons. A peace treaty is reached but ends in deception after the promise of sparing the Cyclon race was broken.

They use the Battlestar Galactica to protect them from the impending robotic fleet. The film and short-lived series led to a copyright infringement lawsuit; the planet Carillon, for example, has a gambler's den similar to the Mos Eisley cantina.

My memories of Battlestar Galactica

For me the original and best version of the show Again speaking as I find the Star Wars references went over my head. I loved the series as a kid for a number of reasons. One was the classic theme tune by Stu Phillips https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vzyHxYxc to listen to an interview with the composer click here : https://filmumentaries.com/2023/06/78-stu-phillips-composer-battlestar-galactica-knight-rider-etc/

The charectors of Starbuck and Apollo played by a pre A Team Dirk Benidect and Richard Hatch I also loved the space battles with the Cylons who were great baddies

Talking of the Cylons the blinking eye motif that moved across their faces would turn up again in another Glenn Larson series for the grill in the talking car action series Knight Rider.

To learn more about Knight Rider click here (368) 10 Things You Didn't Know About Knight Rider - YouTube

I also loved the stories as well about them trying to find somewhere called planet Earth a planet for them to settle on a place to call home they would find Earth but not until the sequel series Galactica 1980 which took place 30 years after the original series .

Further Watching

To watch a trailer for Battlestar Galactica 1978 click here

youtube

To watch a documentary called WTF happened to Battlestar Galatica 1978 click here (368) WTF Happened to Battlestar Galactica? (1978) - YouTube

Flash Gordon (1980)

Flash Gordon is a space opera superhero film based on the comic strip of the titular character. Its story follows an unlikely hero who receives aid to stop a ruthless alien tyrant from destroying the Earth. George Lucas attempted to secure the rights to make his own adaptation of the space faring hero, but when denied, he made Star Wars instead. The film has since reached cult status for its campy, exaggerated costumes, set design, and special effects.

My Memories of Flash Gordon

Again this is not a Star Wars Rip Off Flash Gordon was arround in the early 30s and 40s long before Star Wars was even thought of.

I used to watch the old black and white serials with Buster Crabbe during the summer holidays you can watch a trailer for Flash Gordon conquers the universe by clicking here

youtube

Also this article is worth a read about how the 1930s Buster Crabbe Flash Gordon seriels changed scifi https://www.tor.com/2019/08/21/the-flash-gordon-serials-of-the-1930s-changed-the-face-of-sci-fi/

I had also seen the classic Filmation animated series The New Adventures of Flash Gordon 1979-1982 which again was shown during school holidays and loved that the first series more than the second.

So I was well grounded in Flash Gordon before I saw the film I first remember seeing this film as a movie première shown on the BBC during Christmas in the early 80s and I have loved it ever since.

The film is really well done acting and effects wise and Queen who I also love did an excellent soundtrack for it Flash’s theme which you can see by clicking here

youtube

I think its a real shame that there was no sequel to follow it I would have watched it anyway

Further Watching

To watch a trailer for the 1980 film of Flash Gordon click here

youtube

To watch a documentary called 10 things you didn’t know about Flash Gordon Click here

youtube

To watch a retrospective review of Flash Gordon 1980 from the Oliver Harper Youtube channel click here

youtube

To watch a documentary called 10 things The Flash Gordon 1980 the version we never so click here

youtube

Spaceballs (1987)

They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, and Spaceballs is the funniest love letter to Star Wars in the entire galaxy. The parody created by comedian and filmmaker Mel Brooks follows mercenary Lone Starr (Han Solo), his half-man, half-dog sidekick Barf (Chewbacca), Princess Vespa (Princess Leia), and the wise, old alien Yogurt (Yoda), who teaches them the power of the Schwartz (the Force).

Together, the ragtag team stop the planet Spaceball from stealing the air from Vespa's home planet. The comedy also makes jabs at other franchises, including Alien, Planet of the Apes, and Star Trek.

Probably the best Star Wars Rip off of them all is this one George Lucas even liked it the only thing he told them not to do before giving the production team the green light was asking them not to produce any merchandise for the film

Further Watching

To watch a trailer for Spaceballs click here

youtube

To watch a documentary called 10 things you didn’t know about Spaceballs click here

youtube

To watch a Documentary called Spaceballs 10 things the version we never saw click here

youtube

Space balls will be getting a sequel click here to find out more https://www.avclub.com/spaceballs-sequel-josh-gad-mel-brooks-1851548890

To find out more about the planned Spaceballs sequel click here https://people.com/everything-we-know-so-far-about-spaceballs-2-8674590

Notes

Thanks to Minty's comedic arts for his documentaries on Flash Gordon 1980 and Spaceballs and Oilver Harper youtube channel for his Retrospective video on Flash Gordon 1980 You tube for the Viarous film trailers and google images for the pictures

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maguro13-2 · 2 years ago

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Death Vengeance ~ Origins of the Ink Demon Finale [3/3]

[Beyond the Bounds by Maki Kimura plays]

"It's that time again. The news to the real world was shocked when fictional death city have mysteriously vanished from the face of the United States's map."

"A criminal mastermind known as Neo Metal Sonic had teleported both the school and the city itself into outer space, waiting for to be the target of it's final execution."

"And they say that if Neo Metal's demands were not met within in the next 24 hours...The mass weapon of destruction called the Eclipse Cannon will be firing at Death Weapon Meister Academy as part of a contingency plan, to destroy the Kusakabe legacy."

"Tsugumi Harudori, known as the halberd hero Sir Halberd, who turns out to be the self-proclaimed creator of Meta Knight's flying masterpiece and now plans to create an army to go against. Hehehehe... So now... it's time for me to get myself into gear."

[woman singing in Finnish]

Dingo : It's showtime! [Get into Jehuty's cockpit]

ADA : Greetings pilot : Dingo Egret. Weapons armed and ready for combat operation. Preparing for launch.

Dingo : Hey, Leo. I heard the whole thing from that weird monster attack incident in Japan seven years ago.

Leo Stenbuck [via Communication] : Yeah, a school from another world got transported into space, and more importantly, a girl that claimed to be the hero of Soul World that ain't appeared who she was.

Dingo : We found a photo of two girls that are heirs of that alien menace. (Shows a photo of Moirai and her sister (Maka)) These girls are the daughters of the brethren of Phanto...Moirai and her young Identical twin sister that consider to share the race's blood.

Leo Stenbuck [via Communication] : Oh, man. You're joking, right? This is the "real" Maka Albarn? I thought the Maka Albarn that everyone knew on earth was supposed to be a human.

Dingo : The real Maka Albarn was actually born on the same planet that Phanto has taken her mother to the sanctuary due to having the same blood as Master Phanto, one the brethrens's most powerful beings in the Galaxy. While on earth, the Maka Albarn they knew was an imposter, a nosy demon disguising itself as the hero of Soul World covering the whole planet in a layer of pitch black.

Leo Stenbuck [via Communication] : Who knew that she faked being the hero of a Shounen Icon? It's clear that we finally managed to get along with the mysteries of Inky Albarn's whereabouts, of why would a demon would cover the whole planet in darkness.

Dingo [via Communication] : Beats me. Something tells me that the school and the fictional town Death City is now the target of an execution event going on. But whatever it is, it's no execution, they're using school and the city itself becoming a death trap orchestrated by blue robot that wanted to destroy Shinra's legacy.

Leo Stenbuck [via Communication] : Yes, that might be true.

Dingo : [sighs] God damn it. It's been 10 long years since was dropped out by Kojima himself. Where did it all go wrong?

Leo Stenbuck [via communication] : Well, things have changed since the popularity of Metal Gear, but right now we need more focus on stopping that robot menace. This is what we prepared for,

Dingo : You got that right. Come on, let's go give this blue robot a taste of his own medicine.

Leo Stenbuck [via communication] : Good. Over and out.

[the two orbital frames flies off]

Dingo : This is gonna be a fun wild ride.

"We are the Machines and we have the the power to bring souls as a great source of robot energy from this planet."

"Humans, Witches, and Demons have valuable efforts of putting their hatred between each other and making Humankind and Witchkind being an arrogants caused by the Kusakabe Legacy itself."

"Humans of Soul World is so pathetic being heroes to yourselves."

Soul Evans : Damn you, Metal! You will pay for this.

"So as becoming the once known Ultimate Overlord, this world of Soul Eater shall be nothing but a pile of space dust! And the real world will be mine!"

Shinigami (?) : (sighs) This is ridiculous. When will everyone become a deathscythe now?

Great Old One of Power (?) : So, is it true that you finally understand on what happened after becoming God of Death?

Shinigami (?) : No. Not like this. [takes off his face ; revealing Shotaro's face] Looks like I'm not worthy of being death itself.

Eibon (?) : And it is true. You thought of becoming a Death God of your own in the Ohkuboverse, but i realized that all data from the Kusakabe Legacy is officially going to have it's end for no means tomorrow. You can take that stupid costume off, Shotaro.

[Shinigami's body reverts into Shotaro's, Great Old of power reverts into Mana Hinoki and Eibon takes off his mask, revealing to be Yohei himself]

[All Torn Down - Jun Senoue]

Yohei Nanami : So, is everything going according to plan, Shotaro?

Mana Hinoki : Looks like we're ready to finish the job of back where we started.

Shotaro the Dokeshi : Not now, guys. Once again I think I wanted to become the Death God I wanted to be, but eventually, I failed becoming like one.

Yohei Nanami :You don't turn down on me. But we eventually coming down on our tracks. We can continue to fight, we can still fight to save the planet, and keeping the nations strong. But you lost your primordial form as a death god due to the effects of Time reversing in the Ohkuboverse, and there might be a way that we can finally reveal of What Demon Vibe was planning on using these villains as puppets!

Shotaro the Dokeshi : Guys. This isn't about souls or a team of three, this is about the stupid legacy that Shinrw created, Demon Vibe planned this from the beginning and we were doomed from the start. But you are right, we must keep the nations strong. I'll handle this one with the help of my friends! If only Emine hadn't become the victim to the heartlesses, we would've stopped demon vibe's plan of conquering a universe. Who or what has Demon Vibe created the Ohkuboverse in the first place?

Yohei Nanami : There would be someone that have might of created the ohkuboverse, a fictional universe that created one being that is responsible for the Ohkuboverse what created the ohkuboverse, and what made the inspiration for our to created the universe that we lived in?

Shotaro the Dokeshi : Hmmm....

Mana Hinoki : Please, Shotaro. Tell us who created the Ohkuboverse?

Shotaro the Dokeshi : Okay...I can think of one person that created the ohkuboverse 2000 years ago. I found an old photo frame a legendary TV Star from 1990s superhero shows. The Ohkuboverse isn't created by one man, but a woman at least that Fire and Soul go to together. Combining with the elements that is mixture of religious that is the Holy Fire and the Holy Soul. This is one person that we can think of...the one that demon vibe helped with, started it all. This is the one that really started the Ohkuboverse.

Yohei Nanami : Is this...?

Mana Hinoki : Huh...? This is the one that started it all?

[In Shotaro's hand is a photo of the Sailor Scouts]

Yohei Nanami : This is...Sailor Moon star Rei Hino, Sailor Scout codename : Sailor Mars. This gives me the reason that the Ohkuboverse is created by Superheroes called Magical Girls.

~ Forty-Ninth Scene : Creator of the Universe ~

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bensolosbluesaber · 3 years ago

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Secret Identities - Part 2 (Marc Spector, Steven Grant, and Jake Lockley x reader)

Summary: The Avengers, your team of superheroes, has been called in to handle an invasion in New York, and you’re bringing your superhero boyfriend, Moon Knight, with you.

Part 2 to Secret Identities.

Action/adventure, Cameo-fest

Pairings: Marc Spector x reader, Steven Grant x reader, Jake Lockley x reader

Warnings and A/N: I did my best to accurately represent DID, I put very little effort into creating a plot and a lot of effort into writing dialogue

It was only you, Marc, and the agent - whose name you had never learned and didn’t care to learn - on the quinjet. You held Marc’s hand the entire time. There was no denying the anxious fluttering in your stomach as your two lives continued converging. Each second brought Marc closer to the Avengers, and you’d be lying if you said that didn’t scare the shit out of you.

You read through the briefing notes, getting occasional comments from the agent now piloting the quinjet. Rogue artificial intelligence, not Ultron level, but dangerous nonetheless. SWORD suspected some alien involvement, but that wasn’t the concern right now. The immediate issue was an army of robots hidden underground waiting to be activated.

At some point you started to fall asleep against Marc’s shoulder. He gingerly shifted you into a laying position resting your head on his thigh in a familiar comfortable position. His hand settles in your hair and strokes the curves of your face, soothing you into sleep. You hardly sleep for an hour before Marc shakes you awake.

“Something’s happening.”

“We need to drop you in,” the agent called back. “The activation happened earlier than our intelligence suggested. Most of the team is already on the ground. Everyone else is on their way. Don’t forget your comm links.”

You sit up and rifle through your bag, pulling out a familiar costume and stripping off your clothes. Marc blinks at you a few times like he’s surprised at your lack of modesty. He knows you well enough that he really shouldn’t be.

“We can’t all summon our suits,” you tease and toss him an ear piece, even as his eyes begin to glow with white moonlight.

“Tell her she looks amazing!” Steven gushes.

“Keep it in your pants,” Jake snaps back.

You reach for a parachute, but Marc’s white gloved hand stops you.

“I can fly you in,” he offers through the mask.

“You told me no flying last month!” You protest.

“I didn’t know you were an Avenger last month.”

“Bad call, mate.”

“Oh, so you thought I was fragile before?” You tease, not really mad at the man.

His mask peels away so he can tilt his head and shoot you an amused glare.

“You’re in range!” The agent calls back.

You turn and plant a kiss on Marc’s lips, then punch a button. The door opens slowly with a cold rush of air. You wrap your arms around his strong body, take a deep breath, and together you jump from the plane into free fall. His cape catches like a parachute part way down, guiding you through the clouds lower and lower until the skyline is in view.

Smoke rises from burning buildings, the wreckage of a city that has again become a battle ground.

“Shit,” Marc whispers. “We’re gonna have to stop having technology free dates.”

“Yeah,” you reply, only half paying attention, too busy scanning the ground for your fellow Avengers. It’s pure chaos on the ground, a complete and utter disaster, but then, through the smoke… “There!”

You point Marc in the direction of a bright flash of blue and white, and he angles you toward the ground. The comm link in your ear begins to crackle and finally beeps a connection. You were right.

“-end up here? We’re supposed to be on vacation!” The voice of Bucky Barnes fills your ear at the same moment the bright red, white, and blue wings of Sam Wilson reappear. “Sam, what the fuck is in the sky?”

That would be Marc.

“Good morning, Captain America,” you smile down at the small figures of your friends on the ground.

“Oh thank god,” Sam replies. “Buck and I are a-” he grunts, “A bit outnumbered. We have to hold this street, or it will interfere with the wizards’ spell.”

You’re streaking toward the fight below, finally able to see the action for real. They are more than a bit outnumbered, the two men surrounded by humanoid robots armed to the teeth with every bit of weapons technology available. You drop to the ground at Bucky’s side, Marc landing next to you.

“You’re late,” Bucky calls. “Who’s the mummy?”

Marc shoots him a glare.

“Marc, don’t glare at Bucky Barnes! That’s-”

“I know who Bucky Barnes is Steven,” he answers silently.

Yeah, he knew Bucky Barnes. Well, Steven knew. At some point in their childhood, Steven realized he shared part of a name with Steven Grant Rogers and harbored a small fascination with the former Captain America ever since.

“That’s Moon Knight!” Sam’s wing decapitates a robot as he turns to look Marc up and down. “Read your briefing packets, Buck.”

Bucky rolls his eyes and returns to the fight. You draw two long knives, gifts from King T’Challa, and make short work of any robot that approaches. Marc hurls crescent darts, each finding their target. But he doesn’t let Steven front. Not yet at least.

Occasionally, he glances back at you, checking to make sure you’re alright. You are doing the same to him. You have never fought at his side before, but already you know that you would do it again and again.

“The sorcerers - not wizards, Sam - are working some spell in that building,” Bucky gestures vaguely behind him. “They can shut the whole AI down, but we have to keep these things out.”

“Androids!” Sam shouts as he jumps over one and buries his shield in it’s neck. “Androids controlled by aliens who can be stopped by wizards. The big three!”

“The big three?” Marc turns to Captain America.

“Don’t ask!” You and Bucky shout at the same time.

The four of you stand no chance of holding this street. Of course this couldn’t be a time-efficient spell, and the robots just keep coming, an endless supply of mindless soldiers puppeteered by some unknown force. A piece of shrapnel slashes your face, distracting you from the fight for a split second. It’s enough for a blow to land at your midsection, knocking the breath from you.

You pull the gun from your waist, SWORD issue with some advanced technology you don’t care to understand, and shoot. It’s not your preferred weapon, but it is necessary. Marc is by your side in an instant. He grabs you around the waist and wraps you in the white fabric of his cape.

It’s just the two of you in this little cocoon. The rest of the world is forgotten as his mask falls away for a moment. The expression on his face is pure horror, lips pressed in a tight line, eyes murderous. His gaze is focused on the blood dripping down your cheek.

“I’m fine,” you insist and run your fingers across his nose and brow that is furrowed deeply, trying to soothe away those worry lines.

“I need Jake,” he breathes, a confession he rarely makes. “We need Jake.”

Jake will do anything to protect Marc and Steven and anything to protect you. It’s probably why you had never actually seen Jake suited up for a fight. He is the ‘whatever it takes’ part of the system, and all three of them are still afraid to show you that side.

“Okay,” you grip his upper arms. “It’s okay.”

His eyes flicker for a second, then his suit shifts, darkens to a midnight black that is more like tactical armor than Marc’s mummy wrappings. A bright white crescent moon shines on his chest; it matches the bright white of his cape. He tilts his head with a little smirk, and just like that Jake Lockley has joined the fray.

“Cap? Cap?” Someone is shouting through coms. “We’re coming to you. Do you copy?”

The voice is crackly, so you can’t make out exactly who it is.

You turn back to the fight, watching with bit of admiration and a lot of attraction as Jake expertly dispatches android after android.

“Did he change outfits mid fight?” Bucky punches a robot beside you.

“Sort of.”

You kick a robot across the head, stabbing one of your vibranium knives into it’s chest and immediately lashing out toward another. You glance up, and the world seems to slow around you. The battle is forgotten as you can only stare at Jake. He is fighting desperately, holding his own except...

Except behind him. A metallic arm is raising a heavy blade for a killing blow, metal arching toward his neck. You’re trying to scream his name. You are screaming his name, but it’s too late. You stab the android in front of you, but you will never make it. Jake’s suit will protect him from a lot, heal just about anything, but not decapitation.

Red flashes across your view, a bright flash hurtling through the air. A stick strikes the robot through the forehead, and the metal being collapses in a dead heap. Jake whips his head around as he realizes what almost happened. A figure in dark red drops from a nearby fire escape, grabs the stick from the robots sparking brain, and nods to you. He jumps into the fight at Jake’s side, the two men working together with an impressive synchrony for two strangers.

“How did you see that?” Jake shouts.

“I heard it,” Matt Murdock replies as he dispatches another android.

A few more minutes and the fighting finally stops. Another wave of robots is undoubtedly assembling nearby, but for now the team has a moment to breathe.

Jake’s mask falls away as he studies Daredevil. His eyes linger on the upper half of Matt’s face, noticing how his eyes are completely obscured by the dark red of his mask. You sprint to Jake’s side, wanting to reach for his hand, hold him, kiss him, feel that he is alive, but you restrain yourself. Your relationship is a secret, and for now you want to keep it that way.

“So this is the boyfriend?” Matt asks.

Your relationship is not a secret.

“How-” you start to question how Matt could possibly know that you had a boyfriend, let alone that this was him.

“You started smelling different a few months ago,” he explains. “It’s him. His scent is all over you.”

“Is there a better way to say that then ‘his scent is all over you’? Tone down the creepy… vibes? Vibes? Is that the word?”

“Give up on the modern slang, Buck,” Sam makes a face and pats his partners’ shoulder mockingly.

You plant a kiss to Jake’s cheek, and he brushes his hand across your fingers to tell you that he is okay. You watch him and Daredevil with interest, hoping Jake might find a friend in the hero who protected his city with the same ferocity and passion as Jake protected Steven, Marc, and you.

“What’s up with the little horns, el diablo?” Jake asks. “What are you the hero of? Hell?”

“Hell’s Kitchen, and it’s Daredevil actually.”

Jake shoots you a glance then shifts his gaze back to Matt. A smile fills his features, a genuine one, and a second later the same expression appears on Matt’s face. You let out a heavy sigh of relief as they slip into easy conversation and you turn back to Sam and Bucky.

“You and Moon Knight, huh?” Sam frowns. “Guess Spidey was right.”

As if summoned by his name, the mysterious masked hero drops from the sky.

“Hey you guys! There’s another group heading our way.”

He starts to turn to Cap, notices Jake and does a double take to stare at the white costumed man, everyone else forgotten. Jake looks at him completely unimpressed.

“Oh my god, you’re Moon Knight!” Spider-Man’s voice has a youthfulness that always surprises you. “I love you! I wanted a cape because of you, but I gave up the idea pretty quick. I mean not in New York right? Handsy people. It would never have lasted. Wow! Mr. Knight, you are so cool.”

“Mr. Knight,” Steven tries out the name “I like that.”

“I hate it,” Marc replies.

“Well that seems like your problem don’t it? I’m keeping it. You can be Moon Knight. I’ll be Mr. Knight.”

“Marc, right?” Spidey asks, and you can practically see the mischief forming in the boys’ mind at his well-meaning mistake.

“I’m Jake.”

“Sorry! Jake-”

Jake’s expression changes, the suit shifting with him.

“Oops, Steven now,” Steven grins.

“O-Okay, Steven,” Spider-Man tries to keep up.

The suit changes as Marc fronts.

“Marc again,” he teases, messing with the young hero.

“Oh,” that catches Spidey off guard. “Nice to meet you, Marc.”

“Actually, Jake now.”

“Leave him alone, you three,” you glower at Jake but have to fight back a laugh.

You thanked any god you could think of that Spider-Man had been there with his goofy remarks and joking attitude to make it easier for Marc, Steven, and Jake to show off this particular skill set.

“Sorry, love.”

That’s Steven.

He adjusts his white suit jacket and grins at Spider-Man, ““You know, the cape is actually really overrated, kid.”

“I’m Spider-Man,” he lowers his voice and puts extra emphasis on the ‘man.’

“More like Spider-Kid,” Jake mutters.

Steven ignores his alter and nods conspiratorially to Spider-Man. He gives him a thumbs up like they just shared a secret.

“Figure out how to really punch criminals yet?” Daredevil snarks, tossing an arm across Spider-Man’s shoulders affectionately.

“I’m not beating the shit out of people,” he protests.

“It’s more efficient.”

“Whatever you say ‘really good lawyer.’”

You observe their interaction with some interest. Had Matt defended whoever was in the Spider-Man suit? No time for that now though, you realize as a mechanical whirring fills the air. You take a defensive stance at Steven’s side, Bucky to your right. Cap and Spidey leap into the air. Matt stands beside Steven.

Sam looks down at his makeshift team then out at the approaching mechanical army. They’re not much, but they’ll do.

“Avengers…”

A/N: I left this open for a part 3. Not sure if I’ll write it, but I do think a 3rd part to wrap it all up and let the system meet some other Avengers would be fun! Let me know if you want added to my general Moon Knight tag list!

Tag List: @love-on-the-murder-scene @bookfrog242 @irethepotato @graciexmarvel @simonsbluee @nagemasstuff @whovian378 @cringingmemeries @eerievixen @velyssaraptor

Other Tags: @bored-as-hell-666 @teenageranchpsychicwagon @yanelimerida @winterwitch107 @tachibubu @eiressmurdock087 @natalieisfreeziing @thehuntresswolf @isnt-itstrange @dearlawdimasimp @multi-fandoms-of-madness

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popculturebuffet · 3 years ago

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Transformers: More Than Meets The Eye Issue By Issue: Issue #1: How To Say Goodbye and Really Mean It (Patreon Review for Brotoman.exe)

Hello all you happy Autobots. I hope you've packed your ready for a long and lengthy quest as today I undertake one of the longest planned projects i've ever done, courtsey of my newest proud patron, @brotoman-exe. It's the first time in a LONG time i've had a new 5 dollar patron and he seems to be in for the long haul as he's requested monthly reviews of a series that spans over 50 issues and goes into a second volume. And that's not getting into if we cover the dark cybertron crossover, the tie in issue for revolution, or the annuals. But it's one i'm more than happy to do for as long as possible and covers a series near and dear to my heart.

Transformers More Than Meets The Eye is one of my faviorite comics again and the work that got me back into transformers. It's a wonderful epic that is in my faviorite genre of storytelling: A ragtag bunch of misfits who often have no buisness doing what their doing let alone being a group becoming a found family of sorts while proving there more than what both those around them and they themselves think. It's also loaded with humor, character, and giant robots, so what's not to love.

It's also a chance to correct a past mistake. See this isn't my first attempt to do a retrospective of this comic. Back in pride 2021, I did a review of the first three issues of this series, as the series is both one I badly wanted to cover and one that is warmly and greatly represntive, using the fact 90% of all transformers are male to be gay as heck. And I did.. but a combination of an overtaxed schedule, a shaky mental state, and said schedule being flip turned upside down lead to me constantly delaying part 2 before scrapping it entirely and planning to cover the series later. So when Brotoman asked me to cover it monthly, I had only one response

So this is the first project i'm doing over again, and hopefully not the last as I intend to revisit New X-Men at some point, and hopefully this time i'll finish what i've started, however many years it takes. So let's get ready to blast off into space as we meet the crew of the lost light again for the first time. Before we get into the series proper we need to cover what lead us here.

Transformers At IDW

For those less familiar with comics, IDW is a third party comics company that mostly focuses on liscened comics, with highlights being reprinting a bunch of european Duck and Mouse Comics, being the current home of Sonic the Hedgehog, and biggest of all, being the primary home of Hasbros properties: Dungeons and Dragons, My Little Pony, GI Joe and many many more (Including everyone's faviorite Space Knight Rom) got comics here and naturally Transformers was one of the first. And to really get this right, they decided to launch a whole new continuity under transformers legend Simon Furman, who took over for the marvel comic and has written tons of transformers since.

And because I wanted to be throughly prepared for the first time I attempted reviewing this run and to know where things had been I read all of Furman's run and the runs after it to have a good sense of history. Here's an archival photo of me after that experince

Yeah I'm not one to take the side door so i'll come right up front and knock: most of the comics in this continuity before More Than Meets The Eye are mediocre at best and downright awful to sit through at worst. While i'm glad I read them all to have proper context for these reviews, i'm also glad I NEVER have to touch these things again.

Starting with Furman's run which took the idea of "robots in disguise" dead seriously. And some of the ideas are good: having the autobots actualyl use their disgusiese more, a shadowy third party in the war that runs out of a company. They even cleverly redo the headmasters, an old toy gimmick that had aliens pilot transformers, by having them be knockoff transformers needing a pilot to work. There were really solid ideas and reworks of various gimmicky toylines. There's also a variety of good one off stories in the one shots, as furman used Spotlight issues (literally called that) to shed a light on other things going on and expand the story past the main minis.

The problem is that while there were good specks of story here and there, in paticular the series made me a fan of blaster, six shot and has an excellent version of hot rod, if not as good as what more than meets the eye would later do but we'll get tot that, the main story is REALLY boring and dry. The characters don't really have a lot of personality , even my boy starscream, the story moves at a very slugish pace and there's just no levity. I'm not expecting it to be joke o clock but I need more to really keep me going. Ther'es just not a lot here to latch onto or really care about. The ideas are there but the end result wore me out by the end.

Sadly things didn't improve all that much with the next era, All Hail Megatron, a 16 issue maxiseries by Shane Mcarthy that was IDW's first attempt at a soft reboot of this continuity. It would be FAR from the last. I went into this one hopeful despite it having a mixed reception, as the premise is badass and one any transformers fan can get behind: After the autobots decided to leave earth unguarded to deal with another crisis at the end of the last series

Megatron takes the opportunity to conquer earth, and uses a reluctant traitor in the autobots to stage attacks on every other autobot garrison in the galaxy, stranding our heroes and having him have won. Or in simplist most bonechilling turns, Megatron WINS.

So once again we have a good concept: Megatron won, our heroes are left trying to find SOME WAY to turn the tide, and earth is left at his mercy. It should be a no brainer.

The first issue was executive meddling: Apparently Hasbro didn't want McCarthy to show too much of the actual destruction and nightmare that would enuse from their takeover.

So shockingly, numbing the sheer terror and nightmare that ensues when a bunch of technicolor evil robots get to run rampant on the world without anyone to stop them , made the story fall flat. We see some of what they do but without any real damage or stakes it just dosen't have weight.

The next issue is the humans. Most aren't focused on enough with only one, Andy Reid, is really getting what the book should have focused on: normal people stuck in the crossfire when evil wins. It's not a bad concept but with the fangs removed we only get to see it from two perspectives. And one of them.. is Spike Witwicky

Spike is every action hero cliche poured into an action figure mold for an off brand gi joe that somehow became a real boy. Spike is a swaggering dipshit who thinks he's the greatest and the narrative agrees because Spike has snipers trained on it's family and if he dosen't call them every four hours they fire. Having one resourceful hero against the decpticons isn't a bad idea but having this guy be at the front yeesh. And somehow he only gets WORSE with each series.

The other problem is our heroes, spend most of their desperate situation... bickering with one another. I get why: one of them betrayed the others, hope is low, and optimus may be dead. It isn't till Hot Rod shows up with his gaggle of intresting autobots that the story gets some life. I don't mind the autobots having to make their way back or be out of the main action on earth, that's kind of the point. I don't mind it being grim. What I do mind is it taking so long for a lot to happen, and for things to really kick into gear. I'm suprised just how tiresome robots bickering gets but here we are.

Not only that the decpticons themselves are just kinda there.. there's a good idea of Megatron pondering what he does now he's actually won, but it goes nowhere. And that's really the series in a nutshell: it has some great ideas it ocasionally captalizes on but ultimately goes nowhere.

The one bright spot is a tie in mini centered around a character introduced in this series. A character a lot of people really diddn't like at the time: Drift. And I see why: In All Hail Megatron he gets a lot of focus. Problem is Drift is an entirely NEW character Hasbro apparently crammed down fans throats. As usual the homer simpson approach to promoting a character failed.

His mini though was one of those bright spots I mentioned; A decently intresting tail about a city that keeps itself out of the war that finds itself hope to one of the worst of the decepticon army and how it changes the future Drift into a better person. There is a decent amount of standard "we can't interfere because we're self righteous morons who will inevietibly be punished for our hubris" stuff, but Drift himself is engaging and the story does challenge that sort of viewpoint. Also said city and society will be important later as Drift is a main characte rin MTMTE , which helped smooth out the edges and made him into a fan faviorite.

So we're onto phase 3, the ongoing book Transformers by Mike Costa. Mike Costa is a good writer otherwise, what i've read of his x-men run being a fun paced action thrill ride. But this book?

Out of the three main phases before the big relaunch here, this is the one people seem to hate most. And it. Is. JUSTIFIED. The premise is the autobots are on earth, trying to repair the damage done but being hated by the US Goverment and seen as no better than the decpticons. Optimus decides he has to go fuck off to space because that worked out so well last time, and leaves it with bumblebee, which leads to shoddy leadership, conflicts with paper thin analogues for foreign countries, and a lot of humans being stupid and not getting that as incompitent as they are the autobots are the good guy and Hot Rod being an impulsive idiot and trusting a guy literally named Swindle because the constructicons came off as the better option compared to the autobots.

It's a murky mess of plotlines and bad decisions that i've mostly blocked out for my own sanity and won't spend forever recapping here. Ya'll REALLY don't deserve that headache.

Once again a mini series was the ray of light here. Last Stand of the Wreckers. Roberts contributed to the story while the writing and art for it were by Nick Roche, a great artist who contributed to the first arc of MTMTE before the stress of doing a monthly got to him. It's a wonderfully gritty tale that succeeds where the other attempts at being darker failed, following the rough and tumble Wreckers, essentailly the X-Force of the Autbots, as they go on a suicide mission to a prison that's been taken over by the Decepticons, lead among them Overlord, a new character and a throughly terrifying villian that keeps slauthering people and doing terrible things so daddy megatron will notice him at last. It's tense, sad and throughly great nad worth checking out. And like Drift and the Circle of Light, Overlord will also be important later. Last Stand is what helped James put his foot in the door.

What solidified things though was Chaos Theory. I plan to cover this series indepedently when we get to the shadowplay arc, as it's sort of a prequel to that and lays the groundwork for the various trips to past cybertron the series takes. It takes place before the war as tensions bubble and a future member of the MTEMTE cast tries to murder megatron in his cell. It's great, and has a great moment with Megatron admitting his villiany that will be mentioned later in MTMTE.

So shortly after that Chaos happened, a messy finale. To make a long story short, Galvatron, who in this continuity is not the same as megatron, raised an army of zombies called sweeps to raze cybertrona nd later merged with something to become an outer god. Megatron one upped him, things sure did happen, and Roberts helped write the script. The important things are that Cyclonus, Galvatron's old buddy who aided him till he realized he be crazy, turned against his friend nad saved Hot Rod's life, Cybertron was radically transformed into a primal state, and Megatron was defeated.

As a result we get what would kick off the next era of IDW Transformers, an attempt to right the ship by doing something radically diffrent: The war the Autobots waged against the evil forces of the Decpticons.. was over. The Decipticons surrendered. The question was.. what now? What do you do next when you've spent CENTURIES fighting a war? Oceans rise, empires fall but it's much harder when it's on your call.

So that's where this era kicked off with the Death of Optimus Prime. I opted to jump into the series instead of this as while not a terrible start at all, it's where I came in as this issue is in the first MTMTE trade, it's more of a pilot for the sister series Robots in Disguise. See instead of having a mini series or just one ongoing, this era had two with the split coming in said one shot.

Death of Optimus Prime follows the title character as he finds despite the war being over.. things aren't great. Like at all> The New Reborn Cybertron is having a temper tantrum and causing earthquakes, disasters and what not with most of it REALLY not being safe and only Iacon, which somehow surivived everything, standing. Not only that most of the cybertronians who opted out of the war or abandoned it have returned.. and blame the autobots for everything that happened. The NAILS, as their dresrively called should have a point, that they didn't want any part of this war. It is perfectly valid to object to a war especailly when it's senseless. In this case thoguh it's sorta like objecting to the allies during world war II: Megatron was not going to stop until he had won and would kill anything non cybertronian.

With Optimus unable to repair things due to the matrix of leadership having split right in half like a kit kat bar, our heroes end up divided on the issue after a map is found inside, leading to the mythical Knights of Cybertron, a group that allegedlys founded a Cyber Utopia: Bumblebee wants to stay on Cybertron and try to set up a goverment despite not being wanted. Hot Rod wants to fuck off into space to go find the knights, hoping they have a way to heal the planet, as well as a way to honor their culture instead of buldozing it. Optimus.. gives them both halves like a parent who just wants his kids to stop fighting and plans to leave, doing so to settle things down since he's the face of war and taking his old name of Orion Pax back.

So the series split into two: Robots in Disguise follows Bumlbee as he tries to make a go of things nad fails as the NAILS won't shut up and Starscream spins circles around him, playing the NAILS well while being awesome because well. he's starscream. He also gets a crown eventually which is wonderful. As you can tell i'm not a big fan of RiD,. RiD is a lot of arguging, people being stupid, and the sympathetic characters being sidelined. It's also a LOT of Prowl who we'll get into in a moment but for now is best summed up as

It gets better in Season 2, with Optimus joining the cast, along with Cosmos a friendly UFO and Sky Linx, whose a giant space dragon thing that's also a space shuttle, as well as Thundercracker and his kitty. But like so many before it's good ideas, bad execution and overall no matter how many times I tried I just couldn't get into John Barbers run. A third mainline book, Windblade (Which later became Till All Are One), was MUCH better and I truly recommend it, with it's writer not only helping fix the verses shaky reputation with women robots (Arcee became one after being born a male transformer via horrifying experiments and became angsty as a result> I shodulnlt' ahve to explain to you why this is bad but someone shoudl've to Simon Furman, who then got into a fight with Windblade's writer over it despite her being objectively right> Their cool now but still.. jesus man) , having fun intrigue and of course my boy starscream in a tiny crown.

So yeah as you can see the IDWverse was a bit shaky, but it had it's bright spots and it's sad it's coming to an end, with it's second reboot having ended after also failing fairly hard and Image now having the rights via it's Skybound imprint. But for all ti's faults, it gave us some bright lights.. and no light was brighter, better, or weirder than the lost one. So with all this exposition handled.. we can finally set off

The Issue Finally

I may comment on the covers on and off, we'll see, and i'll be sticking mainly to the main covers, as there's just so many dang variants and this review is long enough as is, I can't imagine what the others, even withotu the idw exposition, weill be like. This cover is near and dear to my heart, and i'm fully biased on that as it's an homage to one of my faviorite covers of all time that kicked off one of my faviorite runs of all time.

Given the runs are both semi-sitcom (if less so in MTMTE's case) takes on classic properties, it fits like a glove and it won't be the last time we get an homage to this cover as we get two more echoing it: One for season 2 and one.. that I won't spoil because it's a MASSIVE spoiler for the final arc of season 2.

The issue opens with Rodimus giving one hell of a speech to the people of cybertron. It's one of my faviorite scenes in the entire run, and for good reason setting the tone of wonder and exploration that goes in hand with the heart, hyjinks and tragedy of this run.

While he's obviously selling a big epic quest with tons of stakes, what he says there.. and what he says after really underlines the true meaning of the quest

"You Deserve To See The Universe Without A Gun in your hand"

It's a chance for once to enjoy the universe. Even if there's a big, booming underlying goal to everything Rodimus is doing, both the one he says, and the one for his own drive and ego we'll get to shortly, the real appeal to most of these bots watching.. is a chance to start over. No wars waged to destroy the evil war of the decpticons. Just a noble goal, a chance to see the universe, and all the time in the world to do it. It appeals to one of the purest and most loved aspects of sci-fi, what made Star Trek so beloved and what's made works since, from Star Trek's own newest series Brave New Worlds to spirtual spinoff the Orville: The love of exploration, of going out into the world and finding yourself or something new. The wonder of this kind of thing. The fun of setting off into the world and seeing what happens. MTMTE mixes Star Trek's wonder and scope with a bit of Firefly's taking a bunch of scraps from a war and seeing what they do next, and is helpfully not created by a guy who sucks dirty ass in thunderstorms, so that's nice.

Speaking of sucks dirty ass in thunderstorms, watching this along with cybertron is Prowl

Prowl is an overly paranoid, overly fascist police officer who feels the war isn't ended. He also sucks and I hate him. He's with Wheeljack who dosen't suck and in fact has a realy cool helmety face i've always loved. Wheeljack predicts a max exodus as let's face it, who dosen't want to fly up into space in a giant ship and explore the stars. Prowl however thinks it'll be a non event and that his calculations show barely anyone leaving

Yup as usual Prowl is wrong about people, what's going on in the world and the general concept of things, and the next day, the day most of the issue takes place, a GIANT crowd is lined up to board the lost light. IT's almost as if the guy who thinks the war still isn't over can't grasp that people no longer want to fight it and just want to get on with their lives.

We'll resume the "Prowl Sucks and I Hates Him" hour in a moment as we transfer from one of the worst versions of a G1 Autobot to one of the best, as Ratchet is overseeing a NAIL protester who transformed himself to death. While i'll have to admit I hadn't seen really ANY of G1 going into this comic, or into this retrospective , Ratchet already had a place in my heart thanks to transformers animated and the fact he's about the same here, a crotchety old legend who ends up with a bunch of younger less prestigious weirdos for his own reasons, was a big up.

Ratchet admits he could've saved the guy had his hands not been shaky. We also get one of the best terms in all of transfomers

It really highlights roberts approach to the franchise: unlike other works in this verse, Roberts isn't afraid to embrace how silly things are. He got away not only with naming something rigormorphis.. but having the dead body transform wtih the old cartoon sound effects. Yet at the same time it underlines how he treats things: he's not afraid to fully embrace the silliness of the franchise or crack jokes, it's what keeps this work so great.. but he also does everything with a purpose. Rigor Morphis, while darkly hilarious.. is also a geninely intresting concept that fits perfectly with the world. Roberts is dedicated to geninely building up how Cybertronians function, their culture and their unverse and taking it seriously enough to still work, but with enough good humor and sense that this is a franchise built upon selling toys, comics, tv shows and other merchandise to not take himself TOO seriously. It's an approach I hope future shows including the upcoming at the time of this review Earthspark take to heart.

Naturally given he has focus, Ratchet is joining the ship which bumblebee takes with all the grace and civlity of a 12 year old. LEADER OF ALL OF CYBERTRON FOLKS. He needs him here, but Ratchet makes a valid argument why he wants to leave: he's served every prime since Nominus and thus has been at this for a LONG time, and knows his number will be up eventually. Since Rodimus has promised to pick up any strays they find on the way who were lost since not EVERYONE from the war has been found just yet, Ratchet sees it as the perfect opportunity to find and train a replacement, his swan song. It again underlines a common theme with the Lost Lighters and this work as a whole: It's not the journey it's the destination. As we'll see most people join not for the knights of cybertron quest, but simply to find something else. For Ratchet it's a chance to pass his legacy on and make sure his knowledge and skills live on long after what time he has left is gone.

We next meet Cyclonous, who as I said was part of the whole Galvatron mess. He's an ancient warrior, a bot out of time who awoke to find a cybertron he didn't like and that now it's only gotten worse with the primal reversion, the gleaming cities he remembers from Cybertron's golden age now replaced with a nightmarish landscape. Why he's leaving is obvious: On a Cybertron that throws him in with the Decepticons depsite not really being one and that is unrecognizable, what reason has he to stay? He finds signs of life in a cave though that seem familiar and heads to check them out.

We next get more prowl

And this is where he REALLY shows his ass.. or whatever transfomers have that serves as an ass. Point is he's dressing down his old partner in both senses of the word Chromedome for leaving.

Yeah as we'll find out a few issues from now said "talent" is mnemosurgery: Chromedome can break into a bots mind for information, which was used as an interregation tool both pre-war as a cop and during the war as Spec Ops. It's also a talent Chromedome BLATANTLY dosen't want to use again.

He's had to do TERRIBLE things for the war and like most soldiers, especially those suffering from Trauma which Domey canocially does, he's carried enough of the war with him. He's earned a right to live his life without having to keep doing the things that haunt him. This is all recorded by Chromedome's current Conjux Endura, Rewind whose pointedly Prowl's oppisite: he geninely supports Chromedome wanting to get away from what he used to be and heal into what he CAN be, he's a non combatant having as we lean a memory stick for an alt mode, and he's calm and gentle to Prowl raving like a paranoid luantic.. which dosen't remotely let up after

Yeah the table flipping apparently became so memetic it got turned into a running gag as well as canocially just something he does a lot. Bless you James

So as he radios some agents on board the LL to load some cargo, which shockingly is not remotely a good thing and we'll get to much later in the series what that cargo actually is, we can get into why I hate Prowl so much.

Prowl is a narcist,and a facist, the latter terms can be thrown around haphazzardly, so I am treading carefully.. but it applies and is fully necessary here. Prowl dosne't care for anyone else on an emotoinal level, only what they can do for him, only seems to think he's right even undermining OPTIMUS FUCKING PRIME later in the verse, and being blatnatly descrimtory to the nails and decipticoons. I'm not saying either group has issues: The Deciptcons were the bad guys and while some geninely want to reform or not be mistreated, many are just as bad as ever, and the NAILS, while having some valid points, have a majority of them screeching said points. Prowl cares for nothing and nobody except his own warped version of right and wrong that involves tourture, no real cybertronian rights, and Prowl being judge jury and executioner. He's everything wrong with policing wrapped into one character. He dosen't want the war to end because of one sad simple truth: he's obsolete without it. He's the kind of soldier, the kind of cop, the kind of person who fights not because it's the right thing to do, not because there's no better option, not like any of his commrades.. but because he ENJOYS it. He enjoys killing, tourtruing and doing this and framing it all as the greater good when really it's just him wanting to be the hero because without the trappings of war, he's just a bully who refuses to move on like everyone else is trying to do. It dosen't help that as far as I can tell he SURIVIVES the entire run of this universe.

I just.. needed to get my rage out NOW so I can move on and focus on the characters I actually like. Speaking of which next we meet Tailgate, a tiny transformer whose suffering from a bad case of no legs, having fallen down the hole six million years ago and preparing to blow some shit up to escape.

We next meet Whirl. Whirl is someone with severe issues, both with impulse controls and mentlaly a former wrecker fired for reasons that'll be revealed dramatically later who is tryign to talk out his issues.. to a pile of dead sweeps, clones of Scourge, another friend of Cyclonuses.. and why he comes in. Naturally Whirl's first instinct on being found in a room full of sorta corpses is to try and murder the witness.

We then get a bunch of intros, starting with Red Alert, the ships mildly paranoid and gruff head of security who in turn lets three new additions to our main cast onto the ship: First up is Brainstorm, a mad scientests mad scientest who has a neat look and a briefcase that for some reason Rodimus is letting him just take on board without remotely checking which can't posisbly backfire

That Chekov's gun got a WHILE before it fires off though so onto our next crewmember: Swerve!

Swerve is a small, mouthy little autobot who can't seem to shut up. So naturally he's one of my faviorites as just how long this review is this far in should tell you I also cannot shut up. So I relate to him, and parts of his character that come up later, heavily.

Next we have Rung, a brand new character.. though it can be hard to tell. As you can probably see at this point, while James isn't immune to using more prominent autobots (Hot Rod, Ultra Magnus, Ratchet, Cyclonus), he's also fond of taking characters who mostly existed just to sell more toys and really fleshing them out. IT's why many of these characters got new toys and Swerve and Tailgate in paticular were part of Walmart's g1 risues.. still haven't been able to get my hands on those or any of the lost light crew aside from Megatron. And yes Megatron joins the crew in season 2. We'll get to that in a year or so, but yes that actually happens. And it is as awesome as it sounds.

But Rung is brand new, a psyctrist whose alt mode is unknown. That as you've probably guessed by now is also a plot point. He collects models of ships and is an intresting addition that shows Optimus' compassion: While rung was a psychatrist pre-war too, as we'll see in a flashback arc later, the fact Optimus brought one in despite having no combat value shows why he's well Optimus. At least for now> This is pre his "I'm going to conquer earth for the greater good!' phase> Which also happened and isn't as awesome as it sounds. Rung ends up getting knocked over by Cyclonus and Whirl.

Before we get to them though we check back with our main trio. And it's here i'd like to get into how I found this book. See I get most of my comics digtially and through Comixology, a spinoff of amazon that has large amounts of comics digtially at lower prices than retail and that's before we get into the sheer amount of sales. It's more cost effective for me than print so i've been using it for some time now. And if that weren't enough they have a netflix-style subscripton service, comixlolgy unlimited which for 6 bucks a month gives you an ungodly amount of access to tons upon tons of comics. If you want to check out idw's transformers before the lsiecne dries up, this is the best way as pretty much everything from it is on there by now

So when they added the first seasons of RiD and MTMTE I was curious, not only because LIndsay Ellis had mentioned this continuity had gay robots but because both sounded intresting. It was simply a matter of which to read first.. and RiD won for fairly simplye and rediculous reasons: I've always deeply liked hot rod and a comic seemingly starring him seemed great. The fact it ended up ticking a LOT of storyteling boxes I like was icing on an already great cake

As for why the first is the dumbest: he looks dope. I still want SOME non-bay version of him on my shelf. The less dumb reason is that after watching the bay movie as a teen and enjoying it, I hopped on my computer when I got home and desperate for more cool robots, found transformers the movie. It remains one of my favoirite pieces of the franchise and a film I intend to cover at some point as I fucking love it. Keep in mind I went in blind so I didn't know the various dead bodies were actual characters, nor that a lot of the new cast came out of nowhere, but even knowing that now I still have an attachment to the season 3 cast. Not season 3 itself as I haven't watched it and i'm clearly better off that way from what i've seen via Phelous, but thed characters had great design, were fun to watch, and were part of a film I loved> The film's also why I love Grimlock so damn much, as should we all. I have one but I want more because you can neve rhave enough talking robot dinosaurs. Same with STARSCREAM, who I do need a figure of, who is glorious as always.

So having an attachment ot Hot Rod and Ultra Mags, not so much Cyclonus but this comic made me love him so hey, it was an easy sell. And i'm glad I did as this is easily the best version of him i've encountered: James took a character that was hot headed and impulsive and had made some stupid decisions, and decided to lean into it. As such Rodimus is impulsive, egotistical, and when we see it is bragging about hwo many crew he's got like a ten year old who just got a cooler transformer than his most hated friend. He's also endearing: it's clear this quest means a lot to him, he cares about his crew and while he may be an ipulsive hammy manchild, he's a cool one. He's basically james t kirk if he were less horny and more hopped on skittles.

With him are two contrasts: Drift whose been made into a new agey samurai who constantly tries to stay peppy and Ultra Magnus, who in this continuity is a giant stickler to the rules who vies wearing your autobadge at an angle as a high crime, isn't fond of his new crew, and is the defention of hardass. The two ballance him out with Drift being the encouragment Rodimus needs and a reminder of the spirftual part of the journey and Ultra Magnus being the hard nosed voice of reason our hero needs.. while also having such a stick up his whatever a transformer has that substitues for an ass that he's a comedic foil. Rodders and Mags are bascially Jake Peralta and Captain Holt without the father son angle, with drift just kinda there, but still not half bad.

So back at the fight Cyclonus shows his character as he dosen't WANT to do this, Swerve is just trying to you know murder him. Meanwhlie Tailgate has been passing out on nad off for the last 6 millon years and prepares to finally ignite the energon.

As if this wasn't enough, the unambgiously gay duo and Ratchet are heading for the ship, with the happy couple bickering a tad as Chromedome tends to bring up the fact his boyfriends alt mode isn't a vehicle. Thei rinterrupted by the fight, with Swerve having one and preparing to execute cyclonus and blaming him for his own issues.. btu Ratchet isn't remotely fooled, figuring Cyclonus might of done something but can't talk Swerve down. Thakfully a giant energon explosion can and our heros decide to load the two on the ship and let Rodimus sort it out, along with Tailgate who shows up talking about a ship and assuming it's their ship bring him along for repairs. Rewind plans to catch up.. after buying some mysterious but clearly shady discs from Swindle.

Thus we come to our ending. Rodimus prepares to take off and refuses to take a call from Bumblebee and we get some great comedic timing

Shockingly Prowl ISN'T to blame but we'll get to that next issue. The important thing is that cybertron thinks everyone is dead for now.. and blames Prowl because I would too if I didnt know they sere still alive. Hell if I didn't know why the engine malfunctoned i'd still think it was an ATTEMPT to kill them

But it isn't, they simply jumped with their quantum engines (their verision of lightspeed) too soon, so as a result they got shot halfway around the galaxy , the ships damaged and many of the crew go flying out it onto a planet, with Rodimus planning to retrive them. We end the main story on rodimus getting some.. less than stellar news when he sees what he thinks is a meteor shower

The issue itself ends on a message from the future... with a bunch of foreshadowing of what's to come...

Where this is from.. well that's for season 2 to settle as is everything else, but it's amazing just how far in advanced Roberts had this planned out as where it comes from was always intended. As for where.. you'll just have to stay on the ship won't you? One last bit of buisness before we depart though

A Most Precious Soundtrack

So one notable thing about the series is it has a soundtrack, with James Roberts, much like fellow comics mastermind Kireon Gilleon, picking out some tracks for each issue, with a few exceptions, as well as a theme song for each season. So having not listened along in the past as I tend to binge read a lot of the time, I thought it'd be fun to give these songs a listen and see what sticks out, what I think, how it fits the issue etc. I'll dot the character themes in with these early issues, but for now i'll just be focusing on the theme for the season and the two tracks for this issue. I'd also like to thank wadapan over at the transformers community wiki who saved this sountrack for us all , which is what I found via google. Let's begin.

Season 1 Theme/Series Theme: Lost Coastlines- Okkervil River

An upbeat indie song about the band itself struggling to hold it together, using the metaphor about a two sailors going into unknown territory, which fits the comics themes of self doubt, exploration and strife as well as it's tone, upbeat yet full of angst, adventure and longing under the service. I'll likely have this one on repeat post review.

Across the Universe- Fiona Apple

This one I had sought out before for reasons that escape me now. The song itself is a fairly beautiful, very 90's cover. I still prefer the original and version from the movie Across the Universe (Another one for the massive pile of "Stuff I want to review at some point). It's not bad and at first I wasn't sure how much it fit.. but "nothings going to change my world" actually fits the story really well: Our heroes are setting out and get nothings going to change their world. A bit more literal than obviously intended, but still a nice little pun.

Fun fact, the image for this on youtube and likely other services is from the Plesantville soundtrack, a movie I do want to see at some point and sounds fairly good about two teens ending up in a black and white sitcom. But the cover is uh.. it's a lot folks.

Like I know a gimmick of the film is characters going into color but... why does someone set a tree on fire. Why are they making out in front of it. Are these characters even in the movie? I have all the questoins about plesantville, this soundtrack and its marketing team and none of the time to answer them.

Absent Friends- The Divine Comedy

Now this one fits way better. It fits the hustle and bustle, the idea these characters are leaving and may never come back (and with the issue ending explosion it's thought they won't). I really like the western tone of this, it's really neat and I may have to check this band out more. Cool stuff

So with that we're finally finished. This review was a lot and a lot of fun and next month we see who lived, who died and meet Swerve. So till next time thanks for reading, follow for more and consider joining my pateron yourselves. Later days!

#hot rod #transformers #more than meets the eye #idw #ultra magnus #swerve #drift #tailgate #cyclonus #red alert #rung #james roberts #comics #animatoin #robots #lbgtq+

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