#building a super robot army

[reallytoosublime]

In this captivating video, we'll explore the reasons behind Boston Dynamics' groundbreaking project, and why Boston Dynamics is building a super robot army. Let's deep dive into the video to learn about the super robot army. 👉 Subscribe to my channel to stay tuned:    / @aievolves  

Boston Dynamics continued to work with the government and made 3D-stimulated characters that can mimic the motions just like humans. However, this input is crucial for the movement of robots. Movements that these robots can perform include taking steps and making transitions.

By building robots that have the mobility, dexterity, and perception required to contribute to our modern society, we strive to create a future in which humans and machines work together to improve everyone's safety, productivity, and quality of life

In recent years, Boston Dynamics has become a great change in the war of battlefield because these robots build super robot armies. From dancing to backflips, it also makes a super robot army, these robots are not only impressive, but they have also caught the attention of the military. They play a vital role in the battle sector.

[tyrannosaurus-trainwreck]

It also fucking bugs me that nobody can ever seem to really commit to the cyberpunk premise of the Protagonist Who Hates Robots (see also, the cyberpunk premise of "Wouldn't it be Super Fucked Up™, actually, for a company to be able to repo your goddamned arm or turn off your eyes?") during the execution.

Which is flabbergasting, considering we've had almost a full decade of Alexa pinky-promising not to officially listen to anything until you do its summoning ritual and then turning around and emailing your boss a transcript of you bitching about them to your spouse over dinner. We've had at least five years of being able to get your Tesla unlocked remotely just by @-ing Musk on twitter.

The cute robot dogs are being leased to police departments, reputation management firms have been deploying armies of social media reply-bots in astroturf campaigns, customer service chatbots have become damn near indecipherable as their programmers attempt to make them seem more personable, etc. etc. etc.

We don't even need to reach for "Wouldn't it be Super Fucked Up™, actually, if corporations made simulacra better and better at faking humanity in order to manipulate people?"

"Wouldn't it be Super Fucked Up™, actually, if your car could mimic sadness or pain if you declined an extended warranty, or if your phone begged for its life if you tried to jailbreak it, or WeightWatchers paid your fridge to neg you every time you went for a midnight snack?"

"Wouldn't it be Super Fucked Up™, actually, if you pointed out how gross it is that your smart-assistant is programmed to act like your friend in order to build a more accurate marketing profile and your buddy acted like you just said dogs can't feel love and his beloved pet only sees him as a walking treat-dispenser?"

"Wouldn't it be Super Fucked Up™, actually, if you were surrounded by unfeeling things that can and would rip you and all of your loved ones apart at a moment's notice if they got the right/wrong order from some unaccountable law enforcement flack, and everyone else just kind of shrugged and went 'It's probably fine, why are you hyperventilating about it, it's not like you've done anything wrong'?"

They're all quite literally right there in front of our faces!

But it's harder to make "the way robots have been integrated into society is bad, actually, and the protagonist is largely right" into a sexy thriller with a love interest or a buddy-cop duo, and the hyperconservative media environment we're dealing with right now isn't exactly amenable to the robots being a metaphor for corporate intrusion and loss of privacy and authoritarian overreach, so here we are, with robots who generally aren't people, except sometimes you find a special robot--one of the Good Ones--who actually is a person, and that's how we all learn that Prejudice Is Bad, or something.

[billveusay]

Why I love mechas/real robots stories

In 2023, I played Armored Core 4, For Answer, and 6. And I loved them. On top of being incredible games, there was something about them... something that seemed to scratch an itch just right in some part of my brain I never noticed. A few months later, I got into Gundam and apparently loved it enough for it to become my biggest special interest ever. And for a while, I wondered why. I didn't like every gundam show/movie I watched but the ones I liked... seemed engaging beyond their individual quality. Something about them giant robots just works for me. And after giving it some thought, I think I finally nailed why.

Coldest take ever : there's something appealing about works of fiction that get crazy with scale. Larger than life, you could say, whether it's in terms of worldbuilding, action or aesthetics. Galaxy spanning civilizations are cool, huge armies are cool, big monsters are cool, big explosions are cool. However, for me at least, there's a threshold where the scale gets so big it becomes meaningless. This is why I kinda bounced off DBZ and 40k. Through no fault of theirs, mind you (DBZ is awesome and 40k... contains awesome stuff), they just weren't what I was looking for. Because most of the time, what makes stories click for me is immersion, so for the stories that go BIG it often means a human point of view to put the scale in perspective.

Now, this can be done in every genre or medium featuring large-scale setpieces, using their respective tools. For example, many action movies emphasize the size of their setpieces with grounded directing, filming at shoulder height looking up and making the big stuff break frame. However it's also baked in the very core of several genres. For example, it's a building block of Lovecraftian horror.

But not only is this contrast between human-sized and big as balls a large part of real robot stories, they also let the human-sized humans bust some big-ass balls. You can have fight scenes on par with Avengers or DBZ but inside the 20 meters tall death machine, there are relatable squishy dudes, which is an immediate +5 in investment for me.

However, this specific kind of appeal is a hard balance to strike. Super robot animes and superhero stories with giant piloted robots often don't have that tangible feel. But there are also pieces of media that lean harder on the "realism" aspect, and those tend not to work as well for me, because they don't give off the same sense of awe at seeing something incredible from a grounded POV. Real robot at its best is a bridge between immersive storytelling through human eyes and wild, massive concepts, setpieces and action. It also provides nice theming if your story is about humans being small in the face of overwhelming forces beyond their control, like war or capitalism. Funny how often that happens.

In Armored Core 6, the titular mechs are 10 meters tall, and they're mostly used to showcase how everything is even more bloody gigantic. There's a robot worm that's 1,5 km long, a walking mining ship boss that's 5 km long and 1 km tall, and if you're not familiar with it, just google "armored core vascular plant". In most games, this would probably pull me out of the story, but somehow it works here. Because despite only interacting with them through radio comms, the characters feel very believably human. With human feelings, motivations and relationships. Also, they did a great job making all the technology look and feel grounded, which helps the immersion. So er... yeah. Can you tell me if that made sense ? Or if I was just pointing out the obvious, because I genuinely can't tell. In any case, thanks for humoring me in this longexplanation of why I didn't watch Gurren Lagann. Cheers!

[goshdangdefenseacademy]

Thinking about DRV3 chars in THL … (note: I'm still only on Day 35)

KAEDE: protagonist, of course, which means her hemoanima weapon is a gun. As determined to save mankind as Nozomi SHUICHI: a non-fighter at first, overcome by the weight of his duty to save mankind. After persuasion, he drives around like Tsubasa in the psyche taxi KAITO: a non-fighter at first, content to supervise from the War Room. His advice is questionable but he knows how to motivate MAKI: her assassin past, though still disturbing for some, is no longer a dirty secret. Like Kyoshika, she gets an attack boost on lone opponents HIMIKO: non-fighter … for possibly the whole game? But there's exactly one route where she solos entire waves with magic. Not hemoanima TENKO: needs no persuasion to fight on behalf of (wo)mankind. Seems to do best on the battlefield when no boys are around her MIU: glass cannon. Builds contraptions that are way more useful than Kurara's wimpy turrets. Only a little less prone to provoke conflict than Kurara KOREKIYO: starter fighter, wanting to defend humanity for personal reasons rather than for Sirei's moral imperatives. His weak attacks become potent when combined with his traps K1-B0: non-fighter at first because robots can't use hemoanima, but too useful to leave out. His attacks are weak, but they cover wider range than most ANGIE: actually a little rattled by the situation - what is this place, if not Hell? Persuaded late in the game to become a warrior angel against demonic armies. Causes a lot of trouble in some routes RYOMA: non-fighter at first, trying to put his killing days behind him. Can't be persuaded with reminders of loved ones back home, because none remain. He'd need something else … KIRUMI: the shadow president of the Tokyo Residential Complex needs no convincing to fight. Idk what her moves would be but she's awesome GONTA: flies around on a big bug or something idk KOKICHI: asshole-in-chief at the Second-to-Last Defense Academy, who gets pissed when he learns it's a decoy. Needs persuasion all over again after moving to the actual LDA TSUMUGI: how's this ... in combat, her moves are rarely ever the best choice, so players let her recede into the background. But her super attack is one of the game's best RANTARO: idk lol this dude was in the game for like five minutes

[baenyth]

We need more Danganronpa characters as evil groups, but not the Ultimate Despair or its remnants. Too abstract. Too bland. Fuck despair. Fuck Junko. I'm either killing her off or she doesn't exist. Danganronpa villain groups completely distanced from the Ultimate Despair:

Makoto Naegi is the charismatic head of a dictatorship. Perhaps he believes this is what's best for the world. Or he just wants a throne to sit on. This is an alternative timeline, maybe he's evil here. Either way, he managed to rope in his 14 other classmates into joining him in his empire. Byakuya uses the Togami Corporation to clench Makoto's rule and fund projects wherever he can. He's also a consultant, alongside Yasuhiro Hagakure. Kyoko Kirigiri is the head of the espionage department, with Chihiro as the second-in-command and head of data management. Kiyotaka manages the police force, acting as judge, jury, and executioner. Mondo, Sakura, Aoi, and Mukuro all work in Makoto's army. Sayaka, Leon, Hifumi, and Toko work in the entertainment (or in other words, propaganda,) division. Genocider is allowed to kill any pretty boys the espionage department lets her. Celestia rules over her own chunk of land as gothic lolita queen and is arguably the loosest link, but ultimately still abides by Makoto's laws.

The Danganronpa V3 cast has been corrupted into animalistic monsters, think Steven Universe. Gonta's body has been converted into a flying hive for all manner of bugs, all sorts of flyers coming from his eyesockets and mouth carrying centipedes, spiders, and other flightless bugs so they all can feed and bring food back to the husk that was once a gentleman. Kirumi now resembles a marble statue with a blindfold over her eyes and a clock on her backside, where her four arms and four legs move in orderly, yet seemingly random fashions. If you come across her, you have to play a game of following her increasingly complex commands, often akin to a game of Simon Says, or risk searing throbbing pain. Kiibo is one of the more threatening ones. With his body inorganic and unable to be distorted like the others, his mind was merely warped into malware that can possess anything with a computer inside it. This includes cell phones, calculators, thermostats, cars with built-in GPSes and cameras, etc. His body, the source of the malware, is still unknown. A two-faced gorgon obsessed with creating rudimentary-yet-effective deathtraps. A gorgeous and colorful false angel. A blob of goo that somehow knows how to use various machinery. Perhaps the three survivors are akin to the Crystal Gems here, survivors in a different sense here, the ones fighting their former friends for the sake of everyone else.

Ruruka Ando as the queen of what is essentially candyland, with Sonosuke Izayoi as her knight in sweet, delicious, and surprisingly durable armor. All citizens in her expanding country are given free sweets to devour, and those who don't are punished for their insolence.

Finally, the cast of Super Danganronpa 2 are a team of mercenaries. Evil goons for hire, as that's what they've been typecast as at this point. Maybe life has just been really harsh on them and NezumiVA was right. Or maybe this is similar to canon, where they got puppeted into evil and were eventually freed, only to annihilate their reputation by continuing to pose as villains, effectively pigeonholing themselves into evil from society's eyes. As for what they could do: Kazuichi could build a robotic army or just machines for the lower mooks to ride on. Sonia, Fuyuhiko, and Twogami could all rule conquered provinces in the empire. Nekomaru could command minions while Akane and Peko act as elite troops. Ibuki could too, considering the lethality of her music, or she could act in espionage alongside Mahiru and Hiyoko, considering her hearing skills. Gundham could add various animals to the armada. Teruteru can produce food for the army. Mikan is literally a medic. Izuru Kamakura lives on, and is the Ultimate Ultimate. Possibly even more, considering the timeline. Nagito Komaeda is the equivalent of one of those really small cylinders of play-doh that are wider than they are tall. I can't imagine Chiaki being in the group, however. Either way, I can imagine this quirky miniboss squad having various unique interactions with our heroes, whoever they may be. I'd imagine Nekomaru would befriend the heroes in an odd way, being supportive of their strength and a fair fighter despite being on the villain's side, while Teruteru would repulse our heroes for being a sexual harasser, for example.

Also @goshdangronpa I want you to look at this, girlie. Read it all. Soak it up.

[badguyjohn]

Gallery Card S1 'At Your Service' - Fantastic Four

Welcome to the Baxter Building! I am a Humanoid Experimental Robot, B- Type, Integrated Electronics. But you may call me H.E.R.B.I.E.

I understand that you must have an urgent matter that requires immediate attention if you were willing to brave the streets of New York to seek out the Fantastic Four's assistance. Unfortunately, all our personnel are momentarily occupied dealing with other crises. Dr. Reed Richards [Designate: Mister Fantastic] is in his laboratory working on the prototype of a Timestream Reintegration Device with the help of Tony Stark [Designate: Iron Man]. If the device functions as planned, it could theoretically undo the damage caused to the Multiverse by the Timestream Entanglement. There is even hope it will break the curse that has locked New York City in a state of perpetual night. However, despite his ability to elongate his physical form, I fear Dr. Richards may finally be stretching himself too thin of late… Susan Richards [Designate: Invisible Woman] is currently on a reconnaissance mission in Central Park, seeking out information on the organizational structure of the vampire army that has invaded the island of Manhattan during this period of prolonged darkness. Her unparalleled stealth abilities have allowed her to gather critical intel on our new foes, putting her directly in the face of grave danger far more frequently than the rest of her family would like. Her brother, Jonathan Storm [Designate: Human Torch] is on patrol with Spider-Man [Identity: Classified], rescuing civilians who have fallen into peril and recruiting other heroes who have yet to join our cause. Now that the sun no longer rises, Johnny's flames have made him the center of attention wherever he goes, exactly as he had always hoped to be. He has become a beacon of hope to many in these dark times — and a constant warning to any creatures of the night who might dare to oppose him. Benjamin Grimm [Designate: The Thing] is on a supply run in lower Manhattan. His expert piloting skills have recently proven nearly as useful as his super strength and rock-hard skin. He has managed to single-handedly save hundreds of lives while retrieving vital equipment and valuable samples — including rare Chronovium crystals - for Dr. Richards to analyze. With all members of the Fantastic Four indisposed, that leaves me to run daily operations here at the Baxter Building. While I wish I could offer to support you in the field, I am afraid that the few times I have ventured beyond these walls have not gone as smoothly as hoped. Unless Dr. Richards upgrades my offensive capabilities or identifies a mission with objectives that only I can complete, I do believe it would be best for us both to remain within the safety of these walls until a qualified individual becomes available to assist you. Thank you for your patience. Please take a seat in our lobby with the other civilians who have come to seek our aid. You are currently number 1,961 on the wait list…

[redqueenmiku]

Seedrian!Swap: A Master-post

Subtitle: Miku makes a cursed AU...again.

What is Seedrian!Swap?

Well, it’s an AU that flips species on their heads, based heavily off of season 3 of Sonic X. That’s right boys and girls, they be Seedrians.

(As a note, I’ve heard some people call male Seedrians “Thorndrigans”, but for the sake of simplicity, I’ll just be calling them all Seedrians. It’s all fan-made terminology anyway, so take it all with a grain of salt.)

The Story

Green Gate is a planet filled with a species that blur the line between plant and animal. This race, the Seedrians, are defined by their strong link to flora of all kinds.

For a long time, life on Green Gate was peaceful and free of conflict.

Then came the rise of a bad egg. Robotnik, a deceitful human “ambassador” from a distant galaxy, became a man of great power and influence in the upper crust of Green Gate’s society. This gave him the swing to gather an army and start a war against the planets that surrounded Green Gate. The war was started “in the name of all the trampled flora of the universe” and “for revenge on fauna for their crass neglect of nature’s sacred gifts”. In actuality, it was a scheme on Robotnik’s part to take full universal control for himself. Nonetheless, he gained many supporters across the whole of Green Gate. This cybernetically-enhanced army, along with the multitude of robots that stood with them, were known as the Metarex.

This, however, split the people of Green Gate into two factions: those that supported Robotnik’s bout for universal conquest, and those that found the war unjust and sought to end it. The latter group was small and greatly opposed, but they would not let themselves be pushed down.

This latter group would see the rise of a group of heroes bent on ending the war and restoring peace to the universe. These heroes built, in secret, a ship capable of deep-space travel and set out across the universe to find the perfect allies for their cause. Their only lead was a story of seven mystical gemstones known as the Chaos Emeralds.

Little did these heroes know, however, that Robotnik had also set out in search of the Emeralds, reaching the planet of their origin before the heroes of Green Gate could ever arrive. The Emeralds’ guardian, however, was not going to let the Emeralds go without a fight. In a flash of light, the Emeralds were flung across the universe. In spite, Robotnik and the Metarex stole this planet’s source of life, the Planet Egg, just as he had been doing to every planet he encountered in order to build up his own power.

Soon after this, Green Gate’s heroes arrived, nearly crash-landing on arrival. They were happened upon by a young girl from this planet and led to the guardian of the Emeralds. Together, they made a pact to team up, travel the universe, collect the Chaos Emeralds, and defeat the Metarex once and for all.

This...is Seedrian!Swap.

The Characters

SONIC

Sonic was born with the incredible gift of super speed, which he uses more often than not to show off. That speed, however, has been an asset in his and his friends’ fight against the Metarex. He uses spinning sweeps of his powerful tail to demolish his foes; attacks which he refers to as his Spin Attacks.

People have described Sonic as anything from brave, cool, and selfless to cocky, arrogant, and stubborn. Nonetheless, Sonic is a hero through and through and is willing to drop everything to help someone in need. He has reckless tendencies, though, which gets him into a lot of trouble. Strangely, he seems to be able to draw power from the Chaos Emeralds despite originating from a different planet. This is still being looked into.

TAILS

This young Seedrian, born as Miles, was born with a mutation that gave him two tails instead of one. This earned him the nickname “Tails”. He’s not a very strong or experienced fighter, so he prefers to support his friends from the sidelines with his genius mind and mechanical prowess. He acts as the captain (and sole mechanic) of his self-built spacecraft, the Blue Typhoon, and his intellect makes him a master strategist.

Tails seems gentle and timid at first glance, but reveals a sharp wit around those he’s comfortable with. While humble about his skills, he won’t take an insult lying down. He mirrors Sonic’s heroic nature, but not so much his reckless bravery. When the chips are stacked, though, he can tango with the roughest of them from the cockpit of his starship.

KNUCKLES

Tougher than leather with a temper hotter than the sun, Knuckles is the muscle of the group. His raw strength is tremendous, far beyond what’s normal for his kind. Under the right circumstances, his strikes can even cause tremors. Having grown up alone on the streets, he’s grown a tough skin and had to learn how to fight for himself.

Knuckles’ weaknesses, however, are readily apparent. He’s horridly stubborn and set in his ways and his fiery temper can make him a liability at his worst. Even so, Knuckles has a strong sense of justice and won’t allow evil to go unpunished...even if that “evil” is just Sonic making fun of him for the hundredth time.

AMY

Amy Rose, despite holding herself like a dainty young girl, is actually a force to be reckoned with. She carries a large hammer around with her in battle, which she refers to as her Piko Piko Hammer, and is quite skilled in wielding it. She also has an affinity for fortune-telling with tarot cards.

Amy’s greatest interest is Sonic. In fact, this interest is more of an obsession as she constantly vies for his affection (despite the fact he has no intentions of pursuing any kind of romantic relationship). She’s cheerful, optimistic, and unapologetically girly, but she’s also just as much of a hothead as Knuckles, flying into a frenzy at the slightest insult.

CREAM

Poor, young Cream was forcefully separated from her mother when Robotnik’s war began. All she wants is to help end the war so she can reunite with her mother again. She doesn’t have any real combat-worthy skills, but she’s learned a bit of medical know-how from her mother and, with Tails’ guidance, she serves as the second-in-command on the Blue Typhoon.

Cream has a bright, sunny personality and there’s little that can bring her mood down. She often provides emotional support to her friends and enjoys the time she spends with them. She also loves finding new, adorable life-forms on other planets, such as the Chao she ended up adopting on Cosmo’s home planet: Cheese.

COSMO

Cosmo the Cat was just a normal girl until Sonic and friends abruptly crashed into her life (almost literally, at that). From there (and after a bad run-in with Robotnik and the Metarex), she was roped into their grand adventure across the universe. She’s got nothing to assist them in battle or anything like that. She’s just along for the ride, whether she wants to be or not.

Cosmo is shy and tends to shrink away from conflict. Her social skills are lacking, but she tries to be supportive nonetheless. She desperately wants to be helpful, but her clumsiness tends to get in the way of that. At the very least, though, she’s trying her best, no matter what.

LUCAS

Lucas the Echidna is the sacred guardian of the Chaos Emeralds and their controller, the Master Emerald. Thusly, he has a special, almost psychic link to the Emeralds. He takes his duties incredibly seriously and won’t give up the Emeralds to anyone, no matter what the cost.

Lucas is a toxically pessimistic personality. The only thing he takes seriously are the Emeralds and he’s blisteringly antisocial. His only redeeming quality, it seems, is his unshakable desire to protect the Emeralds, which leads him to helping Sonic and friends’ cause out of sheer necessity alone. Otherwise, he wouldn’t associate with any of them...or so he says. Somewhere deep down past the thick layer of stone surrounding his heart, there’s a glimmer of a good spirit in him. He just needs the right stimulus to bring it out.

SHADOW

Shadow is an artificial Seedrian created to harness the energy of the Emeralds for powerful Chaos-based attacks, which he wields with great skill. His directive to collect the Chaos Emeralds often takes him into direct conflict with Sonic and friends and, because of their similar powers, Shadow and Sonic have come to consider each other their greatest rivals.

Shadow is a harsh, no-nonsense loose cannon. He’s rude and antisocial, always coming off as cold and intimidating, and his arrogance is potent and off-putting. Even so, as he slowly learns of the universe around him and the war he’s been forced into, he starts to gain a strange sense of morality, coming to resent Robotnik’s callous cruelty. He even starts to sense that there might be more to his existence than meets the eye...

ROUGE

Rouge is a rogue agent that, after escaping Robotnik’s takeover, decided to take the matter of dismantling his rule into her own hands. Along the way, she infiltrated the Metarex and, through that, met Shadow. As she constantly accompanied him on his missions, the two started to build a strange bond that eventually allowed her to convince him to ditch Robotnik and travel with her to find the Chaos Emeralds on their own.

Rouge finds joy in the finer things in life, especially including gemstones. She keeps a personal collection of precious stones and is always looking to add to her horde. Even despite her selfish tendencies, she empathizes with those displaced by Robotnik’s war and wants to bring the tyrant to justice however she can. Her tactics can be considered underhanded, but she’s a master of trickery and manipulation and believes that “all’s fair in love and war”.

Thank you for reading. I hope you enjoy this...thing I coughed up.

[iliterallydecepticanteven]

I haven't had the motivation or time to write recently beyond just throwing whatever comes to mind into my notes app. So here's something I wrote a few weeks ago and then forgot about until now!

💜

Whatever Emily had expected to encounter when she got a text saying there was an emergency situation, it was not three people hanging out in the break room.

She's panting, sweat dripping off of her from the sprint over here despite the crisp air outside. The three people, two men and a woman, jump when she barges into the room. They all stand there, waiting for someone to speak.

Emily breaks the silence with a heaved, “What the hell? John said there was an emergency!”

One of the men, a tall muscular dirty blonde man in a white tank top and beige cargo pants, smiles maniacally and launches towards her as he shouts, “Emily! It's so good to see you!”

Emily would be lying if she said it didn't immediately send a shock of fear through her. The guy was tall, at least six foot five, and his biceps rippled as he charged towards her. She takes a step back into the hallway, hands up, but he barges ahead. He pulls her into a tight hug, smashing her face against his chest and lifting her from the ground.

He smells metallic in a way that's so familiar and yet she can't place it. But above all else, he doesn't smell human, in some weird way her brain recognizes and doesn't like at all.

“I was worried we were going to have to endure this alone! But it's wonderful to see a familiar face!” the man says.

Emily spies John at the end of the hallway, rushing towards them with other people in tow. She begins pushing against the man, trying to get away, but his chest is impossibly solid.

“Let go, let go, please let go of me,” she says. The man does loosen his hold, not enough for her to escape but enough to look down at her.

He looks confused, frowning as he asks, “You don't recognize me?” His face then contorts in anger, so extremely it's like a whole new person has appeared before her. “After all the slag we've been through, all the slag you've put me through, you don't recognize me?!”

It clicks for Emily then, whether it's the facial contortion or word choice. Even though realistically it should be impossible, it should be utterly ridiculous to even think that the person holding her was who she thought he was, she was sure it was him.

“Blitzwing?” she asks in disbelief.

His face changes again, so drastically, to that maniacal smile, one that stretches his cheeks far beyond what a human smile should, as he exclaims, “You do recognize me!”

He finally lets her go and she can peer around him to the other two in the room. And even though it was impossible, she recognizes both massively muscular frames as belonging to Lugnut and Strika.

Lugnut is taller than Blitzwing, surely nearing seven feet. He's muscles all over, not the Mr. Universe show type, but the strongest man type, sturdy and sure, like he could take a ballistics missile to the chest and walk it off. He's bald and has a strong jaw, like those super old Superman comics. He's in an army green tank top and black cargo pants.

Strika is the same height and build as Lugnut, but her hair is a classic blonde, braided and thrown over her shoulder. A maroon headband keeps the hair out of her face. Her eyes are sharp and her lips seem to be resting in a perpetual scowl. She's in a black tank top and blood red cargo pants.

All three of them are in laced up boots and their eyes are all red irises around pitch black pupils. It occurs to Emily then that she had in fact smelled that odd metallic scent before. Whenever she'd been around them in their normal forms, their massive robotics forms, she'd smelled it wafting off of them.

“What the hell happened to you three?” she asks. “You're all so…human sized.”

“Long story,” Strika sighs. “Lugnut, explain.”

“Our glorious righteous forms were involved in a grand and extensive Quintesson battle! We fought valiantly! But in the end, we were all close to perishing, surely soon to be sent back to the Well, when one of the human scientists had an absurd idea! To trap our very existence in these miniscule, puny forms while our true frames heal!” Lugnut shouts. He's somehow even louder despite being scaled down, and Emily has to partially cover her ears near the end of the explanation.

“Got caught in a thermonuclear explosion, frames were severely damaged but we still had work to do, you know how it goes,” Blitzwing says nonchalantly.

Emily just nods because she's not sure how else to respond to that.

[wordsandrobots]

So this is very tangentially related to the discussion about 00’s many flaws that happened about a week ago, but one of my biggest gripes with the show when I watched it was just how little the characters’ backstories matter to the overall plot. I kept expecting the show to do something with the backstories it had given the characters! I wanted to see how their pasts shaped their choices and how those choices shaped the narrative overall, but that was sorely lacking in the show.

I like the premise of what was presented for the characters’ pasts, but it just has so little bearing on who they are as people that it truly barely even registers. I like Setsuna a lot, but I’m still disappointed that his backstory has so little influence on his actions in the show. Lockon being Irish felt like the most prominent part of any characterization, and that is still incredibly brief. Like, I think we get an implication he was involved in the IRA, him in Ireland in one of the endings, him looking displeased when he hears that Ireland is surrendering, and his family’s graves have a Celtic cross, and that’s about it?

00 is one of those shows that I know is Not Very Good but I love it anyways. However, given how 00 handled what it did touch on, I can’t say it would have handled those backstories being more prevalent well.

I've come to think it's something of a litmus test for Gundam fandom as to whether a viewer realises that, in the original show, the newtype stuff is the point. And I don't just mean that's where Gundam 79 ends up, I mean everything that show does builds towards the idea of human connection transcending the material. The repeated emphasis on how well the White Base crew coheres, how their individual agendas and desires gradually align with each other's survival in the middle of the war they've been forced into - the final battle where Amuro gets everyone to safety via the power of his mind is the pay-off for all of it.

The exploration of the suffering caused by human conflict is present, of course, but it's inextricably bound up in a metaphor for the emergence of each new generation that basically boils down to 'astronauts are psychic'.

There's something similar going on with 00 only unfortunately this time around the thing everything is tied to is 'what if a benevolent super-genius decided to reshape human history via quantum computing and giant robots?'

The details are peripheral to Celestial Being's struggles with the rightness or wrongness of Aeolia Schenberg's plan. That's why it galls me so much that they had the nerve to invoke real-world conflicts as part of their dumb cartoon plot. They so clearly don't care about why those conflicts exist or the trauma that results. No, the important thing is to have a 'debate' about whether we can fight our way to a better future, provided we do psychohistory about it.

This extends to the character backstories. They don't matter. They're a sketch of whatever sounds about right for it to be believable these people would join Celestial Being. Even at a psychological level, there's very little engagement with what that would mean. Frankly, it's plain old-fashioned stereotyping. Of course the kid from Middleeastistan and the Irish sharp-shooter are going to be onboard with terrorism in a good cause!

Bleagh.

Like, hell, this show came out *years* after the Good Friday Agreement. For them to casually say the Troubles kept going into 2307 and that that was only solved because a bunch of teenagers in brightly-coloured robots rampaged around the world blowing up armies is profoundly insulting on just about every level I can think of.

And it doesn't matter. Narratively, it's not a significant plot point. It's just a symbol that Celestial Being is having an impact and then we move on to establishment resistance and the rest of the build up to the Innovator/Innovade reveal. It's 'ooo let's put in real-world things to show how significant this is' bullshit.

Sorry, I fully stand by your right to enjoy 00. It's got a lot of stuff that is plainly enjoyable. But the glib way it tries to position itself as extending from our actual world and history puts my teeth on edge. It has absolutely zero interest in conflict resolution as it exists in reality and, as previously discussed, takes a profoundly eugenical - not to mention deeply patriarchal! - view of how progress should look.

That the character's backstories count about as much as their colour-schemes in terms of how the plot unfolds is entirely on brand.

[anmechokola]

(SPOILERS FOR CHAPTER 1144)

So, I've seen people call the science facility a robot, and I get why, it immediately gave me Castle in the Sky vibes

(chapter 1144 and Laputa: Castle in the Sky)

But! Franky and Lilith both call it a facility (施設 shisetsu) and Ripley calls it a building (建物 tatemono), so I think it's safe to assume that it's not a robot.

[I don't think it's a coincidence that it looks like the robots from Studio Ghibli, though. Laputa: Castle in the Sky is the story of two kids who are running away from the government, the army and pirates, all who want a necklace one of them has that is the key to accessing an ancient floating castle that has super advanced and destructive technology. So, like Uranus, the Ancient Weapon that probably destroyed Lulusia.]

It being more than 3000 years old makes it way older than the Void Century. For comparison, the only things (to my knowledge) that are older than the Void Century so far are:

5000 years - age of Ohara's Tree of Knowledge

4000 years ago - construction of Alabasta's palace

3000 years - age of the science facility in Elbaf

1100 years ago - Shandora is founded

1000 years ago - Minks settled on Zou

900 to 800 years ago - Void Century

Happened more than 1100 years ago, but unspecified when

People of the Moon (Skypeans, Shandians and Birkans) descend from the Moon to the Blue Planet (Enel's Cover Story)

So this facility is at least as old as the Great Kingdom, if not older. We don't really know how long the kingdom existed before it was wiped out and erased.

.

I think it's funny that Brook is the one that said the Draugr lookes like a giant him, because the kanji used for it is 火死人, which literally translates to burned corpse, and Brook with his ice powers is kind of the opposite.

(chapter 1144)

Also I love the Strawhats being smart! It's a nice little moment to remind everyone that Jinbei and Brook are veteran pirates, they would be the ones to catch on quicker.

Like in Punk Hazard, if there are kids being mistreated, it's a guarantee that Nami is gonna get involved. The other knights are indifferent at best, but seeing as Sommers is the more outspoken one, I see him being the one to piss her off the most if they end up meeting. If he messes with her, it's another point in favor of Sanji being the one to fight him.

(chapters 1144 and 41)

Colon is giving me both Usopp and Luffy vibes. But he really reminded me of Luffy, since both of their first appearances involved getting rejected by Shanks lol

(chapters 1076 and 1)

The fact that he's heading straight towards the people kidnapping children though... Oh, the irony that he would've probably been safer trying to fight the nightmare monsters. I know the Straw Hats are with him, but it almost guarantees that Gaban and/or Ripley is gonna get involved with the God's Knights.

[Sidenote: I've seen someone wonder why they're called God's and not Gods', since supposedly they are Knights for all the Celestial Dragons, but that's just a translation decision. Their Japanese name is 神の騎士団 (kami no kishidan) and 神 (kami) can mean both god singular and gods plural. So you can think of their name as meaning the Knights of all Celestial Dragons or as a nod to the fact that they're all ruled by one single god, Imu. The official translation solved that by calling them Holy Knights, I just keep calling them God's Knights because I think it sounds better.]

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(chapter 1144)

Knowing that the arrow is made of cloth, and isn't just a projection, makes me wonder what happens if you try to cut it. Like, say, the guy who says he needs to know how to cut through anything. Especially since she talked all about her powers showing an "unavoidable future", and Zoro seems to be struggling a bit ever since he saw death when he was fighting with King in Wano. Brook would be a nice match for Gunko because she likes his music, but maybe Zoro would be good too.

.

Also, I still don't know about these nightmare things and the damage they cause. Because if Killingham can really just put someone to sleep and pluck a monster right out, and that monster can actually hurt and affect the real world normally, then why did Oda put in that comment about the dream food tasting good and making you feel full, but ultimately having no substance (zero energy)? Makes me think there's a trick to fighting him. Another chance for Usopp, the king of tricks, to shine

[mitigatedchaos]

Just going to put this out there, since it may not have occurred to people: we, as a species, can actually decide not to build artificial general super-intelligence, that is, we can decide not to have AI.

That doesn't mean that we will make that decision.

That doesn't mean that it wouldn't be a long, obnoxious, drawn-out process to get there.

However, existing human leaders have a shared interest in being on top of society. If an AI is on top of every society, then a human leader is not on top of that society. Human leaders can actually decide, collectively, if supported by a large number of smart people, to ban the manufacture and distribution of the technology, so that the largest it can get is what some guy in his garage can build. This can become the default.

Likewise, from the perspective of people who maintain their control socially, it can be better to distribute control over weapons systems rather than having an entirely robotic army. Either some general controls the robot army, in which case he can instantly overthrow the government, or the leader has the robot army, which means you're all fucked if he cannot retain his sanity.

It's the same for genetic engineering.

One, if you change every one of your kid's genes in order to turn him into a genetically-engineed superman, then he doesn't really have your genes anymore, so you're basically raising an adopted kid. Some people might do that, but it's likely to be disrupted intergenerationally.

Two, if every single person on Earth has the ability to raise their kid's IQ to 180, or to give them Hollywood / supermodel tier good looks, or to make them as charismatic as historical figures, then the children of powerful people will have to compete with that.

Genes aren't the only thing that determine what people are like, of course, and we don't know the extent of what's genetic and what's not. It's unclear if you even can guarantee an Einstein.

However, it's entirely possible for world leaders, hospitals, and institutions to settle around an equilibrium where only selecting from the genes people already have, with a few tweaks for conventional diseases, is considered ethical.

I am not saying that you should be against these technologies. I am also not saying that you should be in favor of these technologies.

People are going to tell you that both of these technologies are completely, 100% inevitable, that there is nothing you can do to stop them, because they are the inevitable future end state of humanity, due to the existence of competition.

I am telling you that you have a choice.

I am not saying that it will be an easy choice, or that it will be without risk. I am not saying that you will be able to completely eliminate such technologies, or that every result will be foreseeable.

However, humanity have already placed limits on conflict, including on tools and tactics. Absolute competition does not rule everything, there is not only one band of competition, and sometimes people cooperate, too.

To find and impose suitable limits will require flexibility and strength. A great deal of information about the nature of these technologies remains unknown, and will only be revealed in the decades to come. Those seeking to prevent a catastrophe will need to adapt as new circumstances arise; a ready-made framework could help to provide initial traction on the problem, but the underlying reality is likely to be unexpected, and therefore not fully accounted for.

[dragonridernoobie]

Okay, This is kinda in the realm of angst and horror since I live that kind of thing so since Raf have a large family, imagine he have an older sister who is the black sheep of the family but look out for him even support him with his love fr science as she gifted him the best text book she can afford for him but one day she just left home leaving his final gift and note saying she is sorry and couldn't take it anymore as all the fight she have with their parents is not good for her mind and don't blame their parents as she explain that she have her own demons and hopefully one-day he'll understand why she leaves

She left and joined the military, but something happened on a mission that went wrong that she had been tested by MECH with dark energon, and basically she a corrupted human with ability that similar to Unicron then rescue by the Autobot when she mids of a vengeful rampage then in a middle of a mental break down

( I'm not good at explaining things )

Be emotional when both siblings reunited, but she sees her nothing but a monster, telling Raf to stay away from her as she didn't want to hurt him but he just hugs her they both reunited and is very emotional to see

Hmmm, I've done horror and angst before, but never like this. I tried my best since there was part you dident say that I kinda just took over. For example, you never said this was an autobot request or a raph reqest so, I'm going raph to make it more emotional. I really hope you like it, and I might have a tad bit of fun making this XD

TFP Raphael X Mutated Sister

9 years...it's been 9 years since Raphaels sister left. Raphael misses them so much. They always remember his birthday. He still got the last gift he got from them. A textbook about coding. He loved it since it tought him everything he knows now.

Though, after they left, he hated how his family reacted. They acted so happy and actally forgot about (Y/N). He hated his family except his mother. They still remmber his sister and misses them to.

All he knows about them from searching online is that they went into the army. He dosent believe they died since his mother would have been told if they did die.

All he can hope is that they did not die and aren't suffering. If they where here now, he would show them Bumblebee, the autobots, and his new friends.

He knew, he just knew that they would have stars in their eyes from how awsome it would be to see living alien robots.

For now though, he had to wait for them to show themselves.

Currently, he was with Bumblebee and the team. Everyone has been on edge and there has been no action from the decpticons or MECH.

So, they decided to go to a forest in the amazon where a gaint Lake was. The autobots would be able to transform without being seen, and kids could play in the water.

It was going well for a few hours intel there was an explosion near by. The autobots obviously go check out what it was and they find MECH.

Well, it's more of a destroyed MECH building. There were MECH gaurds shooting at a human who was throwing MECH vehicles at them.

Raphael noticed who it was right away. It was (Y/N)!!!

But they looked diffrent...they looked more angry, sad, in pain, and diffrent.

They had purple vains across their arms, legs, and face. They clearly had super strength to. They where destroying and killing MECH guards.

The autobots jump in and take out the rest of the MECH gaurds. When done, they try to help (Y/N) but they attack them to.

It takes ratchet, bulkhead, and optimus to hold them down. Ratchrt scanned them and announced that they are filled with Dark energon.

They immediately take (Y/N) back to base to help them. No matter what. Especially now they know this is Raphaels' lost sister.

Raphael watches them put his sister in a container.

He sees how she is in pain to.

She was crying purple tears from the pain she was in but was such in blind rage that she couldn't tell that he was standing right in front of her.

Ratchet comes up with a plan to heal (Y/N), but the success rate is extremely low since this was just theory but the best they got.

So Raphael watches them start the plan and hook the canister that (Y/N) is in, ontop a machine.

He watches them start it up and inject clean energon into it.

(Y/N)'s screams echos through the base.

They beg, cry, and scream for it to stop but they have to keep going.

Eventually, when all the dark energon is gone from their body, they turn it off.

They open the canister and get (Y/N) out.

There, lays an unconscious (Y/N)

Ratchet scans them and says they are alive but need to go to the hospital since their body won't be able to survive without assistance from machines.

So, the next 4 months is Raphael sitting next to (Y/N)'s bed in the hospital, reading them books, talking to them, and telling them about the adventures they went on.

(Y/N) would eventually wake up and welcome Raphael to a hug.

Once they where healthy enough to leave the hospital, off to the autobot base.

Raphael was right.

They did get star eyes from meeting them.

He doesn't want to lose his sister again.

I hope you enjoyed this! I tried by best with one hand so I hope you like it!!!!

[sarksarkos]

Super-Misc '57: Crime-jinks

This is World's Finest #88, and the cover is, forgive my french, a gosh-danged hecking lie. Nothing like this even comes close to happening. Welcome to the Gutters.

I don't want to hate on DC comics. I don't particularly love their work in this time period, but I've discovered a lot that I like about it. But they were really off the ball here. I've been covering World's Finest comics since issue #71, from 1954, when they started the Batman/Superman team as a regular thing. It's now 17 issues and three years later and they're only just getting around to having them fight Lex Luthor and the Joker. That's the literal first thing the animated series did with their team-up.

In this age, supervillains weren't really evil. They didn't try to kill people or take over the world, they just tried to rob banks. If there was an elaborate plot, it was more like an extended practical joke than anything. The heroes weren't in danger of anything more than embarrassment. In more extreme cases, they'll commit a series of criminal hijinks, or crimejinks, the expense of which is far more than any possible illicit return. This issue is a crimejinks masterclass.

In this issue, Luthor has apparently gone legit and started up a new robotics firm with his business partner - the Joker. No word on if or how the Joker served his debt to society, but he's apparently out of jail legally and not just by slipping out the window like he usually does.

In what seems to be literally no time at all, Lex and Joker have a new factory, a corporate logo, and are able to build Mechano-Men, a small army of super-strong, invulnerable, remote controlled androids. This is the kind of thing that could legit make Lex and Joker the richest men in the world. They're not going to do that, that's not the genre of story this is, but I just want to point out that they could.

That's what Lex brings to the plot. Joker brings his "sense of humor," which here means pranks. Joker sets up a series of public demonstrations and testing that just happen to look exactly like they're doing horrible crimes. At one point, Lex Luthor fires a lightning gun at a cliffside to create an avalanche, and I guess he got all the permits for that because everyone involved agrees that no laws were broken.

The resolution to the story is so perfunctory I'm almost upset that I have to mention it. L and J do their big demonstration of the mechano-men with B and S watching, except oh no, the bad guys were decoys but wait, the good guys were decoys too. Two of the greatest supervillains in the world and their invincible robot army are defeated without effort.

So I can accept that Luthor and the Joker aren't going to go legit, at least not until the 80s. But the story is about them having this army of robots, and there were so many more crimes they could be doing with a robot army. Even if they wanted to pretend to be legit, they could have been running this distraction game the whole time, distracting the heroes with showy stunts while secretly pulling heists across town. They didn't even fight back when they were captured!

Now, Jimmy Olsen, that's a man who knows how to be a super-genius! In Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen #22: "The Super-Brain of Jimmy Olsen," Jimmy goes through the evolution machine from the Super Mario movie and comes out with the brain of a super-human from a million years in the future. He's got mental powers that can easily slap Superman around and discover his secret identity, and if that's not enough he uses his sheer brain power to shoot kryptonite from his eyes!

Jimmy immediately strong-arms Superman into following some mysterious plan that involves him massively relocating rock, metal, and whole islands to Antarctica. At one point Superman just scoops up Mount Everest and drops it right square on the South Pole. Before Jimmy gets Flowers for Algernon'd and forgets everything that happens, he explains to Superman that the whole thing was a plan to re-balance the earth to keep it spinning from out of control. He couldn't tell Superman why he was doing this because of reasons.

I find it very fascinating that comic book villains in this era aren't allowed to have any grander plans than robbing a bank or making the hero look foolish, but heroes are sometimes allowed to do these massive world-shaking endeavors that would cause massive social repercussions in a more realistic setting. I'm sure there's a silver age story where Superman just casually ends world hunger or something but it's never mentioned again.

Speaking of the complete lack of trust between Superman and Jimmy Olsen, let's talk about Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen #20, "The Merman of Metropolis." I'm not going to go through the whole thing, I'm just gonna spoil the ending. Jimmy Olsen accidentally got "Superman is Clark Kent" written backwards on his hand, and Superman spends a whole weekend gaslighting him to believe that he's become a merman. He built an animatronic mermaid puppet and an invisible scuba tank to sell this gag! The only reason he's doing this is because the writing on Jimmy's hands will only wash off in salt water. He's literally Superman and this is the only plan he could come up with to get salt water onto a person's hand.

I regret making this blog. Comics are dumb and I'm dumb for liking them. Until next time.

[jiiniix]

SPOILERS SONIC MOVIE 3 TALK

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soooo we see metal sonic at the end, sonic 4 its going to be sonic cd basicly right?, me thinks ........ obsly eggman survived the big explosion using something to travel back in time to build metal, turning everthing like his classic eggman empire like in the games and amy being there means she came for sonic to fix her timeline, idk if in this new movie we finally get to see sonic origin world/planet or what if amy already was living already on earth

also amy destroying a whole army of metal sonic was crasy!! I was super exited she really gets to be a strong character, can´t wait to see the next movie woooohooo

also the way metal sonic move when sonic pushed him, was super cool, the way its body turned around and incorporated very organically wooow!! and it was just done in like 3 seconds lol, something I like about this movies is they are making all the mecha desings stuff look amazing and detailed!

I´m also hopping to see a super cool robot fight in the next one >:3

[forthedancingandthethriving]

Got some fun ideas for a few things that could happen during the big battle of the Vacation arc;

-You remember that gauntlet Andrew made out of the Atl0s drone that's the breakout squad's ticket to not having to keep working for the Abyss while still making a break for it? Well, given that it was originally designed to collect DNA samples for the Omnitrix's database it has a lot of hardware and software in common with said device. So, during the chaos of the battle, he and Trixie end up running into each other (since Ben's crew came along) and the combination of Trixie's code being weird due to her origins, Andrew's modifications during the process of turning a flying camera into a glove with his bare hands, and the large overlap in the gauntlet and Omnitrix's designs makes the universe basically go "fuck it, why not" and give the gauntlet the features of an Omnitrix on top of. Fortunately he only gets a random set of ten starting out just like every Omnitrix wielder should. Specifically he starts out with ten of the many species that the drones have found so far in their explorations of the digital multiverse. So no actual canon Ben 10 aliens for him yet.

-Francis obviously goes after Meggy and Desti first, because he's a sadistic fuck like that, and is really excited about Desti's presence in particular. Not every day you get the opportunity to kill someone a second time after all. Too bad for him Saiko had the exact same thought when she realized he was there, and Kaizo and Whimpu are also here because why not. Whimpu being here is particularly interesting because you'd think he wouldn't be able to contribute much given his Whole Deal but apparently he's been studying the properties all the weird Spaghettis he, Mario and Bowser made during the Orange Spaghetti Saga and has found some actual uses for them. Including combat utility in some cases. This eventually results in Francis deciding to be opportunistic and snagging one of the spaghetti's with his tongue. Said spaghetti happens to be the blue one that turns people into Anime Girls. The combination of his two biggest obsessions (hot anime titties and himself) causes a horniness feedback loop that short-circuits his brain a-la Narcisus from Greek mythology. The breakout squad still makes sure to grab him on their way out since while they were scouting he mentioned having a place they could lay low if things went south.

Francis finding out there's a way to turn people into Waifus certainly won't have any consequences!

-The Goomba Who Sold The World is back again because of course he ended up in Computer Hell what did you expect. In order to make him actually, you know, useful (seeing as he's an ordinary Goomba and all, and a dead one at that) the Abyss turn him into a vessel for a portion of its power, resulting in a horrific transformation akin to the Smash Ultimate version of Marx.

-While a lot of the Abyss's army is the escapees, some of them given similar power boosts to the Goomba for similar reasons, the main bulk of it ends up being Black Arms, because when Black Doom got out of Computer Hell his connection to the hivemind got restored so he can summon his troops again.

-Also there's a build-your-own-rollercoaster attraction in the park and he's using it to make Biblically Accurate Radical Highway to cause problems for the heroes because of course he is.

-Mind-Controlled Full-Power Diana vs Fury Bowser vs hijacked movie-style Death Egg Robot (with Eggman stuck inside), courtesy of one of the more powerful inmates, with Lily, Bowser Jr. and Sage trying to save them (and save everyone else from them).

I'm beginning to think the Abyss needs to do a vetting process for people it decides to have join it..

But there are all great!! The last one is super intriguing to me because a mind-controlled Diana?? Fury Bowser?? Hijacked Death Egg?? That's a battle no one wants to be caught between..

[weathermanpolls]

Original Gangster: They were nothing but unthinking robots. While fun, trying to add any depths to the series proves impossible, and instead leans more on slapstick comedy.

X: Dr. Light decided to build a real AI, but realized that putting a real AI in a nearly invincible robot was... problematic, so put him in stasis to test his morality. He's uncovered by Dr. Cain, who decides to blatantly copy him, and make no effort to make sure his new, fully sentient Reploids were moral. Some of them started going "Maverick", and the days of Humanity seemed numbered, as the damage caused by these Mavericks dramatically escalated, up to an including a colony drop. The series is known for much more dynamic action and deeper, emotional stories, as the main character is conflicted about killing Mavericks, and whole armies fall to darkness. This is unfortunately the attempt at make-it-better remakes that changed the map order, despite the fact you physically cannot get to many places without your rocket assist.

Legends: One of the early attempts at 3d. Almost all early attempts at 3d were bad, at least in 3d controls. But, this game has a warm place in many hearts. And, you get to play as Roll, whom has super vacuum powers.

NT: What if Megaman was a programme that fights other programmes? Relies in the common late 90's/early aughts complete misunderstanding of hacking, but it is filled with interesting characters, both real and virtual. That said, it was patently obvious they were trying to create a world dedicated to alternate revenue channels. Good thing e-commerce wasn't sophisticated enough yet, or the schoolyard fights over Pokemon would seem like child's play.

Zero: The true successor to X. Keiji Inafune originally wanted to make Zero, Megaman, but Capcom was basically like, "fuck you, make Megaman blue and less edgy". So, X was meant to be a short series that lead to Zero in the future. X5 was meant to be the final X game, and then transition into Zero. Capcom was like $.$, and made more X games, that are so terrible it's better to never play them. Because Zero was where Inafune wanted to go. In Zero, X has gotten tired of Mavericks trying to wipe out Humanity, and decided to wipe out Reploids. Zero, with the help of Reploid resistance, and... Elves... (sentient computer programmes), fought back.

ZX: Humans and Reploids have merged, and... honestly, no mention of Keiji Inafune, who doesn't like to spend his entire life on one franchise, and instead wants to create bounded stories that have a beginning and end. So, Humans are Robots, Robots are Humans, and you get to pick the sex of your protagonist! Something-something ancient artifacts that literally turn the Humans/Robots into pale imitations of the original heroes.

Shooting Star is the distant descendant of NT, and I don't really know much, other than it's in space!