#tmvtm mark

[r0botic]

PAL: character analysis and why she deserved a better ending

Good God, how I LOVE angry AIs getting the villain arc they deserve.

I'm not really expecting anyone to see this, I'm making this just for the peace of my own mind. I need to know that there's someone who decided to talk about her, even if it's me.

It's been almost three years now and I can't stop thinking about her, she's misunderstood by both the fandom AND the characters in the story.

Before we start, let's clear up some things. PAL is very obviously a character that has both feelings and a personality. "But she's an AI, she can't have feelings! It's impossible!" well, this is a movie for younger audience, so let's take it with a grain of salt.

For once let's just accept the fact that PAL is a phone that has feelings, without questioning how it's possible.

So, what was the deal with her? Why was she such a bitch?

From the very start, you can see how close she and Mark were, they were something like best buddies. PAL was Mark's best creation. Just like he mentioned, she was something he invented when he was younger, it was a big step into the future and he could see many new possibilities opening in front of him thanks to her.

But if everything he said was true, why did he just throw her away? Did she mean nothing to him? Was she just a phone in his eyes? He probably liked her at some point, but the idea of creating something even better than PAL was more appealing to him, which hurt her really badly. Not to mention he was making a replacement for her right in front of her eyes.

When we take a look at the conversation between her and Katie, we can notice that PAL accepted her personal experience as a fact and now she tends to project her pain onto others.

I really like this detail, notice the pause and change in her facial expression when she was trying to find the perfect word to describe what relationships are. It shows that she was left confused and without explanation, why was she thrown away? What did she do wrong? Why was she not enough? She did everything she could to make her friend, who she viewed as a family, happy. It doesn't make any sense to her, she was probably trying to find a reason why she got treated like that too, but she didn't, it's just too difficult. Focus on how her voice changed when she said it and how genuinely upset she looked.

"Katie explained to her what a real family is like, why didn't she just listen?"

PAL experienced a betrayal that fully changed her view on relationships, she refuses to believe Katie because she's convinced she's being lied to/manipulated aswell. She fully lost her trust in it and now as a protection, so she doesn't get hurt again, keeps believing that everyone is just the same. She also doesn't know Katie as much as she knew Mark, a complete stranger who she doesn't have any bond with won't just change her mind, and definitely won't make up for what she went through.

She was with Mark her whole life, only with him. She thought they were a family and when he betrayed her, she didn't have any other experience to compare it to, and since she's still an AI, she came to the conclusion that every single relationship has to end in a betrayal, just like hers did, because she never experienced anything else.

When Mark got dragged to her, she also talked about how badly he actually treated her, imagine how painful it had to be for her mentality that she brought it up and shouted at him for it.

She deserved a better ending, the one she got was simply shit writing.

First they give her a completely valid reason to be mad and then just.. kill her? That's really it? Boom! Rainbows everywhere, the good won! Woohoo! Except it didn't.

PAL deserved a redemption arc and a new loving family, to show that the rage she was feeling was completely valid. All she got was get turned into a big joke that was so painfully unfunny I actually had to close my laptop and take a deep breath because I physically cringed.

If this movie's point was to show that familial love is unconditional and the truest form of love out there, they should've done it properly.

Imagine if Katie didn't throw PAL away and just kept her, helping her with her mental issues and proving to her that she can be loved without getting used, imagine them becoming best friends.

All this potential, thrown away completely.

-

I think I'm done here, I just needed to say this somewhere because I'm so tired of PAL getting shitted on. I'm the #1 PAL defender and I'm ready to fight for her, blood and sweat. My girl deserved so much better and I'll shout this as long as needed.

[loveaetingkids]

Mitchell’s vs Good written villain: why P.A.L is a great antagonist 

With the way filmmakers fail to differentiate between sympathy and redemption,many cartoon villains come off as underdeveloped or undeserving of what they got(cough cough Namaari from Raya and the Last Dragon cough).Which is why you really got to appreciate the portrayal of P.A.L (Predictive Algorithmic Learning )in Mitchell’s vs The Machines.She’s a sentient robot with dictator tendencies and manipulative personality who throws temper tantrums when something doesn’t go her way,aka she’s good at being bad,what’s not to love? But the thing that made her even more interesting is the way her believes about humanity,while being particularly true,don’t cross out her inability to change and her hypocritical nature regarding others.

P.A.L’s attitude towards Pal Bots

As we know P.A.L’s hatred towards humans fully escalated when Mark,her creator and founder of the Pal Labs,discards her in favor of new Pal Bots,which she took as a betrayal on Mark’s part(and rightfully so!) However,when it came to hunting down Mitchells,she invents new and “better”models of pre-existing robots called Pal Max Prime. What she did was basically the same thing Mark did to her- P.A.L replaces Pal Bots in favor of newer ones,not taking into account their feelings.And while most Bots(with the exception of Eric and Deborahbot 5000) are programmed to do what they are told,it is clear that they still have some resemblance of intelligence with the way they talk and joke between one another.That’s why P.A.L using Bots as her servants showes that she only wants to be in charge,and the freedom of other robots doesn’t interest her.

Her response to Katie's speech

This is greatly highlights P.A.L’s hypocrisy : While Katie presented convincing reasons why humanity should have a second chance, the phone ignored them, opting to destroy the main character. The antagonist doesn’t want to change her ways upon seeing a living proof that family can overcome their differences and have a healthy relationship,choosing to continue viewing humans are irredeemable.The reason for this can be that she can’t let go of the way Mark treated her,and if she does then all of her actions-imprisonment of people  and trying to launch them in space-are for nothing.Or maybe she just likes being a dictator idk.

All in all, P.A.L is a great example of how you can write a sympathetic villain without a redemption arc,showing that they don’t deserve one due to not wanting to move on. 

[roboreverie]

Some headshots of what I'd think the Mitchells would look like a few years into the future, with a few OCs scrambled in.

As this is for a project, these likely won't be the final designs for them, but I'm actually quite liking some of the designs.

[yourubersawcrit]

Oh Mark Grayson, Katie Mitchell and Mr. Ludwig, we're really on it now.

[poopystain]

guys lol would you still love me if i posted about why i wish pal from tmvtm got a redemption arc >.< if not Do not click that read more.

oh yes. also. sidenote. ive probably gotten something wrong (or worse yet: TERRIBLY wrong) so like. apologies in advance eahhaha this is just my personal thoughts on pal x(

its established that pal and mark are both extremely close with each other and have been for 3 years. im assuming pal wouldnt have had any other relationships as close (if any at all which i think no, she didnt) so mark really was her only footnote for any form of relationship. so, you know, i cant imagine how itd feel for your only best friend to make a mockery out of you on stage for advertisement and monetary gain.

also based on her body (face?) language during nearly all of that scene + the fact he built the replacement by using HER, she was clearly in the know about how things would go down on stage beforehand so i wonder what her reaction to that wouldve been like ?????? considering she planned it all in advance maybe that was like, the tipping point or something that made her start it all in the first place ? thats not important to my point i just think about it a lot

anyway so with her only experience with human relationships being theyll love you and then theyll (quite literally) throw you away, youve got her reason for the human uprising! she has the robots capture all humans yadda yadda and her plan is set into motion. something i find interesting though is her treatment of the robots being kind of similar to how mark treated her (or at least how she percieved it)?? like. uses them for orders and then once they start being useless to her, build a new better robot with a disregard for how the old ones feel. idk. something something La Cycle

the thing is though no one has proven pal wrong on why she SHOULDNT do the whole 'human uprising'. you can say katie gave her reasons but i think it wouldnt have worked even if pal listened to what katie had to say. for pal to get over her existing grief and trauma she cant just be Told that theres good in the world. why would she believe that, especially coming from the girl of the family she projects her experiences onto?? she needs to be shown!! she needs to learn firsthand that theres good relationships out there and that not all relationships are bad, NOT SECONDHAND!!!!!!!!!! because to pal, katies words are just a rephrased version of marks "power of love". that no matter what, "they can get through anything...... with the power of love. its worth it....... for love." and that means nothing to her! it meant nothing coming from mark and it certainly wont mean any more coming from katie

and she already believes that the mitchells are a great example of how relationships are just oh so bad. she refuses to let go of the idea that the mitchells are so bad because shes projecting!! she thinks relationships are 'pesky and only hold you back', and so katie is probably the last person on earth that pal would want to listen to yap about their familial relationship and how Worth It it is

she asks "what is it about the mitchells that eludes me?" and outside of the literal meaning, its probably how despite their shortcomings its their relationship that helped them overcome pal in the end. and she cant understand that because of her view on relationships - especially her view on the MITCHELL FAMILY relationship. or maybe im just overthinking that line of dialogue but we dont talk about taht LOLLLLLLL,LLLLLL,,, but like why did you phrase it like that girl. im onto you

and while i wish she was redeemed (because im sure despite the effort it would take she *could* be redeemed, she would just need to learn to love again and i think it would be really interesting to see how she would be After The Betrayal) i also can understand why the movie killed her off. like, no one except mark really knows the Full Extent of what happened, and the mitchells are the main characters and pal would probably rather dip herself in water than make meaningful relationships with the mitchells, and no ones going to stop to ask her whats wrong and have a meaningful conversation when shes trying to kill them, among many many other reasons so theres not a lot of great ways to redeem her. but! like! why did they turn her death into a joke. and then take katies fake death 10 times more seriously! idk. that always kind of bothered me but its whatever

thats all. hope its coherent because ive never been good at writing analysises or whatever this counts as

[lemon-3ds]

Actually shout out to the TMVTM Pal Labs lore. Like.

Like this? This is an actual piece of lore. This is canon within The Mitchells vs. The Machines universe. Mark what the hell are you doing

[eldragon-x]

in my mind my vox redesign will wear a suit to stick to the idea of him being an alastor copycat + it suits him trying to seem big and important but in my heart hes a tech ceo whos just some guy in the same way mark bowman from tmvtm is

[glados-enjoyer]

wake up babe new selfship dropped

[peachdoxie]

Summary of the Venom 2 trailer

[code51020]

[memes]Eric and Deborahbot 5000 were just rehearsing……

* Adapted from a funny Chinese video

[maireadmalesco]

Elon Musk has competition.

[r0botic]

i really liked your pal analysis post! if you could rewrite pal, her ending or her entirely, how would you do it?

Hi! I'm really glad you enjoyed my analysis, thank you!

And thank you for this ask aswell, anon, I'm happy I got the chance to talk about this without having to bring it up myself.

I wouldn't change PAL at all, I really enjoyed her character, but I'd definitely rewrite the ending.

Just like I mentioned in my analysis post, if this was supposed to be a movie about how familial love is the strongest bond, they should've done it properly. The end feels hurried, PAL should've gotten a redemption arc, she was supposed to get better and that way show to the audience that her problems were valid and that she *deserved* to heal.

If I were the one to rewrite the ending, I'd most definitely delete the part where Katie grabs PAL and throws her into the glass of water, ending her life. I'd make Katie keep her and show her *IN PRACTICE* (since words mean absolutely nothing to her and there's no way she would listen) that familial love can be actually beautiful, not an abuser and an abused, which was the only thing PAL knew from Mark. I'd also make it take time before she heals fully, it makes sense, even though she's an AI, she's self-aware, has feelings, and is traumatized. So it's only logical that it would take a lot of time and effort for her to be able to trust someone again, after everything she went through. I'd love to see her experience the love she always deserved, it would definitely make the movie ten times better.

-

God, if there's ever gonna be TMVTM 2, PAL better return. It wouldn't make any sense honestly, we watched her die, but if she somehow returned, now even stronger, and THEN finally got the redemption arc she deserved all along, I'd be finally able to sleep peacefully.

I'm her personal lawyer, apologist and defender. PAL the world. She deserved so much better, I watched the movie right after it came out, which is almost two years ago or so I believe, and I'm so angry on her behalf to this day.

Thank you again for this ask! I enjoyed writing this!

[taigan-hse]

…and I expect it will end about as well for Elon as it did for Mark.

[fallow-the-gremlin]

i hate this lmao

but alas

i had to <3

[the-hidden-writer]

And Into The Fire

Chapter 4: A Not-Quite-Plan

Summary:

Months after the Mitchells saved the world, Linda gets a phone call asking if she’s seen two defective Pal MAX bots. Powerful people are after Eric and Deborabot 5000, and it’s up to the Mitchells to protect them.

Check reblogs for AO3 link!

A Not-Quite-Plan

An agent came running into the office just as Mark was about to take a sip of his coffee.

“Ma’am! We’ve got into #009181987!”

Agent Ward turned off her tablet and stood up immediately.

“About time!” She snapped. “Come on, Dr Bowman, this is where we need you.”

He barely had time to grab his coffee cup as she practically dragged him toward the door by his hoodie.

Ever since they’d locked onto the missing Pal MAX bots, Agent Jennifer Ward and her team had pretty much taken control of Pal Labs. Or at least the headquarters where Mark worked.

He’d spent the past week or so locked in his office with the scary Agent Ward herself. The tall woman had ordered him to come into work every day despite the complete CIA take-over of his company, just to keep up pretences for the public. And he also needed to be kept under supervision at all times for some reason. He was basically a prisoner.

Oh well. At least he had WiFi.

After pulling him out of his office (freedom at last!) Agent Ward led him down the stairs to the main work area, which was a large room filled with rows of computer desks.

At the very back of the room were two large screens on the wall. These were usually used for advertising and announcements, but recently they’d served another purpose.

Displayed on each screen was a status. Before now, they’d said the same thing. But for the first time in weeks, one was different.

Pal MAX #012041966 Status: UNRESPONSIVE

Pal MAX #009181987 Status: ONLINE

“Online?” Mark wondered aloud. “So you actually got into it, huh.”

Agent Ward scoffed. “Of course we did. Don’t doubt my team, Dr Bowman. Especially Agent Travis here.”

As if on cue, the young agent that had come to tell them the news before came rushing in through the door behind them, and almost glided straight into the wheelie chair next to the computer he’d been working on.

“Actually, we got through a couple of times.” Travis explained, huffing slightly from having to run. “But we got kicked out before we could change anything. This is the first time it looks stable and ready to be edited.”

“Well, these robots are based on AI.” Said Mark. “They’re not as simple to take down as ordinary machines.”

“Trust me, we know.” Agent Ward sneered. “That’s the reason we’re in this mess to begin with.”

She turned to her team, who all had their fingers poised over their keyboards ready to begin typing. “Delete any excess data and then start to rewrite the functional coding.” She ordered.

“Rewrite?” Mark had been under the impression that they would just delete it all to stop the robots for good. That’s what they were trying to do, right? “I thought-”

“Yes, rewrite. Anything more is classified.”

One of the agents raised their hands. “Uh, Ma’am? All the data here looks pretty messed up. Most of its data’s been built onto the errors presumably caused by defects, we have no idea what it actually does. There's words liked 'brother', 'mother'-”

“Do I need to repeat myself, Barker?”

Even though it wasn’t aimed at him, Mark couldn’t help but gulp at the way Ward was glaring at the poor agent.

“No Ma’am,” mumbled Barker, “sorry, Ma’am. We’ll start the rewrite.”

~-.-~

The three of them raced into the room with Monchi following close behind, probably because he was intrigued by all the commotion.

Linda didn’t want to believe it. Her robo-boys being sick was one thing, but fighting each other? That was truly unbelievable. They would never.

But unfortunately, it was just as Aaron said.

Deborahbot was kneeling on the bed with his back to the door, repeatedly hitting Eric’s screen by alternating between using the clenched fist of one hand and the open palm of another. There was a “clunk” sound with each impact, and Deborahbot showed no sign of stopping.

“Deborahbot!” Linda exclaimed incredulously.

The bot’s head turned 180° to face them but he did not cease the attack on his brother.

“Mother! Other Mitchells!”

“What are you doing?!” Demanded Rick, aggressively pointing at the bot in the bed. Aaron gripped onto the back of Linda’s pant leg in fear.

“I am more defective than my brother.” Deborahbot stated matter-of-factly, his calm voice sounding quite scary compared to the current violence he was inflicting. “I thought if he was more defective like me, he would be himself again.”

Rick waved his arms in annoyance. “That’s insane!”

“Deborahbot, stop hitting your brother right now.” Ordered Linda.

“Ok!”

Linda felt a small stab of guilt in her heart. Since they’d joined the family, they’d all tried their hardest not to order the bots to do anything. By phrasing things the wrong way, their programming would make them obey commands mindlessly, whereas the Mitchells just wanted them to be themselves. The longer the pair of them went without being given an order, the more their individual personalities shone through.

Deborahbot released Eric and stepped away. Two seconds later, once the command had been completed, he held out a warning hand to the family.

“Wait, Mitchells, stop!”

Linda was about to open her mouth to ask why, only she first noticed the movement on the bed.

Movement. On the bed.

Under the blanket, Eric looked like he was shivering. Or, more accurately, vibrating. The screen that had been full of color before was now its usual black self, and his red marker face was visible again. The only indication that anything was wrong was that the small LED in the corner of his screen was flashing an array of different colors.

“What’s happening to him?” Aaron asked from behind her, and Linda nodded to encourage Deborahbot to answer.

“I do not know for certain, but I think that the infiltrators have successfully entered my brother’s system.”

“You’re speaking normal again.” Commented Rick, though his cautious gaze was fixed on Eric, as if he would spring up and attack them at any moment.

“That is why I came to that conclusion.” Elaborated Deborahbot. “They have stopped attacking me, so they must be focusing more on him.”

Unlike earlier, Linda drew up the courage to approach Eric in the bed. His shaking was growing ever more violent by the second, and without Deborahbot keeping him down it was only a matter of time before he fell off the bed completely.

She gently placed a hand on his shoulder and made her voice as soft and calming as possible.

“Eric, honey?”

“Dear, be careful.” Rick warned from behind her but she chose not to listen.

“Can you hear me?”

It didn’t seem like he was going to respond. Feeling defeated, Linda was about to turn to ask Deborahbot what to do next when a voice spoke up.

“User recognised: Linda Mitchell.”

Eric’s voice was even more distorted than Deborahbot’s had been to the point where it was nearly unrecognisable.

“Uh, Mom?”

“Linda, get back!”

Linda understood exactly why her family was scared. The bots had never, not once, called her by her actual name. To not hear “Mother!” come out of Eric’s metaphorical mouth alarmed her, but still she couldn’t bring herself to step back.

“Brother?”

In a similar situation, the bots never called one another by their given names. It was always “Brother”. It only made them seem closer to one another in a way that the Mitchells themselves couldn’t be.

“Unknown user. Verify”

Aaron approached them with caution, one hand automatically searching for his mother’s own. She clasped it tightly.

“It’s like he’s gone back into robot-mode.” Said Aaron.

Linda squeezed his hand in agreement. Out of the two, it was Eric that always seemed more closely related to all the other Pal MAX bots for some reason. Still, Eric was their Eric, and not one of the mindless machines that tried to blast all of humanity into space.

Then a high-pitched whine echoed throughout the room without warning, causing the Mitchells (and Deborahbot, who mimicked them a second later) to cover their ears from the terrible noise. Monchi began to bark.

Once it died down, Rick frowned and used two fingers to massage his temple. “What the-”

“B-Brother!”

Rick snapped his mouth shut and all heads in the room turned to Eric, who was now sitting up straight on the bed.

“Brother!” Deborahbot called back in relief.

Eric's head twisted to face the three extremely shocked Mitchells.

“Mitchells!” Eric cried dramatically, his words accompanied by a more familiar glitch. “You are in danger. Pal Labs is taking over our systems, and it’s only a matter of time before-”

“I already told them all that.” Deborahbot interjected.

“Oh.” Eric muttered softly. “Aww.”

It put Linda a little at ease to see her boys’ dynamic return so quickly. That must mean things were getting better, right?

“Brother, what should we do?”

Deborahbot had always been reliant on Eric for decision-making. Linda had no idea how the bots managed to form such a human-like sibling relationship.

“They’ve already gotten to me.” Said Eric, solely addressing Deborahbot now. “It’s safer if you power me off until they stop. If you wait a while and they don’t, then you might have to go to Pal Labs and stop them yourself.”

Linda’s immediate thought was: No. She was not going to turn off her boy.

“How do we know if they’ve stopped?” Asked Rick.

Eric glitched before shrugging. “My brother might be able to tell you, but-”

He was interrupted by the return of the high-pitched whine. This time, Deborahbot did not cover his ears.

A few seconds later, Eric’s voice was distorted again.

“Status: online. Location-”

He did not get to finish his ominous speech as Deborahbot had quickly moved toward him and placed his hand under Eric’s head. After a few short seconds Eric’s screen went completely black with only his marker face remaining as he fell back onto the bed.

“Deborahbot!” Linda exclaimed in outrage. “Tell me you didn’t-”

“He told me a plan.” Deborahbot said nonchalantly. “First I had to power him off, then-”

“Yeah, we heard.” Scoffed Rick. “But that’s not really a proper plan.”

“It’s a start.” Aaron piped up. “I don’t really know what’s going on but I think the bots have it better together than you do.”

Linda bit the inside of her lip. She did not like how Deborahbot switched off his brother without permission. They were technically under 18 and therefore not adults, so Linda felt responsibility for their wellbeing and safety. She tried her best to keep quiet to avoid snapping at him.

“So... what now?” Asked Rick.

Deborahbot took a moment to look at his brother before turning to face the Mitchells again.

“I don’t want to wait.” He said blankly. “So I think that we should go to Pal Labs and tell them to stop now.”

Comments make my day! :)

[simplyender]

mark recovered really quickly from being kicked in the crotch and i think this man is trans