WALL-E Forum Roleplay
The WALL-E forum Role Play is a roleplay hosted on the WALL-E forum. The plot picks up where WALL-E left off; the Colony is being run, various minor adventures occur, and some new characters crop up. The role-play is remarkable for its cohesiveness; over more then a hundred different topics, various characters will remark on past events with very clear reference, and the past and future of many characters are intertwined to a remarkable degree.
- Above Good and Evil: Good and evil are just labels. Ghertivel considers himself above such futile concepts as labels. He considers himself a genius.
- And A.R.G.O was never programmed to tell good apart from evil, so he has no qualms writing both concepts off as insignificant.
- Mr.Pax only sees shades of grey, because after all, knowledge is neutral, the application is dangerous.
- The Abridged Series: The "Just For Fun" section of the forum.
- Absent Aliens: Played straight for a while, then averted with the introduction of Gauntlet. Before long, the galaxy was teeming with life.
- Absurdly Sharp Blade: The sword of House Milweather, master forged and perfect in almost every respect.
- Laser blades in general are this.
- Accidental Kiss: Auto and BRIDGET's First Kiss, when all the robots had been turned in humans, was pretty much an accident where BRIDGET tripped, Auto caught her in his arms before she fell, and they kissed on impulse. At the time, they both tried to persuade themselves that it was due to their being trapped in humans bodies, since feelings and emotions were humans defects. However, they couldn't stop thinking about it...
- Action Duo: WALL-E has saved EVE at times, and EVE has saved him at other times, and they have saved each other at other times yet. But they're (almost) always together in all missions, or fighting to be reunited.
- A straighter example would be Blacklight and Marina. Blacklight for being the head of a military intent on defeating the most powerful faction out there, and Marina for her regenerative ability and loyalty to him. They even have a kid...
- Actual Pacifist: You just can't get SCUBA to believe that robots can do things to other robots. Even when Blacklight held him hostage, his feelings were more of pity for what the box had done to Blacklight (thusly causing him to behave in such a un-robot way), than of resentment.
- The Ahnold: If he could travel back in time, Domenico would want to be Schwarzenegger's stuntman (when off duty, that is).
- Finnegan Rollo is another of these.
- A.I. Is a Crapshoot: The insane A.R.G.O. Enough said.
- Air Vent Passageway: A variation of this was seen when Remy and Rosa spied the Hurricane's prisons from an air vent, thusly finding out that Blacklight had altered EVE, Pilot and BRIDGET's memories.
- The ventilation and maintenance systems on the Forthright are by the GDA for transport and escape.
- All a Part of the Job: Though he sometimes gets at wits end with some of his crewmates, Domenico can push personal rivalries aside and work effortlessly with them because he knows that together they're a great squad.
- The All-Seeing AI: You can't see A.R.G.O. But you know that he can always see you.
- So can his insane twin.
- There's also the Internet, which apparently has gained sapience.
- The P'tol Constructs again, more specifically Voka.
- Always Someone Better: The insane A.R.G.O spent 700 years of non-existence as the backup unit of an A.I clever enough to make his own endless backups. Not needed for so long, yet desperately wishing to be of use, it eventually drove him mad with murderous intentions. And he's only waiting to make his twin and his creator pay for his torment.
- And I Must Scream: The insane A.R.G.O. was deactivated- but still conscious- for over seven centuries. It's the main reason why he's crazy.
- Also, when the Blacklight Autopilot was defeated for the first time, he was ripped apart, and his CPU was thrown away- while still conscious. It's one of the reasons he hates Sergey, as he was the one who did it.
- Jeromios was stripped apart and painfully tortured. And all he could do was watch.
- Voka stayed powered down for seven million years in the heart of the crashed Array on Gauntlet, keeping an eye on things.
- Animal Jingoism: common for robots who look like animals.
- Cat-bots are Evil, and eat REM-Es with their cornflakes. Dog-bots are a REM-E's best friends. (Remy)
- Dog-bots rule and cat-bots drool. (Houdini)
- Even though they are sometimes very colorful. (Spectrum)
- Another Dimension: Negaverse certainly applies.
- The portal universe may also be this.
- Anthropomorphic Personification: Grim and the Creatures in general, who pretty much ARE Death - when you think that they consume the temporal energy of their victims until the latters become, quite litterally, ash.
- Arm Cannon: many examples of this. EVE probes, AND-I and BRIDGET units, Marina...
- The Atoner: Stavro Carter, one of the most famed scientists of White Enterprises, became a rebel informant and has secretly sabotaged many experiments and framed others for it (they are not innocent; if you ask him, no White Enterprises citizen can be really called innocent). However, he doesn't think he can really ever clear his name or make up for the hundreds he has killed (although he arguably spared them a Fate Worse Than Death if he had not). That's why he doesn't want other Vantage members to know that he's really on their side - he deserves their hatred.
- Attention Deficit Creator Disorder General rule: if a roleplay is pushed back to the second page, expect no one to post in it for a while.
- Attention Deficit Ooh Colorful: The aptly named Spectrum. FAIR-E also has some elements of this.
- Author Avatar: At least six creators have created roleplay counterparts of themselves:
- CAPT-N--Nabilla
- Dementor—Sergey
- Cri86—Cristina di Ventimiglia
- treehugger0123—Catherine
- .RK—Erik
- Grudir—Exeter
- Awakening the Sleeping Giant: BULL-E, litterally.
- The war on Gauntlet managed to wake up Voka, which in turn kicked off the Rim Collective.
- Awesome Moment of Crowning: Catherine gets one in The Colony:Day One when she's marked as Captain.
- Backstory: several backstories have been explored in depth.
- From A.R.G.O's creation to the Pangea Project, secretly in development stage at the time of Shelby Forthright, down to his rivalry with Icarus White's ancestor, everything Ghertivel does today was begun before he decided to go in suspended animation and trick time itself.
- If the insane A.R.G.O's past had gone differently, he would be an evil A.I at Ghertivel's orders. As of it, he's an insane A.I, and with a vendetta to settle.
- The backstory of humanity and robotkind on the original five-year cruise was explored as well. As was the backstory of BnL and several Riptide and Colony characters before that.
- Bad Dreams: Sorta reversed. At some point Ghertivel wants the colony to know that he's alive and to give him the tools he needs to complete his Pangea Project without objections. So what does he do? He holds the robots functionality and mental sanity at ransom by transmitting a signal to a chip installed in their CPU that causes them to have terrible nightmares every time they try to go in Sleep Mode. Asking nicely at the telephone, of course, would have been too simple for his genius.
- Badass Automaton: Putting aside the whole robot army, and robots designed for combat, we've got Sarah (a PR-T) shooting at soldiers in space, Marlin (a SCUBA) attacking a woman called the Queen of Blades, and WALL-E (yes, that WALL-E) lasering foes in the OPTICS!
- Badass Longcoat-: Traditional trench coat/greatcoat of the Lady's Shield. Always black, all the time.
- Also Captain Neo Hikato of the Nexus.
- Badass Mustache: Domenico, probably.
- Band of Brothers: The Riptide might qualify.
- Also, in their way, the Undersite people.
- Arguably the Flintstrike (formerly mercenaries) counts.
- Barrier Warrior: you'd be hard pressed to find HAN-D in battle without her shield active unless it's been damaged in some way.
- Batman Gambit: Icarus White pulls one on Cri. While it looks like he is merely taking her in, he is actually undermine her trust toward the colony, the Blacklight military, and the GDA. And, it is also a way to find out the names of the GDA members.
- Ghertivel tries one on Yuri to win him over. He could then make the Riptide look bad, causing everyone else to turn to him as well. He could then convince everyone that his project would work.
- Bedlam House: The Chamoix, oh so very very much.
- Being Tortured Makes You Evil: The insane ARGO - or rather a mix between And I Must Scream and this trope. All his life, he's really only wanted to be useful, only to be abandoned in limbo with the knowledge that he would never get the chance to exist. Little wonder it drove him a bit bat-crap insane.
- Too bad that it actually it drove him bat-crap insane with murderous intentions...
- Berserk Button: Ian is normally a kind, welcoming, friendly person. But never, ever, harm his crew. Or his daughter. It's not a safe place to stand.
- Similarly, don't harm any robots under Blacklight's protection. Ever.
- Unless you're from White Enterprises, in which case go ahead. We'll break out the popcorn.
- Also, Marina. She might seem just Blacklight's advisor, but she has a BFG and isn't afraid to use it. Threaten her mate, Blacklight, or her son, Rex, and you might be atoms before you have the time to regret it.
- Marlin in Queen of Blades. At first he tried to trick the Queen of Blades into believing him a BRIDGET, but when she mocked him about Coral, he just lost it.
- Bonus point if you consider how he generally seems afraid of his own shadow.
- Similarly, don't harm any robots under Blacklight's protection. Ever.
- Beware the Nice Ones: Of all the Riptide crew, Sybille might seem the less threatening. Blacklight made the mistake to push her past the edge when he took over the Serigala and held her friends captive. Even he was surprised by her forceful, cool-blooded reaction.
- Beware the Silly Ones: Inferno loves to cook, dance, sing, dress up, and her Sergeywergey. If you shoot her in the back, she's down, and if she sees Sergey, she forgets everything else. But she has claws and is literally holding back an army of Eldritch Abominations with her insanity alone.
- BFG: Various ones seen, but the most impressive have to be the cannons mounted on starships. They range from being the size of a person to the size of buildings.
- Special mention goes to the supercannon, which is a half mile in length. Though it may not be the only one.
- It isn't. The P'tol introduced the magnetic accelerator cannon to the Rim Collective, and it arguably one of the most powerful weapons in the 'verse.
- Special mention goes to the supercannon, which is a half mile in length. Though it may not be the only one.
- Big Bulky Bomb: Aryl uses one to blow up the underground, and the colonists inside, in Return.
- Birds of a Feather: Like Auto, BRIDGET outwardly dispassionate and abhors any display of emotions, even after she (somewhat grudgingly) came to accept her own feelings for the Autopilot. Neither is big on public displays of affection, they're often impatient, and look forward to carrying out their directives at best of their capacities.
- Domenico found kindred spirits in the Quasar crew, leading him to question (even if just for a time) his own loyalty to the Riptide.
- Meeting the same-minded Blacklight gave the insane A.R.G.O a purpose for the first time in his life, and even more tools to carry out his revenge.
- Blood Brothers: Domenico saw Claudio's ancestor Augusto as the brother he would have wanted. He later transferred this friendship to Augusto's descendant as well.
- And Claudio made a oath to watch over the friend of his ancestor too, as Augusto himself would have done.
- Bosker Milweather, Gilroy Mc Glean and Lupin Cowls have a long history of service together, through thick and thin.
- Bored with Insanity: Inferno knows she's insane and a Complete Monster, but she's recently had a change of heart.
Inferno: I have only killed TWENTY FREAKING SEVEN, and you know how I know, I KEPT COUNT! And every one of them knew it was me, and every one of them had a fair chance. I NEVER made it unfair to them. And then the Chicken came, and I got put in charge of this army that wants me dead, and I KNOW exactly what happened on every ship because they talk about it--LISTEN TO ME! There is no reason to kill a sick woman! There never was! I WANT TO SAVE HER! I want to be the good guy again! I want to be lovable again!
- Born Winner. A.R.G.O is not a winner. He's just programmed that way.
- Brains and Brawn: Domenico and Terenzio.
- Brainwashed: Blacklight successfully replaced EVE's memories for a time, making her believe in his humans-are-evil propaganda. He did allow her to remember her love for WALL-E, though. As much as she fought against it, BRIDGET also had her memories replaced in the same occasion. Her devotion to Auto still lingered in her circuits though, but she couldn't make a reason of it.
- Zorro was also reset by White Enterprises, losing his self-consciousness and personality and becoming, in fact, just a heartless, emotionless machine.
- But even so, seeing Soulless again confused him greatly. He didn't recognize her, but also unwittingly singled her out from the other Blacklight's soldiers he was battling, as if something in him did not want to fight her.
- Pilot, though, got blown up. She got better.
- Mollie managed to erase a single memory from the entire crew of the Quasar. And she was able to do it under three days, and the crew suspects nothing.
- Zorro was also reset by White Enterprises, losing his self-consciousness and personality and becoming, in fact, just a heartless, emotionless machine.
- Break the Haughty: Finding out that she had been created by Blacklight severely mined BRIDGET's self-confidence, making her see herself as tainted and potentially dangerous to Auto - er, to the Axiom.
- Brief Accent Imitation: Played with a variation by Clark, the movie star, who had his speech synthesizer adapted so that he can talk with just about any accent.
- Bruiser with a Soft Center: Domenico.
- Finegan Rollo. Loves his family and playing the guitar; the bounty hunting is a side job.
- However, as of the introduction of his younger sister Sabrina, Nick also counts.
- The Butcher: Give Domenico a gun and say that it's open season, and you're guaranteed to make this soldier's day.
- Bosker Milweather genuinely enjoys close combat more than is reasonably healthy.
- The Shielders call Finnegan 'Godkiller', a title which he dislikes.
- Kirra'hie does what he has to do
- A.R.G.O loves destroying intruders and seeing them suffer.
- Buy Them Off: Ghertivel has been trying for a while to buy the Colony off, not for scruples, but because it'd be so much easier to conduct his Pangea Project to a grandiose finale if all these mediocre minded fools stopped being such annoying stones in his shoes.
- Call to Agriculture: There's nothing EVE would love more than a long peaceful life with her WALL-E. And Captain McCrea is not a warmonger. He was happy with his rural life after the Axiom landed. He does not seek troubles. Troubles seek him.
- Camera Spoofing: Played with a variation by the insane A.R.G.O, who showed Sergey and Ian snippets of security footage where it looked like the other members of the Riptide had failed their tests and died (whilst they had actually survived), in order to break their spirit.
- Can't Live with Them, Can't Live Without Them: Somehow subverted with Clark and Marilyn, who can't really stand each other, but have formed a filmmaking company of their own (Clarlyn Pictures) and appear as affable partners-in-business to the eyes of the media.
- The Captain: McCrea's title is not just honorific.
- Not to mention Captain Cooper, Captain Nabilla, Captain Toraldo... there's a lot.
- Cargo Cult: The Imperium of Light's vast empire is built on this trope.
- Carrying the Antidote: Buddy played this trope straight once and twice with a variation.
- The antidote to his first virus was found in the computers of the old BnL labs after he had to leave them in a hurry.
- Later, he boasted to be able to produce an antidote to the Black Plague, but only after his terms of the ransom were met (Sergey, however, managed to program a cure just as well).
- Same goes with his latest virus creation he knows he could make an antidote should the virus accidentally come to infect White Enterprises robots, but he's not developing the antidote or actually keeping it in his computer until there's need for it.
- Cat Scare: Litterally, every time Remy sees a cat-bot.
- Catch Phrase: Quite a few...
- SCUBA: "Bubbles! My bubbles!" and "Robots aren't meant to live in a box, it does things to them."
- A.R.G.O (both): * evil chuckle*
- The entirety of the Chamoix: "Cheesecake."
- Terenzio: Hey, Comante! * to Icarus White*
- Cats Are Mean: in Remy's case, no comment.
- Domenico, on the other hand, likes cats.
- The Chains of Commanding: Leadership can be no easy thing when Captain McCrea has to deal with a inter-galaxy war between a fleet of robots who want him and his people dead and a fleet of human who wants him and his people enslaved. Not to mention the everyday nuisance like such stubborn robots as Auto and BRIDGET, whom he sometimes feel are defying his authority (not so much lately, though).
- Character Alignment: Oh designer...
- Character Development: BRIDGET went from being Auto's shadow to an adoring right-hand in perpetual denial of her feelings for him, and from that to being his quiet but devoted partner.
- Characterization Marches On: Anybody remember when Blacklight was an insane omnicidal Autopilot instead of a stern but noble Knight Templar? Me neither.
- It is this Troper's view the He Who Fights Monsters applied until Blacklight fell in love and reexamined himself.
- On the other hand, Colony members threw around concepts like reprogramming and scrapping robots quite casually back in the day. It took the combined forces of Cri, Vanessa, and White Enterprises to make them see how wrong that was.
- The Charmer: Terenzio, The Dandy.
- Chef of Iron: When she's not helping her crewmembers save the Colony from some threat, or running analysis in her lab, Sybille can be found in the kitchens, indulging her passion for cooking.
- Child Soldier: The CATH-E units are a combination of this and Powered by a Forsaken Child. CATH-E units were originally children, but were given heavy cybernetic augmentation. Also, a mind control chip was put into their brains to make them completely loyal to the corporation. They can be freed by disabling the chip, but very few- if any- ever manage to fully recover from the trauma.
- Calim Gelki has been a soldier since he was fourteen.
- Chinese Girl: Subverted with Ming, who's a quiet and efficient Chinese girl-bot. What KATANA might have been had Azog not pushed her Berserk Button.
- Chronic Villainy: Even after he spent a year in jail, Buddy still thinks he is right and the Colony is wrong.
- Ghertivel was elderly already when A113 was issued. He spent 700 years in suspended animation. But weed does not die, as does not this man's subtle villainy.
- A.R.G.O just revels in being a villain. Why should he change?
- And so does the insane A.R.G.O
- Cloning Blues: played reversed with HARLEY and QUIN, who think being clones is cool and have been known to swap names whenever they feel like it.
- Cloudcuckoolander: SCUBA sees the world in matters of boxes, robots, fishes and cleaning. And he's perfectly happy with it.
- On the other hand, Inferno Optic wants to make everybody a cloud cuckoo lander.
- Collapsing Lair: A variation. Ghertivel's house was almost completely destroyed by Blacklight. But more than the house which he kept for covert reason, the underground secret lab is the true lair where he dwells. A hologram as the house as it used to look like now stands in the place of the rubbles and the remains, as a mocking warning to Blacklight.
- Cool Spaceship: The Axiom, the Riptide, the Haiku, the Hurricane... too many to count.
- Corrupt Corporate Executive: Icarus White, head of White Enterprises- a massive criminal organization built from the remains of BnL.
- Don't forget Scorpius White, his ancestor.
- And of course, Shelby Forthright.
- Cowardly Lion: Cats frighten Remy. So do loud noises. But more than once this little REM-E has stood by his humans and robots friends, and even risked his life, against much greater foes.
- Creator Breakdown: FREDD-E suffered from a long period of depression. It led to the creation of White Enter prises, The Swarm, and the Infinite Entity.
- Creator In-Joke: In the 2nd Anniversary RP, Cri mistakenly calls the Shadow Sector the Dark Sector. Seconds later, she sneezes Outtake Flu
- Why are all K-9s programmed to hate the piano song Chopsticks? One of CAPT-N's old music teachers hated the piece, and CAPT-N and her classmates would often play it just to annoy him.
- Creepy Monotone: One of the characteristics of robots without personalities. Auto is the most obvious example.
- Crossover: Two, actually. The movie Up is revealed to be actual history in the backstory. Furthermore, a small group is transported to another world and eventually make it back with a passenger in tow...
- There's a whole(Now dead yet incomplete) sub-board of Roleplays that combine the normal RPverse with various Pixar Films(And Bolt).
- Curiosity Causes Conversion: Cri might be this, if you consider that she got involved with what would become the head of the Ground Dweller Army at the age of eight because she was curious about the way those kid always stuck together and talked to each other as if they had some big secret.
- Cute Clumsy Girl: Deb, litterally.
- Cybernetics Eat Your Soul: Played with. Vida Moretti had her brain damaged whilst being transferred to her cybernetic body, and is consequently emotionless and cold. Her younger sister, Vanessa, didn't suffer anything, though, so she's still herself (but in a new body).
- The Swarm, though, is a weaponized variation of this trope. Victims have their minds downloaded into small robots with weapons. Consequently, they act and speak childishly and view murder as a game. Vanessa has even called the Swarm the stuff of nightmares...
- Most of White Enterprises cyborgs are intentional versions of this, as they have mind control implants in their brains. It's averted when the implants are removed, however- they're perfectly normal.
- A variation with the Abomination; a closer description would be that cybernetics ate its mind.
- Dark and Troubled Past: Many, many characters.
- Dark Is Not Evil: Blacklight. YMMV, though...
- Darker and Edgier: The forum RP began as a simple, light-hearted story, a bit of fun for the forum members. Then FREDD-E came up with Blacklight, and there was no looking back after that.
- Dead Partner: Played with. Soulless knew that the Zorro she loved was dead after White Enterprises reset his memories, but she couldn't bring herself to attack him or even just let Blacklight kill him when she was confronted with him in Caught In The Web.
- Marlin also lost his beloved Coral when White Enterprise attacked Earth.
- Defrosting Ice Queen: Korinna/Laurie. She thinks she's just doing her job, but she's slowly coming around due and beginning to question her orders, her sentimental life and her morals due to the influence of two people in her life - Bruce, for whom she actually came to care, and Catherine, whom she took under her wing. She refuses to acknowledge it, though, even to herself.
- Depleted Phlebotinum Shells: Ghertivel attempted this when he gave modified weapons to the Riptide crew in "Ice Plague". Little did he know that Blacklight was way ahead of him, due to InGRiD's flawless espionage work.
- Determinator: Blacklight. CPU ripped out of body? Has a new one built. Ship destroyed? He turns the wreckage into a shuttle, flies into space, and rebuilds the first shipwreck he can find into a battlecruiser. He. Never. Gives. Up.
- Deus Ex Nukina: Ghertivel's Project Pangea, in his mind the only possible - and lasting! -solution to the trash problem.
- Different As Night and Day: Domenico and his brother Terenzio. One a soldier, the other's a shuttle racer with a thing for clandestine gambles.
- Do Androids Dream?: This is a little complicated. It's implied that all machines of sufficient complexity could and often do develop personalities over time, but looming over them all is the threat of being "reset" to factory standards (i.e. mindless automata). Add to that the existence of two cyborgs, one mad scientist, the entirety of White Enterprises.... It's more likely androids have nightmares.
- Do-Anything Robot: HAN-D, being an adaptoid, is a rather literal example of this trope.
- Does Not Understand Sarcasm: Generally, Domenico takes sarcasm way too literally.
- Don't You Dare Pity Me!:Played with; Catherine is pitied by KATANA for "being denied a chance to die an honorable death and forced to live among ronins", which couldn't be further from how Catherine really feels about her situation.
- Also, Korinna wants to prove that she doesn't need to be backed up by Adam to be someone in her own right.
- Dragon with an Agenda: When Icarus White's ED-Is got him out of jail with an offer of freedom and a business proposal, Buddy was only too ready to rise to the bait. However, he does not think White really has any claim on the society that was started by his many-times great-great-great-uncle Shelby Forthright. While, he's Forthright's last living descendant.But why kill the golden egg laying goose before it's time, when it pays the bill, gives him a roof above his head, and opportunity for revenge? So he waits.
- Drop the Hammer: Finnigan carries a gravity hammer, an oversized melee weapon.
- Dropped a Bridget On Him: During the 2nd anniversary RP, Brad is mistaken for a female by Paul the VN-GO. Hilarity Ensues. Bonus points for Brad's unit type actually being called BRIDGET.
- Durable Deathtrap: All of the insane A.R.G.O's factory, outwardly decaying but lethally efficient inside.
- Dysfunction Junction: GDA members, aside from fighting a war in which they're outmatched, outgunned, and outnumbered, generally fall into one of four groups:
- Robots, all in constant fear of being reset and some having only been barely saved from that fate,
- Humans, either former White citizens or children kidnapped before they could be indoctrinated,
- Lab subjects, horrifically experimented upon,
- or 828 agents, special operations soldiers with their own problems.
- It got so bad that the leader and co founder of the GDA went temporarily insane at one point.
- Early Installment Weirdness: When you go back and find Buddy's first virus was defeated using pies to the face, you begin to wonder what people were thinking....
- Eldritch Abomination: The Chamoix ran into a hyperspace distortion and was consequently infected with these.
- Not to mention the Infinite Entity, an elemental force of evil born out of the very creation of the universe. It is implied to be the inspiration for every 'evil god' in every myth or legend in the whole of existence.
- Electric Torture: A.R.G.O has been known to enjoy attacking intruders to the network with high voltage electric charges, until either the intruders leave of their own accord or (preferably) the neural shock kills them.
- So does the insane A.R.G.O with his 'experimental subjects'
- Emotionless Girl: Erin the EVE probe is a variation- she is the youngest of the EVE probes, having been built as a replacement for Lara, and so has not had the chance to develop emotions to the same extent as the other probes.
- In fact, most sentient robots go through a phase of either being this or The Spock before developing true sentience. Some stay that way when they get there.
- Everything Sounds Sexier in French: If you ask Claudio, even Sybille telling him off.
- Evil Counterpart: Victor/Adam, for Sergey.
- Evil Former Friend: Zorro for the GDA. He's not exactly in himself, though.
- Evil Genius: Played with one difference in Ghertivel's case - he works alone.
- Evil Twin: A.R.G.O has an even eviller twin.
- Erin also has a psychotic twin in the form of Lara.
- Evil Virtues: The insane A.R.G.O is a heartless all-mighty monster, but he was ready to sacrifice himself for the safety of a thousand many robots and did his best to bring Paul the VN-GO back to life. And he also plays music.
- On the other hand, if you're an enemy of Blacklight Military... basically, scream.
- Failsafe Failure: The SCUBA line, perhaps.
- And definitely the insane A.R.G.O.
- Family-Unfriendly Violence: For what essentially amounts to one big Pixar fanfic, the fight scenes are incredibly graphic.
- The Fashionista: Marylin, the robot diva.
- Faster-Than-Light Travel: All the starships have played this trope at least once. It's hand-waved by them going through hyperspace.
- Minus the Axiom, which never took off again after the events depicted in the movie.
- Actually, as of Conflict, it did.
- Minus the Axiom, which never took off again after the events depicted in the movie.
- Fate Worse Than Death: Argueably what happens to Jeromios. He tries to right a wrong. What happens? He is stripped apart, has electricty passed through his nervous system (which is very painful), and has a necklace made out of his remains. And he is forced to watch. Cue the And I Must Scream.
- Also, more generally, being reset. You die, but your body works on, running on factory standard personality. It's comparable to zombification.
- Life - a biological - goes through an interesting variation of this. His body is brought back, but his mind/personality isn't there, so in a way it was like he was reset. This is later subverted.
- Also, more generally, being reset. You die, but your body works on, running on factory standard personality. It's comparable to zombification.
- Fearless Fool: BRIDGET contracted a near fatal virus in order to find a cure for Auto once, and got her internal circuits ripped apart by Blacklight for attempting to trap him alone.
- Domenico has also been known to do fool things like nearly getting himself killed to push his Captain out of the way of an explosion. If you ask him, that's what they trained him for in the Military Academy.
- Soulless was nearly destroyed by White Enterprises because she remained behind to fight even when all her GDA comrades had retreated.
- By his very nature, Finnegan Rollo takes on suicidal odds, because that's what he does.
- Find the Cure: So far this has been played five times in the RP. Thrice by Buddy, first by attempting to kill Auto (and as many other robots as would likely be infected, since they were expendable to his cause) and then by blackmailing the Colony to have Auto scrapped; once by Blacklight, who wanted to wipe mankind off Earth to rescue the robots; and once when the remains of the Black Plague virus actually became sentient.
- Flip-Flop of God: A good bit of Catherine's backstory[1] is set to be rewritten when White Storm finishes up.
- HAN-D was initially a BnL robot who lived with the colony instead of a White Enterprises robot who lived with the GDA. And there's been consideration to make her an Imperium robot or a Ecotanium[2] robot.
- Darkshade and Herbie were once normal K-9s, rather than a Stealth and Sport respectively.
- Fluffy the Terrible: The Chicken.
- Foreign Language Tirade: When Domenico's anger gets the better of himself, he rants in Italian. A lot.
- Freudian Trio. Brad (id), Catherine (ego), and Mother Nature (superego).
- Friends All Along: A variation was the reunion of Domenico and Terenzio. Domenico recognized the shuttle of Terenzio before it even landed, went in a rage and tried to beat the crap out of Terenzio, the entire Colony had to separate them before he could actually break his neck, and only after all that it was revealed that the two were really brothers. Hilarity Ensued.
- From Nobody to Nightmare. Buddy was just one of the Axiom's many passengers: fat, lazy, strapped to his hoverchair. Too bad that he also happened to be Shelby Forthright's descendant, and saw it as his duty to punish the Autopilot for not following Directive A113 to the very end. His hatred to Auto has now extended to the whole Colony, and he's now been given the money and means to carry it out.
- The Gambler: Terenzio Bareggi, a charming gambler and shuttle racer. Cards, casino games, sports betting - you name one clandestine gamble and he's sure to have staked on it. He also always wins. Or at least reasonably often.
- Getting Crap Past the Radar: There's a surprising amount of this, including, but not limited to: Swearing in binary and foreign languages, using unusual euphemisms (EG: crankshaft, exhaust port), and curses cut short.
- Go Mad from the Revelation: Subverted and played straight simultaneously by Inferno Optic. She was already insane before the revelation; it just made her even crazier.
- Played straight with anybody who reads her programming.
- A God Am I: God does not exist and, even if he did, Ghertivel would be way more Almighty than him. In his veeeery humble opinion.
- Adrian Roman, who's far more experienced and powerful, subverts this trope by styling himself as a wizard.
- Inferno Optic knows full well she's a god. She also knows she's not the only one...
- Azog - literally when you think about it.
- So much that he is actually worshiped by the Pandora Society. Yeah.
- The P'tol Constructs; the survivors of a dead civilization, who by their very nature, nullify the powers of extradimensional creatures.
- The Imperium of Light are this trope taken Up to Eleven.
- God Couple: Marina and Blacklight. Blacklight was able to move war on White Enterprises, and reach a stalemate, with his determination, cunning and military value; Marina is virtually indestructible.
- Going to Give It More Energy: A variation of this is possibly the "sane" A.R.G.O, who had his own energy charges turned against him by Blacklight, was damaged fatally - and took down the whole network with him, including Blacklight himself (he had disconneted in time, though). Howevere, A.R.G.O had already stored safely out of reach a backup copy of himself which reactivated the network immediately afterwards and took back the patrolling as if nothing had happened.
- Good Is Not Nice: Domenico a honest fellow, and deep down at earth, a good person. But he also happens to be one of the greatest, if not the greatest, jerk on earth.
- Kirra'hie also lied about Maddi being the Queen of Blades, because it wasn't important for the Colony to know.
- Greater Need Than Mine: BRIDGET, each and every time that Auto was damaged (often at the risk of her own life).
- Also Doc, who wanted Melba, Blackflame and WALL-E to be treated first, even though he himself had contracted the same virus.
- Grey and Gray Morality: Strangely enough, we have a mixture of White and Grey Morality, Black and Grey Morality, and Blue and Orange Morality... Yeah.
- Grudging Thank You: Domenico, who had broken a leg, grudgingly thanked Vanessa for administering him a painkiller in Doppelganger.
- Hair-Trigger Temper: Brad is this trope.
- Heel Face Turn: A variation with Blacklight. He recognized that the humans of the Colony treated robots as equals, and formed a truce with them. From his point of view, it's the Colony which has done the Heel Face Turn, not him.
- Heel Realization: Stavro had begun to glimpse the truth behind White Enterprises, but chose to keep his head down, until the desperate plea of a dying woman to know what had been of her son opened his eyes, like a slap in the face.
- Henpecked Husband: Skinflint Demetrio Di Ventimiglia and his spenthrift wife, Astoria.
- Heroic BSOD: During Caught In the Web, Mekkano fades out for a while. Then she orders the GDA to perform a plan that's universally considered EXTREMELY DANGEROUS AND STUPID. And then she starts fighting White cronies... while quoting Lord of the Rings!
- It's also a general consideration that Blacklight's Roaring Rampage of Revenge on the colony was a form of this, due to Character Development no longer making him so set in his ways.
- High Heel Face Turn: Cri.
- Also, Laurie has her own High Heel Face Turn moment planned...
- Buddy's third and most terrible virus in Caught In The Web might also apply...
- The shades
- Hobos: The Undersite people might apply. However, while seemingly shabby and lazy, they work a lot to keep their underground abode comfortable (by their standards, that is). Subverted by Dr. Grifton, which you wouldn't call a hobo at all.
- Holding Hands: WALL-E and EVE? Did someone say WALL-E and EVE?
- Honor Before Reason: KATANA, the Samurai Autopilot. She follows the 'way of the warrior', and is often openly hostile to anyone who doesn't.
- Hope Sprouts Eternal: Because it all began with a plant in a boot.
- Humans Are Special: Played with. Most species have a defining trait which make them special in some way, though it's never universal.
- Humans Are the Real Monsters: Most of the Blacklight Military thinks this. Subverted in-universe, however- people like Icarus White represent a tiny proportion of mankind.
- Hyperspace Is a Scary Place: Some parts of Hyperspace, anyway. The rest of it is completely safe.
- The dangerous areas, however, are so dangerous they have the nickname of 'Hell'.
- Hypocritical Heartwarming: Played with. KATANA used to call Blacklight and his soldiers ronins, before she eventually saw the light and changed her mind. When CAESAR tried to insult them, she said that he was a subversive ronin and dumped him.
- I Am Spartacus: Cri, who insisted that she was also part of the BIS when InGriD's covert was blown up, demanding that if her comrade was arrested or banished from the Colony so would she. Actually, not only she wasn't a BIS agent but she had only found out that InGRiD was one like, minutes before.
Vanessa ...Cristina, I'm afraid you're not fooling me. I appreciate that you might be helping to protect Petra- InGRiD - but-
Cri: But what? Do I need to go fetch my BIS badge to prove that--
- I Fight for the Strongest Side: Possibly Buddy during the course of his alliance with White Enterprises. He had his own agenda, though.
- And definitely Adam Mood.
- I Kiss Your Hand: Clark, often and to every robot, cyborg or human ladies who stays still long enough for him to kiss her hand.
- I Let Gwen Stacy Die: KATANA, when she was too late to save Life from being thrown in the Sun, and then thought she herself might have accidentally killed Bell.
- Later, in Beware The Weeping Angel, she thought the Angels had killed Yuri and, once more, she hadn't been there to help.
- I Owe You My Life: Cri was rescued from the Chamoix SOS by the Blueshift's crew, nearly at the cost of their own lives. She told them that if she ever got the chance to return the favor, she'd do so. Later, when Buddy's virus was unleashed on Blacklight Military and threatened to kill all of its robots, she wished she had never said such a thing, because the implication of her words (which she hadn't considered then) were that the crew's life would be at stake too.
- Also, Zorro, who was captured to give Cri, Houdini and Spectrum time to escape. It was because of his and the Blueshift's lives being held at stake that she actually did something very stupid in Caught In The Web.
- Craig Flagstarr joined the GDA out of gratitude after they rescued him from the Forthright's labs. Little did he know that his "rescuers" were led by none other than his daughter Ariana.
- Paul, the VN-GO, also joined Blacklight's Military out of gratitude for saving his life.
- But remembers nothing of it after having been killed by the virus, and later reprogrammed by ARGO.
- Terenzio would have been killed by a Weeping Angel had it not been for Eumi. In the process, she lost an arm, for which both he and his brother Domenico feel responsible.
- Somewhat subverted with Soulless, who owed her life to Blacklight's Military, but joined them because they had a common enemy rather than out of gratitude, since she didn't care about her life so terribly much at that point.
- I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: A variation was played with Soulless, who'd rather let Zorro live on the Forthright rather than bring herself to kill him, even though he was her enemy and no longer the K-9 she had fallen in love with.
- I'm Not Angry: Played with during the reunion of the Bareggi brothers.
Terenzio: D-don't tell me you're still mad about that little loan? Vedi, te l'avrei restituito il caccia, the next time I...
Domenico: Uh? No, I'm not mad. I've forgiven you, don't worry, you don't know how badly I want to fling my arms around your neck and hold tightly! C'mere, damned thief... DOVE SCAPPI!
- Imagined Innuendo: Clark thinks that all female robots can't take their eyes off him.
- Improbable Age: Cri was about seventeen when she first joined the Ground Dweller's Army.
- And if that seems an improbable age to become a rebel fighter, just think that most other GDA members had begun rebelling against the enslavement of robots when they were only eight.
- Catherine was (biologically, at least, due to being in suspended animation for 700 years) only 14 when she became captain of the entire fleet of Ecoships
- Intelligence Equals Isolation: In Ghertivel's case, self-isolation, since he's as antisocial as they come and considers himself way too superior to those mediocre-minded simpletons to live among them. He has his projects and experiments to work on, for science's sake! Common mortals just complain about everything. And say a lot of nonsense. And don't really understand anything that you tell them anyway.
- Invisibility Cloak: All InGRiD units can turn completely invisible (Silence, InGRiD, Ming...)
- It's Not You, It's Me: A variation was when BRIDGET found out that she was really Blacklight's creation all along. Upon being rescued and returning to the Axiom, she pleaded Auto to turn her off and possibly scrap her, because she feared that she might be actually dangerous for him. Although they were both in denial of their feelings at the time, it was her love for him that made her so desperate.Auto eventually refused, but BRIDGET had had it personal against Blacklight ever since.
- Jet Pack: When not in a shuttle, Soulless and Marina both move on foot and need jetpacks to be able to fly.
- Just a Machine: The entirety of the propaganda of White Enterprises. A few non-White people think so too.
- Just a Stupid Accent: Esteban, the shabby leader of the Undersite, speaks in a thickly Portoguese-accented English.
- Kissing in a Tree: Melody and Houdini, Rainbow and Spectrum, and in JFF, Marina and Blacklight, BRIDGET and Auto... the list is long.
- Knight Templar: Blacklight is fighting for robot freedom by any means necessary. Including reprogramming robots who have "succumbed" to human propaganda.
- Kuudere: Blondi, the K-9.
- Lampshade Hanging: During Return, Aryl is revealed to be Oakhurst's sister. A similar reveal was done with Domenico and Terenzio during Anniversaries, an earlier RP. Aldrasio, having been there, is not surprised by the reveal, further backed up by Charlie.
- Laser Blade: Laser swords- and laser katanas- are used most notably by Bella, Captain Cooper, JAXA and KATANA.
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall: From Platform One (After seeing Jersey slice through a shuttle like butter):
Macky: It's like something out of some gawky teenager's role play.
- Left Fielder: Inferno Optic and her bizarre dialogue. It's implied this is purposeful on her part.
- Let's Get Dangerous: EVE has a plasma gun and is not afraid to use it. Captain McCrea is a force to be reckoned with when his ship, his passengers, his robots or Earth are held at stake.
- Just because HAN-D doesn't like fighting doesn't mean she can't.
- Light Is Not Good: White Enterprises appears to be a happy, healthy civilization, although it thinks robots are appliances. Then you go downstairs and find the city-wide experimentation chambers...
- Invoked by Inferno Optic:
- JAXA is silvery and shiny, but don't let his white armor fool ya.
- The Little Detecto: Ghertivel has created a scanning beam that detects the specifications of robot hardware.
- Little Miss Badass: Mekkano was saving robots at the age of eight. Given White Enterprises, that's saying a heck of a lot.
- Loads and Loads of Characters: There are over three hundred characters. Oh my.
- Long-Distance Relationship: KATANA and CAESAR. She lives on Earth, he's stuck on the bridge of a starship orbiting in the galaxy.
- Love At First Sight: Blackflame and Alpha, litterally.
- Somehow subversed with Brad and Paul, who Dropped a Bridget On Him at first sight.
- Love Triangle: Soulless and Zorro loved each other. Very much so. Then Zorro was captured by White Enterprises, reset, and assigned to work with another K-9, Blondi, who later fell for him. She also hopes that he never realizes and reciprocate, since she knows that developing feelings or a personality would put him in danger on the Forthright. So it's a rather messed-up love triangle between those three..
- Also, technically both Victor and Stefan vie for their captain, Alinna. However, Stefan hasn't fully realized it yet, and Victor has his own agenda.
- Loves the Sound of Screaming: Sweet music, for A.R.G.O.
- For the insane A.R.G.O, too.
- Luke, I Am Your Father: Blacklight revealing to BRIDGET that he had been responsible for the upgrade of SCUBA units into BRIDGET units to begin with, and thus, therefore, her own creator.
- The Mad Hatter: Inferno Optic, Netcop of the Bong, not only chose to be insane, but sabotaged half the bridge on her starship which consequently caused major problems in the repair ward. This directly lead to the truly insane robots wandering the ship, and from there the insanity spread rapidly. Let me reiterate: She directly caused the insanity of the entire ship.
- Mad Scientist: Ghertivel believes the only concrete way to get rid once and definitely of the trash problem is to cause a massive explosion in the solar system that will literally bring it back to factory new setting (read: just as it looked like after the Big Bang), so as to give humans another 2100 years to do what they please with the planet before it has to be reset again. And again. And again at will. God's complex, anyone?
- Also, Vida Moretti, who was heavily inspired by GLaDOS, does horrible, sick experiments for no reason other than For Science!.
- Magic From Technology: Adrian roman exploits a Stable Time Loop to give a Pompeii dwelling version of himself twenty-second century technology, alongside a few recorded hints. His past self successfully grasps the principles and manages to upgrade himself into a robotic body, continuing to work on his technological prowess for over two millennia. By the "current" time, he's able to run circles around the resident Evil Genius simply because of his head start.
- Make Up or Break Up: A variation of this was played with KATANA and CAESAR. When CAESAR refused to acknowledge Blacklight's authority, and failed to protect Bell due to his not being upgraded with an AAWF form (and thusly stuck on the Quasar's bridge), KATANA decided that he was really a ronin and dumped him. However, they can't live without each other, and settle on contacting each other in secret when their respective crews are away and/or asleep, so that KATANA can still see her sweetheart without dishonoring herself to the eyes of her crew (who couldn't really care less). And all this because of her insane samurai logic.
- Man of Wealth and Taste: Mr. Pax and Gregor Eisenhorn.
- Manic Pixie Dream Girl: Arguably Inferno, although her target is not lonely, brooding, or unemotional.]
- Manipulative Bastard: Gregory Saxon.
- Mr. Pax.
- Azog was trying to make Katana and Bell, and maybe perhaps Yuri kill themselves.
- Meaningful Name: Life. He dies, and is later brought back from the dead.
- Queen of Blades: the possible reincarnation of the Quorl's primogenitor.
- Medieval Stasis: Certain areas of technology haven't advanced very far in 700 years. Partially justified; a lot of communities are severely out of touch with the rest of humanity, BnL built and perfected technologies which literally last for centuries and work fine, and a lot of the technology is actually sentient and would object to being replaced and/or modified.
- Medium Awareness: Inferno, possibly. The entire "Not Serious" subforum also counts.
- Mental Picture Projector: a trope often played whenever a robot's memories must be shown or taken in examination.
- Most common example of this trope is generally found when EVE's memories are projected to recap the events surrounding the Axiom's landing for robots or humans who really only just arrived on Earth.
- Miles Gloriosus: Clark. The mutiny of the Blacklight? He has fought there. Wars? He was the hero of Space Wars, baby! Hell? Been there, done that in Lord Of The Bots. Too bad that he actually resigned from military service (before even embarking on the ship to which he had been assigned) to become a famous actor.
- The Milky Way Is the Only Way: Mostly played straight, though the Cirranians are said to be from Andromeda.
- The Mole: All InGRiD (Intelligence Gathering Robotic Droid) units are this.
- Also, the humans Adam De Spair and his girlfriend Laurie Antrax are spies of White Enterprises Intelligence, and moles the Resistance (Adam) and the Ground Dweller's Army (Laurie).
- Mollie does this to the Quasar for the Pandora Society. Dom Cobb would approve.
- Mook Face Turn: Cri to the turrets. That's right, Portal turrets. Instead of trying to get past them, she tried to make friends with them, and even brought one home with her. Hadn't it been for the G-Men, she would have probably talked Gordon Freeman into helping her get all of them out.
- Morality Chain: Mother Nature for Brad; Despite his temper, he is much calmer when she's around. Make him mad when she's not around, however.....
- Morality Pet: Catherine for Korinna
- More Than Meets the Eye: Captain McCrea may seem just a quiet country man. His passengers and his friends know better
- Morphic Resonance: No matter what form HAN-D takes, she always has the same color scheme: white with 3 pink stripes.
- Most Writers Are Male: A rare female version; for a while, Treehugger0123 created only female OCs[3] In fact, the only reason she made the Ecoship Prime's BRIDGET male was to finally avert this.
- The Mourning After: Soulless, who still mourns Zorro.
- Also, the death of his beloved Coral made Marlin overprotective of their little son, Nemo.
- The Munchausen: CAESAR, Autopilot of the Quasar. Woe betide the eardrums of anyone who asks him a question about his military accomplishments.
- His girlfriend KATANA does not seem to mind, though.
- Even if according to his Captain, what CAESAR says should be taken with a grain of salt.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Cri was haunted by remorse after she made a deal with Icarus White, begging him to resuscitate Life and promising that in return the technology or scientific discovery behind the process would remain of White Enterprises property to use as they saw fit in the war against Blacklight Military (thusly, more or less giving White Enterprises the key to immortality, although it didn't work so well). Although she knew that it was for a good cause, she knew perfectly that it was no excuse for what it would imply on the outcome of the war.
- My Ship Hates Me: For some reason, the Ecoship Prime's thrusters decided that the perfect time to stop working was during White's attack on earth
- Mysterious Informant: Stavro Carter became one for Vantage, after his Heel Realization.
- Mr. Pax knows the move you're going to make before you make it.
- Nakama: EVE sees her fellow EVE probes as her sisters, and is loyal to them beyond words. SCUBA, seeing Diver as his only surviving brother, is determined-well determined-to talk him out of his foolish idea to live in a box (read: submarine), of all places.
- Variation: Pilot and Lily (Both AIs created by Sergey) see Sergey as a father figure.
- SCUBA also considers WALL-E and FREDD-E his cousins, since they were both part of Operation Cleanup, and Sergey Dementiev as his Daddy.
- Not to mention the Riptide crew. And most other starship crews.
- The Chamoix might qualify. Then again...
- The RPers themselves fall under this.
- Nanomachines: This trope is Buddy Forthright's forte (SPAWN-E, Reaper...)
- Ghertivel, on the other hand, think that complex wiring requires physical space the way complex programming requires disk space, and that Buddy's obsession with nanobots is partially the cause of his repeated failures (the other being, of course, that he's a mediocre minded incompetent.)
- Nice Guy: Stefan Faraday, xenobiologist and second in command of the Destrious.
- Terenzio is also somewhat of a mix between this trope, The Charmer and the Loveable Rogue.
- No Waterproofing in the Future: not all robots are known to be waterproof.
- For example, K-9 units are vulnerable to water.
- This troper does not remember what we had decided for other robot units in - I think it was the first Christmas RP. I'll have to check on that again.
- Obfuscating Insanity: Inferno might qualify...
- Official Couple: The Colony would never have been founded was it not for WALL-E and EVE's love.
- BRIDGET and Auto are also a couple. More or less. They just don't flaunt their relationship out to the world. Still, it's pretty obvious to everyone else.
- Older Than They Look: The humans lifespan has increased in 700 years. But all those 700 years the Riptide crew spent in suspended animation.
- One Steve Limit: Played straight most of the time. Averted with the name Kelvin, which belongs to both a K-9 unit and a human.
- One-Gender Race: Subverted with BRIDGET units, which were likely supposed to be female-only (complete with a male-only counterpart—AND-I units—that so far plays it straight), then treehugger0123 came up with Brad.
- Only in It For the Money: Played with. Terenzio agreed to be sent on Earth as a spy because he had recognized his brother Domenico in the list of wanted criminals (not that he told White or Saxon that), but also because they were paying him to go.
- He made the mistake to let Domenico know, though.
Terenzio: Listen here, I get to visit you all, celebrate this anniversary-thing, spend two weeks on Earth, return home to tell the comante that you and the robottone aren't planning anything, and Dom, think, they're even PAYING me for it!
Domenico: Are you saying... are you saying that you return home for the first time in 700 years AND YOU ALSO WANT TO BE PAID FOR THAT?!!!
- Only One Name: Some robots who choose names for themselves. Others give themselves surnames too.
- Also, Catherine, who's surname has never been revealed.
- Also Erik, who's surname hasn't been revealed either. Subverted in that he will give a surname when asked, though he gives a different answer everytime.
- Opposites Attract: For all their differences, EVE and WALL-E are perfectly matched, completing each other to perfection.
- Outlaw Couple: Somewhat subverted with Adam and Laurie, who are villains for the Colony, but as far as White Enterprises is concerned, on the side of law.
- Overprotective Dad: Somewhat played with. Marlin isn't so much worried as to who Nemo hangs around with, but that talking with just about anyone who has been in space might get ideas in his head to leave the safety of the Colony. Because space is evil,and already claimed the life of Nemo's mom.
- Person of Mass Destruction: The MATTs were an attempt at this, but the prototype decided he didn't want to hurt people, so the rest of them were made without personalities.
- Phlebotinum Breakdown: Played when an experiment on a new instant transport went wrong, sending WALL-E, EVE, Vanessa and several other members of the Colony (and not just of the Colony) straight into the past for not one but three times (respectively in 2100, in the childhood of a Riptide member, and at the time of the volcano day in ancient Pompeii).
- It's implied Adrian Roman had a hand in all three of these instances, though.
- Phrase Catcher: 'Go to Hell, Optic!' for Inferno.
- Pity the Kidnapper: A variation of this was played when White Enterprises tried to capture several robots from Earth. Not only it got the Riptide, Nexus and Heiku on a warpath to retrieve them - the robots themselves proved to be rather "turbulent" prisoners, going as far as to release all other experiments from Vida's lab. Not to mention even Ghertivel's A.R.G.O was unleashed against the mainframe. And Blacklight's Military also came to aid. So yeah... attacking Earth, in hind sight, was a very bad idea.
- Planet of Hats: Humanity's hat is indomitable determination.
- The Power of Friendship: An example of this is the Chicago Colony itself.
- And most of the ships crew, really.
- Powered Armor: We got Shielders, but a more interesting variation is the armor that GDA members wear; it's usually based off an actual robot.
- The Kalindasian Shock Troopers utilize the heaviest power armor in universe, and are modified accordingly.
- Puny Earthlings: Played with. Humans are, physically, one of the smallest and weakest sentient species. However, their inventiveness, adaptability and sheer determination more than make up for it.
- Ray Gun: Pretty much every ranged weapon is a version of this.
- Real Life Writes the Plot: An in-universe example with the Reshyla show, an amazingly popular anime produced by White Enterprises and therefore entirely propaganda.
- Really Seven Hundred Years Old: Aryl is six-thousand years old
- Adrian is really three-thousand years old
- Rescue Romance: In Life and Bell's backstory, Life went comatose after saving Bell from a collapsing building. Needless to say, something started that day.
- What happened with Terenzio may also apply, though it is yet to be seen if this will hold out.
- Reverse Mole: Very slightly played with by Terenzio, who lets White Enterprises believe he's working for them, while in fact he's been on the Colony's side from day one.
- Ridiculously-Human Robots: Most robots develop personalities, and many modify themselves to become even more human.
- Ronin: Used gratuitously as an insult by KATANA toward all those that she did not feel were following the Way of the Warrior or had turned against their Daimyos, thusly disgracing themselves.
- Sacrificial Lamb: Paul, the VN-GO, was originally meant to be one. However, Cri86 didn't have the heart to leave him dead, so she chickened out and had the insane ARGO attempt to reprogram him. It only worked partially, as in that he's now an amnesiac artist who doesn't remember a thing about his past, his old personality (barely developing, but still...) and the reasons that brought him on the Hurricane.
- Amusingly, the insane ARGO himself was thought for a long time to have been a Sacrificial Lamb by the rest of Blacklight's Military. Internet and Blacklight, though, wanted to believe.
- Samurai: KATANA, the Japanese Autopilot.
- JAXA, another Japanese Auto, {{[[[Ronin]] was also one -}} until he mutined against his Captain.
- And he has since become The Starscream to his new Commander, Blacklight, too.
- JAXA, another Japanese Auto, {{[[[Ronin]] was also one -}} until he mutined against his Captain.
- Sci-Fi Writers Have No Sense of Scale: An in-universe example. People who hear about Ghertivel's Project Pangea instantly know he's completely insane, because anyone with a sense of scale knows it's impossible.
- Sealed Evil in a Can: A mysterious entity that came out of the first experimental hyperspace portals was sealed on the almost legendary starship Infinite.
- Also Blacklight, who was trapped as a processor for a few months.
- Self-Deprecation: Everybody keeps telling Cri (the user) that she's awesome, but she won't believe it!
- Serial Romeo: Terenzio might apply. He flirted with Sybille, Eumi, and tried to flirt with at least Hortencia and Cri (and probably had some girlfriends on the Forthright too). But although he's somewhat wary of committing himself to just one woman, one gets the feeling that if the girls reciprocated his interest (and so far only Eumi does) he would actually care for each of them. Polyamorous? No, just a Serial Romeo.
- Shape Shifter: Adaptoids (such as HAN-D) are designed to adapt to different directives by modifying their structure into different forms.
- The P'tol Contructs occasionally use this ability, since they are a mass of nano bots.
- Shapeshifter Mode Lock: If you breach HAN-D's force field and damage her bad enough (not that hard; a big enough dent in her chassis will do it), she won't be able to shapeshift again until she's repaired. Woe be unto you if you do this while she's in a form that can still fight back, however.
- Sharp-Dressed Man: Subverted by Terenzio, who always dresses in the most casual and informal way (even when talking with the CEO), and still makes women swoon.
- She's Not My Girlfriend: Played with Houdini and Melody, who constantly teased Rainbow and Spectrum on their crush for each other, to the point that Rainbow and Spectrum eventually decided to give them a taste of their own medicine. Hilarity Ensues, all the time.
- Shoot the Dog: Cri asked Icarus White to revive Life, promising that in return White Enterprises could exploit the technology and/or scientific finds behind the resuscitation for their advantage, even though she knew that would nullify many of Blacklight's military triumphs and tip the balance of the war in favor of White Enterprises. Cue My God, What Have I Done?.
- Thankfully the machine uses too much power (in fact during testing it drained most of the ship of power) for it to be used regularly.
- But since she didn't know (and still doesn't), they were in a way both true to their word.
- Kirra'hie's decisions concerning the Queen of Blades/ Maddi.
- Thankfully the machine uses too much power (in fact during testing it drained most of the ship of power) for it to be used regularly.
- Shout-Out: Many examples here.
- SCUBA's most frequent lines ("Bubbles! My bubbles!" which he screams for no apparent reason, and "Robots aren't meant to live in a box, it does things to them") come respectively from Bubbles and Gill in "Finding Nemo".
- And the song "Just keep cleaning, cleaning, cleaning..." that he hums to himself whilst working is also a pun on Dory's more famous "Just keep swimming" in the same film.
- Buddy's full name (Buddy P. N. Forthright), as well as his color scheme (orange-red hair, blue eyes, fair skin) is a shout out to Buddy Pine aka Syndrome, from "The Incredibles".
- One of Sybille's ancestors on her father's side owned a bistro in France, which she claims is where she takes her love for cooking for. Though she never mentions a name, long-time Pixar fans will recognize her ancestor as Alfredo Linguini from Ratatouille which, in turn, would make her a descendant of Auguste Gusteau as well.
- And of course Remy's name and his being pet and assistant to a French cook is where the shout out to Ratatouille is most obvious.
- Domenico being the son of an Italian florist, and his appearance, are also a nudge to a certain more skinny explosive expert in "Atlantis"
- Leonard Ghertivel is an Affectionate Parody to Leonard Vertighel in the comic series PKNA
- So are both A.R.G.O to the Ducklair Tower's informatic protocol of the same name and to the A Is Uno and Due.
- And ARGO's deactivation code (used so far only in JFF), "Sublog Syntex Vat Exec Ext Ctr Reset @@@ Exec X Dir: EDKey Exec CII A.R.G.O. # RD EHMET/ERASE! RUN!" is the same that Everett Ducklair used to deactivate Due, the A.I on which the insane ARGO is based.
- Again from PKNA are Adam De Spair/Victor Doom and Laurie Antrax/Korinna Doom/Nebula. Adam gets his name and looks from the New Zealand hacker Adam Mood, whose last name is also an anagram of his last name as "Victor Doom". His last name of De Spair was inspired by Belgravian terrorist Oberon De Spair in the same series, as was the Tyrannic, the ship Adam was born in (named after the submarine Tyrannic). Laurie's name comes from that of soap actress Laurie Bricks, her false alias of Korinna from Korinna Ducklair, her codename of Nebula from ufologist Nebula Faraday, and her last name Antrax from that of corrupt businessman Roover Antrax.
- And, of course, Pretty Todd is a living PR-T-shaped shout out to Sweeney Todd.
- As for HARLEY and QUIN, their being identical twins and prankster is an obvious reference to Fred and George Weasley from the Harry Potter series by J. K. Rowling. Their names come from both the Italian mask Arlecchino and Agatha Christie's detective Harley Quin.
- Conversely, JAXA was named after the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency.
- Icarus White was based on Nikolei Drevin from Alex Rider.
- SAMU-L is a parody of Swindle from Transformers, and Wasp is based off of Waspinator from the same series.
- The concept and name of the Ground Dwellers Army (or GDA) is also a shout out to Dumbledore's Army in the Harry Potter books.
- Firenze the modified ED-I also has his name from Harry Potter - after an outcast Centaur.
- Most of FREDD-E's starships are named after ships from Doctor Who novels or episodes.
- The markings of Zorro, Soulless, Blondie and Kevin are based on those of the wolves Alexander, Dulia, Maki and Sandah from the anime Jungle Book Shonen Mowgli.
- And Kevin (a K-9 female) is an obvious shoutout to Up.
- While her sister Tsinga is named after the wolf seer in the book "The Sight".
- And Pascal after the villain in the book "Felidae", just because this troper thought it was a cool name.
- And BOLT the K-9 is more than obvious shout-out to Bolt.
- Buzz the CLEAN unit, from the Lightyear line, with his green and purple coloring is a shoutout to Buzz Lightyear from Toy Story.
- Also, Lt. Ellen Weaver is based on Ellen Ripley from Alien.
- And, of course, there's Anton the EGO unit.
- Brad the male BRIDGET is a shout out to Francis the male ladybug, complete with at least one instance of being mistaken for a girl.
- Also, Terenzio is a shout out to the kind of character that italian actor Terence Hill played in many movies in his younger years.
- Not coincidentially, at one points he hums to himself "Dune Buggy", which is perhaps the best known tune from all the Bud Spencer/Terence Hill movies.
- Also the conflictual relationship with his brother Domenico mirrors that of Bud Spencer and Terence Hill in many of their movies, in which the two (sometimes portrayed as siblings) are forced to work together - much to Bud's vehement protests. Terenzio's story is especially a shout out to couple's film "Odds and Even", where Terence steals the truck of his half-brother Bud, driving him in a murderous fury. Admittedly, Domenico took the theft of his old fighter shuttle even worse.
- Clark Fairbanks and Marilyn Hayworth, the greatest robot movie stars of their age, are shout outs to many movie stars, including, but not limited to Clark Gable, Douglas Fairbanks, Marilyn Monroe, Rita Hayworth, Rodolfo Valentino, Mary Pickford, Elizabeth Taylor... there are many.
- Paul the VN-GO was named after Paul Gauguin.
- Wallaby and his unit number(42) are a shout out to Finding Nemo(P. Sherman 42 Wallaby way Sidney).
- SCUBA's most frequent lines ("Bubbles! My bubbles!" which he screams for no apparent reason, and "Robots aren't meant to live in a box, it does things to them") come respectively from Bubbles and Gill in "Finding Nemo".
- Shown Their Work: In part because of the forum "Science of WALL-E" section, in part because of the participant's enthusiasm, and in part due to sheer boredom, the plot is cohesive and accurate in many details.
- Sixth Ranger Traitor: Victor for the Destrious, although he's not been found out to be really a spy. And possibly Korinna for the GDA. However...
- Slobs Versus Snobs: Played with. White is dressed to the nines and talking and behaving like the picture perfect politician, Terenzio is in jeans and rolled-up shirtsleeves and puts his feet on desks. Need this troper say that Hilarity Ensued?
- Smarter Than You Look: Buddy seems a pretty ridiculous threat, right? What could you aspect from a painfully obese man strapped in a hovechair and unable even to walk properly? What can he do? Actually, his brain has come up with two computer viruses one more deadly than the other, two virus spreaders who should have been at his orders (admittedly, that part did not work so well) and several engineering enhancement to the weapons of White Enterprises.
- Spell My Name with a "The": A variation with the Our Armoured Lady. The Our is part of the name, and its soldiers get noticeably annoyed when the Our is dropped.
- Spy Satellites: Ghertivel controls a lot of these, allowing him to know what goes on not just on Earth, but in the space as well.
- The Starscream: Blacklight was once this to Captain Magnus (until he killed him), and now JAXA is quickly becoming this for him.
- Similarly, Scorpius White was this for Shelby Forthright, and now his descendant (Icarus White) has one in the form of Buddy Forthright.
- Straw Feminist: Hortencia epitomizes this trope, very much so.
- Super Senses: One of Craig's eyes was replaced by an artificial optic which, among the other things, allows him to see in the dark.
- Swiss Cheese Security: Reversed with Ghertivel who, after a failed attempt for his life at Blacklight's hand, programmed the security of his lab so that no unauthorized guest can break in. If they get to break in anyway it's because they are walking straight into a trap and are not guaranteed to come out with their life, if at all.
- Team Pet: Wallaby the K-9 is this for the above Power Trio
- Tears of Remorse: Cri, at the Anniversary Celebration, after Sergey had given Blacklight back his old wheel body, and Blacklight had shot it to bits to truly leave the past behind them. Having just made a Deal with the Devil herself, it just struck her that the Colonists really were better people, even though in the past she had sometimes judged them too harshly.
- Techno Babble: Ghertivel learned to technobabble before he learned to speak, some believe.
- Others say that he learned to technobabble, but never to speak plainly.
- FREDD-E (one of the creators) is extremely fond of technobabble. Icaron Accelerator, anyone?
- Don't get Exeter started.
- Tertiary Sexual Characteristics: Male BRIDGETs have rectangular eyes [dead link] while females have slanted eyes. [dead link]
- Thank the Maker: Some robots sometimes speak about the "designer" or "creator" as a god-like being. Robots a little more in the know about their creators don't do this.
- The entirety of the Ciult Mechanicus believe in a supernatural creator of all machines, who is responsible for artificial sapience.
- Subverted with Yuri is he does say creator as a term for a deity. And then you learn he's of Life's religion, who actually refers to the deity as the creator.
- They Call Me Mister Tibbs: The name is Professor Ghertivel. Not Leo, not Ghertivel, not Ghertie. P-r-o-f-e-s-s-o-r G-h-e-r-t-i-v-e-l (or even just Professor will do), for common mortals. Most of them are too dumb to understand this, if you ask him.
- This Is Unforgivable!: Played straight when Azog kidnapped Bell and stole Life's arm, driving KATANA to shed her Tranquil Fury and embrace a personal warpath against him.
- This Means War: Played when White Enterprises killed Zorro, driving his mate Soulless on a warpath.
- Tranquil Fury: Ghertivel, most of the times.
- Also, Ming * is* this trope.
- Mother Nature is this on the rare occasion she gets mad
- Translator Microbes: Kinda inverted. Characters of different ancestry than English will sometimes express themselves in their original language; Sybille will greet people in French, Domenico (and sometimes Cri) will swear in Italian, Sergey sometimes exclaims Russian interjections (as well as swearwords), Hortencia speaks strict Spanish when angry, and KATANA and JAXA - just to name two - adress pretty much everyone with Japanese honorifics.
- Played straight with the "telepathic translator field" used to speak with alien races.
- Trauma-Induced Amnesia: A variation is the insane A.R.G.O. His programming was split and scattered in various computers because too complex to be contained in just one machine. And some parts of himself he has not been able to track. Certain protocols he does not remember. Neither does he know where his creator and his twin live, much to his scorn.
- Turned Against Their Masters: Played straight with the Blacklight army and the GDA, but averted in the colony, where robots are viewed as equals.
- SPAWN-E and Nick also turned against Buddy, and therefore ended up in his black list.
- the Lady's Shield turned om White Enterprises due to the P'tol.
- And of course the insane A.R.G.O.
- Ungrateful Bastard: Buddy got out of an alternate reality experiment due to the combined efforts of robots and humans from the Colony. How did he thank them? By threatening to call White Enterprises all along,and ultimately pouring even more effort in the creation of weapons for his very own alignment.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: Blacklight wants to save robotkind from slavery, and he'll stop at nothing to achieve it. Even if it means killing every human in existence.
- What Could Have Been: Rainbow and Melody were initially going to be sisters. As it is, they're almost never without each other.
- Aldrasio was meant to be this tropers first villain. Aldrasio was supposed to nearly kill Yuri, launching an investigation. When found out, Life was supposed to kill him in a fury. Which would have meant some Serious Business from then on out.
- Houdini was supposed to be the only K-9 who got along with cats when Cri86 first wrote his biography. The character eventually took life of his own, and he's now a believer that dog-bots rule and cat-bots drool.
- HAN-D was meant to be a little more aggressive than the kind, timid adaptoid seen now.
- What Is This Thing You Call Love?: Auto and BRIDGET, for a long time. And all along they were falling for each other.
- Also, Blondi probably qualifies.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Cri's rallying cry.
- Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Somewhat played with. Although Paul the VN-GO is an artist and not a warrior, he lives on the Hurricane - you'd think he had been through more than one dangerous battle, right? But as of Anniversaries, his number one bane that he'd run away screaming if he ever ran into in a dark alleyway is nothing more dangerous than Brad the BRIDGET. Considering that he Dropped a Bridget On Him once, he has his reasons.
- Will They or Won't They?: Sergey thinks they won't. Inferno thinks they already have.
- With Friends Like These...: Inverted with Ghertivel and the late Scorpius White. They pretended to work well together and have the highest esteem of each other. Actually, they were trying to backstab each other all along.
- World Half Full: Given the incredibly powerful White Enterprises, the powerful Pandora Society, plus a whole lot of space-dwelling monstrosities, you would expect the role play to be completely depressing... except that there are many, many factions working to better the galaxy, and there are plenty of happy fun places!
- Xanatos Gambit /BatmanGambit: We have a Mad Scientist, a Knight Templar robot, a Corrupt Corporate Executive, and a madbot who wants everybody to be insane, amongst others. Of course we're going to have a few!
- Let's list them here, ya'll.
- Azog's kidnapping in Taken assumes that the ship crews will follow. Unfortunately, this means going to a place where they can't call for backup. And, even if they don't follow, he can torture Bell as much as he pleases.
- Also by Azog, his blackmail is to either have Bell killed or force her to come back to him (also meaning they can no longer help her since the colony must agree to it). Either way Bell is not going to have a grand old time soon.
- Terenzio is doing one against WE, he pretends to spy for them, but is actually spying ON them. And if he gets found out, he'll just move to Earth permanently.
- Argo when battling an intruder. If he isn't winning the fight itself, he will just let the network collapse, killing him and his opponent. But he has backups so he still survives.
- Xanatos Roulette - Aryl has one in the works. However, she has something that might subvert this.
- Yandere: Inferno and Sergey are married, and anybody who denies it to Inferno's face is liable to get cut. Up to and including Sergey himself.
- You Are Not Alone: The Undersite people will stick their necks out of each other whenever one of them has troubles.
- Ironically, the "You Are Not Alone" line was delivered to Vladimir in the first (fanfic) installation in which the characters originally appeared, before they were brought over into the Roleplay.
- ↑ pretty much anything to do with Manami, due to her creator's extended absence
- ↑ Ecotania being the temporary name for the planet which the Dracowymsys(the aliens who found and upgraded Tempest) called home
- ↑ Although Darkshade and Herbie are male, they were adopted rather than created and don't get a lot of screen time anyway.