Follow TV Tropes

Following

Context Headscratchers / AstroBoy

Go To

1!!All Versions
2* Why is Astro so phenomenally powerful? He was built to replace Tenma's dead son...there was no need to give him super powers too...
3** My guess is because with all these powers, Astro would be basically indestructible and Tenma wouldn't lose his son again. The 80's series is slightly different, in that version, Tenma was already building a superpowered robot (Toby even suggested making it a robot boy), but then Toby got into the car accident and Temna ended up making the already in production robot child look like his son (going against orders from the higher ups who were planning to scrap the project).
4*** It's basically spelled out in nearly every version that Tenma gave Astro/Atom all the power he has so he'd never face the same fate as Toby/Tobio.
5
6!!2003 Version
7* What was Pluto doing in the finale? [[spoiler:He fell into a Volcano! He died performing a heroic sacrifice. The other robots, Atlas, Hercules, etc I can understanding coming back easily, they had something to rebuild but Pluto melted, or was in such a state where he wouldn't be easily accessible. The only explanation is that Shadow retrieved him but why!? Shadow deemed in a failure and had a more powerful version of him sitting right there in that Volcano too. Alternatively Shadow built a new Pluto and gave him the original's memories which wouldn't make sense either since he would lack the final step of character development he got and would have still wanted to destroy Astro yet the one single thing he does in terms of Plot is save Astro, something that would have had the same effect if Atlas did so alone.]]
8
9!!2009 film
10
11* Zog, powered by the Blue Core, which represents all that is good and positive, attempts to stomp Hamegg in cold blood, and would have succeeded had Astro not intervened. -- @/BryceBryans
12** He was built before the Three Laws we required. Says as much himself. Also, it seems that the blue "positive" energy was more neutral where as the red "negative" energy was undeniably evil.
13** GoodIsNotNice. Zog likely thought for greater good, killing was necessary.
14*** So he has the Zeroth law without the other three?
15*** Most likely.
16* So, okay...Toby sneaks out of his super safe location away from the testing room (Toby's fault, maybe the guard's fault) and into the room where the Peacemaker is being tested. He is able to get very close to the incredibly dangerous machine (totally the guards' fault). The President, against the consultation of literally everyone, puts the highly dangerous red core into the very dangerous robot, necessitating the use of the shield that traps Toby in the room (President's fault). The robot's escape attempt is [[spoiler: what eventually vaporizes and kills Toby]], and there was nothing anyone could do to stop it. So tell me, how can Doctor Tenma sit there and cry "It's all my fault," when he had literally nothing to do with Toby being trapped in that room?
17** Typical parental self-blame. Done all the time, in fiction and real life.
18* Wouldn't Toby remember dying?
19** I don't think so. I was hit by a car at age 11 and all I remember of events is saying to my sister "I'll cross the road now" and then waking up on the pavement on the opposite side of the road. I guess Toby would possibly remember the robot waiting starting to fire and then waking up in his room.
20*** It makes sense, possibly because the brain sometimes has a tendency to block out traumatizing memories in order to protect the person's sanity. Or, one could say that Tenma removed the memory of Toby dying so he wouldn't know.
21*** It might be that memory didn't have the time to register before his death, so his memories probably come to a sudden stop. He may not even remember the pop quiz from earlier, or it could be the last thing he remembers. We may never know...
22* How exactly would Astro!Toby be surprised to find out that he was a robot after the first day or so? Even accepting that- this being a kid's movie of the non-grossout-humour variety- ''all'' the characters [[NobodyPoops lack normal biological functions]], ''he can't take off his boots''. If he's got Original!Toby's memories, he must surely remember being able to go barefoot...
23** Well, regarding the boots, the original manga has shown that Astro can switch between shoes and boots, so it's possible that he can change his clothes.
24* I have a few problems with this film. One, how did Toby's hat survive when he was vaporized by the robot? Is the hat indestructible? I wanna know! Two, I felt like a lot of scenes were rushed, particularly at the end where Cora meets up with her parents. That went by too fast, what was the deal with that? Three, I was annoyed at about how quickly Cora told Astro about her past. She just met him and she blurts out her biggest secret, a secret she hasn't told the people she's been hanging out with for years. Unless you interpret it as her subconsciously wanting someone to know, it doesn't make sense.
25** Astro had just caught Cora trying to contact the city. If she hadn't told him, he might have teased her about it in front of the others. I forget exactly where the scene fell in the course of Astro's friendship with everyone, but he may have struck her as someone that would keep her secret once he knew how personal it was.
26** We know that the vaporization didn't destroy the walls of the building, so the hat may have survived by falling behind part of the building structure (like a pillar) before the resonance of the vaporization happened. As for the rushed scene at the end, it seems to be a SequelHook.
27* How did Cora go down to the surface? -- @/{{Grandy}}
28** She sewed a parachute out of bedsheets. :)
29* Pretty much all the movie in general. While it wasn't terrible, it felt rushed and didn't take advantage of some possible plot elements. Namely, Astro doesn't even have a bit of a existential crisis when he realizes he's a robot. Him and Elefun just suddenly talking about destiny like it's a casual subject, ''after'' Tenma disowns his robot son! The RRF felt tacked on, as did most of the ''robots are people too'' subject, and seemed to be just a plot device for the JerkAss villains. This goes into another complaint, Astro clearly says he won't fight the robots, then proceeds to massacre all but ZOG like generic {{Mooks}} without even being the least be bothered that he ''killed'' several robots. Finally, as some have pointed out, the ending seemed terribly rushed, nothing explains how Stone is suddenly fused with PeaceKeeper (which at first seemed only able to merge with other non-organic things) and the alien at the end just seemed too sudden, like some toss up between that or a cheesy ''wave to the screen and fly off'' ending.
30** 1: Astro, at his core, is a ''kid'', robot or not. Any kind of crisis got lost in the sheer exuberance of discovering his new powers. 2: Astro doesn't quite ''fight'' the robots, preferring instead to hoist them by their own petards.
31*** Well said, my thoughts exactly. I also am befuddled by the fact that Toby dies, but President Stone gets to live. Who thought that was a good idea?!
32*** I know, right? To me, a cooler ending would have been the reveal that Toby fused with the Peacekeeper instead of dying, and Astro has to fight his alternate self.
33* It is resolved that the Good and Evil sides of the energy source are equal. In the movie, we clearly Astro Boy breaking off some of his energy to reactivate ZOG, so Astro Boy is weakened by as much energy as ZOG required to get online. So, when the two energy sources collided, the Good side would be weaker than the Evil side, and so the Good side would be completely cancelled out, but the Evil side would still have some excess energy, equal to the amount of Good energy left in ZOG. Does this make any sense?
34** I believe it's stated that the core is capable of limitless renewable energy, which means that if you remove a portion of the energy it would restore it's self back to full, so between the time he used a portion to revive ZOG and fix the phone it restored itself back to full.
35*** To me, it's more that the blue (positive) energy is much more "generous" than the red (negative) energy. They're not so much "good" and "evil" as they are "kindness" and "meanness"--you can be angry with someone, or lose your temper, but it doesn't last, and it doesn't feel very good. I don't know quite how to explain it other than that. --Prime Evil
36* Where did Tenma get Toby's memories from if Toby's whole body was vapourised?
37** BrainUploading prior to the accident, like in ''VideoGame/{{Portal}}''?
38** Tenma gives a handwave about GeneticMemories stored in hair follicles. Seriously.
39*** Well, it is the future. . .
40* So what happened to Hamegg? Last time we see the little jerkoid he was being held by Zog.
41** You actually see him near the climax. Astro's friends took his car so they could get to Metro City. Hamegg tries to convince them to stay, but to no avail.
42* Why ''does'' he have machine guns in his butt anyway?
43** It was in the original show. They probably were trying to be [[SlidingScaleOfAdaptationModification loyal]].

Top