Sporadic Phantoms / Characters

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Sporadic Phantoms

A trio of environmentalists from California who set out to investigate an illegal logging operation, before finding themselves investigating a totally innocuous community organization called The Sharing, which is definitely not a cult or front for an alien invasion.

Things go wrong for them pretty fast.

in general

Break the Cutie: This happens to all of the three main characters. Going from wide eyed excited environmentalists ready to investigate what seems like a standard illegal logging operation to being paranoid broken messes desperate to find out what's really going in The Sharing unaware of how horrible the truth actually is. Robin gets by far the worst of it. The stress, paranoia, and lack of any real answers cause her to push all her friends away until all she has left is the Be You Now Course she's investigating. It culminates in her becoming so broken she becomes a voluntary controller.
Freudian Trio:
- The Id is, obviously, Kyle - acting impulsively, voicing whatever thought that comes to his mind with little (or any) filter.
- The Superego is Stevie - she's very concerned with tempering down on Kyle and thinking of logical explanations.
- The Ego is Robin.
Wrong Genre Savvy: All three of them think they're in a different sort of setting than the one they are in. Robin and Stevie both think they are hosting what is in essence a true crime podcast examining a potential cult involved in financial corruption. Kyle, on the other hand, believes they are in a Conspiracy Thriller and that everything happening is part of a secret plot-which, while actually closer to the truth than Robin and Stevie, still doesn't recognize that what they're investigating is actually an Alien Invasion by a Puppeteer Parasite race.

Robin

The de facto leader of Sporadic Phantoms.

Face–Heel Turn: After being worn down by Be You Now, she becomes a voluntary controller.
The Leader
Reasonable Authority Figure: When Stevie and Kyle get into conflicts, she does her best to mediate them. She tends to try focusing on theories that seem realistic and plausible rather than outlandish, but at the same time does not dismiss Kyle's suspicions out of hand.

Stevie

Atrocious Alias: When introducing herself to the Sharing, see claims she's "Stevie... Stevens."
It's Personal: She's taken aback and alarmed in her first in-person Sharing meeting when she realizes that her niece Maddy is there - and Maddy's mom, Stevie's sister, is a full Sharing member.
The Mole: She turns out to have been a Controller the entire time.

Kyle

The conspiracy theorist of the group, and the most concerned with sustainability and the environment. Kyle is much more... out-there compared to the other members of Sporadic Phantoms, frequently dropping bizarre theories that often turn out to be surprisingly on the money to the audience, until they're not.

Agent Mulder: Kyle is the most likely to believe some of the more crazy explanations for what the Sharing is up to. Most of the time he's only half right, as seen in Entertainingly Wrong and Right for the Wrong Reasons.
The Cloudcuckoolander Was Right: Kyle walks a fine line between this and Entertainingly Wrong - he's wrong that the Sharing is an animal trafficking ring, but anyone who's read Animorphs knows he's right that birds are surveying them. He's just wrong about them being from The Sharing. It's practically a Running Gag that he'll say something unsettlingly accurate about the books... and then undercut it with an Entertainingly Wrong claim.
The Dulcinea Effect: Kyle immediately throws his lot in with Elizabeth shortly after meeting her, getting highly defensive about her and her methods in The Sharing, and is convinced that other Full Members are trying to oust her. It's what starts driving a rift between him and the others. It also turns out to be legit - despite evidence to the contrary, he was never infested and really was that crazy about her.
Expy: In the words of his voice actor, Kyle is partly inspired by Homer Simpson - a not-too-bright guy that's nonetheless very protective.
Granola Girl: Granola Guy in this case, but even in a trio of fellow environmentalists, Kyle stands out.
The Pig-Pen: Downplayed but in their first in person Sharing event, Stevie marvels that for once Kyle's even combed his hair.
Right for the Wrong Reasons: A recurring gag is that Kyle will come WAY closer to the truth of what's going on than his cohosts...only to undermine that with his reasoning as to why he thinks that.

The Sharing

Elizabeth Li

Canon Foreigner: While most major characters are this, Elizabeth stands out given her massive role within the Sharing which is otherwise dominated by canon characters like Chapman and Stinton/Visser Three.
Cult of Personality: While Be You Now is not *explicitly* this, much of the way it is conducted serves as a clear attempt to form one, even after converting the participants into hosts for Yeerks. This is the root of her power struggle against Chapman within the Sharing and why the group throws her under the bus in the podcast's finale.
Enemy Civil War: Compared to the other leaders of the Sharing, Elizabeth's goals and methods are much closer to those of Visser One, the original founder of the Sharing - she wants to isolate lonely, unhappy people and Break Them by Talking, bringing them to a state of defeat and voluntarily accepting infestation. This is much slower and more labor-intensive than the now more common method. Between that suggestion of loyalty to Visser One, the diversion of time and resources, and her own ambitions within the Sharing, she's got her conflicts with the other leaders.
Manipulative Bitch: It's probably one of her most defining characteristics.
Psycho Psychologist: Elizabeth is very, very good at getting under people's skin, convincing them to become Controllers.
The Social Expert: She attends Sharing Speed Dating events and manages to convey a funny, relatable impression in the two-minute window to convince people to go to in person Sharing events. It sure works on Kyle.

Other Characters

Nancy Candleton

Cool Old Lady: Nancy is older than the main characters, having been at woodstock.
Token Good Teammate: She is the only character confirmed to be a Yeerk who is a part of the Yeerk Peace Movement and thus opposes the invasion.

The Animorphs / Sharethetruth

Dramatic Irony: The Animorphs' appearances in person, aside from Ax's waiter disguise, remain pretty much totally in the background of the podcast, with the hosts having no clue they saw them in person.
Early-Bird Cameo (*snrk*): Their first appearance in the show comes in the form of Tobias, stealing the microphone from an influencer.
Frame-Up: In the season one finale, they are framed for several crimes, including helping Elizabeth embezzle money from the Sharing and creating deepfakes to mislead the podcast hosts (when the audio they provided was real, two of the three hosts just ended up Controllers).
Hero with Bad Publicity: What they likely are now that Sporadic Phantoms have smeared them as cyberterrorists.
Unseen No Longer: Finally, Marco, Rachel, Cassie, and Jake appear in Season 2, episode 13.
Wild Card: To Sporadic Phantoms, at least. They know they're against The Sharing, and little else.

Characters / Sporadic Phantoms