Headscratchers / Metalocalypse

• Why the hell did they hold their CD release party at Mordhaus? I know it's pretty much the safest place for Dethklok to be, but not when they're a) going to be entertaining a couple hundred people and b) when Offdensen knows they're going to be attacked! They can obviously afford some pretty extreme security measures. Why not hold the party somewhere more public and then, should the security measures fail, Dethklok would still have a home and safehaven to escape to? I think it's the only time in the series when Offdensen grabs hold of the Idiot Ball and it irks me no end.
  • Offdensen had no way of knowing the Revengencers, a group of brainwashed Metal fans led by a cripple, crazy old assassin and a teen suffering PTSD would cook up a freaking Sonic Weapon. Considering that Mordhaus has force fields and god-damn anti-missile flying deth-spiders, I'd say it was the safest place in the world.
    • Served.
    • Actually, the answer is the same as everything else: Because it's METAL.

• As hilarious as the whole ordeal was in Renovationklok, Dethklok had already proven themselves to be highly skilled at not only interpreting, but rewriting contracts in Bluesklok. They got it to the point where they had changed the terms from collecting their own souls to the Devil giving part of his own soul; and receiving only a $5 Hot Topic card in return. Murderface even acknowledged that he was a notary. Did they just forget that?
  • We don't know exactly how savvy the Blues Devil was at his own contracts. For all we know, it could have been filled with loophole after loophole. Plus, the B.D. had nothing against Dethklok, he just wanted business. Damien on the other hand, hated the band, especially Nathan, and probably had his lawyer staff go over the new contract until it was nigh airtight. Thus, Nathan's problems, even when near signing it near the end, before being saved by Offdensen.
  • More to the point, Pickles specifically mentions it being full of appendices and things; Dethklok's record label probably knows exactly how good they are at contract negotiation and specifically worded the contract to be obtuse and incomprehensible to the band. Since the nature of the Faustian deal is a fairly straightforward one, and because the Blues Devil obviously didn't know they could negotiate, his contract probably didn't have quite so much complex legalese.
    • They're also rather shaken up from the loss of Offdensen, and probably not on top of their game.
    • Also, just because the band is good at contract negotiation doesn’t mean they must be good at financial management as well. These are two distinct professional skill sets. After all, most accountants are not lawyers; Charles just happens to be good at both.
    • Beyond logic, the band's relative competency just fluctuates on Rule of Funny. Why can Pickles make (terrible) macaroons in one episode but can't even make a sandwich in another? For the joke.
  • He probably didn't actually make those, it was just a thing his PR lady arranged. A lot of celebrities have that kind of thing, to varying degrees of success and legitimacy. (Margaret Cho's "Chow Like Cho" bit illustrates it nicely.)
  • It's worth remembering, while Dethklok rewrote their contract with the Blues Devil to highly favor them, the Blues Devil didn't accept the deal, which actually counts as pretty poor contract negotiation.
    • Of course he didn't accept the deal. It's the frickin' Devil, he doesn't negotiate. The entire point of the Faustian deal is that it's never a truly fair one. Once B.D. realizes he can't screw the band over that way, he bails.

• Was Cardinal Ravenwood supposed to be Catholic or Satanist?
  • Catholic. Otherwise why would he be talking about God crushing the "demon" Mustakrakish.
    • So what's with the hat? Catholics do not dress that way. GOODNIGHT!
    • Maybe he just likes the hat. Or, maybe he's some other religion. I don't think he's Satanist, though - we saw examples of Satanists in Religionklok.
    • He may be just a representative of religion as a whole.
    • He's definitely some kind of Christian denomination. At the very end of Religionklok, after the Satanists summon the Four Horseman of the Apocalypse (was it the Four Horsemen? It was definitely something of the apocalypse), you get a brief flash of him wailing and kneeling in front of a cross (likely because of aforementioned Satanists).

• Are their servants called Gears or Klokateers? In Dethsources, Offdensen calls them Klokateers, but "The Gears" calls them Gears.
  • This troper figured "Klokateers" is their actual title, whereas "Gears" isn't so much a title as a description or nickname - when they become a Klokateer, they become a part of the whole system: A gear of the clock. Er, klok.
  • The Klokateers get branded with a gear on the back of their neck when they join (hence the title of the song that plays in the background, "The Branding of the Gears"). As Klokateers their job is to aid (or, rather, serve) the band. They are the gears that allow Dethklok to work.
• Recall Jean-Pierre's prayer in the first episode: "I am a Gear in the Wheel of the Klok". Even if that's not their official title, it's probably what they call themselves.

• Who the hell was the guy Toki replaced? We see him in the flashback at the beginning of Renovationklok, but never get to know who he was or why Toki replaced him.
  • The dude with the beard? I thought that was a younger Toki...
    • Nope, definitely not Toki. I took him to be little more than another joke on Toki's expense.
  • Answered! His name is Magnus Hammersmith and he was booted from the band for being too much of a douchebag for Dethklok to deal with.

• Why didn't Charles have all the boys secretly GPS chipped years ago? It would save a lot of hassle.
  • Because even if they don't know it's there, the boys will find a way to fuck it up.
  • Maybe they're already chipped? How did Offdensen find them and/or know they weren't on the tour bus?
    • He just has a sixth sense about when they're in danger. He's the Dead Man from the prophecy, it's kind of his thing. He probably didn't have them chipped because it's just too much of a headache to get them in to see a doctor.

• Allowing for the possibility that making a super-user friendly ultra-versatile drum machine always crosses the line into making it self-aware, why did the manufacturer install a ten-thousand megaton self-destruct system? Or any self-destruct system, for that matter?
  • There's a recent episode of Futurama that had Bender powered by a doomsday device. Maybe it's the same thing?
  • It isn't metal unless you risk the chance of dying from it. See also: The Klokateers' quarters.

• In the latest episode, Offdensen is trying to whip up a media promotional storm to get Zazz Blammymatazz back on top. But if that was the case, how did he let that one interviewer bring up the whole pedophile business with Rockso if the idea was to get tickets sold?
  • He's only going along with it because it's Toki (because if Nathan's the Team Dad and Offdensen's the Team Mom, then Toki is certainly the baby of the family), but honestly, he doesn't give a shit about it either.
  • He doesn't like Rockso any more than anybody else, either.

• For cows, is death literally "Hamburger Time?"
  • BOO! Incredibly Lame Pun! But seriously, some percentage of time. The rest of the time it's Steak Time.

• Why do Pickles' parents hate him so much? He's part of the wealthiest, most successful band on Earth, and yet his ex-convict freeloader brother is somehow "better" than him. Do they hate metal that much?
  • They just hate him. Period. You can make an excuse about his younger brother being the cause, but I wouldn't support it in any ultimate sense.
    • For the parents of an Unfavorite, there doesn't need to be a reason. It's possible that when Seth burnt down the garage and blamed it on Pickles, and Pickles started drinking (and subsequently became an alcoholic), they just continually blamed everything on him just because of that one incident. Seth is incredibly manipulative, he may have just been able to play their parents that well.
    • I think it's a case of self-fulfilling prophecy. Seth's garage antics got Pickles blamed and led to him drinking. His parents probably meant no real ill will with the garage thing; they just trusted Seth because he was older and disciplined Pickles accordingly. Pickles drinking through the entirety of his childhood and adolescence probably led to him actually doing things to make his parents hate him. By the time he was moving out, Pickles's drinking and much-more-likely misbehavior pretty much burned the bridges. Fast forward 30~ years, and all his parents see is an alcoholic hedonist that slumped through life. A slob who still managed to get to the top of the world, abuses every drug known to man without consequence, causes the deaths of thousands regularly and likely never calls or writes to make things up for real nor sends money back home. The garage was an honest mistake on their part, but it's far too likely that Pickles became the thing they thought he was because of it. It's pretty much impossible for them to ever reconcile at this point. Good going, Seth.

• Okay, call me a hair-splitting armchair linguist if you like, but why does Pickles call carbonated beverages "soda" (watch the extra on the most recent season DVD where he's at the amusement park)? It just doesn't add up with every other aspect of his speech.
  • Because that is what they're called.
    • I think what the above troper is referring to is the Soda vs. Pop debate.
    • Pickles is from Wisconsin. In Wisconsin (and the Midwest as a whole) it's (to most people) "pop", not "soda".
    • Believe it or not, this is Truth in Television. Being from Wisconsin myself, I know for a fact that this is the one Midwestern state where a fair amount of people say "soda." In fact, asking for a "pop" in Milwaukee will usually get you asked where you're from.
    • While it may vary by region within the Midwest, I've known a fair number of people here who say "soda" or who use the two terms interchangeably.
    • Maybe it's his way of distancing himself from his roots.
    • God knows he has a reason to. Also, I don't know how long he was there, but if he spent a significant amount of time in LA during his Snakes 'n' Barrels period, he'd probably pick up on their speaking mannerisms. (California is predominantly 'soda' territory.)
    • Also, we are a bunch of nerds. (Including myself here)
    • We Southerners have no idea what any of you are referring to. Some kind of coke?
    • Well played.
    • At least he didn't call it sody-pop.
    • He hangs around Skwisgaar a lot. Calling it "soda" is probably easier than having to navigate "pop" as a homophone.

• If Toki has no talent, has never been in a band before, and wasn't friends with the rest of Dethklok before they became famous, how the hell did he even get into the band to begin with?
  • Toki has talent, he's the second fastest guitar player in the world. He might have just had an audition before they got famous?
    • He's in the prophecy from the ancient Sumerian artifacts; it was destiny.
    • He might have been third fastest, after that one guy from the S3 opening episode.
  • Toki has talent. Just not as much as Skwisgaar. That's part of the problem. He's only there for concerts(as is Murderface, it seems), because Skwisgaar redoes all their parts. As for how he got into the band, Maybe the label forced them to have a fifth member or Offdensen discovered a suitable replacement.
  • In Doomstar, after Magnus gets booted there's an entire montage where the band basically calls any challengers to come and play against Skwisgaar for a chance to be in Dethklok. Toki lost but Skwis liked the challenge, and after that the band started getting as famous as they are—he didn't need prior experience because he proved himself then and there.
  • In the DVD that comes in the Dethalbum III Deluxe version, Brendon Small mentions that Toki is a good guitar player, but he is very shy and that causes him to screw up.
  • In the Doomstar Requiem we find out that he's able to match Skwisgaar quite well and helps him (Skwis) 'improve' his playing. Toki also plays keyboard in some songs (videos) and does backup vocals (also can be heard in some songs). He's very far from being the load, like his profile suggests.
• Am I the only one that's glad it went back to the fifteen minute format? Maybe it's just me, but thirty minute episodes just seemed to drag, and it seemed to me that they got complacent with the longer format, and therefore less of the Myth Arc was covered.
  • No, you are not. In fact there seems to be a clear writing difference in the last two seasons of the show. In the first two seasons, the music industry/corporate music world itself and the executive mismanagement seems to be the target of most of the satire and craziness going on. There is a lot of characterization in a short amount of time, and the personalities of each character are very nicely done withing the span of one episode. We basically learn something new about someone in each episode, and that kept it entertaining, along with the seriousness of the Myth Arc, with the band's hedonism kept as a funny background role. The themes of the last two seasons almost totally revolve around girls/pure hedonism in one shape or another, with the longer episodes filled with pretty much non-characterization filler stuff rather than interesting new information. Lastly, to me, Abigail is positively jackhammered into the last part of the story arc and into Doomstar Requiem. There are many hints in the text of previous seasons to me that she didn't even seem to originally be intended to be written in there.

• The sultan guy asked the band to play a song that no one had heard before. Why couldn't they just have played one of the Seething Vortex songs? No one ever heard those, so the guy would still be appeased without Dethklok having to actually make up a new song.
  • Because Dethklock had heard it before and, if anything, they aren't no one.
• Where the hell do Nathan's parents live in Florida that they're capable of having neighbors with frostbite and ice storms? The fucking Panhandle? Because the last time I checked in the nineteen years I lived here, Florida was hot and humid and you're lucky to get frost even in the harsh winters.
  • Perhaps they don't live there year round? Florida can be rather miserable in the summer, it's possible they have a vacation home somewhere, and it's one of their neighbors there that Nathan's mother was talking about.
• Nathan's parents live in Florida, but Nathan may not have been born there. When his mom asks if he remembers their neighbor, I assumed it meant that he only knew her when he was much younger; it's possible that the Explosions lived in a colder climate at one point and moved, but their neighbor didn't; Nathan's mom was just relaying the story.
  • Maybe she got it during a vacation?
  • What I'd like to know is where do Nathan's parents live if Scrambles the Death Dealer, and Nathan's leadership in general, completely destroyed Florida?
    • Somewhere else, probably. Nathan actually likes his parents, so Scrambles spared them.
  • In the episode where the new record was shipping and was totally destroyed, there were something like 56 hurricanes all at once. The environment is totally guitar-riffed.
• In Goingdownklok, all females except Abigail weren't allowed on the Dethsub because of security concerns. But several episodes show that there are some female Klokateers. Shouldn't they be trusted enough to gain admittance?
  • They can be trusted. But as Fertilityklok and Renovationklok showed, Murderface can't be trusted to keep his hands to himself when he has any kind of authority over a female and god knows what the guys who can get girls would do. I doubt Offdensen would want to risk more sexual harassment lawsuits.
• Now I'm not diabetic, but would Toki really go into a coma five seconds after eating a single slice of cake? And not even swallowing most of it? Come on, your levels would have to be a lot more f*guitar riff*ed up than that to introduce any immediate side effects.
  • Maybe the cake was that f*guitar riff*ing sugary?
  • Having a heavy set guy sit on your chest stuffing your throat with cake would make it difficult to breathe. Toki probably just passed out. The needle prick probably just woke him up.
    • Either that, or his diabetes is completely psychosomatic, and the insulin is a placebo.
• In Religionklok, Nathan Explosion apologizes to Murderface for the motorcycle crash, and is generally guilty about it. But in Writersklok, in an argument with Pickles he says "you know I have an apology problem" when Pickles gets angry for him not apologizing for destroying the record, and in Church of the Black Klok, the bandmates joke that if he apologizes he'd die, and his attempt at an apology causes so much exertion that he vomits up blood. How did he lose his ability to say sorry?
  • The series has definitely evolved since the show started six years ago, with character development and the plot steadily becoming more refined. However even in-universe, despite the growing divide between seasons it's explainable. Consider three factors: A) The inherent selfishness of the individual members; B) Their fear of death as established in Hamburger Time; C) Apologizing isn't metal, and feelings are gay. It's one thing to constantly do things that pisses your friend off when it serves your own needs and interests, especially in a setting where all your friends are doing the same thing and you've agreed not to give a f*guitar riff*, and entirely another thing when you almost cause the death of a friend. Nathan might not have seen that he did anything wrong with destroying the Master Track and semi-sexing up their manager, and didn't really care about what Pickles thought until it threatened to break the band apart and he saw just how much it affected him, and by extension the rest of the band. Nathan is a decent guy despite the sadism, but remember that he lives and breathes metal. He has to keep public appearances up, despite being a completely different person privately. He still visibly cares about his bandmates, and shows his bandmates he cares, but the rest of the world can't know this. He realized he'd wronged Pickles by being selfish, not by accident like with Murderface (who, I'll remind you didn't get angry or upset, probably pushing Nathan to react for him), and let's face it, Pickles is pretty much his best friend. Just saying "I'm sorry" in private like he did with the consequences surrounding Murderface just wasn't going to cut it. This was a massive, massive ordeal. The band was breaking up over this, potentially crippling the world's economy and countless fans watching and waiting for an explanation. It's counterintuitive to the direction of his entire public life, but he needed to do this totally un-metal thing with everyone in the world watching and judging. As for the puking up blood, remember, Nathan isn't in the best shape of his life. He needs a liver transplant every week, and him vomiting blood is a running gag on the show. The strain of the apology was probably too much for him, but it's not out of the ordinary. They even wrote a song called Blood Puke based on it.

• Given just how Papa Wolf Offdensen is, how in the hell did Abigail get away with sending Dethklok on that "vacation"?
  • Don't forget Offdensen allowed the boys to go on a sort of "detoxifying" vacation in Dethhealth where instead of relaxing and cooling it on the substances and such they instead got COMPLETELY wasted (including, funnily enough, Toki's cat as Pickles was pouring Jäger into a bowl for him), drugged up, and even injured as they crashed their jet skis onto the deck of a yacht. While he probably should have warned her/seen it coming, there's no accounting sometimes for the amount of disasters Dethklok can get themselves into (plus, I get the feeling that neither one probably expected them to go to a war-torn country for a vacation, but then again, that wouldn't be as metal, now would it?).
    • Except the boys didn't actually CHOOSE that vacation. Abigail arranged the whole thing. Remember, it was supposed to be an "inspiration" trip and it ended with Nathan coming up with a new song on the spot. My guess is that Offdensen was either too occupied with business and his apparent "prophecy sense" didn't go off because, for good or ill, it did need to happen, or he was in on it and was paying everybody to play along (because seriously, who would ever mistake all five members of Dethklok for women?) because it was the push they needed. Offdensen doesn't mind occasionally sending them off into the world on their own (Tributeklok) as long as they're not scheduled to perform for their psychotic fans.
• Is Magnus shown anywhere on the prophecy wall in the Season 4 finale? It seems like The Man Who Stands Behind Shadows should have a place there.
  • If he Stands Behind Shadows he would be hidden, wouldn't he?
• Is Seth older or younger than Pickles? In Dethfam he refers to himself as Pickles' big brother but in Dethwedding he says Pickles is the older one.
  • Seth is the older brother; when he says 'big', he's referring to Pickles being a rock star more than his age. In the rehab episode, we see Pickles and Seth as kids and Seth is definitely at least a few years older.

• It's among the most heartwarming moments in anything ever, especially taken in context, but... where did Nathan get "That's my bread and butter you're fucking with"? When Offdensen said it, there was nobody around to hear it. Skwisgaar and Toki were there, but not within earshot.
  • Strange Minds Think Alike?
  • Toki and Skwisgaar were only a few yards away from the Assassin and Offdensen, they most likely were in earshot.

• The Metal Masked Assassin was right near Offdensen when he got arrowed by the Teenager, so shouldn't he also have witnessed Salacia brainwashing Crozier?
  • Considering how he was right near Offdensen when he got arrowed by the Teenager, chances are he was probably too distracted by his downed and vulnerable nemesis to see either Salacia or Crozier.

• So, as Dethklok is recognised as the seventh economic power in the world, where does the money come from, since 60% to 80% of their fans are killed by them? I mean, seriously, even merchandise have a limit of being sold to a point it declines if there are lower amount of fans buying them.
  • It doesn't really matter that their concerts have a bigger deathcount that some natural disasters, as long as they gain more fans from them that the amount that died, if anything it does explain part of their income, a constant stream of ne fans buying merchandise after every concert.

• I don't understand Toki's reaction when he finds out about Rockso's affair with a 14-year old girl in Dethzazz. Was he more upset that his best friend turned out to be an Ephebophile or was he more upset that Rockso wouldn't be able to play at his reunion concert? The fact that he never brings her up and reconciles with Rockso in the end makes me think that he's more upset about the latter than the former, which confuses me to no end.
  • Honestly, I think he was a little more upset about the concert. The Dory incident happened years ago—it's over and done, Rockzo's done time for it, there's no changing the past, etc. The concert, on the other hand, could still be saved with some quick thinking and action, and had to take priority. Plus, Toki used the band's vacation money to fund the concert—if the clown didn't perform, Dethklok wouldn't make that money back and couldn't go on the Disney trip they wanted to take. It would all be Toki's fault for stealing their vacation funds from them, hence his desperation to make the concert go smoothly.

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