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.
This Role-play provides examples of:
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.
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...
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.
The backstory of humanity and robotkind on the original five-year cruise was explored as well. As was the backstory of Bn L and several Riptide and Colony characters before that.
Badass Longcoat: Traditional trench coat/greatcoat of the Lady's Shield. Always black, all the time.
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.
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 breakoutthe 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Can't Stand 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.
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 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.
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.
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.
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 Bn L.
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 anotherworld 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.
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...
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 resethis 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Drop the Hammer: Finnigan carries a gravity hammer, an oversized melee weapon.
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,
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....
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.
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.
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.
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 backstorynote pretty much anything to do with Manami, due to her creator's extended absence 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 Ecotaniumnote Ecotania being the temporary name for the planet which the Dracowymsys(the aliens who found and upgraded Tempest) called home robot.
Darkshade and Herbie were once normal K-9s, rather than a Stealth and Sport respectively.
Foreign Language Tirade: When Domenico's anger gets the better of himself, he rants in Italian. A lot.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
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.
Humans Are Bastards: Most of the Blacklight Military thinks this. Subverted in-universe, however- people like Icarus White represent a tiny proportion of mankind.
Humans Are Special: Played with. Most species have a defining trait which make them special in some way, though it's never universal.
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—
Later, in Beware The Weeping Angel, she thought the Angels had killed Yuri and, once more, she hadn't been there to help.
Imagined Innuendo: Clark thinks that all female robots can't take their eyes off him.
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!
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.
Invisibility Cloak: All InGRiD units can turn completely invisible (Silence, InGRiD, Ming...)
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.
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.
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.
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.
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:
Cri: Please, if there's anything you know that could help throw some light on this matter...
Inferno: Poor Cristina. Are you sure you want mylight?
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.
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..
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.
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.
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.
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 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. [[supersecretspoiler: Dom Cobb would approve.]]
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 mediocremindedincompetent.)
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Power Trio. Brad (id), Catherine (ego), and Mother Nature (superego).
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.
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.
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 toreprogram 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.
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.
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.
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.
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"
So are both A.R.G.O to the Ducklair Tower's informatic protocol of the same name and to the AIs 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".
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).
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...
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.
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 aDeal 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.
Technobabble: 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?
Thank the Maker: Some robots sometimes speak about the "designer" or "creator" as a god-like being. Robots a little more in the know abouttheircreators don't do this.
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.
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.
True Companions: 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.
Unsettling Gender Reveal: 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.
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.
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 has done an Unsettling Gender Reveal once, he has his reasons.
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!
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.