This page assumes you have played FTL: Faster Than Light and will have unmarked spoilers for that game.
is a web series based off the roguelike game, FTL: Faster Than Light. Following two brothers, Jose and Ricardo Sandoval of the Galactic Federation salvage fleet who find information that may just end the war that has ravaged the galaxy. With their salvage vessel upgraded with weapons and a new weapons officer they set off to the last remaining Federation base, but the Rebel fleet is closing in, and they are not the first to start this journey...Now has its own Wiki!
The web series by Andrew Colunga expands on the lore of the FTL universe and greatly expands the characterization of otherwise faceless crewmen using an art-style similar to the game's sprite art combined with occasional gameplay footage.
FTL: Kestrel Adventures contains examples of:
- Adaptation Expansion: This whole series is based on a playthrough of the game. For example, Episodes 18-21 note were all based on a trading event.
- Absolute Xenophobe: The Rebels and the Mantis are this, believing themselves to be the dominant species.
- A.I. Is a Crapshoot: The SAI-1 project, A.K.A. Simon, who betrayed its creator and became the Heart of the Rebellion.
- And I Must Scream: General Tydrich appears fully aware depsite his body being stolen by Simon. His mind seems to float through space with Simon constantly gloating. His mind is symbolized by a version of him that lacks a mouth, floating in the void. A literal example, in this case. He cannot scream, or do anything. Another example is when the FTL drive was contaminated, sending the ship through hyperspace incorrectly. We see a montage of the crew experiencing the worst moments of their lives. We have no idea how long this happened for.
- Anyone Can Die: Being based on a game where death is common, any crew member serving the Kestrel might be killed off soon. This finally happens to Sambo.
- Asskicking Leads to Leadership: The Mantis have this as their hat, which led to the Mantis/Federation War. The Rebels believe this as well, thinking that since Humans were at the forefront of the fighting, they should now lead the Federation.
- Attack Drone: Par for the course for FTL: Faster Than Light:
- Inverted, initially, since the Crew bought the Drone Control System to use a point-defense drone.
- Many enemies, though, use combat drones. One of them, who proclaims himself as the greatest mercenary, uses nothing but Beam weapons, including a beam drone.
- Arc Words: Strength to the rebellion.
- Art Evolution: Both the animation and the voice acting have improved greatly over the course of the series.
- The Assimilator: What SAI-1 has done to Peter Tiedrich, and it looks like General Key will follow. Other troops seem to have fallen to the same fate.
- Been There, Shaped History: Ricardo and Jose are the reason everyone barters with Scrap instead of actual money.
- Bizarre Alien Reproduction: The Rock people reproduce through budding.
- The Cameo: The Lanius in the massive transport ship during Episode 7, and the Crystal in stasis. In later episodes, many one-off characters are voiced by different FTL-Tubers.
- Chekhov's Gun: The Fire Bomb Launcher found floating in space became useful when Jose and Ricardo were escaping from the Rebel base in Kaban during Episode 21.
- Couch Gag: In the credits, there will usually be gag credits, such as celebrities playing a character who doesn't talk during the episode.
- The Coup: The Rebels want to do this by taking over one of the major trade routes. They have mostly succeeded, with only Sector 8 being in control of the Federation.
- Cybernetics Eat Your Soul: Something is not right with Tiedirch's cybernetic eye.
- Distress Call: Many of these are answered by the crew. This is how Charlie and Cremity were discovered.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: The first few episodes often featured gameplay intermixed with the animated segments, notably in ship battles. This got dropped out somewhere around Sector 3, with the game UI only being used sparingly on computer screens.
- Easter Egg: In Episode 5, the number coding seen on the wall just as Jose realized Charlie was without clothes after seeing some Rockmen with pants before getting pulled into the alleyway by Agent Morocco reads: GAUNTLET OF MALTESE. And after Morocco departs and Jose exits the alleyway, the numbers now read SOLACE ARRIVES. The former is the title of a book written by Colunga himself, while the second is a reference to Cesar Olivares, Ricardo's voice actor; @solacearrives his calling name on Twitter.
- Energy Beings: The Zoltan are this.
- Exposed Extraterrestrials: As in the game, many aliens seem fine with walking around naked. Lampshaded in one episode when one of the humans notices a clothed rock man.Jose: "So, does this mean that Charlie has been naked this whole time?"
- Fantastic Racism: The Rebellion to every other race in the galaxy.
- The Federation: The Galactic Federation, though now with the Rebels pushing towards the last Federation base and confidence dropping in its currency, it's now closer to Vestigial Empire.
- Flash Back: Used to show Pavalo, Jose, and Ricardo's backstories at different points.
- Follow That Car: Or Ship, rather, in Episode 5.
- Forbidden Zone: The Door in the Rebel base on Kaban, which houses the room where SAI-1 was developed. When Jose enters it, he is immediately condemned to death.
- Fourth Wall Psych: In Episode 15, Jose appears to turn to the audience and tell them to not say anything of Ricardo's plan to jump to Kaban, but the camera switches to reveal that Jose is talking to Cremity.Jose: And don't you mention this to anybody!
Cremity: What? I didn't hear anything!
- Great Offscreen War: The Mantis/Federation war of which General Turzil, Admiral Tully, Pavalo, and Tiedrich all served as senior officers together.
- Hidden Base: The secret Mantis war camp shown at the end of episode 3, and prominently in episode 4.
- Insult of Endearment: The mantis tradesmen in episode 24 like Pavalo when he insults them. This serves to imply that Pavalo is complacent with their culture.
- Open Secret: Everyone seems to know about the Kestrel's "secret" mission. We don't just mean the crew outside Ricardo, Jose, and Pavalo given they decided to tell everybody after Episode 6.
- Piss-Take Rap: Jose and Ricardo perform one about Scrap. After they are done, Charlie, who joined the crew just recently, asks to be let off the ship at their next stop.
- Practical Currency: Since Scrap is technically salvage metal, it can be re-purposed to upgrade a ship's systems instead of just buying equipment and repairs.
- Raised by Natives: Liam the Mantis, to the point where he believes he's a human.
- Reassigned to Antarctica: Pavalo, one of the leaders of the Federation Armed Forces during the Mantis/Federation War, ended up commanding a salvage fleet.
- Rebel Leader: General Tiedirch, Novak II, Blackbird, and Nils/Dag Key are these.
- Red Shirt: The masses of Rebels all wear the same uniform, look exactly alike (due to their helmets), and are killed without a second thought. Notably averted with the Pirates, who generally have distinguishing features.
- Secret Character: The Crystal Man.
- Secret Test of Character: In episode 26, the rebel ship turns out to be a test by the Zoltan, as per the game.
- Shout-Out:
- "These blast points are far too accurate for Mantis raiders."
- "...maybe if we haven't been blissfully picking up hitchhikers across the galaxy..."
- Sole Survivor: As per the game, many newly recruited crewmen are this. Manon, Charlie, Cremity, and Sambo are this.
- Space Pirates: Many of the enemies that aren't rebels are these, with various degrees of success.
- Space Whale: In episode 24, they encounter a mantis trading outpost inside one.
- The Tape Knew You Would Say That: In Episode 17, a pirate repair crew's automated message chews out Jose for not having any scrap.
- Team Pet: Jose befriends a snake he encountered while temporarily stuck in Kaban.
- Techno Wreckage: The first few episodes used this whenever a ship was destroyed. However, later episodes have enemy ships vaporize completely unless dramatically necessary.
- Vader Breath: Parodied at the beginning by Ricardo, "Everyone breathes heavily in space."
- Weaponised Teleportation: Of a sort. Liam and Charlie teleport to other ships to attack from within.
