YMMV / gen:LOCK

• Alternative Character Interpretation:
  • The amount of rabbit Animal Motifs attached to Cammie, including having her Ether avatar as a bunny. Is this merely because she finds rabbits cute or is she part of the Furry Fandom?
  • Marin ordering the arrest of the gen:LOCK pilots when they protest her Graying Morality in The Grand Guignol. Is it that she Can't Take Criticism or that they unknowingly stomped on her Trauma Button by bringing up the horrors she's responsible for? Or is it a result of her increasing extremism making her believe they were going to escalate from protest to taking action and she decided to cut that off at the knees?
• Awesome Music:
  • The Season One theme song, "Belgrade" by Battle Tapes, is an upbeat electro-rock ballad that goes hand in hand with the series' high-octane adrenaline mech action.
  • The Vanguard's heroic orchestral leitmotif, which plays prominently during scenes like the Vanguard's entrance in the Battle of New York and the Holons' Big Damn Heroes moment during Operation Coyote.
  • The somber piano piece that plays in Weller's flashback in Episode 6 is hauntingly beautiful.
• Fanfic Fuel: A map showing Union and Polity controlled territory◊ has inspired a ton of theories and meta about not only the Union’s origins but other fronts in the war away from the North American theatre the main narrative takes place in.
• Fan Nickname:
  • Sinclair very quickly earned the nickname Simclair among the subreddit. The Sinclair that arrives at the Anvil is a Union plant instead of the real Sinclair.
  • Before its official name was released, Nemesis received the nicknames General Nanomachines, the Stalker, and Grievous from the gen:LOCK official Discord, and was dubbed Headsnatcher by Tumblr.
• Fanon Discontinuity: Virtually almost the entire fanbase would like to pretend or outright ignore that Season 2 ever happened due to its bleaker tone, the inclusion of sex scenes (which even Season 1 animator Torrian Crawford - who left Rooster Teeth earlier in the year - made his dislike for known), and turning several named characters such as Colonel Marin and Miranda into assholes. The latter is regarded as an egregious example as despite having an amicable relationship with Chase in Season 2, she acts much more harshly towards him and even sells him and his team out when he expresses his doubt in the Polity after learning they started the war with the Union, in exchange for a promotion which proves for naught when Marin orders her execution with the rest of the team's. That is to say nothing of her sudden change in relationship with Jodie to casual lovers at best.
• Genius Bonus:
  • The Union's full name, The Great Union of the Fourth Turning Republics, is a reference to the Strauss-Howe Generational Theory, which posits that societies cycle between several different archetypal eras. The Fourth Turning, or Crisis, involves the destruction and reformation of a nation's institutional life in response to an existential threat, with revived civic authority and decreased individualism as a result.
  • One of Weller's many holographic boards bears the note "Ship of Theseus". It's probably not a coincidence you can see it clearly in "The Only Me I Know" while Weller is leading up to tell Chase that his mind is actually a copy, with the original having been captured by the Union.
  • The word "Holon" comes from classical Greek; it means something that is a complete unit in and of itself, but which is also part of a bigger whole, like a cell in a body, a member in a team, a mind on the Gen:LOCK mindshare network... The concept of holons is an interesting topic in philosophy related to issues of identity and conformity.
• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • The commentary track for Season 1 included several blithe quips from Haddock that have aged poorly in the light of reports that he was an abusive figurehead to work for during the show's production, such as remarking that "RT hates us" for requiring several end-of-season character models be ready for the first season's opening sequence and multiple discussions about how much work was required for the Nanosmoke.
  • Leon's blatant Bus Crash in the first episode of Season 2 was a somewhat amusing statement that disgraced creator Gray Haddock would not be returning. It became less amusing when the rest of the season witnesses Characters Dropping Like Flies, with the characters chosen to kill off coming across as nothing so much as the show getting rid of some of its more expensive voice actors. The jab at Haddock becomes even harsher than that with 2022's revelations that his abusive directorial practices were more the fault of Rooster Teeth corporate culture in general rather than his alone (management largely knew about but never cared about Haddock's mismanagement so long as his shows kept making money) and were very much still going on after his firing, with Haddock's dismissal more coming as retaliation for the show's first season going over-budget and as a scapegoat manuver to placate critical fans upset at the show's production.
  • With how bleak the second season was, people have chosen to consider it non-canon, citing the production being handled by HBO Max was the blame. A couple of years after its release, Volume 9 of RWBY released and shared some similarities with Gen:LOCK's second season, namely being "more about the characters" and a main character being Driven to Suicide, to the point where it's even worded as Ascension. The kicker? That volume was handled by the same production crew that has handled RWBY the whole time, meaning that the same excuse that Gen:LOCK's second season got couldn't apply.
• I Knew It!: After Dr. Weller revealed Leon was Gen:LOCK compatible, most people guessed that Leon would end up using Sinclair's Holon during the climax.
• Like You Would Really Do It:
  • Episode 6 has Dr. Weller leave the story by performing a Heroic Sacrifice via blowing himself and a bunch of Union soldiers up so the gen:LOCK crew can escape. Many immediately voiced their skepticism afterward, namely due to him being an important character to the narrative, and being the only one capable of properly upgrading the Holon's into the forms displayed in the intro sequence. Soon ideas ran wild of him either surviving the explosion and escaping on his own or with other Anvil survivors, or that Caliban has a cyberbrain itself and a copy of Dr. Weller's mind is uploaded into it. Others believe the explosive was actually an EMP like device allowing for his survival. And then it turns out they would in episode 7: while David Tennant is still in as Caliban, an early gen:LOCK experiment that possesses Weller's accumulated knowledge and some of his mannerisms, Caliban doesn't have a true copy of Weller's personality. Episode 8 would then confirm that Dr. Weller did indeed die in the explosion.
  • The events of Episode 6 ends with Nothing Is the Same Anymore, the Union having overrun the Anvil and unleashed Nanotech across it, and Chase unable to contact Colonel Marin, Migas, or any of the Strider crew. Skeptics immediately pointed out that there were top billed actors amidst these characters and that at the very least, the Strider pilots possess suits that can block out Nanotech, meaning at the very least Leon, Jodie, and Miranda survived. They also pointed out that killing off several of these characters would result in several aborted arcs and ignore the The Law of Conservation of Detail, including the Love Triangle between Chase, Miranda, and Jodie, as well as the mentioning of Leon being a potential gen:LOCK candidate as well as there being a sixth holon with no pilot. Come episode 8, it's revealed that everyone survived thanks to the late Dr. Weller's idea of mimicking the Union's signal to the nano-machines that prevents it from killing their own troops or sympathizers, saving everyone's lives.
  • Season 2 Episode 5 ends with Cammie, a fan-favorite character, essentially committing suicide by letting the Union nanobots disintegrate her. Come the end of Episode 6, it turns out she's somehow still alive within the smoke.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • "Watch gen:LOCK." Rooster Teeth went all in on advertising the show prior to its launch, with most of the videos on their channel, even ones unrelated to Rooster Teeth's animation division, having a bumper at the start hyping the show, alongside Gray hijacking several RWBY panels to bring up the show. This eventually led to Gray developing a memetic reputation for blackmailing people into watching the show. When RWBY's sixth volume featured a large mecha in the final third, right before gen:LOCK started airing, the fandom response was almost universally jokes on how "the gen:LOCK ads are getting really subtle."
  • Kazu's ass got a lot of attention, especially after staff revealed that Kazu's model was unique in that it had rigging done specifically for his butt.
  • Stylizing content related to the series in the same method as the title itself, e.g., eagerly awaiting the release of the sound:TRACK or the blu:RAY.
  • "How'd they get Blaine Gibson?" was a common joke made in response to the original cast list, as most early material featured the misdirect that there would be six Holon pilots; it didn't escape fans' notice that five were played by major celebrities and one by Rooster Teeth staff member Blaine Gibson.
  • "This one's about the characters."^ExplanationDuring the production of gen;LOCK, this was made to be the founding core tenet of the writing. This statement would be mercilessly mocked by the show's detractors, both for the criticisms levied towards the characters, and for the implication that other mecha series aren't about their characters: a common Fandom-Enraging Misconception about the mecha genre and its fans.
  • "I'll buy it off you for $10."^ExplanationWhen it was announced that Rooster Teeth would be shutting down in 2024, many news articles would have a notice that several of the shows the company was working on (Such as RWBY and Red vs. Blue... Along with gen:LOCK) would be sold to other companies. Given how gen:LOCK's reputation has gone down the gutter after the second season, many people joked about the show not being purchased at all, or random people purchasing it for a very Comically Small Bribe.
• Mis-blamed: When it became clear that the series was taking a much darker turn, many fans believed the changes were caused by Rooster Teeth. In actuality, RT has nothing to do with Season 2 whatsoever, with one of the animators from the previous season downright saying it was a disservice to what the original crew had done.
• Only the Creator Does It Right: This has become the case with the vast level of criticism regarding Season 2. Season 1 was not perfect by any means, nevermind the controversy surrounding it and series creator Gray Haddock, but several fans would rather have Rooster Teeth remain in charge of the series, though whether these sentiments remain after it's revealed by one of Rooster Teeth's former employees that the company was in on how bad Season 2 was gonna be but did nothing to change it remains to be seen.
• Overshadowed by Controversy:
  • gen:LOCK was meant to be a breakout hit in a similar vein to Rooster Teeth's previous show RWBY, with the intent to put RT on the map for animation projects. While the show was well-received critically, it being locked behind Rooster Teeth's FIRST premium membership meant the viewbase was small and reports suggest the show's massive budget (especially its high-profile voice cast including Maisie Williams, Kōichi Yamadera and David Tennant) lead to it underperforming. Discussion about the show, however, would be dominated by revelations in June 2019 revealing how harrowing of a production it was for the Rooster Teeth animation team, who reported no overtime leading to as much of a third of gen:LOCK (and a third of the corresponding RWBY season) being effectively made for free. Further accusations would be levied against at-the-time Head of Animation and showrunner for gen:LOCK, Gray Haddock, for prioritizing resources and sabotaging other animated shows (like Nomad of Nowhere) to siphon their budgets to compensate for gen:LOCK. Even worse, it was rumored that the show's financial problems, combined with the disastrously poor sales of Rooster Teeth's new game, Vicious Circle, were a direct cause of the company laying off 30% of their staff later that year. Discussion about the show without acknowledging the production is now near-impossible.
  • Anything good that one can say about the tasteful, creative, and trans-affirming sex scene between Kazu and Val in Season 2 Episode 4 is overshadowed by what surrounds it. Firstly, it's the second sex scene in the series, the first being between Jodie and Miranda in the previous episode; as that was the first time the series had ever featured sex and nudity, came completely out of nowhere, was loud, and focused primarily on Miranda's irritation at their total lack of chemistry, the fans were a bit too taken aback by the awkwardness to be receptive to a good sex scene an episode later. Secondly is the fact that Kazu is killed off later in the same episode, coming across as an instance of Bury Your Gays, a trope which does not sit right with modern audiences.
  • The nature of Cammie effectively committing suicide via Ascension (with a Public Service Announcement even being made on the topic of suicide in the episode it occurs in making it seem like it was being treated as a very bad thing), only for said suicide's impact to be negated when it's the very reason she returns as a powerful Technopath over nanotechnology in time to save the day, as well as Ascension being treated as a good thing when it becomes the team's answer to stop Project Twilight and a solution provided to the whole world in Season 2 is another hotly mentioned unfavorable aspect of the show whenever it's brought up in conversation nowadays, with many people agreeing the show's portrayal of suicide is both very disgusting and sends an outright harmful message by treating it as a positive solution. Not helping this is when another RoosterTeeth series, RWBY, had similar themes in a subplot in Volume 9, detractors of either or both webseries immediately drew negative comparisons to what gen:LOCK did.
• Paranoia Fuel: Union nanotech, which is capable of devouring people in seconds, can be disguised as something as small and innocuous as a coin.
• Salvaged Story: The Union were heavily criticised in Season 1 for being generic villains with no backstory, with the series never explaining why they seek to control the world. Season 2's press summary makes a point to mention that the series will gain several Union characters as POVs to show their side of the war and why they fight.
• Second Season Downfall: Season 2 is widely regarded by fans as a massive step down, thanks to the show downplaying the slick mecha action and character moments (widely regarded as some of the best parts of the series) in favor of half-baked political drama, having various characters take several levels in jerkass, dropping bridges on characters like Kazu and fan-favorite Cammie for shock value, and its unrelentingly bleak tone.
• Shallow Parody: Robo Shogun: the Show Within a Show that Kazu grew up on is presented as a satire of 70's Super Robot anime, and shown to highlight the Values Dissonance between American and Japanese culture. Except for the fact that it's completely inaccurate to what it's supposedly satirising and even racist towards Japan in some ways. The titular Robo Shogun's bigoted tendencies of viewing femininity as weakness and executing an old man after he sustains a major wound would have been harshly criticised by shows like Mazinger Z and Getter Robo, and have him rightfully portrayed as a villain. For reference, while Mazinger's protagonist Koji Kabuto did initially hold sexist views, these were portrayed as a character flaw and he eventually grew out of it, not to mention he was nowhere near as bad as Robo-Shogun.
• Shocking Moments: Episode 6 hits the floor running with Nothing Is the Same Anymore. The Nemesis is the original Chase and the current one is a backup copy of his mind taken when he uploaded before the Chase we now know as Nemesis was captured, the Anvil is attacked by the Union and the Nemesis, Dr. Weller blows himself up to let the gen:LOCK crew escape and the Anvil is overrun with Union Nanotech, with Chase unable to contact anyone else at the base as the pilots are forced to flee.
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks!: Season 2 has received a swathe of criticisms regarding a number of changes made to the series following Gray Haddock's departure. The significant Darker and Edgier shift away from the Season 1's more lighthearted tone, the increased amount of visceral violence and sexually explicit content, several named characters such as Miranda Taking a Level in Jerkass, the significantly downgraded and stiffer animation by Bardel Entertainment, and the Battle Tapes Theme Tune being dropped, have all been major points of contention since the show's debut on HBO Max.
  • The extremely reduced mecha action is a sticking point for many people, especially given Season 2's changed direction seem to hold nothing but contempt for Mecha as a genre, going out of its way to depict In-Universe mecha series RoboShogun as a parade of sexist and toxically masculine tropes.
• Too Bleak, Stopped Caring: Season 2 has progressively alienated many fans due to its bleaker and more miserable tone. Most of the fun character moments and slick mecha action have been replaced with half-baked political drama. The Polity and several of its members (Marin) have taken several levels in jerkass with little build-up. And finally, the senseless and unceremonious deaths of prominent named characters. Both Jodie and Kazu in episode 4 are killed off with little fanfare, and most egregiously, fan-favorite Cammie in the episode right after, functionally commits suicide. Many fans have made their disdain for Season 2 clear in episode discussion threads and the official Gen:Lock Subreddit, with many loudly declaring they're done with the series after the events of Episodes 4 and 5.
• What Do You Mean, It's Not for Kids?: Surprisingly, a vocal number of parents have come out to express their complaints against Season 2's Hotter and Sexier scenes as this means they can no longer watch the show with their young children. While gen:LOCK does have the outward appearance of a brightly colored Power Rangers-esque Mecha cartoon, the show never hid the fact it was made for older audiences with Word of God citing that the series was envisioned first and foremost as a Military Science Fiction inspired by Gundam and the works of Tom Clancy. The first season alone featured graphic violence and a mass-casualty incident in the form of the Union's terrorist attack on New York, dark humor, profane language, and thematic elements exploring various philosophical, political, and social issues that wouldn't be considered appropriate for children. The fact that gen:LOCK would eventually air on [adult swim]'s Toonami block only reaffirms that it was meant for older audiences.

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