A team of anthropomorphic writing utensils is assembled to embark on diplomatic recon missions. Their goal: to prevent widespread imperialism in their star system. Only problem is, they find themselves accidental heroes destined to battle an even bigger scheme by an ancient evil which threatens the eternal damnation of their entire universe. But it's not like they had any good alternatives.
Floating around the Internet since 2009, two minisodes have been published online: "The Wages of Cheating Death" and "Ties That Confide." The latter became the inspiration behind a wedding slideshow video dubbed "Ties That Confide: Reception Wishes." Most episodes are not yet published, due to its creator keeping them on a hard drive until they are ready for publication in large volume book format as "seasons."
The Voyagers' universe involves a very philosophy-laden deity named Minshus, who due to the paradoxes of love, is forced by his own nature to allow its opposites a chance to come into form on their own, if only temporarily. Due to this, a third of his Apthalans rebel and get their own universe. Outer Reality is defined as three universes, two that are perfect spheres that represent Heaven and Hell, while the third is shaped like an inverted onion and dubbed "Physicalia, the Great Testing Ground."
Several events similar to their Genesis counterparts happen, but instead of a Tower of Babel, there's a battle amongst tribes against the dreaded Drisalian Cult. One tribe stays behind to populate Mantith as mankind. The defeated members of Drisalius' cult are transformed into the hideous, bobcat-like Drismabons, and exiled to the dark world of Drizad. The tribes that ran away from the very beginning and tried to flee the battle are turned into Mosquatlons and Aviatets as punishment, and live in underground labyrinths and caves. The tribes that joined in on the fight once but then lost their courage and fled later had all become known for the creation of various writing utensils. They were thus exiled to the worlds of Statios, Markerterion, Whixtitout, and Neothode and transformed into creatures resembling writing tools, complete with a complex biology designed to work within those parameters and a sort of limited telekinesis called "phantomitics" that help them compensate for lacking arms and legs.
Fast forward thousands of years later, and things are a mess. Pirates under the leadership of Astrabolo are running amok, and trying to destroy everything from democracy to the institution of marriage and then some. FlatEarthAtheists in the very 70's-cultured Mantith are desperately trying to silence their Creationist critics before a tip can occur in the balance of cultural power. Under the influence of a mysterious Bedouin, Emperor Alhox of Markerterion has been convinced that the only solution to fighting Astrabolo is to pool resources by annexing all the other planets into his empire. Leading the charge in this is his Supreme General, Bluque.
The nation of Stato on the world of Statios won't stand for losing its sovereignty, and decides that creating its own sort of United Nations that involves a planetary scale is a better solution than being annexed to Markerterion, so they send a diplomatic recon team to argue the case to worlds where communication has not occurred until recently after a several-thousand-year hiatus. As the new astronaut team is about to discover though, they have more enemies than they thought possible.
Though many of its episodes remain in Development Hell, it has already developed a reputation amongst reviewers for having a high HSQ, and for often slamming head-first into Narm with its Refuge in Audacity and heavy-handed philosophy.
The series is told in the course of four "seasons," which are named Vocations, Repercussions, Surfaces, and Reconciliations, respectively.
This series contains examples of:
- Anachronism Stew: All the planets have differing rates of technological advancement and evolution.
- Mantith looks like The '70s. The Mosquatlons look like the 40s. Their Aviatet rivals look like The Roaring '20s.
- Drizad goes back and forth between communes that look like The Dung Ages and palaces that look like "Arabian Nights" Days and spaceports that have The New '10s all over them. The cities are underground, beneath the commune farms. And they resemble Mordor.
- Markerterion is California meets Kalamazoo meets Spain in The New '10s.
- Likewise, other than having some necessary Magitek and other advanced alien technology, Statios is 2006. The nation of Stato, at least. Nations with weaker economies have even more outdated dispositions.
- Port Metaball can't decide if it's Salt Lake City, LA, Tuscon, or the heart of Afghanistan.
- Whixtitout can't decide if it's Hollywood Medieval Japan, 20 Minutes into the Future, The New '10s, or a planet-sized Hidden Elf Village (albeit, Neutral No Longer.)
- Neothode is a giant unholy matrimony of Cities Noir with Everything Is an iPod in the Future space technology and black magic-wielding Pirates and Wizards. Somehow, even with some Steampunk in a few scenes, the setting avoids being Raygun Gothic. And yet, there's an enclave of The Middle Ages square in the middle of it all!
- An Ass-Kicking Christmas: Back to back episodes! Dragonball Light Show Baby Jesus, Action Mary, and Joseph the Philosopher feature in the first one, while second one features Badass Santa.
- "Selective Generosity" is about Bishop Niklo DiMyral forging a temporary truce with some Muhmmaldian horsemen to hunt down and beat up sex traffickers, who abducted three women from an impoverished old man because they knew there was no way he came up with that gold for their dowries on his own.
- "Essentials of Nativity" is about Maria DiNazalenth being protected by a Mikloche Warrior bodyguard when a Drismabon travels to Mantith to keep Minshus from being born. Think The Nativity Story meets Dragon Ball Z.
- Joe/Joseph being a badass Papa Wolf in The Nativity Story is parodied and subverted in this, as he is constantly getting thrown around whenever he tries to fight supreme evil beings. First, Ruktarusk does this to him when Joe tries to stop Ruktarusk from killing Maria. Then, when Ruktarusk is fully distracted by Thestor, the Devil himself throws Joe against a wall to tempt the young mother. Of course, it doesn't work. Joe is even a bit of a Butt-Monkey for good angels, as Gabon's way of setting him straight when he considers deserting his bride-to-be is to show him visions of a Bad Future, in a very Mind Rape-y type way that looks like Tim Kring meets Charles Dickens. (Before telling him that he needn't be afraid of Gabon himself!)
- America Saves the Day: Callously averted, if not outright defied. The Moral Guardians are shown to be horribly ineffectual at protecting the public from rabid straw liberals. Because of this chaos, Antia is rendered utterly useless most of the time. And when the Drismabons attack, Antia is just as dependent on Stationery technology as everyone else on Mantith to fight back. The president is so inept, that even God is convinced to give the Voyagers to another country: Bulgadia. And that country proves to be only slightly better at protecting the Voyagers' diplomatic safety.
- A Nazi by Any Other Name: Varikton's Mosquatlon Army. They worshiped Hiltner's tactics, and sought to create Mosquatlon supremacy by blocking out the sun, muellexically! And this is in spite most of their culture still being stuck in the 1940's!
- Anti-Villain: Alhox.
- Arc Number: 86 (for ideals), 64 (for realism) and 22 (for shortcoming and goals.) 22, of course, being the difference between 86 and 64.
- Pextel is mechanized at the age of 22.
- He ends up piloting a ship that can travel at a top speed of Mach 86. The next-fastest ships around can at best go only at Mach 64.
- Mitchell and Eliot, while fleeing for their lives, end up on board Flight #864. In a hurry to flee, but going only so fast. (They're not the only ones to escape danger on that flight number.)
- Ax-Crazy: (Arguably) the entire series and everything in it is a perfect textbook study in the Second Law of Metafictional Thermodynamics. So many characters could count as this, that it's difficult to remember them all. (See Cloud Cuckoo Land below.)
- Be Careful What You Wish For: Plays with this quite a bit.
- Pextel wanted to be an astronaut. He became a robot astronaut, but had to fight evil against his job description. He also wanted to have an intelligent discussion with his father. And Huli dies shortly thereafter. He wanted his mother to believe in him. Too bad! She doesn't trust Mechies.
- Rhodney wanted to live a life that didn't feel wasted. He ends up in a relationship that feels like a "Shaggy Dog" Story anyway.
- Marlack wanted to settle a score with the Yehtzig pirate who raped his sister. He nearly gets himself killed trying.
- Pinkella wanted her family to come to their senses and start behaving themselves again. They died defying her wishes, to no benefit of theirs.
- Neone wanted to save her father from Pentacko. Ha ha ha ha ha!!!...
- Consto wanted a shot at becoming a god. Too bad those Definition Essentials got in the way...all he can hope for is to become Preamble...who in the end, never really does completely break free from his servitude to Astrabolo.
- Become a Real Boy: Subverted. Mechies, while they may dread the cosmic dissonance of being possessed robots, realize that only Minshus (or an extremely powerful angel/demon) can change them back into truly living things; and learn to content themselves with their (un)life.
- Pextel and Ribando would like to be living again, but learn to be content with their new forms.
- Consto, upon becoming Cybomec, proves to be quite happy to become a Mechie. He believes it will serve his greater purpose of becoming a god down the road.
- Stella-Marie is unable to comprehend the implications of being a Mechie, since she was mechanized as a child and still thinks like one.
- Bizarre Alien Biology: What else do you expect from living pens and markers??? Surprisingly, they behave almost the same as if they were still human.
- Bizarre Alien Reproduction: Subverted. The way they have sex is very similar to human reproduction, although they require different positions and derive less pleasure from it than we do. They are, however, more sensitive to sex-enhancement drugs, which put them in a trance easier. This is partly why the Yehtzig Pirate League can weaponize sex against targeted cultures so easily. That, and the fact that while much of Statonian culture tries to avert it, their government's official policy on sexual politics is...less than impressive.
- Broken Masquerade: When Oobalid is chained and interrogated by Varikton about why the Aviatets are now attacking humans in plain view ahead of waiting for Varikton's scheduled blocking out of the Inktacto star, Oobalid has this much to say:
Oobalid: "After those...pesky..Stationery Voyagers showed up...we just didn't care anymore!"
- Cosmic Plaything: Pretty much everyone. Due to the nature of Volition Dilemma and the other Definition Essentials, even God has to play by rules that sometimes produce situations he'd consider less than ideal. But those thinking they can do a better job soon find out just what a bitch the universe can be, and what it takes for God to keep it in line. And as God always works as The Chessmaster to produce the most ideal possible outcome within the confines of his own rules, the pawns discover that The Evils of Free Will do not grant them the absolute control they hoped would result.
- The Call Knows Where You Live / The Call Has Bad Reception: Everyone, but especially Pextel, who gets pretty roughed up by the Call without any warning or provocation. He becomes resigned to it when he awakes as a robot and decides refusing the Call would be a waste of time.
- Pextel wasn't so much delivered the Call by The Herald as he was pretty much kidnapped and metaphorically raped by said herald. Who, only afterwards, decided to let one of his underlings explain what the hell was happening.
- Cast from Hit Points: Whiteouts may learn Mikloche, which gives them incredible powers no other Stationery race has. Downside: the more they use it, the more unstable it becomes. And the more it wears on their well-being, until it turns them into bombs. Granted, they have to abuse the power an awful lot before they become a Walking Wasteland; but traveling to Mantith and being physically/magickally abused tends to accelerate the side effects. The Jaldanian leaders in Extreme Passions get Curb Stomped in public by Levio, Gabon, Maurice, and Filforth; when the leaders had Thestor whipped for his mere association with Minshus. They almost blew up their own city in the process; and the town couldn't believe their ears. Most Whiteouts never bother to learn Mikloche. They fear they'll end up like Syuthan, becoming a Glowmatti. Liquidon realizes this is happening to him in Night of the Whiteout. It doesn't stop Cindy from being romantically attracted to him.
- City Noir: Nabijab City plays this one completely straight. Thanks to Astrabolo, most of the rest of Neothode is not that different.
- Cloud Cuckoo Land: All the worlds view each other this way to an extent. Ironically, the fanatical politics and religious wars between a tiny minority of non-compromised church intellectuals and an entire world of paranoid anti-theists that makes up the human world of Mantith ends up fitting this better than worlds that are run by Pens and Markers trying to battle sex-crazed terrorist-pirates. Almost all parts of Inktacto have a few too many Red Shirt characters to truly qualify any of them as a World of Badass.
- Composite Character: Zigzagged, especially with the Shout-Out Theme Naming and parody characters. Examples are under Trivia.
- Demon Lords and Archdevils: The Dark Wanderer, analogous to Beelzebub as depicted in The Pilgrim's Progress. He is the Giver of Sorcery and Lord over Contracted Wizards. Thankfully, he is only seldom a threat to the Inktacto system. Part of this is because, like his master the Vile Chameleon, he is bound to Depositalium such that he can only normally operate by proxy. And his proxies have to get past the universe's firewall, which is maintained by Levio the Nullfier. Mezelwradd and Lorkush are just the Chameleon's disguises, used to create Consto's religion and the Yehtzig cult, respectively.
- Diplomatic Impunity: Callously averted on Mantith, as the Antian president shows little to no interest in actually keeping his promises to keep the Voyagers safe. Sure, the government funds them and helps them find jobs, but they're on their own for protection. They are regularly harassed, threatened, and abducted. The Antian government primarily abuses them as publicity stunts as well, even considering revoking the little immunity they have, just to appease gay special privileges groups who are out for their ink.
- Don't Make Me Destroy You: The angels, of all things, have to give this warning. Their targets seem to have a chronic defiance disorder.
- Double Standard: Rape, Divine on Mortal: Averted with Maria DiNazalenth in "Essentials of Nativity." The Bible has its explanation of how this trope is averted expanded on in a way that makes it fit the story's universe.
- Instead of Mary/Maria simply waking up one day pregnant, the Muellex stops time save for one isolated locale, and a Chasm Tube opens up where the Trimalus strikes her like a bolt of lightning. A "divinospermato" instantly forms, and with the aid of no other sperm cells, is able to fertilize an egg the same way sperm fertilizes an egg during artificial insemination.
- Actually makes her explanation for what happened even more of a Cassandra Truth to her parents, until an alien crashes into the neighborhood and starts teleporting everywhere.
- And some Teachers of the Law aren't even sold after that happens!
- Every Car Is a Pinto: Played around with. Mitchell and Eliot's car pretty much is a Pinto. But when their cabin is attacked by arsonist-assassins, it's one of the few things that doesn't catch fire!
- Everyone Is Related: Subverted. Other than a few marriages resulting later on, almost nobody is blood-related (or for that matter, Ink-related) to anyone else (important)! Yet, while blood relations are severely lacking among major cast members, everyone is "connected" in more abstract ways.
- Pextel and Consto are foils of each other: both of them had fathers whose minds were destroyed by Vornsid's disease. Neither one of them had a healthy relationship with their mothers. Yet, one becomes captain of a band of accidental heroes. The other becomes evil.
- Pextel is also the one-time boyfriend of Pinkella Goldsen, who is related to the owners of a Bubblegum Factory that is being taken over by the Voyagers' sworn enemy Astrabolo; who lives on the same planet as future Voyager Neone. And Neone's family (while none of them are relevant for more than a few episodes is pretty screwed up. Things are made worse when Liquidon, who killed Astrabolo's brother, joins the Voyagers' team.
- While it's inevitable that Mitchell Lomken and Co. will meet up with the Voyagers, it takes 2-1/2 seasons or so for this to happen.
- The villains are "related" to each other not by blood, but by the multiple layers of complexity with which they try to manipulate each other. And the Voyagers are at the mercy of everyone else's schemes for the longest time.
- Minshus (Messianic Archetype,) Richard Ribando (a Badass Preacher) and Clandish Consto (a Jack the Ripoff Serial Killer) all have their fates linked to each other's by some long-dead ancient guy's dream about a zebra!
- Played a little more straight in the Final Hope timeline: Philidrio and Verdegal used to date each other. Molly is the grandaughter of Liquimo, Liquidon's twin brother. Verdegal is the granddaughter of Monigo Lanchez, who helped two of the original Voyagers escape from prison.
- The Good, the Bad, and the Evil: Voyagers (good), Skidders (good, but anti-heroic), the Xylien Society at large (sketchy), and Imperial Markerterion (bad), against the Paltaki Organization (bad), the Crooked Rainbow (evil), la-Qualda (evil), the YPL (evil), the Drismabons (evil), and Varikton's army (evil).
- Genocide Backfire: Because of this series, it could just as easily be called the Dandelion Of Doom. Literally any time the Dandelion Effect is invoked, it is a reference to this. Not limited to just attacks on babies. Is even compared to the Butterfly of Doom, just to get the point across to any villains who might be Genre Savvy enough to listen.
- Going Cosmic: Zigzagged. The series is heavy-handed from the very get-go. Becomes slightly less philosophical and more action-oriented with time, though at the expense of getting more political.
- Haunted Technology: Librions are quite literally robots with souls inside them. They interact with a cybernetic brain interface that, due to being artificial, disrupts their cosmic orientation
. Due to the way that interface works, they constantly blur the lines between a literal ghost and a Virtual Ghost. Their quasi-immortality inside their robotic selves tends to be very prone to developing mental illness. - Hoist by His Own Petard: See the Character Sheet for examples.
- Humans Are Rabid, Psychotic, Murderous Fanatics Who Exploit Every Situation Possible To Advance Their Preferred Ideology: And if you dare disagree, beware of the Super-Persistent Predator. See Cloud Cuckoo Land above.
- Invisible Anatomy / Psychic Powers / Mind over Matter: Phantomitics and Phantomars (invisible arms.) Discussed.
- Kung-Fu Jesus: Minshus is the only being who can authorize large-scale muellexic tampering with the space-time continuum, he helps blow up an entire planet, he had a bodyguard for a short while that was made of Supernatural Martial Arts, and when he came to raise an army of resurrected souls to lift other resurrects out of their graves and collect everyone around the world for Judgment Day, the news reported it as him starting a Zombie Apocalypse.
- And as an infant, he is shown using a Breath Weapon that summons Martarel.
- His mother was also a badass. She clotheslined a Jerk Jock who was three times her strength successfully, hit Gabon with a 2x4 before she realized who it was, and even pulled off a successful Shut Up, Hannibal! against the Devil himself! His stepfather tries, but is much less competent/lucky at doing so.
- Law of Chromatic Superiority: Imperial Markerterion sends the Red Fleet after the Voyagers specifically because they're most incompetent team. So that, if they fail, the Voyagers can gather more useful information before being captured. The Teal Fleet has all the means to crush the Voyagers - but...doesn't. The Blue Fleet actually ends up helping them, albeit indirectly, by being more concerned with battling Yehtzig Pirates.
- Leeroy Jenkins: Katrina borders on this a few times when battling la-Qualda. Ironically, Stella-Marie Jenkins is easily frightened and more cowardly, in spite being immortal. Although, Stella-Marie does still have the mind of a 7-year-old.
- Mate or Die:
- Inverted. Lamdock poisons the Voyagers in the hopes that he can invoke death by sex after transforming them into their human selves. Liquidon, who is not-yet paired with anyone, desperately tries to clear the air of Eros gas so his teammates cannot be ambushed while in a Mantithian wizard-induced trance.
- And Subverted: Neone Washingtip knew she had to fulfill Pentacko's orders; but if only she'd known: Consto wasn't even interested in sex! So even if she did get to get it on with him, he'd've killed her anyway.
- As well as deconstructed and justified. See the Character Sheet section on Neone Delft for an example.
- Minion with an F in Evil: Lila Kilomes, whose name is a play on Sophia Myles. She is a harmless Cloud Cuckoo Lander who is loved even by her enemies.
- Monster Mash/Feather Against Proboscis◊: Underworld's take on this is parodied quite a bit in Reconciliations, where the conflict was started over a charity organization being destroyed by a Mosquatlon tyrant who didn't want the Aviatets' economic problems resolved through any means at all. (Cue alien intervention, just for awesome, when said tyrant's desire to rule over surface humans and their economies leads him to want to block out the sun. Muellexically.)
- Liquidon's quest to protect Alaina from a deviant Mosquatlon during the Surfaces arc is meant to combine this with a parody of The Twilight Saga. In fact, that episode is even titled "Crepuscular."
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: What Liquidon is convinced he's done to start the Imperial War of Markerterion. In reality, it would've happened with or without him killing Astriliad. But by doing that, he convinced Astrabolo to switch from a campaign of conquest to a plan of viral genocide.
- No Delays for the Wicked: One way of knowing that the Royal Military of Markerterion in Stationery Voyagers isn't too evil is that they actually DO have to worry about mass incompetence in their ranks, including several Idiot Balls being held rather tightly. While not themselves entirely immune to the Idiot Ball, most of Astrabolo's Yehtzig Pirate League plays this trope much more straight. And if they DO fail to accomplish something the easy way...they seem to always have a rocket launcher handy to compensate.
- Noughties Drama Series: This series wishes it could have been one.
- Not Wearing Tights: The Voyagers only look like they're wearing something along the lines of "tights" to Mantithians. To everyone else, their suits appear to be just spy-geared forms of regular civilian clothing. Then again, how else do you dress six-foot-tall talking Up-Pens, but...like...large pens?
- Order Versus Chaos / You Can't Fight Fate versus Screw Destiny: The Web of Destiny is built around the idea that fate is the logical fallout of everyone exerting will at once, and some wills being stronger than others, leading to inevitable consequences.
- Our Angels Are Different: And how. They are VERY different from their common portrayals in most church art.
- They don't have wings, they don't dress in robes, and they only assume human form to a degree that is needed to avoid overwhelming any given Mortal's fragile mind. They are very much Good Is Not Nice.
- They look like this◊ when interacting with humans, and like this◊ without helmets.
- They have strobe eyes and lightning hair.
- Only Ferrymen carry swords. The others prefer to use energy blasts from their hands. They come in several classes, but only five of these classes are ever relevant:
- Nullifiers (Power Negation, especially against Wizards,)
- Ferrymen (Teleportation, Angels of Death,)
- Communicadrim (power bestowal, preventing confusion, keeping DNA from disintegrating,)
- Guardians (keep you from dying in car accidents,) and
- Defenders of Natural Order (Keep humanity from growing too tolerant of things like incest and bestiality, along with encouraging environmental responsibility.)
- Most of the time, they dress in very modern-looking armor, complete with helmets that make them look like Faceless Mooks. Don't EVER push your luck with them! It doesn't end well. And that's not even getting into the evil ones...
- Our Monsters Are Different
- Our Aliens Are Different: Stationeries.
- Our Elves Are Different: Whiteouts.
- Our Vampires Are Different: Mosquatlons.
- Our Werewolves Are Different: Aviatets. They're werebirds!
- The Plague: Buliod's disease plays this role in Stationery Voyagers. Although it doesn't kill, it does cause infertility. Especially when Astrabolo wants to unleash this STD on schoolchildren - and then hijack Sex Ed to - you can probably guess what he'll make them do next.
- Plausible Deniability: Averted without explanation for most of the worlds of Inktacto. Then again, Inktacto is part of the Grapharino Galaxy, and Grapharino's Physicalia is an allegorical universe not unlike Middle-earth's (or even Narnia. Only difference, really, is more Science Fiction-oriented plot elements and way fewer High Fantasy ones. So Alternate History helps cover some tracks.
- Subverted in-universe on Neothode, as the population is so used to being bullied by Astrabolo's cult that they are too far beyond the Despair Event Horizon to care about whether the weirdness in their environment is covered up or not.
- Inverted in-universe on Mantith: The Bindaf 3000's landing on Mantith was actually expected, with Strawmen Political from every ideological camp trying to exploit the situation to their cause. It was the Voyagers who were caught off guard! Even for those causes the Voyagers agreed with, their insistence on wanting to stay on task rubbed many the wrong way.
- Power Nullifier: Levio the Nullifier, who functions as both this and Anti-Magic. Wizards are reduced from casting spells with impunity to any number of side effects: casting spells with karmic backfire, casting from hit points, or the humiliation of a specific spell simply not working.
- If it were not necessary for Mechanical Pencils to exist to fulfill certain prophesies, then Levio would be allowed to block the process of Artificial Reincarnation as well.
- Whiteouts that travel to Mantith by their own means may be able to remain as Stationery beings, but attempting to use Mikloche beyond Shell 8 may lead to casting from hit points. Likewise, if a Whiteout is messed with by a wizard, the chances of them needing to cast from hit points increases exponentially. Whiteouts who travel to Mantith by supernatural means (e.g., Maurice the Ferryman) slowly become human. They can use Mikloche once human, but again, only if they cast from hit points.
- Other Stationery beings who travel to Mantith by supernatural means simply become gradually human, except for Mechanical Pencils. Those who travel by technology remain Stationeries, but become gradually more susceptible to catching human diseases.
- Likewise, muellexic techonlogy has allowed for phantomars to be disabled on Stationeries with the aid of certain devices, effectively serving as a sort of replacement for handcuffs in a world of creatures that don't have hands.
- Rasputinian Death: Nikolai in season 3 meets with one. To have him die as simply as his Twilight counterpart would seem too mundane for this series.
- Flown to high altitude very quickly, frozen, suffocated, exposed to sunlight, blasted with a shockwave of Pure Energy, sent falling to his doom, charred, and finally sucked into a jet engine.
"Plan F wins." - Rescue Arc: Many episodes in Season Three count as their own, with a different Fanatic Of The Week responsible for someone being in trouble.
- Resigned to the Call: Seemingly half the cast. In Pextel's particular predicament, he is now a ghost trapped inside a cartridge that is inserted into a six-foot-tall robot that is shaped like a mechanical pencil. While this does make him a slave of his new "creators," the Xyliens, at least they're a (mostly) benign group of Men In Black types. He doesn't particularly like being owned by them, but he at least gets his wish to be an astronaut, even if he is trapped in a faux-immortal state without the benefit of a true nervous system. On the same token, his "life" would be rather useless if he continued to defy the call - the Xylien Edge Skidder Division would simply come after him and put his S-chip in a freezer.
- Pinkella is resigned to the call for similar reasons, so is Erasaxo. Liquidon is sort of resigned, as he's an Atonement Scientist/Medic/Diplomat. Other Voyagers joined because they were either Desperately Looking for a Purpose in Life or to show their original circles how wrong they are.
- Ripped from the Headlines: Part of season three's schtick is to satirize Real Life political and cultural events across several decades of American history by showing how they could have been even messier if they nearly all happened at once and while alien diplomats were involved. (See the Trivia page.)
- Robotic Psychopath: Clandish "Cybomec" Consto, partially subverted in that he was already a borderline-personality psychopath before he was mechanized.
- Rule of Drama: One reason everyone's so emotionally unstable.
- Sealed Evil in a Can: Subverted. The Lakeith Pit contains the Muellex inside. While not evil in and of itself, the first sin of mankind is not caring whether or not the Muellex is released, which leads to the logical opening of that giant concrete dumpster...
- Sealed Evil in a Duel:
- Emperor Alhox is actually destined to fulfill this role against Melchar, which is also why he is the only one capable of beating Melchar in open combat. (Levio is actually required to hold back his power negation if anyone else attempts to fight Melchar, allowing for a rare Diabolus ex Machina protection clause to exist.)
- Also averted: Maurice can leave the Haragad Cavity whenever he wants, but is required to release Preamble from it temporarily near the end of time. ( Same cannot be said of the Yehtzig trooper who was trapped in the cavity with Preamble...)
- Serial Killer: Clandish Consto toys around with the idea of making a career out of being a Serial Killer. Then, he decides to become a full-blown terrorist instead. (With plans to become a god.)
- Shoot the Shaggy Dog: Think the story can't get any darker? By the Final Hope timeline, Astrabolo has returned. The PTG (UN substitute) has now become the People's Republic of Tyranny, with Astrabolo as The Caligula. The original Voyagers are dead. All the characters we loved are dead or sent into hibernation/muellexic freeze. If Astrabolo gets desperate enough, he may release Melchar (and Alhox) from the Muellex. Port Metaball is a nuclear wasteland. Our new heroes are a black dude whose family was killed in a fire, a girl who has unlimited lives if she remains a technical virgin, a monk, a chaplain/mechanic, a rich girl with a Rape as Drama motif, and the grandniece of our favorite Walking Wasteland. They must stop the old evil from assembling a Death Ray that can wipe out an entire city at a time, by finding the hidden blueprints first. Meanwhile, signs point to The End of the World as We Know It.
- Shout-Out Theme Naming: The Xylien Society contains Shout Outs to a LOT of pop-cultural depictions of Men In Black types. While Men in Black (weird technology, wearing black, and liking to keep secrets from surface Muggles) and Blade Runner ("retiring" rogue Mechies) are pretty egregiously referenced, Heroes tops the list. A lot of references to The Company can be found throughout. The Trivia page has more examples.
- Sixth Ranger: Neone, a subversion in that she was always meant to be part of the original team, but got delayed by reason of being on another planet.
- Then there was Liquidon, who didn't fight the team but instead needed their help to get his name cleared as he was mistaken for a terrorist.
- Viola also pulls it off.
- Perhaps the most egregious example is Cybomec, subverted in that it was only a Cybomec the one possessed by Richard Ribando that joins, not the Clandish "Cybomec" Consto that nearly killed everyone. He becomes Preamble instead.
- Erasaxo, while technically number six, was part of the original team. His reclusive nature and small size tend to make him an afterthought to others though. Made worse in that he's ordered by the Xylien Society not to leave the ship very often.
- Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism: This series tries its hardest to be neutral, but leans slightly cynical. Most of the Gambit Pileups are the result of some characters being too Genre Blind to realize that Hanlon's Razor applies to them just as much as it does to everyone else. Then again, they do have soul-crushing evil and malice to deal with as well.
- Soul Jar: "S-chips" (soul-containing, microchip-moduled cartridges) are a type of Soul Jar. Drisalian status of an S-chip's ghost prior to death determines whether or not phantomitics are possible, which determines which type of Librion body is appropriate. (Androidal Librion bodies for humans, Mechanical Pencil Librions for Stationeries.)
- Note: Most Whiteouts are acceptable in a Mechie body. Hyper-Mikloched ones, however, are better off merely sent into the stratosphere to explode.
- Steven Ulysses Perhero: Quite a few examples under the Trivia page.
- Straw Hypocrite: A judge in Braldon bans Oceanoe from visiting the country, based solely on the fact that he was a victimized by the Crooked Rainbow in their intolerance of the Voyagers' Minshan beliefs. Yet, the judge allows several of the exact same Crooked Rainbow members who victimized Oceanoe into Braldon for an all-expenses paid, taxpayer-funded (without taxpayer consent) trip, to spread propaganda for their lifestyle, in the name of "tolerance."
- And is eaten by a tree for it. After being slaughtered by it rather brutally. Do NOT get Filforth mad! Observe here◊. (Look closely. Those are charred skeletons.)
- And is eaten by a tree for it. After being slaughtered by it rather brutally. Do NOT get Filforth mad! Observe here
- Take That!: LOTS of them, ranging from American political examples to the occasional Deconstructive Parody of various films/shows. See the Trivia page for examples.
- Team Rocket Wins: Nonpriel actually manages to capture Rhodney and Liquidon in one episode. They get loose when trying to save their captors from burning up on reentry into Markerterion's atmosphere after Nonpriel revives Consto.
- He also starts out as successful in teaming up with Lamdock to capture nearly all the Voyagers. But overlooking Richard Ribando proved to be the necessary component to reversing that situation.
- The Smurfette Principle: Played straight with the angels. Most of them see no point in manifesting as a woman, especially since few cultures in human history respected the words and voice of a woman. One notable exception is Critiqamas, who rarely makes an appearance since she is an even bigger Walking Wasteland than Liquidon. She shows up in a minisode explaining why more angels don't manifest as women, and turns her captors' apartment into Chernobyl Lite. She also makes an appearance in "Bittersweet This Bargain," since the Crooked Rainbow begin to get smart after the events in "Choice After All" and start wearing flame retardant to thwart off Filforth's attacks.
- Trademark Favorite Food: Crepes!
- Unobtanium: Nobody on Mantith knows how to manufacture lead-balzhite. Nor do they think to actually employ the Voyagers' supply of it to practical application as an energy source, in spite it being at least as reliable as uranium but producing far less dangerous waste.
- Where I Was Born and Razed: Clandish Consto sought revenge on a girl who got him expelled from grade school YEARS ago, murdered every teacher that ever verbally abused him that was still living, poisoned his own landlord, murdered his landlord's wife, joined an invading enemy army, and hijacked an entire space center. And all in his own hometown! He then proceeds to threaten the world of that army he initially joined, and eventually becomes such a threat to the universe, that the Angel of Death traps him in the Haragad Cavity until the end of time so he can't learn sorcery. So much for the "I'm back" celebration!
