Heartwarming / gen:LOCK

Not even a devastating crash, nor not hearing from Julian for about four years can strain the friendship between these two.

Despite gen:LOCK's rather dark nature, at the very least, there are moments that shine a little bit of light in the shadows.

As a Moments subpage, all spoilers are unmarked as per policy. You Have Been Warned.

Season One

The Pilot

• Despite her standoffishness, Yasamin gets one. When Miranda is lamenting that they are merely ‘holding the line’, Yaz refers to Miranda and her peers as the Vanguard's 'Shield', and says that maybe they just need a better sword, all in a way that comes across as supportive. Considering that Miranda seems to have lost most of her hope, this means something.
  • Also, Yaz says she has heard all about Miranda, indicating that Julian speaks of her often and that Yaz wasn’t just listening out of politeness.
• Everyone's shock and awe as they find out Julian is still alive. The only thing he really needs to say is "Hey gang."

There's Always Tomorrow

• Miguel and Julian quickly re-kindle their friendship, and Miguel's tasked with keeping Julian alive and well and the gen:LOCK technologies functioning properly.
  • As Miguel leaves to familiarize himself with the Holon mechs, Dr. Weller quietly thanks him for being supportive towards Julian.
  • And after everyone else has left for the day, Weller asks Julian if he's doing okay in a very fatherly way. It's clear that, in spite of what Yaz says to the new recruits, Weller doesn't see them as just lab rats.
    • Julian's response also counts to say something about the kind of person he is. The guy has clearly been put through the wringer after he was rescued and when he was adapting to the gen:LOCK program for the last four years— it'd be easy and understandable for anyone in his place to become embittered towards the people helping him recover/ the Union/ the people who rebuff him and still treat him like he's dead, after at least one year in. But Julian doesn't blame anyone for his ordeal and managed to keep his better self intact that whole time.

Second Birthday

• It's minor, but when Valentina politely corrects Kazu for calling her "Val" she does so in his native Japanese; spoken Japanese, rather than through the Augmented Reality translator.
• The team bonding after trying out their Holons for the first time.
  • In a way, how Dr. Weller gives them the choice to fight in the gen:LOCK unit. Instead of guilt-tripping them through using Colonel Marin's estimate of six months before the Union conquers North America, he places the team's first training exercise next to the place a squad of medivacs was set to arrive with more refugees. His success in bonding them manages to impress Marin.

Training Daze

• Some more bonding for the team.
  • Early on while the group is having the mess hall's breakfast they notice Kazu cooking his own fried rice and egg dish, which clearly looks more appetizing to them. Later on, as they get closer, Kazu gives Cammie her own egg, and by the end of the montage, he's sharing eggs with the whole group.
  • Cammie is always the last one to wake up. It's funny to see each of the gen:LOCK recruits taking turns knocking her out of bed like they're her parents or older siblings.
• Chase and Miranda's talk. In a lot of animated shows, it would be easy to have the Jealous Ex-Lover trope, but they handle where their relationship stands like mature adults. It's clear they both understand where the other is coming from (Chase could not reasonably contact Miranda and risk dying on her again, and Miranda had to move on somehow).
  • It's a lot more heartwarming when looking at how Chase and Miranda conduct the conversation in the first place. Chase first gave Miranda space to think about things before meeting her, and instead of jumping on any Jealousy tropes courtesy of other romantic media, the two recognize the reasons why things happened and talk it over calmly without so much as yelling. Chase doesn't even hold an ounce of bitter feelings, simply validating Miranda's decision to go out with Jodie with his saying, "I don't blame you for anything." The talk itself was still somewhat tense, but with the way it ended, Miranda still cares for Chase from how she accepts the possibility of his "using other one-liners" to talk with her in the future.
  • It's a small thing, but Chase saying that they "have to keep moving forward" - another small nod to the late Monty Oum.
• Migas interacting with Cammie one-on-one. First offering advice on how to improve her Holon, then quietly passing on the design program required for printing new forms of armor. Double moment for then letting her in on his secret project, about improving both Chase's Holon and mood.
• Cammie tries desperately to get the others into the Ether to spend time with one another. While Kazu and Valentina prefer to do things alone and Yaz logs out, Julian decides to hang out with Cammie ... before the Ether goes down anyhow.
• While in the Ether, Val compliments Yaz' avatar, saying she looks lovely wearing her hijab and with long hair. While this could be interpreted as flirting, it also shows that, whatever Valentina's feelings towards Yaz were just a mere episode ago, they have apparently buried the hatchet.
• No one besides Kazu makes a fuss about Valentina being gender-fluid, and even his reaction seems to be due to lack of knowledge with LGBTQ+ terminology - which itself is fairly common in his neck of the woods.
  • Similarly, Cammie's only reaction to Yasamin's online avatar wearing a hijab is polite curiosity. The show's stated aim of normalizing diversity was certainly not an empty promise.
• When Cammie's Holon gets attacked by Nemesis, she is reasonably panicked. Yaz helps her regain her composure by mind-sharing with her Holon, helping Cammie see again. The way she talks to Cammie is reminiscent of an older sibling.
  • When the head of Cammie's Holon flies out to land on the street nearby after Chase dove in to attack the Union mech, Yaz and Kazu are the first ones to head to the scene because of sheer worry for their youngest teammate. The shocked "Cammie!" from Yaz before running in solidifies what is starting to look like True Companions between the Gen:LOCK team.

The Best Defense

• When Valentina tries to wake up Cammie, she does it more gently instead of just pushing her out of the bed. Calling her "moya zaika", which is Russian for "My Bunny".
• After Cammie mods her mental state and ends up going overboard, the team discusses the fact they can even make changes like those. They then all assure Cammie that she doesn't ever need to change anything about herself and that they're all there for her. They're really starting to treat her like a kid sister at this point.
  • Blink and you'll miss it, but when Weller talks to Cammie about her mods, Kazu approaches Cammie and gently pats her on the head while Valentina pats her on the shoulder.
• Dr. Weller and Migas finally deliver basic upgrades for the pilots. Yaz gets her wrist-mounted lasers, Cammie gets her pair of handguns and an aim-assist drone, Kazu gets his katana, Valentina her sniper rifle, and Julian receives his wings, which Migas worked on himself.
  • Julian even puts his holo-arm around Migas while thanking him for the upgrade, and when Migas notices that the holo arm doesn't quite line up right, he moves in a bit so that it's properly aligned.
    Julian: (happily shocked) You're gonna make me wish I could still cry.
• When the gen:LOCK and Strider teams spot a trio of scientists being led into the facility near Atlanta in chains, they rework their air-bombing plan to revolve around rescuing them. It works, too.

The Only Me I Know

• Dr. Weller tries to give Nemesis a chance to defect from the Union. Unsurprising, when one considers that Nemesis is the corrupted original version of Chase.
• Leon had planned a surprise "callsign ceremony" in the mess before the Union attacked, and we get the newbie's callsigns: Wraith (Valentina), Shogun (Kazu), and Trixx (Cammie) - along with Huma (Yaz) and Chaser (take a guess), as mentioned before. Kazu even feels pathos for Leon when he and the others come across it as the Union's raining hell on the base.
• Dr. Weller manages to get all five pilots out of the Cyberbrain room with Caliban before sacrificing himself to buy time. He flat out refers to them as his kids.
• Migas personally drives the gen:LOCK pilots out of harm's way and into their transport. Yaz tenderly thanks him for his efforts, too.
• As Yaz pilots the transport out of the Anvil, Valentina compliments her piloting skills. That's a sign of improvement between the two.
• Despite having realized the awful truth of his existence and having every right to loathe Weller with every fiber of his being, Chase still cares about his team to the point that he takes out a bunch of pursuing Union flyers trailing their transport before joining them after the battle ends.

It Never Rains...

• Valentina can now play the guitar after melding with Kazu and he's seemed to have gained a deeper understanding of them as well.
• After the last battle against Nemesis, the other four pilots agree that the Julian they know is the real Chase now.
  • On that note, Yasamin tries her best to comfort Julian and reassure him of his identity.
• As it transpires, Dr. Weller left a final message behind for the team within Caliban (amongst all the gen:LOCK data), where he tenderly expresses how much the quintet means to him.
• Henry, the scientist the team rescued in "The Best Defence", was apparently transferred to the research facility Dr. Weller was set to take the team. He immediately recognizes them and stops RTASA security from shooting them as trespassers.
• When Yaz has her past trauma unceremoniously aired in front of her team without warning, the first and only person to notice, and step in to comfort her with a steadying hand on the shoulder, is Val/entina.
  • For some reason, Val/entina is unhappy about Yasamin's history being outed without her consent.
  • Part of what makes the moment hit hard is that the gesture is not instant and reflexive; it's slow, deliberate, gentle but firm. Val/entina didn't just react on instinct that they might be able to shrug off later; mere seconds after being unwillingly outed as former Russian stealth ops before switching sides to support the Ukranian Resistance, Val/entina's choice to offer comfort and solidarity to the ex-Union defector is a very conscious one.
• In a mix of this and Tear Jerker, both the widow of Dr. Weller and the chief investor in the gen:LOCK technology both talk about how much the man had meant to them.
• Cammie redesigns the Holons into their final forms. She makes sure each one is designed in a very personal way. Yaz's now has wings reminiscent of her pendant. Valentina has a somewhat androgynous face but keeps the, as they would say, fun bits. Chase's expands on Migas' aesthetic. And Kazu's is designed after the mecha hero from a manga he read as a child, Roboshogun. They are all very touched, with Kazu going into a full geek out.
  Kazu: (Ten-year-old me is very happy right now!)
• There's a special kind of heartbreaking sweetness in Cammie giving Yaz her wings. Think about what a relief it was for Chase to finally be able to fly again, how important that was to Migas, the way he "just wasn't right" cut off from the sky like that. How fundamentally he needed it. Yaz is a pilot too. But she never had a Migas to realize what she was missing. Dr. Weller loved her...but he was a father figure, not a best friend. Chase had his own trauma to work through. This irreverent, goofy little kid is the first person in Yasamin's life to realize, purely by intuition, that not being able to fly was hurting her—and the first person who cared enough to help.
  • Cammie literally gave the Huma bird her wings back.
• Chase no longer wears Vanguard clothing, modifying his mix to be wearing a gen:LOCK uniform.
• The team reacts positively to the final forms of their Holons and they dearly thank Cammie for designing the whole lot.

Identity Crisis

• Migas is alive! Along with most of the Anvil staff! When he finally manages to get gen:LOCK-1 on the line everyone is excited to see that he's okay.
• Dr. Weller still has feelings for his wife from inside Caliban.
• The conversation the Gen:LOCK team has in their mind space to convince Chase to mindshare with everyone. The whole conversation really, but highlights include Kazu calling Chase "Brother", Chase accepting the mindshare and then being a total hero yet again.
  • During the mindshare, we're also shown a group selfie that the five took with Julian in his Projected Man guise. All of them, even closed-off Yaz and cynical Valentina are smiling in it, showing that the quintet are now True Companions.
• Before the mindshare, Yasamin pulls Nemesis off Cammie and Kazu and is thrown into a vulnerable position trying to hold it off with comparatively weak weaponry, unable to react in time to shield herself as Nemesis bears down on her at speed. She's visibly trying and failing to brace herself for a devastating impact—when Val/entina appears out of nowhere. Not with a well-placed sniper shot like previous saves, but having physically placed themself between Yaz and Nemesis at such speed that they would have had to move almost before Yaz hit the ground.
  • It's the culmination of Val/entina's rapidly escalating awareness of and concern toward Yaz—whether you choose to see that as Ship Tease or simply True Companions, it's undeniable that the teammate who most despised her in the beginning has long since become Yasamin Madrani's most determined protector.
  • This is immediately followed by Yaz and Val/entina sharing minds, the first time Yasamin has been offered that gesture of intimate trust by anyone on the team—even Chase, with whom she's been close for over four years.
• Nemesis' cries of "Kill The Copy", or at least his last one, turn out to be Chase trying to warn himself that there are other Nemeses out there.

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