YMMV / Monkey Wrench

• Alternative Character Interpretation:
  • Just how many of Nobert's annoying traits are due to his personality, and how many are just because he's being intentionally annoying? The smug look he gives while reclining at the end of the travel montage plus him briefly dropping his obnoxious speech pattern when frightened by his mother muddy the issue.
  • Shrike cooing at a bug while Agness rambles at him, only to swat a small group of them away the second the comms terminate. Was he genuinely interested in the first bug because it was red and new, and the novelty wore off? Or was the bug just his way of pointedly ignoring Agness' scolding, and became useless once she could no longer see him?
  • Does Shrike like the idea of a red Bucket because it matches El Bandito's donkey, or does the donkey appeal to him because he just likes the colour red?
  • Small and adorable as they are, the Lythops still live in a cave system full of bones and corpses. Were those there when the Lythops moved into the caves, or are the little guys more deadly than they look?
  • The L.A.W. agents at the end don't seem particularly bothered about handing off potentially deadly cargo. Are they always this flippant about putting people in danger? Or—after seeing the end result of Monkey Wrench v. dangerous arms dealer—do they just have confidence that the cargo is in more capable hands than theirs?
  • In "Us & Them," Shrike tries to reassure Beebs about the Lythop genocide by telling him not to think about it too hard—he "can't have regrets." His expression and body language as he says this both imply he has quite a few. Either he shares the same concerns as Beebs, or something else is on his mind, perhaps a regret from his time under L.A.W.
• Alternative Joke Interpretation: When the Lythop ruler asks to become Shrike's right-hand guy, they boast that they're "a weally good weader". Because they replace both R's and L's in their speech pattern, they're either bragging about what a good leader they are...or, given they mentioned being the oldest of the Lythops immediately prior, they might be bragging about having better reading skills than their kin.
• Angst? What Angst?: Shrike is more concerned about a scratched paint job than the fact that he inadvertantly led an entire race of critters that trusted him into extinction.
• Complete Monster: "Lythop Liberation": Dr. Agness presents herself as a L.A.W. Science official who hires the Monkey Wrench duo to save the Lythops from a dying planet. In actuality, she is a criminal who is illegally making weapons out of the Lythops, having tricked the duo into gathering them all up so that she can grind up the entire populace for a superweapon which she then uses against the duo, taunting them as they struggle to hurt her. Because of her genocide, the Lythop ruler is now the Last of His Kind.
• Nightmare Fuel: The Cataclysm is a viral corruption unleashed by the Terrans that's capable of infecting and assimilating both organics like the once-peaceful Agari and machinery like the Bucket's systems. Those infected turn into murderous, assimilative black-and-green drones hell-bent on further spreading the corruption. It's so infectious that even a collision with a Leaking Can of Evil of the stuff is enough to trigger infection. Worst of all, around an entire quarter of the galaxy has been infected and quarantined.
• Spiritual Successor: The series focuses on a duo of down-on-their-luck space mercenaries as they go on many ill-fated jobs; one is a reckless gunslinger, while the other is larger, more pragmatic and mellow and sports a beard and a cybernetic arm. In the words of youtuber Just Stop: "I'd like you to imagine for a moment if Cowboy Bebop never added Faye or Ed and decided to get rid of the theatrics for a space adventure buddy comedy...and also Spike is a dumb alien with a hole in his head." It helps that Monkey Wrench is slowly starting to implement more solemn sadness and lore on top of the action and comedy like Cowboy Bebop would (though Monkey will likely never meet Cowboy's levels of tragedy) and that one of the main duo is an ex-cop here too, even if it's Spike rather than Jet this time around.
• The Woobie: The Lythop ruler cared deeply for his people, And he is forced to watch them all be ground up by Dr. Agness and used to power her battle armor. Even though he avenges them, he is still effectively the Last of His Kind. That fact reduces him to tears once it kicks in as he is taken away by L.A.W. officials to be found a new home.

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