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  • Alternative Character Interpretation: Tao tends not to be upset whenever the Troopers suddenly depart the dojo and come back with minimal excuses. This is particularly noticeable in "Despera Strikes Back"; Tao explicitly leaves Ryan in charge for a few days, comes back to find Jeb is the only one around to teach a class, and doesn't ask for details when Ryan says there was an emergency. So, is Tao just a really, really forgiving mentor figure and boss, or is he a Secret Secret-Keeper? Evidence for the latter is seen when Tao seems unsurprised when the Troopers bring back Tyler Steel, and Ryan and Tyler both ask for a specific type of crystal. He's almost assuredly overheard them chatting with Professor Hart before and both Tyler and Hart have likely told Tao about the VR Troopers project. In the original concept Cybertron, Tao was originally meant to fill the role of a mentor and of the one who trains him how to use his VR Powers.
  • Hilarious in Hindsight
    • The toyline for the show was done by Kenner instead of Bandai like its sister show Power Rangers. Flashforward to 2018 when it was confirmed that Kenner's successor Hasbro would be buying the Power Rangers franchise.
      • Adding to the above, the show was original going to be named Cybertron, an idea that was scrapped thanks to Hasbro.
    • "Small But Mighty" has the Troopers de-aged back into children, courtesy of Grimlord, and are eventually forced to transform while they're still kids. The show's spiritual successor would take that concept just a bit further.
    • JB's Laser Lance functions almost exactly as Darth Maul's double bladed lightsaber.
  • Moral Event Horizon: Kidnapping Ryan's father is probably Ziktor/Grimlord's.
    • If that's not enough, then turning Tyler into Dark Heart and trying to make him kill his own son might be.
    • If even that doesn't help him cross it, he certainly cemented it when he tapped into Tyler's knowledge for the purpose of creating his new army, knowing fully well how life-threatening it can be for him.
  • Most Wonderful Sound: J.B.'s Laser Lance. Being a knock-off of a lightsaber, this was inevitable.
    • In season 2, Ryan gets a Laser Saber (which more blatantly resemble a lightsaber, being only a single blade). It makes the same sounds.
  • Nightmare Fuel:
    • The Skugs manage to be this despite being Mooks. In addition to their unsettling appearance, they can turn into anyone and be anywhere, and do a good enough job pretending to be human to fool most everyone. It doesn't help that sometimes when they're just about to reveal themselves, they look just off enough to be clearly inhuman.
    • Both of Grimlord's transformations are pretty terrifying. His first form sees him turn into a hideous mid-way form between his human and monster forms and his second form sees his skeleton become visible while he's transforming.
  • Paranoia Fuel: The Skugs are capable of assuming any form they wish and do a terrifying job at masquerading as normal people until they reveal themselves. They can be anyone anywhere, and you won't know it until they reveal their true forms.
  • Retroactive Recognition:
    • Brad Hawkins went on to be Mason's second stepdad Jim in Boyhood and also ventured into voice acting, most of them done for Funimation.
    • Sarah Brown joined General Hospital soon after VR Troopers and is better known these days as a successful soap opera actress, winning three Daytime Emmys during her six-year run on the show before moving onto other series. She has appeared on the cover of Soap Opera Digest 19 times.
    • A young Jamie Kennedy appeared in the Cybertron pilot as Elmo.
    • As of 2021, Michael Calvin Bacon is working in Boundless Entertainment under his name Mike Hollander.
    • Voice and Mocap Actor T.J. Storm had one of his early television roles as season 2's Doom Master. He would go on to do voice acting for several video games, be in the 1995 Mortal Kombat movie as a unnamed fighter, and do the mocap work for Godzilla in the Monsterverse continuity.
  • Special Effect Failure:
    • Whenever Jeb sticks his tongue out, one can easily tell that the frame is frozen. Likewise whenever his eyes "pop" out in surprise.
    • In "The Dognapping", the skugs carrying Jeb's cage in Grimlord's palace are clearly in front of a green screen. Their lighting is completely different from the rest of the footage.
    • In "The Duplitron Dilemma", Percy being ejected from the car is shown with a flat image of him flying up and hitting the ground.
    • Battle Grid Mode speaks for itself.
    • JB's suit and Ryan's second suit are noticeably more metallic in the Japanese footage than they are in American footage and it can be rather jarring at times.
  • Spiritual Successor: Compare the fights undertaken by the Lyoko-Warriors against XANA to the Troopers' battle against Grimlord. Hilariously, Saban composer Noam Kaniel composed and sang the theme song to Code Lyoko.
  • Stock Footage Failure: Even for a Saban show made in the 90's, there were a surprising amount of Stock Footage Failures:
    • The footage of Grimlord's palace (and the Metalder footage in general) always looks fuzzier, darker, and more low quality than the rest of the show, making it very obvious when the footage switches from Japanese to American.
    • Adapting two different Metal Heroes shows meant that JB and Kaitlin never fight with Ryan when battling a monster (outside of battle grid mode). With 92 total episodes, this becomes more and more obvious through the course of the series, resulting in a very disjointed feel to the action.
    • Due to the limited amount of footage of Grimlord's lair, the amount of soldiers visible in any scene usually fluctuates, sometimes Grimlord addressing the four generals and the next shot having the rest of his army suddenly appear.
    • In the first season, the goons seen in Grimlord's court were all monsters who'd eventually get to be the monster of an episode. Since Stock Footage was used for some villains' base scenes, previously defeated monsters were often right there to greet Grimlord as he arrived, just like last week... and some would do battle again, with or without their past demises Handwaved. Many monsters were seen multiple times, with his personal favorites kept into the second season.
      • The most egregious example is Air Striker. This helicopter-based monster was sent nearly every episode, destroyed nearly every episode, and always came back for more. Of course, given the fact that they're computer-generated creations, he can simply recreate any monster he likes.
    • The air battles footage is even more limited, with virtually the same sequence of slips being used for every battle; if you've seen one, you've seen them all.
    • In "The Great Brain Robbery", when Snowbot is attacking Kaitlin and JB with his flamethrower and frost gun, another fighter can be seen next to them (which is the third warrior from Jikuu Senshi Spielban, Helen Lady).
      • Kaitlin would later get the ability to create a mirror clone of herself, probably written to prevent any more inconsistencies.
    • In "Three Strikes", the look of the apartment rapidly changes between the Japanese and American footage, with the floor and wall changing colors.
    • In "Game Over", Despera suddenly becomes a man when fighting Ryan.
  • Tear Jerker: From the "Defending Dark Heart" arc: Ryan, having discovered that Dark Heart is actually his Brainwashed and Crazy dad, has a nightmare where he faces off against him alone. Said nightmare ends with Ryan breaking down and saying that he just can't fight his own dad. The arc also ends with a crushing Hope Spot, as Ryan nearly gets his dad back, sees him taken away, and can only scream in anguish at Grimlord.
  • Unintentional Period Piece: The show's premise is essentially 'virtual reality can create anything,' but even beyond that, at one point the characters bemoan the fact that they cannot contact one another at any time, being dependent on pay phones and landlines, resulting in a specific piece of tech being created for them, the VR-VTs. The complete lack of cellphones blatantly places the show in the early nineties.

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