#chip damage

duh

what'd you think these things are filled with?

Professor Venomous' character is defined by an unrelenting hunger for power and the consequences of bottling up emotions. He always felt like his super powers weren't enough to satisfy the vision of what he considered a powerful, capable hero and actively compared his abilities against those of other heroes. He used his abilities but felt mocked and belittled when his teammates cheered him on or tried to reassure him. He tried to hide what his actual powers were through a combination of his laser-blasting helmet and deceptive hero name. This shame and self-loathing led to him experimenting on himself and in the lack of a power boost, augmented his perceived weakness with deadly, unethical weaponry.

Its dubious whether Professor Venomous ever genuinely wanted to be a hero or was caught up in the more glamorous image of what a 'hero' could be. It's not explicitly stated, but POINT has some element of painting heroes as larger than life figures and even celebrities as much as a legitimately helpful force. Elodie is the audience's introduction to what a present-day POINT hero is like. There's a level of showmanship and dramatics to any of her on-screen appearances and 'dramatic entrances' are part of POINT Prep's curriculum. Where Venomous didn't feel satiated by POINT, he points at wealth and materialistic power as a huge motivation behind his shift towards villainy. There's more to his villain role and his deeper sense of satisfaction is attached to this being a better fit with his morals, goals, and even sense of self beyond material comfort. In general though, Laserblast's tenure as a hero was underpinned by a deep-seated desire for power and hopes that becoming a 'hero' could help fill in what existing self-esteem issues and poor self-image he had.

Foxtail is presented as Venomous' thematic foil in regards to an obsession with power and what depths she's willing to go in the ultimate pursuit of what it means to be an effective hero. Her desire to help others is genuine, but she's used to being stoic and self-reliant. She's placed in a leadership role largely because of how confident, strong, and powerful she comes across. When she talks, there's conviction in her voice. People listen and follow her lead; she's a de facto leader vs a voluntary or deliberate one. She has an idea of what she expects for herself and can bulldoze to results, she can help heroes figure out how to become physically stronger, but she doesn't have the tools needed for evaluating, empathizing, and patiently guiding a full team with strengths, ideas, and personalities so dramatically different from her own. When contrasted with Laser, Foxtail is self-assured and knows who she is, but is cast in a role that really doesn't fit her personal strengths and motivations. Both Foxtail and Laser try to fill their respective roles; Foxtail is daunted and Laser feels resentful. Foxtail tries to maintain some semblance of control. Laser runs away and ends up completely reinventing himself. Foxtail feels forced to become someone that does what she thinks has to be done no matter what the cost.

During the earlier days of POINT, Foxtail is the friendly, but stern head of operations. Laserblast was part of her core team next to Dr. Grayman. It's ambiguous how long Laserblast was working alongside her but it was long enough that he was an established and senior member. There aren't any specific scenes or story beats elaborating on what their particular dynamic was like.

Context clues point at Laserblast as POINT's head of charisma before Professor Sunshine replaced him in said role. Or, if she was already installed at POINT Prep, he was the active field team's stand-in for the charisma rep. This is extrapolating from POINT Prep focusing on three particular schools of thought behind what makes the ideal hero: wisdom, strength, and charisma. Foxtail is the muscular, confident, and assertive lead for strength focused heroes. Dr. Grayman is the curious, smart, and playful lead for wisdom focused heroes. Laserblast has a laidback and cool, but affable demeanor; he rides skateboards and has a sucker sticking out of the side of his mouth. Even as Professor Venomous, he has a curated aesthetic and flare for the dramatic. He has choreographed poses and makes a grand entrance when he's the showcased villain! Sunshine is the preppier and classier variant of what a charismatic hero looks like. She places strong emphasis on smiles and the importance of a first impression in a fight or general scene.

Charisma is hinted at as slightly more important and influential than wisdom or strength, but the hardest class of POINT hero to excel at. High rewards but equally high stakes. Considering how much stock Elodie places on appearing calm, collected, and professional at all times as just the star student adds an extra layer behind what kind of social pressure Laserblast might have faced. Granted, a lot of the added tension and stakes in series present-day trace back to Foxtail. Though, Foxtail isn't solely responsible for all of the adverse effects and consequences attached to POINT's elitism. The foundation was already laid. Note Sparko's comment about most POINT Prep students coming from previously established hero families or lineages.

There's an undertone of classism. Elodie's origin as a Lakewood local carries extra baggage and adds even more stress to maintain her top position. Her grades, popularity, and image must mask and dilute what negative light POINT generalizes about everybody else not from that specific area or background. She must be the exception and the shining example. While there are other successful heroes from Lakewood and this doesn't bar anyone from joining the main team later, the stigma is present. POINT Prep upholds the bias that the best heroes are more likely to come from rich families and long-standing legacies. It's far more difficult for a new, relatively unknown face to make a name and reputation for themselves.

Establishing what role Laser held as the charisma seat helps paint what Foxtail's immediate situation looked like. If Laser was in charge of charisma, he also handled the finer details and nuanced pieces of maintaining POINT's public image. After Laser died, his face was front page news and there was no immediate or experienced enough figure to assume his role. POINT's credibility was challenged. A key chunk of POINT's image is that they're reliable, trustworthy, and can tackle every potential challenge or obstacle.

They need to be seen as a solid, impenetrable force. Any hint at cracks in the foundation weakens their societal role as the premier hero team. There are other unaffiliated heroes, but a POINT hero is guaranteed to be thoroughly vetted and highly trained. In addition, this carefully curated image is what maintains a healthy level of recruits, overall positive reception to anything POINT tries to pursue or ultimately accomplishes, as well as cultivating positive morale and general enthusiasm towards heroes period.

Foxtail isn't a gracious or patient person. She approaches most problems with the same blunt fist she gives wrestling opponents and villains alike. She's in charge so the responsibility of upholding POINT's prestige falls to her. Unfortunately, she also has to balance this new pressure with the personal grief of losing a colleague. She's alone. There's no one she feels like she can confide in or be vulnerable around without compromising her own image as a strong, indomitable hero. Instead, there are subordinates looking to her for answers, comfort, solutions. She doesn't know what to do and that scares her. She has to posture as capable and powerful when faced with a situation that makes her feel small and helpless. Similarly to how Carol feels at the sandwich shop crater, Foxtail is caught up in thoughts of what she could have done if she'd been there or other what ifs. The most direct solution she can think of is more decisive action in general, a stricter set of expectations for heroes, and further strengthening what resources and team she has.

In the moment, the public at large as well as the bulk of POINT blame El Bow for not acting fast enough. Foxtail takes what feels like the obvious solution: set El Bow as the scapegoat and pin all of POINT's current heat, as well as her own hangups, onto him. Foxtail continues to nurse a very personal and pointed grudge against Mr. Gar. As far as she's concerned, Mr. Gar and anyone directly associated with him are examples of what a 'lesser' hero looks like. Everyone on the Gar team is mostly self-taught, loosely trained, and amateur. They have to balance a part-time job with the few, real-time hero opportunities that come their way vs. a full-time, dedicated training schedule. There's low bar to entry for this kind of homegrown hero. Anyone really can be a hero at Gar's Bodega and he supplies the needed weapons as well as individually tailored advice for anyone that asks.

According to Foxtail, Mr. Gar is an irredeemable failure. The sandwich incident is a permanent black mark on his personal record. Mr. Gar was personally scouted and recruited by Foxtail. She assessed him as the picture of a promising up and coming hero in his early career. He was a direct risk and by extension, however he conducted himself was a direct reflection of Foxtail's decision-making and reputation. There was always stronger weight to what Mr. Gar says and does compared to what any other hero might because of Foxtail's professional investment in him as her former mentee. Of course Mr. Gar's more readily accessible Bodega is not only an insult to POINT but Foxtail herself. For better or worse, El Bow's departure was the first step towards Foxtail's designs on what makes the ideal hero.

--

Throughout the series in general, there's the question of figuring out and defining what an ideal hero is. Dr. Grayman approaches this question by building Chip Damage; his personal and specific vision of what this ideal could be. The ideal becomes a customizable, programmable robot: a literal living action figure that does exactly what he is instructed to. There's less room for error or tragedy. Because he's a figure, its easier for him to live up to even the craziest expectations or limits that could be imagined. He's more a myth or inspirational story. A role model that gives the public at large something to aspire to or use as a potential measuring stick for their own journeys to become heroes and better people.

While he can live out that ideal in ways mere mortals couldn't, the caveat is that because he isn't 'real,' there's an extra layer of existential angst to unpack. Its one thing to realize the limits of a living, breathing human against the childish image that they're Superman. What is a Superman when he was a set of smoke and mirrors in the first place? That's the cornerstone of Elodie's overall character arc: she wants to consolidate the myth of Chip Damage with a real, flesh and blood hero. She wants to be the intersection of someone infallible and willing to learn with someone that's equally inspirational and most importantly, genuine.

In contrast to Grayman, Foxtail tries to create a one-size-fits-all mold for what heroes have to be. Her mold shifts along with whatever her current goals are and becomes increasingly vague with her growing paranoia. Its strict and an ever-moving goalpost. She tries to push POINT hopefuls towards this vision and yells, threatens, or whatever extreme measure she has to take to force them to fit. If they don't jump when she says jump, she eventually culls them in the name of a bigger picture and the 'greater good.' The effort to push heroes into this mold seeps into other areas of Foxtail's purview. Its one thing to give critique, albeit harsh, for class performance. But she also threatens failing grades or expelling students for potentially losing something as low stakes as a sports game. This is the first obvious warning sign for how severe her quest for perfection has become. Her vision of the 'perfect' hero has become such an unsustainable standard that there's no room for any tiny flaw, mistake, or anything close to an opinion or perspective deviating from hers.

Where Foxtail becomes more authoritarian, Professor Venomous reinvents himself as a full-on villain. His inventions were a carefully guarded secret as Laserblast. He harvests glorbs and invents a means to completely sap someone's super powers, a means to shrink a target to subatomic level, and a means to create miniature black holes. When Dr. Grayman discovers these orbs, he assumes these were created by a yet-unnamed villain; he even loses his telekinetic powers to one of them. Despite what happened to Grayman, Laser suggests using these inventions against villains. Foxtail and the other POINT members unanimously shut this down and at the time, agree that these inventions are deeply unethical, to be used under absolutely no circumstances, and that the inventor needs to be found, apprehended, and stopped.

Laser successfully destroys his sandwich shop lair, but he sets off another one of the power-dampening orbs and loses what super powers he had. He experiments on himself more frequently, possibly even with less caution than before, and becomes a purple, darker-haired, reptilian-like person that's different enough from how he used to look that he's unrecognizable. Originally, he was laying low until he regained his abilities. Nobody knew he made the orbs, so he could believably return to POINT with his reputation in tact. Instead, after he turns purple, he gives up on his immediate experiments and regroups. Its the true death of Laserblast; including what ideas or hopes Venomous used to have for who that person should have been. And he becomes further locked in his insecurities surrounding his perceived weakness and inferiority because of this lack of super powers.

There's understandable precedent for this. While Dr. Grayman is very intelligent, mechanically inclined, and has years of experience to draw from and share with other upcoming heroes, Foxtail and others make disparaging remarks about his lack of super powers. He's already a visibly disabled character, but the ableism comments are focused on super powers. Perhaps, the Professor's hangups could be viewed as a similar allegory.

A lot of his character writing, as well as K.O.'s, are a parallel to what it's like to live with mental illness. Everything looks solid on the outside because the person is otherwise physically able. The disability is 'invisible' because of the lack of obvious signs or indicators that an outwardly physical disability typically has. Even with super powers, it's not a stretch that an elitist institution like POINT ranked certain powers as more useful, stronger, or valuable than others. When Laser looks enviously at Silver, she's not only very capable and intelligent, but has one of the best, cheat-code-esque set of powers a person in this fictitious world could have. She can copy or recreate any ability she wants. That translates as hitting the genetic jackpot to someone like Laser. According to POINT's underlying philosophies, success or prestige as a hero is partly tied to something a person is born with; no one decides what powers or abilities they have.

Along with an allegory about ableism, super powers as a whole are equated with how things like someone's race, gender, ethnicity, and other traits affect how they might be seen by others. While Venomous finds a niche among villains, there's still huge weight tied to how much of his alienation was caused by POINT's institutional issues. This is further highlighted by how much emphasis is placed on how hard working Elodie is, what kind of stress she's under, and continuous pushes that she's an 'exceptional' figure from Lakewood. She's the example. All aspiring heroes should want to be like her. The pedestal is what makes her so unapproachable to her old friend Enid. As long as Elodie is this specific, curated image and refuses to lower her mask, it's hard to discover who the real Elodie is. In a nutshell, the ideal hero prevents anyone from reaching their full potential whether they are seen as the closest someone could be to this image or they are overshadowed by their inability to fill this image.

--

Glorbs are an allegory for the scramble after valuable resources and fights over real world commodities like oil. The entity that holds the most glorbs stands at the top of the food chain in this fictitious world's continuous battle between heroes and villains. When the Professor steals glorbs, it's a means for very self-interested pursuits. These will make him specifically more powerful in regards to his abilities, inventions, or amassing money. He doesn't hoard glorbs; he gladly sells them to the highest bidder and even includes his minion in his efforts to maximize their use as a way to increase power levels or weapon potency. He's the idea man and is comfortable as a secondary figure or part of a bigger operation rather than being the man in charge. While he and Boxman are business partners, Boxman spearheads the operation and ultimately decides how Venomous' contributions get used in Plaza attacks.

'Going turbo' was introduced as K.O. tapping into or even surrendering to negative emotions for a significant power boost. His variant involves losing himself to T.K.O. as the living embodiment of his own bitterness, anger, and depression. Shadowy Figure is Professor Venomous' equivalent. Maintaining this as an indefinite power-up state is seemingly exclusive to these two. Other characters 'going turbo' can only happen in brief, minutes-long bursts and requires an ample supply of glorbs to maintain. The Goth make-up and fashion staples could be seen as Professor Venomous' signature on experimenting with glorb power-ups.

Foxtail requests her science team develop a similar power-up through Chip Damage. The trial-run is set by picking the top-performing students in each curriculum at POINT Prep and inviting them to exclusive, one-on-one after hours study sessions. Going turbo is a very deliberate move. Foxtail's power-up relies on students implicitly trusting Chip Damage and being sworn to some level of secrecy. T.K.O. is Venomous' years-long experiment and lab rat in search of the ultimate power boost for his own selfish ends. Elodie and the other students are Foxtail's gated run on what a POINT super-soldier could look like. Also, unlike going turbo being attached to anger or intense negative emotions, these hero power-ups are triggered by an urgent need to win. A student is minutes away from a victory and this power-up is the little extra cheat that nabs them said victory. The tradeoff is Foxtail takes the driver's seat on what they were doing and directly puppets them. Foxtail's 'turbo' is her assuming full control over the person themselves.

While Chip Damage is outed, Foxtail considers the POINT Prep student power-up a successful enough trial that she seizes Lakewood Plaza later. She's thoroughly convinced that her combination of glorb power-up as well as sitting on the largest known glorb source is the optimal move. Villains already sell and use glorbs without any consideration for the complicated morals and ethics behind using them. Foxtail is convinced that her extreme actions are justified. She has spent years sinking to increasingly lower depths with little resistance and further confirmation bias that she has to be as extreme as the perceived villain threat or worse. If she's the more threatening force, if she has direct control over every glorb that exists, then she protects everybody. There's no room for unexpected hero deaths or other misfortunes if she knows where everybody is, delivers all orders, and has a direct means to look through their eyes at what they might be facing. Even villains will have a harder time abusing glorbs if she sits on the lion's share. She can curtail their supply as well as give heroes direct, equal means to tackle glorb-powered threats.

In addition to glorbs, Foxtail has a new, fine-tuned version of Laser's power-dampening orb. If someone opposes her, she can literally switch off their powers and temporarily place them in 'time-out.' With her in charge, super powers become a privilege as the last-remaining vestige of someone's individuality within POINT at large. It's also debilitating in such a way that life without powers requires considerations and approaches to things most people take for granted. That debilitating state is one thing to navigate under normal circumstances, let alone Foxtail's all-encompassing fascistic regime.

Everybody involved with the Plaza are forcibly conscripted into her glorb harvesting operation, wear the same uniform, and expected to follow all orders with blind obedience. Mr. Gar was already turned into an example; Foxtail will follow through on her threats. The power dampening is temporary now but she does have the means to take someone's powers away completely. She also has enough POINT members following her with blind obedience or begrudgingly but not enough to push back that she has the numbers to back her up too. When Foxtail invades the Plaza, it's her bulldozer with an extra set of scalpels and enough attention to detail that challenging her requires more than a direct approach. She's willingly playing dirty.

What ultimately stops Foxtail are a concentrated team-up of everyone from across the Plaza pooling their individual powers and unique abilities into one big counterstrike. Foxtail was pushing for a one-size-fits-all mold. Everyone has to be this perfect hero that only exists in her head. The more conformity and uniformity, the stronger POINT becomes. Every part of the resistance is in stark defiance of this idea. Mr. Gar returns to the battlefield wearing his El Bow mask as the fully realized version of himself that doesn't let past trauma define who he is now. Carol joins the fight as a fully independent and free acting Silver Spark that's fighting for her friends and family. When K.O. acts as the battery for the giant Plazamo mech, he has one of his early moments where both K.O. and T.K.O. are working together harmoniously as one whole person.

Every character involved, whether its a narrative highlight or a background detail, is wearing a costume related to their personal theme and iconography. Every attack or contribution is specific to their strengths, whether its Enid's ninja jutsus or Dendy's tech knowledge. The resistance features everyone at the best, most ideal version of themselves they can be. There's no one ideal hero. Its a collection of several heroes that are all capable and powerful among very different fields and disciplines. Most importantly, its all a voluntary, collaborative effort. K.O. is the general leader, but there's no one person in charge or that any person is truly unnecessary or unappreciated. Everyone under Foxtail are expendable, interchangeable parts. Everyone in the resistance plays a role that they were placed in because of what they can specifically do or bring to said role.

When Foxtail is defeated and surrenders, this is very much a clean-cut ending only achievable in fiction. The real-life events or figures her arc draws from are messy and complicated and controversial. Showing her falling to her knees and crying shows that 'the man behind the curtain' is just that: a human. In her case, Foxtail was trying to build up something bigger and more powerful than she could be alone through a mix of soft power, propaganda, and the right set of resources. Instead of relying on just physical force, she also takes ahold of what someone's imagination can do. When someone believes she can't be stopped, its even more effective than just a punch. Mr. Gar describes Foxtail as a bully. There's a grain of truth to that. When she feels small and powerless, she resorts to pushing others down and forcing them to follow her will rather than the more difficult path of being honest and vulnerable with herself.

When Mr. Gar willingly holds a hand to help her up, its the ultimate sign that this is someone sympathetic and willing to change. So much of Foxtail's character is someone stubborn that refuses to listen or compromise. Seeing her cry in front of everyone, Plaza heroes and POINT recruits alike, shows her realizing the gravity of her actions. Its more open and vulnerable than Foxtail has ever been, including in her earlier POINT days when she was much friendlier and less hardened. She cried at Laser's funeral, but that was still under very specific and carefully chosen circumstances. Even then, she raised her walls back up immediately after. She mourned, but stayed in that particular mindset and never took the further steps to process, accept, or move on. She suppressed her grief and let Laser's death become continued rationale for further doubling down and the mental gymnastics required for moves like buying illegal glorbs and making her own power-dampening device. Painting Foxtail as someone worth understanding and forgiveness is a warning that anyone could become as corrupt and immovable as she was becoming. There's also strong emphasis on Carol and Mr. Gar offering Foxtail immediate and ongoing emotional support.

The biggest part of Foxtail's descent into fascism was how alone and unsupported she felt. As long as she felt alone and like she was solely responsible for everyone and everything around her, other people and the world around her became one-dimensional obstacles or boogeymen. Seeing others as full, three-dimensional people with different thoughts, feelings, and opinions requires some degree of introspection and letting people in. Several of the most meaningful character arcs and stories in this show happen because of someone opening up and being vulnerable around a trusted love one. 'The power of friendship' may be seen as cheesy and even presented as a cheap easy joke, but there's earnest, real-world effects and impact from having a strong, supportive community. Real change happens because of the efforts of several people working together. And everybody benefits from having friends and others that believe in and love them unconditionally.

And moreover, how PV felt about Chip Damage, considering that he was Laserblast's "replacement". And in a way that was pedantic at that.

Though that would have made things fun when the show was still running because of all the theories that Chip would have been an old flame, but NOPE. Literal, actual replacement. A "So I WASN'T perfect enough for you all along!?" type of replacement, at least as far as PV is concerned. Chip is exactly what everyone expected PV to be as Laser, but he wasn't capable of being able to reflect on those burdens. To be powerful, to be charismatic, to be able to take being a celebrity of that caliber. And when he was given the capability, he saw that status for the farce it was and chose death rather than finding another way forward. Except it was a "real" death for Chip, collection of drones as he was.

And he left Elodie to pick up the pieces of what hero culture had left her from him and Laser.

And so then...what would that mean...for PV's perspective on Elodie, who craves fame and attention to the detriment of everyone around her?

I would LOVE to see that happen in real life, Just look how furious he is! 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

(Also random PV in the background)