I keep thinking about the gym scene with Flambae and how he could have easily dipped out and let Robert heavily injured/killed from the weights, but he still steps in to give him a hand. He is a huge asshole about it, but his advice is still in a ways true.
That and the fact he was obviously showing Robert his bulge. That bitch was totally flirting.
GOD, THE GYM SCENE. There are SO many interesting things going on in this scene! And not just with Flambae and Robert, but also with the setting, and how Flambae and Robert (and their worldview) fit into it?? And what bearing that has on Flambae's perception of Robert's lack of powers?? (And what that means for his attraction to Robert, of course, hehehe)
Like, this safety/motivational poster is pretty par for a gym. You shouldn't lift without a spotter! But it's INSANE to me that it implies you ONLY need to do this if you don't have superpowers?
Are we meant to interpret this as evidence that supers naturally have greater strength and constitution than "normies"? That they recover more quickly from injuries? That they're just straight up harder to kill?
(As an aside, this does slightly recontextualize Flambae hitting Waterboy with his car for me. If he's obviously a super, and supers can just naturally take bigger hits, then MAYBE Flambae knew he would be fine...? Still not great, but we don't love him because he's perfect 😂)
Anyway, I believe Flambae also says Waterboy can bench more than Robert? (Couldn't find a screenshot of this, but it's when he calls him "Wetwipeboy"). So even though Waterboy looks like he has the upper body strength of a wet paper towel, he can bench more than Robert at upwards of 120 lbs. This corroborates the impression the motivational poster gives that supers are just naturally stronger than those without powers, even if their powers don't necessarily seem to have anything to do with strength.
Though in fairness, Robert is obviously reaching muscle failure at the end of a workout, and probably also recklessly pushing himself to muscle failure on a dangerous piece of equipment as some kind of form of masochistic flagellation to alleviate his diminished sense of self worth, or as a kind of punishment for his perceived failures. (Also, if he's trying to build his strength up he shouldn't be doing cardio right before lifting, so either he's willfully biting off more than he can chew or his knowledge of proper strength training techniques is actually surprisingly low for a career hero).
MORE ON WHAT ROBERT'S WORKOUT CHOICES SAY ABOUT HIM: the bench press is a technique intended to build upper body strength, to the exclusion of other body parts. And this is the workout he fails to complete because he takes on more than he can handle. A metaphor for Robert's hyper-independence, and how he can't do it alone?? Flambae, save him from himself...
FLAMBAE, BY CONTRAST: is doing squats, which develop core strength and stability. Given identical weights, they're easier than bench presses--but Flambae is also batting 280 lbs on those things, so he's flexing on Robert completely here lmao. But you know, for the allegedly volatile, tantrum-throwing, loose cannon "walking fireball" character, I would have expected him to be doing something... flashier? Like curls, or something?
Honestly, the choice of exercises for both of them in this scene feels INESCAPABLY deliberate. Like maybe we're meant to understand Flambae has a surprisingly strong emotional foundation? Unexpectedly robust coping strategies??? He DOES come to Robert's housewarming party prepared to move forward after only a day of stewing in his feelings of hatred, which feels pretty big of him for someone who claims to have been "waiting a long time" for a rematch when Robert first encounters him in Crypto Night!
And Flambae's weird, backhanded way of showing support is so interesting. It casts a veil of enmity over all the good things about him--makes us biased against Flambae WITH Robert based on his/our first impression, so we take his "Bitch, you can't be stuttering on your first day" and "The important thing is you suck" at face value alongside the rest of the Z-Team's hostility and bickering, instead of recognizing the moments were he abstains from outright hostility (he doesn't bully Waterboy with the rest of the team at the beginning of his first shift, and he doesn't sabotage anyone). Once we get to know him a little better, it becomes clearer than ever that, despite his rough-around-the-edges attitude, Flambae is trying, in his own way, to help. He likes to help! He's concerned about things like accomplishing tasks in a timely manner and, as most of us haven't shut up about since we first saw someone mention it, he is uniquely qualified to rescue a kid's lost balloon in the very first mission of Robert's first shift with the Z-Team. Man, if ANYONE actually believes in the Phoenix Program, it's Flambae.
SO. ALL THAT TO SAY.
THE GYM SCENE.
Flambae LIKES HELPING PEOPLE. People in distress INDUCE HIM TO PROTECT THEM. So he comes to Robert's aid, and emphasizes that Robert is weak, and he is strong. Like he is trying to draw attention to the fact that Robert needs help, and Flambae is the one who can and will be there to help him. He's trying to SHOW Robert he can rely on him, by performing the most homoerotic display of protection (helping him with the weight), concern (you need a spotter, we need you, I don't want you getting hurt), and strength (IMMEDIATELY starts squatting while facing him. not looking away. MAINTINING HEATED EYECONTACT) EVER.
Also, maintaining heated eye contact with Robert while he squats and talks about how strong he is is fucking INSANE??? Bro, is that a challenge (it can't be, he just told Robert NOT to hurt himself) or a come-on? Are you imagining bouncing on it RIGHT now??? Or are you trying to show off how strong your quads are, so Robert knows you can pound that flat ass all night??? Trying to see if he's staring at your bulge??? Whore???????
I'm obsessed. Like. Yes Flambae is an asshole. We have established this is an irreducible facet of his character. However. His abrasive attitude is NOT all there is to him, and given what we know about him, and how much he has license to begrudge Robert (throwing food in his face??? come on, now), he is being EXCEPTIONALLY KIND to Robert in this scene. And more than that, it seems to me that, in this scene, there is a strong argument to be made that Flambae is trying to communicate that he is concerned about Robert's safety, that he is strong enough to protect Robert, that Robert doesn't have to be strong to earn that protection, that he values Robert's contributions to the team, that he wants Robert to look at him, that he wants to touch him, and that he has been looking at Robert's ass.
And Robert is basically pulling Flamabe by being the most pathetic guy ever? Like, look AT him. Flambae LOVES saving people and taking care of people and proving "Fuck you, I can be gentle." I bet he dries his fucking potpourri flowers with his flames. Guys he didn't even burn down the Sardine in that huge fight, his control is INSANE. I KNOW he can be gentle. And he wants to be. He wants to be good for Robert. So, SO fucking bad he wants it.
Flambae sees Robert moaning and grunting under that bar and he's like god fucking damn it he's soooo fucking pathetic. I need to take care of him. 🥺
Like this is the gayest anyone has ever done it, folks. Adhoc Studio did NOT have to make this scene so charged, but they DID and they DID IT FOR US. Flambae x Robert truthers understand, this scene is gay as FUCK.
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flambae being sooo obsessed with emasculating everyone around him is so incredibly funny of him. like it's ASTONISHINGLY hypocritical of him to be so aggressively enforcing toxic, hypermasculine heteropatriarchy as a gay man.
but if his aggressive enforcement of those gendered standards isn't a holdover from when he thought be was straight, then it may have developed subconsciously as a way to like, aggressively assert his masculinity DESPITE his sexuality. ): in which case flambae reads like someone struggling with massive amounts of unaddressed internalized homophobia, despite—or perhaps resulting in—his extremely aggressive queer presentation. like part of him thinks being attracted to men and liking potpourri and fashion design and cooking and attending his niece's dance recitals makes him less of a man, so he has to compensate by telling his coworker his dick is small and calling everyone he considers beneath him a "bitch" ("guys can be bitches too. i don't see gender, just people to fuck up" is adorable in a "he's got the spirit" way but not actually an expression of gender equality. he's just describing how this misogynistic, emasculating insult degenders its subject, lmfao)
SO much of flambae is loud and proud and out, yet "bitch" is his favorite appellation (and i don't think it's ever used affectionately, only derogatorily). it almost feels like his uncompromising queerness and his aggressive misogyny are in a constant battle for dominance... good luck king, u are fighting battles none of us know anything about 💔
flambae i love your hypocrisy, u are so complex to me 🔥❤️🔥🔥
Flambae and Robert's shared history is so insane to me. They left their mark on each other. their bond of hatred was forged in a suicidal crucible. "The phoenix, tired of immortality, tricked the sun god into killing it. but instead of dying it rose from the ashes, reborn." Robert saving Flambae's life by maiming him and giving him the shock of a brush with death to reclaim (or discover for the first time?!?!) his sense of self preservation. Flambae, who "spent [his] whole life wanting to die", may have chosen to live out of sheer stubbornness, spite, and the promise of future revenge against Mecha Man. Hatred, too, can be a form of desperately needed human connection in a world of incredible loneliness.
Mecha Man being Flambae's reason to live is INSANE it is INSANE to me how badly he needs Robert. how badly they need EACH OTHER to heal from this and learn to live beyond their numbness, the way Blazer said the powers "make it hard to feel anything" and Robert emulated that very same awful, isolating separation from his fellow man with only an unaffectionate father and a legacy too formidable to bs borne. he was raised to be an Atlas, but the pressure to live up to his father's invention made him an Icarus, flying too close to the sun.
it's awful that Robert maimed Flambae, but at the same time, he may have done that because Flambae was determined to die, and Robert simply refused to be complicit in that. there may have been no other option to deescelate. and Flambae could even resent Mecha Man more for NOT KILLING HIM than maiming him.
god. they are so fucked up i need them at each other's THROATS!!!
if Robert hadn't been drunk, concussed, recently woken from a coma and coming down from a stressful press conference, I think his banter with Flambae in Crypto Night would have been sooo much snappier. What he SHOULD have said was, "You look like you're running late for your shift at the strip club across the street—unless you're here promoting? I don't see any room for a business card in that skintight get-up of yours, but if you tell me your stage name and the venue I'll be sure to drop by and request a dance. Here—something to start your night off right." And then he tucks a fiver into the vee of Flambae's costume and winks at him. 😉✨️
Adhoc Studio hire me for your next queer superhero game. 😎
(I'm not the best at articulating my words so please bear with me) Have you seen what happens when you give Shroud both Pulses on the roof? When Robert is talking, there's a point where the camera cuts over to Blazer/Mandy and Flambae, who are both looking up at Robert. And I might just be bad at reading facial expressions, but I SWEAR Flambae is smiling at him. It's a little smile, but I swear it's there.
no you're right, flambae is TOTALLY smiling alongside blazer in that scene!!
LOOK at that subtle little curl to his lip... that damned smile... he's sooo proud of his dispatcher and relieved for beef 🥺🥹
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flambae, what fucking whitney houston song were you gonna sing??? "I wanna dance with somebody (who loves me)"??? almost all her top songs are love songs bro you can't fool me. you CANNOT be this down bad for your dispatcher, it's UNSEEMLY!!
Bro is out here genuinely contemplating singing "I need someone who'll take a chance / On a love that burns hot enough to last" and making "fuck me" eyes at Robert Robertson. unbelievable. sorry flambae but you're NOT slick AT ALL!!!!
I've been mulling over Robert and Flambae's first meeting at Crypto Night for a few days now, and I'm trying to decide if either "Mr. Wet Ponytail" or "Sunglasses at Night Guy" (translation: "You look unwashed/like a poser") are half as inflammatory or provocative as "Dr. Don't Do Shit" (translation: "You talk a big game, but are you actually going to DO anything about it?"). At first blush, the latter feels more explicitly like a tacit challenge than the others. Not that Flambae didn't initiate by calling Robert "bitch" from across the room, but I stand by the point that this line seems to make Robert more culpable in the ensuing fight.
Or does it?
By which I mean, is it possible those other insults are just as offensive to Flambae, hence the undifferentiated outcome regardless of which insult you choose? Sure, he's vain—but I suspect there's more than just his vanity taking hits here.
The nature of superhero banter in a first encounter (which Robert seems to think this is, at first) is observational humor. It's kind of like the verbal version of being a caricature artist—you take someone's outstanding physical traits and you hone in on them, exaggerate them, and make them ridiculous.
Now, if you throw alcohol on Flambae, we know his eyebrows don't survive. Which is interesting. Flambae says his "skin does not burn", and with his eyebrows gone it's clear he's not phrasing it that way arbitrarily, or for something as dispensible as gravitas or melodrama. He really does mean it's only his skin that doesn't burn.
On that note, let's take a look at Flambae's profile.
There are two things of note I want to draw attention to here. The first is his mugshot—if you only skimmed over this, it might not be obvious that despite the similar color scheme, he's wearing different clothes in the photograph. More to the point, those clothes are burned—particularly around the collar, an area which is notably uncovered in his costume. In the bio, this detail neatly comes together with another: "Designed his own suit," it says. Presented without elaboration or further commentary.
So despite living in a world populated by superpowered individuals—or perhaps as a consequence of villainy failing to furnish Flambae with the requisite connections to fund and secure the services of a professional superhero clothing designer—Flambae had to problem solve for burning his own clothes to a crisp, and only being immune to flame to a point, all on his own.
The fact that we know his hair can burn brings another detail of Flambae's design into question: why, and how, is his hair so long?
I hypothesize that Flambae applies some kind of flame resistant oil to his hair, as a protective measure to prevent it from burning or frizzing up every time his powers flare. And if those powers are directly fueled by his unmanaged anger management issues (plausible), he probably needs a lot of oil to get the job done. Hence, Mr. Wet Ponytail.
"Sunglasses at Night Guy" could be acknowledging another facet of Flambae's appearance meant to account for his fire powers. Just because his skin doesn't burn doesn't mean his eyeballs won't—or maybe they're just as invulnerable to harm as his skin, but nevertheless sensitive to the light of a bright flame?
Which COULD mean Flambae's wet ponytail and sunglasses at night are just as much disability aids made necessary by the limitations of his powers as Invisgal's inhaler. And it makes sense he'd be so upset about getting a gross protein shake in his hair in the middle of the work day, because that means he has to wash it out and painstakingly reapply his flame-retardant hair product completely, which probably takes ages. During his lunch break. After his lunch was trashed and his car was destroyed and someone was cut from the team and they're all having the worst shift of their lives.
Like if Flambae starts a fire on Tuesday I'm just saying he's earned it. As a treat. 🐦🔥✨️
despite being a divisive character for his impulsiveness, hostility toward our protagonist, and his unchecked aggression toward Waterboy, Flambae may be the member of the Z-Team who's demonstrated the most compassion(?) thus far?
He thinks helping people is "kinda cool" (as long as they aren't annoying, then he thinks it sucks lol), it's important to him to attend his niece's dance recital (I guess he could have been lying about that? but it's so specific...), and when you send him on a mission to show off the "sweeter side" of the Phoenix Program in a TV interview, he has a character-specific solution to that mission that involves making bananas foster (bananas cooked in caramel, doused in rum, flambéd, and served with ice cream). these are all extremely endearing character traits that suggest Flambae is much more complicated than "angry guy who sets things on fire"!
out of all the Z-Team, I believe he's also at the top of the leaderboard in terms of successful missions. say what you will about him being a vain, pickme loner with a "fuck you, I got mine" attitude who can't stop getting into stupid fights, but these are hero missions he's succeeding at. taking all this into consideration, I don't think pure ambition can be credited as the sole source of his success. I think he really wants this, even if it maybe heroism doesn't come naturally to him.
I believe jacksepticeye mentioned that the voice director (Coupe's VA) was very clear and thorough when instructing the other VAs on how to perform their lines, which makes me think it's not an accident that Flambae sounds almost, like, embarrassed? when Robert calls him out for starting that fire in the park. almost like he it's something he genuinely can't help (yes it is very predictable for the fire powers guy to be a pyromaniac with poor impulse control, but y'know, if it ain't broke don't fix it). but while he may have powerful destructive impulses, the fact that he's gotten this far at the SDN demonstrates to me that he has made a CONSIDERABLE effort to overcome them, and that's worth a lot!
I'm also EXTREMELY curious about the altercation between Flambae, Waterboy, and Robert in the break room in Episode 4. he acts like he genuinely doesn't realize he was being a bully by throwing trash in Waterboy's face? and the way he says "In fact--" just before Robert throws food trash at him makes me wonder if he was going to say something like, "YOU'RE the one being a bully," which wouldn't be completely unwarranted?! Robert gives them that big pep talk about seeing their pain/potential/fear and believing in them anyway, and still cuts someone after a big win, which would obviously make them feel like no matter how hard they try, their efforts don't matter--which feels especially cruel, after Robert made it seem like he actually gave a damn about their success (and I do think this is on Robert, since he's kind of demonstrated that the only member of the Z-Team he's personally invested in seeing succeed is Invisigirl; probably because she knows he's Mecha Man, so he isn't holding her at arm's length to try and hide that part of himself from her... but I'll save my thoughts about Robert's lack of commitment to the Z-Team for later)
back to the break room scene in Episode 4: Flambae demands to know if Robert is going to "snitch" on him, and then, pointedly, doesn't snitch on Robert to Blonde Blazer when she enters the room. maybe he just recognizes that if he does, Robert can justify his actions by saying Flambae started it.
he also seems kind of subdued when interacting with Waterboy during missions?? almost like he feels bad for bullying him after Robert pointed out that's what he was doing?? and then Flambae sounds like. abashed, when he tells Waterboy over the comms, "Listen. You tried, and you suck. It happens. The important thing is, you suck. And you... and you know this, now." (the subtitles differ slightly, but this is what the voiced line sounds like) Flambae honestly sounds like someone TRYING to give good advice to a rookie and failing miserably. But he IS trying?? which is so interesting?? after Waterboy threw out his lunch and it seemed like Flambae was going to begrudge and resent him for that forever??? bro is over it in an hour!
I can't tell yet if Flambae is like, the de facto leader of the Z-Team whenever they're between dispatchers, or just the one who's been on the team longest because his mission performance has kept him clear of cuts... but he definitely FEELS like he's going to be one of the more important characters in upcoming episodes. not least of all because he has some kind of positive(?) interaction with Robert in the gym, where Robert looks like he's going to have some kind of QTE flashback to their first fight.
but because this villain rehab program is LITERALLY CALLED "THE PHOENIX PROGRAM", and FLAMBAE IS THE FIRE POWERS GUY. like. come on. allegorically speaking, he's ABSOLUTELY going to be a major lynchpin in the narrative going forward.
