#theorization

There have always been a few questions I've had in terms of how Venjix technology works, it's vague at times and a little confusing so pardon me if I take liberties with my concepts. Also, fair warning, my theories are not PG rated in the slightest and might be a little disturbing concept-wise.

I'm going to give you a run-down of a timeline of some of Dillon's main flashbacks. The Tables - AKA: Dissection, Study, and Early-Stage Experimentation

In flashbacks we do see some of the inside of Venjix's lair. In episode 20, we see Flynn drop a socket wrench on the ground, the sound causing Dillon to have a flashback. In his flashback, we see him amongst others in rows on tables (Tenaya is also there). The noise that the socket wrench reminded him of was a grinder dropping some sort of plier-type tool. We see grinders hovering over many sedated humans, all wrapped in what looks to be those insulated thermal blankets. There are wires and tubes attached to all of them, and we even see a grinder holding what looks to be like a different type of pliers or tongs. So, what does this mean?

In my opinion, it implies that whatever they were doing in that area likely involved dissection. Yes, you heard right. Venjix was making its grinders dissect human captives. This could have been for various reasons, from studying and understanding, testing the durability of subjects, and even early-stage experimentation on them.

I do have a theory that there was a sort of cattle-herding type area before the tables, but we never see any canonical evidence of that. It's just a theory of mine that they were all gathered up, herded into a tight space and then lined up, slowly picked out, sedated, then thrown down onto the tables. Now, if they survived that then I'm guessing they were moved to other places. Bringing us to our next part.

Here's where it gets tricky, this story is literally told in broken blurry fragments so bear with me here.

The Cells - AKA: Individual Experimentation and Manual Upgrading

It is revealed that Gem and Gemma shared a cell next to Tenaya. Now you might be wondering "Where is Dillon??? What about his escape?". We assume that likely Gem and Gemma were captured after Dillon escaped. This is likely true, or at least they were in earlier stages of capture when Dillon got out. Whether or not Dillon got to the cells is up for debate, he could have been put in the cell with Tenaya and that is when they made their escape attempt, but that's not what I personally believe. Personally, I think that Dillon escaped off the table and took Tenaya with him. And this is when they made their escape attempt. However, it obviously failed, and they were separated.

This is the moment Venjix chose Dillon to be its next attempt at creating a human hybrid. Everything before was just tests, measurements, and Dillon was strong enough to endure all of that torture and escape. What Venjix did to Dillon was a punishment but also what I theorize to be the first successful attempt at making a human hybrid.

At this point Dillon's memories are "taken" by the SatBot (I don't believe this to be true, but I won't get into it here) and he is upgraded. Meanwhile, Tenaya is sent down the tunnel. Now I know you're probably thinking "But wait, wasn't that the moment Tenaya got upgraded?". I would assume so too, except when Gem and Gemma meet Tenaya in the cells, she's blind. So, I'm guessing whatever that was, was kind of a bluff? Just to kind of torment Dillon further, and maybe crush his idea of rescuing his sister? I don't know, Venjix is weird as hell. I don't understand it.

This is where I just make shit up. I believe after Dillon's memories were taken, Dillon was sent to be further opened up and have Venjix technology implanted inside him manually. Tenaya is sent back to the cells and that's where Gem and Gemma come in (I'm not sure if they confirmed that Gem and Gemma were hybrids or not??? I'm still rewatching right now, but either they got out before being manually upgraded or they got out after). Shortly thereafter, Tenaya is upgraded as well because her upgrades and Dillon's were of the same generation, seven.

Now this is where the confusion comes, because I always wondered how Dillon got out.

He got captured, didn't he? Memories removed and upgrades implanted. And they want me to believe he just got out? That can't be right because how did he get the watch and the key? Only his key specifically, not even Tenaya's, so obviously he didn't go back to that cell where they were because he would have found Tenaya or at least her key. I believe that Kilobyte purposefully released Dillon at this point as a latent and dormant attempt to infiltrate Corinth City without Venjix’s knowledge, causing him to be exiled. To give him just enough humanity to seek out the only city nearby, to seek answers in civilization. With the knowledge that eventually the latent nanotechnology inside of him would take over.

(Forward: A very special thanks to my good friend @natarisaru for helping me compile this document and providing the visual aides linked below. She was an absolutely huge help, and I couldn’t have done this without her.)

The series finale to the 2004 Cartoon Network cult classic Megas XLR, a two-parter entitled “Rearview Mirror Mirror”, could easily be said to be one of the most underrated final episodes in modern animation. A brief summary for the uninitiated: Coop and series antagonist Gorrath find themselves in a hellish alternate world ruled by evil versions of himself and tritagonist Kiva. Together with an alternate version of his best friend Jamie, Coop must team up and work together with his sworn enemy to stop his evil self from adding his home dimension to the list of worlds conquered. An absolutely badass finale ensues.

Megas XLR actually began life as a pilot entitled “Lowbrow” which aired during Cartoon Cartoon’s Summer of shorts, on August 23rd, 2003. This pilot was actually stretched out for the first episode entitled “Test Drive”, of which the last half begins where Lowbrow opens. Now, usually you wouldn’t consider a simple pilot to have much bearing on the show proper, but allow me to present a simple hypothesis: Lowbrow is actually canon, AND ties into the finale two-parter.

The following bullet points will be comparing each version of Harold “Coop” Cooplowski and Kiva Andru: Main, Evil and Pilot.

Compare:

Evil Kiva and Lowbrow!Kiva both wear two-toned lipstick

Kiva Prime, however, does not wear such a lipstick.

Both Evil Coop and Kiva and Lowbrow!Coop and Kiva are rendered in a much more angular style than their prime counterparts.

Compare these two images 

to this

and to this

Notice how much rounder Coop Prime’s face is compared to his pilot and Evil self’s faces. While it may be harder to tell with Kiva, this also applies to her. 

As a result of this subtle difference, Lowbrow!Coop and Kiva look decidedly less friendly than the Coop and Kiva from the prime universe.

Evil Kiva is noticeably lighter skinned than Kiva Prime; interestingly, Lowbrow!Kiva is also noticeably lighter than Kiva is in the series proper.

Hello very mysterious person 😉🥰

Hmm... I can honestly say that I haven’t thought about this before 🤔 and my initial reaction was “probably not”, BUT, let’s think about it. 😁

So, lets assume that whenever he’s awake he’s most likely more or less aware of it, as he is in control of his mana. Simply because if he wasn’t, then it’d be raging around rather than being composed in its arm -form. Of course it’s possible that with time he has gotten used to having that “spell” (in lack of a better term) on at all time, and it has become as natural for him as breathing. But by then, he would have had his fire arm for a good while, or so I’d like to think  🤔 At which point he would probably have gotten to the point that he’d remember about it being there. 

But then, how about if it happens in the early stages? People who have lost an arm or a leg, have been reported to be able to still “feel” their limb, which has caused them to eg try an reach for things with an arm they no longer have. And that would imply that it’d be easy to “forget” that they don’t have that limb anymore. But, of course, those people have gotten the reminder as soon as they saw that nothing happened (eg the glass wasn’t picked up). However, in Fuego’s case, something would happen since he’d have a magical prosthetic. 

So, could it happen? I mean, yeah, it’s possible. 

But personally I would think that if he has a moment such as that it’d probably be at the wee hours of the night, when he wakes from deep sleep and automatically casts his fire arm. And it’d be a very brief “...wait?! ah, right...” 

This may be the future of 3-stage Chuck E Cheese locations! This photo was taken of the Darien, Illinois stage mid-refurbishment! The two stages to the left and the right will be kept as-is and intact, but all the bots have been removed from all the stages. Fear not, though! The bots from this location were saved!! They have been dispersed amongst fan-collectors, thankfully! The bot for this stage (as well as the backdrop and such) actually came from a location that had undergone 2.0-ification, so it was also saved from destruction!! 

And here’s some good news about 2.0s: according to reputable sources within the community, 2.0s are reportedly being put on hold indefinitely!! This comes as no surprise, of course, since the company is currently in Chapter 11 bankruptcy, but still, 2.0s are evidently NOT part of their restructuring plan thus far, which is good news for animatronic fans!! I hesitate to say they’re gone for good, since we don’t know that for 100% certain, but we can say for sure that there will not be any stores converted to 2.0s any time soon!!

I don’t know, I feel the need to mention this now.