#zer0 walter

[Video Description: An animatic to the song 'Mean Mean Man' by Blair Crimmins and the Hookers. In it, the fanbot Hare Becile mocks his rival, Rabbit, along with The Spine and Zer0 (Zero) before climbing onto a bridge. There is an imaginary sequence of Hare pickpocketing, then having his money taken by The Skull. Hare then notices a portrait of Thadeus Becile watching him and is disturbed. In the present action, Hare tears down a Steam Powered Giraffe poster, balls it up, and throws it at Rabbit before descending from the bridge. The Jack pops out of a trashcan, accompanied by several tiny copper elephants that begin to dance. Rabbit tries to eat one of them, despite The Spine trying to stop her. Hare dances the Charleston with the copper elephants before kicking them away and climbing a nearby building. He trips and disappears from the roof, then reappears in the doorway with a top hat (on top of his regular hat) and cane. He dances down the stairs, then throws the top hat at the viewer. The scene transitions to Hare lounging, implying the whole thing was a daydream. He grins smugly at the camera. End VD]

[ID: A digital sketch of Zero (name stylized Zer0), a member of the band Steam Powered Giraffe. He has large, bright eyes, various different plating on his face, a curl on his chin, and natural curly hair. He's wearing a large chain necklace with a bauble pendent and a asymmetrical shirt, on side having a half-cape flap over the shoulder. He is smiling and waving at the viewer with his right hand. End ID]

Zero is slated to appear in the story line, but we've got a ways to go before we get there. He's probably run into the Becile Bots, but going by his backstory, the windows are pretty small. I don't draw the canon bots often, so I'm still figuring out how I want to style Zero-- but here's a sketch, just for you guys!

(Zer0's name is not stylized for screen reader support)

Scratch is Zero's foil/thematic equivalent! Here's some of his design features that were made specifically for that reason:

The biggest one is the '3 part' body structure. Zero was made from 3 different prototype robots; Scratch is a cyborg, so he's human with both modern and antique parts.

Zero wears a silver* chain necklace; Scratch wears silver chains from his belt.

Both are Black/Black-coded, naturally.

Honestly, I'm having a hard time remembering if this was the actual reason, but at the time Scratch was introduced, most of the Becile Bots cast could not sing. I want to say that's why I decided to give him trouble with his voice.

Zero's personality is often childish and silly. I didn't want to pull a total 180 and make Scratch a cynical jerk, so instead he's in a sort of middle ground-- more mature and level-headed than Zero, but sharing in that positivity and willing to be playful.

One thing I didn't do is follow the 'eye rule' that Surge followed in making the original Becile Bots. For each blue eye the Walter 'bots had, their Becile foil's is missing or obscured. But since Scratch is human, I felt more comfortable keeping his intact eye brown.

As for Zero appearing... we still got some time left ;)

*edit: I thought it was a gold chain, but it's actually tarnished silver!