idk

Mecha Man Prime's suit wasn't originally an armored core. It was a boxy, yet somehow cute suit the pilot controlled with internal joysticks and buttons and screens. A little cramped, because it wasn't powered with something quite so sophisticated (or mysterious) as the astral pulse, but effective nonetheless, making him a beloved hero for years... until he died in the suit.

Mecha Man Astral wasn't an armored core either. With the introduction of the astral pulse the suit was bigger, more streamlined, more... experimental. But still not an armored core. Still controlled by joysticks and a computer screen, still sacrificing crucial seconds by moving joysticks and pressing buttons. Now, Robert Robertson II wouldn't dare experiment on himself, but his son? His son would know the suit in and out (except the astral pulse itself, no one could know any more about it besides it existed), and his son would operate the suit in and out until the day he died in it as well. Elliot, his best "friend" was incredible helping with that, seeming to find it fun just how far he could take the augments, how far someone could change and still remain human. He often implemented some of the same augments on himself after seeing how well they worked for the boy. Robert's only saving grace was that Shroud never installed the failsafes and remote controls that become standard during his later operations. (Shroud would come to regret this.)

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Robert's augments weren't done when his father died. They were never done, not since his mom left. Not since his dad quit listening to Chase. Not when Elliot was arrested for killing his father. Not when he got into the suit. Not when the door closed. Not when the suit registered his bio signal. Not when the cord plugged into the interface at the top of his spine and his world was filled with pain Pain PAIN then his eyes were 8 feet higher and legs were longer and he only had 4 fingers and and and- errors cascaded through his head until his vision went blank.

Robert woke up feeling electricity on the back of his neck and dried blood on his face from his nose and ears. The cord that had plugged him into the suit was sparking, his thrashing having torn it free, because of course his father wouldnt install a failsafe or emergency stop. He wiped the blood from his nose up with his sleeve. It was more intense then the tests he and Elliot - Shroud, he was Shroud now, he could only be Shroud - had completed on the small test systems. Connecting to a hand or eye or toy one at a time. Those successes the only thing that made his father happy. His father wasn't here anymore, neither were the test systems. The only thing left was a cavernously empty house, a garage of spare parts, and Mecha Man. Robert reached behind his head and plugged himself back in.

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I'll admit I have a problem when I don't enjoy something, I will actively nitpick and point out every plot point to make it worse. But I need to vent, so leave now if you enjoyed the movie. And spoiler warning after this.

I will not be going to indepth into the personal relationships, no matter how much I just wanted Joe and Nicky to hold hands. Like, I didn't even need them to kiss. Just give them a scene holding hands in public and more than 5 minutes of screen time before they got kidnapped again please. The actors did their best with what they were given. Now onto the problem children:

Plot hole 1: the opening arc/conrad

I loved the interaction between Joe and Nicky. Really shows off the immortal husbands, inside joke vibes that made their characters the most multi-dimensional. But why for the love of mortality was Andy and Copley running into that house without any form of armor? The two mortals, leading the way into the house, without a stitch of armor. Idiots. You have a 20 something immortal marine driving a boat, and you let those two do the incursion part? And what about any form of stealth? Wasn't the whole previous movie about staying undercover so they dont become science experiments?

Plot hole 2: The Immortal Lore.

Fair warning i haven't read the comics, but based on the previous movie, I had the idea that Andy lost her immortality because she had given up on her purpose. Once she had given up, she had no reason to live, so her immortality was gone. This would fit in a little with Discord's character in the 2nd film. She ran out of her purpose somehow and drove herself mad about it. This fits much better with the narrative and can explain why certain immortals like the previous guy who died and Discord herself have lost their immortality. It also opens the door for many more immortal characters to have come and gone, so the fear of one day walking up mortal is more understandable as an actual threat... which leads to the problem. Nile. The "Last". With a mystical birthmark that matches with a 5000 yr old+ white lady ~woooo.

Now, is she the last immortal period, or is she just the last immortal that has been made at that time? The latter would allow for the myth about the last mortal being able to take away immortality to exist in the first place; if it was just the last immortal made, then this has happened before and was somehow written about and resolved (and also kinda implies that it couldve been Booker instead). This Does NOT explain how Andy was able to heal after that first cut in the first movie if all it took was a measly inconsensual scratch. And where did Andy's immortality go? Did she inadvertently give it to Copley? Or are we just conveniently having it vanish into the aether? Is it just going to become a "here have my immortality" "no, here have my immortality" until someone gets fed up? This lore is flimsier than my hold on my sanity.

Plot hole 3: the dreams and the library

If Nicky, Joe, and Booker have never met Tuah or Discord, then why the hell did they never dream of those two like Nile sorta was? What do the dreams mean then? "They help us find each other" my ass. And that library? Totally implied that there were significantly more immortals than was seen. Which just cycles back around to the dreams. What does it mean?

Plot hole 4: the entire final arc

Somehow, this bothered me the most out of every plot hole and it's the stupidest shit. This point can be partially excused by Quynh not knowing anything about modern technology, but that is not a fission reactor.

That shape is a tokamak. A Fusion reactor. One that doesn't have any of its hydrogen fuel with it no less.

Now, I'm not an expert in fusion/fission, so maybe I'm wrong, but that's not all that radioactive, not compared to a fission reaction. Also, that reactor is very much incomplete inside. If they obeyed safety and common sense. The hydrogen/tritium fuel wouldn't be anywhere near the incomplete reactor, and it still wouldn't cause untold suffering that leaves an entire city a wasteland even if something did go wrong. If anyone had double checked what that place was, they could've sat back and let it play out a lot differently after China made it dissappear off the map, but I'm assuming that the writers didn't care, and figured that anyone with an interest in energy generation and the future of nuclear energy isnt going to watch the movie (and holy shit don't-). Anyway, I was screaming at the screen the whole time during that part.

Plot hole 5: Booker

Have you tried beheading? I think that's supposed to work on immortals.

Suicide not aside, and as a product of the first plot hole, his death was impactful, but ultimately not as meaningful as it should have been. It feels like wasted character potential. Booker had a lot of flaws, driven by his sheer dislike of immortality, but that made him an interesting foil to consider Andy's, Discord's, and Quynh's newfound mortality and their reactions to it. He could've found a new meaning to live, or there could've been a different lore point to the transfer of the immortality that comes with an immortal truly not wanting to live anymore. Him dying because he got a boo boo on his arm and then wished really hard that his friend could live instead was almost as dumb as death stranding 2 (yes, I went there.)