GLITCH Productions - From the guys that brought you the Super Mario 64 bloopers

[Dynamite Bean]

I've been very put off by GLITCH recently and I have to say I've lost a lot of interest in TADC and Murder Drones. They've started to come across as very money-grubbing to me. The sheer amount of merchandise they've already put out for TADC - a show that, let's not forget, currently only has two episodes out. They immediately brought out a plushie and stickers for Gummigoo, who isn't even a main character and (probably) will only appear in one episode.

I mean, I get there's a big market for it (I even own a Jax plushie myself lol), but it's the way they've been so overt about it that's left a sour taste in my mouth.

I very much agree but I've lost interest for how much they fumbled Murder Drones and how annoying the fandom of TADC is, i'm sure there is passion in the production but they are very much milking it hard meanwhile other indie projects i've been into only have plush and merch stuff once a year as a special event
So I can see where you're coming from with that perspective

 

[Bob Barbas]

My theory is their budget is probably smaller than people think and with how expensive they said one episode of Murder Drones was to produce I wouldn't be surprised if they shill the merch hardcore to try and recoup the loses. Most of their revenue is probably from merch and anything from youtube they're probably taking a sizable cut like any channel.

They probably just don't want to sound desparate and outright admit they really need the money. Could be completely wrong but I would not be surprised if they simply just don't want to admit it.

 

[Papa stink]

My theory is their budget is probably smaller than people think and with how expensive they said one episode of Murder Drones was to produce I wouldn't be surprised if they shill the merch hardcore to try and recoup the loses. Most of their revenue is probably from merch and anything from youtube they're probably taking a sizable cut like any channel.

They probably just don't want to sound desparate and outright admit they really need the money. Could be completely wrong but I would not be surprised if they simply just don't want to admit it.

That probably is the case. Unless you play it super safe and manage to game the algorithm most of the money you make from YouTube either comes from superchats, memberships, or sponsors.

 

[invisibult plus+]

My theory is their budget is probably smaller than people think and with how expensive they said one episode of Murder Drones was to produce I wouldn't be surprised if they shill the merch hardcore to try and recoup the loses. Most of their revenue is probably from merch and anything from youtube they're probably taking a sizable cut like any channel.

They probably just don't want to sound desparate and outright admit they really need the money. Could be completely wrong but I would not be surprised if they simply just don't want to admit it.

I'd believe it. They've probably looked at Rooster Teeth and thought, "We'd better stay off that path as much as possible." Using the anime industry as a benchmark helps, especially since they cater to the same similar demographics.

I've been very put off by GLITCH recently and I have to say I've lost a lot of interest in TADC and Murder Drones. They've started to come across as very money-grubbing to me. The sheer amount of merchandise they've already put out for TADC - a show that, let's not forget, currently only has two episodes out. They immediately brought out a plushie and stickers for Gummigoo, who isn't even a main character and (probably) will only appear in one episode.

I mean, I get there's a big market for it (I even own a Jax plushie myself lol), but it's the way they've been so overt about it that's left a sour taste in my mouth.

Although Murder Drones never appealed to me, between the merch pushing and Gooseworx's bizarre comments, you're not alone. Besides his vore and head-drilling fetishes, there was a post on X along the lines of, "It's only sexy if I'm making them suffer " with a picture of someone... turning into a rag doll. I can't find it, but the point is I don't want to enter someone's magical realm. The fact that he's jerking off to the suffering he puts his characters through makes it feel pointless.

 

[Bob Barbas]

I'd believe it. They've probably looked at Rooster Teeth and thought, "We'd better stay off that path as much as possible."

They already failed at that. Murder Drones reminds me a lot of Red Vs Blue actually where the story feels almost schizophrenic. The comedy and serious plot line do not mesh together and both probably would've been better off if they just stuck to one or the other.

Can't forget the lore that's too complex for it's own good. If their goal is to not repeat the failings of Rooster Teeth then they've already failed tremendously. Assuming this hypothetical were reality anyway.

At least as batshit insane as it got though some of the early CGI fight scenes Red Vs Blue had are still some of the best I've seen in animation. Murder Drones doesn't even have good action to carry it as not only is there just not much fighting but what fighting there is, is pretty mid. But I guess not everyone can be Monty Oum I suppose.
If the fight scenes were alright I could at least turn my brain off and enjoy those like the Matrix sequels. (Besides the 4th one that one was just pure shit through and through.) But it doesn't even have that going for it. It has good visuals, nice aesthetics and a great soundtrack but everything else is just so pitifully meh.

 

[Lankybox Enjoyer]

They already failed at that. Murder Drones reminds me a lot of Red Vs Blue actually where the story feels almost schizophrenic. The comedy and serious plot line do not mesh together and both probably would've been better off if they just stuck to one or the other.

Can't forget the lore that's too complex for it's own good. If their goal is to not repeat the failings of Rooster Teeth then they've already failed tremendously. Assuming this hypothetical were reality anyway.

I think the post before was talking about the business side of things but I think your insights on how Murder Drones' Story compares to Red Vs Blue's story is a very good comparison. I honestly think that even if the post episode 2 rewrite plan for the show had to be taken they could have just toned down the lore.

Here is a suggestion that I've come up with off the top of my head. Make J's worm Cyn (they even share the same voice actress for Christ's sake) instead of making it so that if a Murder Drones dies they release a monster worm that's just in them for no Fucking reason (which is only brought up again not after V's death, but to explain that the deer lady can safely kill the Murder Drones, which is bullshit because one, they do this by her displaying a collection of worms being heated till their sluggish which can't happen because there are only three Murder Drones and none of them have died without their worm also dying, and two, if the power ever went off in the building all of the worms wouldn't be heated up anymore and the deer lady would be fucked. Holy shit this was supposed to be tangent about how they never brought up the worms again. Jesus Christ Liam can you create a coherent story), make a connection between Cyn and Doll where they team up which leads to Doll's death to in a betrayal (this would actually give Dolls death meaning because in the show, Doll gives a dying message to Uzi to "fight back" even though she should canonically hate Uzi because she is allied with J who killed her parents and Uzi has done nothing but get in her way and if the story was instead that Cyn betrayed Doll then the message would make sense because then it would at least by out of spite.), and cut episode four and introduce Uzi's demon mode during the Prom episode.

The Murder Drones no longer have worms in them for no fucking reason, Doll actually is given a bit of relevance in the greater story, and this is done in a way that gives them an extra episode. Before I started that previous paragraph I had never thought of anything in the parenthesis by the way. Even now I'm thinking of even more plotholes that exist due to the poor writing decisions of the writers. Maybe I will rewatch the series to look for plotholes but I think I'll wait till the finale so we can see what questions remain unanswered and which plot points are inevitably forgotten due to how crammed the story is due to unnecessary lore.

 

[Bob Barbas]

if a Murder Drones dies they release a monster worm that's just in them for no Fucking reason

What bothered me the most about the J worm tbh was where in the flying fuck is her core even stored at? How did J's core even survive destruction at all? Literally she was disintegrated leaving only her legs behind. So what? Is it stored in her ass or something?

That really felt contrived to me.
The fact that Episode 2 was originally meant to have a completely different plot explains so much about it though and why it makes so little sense.

 

[Bob Barbas]

Because they're almost indistinguishable, right? This sounds like it would be a joke in any other context. So I guess over at Glitch you're not allowed to design 2 characters with the same hair style? Even if everything else about them looks wildly different.

 

[Dynamite Bean]

Because they're almost indistinguishable, right? This sounds like it would be a joke in any other context. So I guess over at Glitch you're not allowed to design 2 characters with the same hair style? Even if everything else about them looks wildly different.

Ironically I think that looks more distinguishable than the og, took me a while to fully see the visual differences between J and V because their hair styles looked so similar to me at first glance

 

[Bob Barbas]

Ironically I think that looks more distinguishable than the og, took me a while to fully see the visual differences between J and V because their hair styles looked so similar to me at first glance

For me it was their voices. Maybe I'm just voicedeaf or something but to me their voices sound way too similar as well. I actually thought they were voiced by the same person for a bit.

Now if the characters were meant to be sisters or something I could excuse it. The problem is I'm fairly certain that is in fact not the case at all. It just makes it mildly confusing at times when they're both speaking. (The few times they're around at the same time anyway. J basically doesn't exist as a character after she got blown away the first time.)

 

[invisibult plus+]

I think the post before was talking about the business side of things but I think your insights on how Murder Drones' Story compares to Red Vs Blue's story is a very good comparison. I honestly think that even if the post episode 2 rewrite plan for the show had to be taken they could have just toned down the lore.

I was, the merch sales in particular, but @Bob Barbas has a good point about their trajectories.

They already failed at that. Murder Drones reminds me a lot of Red Vs Blue actually where the story feels almost schizophrenic. The comedy and serious plot line do not mesh together and both probably would've been better off if they just stuck to one or the other.

Can't forget the lore that's too complex for it's own good. If their goal is to not repeat the failings of Rooster Teeth then they've already failed tremendously. Assuming this hypothetical were reality anyway.

At least as batshit insane as it got though some of the early CGI fight scenes Red Vs Blue had are still some of the best I've seen in animation. Murder Drones doesn't even have good action to carry it as not only is there just not much fighting but what fighting there is, is pretty mid. But I guess not everyone can be Monty Oum I suppose.
If the fight scenes were alright I could at least turn my brain off and enjoy those like the Matrix sequels. (Besides the 4th one that one was just pure shit through and through.) But it doesn't even have that going for it. It has good visuals, nice aesthetics and a great soundtrack but everything else is just so pitifully meh.

A lot of those points apply to RWBY, too. RWBY had really good fight scenes, especially in its trailers, but they lost the plot (almost literally) really quickly after Oum died. I didn't care for its visuals or soundtrack. It still had a nice, clean aesthetic with the character designs and use of contrast.

That said, I think one of the reasons GLITCH is pushing merch and PR so much is so that instead of going to investors (using that term loosely here) first, they want to increase reach and earnings directly. Through their target market. By taking advantage of their popularity now, they can invest more into their products (if they can afford it, animation is expensive and I don't have GLITCH's reports on me). Even if they're just scrapping by despite that, GLITCH would still have more to show investors so they'd be more comfortable doing anything with them.

Part of the reason I mentioned RWBY in particular is GLITCH treats TADC, and Murder Drones apparently, the same way. Rooster Teeth had a LOT of merch for RWBY, for years. There was so much hype when the trailers came out, and long after that people went out of their way to watch it. Even back then the writing wasn't anything special; it was a mix of kids books, YA novels, and anime. Oum still knew his strengths. To be fair to GLITCH they have a more well-rounded team, and there's a stronger emphasis on directly interacting with the audience than back then. So we'll see how it goes.

 

[Lankybox Enjoyer]

Ironically I think that looks more distinguishable than the og, took me a while to fully see the visual differences between J and V because their hair styles looked so similar to me at first glance

I think that J's hairstyle just looks dumb. J in general is an entirely unnecessary character that should have never been brought back (in a way that heavily detriments the impact of V's "death" by the way) so her having a bad character design also adds to the awfulness of her character.

J is supposed to be a domineering boss and meanwhile she has pigtails which makes her look childish. Maybe if they leaned into the irony that she has pigtails while having her personality, that could have worked. But they don't do that so her character design just doesn't fit her. The worst thing about it is that the long hair looks perfect for J. It looks significantly better than the pigtails while not making her look childish.

Ironically I think that looks more distinguishable than the og, took me a while to fully see the visual differences between J and V because their hair styles looked so similar to me at first glance

On my first watch I thought that V was J and vice versa so I thought that V died on the pilot and I never noticed it until I rewatched the first episode and realized that J died. Call me stupid, but if the characterization of a main character is so weak that I can't differentiate it from another character even though both characters had very different relations with N, then that is a massive failure on their part. Wasn't N supposed to have a crush on V, a fact that was only ever brought up in the pilot and never again.

 

[Bob Barbas]

Wasn't N supposed to have a crush on V, a fact that was only ever brought up in the pilot and never again.

I still find it hilarious how everyone praises how well written Uzi and N's relationship is even though they've literally only known eachother for perhaps a few days at best? And they're both already comically close.
Though tbf both V and J don't really make much sense as characters either since they're supposed to be a team right? Yet they both treat N like garbage for seemingly no real reason. For V it KIND OF made sense even if it was gay. Since she was intentionally disassociating from him for... reasons? Yeah nevermind, that didn't make much sense either.

But why J rails on him like that I don't know. We're TOLD that N is apparently worthless and less efficient than the other two yet in the same episode we see him slaughtering Worker Drones with the same heartless efficiency as the others. Hell you could argue he's MORE efficient than V who was demonstrated as intentionally dragging it out. N killed pretty much everyone he attacked almost instantly.
Literally the only reason he even betrayed them was because of J's unexplained hateboner for him.

This post got a bit off topic but yeah, the nonsensical elements of the plot really do add up don't they?
I also felt absolutely nothing when V "sacrificed herself" either yet I saw people going crazy over it. V in general had a comically quick change of heart from absolute psycho to laying down her life for someone she barely knows and has only known for like 20 minutes? In N's case it at least made a bit more sense considering his two "partners" were trying to kill him. V just does it... because???
I still feel like it was a huge misstep to have V completely out of the picture for the entirety of Episode 5. Especially after that one flashback in a previous episode showing how they met. They really just don't care about the other characters do they? And even then Uzi and N still aren't even that well written.

 

[Dynamite Bean]

V's sacrifice just like doll's death felt extremely anticlimactic, it felt rushed and like there was meant to be more
sacrifices only work when we're attached to the character and due to the show wanting to be more of a over the top action anime shit we barley got any real development, had they took it slow and went more slice of life route and saw her change and become more lighthearted sorta like how kevin levin from ben 10 went from unhinged sociopath to just mere low level criminal doing the right thing, it would of been more impactful

 

[Bob Barbas]

V's sacrifice just like doll's death felt extremely anticlimactic, it felt rushed and like there was meant to be more
sacrifices only work when we're attached to the character and due to the show wanting to be more of a over the top action anime shit we barley got any real development, had they took it slow and went more slice of life route and saw her change and become more lighthearted sorta like how kevin levin from ben 10 went from unhinged sociopath to just mere low level criminal doing the right thing, it would of been more impactful

This right here I feel like is the root of the issue.
I think limiting themselves to only 8 episodes has basically destroyed any room for proper development. They're trying so hard to cram in all this lore and the pacing is just completely out of whack, even if Season 2 is confirmed the first season is always going to be shit.

Nobody wants to say "Trust me bro, it gets better after Season 1!"

 

[Dynamite Bean]

Is there even going to be a season 2?
I don't even know what could be done with a second season, especially if it's going to be more of the same
only be interested if it's to go back to the roots of the pilot

 

[Bob Barbas]

Is there even going to be a season 2?
I don't even know what could be done with a second season, especially if it's going to be more of the same
only be interested if it's to go back to the roots of the pilot

Apparently during GlitchX Liam outright said something like "Season 1 is just the setup" or something? Too lazy to sit through the entire thing to find the specific quote but they've referred to murder drones "Season 1" before as well so unless another one of those behind the scenes decisions took place they're likely planning for a second season. Though whether it'll be anytime soon or follow the same 8 episode format as the first one? Who knows.

I'm also curious where the hell the story is even going to go besides season 1 ending with Cyn winning. And if she doesn't then I guess Season 2 is going to be for some other threat? Though I don't know how you could top a planet eating eldritch abomination.
Tbh if I was writing this I feel like they should've waited until later to fully reveal Cyn. Keep her in the shadows. I think that would've been infinitely more interesting than her physically impersonating that girl for whatever reason. That's another issue is it feels like they're playing all of their cards too quickly.

 

[Trollblade69]

Nobody wants to say "Trust me bro, it gets better after Season 1!"

If the RWBY fanbase is anything to go off of, the normies clearly WANT to enjoy things by value of timesink rather than actual quality.

 

[Bob Barbas]

I honestly think that even if the post episode 2 rewrite plan for the show had to be taken they could have just toned down the lore.

Truth be told, the issue itself is that the show acts like it somehow expects you to know what's going on without actually showing/telling you. Again it feels like FNAF where unless you're watching a video that analyzes every single frame and spoonfeeds you all of the information you're going to be fucking clueless.

I'm also curious where the hell the story is even going to go besides season 1 ending with Cyn winning. And if she doesn't then I guess Season 2 is going to be for some other threat? Though I don't know how you could top a planet eating eldritch abomination.

Also to add on to this point. They're already falling into the trap of making the antagonists seem impossibly powerful to the point where any defeat is going to come across as contrived.
At this point it's been demonstrated that Cyn basically has the ability to bend reality more or less. How the fuck is the goth girl and the killer retard bot going to win?

Spoiler: Additional Sperging

It's already at the point too where you constantly wonder "Why didn't she just do [X]?" like for instance, Cyn could literally just crush them like tin cans with her psychic powers. We see Doll do it to 2 random drones in the 3rd episode at the same time even and it's been heavily hinted that her powers are for whatever reason stronger or more potent than Uzi or Doll's.
I know suspension of disbelief and all that but it always bothers me when writers don't even care to try and properly scale power.

Also the Disassembly Drones are damn near indestructible as well, as we saw in Episode 7 where they tanked gunfire from a helicopter machine gun with little issue. (It makes me question how the fuck Alice was able to kill any of them or how those Raptor robots are able to. They must be comically powerful to be able to do so.)
Personal tangent but I'm really sick of people making low effort villains "scary" by just making them impossibly tanky.
I'm so tired of the "Hue hue your human weapons don't work on me faggot!" trope. I don't think people truly understand how OP guns and explosives actually are in terms of reality.

The show is supposed to be horror too? I guess? Well, I don't find that kind of monster scary, I think it's retarded. You know what's really scary? A smart predator that's able to outwit humans rather than simply overpower them because "lol humans suck." They've literally given the villains crazy abilities of deception yet they insist on brute forcing everything.

 

[Dynamite Bean]

At this point it's been demonstrated that Cyn basically has the ability to bend reality more or less. How the fuck is the goth girl and the killer retard bot going to win?

Something something uzi pulling a victory out of her ass

as for your sperging, I don't mind OP villains or characters immune to bullets, it's pretty common in anime and the like which is clearly what this show wants to be but the thing is, in those the world and how it works is already established, here it constantly changes, a disassembly drone can tank helicopter missiles but is penetrated by...a mere pen?
once more, all these little detail changes feels like it adds to what was going to be a completely different show and world