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

[Bob Barbas]

Posting the dox of gooseworx:

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This is the man behind the avatar btw:
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So I'm a retard and haven't read the previous pages of this thread but now I have and I see this and JESUS CHRIST.
What is wrong with him? Besides being a troon. Are we sure he's alive? He looks like a fucking corpse here or something. What the fuck? Are we sure this isn't just a corpse or a mannequin propped up on a bench or whatever the fuck it's sitting on?

 

[Bob Barbas]

So I became aware of this because I saw other people talking about it. A whole fan made episode. Granted it's in a storyboard style but still.

The fact that a fanmade episode has better writing than the real thing is hilarious. I actually was more invested in this somehow than any of the actual episodes.

My favorite comment though has to be this one.

I know it's not official content, sorry.

But I think this could be a good moment to go into what this does right and why it works so much better than how the official series is written.
The most obvious thing that has been talked about in the thread is the fact that it's actually character focused and rather than rushing through everything with constant cuts and such we're actually able to spend time with the characters and get to know them.
Basically, the episode actually takes it's time and doesn't try to go a million miles a minute like the actual series. Now if only the actual series was written more like this. I feel like it'd be more tolerable.

 

[Dynamite Bean]

That was perfect tbh, it has that early 2000s cartoon vibe with teenage edge and drama, feels like the show we were meant to get
actual interaction with characters, hints of lore instead of it being shoved in our face full speed, this is the show I envisioned when I first saw murder drones

 

[Bob Barbas]

That was perfect tbh, it has that early 2000s cartoon vibe with teenage edge and drama, feels like the show we were meant to get
actual interaction with characters, hints of lore instead of it being shoved in our face full speed, this is the show I envisioned when I first saw murder drones

It really does feel like a shadow of what could have been.

 

[BigJoey41X]

So I became aware of this because I saw other people talking about it. A whole fan made episode. Granted it's in a storyboard style but still.

The fact that a fanmade episode has better writing than the real thing is hilarious. I actually was more invested in this somehow than any of the actual episodes.

My favorite comment though has to be this one.
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I know it's not official content, sorry.

But I think this could be a good moment to go into what this does right and why it works so much better than how the official series is written.
The most obvious thing that has been talked about in the thread is the fact that it's actually character focused and rather than rushing through everything with constant cuts and such we're actually able to spend time with the characters and get to know them.
Basically, the episode actually takes it's time and doesn't try to go a million miles a minute like the actual series. Now if only the actual series was written more like this. I feel like it'd be more tolerable.

i mentioned this earlier, but pretty much the fan interpretation of the characters is weirdly way better than how they are portrayed in canon, like its very rare for fanmade works to make N or Uzi go and do a funny quip every 5 seconds and instead treat them like real people, this is a uniquely Murder Drones phenomenon

one thing I discrepancy I also saw between fandom and creator is that Liam's official art very much often involves the solver in some way, like the villain is often the focus when he draws, while the 99% of the fan art i have seen is just the characters having a chill time or something, with the solver being mostly absent

I'm speculating here, but I think Liam Vickers is much, MUCH more interested with the concept of lovecraftian horror over character writing, and I believe this is the exact reason why the MD cast feels largely shallow, its not what he likes, so they get less time to be worked on

 

[Bob Barbas]

Hell, actually since it just struck me now this fan made episode actually does a better job of explaining V's "Character development" than the actual show did! As in it gives us an actual explanation for why she so suddenly went from wanting to kill Uzi to dying for her.

That is pathetic. Again, it's like the same argument I make with mods vs official products. If some retard in their basement is doing a better job than an actual company with money to burn... something is wrong there.

i mentioned this earlier, but pretty much the fan interpretation of the characters is weirdly way better than how they are portrayed in canon

Probably because as I said before the official content does so little work to actually develop the characters the fanworks literally do it for them.
It's kind of amazing how this is like one of the very few exceptions where I find the fan content more interesting than the official fucking content. Like, how does that even happen?

With shit writers, that's how.

 

[BigJoey41X]

Another thing to add: a possible reason for the weird discrepancy is because, think about it, what is the overlap of people between people who are into Cosmic Horror, and people who are into western, let alone indie animation?, probably not that much, so Murder Drones largely attracted the typical western animation fanbase, i.e: people who care more about the characters over the plot, or setting

And one, ONE more thing to put to the pile of discussion, this isn't the first time there's an animated series about a mystery with weird powers surrounding it, with the ultimate source being some super powerful eldtrich god that's planning to eat the world and shit, with hidden details scattered all over for lorefags to go crazy with, not to mention that show was also largely lighthearted and fun-focused because it was a kid's show, Liam Vickers had this pre-existing show as a framework for his autistic ideas to play with, and he fucking blew it.

 

[Bob Barbas]

I'm speculating here, but I think Liam Vickers is much, MUCH more interested with the concept of lovecraftian horror over character writing

Another thing to add: a possible reason for the weird discrepancy is because, think about it, what is the overlap of people between people who are into Cosmic Horror, and people who are into western, let alone indie animation?, probably not that much

And to add to that in my opinion Liam isn't even very good at it. I've seen many other authors do Lovecraftian horror in infinitely more interesting ways than Liam does it, so he doesn't even have that going for him.
Like Liam's idea of "Lovecraftian horror" seems to be the most milquetoast basic bitch form of it you can get.

 

[BigJoey41X]

And to add to that in my opinion Liam isn't even very good at it. I've seen many other authors do Lovecraftian horror in infinitely more interesting ways than Liam does it, so he doesn't even have that going for him.
Like Liam's idea of "Lovecraftian horror" seems to be the most milquetoast basic bitch form of it you can get.

Don't worry this one makes funny jokes and says what its going to do because its quirky, that's different enough amirite?

ok but in seriousness, what is it about the "lovecraftian horror" aspect of the show that failed you?, i personally didn't find anything wrong with the idea itself when i was watching it aside being pissed that the shitty attempts at comedy kept blocking me from actually enjoying it

I actually have never dabbled into this type of horror that much so I have very little other examples to make a comparison of what a "good execution" of the concept looks like

 

[Bob Barbas]

ok but in seriousness, what is it about the "lovecraftian horror" aspect of the show that failed you?

I mean, they could play with the fact that the villain is supposed to be an incomprehensible creature some more.
I mean there's all kinds of things he could do. It's just difficult to explain due to the nature of it. Kek. Because that's kind of the point.

But he could definitely lean more into the incomprehensibility. Maybe have some psychological horror thrown in since it's almost inevitable when dealing with something incomprehensible.

Really though it's more like I'm simply saying he can't even say the Lovecraftian Horror is even worth writing home about and hasn't been done better in other places so if that's his focus he's frankly not doing it very well either.
Really the root of the issue to me just seems to be that Liam is an inexperienced writer more than anything else. Most of the signs are pointing to that being the cause. Though I am still open to the reveal that Glitch is fucking with his ideas in some manner, but for now I think Liam just doesn't know what he's doing and that's why the show doesn't really do anything it's setting out to do particularly well.

 

[Bob Barbas]

Again I do have to genuinely wonder if the reason why they take so long to reveal any news about the new episode of Murder Drones is because they're actually still busy working on the animation and such or if it's because Liam has rewritten the script 100 times already.

Remember that originally Episode 7 and 8 were supposed to come out at the same time as a sort've hour long special finale. But then the voice actor drama happened and I guess it somehow had enough of an effect for them to indefinitely delay Episode 8.
I have to ponder how much Episode 8 has already changed since it was originally meant to come out because you know damn well Liam has rewritten it several times already.

I'm sure some time down the line we'll be told about how Episode 7 and 8 were originally meant to go when they were supposed to drop together. I ponder how different they will be.

 

[Trollblade69]

Is there a version of Murder Drones I can watch that's actually comprehensible?

 

[Pliskin_72]

Wayy too late of a reply incoming, got busy on other things, sorry, let me clear up some of my points

Also if we're intentionally not meant to care about the characters or any of that why did they make that entire dramatic scene where V sacrifices herself for the others with dramatic ass music and everything? I'm not really understanding how that was meant to be ironic or taken as a joke.

that scene of V sacrificing herself honestly never hit me that hard tbh, even when i was trying to get immersed, it came across as too overly sappy and melodramatic that it actually became kinda funny in on itself, it's possible it just turned out that way accidentally lol

I really don't buy that considering it's really obvious he's trying to create some kind of universe through all of these retarded little details he hides in single frames and shit. Why go to all the effort then if it's all supposed to be a joke?

probably just to make the people obsessed with lore go crazy, you know how those types tend to spur a fuckton of discussion and interest around any animated series, also I'm pretty sure you can still add little hidden details in your show and still ultimately still be giant silly fun fest, I don't see any rules that forbid that in storytelling

Ah the classic "it's meant to be bad on purpose" kind of energy cope

i admit, if you look at this show through the "traditional" way, i.e: thinking anything that happens in the show has tangible implications, it does resemble a giant dumpster fire, that's what I thought at first, but deciding to simply ride along with it turned it into a pretty fun experience in my opinion, it's not a deep or riveting piece of art, but I don't think it was trying to be.

by the way, where are you guys hearing that the episodes were getting constantly being rewritten all the while the season is technically still "on-air"?, now I have zero experience as a screenwriter, but i broadly assumed you would lay out the story FIRST before committing to making any episodes, the only rewrite i have heard happened in the time between the pilot and the rest of the season when they decided to shift their focus more on the big scawy spoopy monster thingy, redoing the script WHILE the show is being actively worked on sounds completely infeasible, like that is pure incompetence even someone with no skills in writing would never make, and even if he did, someone at Glitch should have slapped him to stop doing that since it fucks with their production process as well.

someone source me these claims, this is the only place where i got to hear these rumors and nowhere else i have seen MD is getting discussed

 

[Pliskin_72]

Oh , and one more thing to add, what the fuck was the purpose of setting up that largely unimportant subplot of J having a confrontation with Lizzy, Thad, and Khan?, like I guess they needed SOMETHING to do, but why?, why force this at all when the main plot is essentially all that matters at this point?

people would have been sad if the largely sidelined secondary characters would be left out of the season finale, so Liam just went "fuck it here you go, let them have a shounen esque battle when the world is ending", and just added them there, i mean, why not?, it looks like it could be a fun one

So I'm a retard and haven't read the previous pages of this thread but now I have and I see this and JESUS CHRIST.
What is wrong with him? Besides being a troon. Are we sure he's alive? He looks like a fucking corpse here or something. What the fuck? Are we sure this isn't just a corpse or a mannequin propped up on a bench or whatever the fuck it's sitting on?

i looked at this dude's twitter to find more stuff about the ADC, from what i've seen, he's an incredibly terminally online guy, even more than your average internet user is nowadays, is also the most likely reason he decided to transition, not to mention the added workload of showrunning, all of these factors are NOT good for both your physical and mental health

 

[Gog & Magog]

Gooseworx definitely draws porn of every single chracter he creates.

 

[Bob Barbas]

someone source me these claims, this is the only place where i got to hear these rumors and nowhere else i have seen MD is getting discussed

Apparently this information comes from Reddit AmAs with Liam or something. I'm too lazy to go looking for it. It'd be such an odd thing to lie about that I don't really think I need to back it up. But if I ever somehow stumbled upon these AmAs by accident I would definitely start linking them just y'know for proof. But at the same time I don't really think it's 100% necessary. Again it's such a bizarre thing to lie about that I'm inclined to believe it's real.

As an example, apparently Liam admitted at one point that Episode 2 was going to have a completely different plot line where instead of the whole J worm thing it was going to involve a zombie drone attack as all of the dead drones the Disassembly Drones had piled up would come to life and attack the colony. But apparently that entire idea was scrapped.
I also notice there are a lot of moments from "Previews" of new episodes that never occur in the episode at all, which is very odd. Like they'll post screenshots on the community tab of things that never even appear in the actual episode. Is it suppose to be misdirection? Or is it something that got cut?

I'd say it's a believable idea too considering how disjointed everything feels at times. Again it really lends to the idea that Liam is super inexperienced with writing a show and is just doing whatever he thinks is cool without actually... well thinking about it. It feels like he doesn't really know what he actually wants the show to be so he does everything and ends up not really doing any of it particularly well.

Is it a comedy? Is it character driven? Is it narrative driven? Is it horror? Is it mystery? Is it action? Even he's not sure.

 

[Pliskin_72]

Apparently this information comes from Reddit AmAs with Liam or something. I'm too lazy to go looking for it. It'd be such an odd thing to lie about that I don't really think I need to back it up. But if I ever somehow stumbled upon these AmAs by accident I would definitely start linking them just y'know for proof. But at the same time I don't really think it's 100% necessary. Again it's such a bizarre thing to lie about that I'm inclined to believe it's real.

the reason i was expressing doubt over this is because its such an absurd display of incompetence that shouldn't even be allowed by the other people working on his show, keep in mind they have budgets and stuff like that to watch over, wasting resources like that, especially in an indie production, cannot be tolerated

As an example, apparently Liam admitted at one point that Episode 2 was going to have a completely different plot line where instead of the whole J worm thing it was going to involve a zombie drone attack as all of the dead drones the Disassembly Drones had piled up would come to life and attack the colony. But apparently that entire idea was scrapped.

yeah, this was what I was talking about when they made the switch from an episodic to a more "plot-driven" one, in between the pilot and the rest of S1, this was most likely the initial plot of episode 2, this is still the only rewrite Liam has publicly disclosed

I also notice there are a lot of moments from "Previews" of new episodes that never occur in the episode at all, which is very odd. Like they'll post screenshots on the community tab of things that never even appear in the actual episode. Is it suppose to be misdirection? Or is it something that got cut?

most likely just cut shit and/or promo material tbh

I'd say it's a believable idea too considering how disjointed everything feels at times. Again it really lends to the idea that Liam is super inexperienced with writing a show and is just doing whatever he thinks is cool without actually... well thinking about it. It feels like he doesn't really know what he actually wants the show to be so he does everything and ends up not really doing any of it particularly well.

Is it a comedy? Is it character driven? Is it narrative driven? Is it horror? Is it mystery? Is it action? Even he's not sure.

Comedy, or "Horror-Comedy" to be more accurate, his humor is how much mood whiplash he can achieve in a minute, it's not for everyone of course, because it's a little "out there" , this is why I keep saying it shouldn't be taken so seriously like so many people in this thread have done

I'm going to say it out loud, but I think you might have been so biased against Murder Drones that you're starting to believe some of the more outlandish shit like rewriting mid-production as an explanation as to why you think the show is bad in your opinion, despite having no evidence or words from the horse's mouth.

 

[Bob Barbas]

Pondering it further it makes more sense if you think about budget why they scrapped the zombie thing entirely for Episode 2. I can't imagine it would have been cheap to animate depending on how many zombies they decided to have on screen at once. They probably could get around it somewhat with a few tricks but it would still be hell on the budget to have that many moving characters at once.

 

[BigJoey41X]

@Pliskin_72 listen man, good for you that you still somehow found a way to enjoy Murder Drones by now only ironically liking it, and not caring about anything else, but personally, I can't really do that , the comedy was always way too cringe, tryhardy, and reliant on lampshading, to the point its just grating to my ears and eyes, so no, I have to pass on your suggestion

 

[Dynamite Bean]

I still like the characters and world a lot but that's it, i'll wait for episode 8 to see how that goes and maybe season 2 if there is one but i've found better things that don't require irony to enjoy

just because you purposely shit your pants in public just to shock people doesn't mean it's still not gross and that's how i feel with murder drones, if it's done that way on purpose then so be it, I still don't think it's good and the fact that even the most diehard fans i've seen say they have issues with the pacing lore and story means there's some credibility

even then, if i were to enjoy murder drones from an ironic perspective, i don't see anything worth my time, there are some things you do need to have a mindset to enjoy and get into, certain things are so silly and wacky you have to embrace it but with a lot of those you get something out of it you wouldn't get elsewhere

what exactly does murder drones offer that is so good and unique I wouldn't find it in anything else? It''s so special I have to throw away everything I knew and look at it from a different mindset? Genuine question