Every week, I’m going to try and give you some inside information about episodes of RollBots, so you can see the things that went into producing each story. You should probably watch the episode first (probably won’t have a choice, since these posts won’t go live until after the episode airs).
In the beginning, we were aiming to write just 13 episodes per season of RollBots, and they were going to be funny-first stories with lots of “explore the world”. So you have to imagine the topics we wanted to cover, like “what are the other tribes?” (answered in 105) and “what is the Safety Net?” (answered in 103). For 104, we decided to answer: “what happens if a bot can’t fully extract?”
Originally, I imagined this effect as being “one leg in and one leg out and one arm half-in” etc, but somewhere along the line, it ended up being presented as bots with dumpy arms and legs. Probably funnier this way. Especially with Captain Pounder. That always cracks me up.
But just because you know what your gag is going to be, doesn’t mean you have any idea what the story is. So Steven Sullivan wrote an outline that tried to make the concept make sense. He did a great job, having the whole plot centre around Vertex trying to undermine the FCPD. This also lets us introduce the Mayor a bit better than she had been, showing how it’s POSSIBLE to undermine the FCPD. (though it should be noted that Mayor Aria and Captain Pounder have a complex history, so he’s not quite as easy to replace as we let on).
The oddity this episode introduces is the part where Spin waves down that transport so he can bring Penny to the FCPD. That sequence is repeated in several other episodes (the hailing part, not the driving), either because somebody thought it was funny, or because we needed to fill a few extra seconds. I don’t think anyone realized we were repeating it so much, so if you think to yourself: “Wow, AGAIN?”, trust me… we all think that 
Next week is quite possibly a re-run (we’re trying to confirm), and then hopefully we’ll cover 105 (which I wrote, and have lots of evil trivia to discuss). So stay tuned, and keep telling your friends!
I love how the techies wanted to be healed first. So selfish!
I also like Spin's slip up when he addresses Mayor Aria. It makes him cuter.
As for that driving: oh dear. Does he even have his license?
And I'm even more curious about the Captain and the mayor.
But I must ask, did the mayor forget the fact that Vertex hacked into her network (or whatever it was called–sorry, I can't remember)? She seems just a bit gullible.
Great episode. I look forward to 105.
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The Mayor definitely has tunnel vision when it comes to people treating her nicely. There are a few times in the season when she SHOULD go ballistic, but gets distracted by shiny objects. Actually, one ep I'm sketching for season 2 goes into her backstory and how her personality helped Pounder achieve something he probably shouldn't have.
But I'm probably saying too much.
If next week really is a re-run, I'll do a detailed breakdown of how we designed Vertex… it's interesting stuff. You'd be surprised how many problems you can discover when developing your villain…
So there is more than one season? I was just wondering.
I'm going to guess Pounder buttered her up to get something. But of course, I'll wait for the episode to air.
They're airing a rerun next week so get prepared!
And thanks for the answers.
We're still waiting to hear on a second season. Depends on the ratings (which are a mystery to me right now. I'm very out of the loop). I would hope we can get at least one more, because the season finale will drive you nuts if that's the end
Re-run is confirmed then. Better dig out all the old drawings. You'd be surprised how different Vertex might have looked at the start…
Great post, really help me alot. Thanks.
Cheers,
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