Metallforme Expansion: Disc 1

 An expansion for the award winning [Campaign Idea], Metallforme.

I think I got into Digimon again due to Loch. I think. I don’t actually know that. We talked about it once, maybe 3 months ago, and then I randomly bought Cyber Sleuth, and started rewatching Digimon Adventure, as well as watching Beatbreak. I can’t think of a reason why I’d do that except for Loch, so this was probably their fault. This post is most informed by Cyber Sleuth. Due to this, the vibe might be slightly off compared to the rest of Telos. Less industrial, more computer games. Regional differences, of course.

NEW METALLFORMES

Spore

HD1 AC14 (Guard Up) Types Figure, Earth, War

Stocky mushroom guy with short arms and legs. Has a wide toothy smile on its stem, and no eyes. Wears boxing gloves. Cannot take them off. All its plans include punching things anyway.

STR 2d6+2 CON 3d6 DEX 3d6+2 INT 1d4 WIS 1d6 XHA 1d12

Movement Good footwork. Jumps from leg to leg as if on springs. Jabs the air for fun.

Attack A Right Hook - Fly like a shutter-fly. If the previous attack was a Left Jab, Spore gains +2 damage until the end of combat. 1d6 blunt damage.

Attack B Left Jab - Sting like a cyber-bee. So fast it burns - if the previous attack was also a Left Jab, Spore suffers 1 damage. 1d10 fire damage. 

Unique KNOCKOUT - when taking damage, Spore releases a cloud of spores. Nearby enemies save CON, or fall asleep for the next round. I don’t think Spore knows what a KNOCKOUT is.

Module Slots 1 Red, 2 Yellow

Development

1. Win a fight by KNOCKOUT.

2. Get Spore up to a +10 damage bonus from Right Hook during one combat.

3. Gift Spore a piece of actual boxing merchandise. 

Frostling

HD1 AC10 (Protective Goggles) Types World, Earth, Beast

Mole whose nose is the shape of a snowflake. Wears 2 sets of goggles. Its front limbs are mechanical robot hands, a bit too big for its body. It doesn’t actually have arms for these hands to connect to, they just stick out awkwardly out of its torso.

STR 2d4 CON 2d6+2 DEX 2d4+2 INT 2d6+2 WIS 3d6+2 XHA 1d6+2

Movement Awkward. Trips every couple steps, stands up, corrects its goggles. Pushes on.

Attack Absolute Zero Punch - enemy saves DEX or freezes for 1 round. Not due to the cold, the attack animation just has a bad tendency to really destroy the performance of reality itself. 1d4 world damage.

Unique Collision Mesh  - a taste of the potential the Frostling holds, it can remove “hitboxes” of objects it focuses on for at least a minute (for example, you can walk through a wall that’s visually still there, or make the enemy’s sword not deal any damage). The effect ends immediately if Frostling moves or gets distracted in any way.

Module Slots 2 Blue, 1 White

Development

1. End an unfavorable fight using Collision Mesh.

2. Freeze an Energy Geyser, just to see what happens.

3. Reach the heart of Frostum’s Castle.

Paulie

HD1 AC16 (Good Plastic) Types Item, Stable, Insect

5-legged crab-like thing. Its legs’ outer shell looks exactly like a safety cone. It can enter a defensive position, and hide entirely within the plastic casing.

STR 1d8+2 CON 4d6 DEX 3d6+1 INT 1d6 WIS 1d4+2 XHA 1d6+2

Movement Nice and chaotic slalom. Freakishly fast.

Attack Road Works Ahead - ranged (20m). Paulie spits hot asphalt at the target. 1d6 fire damage.

Unique Safely Coned - when in its defensive mode, Paulie cannot move but can easily pass for a naturally occurring safety cone. Paulie gets 2DR when Safely Coned. It can enter defensive mode as a free action during its turn, but has to forego an attack to leave it.

Module Slots 2 Green, 1 Yellow

Development

1. Defeat an enemy without ever leaving Safely Coned.

2. Use Safely Coned to successfully warn someone of danger.

3. Restore a damaged structure to its former glory.

Milcin

HD1 AC14 (Evasive Maneuvers) Types Item, Holy, Air

Frisbee-sized metal flying saucer. The pyramid-like dome on the top has a singular 2-dimensional eye, which it uses to look down on people mockingly.

STR 1d6 CON 1d8 DEX 2d4+2 INT 4d6 WIS 3d6 XHA 1d4

Movement Small thrusters all over the body, releasing little white clouds while going POP POP POP.

Attack Tractor Beam - ranged (50m). Energy beam capable of pulling, and pushing objects or creatures equal in size or just slightly larger than Milicin. Does no damage on its own.

Unique A Anti-Gravity Engines - Milcin is unaffected by gravity. Using its thrusters, it can move through air at walking speed.

Unique B Nano Fabrication - once per Day Phase, Milicin can produce any aluminium object smaller than itself, and spit it out.

Module Slots 1 Green, 1 Cyan, 1 Blue

Development

1. Kidnap 5 different potentiafauna using the Tractor Beam.

2. Acquire a piece of Earth art for Milicin to appreciate.

3. Avoid a conflict using Nano Fabrication.

NEW TECHNOVOLTAS

Switcheroo

Requirements Has Type Dark

+1HD

The Metallforme gains a long, dark cloak, with a tall collar that covers up the lower half of its face. As a bonus, it might get a magician or wizard hat, if you find it appropriate.

XHA +4 INT +1d4

Unique Now You See Me - as a free action or reaction, the Metallforme can hide inside its coat, and instantly switch places with its human. It cannot perform this move again until it recovers its coat from the human.

Module Slots +1 Blue

Development Take a lethal wound in the place of the human. Play it cool.

Switchetwo

Requirements Has Switcheroo

+1HD

The Metallforme’s cloak seems to gain a mind of its own - bonded to its wearer, it moves on its own to protect them from danger.

XHA +1d4

Unique Now You Don’t - the Metallfome can now switch places with any willing target. It can attempt to switch places with an unwilling target, by having them save XHA. The wearer of the cloak has +1DR OR -2AC, whichever is preferable. 

Module Slots +1 Blue

Development Put yourself in gravely danger, and switch places with an enemy. Survive, while they don’t.

Malleable

Requirements Has Type Item

+1HD

The Metallforme’s body becomes more adaptable, with mechanical elements bridging the gaps between its original body, and new elements it takes on.

Unique Itemskill - once per Day Phase, the Metallforme can make any item it could reasonably carry a part of its body OR switch the item it chose before for another one. That item no longer takes inventory slots, and can be used without hands (ex. a sword gets added as a sword-end tail). 

Module Slots +1 Orange

Development Steal an enemy’s weapon mid-fight, and use it to knock them out.

Working Forme

Requirements Has Type Figure

+1HD

The Metallforme takes a liking to earth culture - it starts dressing itself based on its idea of how humans look like (ex. full mafia suit, or socks and white undies, or ironic t-shirt).

Unique Clothes Maketh a Forme - any Module the name of which includes an occupation of some kind (ex. from original post: Judge, Travel Guide), even out of its original context (Burn GUARD), have their Variables increased by 1.

Module Slots +1 Yellow OR +1 Cyan OR +1 Green

Development Befriend a human that’s not part of the party :) 

Grappler

Requirements Is a Spore

+1HD +2 AC

The Spore’s mastery of martial arts deepens. It abandons the boxing gloves for hand wraps, and starts wearing sports shorts. You don’t see how that makes it a better fighter, but it seems content.

DEX +d4 CON +1d6

Unique BAIT-N-SWITCH - Once per round, when an enemy misses an attack against Spore, Spore can instantly grapple them. Spore cannot miss an attack against the enemy it’s grappling.

Module Slots +1 Red

Development Use BAIT-N-SWITCH against a far superior opponent, don’t let them escape, and win the fight.

Sentinel

Requirements Is a Spore

+1HD +2 damage

The Spore’s mastery of martial arts deepens. It bulks up significantly, and insists on always carrying a blade of grass in its mouth. You think it has brain damage from getting punched too much.

STR +d4 CON +1d6

Unique ULTIMATE - Whenever Spore suffers damage from any source, add 1 to its ULTIMATE counter. When ULTIMATE reaches 6, it can instantly perform a free attack, and then ULTIMATE resets. If the attack lands, it deals the max possible damage. It also has a cool unique animation.

Module Slots +1 Yellow

Development Obviously, have Spore knock someone out with its ULTIMATE.

Enlightened

Requirement Is a Spore, 3 or more HD

+1HD +1 Attack per Turn

The Spore has reached the Metalleformic limit of martial arts. To show its gratitude, it goes into the forest, to perform 10,000 punches and prayers. It gets bored after the first 3. Somehow, it achieves enlightenment anyway. It grows a second pair of arms.

Flip a coin to either get -1 or +8 WIS

Attack Buddha Palm - Ranged (as far as you can see). Spore’s hands meet in a prayer. A golden hand the size of a skyscraper descends from the sky to best its enemies. 4d6 holy damage. Can only be performed once per turn, during Day Phase, and under open sky.

Module Slots +1 White

Development Help another Metallforme achieve Technovolta 3 times. It doesn’t have to be the same Metallforme.

Frostum’s Culling

Requirements Is a Frostling, 5 or more HD

+1HD 

Frostling’s final Forme - its body plan reconfigures until it no longer resembles a mole, as its tiny robot hands stretch into powerful mechanical arms. It gets newer, cooler goggles as a bonus too.

STR +4 DEX +4 WIS +1d6

Attack Cull - ranged (20m). The enemy saves INT, or becomes Culled. They disappear from the world completely for 1d6 turns. When they reappear, it’s as if time didn’t pass for them at all - they might not even realize they were Culled. 2d6 world damage. Double damage against Corrupt types.

Module Slots +1 Blue

Development Resolve a conflict using Cull BUT not by defeating the enemy in combat.

NEW MODULES

Written with the idea that they could be stapled on the end of the lists from the original post.

Red - Related to combat, breaking, and shows of force.

9. Tag Team - When your Metallforme attacks the same enemy as an ally, they both get +[d4] to their attacks. Add a d6, if they share a type.

10. Too Little - Once per Day Phase, you can set your Metallforme’s STR to 20. This effect lasts for [1] turns.

Orange - Related to transforming, efficiency and modification. 

9. Adapter - You can swap any instances of types in all of your Metallforme’s modules and uniques with any [1] type of your choice. Adapter II and onward allow you to apply this ability selectively, BUT the types have to be decided when the module’s equipped.

10. Cup Swap - You can expend a battery to swap the Variables of any 2 of your Metallformes equipped modules. Cup Swap II allows you to attempt to forcibly swap Variables with someone else’s Module (though, by default you have no way of knowing what Variables it has before doing so). 

Yellow - Related to situational buffs, repair, and protection. 

9. Tactician - Expend a battery, and have your Metallforme loudly announce a target. Anyone who attacks said target gets [2] Energy, and can immediately spend it. Energy is intangible, untransferrable, and can be expended in place of a Battery. It lasts until the end of combat.

10. Solidarity - Your Metallforme can take a Corruption type or the results of desynch from other Metallformes onto themselves by expending a battery. It can hold [1] consequences like this. When it Technovoltas, it can expend an additional battery to entirely remove the effect.

Green - Related to the environment, geography, and resistance. 

9. Gardener - Once per Day Phase, your Metallforme can touch the ground and make a tree grow rapidly in that spot. Gardener II can grow concrete walls; III power outlets; IV rivers; V mountains. Legends speak of Gardener VI, which the architects of Telos used to create the Energy Geysers.

10. Mesh LOD - Expend a battery to “simplify” the mesh of any inanimate object - stairs become slopes, trees become simple quads, so on. This effect lasts for [1] Day Phases.

Cyan - Related to information-gathering, prediction and navigation. 

9. Camera - the metallforme holds perfect recollection of any images or sounds it witnessed. It can project the recordings onto flat surfaces. Camera II adds the ability to project a 3-dimensional hologram of the recording.

10. Wagon - Your Metallforme can easily carry you, as if you were completely weightless, no matter its STR or size. This doesn’t extend to any other person nor object you’re carrying.

Blue - Related to control, contingency and preparation. 

9. Puppet Master - By expending a battery, your Metallforme can hop into the shadow of any creature who has [1] HD or less, and take control of their body for 1d6 rounds. This doesn’t work on Dark types [too cool for your tricks] and Holy types [too holy for your tricks].

10. Copycat - By expending a battery your Metallforme can create a one use copy of another Metallforme’s module. This copy has the Variables of Copycat or the copied module, whichever is greater. It doesn’t take an additional slot. If the module’s effect is passive, instead of being one use it lasts [1] days. Copycat cannot be used on one instance of a module multiple times.

White - Unusual, rare Modules which can be “configured” over the course of a Night Phase, swapped between two or more modes at will. Vary wildly in their abilities.

9. Same Hat - The Metallforme gets +[d4] damage against enemies of the same type as the last opponent it defeated. Can be configured to instead provide +[d4] to reaction rolls to strangers of the same type as the last opponent it befriended.

10. Panic - Expend a battery to confuse the target, making them incapable of discerning friend from foe, for [1d4] rounds. Can be configured to instead make the target focused, granting them additional [d6] on checks of [1] chosen stats until the next Night Phase.

Void - ???

???. Stack Overflow - This Module cannot be unequipped. Your Metallforme gains the Corrupt type, if it hasn’t already. You can expend a battery to permanently give your Metallforme +[1] to all its stats and Variables, but doing so automatically Corrupts another Metallforme in immediate vicinity. If there’s no Metallforme to Corrupt, your Metallforme instantly loses this module, and then desynchronizes. 

???. Trojan - Your Metallforme gains a new Development condition: whenever another allied Metallforme desynchs, your Metallforme Technovoltas [1] times. The first roll on the desynchronization table for any Metallforme near you always comes up as 20.

???. E-PULSE - You can no longer expend batteries to activate your Metallforme’s modules. Instead, you can at any point choose to deal [1d4] damage to yourself to activate any module. Modules activated this way temporarily get +1 Variables. Your Metallforme gets +[1] damage and AC as long as you, its human, are bloodied (below half-HP).

NEW FACTION

There’s a piece of graffiti you might’ve seen on some structures - horizontal line, with a half circle coming out the top, and radiating straight lines. Some of these tags might’ve been even helpfully signed - DAYBЯEAK.

A list of unrelated things you might encounter nearby.

(These might be slight spoilers, if you were ever to play a Metallforme game run by me, which you won’t, so it’s probably fine.)

1. A human-shaped figure (girl, about 13?) made entirely of static. Stuck in a forever loop - sitting under a tree, moving her hand as if petting a cat. She stands up, clearly agitated. Points in front of herself. Freezes. Turns around, runs, and… stops. The form glitches. It resets. If approached calmly, and treated like a person, she might break the loop long enough to answer a couple questions. If she ever hears the word “daybreak” she shuts up again. Forever, seemingly.

2. Power outlet on a nearby tree, with a cable coming out of it. It ends on some sort of destroyed device you’ve never seen before, like somebody combined a computer screen with a keyboard, and attached them to a long and thick silver glove. It’s absolutely ruined, and covered in specks of blood (there is, notably, still a hand inside of it), but maybe it can be recovered… 

3. Cigarette buds. A whole pile of them. When you pick one up, the pile doesn’t grow smaller - the one in your hand seems to be a perfect copy of a bud on the floor. A nearby potentiabird will happily feed on the endless supply, if you don’t want it.

4. A dungeon of some kind! Entirely looted. It seems like it used to take the form of a maze, but there’s just now a tunnel from the entrance all the way to the final room. About midway through, it goes straight through a potentiaanimal [body of an elephant, with the head of a beetle, made entirely of stone], its form broken up by the giant hole. It remains alive. It’d probably prefer not to.

5. A giant tree lacking a “hit box”, just an empty texture. Hidden behind the texture stands a big tent, the kind you could buy in a supermarket. Slightly on the more expensive side. Inside there’s an electric heater, television set, VHS player, small collection of Polish comedy movie tapes, and a pile of saucy Brazilian comic books. All electrical devices are plugged into an outlet sticking out of the ground, but currently turned off. If somebody were to play one of the tapes, the movie would play normally, but a random Metallforme would appear on screen at some point, as if part of the scene. It seems confused and lost, and keeps looking around until it spots the camera. The rest of the recording is it begging to be released, and banging on the screen. When played again, the creature is knocking on the screen from the very start. It might be able to hear the players, was there some sort of recording device attached to the tv….

6. Shape of a man, phasing out of the ground on the horizon. They see you not long after you notice them, and suddenly trip forward. If you inspect the place where they were just moments ago, there’s no one there. Not even marks in the snow. Except… a gum wrapping, with a mouse comic strip on the inside. 

7. A potentiaanimal [dog body plan, except with 7 legs, beetle-like exoskeleton, and a bird-like head] chained to a guard-rail sticking randomly out the ground. It’s a Corrupt type. There’s a power outlet sticking out of its side, and where its body and the plastic meet, there is nothing but static. It seems weak and starved, and takes turns growling and whimpering at anyone who approaches. If somebody tried to attach any device to the power outlet, it’d get powered, but very quickly corrupt. The animal gets smaller with each second of charging something like this.

8. Half-empty paint can. Enjoy.

NEW REGION

Garrison Island is a region covering both a small island of the same name, and also some of the neighboring Shimmering Sea (you can tell it’s not part of the rest of the main Shimmering Sea, because the water texture suddenly changes to a more green-ish hue, and the ambient is different). 

Once upon a time it was protected by a powerful Frostum, who was bound to a human seeking to leave Telos. Story goes, he eventually succeeded. Their last meeting took place on Garrison Island. Drowning in a sea of despair, unable or unwilling to travel without his lifelong companion, Frostum made the island its home. Over the coming years, a strange structure would grow from the land. Frostum’s Castle - a collection of strange tunnels and rooms, suspended mid-air, as if somebody dug them up underground and then moved them 100 meters up in the Y axis…

Choose where visit:

[Garrison Village], where intelligent potentiafauna lives.

[Steel Forest], where road signs and railing grow like trees and flowers.

[Energy Geyser], taken over by a hostile critter of some kind.

[Ancient Ruins], seemingly haunted by potentiaghosts.

[Frostum’s Castle], floating above it all weightlessly.

Oops! Sorry! In order to explore Garrison Island in more detail, insert Disc 2.

I swear this post is not a trap [GLOG Class]

Chimeras are the most unique among the creatures of the Merigo coast. All of them are female, and conduct a form of parthenogenesis, and yet the child rarely if ever is an exact clone of the mother. Additionally, their offspring often show remarkable similarity to other animals in the area, and yet they’ve never been observed to copulate with the males of other species. The reason for this is simple: chimeras reproduce by consumption. Everything eaten by them gets repurposed to strengthen the next generation. We haven’t yet found an animal whose genes they couldn’t replicate. They’re a biological adapter cable, connecting everything from a sea sponge to a human.

While many rumors exist, the Merigan government denies any human experimentation related to chimeras. When asked about the prison escape on 17th of March last year they said all those death row inmates “must have grown wings, and fins, and so on, on their own”.

Start with: prisoner clothing; pack of cigars; poacher’s net; 

+2 HP per template.

1. Fursuit

2. Ape Mode; Hearty Meal; +1 attack per turn

3. Blending In; +1 attack per turn

4. Go crazy. Go stupid.

A: Fursuit

Generate three random animals, and look into each one of them. Choose one as the base of your chimera operation. 

You have the traits of that animal. Workshop them with your gm - try to aim for 2 abilities. If it can fly, you can fly. If it sees in the dark, you see in the dark. If it eats its partner right after it has sex, too bad. Examples will be provided at the end of the post.

Your animal base is reflected in your appearance (ex. cat ears for a cat; giant compound eyes for the dragonfly; weird skull shape for the hammer shark).

B: Ape Mode

When under extreme stress, the chimera part of your brain takes over. If you get reduced to 1 hp, your body transforms to resemble an animal even more. You get +1 attack per turn, and +d6 to any damage dealt. If you get reduced below 1 hp, you don’t die, but instead lose control of your character. A boss health bar appears at the bottom of the screen.

B: Hearty Meal

You can now hold [template] animal bases. By killing and eating an animal for the first time, you can take on its traits.

Your human biology still limits you; you can only use one animal base at a time. You can switch between your animals with a minute of focus. It is extremely painful - you suffer 1 damage. Your appearance either reflects the animal you’re currently using OR a strange combination of all your animals.

C: Blending In

Animals whose abilities you’re holding will naturally consider you one of their own. This is also true for chimeras. This doesn’t mean they’re friendly, just that they don’t see you as a human.

D: Go crazy. Go stupid.

You can now use up to two different animal bases at once.

Examples of Animal Bases:

Mantis Shrimp

+Enhanced eyesight - the number of your photoreceptors is tripled, if not quadrupled. You can perceive wavelengths between deep ultraviolet and far-red.

+Pistol punch - your arms have the same strike mechanism as the shrimp. Your hands can move as quickly as a bullet, if you want them to.

Tree Kangaroo

+Tree locomotion - on the ground you’re slow and awkward, but you can move with running speed when climbing or swinging yourself around.

+Balancing tail - longer than your body. Your sense of balance is unmatched. You cannot be tripped.

Narwhal

+Echolocation - you have the ability to produce sounds between 0.3 and 125 Hz, as well as use them to navigate through the environment.

+Deep diver - your blood and muscles are exceptionally good at storing oxygen. You can survive on one breath for 30 minutes.

Lionfish

+Water Jet - you can use a mouthful of any liquid to blow a jet of water at a nearby target. It confuses the hell out of animals.

+Neurotoxin - your body is covered in fin spines coated in neurotoxin. It’s fast acting, but non-lethal. Affected body parts are paralyzed for 1d6 minutes, and hurt like hell.

Armored Trapdoor Spider

+Web - you can produce a strong adhesive web. 

+Tunneler - you can dig a human-sized hole in dirt in less than a minute. You can easily use your web to construct a trapdoor for said hole in less than a minute.

Kouprey

+Large horns - big ass horns. Count as heavy weapons.

+Even larger dewlap - it’s hairy, and massive. Helps in regulating temperature, attracting mates (only applicable to koupreys; I think it actively drives humans away), and deterring predators.

---

Ok, so, this post was heavily inspired by Terra Formars, the sci-fi manga running in Weekly Young Jump since the early 2010s, which I originally started reading (at the time, oh horror, fully genuinely) when I was about 14, circa 2016. I have revisited it recently, and caught up with the point where I originally dropped it (that is, right about the end of the Annex-I mission). The series, obviously and tragically, has a grip on my mind, considering I have now made 2 posts inspired by various aspects of it. Following my reread I have a lot of thoughts about it. I couldn’t allow this post to go live without me at least talking about it a little bit. You fell for it, this was a poorly veiled excuse to talk about the roach manga.

For those not in the know, a quick plot recap. Terra Formars takes place about 500 years in the future, at the tail end of humanity’s Mars terraforming effort. The method employed by humanity to achieve their goal was spreading moss and cockroaches across the surface of the planet to heat it up, eventually melting its ice and triggering a snowball effect that leads to the creation of an earth-like atmosphere. Unfortunately, humanity hasn’t foreseen that the cockroaches will evolve over the 500 years, taking on a giant humanoid appearance, and immediately slaughtering anyone sent to the planet. U-NASA prepares the Annex-I mission, made of 100 crew members all equipped with a MO operation - the ability to metamorphose into a half animal form - which they can use to slaughter the cockroaches.

Characters:

• Akari - our protagonist. Boring. Bland. Spends 90% of his screentime aurafarming. Skip. 

• Michelle Davis - the daughter of the BUGS1 captain, she was born with ant powers, being the first person in history to have a naturally occurring mosaic organ. She falls into the unfortunate trope of being a sci-fi woman largely defined by the achievements of her father, despite being a very competent and intelligent person in her own right, but overall she’s probably my second favorite character. It’s fascinating to see all the ways she lies to each other about her own feelings, or the times where her strong emotionless mask breaks, and reveals a girl who never had a chance at a normal childhood, Her relationship with Akari is fascinating too, and somehow avoids the route of the generic protagonist romance (I do generally think that any and all fictional relationships are weakened the second you canonize them as dating - when 2 characters say “i want to see her/him happy”, but there aren’t any explicitly romantic sentiments there’s so much more Spice to it all). Genuinely just a solid character. Leave it to the misogynistic writer to trip his way into a surprisingly compelling female character.

• Joseph Newton - the manga sometimes refers to him as Speedy Joe. His backstory is that he’s the heir of the Newton Clan, who have been conducting selective breeding for the last 500 years. There is a chapter cover where the author says that the Newton Clan is actually quite diverse, and it’s actually a total coincidence the ubermensch is a blue-eyed blonde-haired arian dream. He represents the Roma Federation on Mars, which I mention only to let you know there is a Roma Federation. And they have eugenics man on their side.

• Ok, TBF, it is later touched upon the fact that Joe looks nothing like his father, because his father felt his own face proportions were off, so he purposefully found himself a woman who is a perfect arian looks-wise. I am so fucking sorry, the eugenics man actually has depth to him. He was born to a family where love doesn’t exist, because everyone is too obsessed with reaching physical perfection. And once that perfection was reached, they still had to compromise, and seek partners who “look right” (white, and blonde, and conventionally attractive). The ubermensch was dark-skinned, and had a hooked nose, and the society couldn't accept him like that. Call me problematic, I liked Joe. I tried so hard to hate him, because the premise of eugenics man is, admittedly, weird and stupid, but I did like him! I’m sorry!

• He has a thing for Michelle, though I don’t think he’s in love with her. He very clearly seeks to get together with her just because she’s 1) buff, and 2) the miracle child of Commander Davis. He clearly struggles with the concept of love. His backstory included manipulating his friend group to drive his best friend’s girlfriend into a very lonely and depressive place, just so he could test whether it’s possible for him to trick her into cheating - he’s so bent by being part of the Newton Clan he doesn’t understand love, and only sees relationships as transactional. Human emotions are largely alien to him. Under the guise of a relaxed guy and a gentleman, it’s actually a real struggle for him to fit into a lot of societal norms.

• Adolf Reinhardt - the manga keeps acting like he’s the shit, and the most tragic man alive, because he was made as a human weapon, and then after finding the only person who loved him, she cheated on him. I think he’s quite lame. The funniest bit he has is when he’s killed by the terraformers protecting his squad, and then it turns out that Germany implanted a bomb in him in case he ever dies. Not to kill the Mars roaches, mind you, but just in case another country wanted to steal their technology. So he explodes post-mortem and kills his squad. There’s also a panel where a terraformer punches him, and it cuts to him kissing his wife on earth, and it genuinely looks like he jizzed his pants from brain damage.

• Eva - whom I mention solely to say she has the ability to regenerate, at one point gets exploded into a thousand pieces, and the author makes her regrow herself entirely from her boob. It is somehow both extremely badass and cool (amazing body horror, truthfully), and extremely fucking lame (of COURSE out of all the body parts it’s her tits that survived).

• Xi - it’s so predictable the author gave the octopus camouflage power to a woman, so she can walk around naked all the time. She’s cool, though. Has a lot of strong moments.

• Baos - has been given the powers of a sea squirt, so he can reproduce asexually. He’s not that major of a character, but he gets a mention due to being fun. Every Bao is a distinct person in their own right, because the only thing they have in common is genes, but they’re all also kind of suicidal freaks. I like them. At one point they try to emotionally manipulate the protagonists by mentioning what dreams each one of them has upon returning to Earth. They’re funny.

• The entirety of the Russian squad - holy fuck I love them. They are too good for this manga. Genuinely just solid characters with fun dynamics. One of them has weed powers. They gave him weed powers. Weed isn’t even an animal. He’s just a weed man. 

• Asimov’s and Alexander relationship, and especially the flashback to Asimov’s daughter, where it’s revealed Alexander is married to her, is the peak of this whole manga. “God of War” Asimov going crazy when his daughter brings home some fucking russian twink, and beating the shit out of him. And after numerous attempts on Alexander’s part to fit in better, Asimov’s daughter and wife stand up for him, and beat the shit out of Asimov. And then it cuts forward in time to them being a loving family. So good.

• When Alexander sacrifices himself, and Asimov finds out about it, it was probably the most emotionally potent bit of the whole manga. One of the few proofs that this author can write actual people.

• A lot of the other squad members don’t get a lot of big moments to shine, but they’re consistently just fun to follow, and get interesting dynamics that make them pop from the crowd of 100 jobbers.

• Ivan and Elena are siblings.

• Nina and Aaron were married pre-mission, and both wanted the other to stay back on Earth.

• Sergei is a big stupid oaf, and Anastasia is a nerd. This isn’t really a preexisting relationship, it’s just a good dynamic.

• Every random background guy - they get a useless animal power (usually a mammal) and die instantly.

• Powerscaling in Terra Formars is funny. Since so many abilities are based on insects, and insects tend to be small, the author uses questionable math to scale them up to human size. As such, if somebody has, let’s say, ant powers, and an ant can lift 100 times its body weight, they can lift 100 times their own body weight. Terraformers themselves can run at the speed of a F1 car from the first step they take. This makes everyone who’s not an insect, spider, or crustacean pretty much irrelevant by default, with a few rare exceptions. 

• Every other woman in this manga - they get a useless animal power and die instantly BUT they are given a name and a male character who can be motivated/traumatized by their death. This happens at least 4 times I can remember. 

• A lot of the chapters end on character sheets for various minor characters. Since Annex-I has over 100 crew members, this is a good way to give depth to the ones who aren’t among the top plot-relevant combatants. I mention this because I need you to know that every sheet for a female character mentions their breast size, including details about how said breast size changed due to various life events (pregnancy, getting old, so on). 

Now that we have the basics out of the way, my thoughts:

• Something tells me I ought to start with something positive, so let me just say I really enjoy the animal based power system (I mean, duh, this post is essentially me stealing the whole concept outright). It’s cute how obsessed the author is with insects, spiders, and crustaceans. Fights often stop for 2 to 4 pages just for the author to explain what animal trivia a certain fighter’s MO operation is based on. The Mantis Shrimp got included in the post specifically because I found out about it through Terraformars.

• End of being nice. What a piece of shit plot synopsis. Terraformers as a species are perfectly crafted to be the perfect evil Other, engineered to elicit no empathy whatsoever. They are the ones who spill blood first, by attacking the crew of BUGS1 the second they touch down, these mindless brutes! Moreover, the narration keeps reminding us they don’t feel bad over doing so at all (a comparison that’s made often is that, the same way humans don’t feel bad stepping on a cockroach they find in their house, a terraformer doesn’t feel bad tearing apart a human being who makes it to Mars - we don’t register in their brain as equal creatures). Terraformers also, supposedly, lack individuality, and their solution to any problem they can’t solve with the raw strength of the individual is to throw themselves at it en masse, with no fear of death. The way it’s described reminds me of the way many right-wing folks talk about muslims. As this mindless army of extremists with no sense of preservation, blinded by a higher goal. The author doesn’t seem to realize just how often he contradicts himself either - he actually gives the terraformers individuality! They have leaders! They have a religion (which, btw, sounds so fascinating, but is not given any exploration at all, and is outright ignored by the crew of Annex-I), and within that religion there are individuals which clearly carry distinct roles. They are individuals. They aren’t just a mindless army of drones. But the author consistently reduces them to just that.

  
  

  I'm sure all the terraformers look like very stereotypical black men for no reason whatsoever :)
  

• Also, let us be clear, the terraformers are the victims here. They are time and time again painted as the attacked and the aggressor, but they are clearly on the defensive. We deployed them to terraform a planet for us, they developed intelligence, and made said planet their home. We then invaded that home, and, when attacked, painted them as the villains. The manga refuses to acknowledge the reality of the situation. Sure, it does sometimes paint certain factions within U-NASA as selfish, and driven by ulterior motives, but it refuses to ever paint humanity itself as evil. We are the good guys. We’re doing this for Earth. We need to solve overpopulation, and the only way is for us to regain control of Mars, which we have every right to treat as our private property! It’d be compelling if it was purposeful! It ALMOST makes a point of some kind!

• I do believe some of the early chapters tried to paint humanity as being the underdog here, and, while Annex-I is outnumbered hundreds to one, whenever we follow our protagonists it rarely ever feels like terraformers are the threat. Akari and Michelle dominate nearly every fight. A lot of the time when the Annex-I crew aurafarms while slaughtering some roach, it just feels like bullying. The action is at their best when we actually focus on someone who struggles in any way against even a single terraformer. In this, the Annex-I infiltration arc shines, being possibly my favorite moment of the entire series. Especially, since it’s also a rare example of the MO operations having non-combat applications (sensing traps, resisting neurotoxin, so on - it’s neat!). 

•  Important memory: Annex-I has what is known as the MARS Ranking to rank the roach capture capabilities of each crew member, with MARS standing for Martian Atmosphere and Roach Suitability. It’s a stupid name. The Roman ubermensch is #1 in the MARS Ranking, while Adolf is #2.

• Some of the main characters of the Annex-I arc are driven to Mars after the AE disease ravages humanity, killing millions due to its 100% lethality rate. The disease originated on Mars, likely from the terraformers, and the only way to cure it is to gather life samples from the planet and bring them back. This, I believe, was meant to make the main cast slightly more likable, because the author eventually realized some of what I said in the above points. It worked to a degree, but I still feel like it’s undermined by the fact that we only got infected because we kept invading the damned roaches on Mars. 

• I need everyone to know that the AE bacteriophage has an ankh symbol on it. 

• It feels like the billions of dollars spent on both of the Bugs missions, as well as Annex, could’ve been better spent, idk, fixing the fundamental societal inequalities which make overpopulation the problem in the first place. Of course, I get that the elites don’t always work towards humanity’s best interest, and it does later become textual that a lot of the nations that make up U-NASA were less interested in taking over the terraformed Mars, and more in the relics of planet Rahab, as well as the military applications of terraformers and the MO Operation, but it still feels so forced. If it's the military application they’re after, there’s absolutely no reason for them to continue spending billions on Mars missions, when they can textually clone terraformers at home. And then invade the Middle East, or something. 

• The Chinese squad was actually sent to Mars with another goal yet - to kidnap Akari and Michelle. See, the bugs surgery works by transplanting the mosaic organ from a terraformer to a human. It is also inheritable. You can inherit the surgery, that’s how it works. Akari and Michelle are the first (and only, I believe) people who were born with a naturally occurring mosaic organ. Thus, they can access their animal transformation without drugs, and even undergo a second surgery for a second set of powers. It’s obvious to me why somebody would want to capture and study them. What I don’t get is WHY WOULD YOU FLY TO MARS TO DO IT. IT COSTS BILLIONS. JUST KIDNAP THEM ON EARTH. AKARI WAS LITERALLY FUCKING AROUND WITH RANDOM GANGSTERS IN THAILAND FOR THE LAST FEW YEARS.

• Technically, since you already all performed the MO Operation in your countries, can’t you just, idk. Make babies. I can’t believe that a morally grey politician telling his astronauts to kidnap someone on Mars would be above a breeding program, especially in a setting where eugenics objectively works, and the Roma Federation keeps showing off their beloved perfect arian.

• Important to note, the MO operation isn’t limited to just animals. One member of the Russian squad, as I already mentioned, has weed powers (i cannot stress how much I’m not doing a bit here, you have to believe me, he’s a zaza man), while one member of the Chinese squad has bacteria powers. I think it’s stupid, but the whole manga has now fried my brain to the point I do also think it’s kinda sick. 

• At one point the leader of my beloved Russian Squad, Asimov, calls Ivan, his underling, a “good communist”. Following that exchange I spent the whole manga believing Russia must be communist in this universe. I doubt this is true (he probably only said that as a joke), but believing so makes the series significantly better. 

• I mentioned planet Rahab, so I might as well expand on it - there was once another planet in the solar system (I believe? I think it’s textually not an exoplanet), which housed an intelligent species that later visited both Earth and Mars. We know this, because both planets have similar traces of intelligent life, mainly, the pyramids. Oh, you thought we were over with the colonialist racist bullshit? I fucking tricked you - we’re talking about ancient aliens now. They built the pyramids. They also uplifted us, and then, idk, left an uplifting miasma back on Mars. And made the roaches build pyramids too, post-mortem. Fuck you.

• Important to note that after the Nippo-American alliance fails to send a rescue shuttle, our heroes are saved by a private equity, which created and sent out a rescue ship out of the goodness of their heart.

• Technically China also sent a “rescue ship”, the purpose of which was the kidnapping of Akari and Michelle. The ship had the original Bao on board, who was an old man, and had small Baos the size of rats running around. Kinda sick.

• Notably, the ships arrived within days of the mission starting, while the Annex-I took almost a month to get to Mars. This implies they were either sent simultaneously to the main ship, or booked it to Mars at some unserious speed. This doesn’t impact much, but clearly wasn’t thought through by the author, and the mental image of someone giving up on the mission and sending out a rescue ship before Annex-I even touched down is funny.

• The arc on which I dropped the series ends on terraformers finally making it to Earth. Or, rather, they’ve made it here years ago by reusing the BUGS1 shuttle, and tricking U-NASA into believing they successfully shot them down upon entering the atmosphere. Then, years later, a bunch of terraformers simultaneously come out of hiding to spread chaos. This was quite a satisfying chapter. It felt like the roaches finally sending a meaningful counter offensive against the human threat, bringing the fight to our turf. They commit 9/11. Fly high, terraformers. I believe your fight for liberation will come to an end soon. 

Conclusion: I don’t really know how to end this post anymore. Endlessly fascinating manga. 5/10.

If the worst thing for a piece of art to be is to be boring, then Terra Formars must be at least somewhat good, because I can’t stop thinking about it. Tune in for another reread in 10 years.