There’s a very good theory that states that the worker drones are programmed to reboot and stop worrying when faced with a crisis. The only ones not effected by this are those with the powers (Uzi and Doll).
There's also one that they're programed to only care about their own self-preservation. They're never upset about someone's death, they're only scared that they might be next. If it's clear they're no in immediate danger, they don't care. Like look at the camp episode. When V shoots a student everyone's scared cause she might shoot them to. But when she accidently shoots one with an arrow they're all chill cause it's doubtful she'll do it again. It's messed up but remember they're worker robots with programmed AI. There's no reason their makers would want hem to care for one another.
@@jasonsmith6219 actually it wasnt v that did the arrow kill, it was someone standing next to them who had their bow pointed right at their face and (presumably) accidentally released, v only threatened to shoot them which leads into your theory more, the others are unfazed because the kill was (again, presumably) accidental and wouldnt happen again
also explains why her dad doesn't seem all that broken up about his wife. The baseline worker drones are just not that empathetic and especially don't maintain care past death. Even before they became murder drones, V, N and J were anomalous drones collected by tessa. Like jay's obsession with corporate jargon and adherence to their guidelines, while still capable of breaking them for tessa. whatever doll and uzi have broadens their emotional and cognitive horizon.
The ONLY real “problem” I have with the show is that too many details are hidden and are impossible to notice either on a first watch or without pausing and analyzing everything on screen to notice, and so much of it is essential to the plot.
@@scottvgamer1163 Most people I show this show too either dont care or watch youtube for the missed things anyway. Its not really that hard or a big deal.
@@WarlockInTraining I mean, that’s what I do as well, but I just feel bad for those who don’t even know there’s hidden lore and are confused out of their minds.
8:40 I heard a theory where the humans made the drones so when something bad happened, after the shock and emotions, they would go back to the way they were. Example-In the flashback sequence in episode 1 we see a drone lying dead and the other drones ignoring it. This could also explain why Uzi is not super liked. The teacher said she might have damaged programming which explains her seemingly higher self-preservation instinct. Same for Doll even though she is more liked. Anyways, just a theory I heard :)
i think doll and uzi's distinctiveness is deliberate to whatever they carry. They seem to be far more capable of emotion and cognitive complex behaviour. Doll's whole revenge plot shows that, from her desire for revenge in the first place, to her willingness to go to extreme length to do so while actually caring if other robots lived or died, in contrast Vs friend seemed to have just been there for the drama. I suspect that it's aim is to reach for more fully realised AI, outside human set parameters.
Plus they're worker drones on what was a mining world. You wouldn't want the bots handling the emergency to panic too much. The new generations are untrained neural networks when a baby so they grow by learning and the only reference point is human media and worker drones.
I feel like it also chops to limited empathy, they're so used to death that others that don't have a special relationship with said drones don't phase them. However, like any living thing they fear their own deaths to the same degree.
I've always loved the idea of indie animations because they often tell unique stories that even bigger studios may not be willing to take a risk on. They often have a small budget, meaning they are often created with a lot of passion and heart, which can make them incredibly endearing.
Murder Drones is like the perfect balance of horror, lore, and humor. Not to mention they have a professional animator who animated big movies (Kevin Temmer) on the team too.
@@kyu_gavin6452 oh and you also get disembowelment, dismemberment, predator style beheading, etc But hey, instead of going "splortch" it goes "clink-clank"
Correction: The powers displayed by Doll and Uzi is not called Singularity, it's called AbsoluteSolver, sometimes just called Solver to distinguish from the sentient admin version that creates "Eldritch J". Uzi's feral form is also called the Solver form, revealed by a figurine you can buy from their merch store. Solver is apparently in all Drones, but is normally dormant and is active in Dissasembly Drones. It is theorized getting Disassembly Drone's nanite saliva in a drone's system activates their Solver, like getting bitten by a vampire. I mean effectively, the Dissasembly Drones are robot vampires.
Additional context: Diassembly Drones have stinger tails that can inject corrosive nanites into their targets. However, the disassembly drones are not immune to their own stinger nanites and can accidentally sting themselves if they're not paying attention. So they were given the ability to neutralize the nanites through their own saliva; spit on the wound to repair it. When Uzi was stung in the hand with her fight with N, and then N repaired himself, N mistook her for another D-Drone and told her about the saliva, in which she just shoved her whole hand into N's mouth to repair it.
Love how it's "a majority of her class can't even remember her name" while ironically we, as the viewers, can't remember their entire identities- or whether they even existed before said significant episode or not.
I dig how self aware the characters are of the tropes they and their world represent. Their nonchalance towards all the death comes off to me as a strangely lighthearted acceptance of how messed up their reality is. Thanks for the vid.
List of named character's and their colors Khan - cool white Uzi - Royal purple N, V, and J - Yellow Thad - Lime green Doll - Red Lizzy - Pink cannon fodder - various washed out pastel colors, generally don't matter and can and will be killed off at any time.
I think a part of the whole "background drones being neutral to their comrade's murders" thing works to establish that, while they are the "good guys" they aren't all necessarily good people. That kind of goes into why uzi has a crush on thad for the first two or so episodes, as the majority of her class is mainly made up of drones who are kind of assholes, though that does also kind of work in their favour because a. It works with the tone of the shows comedy, and b. It works to show just how screwed up the situation is for the drones, as they're left surrounded by death in a society that tells you that if you leave the safe walls of your bunker that you're pretty much guaranteed death. In situations like cabin fever with v casually murdering one of the students at the start, the other worker drones are afraid, not out of mourning for the lost student, but for fear of their own safety. They know that if they don't do as v and n say, that they are going to die, so they fall in line. This establishes why the colony formed such a shitty environment. The drones that are young have been surrounded by so much death and loss, that they've learned to not care about if someone else dies, as long as they're okay, then they don't have to care, which is something that's enforced in the first episode when uzi's dad leaves her to die. If she's left there, and he doesn't let himself care, then he and the rest of the drones will be okay, so in spite of any action he may want to take, his trauma over losing his wife, and this mindset the bunker has festered within itself, he closes the door on her.
I don’t think N and Uzi are an item yet. While Uzi clearly shows signs of having feelings for N, N seems to still see Uzi as a friend. He pulled his hand away when she tried to hold it in episode 4. The newest episode really gave us insight on Tessa’s relationship to the main murder drones. Can’t wait to see more!
Ton of mystery, charisma and references to past horrors, yet Murder Drones defines itself through everything else. I'm surprised it hasn't affected my dreams, despite seeing them a lot (must be due to being a young adult). Ep. 5 was stellar with its lore drop, and Ep. 6 will be the climax point.
The problem with the dad is that he's written with the depth of a side character, but he's given the role of a major supporting character. His characterization simply can't carry the emotional weight that his relationship with Uzi is supposed to have. One slight issue I have, and people's mileage will vary on this, is how rapidly it's paced. Each episode after the first throws you straight into the plot and fills you in on what happened between episodes on the fly. It feels like they don't have time to do the full setup. We don't see the first time Uzi actives her Absolute Solver, or V befriending Lizzy, or Uzi learning to use the Solver, or -Spoilers- what happened at the "sleepover". I'm still able to follow the events, so it's not a huge problem, but can be a bit jarring. I'll admit I'm a bit nervous about the end of the season. As with any mystery, how satisfying the answers are will retroactively impact the rest of the story. They've done an excellent job building it up so far, but that also means it will fall even harder if they don't stick the landing. Fingers crossed. This ended up sounding kind of negative, but I do think this show is great. I anticipate the release of its episodes more than any other indie series. (Except Lackadaisy, but it's not releasing regular episodes yet.)
Lackadaisy is hoping to be picked up by a production studio because the creator said she doesnt think she can continue putting out episodes of the same quality as the pilot on youtube. So if we are lucky she gets picked up and if we arent she will probably just go back to the webcomic.
I agree with your review in all accounts. The real only problem is the fast pacing. Not only in the literal changes between scenes and status quo, but also: the key visual clues are given a second on screen and are gone in an instant. I'm paying Evangelion-level attention here, and still I'm disoriented. At least I feel I should have a better grasp of what's going on than I have... Plus, the easter eggs and visual jokes requires you to pause to be able to read them.
@@nadiarey4196 Yeah, it does seem like the show expects you to freeze-frame it in order to follow along. While I'm willing to play its game, a lot of casual viewers are getting lost because of it.
Dad is a joke character. His work, his rant, his antics, his backstory exposition, his talk with Doll. Everything is some sort of joke with him, most likely directed at him. Not. Every single moment for him is also bound to some sort of strong character development. Every joke with him is not only something for us to point finger at and laugh, if we stop looking at him as a joke, then we can actually see a lot happening. He's clinging to his doors out of desperation and because he has nothing going for his self value at the begining. If he didn't, they all would be dead. But then he sees that object fail him, not once, but twice. Then, we see him starting to question his parenting, with getting defensive and all. Except, he is defending not just himself. At that point, he is also standing up for his daughter in a situation, where he feels not helpless for once. He tries to comfort Uzi. And, him prohibiting her to see N is another attempt, as he only knows that she was with him, before he came to what looks like a scene of a violent fight, from which N ran from. Then, at the prom, he tries his best to be a parent, even attempting to get help in it, implicitly admitting to his bad parenting to himself. Then he tries to protect Uzi in a situation when he has no chance at surviving himself, but he gets locked out. In his exposition he remembers how his wife was and, probably, realizes where Uzi got everything from. And he also chooses to trust his daughter and her friends with everything, this time, knowing that they will be alright together, even if he doesn't approve of them. When talking to Doll he finally explicitly admits that he was a bad parent and that Uzi grew up "a good daughter" despite him. That makes the events and his actions of ep7 actually believable. He may not be "deep", but more than 90% of his screen time was character development. And in my book, that's a win.
4:48. Having a drinking game with the lense flare option and surviving would require you to either be The Critical Drinker, full blooded German, or SCP 682.
murder drones is literally the first ever thing to ever make me directly buy merch from the creators rather than just randomly finding it and thinking it looks cool.
@@AStoryWithLukeAnimates Basically i was saying a lot of stuff in the comment section that i linked the video to murder drones and one person went I'm not or I do not care about this
God i hope that person just regret everything because you're probably the favorite channel of that person now just talks about a murder drones that i did a comin on about like it's a great and everything and then well she would probably unsubscribe or i don't know or just a sept that she is wrong or he
I would like to say that the background characters being unnamed background characters is also a self aware running gag In the pilot the drone running next to uzi is just "hey so I've noticed I hadn't said my name yet, and I'm about to die so my name is-" and then he dies. Also burning head guy is actually called burning head guy. While yes it kind of lessens the impact of each death, it is very liam vicker's and it is quite funny
18:28 V's not only growing as a person, she's growing as a person seemingly as a direct result of N's growth, which puts even more emphasis on his growth.
I feel like the fact that the drones are constantly aware of tropes makes sense, since they're still robots, and as we've seen with REAL AI tech, is prone to categorizing things as often as possible.
This show is AMAZING! Honestly i absolutely LOVE these indie animation projects such as helluvaboss and hazbin hotel, murder drones, and recently lackadaisy
The one thing i struggle with when it comes to murder drones is the inconsistent stance on death. The only justification I can come up with is that they have lived with the fear of death, but also surrounded by it, for so long now that nobody thinks twice when somebody dies. I hope they do something to deal with it, but it does seem hard to resolve at this point.
Honestly, the issue with how the worker drones don’t care about their peers being killed can probably be explained by the fact that we don’t know their pasts. During the genocide, maybe their parents were killed and now they’re desensitized. Maybe their friends were killed and now they distance themselves to not get attached. Idk, just a thought
I think they were programmed that way, for the mining operations. Cheaper to replace drones than to prevent accidents beyond a certain basic level of safety. So you program drones personality to avoid direct danger, but go back to work as normal after that, and do not dwell on the dead ones.
@@ukaszgrzesik7231 This also protects you from them rebelling over being replace able. They wont be bothered by you taking away their malfunctioning friends.
I'm happy you're talking about this show, I love it! The horror is killer (literally)! I grew to like Uzi and N (in a romantic sense) after the prom episode
I feel like we've been in the Golden Age of Cartoons since the 2010s lol. Gravity Falls, Transformers Prime, Young Justice League, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2012. BoJack Horseman, Rick And Morty like all of these BANGERS started in the mid to early 2010s. With I think Transformers Prime kicking off this sudden shift into "oh wait what if we put EFFORT into cartoons again?" and Rick and Morty showing up to tell everyone "hey bitches this sht's for adults too!" and it's been goin' strong ever since. And I love that.
Regarding most drones not reacting much to others dying: I‘ve the theory that‘s because though they‘re sentient they still figure out all that bonding and connections stuff. Another thing that could play into this could be because most parents of the drone kids are dead. No other drone besides the teacher and Khan is confirmed to be a parent and we didn‘t see any other parents visiting parent-teacher-talk in ep. 2. These both theories can go hand in hand. Most kids not having parents and the rest of the older drones not having kids gives them a lack of emotional development in that regard.
The show is AMAZING, and I can't wait for the next episode to come out. I also kinda see the show as episodic (?). Like with the 1st and 2nd episodes, it seems like Uzi banishes herself and then immediately goes back, but I see it as she leaves and comes back a day or two later.
Very good video. Also what you said about character design is SO TRUE, like at the end of episode 4 when it was saying R.I.P to someone i legit had no idea they died, and who they were in that episode.
i know that this show will be INSANE with the fact they are so comfortable with killing off a ton of charscters that become somewhat important really fast
Yes it is and I’m so glad it is, the horror scenes and dark comedy is easily the best I’ve seen in animation and horror in a while, and while the writing can be kind of spotty, it doesn’t detract from the horror I love it
I love shows like this (Murder Drones, Helluva Boss, etc) It’s like that middle ground for mature teenagers and young adults. Not a lot of shows or producers cater to this age group. I’m also excited for The Amazing Digital Circus (also by Glitch productions)
I was wondering when you would get to this show, it felt like just the kind of thing you'd love to dig into (especially the ships lol). I absolutely adore this show, the body horror with robots and stylization means I can get into the scene without being grossed out. The sense of humor is definitely mine turned up to eleven, and the characters are a blast. Highlights for me include: -Everything V, deeply messed up since she knows she has to kill drones to survive and keep N safe from the company. Built up her murder-happy persona to cope as she might as well get into it. -Absolute Solver, an ultimate AI of eldritch power that is still figuring things out. They aren't trying to be Bill Cypher random chaos, they are mostly bad at their job and learning as they go. It creates both comedy and the horrifying experience of seeing an monster develop into an unstoppable threat as it *learns*
My opinion of Murder Drones is that it looks like what would happen if an episode from Love, Death, and Robots murdered all the other episodes for dominance and then made a life for itself. 5/5 I freaking love this show.
What amazes me the most about this show is the amount of quality the show has with its insane production speed. Seems like episodes are coming monthly and are around 20 minutes each. Sure it is using 3d animation which helps a bunch but even still it counts.
Watched this for a bit, quickly left the video, watched the entirety of this series. And now I'm back. Thank you so much for telling me this series exists.
I really like how similar all the worker drones look. Not only does it slightly discourage audience empathy, which keeps the comedic murders from being too distressing, but it also emphasizes how the worker drones were designed to be interchangeable and disposable, which highlights how the younger worker drones are pulling away from this and becoming increasingly independent, as they're more prone to accessorize themselves with beanies or hair. One thing I'm surprised you didn't comment on is how poor the show's English subtitles are. The few officially provided subtitles are glaring wrong on several occasions.
I think the designs for the characters have some necessary evils because of the lore. They are robots, so they can't grow hair, thus what they have actually belong to dead humans (look it up, it's canon), so they probably need to wear those helmets to keep their hair on, which is one of the few reliable ways to tell most of them apart. Same thing with the lighting. Murder drones can't survive in sunlight, so they unfortunately can't put them in a lot of situations with natural lightings, and since Uzi now has that same weakness, it's gonna have to stay that way unless they can counter said weakness.
The best animation detail (that's not really in the pilot, but you can see it after) is how their eyes saccade. Those little micro-movements add so much.
This would be a perfect show for ranking characters by their trauma, especially with the fifth episode recently released. On a side note, I think the desensitization from the drones comes from them not being all that smart.
This is a great review. I honestly love the horror aspects of this show though i am curious bout how Uzi is even handling the transformation and how well shes controlling it.
I will defend Uzi’s father to my dying breath. Yes he should protect his daughter. However, when literal death bots enter the equation all bets are off. Your personal relationships in that situation may have to die for the greater good of the community. Also trying to keep the peace is difficult the more the truth stares you in the face
The on the nose cliches are great, because it kinda explains where the robots got their personalities, likely through media and whatnot. I don’t think it works because it makes them feel more robotic whilst also being done well enough that it still fits the more human side of their character
I absolutely agree with you on this video!! I'm glad someone made a Murder Drone review video like how I would make it! I'm glad that you enjoy and love the show just as much as me. Great review video man!
You could do to show less spoilers _before_ the spoiler warning. 0:40 They've been sentient the whole time, they're celebrating no longer being under the heel of their corporate human overlords. 2:50 It's mostly in the pilot. It tones down a _lot_ in later episodes. 8:50 I think this is largely an issue with episode 4, as the previous episodes do a good job at limiting the slaughter to intentionally freaky or dangerous situations. 1 limited it to the exposition dump and the rampage at the end, 2 used it to establish the new monster, 3 used it to establish the serial killer, and 4... just kind of had people occasionally killing each other up until the spooky part. 14:20 Asuka isn't a simp for whatever corporation she's part of. 16:10 It's literally _all_ hard hats, save for Uzi. Even when they have other headwear, it's on top of their hard hat.
My suspicion is that they aren't hats at all. That might just be how their heads are built. They were supposed to be worker drones on a mining planet. This does beg the question of how they get their wigs on. My current theory, based on the character with the side pig-tails is that the just glue on the bits that make sense.
@@Justowner In several shots, you can see hard-hats hung up on racks and dummies, suggesting they're replaceable. You're probably right about the hair, since Thad visibly has his little hair tuft on top of the hard-hat, though most of the longer-haired characters seem to make it look like it's coming from under the hat, but that might be due to how they cut and place it.
@@syweb2 Maybe its both? Ep shows that the drones have the hard hats even in the servant outfits on earth. Perhaps its the top of their head and it can be screwed on and off. There might be alternative tops, but they might be rare. Especially on a mining world.
I never herd of this show till I saw this video watched 2 minutes of it stopped and went to find the show and watch it myself.....9/10 awesome then came back for the review....stilled loved it great work as always
3:07 for me I kinda get it for lore reasons. Because even though they’ve recently gained sentience they had nothing to do but live off of what humans created. So it would make sense that movie references were hardwired into their systems. Even Uzi said that she’d downloaded anime to be able to do that flip in the pilot, so I think it tracks in the world building if you take it that way. None of it is confirmed but it’d make sense if that was the case
When the screen cuts to a no no german saying are we the badies and sarcastic chorus in the one mirror problem episode he realizes that N is wearing a no no german uniform absolutely perfect
I went from loving helluva to then loving murder drones just cause of the pilot alone. I love the character’s personalities, plot, and environment, they do such an amazing job with the quality and graphics. And I need the crow plush!!
That's the absolute solver, not the singularity, they are different concepts in the show. The singularity is most oftenly represented by a spiral or a circle and even dough it has multiple definitions the one the show is hinting to seems to be the merging between biological and artificial life which links it to the absolute solver since only in the context of this program (Aldrich J and Zombie drone Uzi) we saw organic material combined with the drones. Absolute solver and the singularity are conected but still different things untill proven otherwise
I think the idea behind the robots not treating the deaths of other robots as a big deal is meant to be them having less empathy than humans so they’re just less attached to one another to begin with
V x N FOREVER !!! (or at the extreme limit in a threeway where V and Uzi are agree to share N). More seriously, thank you for this review. This show is great and I prefer that than Vivziepop's ones in term's of humor (specialy because it's more coherent for me to have stupid behavior for robots trying to imitate humans). But still for me, the pilot is the less good episode.
@@nephetalidorcius-bb4rh I feel that will finish by a "agree to disagree" but in my opinion : - V and N are sooooooo cute "childhood friends" - Uzi need a friend (or a sibling) who believe in her and support her unconditionally, not necessarily a boyfriend - V is arguably (and paradoxically) the most responsible person on this show and deserves to have the adorable dork - Episode 5's spoiler so I shut it up - V is hot (not really an argument but It had to come out) BUT again, if they share the best boy, no problem
Favorite Ship in the show?
This is a declaration of war
The one the drones landed to get there
Any that make V happy. Girl needs it.
I do not wish for violence but N x V cuz uzi and N are not sticking with (plz have mercy :D)
Anything for best boy N
There’s a very good theory that states that the worker drones are programmed to reboot and stop worrying when faced with a crisis. The only ones not effected by this are those with the powers (Uzi and Doll).
Oooh that makes sense 😮
Agree, came to the same conclusion.
There's also one that they're programed to only care about their own self-preservation. They're never upset about someone's death, they're only scared that they might be next. If it's clear they're no in immediate danger, they don't care. Like look at the camp episode. When V shoots a student everyone's scared cause she might shoot them to. But when she accidently shoots one with an arrow they're all chill cause it's doubtful she'll do it again. It's messed up but remember they're worker robots with programmed AI. There's no reason their makers would want hem to care for one another.
@@jasonsmith6219 actually it wasnt v that did the arrow kill, it was someone standing next to them who had their bow pointed right at their face and (presumably) accidentally released, v only threatened to shoot them which leads into your theory more, the others are unfazed because the kill was (again, presumably) accidental and wouldnt happen again
also explains why her dad doesn't seem all that broken up about his wife. The baseline worker drones are just not that empathetic and especially don't maintain care past death. Even before they became murder drones, V, N and J were anomalous drones collected by tessa. Like jay's obsession with corporate jargon and adherence to their guidelines, while still capable of breaking them for tessa. whatever doll and uzi have broadens their emotional and cognitive horizon.
The fact that N is clearly Tessa's favorite fills me with so much joy.
They are both my favorite which makes me happier
Favorites*
I find it really nice how affectionate she is. That head grab was super cute
N is the bestest best boy
Same
The ONLY real “problem” I have with the show is that too many details are hidden and are impossible to notice either on a first watch or without pausing and analyzing everything on screen to notice, and so much of it is essential to the plot.
I feel like Liam did that intentionally to make you watch it more
@@VergilOnPC if so, then good on him👍
I do wish it was handled better because there are a TON of people who are confused.
@@scottvgamer1163 Most people I show this show too either dont care or watch youtube for the missed things anyway. Its not really that hard or a big deal.
@@WarlockInTraining I mean, that’s what I do as well, but I just feel bad for those who don’t even know there’s hidden lore and are confused out of their minds.
That's not a bug, that's a feature.
8:40 I heard a theory where the humans made the drones so when something bad happened, after the shock and emotions, they would go back to the way they were. Example-In the flashback sequence in episode 1 we see a drone lying dead and the other drones ignoring it. This could also explain why Uzi is not super liked. The teacher said she might have damaged programming which explains her seemingly higher self-preservation instinct. Same for Doll even though she is more liked. Anyways, just a theory I heard :)
that theory does explain one of the only major problems that Sarcastic Chorus had with the show
That actually makes sense.
i think doll and uzi's distinctiveness is deliberate to whatever they carry. They seem to be far more capable of emotion and cognitive complex behaviour. Doll's whole revenge plot shows that, from her desire for revenge in the first place, to her willingness to go to extreme length to do so while actually caring if other robots lived or died, in contrast Vs friend seemed to have just been there for the drama. I suspect that it's aim is to reach for more fully realised AI, outside human set parameters.
Plus they're worker drones on what was a mining world. You wouldn't want the bots handling the emergency to panic too much. The new generations are untrained neural networks when a baby so they grow by learning and the only reference point is human media and worker drones.
I feel like it also chops to limited empathy, they're so used to death that others that don't have a special relationship with said drones don't phase them. However, like any living thing they fear their own deaths to the same degree.
I've always loved the idea of indie animations because they often tell unique stories that even bigger studios may not be willing to take a risk on. They often have a small budget, meaning they are often created with a lot of passion and heart, which can make them incredibly endearing.
Negative because low budget so some time show little become faster and pacing problem
I'm really happy to see another youtuber acknowledge this show.
There are literally multiple channels reacting to the show
@@アキコ2003 and they said 'another'. This show is really good and deserves all the attention!
@@DeathKittathe show is very underrated and deserves more attention
This deserves more attention as said. It’s literally the best Webseries IMO
@Soundwave Did you watch number 5
Murder Drones is like the perfect balance of horror, lore, and humor. Not to mention they have a professional animator who animated big movies (Kevin Temmer) on the team too.
Kudos to the animators for great quality, they put their soul & heart into those 5 episodes
YOU ARE EVERYWHERE WHY!?!?
This guy is omnipresent
The new OwO of the internet
(OwO was a UA-camr who commented on pretty much EVERY SINGLE video, i might not be joking)
There he is again
Funfact, they got a former DreamWorks animator to work on it !
another plus to this show is that the gore can’t really be demonetized because they’re robots!!
Classic bayverse Transformers style
@@GandalfTheTsaagan oh yeah god yeah didn’t one get it’s basically it’s heart ripped out?
@@kyu_gavin6452 oh and you also get disembowelment, dismemberment, predator style beheading, etc
But hey, instead of going "splortch" it goes "clink-clank"
@@GandalfTheTsaagan 🤣🤣
@@GandalfTheTsaagan remind me when I saw Pointless hub on transformers 3 when Prime did war crimes
Correction:
The powers displayed by Doll and Uzi is not called Singularity, it's called AbsoluteSolver, sometimes just called Solver to distinguish from the sentient admin version that creates "Eldritch J". Uzi's feral form is also called the Solver form, revealed by a figurine you can buy from their merch store. Solver is apparently in all Drones, but is normally dormant and is active in Dissasembly Drones. It is theorized getting Disassembly Drone's nanite saliva in a drone's system activates their Solver, like getting bitten by a vampire. I mean effectively, the Dissasembly Drones are robot vampires.
So it IS those weirdos fault!!
This helps so much
Umm..wat did I just read?
Additional context:
Diassembly Drones have stinger tails that can inject corrosive nanites into their targets. However, the disassembly drones are not immune to their own stinger nanites and can accidentally sting themselves if they're not paying attention. So they were given the ability to neutralize the nanites through their own saliva; spit on the wound to repair it. When Uzi was stung in the hand with her fight with N, and then N repaired himself, N mistook her for another D-Drone and told her about the saliva, in which she just shoved her whole hand into N's mouth to repair it.
Except we learn that Uzi's mom also had it and what looked like baby uzi also showed the solver symbol.
Love how it's "a majority of her class can't even remember her name" while ironically we, as the viewers, can't remember their entire identities- or whether they even existed before said significant episode or not.
Which is exactly the point and I love it.
I dig how self aware the characters are of the tropes they and their world represent. Their nonchalance towards all the death comes off to me as a strangely lighthearted acceptance of how messed up their reality is. Thanks for the vid.
List of named character's and their colors
Khan - cool white
Uzi - Royal purple
N, V, and J - Yellow
Thad - Lime green
Doll - Red
Lizzy - Pink
cannon fodder - various washed out pastel colors, generally don't matter and can and will be killed off at any time.
You know it’s a good day when both a sarcastic chorus video and a new episode of murder drones releases
I think a part of the whole "background drones being neutral to their comrade's murders" thing works to establish that, while they are the "good guys" they aren't all necessarily good people. That kind of goes into why uzi has a crush on thad for the first two or so episodes, as the majority of her class is mainly made up of drones who are kind of assholes, though that does also kind of work in their favour because a. It works with the tone of the shows comedy, and b. It works to show just how screwed up the situation is for the drones, as they're left surrounded by death in a society that tells you that if you leave the safe walls of your bunker that you're pretty much guaranteed death. In situations like cabin fever with v casually murdering one of the students at the start, the other worker drones are afraid, not out of mourning for the lost student, but for fear of their own safety. They know that if they don't do as v and n say, that they are going to die, so they fall in line. This establishes why the colony formed such a shitty environment. The drones that are young have been surrounded by so much death and loss, that they've learned to not care about if someone else dies, as long as they're okay, then they don't have to care, which is something that's enforced in the first episode when uzi's dad leaves her to die. If she's left there, and he doesn't let himself care, then he and the rest of the drones will be okay, so in spite of any action he may want to take, his trauma over losing his wife, and this mindset the bunker has festered within itself, he closes the door on her.
I think you analyzed this correctly
I don’t think N and Uzi are an item yet. While Uzi clearly shows signs of having feelings for N, N seems to still see Uzi as a friend. He pulled his hand away when she tried to hold it in episode 4. The newest episode really gave us insight on Tessa’s relationship to the main murder drones. Can’t wait to see more!
But it’s a ship!
Episode 6 made it canon. My ship is afloat
@@smg3250 It's not just afloat it's sailing! that is until something inevitably happens....
@@madmantheepic7278
It do be like that... 😭
"Don't love my robot."
"ew"
“Murder Drones is VERY fun.”
*_*BANG_*
I’ve been replaying that shit for the past 7 minutes now 💀
Ton of mystery, charisma and references to past horrors, yet Murder Drones defines itself through everything else. I'm surprised it hasn't affected my dreams, despite seeing them a lot (must be due to being a young adult). Ep. 5 was stellar with its lore drop, and Ep. 6 will be the climax point.
Liam Vickers is going places
at long last
the man deserves it
The problem with the dad is that he's written with the depth of a side character, but he's given the role of a major supporting character. His characterization simply can't carry the emotional weight that his relationship with Uzi is supposed to have.
One slight issue I have, and people's mileage will vary on this, is how rapidly it's paced. Each episode after the first throws you straight into the plot and fills you in on what happened between episodes on the fly. It feels like they don't have time to do the full setup. We don't see the first time Uzi actives her Absolute Solver, or V befriending Lizzy, or Uzi learning to use the Solver, or -Spoilers- what happened at the "sleepover". I'm still able to follow the events, so it's not a huge problem, but can be a bit jarring.
I'll admit I'm a bit nervous about the end of the season. As with any mystery, how satisfying the answers are will retroactively impact the rest of the story. They've done an excellent job building it up so far, but that also means it will fall even harder if they don't stick the landing. Fingers crossed.
This ended up sounding kind of negative, but I do think this show is great. I anticipate the release of its episodes more than any other indie series. (Except Lackadaisy, but it's not releasing regular episodes yet.)
Lackadaisy is hoping to be picked up by a production studio because the creator said she doesnt think she can continue putting out episodes of the same quality as the pilot on youtube. So if we are lucky she gets picked up and if we arent she will probably just go back to the webcomic.
I agree with your review in all accounts. The real only problem is the fast pacing. Not only in the literal changes between scenes and status quo, but also: the key visual clues are given a second on screen and are gone in an instant. I'm paying Evangelion-level attention here, and still I'm disoriented. At least I feel I should have a better grasp of what's going on than I have... Plus, the easter eggs and visual jokes requires you to pause to be able to read them.
@@nadiarey4196
Yeah, it does seem like the show expects you to freeze-frame it in order to follow along. While I'm willing to play its game, a lot of casual viewers are getting lost because of it.
Dad is a joke character. His work, his rant, his antics, his backstory exposition, his talk with Doll. Everything is some sort of joke with him, most likely directed at him. Not. Every single moment for him is also bound to some sort of strong character development. Every joke with him is not only something for us to point finger at and laugh, if we stop looking at him as a joke, then we can actually see a lot happening. He's clinging to his doors out of desperation and because he has nothing going for his self value at the begining. If he didn't, they all would be dead. But then he sees that object fail him, not once, but twice. Then, we see him starting to question his parenting, with getting defensive and all. Except, he is defending not just himself. At that point, he is also standing up for his daughter in a situation, where he feels not helpless for once. He tries to comfort Uzi. And, him prohibiting her to see N is another attempt, as he only knows that she was with him, before he came to what looks like a scene of a violent fight, from which N ran from. Then, at the prom, he tries his best to be a parent, even attempting to get help in it, implicitly admitting to his bad parenting to himself. Then he tries to protect Uzi in a situation when he has no chance at surviving himself, but he gets locked out.
In his exposition he remembers how his wife was and, probably, realizes where Uzi got everything from. And he also chooses to trust his daughter and her friends with everything, this time, knowing that they will be alright together, even if he doesn't approve of them.
When talking to Doll he finally explicitly admits that he was a bad parent and that Uzi grew up "a good daughter" despite him.
That makes the events and his actions of ep7 actually believable. He may not be "deep", but more than 90% of his screen time was character development. And in my book, that's a win.
4:48. Having a drinking game with the lense flare option and surviving would require you to either be The Critical Drinker, full blooded German, or SCP 682.
As an Irish man, I feel insult for nit being included.
Yeah. Valid. Sorry. That’s on me.
682 is what I'd go with.
SLAVS. ASSEMBLE.
murder drones is literally the first ever thing to ever make me directly buy merch from the creators rather than just randomly finding it and thinking it looks cool.
Given it’s made by the same people who made SMG4 I’m not suprised
@@AStoryWithLukeAnimates Basically i was saying a lot of stuff in the comment section that i linked the video to murder drones and one person went I'm not or I do not care about this
And don’t forget an animator that joined in the team is Kevin Tammer Tunes
God i hope that person just regret everything because you're probably the favorite channel of that person now just talks about a murder drones that i did a comin on about like it's a great and everything and then well she would probably unsubscribe or i don't know or just a sept that she is wrong or he
SMG4 is being mid with lore rn, this the only good thing they got going on rn.
I'm surprised
I pray to god uzi’s dad gets a redemption because in my opinion he’s one of the funniest characters and his voice actors great.
What you mean?
Next to the teacher, the funniest.
Man, I've been following Liam's stuff since cliffside, and I'm just so god damn happy that one of his projects finally was a big hit.
I would like to say that the background characters being unnamed background characters is also a self aware running gag
In the pilot the drone running next to uzi is just "hey so I've noticed I hadn't said my name yet, and I'm about to die so my name is-" and then he dies. Also burning head guy is actually called burning head guy. While yes it kind of lessens the impact of each death, it is very liam vicker's and it is quite funny
Well, Burning head guy does actually had a name, it's "Braiden"
I think the writers are aware that the background characters are literally disposable.
Not only are they aware - I'm convinced it's a very deliberate running gag
18:28 V's not only growing as a person, she's growing as a person seemingly as a direct result of N's growth, which puts even more emphasis on his growth.
I feel like the fact that the drones are constantly aware of tropes makes sense, since they're still robots, and as we've seen with REAL AI tech, is prone to categorizing things as often as possible.
your voice is so relaxing sometimes, i wish you'd do more videos on other things outside of this- like a whole other realm of UA-cam
love how your video was uploaded ten minutes after episode 5
00:22 "Anything is possible"
Meanwhile nothing is possible for animated shows on streaming services
Because there is only one thing the owners of these streaming services care about: 💰🪙💴💵💶💷
This show is AMAZING! Honestly i absolutely LOVE these indie animation projects such as helluvaboss and hazbin hotel, murder drones, and recently lackadaisy
Caring about those who don't care about you is the most realistic part of Murder Drones.
The show we didn't know we needed and i enjoy it
The one thing i struggle with when it comes to murder drones is the inconsistent stance on death. The only justification I can come up with is that they have lived with the fear of death, but also surrounded by it, for so long now that nobody thinks twice when somebody dies. I hope they do something to deal with it, but it does seem hard to resolve at this point.
This show deserves this recognition, it’s so underrated!
Honestly, the issue with how the worker drones don’t care about their peers being killed can probably be explained by the fact that we don’t know their pasts. During the genocide, maybe their parents were killed and now they’re desensitized. Maybe their friends were killed and now they distance themselves to not get attached.
Idk, just a thought
I mean its the comedy type
I think they were programmed that way, for the mining operations. Cheaper to replace drones than to prevent accidents beyond a certain basic level of safety. So you program drones personality to avoid direct danger, but go back to work as normal after that, and do not dwell on the dead ones.
@@Hazzmat of course it is, I’m just trying to come up with a logical solution other than the show making a joke
@@ukaszgrzesik7231 That also makes sense, we’ll see more later!
@@ukaszgrzesik7231 This also protects you from them rebelling over being replace able. They wont be bothered by you taking away their malfunctioning friends.
I'm happy you're talking about this show, I love it! The horror is killer (literally)! I grew to like Uzi and N (in a romantic sense) after the prom episode
Love the show and the characters are amazing too, glad you are reviewing.
I'm not gonna lie, dropping this on the same time frame after we see the fifth episode, and that was a true horror show.
DUDE PERFECT UPLOAD TIMING
I feel like we've been in the Golden Age of Cartoons since the 2010s lol. Gravity Falls, Transformers Prime, Young Justice League, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2012. BoJack Horseman, Rick And Morty like all of these BANGERS started in the mid to early 2010s. With I think Transformers Prime kicking off this sudden shift into "oh wait what if we put EFFORT into cartoons again?" and Rick and Morty showing up to tell everyone "hey bitches this sht's for adults too!" and it's been goin' strong ever since. And I love that.
I just watched the premiere of the 5th episode and it was great.
Regarding most drones not reacting much to others dying: I‘ve the theory that‘s because though they‘re sentient they still figure out all that bonding and connections stuff. Another thing that could play into this could be because most parents of the drone kids are dead. No other drone besides the teacher and Khan is confirmed to be a parent and we didn‘t see any other parents visiting parent-teacher-talk in ep. 2. These both theories can go hand in hand. Most kids not having parents and the rest of the older drones not having kids gives them a lack of emotional development in that regard.
The show is AMAZING, and I can't wait for the next episode to come out. I also kinda see the show as episodic (?). Like with the 1st and 2nd episodes, it seems like Uzi banishes herself and then immediately goes back, but I see it as she leaves and comes back a day or two later.
Very good video. Also what you said about character design is SO TRUE, like at the end of episode 4 when it was saying R.I.P to someone i legit had no idea they died, and who they were in that episode.
i know that this show will be INSANE with the fact they are so comfortable with killing off a ton of charscters that become somewhat important really fast
i feel geniunly blessed that i have gone into the show without a single bit of spoilers
Same
Yes it is and I’m so glad it is, the horror scenes and dark comedy is easily the best I’ve seen in animation and horror in a while, and while the writing can be kind of spotty, it doesn’t detract from the horror
I love it
Same 😊🖤💛🩶🤍💀.
I love shows like this (Murder Drones, Helluva Boss, etc)
It’s like that middle ground for mature teenagers and young adults. Not a lot of shows or producers cater to this age group. I’m also excited for The Amazing Digital Circus (also by Glitch productions)
Glad to see another youtuber cover this show! Looking forward (Or hoping lol) for more Murder Drones content on this channel!
HELL YEAH Murder drones video right around the time I finally catched up to it!
I was wondering when you would get to this show, it felt like just the kind of thing you'd love to dig into (especially the ships lol). I absolutely adore this show, the body horror with robots and stylization means I can get into the scene without being grossed out. The sense of humor is definitely mine turned up to eleven, and the characters are a blast.
Highlights for me include:
-Everything V, deeply messed up since she knows she has to kill drones to survive and keep N safe from the company. Built up her murder-happy persona to cope as she might as well get into it.
-Absolute Solver, an ultimate AI of eldritch power that is still figuring things out. They aren't trying to be Bill Cypher random chaos, they are mostly bad at their job and learning as they go. It creates both comedy and the horrifying experience of seeing an monster develop into an unstoppable threat as it *learns*
V’s my fave, too.
Glitch is CRACKED OUT OF THEIR MINDS. After the last episode (7 as of now) you just wanna watch 8 immediately
YESSSSSSSS
Even though it may release on late summer I AM WILLING TO WAIT AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE
Thank you for enlightening me on this show's existence. Now time to dive into the fandom rabbit hole! See you all in three months 👋👋
Good luck soldier!
My opinion of Murder Drones is that it looks like what would happen if an episode from Love, Death, and Robots murdered all the other episodes for dominance and then made a life for itself.
5/5 I freaking love this show.
Liam always has this horrible sense of humour and I love it
What amazes me the most about this show is the amount of quality the show has with its insane production speed. Seems like episodes are coming monthly and are around 20 minutes each. Sure it is using 3d animation which helps a bunch but even still it counts.
Having been here since before episode one was announced, feels nice to see the show getting mainstream.
Watched this for a bit, quickly left the video, watched the entirety of this series. And now I'm back. Thank you so much for telling me this series exists.
Knew he was gonna watch this. It's just perfect for this guy.
I love this show soo much
Same
I really like how similar all the worker drones look. Not only does it slightly discourage audience empathy, which keeps the comedic murders from being too distressing, but it also emphasizes how the worker drones were designed to be interchangeable and disposable, which highlights how the younger worker drones are pulling away from this and becoming increasingly independent, as they're more prone to accessorize themselves with beanies or hair.
One thing I'm surprised you didn't comment on is how poor the show's English subtitles are. The few officially provided subtitles are glaring wrong on several occasions.
FINALLY SOMEONE COVERS MURDER DRONES YES YES *YES*
I think the designs for the characters have some necessary evils because of the lore. They are robots, so they can't grow hair, thus what they have actually belong to dead humans (look it up, it's canon), so they probably need to wear those helmets to keep their hair on, which is one of the few reliable ways to tell most of them apart.
Same thing with the lighting. Murder drones can't survive in sunlight, so they unfortunately can't put them in a lot of situations with natural lightings, and since Uzi now has that same weakness, it's gonna have to stay that way unless they can counter said weakness.
Wow I'm happy that you're talking about this series too ❤
MACAQUE PFP
@@hoshikotoons6765 yes ❤️
When it comes to male characters I can barely tell them apart, Thad is the only one I remember
The best animation detail (that's not really in the pilot, but you can see it after) is how their eyes saccade. Those little micro-movements add so much.
This would be a perfect show for ranking characters by their trauma, especially with the fifth episode recently released. On a side note, I think the desensitization from the drones comes from them not being all that smart.
This is a great review. I honestly love the horror aspects of this show though i am curious bout how Uzi is even handling the transformation and how well shes controlling it.
I will defend Uzi’s father to my dying breath. Yes he should protect his daughter. However, when literal death bots enter the equation all bets are off. Your personal relationships in that situation may have to die for the greater good of the community. Also trying to keep the peace is difficult the more the truth stares you in the face
The on the nose cliches are great, because it kinda explains where the robots got their personalities, likely through media and whatnot. I don’t think it works because it makes them feel more robotic whilst also being done well enough that it still fits the more human side of their character
"last seen:
mistaking "Seinfeld" for a personality core"
~a missing poster at the start of ep3
@@inserisciunnomeIt was _The Office_ ‘cause her name was Angela.
I feel that Bender would be right at home. Until he starts to miss Fry.
FINALLYYYYYY YOU FOUND THIS SHOWWWWW
Its scary funny and you never know where Its going
I absolutely agree with you on this video!! I'm glad someone made a Murder Drone review video like how I would make it! I'm glad that you enjoy and love the show just as much as me. Great review video man!
So glad GLITCH is getting more and more attention. They deserve it and more. And to see how far they have come with SMG4 and GLITCH is just insane
Imagine my shock when I finish this video to see the episode 5 came out
You could do to show less spoilers _before_ the spoiler warning.
0:40 They've been sentient the whole time, they're celebrating no longer being under the heel of their corporate human overlords.
2:50 It's mostly in the pilot. It tones down a _lot_ in later episodes.
8:50 I think this is largely an issue with episode 4, as the previous episodes do a good job at limiting the slaughter to intentionally freaky or dangerous situations. 1 limited it to the exposition dump and the rampage at the end, 2 used it to establish the new monster, 3 used it to establish the serial killer, and 4... just kind of had people occasionally killing each other up until the spooky part.
14:20 Asuka isn't a simp for whatever corporation she's part of.
16:10 It's literally _all_ hard hats, save for Uzi. Even when they have other headwear, it's on top of their hard hat.
My suspicion is that they aren't hats at all. That might just be how their heads are built. They were supposed to be worker drones on a mining planet.
This does beg the question of how they get their wigs on. My current theory, based on the character with the side pig-tails is that the just glue on the bits that make sense.
@@Justowner In several shots, you can see hard-hats hung up on racks and dummies, suggesting they're replaceable. You're probably right about the hair, since Thad visibly has his little hair tuft on top of the hard-hat, though most of the longer-haired characters seem to make it look like it's coming from under the hat, but that might be due to how they cut and place it.
@@syweb2 Maybe its both? Ep shows that the drones have the hard hats even in the servant outfits on earth. Perhaps its the top of their head and it can be screwed on and off. There might be alternative tops, but they might be rare. Especially on a mining world.
I never herd of this show till I saw this video watched 2 minutes of it stopped and went to find the show and watch it myself.....9/10 awesome then came back for the review....stilled loved it great work as always
The new episode is VERY INTERESTING! It's my favorite followed by 3, then 4.
It's funny how you made this video almost at the same time the fifth episode came out.
ep 5 just came out and it was fucking amazing it had enough development to actually make me feel bad for tessa and J just how?
I SINCERELY appreciate the call out to return to krocodile isle
i have a feeling, that tessa is not 100% human. like the way she used the glass or when she touched her arm. i think she is a cyborg
I kinda think it implies abuse. Since they chained her and all...not sure if it would go THAT dark though.
3:07 for me I kinda get it for lore reasons. Because even though they’ve recently gained sentience they had nothing to do but live off of what humans created. So it would make sense that movie references were hardwired into their systems. Even Uzi said that she’d downloaded anime to be able to do that flip in the pilot, so I think it tracks in the world building if you take it that way. None of it is confirmed but it’d make sense if that was the case
love that show
"thanks to uzi and head trauma" as it shows him beheaded lol
Liam vickers is a genius
When the screen cuts to a no no german saying are we the badies and sarcastic chorus in the one mirror problem episode he realizes that N is wearing a no no german uniform absolutely perfect
I see N and uzi as more siblings/close friends more then partners
I went from loving helluva to then loving murder drones just cause of the pilot alone. I love the character’s personalities, plot, and environment, they do such an amazing job with the quality and graphics. And I need the crow plush!!
Maybe far fetched but I think that cyn, s (a drone mentioned on papers in ep4) or even Tessa could be Uzi’s mother
Wasn't the mom's name noir tho?
You have now introduced me to my new favorite UA-cam animated thank you so much
That's the absolute solver, not the singularity, they are different concepts in the show. The singularity is most oftenly represented by a spiral or a circle and even dough it has multiple definitions the one the show is hinting to seems to be the merging between biological and artificial life which links it to the absolute solver since only in the context of this program (Aldrich J and Zombie drone Uzi) we saw organic material combined with the drones. Absolute solver and the singularity are conected but still different things untill proven otherwise
I think the idea behind the robots not treating the deaths of other robots as a big deal is meant to be them having less empathy than humans so they’re just less attached to one another to begin with
V x N FOREVER !!! (or at the extreme limit in a threeway where V and Uzi are agree to share N).
More seriously, thank you for this review. This show is great and I prefer that than Vivziepop's ones in term's of humor (specialy because it's more coherent for me to have stupid behavior for robots trying to imitate humans). But still for me, the pilot is the less good episode.
No N x Uzi
@@nephetalidorcius-bb4rh I feel that will finish by a "agree to disagree" but in my opinion :
- V and N are sooooooo cute "childhood friends"
- Uzi need a friend (or a sibling) who believe in her and support her unconditionally, not necessarily a boyfriend
- V is arguably (and paradoxically) the most responsible person on this show and deserves to have the adorable dork
- Episode 5's spoiler so I shut it up
- V is hot (not really an argument but It had to come out)
BUT again, if they share the best boy, no problem
Really childhood friends just like j v thought that n was worthless and didn't in episode 3 v said shut up loser with her friend to n
@@nephetalidorcius-bb4rh Tsundere 😊
I have no idea what that word means
Fun fact: theirs a wiki for all the background characters and Rebecca is the one got eaten in half by uzi who was also at the prom