Weekly Thoughts On Reboot

I am now looking at the Dot figure that came with the Reboot CD, and I am reminded yet again how action figures are rarely good representations of their subjects. For instance, I used to be a big Xena fan, and still have a picture of the Warrior Princess, but the action figure is rather lame. The same can be said about the Dot figure, though obviously given the unique nature of the original, this is not that surprising. Anyhow, the figure is about five and half inches and rests on a stand. Dot is in her red dress that she wore to sing during Enzo's birthday party (the song is on the CD) and is wearing red gloves and her signature black shoes. The face is really the problem; it is so fake looking with a stupid smile — a problem by the way that recurs in many representations, since a real face is so hard to create with plastic. Actually, the best representations are for those things we could never see, such as mythical gods and goddess and biblical figures. Well, I can take solace with the fact it is a bit better than the mini-Dot I got before. And after all, it is not supposed to be the real thing, but just a reminder of her, a way to have a close representation of a favorite character of your very own. Also, there is hope future figures will be better made.

The ability to in some way have a personal piece of Reboot of your very own shows itself in many ways with action figures and the like being but a small part, especially given how hard they are to find these days. A more direct way people get in touch with their inner Reboot (so to speak) is by writing their own Reboot fiction, many which can been found in some of the links found on my Reboot Links page. I myself never tried, but quite a few have, many writing some quite good stories (and others bad ones, as some sites point out, but it is all for fun, so bad reviews should not really discourage you). This fan fiction movement has exploded in the age of the Internet, including some changes of favorite shows we might not even want to think about (such fiction is sometimes called "slash"). The burst of creativity just shows how important and exciting popular "fiction" such as Reboot can be. They also do more justice to Dot and company than these figures I have!

July and August of this year bring the Democratic and Republican presidential conventions, which are basically ceremonial events that formally announce the main two candidates for president, and allow political types to have some fun. Nonetheless, the importance of this year's elections cannot be denied, leading many to be concerned, think, and discuss various political issues. This leads me to think about government in the Reboot universe, which actually is rather lacking. At the local level, there is the command.com (equivalent to a mayor of a city), though for Mainframe, it is somewhat unclear who fills this position. Phong apparently serves as his (?) special advisor, though some feel he himself is the command.com, though Phong speaks of the command.com in the third person.

During the Web Wars, it seems that it was Phong who put Dot into command of the troops (after Bob left), making her the command.com (as seen by her opening narration in the last four episodes). Making a military leader the commander of the whole system is somewhat primitive (akin to making George Washington president during the Revolutionary War or General Grant or Robert E Lee president during the Civil War), combining the military with the civil government in ways this country is loathe to do. On the other hand, we do not see the command.com do much of anything in ordinary times. If anything, the only time we see activity is when Phong (advisor to or actual command.com) helps in times of crisis to beat Megabyte or in some similar quasi-military matter, though his advice as an "old wise man" is sought on other occasions.

The presence of a relatively inactive government except in times of crisis is not that surprising given that Mainframe is rarely in a comfortably stable position for long. The presence of games, Megabyte, and later Daemon points to a constant period of crisis. Such a constant state of flux makes steady complex government akin to ours rather hard, leading to the importance of a select few (especially guardians) who have most of the responsibility to run and protect the city. These people appear to be selected (or accepted as leaders like Dot) by merit, though it seems unclear if the method of selection is election. Also, the relative isolation of the different cities helps to explain the weak connections present between them with a type of head council (with Turbo as head guardian) looking over the whole, though many of the individual inhabitants know only of their own cities. Therefore, the Reboot universe is rather different from ours in turn of government, more akin to warring sectors in the Star Trek universe, though I would love to know a bit more about their political system. ... hmm, wonder what political party the main characters would fall into; something to return to perhaps?

This episode was more a means of showing off computer graphics (Hexadecimal somehow gets hold of the paint program and wrecks havoc) than anything else, but it still had a decent storyline, and in retrospect was a sign of things to come. The episode starts with some gossip of the Web being out of control and attacking other systems, and ends with Mike watching a mentally broken down Hexadecimal, a role that would indirectly lead to the entrance of the Web Creature into Mainframe soon enough. The episode also allows us to see Dot in a jogging outfit, and one of the few appearances of the Biker Chick as we see Bob's new motorcycle.

We also learn an interesting thing about Hexadecimal (who is interestingly not really evil here, just chaotic; she retains charm as a character), namely the fact that her different faces seem to have a personality, a quite literal many faces of Hexadecimal situation arising. I allude here to the "Three Faces of Eve" (an old movie), but the show itself not only wows us with graphics, but with several movie and tv references (perhaps the most obvious being "The Twilight Zone" with shades of "Psycho," Norman's stillness at the end of the film comparable to Hexadecimal at the end of the episode), though many probably go over the head of many of the viewers who are too young to recognize many of them. My sister saw a bit of the episode as I watched it on tape and commented that it was a weird show, as it must have seemed to be, but it was a pretty nifty one as well.

This two part episode is full of notable moments, including: