I'm off work, so here we go: a giant thread on why Warp Darkmatter from #BuzzLightyearofStarCommand/ #BLoSC is a triple agent. (Tagging @Balshumet as requested) (1/?)

For those not in the know, after I believe Toy Story 2 came out, an actual Buzz Lightyear cartoon was made. Canonically, this is supposed to be the TV show you see in TS1, and expands upon Buzz, the Space Rangers, and the Galactic Alliance. (2/?)

Before the cartoon was the movie, meant to essentially be the pilot of the cartoon. It introduces Buzz and his partner, Warp Darkmatter. The movie kicks off with them in search of some missing Science Lab personnel, the Little Green Men (LGMs) (3/?)

Warp works as a foil to Buzz: Buzz is by the book and Warp prefers to cut corners.

"If it means less paperwork, I'll take chaos." - Warp

Warp is also not as on board with Zurg being the cause of everything bad in the universe. (See image) (4/?)

W/ the help of some LGMs that stowed away looking for their buddies, Buzz and Warp find a secret Zurg lab. Once inside, the LGMs reveal that they are all connected via mindlink and can exp the pain of other LGMs. Warp asks how they do that and Buzz explains the Unimind. (5/?)

(That bit is important and will come up later in the movie.)

After a battle with Zurg's robots, the Hornets, Zurg, in typical villain fashion, escapes and sets off the self-destruct. Buzz & Warp would have no problems escaping, but Warp gets trapped under some rubble. (6/?)

In typical Buzz fashion, he tries to rescue Warp, but his partner activates the flight wings on his suit to force him to escape. Warp presumably dies in the resulting explosion, leaving Buzz to declare that he will now work alone. (7/?)

Skipping ahead, Buzz's boss Commander Nebula forces Buzz to pick a partner (as do the LGMs), resulting him and three other Rookies crash landing on Planet Z, Zurg's home base. Buzz tells his "team" to go back to Star Command and that he'll stop Zurg, alone. (8/?)

Side bit: Watch this movie if you can. It is so fucking hilarious and the VA for Mira is also the VA for Shego, so, yanno. Also Buzz is voiced by Patrick Warburton instead of Tim Allen, but it works for me. (9/?)

Buzz goes to retrieve the Unimind, which was stolen by Zurg's new agent, Agent Z! (Yes, really.) A fight ensues, and Buzz learns that Agent Z is actually his apparently not dead partner, Warp. (Sidenote: I love this suit design.) (10/?)

Buzz gets knocked out by the rocket fist on Warp's new cyberbiotic arm (no explanation ever given to where the original arm went) and wakes up very confused. Warp explains the exploding moon was fake and Buzz runs through every SF explanation of why Warp is suddenly evil, (11/?)

incl. evil clone, amnesia, and a few others. Warp denies them all and instead says he's been working for Zurg since their Academy days. (We see this in a flashback in a later ep, which I'll cover.) Warp also says he got "the LGMs" to tell him about the Unimind. (12/?)

We know this is false b/c Buzz told him about it earlier, so why the deception? Easy answer: he's not shown yet, but Zurg is off-screen watching this whole convo. W/ the Unimind knowledge, Zurg brought Warp on FT. (13/?)

Zurg shows up and taunts Buzz, but also reveals that he was spying on Buzz way earlier in the movie when he gave a eulogy for Warp. So it's not w/o reason for Warp to be cautious. (14/?)

I'm sure the easy answer is "animation error", but while Zurg is mocking Buzz, for a split second Warp makes a displeased face, as seen in the second image. One thing to laugh at Buzz, but mock him is a step too far, I suppose. (15/?)

The rest of the movie plays out w/o anything relevant to this thread (but still so good! watch! it!), so we'll move on to the next time we see Warp, which is w/i the TV show on the episode N0S-4-A2, aka the "energy vampire" episode. (16/?)

Warp only appears in the beginning, mostly to showcase how Mira/Booster/XR are still Rookie Space Rangers, and to (re)introduce him for anyone that didn't watch the movie. Of minor note is that Warp does shoot at the team with a Plasma Cannon, but (17/?)

the weapon has a bit of a wind-up that it's pretty easy to dodge. Idk if I'd count that in the proof column, tho. What *does* seem sus is later, when he has to report to Zurg that he couldn't retrieve the cargo Zurg wanted. Zurg says that was his plan, and Warp (18/?)

starts asking a lot of questions for a guy that's supposed to just be focused on the fact that "evil pays more". Zurg is prone to divulging massive amounts of info if you get him going, so it's actually surprising that he doesn't share more this ep. (19/?)

Another side note: I remembered that Zurg is voiced by Wayne June, and his VA work for Zurg is phenom. Right blend of campy and terrifying. Moving on to the next time we see Warp: Tag Team! (One of my favs ) (20/?)

I'm skipping the plot (Buzz & Warp forced to team up to fight aliens from another galaxy) to focus on the flashback part, that goes over their Academy days. But first: Warp can just like, vertically lift himself into an air vent and that is like, massive core strength! (21/?)

Another sidenote: This is also a good episode to watch if you wanna just watch topless Warp and unfortunately suited Buzz wrestle on the ground for a good while. Just saying. (22/?)

We see exactly the moment that Warp decides to work for Zurg, and him just fucking lifting CASES of weapons from the Star Command armory. (I am also just noticing the green gloves. Maybe to denote them starting out? Or an animation error lol) (23/?)

Two things here:

1: Presumably, the Armor's inventory is logged by either Star Command robots, Rangers, or Commander Nebula himself. W/ the amt Warp takes, some1 has to notice it's missing.

The fact that Warp was *never* caught doing this is more evidence for 3x agent. (24/?)

Someone had to have noticed, which means either Warp bribed them (possible but unlikely w/ Warp being greedy), Warp's Academy status as known of friend of Buzz kept him free of suspicion, or my belief, that Nebula knew and called him out on it. (25/?)

We see in other eps that Nebula wasn't always behind a desk and that he can be a shrewd, calculating man willing to play the long odds. So who can say he didn't catch Warp and tell him to keep working for Zurg, but report back to him? (26/?)

2: I don't think Academy students get paid much, if at all.

So the fact that Warp has fat stacks of cash (and the propensity to spend lavishly, as seen earlier in the ep with the fucking moon he owns, complete w/ statues of him) would be super noticeable. (27/?)

Going back to "Tag Team", when they escape from the aliens, Warp tricks Buzz into checking for hostages and plans to leave w/o him. He comes back, saying he can't, and having to drag away a very smug Buzz who still believes there's good in Warp. (28/?)

Side note: There is *a lot* of homoerotic tension in this episode, incl. a scene where Buzz tries to convince Warp to not be evil. He fails, but it's a good scene. (29/?)

Interestingly, all Warp says in front of the aliens is that "he can't leave w/o" him, but once they're in the cruiser and far away from the alien ship, he explains he couldn't leave b/c he can't drive stick. (30/?)

I feel like he could w/ his robot hand, but I don't drive stick so idk. (Also Warp dunks on Buzz earlier in the epsiode for still saying "to infinity and beyond" but says it in the cruiser when they leave) (31/?)

The whole convo 'tween Buzz & Warp at the end of "Tag Team" is fascinating b/c Buzz is Team "Warp is Good, Deep Down", and all Warp has to refute it is "NUH UH!". Well that and "there's no profit in the good fight." which is still a pretty weak reason. (32/?)

This sidenote only exists to post pics of topless Warp. Moving right along... (33/?)

Warp appears in a minor role in a few other eps, but oddly enough, does not appear in the AU episode where Buzz is evil and Zurg is a fry cook. (I wrote a fanfic filling that hole, but it *is* odd.) The next major ep is the penultimate ep for the series, "Ancient Evil" (34/?)

As an aside, p much every time we see Warp, he's not all that threatening. He holds weapons that could (and should) obliterate people, but tends to either show them off first or just banter with Buzz. And yeah, kids show, but still. (35/?)

Nebula also has some interesting dialogue about Zurg and how he operates in general, but I don't have that info memorized like I do Warp, so that's for a day I don't have a burger getting cold lol (36/?)

"Ancient Evil" is a space mummy episode. Seriously. Warp, after being caught faking sick by Zurg, has to go retrieve a space mummy. The mummy absorbs his lifeforce, making Warp and old man, and tries to take over the galaxy. (37/?)

Team Lightyear finds Warp and Buzz tries to get the LGMs to fix him, but there's not much they can do. Buzz does not take the news well.

"He has to be all right!" "There's a part of me lying on that table with him." - Buzz (38/?)

When Warp LITERALLY DIES on screen, Buzz's screaming of his name (or maybe pounding his fists on the table) bring him back to life.

(I have veered into Gay Space Cops territory, but anyway) (39/?)

Anyway, when Buzz gets hit by a stasis field from Natron, it's Warp's turn to make interesting faces! And also rescues Buzz, despite XR being perfectly capable of doing so. (40/?)

Mira and Booster were also hit w/ the stasis (but were free) so in theory they could've rescued Buzz. Warp says it's payback for getting his youth back but ehhhhhh *waves hand in a seesaw motion* Suspicious.... (41/?)

Ultimately, the ep ends w/ Buzz deciding not to arrest Warp today, which, of course, comes after a lot of banter between them. (The banter is good. And gay.) (42/?)

I got off the rails a bit, but this thread basically shows that w/ the tiniest bit of evidence, you too can write a 70K+ and 60K+ sci fi spy thriller fanfic about how a secondary character is more developed than you think! (43/?)

If you somehow made it down here, then congrats! You've reached the end! (Until I make a new thread about Commander Nebula lmao) (44/44)

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