re-emerging from my brainstorming/writing cave to say I THINK I JUST CONFIRMED??? A BIG WORLDBUILDING PUZZLE PIECE???
on a whim after rewatching The Duke Of Detroit Presents, I googled "copper canyon detroit"...and surprise surprise, "Copper Canyon" is an ACTUAL NICKNAME for a stretch of neighborhood areas in Detroit, apparently between Far West Detroit/Parkland and Warrendale:
looking up those areas on google maps will show you this:
so. the burners have to cross "copper canyon" to get to the refinery. which means that ALLLLL OF THIS
-- a big stretch of land that was once filled with neighborhoods and surrounded by huge parks -- now looks like THIS:
all those neighborhoods, all that nature and wildlife...everything's gone. completely wiped out. replaced by craters and a literal CANYON.
why is Kane so obsessed with safety, peace and order?
why is Motorcity encased in what essentially functions as a giant metal dome/cage?
all of these environmental clues were pretty big hints (the bomb symbols/sirens, the mutants, the toxic waste issues, mentioning the areas beyond Detroit being a "wasteland", etc) but I think the sheer scale of devastation we see in Copper Canyon officially clinches it - Doomsday definitely happened and certain areas of Detroit got MAJORLY fucked up by the apocalypse/nuclear war.
so now that this IS confirmed (for me lol), I have SO many questions about where in the timeline it happened and when Motorcity's "cage" (possible shield???) was actually built.
did Kane build this cage specifically for his Deluxe project?
or did he initially do it to shield/protect Detroit from further catastrophe and then use it as the foundation?
OR did the cage already exist (in whole or in part) before Kane's time? did he simply build Deluxe on top of what had already been put over Motorcity?
WHAT THE FUCK WERE THE WRITERS GONNA SHOW US IN THOSE SEASON 2 WORLDBUILDING EPISODES THEY WANTED TO DO and more importantly WHICH POSSIBILITY AM I SUPPOSED TO CONSTRUCT MY OWN PERSONAL SEASON 2 AROUND FUUUUUUCK IM LOSING MY GODDAMN MIND HERE
Thinking again about the absolute feast of rotating fairy tale character motifs in 2012-13 cyberpunk show Motorcity… In Kane’s ideal world he’s the king and Julie is the princess and Mike is the knight (and adopted heir); and in Kane’s lived world he’s the king and Julie is the princess and Mike is the knight treacherously turned dragon; and in Motorcity Mike is something between a lordless knight errant and the king of a round table and Julie is one of his knights (playing the part of princess in the tower as necessary) (except she really is still trapped in the tower, because she loves her father even as she works against him) and Kane is the dragon; and as a sidebar the Duke has actual dragon aesthetics (GOLD + larger than life, ego) and more importantly there’s the LARP where Chuck (normally a common knight of the round table) is the king and Mike is a dragon who is a knight, or maybe a knight who is a dragon… The greatest tragedy of its cancellation is we’ll never find out what Julie would’ve been in Raymanthia (the LARP). My heart says queen.
Summary: A love letter to the original series, Ms. Deluxe takes place 5 years after Motorcity and follows a now 21 year old Julie Kane as she prepares to begin her training to take over Deluxe from Kane.
Tensions begin to run high the more she gets involved in inner working of the city and soon she'll find herself with a difficult choice to make!
i was playing splatoon and thinking about motorcity... and u know what happens when you think of two things at the same time lol take these messy sketches!
Summarized ID: Multiple sketches of Motorcity characters as if they were in the splatoon universe, most are octolings but others are different species
FULL ID UNDER CUT:
First image has Mike Chilton, here named "Mike Chilfin" with his back to the camera, smirking over his shoulder. He's an octoling, with his canon hairstyle except instead of two little hair tufts at the top, it's a tentacle sucker. There's an ink tank on his back and he's holding a staff with two Splatana Stampers on the ends. It's modified and held together by tape. Beside him is his octopus form, with a square head and brown ink.
Next to him, weilding a five pronged Tri-Stringer, is Chuck. Here named "Muck". His ink colour is yellow and his octopus form has long, curling, tentacles.
On the left side of the page is two drawings. One of a Salmonid with one eye missing, and another of a Sanitized Octocopter (Green Octarian with flying device on head) with one eye. Notes beside it say: "Reef?" "Salmonid Roth or Octo Roth?"
Second image shows a bust of Kane. He's an Inkling, and here named "Abalone Kane." His squid form has two long tentacles in the back and two short ones in the front. His rattail is a tentacle with a sucker on the inside.
There's a bust of Julie. Her hair is long tentacles. She's an inkling. Her Squid form has two long tentacles and then slightly shorter ones in the front. There's a note beside her that says "uses dualies"
Then an almost full body of Mike Chilfin but in Octoling armour. He's wearing goggles, a black crop top with silver plates over it, black shorts, black elbow-length fingerless gloves, and is holding an Octoshot. Seaweed is placed behind his ears and curves upwards above his head.
A headshot of Dutch, with the Octoling Afro hairstyle. And a headshot of Claire, who is an Inkling. Her square bun is now a tentacle tied around itself and she has earrings in her triangular ears.
Third image shows Jacob as a shrimp much like Crusty Sean. He has two claws instead of hands and six little arms in the front of his fried-looking shrimp body. Hard to explain. Imagine a shrimp fried in breadcrumbs. That's his body. Two legs on the bottom.
There's a half finished drawing of Texas but as a Inkling Salmonid hybrid. He's got a connected eyemask, fins for ears, and a tail. There's a red X next to him. Then a small drawing of a Texas starfish with a hat on it.
On the left of the page is Texas as a Mussel. His body is how it looks in the show, humanoid and muscular, but his head is a clam with cartoony eyes and a little hat on top. His mouth is open. There's a green checkmark next to him and an arrow pointing to him labelled "Mussel!" Above him is the Mussel Texas but in a sexy "paint me like your french girls pose". He's wearing a black speedo.
Fourth image shows the Duke of Detroit, here named "The Duke of Detrout" in the right hand corner is a turnaround of The Duke of Detroit in the show, and below it is a picture of a Lionfish. Scattered around the page are Duke as a Lionfish. His hair is striped and prongs stick out of him, mimicking his cape and the Lionfish's fins. His arms are elongated fins and his eyes are black. Instead of facial hair, there are stripes on his face mimicking the goatee and mustache.
honestly you could draw a lot of parallels between Kaia and Kane in terms of their abilities to "stomach" tough decisions, their belief that what they're doing is the right thing contrasting against their impulse to hide parts or most of their plans from even people who seem to be on their side and loyal, their core belief that the ends justify the means, even at their views of Mike's "betrayal" of them. of course, they're still not on equal MORAL footing, because Kane's means to an end are about control and Kaia's means to an end are about liberation. much to discuss.... much to think about