do you guys remember the episode where Larry makes a clone of himself and then the clone makes more clones and they have a nightclub and Bad Girls by Donna Summer is playing in the background
I've been wanting to do this for such a long time so AHEM. Here's how the Dr. Freud episode (because of course it's that episode) may suggest Larry is Transgender™ in one way or another.
This analysis is mostly based on one aspect from The Island of Dr. Freud: Larry's dream. It appears in the beginning and comes back around to tie the plot together when he recounts his nightmare to Freud so he can start analyzing dreams like he's supposed to. I believe it's been sort of... overlooked by everyone? Or maybe I'm just insane.
As a preface, I'd like to say that this is a purely queer reading of Larry. One could argue his sense of 'otherness' comes from being a robot (something he is actually teased about in the show) but considering this is set in the future where robots are commonplace, as shown in the Recruitment Ad, I don't see it as very likely. Another non-queer interpretation is that Larry's 'otherness' comes from being too sensitive or simply feminine, which is totally valid. That being said, I think anyone who's even a little into Time Squad knows that Larry is anything but straight. But without further ado, let's' begin this analysis.
Larry's nightmare/dream goes as follows:
"I'm in this dark room, all alone…
Suddenly, I notice a table.
I move over to it and take a seat."
"In front of me is a delicious ambrosia salad.
I'm very excited about enjoying the salad…"
"However, when I reach for my fork…
...instead, in my hand, I hold…"
"A shoe.
A SHOE!
NOT A FORK, A WRETCHED SHOE!"
(WHAT DOES IT MEAN, DOCTOR?! WHAT DOES IT ALL MEEAAANNNN?!)
Now, usually, if you had a dream like this you'd think of it as something absurd and nonsensical, which is exactly what Freud thinks when Larry tells him, but it goes deeper than that. According to the start of the episode, he's had this exact dream multiple times, almost like a constant reminder. One could then argue that it's a part of his subconscious trying to tell him something. That's why I think analyzing his dream is worth it.
Back to the end of the episode, Otto takes note of Larry's despair and does a little analysis of his own, assigning things from L's dream to aspects of his life:
"The dark room clearly represents the world, and the ambrosia salad is society. And the shoe… the shoe is you! Never quite fitting in. Don't you see, Larry? You just want to be loved."
We'll get back at the parts I marked in bold later. For now, with the help of Otto, let's look back at L3K's dream with these elements in mind:
Larry finds himself in a dark world (the room), all alone. This has both a literal meaning, as Larry's first 9 years were spent in a warehouse, and a metaphorical one, where he's found himself without anyone that really understands him. Sure, he's close to certain folks like Otto, Buck or XJ5, but there's something that keeps Larry from entirely connecting with them.
He then notices a table and takes a seat. It's hard to define what exactly it could mean, and it doesn't appear to be significant to his dream's message, so I feel it's best not to try and find a meaning where there is none.
Here's where this analysis' most important element comes into play: The ambrosia salad, the one Larry is "very excited to enjoy". His wording is crucial here; he doesn't just want to 'eat' the salad, he's looking forward to savoring the experience. He has high expectations of what society will offer him and how he might be able to fit in. It's also very important to note Larry's special connection to food -there's an entire analysis dedicated to this- as he calls the salad "delicious" merely by looking at it. He finds the idea of fitting into society interesting, or at least desirable in some way.
Unfortunately, Larry is the shoe. When he reaches for himself, for an identity that allows him to enter society, he finds... that something is very, very wrong with him. He's supposed to be a fork, but he turned out to be a shoe. Something wretched, horrifying, something that directly tells Larry he could never fully integrate himself into society in any way, shape or form.
Here's where Otto's final thoughts come in: Try as he might, Larry will never be able to quite fit in. All he wants is to be loved unconditionally by those around him, without the need to put up a show of sass-lip and snootiness. But alas, until others can put aside their differences, Larry is a shoe and will continue to be a shoe.
What does all of this amount to? In simple terms, Larry's nightmare is his subconscious telling him that he is a misfit thrown into a world that doesn't think, speak or act like him. He can't relate to anyone for some reason, but what is that reason exactly?
Anyone who's questioned their gender identity knows how alienating the world can be, even before realizing they're transgender. It's the same "otherness" I talked about earlier, the knowledge that you're different from everyone else. Larry is definitely aware of this but he can't pin down why. He's scared of what the world thinks of him. After all, he's not "just a robot", he's THE Larry 3000. Can robots suffer from social dysphoria rooted in being seen as machines without feelings? I'd like to believe so, demonstrated in other shows like Jenny from MLAATR and Robot Jones from WHTRJ. Larry falls into this category too, clearly displayed in his fights with Tuddrussel:
He wants to be more than just a robot, but he doesn't realize he already is. Larry refuses to follow anyone's orders on what he should be, and instead chooses a path of his own.
Every single episode of Time Squad (2001-2003) edited into beautiful SDTV 480p resolution by yours truly, for free, (hopefully) forever up on the Internet Archive.
Every Time Squad (2001-2003) episode edited into SDTV quality. Original video footage from the Danish dub of the show.
Additional notes under cut:
If you're wondering where the old SD Time Squad edit went or why I'm doing this sort of post again in the first place, my friend and I "recently" discovered the Danish dub (Tidspatruljen) of the show fully uploaded on Youtube in 480p quality, which was ultimately clearer than the previous Portuguese dub video footage. Therefore I decided to edit the entire thing all over again with Danish dub video and English dub audio. Some of the Portuguese dub episodes still remain though as they are 720p instead of 480p.
Huge thanks to 098765four for scraping every episode before the playlists were taken down. Here's hoping those Odd Job Jack episodes are found in English!
My edits are, once again, not perfect. The Danish dub was 5% faster than the original show (presumably for copyright reasons?) so I had to manually slow down each episode, and check for syncing issues.
I was drawing these at the mall while I was waiting for my friend to get there and all these old people were watching me draw as they walked by. haha..
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