#bandroid

[theleakypen]

[image description] the clasped hands meme template. Left arm is labeled "Bandroid fans;" right arm is labeled "Gritty fans;" the clasped hands are labeled "refusing to believe there's a human person inside the suit" [end image description]

[huanglaoshu]

Bandroid for Dummies

Based on combing through the #bandroid tag, thanks to: @theleakypen, @zylaa, @iamwestiec, @scarlettohairdye, @paintchipblue, @lesbianjinzixuan, @shadaras and @garage-bandroid, @drumbotlovebot, @bandroidfandroid

Summary:

“Bandroid” is a live-action TV show featuring the adventures of a 5-man band, including their robot/android drummer Drumbot. There are currently 5 seasons. The special effects are very basic, reminiscent of Star Trek TOS. Though in Season 1 it started out with such plots as trying to get small time gigs and “The Battle of the Bands” arc, later seasons include more and more dramatic spy-thriller-like adventures, including an entire time-travel arc. The show went on a hiatus between Seasons 2 and 3, when during which, “Bandroid: The Animated Series” aired, filling in some of the time skips in Seasons 1 & 2.

Notable episodes include:

“Bet Your Bottom” – where producer Zhu Ming has to fix Drumbot when it’s glitching right before a performance

“Arnarson is Not the Arsonist” (Season 2) where Jon and Paul went into hiding and Jesse had to figure out how to clear Jon’s name, causing a rift between Jesse and Jon

The Time Travel Arc, where Paul and Drumbot go to 2000BCE with the help of Professor Hayashi

“May You Please” – a May Wen-centric episode with much keytar drama. Fans posit that there may have been two sets of hands on the keytar, fuelling a May/Jesse ship

“Drumbot Alone” – a two-part episode where Drumbot leaves the band behind temporarily to develop and grow as its own individual. Notable for the hilarious mini-golf scene and the lady who mistook Drumbot for her dog walker

The band consists of:

Jon Arnarson (he/him) – the gay lead singer, who writes soulful and inspiring lyrics

Paul Ahmed (he/him) – the guitarist, Jon’s platonic life partner, and the most popular person to ship with the main character, Drumbot

Bailey Kane (she/her) – the bisexual bass player, center of fan's "Get Bailey a girlfriend" campaign

Drumbot (it/it) – the drummer, an undercover android hiding from the government. It traveled the universe for 500 years before crash-landing on earth in the 1600s and has the sum total of human knowledge downloaded into its neural net – Drumbot is played by a 35 year old woman in a costume

Jesse Washington (they/them) – (seasons 1 & 2 and the animated series) the ace, nonbinary keytarist – played by a nonbinary actor who uses xie/xem/xir pronouns.

May Wen (she/her) – (seasons 3, 4 & 5) keytarist

Other characters include:

Zhu Ming (she/her) – the band’s producer who pointed Jon and Paul to the storage unit where Drumbot was in season 1 – played by an in-demand actor with many other commitments, so only appears intermittently.

Vivian Wen – (season 4) May’s sibling, a genderfluid antagonist character

Eolus – an android

Professor Hayashi – The person who helped with the time travel shenanigans in season (5?)

Babylonian Fig Seller – during the Babylonian time travel arc, the Fig Seller teaches Drumbot how to identify ripe, unspoiled produce – sings a duet with Drumbot before Drumbot returns to the present time. The duet later becomes the band’s song “Tower of Babel”

Jodie McKee – shows up in the Battle of the Bands Arc, member of a rival band who had chemistry with Bailey

The Spirit of Music – not a character per se, but a palpable presence throughout the show when the band is performing

Some Song Titles:

“Binary Heart” – the band’s most famous song, also the name of their first album, they played this song during the season 1 finale while the government agents were converging on the stage

“Tower of Babel” – a song developed during the Babylonian Time Travel Arc

“Vanilla Chinchilla” – inspired by Bailey’s chinchilla adventure in season 3

“Baby broke my circuits” – a song simultaneously heartbreaking & an awesome dance tune

“The hemoelectric slide” – a darkwave remix of the electric slide

“Reuse recycle” – a very sad song

“Beep You’re It”

“Motherboard Motherboard”

[zylaa]

[img desc] Galaxy brain meme. Progression:

(1) Drumbot is a robot

(2) Drumbot is a person in makeup

(3) Drumbot is a robot in a person suit

(4) Drumbot is three raccoons in a robot suit

[westiec]

Bandroid Season 1:

[Image ID] Four panel meme of a Gru from Despicable Me explaining a plan with charts. Panel 1: "form a band with your friends," Panel 2: "find a kickass drummer," Panel 3: "drummer is an undercover android hiding from the government," Panel 4 – same caption, but now he looks concerned [end ID]

[drumbotlovebot]

ugh ran into another person saying you can’t ship anyone with drumbot because it’s just a robot. it’s a PERSON!!!

[sashabarkov]

Oh my *god* don't remind me about fucking "robot" discourse. I had almost fully forgotten it until you brought it up in the tags 🙄🙄🙄

In exchange for reminding me of curséd knowledge, I will remind you of the JonPaul vs DrumPaul shipwars

to be honest i only heard about the jonpaul vs drumpaul shipwars secondhand bc i was pretty much exclusively in the “get bailey a girlfriend” corner of fandom. from what i heard it got pretty vicious at times tho

[paintchipblue]

Found some old bandroid memes!!!

[theleakypen]

hi!! jw what is bandroid? and where can i watch/listen/read it?? i tried googling but it hasnt been helpful

Ashdkfl I am so sorry anon. Ok time to break character for a second:

Bandroid is the result of me waking up from a dream where I had written fanfic about a show about a band where there are four human band members and one "robot" (robot in quotes because it's a person in makeup like in Steam Powered Giraffe) and posting directly in the fanfic channel of my Slack, and then the group of brilliant weirdos in the slack taking it and running with it.

It's not a show that exists but suddenly I have too many feelings about it because this is how my brain works.