Atlantech "Character/Story" Analysis Thread

Since I only update with a new chapter about once a month, there isn't much reading material widely available, or anything "new" rather. So I hope this thread can substitute for that and keep everyone interested.

More about these proposed disquisitions...... I will be going back through the chapters and including what I'd like to call "author's notes". Where I will talk about things such as cut scenes, the deeper meanings behind some of the situations and of course the key points where foreshadowing occurs.

I will even include some interesting facts about the characters that you didn't even know, which will hopefully give a clearer insight to them.

anyways let's get on with it!


My first victim in this mess is none other than Chapter 1 of Atlantech. I am really going dig deep with this one, hell I'll dig deep with all of them.

So chapter 1 is titled "The Beginning", and I will admit when it came to titling the first chapter, I had my doubts on how to go about it, so the title I selected was simple and to the point; for the first half anyway.

So I started out by introducing some of the history behind Atlantech, the version following the Robotech universe. I described how mankind dealt with alien warfare in the past and how it led to planet Earth's demise and humanity getting tired of war thus resorting to isolating themselves from the rest of the universe, and that's where the introduction to Atlantis City comes into play. Built on the remains of an old planet, yet the humans are unaware of what lurks within those remains. What's funny to me is they didn't seem to care what it was, from their point of view it was nothing but a perfect location for their proposed utopia of a city. Now when I think about Atlantis city, I am reminded of a snow dome. That's exactly what it looks like in some ways, because you've got the city right in the middle of this chunk of a planet, and it's got a large glass like dome over it, which is equipped with a force field.

Only the force field is outside of the dome rather than in it, for obvious reasons. To protect it from any invaders if they happen to pass by and view Atlantis as just another target. For the most part they've been safe for hundreds of years, because that's how long the humans have gone without war. Such a long time, yet Atlantis does seem like the utopia it's made out to be, but looks can be deceiving. While Atlantis city is free of Alien invaders, it's not entirely free of war, as the violence resides within the city itself. You've got all the crimes you can think of going on and the city council who run the city yet don't seem to care about anything but the money they make.

The city council are a totalitarian government and have complete control over everything except the military or "AMF" Atlantis Militia Force. This was due to the fact that the AMF had been around long before the council was organized and Atlantis City itself was still in early development stages. The head council man, Julius Morane had risen to power sometime in the middle and since then he has been trying to get the AMF to surrender its control to him. Morane is your typical power hungry, greedy bastard of a man only he takes it a bit far when he considers himself a god and believes he should be heard and not seen. Even the Atlantis City currency has got "In Morane We Trust" on the back, which further amplifies that this man has deluded even himself into believing he is the absolute power. There is more mystery to him, though I will not mention everything as some of it are considered major spoilers, but he is the type of man who hates to be questioned for anything and will kill anyone who tries to either steal from him, upstage him, or because of personal vendettas. The sadistic truth about this is Morane presents himself to the public as a kind, caring individual, concerned with their well being and eager to improve Atlantis.

The people haven't a damn clue about what he's really up to, and those who do find out get the final kiss off. It is however, no secret that Morane and the council own most of the major businesses, but even still the people don't know about the organized mafias and the embezzlement of their own hard earned cash.
At this point it seems the city council are the ultimate antagonist in the story, but that's only half true.

Atlantis City is one of culture and style, bearing an architectural structure of art deco complete with a jazz age theme. It's not the most futuristic setting one would expect in the year 4000, but still the city has its technological advances. I'd say it's pretty hodge podge in the futuristic realm, but the technology is pretty basic, though there are some exceptions... more about that later. But in my mind, Atlantis City needed a sophisticated style, one that worked well with the art deco structure and so the jazz age was perfect and I went with it.
It's a city of style and artistic merit, and the clothing and hair styles of the jazz age all fit well into this description. But like I said it's all hodge podge especially with the technology, but there are some funny things from the jazz age I decided to include, such as the music, and a lot of the old time gadgets and gizmos. But I've got to admit, the jazz music is something that I myself love a lot.
There is also a lack of color, when it comes to photos, news print and advertisements throughout the city. Sepia tones and black & white, but there is some color usage though it isn't much. I like the look of old photos and ads, and decided to keep it as such because it just works with the whole concept. Also sepia toned portraits actually have more story telling ability to them than color ones do.

And I will admit the direction I decided to go with everything has made it more fun and exciting, because to me it's just fresh and original. And yes many will question me about it but I will give them all the same answer. "It just works for me and I like it".

Now let's get back to where we were before...

I've talked about the city's design and culture, trying to give the readers an insight to what they're getting themselves into, but I forgot to mention that while Atlantis is a city of artistic value, it's also a gambler's paradise. It was after all modeled after the old Earth cities such as Vegas and New York, and so it is a city that never sleeps or sees the light of day. When humanity isolated itself, they actually picked a location far away from the sun. The remains which Atlantis was built on, was actually drifting behind Saturn in the shadows and so it's always night time in Atlantis, though the people treat it differently as they still consider 12 hours as part of "Day" and the rest night obviously. To me this makes this universe of mine more interesting and even amusing. There are far more amusing concepts but I'll get to those later.

While the city isn't the most technologically advanced it still has its interesting points, such as the automated vehicles (that's right, driving is in the past) called "cabs". and the artificial weather system built into the city. When I say artificial I don't mean literal weather because it doesn't rain or snow, instead it's just a temperature controlled unit which does just that, controls the temperature in the city. Even in the year 4000, Summer, Fall, Winter & Spring are still around, only it isn't what you'd expect. It's just based on the temperature of given season, such as the temperature being hot during the summer and cold in the winter. It's supposed to emulate life on earth as it once was, just so holidays and such are not completely forgotten. Now more about the technology, because I know you're just dying on anticipation!

As far as anything futuristic goes, there is the voice activation command technology. This is usually used on doors, cabs, menus, and just about anything else you can think of. There are also video phones, which are also voice activated and the mecha as well. But first, it is important to explain just where all this technology comes from. The ones responsible for its development are none other than a company known as Atlantech. (Atlantis + Technology) The company had been around for a long time only it took them a while to give themselves their widely respected name. In the early years they had been responsible for developing technology for the AMF and only much later did they start doing the same for the city. Atlantech is pretty much owned by the AMF, as the company's building is located near the AMF Airbase.
This is another point of interest that Morane and the council would like to get their mitts on, because all of the twisted ones can't have power without technology.

When it was announced that Atlantech was developing specialized fighter jets for the AMF, Morane and the council jumped right in and offered to assist in the project in hopes of gaining some control over it. The Captain of the AMF, Abraham Grant accepted Morane's offer for some oblivious reason and once the council assisted in the funds for the project, Atlantech took the money but excluded any involvement of the council, and the only one who know what exactly was going on was Captain Grant. Lack of information began to drive Morane insane and he demanded to know what was going on. Grant had been subtle about giving away the details but either way Morane grew suspicious and was determined to find out for himself. (This is where the character and android Stan Winston becomes important)

The project had been titled "Galactic Knight" and Atlantech took over it without the council's knowledge, they did use the money the council had funded though as it was somewhere in the billions. (Morane was desperate) The figthter Jets were named AF Prototypes or "GK AF". They were pretty standard models, only they resembled the old stealth fighters with an art deco structure to them. Only 100 of them were produced and kept in the AMF's underground hangar. Few of them were used for actual testing, though most of it was done using simulation operated units. For the longest time not very many knew about the prototypes, and Atlantech was determined to keep everything quiet until they had been approved by the AMF. This angered Morane and the council even more and soon they found themselves funding their own technology to create a secret weapon to use and act as a spy against the AMF and Atlantech.

Morane had gotten involved with a secret company that specialized in artificial intelligence and used them to create a human android which would disguise himself as a soldier and collect information at the same time. There's an even bigger mystery concerning the development of this android who was named Stan Winston, and there was even a rumor that Stan was created using the brain of Morane's deceased son.
Either way Stan was Morane's most expensive project and most of the money he used in the creating process had been embezzled from the people of Atlantis. It was also crucial that Stan's true identity remain confidential, so only the council and those who worked for them knew the secret. Stan had also been in charge of protecting his own identity and the secrets of the council and would act as an assassin to get rid of anyone who was suspicious or found out the truth.

Stan was the perfect tool to use for this because being that he's not human, there's no evidence he can leave behind. In a sense he is the perfect killer, because it's quite evident that he could never get caught.

Now back to Chapter 1


The first character I introduce is William Sterling, a young corporal of the AMF who also becomes close friends with Stan Winston unbeknownst that he is an android. There is a little bit of history between the two, as in William was the first person to treat Stan like an actual human, and this is something that helped form that bond. Stan is supposed to be evil, deadly and yet he becomes loyal to this young soldier, even acting as a body guard at times. Whatever caused the bond, it's a strong one and even causes a bit of conflict when Brian Smith comes into the picture. (more about that later) Anyways William sterling seems to have quite a history of being an outcast, a target for ridicule, and even hated. He is half alien or in the robotech universe half zentraedi. (he is a sterling after all) Life for him is complicated, but being that's hes such a complete push over, he just takes it. The racist and snide remarks about him being a hybrid do get to him, but he's just not the type of person to stand up for himself. Stan sees and notices this, which is why I think he acts as a body guard because William is just too reluctant to defend himself.

It doesn't bother him that he's not an ace, though it is expected of him to follow in the footsteps of his ancestors. He's just a happy guy that also has to deal with the crap people give him, and due to the fact the council has no control over the AMF, they've brainwashed the people of Atlantis into being anti military.
Soldiers aren't very popular and they are even looked down on just like aliens, and so William has the best of both worlds, he's a soldier but also of alien heritage. But like I mentioned before, he's a push over and not because he's weak, he's just a nice guy and doesn't want to sink to the levels of others.
But among other things, he is a hopeless romantic and does end up obsessing over a woman some would say he stands no chance with, because they come from different worlds. This woman is none other than the jazz age prima donna and washed up movie star, Victoria Thompson.

A blonde flapper of a gal obsessed with following in her mother's footsteps.

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