Welcome new subscribers! We are taking a break in our story as I frantically finish the last book in the Horrible Bag trilogy. You can read all existing chapters of the Teenage Robot story (and other newsletters) by clicking the link below

https://robrenzetti.com/newsletter-archive/

Continuing this week with more pages from the original My Life as a Teenage Robot show bible.

Time for the villains! You'll see that these descriptions are thin compared to our main characters. The joy of villains is that can be nasty and over-the-top and relatively simple. Of course, if you keep them too simple you and your audience will get bored with them. Inevitably, you dive deeper into who they are and complicate their personality. But only if they've proven to be interesting enough to earn multiple appearances.

Brit and Tiff are among my favorite characters. They were always designed to be Jenny's main foes. But even they get a very perfunctory description. The idea that they are fashion icons is completely absent, something that we relied on heavily to make them distinctive. And yet I manage to add a tidbit we never used in the show — Brit's an orphan! Who knew? (Not me. I forgot I wrote that.)

Who can forget the Defensive Action Force?! Everyone it turns out. The idea of an international group of bureaucrats barely got off the ground. Skyway Patrol took the place of the D.A.F. and we ended up focusing on their love of paperwork only once, when Brad temporarily joined up.

Lots of ideas for the Cluster, most of them unused. Secret Society? Not really. They often use skullduggery on Earth but their "society" is on Cluster Prime. Disfunctional royal family? Not until "Escape from Cluster Prime" and never again. Smytus and Krackus end up filling that role but they have no familial relationship with Vexus. If they did, Vexus would've disowned them.

There's a big oversight in this short list of evildoers — The Space Bikers! They were originally created on the spot for "The Return of Raggedy Android" and weren't meant to return, but I fell in love with them right away. Their chaotic brand of mischief was something the show sorely needed. Other one-shot villains would earn their place in the regular roster such as Kilgore and Armagedroid but the Bikers proved to be the most useful.

More bible pages next week!