White Gestalt enter a Car ruled by a certain warlord...
This arc contains examples of:
- Achilles' Heel:
- Mad Ben's powers come from his Omnitrix; if you strike it down while he's recharging, then he's good as done. However, you have to hit it with just enough power so it doesn't activate the failsafe.
- Speaking of which, Mad Ben's Omnitrix cannot give him copies of humans or denizens. Gladion exploits this by having Easter take over Specter, since they're a denizen-human fusion.
- The Apunkalypse: The general theme of the car and Mad Ben in particular.
- Armor-Piercing Question:
- Having gotten pissed at London constantly asking questions, Easter points one back: Why is London so obsessed with helping Specter when he won't reveal his problems?
- When Lillie noted that her mother never learned about her trauma, Dulse questioned if Lillie ever told Lusamine about it.
- Bait-and-Switch: Tokio's Puppy-Dog Eyes act looks like it didn't work...and then there are signs of the audience fawning over him, along with Hog Roader squeeing at how he wants to take the boy home.
- Call-Back: Mad Ben remarks that he liked Tokio's threat to detonate the Apex.
- Call-Forward:
- The Cyan Desert Car gets mentioned with Lin stating it's a dream for one of the korai to tell stories. Larkspur ends up being the representative.
- When London talks about wrestlers, he brings up how Broken Hardy vanished into thin air. In Blossoming Trail, Walter and Henry revealed how BROKEN Matt once passed the Fog Car and gave the premonition for Chloe being Lady Destiny.
- Canon Foreigner: 'Mad Chromastone' and 'Mad Ampfibian' was never shown in canon, though never said to not exist.
- Cool Car: The cars driven by the participants of the Desert Racetrack Car. Not so much the the jeep White Gstalt uses which would've been okay in somewhere other than the Mad Max Car.
- Crazy Enough to Work: Sandwiched between Dick Dastardly and the Hog Bomber, London tells Tokio to use his cuteness as a distraction. Tokio begrudgingly does so and Hog Roader is so distracted by his cuteness that he ends up crashing into the Mean Machine.
- Curb Stomp Cushion: Easter ends up electrocuting Mad Ben's Omnitrix and downright kills him...until it's revealed that they unleashed the Omnitrix's failsafe and Mad Ben has turned into Mad Chromastone.
- Cuteness Proximity: Invoked by London, who tells Tokio to use his cute looks as a distraction. Tokio then pulls up an adorable bunny act that makes the entire audience and some hardened drivers to melt at the look. Even after the cars crash and he's looking dizzy, the audience just fawns over him (much to his annoyance).
- Description Cut: After London makes a truce with Easter to stop needling Specter about his past, he questions he'd like to know what the hell is going on. The scene then cuts to Ryoken confronting Yusaku, Takeru and Aoi about what's been going on.
- Did Not Think This Through:
- Gladion decides to have Easter take over to help fight Mad Ben...and watches as Easter electrocutes Mad Ben's Power watch, seemingly killing him. Thankfully, the failsafe took over and turned Mad Ben into Mad Chromastone.
- Specter getting an adrenaline rush behind the wheel of the Kendrick and chewing out Mad Ben made him realize way too late that Mad Ben's ire is directed at their tiny jeep (and that he has no driving experience) and could've ended with them in serious loads of trouble had Gladion not use Lycanroc's Counter in time.
- In the same vein, Specter points out that the chance of Ben Prime and Ben-23 arriving to fight Mad Ben are slim to none due to the nature of the Train and how he doesn't even want to drop his number to zero in the chances of actually encountering them again.
- Finally, if Mad Ben just ignored Specter's jabs and focused on winning, victory would have been his. Instead, he focuses on trying to destroy White Gestalt and is faced with Lycanroc's Counter doing serious damage on his car and the result ending in a tie, along with the audience favoring the underdogs and him having no choice but to swallow his pride as to not lose credibility and because his car was totaled.
- Double Standard: Lillie whines that it's all Gladion's fault for her trauma but Dulse brings up a counterpoint: what reason does she have for not telling Lusamine sooner?
- "Eureka!" Moment: Facing Mad Ben and his Omnitrix emulating anything non-human, Gladion asks if Mad Ben can copy a human. When Mad Ben says it will just make him "peak" human, Gladion already has his idea, see below.
- Exact Words:
- When Mad Ben states he can use his Power Watch to transform into a different species, Gladion asks if that includes human. Mad Ben replies that it'll just make him the peak human, giving Gladion the idea to have Silvally electrocute Specter to swap him with Easter because Easter is a denizen fused with a human and Mad Ben can't scan humans or denizens.
- Specter tells Gladion he does not want to swap with Easter against the denizens. After he swaps back from Easter after the brawl with Mad Ben, Gladion brings up that Specter never said anything about fighting off Mad Ben.
- Expy: The Hog Bomber's drivers are essentially denizen versions of Junkrat and Road Hog.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Mad Ben is a tyrant, but even he's incredulous of Gladion commanding Sivally to attack Specter.
- Famed In-Story: This chapter begins the legend of the White Gestalt as Grace and Simon listen to their feats over the radio at the end of the arc.
- Faux Horrific: Ash acts this way when he realizes that if Viren takes over Kiawe's ranch, there will be no more ice cream. Zossie discusses this in a serious talk to Dulse; while it's not as bad as an Ultra Beast attack, she tells Dulse that to have such a simple moment under the sun in comparison to where they live is such a rarity and she may never get this chance again.
- Flat "What": Gladion and Specter's reaction to Tokio's Puppy-Dog Eyes.
- Flaw Exploitation: During their race, London notes that Mad Ben's weakness is his pride. As London states, Mad Ben is "An edgelord and wants to take things seriously" so the witch sisters and their puns and anything that pokes at his pride will blind him in rage. Specter steps in to do what he does best, psychological mind games, to make Mad Ben so angry that he forgoes a victory to crush the Kendrick...and subsequently puts them in a tie.
- Full-Name Basis: Mad Rath calls London by his full name, "Paul Michael London", to which the wrestler even lampshades how they know his middle name.
- Gamer Chick: From what Gladion remembers, his mother and Wicke are Video Game/Overwatch fans.
- Graceful Loser: Subverted; Mad Ben has to act like this when he and White Gestalt ties else lose his credibility, but he does allow the White Gestalt to leave since they made it to the finish line.
- I Gave My Word: For all of Mad Ben's flaws, he lets White Gestalt leave since they didn't lose and still made it to the finish line (and also because if he starts getting mad at the underdogs, it would ruin his credibility; not to mention that he needs to fix his car from the crash)Mad Ben: ...You didn’t lose, and you crossed the finish line. That’s enough to qualify. I’m not unfair. Now scram before I change my mind.
- Lampshade Hanging: Ash questions why Electivire always seem drawn to assholes (Virien and Paul).
- Large Ham:
- LET ME TELL YOU SOMETHING! Mad Rath.
- When Easter takes over, they unleash a howl of I LIVE!!!! in response.
- Lame Pun Reaction: Mad Ben hates puns as shown by the witch sisters' constant use of them.
- Missing Steps Plan: Zossie's plan to catch a Pokémon is just to find one and poof, there it is! Dulse counters that she needs to find which Pokémon she's getting, figuring out where they live and then finding a way to capture it.
- Mythology Gag: London names their ramshackle jeep "The Kendrick" which has a white paint job and red slashes on the side. Brian Kendrick's gimmick as "The Brian Kendrick" in his '07 run gave him a white leather jacket with three red slashes on the back.
- Noodle Incident:
- The previous car the White Gestalt entered before the Desert Racetrack Car was a maid café car.
- The way Mad Ben comments on Easter's situation with Specter implies he's met Yu-Gi-Oh characters that have had spirit advisors take over.
- Mad Ben also is implied to have met a Lapis Lazuli and a Twilight vampire, though if they are any whose names we'd know is unclear as the context or the timeframe.
- "Not Making This Up" Disclaimer: London rattles off the numerous Aztec tribes from Lucha Underground and states that there is such thing as Moth Tribe.
- Not So Above It All: Specter gets into the driving business that he asks London if they can switch (to which London refuses as Specter doesn't have driving experience) so Specter gets his monsters to make them switch places.
- Oh, Crap!:
- Gladion, London and Tokio react like this when Easter's lightning attack seemingly kills Mad Ben.
- London shouts "SHIT!!!!" when Mad Ben decides to ram his monstrosity of a car into their jeep and Specter also has this realization when he can't steer the jeep away in time (Because he foolishly got caught up in the race that he swapped places with London even though he can't drive).
- Poor Communication Kills: Dulse brings up how Lillie had every chance to tell Lusamine about her trauma and that she's also responsible for why it lasted longer than it should.
- Precision F-Strike: Dulse screams "That BASTARD!" at Viren.
- Puppy-Dog Eyes: London's plan for Tokio is to enact this, and it works. Hog Roader is so smitten by it that he's distracted and crashes into Dick Dastardly.
- The Reveal:
- London's number has now climbed all the way to his wrist.
- The last scene of Part 1 reveals some of the answers as to Easter's personality; it turns out Specter was getting information about the Earth Ignis from Takeru, Yusaku and Aoi along with asking them about the bonds they had with their Ignis.
- Ryoken somehow has seen a nightmare of Specter being under electrical torture tinged with a green glow.
- Rejected Apology: Saltador is never going to forgive London for offering him and Mala Suerte to Matanza.
- Shout-Out:
- After Mad Ben and White Gestalt ties, Gladion then shouts about how they have triumphed in the race despite the entire car mocking them before questioning "Are you not entertained?!"
- One of the contestants shouts "Your mum's an armadillo!"
- Stepford Smiler: Zossie is shown to be one of these as she calmly tells Dulse why she's so obsessed with having ice cream is because this might be her only chance to enjoy it under a beautiful sun.
- Stunned Silence: The entire car becomes this when White Gestalt ties with Mad Ben.
- This Is Gonna Suck: London reacts this way upon learning that they have to win a race when they've got no experience with building cars or racing... and that he, in fact, is the only member of the White Gestalt that knows how to drive.
- Ultimate Lifeform: Each and every form that Mad Ben can take is the peak specimen of the species. However he can't use it on humans, denizens or a fused denizen-human as shown with Easter.
- Underdogs Never Lose: White Gestalt doesn't win the race, but their tie against Mad Ben and their individual achievements getting to be one of the last car in the races are praised by everyone. Mad Ben "concedes" the victory to the White Gestalt before subtly telling them to jet to save his pride.
- Villain Ball: Mad Ben is just a few feet away from the finish line and claiming victory, but he gets so pissed at Specter's jabs that he foregoes winning to try and destroy the White Gestalt...and ends up having the two pass the finish line at the same time, ending it in a tie.
- Villain Respect: After Dick Dastardly crashes his car with the Hog Roader because Hog Roader got distracted with Tokio's bunny eyes, he comments that London's idea to use Tokio's cuteness as a weapon was pretty smart.
- Wacky Racing: The plot of Part 2 is White Gestalt participating in a race to defeat Mad Ben so they can leave.
- You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!: London states this when one of the racers happens to be Dick Dastardly.
