Alternative Character Interpretation: The major issue discussed in-universe is whether Will's consciousness was truly uploaded or simply a self-aware machine with his memories trying to enslave the planet to its purpose. The notion it may have been him at first, but simply evolved so far beyond being human that it no longer matters, is also brought up. Ultimately it's revealed it was in fact Will all along and his intentions were always good.
Designated Hero: The film's supposed heroes are a terrorist group who have no problem killing innocent people, and see a Stone Age throwback for humanity as an acceptable price to pay if it means stopping artificial intelligence. All this is made worse by The Reveal that it wasn't an evil AI trying to conquer the world, but Will trying to fulfill his wife's dreams by making the world a better place.
Given their methods, though, it often feels questionable whether they're actually intended as the heroes or whether the movie was intentionally operating within shades of grey.
Growing the Beard: For cinematographer Jess Hall, who started out working on Hot Fuzz. His work on this film is regarded as the best thing about the movie.
How many millions of people died when the crash of the entire world's power networks shut down hospitals, stopped providing refrigeration for food, stopped helping regulate temperature in extreme regions, etc.?
How many planes and ships out there were lost without air traffic control and GPS?
The instant after the scene where modified humans are introduced we cut to the leader of the RIFF group saying "We call them HYBRIDS!" and showing photos of them. The fact that they so quickly came up with a sci-fi name for them is so cliche that it's funny.
Not so narmy if you realize that Bree has basically come up with a racist slur - declaring them Not Even Human.
Given the fact that RIFT appears to have been thinking about some sort of cyber apocalypse for a long time, it's also possible that they already had come up with the term and were just waiting to use it.
One of said hybrids during the climatic battle. He leaps three feet straight up onto a ladder in such an accelerated, stereotypically robotic fashion that it invokes laughter rather than awe. "They must be superhuman! They're slightly better at climbing ladders!"
Sci-Fi Ghetto: The movie gets a lot of flak, but some viewed it as a much better look at the science involved than quasi-magical Dueling WorkLucy
So Okay, It's Average: As a piece of cinematography, it's wonderful (expected given that it's from the DP of Inception). As a directorial debut, "meh".
Breather Level: St. Katherine's Star is almost totally peaceful and has plenty of chances to resupply and get high-end military gear. It's a nice break between the Charon system and the Sung territories.
Demonic Spiders: Lots, especially later on in the game. Some of these are obvious: giant capital ships with heavy weapons that can take down your shields in a couple of shots (and no, these aren't bosses in mook clothing near the end of the game, expect to face several at a time regularly). Others, not so much— the Sung Slavers will hack your ship to lower your shields or glitch up your sensors, leaving you a sitting duck against their ship-disabling ion cannons.
The early-game Demonic Spider is definitely the Corsair II. Looks exactly like a wimpy Corsair, but packs weaponry and shields comparable to the player's starting ship, so it takes some work to bring even one of them down. And it comes in packs, just like the regular Corsair.
Late-game Demonic Spiders depend on how powerful your ship is, but Huari Destroyers are a common menace because their multiple slam cannons, in addition to dealing heavy damage, will keep knocking you back at extremely long range so you can't hit back at them. They also tend to patrol quite a long way from their home base so you can't always tell where they'll show up.
Dwarg ships carry an absurdly long-ranged homing xiphon cannon which will stunlock you once it gets through your shields, and even an ICX has trouble shooting it down. And they reflect particle beams at a point where almost all weapons are particle based. And they're accompanied by a rather vicious swarm of zoanthrope raiders.
Heliotropes carry blinder cannons, which rip through your shields and then blind you once they hit your armor, and their turbolasers can finish the job quickly once they're through your armor.
Barbary-class gunships carry EMP cannons, which disable your ship. Not as bad as the Dwarg, at least, since they'll run away as soon as you drop their shields.
Ventari carry ion disruptors which can permanently damage your systems, though this has been nerfed in the post-1.01 betas.
Epileptic Trees: the community has a large number of theories (a number rather wild, despite the the developer saying that no convoluted conspiracy theories would ever be used in the plot) regarding the nature of Domina's mission for the player)
Grey-and-Grey Morality: Virtually every theory calls this, seeing as from what the community can see, you can either save the galaxy at the cost of humanity, or save humanity (for a while) and end up killing the galaxy in the end.
Why is Charon system, the home of the pirates, right next to St. Katherine's Star system, the heart of the Commonwealth? That's like having pirates off the coast of New York City. You can destroy the pirate fortress single-handedly, so surely St. K has enough military force to sweep them out.
Goddamned Bats: The multiple varieties of miniature ships which end up orbiting you firing with weak weapons that nevertheless slowly wear away your shields while you struggle to swat them. Hornets, Corsairs, and Zulus are all contenders for this title. Zulus get bonus points for resisting laser weapons, with which two of the three starters are equipped.
Many, many lategame enemies will run away as soon as you drop their shields. This means that after you've destroyed an enemy base, the survivors will harass you for a very long time until you finally chase them down. The ones that best fit this trope are the Penitents and Rogue fleet, who don't have very strong weapons but always use this tactic.
Nightmare Fuel: Wanna take a guess as to what happened to the crew of the Huygens Explorer...?
Rescued from the Scrappy Heap: In TX2, the Luminous are removed from their status as scrappies, along with the Autons. Version 1.05 of Transcendence also changes the Ventari weapons to cause 'ionisation', which will fix itself after a short time.
This ridiculously over-the-top gem from chapter 61.
Her words died a cruel horrible death that left every single person in the chamber to despair at its loss and the twisted way it had been murdered.
While discussing Shakespeare with Adelina and Caren, Ichigo begins reciting the playwright's romantic poetry. He doesn't quote one or two lines mind you, he recites an entire paragraph. With zero provocation. It is every bit as unintentionally hilarious as it sounds.
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