Teisel's Past: Fifty Shades Of Grey Hair

[Kyle]

Another discussion thread, because bugger it, people just can't get enough of them. 

As we all know, Teisel Bonne is the charismatic(?) and dauntless leader(?!) of the Bonne's piracy ventures. With his luscious long locks of grey hair, chiseled features and striking ey- Sorry, got carried away there. Lemme' start over. Teisel Bonne is an endearing large ham that most people on MMLS know and love to this day simply because we've witnessed his interactions within the MML universe throughout the entire series. Rightly so, as his personality is nothing less than hilarious. But what about the stuff he haven't seen? 

For example, what was Teisel like before the Gesellschaft was constructed? What was he like before his eyes got swapped out for cybernetic replacements? Heck, did he always want to be a pirate, or was it a lifestyle of necessity over preference? From one quick glance at the family portrait he keeps up in his room, it's clear that artificial eyes and grey hair weren't his natural phenotype.   So, what sparked the sudden change of appearance? Personally, I'd like to think that in his youth, Teisel started off as a fresh-faced digger that had a near-fatal encounter with the ol' Reaverbots. Afterwards, he gave up the digging game and chose the life of a pirate, not wishing the inflict the same fate on his younger siblings, or worse, get killed, leaving Tron and Bon to fend for themselves.

What do you guys think? Optical damage and the sheer shock at almost dying seem like plausible explanations in my head.

[Dashe]

MoTB spoilers for anyone who hasn't played and has the money to actually buy it.

While I always chalked the gray hair up to bad genetics, I really like Aarond's take on what went down with his eyes. Where the Bonnes' estate was attacked by pirates and Teisel went blind when something blew up in his face during his daring escape. A digging accident doesn't sound too far-fetched either, since I've yet to see him venture underground on foot...or anywhere on foot...heck, he opted to stay in Kimotoma and handle the civilians while Tron and Bon did the dirty work underground.

The problem with a Reaverbot accident specifically, though, would be that it'd have to be very specifically focused damage, since Captain Teisellock aside, he doesn't have any scarring on his face at all. Either that thing was just aiming to gouge his eyes out in the middle of a ruin before going in for the kill after blinding his opponent (which would probably be plenty traumatizing, I'm sure), or he could've just sustained some kind of impact-induced head injury.

It would admittedly be a bit of a let-down if the official reason for the eye implants went something like "Well, normally he'd be wearing glasses, but that's a little unwieldy for such an active lifestyle." Considering the evolution of the concept art that might not actually be too far off, but an accident or foul play of some sort would at least help explain why he's always so extreme in everything he does, coupled with his ability to concoct multi-tiered plans like "Nab Diana's Tear. If caught by Loath en route to Nakkai, then snag the gold refractor they're looking for while working off the Gesellschaft loan debt in their dungeon, then wait for Tron to come to the rescue and make off with the bigger prize instead." That's quite a bit more involved than your standard quirky villain trio would be capable of plotting out.

[maverick]

My headcannon is that there was some sort of accident involving the Bonne family a couple years back that left Teisel and Bon at the brink of death, while Tron was lucky and only ended up with minor scrapes and bruises. Tron being the engineering genius that she is, was able to save both her brother's lives by retrofitting their bodies with mechanical augmentations. Which is why they look more machine than organic compared to her.

It's pretty well established that the carbons have some sort of affinity to tech which allows them to integrate themselves almost seamlessly with different devices.

As far as Bon goes, he was around 3 when he was almost killed, but right now is actually a few years older. Due to the trauma he suffered at such a young age, he suffers from some form of impeded development. This would explain why he can only say 'babu' but is able to move around in a variety of mechanical bodies. My guess is that Bon either had his brain put into the suit we see in the games, or his consciousness was uploaded to the mech suit.

Back to Teisel, I'd guess that maybe his family was pretty well off, but one day a rivel family they had some type of beef with attacked their estate (think Montagues and Capulets) and ended up driving them out of business, leaving them broke. This would be why they turned to pirating, they needed money, and wanted to lash out due to their misfortune.

[Dashe]

With Teisel, we know he can take that suit off and wear street clothes. His eyes and hair are still red and grey respectively.

If his room is any indication, he seems to sleep on the couch and have a drinking and hoarding problem, too. That room looked so much bigger in MML1.

[maverick]

Bah, that completely blows my headcannon out of water >_> I've never played the second game so I did not know he could take his armor off. So much for a possibly dark back story. I do think he comes from a very affluent family, and probably ended up losing the family's fortune one way or another. This would explain why he became a pirate and is seemingly so money conscious.

[MegaTuga]

This is actually something that I am seriously studying (and by studying I mean making conjectures until I hit the jackpot) for the fanfic I am writing. (If you read it, Teisel does not have his implanted red eyes yet but he wears red sunglasses as a shout-out)

But Like Dashe said, Teisel is not the field work kind of guy, but an accident during a Reaverbot fight is not 100% out of the question, as much as I would like to refute. Also it could be something that began when the family turned into Piracy (if they weren't before) and Teisel was not yet used to pillage and plundering and made a slight mistake like too much explosives to open a safe or something. Something that would require a little bit more danger and the poor guy was not used to it.

[Dashe]

Hey now, maverick, just because he can take off his armor doesn't rule out a dark backstory entirely!

MoTB and MML2 reveal a bit more information about him--he seems to have a lot of interest in starting a legitimate business but isn't very good about how he uses his money. Between Legends 1 and Legends 2 he meant to start up a department store, but it went under because he only stocked it with things he liked...probably toys of some kind if the manuals have any validity.

In MoTB he openly mentions that their mother died, and the artbook from The Reploid Research Lavatory says the dad's dead, too. My guess would be that losing their parents directly resulted in the Bonnes losing whatever it was that kept them out of debt. Ever read "A Different Time?" If not, then you can get by on just chapters 7-14. That probably could've just been its own fic, looking at it, but his theory isn't too shabby. It could have been a bit darker than it was, and he seemed to have dropped the ball with Bon halfway through, but you get what I'm saying, right? I mean, if you want to go really dark, you could always toss in a hostage situation where he gets tortured or something insane like that. If his parents were particularly important on top of being really loaded, you never know. He could've ended up being a target for that kind of thing.

I've had my own theory baking in the oven for a while and it's juuuuust about ready. It could probably use a few more minutes till it's nice and crispy and all that jazz.

[Servbot42]

I don't know if he has a hoarding problem based on what we see there. He just can't keep his room clean. I live next to real hoarders and that is nothing. The Gesellschaft wouldn't even be able to fly if that's what he was like.

This thread made me realize that I haven't actually developed my theories about Teisel or the Bonnes basically since I played the game as a kid. I remember deciding that his eye situation must have been some sort of extreme career-related choice since Gramps had them as well. That, or there is a type of Reaverbot designed specifically to pluck out eyeballs. In a world where people like Teisel and Gramps make most of their living by going into dark, ancient, and dangerous ruins, I don't think it's completely unbelievable that they would willingly choose to have artificial eyes implanted to increase their odds of survival and gettin dat money...if those eyes do anything special, that is. I like to think they AT LEAST have night vision.

And as for the Bonnes in general, I figured that their parents died somehow and the Bonne kids decided to just be pirates. In MoTB, it doesn't feel like they have really done any pirating yet. With the ship, the machines, and the army of sentient, indestructible Servbots, they just kind of come off as that type of person who wants to become an enthusiast of some hobby and gets all the materials before starting. Like those people, the Bonnes gave it up pretty quickly. After the Kattelox debacle, they tried to start a legitimate business before Teisel's extravagance forced them to go back to piracy. They're bored rich people trying to pass the time!

[Kyle]

May 22, 2014 21:09:24 GMT -5 Servbot42 said:

 Like those people, the Bonnes gave it up pretty quickly. After the Kattelox debacle, they tried to start a legitimate business before Teisel's extravagance forced them to go back to piracy. They're bored rich people trying to pass the time!

*More MoTB spoilers. Play the game, dangit.*

Let's not forget about MoTB, which resulted in Teisel and Bon being forced into digging, Tron having to lead a one-woman charge to rescue them, Lex Loath almost killing the entire family, plus taking over the world, and one derpy Servbot throwing out the fruits of their labour as trash. If that wasn't cause enough to at least rage-quit, I don't know what is. 

Really, I always chalked 'em up as good-hearted folks that merely chose a questionable choice of employment. That department store was Teisel's attempt at living a life on the 'straight and narrow', so to speak.

[Dashe]

May 23, 2014 7:26:17 GMT -5 Kyle said:

Let's not forget about MoTB, which resulted in Teisel and Bon being forced into digging, Tron having to lead a one-woman charge to rescue them, Lex Loath almost killing the entire family, plus taking over the world, and one derpy Servbot throwing out the fruits of their labour as trash. If that wasn't cause enough to at least rage-quit, I don't know what is. 

You forgot one thing, though.  Let's let Teisel's first line after the credits roll do the talking here:

"Still, our plan worked perfectly...I pretend to be caught and check
out Loath's operation, and Tron comes and rescues me, while we get the
Loaths and the treasure! A perfect plan, executed perfectly!"

Unless he was just bluffing again like after Bruno blew up and he pretended to throw in the towel.  Actually, come to think of it, that line sounds exactly as fake as the one about the blue sky on a cloudless day.  I'm gonna have to cross-reference Rob Smith's line delivery on that one.  It's been a while since I last heard it.  So he's either smart enough to write up a moderately-intense gambit or he's the sort of person who'd pretend his mistakes were part of the plan all along to keep everyone from freaking out at the thought of him being in charge.  

[Kyle]

Definitely bluffing. Tron was completely unaware of his so-called gambit, and he was even the middle of writing a "if anything happens to me" letter when she storms into his cell. 

[MegaTuga]

I agree. Teisel sounds like the kind of guy who gets in trouble, somehow manages to get out of it accidentally, and then takes up all the credit with a made-up strategy. All in favor of good old comedy and laughs. Typical of Teisel's character I suppose.

[Deleted]

I personally believe Teisel played his role as an overprotective older brother to Tron and Bon a lot more seriously before MoTB. He didn't seem want Tron to participate in the first mission, correct?

As for his grey hair, guess he was quite stressed being the head of the family?

Maybe he didn't lose his eyesight, but decided to get optics for improved eyesight and other nifty features?

[Traingham]

I also kind of chalked up his grey hair to being stressed out.