u/Tythatguy1312

So obviously we've all unfortunately heard of the Oppressor Mk2, the vehicle so overpowered that it did irreparable damage to GTA Online. It's a vehicle of pure hate and we all know that fact... but because of that I question if there's something about it we're missing. Namely as to why and how such a machine would've been created in the first place lorewise.

So the Oppressor, fundamentally, doesn't really make much sense as a realistic vehicle. This should not be shocking, it's a flying motorbike with an explosive cannon built in and no discernible place for fuel. The question of how it's been created has already been answered, as one of the Halloween updates confirmed it was reverse engineered using alien tech at Fort Zancudo, probably from the crashed UFO. But there's still the question as to why.

I reckon it's the first vehicle to use alien tech, likely predating the other in-game UFOs which are more likely manmade. It also may represent Fort Zancudo simply ceasing to care, as just about anyone in GTA Online can buy this genuinely alien powered machine to go shoot at unarmed vans on smuggling missions for fun. It may not merely be the first, but indicating the point in time where the tech in the UFOs generally goes Public, and naturally it had to utterly destroy any sense of fun GTA Online had to do so

Built for Top Gear and legally a TVR, I'm not explaining anything story wise go watch the episode. But it's built on a TVR Chassis, uses the power train from a Milk Float and looks like THAT.

Bonus: His win was only upheld as the nominal winner, Frederick Lorz, actively took a car for part of the length of the marathon, which was an even more severe breach of conduct.

Look my initial idea was to throw the Kitbash Yeager at the Quadrant this is better.

So obviously Janeway used Kirk's Enterprise in a tangent about how long it'd take to get home from the Caretaker array. Based on this I'm now questioning what'd happen if Kirk's Enterprise actually did vanish into the Delta Quadrant.

To set the scene, the year is 2266. Kirk is in command of his freshly refit ship for a 5 year mission as Pike's face melted when the ship is yoinked through space and time to the Delta Quadrant of 2371. What happens from here? Enterprise is a, fine explorer but she's not Voyager so this could be interesting. Does Enterprise make it? Does Kirk kill the Borg with a logic puzzle? And how do the Alpha & Beta Quadrants of the 2260's adapt to the fact that Enterprise made like so many other Constitutions and vanished?

I have my own thoughts but I wanna hear yours instead.

Yes, this is self propelled, to a terrifying degree. Built for a Trench Railway and finding itself on the Ffestiniog as WW1 Surplus, Busta was little more than a bench with an engine that had to be started by pushing and jumping on as it had no clutch. This is already sketchy as hell but it gets worse, as the vehicle was re-engined in 1955 with a Petter engine from a sawbench and given an actual gearbox. Given the reputation it promptly gained this was likely a 10hp Type M. It was, in no uncertain terms, absolutely terrifying, given it weighed nothing, ran on 2ft gauge and was suddenly considerably fast. Within 5 years it was dismantled, mercifully not killing anyone.

Somehow Busta Returned.

It was rebuilt in 2005 with a Douglas Flat Twin Engine, likely also around 10hp, and is now used fairly sparingly because it's still Sketchy as Hell.

Ok. Spicy title. I know. I'm not about to pop off about how Nutrek isn't real because the ships look funky. My beef is with the Damocles and nothing else.

The Damocles (NCC-1279 in the show) debuted in the SNW episode The Broken Circle, with the ship cobbled together by Klingon Terrorists with a Crossfield Saucer, RetConstitution Nacelles and 2 potentially custom connectors. The ship isn't positively identified as a Damocles class but instead as a Crossfield, further cementing the ship as cobbled together since the Crossfield looks fairly different, at least according to half of Discovery and that 1 mid Trelane episode.

The problems begin with SNW using this actively fake UFP ship as a real one in the background instead of the multiple real UFP designs from Discovery. I do not know why the VFX team did this. This, naturally, leads to the fairly significant question: Why is this fake UFP drsign appearing as a real ship? By all metrics, the Damocles shouldn't exist.

...Yeah there's no hiding that identity. Though I do question how it fits in the Enterprise D's shuttlebay given it ranges from 8-15x the size depending on how the BSG VFX team were feeling that day.

So we all know how Wilbert Awdry wrote about Steam and Diesel engines hating each other. It's a pretty core part. Misty Island Rescue has some really bad moral lessons over it. But, as a lover of Diesels, i'm kinda kicking myself for not noticing this sooner.

There were 4 diesels in the books noted as snooty, 13236 (Diesel), D261 (Bowler), D199 (Spamcan) and 40125 (Old Stuck Up), as well as 2 notably nice ones in D5702 (BoCo) and D7101 (Bear). In the case of 5 of these,there is a very noticeable trend. BoCo and Bear are, from the get-go, not the top end of diesels. The Class 28's were intended as express goods engines and the Class 35's were mixed-traffic go-anywhere machines. Notably neither of them are rude to anyone. BoCo seemed sufficient to quietly do his work and Bear spent half his focus annoyed at Spamcan, as if he was like this even when there were no steam engines to bully.

Because he likely is, as far as the writing is concerned.

The 3 Diesel Dickheads represent two Class 40's and 1 Class 46. The nature of these classes is important. The Class 40 was British Rail's first serial production Express Diesel, and was an incredible success. The Class 46 came later, but was intended for much the same role, albeit on more demanding routes than the Midland Mainline that the Class 40's ran. In essence they are at the same relative point to everything else that Gordon was during the early RWS Books. They're the Gordon's of their day. And Gordon, in the early RWS books, was snooty, arrogant and looked down on everyone else as if God and Awdry themselves personally ordained him as the finest machine on Earth.

As for Diesel and Daisy, their motives are more clear. Daisy is high maintenance and refused to pull goods trains because DMUs IRL, particularly the Derby Lightweight on which she is based, had some specific maintenance requirements and couldn't pull much beyond a trailer or maybe 2 goods vans. Diesel, on the other hand, is the exception that proves the rule. He is outright cordial to the other engines as they pose no threat to him at all, however Duck did so Duck had to be dealt with. He went about it in the worst way possible, but his motives were self preservation rather than outright arrogance or contempt for others.

So in summary, the entire Steam Vs Diesel conflict isn't racism, it never should've been and I'm still not over Misty Island Rescue's "Be Racist Kids!" moral. It was the characters, particularly Gordon, being confronted with the mirror image of him in his youth. Gordon, at the point of when these characters appear, had mellowed out so Awdry needed a tactical Not-Gordon to cause drama and this was the response. I'm surprised he never used an A4 but hey, the show did that anyway.

Also obviously Enterprise D model kits because if they're using pens to make them then they're clearly making these on a budget. As for why the pod on the second design is circled I have no idea what it is, but according to the lovely guys at Ex Adtris Scientia it's part of an old Tomy toy. Credit to EAS for finding these... and everyone else who's ever looked at the first design because come on it is not subtle with the pens.

Turns out there are TWO Mentally ill people who go by Ty online from Cornwall and this one comes from the other one. Literally just a Reliant Rialto with the back cut off and gullwing doors added, it sucks and came from rhe mind of Ty DeLorean, who's banned from every DeLorean fangroup on the internet, the country of Bali & the Bodmin And Wenford Railway (owing to him harassing them for money to build a Breitspurbahn replica), sincerely believes himself to be the long lost son of John DeLorean and tried selling these... things to The Taliban. I assume the representative laughed too long to actually tell the guy that the offer was as likely as a Real DMC-80 bus. It was probably a scam (I mean look at it) and iirc most of the few in existence were destroyed in a fire.