| “ | I have a synthetic arm, ok. Both arms. Alright, everything
except my brain, but I'm still a person! |
” |
— Brian explaining himself to Cleo in the episode, "Wednesday"
| ||
Brian Bell is a student at P.Y.R.A.M.I.D., a genius and a friend of Cleo. As a cyborg teenage boy, he is Cleo's second teammate. He may be relatively popular as he is shown with a crowd of other students in the episode "Do-Over."
Personality[]
Brian is extremely intelligent and is an invaluable member of P.Y.R.A.M.I.D.'s research team, often single-handedly inventing impressive devices for use on missions. His cyborg body was invented by Dr. Queed, and his brain is the only part of him that is not synthetic. He is shown to be somewhat touchy over his being a cyborg, and is constantly annoyed by Akila's seemingly willful misunderstanding about him being different from a robot. He generally strives to make himself as human as possible, even going as far as to add a histamine function in his skin so that he can become capable of breaking into hives. He also delves into geek culture, and is a huge fan of the comic character Mistress Punchfire.
As an advanced cyborg, Brian has a number of functionalities unique to him that make him more physically capable than the average person. He can extend his arms, legs, and neck to considerable lengths. He also seems to have a higher damage threshold than normal humans, as shown in "Team Building", where he served as Cleo's shield from the simulated Xerxes because getting shot did not hurt him quite as much, whereas Cleo received a broken foot after getting shot only once. In "Pirates", it is mentioned that his reflexes are twelve times human normal. His fingers are shown to have various utilities such as screwdrivers built into them, and his eyes can function like binoculars. However, despite being a largely synthetic being, it is shown that Brian still needs food, water, and rest like any normal person.
Despite his array of functionalities, Brian is very neurotic and prone to panic attacks. He is easily frightened by dangerous missions, which serves as a contrast to the general fearlessness of Cleo and Akila. Nevertheless, he does not usually allow his fear to overcome him especially when his friends need him most, and as such, he remains a reliable member of Cleo's team.
Appearance[]
His body is mostly robotic and is also sensitive to the fact that he was transformed into a cyborg. He wears the school uniform, adapted to his cyborg body. Although his facial expressions often change, partially due to failures with his technology, his appearance, generally, does not alter.
Relationships[]
Akila Theoris[]
Best friends with Akila, who he has a crush on. He joins missions with Akila whether its sooner or later. He is often reluctant to help her because of the chances she will be harmed but gives in easily to her wishes. At the end of the episode "Rescue" he asks Akila out on a date and she happily accepts. In the episode "Cleopatra Needs Space", he and Akila go a date but it goes badly, falling apart. At the end of the episode, they resolve to be friends, but not date each other at the present. In the episode "Pirates", Akila kisses Brian playfully, when she pretends she is French.
Cleo[]
Cleo turns to her friend Brian when she is in need of technology. Like Akila, he helps Cleo adapt to the futuristic world, and even creates a time portal which she recklessly uses in one episode, "Do-Over". He bonds with Cleo over their love for comic books. Due to their close bond of friendship, when the DittoBot, in the episode "Double", as him, says that he is "just chillaxing," she knows something is wrong. In the episode, "Rescue" Cleo gives Brian relationship advice, saying that "Akila likes her Brians dorky" and says that he "blew it" by acting cool. She is proud of him when Akila accepts going out on a date with Brian to the planetarium.
Khensu[]
Khensu impressed by "cool" Brian
Respects Khensu and his authority unlike Cleo who finds him boring. For his part, Khensu respects Brian, although he doesn't mind him when he is "cool" when controlled by Cyrano in "Cyrano".
Debbie[]
Walking into a cave on the planet, Brian meets Granda Ibarra, who he claims is "history's greatest genius," saying she vanished thousands of years ago, and is fangirling. In this form, Debbie claims that she vanished into the future invented time travel and got stranded on the planet, stating she has been there for years, calling for him to help her with his research. Debbie later transforms Granda to Miss Punchfire, his favorite comic book hero. While Brian realizes this isn't real, he goes with it because he is enjoying himself.
Abilities[]
Brian's Off switch behind his neck
Brian is extremely intelligent and Akila describes him as a "tech expert" in the episode "Surprise." He is also capable of creating energy. He is also shown to be able to use reverse psychology to great effect, as in "Rescue", when he managed to convince Clodswollader to help rescue Zaid's parents by convincing him that he would be in danger if he didn't.
Brian is also an avid inventor and has created several devices that are used by many P.Y.R.A.M.I.D. students. He invented the boswell, Cleo's sphinx bike, and the neural net which he shot Cleo with moments after her arrival in the future so that she could understand their language.
He has an "off switch" hidden behind a penal on the back of his neck, with an injection port that feeds directly into his brain, as shown in "Quarantine" and "Cyrano".
Selected Quotes[]
- "Because of the neural translation net. It uses an algorithm I developed to decipher and translate unfamiliar phonames."- Talks to Cleo in "Wednesday"
- "Back off! Nobody touch me!"- Says when having a panic attack in "Wednesday"
- "I'm a cyborg! You know how offensive it is to call me a robot!"- Says this to Akila in "Surprise"
- "The delicate balance of the universe is maintained because for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. But what if there wasn't? What is Akila's inability to say no throws off the balance and causes the entire known universe to explode!"- Talks to Cleo in the episode "Akila Says No"
- "I am not a robot, I am a cyborg! And my arms are normal human length."- Talks to one of the scavengers in "Akila Says No"
- "If we can get to the control room we can shut down the central processing unit and kill the simulation."- In the episode "Team Building"
- "Take you three-dimensional images formed by the interference of a beam from an incoherent light source!"- In the episode "Team Building," yelling at Xerxs
- "I analyzed the Replicamp CPU and it was hacked remotely from right here in P.Y.R.A.M.I.D."- At the end of the episode "Team Building"
- "Curse you, Robbies."- Says in "Double" as he laughs inappropriately from Robbies
- "I'm actually extremely uncomfortable. Stupid Robbies are taking forever to wear off!"- Declares to Akila when laughing uncontrollably in "Double"
- "I've seen too much! We go to school with some serious weird people!"- Says this to Akila after seeing much of the school's footage in "Double"
- "That's a DittoBot! Why would Zaid be?...[gasps] He's not just a handsome face. He's also a handsome spy!"- Realizes the danger of Zaid in "Double"
- "Cleo's with Zaid right now, we have to warn her!"- Cares about Cleo, wanting to warn her of Zaid's awful nature in "Double"
- "I grew up in a place a lot like Hykosis City with thieves and lowlifes. I know how these people think. I was pretty rough. I tried to put all that behind me but its still part of who I am."- Says this in "Rescue", with Cleo comforting him
- "You can't offend an animal...maybe you can."- Says after Mihos growls at him in "Mihos"
- "Cleo, I need you to get involved."- Implores Cleo for help in dating Akila in "Cleopatra Needs Space"
- "I like you, Akila but I don't know if I like like you, that's why I asked you out."- Explains why he asked Akila out a date in "Cleopatra Needs Space"
- "Are you guys ready? The academy will be completely snowed in soon."- Talks to Cleo and Akila, asking if they are ready to leave for a vacation in the episode "School Break"
- "Yosira, pharoah, here. Yosira, pharoah here."- Excited by Yosira in "Xerxs Works"
- "This area is supposed to be uninhabited but our scanner picked up some unusual activity" he says in n "Xerxs Works" with Akila then adding: "it was a giant space station and it was full of Xerxs"
- "Yosira, you saved the day! That pass is exactly what we need."- Praises Yosira in "Xerxs Works"
- "Luckily for you, but crazy nervous is my area of expertise."- Brian to Cleo in "Ladies Night"
Trivia[]
- Brian, like Akila, also appears in the comics which the TV series was based on.
- Brian is the only character in the TV series who has Nyctophobia, meaning a fear of the dark, as shown in the episode "Cyrano".
- In several episodes, whenever Brian introduces some new inventions (such as the "portable suspension blaster" in "Mihos", or the chet-fp in "XerxWorks"), the wipe that follows is a reference to the 1960s Batman TV series starring Adam West.
Gallery[]
