| BM in Love | Bleed Green? | Comic | CD | Bloopers | In-Jokes |
First Appearance Together: "Back to Mars Part One"
Additional Significant Appearances Together: "Back to Mars" Parts Two and Three, "Seeds of Victory", "Once Upon a Time on Mars" Parts One through Three
Love is probably the most powerful force in the universe. Being in love may be the greatest experience known to man (and to mouse). But not every relationship works out. Many fail, despite the best intentions of those involved. They may want each other very badly, but sometimes extenuating circumstances make it impossible.
And when the two people in question constantly pick their duties over their significant other, then the romance is doomed.
Such is the case with Throttle and Carbine. Fate has always conspired against their union, throwing war, death, destruction, distance, and all sorts of other difficulties at these two. But it's not adversity that's their biggest problem. It's the fact that they both choose and continue to choose their work over each other. Neither of these two extremely goal-oriented, driven individuals can be truly happy in each others' arms if they haven't achieved the difficult tasks they are so hell-bent on finishing.
Perhaps things would be different if circumstances hadn't been what they were. The path of true love never runs smoothly for anybody, but the one Throttle and Carbine are on is a real doozy.
We're never told just when these two kids got together. They may have been childhood sweethearts, or they could have hooked up later on. That's left up to the viewer (and to the FanFic writers) to decide. In any case, just as they were coming of the age when young lovers shouldn't have to be concerned with anything but one another, the Plutarkian War broke out. And love doesn't exactly flourish when bombs are flying overhead. Imagine having the following conversation: "Are you free Friday night?" "No. I have to help my parents stockpile supplies, and then we have to flee for our lives from a horde of bloodthirsty invaders." "Oh. What about Saturday?" Then, add in the fact that they both ended up in different and feuding factions against the Plutarkians when they joined the war effort. These two were essentially the Romeo and Juliet of the Plutarkian War (minus the entire double-suicide-"oh happy dagger" stuff). Carbine was an up-and-coming soldier in the straight-laced Martian Army, while Throttle was Stoker's protégé in the freewheeling Freedom Fighters. The two groups were constantly at odds, and the young lovers were caught in the middle. The Army disliked the "interference" of the Freedom Fighters, or more accurately, Sergeant Scabbard hated the way the Freedom Fighters constantly showed him and his troops up. The Freedom Fighters, in particular Stoker, couldn't stand the Army's blindness to the corrupt government they served. It was not at all uncommon for there to be minor altercations (read: bloody fist fights) when the two groups met up, and they avoided each other when possible. Naturally, Throttle and Carbine would have found meeting privately or stepping out for dinner and a movie next to impossible (and that's not even adding in the fact that most of the movie theaters and restaurants had probably already been destroyed in the war). When they did meet, they were divided on the issue of the government and the Army, and argued over it. And of course, neither of these two strong-willed individuals was willing to admit that they might be wrong (although Carbine does come around eventually). Imagine being young, in love, and unable to get into your girlfriend's pants because she can't understand that the government is deliberately sending the Army away from the enemy to line their pockets (although I seriously doubt that that really ever stopped either of them For a while, though, things did seem to be going their way. During the incident with the Tug Transformer ("Once Upon a Time on Mars"), Sergeant Scabbard and his troops became disillusioned with the government, and proceeded to disband and (presumably) join the Freedom Fighters. Oh, happy day! Throttle and Carbine can be together at last! Even if they're still fighting for their lives! Let me make a garland for my head and sing!
But eternal bliss was not to be, for shortly thereafter, all three Biker Mice were captured by the Plutarkians and carted off to a Plutarkian prison (I'm guessing on Plutark, but who's to say?). Carbine found herself alone, and shortly was forced into the role of leader of the Freedom Fighters. Throttle was, of course, in prison, although the mice did manage to break out. They were not yet able to return to their home planet, however, for reasons unspecified (Plutarkian blockade, maybe?), and so spent the next several years roaming the cosmos.
As luck would have it, the two of them would eventually be reunited. After the Biker Mice captured Limburger and returned to Mars ("Back to Mars"), Throttle and Carbine met up after the Freedom Fighters saved the mice from a pack of Sand Raiders. After Carbine kneed Vinnie in the stomach (I guess the censors wouldn't allow a knee to the groin), Carbine quickly proceeded to arrest Throttle and his bros for trial and execution.Admit it: wouldn't you just love a girlfriend who greets you after an absence of X years by telling you you're going to die?
As it turns out, Limburger's arch-rival, Napoleon Brie, had been preparing for the mice's eventual return to Mars by broadcasting a falsified video to their home planet in which the Biker Mice were depicted working for Limburger in Chicago. Doubt was also cast on their departure from Mars. And, just to complicate matters, Limburger, from his prison cell, casually tells the guard (Carbine) that the mice's involvement in tearing Chicago apart "was as vital as it was here on Mars."
But but but! we cry, Carbine knows better! She knows that Throttle would never do something like that! She's going to release him and his bros immediately just because she's so happy to see them! She's only putting them in prison temporarily because she knows it would look bad to the other Freedom Fighters if she didn't appear to be a hard-ass on suspected criminals! She's on their side! She's just playing along!
Uh uh.
The Carbine we see in "Back to Mars", while torn, is not about to give her old flame any leeway. During the war, she was just another grunt, but now she's the leader of the Freedom Fighters--the only group who can bring their planet back to life. There aren't many mice left (so few exist that their race is considered extinct), and for those who survived the war, there are severely limited resources. Plant and animal life, along with water, is in short supply. Sand Raiders and a few straggling Plutarkians still pose a threat to Martian mice. No form of transportation is available to attempt to get supplies or aid from other planets. Communications are difficult at best. All this plus all the fun dust storms and other natural disasters that Mars had before the Plutarkians showed up. As leader of the Freedom Fighters, Carbine is responsible for making the decisions that will affect the lives of all life on Mars. Even those of rats (a race that is openly hostile toward mice) and Sand Raiders (who make a living off selling mice into slavery). The buck stops with her. Any misstep on her part could mean annihilation for not just her own people, but all life on Mars. The weight of the entire planet rests on those pretty little shoulders.
So if it appears that Throttle has been assisting Plutarkians, and may have been helping to destroy another planet (and possibly their own), she then has a duty to arrest him and to try him (although we never actually see a court scene. Talk about vigilante justice). And if the evidence is strong enough for a conviction, then she has a duty to execute him. Carbine can not afford to let her heart get in her way, for the sake of the entire planet. This is probably the most salient example of how Throttle and Carbine are willing to ignore their personal feelings when it comes to their roles as leaders. Carbine may have been Throttle's girlfriend, and may still love him dearly, but if doing what's best for Mars means killing him, then tah tah, Throttle, goodbye.
Even so, Carbine's feelings for Throttle have colored her decision to seek the absolute penalty. She's not made of stone, after all. She still feels strongly toward him. It's just that her emotions haven't affected Throttle's predicament in a positive way. The fact of the matter is, Carbine is royally pissed at Throttle. Oh, sure, it's bad enough that he's supposedly working for the Plutarkians, but on top of that, he left her! She loved him like crazy, found a way to help him see again, fixed it so he could see again after he was friggin' blinded, saved his life on several occasions, he says he'll never leave her, and then he leaves the friggin' planet! It wouldn't be so bad if he had just died or something, but he abandoned her! Left her alone and vulnerable in the middle of a warzone! Hell, even if there wasn't evidence that he'd been working with the Plutarkians, Carbine might have killed Throttle when he showed up on Mars just because of all that!!!So her heart may have a little more influence on her than she'd admit to. She can't trust Throttle's words because he lied to her. He's hurt her. Badly. And he's got no evidence that supports his claims of innocence. All she knows for certain is that she's seen tapes in which the Biker Mice are demolishing a city full of helpless people at Limburger's command, with Throttle leading the way. And now Throttle and his bros have suddenly appeared on Mars in Limburger's company. They're already guilty, in Carbine's eyes. And she can only draw from what she's seen when it comes to deciding on the reason for their return to Mars: that they're going to continue destroying the planet she's working so desperately to save. They're already damned, but that just pushes Carbine over the edge. They're going to die.
Still, doesn't she remember any of the good times they had? Doesn't she have any sympathy for a mouse she once loved? Doesn't she have any feelings for him anymore?
The answer is yes. Carbine does still love Throttle when he returns to Mars. She doesn't show it early on--typically, it isn't very romantic when you arrest your significant other and condemn them to death. But in the subtext of her actions, it's there. After all, which of the Biker Mice does she free to show the evidence of their supposed treason? Throttle. Not Throttle, Modo, and Vinnie. Throttle. On one hand, he is the leader of the Biker Mice, and she can say that as leader, he represents his bros. That, and he's the most intelligent of him. But anybody can see that she wants to be alone with him (not that way, pervert………Then again….). She wants Throttle to convince her that what she's been seeing isn't really what's going on, but more than that, she wants him to convince her that he didn't mean to abandon her. She's still carries a torch for the guy.
And her feelings are still reciprocated, though Throttle is in a similar bind. As a Freedom Fighter, he began a task that will probably take up the rest of his life: stopping the Plutarkians. While this is the goal of all Freedom Fighters, they're usually just concerned with Mars; Throttle's drive and relentlessness mean stopping them everywhere. While he was still on Mars, it meant stopping them on Mars. When he ended up on Earth, it meant stopping them on Earth. And one can gather that it's been the same on every other planet he was to in between. Vinnie and Modo are also devoted to doing just that (though maybe not to Throttle's extreme). So, because he's the leader of the Biker Mice, Throttle has to do what is best for the three of them and for their cause.
So when he follows Carbine up that tower and begins arguing with her, he has to take the opportunity to try and free the three of them, as opposed to convincing Carbine that he didn't leave her and figuring out why she's so cold to him. Thusly, Throttle tells Carbine that the tape has been doctored, and that he and his bros are innocent of all crimes, instead of firmly telling her, "I love you." And when he sees Limburger escaping, he leaves (technically, he's escaping, too) to give chase with his bros, because that's what needs to be done. He steals Carbine's pistol when she left it on the table, knocks out a soldier (who turns out to be Modo's nephew, Rimfire), and basically cements his position as Number One on Carbine's Most Wanted (Dead) list.
But beneath all that is the same potent subtext as in Carbine's actions. When he shouts, "We didn't abandon you!" what he means is, "I didn't abandon you!" The passion in his eyes (visible because he takes off his glasses for once, in one of the coolest scenes in the entire series) is that of a mouse arguing for his innocence, but also, for the woman he loves not to condemn him, and to hear his side of the story. When he grabs her by the arms and shakes her, the words he's really speaking are, "I love you! Why can't you see that? Don't you love me anymore?"
Here's the irony, then: both of them really just want the other one to just come out and talk about their relationship, but neither of them can afford to (or thinks they can afford to) step out of their leadership role to say the words. They've chosen to put their hearts on the back burner. The good of the many before the needs of the few, after all, no matter how much it hurts.
But let's get back to the story. Things get worse for these two before they get better. The Freedom Fighters capture the Biker Mice just as they are about to capture Limburger. And this time, there won't be an appeal. Throttle has blown his chance with Carbine, and as the leader of the Biker Mice, he's blown his bros' chances, too. It's all too clear in Carbine's words. "This time," she growls as the heavily-armed Freedom Fighters surround their former comrades, "we're going to make it permanent."
Once they all return Freedom Fighter headquarters, the Biker Mice are almost immediately put on the block (like I said, if there is a trial, we don't get to see it). They're chained and marched to a deep, spike-filled pit. And who reads their sentence but Carbine? It's hard to say whether she wanted to do it as a spurned woman or had to do it because she's the leader.
Either case, Mars must come first.
However, there is a moment when it seems like she falters in her resolve. As Limburger sends an ice asteroid crashing down on the Freedom Fighters, Carbine has to decide whether or not to let the Biker Mice free to try and stop it. After a moment, she lets them go, but the question is, does she do it because, as a leader, she can't let her people be destroyed and recognizes the fact that the Biker Mice may be able to save them, or is it because of how she feels about Throttle? A combination of the two, it seems, because the second Throttle is free, Carbine grabs him by the bandana, kisses him, and tells him, "Save our tails, hot stuff."
It's still there.
The destruction of the asteroid clears the Biker Mice (particularly because they didn't just try and escape), and Carbine readily admits that Throttle and his bros were innocent. But when she apologizes, she does it as a leader once again, telling him that "our suspicions were unfounded." Throttle accepts the apology with a handshake instead of a hug until a raindrop strikes their joined hands. As a result of the mice's recent activities, water has returned to Mars. It's then that the two of them can truly rejoice, particularly Carbine, whose job of restoring the planet has just been made easier by a thousand-fold. More water equals more plant growth equals green Mars equals probably survival of species! Everything's turning up rosy. The two of them embrace, with all the hurt feelings seemingly patched up on both sides.
But duty calls once again, and this time, it's Throttle who must answer to it. As long as Limburger is out running around, the Biker Mice have a duty to stop him. And Throttle seems almost preternaturally aware that this will more likely than not mean leaving Mars--and Carbine--once again (although he didn't really have any way to know for certain whether or not Limburger had a Transporter device that would send them back to Earth). Just as Carbine must choose between her duties as leader or Throttle, he has to decide whether he will choose her or stopping Limburger (and all Plutarkians). And just like Carbine, Throttle can not allow his heart to come first. "Job's not over," he proclaims, and with that, the two of them are once again parted just when things seem to be going their way.
Still, Throttle hangs back a moment, letting his bros go ahead while he shares what might be his last moment ever with Carbine (when he returns to Earth, that puts over 35 million miles of distance between them, and that's not exactly a ten-minute drive down the road). He tries to act tough, like it doesn't bother him, but it's clear he's torn. He could stay, and just let Limburger go. Enjoy a life with the woman he loves. Surely someone else would pick up the slack. It's still not too late.
Except....it is, and he can't, anymore than Carbine could've just let Throttle and his bros go when she still thought he was working for Limburger.
This is the hardest part of the tumultuous relationship between these two, the part that will probably spell doom for the two of them being together. Being as far apart as they are sucks, and their personal differences aren't any help, but it's their devotion to their tasks that will be the end of them as a couple. For what relationship can prosper when both parties are already married--to their work? It seems unlikely that they will ever find satisfaction with each other so long as their consciences nag them about work left yet undone, no matter how strongly they feel about one another. And those tasks will almost certainly never be completed to their satisfaction. Centuries may pass before Mars is restored to its former glory. Stopping the Plutarkians cold means waging war against an entire hostile planet, not to mention an unknown number of Plutarkian strongholds on other planets. Odds are that Throttle and
Carbine will both die before they're finished. There's no doubt that what both of them really want is to be together. But what they want to do and what they feel they must to do are two different things, and only one can take precedence in their lives. So long as they continue to make the choices they've made, their relationship will continue on its downward spiral until they're both alone and wondering what in the Hell happened.Main
| basic information | episodes | in-depth | fun | MAIN |