BM in Love Bleed Green? Comic CD Bloopers In-Jokes Appear Together In: "Once Upon a Time On Mars" Parts One through Three         Bear with me on this intro…         Vinnie's relationship with Charley has been nothing if not slow to develop, due in no small part to Vinnie himself. Three seasons--sixty five episodes!--go by, and it's no clearer at the end of "Once Upon a Time On Mars" whether he's serious about the lady or not than it was at the beginning of "Rock & Ride!" He never seems to take whatever it is the two of them have seriously. He flits with other women, leaves Charley behind when he returns to Mars with his bros (albeit with a bit of reluctance), and acts as if the two of them do indeed have a relationship simply because he knows it annoys the lady. Charley, for her part, is fairly antagonistic, and just as ambiguous about her feelings as Vinnie is.         But those who have watched the show know that Vinnie does indeed have strong feelings for Charley, if only because of the reaction he has when someone else tries to put the moves on her. Greasepit, "Asphalt" Jack McCyber, and Sir Lancelot (yes, of the Round Table) have all put Vinnie in competition for the mechanic's affections, even if it wasn't exactly real competition. For example, we know that there's no way Charley would fall for Greasepit, and her romantic feelings for Jack are long over. But Vinnie still perceives that threat, and that's what counts. It seems that the young mouse only acts on his romantic urgings when the chance for a deeper relationship is jeopardized. That's what happened with his first love, in which the girl's ambiguous feelings, the serious presence of another, more aggressive suitor, and Vinnie's own feelings of inadequacy (yeah, I said "Vinnie's feelings of inadequacy"--ego boy has doubted himself in the past--see below) kept the two of them apart for perhaps years until the two of them shared their first kiss on the battlefield (Vinnie and the girl, I mean; not Vinnie and the more aggressive suitor). But unless Vinnie wants his relationship with Charley to end as disastrously as that one did, he'd best examine his feelings and act on them as soon as possible. His hesitation in that case gave him and his new girlfriend just a few short minutes together before she was spirited away, never to be seen again.         Ladies and gentlemen, start your hankies!         It all begins with Harley, the Freedom Fighters' female motorcycle mechanic and nurse. Even if she wasn't lovely, talented, sensual (in the first part, anyway), and intelligent, which she is, there would still be a multitude of mice fawning over her, because she's the only woman in the Freedom Fighters (at least the only one that we ever see. There may be others).         Harley's first would-be suitor is, as you've probably guessed by now, Vinnie, then a young mouse in his late teens (which is not to say that he's an old mouse now; just older). It's apparent from the first time we see the two of them together that Vinnie has a huge crush on Harley. The usually confident young mouse immediately becomes all thumbs, grinning sheepishly, laughing goofily, and all but saying, "Aw shucks!" as she bandages his wounded leg. In part, it's because Harley is the first girl Vinnie has ever really been in love (excluding stupid childhood crushes, of which we've all had our share). On top of that, Harley herself is a bit intimidating for a kid just stepping into the world of romance (in the middle of a war, no less). As I mentioned, she's beautiful, sensual, a bit older than Vinnie, and, given her orange fur and blue eyes, perhaps a bit exotic.         And then, there's the problem of Harley's other suitor--Stoker. The leader of the Freedom Fighters and Mars' greatest Biker Mouse, Stoker also has feelings for the lady (he' s a bit too old to call it a "crush"). Strong ones, too. When Harley is locked in a struggle with the traitorous Mace, her screams allow Stoker to overcome the brainwashing administered to him by Karbunkle. Most of the time, though, he's just as shy around her as Vinnie, rubbing the back of his neck nervously and grinning stupidly.         The similarity of their reactions is not surprising to someone who has paid close attention to these two mice: Vinnie and Stoker are almost too alike for their own damn good. Both of them love speed, both of them love risk, both of them love danger…and both of them love Harley. They're rivals in everything, and therein lies the major problem for Vinnie trying to get Harley to be his. Although he would never say it out loud, he feels like Stoker is better than him at just about everything that makes him unique. Keep in mind that this is a point in Vinnie's life when he's not yet the polished, powerful rider and fighter that he is today. He's still learning. Stoker, meanwhile, is the greatest Biker Mouse that Mars has ever seen, and is just as daring and adventurous as his student. Try as he might, Vinnie just can't beat his mentor in anything. He can't even measure up (for an illustration of this, consider the opening of the Freedom Fighters' battle in "Once Upon a Time On Mars Part One." Stoker leads the attack and easily completes a maneuver in which he leaps his bike into the air, lands it on a Sand Raider's dune buggy, and knocks the driver out of it with a single punch. When Vinnie tries the same thing, he ends up crashing and burning without stopping a single dogface). So, if Stoker decides that he likes Harley, then Vinnie figures he has no chance with her whatsoever. And since Stoker's feelings on the issue are extremely clear, Vinnie thinks he's got no chance in Hell. He'll never stop carrying a torch, but the odds are just not in his favor.         Or are they? We haven't weighed Harley's feelings, and it's hers that will ultimately decide what happens--which or either of the two mice she'll choose.         And the answer is: despite her seeming ambivalence toward her would-be suitors, It's apparent right from the beginning that Harley is indeed interested in one of them, and the one she prefers is just as obvious. While Harley does not seem to be in active pursuit of a relationship with anyone, her feelings have always tended toward Vinnie. Consider: when Vinnie makes a remark insinuating that Stoker is her boyfriend, Harley replies pointedly that, "this wrench jockey has no ties that bind--and Stoker knows that." This shows that while she knows that Stoker has a thing for her, Harley does not reciprocate his feelings. It's also a veiled attempt by Harley to tell Vinnie that she isn't seeing anyone, and would welcome his advances--if he would just make them. Also, while patching up the wound on his leg, she flirtatiously tells him, "Be glad you didn't knick that pretty little face of yours." She's either flirting or just having fun with him. Either way, Vinnie definitely takes it as a compliment. Even if he thinks he's all that and a bag of chips, Vinnie loves to be told he's handsome, and hearing that from the girl he likes is like a double bonus. Later, when she's telling Mace the names of those captured by the Plutarkians, Harley's voice cracks when she gets to Vinnie. She even tears up a little. She has neither reaction when she mentions Stoker among the missing. Anyone with two eyes in their head can see Vinnie is the one that Harley likes more. But, as I've said, she never made an open overture to the younger mouse. That's probably the way she wanted it. After all, trying to cultivate a relationship in the middle of a war-zone isn't a hot idea in the first place. Leaving things up in the air is ultimately going to be easier.         Things might have continued in this way for a long time, but the events of "Once Upon a Time On Mars" spurred things forward and forced the conundrum to a conclusion. After Stoker is brainwashed by Karbunkle, he, along with Mace, leads an attack on Freedom Fighter headquarters. Harley managed to hold off the attack so that her fellow fighters could escape, and ended up seeing Stoker just before she left. The depth of his feelings for her was apparent here: seeing Harley caused him to fight off the brainwashing long enough for her to escape as well.         Meanwhile, the Biker Mice made their way to Alternate Post 14, where they could wait for the other Freedom Fighters to arrive and try to tend to their wounds. They knew that Stoker was leading an attack against headquarters, and Vinnie remarked angrily that if Stoker harmed a single hair on Harley's head, he'd be "Sand-Squid sushi!" And yet, he's horrified to see her show up safe and sound because half of his face has been ripped off by an explosion. In light of that remark about his cute face earlier, one can understand why the young mouse would be nervous about seeing her again. The one thing he thought he had over Stoker in their competition for Harley's affections--his looks--are gone. If he didn't stand a chance with her before, when his face was whole, now he's totally and irrevocably fucked.         That's what he thinks, anyway. Vinnie tries to hide his face from Harley when she shows up, but eventually, she catches him off-guard and sees the bandages. She easily persuades him to let her take a look at the damage--hey, he's head over heels for the girl; he's not going to refuse her a little thing like that. To Vinnie's surprise, Harley doesn't seem too disturbed by the scars and gashes. She doesn't gasp or even wince. The fact of the matter is that she doesn't care that much what Vinnie looks like (although she obviously appreciates his looks). She likes him for him. Showing an acute knowledge of her patient, Harley crafts for Vinnie a mask out of the mercurious Flex-Plate shielding, not to prevent infection or anything logical like that, but rather, to heal Vinnie's wounded pride. This is the moment when the two of them really click. Harley had already picked Vinnie after his capture, and Vinnie now decides to go for it with Harley. He knows now that she really does like him, and that he doesn't have to be as good as Stoker at anything to be with her. He can just be himself--which, as Vinnie would no doubt point out, is pretty damn good.         So what about Stoker? What about his feelings for Harley? After all, if he hadn't liked her so much, he wouldn't have been able to shake the brainwashing, and now, after all that, he sees her with Vinnie. The old guy actually copes with it pretty well. Seeing Harley kiss Vinnie at the end of the battle cements for him the fact that however he feels about her, she doesn’t feel that way about him. He's seen the light, praise God, Hallelujah. The leader of the Freedom Fighters just puts an arm around both of them, laughs, and asks Vinnie jovially, "All's fair in love and war, right, punk?" then lets them go on their way together. He probably felt some regret later on, but it'd be a little anticlimactic if there was a scene at the end where a despondent Stoker got smashed off his ass drunk.         Unfortunately, the bliss for the newly-united couple is short-lived. Mace, thoroughly pissed at being foiled by the Freedom Fighters, takes his revenge by grabbing Harley when everyone's backs are turned and teleporting away with her to parts unknown. Vinnie tries to grab her, but is a nanosecond too late. She disappears in a flash of light, just as Vinnie's arms would have clasped around her. One hopes that he got a good look at her before she vanished, because Vinnie will never see Harley again.         Sniff. Excuse me, I seem to have something in my eye.         Although Vinnie and his bros did search for Harley after this disastrous incident, as I said, they never found hide nor hair of her, although Modo does add that they came close on a few occasions. Vinnie still carries a torch for her to this very day, and will probably do so no matter who he ends up with. The question is, has he learned the value of acting on his romantic feelings from the experience, or will he have to lose Charley in a similar fashion before he becomes more honest with himself? Main basic information episodes in-depth fun MAIN