Re/Alignment Application

Character Information
*Character Name: Noisy Boy
*Character Canon: Real Steel
*Age: Roughly 2-4 years old… not that he acts it.
*Race: Robot Boxer
*Timeline/Pull Point: About halfway through the movie, during Atom’s win montage, while Charlie is repairing (and presumably restores) Noisy Boy

*History: Little is known about Noisy Boy’s beginning. He was built in Japan by Tak Mashido, the creator of the current World Robot Boxing champion Zeus, for a tidy sum of money. In his day he was a bruiser, and has a (current) record of 15-2. His first loss was for the WRB Championship Belt in 2016 against a bot named Rubicon. The pair went three rounds, and Noisy might have taken it if Rubicon hadn’t gotten in a lucky hit that knocked the Steel Samurai out.

Following that loss, Noisy Boy left America on an “exile tour” to other countries and cities. Notable places mentioned in the movie that he presumably fought at are London, Japan, Brazil, and Sao Paulo.

Noisy Boy was later bought by one Charlie Kenton in a black market deal for $45,000, finally making his return to America two years after his defeat by Rubicon. Of course, at that price, it wasn’t the most triumphant return. Charlie, his son Max, and his occasional girlfriend Bailey had to do some tweaking to do when Noisy arrived, since he’d been fitted with a voice command module in Brazil… that only responded to commands spoken in Japanese.

Noisy’s return became much less triumphant when he was entered in an Underground boxing match at Crash Palace with its reigning champion, Midas. As with his fight with Rubicon, he should have been able to win the match… but Charlie was unfamiliar with his controls and combos and got cocky when Noisy scored a few hits on Midas. Coupled with his lack of ability to perform illegal moves like Midas, Noisy lost an arm, his head… and whatever dignity he might have had. Charlie sold his head to the proprietor of Crash Palace for petty cash.

Noisy Boy, once a champion robot, was left consigned to the trash heap. However, as Charlie and Max’s new bot Atom started climbing the ranks from the Underground, there was suddenly hope; Noisy Boy was last seen in the film being rebuilt by Charlie in the background.
*Personality: Real Steel is extremely vague about the level of sentience that is given to boxing robots. However, given that they were designed for the movie with ‘personalities’ and at least three (Atom, Zeus, Ambush) show some amount of autonomy at some point, it is not a stretch to assume they are independently intelligent in their own right. As well, the game attributes the bots with a variety of stats, including intelligence: Noisy Boy's is a not-too-shabby 82/100.

Noisy Boy – both in-universe and out of it – was designed to be a shogun warrior, and he acts it. He’s an even-keel sort of bot that follows the rules to the letter and tends to expect the same from those he meets and fights against - particularly obvious in that, according to the special moves list from the game (as it appears in his Real Steel Wiki Entry), he was programmed to strictly follow the rules of the World Robot Boxing League and to not accept (and have difficulty countering) illegal moves. In spite of his name he’s generally a quiet sort, rarely making attempts to communicate unless necessary. He much prefers observing and analyzing the area… and is something of a people-watcher in the movie, spending several of his scenes looking at whatever humans happen to be in the area. This is shown in the movie most clearly during the beginning of the scene in Crash Palace, where he obviously drops his gaze to the surrounding crowd and later raises it when Finn announces his match against Midas. Outside of fights he’s generally respectful, though not necessarily the friendliest sort. He has a tendency for being aloof unless he happens to know someone already or warms up to them. He just about stepped on Max when they first met in the film, after all. (Ironically, this is the extent of his direct interaction with humans in canon under partially his own speed; at all other points when he's looking around of [apparently] his own will, the other characters are completely preoccupied.)

More than anything, he has some kind of faith in his operators/handlers. He has switched hands several times and has come to have faith that, no matter how bad the fights get, his handler will bring him back out safely. Given that when he first enters the movie, after having gone to numerous places overseas (likely with different handlers), he comes back to American soil with no more lost matches as well as in perfect shape, it seems a fair trait to assign to him. Which he has, admittedly, been forced to amend in part recently, considering the beating he took thanks to Charlie's overconfidence. Still, he assumes that whoever his handler happens to be will do their best to make things okay later. Charlie did eventually get to work fixing him during the film, hopefully even finding some way to buy Noisy Boy's head back from Finn to complete his restoration (which is what's being assumed here). Without that assurance he will have to find a way to rely on himself alone, or those around him.

Unfortunately, fighting and observation are more or less the extent of his interests. He doesn’t understand most of art, music, film, and literature and has no creative ability of his own. He has little concept of science or even his own engineering since it is rarely explained in front of him while he’s online. In spite of this he’s still one of the more worldly bots seen in the film; he has travelled for two years and been able to see more than other WRB bots might. His travelling crate in the film attests to this, having been out of the USA for two years and with numerous customs tags on the crate. As well, Charlie makes a reference to Brazilian handlers "loving to talk to their robots", suggesting that the robot boxing scene is different in different regions, which Noisy Boy could likely have picked up on. One of the few things he could be said to enjoy is stargazing; the fights mostly occur at night, and it did not take long for him to notice that the lights in sky were different in different places on his exile tour. He’s taken to making note of the differences where he goes as a reference for himself, much as he notes the differences in other bots or in humans from different places (this is primarily headcanon, used to give him something beyond his career to show a passing interest in, and a more obvious way for him to realize that he's Not In Kansas Anymore).

In additional (recently found) material it's suggested that Noisy Boy, in spite of his great reputation and having been great, he might not be at his best anymore. This is further compounded by Finn, during the Crash Palace scene in the movie, making mention of Noisy being up against "softer bots" in Japan, as well as Finn only offering the main match after Charlie pesters him. It's more than likely true that Noisy Boy has past his peak already, and that Noisy Boy was aware of it in some manner. He seemed to look about as concerned as a masked robot can when his fight with Midas was announced, after all, down to the quiet groan of his pistons. Certainly after being put back together and realizing that he was utterly defeated he is aware that he's on a downward slope as a boxer. However, given that his life has revolved around boxing since his creation by Tak Mashido, it might be difficult for him to let go of that. The roar of crowds and the feel of triumphing in the ring is something even human boxers today can't easily abandon, only retiring after suffering injuries that cannot be recovered from. What about for a machine built for nothing except boxing, with no further prospects (as far as he's aware) besides the scrap yard? Even without an established boxing league he will likely do what he can to keep connected to those roots.
*Powers/Abilities: Noisy Boy has few skills outside of his boxing prowess. That said he is an extremely competent boxer and a capable opponent in the ring; he doesn’t have fifteen wins under his belt for nothing. On the Real Steel Wiki’s List of Bot Types, he is generally classified as a Lightning Bruiser. Essentially he is a well-rounded fighter with decent speed and tough enough armor to take some hits while still dishing it out. His fighting style is generally fast and fluid, with just enough showmanship to keep the bout interesting. That said, he can still make mistakes in fights and can still be taken apart by strong enough blows, particularly to his joints and where his armor allows for movement. As well, being designed specifically for World Robot Boxing League matches, he cannot perform and has difficulty countering illegal fight moves: pretty much anything that isn’t punching above the waist.

Noisy’s real combat strength lies in his combos. He has been programmed with an outrageous number of fight combos, from the three-punch Shogun Trinity to the fist-spinning finisher called the Southpaw Pain Revolution, to typical jabs and uppercuts. In addition, he can be programmed with additional combos by his handler. Instructions for using them can be delivered as quickly as saying a word to Noisy thanks to his voice recognition software. The only particular issue with his combos is that his handler must know the name given to the combo, or Noisy Boy cannot execute it… and most of the combos have names exactly as ridiculous as Shogun Trinity and Southpaw Pain Revolution. Unfortunately for his fight with Midas, this results in a lot of Noisy Boy standing and getting beaten while Charlie shouts instructions to no avail.

Noisy Boy’s hands and forearms deserve a special mention for what they are. He was not built with physical hands and rather has a permanent fist with false thumb jointing that is permanently attached to his wrist and forearm. His forearm has a spinning mechanism that, when spun up, can deliver more force to his blows… but being out of the context of a fight, his lack of digits could prove a detriment. And unless he somehow figures out how to use his own voice recognition, he might have difficulty fighting without a handler.

An additional consideration is how Noisy Boy is powered. Boxing robots from his world typically recharge by being connected to what amounts to an electrical plug. Without that that plug-in he will steadily begin to lose charge, and will lose more of that charge if he needs to fight. Luckily he can continue running for a while after running out of his reserve charge, though eventually he will shut down.
*Inventory: Just himself, and two extra items – the glass controller screen that lists his combos (and can be used to add new combos), and his audio command headset which can be used to issue commands during fights. Whoever controls the headset controls him… though without the combo list it won’t do much good. Especially if his controls somehow end up switched back to Japanese – or Portuguese.
*Starting Polarity: Tentatively saying Vector Prime, given Noisy Boy’s nature as a honorable fighter and something of a samurai.

Writing Samples
*Third Person Sample: He’s not certain whether he or his handler had taken the loss to Rubicon harder. He wouldn’t have known how to ask, even if he could. Or how to comfort him. Rubicon would eventually fade out, like he had. Bigger and better bots came along – like Zeus. He saw the bot’s fights sometimes, when his controllers would leave the television or radio on where he could hear it. His creator had built something better. And he’d been quietly sold to someone outside the United States. Several people outside the United States.

He wasn’t displeased by it. He couldn’t be – as long as he could fight, he was content. They let him fight. In Brazil he was upgraded. Where noise during a match usually faded, the sound of his controller’s commands cut straight through to his programming, and he obeyed. He didn’t lose again, which made his handlers happy. He thought so, anyway. It pleased him. Even undercard matches in the Underground. Especially matches in the Underground rings – he took it as a point of pride to beat other bots in those rings. Teach them that illegal moves don’t get you everywhere.

Still. Eventually he would be sold again, packed into his shipping container. Stumbling out and extending his limbs in some strange new place. The cities changed, the humans in them. Clothing, buildings, language though he always understood it once someone adjusted his language chip. The only things that stayed the same were the fights… and the lights in the dark. There were different ones everywhere, but after a fight they were still always there.

It was a comfort to Noisy Boy. Even if his creator, his handlers, his fans forgot him… they would still be there. Waiting in the dark.

Final Notes: For reference for size/weight limitations of objects in the world, Noisy Boy is roughly 8 ½’ tall and 1120 lbs.