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Character

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Dr. James Sheridan is the overarching antagonist of the Glitch Productions computer-animated web series Meta Runner, serving as the overarching antagonist of the first and second seasons and the main antagonist of Season 3.

He was a former scientist for TAS Corp. and the mind behind Project Blue, a mysterious project in which he developed a unique A.I. to assist Meta Runners in gameplay, to avoid being fired by Derek Lucks. His dream was to use the project to make himself known in the gaming industry by creating an advanced A.I. program called Turbo Artificial Rapid Intelligence ('TARI'), that could help meta runners optimally beat any game in the most efficient way that was beyond what their cybernetic arms are naturally capable of, but an accident ended the project prematurely that seriously injured him and Lucinia Porter in the process. In Season 2 he reappeared secretly as the "annoying neighbor" in Firewall, and is properly revealed in Fatal Error, offering Tari's game-warping abilities to the now jobless Evelyn. He was Tari’s creator and father figure turned arch-nemesis.

Appearance

Sheridan is an adult man with dark skin, brown eyes and dark brown hair with stubble and a slight mustache. In Season 1, Sheridan's outfit was a white lab coat with blue accents and shoulder pads with a brown vest and an improperly buttoned undershirt.

After his accident, Sheridan went into hiding, taking on the disguise as one of Masa's neighbors, wearing a white cloak with a black shoulder cape and an emoting mask. After introducing himself to Evelyn, Sheridan was revealed to have extensive burns across the left side of his face.

Within his server, he is depicted as a holographic version of his younger self with a clean shaven appearance without the burn marks and still wears his scientist outfit with his coat now buttoned up. His hologram is also slightly taller than him in the real world and is shown to be able to change his appearance within his server too due to an instance when he showed Tari his burn marks saying he didn’t deserve it when he tried to regain her data fragments.


Personality

When interacting with Tari, Sheridan was something of a father figure. He gently encouraged Tari and pushed her to do her best when training her at games. As he continued testing and completing Project Blue, Sheridan showed more signs of mental instability. He is seen laughing madly and growing more disturbed as time goes on, acting more and more erratic. After the accident, Sheridan snapped, going completely insane, acting childish and gaining a crazed personality with frequent mood swings. Sheridan also revealed his immense hatred for Lucks for allegedly stealing the credit for his invention of the Meta Runner arm and a sadistic, manipulative side.


History

These are TASCorp's secret files!
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At some point before the story, James Sheridan allegedly invented the Meta Runner arm, but had his credit stolen by Derek Lucks, the CEO of TASCorp. He soon found himself under the threat of being fired. To avoid this fate, he began to work to realize life's goal, Project Blue, which he hoped would both revolutionize the gaming industry of Silica City and allow him to keep his job.

His progress was going good as the Tari A.I. he built was capable of optimally beating any and every game thrown at it. After a while of searching for a human host to implant the A.I. into, he eventually acquired the help of Lucinia to further his plans.

After a while of testing, he believed that it was time to take the experiment to the next level by downloading a more advanced version of T.A.R.I. into Lucinia's arm. At some point during this process, the program surged and caused an explosion that burned Sheridan's face and shattered Lucinia's mind, rendering her inactive without her consciousness.

Season 1

Sheridan did not physically appear in Season 1 though he was heavily referred to by the Project Blue files that were uncovered by Belle as he video taped himself and his progress on the project.

Season 2

Sheridan first appeared as Masa’s annoying neighbor constantly bugging him before he realized that he had guests on over.

Sheridan did not show up until it was revealed that he was attending the stadium event as he planted a bug on Masa’s arm along the way as Masa was making his way through the crowd to distract Lucks.

As Masa was about to leave and not pull the trigger on Lucks in Fatal Error, Sheridan took matters into his own hands as he hacked into Masa’s arm, watching in a crowd of people. After Masa's arm aimed the gun at Lucks, Sheridan made him fire on Lucks, killing him. After a hectic moment with MD-5, he then decided to contact Evelyn after hearing that she wanted Tari’s powers. He told Evelyn that he could help to give her the powers and revealed his name as Sheridan to her.

Season 3

It was revealed that Sheridan somehow brought Belle and Masa to his lair, and warped their minds into his server, thus meeting them face to face. He also created an AI version of Lucks as his slave, treating him poorly and frequently torturing him. After revealing himself and revealing their situation, Sheridan then revealed Masa that he was the one that hacked Masa's arm and made him kill Lucks, much to Masa's anger. After the two refused to join his company and become his Meta Runners, Sheridan threw a tantrum and left the two in his simulation.

Sheridan also acquired Lucinia's cryogenic pod and managed to revive her with the fragments Evelyn got from Tari, albeit in a state of amnesia and not being able to talk, only being able to play video games. Belle and Masa learned about this during their training at Battle Blaze, facing off against a mystery opponent who they soon realized was Lucinia. As Belle broke down over seeing Lucinia again, Masa bitterly congratulated Sheridan on outdoing Lucks by being a bigger monster than him before getting sent back to training.

He then sent Evelyn and Lucinia to find Tari and her friends in Skybreakers, with the latter's new abilities of hacking the game, which allowed to kill players in the safezone. After taking out Theo, Lamar and Marco in-game, Evelyn orders Lucinia to attack Tari and reclaim the fragments to which she complies. But Sofia calls out to her sister, which momentarily awakens her memory, Tari took the chance to attack Lucinia, and gained her Meta Runner vision back.

Later, Sheridan put Masa through a simulation where he was forced to confront his guilt over cheating Marco out of a Meta Runner arm and killing Lucks. In an effort to stop his torment, Masa begged Sheridan to stop, allowing Sheridan to place a Meta Bug on Masa, allowing Sheridan to control Masa and suppress his free will. He later did the same to Belle, putting her through a similar situation.

After every Meta Runner in Silica City was warped into Sheridan's server, Sheridan made all of them fight to the death with weapons from various video games. He then made an announcement to the entire world, introducing himself and his company and his technology, claiming that he simply wanted to help people but later lapsed into a rant on how he was the true visionary behind the Meta Runner arm, and how he was going to change the world.

When Tari made her way into his server after going through the backdoor in Skybreakers, Sheridan engaged in a battle of control with Sofia, having gained access into the server. After gaining the upper hand, locking Sofia out of his server and freezing Tari in place, and believing himself on the brink of victory, Sofia revealed that there was something that he hadn't anticipated; that she had a tracker program on his computer and that Marco was en route to his lair. Knowing that he had been beaten, Sheridan let out a scream of fear and relinquished control of the server.

He tried to shoot Marco with Lucks' gun after he barged into the room to no avail, and tried to punch Marco, but only succeeded in hurting his hand. Marco grabbed Sheridan by the collar, mocking him and slamming his head into the table. Marco then hooked a Meta Bug to Sheridan's head and shocked him with it. Enraged, Sheridan ranted that he was supposed to win and that no one would ever be able to destroy his work ever again. Marco then remarked that he wouldn't be the one that destroyed Sheridan's work, rather, Sheridan would, as he then proceeded to put several control bugs on Sheridan, throwing him into his servers and causing the bugs to fry Sheridan to death, reducing his corpse to a burned husk.

Afterwards, Sheridan's crimes became public knowledge, implicating Evelyn as an accomplice, and consequently dropping Masa's murder charges due to the public finding out about Sheridan's involvement.


Gallery

Trivia

  • His drink of choice is coffee.
  • Him being the one to cause Masa to shoot Lucks was hinted when his theme played while Masa's arm malfunctioned and confirmed as well too in Season 3.
  • Sheridan's model in his virtual server is taller than he is in the real world.
  • Lamar and Sheridan are both voiced by the same voice actor, Anthony Sardinha.

References

Season 1

Season 2

Season 3


v - e - d Meta Runner characters