The Axe

## Paired With

###

The Wanders

After blaming Commander Peepers for their most recent failures, Lord Hater fires him.

## Plot

The episode opens up on the Skullship. Lord Hater and Commander Peepers are talking with a Queen on a large screen. The Queen states that since Hater hasn’t been to her planet since conquering it, she has found a new conqueror. Angry, Hater demands to know who it is. It is revealed to be Sourdough, the evil sandwich.

Sourdough brags about stealing lots of Hater’s planets. Hater pretends that he doesn’t care and doesn’t want that planet but Peepers reveals that Hater has actually lost so many planets that he has fallen off the leader board entirely. Furious, Lord Hater attempts to switch the screen off and cut the connection but is unable to work the remote correctly. He instead throws it at the screen in rage so Peepers switches it off for him.

Peepers then begins to lecture Hater on what it means to be a villain, but Hater cuts him off, stating that being scary and doing bad guy stuff is what being evil is all about, not planning, rules and business guy stuff that Peepers seems to favour. Hater then comes to the conclusion that Peepers is to blame for his recent failures and fires him.

Peepers is still in denial about being fired and is positive that Hater will realise his mistake, but that positivity dies out after Hater asks him to crop himself out of all of their photos and seemingly doesn’t care about Peepers and won’t miss him. Hater then goes on to conquer planets by himself and quickly rises through the ranks of the villain leader board again. Peepers realises that he was mistaken and feeling heartbroken, he packs his things into a box and leaves the Skullship. He stops at various rooms along the way to remember his favorite memories with Hater before boarding a taxi and telling the driver to “Just drive”.

Sourdough’s fleet of ships suddenly emerge behind the Skullship while Hater is celebrating his success. Sourdough appears on the screen and demands to know why Hater has been messing with his planets. Hater informs him that the planets now belong to the Hater Empire but Sourdough interjects that all Hater did was “knock off crowns, plant flags and do stupid dances”. At first, Hater said that he conquered them, but Sourdough said that not the right way to conquer planets saying you have to leave an armada behind or any infrastructure which shocks and embrassed Hater. Sourdough then demands to know where Peepers is as the Watchdog actual knows what being evil is all about.  Insulted, Hater launches a missile at Sourdoughs fleet but it gets disintegrated. Hater realises his rash mistake and tries to make an excuse but it's too late, Sourdough has already called a counter attack.

Hater tries to pilot the Skullship to safety but doesn’t know how to operate it correctly, the ship gets badly damaged as a result. Realising he is out of options, Hater decides to find Peepers. Meanwhile Peepers is in the taxi, debating going for a saline tester job that he has found in a newspaper. Hater catches up to the taxi and while insisting that he doesn’t need help, asks Peepers for advice on what to do. Peepers realises that he was right all along but refuses to help Hater unless he gets an apology. Hater refuses at first and tries to avoid apologising, but out of desperation, he gives in. After a series of struggles and swallowing his pride, Hater manages a half apology of sorts to Peepers who deems it close enough.

Peepers returns to the Skullship, knocks a missile out of the ship's hull and orders the Watchdogs to deploy the Eye Fighters and activate the ship’s shields. While Sourdough’s attention is on them, Peepers sends Watchdogs to the planets Sourdough has stolen and conquers them. He then sends Hater to Sourdough’s ship where he zaps Sourdough and plants a miniature Hater flag in him. Finally, Peepers takes the Skullship’s controls and knocks Sourdough’s ship away. Hater and Peepers stand proud for a moment before breaking out into a victory dance.

The planet at the start of the episode is once again under Hater’s ownership. Hater takes the credit for the victory, claiming that “If I hadn’t fired Peepers, this never would have happened.” Peepers visibly slumps at the lack of recognition. Hater then smiles at him and pulls out a remote before pressing it. To show his gratitude, he had a statue of Peepers made and had it placed next to his own statue on one of their planets. Overjoyed and touched by this gift, Peepers jumps up and hugs Hater, who threatens to fire him again in response. The Watchdogs sing Commander Peepers’ theme song.

## Characters

Lord Hater

Commander Peepers

Watchdogs

Sourdough

Beefeaters

## Quotes

"They're not robots, they're Watchdogs!"
"Oh, they're dogs. Huh. So I gotta walk them then?"
"They're not dogs either, they're-"
"Gotcha! Robot dogs, feed them batteries. Thanks buddy, I owe ya. Not enough to save your job though."  — Lord Hater and Peepers, discussing the Watchdogs

## Gallery

The gallery for "The Axe" can be found here.

## Credits

Story by

Craig McCracken , Frank Angones , Amy Higgins , Mike Yank , Todd Casey & Noelle Stevenson

Written by

Mike Yank

Storyboard by

Dave Thomas

Story editors

Frank Angones & Amy Higgins

Directed by

Dave Thomas

With the voice talents of

Keith Ferguson as Lord Hater

Tom Kenny  as Commander Peepers

Rich Fulcher as Evil Sandwich

Additional voices

Keith Ferguson

Tom Kenny

Tara Strong