Taco

Shonen Rival
General Information
Full Name	Taco
Alias(es)	The Liar Mexican Food Pathetic Taco Useless One British Taco The Randomly Insane One
Origin	Inanimate Insanity
Occupation	Contestant Microphone's bossCriminal Mastermind (All formerly)
Powers	High intelligence Manipulation Retractable arms Ability to barf lemons
Heroic Deeds	Redeeming herself
Villainous Deeds	Killing, assaulting, tranquilizing, or otherwise harming several characters
Type of Shonen Rival	Redeemed Control Freak

Taco is the secondary antagonist of Inanimate Insanity.

She can technically be counted as a rival for Microphone, but definitely becomes one for OJ in the Season 1 finale, since they were the season's finalists. Also comes off as this to Knife by Episode 12 (Alternate Reality Show) of Season 2, as Knife tries to protect Microphone from her. This comes full circle by Episode 15 of the same season.

What Makes Her a Shonen Rival?

• Heroic/Anti-Villainous: Taco becomes an anti-villain by Truth or Flare, trying to get the final four to quit Inanimate Insanity like Microphone (and Marshmallow too (technically), though she didn't tell anyone, and as a result, Taco didn't know she quit) did. It doesn't work in one way, but in another way, it technically did, since Taco criticized the fact that the game separated relationships, and Lightbulb quit to continue to be with Paintbrush. By the II2 Movie, it's implied that she helped in getting Apple and Bow to go to Cobs' airship, because to hide Apple's body, an InvisiBow was used, and that became her thing once she discovered it in Test Tube's lab.
• Honorable: She shows some honor towards Microphone in some cases by complimenting her. Sure, it might have looked like it was just her being Faux Affably Evil to Mic in Episode 14, but Taco genuinely liked Mic as shown in Truth or Flare, where she mourned for losing her as a friend. Also, she did promise to split the million between her and Microphone.
• Tragic Past: By default, every contestant in the show is tragic, since they're forced to act the way MePhone created them, and Taco was no different. And while it may seem debatable if Taco is Fake Tragic or Tragic, since she deserved to lose Pickle and Microphone, since she betrayed the former and the latter realized she manipulated her and that she should listen to herself, she is still played sympathetically by the narrative, and after feeling remorse for her actions, she blamed her actions on the show, and is technically right. She stalked the contestants throughout Season 2 and saw the many relationships that were broken, like Suitcase and Nickel's and Baseball and Test Tube's. As a result, it's hard to blame her for doing what she did in Episode 15. She still showed some form of remorse for what she did and sympathy for other people, like in Kick the Bucket, where she saw that Microphone was feeling a bit sad (in the song Afterlife in the Limelight to be precise), and in Truth or Flare, the episode where she criticizes the game for things she witnessed. She even mentioned surprise double eliminations, referring to Nickel's surprise elimination. If anything were to be used as a good example of something that she thought was meant to "slowly turn the contestants against each other", it would be this, since Baseball felt like everyone was out to get him (even Suitcase) as shown in Episode 12. Yeah, probably the longest tangent about a specific trait, but it's to defend my statement about Taco not being Fake Tragic, because she's played sympathetically, and throughout her quest for the million, witnessed a lot of moments that were traumatic to the contestants and separated them from each other, and thus, decided she should make everyone quit Inanimate Insanity altogether due to the broken relationships.
• Intelligent: She was able to psychologically manipulate Knife, stalk the contestants without anybody but Knife and Microphone knowing in Season 2, successfully steal some of Test Tube's InvisiBows, and, most importantly, play dumb in Season 1 to make the viewers like her more. And about her cowardice, she subverted that at the end of Truth or Flare.
• Natural Talent: In contrast to OJ, Taco was secretly amazing in all of the contests, and this was shown in Journey Through Memory Lane in Season 1, where she completes the challenges faster than OJ could. In fact, she could've WON had an evil Bow not gotten in the way of the finish line.
• Arrogant: Taco was so confident in her plan to win Season 1, and yes, she would have, but Bow got in the way. She even complains about her plan failing thanks to Bow, calling it "perfect".
• Pursues A Big-End Goal: To help Microphone win II2, so that she can split the money with her. In Truth or Flare, after Mic quits the game, her new goal was to get the other contestants to leave II.
• Cynical: "Rules you change constantly to fit your best interests! Challenges to clean up your messes! Save Marsh! Save Fan! Save my amnesia! Surprise double eliminations, all meant to slowly turn you against each other for his entertainment! See now? There is no truth with him around. You all speak, but the only voice is your controller's, and even he is losing control. This is your last warning, contestants. Get out NOW before he changes you, too!"
• Irritable: Her shell cracks due to being afraid of one of her old friends after her relationships with her friends was broken.
• Persistent: She's still persistent in getting the money for Season 2 after losing in Season 1.
• Redemption Arc: After losing Microphone, the next episode (in Season 2, at least, since that had to take a backseat after the episode where that happens (called hatching the plan) thanks to Inanimate Insanity Invitational, the third season of the show) has her do one more villainous act, though unlike the previous episodes, where she was a full-on villain, this episode made her more of an anti-villain, as she sabotaged the show in order to remind the final four that MePhone, through his show, Inanimate Insanity was being a bad influence to them and was separating their relationships for the drama. In the movie, she redeems herself thanks to Microphone.
• Is A Serious Threat/Villain: Was a threat to MePhone4's game and a psychological threat to Knife.
• Short-Tempered: "Clear the slate, start again, are you hearing how preposterous that sounds? How do you not comprehend that for someone with my MONSTROUS BACKGROUND? The whole slaaaaate... has fallen apart! (MePad: "Taco, that is not true, there are other ways to-") It's too laaate! (MePad: "It's not too late...") for me to restaaaaaaart!"
• Celibate: As if anyone in the show but Salt (and as confirmed by Word of God, OJ and Paper as well) pursues romance.
• Is A Mentor: To Microphone.
• Vengeful: In a way, she did get revenge on MePhone4 after what he did throughout II2.
• Wears Red: Red tomatoes.
• Is A Delinquent: Became an outcast after betraying everybody and stealing the suitcase containing the million (although it didn't actually have the million).
• Is A Token Evil Teammate: After all she did, among the rest of the surviving contestants helping Suitcase and Knife save everyone from MePhoneX and Cobs.
• Is Related to the Shonen Hero: MePhone4 created all of the contestants in Inanimate Insanity, so Taco is, in a way, a sister to all of the contestants in the show (and Spoiled Lemon and the Unvitational Committee as well, since they were also revealed to be MePhone4's creations in Objects In Mirror).
• Has Respect For The Shonen Hero: For Microphone.

External Links

• Taco on the Inanimate Insanity Wiki
• Taco on the Villains Wiki
• Taco on the Heroes Wiki
• Taco on the Villainous Benchmark Wiki