Joan & Butlertron

Joan & Butlertron is the family ship between Joan of Arc and Lynn Butlertron from the Clone High fandom.

Season 1
ESCAPE TO BEER MOUNTAIN: A ROPE OF SAND

At JFK's house party, Joan watches as Abe is getting closer to Cleo than her. Abe has a crush on Cleo but is friends with Joan, although he is oblivious to the fact that Joan clearly has a crush on him. Meanwhile, Butlertron and Scudworth happen to be at the student party to do research for a paper Scudworth must write for The Secret Board of Shadowy Figures to prove that he is aware what it is like to be a clone high school student at his school. Joan grows frustrated watching Abe chase after Cleo and she leaves to sit alone at a swing in the backyard, away from the other students. Scudworth gets beat up by Genghis Khan inside the house and Butlertron is not there with him.

Instead, Butlertron goes out to see Joan alone on the swing. He asks Joan if she wants to talk about what's bothering her. She tells him that he wouldn't understand what she's going through, but Butlertron offers that she should just confess her feelings for Abe. She asks what the positives for confessing would be, and he says that Abe could not be interested in that moment because he doesn't know how her feelings could possibly change their friendship. She then comes up with the idea that Abe is just waiting for one of them to make the first move to change the relationship. Butlertron suggests that she could be the one to make the move. She then runs to hug him, and she tells him that she loves him. He tells her not to mention it.

HOMECOMING: A SHOT IN D'ARC

Clone High is up against GESHH, a rival high school, for a basketball game. Clone High has gone without a point against the rival school for years and Scudworth (as well as the basketball captain Abe) want nothing more than to score a single point on GESHH. Joan wants to play to help the school win, but the basketball team has a rule that excludes girls from playing. She decides to disguise herself as a boy, named John D'Arc. She successfully infiltrates the team and is the best player of the students. This angers Abe because Cleo becomes attracted to Joan as John, and Joan is also unintentionally outplaying Abe in all practices. This results in Scudworth revoking Abe's role as captain of the team and gives it instead to Joan. Abe then hates John and pushes her away, the opposite of what Joan intended.

After Scudworth gives Abe's position to Joan, Joan is seen out of her disguise skipping stones on a lake. Butlertron comes up to her and asks what's troubling her. Joan tells him that she, disguising the story as happening to her "friend," just unintentionally burned a bridge with her and Abe while only trying to help him to score a point for the school team. Butlertron is aware that she is John, and plays along with her secrecy briefly by telling her that "her friend" should listen to whatever her heart is telling her to do. Joan then tells him that she just doesn't want to hurt Abe again. Butlertron asks her what the real Joan of Arc would have done in a similar position. She says that she would have indeed followed her heart, even if she were to get burned at the stake after. She jokes that she'll be fine because it's not like she'll be burned at the stake too, but Butlertron reminds her that there's technically a 38% chance she could get burned anyway.

Season 2
THE CROWN: JOANCOMING: IT'S A CLEO, CLEO, CLEO, CLEO WORLD

Homecoming season has arrived at Clone High, and Cleo is campaigning to be Homecoming Queen. Joan is annoyed at her advertisement practices, and ends up spreading a rumor that Cleo is a terrible person. The rumor spreads rapidly among the students and Joan is chosen as Homecoming Queen by the school instead. Both her and Cleo are shocked. Joan refuses to be Queen, but takes the crown with her to find Cleo to give it to her instead. The crown, however, has evil magical powers that grants whoever wears it the power of mind-control. Cleo is overtaken by the power and quickly mind-controls everyone in the school, except for Butlertron, because he's a robot, and Joan, who keeps dodging Cleo's attempts at controlling her. Cleo then uses the students she's mind-controlled to chain Joan up on one of the football goalposts in the field while the Homecoming Dance happens inside the gym.

Because Butlertron is unable to be mind-controlled and Scudworth and Candide are under Cleo's influence, Butlertron finds that he must go release Joan from her prison outside to help him save the school. Joan, listening to Cleo's favorite (and Joan's least favorite) song "Instructional Boogie" from a distance, realizes that the song has started to grow on her and she's beginning to enjoy it. Butlertron uses a mechanical lift to get himself up to Joan's level. He jokes that she's "a little tied up," before getting serious. Joan tells him not to help her, because she's a horrible person for spreading the rumor about Cleo and causing all the chaos to happen, and she deserves a hell of listening to the Instructional Boogie. She confesses to Butlertron that the song is growing on her, but she hates to admit it. Butlertron tells her that admitting her truth is the first step to change. She says that it felt good to say her truth out loud, and he urges her to embrace her truth. The Instructional Boogie then gives her instructions on how to escape her chain prison. Butlertron then says that her truth could possibly help repair her relationship with Cleo. She gets a little overly confident and thinks he can fly, jumping off the goalpost and faceplanting. Butlertron said she won't be able to fly, but she'll be able to change her story with Cleo. He then falls off his lift and "oils himself," telling Joan to just go to the dance and fix things. She thanks him and leaves.

FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION

Scudworth and Butlertron get in an argument after Scudworth is not taken seriously by The Secret Board of Shadowy Figures because he had crab in his teeth at the annual Crab Fest for the Figures. The two discuss promises and hint at an important promise that Scudworth made Butlertron when they met. Scudworth says that he doesn't need to keep the promise because Butlertron is just a hunk of metal without a soul. This upsets Butlertron and he hurries off. He wheels to a supply closet, and begins packing a box of his things to leave. As he is packing, Joan walks in. He says hello to her and she asks him if they can talk because she needs advice after breaking up with JFK. She tells him that she misses having someone around her who loves her unconditionally. Butlertron is moved by her sentiment and tells her that he gets what she means. He does his signature behavior of calling her "Wesley" as he tells her that he's been seeking someone to love him unconditionally his whole life, and she asks why he calls everyone that. He then launches into a backstory about how his brother was named Wesley, and that he left his family when they wouldn't let him get baptized and they revealed him to be a robot, when he and Wesley both thought he was a human.

Joan is touched by his story. He tells her that leaving Wesley behind was the hardest thing he ever had to do. Joan relates, telling Butlertron that her breaking up with JFK was the hardest thing she had ever had to do. Abe walks by the supply closet and Joan says that she knows she made the right choice because she's always had feelings for Abe anyway, and she wants to be with him. Butlertron tells her that one should always tell their loved ones the truth. Joan says that she wants to, but that she's been worried that Abe will think she's a whore because she was moving on too quickly. The word "whore" from Joan's mouth sends Butlertron into a flashback of his brief time as a sex worker to help him pay rent. He then recalls that section of his life to Joan, where one of his clients, Purity, becomes pregnant with what is believed to be his child. In the search for a family, he believes that he's found it with Purity and his unborn child. However, it's revealed that Purity was cheating on him the entire time they were married and living together, and that his child wasn't really his. He then left to visit his brother, all grown up, and then they go to give Butlertron a baptism. Unfortunately, while trying to baptize Butlertron, Wesley falls into the ocean and drowns, and Butlertron only has Wesley's red sweater and a tuft of his hair as a reminder of him.

He then explains going to Hollywood and becoming a world famous comedy star, when a young Scudworth breaks into his house because he's in awe of Butlertron, as he is a model of robot that was previously discontinued and destroyed. The young Scudworth comes to him with the proposition of joining him to be a part of a project he is working on, where he clones famous historical figures and then put the teens of the clones into a high school. At first, Butlertron refuses because he doesn't know what else Scudworth could do for him that he hasn't already done for himself, but he changes his tune when Scudworth rolls out his chamber filled with the test tubes of the original generation of clones as embryos. Notably, Butlertron locks eyes with the test tube Joan is in and picks it up. Her embryo touches his metal claw through the glass and giggles at him. He is won over, because he sees Joan as another opportunity for a family to put himself in. Butlertron is also won over by the fact that Scudworth can clone people, and he agrees to help if Scudworth will promise to clone Wesley to bring him back.

Back in the present, Joan tells Butlertron that his life has been so cool, and she feels like she has no one in her life to turn to. With her head in her hands, Butlertron tells her that there's always one person she can count on. She asks if it would be him, but he refuses and says that the person she can count on is herself. He tells her not to put her trust in others because they will only let her down. Joan thinks about something for a moment before pulling Butlertron into a hug. The two think that his eyes are welling in tears, but it's just juice from a prime rib sandwich on the top of a shelf. The two pull away to let Butlertron leave. Joan thanks him for everything before noticing that his battery is dangerously low. He tells her sadly that he knows before leaving.

CLONE ALONE

Operation Spread Eagle comes to a close with Candide's plan of sending the clones to a "Death Maze," where they are put on a time limit to complete the maze alive. Candide uses her power as the school superintendent to also fire Scudworth and Butlertron, sending them into a revenge plot to kill Candide before she can initiate her final plan with the clones. Candide hosts a sports-bar-like viewing party of the Maze for The Secret Board of Shadowy Figures, and Butlertron and Scudworth sneak in to try to kill her. They are ultimately unsuccessful, killing every member of the Board while Candide is the only one still left alive. Meanwhile, in the Death Maze, Joan ends up going rogue from the other clones when she is disrespected by both the rest of "the four amigas" (consisting of her, Cleo, Frida and Harriet), as well as the boy's group (consisting of Abe, JFK, Topher and Confucius). She goes feral and is able to get rid of all the other clones and make it to the end of the Maze, winning. Candide comes out to greet her and tell her the truth about Operation Spread Eagle, and show her that Joan has proved herself to be capable of being the next world leader, to be puppeted by the government. In a small room, Candide shows Joan that her friends and the rest of her clone classmates are still alive, but their minds will be completely wiped of any knowledge of Joan.

As they discuss this, Scudworth and Butlertron fall from the ceiling with a box of yearbooks, with Scudworth stuck in an air vent. Candide explains that she knew that the two would try to kill her after she fired them. Joan picks up a yearbook from the box and looks at pictures of her and her friends throughout the school year, growing slightly emotional. Butlertron joins her at her side to look at the book as Scudworth gets yelled at by Candide. Joan tells Butlertron that she had forgotten all of the memories outlined in the book, while Candide tells Scudworth that he cares too much about the clones, which is why he's terrible as a conspirator to the government. He agrees that he cares, because he sees the clones as his children. Joan listens in then, and hears Candide tell him that he should be more like Joan, heartless and uncaring. She gets angry at that and knocks Candide out with the yearbook she was holding. Butlertron and Scudworth join her as she grabs Candide's access card and runs to save the clones from having their memories erased.

Fanon
There are relatively few family ships in the Clone High fandom simply because potential familial bonds are background bonds to the bonds between the clones themselves. Every clone has a foster family, but few clones have their foster families highlighted beyond the knowledge of their existence. However, with regards to the clones' physical creation, Principal Scudworth and Butlertron were the two responsible for finding the DNA for each clone and successfully cloning every student at the high school from their original counterparts' DNA, making the two of them technically parents of each of the clones. That dynamic goes entirely unexplored in the original series besides the few moments that Butlertron and Joan connect, in which Butlertron offers Joan comfort and advice on various issues. However, in the reboot series, one of the finale episodes of the recently finished second season, "For Your Consideration," shows explicit confirmation of the idea that Scudworth and Butlertron are familial with each of the clones, both first and second generations. Butlertron and Joan are specifically shown connecting in that episode, where Butlertron refers to the future creation of the high school as a "family" for him to be a part of as he watches the embryo of Joan in one of Scudworth's test tubes. This ship is also connected to the wider ship of Scudworth, Butlertron and all of the clones, as well as Scudlertron because of Scudworth and Butlertron as parents of the clones.

There are currently no fan fictions about the relationship between Joan and Butlertron, but there are a few pieces of fan art with no specialized tag that can be seen under Butlertron's and Joan's tags on Tumblr. This relationship is also commonly paired with the greater family ship of Scudworth, Butlertron, and all of the clones. The relationship is also sometimes compared to Joan's other familial relationships of Toots and Candide.

Fandom
FAN ART



Trivia

 * In "For Your Consideration," Clone High returns to its roots in terms of reusing the main cast as voices for other minor characters. Nicole Sullivan, the voice actor for Joan, ends up ironically voicing both Purity, Butlertron's ex-wife, as well as one of the children that sees Butlertron as a member of the family in his sitcom days in Hollywood. All three characters that Sullivan voices are ones that Butlertron sees as his family and an integral part of his identity at some point in the episode.
 * Similarly, both JFK and Butlertron are voiced by Christopher Miller. JFK is Joan's main love interest in the second season, and Butlertron is the only adult that Joan feels comfortable confiding in during the second season, and one of the few adults she confided in during Season 1.