So... Roboticization

I actually had to search that up on google to make sure it didn't already exist.

I don't see why Sega couldn't bring back roboticizaion as a main plot device, if they ever decided to do a new TV series. But that would require actually doing a new TV series. One that isn't Sonic X.

 

Honestly, I'm all for the original purpose Uncle Chuck had for it when designing it. (Extended lifespan and salvation from diseases) But Robotnik's making it a weapon by fucking with the system to strip free will (mostly) is putting me off from changing my name to Charles and building one myself.

 

It's an okay concept, but...its a term that shouldn't really be used in the games, not because I'm against it, but it just reminds me of how screwed up the Archie canon is.

 

Partial roboticization is definitely a feasible idea in our society, and is interesting in my opinion. In fact, some could say we have already entered that kind of phase with artificial limbs. Using robotic replacements to improve a person's life through mobility and survival is definitely something that can help people, similar to the original idea that Uncle Chuck had when he first developed the roboticizer, while keeping their mind intact and merely bringing about something that was taken away (such as use of hands or walking).

It's when you bring Dr. Robotnik's ideas in that scare the hell out of me. When a person turns into a mindless automaton like those in SatAM and the comics, or even an organic/mechanical hybrid like the Borg, that's going too far.

There's a limit to the aspect of roboticization, and once somebody loses control of their body, or they become mostly robotic, then that crosses the line. Once this phase is entered, roboticization does bring back something (mobility), but rather, takes away something (consciousness).

 

Exacly, either make it fit or keep it out, otherwise it just comes across as pretentious and half done.

Consider the animals inside the robots. They're shoved inside of a robot unwillingly, which makes them powerless and sucks their life energy out to power up the robot. They can be aware or unaware that the robot is going to use them to catch their friends and destroy their homeland. Who knows if Eggman likes to use rechargeable batteries or goes the simpler way, prepare more batteries and replace the dead ones once that time comes. We don't know how long South Island has been under Eggman's grasp either. In the games it's up to your imagination to gauge what is acceptable for you or not. It can range from telletubies happiness to something far worse than robotization could ever hope for. You can even disregard the morality of it and just concentrate on the gaming experience, which is what most of us did back then.

SatAM on the other hand, parades robotization as the worst thing ever, but then fails to deliver in that regard. No one important is robotized. Uncle Chuck, who gives a grim speech about being an aware slave all this time, shrugs it all with more easiness than he would if he had stepped on dog turd. If they're going to make a point, then they should explore the reasons to it, otherwise trying to tack it on will only feel unfinished and pretentious. SatAM usually takes the easy way out on the moral dilemmas anyway. Technology is bad when it's used by humans, good when it's used by animals. Despotism is bad when it's Robotnik but good when it's King Acorn. The animals in SatAM behave like humans in a fur suit so there's no difference whatsoever between then. Yet the show specifically makes that distinction, as there are no good humans and there are no bad animals (those who are, are either brainwashed or manipulated). And it's a cartoon show made by humans for humans, which is made and distributed with technology and uses unclean energy. I expect something better constructed than that. They seemed to be going the right way with the robotizer, it was for good purposes, but again the writers did a cop out and made the robotizer inherently evil anyway. It wasn't overuse of technology. The robotizer was just evil and it stayed evil from the beginning to end.

Maybe I've became picky with age. The show's message is simply obnoxious to me. I don't understand why would they want to include shallow dark concepts besides looking cool in a first glance.

edit: With this I'm not saying it's not likable. I've liked many shows that were far worse. Still, I hold those flaws against them as well. Which is something some fans of SatAM don't seem to.

 

Well how else do you think those little critters felt being energy sources for machines in the classic games?

In fact... What effects does being an energy supply have on said critter?..... Let alone if Sonic never saves them......

 

It was difficult to tell if SatAM was trying preach an environmental message because it was so obscured by everything else. Even if it was, I totally detest stuff like this in cartoons and I don't think kids care to watch this kind of stuff. I also can't help but think SatAM was made humans who hate humanity and wished to attach their personal agendas to it.

You're not alone and looking back, a lot of Saturday Morning cartoon shows had very obnoxious messages. Most likely Saturday Morning cartoons were made to advertise another piece of merchandise, so the morals were always very convoluted and twisted in retrospect. As for the roboticizer, its concept was definitely heightened by fans, so much that they've used it as an excuse to justify SatAM as a darker and more mature Sonic series. In reality it was adolescence that played into the minds of kids who thought they were watching something much more morbid and sinister. Despite all of this, adults who grew up with SatAM will continue to defend the series as something much more than what it actually was.

In all honesty I think the concept of the roboticizer is interesting, but it was definitely lousy when it came to its execution in SatAM.

 

Actually it was revealed to be the opposite, you kept your consciousness but had no control over your mobility, you were basically a slave with your every movement controlled but were completely self aware the entire time. I think that was sorta the point the show kinda drawn the line and entered into context that was too morbid for it to uphold (especially since the guy who explained it certainly didn't have the disposition of someone who had been in a state of living death for over a decade).

I think badnik implementation was an interesting, more sympathetic concept as it seemed to bring along another life rather than merely subdueing another. Gamma and the E-Series seemed to be perfectly sentient and Eggman treated them as such, congratulating them upon completing missions and negotiating with them when they fought for his approval (eg. Beta). It was almost establishing the idea that Eggman was merely 'improving' the animals he took control of, giving them stronger bodies and 'allowing' them to appreciate his brilliance.

I think there was meant to be some sort of sad tone in Gamma's ending, in that while one part of him was free, another newly created life from the robotic shell was now 'dead'.

 

Are you implying Sonic would look good being super stone cold and angsty? I think we already have a shitty character like that.

 

I can understand the point both ways really, while I can appreciate the show using a dark concept while still managing to keep a whimsical, non-angsty tone, I do agree it took away from how the concept shook the story. In Sonic Boom or Blast to the Past for example where a few 'red shirts' go under the treatment, we get a light drama from it but it's very quickly shoved under the rug (the ending to Sonic Boom disturbed me somewhat, with Sonic yelling at Robotnik 'that one's for Cat', this may have had good effect, if he wasn't laughing his ass of as he said it, and that's keeping in mind Sonic was about the only character even slightly bothered about Cat, despite him sacrificing himself for Ant and Sal, the ungrateful bastards).

Uncle Chuck's treatment was given more poignancy though even then it was more through Sonic's perspective with Chuck not really getting much development on the issue. Same for Bunnie really, the nearest to development was in Sonic Conversion and even then she was a bit character in that, she was in the background for most of the second season despite having the potential to expand on the concept).

I guess it was a neat concept but in the end they were biting off more than they could chew, especially as the show became more comical in tone.

 

As an action series, there seemed to be a tendency to want to hold onto humour while still keeping a serious tone. I never watched much of it (wasn't allowed to), but TMNT also had retarded humour amidst a darker overlying plot.

 

They agree.

 

Are you saying you haven't seen the entire series of SatAM? Tsk tsk. You need to get on that right away. There are a few duds in the second season, but overall it's pretty darn awesome.

The Roboticiser as a way to darken the tone (along with other elements, like the dystopia of Robotropolis) was an effective move, I feel. Yes, as a saturday morning cartoon they couldn't run with a lot of the themes, but they didn't have to. Just the suggestion was enough to get young minds excited about the possibilities for depth of story. I think that's why SatAM fans can be so obsessive, even after they've grown up (well, aged biologically, anyway =P): because the stories gave room to imagine more epic and grand tales just around the corner. When hearing interviews with the writers, they talk about how much they were excited to make a continuing saga with important themes, and that rubs off on the viewers (if they're young and openminded enough, that is).

Sadly, the SatAM canon is all tangled up with the Archie comics (not least because when the show ended, fans of the SatAM characters had no where else to get their fix). But the Archie comics are atrocious, and it kind of tars the whole thing, especially once they added all the bullshit modern Sonic stuff and Mammoth Mogul, blah blah blah.

 

No. It's just unfitting that he's doing butt jokes while his friends are in direct danger and right in front of him no less. Or Sally and Sonic flirting with supposedly funny banter, completing disregarding that Cat had just been captured by Robotnik. Black humor is one thing and a jerkass character is another thing, but the way they inserted humor was not properly done most of the time because it did not fit or strayed attention from the task at hand. That's not good humor.

Then they should've introduced more humans or more backstabing animals. They had no problems in introducing Snively, so Robotnik being the lonesome human dictator doesn't fit. It would've been simple to make a batstab animal as well. Just make Robotnik use these animals for his benefict (which would've been very evil as well) for example.

No. The Robotizer was bad from the beginning, even if used by good people, and that was where they could've approached that duality. I stressed that point before. What you describe is what I expected from the show. It was not what it happened there.

Robotnik enhanced himself? When was this? I remember he got his arm robotized by accident, nothing more.

 

Truthfully the good animals/bad humans thing is common with cartoons due to the 'Rule of Cute'. Animals are often cute and thus easier to represent as cute, humans aren't as cute so can be made less loveable villains. Truthfully it's no different from the early games with Eggman as the sole human, perhaps it's enthasised more in the show due to it's respective Robotnik lacking any real redeeming aspects, he's basically a walking 'kick the dog' compared to the more sympathetic Eggman of the games, Snively, though more pitiful and comical in tone, isn't that pleasant either.

Though there was the wizard of Super Sonic episode, who despite his history of evil turned good following his awakening. Should Naugus count as human, he may have counted as a more sympathetic villain, if still self serving.

I admit the casual tone in Sonic Boom seemed a bit jarring, I can understand balancing things with humor (eg. Antoine was there for that) but the characters came off as way too casual for the occasion considering the circumstances involving both Cat and King Acorn. It's another key example of the RedShirt syndrome (though even then Sonic's attitude was surprisingly cold at times, in Hooked On Sonics he sounded deadly serious about leaving Ant for dead).

 

In Terminator Salvation, the main character is a cyborg, but he isn't aware of it. In Terminator; Sarah Connor Chronicles, it's pretty much the same thing with the other main terminator, Cameron. Quite a few of the novels also deal with the concept of having humans bred in farms to have implants within their brains and such. Apologies for not explaining that further. :v:

 

I admit that would've made for more interesting stories, but I'm skeptical if this would've fit Robotnik's motivations. Not really remembering much of SATAM, was Robotnik trying to rule Mobius or was he trying to grind it into an uninhabitable state? Given his sadism, misanthropy, ego ("the entirety of the planet is subordinate to me!") and probable psychotic state of mind, I doubt he would hesitate to strive for the latter genocidal and suicidal goal. Assuming I'm right, working with the very beings he's trying to eliminate, even if it helps him to pursue that goal, seems forced to me. Besides, Robotnik probably has enough resources to do the deed himself.

On a somewhat related point, if you're going to make Robotnik evil incarnate (as opposed to the more ambiguous Eggman of the games), then I don't want any background history on the character or pet the dog moments that could possibly portray the character in even a slightly more sympathetic light. Robotnik's character depends on him being thoroughly rotten and the viewers hating or fearing him because of that. Sure, it's one-sided take on Robotnik, but I think it's really the only way to believably portray the character.

A more suitable character to show more depth is definitely Snively. I personally would've loved to see him try to run Robotnik's operations, fail, and eventually side with the Freedom Fighters in the canceled third season.

 

There was Ari, who betrayed Sonic in return for his kidnapped Freedom Fighter group (though this was less evil and more a 'by any means' backstab), naturally Robotnik didn't comply with his end of the bargain. Robotnik's tendacy to backstab every ally he made, either as a boost to his power or the sheer sadistic fun of it, suggests he is incompatable with any real partnership (par maybe Snively, though even he was left to die out of spite in The Doomsday Project). He was a compassionate animal keeper apparently though (abiding by his treatment of Cluck though his disappearance after the first season leaves me wondering if the writers wanted to eliminate that one redeeming quality).

Truthfully Robotnik's motive was kinda falling apart later on, his sentient robots were retconned out and it was shown how despensible he found Snively. He seemed to desire to be the sole sentient occupant of earth, all alone...

Snively, though a more sympathetic character with more pathos and facets, seemed to have most of Robotnik's sadism and lack of empathy, just he couldn't present it as well due to being a bumbling underling.