Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, Episode 1.36: Robotnik's Rival

Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, Episode 1.36: Robotnik's Rival

Original Air Date: September 29th, 1993

"Robotnik's Rival" begins with our villain utilizing another stupid plan to squash the thorn in his side, Sonic the Hedgehog. His attempt to magnetize Sonic and swing him to the North Pole is interrupted by another evil genius. Calling himself Dr. Quark, he also plans to bend Mobius to his will. The two immediately become rivals, competing to crush Sonic and frequently undermining each other's plots. That's when D.U.F.U.S., Quark's ultra-logical shapeshifting robot assistant, suggest the two team up together. This is wildly successful, Sonic and Tails only escaping thanks to Scratch and Grounder's stupidity. That's when our spiny hero realizes the best way to defeat this double threat is play the doctors' egos against each other.

"Robotnik's Rival" is yet another "Adventures" episode that creates a story by introducing a new character. As the usual "AoStH" cast members are unmoving in their personalities and foibles, I guess the writers had to throw new guys in every episode to keep stuff from getting more repetitive than normal. As far the recent additions "AoStH" has thrown at me go, Dr. Quark is one of the more tolerable ones. Yeah, his lisping voice is mildly annoying. The show repeatedly compares him to a duck, owing to his webbed feet, and repeats that quasi-joke endlessly. But he's not defined solely by an annoying gimmick. He's actually a far more effective villain than Robotnik, as his inventions actually work, and it's only his competitive streak that is his undoing. I also kind of like the character design too. The spiky red hair and goggles are a good mix. 

 

Moreover, Quark actually manages to bring a new dynamic to Robotnik, than the typical shenanigans we are used to seeing. His rivalry with Quark reveals both his genius — his ability to forge bizarre inventions — and his main flaw: his inability to see past petty grudges. Once they team-up, the two doctors start flattering each other, showing another previously unseen side of Robotnik's personality. He acts all grateful and flattering around Quark and seems to believe it to a degree, because his rival's genius reflects his own. Which flatters his narcissistic ego. But it's hard for Robotnik not to claim victories solely for himself, leading to an edgy undercurrent of inevitable betrayal to the partnership. I feel like we've learned more about Robotnik in these last few episodes than we will ever learn about this version of Sonic.

While Quark is a mildly interesting, or at least not terrible, addition to the show, he's not the real MVP of "Robotnik's Rival." That would be D.U.F.U.S., Quark's egregiously acronymic robot sidekick. Unlike Scratch and Grounder, who are always loud and stupid, D.U.F.U.S. is naturally soft-spoken. His commitment to pure logic is what leads to the good idea of Robotnik and Quark working together, instead of against each other. But a reasonable being is ultimately doomed in a world as absurd as this. After Scratch and Grounder gaslight him into thinking he let Sonic and Tails get away — actually their fault — D.U.F.U.S.'s programming begins to turn against himself. Like so many Gen-Xers before him, D.U.F.U.S.'s confusion at a world that doesn't make sense drives him to apathy and sarcasm towards authority figures. In other words, he turns into a smart-mouthed surfer dude type. 

Yes, what we have here is an actual character arc. At first, I was sort of hoping that D.U.F.U.S.'s clear-cut logic would lead to him attempting to destroy both Robotnik and Quark, realizing both of them are incompetent and he'd be a far more reasonable leader. Failing that, watching Scratch and Grounder continuously neg the superior robot until he becomes depressed also would have been pretty funny. Instead, he bends towards more mild forms of rebellion and depression. It warms my heart to think there's a super versatile and highly intelligent robot out there in the "Sonic"-verse who chooses to live out his life as a stoned surfer dude. It's decent comedy and would've been an even better character study. Once again, I wonder why Flynn didn't bring this guy into the Archie reboot.

Usually in "AoStH," Sonic just has to outsmart and out-speed his very dumb and slow opponents. In "Robotnik's Rival," our hedgehog hero has to rely on an actual strategy. Keenly observing that Robotnik's narcissistic ego is his greatest weakness, Sonic and Tails create a series of pranks that intentionally play the two doctors against one another. Some of these jokes are pretty dumb, involving renaming Eggman's base and a mock award show. (Though the latter does feature some amusingly random yam murder.) Their choice to print tabloids publishing outrageous rumors is funnier. Quark reading that Robotnik says he married Bigfoot is a ridiculous image that the episode then shows us, which got a laugh out of me. If nothing else, it's nice to see Sonic utilizing an actual plan, instead of just putting on goofy disguises and running around.

Though don't think there aren't lots of stupid disguises in this episode. If I made "Robotnik's Rival" sound smart or well done, please remember what show we are talking about here. There's still lots of pedestrian slapstick to be had. Characters still get bonked on the head or comically deformed throughout. Totally meaningless gags, involving ants or the Darkinator, are present and accounted for. There's lots of gross fleshiness too, such as Grounder revealing disturbingly scrawny knees or D.U.F.U.S. transforming into a shapely woman in a bikini. And, naturally, the animation is mediocre. Quark shooting light rays out of his mouth or Sonic and Tails dangling in a dungeon are images that are not conveyed well. 

But as far as the standard of this cartoon goes? Yeah, this is one of the better episodes. By playing off the character's personalities more and creating something like an actual plot. "Robotnik's Rival" managed to mildly amuse — or at least not horribly irritate — me. [7/10]