Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, Episode 1.32: Momma Robotnik's Return

Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, Episode 1.32: Momma Robotnik's Return

Original Air Date: October 4th, 1993

Continuity wasn't really a concern with "Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog." You can watch this show in almost any order and it'll make perfect sense to you. (Which is basically what I'm doing, since the airing order is radically different from the production order.) Most of the one-shot gag characters were exactly that. They showed up once and were never seen again. However, the writers of the show were clearly amused by Robotnik's domineering mother. 23 episodes after "Momma Robotnik's Birthday," they would bring her back in "Momma Robotnik's Return." Her second appearance would air only five episodes after her first one, making it seem like the show was really fond of her. 

This episode begins with a peek at the retirement home Momma is in. In a decent gag, it has barb wire, ten foot tall walls, and watch towers. This still doesn't stop Momma just smashing through those walls and walking right out. Disgusted with her own son's incompetence, Momma Robotnik decides she's going to try her hand at stopping Sonic. Her plan involves adopting the hedgehog as her legal ward and forcing him to be her slave, with an imprisoned and threatened Tails as the bargaining chip. Robotnik is none-too-pleased with being evicted from his fortress by his own mom, and plots to regain power. 

"Momma Robotnik's Birthday" revealed that the show's rotund villain has an abusive relationship with his own mother. In her return, his mom commits the ultimate sin against her child: Complete abandonment. She disowns him and, in a round about way, replaces him with a superior offspring in the form of Sonic. (Who, at least, quickly completes the tasks Momma asks of him.) Scratch and Grounder even seem to like Momma better, probably on account of her being slightly less cruel to them. I think a lot of kids have had this fear, that they could disappoint their own parents so badly that they could cease to be loved. It gives us further insight into Robotnik's psyche, that his mom is so wretched that she would actually go through with this threat. In this light, it becomes clear that his massive ego is a defense mechanism and his incompetence is probably a self-defeating inner flaw. This is what happens when your mom doesn't actually love you. 

But we must face the fact that Robotnik's mom is legitimately a better villain than him. Her plot to adopt Sonic and blackmail him into becoming her slave, of course, would not work anywhere besides the cartoonishly absurd "AoStH" universe. Yet it does works. The Robotnik empire not only looses its greatest enemy but gains a hyper competent servant. She also has the simple solution of putting shackles on Tails' tails, to keep him from flying. Which seems like an obvious solution, in retrospect. She also proves that Scratch and Grounder can be useful minions if not constantly treated like shit. With Sonic under her control, she successfully activates Robotnik's latest plan: A radio tower that makes every machine on Mobius a potential tool of Robotnik. (A plot point that is never actually resolved, because this show can never be anything but sloppy.)

Robotnik's mom does come closer to defeating Sonic than he ever did... Which makes it sort of funny that Sonic doesn't even have to save the day in this episode. His "adoption" by Momma Robotnik is annulled when the big guy informs the government specialist – a skunk with a literal beehive hairdo, har har – that his mom is a piece of shit. Robotnik and Coconuts eventually take back the tower, his mom goes back to the fortified nursing home, and the status quo is reinforced. Sonic and Tails could have done absolutely nothing and this episode would have ended the exact same way. This is not the first time I've suspected the writers of this show were way more interested in Robotnik's antics than the heroics of the titular hedgehog.

Considering a free agent superhero has to protect people around the whole planet, I've never gotten the impression that much of a legal system exists on Mobius. Apparently not. In what feels like a "Sonic Says" segment inserted into the middle of the episode, Sonic tells Tails to obey the laws, that they are there for a reason. Afterwards, Sonic is served to appear in court and forcibly adopted by Momma Robotnik, something I'm not sure is legal anywhere. This suggests Mobius has a pretty fucked up and incompetent legal system. No wonder the planet is in such disarray! 

Even though the episode depicts laws that are immoral and weird, "Sonic Says" still has the hedgehog emphasizing that you should obey the law. Ya know, I actually got mildly angry for two minutes that this garbage cartoon would turn an obvious anti-authoritarian hero like Sonic into a shill for "law and order." But I guess an educational segment about direct action and civil disobedience probably wouldn't fit into a 30 second end-of-shown block.

In this rambling review, I guess I never actually mention whether "Momma Robotnik's Return" is a decent episode or not. Eh, it's okay. Momma Robotnik is still a rather terrifying antagonist, because of her disquieting appearance and growling voice. (Though the animators at least shaved her mustache this time.) One or two lines from Scratch and Grounder, during the transition of power, made me chuckle. Coconuts continues to be My Poor Oppressed Boy, as Robotnik's mom is just as inexplicable cruel to him as her son. The slapstick continues to be unimpressive but this episode is, I guess, a little less dumb than the usual installment of this show.

This is not the last time Robotnik's horrible mom appears on this show, so look forward to more (secretly sarcastic? I'll never tell) insight into the psychological trauma of these goofy-ass characters. Anyway, I'd probably give this one a six if it wasn't for that whack "Sonic Says" moral. [5/10]