Sonic Boom, Episode 2.14: FiendBot

Sonic Boom, Episode 2.14: FiendBot

Original Air Date: February 11th, 2017

As I sit down to write this review of just another "Sonic Boom" episode, it's been about six months since I last looked at this show. The previous two reviews were written and banked a while ago but various factors kept me from posting them. Namely, when I did return from my latest unexpected and unplanned hiatus, I had other "Sonic" shit I needed to talk about first. With that business safely attended to, I can get back to what Hedgehogs Can't Swim is really all about: Talking about "Sonic" media that hasn't been relevant to the franchise in years! 

The episode begins with Sonic excitedly racing into Tails' hut with a rare copy of "Tomatopotamus 2," a video game everyone is a fan of. After Knuckles defeats Sonic's high score, the hedgehog has to fulfil his end of the bargain to buy everyone lunch. That's when Eggman springs his latest weapon: FiendBot, a robot trained on footage of Sonic in order to predict his every move and instinct. However, studying Sonic's habits have also taught FiendBot the hedgehog's heroic spirit. The machine quickly switches sides, Sonic dubbing him FriendBot. However, having a giant death-bot follow him around quickly cramps Sonic and his friend's style. 

I've got to hand it to Alan Denton and Greg Hahn on this one. They really do successfully shove a whole character arc into this fifteen minute cartoon. FiendBot goes from being a new, powerful foe for Sonic and the gang to their friend within a few minutes. He then goes from being a helpful new addition to an annoyance in the few minutes after that. That is before he wins over everyone with a heroic sacrifice at the story's climax, proceeding Tails successfully rebuilding the machine. How tight the script is also shows in how that silliness with the "Tomatopotamus" game cartridge comes back around at the end. The rare mineral in the game that made it such a valuable collector's item is also what's needed to bring FiendBot back online, meaning Knuckles has to sacrifice his high score to save his new friend(bot). Which he willingly does, having fully accepted the machine as part of the gang. 

This storyline is definitely familiar to anyone who has watched a lot of cartoons in their life. Episodes featuring awkward and friendly new characters, that the established cast have to learn to accept, are common in children's media. Usually out of a need to teach a lesson about tolerance and acceptance for anyone different. "Transmutate" from "Beast Wars" is a good example of this and "FiendBot" has some similarities to it. (Though "Boom" ditches the tragic ending.) The idea of a main character getting a new friend and someone getting jealous, necessitating a moral about learning to share your loved ones, also feels like a common trope in these shows. In fact, I'm pretty sure an earlier "Boom," "Buster," was written to mock premises like this. 

"FiendBot," however, is mostly sincere. Or at least as sincere as this show can get. The ending conveniently writes FiendBot out in order to maintain Sitcom Status Quo by the start of the next episode. I kept waiting for "Boom" to jokingly reference this in its typically meta fashion. Instead, Denton and Hahn continue to play its straight. Weirdly, this actually works in its favor. I found the ending, FiendBot's acceptance into the main group and then his graceful departure, pretty cute. It doesn't hurt that the episode uses a location from a previous installment – the village of moronic Cubot prototypes from "Beyond the Valley of the Cubots" – as a way to smoothly write FiendBot out. If we probably are never going to see this seemingly important new character again, it's good to know he's at least hanging out with some other minor characters, similarly discarded at the end of their showcase episode. 

That "FiendBot" never points out the story tropes it is so obviously using is even more surprising as there are meta jokes here. They just aren't about TV writing. Instead, the "Tomatopotamus" video game provides another chance for "Boom" to poke fun at the "Sonic" franchise and its crazier fans. Yes, there's a joke about how the "Tomatopotamus" series fell from grace years ago, following an unsuccessful leap to 3D that also involved changing the color of the main character's legs. Self-referential in-jokes like this are common in the "Sonic" franchise now. Adopting humor like this, the "Sonic" series nodding sagely and saying "Yes, we are aware that we suck now," was really the only way for the franchise to pull out of the on-and-off slump it has found itself in since the nineties ended. The "Boom" cartoon, once again, proves that it was ahead of the curb on that approach. Whether you find jokes like this amusing or aggravating depends on your sense of humor, I guess. 

I like them or, at least, I like them more than the non-stop barrage of snide one-liners. Eggman really gets the worst of those here, with groaners about how to correctly pronounce "data" and his supposed sardonic wit. There's also some lame lines from Amy, about girls not being good at video games, and Orbot being sassy. (Of the hackier jokes here, one about Meh Burger did make me laugh.) As is usually the case, the episode is funnier when just embracing what a bunch of weirdos these characters are. Such as when Cubot hits on the cannon Eggman invents or Knuckles only half understands everyone's frustration with his chronic numb-skullery. Sonic's phobia around water also comes up in an amusing way. 

There's also a line where, while trying to mention the hedgehog's qualities, Eggman has a Freudian slip about Sonic being "ruggedly handsome." We already know that Eggman not-so-secretly longs to be friends with Sonic. Maybe he longs to be more than just that as well? Certainly wouldn't be the first time a layer of homoeroticism existed between a hero and villain's rivalry. Are there slash fics and yaoi fanart of Sonic and Eggman out there? No offense to anyone but I'd rather not check... 

For what it's worth, I do think F(r)iendBot is pretty amusing. His tendency to refer to normal things, like the sincerity in Sonic's voice, in a mechanical robot fashion made me chuckle. As did the big anime girl eyes he makes a few times. Is this character a round-about homage to E-123 Omega or are Eggman's robots turning against him just that common of an occurrence in this series? Also, this episode features a little cameo from Perci, or at least one of her sisters, and the melody of "It's Not Unusual." It's also not unusual for me to like "Boom" episodes and this is another addition to the pile of good ones. [7/10]