Adventures of Sonic The Hedgehog - Sonic is Running (Screenshots & Review)
Now it's time for some political satire, Sonic Style!
This episodes starts off with a bang as Momma Robotnik breaks into Robotnik’s fortress to visit her son. Sadly, she's missing her cool mustache again in this episode, but it is still always fun to hear Kathleen Barr doing her thing. :D
She tells Robotnik that a friend at the home was telling her about their own child, who was president of their schools gardening club. This made Momma realize that Robotnik had never been president of anything, so she's come to make sure he fixes that! After being bullied for a while, Robotnik eventually caves and decides he is going to run for president of Mobius.
He has Scratch and Grounder start putting up flyers all over Mobius, which is how Sonic and Tails find out what's going on. They treat it as a source of amusement at first, since they don't see him having any chance of being elected. After the flyers are hung up, Robotnik also recruits Wes Weasely as his campaign manager. Unsurprisingly, Robotnik’s approval rating is at rock bottom, and his opponent Henry Walrus is largely favored by everyone.
“Mah gawd! She’s going for the chokeslam!”
“Here’s Some News!” Collie Chang, the cool car reporter gal, is back to report on the presidential race in this episode.
In light of this fact, Robotnik decides to start using more manipulative tactics. Wes Weasly builds him a robot wife (creepy!) and a robot dog to improve his image, akin to that of a hetero-normative kitschy American "ideal" president in our own world's USA. I would think he would also use Scratch, Grounder and Coconuts to show that he has "lots of children" too, but he has decided to simply leave them in charge of manual labor activities for the campaign, figuring they'd just mess things up on camera, I guess.
Wes Weasely creates “Robo Wife” and “Robo Dog” to improve Robotnik’s image. Robo Wife is clearly sentient, so that’s pretty rapey!
“Robo Wife” (the poor gal never gets a proper name) does have a pretty fun design. I like her big goofy smile. She’s also voiced by Kathleen Barr! Thankfully, she’ll be free of this bullshit situation by the end of this episode.
On a less creepy note, we also learn that Robotnik has a pet snake in this episode! His name is “Spalding”. But Is he a captain?
“Robo Dog” was made with a literal heart of gold. He enjoys biting Robotnik on the foot!
Soon, Robotnik’s campaign gets even more sleazy when he films a TV campaign ad that is designed to mind control its viewers. This ad is probably the best of political satire in this whole episode, as it eerily mirrors the same creepy rhetoric that regressive conservative candidates are still using today in the year 202.
“"Haven't you ever wanted to return a simple time on Mobius? when we had simple virtues? and simple people? remember simple family values, like apple pie? and mom?
isn't it time we had a president who cares about apple pie, mom, and the Mobius flag?"
Damn. Not too far from the kind of creepy campaign ad you'd see from ted cruz or something....
When the ad first airs, Sonic is at Bert's Diner, where Bert and Roxy have made a special chili dog dish for Sonic. That's nice of them! Robotnik’s campaign ad comes up on the TVs inside the diner, and Sonic is having a laugh due to the obvious propaganda and the constant screw-ups in the ad. To Sonic's surprise though,everyone else in the diner immediately says they're going to vote for Robotnik! Sonic is confused but starts to notice the subliminal hypnotic effect in the ad, which doesn't affect him due to the fact that whatever gives Sonic his speed powers apparently also affects his perception of time around him. That's an interesting fact about Sonic that doesn't seem to have come up before!
As Sonic expresses his dislike of Robotnik, the brainwashed occupants of the diner threaten to violence him (again, a sadly accurate prediction of American politics in 2023). He heads outside and runs into Tails, who thankfully didn't get exposed to enough of the ad to get hypnotized himself. Sonic decides that A - he himself is now going to run for president as well and B - if Robotnik is using dirty tactics, he's going to start playing dirty too and gets right to engaging in all kinds of acts of sabotage, up to and including more of the vandalism that he said was "stupid and illegal" in the very previous episode. Hey, Sonic...?
In one scene, Robotnik is trying foods from different cultural stereotype characters. Sonic keeps sneaking in and replacing their foods with literal garbage, which Robotnik eats! It’s a pretty effective gross out scene and I almost feel bad for the guy.Robotnik eventually loses his temper and tells everyone their food resembles the contents of a dumpster, losing popularity.
A lot of the stuff he does is understandable, but one of the more surprising stunts he pulls is dressing up in a Marilyn Munroe-like disguise, and getting Robotnik interested in cheating on his Robo Wife! Sonic plants lipstick stains on Robotnik, which makes his robot wife very upset, of course. I feel bad for the gal but considering she was designed to be a sentient "love slave" (which is super rapey), at-least this helps her to lose interest in Robotnik and hopefully find a happier life for herself.
All of Sonic's sabotage efforts do a great job of getting Robotnik to look foolish over and over again, as well as lose his temper and lash out at everyone around him, even his own brainwashed supporters. Sonic eventually wins the election due to this, and since his goal was simply to sabotage Robotnik, he immediately resigns his presidency and hands the victory over to Henry Walrus. We never learn much about Henry, so all I can hope for is that he'll a do a good job! It's also interesting to see that's at-least suggested that Mobius has a singular world government as opposed to all the silly tribalistic divided governments of our own world.
Collie is a tall gal! Also, I notice that her tail seems to disappear and reappear throughout this episode...
In the Sonic Says segment, Sonic teaches Tails about the importance of dental care as the poor little fox has possibly gotten a cavity from not brushing enough. Considering I have to get a dental crown myself next week, the timing of this is one showing up in my cue was a a painful reminder of how stupid it is for me keep passing out on the couch at night instead of brushing my teeth and actually going to bed. Don't be lazy like me, kids.....brush yo damn teeth....
Overall, this episode is pretty alright. While it feels a bit all over the place and rushed at times, it's a fun theme and I especially like that Robotnik’s TV ad poked fun at the creepiness of republican campaign ads obsessing over "tradition" and superficial things like flag worship. It definitely also gets bonus points for featuring some of my favorite side characters like Momma Robotnik and Wes Weasely, as well. Only a few more episodes left to review!
Til next time folks, stay cool and be good people!!
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AI Prompt: Write an entry in Dr. Eggman’s diary about appearing on a game show hosted by Wes Weasley.
Dear Diary,
I recently appeared on a game show hosted by none other than Wes Weasley. I admit, I was hesitant to participate, as Weasley has a reputation for being a bit of a cheat. But the grand prize was too tempting to resist - a brand new golden spaceship equipped with the latest gadgets and gizmos.
The game show was called "Weasley's Wacky Wheel of Wonder," and it was quite the spectacle. I was pitted against Sonic and a few other contestants, but I knew I had the intelligence and cunning to come out on top.
The first few rounds were uneventful, but things really heated up when we got to the final round. The category was "Famous Villains," and I was confident I would dominate the competition. That is, until the wheel landed on a "Lose a Turn" space.
Frustrated, I watched as Sonic correctly guessed answer after answer, racking up an insurmountable lead. But I wasn't about to let the blue pest have the last laugh. So, I discreetly activated a small device I had planted on the wheel before the show. With a push of a button, the wheel stopped on the coveted "Jackpot" space.
The audience erupted in cheers as I claimed my prize, and Sonic looked on in disbelief. Of course, I made sure to give a gracious acceptance speech, thanking Weasley for the opportunity and the audience for their support.
But as I took my new golden spaceship for a spin, I couldn't help but chuckle to myself. Perhaps cheating isn't always necessary, but it sure is satisfying.
Until next time,
Dr. Eggman
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