The Inconsistency of AoStH's Story

[Dr. Mechano]

Surely I wasn't the only one who noticed this. AoStH could never get their story straight on whether Robotnik was a supervillain trying to conquer Mobius or an evil overlord already ruling it. There's plenty of support for both throughout the series.

The case for Robotnik being a supervillain bent on conquest:

- Robotnik frequently declares intent to conquer Mobius, stating such things as "With this, Mobius will be mine!"

- In one episode, Mobius was shown to have a president.

- ...In yet another episode, Mobius's governing body was shown to be a council of elders.

The case for Robotnik already ruling Mobius:

- The term "freedom fighters" is tossed around liberally throughout the series.

- Referring to enemies of Robotnik as "rebels" also comes up every now and again, as seen in Sonic's Song and The Robotnik Express. But it doesn't make sense for them to be rebelling against Dr. Robotnik unless he's in power. Otherwise, it's Robotnik who's "rebelling" against the current powers that be, whoever they are.

- Sonic's Song also refers to Sonic as "a teenage fugitive on the run," which again would only make sense if Robotnik was in power. Unless we're to assume Sonic regularly gets in trouble with the law, and considering how civic Sonic is (He takes the court system very seriously in Mama Robotnik Returns), that's unlikely.

- It could just be self-aggrandizement, but Robotnik acts like he can pass laws and regulations for the planet, such as banning all music (in Sonic's Song), and declaring Sonic Mobius's number one fugitive.

- Robotropolis has human and animal citizens living under Robotnik's rule in Sonic Christmas Blast; Though it's possible that in this case, he merely rules a single city and not the planet.

- In Sonic Christmas Blast, "Robotnik Bucks" are a form of currency, though this may have been used only in Robotropolis. "Mobiums" feature prominently in the rest of the series, so yeah.

-----

SO YEAH. What's up with that? Is there a satisfactory explanation to reconcile this seeming contradiction of Robotnik's state?

My theory: The government of AoStH Mobius is in constant turnover. One week Robotnik's in charge, the next it's the President, then Robotnik again, then the council of elders, and so on. Robotnik's effective enough at taking over (sometimes), but not so good at staying in power or really enforcing any sort of laws whatsoever.

...Or I guess I could go with the more likely idea that the writers just never talked to each other or bothered to have any form of consistency, but trying to come up with a logical canon explanation and pretending they cared at all about the story is more fun. Whatever the case, I found this interesting, and was wondering what peoples' thoughts were.

Edited January 10, 2011 by Dr. Mechano

[Swiss]

With the many strange things that happened in AoStH, I think having some form of canon storyline was the last thing on it's mind.

You do make a good point though, definitely something I never thought of before now.

[The Weeb with No Name]

Between episodes he loses and regains control.

There.

[Dr. Mechano]

With the many strange things that happened in AoStH, I think having some form of canon storyline was the last thing on it's mind.

Thing is, it had some continuity. They'd bring back old characters from earlier in the show, and even directly reference their former appearances (Mama Robotnik, the Bears, Robotnik Jr., Breezie, Professor von Schlimmer, Sergeant Doberman, Wes Weasely, etc.), so it's not as the show had zero continuity, as zany as it was.

[Swiss]

That's very true, though I don't think there was much else continuity outside the realm of recurring characters. I mean there were instances like the episodes with Chaos Emeralds (I forget what they're called, it's been a while since I last watched it) but I doubt the creators wanted to take the show too seriously, which is why they stuck to just recurring characters.

Edited January 10, 2011 by Swiss

[-Mark-]

A very short-cycle electoral system and a fickle public. Problem solved.

[Flyboy Fox]

It's clear they never really paid much attention to keeping things straight from one episode to the next. There are a lot of plotholes and inconsistencies in that show. Another, for example, is that in one episode Tails claims to be illiterate because he's only 4 and a half years old, yet in another episode he leaves a perfectly clearly handwritten note for Sonic.

The show does have some recurring characters and occasional mentions of past occurrences, but for the most part they are one-off episodes (with the exception of the three chaos emerald ones) and I doubt there was really much communication going on at all between the various writers.

[SchemingMinor]

Blame it on Warpnik.

[somesortofrobot]

Wait wait wait, are you trying to make sense of AoSTH?

HAHAHAHAHAHA!

[Sega DogTagz]

I always imagined that Mobius was a free planet, with several jurisdictions falling under Robotnik’s control. That seems to make the most sense to me and allows most of the storylines to work. Robotnik clearly owns a TON of land. An entire city rose up out of his scrap heap at one point. Robotnik also is able to wage his war on the rest of Mobius, attacking free cities along the way (like that Atlantis homage – they had a king and everything). Furthermore, if his influense had extended globally, he would have had to knock elbows with Professor Qwark much sooner. That makes Robotnik more of a localized despot more than anything, although I'd never underestimate his mobility.

Mobius had freedom of speech and whatnot (like that Sketch Lampoon bird guy), so there is no way Robotnik had an iron grip on the entire planet. The Doctor just took it upon himself to build contraptions to enforce laws he had no authority to make.

Edited January 10, 2011 by Sega DogTagz

[Mangoaxe5]

I don't think that AOSTH has enough of a storyline to try and make sense of it.

A lot of cartoons back then didn't really take there storyline canon seriously. Especially those based on videogames(which the shows writers most likely never even played the games in the first place).

The only Sonic cartoons that really have story canon are Satam, Sonic Underground, and Sonic X.

[Yoyo]

I always imagined that Mobius was a free planet, with several jurisdictions falling under Robotnik’s control. That seems to make the most sense to me and allows most of the storylines to work. Robotnik clearly owns a TON of land. An entire city rose up out of his scrap heap at one point. Robotnik also is able to wage his war on the rest of Mobius, attacking free cities along the way (like that Atlantis homage – they had a king and everything). Furthermore, if his influense had extended globally, he would have had to knock elbows with Professor Qwark much sooner. That makes Robotnik more of a localized despot more than anything, although I'd never underestimate his mobility.

Mobius had freedom of speech and whatnot (like that Sketch Lampoon bird guy), so there is no way Robotnik had an iron grip on the entire planet. The Doctor just took it upon himself to build contraptions to enforce laws he had no authority to make.

Yeah, that's my thinking. If we think of Mobius like Earth, then it's possible there are many countries/districts/or cities/whatever. He probably controls certain areas while other places are under control of the President, or the Elders who may or may not be affiliated in some way.

[Sean]

You know how King Dedede is the self-proclaimed monarch of Dream Land? And probably isn't its real ruler? This is likely what Robotnik considers himself to be.

[SonikkuForever]

AoSTH had a story?

[Tornado]

^ Word for word what I was going to say.

I mean, I don't want to come off as a dick, but I think you are overthinking this by quite a bit Dr. Mechano. For the purposes of the story, they probably just didn't care. I'd equate it to the Homestar Runner character the King of Town. In some episodes, he is very clearly, er... The King of the Town. In other episodes, he's pretty obvious not the ruler of anything. Basically, they treated it as whatever made the particular episode funnier and left it at that.

Edited January 11, 2011 by Tornado

[Indigo Rush]

Wait wait wait, are you trying to make sense of AoSTH?

HAHAHAHAHAHA!

[Tori Himemiya]

You shouldn't think too hard on a silly cartoon. It never had a story other than kick Robotnik's butt.

And I always thought Robotnik was trying to rule since he made it very clear in the past. And he did rule over Mobius once as Supreme High Ruler Robotnik but even then Sonic still stopped him and wasn't in control either.

Speaking of which... I'll probably make matters worst but when Robotnik became Supreme High Ruler Robotnik there was a lot inconsistence everywhere. Like how Robotnik could had skipped the 4 episode arc and take the chaos emeralds himself. And also another case inconsistence is the emerald powers itself. Robotnik had all the chaos emeralds (invisibility, INVINCibility, immortality, and life itself) and Robotnik had proved to be able to use the INVINCiblilty but yet even with it he still got defeated by Sonic. Flat out WHAT.

[Blazey Firekitty]

Since Christmas Blast established Sally as existing in this continuity, I have to wonder if she's still a princess, given that it's possible to run for president of the entire planet, apparently.

[dirupti]

Perhaps the Elders/President didn't actually own any land but ruled the people who lived there? I'll be honest I didn't notice, and I watch these episodes a lot.