36 replies to this topic

[Koreth]

Take Sonic,Sally, Bunny, Tails and Rotor out of the picture, and there goes pretty much your whole cast. I mean what do we have left? Antoine? Dulcy? That pig dude extra from Season 1?

[MongooseLady19]

Dulcy could Fry them you know and when I said that they were zombie's I ment all brawn no brain.

[Vlad Yvhv]

Take Sonic,Sally, Bunny, Tails and Rotor out of the picture, and there goes pretty much your whole cast. I mean what do we have left? Antoine? Dulcy? That pig dude extra from Season 1?

The point I was making is that with them present, the swatbots could be being made to look more pathetic than they really are, by comparison. Heroes tend to do that. They can make enemies that would otherwise decimate the world seem insignificant. So, measuring by their shown effectiveness (or lack thereof) in the series could be a skewed result, rather than an objective one.

Dulcy could Fry them you know and when I said that they were zombie's I ment all brawn no brain.

On a few occasions, they're shown to have some degree of intelligence, when not dealing with Sonic. Bad programming seems to override this, with the whole "Priority One" thing. I think it's a similar problem to what led to Robocop reading a dead guy his rights... They'd probly be more competent if they didn't have that override, but rather more appropriate target identification programming.

[RedAuthar]

It is what is known as the Stormtrooper effect:

It is a bunch of nameless and faceless soldiers that the good guys can defeat (or kill off) easily without too much trouble. No one felt guilty or sad when the swatbots were trashed.

Besides compared to the main characters, the swatbots weren't very reliable, but in episodes with 2ndary freedom fighters they tended to come out victorious.

[saber16]

They are SatAM's answer to the Foot Soldiers in the original TMNT series. Brainless, easy to blow up and entertaining to watch get trashed, but can be threatening if the story calls for it.

[DLTN]

On the X-Men arcade game from 92, there is an enemy type armed with a gun, and they look A LOT like the Swatbots haha

[Natorat]

The Swatbots are ment to show off as the "brainless soldier". Useless alone, they are meant to be in pack. They would be like... The Zergling in Starcraft. Just, not as fast and more breakable.

As a Starcraft player, I must disagree with that characterization. SWAT bots are far more like marines in starcraft; cheap, versatile, and relatively expendable. Zerglings are melee units limited to ground attack, both SWAT bots and Marines are ranged and can hit anything.

Neither SWAT bots nor marines are as expendable as zerglings. Both become astronomically more effective in mass and are good for what they are designed for. Marines can be inneffective in the hands of a stupid player who tells them all to attack the same unit which they are ineffective against, and likewise the whole priority one override from tactical moron Robotnik tends to mess with the SWAT bots.

Granted, I've never seen two marines run into a wall and fall apart. But really, does anyone here think any fighting force in the real world could stop Sonic?

Stormtroopers are actually pretty good soldiers too by the way. They just look weak against Jedi.

[RedAuthar]

Stormtroopers are actually pretty good soldiers too by the way. They just look weak against Jedi.

Well how about Han Solo and Chewbacca, they kill dozens on their own and arn't Jedi.

The idea is a faceless evildoer who you can't get attached to, so you don't feel bad when they die.

Of course Swatbots and Stormtroopers can get killed off by woodland creatures with inferior technology so...

[Vlad Yvhv]

But really, does anyone here think any fighting force in the real world could stop Sonic?

Any of them with access to the makings of chilidogs and poison. The CIA immediately comes to mind, cause that's their style. It's surprising that Robotnik never got the bright idea to make a poison chilidog vending machine and set it somewhere where Sonic would find it.

[RedAuthar]

The CIA screwed The Boss over, they could get Sonic easily.

That and they Staple paper to people's heads.

Actually I think Sonic's Speed could easily be turned against him. Robotnik just isn't very good at it.

[Natorat]

That and they Staple paper to people's heads.

That was a Control agent, but yeah. Don't forget though, Han and Chewbacca are still heroes. They are more 1337 than average by far.

Yeah, Sonic's speed could probably be turned against him, clever humans do love Akido. He certainly has a weakness for chili dogs, but this is assuming these guys know what they are dealing with. Out of context situations are a bitch. If Sonic was taking the offensive, they'd get Pearl Harbored. Then again, he's a hero so it'd be more likely that the CIA would be attacking him, assuming there are conditions where they met. Assuming Sonic didn't go into hiding permanently, they could adapt and counter, probably with something better than sticky goo and lasers that can be reflected by rocks.

In Sonic X, police and the military were pretty useless for catching Sonic. Of course, that show is pretty stupid, and it it's a different Sonic world from this conversation.

[RedAuthar]

That was a Control agent, but yeah.

And they tell him that was CIA crap.

In Sonic X, police and the military were pretty useless for catching Sonic. Of course, that show is pretty stupid, and it it's a different Sonic world from this conversation.

Sonic from X would be a bit harder to deal with. His biggest weakness is boardom. Sonic from SatAM has many weaknesses, over egotistic, mad love of chili dogs, and he takes more risk for fun.

[Vlad Yvhv]

Yeah, Sonic's speed could probably be turned against him, clever humans do love Akido. He certainly has a weakness for chili dogs, but this is assuming these guys know what they are dealing with. Out of context situations are a bitch. If Sonic was taking the offensive, they'd get Pearl Harbored. Then again, he's a hero so it'd be more likely that the CIA would be attacking him, assuming there are conditions where they met. Assuming Sonic didn't go into hiding permanently, they could adapt and counter, probably with something better than sticky goo and lasers that can be reflected by rocks.

The CIA is perty much the absolute badass of "alphabet agencies". These guys have made a name for themselves by being extremely sneaky and underhanded. They're the ones you suspect when someone is disappeared, but trying to prove they did it might end up with you also being disappeared... They're not above throwing their own agents under the bus. So, they probly wouldn't think anything of using the armed forces to test Sonic's abilities. If you knew just how much they know about you, you might spend the rest of your life second-guessing your environment. Its no wonder that they're usually the target of so many conspiracy theories, given their actual track record. Sonic, on the other hand, is really not all that bright and generally lacks the patience to use what brains he does have. His weakness for chilidogs would lead him to the Sonic restaurants, where he could be observed depleting their Coney reserves. Following that, they could actually take over a Sonic restaurant and directly serve him poisoned chilidogs. Cue the conspiracy theorists all claiming that the "mysterious super-fast blue alien's corpse was taken to Area 51 for dissection and storage!", while they probly just take his body to one of their own coroners and do some testing, then burn the body. The idea of Sonic ferreting out the CIA just doesn't stand up to any sort of real-world logic. Maybe he could last longer if he befriended a group of UFO nuts and learn of the CIA through them, but their idea of the CIA is akin to the Chuck Norris jokes. So, you can guess how effective that "knowledge" will be...

All they'd really need to do is pull an SR-71 out of mothballs (or have Skunkworks build a newer version) if they need to catch up with him. Equip one of those things with a weapons grade laser, and you've got a fried hedgehog. Sure, Sonic may be able to run at around Mach 1 or 2, but the faster he goes, the more heat he has to endure from wind resistance. This would limit how fast he can go, and how long he can run at what speed. The SR-71 is capable of exceeding Mach 3 for prolonged periods of time. The titanium skin actually limits the craft more than its design or power output. As far as I've heard, the precise top speed is still classified. One of the pilots is shown on a tv show that features the SR-71 and mentions that when they were shot at by missiles and artillery, the plan was simply to accelerate to top speed and get away before the projectiles get to where the aircraft is. On describing how fast they were going, he says "I was seeing Mach numbers I'd never seen before". And how good is their targeting system? Their horizon is the curvature of the earth and their operating ceiling is the stratosphere. Anything in that field of vision can be captured on film in extreme detail. It eliminates the effectiveness of "no fly zones". Simply replace the recording equipment with a laser and you've got the ability to kill stuff that was never even aware of your existence. And there's no way that Sonic is going to get up that high without dying from lack of oxygen, unless he has a space craft and space suit. The SR-71 crews had to have space suits and were given astronaut wings.

[Bakuda]

Sonic from X would be a bit harder to deal with. His biggest weakness is boardom. Sonic from SatAM has many weaknesses, over egotistic, mad love of chili dogs, and he takes more risk for fun.

I don't totally agree with the many faults of SatAM Sonic. I'll give you the love for chili dogs...that could cause problems. But the others, his ego in particular, I believe is just an image he's placed on himself. That's a hard situation the freedom fighters have found themselves in and it must be difficult to keep up the morale from day to day. Sonic's huge ego and the little risks he takes are just his way of coping. We've seen a few times where the situation was close and that's where we see the real serious Sonic but when everything's "cool" he goes right back to "I'm way past cool."

[Natorat]

All I'm saying is that the government would have no idea how to counter an alien with super powers that popped out of nowhere. It wouldn't take them long to learn, but it would still take time.

What does the CIA know about me? Nothing. They have plenty of data on me, sure. But no one ever looks at it, because it would be a complete waste of time. No point in having analysts look at billions when only millions pose any meaningful threat.

[Baz]

Three words:

MADE IN CHINA

As seen in the show, SWATbots are cheap assembly line products. You'll notice their parts are littered all over Robotropolis, unless Robotnik bothered to recycle them. Makes you wonder where Robotnik gets the funds(?) to acquire such large quantities of metal, fossil fuels, etc. or does he just TAKE them? (I tend to doubt that Robotnik rules the whole planet. The continent, maybe).

The comic U-SWATs seemed more formidable. And of course Metal Sonic was Robotnik's answer to handling Priority One. Too bad Metal didn't get to make it into the show.

But honestly, I can't imagine the show without the SWATbots.