Frieza2000

The other Freedom Fighter Groups counters this claim. Ari's group, Dirk and Pollo, the Wolf Pack, Griff's people, they all are resistance groups Robotnik hasn't Robotisized.

But they do call themselves Freedom Fighters so...that doesn't make his statement inaccurate. You've right about the cannibals, but one group of 5 hiding in the woods is hardly a consideration when you're boasting about your ubiquitous control. A better example is Griff's hidden city of 30 people. But, in both cases, they're hidden. He believes he's roboticized everything, which suggests there are no major land masses he hasn't established control on (that he knows about).
 

Harmonic Sonic acts as if the Spy Orb is Ro-Butt-nik's first attempt at a spy satellite. And it was destroyed rather quickly all things considered. If he has any other satellites they're either really small or not all that threatening.

There's actually a big difference between geosynchronous satellites and low orbit spy rigs. Something like the International Space Station flies much closer to the Earth than a satellite. Something made to detect stuff like "electromagnetic radiation" would be even closer. Close enough for a horseshoe magnet to bring it down. Man I hate that episode.
 

Also since they never caught Uncle Chuck's network, or the Freedom Fighters travelling back and forth they don't do him much.

Yes, if nothing else we must admit that his security is pretty laughable in every sense, even for the 90s. Even in his home base, his enemies can sneak around in the streets and in major buildings like power plants that power the whole city (twice in one week!) and not get caught by guards or surveillance devices. Even the NSA runs circles around him these days. But that's just the usual Storm Trooper style incompetence necessary to facilitate the story, not an indication of scope.
 

Uncle Chuck's network

Hm? He was a lone operative. Unless you mean all the coordination involving the blind drop, or his network of listening bugs.


Given some of the plot holes we ended up with and how loose they played with the continuity it's definitely possible to interpret this either way. As far as what Ben intended, he did answer this question. Sort of:
 

[Did Robotnik roboticize almost the entire population of Mobius, or were the regions aside from Robotropolis kept under martial law?] When Len decided to bring Pat and me in on the second season exclusively... we had to sit down and decide the final details of the universe. It had just been an unconnected series of episodes up until then. So, we watched all 13 from the first season, then brainstormed. And I don't know if we specifically addressed that issue, but it would have been R's intention to spread his tentacles far and wide. But the freedom fighters had kept him confined to a large degree - and least so we decided. I think. The direct answer to the R question - is that it wasn't important in the greater scheme of the original 11-episode arc of the second season. Now that you mentioned it, we had freedom fighter groups around the planet - so they must have been fighting him off.

There's also the problem that Robotnik can't effectively manage areas he's too far away from. He would need governors to manage distant regions, and there's no sign of any in the series.

In The Void we find out that he had "commanders," who apparently did manage some stuff. I'd assume they were robots, but it's possible they were traitorous Mobians.

It was never shown that Robotnik was unfamiliar with the Forbidden Zone. The fact that he had an entry in his database documenting the legend of Lazar, including the exact location of his tomb, suggests the opposite. I can't think of any places he was tellingly unfamiliar with besides the legendary Floating Island, which even Sally thought was a myth. He even knew about Dragon's Nest.

 

I've actually gone through the whole script before and made a list of items for and against the idea of Robotnik's sphere of influence being global.

 

Global
-Robotnik claims to have roboticized every other living thing except Freedom Fighters in Sonic Past Cool. This is clearly wrong because we later see rats in Robotropolis and flying fish in the Great Forest, but that he would even think it suggests that he's established a presence in every part of the globe.
-The toast from Sonic Racer, “To a free Mobius,” suggests a global scope for Robotnik's empire.
-Sonic confirms mild toxic rain occurs worldwide in Sonic's Nightmare.
-Robotnik believed he had already roboticized all of the dragons.
-“Satellite photos” detected Void activity. That he is able to maintain spacecraft monitoring random places in The Great Unknown suggests that he has a lot of them and that there are no rival groups with weapons that can shoot his satellites down.

 

Limited
-Freedom Fighter uprising on the northern frontier in No Brainer. Frontier of what? His controlled terrirory, or their immediate area?
-In No Brainer, Chuck says the Roboticizer holding cells were full the day before, indicating that Robotnik is still catching quite a few Mobians.
-Mention of a Robotnik “Outpost” in Cry of the Wolf is a further suggestion that his territory has limits, but, like frontier, could be interpereted in a relative sense.

 

All considered, I think the evidence is in favor of global domination. It was always the unspoken impressing the show gave anyway. Anything you guys think I missed? While I'm at, this is as good an excuse as any to attach a file I put together containing the coalesce transcripts of all the episodes, with a few corrections (the transcripts on this site are pretty bad - I'm gradually fixing things in my copy as I notice them).

I doubt this is something Ben came up with. It was probably one of those things he talked about where an artist excitedly dragged him downstairs to show off what they'd done. I'm just speaking from a strictly in-story perspective.

 

Well I mean, it's not like taking over the capital of a country instantly gives you control of the whole country itself right away (unless you manipulated the system).

 

Or unless it's so centralized that the elimination of a handful of leaders would effectively disable the rest of the nation (for example, a country of mindless robots run by two humans). Side note: this is the only way an offensive guerrilla war by a force with such vastly inferior numbers and resources has any practical hope of success. Taking out Robotnik himself was the FF's only chance of winning. Barring deus ex machina of course.

I apologize if my little conspiracy theorizing there was insulting to her. I never meant to suggest she was lying or had ill intent, it just seemed there had to be some kind of secret given what appeared to be her refusal to confirm or deny what Pat was doing. It never occurred to me that the reason was that it was still too fresh a wound; I though a year would be long enough of a wait before asking about it. I'm also sorry if anyone thinks it's tactless of me to continue talking about this, but I see this like pulling off a band-aid. Dragging it out will only prolong the pain. Once we have a definitive answer it will be over and nobody will ever bother her or Pat again.

 

Yes we're all curious, but this isn't even about what I or any of us wants; it's about what Ben wanted. I think half the reason I still care is because Ben cared. It was back when he showed up on this forum to answer questions years ago that I went from being curious about what could've been to regularly checking the news feed. His enthusiasm was contagious and I really wanted to see him get the chance to fulfill his dream of finishing the story. This was his masterpiece that he never stopped thinking about. Even if he never finished it, even if all that's left for us to find are nebulous ideas, he cared enough about the fans getting to see it to put it in his last will and testament. We may not get anything, but let it not be said that we didn't even look.

 

If you were right and this was just a mailing error or Pat forgot, someone just needs to ask her if she knows what happened. If, as Sonique seems to suggest, there are still boxes of documents that haven't been sorted through yet and Pat doesn't have the time or the emotional fortitude to do it, then the right thing to do is enlist someone to help. I'm willing to pay for a professional document management company or a file clerk or someone to come pick up whatever's left and either go through it or digitize it for easy searching if she'd feel more comfortable doing it that way, but I'm sure many of us would also be willing to fly out there and spend a week going through a storage garage full of papers if that's what it takes.

 

Despite my zeal, I'd be perfectly willing to accept Pat's refusal. These last 4 years I've honestly just been waiting for somebody to say that there are definitely no more notes or in any event that this is all we're ever going to get, but nobody's been willing to tell me that. I just want closure, and to be able to say that I did everything I could to help.

That sounds like a different situation than you described. I just want to know if the thing got lost in the mail. Shouldn't be any rummaging needed if this was already set up like you said. We're talking about what was in his will, not some promise he made to send her anything. Is she forgetting or misunderstanding, or are you misremembering?