This episode is the first in a four-part story arc, because clearly this is the type of series that needs a quadrilogy. It's all about Dr. Robotnik traveling back to four periods in history to collect the powerful Chaos Emeralds. You remember those from the Sonic video games, a collection of colorful emeralds that, when combined, turn Sonic into Super Sonic. Wanna bet the writers of this show won't do anything cool with this idea? You bet correctly. The problem with this series doing a time travel story arc is that it isn't set on planet Earth, it's on Mobius, so it wouldn't have the same historical time periods as Earth does. However, this didn't stop them from having warped versions of Ancient Egypt, Camelot, prehistoria, and the pirate days of yore. I'm not sure why this needed to exist, but I guess they felt they had to do something involving time travel, so this is what we got. Part 1 of this "gripping" saga opens as Dr. Robotnik waits impatiently for Professor Caninestein to finish building a time machine, because I guess the doc wasn't smart enough to do it himself. Then, he exposits his diabolical scheme to the audience, about traveling back to four historical time periods to collect the Chaos Emeralds of invisibility, invincibility, immortality, and life. I have the terrible feeling Marvel ripped off their Infinity Stones saga from this, but at least they did it better. Robotnik takes Scratch and Grounder along for grunt work and travels back in time. Feeling remorse for helping this evil fiend achieve his evil scheme, the professor seeks out Sonic and Tails. Once telling them of Robotnik's plan, he gives the hedgehog a pair of atomic relativity boots, allowing him to race around the globe so fast he'll turn back time. Watch Superman: The Movie lately? He's also got a list of the time periods Robotnik is visiting, so hopefully he will visit them in that exact order. With their mission already spelled out, Sonic and Tails race around the planet so fast it turns back time. Hopefully Sonic is counting along, or he already knows how fast he needs to go to reach a certain period. This whole thing makes no sense. We go back to... the 17th century, I guess, where ol' jolly Blackbeard the pirate, who I'm sure doesn't resemble the real one in any way, was minding his own business, sailing the mighty seas, when Robotnik and his robots crashland on deck. Blackbeard responds by slicing Grounder to ribbons, then mangling Scratch with a pair of nunchucks... didn't know pirates carried those, but Robotnik had an ace up his sleeve: a roboticizing ray that instantly transformed Blackbeard into Blackbot, now Botsy's loyal servant. The reason this particular pirate was sought out is because he was carrying a map to a very special treasure: the Chaos emerald of invisibility. But, as expected, Sonic and Tails quickly show up to try and stop them. They must have gotten lucky, otherwise how would they have known which ship to land on? Scratch and Grounder fire the cannons, but end up blowing holes in the boat and causing Robotnik to get beaned with the mast. There's one part where Tails paints Grounder blue and sticks some fake spines on him, all without the dumb robot noticing, so Scratch will blast him by mistake. Why did Robotnik bring these two idiots with him? He laments that he's surrounded by defective circuitry... yeah, that you built, you dummy.
However, Blackbot proves to be somewhat more competent. He wasn't able to catch Sonic, but he does tie up Tails and make him walk the plank. Naturally, Sonic saves him in time, but Robotnik surprisingly manages to get one over on him by roboticizing a giant whale, who then eats our heroes and swims away. Huh, didn't see that one coming. So, as Robotnik and Blackbot set sail for the island, Sonic and Tails find themselves trapped inside the robotic whale. Looks like Robotnik might actually win, as he'll get the Chaos emerald of invisibility, and all the rest too. Oh, but you know Sonic will find a way out of their predicament, and he does so by rewiring the robotic whale and alters its course to follow Robotnik. I must warn you that deus ex machinas run rampant in this episode, to fill in the giant holes in Jeffrey Scott's script. While we're on the subject of time, I'm guessing he didn't have very much when he had to write all this out on a legal pad and turn it in a single afternoon. Finally, they reach the island, conveniently shaped like a giant X, and go searching for the treasure. Once X marked the spot, Scratch and Grounder get to work digging, while Sonic, already there, digs too and manages to find the chest first. Deciding to pull a fast one on his enemies by... I can only assume pulling out a second chest and some weird kind of effects that alter Robotnik's appearance. I'm dead serious. When Robotnik finds the chest, he opens it and it explodes, causing him to look like a... combination clown and turkey. What?? Where did Sonic pull that out of, his ass? Are you trying to be serious with this? No, of course not, this is Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, who am I kidding? So now with the right chest and the emerald in their possession, Sonic says they have to get rid of it before Robotnik recovers. Too late! Botsy sneaks up behind them and captures them, courtesy of taking his time machine back a few minutes. Yep, cheating is definitely up his alley. He forces them to open the chest, only it's empty... or is it? Turns out the invisibility emerald is invisible. Who'd a thunk it? Of course, that little cocky hedgehog takes the opportunity to use it to turn invisible and prank Robotnik and his robots, even cutting Blackbot down to size. However, Robotnik tosses sand on Sonic, exposing him and stealing the emerald. He also steals Sonic's atomic relatively boots, trapping he and Tails in the 17th century. Robotnik and his robots make for the time machine, emerald in hand, and leave. Well, how will Sonic get out of this one? I mean, this is a four-part mini-series, he has plenty of time to think of something. To be continued? Oh, no, not by a long shot. Get a load of how Sonic solves this problem, you will never believe it. He writes a note, puts it in the chest, buries it, and instantly, a new pair of boots appears out of thin air. The ultimate deus ex machina! What he did was since he knew the chest would be dug up in the future, he sent Professor Caninestein a note requesting new boots. Oh, so many questions come to mind: 1) How did Sonic know for sure the professor would be the one to dig it up? 2) If it would be dug up in the future, what was the point of going back in time? Why would it be dug up in the future? Who dug it up? This is so stupid!! Anyway, Sonic and Tails catch up with Robotnik, they steal his emerald and make him crashland in the middle of the Civil War. Guess Mobius had one of those too. I guess after that, Robotnik gives up on the invisibility emerald and goes after the others. Now, it's to be continued. Our Sonic Says about not playing with swords, and I guess Blackbot is good now.
So that was Blackbot the Pirate, the first of the four-part time travel Chaos Emeralds quadrilogy. The emeralds pictured look nothing like they do in the games, and as stated above, I have no idea why this four-part series even exists. Each story is exactly the same, and Sonic is such a Mary Sue and so invincible that there is nothing at stake for me to care. The writing is horrible, even for a good writer like Jeffrey Scott, the animation is sloppy and goes off-model numerous times, and the voice acting is horrible. Instead of time travel, why couldn't the emeralds be on different planets, so we could see other civilizations in this universe? Why did they need to go "Sonicize" Camelot and Ancient Egypt and Blackbeard? Well, the producers of this series also worked on The Super Mario Bros Super Show in which Mario and the gang visit lands in the Mushroom Kingdom that are based off places and time periods from Earth, spoofing movies and whatnot, so that speaks for their lack of originality and creativity. So, do I recommend Blackbot the Pirate? Well, it isn't good, but it isn't horrible. It has no reason to exist, and neither do its three follow-ups, but if you like time travel episodes and you can turn off your brain to the nonsense that this series offers, then sure, check it out, but if you're like me, you'll wish it was invisible.
However, Blackbot proves to be somewhat more competent. He wasn't able to catch Sonic, but he does tie up Tails and make him walk the plank. Naturally, Sonic saves him in time, but Robotnik surprisingly manages to get one over on him by roboticizing a giant whale, who then eats our heroes and swims away. Huh, didn't see that one coming. So, as Robotnik and Blackbot set sail for the island, Sonic and Tails find themselves trapped inside the robotic whale. Looks like Robotnik might actually win, as he'll get the Chaos emerald of invisibility, and all the rest too. Oh, but you know Sonic will find a way out of their predicament, and he does so by rewiring the robotic whale and alters its course to follow Robotnik. I must warn you that deus ex machinas run rampant in this episode, to fill in the giant holes in Jeffrey Scott's script. While we're on the subject of time, I'm guessing he didn't have very much when he had to write all this out on a legal pad and turn it in a single afternoon. Finally, they reach the island, conveniently shaped like a giant X, and go searching for the treasure. Once X marked the spot, Scratch and Grounder get to work digging, while Sonic, already there, digs too and manages to find the chest first. Deciding to pull a fast one on his enemies by... I can only assume pulling out a second chest and some weird kind of effects that alter Robotnik's appearance. I'm dead serious. When Robotnik finds the chest, he opens it and it explodes, causing him to look like a... combination clown and turkey. What?? Where did Sonic pull that out of, his ass? Are you trying to be serious with this? No, of course not, this is Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, who am I kidding? So now with the right chest and the emerald in their possession, Sonic says they have to get rid of it before Robotnik recovers. Too late! Botsy sneaks up behind them and captures them, courtesy of taking his time machine back a few minutes. Yep, cheating is definitely up his alley. He forces them to open the chest, only it's empty... or is it? Turns out the invisibility emerald is invisible. Who'd a thunk it? Of course, that little cocky hedgehog takes the opportunity to use it to turn invisible and prank Robotnik and his robots, even cutting Blackbot down to size. However, Robotnik tosses sand on Sonic, exposing him and stealing the emerald. He also steals Sonic's atomic relatively boots, trapping he and Tails in the 17th century. Robotnik and his robots make for the time machine, emerald in hand, and leave. Well, how will Sonic get out of this one? I mean, this is a four-part mini-series, he has plenty of time to think of something. To be continued? Oh, no, not by a long shot. Get a load of how Sonic solves this problem, you will never believe it. He writes a note, puts it in the chest, buries it, and instantly, a new pair of boots appears out of thin air. The ultimate deus ex machina! What he did was since he knew the chest would be dug up in the future, he sent Professor Caninestein a note requesting new boots. Oh, so many questions come to mind: 1) How did Sonic know for sure the professor would be the one to dig it up? 2) If it would be dug up in the future, what was the point of going back in time? Why would it be dug up in the future? Who dug it up? This is so stupid!! Anyway, Sonic and Tails catch up with Robotnik, they steal his emerald and make him crashland in the middle of the Civil War. Guess Mobius had one of those too. I guess after that, Robotnik gives up on the invisibility emerald and goes after the others. Now, it's to be continued. Our Sonic Says about not playing with swords, and I guess Blackbot is good now.
So that was Blackbot the Pirate, the first of the four-part time travel Chaos Emeralds quadrilogy. The emeralds pictured look nothing like they do in the games, and as stated above, I have no idea why this four-part series even exists. Each story is exactly the same, and Sonic is such a Mary Sue and so invincible that there is nothing at stake for me to care. The writing is horrible, even for a good writer like Jeffrey Scott, the animation is sloppy and goes off-model numerous times, and the voice acting is horrible. Instead of time travel, why couldn't the emeralds be on different planets, so we could see other civilizations in this universe? Why did they need to go "Sonicize" Camelot and Ancient Egypt and Blackbeard? Well, the producers of this series also worked on The Super Mario Bros Super Show in which Mario and the gang visit lands in the Mushroom Kingdom that are based off places and time periods from Earth, spoofing movies and whatnot, so that speaks for their lack of originality and creativity. So, do I recommend Blackbot the Pirate? Well, it isn't good, but it isn't horrible. It has no reason to exist, and neither do its three follow-ups, but if you like time travel episodes and you can turn off your brain to the nonsense that this series offers, then sure, check it out, but if you're like me, you'll wish it was invisible.
