5867: Garfield SatAM
Garfield SatAM |
![]() Made by: Jamz64 |
Explanation[edit | edit source]
This strip puts together an anachronistic combination of elements from the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise, purporting to involve the mouse declaring the Arbuckle house to be property of the Eggman Empire followed by Garfield falling victim to a roboticization by the enemy forces from the Sonic the Hedgehog television series of the mid 1990s (commonly referred to as "SatAM" by the fandom due to airing in the Saturday morning timeslot to distinguish the series from other elements of the franchise simply bearing the name Sonic the Hedgehog), with the strip's author's notes and title making its ties to Sonic SatAM clear. The roboticization was executed using elements from the 2015 original Garfield strip applied to the 2011 Garfield strip's base with Eggman Empire imagery on the flag.
The main villain performing roboticization schemes is clearly in-character across all arms of Sonic the Hedgehog franchise lore, but this does not keep the presentation from falling into anachronism stew; elements of the franchise that were never in use together in actual Sonic lore have come together here. From a modern perspective, the anachronism present in this strip's presentation is quite clear:
- Sonic SatAM never used the term "Eggman Empire", as that series came during a time period when the western and Japanese lore for the Sonic the Hedgehog series were two different things, with Sonic SatAM being an arm of the western lore while the term "Eggman" was almost entirely specific to the Japanese lore during that time period (it wasn't until the release of Sonic Adventure in 1999 did the original video game canon start seriously working to unify the lore, a process largely not completed until Sonic Adventure 2), as a result the franchise's primary villain firmly being known as Dr. Robotnik in the west during the time period Sonic SatAM was current (the character was always known as Dr. Eggman in Japan, and that name would later take root when the western and Japanese lore unified). Sonic SatAM never officially interacted with the Japanese side of the franchise lore, as it (as well as the other two western-animation adaptations of the franchise from the 1990s) was never dubbed into Japanese. Furthermore, even if one were to simply attempt to adjust game-derived terminology on the fly, the term "Robotnik Empire" would also fall afoul of not being actually applicable to Sonic SatAM series lore--that particular term was only used by Sonic Underground, a later western television series produced during the early part of the period where the Sonic the Hedgehog Japanese and western lore was beginning to unify--the games had formally introduced the term "Eggman" into the western lore, but adaptations were not yet formally mandated to adhere to using that term at the time. Had this strip actually attempted to specifically fit Sonic SatAM lore better, it would have been best off using the term "Robotropolis", that being the name of the lands Dr. Robotnik ruled over in that television series.
- Furthermore, the emblem used on the mouse's flag was certainly not in use during the Sonic SatAM television series. This emblem appears to be firmly from the modern era of Sonic the Hedgehog video game lore, having debuted in the 2010 installment Sonic Colors. Dr. Eggman's forces didn't actually have a firm emblem prior to Sonic Adventure (one early emblem from Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (Genesis) wound up not sticking; said emblem was on a stage where there actually was a rare slippage of the term "Eggman" into the early western lore that went largely unnoticed back then), and even when an emblem for the Modern Sonic side of the mythos did get firmly established, it saw a sizable number of adjustments over the following decade before finally settling down around the timeframe of Sonic Colors (the Classic Sonic side of the mythos would see a very similar emblem appear in Sonic Superstars.
The author writes:[edit | edit source]
"In every game, there are winners and there are losers... and as you know, in this game, losers get ROBOTICIZED!"
Original strips: 2011-11-19, 2015-02-22.
Transcript[edit | edit source]
{Jon looks surprised. Mouse is holding a flag of the Eggman Empire from Sonic the Hedgehog}
Mouse: I declare this house the property of the Eggman Empire!
{Mouse walks away, still holding flag}
Jon: Garfield...
{Garfield's head is now robotic}
Garfield: Shh! Don't let them hear you!