Robot Buddy: Difference between revisions
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The logical opposite to [[AI Is a Crapshoot]] (except when it [[Inverted Trope|isn't]]). Compare [[Robot Girl]], [[Do-Anything Robot]], and [[Companion Cube]]. May also be an [[Amusing Alien]].
=== Straight Examples ===▼
{{examples}}
== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==▼
▲=== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ===
* Doraemon in ''[[Doraemon]]''.
* In [[Eve no Jikan]], part of the narrative is to ask if all robots should be forced to abide by this trope, for our own safety or otherwise, with some playing it straight while others subvert it.
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* Telemachus' robot Nono in ''[[Ulysses 31]]''.
=== [[Comic Books]] ===
* [[Booster Gold]]'s [[Robot Buddy]], Skeets.
* Snivel and NSOB from the French series ''[[Sillage]]'' (known in the US as ''Wake'').
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* SLIC, the robot mechanic and best friend of Chassis McBain in ''[[Chassis]]''.
=== [[Film]] ===
* The ''[[Star Wars]]'' droid pair of C-3PO and R2-D2, with C-3PO's fluency 'in over 6 million forms of communication' and R2-D2's seemingly endless supply of gadgets for every conceivable task.
* One of the signs that the ''Rocky'' franchise had gone completely off the rails was the weird and bewildering subplot in ''[[Rocky IV]]'' in which Paulie (Rocky's brother-in-law) gets a robot wife.
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* Charlie in ''[[Making Contact]]''. He's next to useless, but cute and inoffensive and seems to represent Joey's connection to his dead father in a way since Charlie was given to Joey by his father as a Christmas present.
=== [[Literature]] ===
* Perhaps the [[Trope Namer]], the ''My Robot Buddy'' series, by Alfred Slote, features Danny One as the title character.
* Tik-Tok from the [[Land of Oz|Oz book]] ''Ozma of Oz'' is the earliest example of this trope.
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* [[Keith Laumer]] created the soul of a robot buddy and [[Warrior Poet]] in the [[Bolo]]. Imagine R2D2 as a massive tank, more loyal than Chewbacca, and with [[Honor Before Reason]].
=== [[Live Action TV]] ===
* Data from ''[[Star Trek: The Next Generation]]'' plays this fairly straight most of the time, although there are a few times were it's subverted, and of course the episodes where Data's role and rights are examined.
* Yoyo in ''[[Holmes And Yoyo]]''
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* Romford in ''[[Pixelface]]''.
=== [[Video Games]] ===
* In ''[[Disgaea Hour of Darkness]]'', the cliche superhero '''[[Large Ham|Captain Gordon, Defender of Earth]]''' comes complete with the [[Robot Buddy]] Thursday, who fits the description right down to having a self-sacrifice attack named ''Arigato Roboto'' ("Thank you, Robot").
** Incidentally, his character type is not [[Robot Buddy]]. It's Invincible Robot/Super Robot.
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* Marcie from ''[[Final Fantasy Adventure]]''. He could be used to restore MP when you use the Ask feature. {{spoiler|His only weakness is that he cannot jump, which serves as his own [[Tear Jerker|demise]]. His [[Heroic Sacrifice]] is throwing you away from the crumbling Dime Tower to [[The Very Definitely Final Dungeon]].}}
=== [[Web Comics]] ===
* ''Robot'' (real name Seraph Thirteen) in ''[[Gunnerkrigg Court]]''. He's not had much of a good time since his first appearance; he gets {{spoiler|possessed by a Glass Eyed Man, has his body destroyed by Eglamore, gets turned into paperclips while his CPU is in jail, gets stuck in a docking station and then a robot mouse, and goes all weird when his CPU is put into Seraph One.}} Later, he becomes a revolutionary and starts a {{spoiler|robot ''religion'', where Jeanne is a goddess and Kat is an angel.}}
* Pintsize from ''[[Questionable Content]]'' is an ''anthro-PC''. We later see other models, including Apple and Linux-based versions.
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* ''[[The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob]]'' has Roofus the roof-repair robot. Molly didn't intend for him to be [[Instant AI, Just Add Water|sentient,]] and it becomes a significant problem for the characters to figure out what to ''do'' with him when they realize he is. He ends up going to [[Stay with the Aliens]], since they have more experience with this sort of thing. Roofus is nice enough, a complete innocent, and enormously strong... Just don't [[Berserk Button|destroy a roof he's just finished fixing.]]
=== [[Web Original]] ===
* The ''[[League of Intergalactic Cosmic Champions]]'' had Colanator & Robot Redshirt.
* Co-Host 3000 from ''[[Spill]].com''
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** And now ''[[Eighties Dan]]'' has [[Nintendo Entertainment System|R.O.B.]]
=== [[Western Animation]] ===
* Roboto from the second ''[[He-Man and the Masters of the Universe]]''.
** And before anybody asks, NOT in the first TV series, where he's more like a guest star with only one appearance. If he is or not a [[Robot Buddy]] in the original minicomics is discussable.
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* [[Toonami|Bang.]]
=== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ===▼
▲== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==
* Mechazawa from ''[[Cromartie High School]]''. Although it seems almost no one in the school realizes he's a robot, or they just decide never to mention it. As far as most of the cast is concerned, he's just ''a normal delinquent with a really hard body''. He may be more of a case of a robot with human buddies, as he's looked up to by just about the whole school. Looks basically like an oil drum with skinny robot limbs and eyes attached.
=== [[Live Action TV]] ===
* The device was parodied on ''[[Friends]]'' when Joey got the lead in an awful show called ''Mac and C.H.E.E.S.E.'' about a cop who fights crime with his wisecracking [[Robot Buddy]].
=== [[Western Animation]] ===
* Parodied (complete with a ''Robot Friend'' theme song) in the ''[[South Park]]'' episode "Awesome-O", in which Cartman disguises himself as a Robot Buddy named Awesome-O in order to learn embarrassing secrets from Butters.
* One episode of ''[[Johnny Bravo]]'' [[No Fourth Wall|broke the]] [[Fourth Wall]] by having [[Executive Meddling]] occur within the show, one instance being the addition of a Robot Buddy for Johnny. [[Status Quo Is God|It didn't last, though.]]
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* 4-DAC in ''[[Jonny Quest Versus the Cyber Insects]]'' and to a lesser extent 3-DAC in ''[[Jonny's Golden Quest]]''.
=== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ===▼
▲== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==
* NB from ''[[Tenchi Muyo!|Tenchi Muyo GXP]]'', who is not only a voyeuristic [[Dirty Old Man]], but the [[Author Avatar]] for the series' director, [[Shinichi Watanabe|Nabeshin]] of ''[[Excel Saga (anime)|Excel Saga]]'' fame.
=== [[Comic Books]] ===
* Aaron Stack (formerly Machine Man) in Warren Ellis' fight comic ''[[Nextwave]]'', a [[Do-Anything Robot]] who evidently comes with a ''constantly bitch and moan'' feature.
* L-Ron from the late '80s/early '90s iteration of ''[[Justice League of America]]'' was a sarcastic robot, formerly the majordomo of an interstellar <s>tyrant</s> [[Corrupt Corporate Executive]] who defected to Earth and became the personal assistant to the League's smug financial backer, Max Lord, whom he constantly jabbed with sardonic barbs. He was cordial towards the rest of the team, though, if a bit acerbic. After this version of the League disbanded, L-Ron wound up working the drive-thru at a fast food joint.
=== [[Film]] ===
* Dot Matrix in ''[[Spaceballs]]'', a Robot Nag rather than a [[Robot Buddy]].
=== [[Literature]] ===
* Marvin the Paranoid Android from all incarnations of ''[[The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy]]'', who hates his owners, his creators, himself, and the whole of existence, and never stops telling this to anyone who will listen. (Presumably the marketing division of the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation was referring to a different sort of robot when it advertised "Your Plastic Pal Who's Fun To Be With!") On at least two occasions Marvin was able to stop the opposing forces by linking into their computer system, making it depressed or even suicidal.
* Daneel Olivaw in [[Isaac Asimov]]'s ''Robot'' novels. Daneel plays the trope straight, but his human companion Elijah Baley wants nothing to do with any of those despicable robots, at least not till fairly late.
=== [[Live Action TV]] ===
* Eve in ''[[Mann And Machine]]'' is all but human in everything but physical limits and life experience, although her predecessor as Bobby's partner certainly fit this trope to a T.
* ''[[Red Dwarf]]'': Kryten is a cheerful, friendly, helpful domestic robot. Unfortunately he's just the teensiest bit neurotic, has a fixation with cleanliness that borders on obsessive-compulsive, and lives in constant fear of rejection. He's also not particularly good at anything except cooking and cleaning.
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** Such as when he ''blew up {{spoiler|Earth}}.'' 100% knowingly and deliberately.
=== [[Video Games]] ===
* Curly in ''[[Cave Story]]'', given Quote himself is a robot.
=== [[Web Comics]] ===
* Many characters in ''[http://www.questionablecontent.net/index.php Questionable Content]'' have "Anthro PCs" -- Anthropromorphic Personal Computers; antisocial and psychotic little robots that don't like taking orders and engage every electrical appliance in sight sexually, sort of like [[Chobits|persocoms]] with attitudes. Of course, this may just be the main character's Anthro PC.
** It was revealed in a short series of strips to be a side-effect of his region settings. It got switched to British, and he spouted a top-hat and monocle, and started acting like a butler. His normal setting, with the psychosis and raunchiness is [[Eagle Land|American]]. It was never fully explored how much was actual change, and how much was Pintsize screwing with people, though.
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* [http://www.redmeat.com/redmeat/meatlocker/mrbix.html Mr. Bix] of ''[[Red Meat]]'' is a subversion. A vomiting, kid-microwaving subversion.
=== [[Western Animation]] ===
* The concept of a robot buddy was reversed for the whole concept of Bender from ''[[Futurama]]'', who shows the exact opposite of everything that makes a Robot Buddy (while ironically still being a buddy). He did, however, perform a [[Heroic Sacrifice]] to the book.
** Except that it was [[All Just a Dream]].
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