Super-Powered Robot Meter Maids: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

{{quote|''"'''Always''' program a militaristic defence mode into your toys, kids. It's just common sense!"''|'''Mr. Sin''', ''[[Sam and Fuzzy]]''}}

This may be explained by it being easier to take something that's built to do industrial work and make it look like a human than build something that's as weak as a human from the ground up; however, few series come out and say this. Perhaps justified in that even robots not specifically designed to have super-lifting capabilities would have greater strength than humans because most metals are stronger than human muscle; their inability to feel pain or fatigue would also give them [[Made of Iron|unlimited stamina]]. May also become a [[Truth in Television]]; looking at many other forms of technology with extraneous doodads, the question doesn't seem to be "Why?" but [[For Science!|"Why not?"]]

 

 

This makes them a threat when acquiring an [[Instant AI, Just Add Water|Artificial Intelligence]], or [[Lightning Can Do Anything|struck by lightning]].

* Despite the prevalence of cybernetic enhancement in the world of ''[[Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex]]'', this is actually somewhat ''averted'' in a couple of episodes, late in the first season. {{spoiler|After the Tachikomas are retired from service in Section 9, most are dismantled. The only two that survive are sold off to a retirement home and a construction company as service robots, and all their specialized weaponry is removed when they're decommissioned. After all, when you're tending to a bunch of senile centenarians, you don't really need guns in your forearms, do you?}}

** It is played straight in an earlier episode where a reclusive millionare has robot maids which are armed with some deadly-looking weaponry and use it almost at the drop of a hat. They are taken down very easily though.

* [[Inverted Trope|Conversely]], in ''[[Mahoromatic]]'', a combat android decides to become a maid. Naturally, she is superb as a chef as well as all things domestic.

** Possibly a semi-subversion, as she does remove most of her combat equipment before becoming a maid, and reacquires it later on.

*** This was shown in Episode 1, where R2 ended up being the only droid left to finish the repairs on Queen Amidala's Royal Starship. Since he was in possession of the Royal Engineers of Naboo, he had several enhancements that few other astromech droids had.

* Averted in the movie ''[[A.I.: Artificial Intelligence]].'' In one scene the [[Replacement Goldfish]] protagonist robot is asked by the real son of his adoptive mother what "cool tricks" he can do, such as fly or walk on walls. In fact, he has no powers at all, and behaves exactly as a normal human child would when placed in danger.

* In ''[[WALL-E]]'' the [[Action Girl]] Eve is a essentially a biological collector, trying to find evidence of plant life on Earth. So naturally, she has a high power plasma gun, enough power to make a micro-tornado by spinning, fast enough to break the sound barrier, and strong enough to hold back a huge sliding wall by herself. Those plants are apparently rough customers.

** The speed and durability would probably be justified; she's got a lot of ground to cover, and Earth's environment can be rough. Also she's an Extraterrestrial Vegetation Evaluator, so she probably explores other planets that potentially have hostile life, so she's just equipped with killer defense systems.

* In [[Henry Kuttner]]'s ''[[Gallagher]]'' cycle, the eponymous [[Mad Scientist]] has built a superpowered humanoid robot and then spends the whole story trying to find out what was he supposed to do (whi is, by the way, {{spoiler|opening cans}}). Justified, as the Gallagher's gimmick is that only his subconcious is a super-inventor, so he invents eveything while ''hopelessly drunk''.

* In [[Isaac Asimov]]'s short story ''Robbie'' the eponymous robot was a nursemaid for an eight-year-old girl named Gloria. Naturally, it's really strong and really fast {{spoiler|which turn out to be extremely useful when Gloria's life was in danger.}} When the story appears in ''I, Robot,'' Susan Calvin explains that Robbie was sold in a time before robots were outlawed on Earth.

** One had a Bolo redesigned as an agricultural aid. When aliens came to attack the colony, it used its agricultural tools to engineer a plague that wiped out the aliens.

** Another is about a Bolo with its weapons stripped so it can be a tractor/digging machine... which still manages to save a colony of humans.

 

== [[Live Action TV]] ==

* ''[[Star Trek: Voyager]]'''s Emergency Medical Hologram was created as a mere backup for the human doctor in a crisis. When Voyager is thrown across the galaxy (killing the human doctor) the holographic Doctor is forced through circumstance (and later his own determination) to evolve. Over the next seven years the Doctor takes on hobbies such as opera, painting, photography and sex (''Let's just say I made an...addition to my program''), acts as a target for Kazon ships (albeit accidentally), writes a provocative holonovel, gets transmitted across the galaxy (and back) on two separate occasions, commands the ship single-handedly in "Workforce" and is just flat-out amazing (though not always sensible) in "Renaissance Man". But, as we see in "Tinker, Tailor, Doctor, Spy", it's nothing compared to what the egotistical Doc can do in his fantasies!

** It should be noted, however, that the Doctor (unlike most of the examples listed, especially in-universe counterpart Data) was never designed with these capabilities. He extensively modified himself to support these new subroutines and abilities. He wasn't 'born' with them. In fact, a couple of episodes were built around the consequences of him overtaxing his base programming and 'crashing'.

* April, the original robot girlfriend made by Warren in ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'', was given super-human strength for no good reason. While the Buffybot arguably needed strength to sufficiently impersonate Buffy, April doesn't need the power to throw men through walls...

** Maybe Warren's just kinky that way. He even made her growl.

* Lampshaded in ''[[Red Dwarf]]''. Serving droid Kryten isn't particularly strong compared to a human being, but {{spoiler|his successor, Hudzen-10, is so strong he can chop through bricks... ''with his penis''}}.

** For those playing at home, this is a double example. Not only does he have superhuman strength but {{spoiler|has it in an appendage which a robot maid really shouldn't logically have. Unless you're in to that I suppose...}}.

 

 

* At least one edition of the [[After the End|post-apocalyptic]] RPG ''[[Gamma World]]'' had ''literal'' super-powered robot meter maids as a potential risk to breaking open abandoned parking meters for cash.

* These showed up in an arcology in [[Shadowrun]], but then an insane AI decided to use them to perform medical experiments on the unwilling inhabitants. In the latest version, one of the selling points of the new robot assistants is that they are deliberately crippled to be slower than a person and mechanically incapable of restraining a human.

* In the gaming webcomic ''[[Ctrl+Alt+Del|Ctrl Alt Del]]'', Zeke is a robot built from a [[Xbox]], yet he can break someone's arm with ease and hurl them through a wall.

** You can never be sure with an Xbox.

* In ''[[The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob]],'' Roofus the Roof-Repair Robot is able to defeat a pair of alien [[Space Pirates]] with ease after they [[Berserk Button|destroy his beloved roof.]] In fairness, Roofus was ''designed'' to be strong. It was the [[Instant AI, Just Add Water|sentience that was an accident.]]

* Von Pinn from [[Girl Genius]] was created to be a nursemaid. [http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20030718 Meet Von Pinn.]