Sinful Sunday: Dr. Robotnik, Agent Stone, and the Ambiguities of Queer Villainy in the Sonic Franchise
While the Sonic films may not come right out and say it, it's clear that Dr. Robotnik and Agent Stone are a gay couple set on taking over the world.
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Welcome to “Sinful Sundays,” where I explore and analyze some of the most notorious queer villains of film and TV (and sometimes literature, depending on my mood). These are the characters that entrance and entertain and revolt us, sometimes all three at the same time. As these queer villains show, very often it’s sweetly good to be bitterly bad.
As an elder millennial, I was fortunate enough to grow up in the golden age of Sega, and one of my favorite games was Sonic the Hedgehog. I’m a little ashamed to admit just how much time I spent playing the various iterations of this game in my preteen years, and when I watched the first two films in the new franchise, I have to admit that I enjoyed them far more than I thought I would. The characters were a trifle irritating, but I’ve come to expect that from films like this. Nostalgia makes you capable of overlooking quite a lot of flaws.
It’s not just the nostalgia that has motivated my enjoyment of these new movies, however. It’s also the presence of Jim Carrey as Sonic’s arch-nemesis, Dr. Robotnik. Robotnik might not be Carrey’s most deliciously unhinged performance, but it’s definitely in the top ten. The first two films made it clear just how much he was relishing the chance to play this villain to the hilt, and he’s managed to make the role all his own, using his uniquely manic mode of acting to turn Robotnik into a buffoonish, but still very menacing, supervillain.
The last time we saw the good doctor, he had seemingly met his end, his plot to take over the world foiled by the unlikely alliance of Sonic and Knuckles. In Sonic 3, however, it’s revealed that he’s alive, though not well. He’s become so despondent at his failure that he’s sunk into a cycle of eating garbage food and watching telenovelas. Gratuitous fat jokes aside, it’s still a pleasure to see Carrey’s Robotnik again, and it’s even more fun to see the extent to which he has clearly forged a sort of odd couple dynamic with the ever-loyal Agent Stone, who actually enlists the aid of Sonic, Knuckles, and Tails to find out who’s been using Robotnik’s own technology.
The plot thickens when Robotnik finds that the perpetrator is his long-lost grandfather (also played by Carrey), and the two form a fast bond, leaving poor Agent Stone out in the rain. It’s undeniably silly, but it’s also a bit sadly poignant to see the extent to which Stone is clearly hurt by the fact that Robotnik has cast him aside for a grandfather that he’s never met. Moreover, it’s Stone who sees the ugly truth about the senior Robotnik’s sinister plan: that he wants to destroy the entire world rather than just a part of it. He’s become so consumed with nihilistic grief and rage that he would rather see the entire world burn than do even the barest thing to save it from utter oblivion.
For some time now, it’s been clear to anyone with eyes that there’s a bit more to Robotnik/Stone dynamic than the usual supervillain/simpering sidekick so common in video games and pop culture more generally. After all, Stone seems to know the ins and outs of Robotnik’s desires, right down to how he prefers his coffee, and it’s also clear that he’s the one who’s been taking care of Robotnik in the aftermath of his catastrophic defeat. As one very funny headline recently put it, “Doctor Eggman and Agent Stone Need to Hurry Up and Kiss Already.”
While this doesn’t happen in the third movie, there are enough hints that the bond between supervillain and henchman is slowly deepening into something more. A recurring theme throughout this movie is that Robotnik has lived his entire life thinking that he’s unloved, all while completely oblivious to the fact that he’s had love all along. This, of course, is one of the most common tropes in romantic comedy and, while it might be pushing the narrative a bit to suggest that this is the film’s wry way of suggesting that Robotnik and Stone have been pining for one another all along, that’s the way that I choose to read it.
There’s also something quite touching about the fact that Robotnik, faced with his own imminent demise, chooses to reach out to the one person in the world that he sees understood and cared about him. Again, this is a trope within more tragic romances, in which the hero recognizes how much he loves a person only when faced with his own imminent demise and they share a tearful farewell. It’s certainly clear that Robotnik’s demise is a heartbreaking event for Agent Stone, but I also think that Robotnik’s choice to reach out to him at the very end suggests his own feelings for his henchman might be a bit more than platonic.
It’s not that I actually expected a film like Sonic to push the envelope when it comes to the Dr. Robotnik/Agent Stone relationship–particularly not in this increasingly conservative political climate in which even the suggestion that characters might be queer is enough to send the MAGA masses into a frothing furor–it still would have been nice to finally see their relationship confirmed in some explicit way. At the same time, there is something at least a little powerful about the idea of a quasi-queer villain getting his own chance and redemption and sacrificing himself to save the entire world. The film might not be willing to take the plunge and make this explicit, but those of us in the know can see this for the gay relationship that it’s been all along.
So what lies in store for these two? If the film is to be believed, this is the definitive end to Robotnik, but color me skeptical. Carrey has already gone on record stating that he would be happy to return for another installment of the series if he got a script that interested him enough. Perhaps the next script could actually allow Robotnik and Agent Stone to be open and honest about their feelings and get the villainous romance they deserve. Maybe that would be just the thing to lure Carrey back to the franchise.
Hollywood, are you listening?