#dot reboot

The Hero

Bob from Reboot and Aang from Avatar

Both main series protagonists are very similar. Both are goofy at times and serve the role as the main hero often coming to blows with the early villain. The part I find striking is that both have humanitarian values preferring non violent solutions to defeating their enemies. With Avatar Aang he uses the removal of bending, Bob uses reformatting of the core programming. These are later called into question as to whether they are worse or better then actual death by other characters. Reboot actually had time to bring up the reformatting of viruses and call into question that such an act erases some of victim’s personhood during the shows run time. It even presents Bob with this question and it wouldn’t be addressed until years later In the Avatar series with the advent of Amon, even still we would not see Aang confronted with this very same question until the Imbalance comic.

Heroic Siblings

Dot and Enzo Matrix vs Sokka and Katara

Both siblings have the sister being the more parental figure of the group as well as being the love interest of the main hero, while the brother suffers from an inferiority complex brought on by being less capable then the people in his life and an older male figure in their life whom they admire.

While Katara suffers from parentification due to her being the younger sibling, Dot is not quite so burdened being the MUCH older sibling. Dot is already a responsible adult with her own thriving business and a good head on her shoulders when she is forced into the position of being a parent to her brother Enzo after the death of their actual parent Welman Matrix.

Not the only parallel. Welman is the father but shows a kind and supportive nature while having a very close bond with his daughter Dot. He does die in a round about way, Sprites after deletion tend to turn into little slug monsters called Nulls that absorb energy like a leech. Its a rather bittersweet reunion when his consciousness returns in the form of a collection of Nulls forming a humanoid body. Dot spent a desperate amount of time trying to bring her father back and now that he’s there, she can’t even hug him cause his new form would drain her of energy.

Enzo in a similar vein to Sokka is left feeling inferior no matter how much he may try to help. He lacks in ways different from Sokka’s non-bending, he’s a kid surrounded by adults. Enzo aspires to be a successful business-man like his older sister Dot, just as much as he aspires to be a guardian like his Hero Bob. Eventually he gets his chance when Bob is sent off into the web via betrayal. Much like Sokka who desired to be a warrior and leader like his father Enzo flounders at first but gets the hang of it quickly with a unique style of his own that is not quite like Bob but is something akin to his hero.

Villain Siblings

Megabyte and Hexadecimal vs Zuko and Azula

Personality wise Megabyte has closer comparisons to Ozai than Zuko but in a sibling Dynamic Hex and  Megabyte have closer ties to Zuko and Azula. And I would be remiss if I ignored it for character personalities. One of the closest similarities is that they both share a violent sibling rivalry but will join forces if the need arises, one gets a redemption arch while the other comes back as a more dangerous villain with a grudge, the sister is shown as more mentally unstable, both have a royalty motif throughout their design, etc etc... but how do they compare on an individual level?

Megabyte much like Zuko was a much more frequently shown villain than Hex. He has aspirations to higher power and it often brings him into conflict with the heroes as he attempts to use the main hero and their assets to achieve this end. He also has a very violent rivalry with his sister often resulting in his humiliation. This ultimately culminates in an arch where the brother has his sister captured and restrained and made to co-operate under threat of violence. Sound familiar yet?

In this case, Megabyte is placed in the wrong clearly by the narrative, but with avatar the shoe is on the other foot. Hex and Azula deserve their on parallel page cause there is a lot to cover.

Next time.

Main Female Villain and the Treatment of Mental Illness