Bartleby MontClair (Sonic Underground)

Bartleby MontClair (Sonic Underground) "You can't do that!" *facepalm* 🤦‍♂️ Gender: Male Type: Unlikable Coward Age: 18 Species: Mink Portrayed by: Phil Hayes Status: Alive Media of origin: Sonic Underground

Sir Bartleby MontClair of Dresdin, otherwise known as Bartleby is a supporting character that appears exclusively in Sonic Underground. He is a posh aristocratic mink and one of the richest civilians of Robotropolis, and is Sonia's boyfriend. He was voiced by Phil Hayes.

Why He Sucks And Will Never Do It For Real

1. He was an unnecessary addition to the Sonic Underground series, as he had almost no purpose in the franchise's history.
2. Just like Bluster Kong, his character is just a walking rich stereotype: pompous, conceited, and narcissistic, Bartleby loves himself more than he does anyone else (the only exception being Sonia for a short amount of time), and he likes nothing better than drinking rosebud tea like a sophisticated snob and do anything that benefits himself.
3. He has a huge level of inconsistency in how he's written.
   • Aside from episodes 1 and 2 depicting him as a wise-cracking if clueless and anxious person who fears being robotized, he doesn't appear until episode 12 which depicts him as a rich person who slowly started to help Sonic with making Sonia happy even though he was a misguided pawn to Robotnik's underhanded schemes, then he believed that he could smooth-talk Robotnik when Bartleby was actually hiding Sonia with a mask while doing nothing actually helpful in that episode, and in episode 15; it's revealed that he thinks very highly of Robotnik while he wanted to get 200,000 mobiums for the orb that makes him unreliable towards Sonia and her brothers. In episode 19, he is seen as a relaxed person who acts snobbish about buying the island a tribe lives in to make it into a resort of his own in a single-minded manner. At episode 30, he's back to being a self-entitled boyfriend to Sonia with a personal vendetta against her brothers whereas episode 31-32 makes him slowly realize what Robotnik's plans were all along and eventually side with Sonia and her brothers after the many mistakes he's made. All of this makes his motives and his character all over the place.
4. Because of how pointless and stereotypical he is, he is very much a boring and forgettable side character.
5. His sarcastic moments, quick quips, one-liners, banters and comedic relief moments are very unfunny, irritating, and unremarkable.
6. His childishly whiny catchphrase, "You can't do that!", is irritating to listen to.
7. He seems to have some level of dislike and prejudice towards Sonic for very trivial and idiotic reasons, having little to no good relationship with him despite Sonic being Sonia's brother.
8. He proves to be a terrible boyfriend when it comes to his relationship with Sonia, he has cheated on her with many other girls after Sonia has already started traveling with her brothers, making him an unapologetic adulterer.
   • In the episode "Hermony or Something", he asks Robotnik how should he know where Sonia is and Robotnik points out that Sonia's his fiance, Bartleby shares how he isn't responsible for her actions and supporting Robotnik is a form of loyalty to his home, this is flat out stupid because he should know where Sonia is in the first place since he is her fiance and being a helper to the dictator Robotnik does not show loyalty to his hometown whatsoever!
   • As seen in the episode "Artifact", him being defensive over Sonia and her brothers makes him become rude, selfish, and pedantic. He even had the audacity to talk down to Sonia by telling her in her face that "she needs to grow up" by outright saying her brothers are a bad influence on her, which would make him pretty punchable since Sonia should've taken offense to him saying that about her family instead of letting Bartleby verbally insult them.
   • In the episode "Head Games", he acts stubborn with his motive to make a resort on an island, yet he hides behind Sonia when danger is afoot and leaves her and her brothers to take care of Robotnik's minions themselves, which still makes him look a cowardly and wimpy idiot.
   • As seen in the episode "Wedding Bell Blues", as he and Sonia are preparing for a wedding of theirs, he goes back to verbally insulting Sonia's brothers as a way to directly provoke and belittle them ranging from saying how he's glad that "her mother came to her senses" and started saying demeaning things about Sonic and Manic, where Sonia finally takes offense to Bartleby being an asshole with reminding them what they are in an annoying way, Sonic confronts him to be careful what he says, yet Sonia simplifies the issue and pushes Sonic away from the problem when Bartleby was being snobbish. This means that he's reached Karma Houdini territory now and being somewhat of a Gary-Stu for being a little too lucky.
9. He has plenty of obnoxious and hateable moments throughout the show, examples of these include:
   • The episode "Artifact", when he starts pursuing that orb for his own financial gain; Sonic, Sonia, and Manic confront him to warn him of it being a bomb, but because of how delusional and misguided Bartleby is towards them (including his girlfriend Sonia) he claims that the trio is lying in order to sell it for "the resistance" and arrogantly tells them that he can tell the difference between a bomb and an orb. These decisions resulted in Sleet, Dingo, and the Swatbots tracking him down and being kidnapped by Robotnik's henchmen in a pathetic fashion.
     • Even when he was told by Robotnik that he'll be blacklisted for his mistakes, he still thinks about getting the orb for himself instead of siding with Sonia and her brothers.
   • In the episode "Head Games", he suddenly wants to make a resort on an island. Not thinking about how he got blacklisted and not showing a sense of concern for what Robotnik really is doing until Sleet has to tell him what Robotnik wanted to do.
     • He had the guts to call Sleet and Dingo "idiots" for the misfortune that just happened when it was all his fault that he let these situations happen.
10. As stated above, the episode "Wedding Bell Blues" allows him to verbally insult Sonia and her brothers as a way to directly provoke and belittle them by saying how Sonia's mother "finally came to her senses" and started calling Sonic and Manic "disreputable" and calls Sonia's family "tarnished", where Sonia was offended by Bartleby's provocative remarks and Sonic belligerently confronting him as a way to remind him to be careful with what he says about Sonia's family, which still made him refer to Sonic and Manic as "ruffian brothers".
11. He's basically a complete rip-off of Antoine Depardieu from Sonic SatAM as a "French cowardly jerk" stereotype, and Callie Briggs from SWAT Kats: The Radical Squadron as a character and a bit of the design, but without any of the charm and likability both of those characters had respectively.
12. He has shown to be a truly neurotic and moronic coward who is sometimes seen supporting Robotnik for no good reason, making him a pathetically traitorous person to his own home.
13. He is such a pushover in combat, he is always forced to do what Sleet orders him to do when Robotnik orders the duo to capture Bartleby and be brought to Robotnik himself, showing how spineless he really is.
14. His design, true to most of the characters in Sonic Underground, does not match properly with the art style of Sonic the Hedgehog characters. It also makes him look like a random Sonic OC the animators made up themselves, a la Bluster Kong from the Donkey Kong Country TV series.
15. Phil Hayes provides a very mediocre job with voicing him, giving him a very low-key and uninspiring type of "elegant voice".
    • Despite being French, his voice has a stereotypically slightly British tone in his voice.
16. He is the only filler character in "Sonic Underground".

Redeeming Qualities

1. Bartleby does care about Sonia and her brothers at times, despite his countless blunders. This is evident by the fact that he has high hopes of them defeating Robotnik in a somewhat optimistic manner.
   • In the episode "Healer", he eventually starts to side with Sonia and her friends after the trio (Sonia especially) already helped him benefitting from a hoax Sonic and Manic were gonna make in "Wedding Bell Blues".
2. In "Bartleby the Prisioner", when Bartleby was eventually announced as an enemy to Dr. Robotnik and was put on trial, he was claimed guilty, thrown in jail, and was scheduled to be roboticized. The way he was violently taken to the jury by a Swatbot at the beginning of the episode was satisfying to watch, and he finally realized that he shouldn't be around when Sonia and her brothers have to defeat Robotnik and take down Robotopolis as he was sent away.
3. Despite his sarcastic moments, quick quips, one-liners, banters and comedic relief moments being very unfunny, some viewers can find them funny.

Trivia

• In the episode "Come Out Wherever You Are", Sonia even imagines him in a royal uniform resembling that of Antoine. Showing how his appearance and personality are extremely similar to that of Antoine Depardieu.

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