Playing With / Smart People Build Robots

• Basic: A smart character builds a robot as an indicator of intelligence.

• Straight: Alice, The Smart Guy of the show, builds Bob-Bot.
• Exaggerated: Alice, The Smart Guy of the show, builds an entire Robot Republic by her lonesome.
• Justified:
  • In Alice's society, it is necessary to build a robot to prove your intelligence.
  • The team needs a robot to defeat Evulz, and Alice is the only one who can do it.
  • Alice, isolated from her peers because of her intelligence, builds a robot to keep her company.
• Inverted:
  • Only the dumb characters build robots.
  • The robots build intelligent humans.
• Subverted: Alice claims she built Bob-Bot, but she is lying- her sister Claire, who is The Ditz, built him.
• Double Subverted: Then, Claire turns out to be a genius and Alice a ditz.
• Parodied: Alice builds so many robots she turns into a robot herself.
• Deconstructed: Darlene, who is a genius but not very good at building, is considered dumb by her society because she can't build a robot, even though she's smarter than everyone else in the community.
• Reconstructed: All children who turn out to be geniuses on IQ tests are taught to build robots very early in life.
• Zig Zagged:
  • Claire was mind-controlling Alice when she built the robot. It's never very clear who is The Smart Guy and who is The Ditz.
  • Or, Claire and Alice are identical twin sisters who frequently pretend to be each other. Claire builds a robot as Claire, then as Alice. Alice then builds a robot as Alice, then as Claire, or at least so they claim. For all the main characters know, Alice (or Claire) could have built all four robots.
• Averted:
  • There are no smart characters.
  • There are no robots.
• Enforced: Having heard the dictum of "show, not tell", the producers want to show that Alice is smart without saying it. The first universal indication the writers can come up with is building a robot.
• Implied: Bob-Bot introduces himself as "Bob Stevens." Alice's last name is Stevens, and the audience is aware that she is smart.
• Played for Laughs: Bob-Bot acts like he is Alice's crazy, energetic dog.
• Played for Drama: Alice built the robot because she was lonely and didn't have any friends.
• Played for Horror: Alice programs Bob-Bot to kill her enemies brutally.
• Exaggerated:
  • Alice spends every waking minute of her life building robots.
  • Alice has built more robots than there are people on the planet.
• Downplayed: Alice built a small, automated contraption that makes her breakfast for her.
• Lampshaded: "Of course Alice built a robot. She's a genius, what do you expect?"
• Invoked: Once Alice's father Eric learns that she's a genius, he pushes her into engineering so she builds a robot.
• Exploited: Georgina, aware that Alice is a genius who built a robot, asks her if she can buy one.
• Defied:
  • Eric doesn't let Alice build anything.
  • Alice makes clear she is either not clever enough to build robots or her field of expertise is not robotics, and thus builds something else entirely like self-sustaining hydroponics.
• Discussed: "Between the glasses, the physical ineptitude, and the freaking robot- it's like Alice is trying to be a stereotypical nerd."
• Conversed: "Just watch, Alice will have built a robot before this episode ends."