Aim Low

"Aim Low" is the fifteenth episode in the Sonic Boom television series. It first aired on 14 January 2015 in France and on 28 February 2015 in the United States.

Synopsis
When Dr. Eggman loses his confidence he enlists the aid of motivational speaker and life coach, Soar the Eagle. Full of confidence, Eggman fires Soar only to discover that he's no longer capable of making a decision on his own.

Characters

 * Sonic the Hedgehog
 * Miles "Tails" Prower
 * Knuckles the Echidna
 * Amy Rose
 * Sticks the Badger
 * Fastidious Beaver
 * Mayor Fink
 * Mike the Ox
 * Dr. Eggman
 * Orbot
 * Cubot
 * Dave the Intern
 * Moto Bug
 * Buzz Bomber
 * Crabmeat
 * Soar the Eagle
 * Scorpion-bot

Plot
On Bygone Island, Eggman calls forth a new weapon after Team Sonic had just finished off his Scorpion-bot. However, while it warms up, Sonic destroys it. Instead of getting angry, Eggman retreats in his Eggmobile, dispirited and having lost his confidence. Meanwhile, Team Sonic ponders on why Eggman has not been as challenging as he usually is.

Back at his lair, Eggman tries to watch some TV while moping when he sees a commercial from Soar the Eagle who advertises about his seminar as a motivational speaker and life coach, promising to help his clients "soar like an eagle" like they were born to. Relating to it, Eggman hires Soar to rebuild his confidence. Coming to Eggman's lair, Soar gets the doctor fired up about getting his life back on track with inspirational speeches and convinces Eggman to hire him as his personal guru. However, Soar soon sees he has a lot of work ahead of him after witnessing Eggman's low esteem.

To rebuild Eggman's confidence and convince himself of his maliciousness once more, Soar has him get some small evil victories under his belt, such as stealing a meal from Dave at Meh Burger and ruining children's ice cream. Finally, Soar has Eggman cause a rockslide when making a statue of himself, which endangered a crowd beholding an enormous ball of twine. Fortunately, Sonic, who was watching the ball with his team, stops the rockslide and Amy notes Eggman is getting back on track.

Later at his lair, Eggman has made a marvelous recovery from his low confidence. Soar insists that Eggman still has a lot of steps in his system left, but Eggman is sure he will do fine from now on and fires Soar, something the eagle warns him will not bode well. Eggman tries to get back to his scheming with Orbot and Cubot, but it soon becomes clear that Eggman is no longer able to make decisions for his plans on his own. Later on the beach with his team, Sonic becomes suspicious of Eggman's activities after not hearing from him in a while and leaves to check up on him. When he gets to Eggman's lair though, Sonic finds Eggman slouching on his couch in self-pity while Orbot practically confirms that Eggman has given up on himself.

With the threat of Eggman gone, Sonic grows bored and restless. He tries doing something with his friends, but he only messes up Tails' papers, destroys Knuckles' new birdhouse and ruins Amy's new painting, all while growing more paranoid about Eggman. Driven nuts by Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Amy and Sticks decide to remotivate Eggman to give Sonic something to do. They attempt to pick a fight with Eggman, but when the doctor is indifferent towards their intrusion, they pretend Eggman is attacking them and lures Sonic to the lair to fight him, but Sonic does not believe it when he arrives. As Eggman notes how their idea was stupid though, Sonic defends his friends and their argument quickly evolves into animosity. Out of frustration, Eggman gets over his slump and summons his robots which Sonic engages while the rest of the team watches, smiling over things being back to normal.

Continuity

 * Dave the Intern, from Double Doomsday, returns.

Goofs

 * In the scene where Scorpion-bot's tail drops down on the ground, its tail is shown to be slightly curled up, but in the scene that follows instantly afterwards, its tail is flattened out completely.

Production
The production of "Aim Low" began over a year prior to its release date in the United States, and was one of the first scripts worked with by Bill Freiberger. The idea for the episode itself was conceived by Alan Denton and Greg Hahn.

The giant ball of twine in the episode was inspired by Alan Denton's real-life experience with cheesy roadside attractions, more specifically a real-life ball of twine Denton visited himself in 2004. This concept was incorporation by both Denton and Freiberger, the latter who was also a roadside attraction enthusiast. Also, the scene where Sonic makes Knuckles drop his birdhouse initially started with the concept that the writers needed for Knuckles to do something that Sonic could interrupt. After reflecting on Knuckles' personality, it was decided that Knuckles would set up a birdhouse to show an instance of his nature-loving side.

According to Freiberger, Sticks was probably meant to have a few lines in the episode, but they were cut out from the final product.

Trivia

 * This episode aired in France as the fourteenth episode in the series.
 * The way Dr. Eggman's grumbles when returning to his lair after Scorpion-bot's defeat sounds familiar to the trademark grumbling said by the Hanna-Barbera character Muttley.
 * Sticks does not utter a single word or makes any noises in this episode.
 * Hedgehog Idol, the show that Eggman watches, may be a reference to the reality show American Idol.
 * Hedgehog Abbey is a reference to the British drama show Downtown Abbey.
 * When Eggman claims he got his confidence back, he does the Moonwalk, and another move done by Michael Jackson.
 * One of the pictures seen on the shelves in Amy's House is the penguin picture that Amy showed to Orbot and Cubot in "Dude, Where's My Eggman?".
 * During the scene where Sonic's friends are blocking Eggman's view of the television, the show on the screen appears to be the exact same episode of "Pawn Shop Wars: Gogoba Edition" that Sonic was watching in "Eggheads".