Dr. Crafty Recap Index
Season:
Season 1 | Season 2 | Season 3 | Season 4
Month:
#1: Season 4 Premiere Month | #2: Season 4 Commission Month | #3: Sonic Month
#4: High School Month | #5: Halloween Month
Bonus Content:
Season 4 Promotional Videos
Season:
Season 1 | Season 2 | Season 3 | Season 4
Month:
#1: Season 4 Premiere Month | #2: Season 4 Commission Month | #3: Sonic Month
#4: High School Month | #5: Halloween Month
Bonus Content:
Season 4 Promotional Videos
Airing Range: 7/2/2021 - 7/24/2021
For this month, the Crafty Crew tackle the subject of Sonic The Hedgehog, covering everything from what they enjoy to what they don't throughout. However, things aren't what they seem, as there is an intruder among them: Metal Crafty, who stealthily approaches each member of the crew until the big confrontation towards the end of the month. In doing so, he sows confusion and even gets some blood on his hands...
Tropes Applicable to the Month as a whole:
Main Show E83: "My First OC"
The Crafty Crew's ladies hold an intervention for Crafty; today, he's been expressing interest in revisiting a Sonic OC from his childhood, and they genuinely think that something is wrong with him. However, Crafty remains firm and decides to convince the Crew that, while his childhood ideas weren't the best, there's still something to be enjoyed in looking back on them.
Tropes Found in This Episode:
- Brutal Honesty: Knuckles wanders into the lab midway through the commentary. According to him, Messi let him inside, thinking he was a therapist who could treat Crafty's sudden interest in Sonic. He bluntly writes off Crafty's old OC idea as derivative and stupid; Crafty takes the remarks quite well—he shares the same opinion—but Nurse quickly shoots them down and chucks Knuckles back outside.Crafty: All right, all right. Aztok the Falcon was my first character that I remember crafting. He was poorly written, considering I was like... twelve... But I was proud of him. I made him a bird because bird characters were never really made for Sonic OCs. And this was wayyy before Sonic Riders was a thing. So I kind of just went with it! His whole thing was that he was a prince of a kingdom on a floating island—
Knuckles: [popping in from below] 'Prince of a floating island kingdom?' Pff-heh. How original.
Nurse: Hey... How did you get in here?
Knuckles: The slime girl let me in. She thought I was a... therapist or something?
Nurse: Damn it, Messi! Well, don't you shame twelve-year-old Crafty for using his imagination!
Knuckles: Hey, I'm not pointing any fingers...
Crafty: Hard to do when you're wearing mittens.
Knuckles: ... I'm just saying that your idea was dumb. And you're dumb.
Crafty: In hindsight, it was pretty stupid...
Nurse: Hey! That is not true. You had fun creating that character. And it mattered to you! So it's not dumb!
Knuckles: Nah. Pretty sure it's dumb.
Nurse: ... Well, then... You're just as dumb, then!
Knuckles: [quickly] Oh no—
[A single punch from Nurse sends Knuckles sailing away; rings erupt from where he once stood.]
Crafty: Nurse, he has a point, it's fine! It was a dumb character I made when I was twelve! Nothing to get heated over.
Nurse: I know, Doctor. But I just hate people—or echidnas—like that. There's no need to be mean when someone's trying to express themselves. I know I've been guilty of laughing at Sonic OCs before, but I actually think it's lovely that children have such a wonderful way to express themselves!
Crafty: You are too good for this world, Nurse. That is the nicest thing anyone has ever said to me about a doodle I made when I was a toddler.
Nurse: I guess Pepper's mannerisms are continuing to rub off on me, huhu~! - Faux Horrific: Most of the lady Crewmates hold an intervention for Crafty after he expresses interest in revisiting a childhood Sonic OC. They treat the matter with dead seriousness, being anguished, tearful, and desperate to dissuade Crafty from committing to his plan. In a reversal from the norm, Crafty remains relatively down-to-earth about the entire situation. There's no zany scheme attached to his recent desires; he just found the exercise to be a good way to see how far he's come as an artist. And when he's done with said exercise and presents the finished product to his friends, they come around to his side of the argument... Then, they fearfully dogpile him when he suggests revisiting his scrapped novel project from years ago.
- Original Character: The subject for this episode's art segment is Aztok the Falcon, an old Sonic OC that Crafty designed when he was very young. Crafty seeks to redesign the character to see how far he's come as an artist. Aztok is notable for being an avian before the Babylon Rogues of Sonic Riders standardized how bird characters tend to look in the franchise.
Chara-Cafe E15: "Over the Moonsault"
Crafty has fully embraced his love of the Sonic franchise... but now he has too many Sonic OCs. Pepper accidentally gives him the idea to make another one to somehow fix the problem. Something is up with the Doctor, however...
Tropes Found in This Episode:
- Foreshadowing: The art segment prominently features two remixes of music pieces associated with Metal Sonic: "What I'm Made of" and "Stardust Speedway Bad Future." Considering how much Metal Sonic influenced Metal Crafty, the music choices are clearly meant to foreshadow the latter's presence in the episode.
- Wham Shot: When an Incineroar starts mauling Crafty, Pepper rushes off to find help... and she ends up running into the real Crafty, casually making his way down the hall and unaware that today's Chara-Cafe segment was already completed.
Top Ten Tub E15: "Worst Sonic Characters"
As a change of pace from other top ten lists, Crafty decides to count down his least favorite Sonic characters. Messi tries making a mess in the bathroom for the occasion. Crafty isn't thrilled and asks her to clean things back up; when he leaves, he comes back surprisingly quickly...
This episode's list contains the following:
- 10. Eggman
- 9. The Deadly Six
- 8. Silver the Hedgehog
- 7. Infinite
- 6. Charmy the Bee
- 5. Jet, Wave and Storm
- 4. Chris Thorndyke
- 3. Princess Elise
- 2. Big the Cat
- 1. Froggy
Tropes Found in This Episode:
- Cute, but Cacophonic: Taking the #6 spot is Charmy Bee, the cutesy but noisy Chaotix member... who has nothing else to offer for Crafty and Messi. He himself appears and screeches some of his Sonic Heroes voice lines for a while before Crafty swats him with a flyswatter.Crafty: ...Need I say more?
- Foreshadowing: The real Crafty leaves the bathroom to go get a snack, then seems to return suspiciously earlier than Messi expects. It's a disguised Metal Crafty again; with his plan for the spin-off hosts established in "Over the Moonsault," this moment in the episode makes a point to foreshadow his presence much earlier.
- Formula-Breaking Episode: This is the first Top Ten Tub episode to count down some category's top ten worst. Whereas they approach topics in previous episodes with a generally positive outlook, neither Crafty nor Messi hold back their issues with the Sonic characters on this list.
- Trauma Button: The Number 1 worst Sonic character on this list is none other than Big's pollywog pal, Froggy. Froggy's position on the list has nothing to do with his character—he effectively has none—but rather for being the very thing that makes Big's gameplay in Sonic Adventure so intolerable for Crafty. Upon seeing the frog onscreen, he flashes back to the Game Grumps playthrough of the aforementioned game, and they go through the same stress that Crafty had while trying to catch Froggy.
Shake-Up Salon E3: "The BIG Problem"
Stylene and Crafty bond over their mutual hatred of Big the Cat, doing their best to improve his design however they see fit. For the occasion, Crafty enlists the help of Duke Crocodile and Scout the Werepup to protect the castle against Big's potential intrusion. They end up letting in more than just Big, however...
Tropes Found in This Episode:
- Dumbass Has a Point: Duke Crocodile and Scout the Werepup make their first appearances since "Crafty Fan Characters," having been stationed to guard the castle for this episode against Big the Cat should he turn up. In their conversation, the oafish Duke insightfully explains why he and Scout, as Crafty fan characters, haven't made too many appearances, and Scout agrees with him.Duke: Okay, Doc wants us to make sure the castle's safe, and that no bad guys gets in here!
Scout: Like how we stopped all those robots?
Duke: Well, as one-off gag characters, our existence depends on whether or not we're included in the script, mostly reliant on my dumb but lovable persona, and your small and fiery demeanor playing into the structure of the episode.
Scout: Quite astute of you, Duke!
Duke: No thanks, I'll have the salad.
[Scout groans.] - Survival Mantra: Stylene is infuriated upon finding out that she and Crafty will be working on redesigning Big the Cat. Instead of lashing out at Crafty, Stylene quickly repeats something under her breath to get herself through the episode:Stylene: Don't murder your boss again, don't murder your boss again...
- The Guards Must Be Crazy: Crafty has Duke and Scout on guard duty for this episode, but Duke becomes lost in conversation with Vector the Crocodile, allowing Big the Cat to sneak right by.
Main Show E84: "Original Episode; Do Not Steal"
Now concerned about how cringe-worthy he's become, Crafty decides to touch upon other people's Sonic OC's to take the focus off of him. In doing so, they try to study why Sonic fan characters are so popular to make.
Tropes Found in This Episode:
- Gory Discretion Shot: After the episode is complete, there is a cut to Crafty's storage, where Junkrat has finished feasting. Metal suddenly sneaks up on Junkrat and kills him; mercifully, only a splatter of blood on the storage walls is shown.
- Noodle Incident: Nurse has experienced the horrors that lie behind a certain image of Tails on a park bench (the exact details of which are thankfully not elaborated upon in the episode). She's so disgusted with the image's presence that she tosses Crafty's computer aside and shoots it with a pistol.Crafty: Nurse, you're lucky I already sent out the messages to people before you did that, or else I would have been very mad.
[Crafty casually sips from his coffee cup.]
Nurse: You don't know what felony you just committed!
Main Show E85: "Gotta Sell Fast"
Crafty realizes that he's been very hard on the Sonic fanbase, so he and Nurse decide to give back to the fanbase with some adoptable character designs—mostly for the profit, but also for the fanbase.
Tropes Found in This Episode:
- Off with His Head!: Right before the episode ends, Metal Crafty introduces himself to Crafty and Nurse by tossing Junkrat's severed head against a wall.Metal Crafty: I found you... faker.
- Suspiciously Specific Denial: The whole reason that Crafty is selling Sonic OC adoptables is to make some money, but he masks his intent with the idea of doing something nice for the Sonic fanbase.
Main Show E86: "Let's. Get. Metal..."
Metal Crafty makes his formal introduction to Crafty and Nurse, fully intending to rip them apart for their hearts. Left with no other option, Crafty hurries out one last piece for the month as he and Nurse think about what to do to fight back. Their solution ultimately results in something that nobody—not themselves, not Metal, and not even Mindstein—sees coming...
Tropes Found in This Episode:
- Five-Second Foreshadowing: Right when Crafty and Nurse vanish from the lab and Metal Crafty escapes, Messi and the other spin-off hosts burst through the lab's security door. They're shocked to see no one inside, but before anyone can figure out what to do next, Crystelle suddenly shouts in pain and fear. The camera abruptly zooms in on her head and transitions to a scene showing Crafty and Nurse's tumbling through a void. It's implied by the camerawork and her intervention that Crystelle sees their plight thanks to her psychic vision... And she also gets to see the thing that not only caused her to scream but has been troubling her since the Spin-Off Special.
- Friendship Moment: Crafty comes up with an idea for how to handle Metal Crafty: combining the power of his Infinium Heart with Nurse's. Nurse has her doubts, but Crafty's reassurance is so strong that their hearts mutually glow from within their chests.Nurse: So, Crafty. What's our plan? How on Earth are we going to handle this... Metal Crafty? He could shut down my motor functions almost instantly, and you don't have One For All anymore!
Nurse and Crafty together: Hmm...
Crafty: Wait a tick. Your heart was affected by the EMP blast... but mine wasn't! Perhaps if we use our hearts together, we can circumvent the EMP blast?
Nurse: I don't know. Doesn't that seem a little... dangerous? But on the other hand, we don't exactly have a bunch of options to choose from...
[By the time Nurse finishes speaking, Crafty has slowly made his way over to her side, with a warm grin across his face.]
Crafty: Nurse... No matter what happens, this 'donut dork' is going to be there for you. Right next to you. Always.
[The duo's hearts suddenly start to glow their respective colors, and Nurse coos.] - Heroic Sacrifice: To save Nurse and Crafty from the void, Crystelle strains herself to hold open a portal for them to escape through. Not wanting to leave empty-handed, the void entity drags her spirit inside, leaving behind Crystelle's now lifeless head.
- Living Crashpad: Pepper uses her Octo-bloat ability to provide a safe landing for Nurse and Crafty as they escape the void and the aggressive entity within it.
- No-Sell: Metal Crafty takes Nurse’s first punch like it was nothing. Having absorbed Messi’s DNA, he can disperse his body into a mass of slime, and he uses this ability to make a hole in his head that Nurse’s punch harmlessly passes through.
- Tactical Withdrawal:
- After Crafty and Nurse suddenly vanish into thin air, Mindstein calls Metal via radio and urges him to retreat. Despite wanting to continue fighting, his opponents are still nowhere in sight, so Metal reluctantly follows her order. He's still not happy about it when he returns home, angrily questioning Mindstein about it even after she explains herself. The tension between them rises until Metal prepares to strike Mindstein, who simply plays some old Dr. Crafty episodes to get him under control. Then, just to be cruel, she locks him in her office and subjects him to even more reruns after their conversation concludes.
- Mindstein is completely taken aback by how Crafty and Nurse's Infinium Hearts react to one another. With Metal safe in her base of operations, she opts to lay low and study more extensively before making another attack. True to her word, "Lets. Get. Metal" is Mindstein's final in-person appearance for Season 5.
- Wham Episode: There are some huge events in this episode, from Crafty and Nurse combining their Infinium Hearts' powers to gain an advantage to them suddenly meeting the malevolent deity that has been interfering with Crystelle. Each of them leaves both parties in Dr. Crafty's principle conflict feeling either shaken or deeply puzzled.
- Just as they gain an upper hand over Metal, Crafty and Nurse are suddenly teleported into a hell-dimension, whose sole, demonic inhabitant reaches out for them with ill intent. It's strongly implied that the creature is linked to the Infinia thanks to their appearance, and they briefly kill Crystelle when she denies them of Crafty and Nurse. With Stylene and Messi hurrying to get Crystelle back, Crafty and Nurse do nothing but reflect on what they just went through.[Crafty and Nurse rocket through a void, each of them screaming and holding onto the other for dear life.]
Crafty: WHAT THE HECK IS GOING ON?!?!
Nurse: AHHH!! I don't know! Crafty, look!!
[Staring back at the duo is a gigantic, crazed set of eyes.]
Nurse: Wh-WHAT IS THAT?!
[One by one, the creature reaches their many massive, skeletal hands out from the darkness, grasping the edges of the void. Their voice echoes throughout the dimension.]
Void Entity: The... end... REACH. THE END.
Crafty: I don't think that makes things any better!!
[Having five hands anchoring them in place, the creature reaches its free, sixth hand for the duo.]
Void Entity: THE... EVERYTHING. THE NOTHING!
[Crafty and Nurse shut their eyes and brace themselves.]
Crafty: Hang on! I've got you Greta!
Nurse: No! I've got you, Colin!
[The two Crewmates scream in terror as the creature's hand gets closer. Right in the nick of time, Crystelle opens a portal into the dimension for the duo to exit through. Back in their world, Crafty and Nurse land safely—but hard—into Pepper. The creature, meanwhile, refuses to leave empty-handed and literally chokes the life out of Crystelle, who lets out a scream of anguish before her spirit and the creature vanish. Nothing is left but her now vacant crystal ball head.]
Messi: Crystelle!!
[Stylene immediately retrieves Crystelle's head and hurries away.]
Stylene: Quick! Let's get back into her Qloset before we lose her!
Messi: R-Right!
[Messi leaves with Stylne. The focus returns to Crafty and Nurse, who are resting against Pepper but still coming down from their panic.]
Crafty: Nurse...?
Nurse: Y-yes... Doctor?
Crafty: We can never... do that again.
Nurse: ... Understood. - Mindstein, having watched Metal Crafty's confrontation with the heroes from afar, is legitimately taken aback by what Crafty and Nurse's Infinium Hearts demonstrated together, and when they suddenly vanish from the Castle, she urges Metal to retreat. Home safe at their base, Metal presses her harshly about her order and why he failed, and after putting Metal in his place, Mindstein admits that even she doesn't know, which concerns her deeply. When their conversation concludes, Screw sneaks into view as Mindstein leaves, apparently up to something for herself after all that has happened...[A beat-up Metal Crafty storms into Mindstein's office, glaring intently at her as he walks inside. Mindstein keeps her back turned to him in her chair as he approaches.]
Metal: Why? Why did you order me to retreat?!
Mindstein: What, no 'Hello?' Not even a 'How are we this evening?'
Metal: Cut the faux pleasantries. What happened back there?! I had a counter to his queen piece! But I couldn't copy Crafty's ability... Explain this to me!
Mindstein: No.
Metal: 'No..?' WHAT DO YOU MEAN 'NO?!?!'
[Seething, Metal continues approaching.]
Metal: You constructed me for one purpose: to kill that monster! Who haunts me! And TAKE HIS HEART! A heart I can neither disable, nor replicate!
[Metal prepares to strike Mindstein, who is remarkably calm as he does.]
Metal: Now... Tell me how I kill him, or I—
[Mindstein hits a switch on a remote, causing tons of reruns of Dr. Crafty to play on her monitor simultaneously. The sight of them all causes Metal to seize up in fright and fall to his knees.]
Metal: No! STOP! TURN IT OFF! TURN IT OFF, DAMN YOU!!
[Mindstein complies.]
Mindstein: You would do well to know your place, Metal. I've had my own creation turn on me once before... And I refuse to make that mistake again. I won't explain it—because I can't explain it. That fact alone is enough to be troubling to my plans...
[Mindstein pauses to sigh.]
Mindstein: ... I cannot continue to underestimate Crafty any longer. But it is fascinating! Two hearts were never supposed to exist. So to see two—a real and a replica—resonate and synchronize in such a way... This will require further research.
[Mindstein makes her way past Metal towards the door.]
Metal: Where... Are you going?
Mindstein: I'm on a tight schedule—Business to run, your repairs to do, preparing the next stages of my master plan, details details. You know the deal. For now... I'll leave you with some... Home entertainment.
[Mindstein locks her office with Metal inside. The Crafty reruns restart as Metal begins screaming intensely and continuously at them. Just as Mindstein vanishes from view, Screw appears from around another corner. She watches her mother leave before turning her attention to Metal's screaming from within the locked office...]
- Just as they gain an upper hand over Metal, Crafty and Nurse are suddenly teleported into a hell-dimension, whose sole, demonic inhabitant reaches out for them with ill intent. It's strongly implied that the creature is linked to the Infinia thanks to their appearance, and they briefly kill Crystelle when she denies them of Crafty and Nurse. With Stylene and Messi hurrying to get Crystelle back, Crafty and Nurse do nothing but reflect on what they just went through.
- Wham Shot: As she and Crafty fly through the mysterious void, Nurse spots something in the oncoming black hole. A massive entity is looking back at them from within the darkness, and they want to drag the Crewmates inside. The eyes, arms, and overall color scheme of what's visible tell everything: this new antagonist is another Infinia, and not a benevolent one like Sasha.
- You Called Me "X"; It Must Be Serious: When faced with the void entity reaching out for them, Crafty and Nurse prepare for the worst and address each other by their real names—Colin and Greta, respectively.
Questionable Qloset E9: "ADnDiction"
Crystelle manages to recover from her capture in "Let's. Get. Metal," and despite her terror at what she has seen, Crystelle is glad to answer some more questions to return to a good headspace. She's also excited to announce the coming of a spin-off show on the Dr. Crafty channel.
This episode's questions for Crystelle are revealed on the following three cards:
- The Magician (Crafty's Dragon Die): "What tabletop games do Crafty and Co. like to play?"
- The High Priestess (Messi): "Has Messibelle had any unusual reactions to other chemicals? Not necessarily getting sick but other... weird side effects?"
- The Chariot (Screw): "What is the age difference between Nurse Worse and Screw?"
Tropes Found in This Episode:
- Cards of Power: For this episode, Crystelle draws the Magician (Crafty's Dragon Die), the High Priestess (Messibelle), and the Chariot (Screw). This is the first episode in which the Chariot is drawn, and its subject matter matches up with Sonic Month thanks to the parallels between Screw and Shadow the Hedgehog (dark-colored rival lookalikes with troubling scientific backgrounds).
- Early-Bird Cameo: Hitenmitsuru and BubblingBroke show up in the first question's Cutaway Gags, being the two people responsible for getting Crafty into D&D. Hiten would later go on to play as Osra in CrafD&D's Champion's Challenge campaign. Brooke also contributes to the campaign behind the scenes, being an advisor for Crafty.
- Evil Twin: The final question of the episode regards the age difference between Nurse and Screw. It turns out that the gap is minimal; Screw was an unexpected twin birth that immediately followed Nurse. Crystelle strongly implies that, because Mindstein only expected one child, she neglected Screw up until Nurse escaped their home. Despite being on opposite sides of their conflict, Crystelle clearly feels awful about Screw's condition.
- Offscreen Moment of Awesome: Upon seeing Crystelle's lifeless crystal ball head on the lab's floor in "Let's. Get. Metal," Stylene hurries to return it to the Qloset, where Crystelle's spirit shall hopefully return. As it turns out, Stylene made it just in time; Crystelle ends up recovering on camera right as the episode begins.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Crystelle becomes noticeably solemn about a question regarding Screw's age because she's forced to cite Screw's childhood to answer. The topic is so uncomfortable for her that she's not willing to go much further about it past broad hints.
- Poorly Disguised Pilot: The first question of the episode asks if the Crafty Crew plays any tabletop games, to which Crystelle describes how Crafty got into Dungeons and Dragons. Afterwards, she announces that Crafty is producing another show surrounding his D&D campaigns: CrafD&D, whose intro plays in its entirety before Crystelle moves on to the next question. The new show started a bit over half a year after this episode was uploaded.
- This Is Gonna Suck: When Messi's tarot card appears onscreen, Crystelle grows very uncomfortable, implicitly expecting a perverse question or remark to appear. She's relieved—shocked, even—when the question turns out to be sincere and clean.Crystelle: Now, for our second card for tonight...
[Crystelle draws Messi's card, the High Priestess.]
Crystelle: Ooohhhh... All right, ehm... I'll prep the censors for this one.
The Question: Has Messibelle had any unusual reactions to other chemicals? Not necessarily getting sick but other... weird side effects?
Crystelle: Oh...! Ohhh...! Y-you have an... actual question..... That's the most surprising thing about this poll.
