Bob

* Bob
* Interface
* Glitch Bob
* Cadet

### Voice Actor(s)

undegraded: Michael Benyaer (see **Trivia** for exceptions)degraded: Ian James Corlett

## Personal info

### Residence

Supercomputer (pre-canon), Bob's Apartment (Kits) (S1, S2, S4), The Web (S3)

### Friends/Allies

Glitch, Dot Matrix, Enzo Matrix, Phong, Mike the TV, AndrAIa, Mouse, Maxine, Web Riders, Gavin Capacitor and the software pirates, Ray Tracer, Hack and Slash, Hexadecimal, Turbo, Dixon Green, Welman Matrix

### Enemies

Megabyte, Hack and Slash, Hexadecimal, Gavin Capacitor and the software pirates, Lens, Gigabyte, Daemon, Killabyte

## Official Profiles

* S1 cards
* S3.1 DVD
* S3 ReBoot.com
* S4 DVD
Bob is a Guardian Program from the Port Authority of the Super Computer who accidentally modemed into Mainframe. Being programmed to mend and defend, Bob quickly became a hero in Mainframe. His mastery of the Games has saved many a Mainframe sector from certain nullification.

Originally from the Supercomputer, Bob is formatted as a Guardian and programmed to mend and defend. Although at the top of his field at the Supercomputer Port Authority, he was only one of many in that position. In Mainframe, however, Bob is a big hero

Good natured and fun loving, Bob tends to laugh in the face of adversity and to enjoy the thrill of Game playing or of out-witting his foes, Megabyte and Hexadecimal. Being from the Super Computer, he is faster and more intelligent than most other Data Sprites. With the combination of these assets, plus his extremely handy Guardian keytool, Glitch, Bob becomes a force to be reckoned with, as Megabyte and Hexadecimal have each discovered.

Bob is brash, confident and mischievous, but deep down he's also an ordinary working Sprite with ordinary dreams. One of those dreams centers on Dot... maybe one day he and Dot could co-process a family? As it stands though, the two of them are just good friends, and one of their many common interests is to defeat the evil Megabyte and Hexadecimal.

Now that Bob has been jettisoned into the wilds of the Web by Megabyte without Glitch, his friends back home in Mainframe are extremely concerned. Can he survive and how will he ever find his way home?In the Super Computer, Bob was a top level Guardian program working to prevent unauthorized access and apprehend illegal entries. No one could get into his section of the Super Computer unless Bob "prompted" them through. Bob used to be a "beat cop" of sorts until he worked his way up through the ranks to become a special agent of the Super Computer Port Authority. And though Bob was at the top of his field, he was still just one of hundreds of sub-routines inside the populous and titanic Super Computer.

But here, in Mainframe, Bob is someone special. A big fish in a small pond, Bob is like the big city doctor who finds a high demand for his services on the less traveled country roads. This new status makes Bob feel important and good about himself.

Everything about the Super Computer is faster than Mainframe, including Bob. In Mainframe, this translates into non-stop energy: Bob's always doing something, always initiating action and taking the lead. Basically, leaping before he looks. Bob is a hands on do-it-now, figure-out-why-later kind of guy. In an emergency town meeting where Dot announces Enzo is in trouble, Bob will jump to his feet, announce the solution, and storm out of the meeting all by himself - only to return a moment later to ask where exactly Enzo is. This speed also makes Bob the best gamester in Mainframe. When a Game Cube hits, the Mainframers want Bob in there. His make-it-up-as-you-go, fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants style makes him a deadly opponent in Games.

Bob is good natured, cheerful, and always one to laugh in the face of adversity. A sort of controlled panic that anyone who's ever survived the chaos of a higher level computer game knows too well. He's always making smart comments and quips during peace or panic. You could say he has a big mouth at times. He has an easy-going, fun-loving approach to life.

Though he isn't intellectually superior to Dot or Megabyte, Bob has a quicker wit than most of the inhabitants of Mainframe, so that he's always making jokes that they don't quite get. There's a part of Bob that enjoys taking part in a Game or out-witting Megabyte: the brash, self-confident, mischievous, "hot-dogging" side of his personality. Although he can't resist showboating every now and then, at heart Bob is an ordinary working sprite with ordinary dreams. Maybe someday he and Dot could work things out and co-process a family. But that's a far off dream. For now Bob is content to be Dot's friend and wait and see how things develop. Naturally, and, in Mainframe style, slowly.

In between Games, Bob plots to undermine Megabyte's powers. Either by stopping him from taking over new territories, or helping the Sprites kick him out of old ones. This is delicate work though. Like removing terrorists who are sitting on the city's water supply, Megabyte functions in the sectors he's captured. Easier said than done.

While working for the Super Computer Port Authority, Bob acquired a weird little tool known as Glitch. Glitch is sort of a computerized Swiss Army knife: it can change into whatever small object or tool Bob needs to help him out of a jam. It can be a buzz saw, a stethoscope, an umbrella, a can-opener, a screwdriver, a grappling hook; in short, anything. Glitch's only limitation is that whatever it turns into must be mechanical and more or less hand-sized. Glitch could not, for example, turn into a hot air balloon, a puddle of water, or an armored tank. And though Glitch is a simple tool, it seems to have a mind of its own - it doesn't always turn into what Bob wants or expects, but in the end, it almost always turns into what he needs.

As a Guardian, Bob's function is to mend and defend. Compassion and bravery comes naturally to him. He likes to fight for the underdog.

In the process of protecting Mainframe from the invading Web, Megabyte betrays Bob and shoots him into the Web portal. Bob has no Glitch, no protection from the hostile Web environment, and no way back. Somehow he survives, but by the time Matrix, AndrAIa and the crew of the Saucy Mare find him he has changed considerably, both physically and mentally.

Bob tells them how he was rescued by the Web Riders, a band of mutated Net Sprites who helped him protect himself from the ravages of the Web. As he learned their ways, and their strange language, they came to look upon him as a leader.

In order to escape the Web and return to Mainframe, Glitch, Bob's Guardian Keytool, volunteers to make the ultimate sacrifice. Bob resists, but he knows it is the only way to save everyone. He allows Glitch to download itself into Bob's own code, merging them forever, and Glitch Bob is born.Originally from the Supercomputer, Bob is formatted as a Guardian and programmed to "Mend and Defend". In a small system like Mainframe, Bob is a big hero!

Good-natured and fun-loving, Bob tends to laugh in the face of adversity and enjoys the thrill of Game playing or out-witting his foes. Being from the Super Computer, he is faster and more intelligent than most other Data Sprites.

Bob is brash, confident and mischievous, but deep down he's also an ordinary working Sprite with ordinary dreams. One of these dreams centers on Dot: Maybe one day he and Dot could co-process a family? As it stands though, the two of them are "just good friends."

Clad in a chain metal and silver suit, Bob continues to discover his new abilities while maintaining his duties as Mainframe's Guardian and helping to protect other systems from Daemon, the supervirus, and her corrupt forces.
## Biography

### S4 Flashbacks

Little is known about Bob's time as a Guardian cadet, except that he had a roommate named Kar-don and, as he approached his final exams, a mentor/partner named Dixon Green. Bob had a propensity for unpopular theories about how viruses could be rehabilitated and the motivations of the User (not believing the User would create viruses just to cause damage), to the extent of writing a ReadMe on the psyche of Users. He even had a meeting with Turbo, the Prime Guardian, but greatly misunderstood what Turbo meant in calling his ideas "radical."

Dixon did not share Bob's views, and they clashed over her callousness towards viruses and blunt disinterest in metaphysical questions. One such verbal sparring session occurred while preparing Killabyte for deletion, but was interrupted when Killabyte began to upgrade and broke free. Bob was knocked unconscious by the upgrading virus and awoke to find Dixon dying; Dixon's keytool, Glitch, chose Bob as its new bearer. Grief-stricken, Bob used Glitch to track and pursue Killabyte to Mainframe.

He emerged at the site of massive destruction of unknown cause, and mended a couple of tears but found himself greatly out of his depth, especially in the face of a distraught young Dot Matrix. In an attempt to seem more authoritative than he was, Bob claimed to be a Guardian and not just a cadet. Dot misinterpreted his "sorry" over her system's misfortune as claiming responsibility, adding to his bewilderment; at this point, several senior Guardians, including Turbo, showed up, and what happened thereafter is unknown.

(Bob remained unaware of the full details at the time, much of it having no surviving, conscious witnesses; he was surprised to learn Megabyte and Hexadecimal were related, and believed the Twin City to have been destroyed by Welman Matrix's experiment, rather than an act of virus.)

Sometime between this and his moving to Mainframe, Turbo gave him permission to run an experiment, containing the viruses there and testing whether it was possible to "cure" rather than delete them.

## Non-Canon

* Assorted materials refer to Bob as having previously worked in the Supercomputer's Port Authority; however, the Port Authority is never mentioned in the show itself. Given the age gap between the flashbacks and Season 1, there seems to be no actual contradiction; Bob *could* have worked at the Port Authority before moving permanently to Mainframe.

* The *ReBoot Style Guide* for Season 1 says that being from the Supercomputer means Bob is a more advanced sprite than anyone in Mainframe.

## Cultural References

* On the British stop-motion children's series *Camberwick Green*, the village policeman was "PC McGarry, Number 452."

## Trivia

* Bob was originally going to be named Chip; the change to Bob was inspired by Rowan Atkinson's humorous pronunciation of the name in *Blackadder*. (Sadly, at no point in *ReBoot* does anyone say it that way.)
* Michael Benyaer voiced Bob for the first two seasons; Ian James Corlett replaced him in Season 3, but for Season 4, Benyaer was brought back as well to differentiate between degraded and undegraded Bob. Thus, while for the most part Benyaer voiced "Bob Classic" (as well as Cadet Bob), Corlett voiced him in "Number 7", as well as in *ReBoot: The Ride*.
* The Guardian uniform boots are modeled on Datyon, a Vancouver brand, motorcycle boots.

## Gallery

### Posters and Print

art by Jim Suart by Jim Suart by Jim Suart by Brendan McCarthy

## References

1. ↑ Fleer Ultra trading card #2
2. ↑ ADV Films DVD, "To Mend and Defend"
3. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20000619152237/http://www.reboot.com:80/productions/REBOOT/CHARS/bob.html
4. ↑ Anchor Bay DVD
5. ↑ Daemon Rising
6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 What's Love Got To Do With It?
7. ↑ Gigabyte (episode)
8. ↑ AndrAIa (episode)
9. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7MN0BXuXIa8
10. ↑ Gavin Blair on Facebook