E-123 Omega

E-123 Omega (オメガ), or, technically, E-123 Ω, is a fictional robot from the Sonic the Hedgehog video game universe, first appearing as a playable character in the multiplatform game Sonic Heroes, which was first released in Japan on December 30th, 2003. His character designer is either Yuji Uekawa or Takashi Iizuka. He bears a strong resemblance to another character in the series, E-102 Gamma, who is part of the same robotics production line. In the games, he was created by Doctor Eggman, and is out to destroy him. Omega is 150 cm tall (4' 11") and weighs 1,230.512 kg (2712.77 lbs).

Sonic Heroes
Omega is the last of Dr. Eggman's E-100 series robots, debuting in Sonic Heroes. Omega was designed to prevent the release of Shadow the Hedgehog, and in case he failed, to control Shadow when he is freed. To accomplish this Eggman sealed him in an abandoned base with Shadow.

When Rouge the Bat went looking for Eggman's secret treasure in his base, she accidentally reactivated E-123 Omega and released Shadow from a stasis pod. Following his programming, Omega attempted to take out the hedgehog with the rest of the base. However, Rouge breaks up the fighting long enough to hear both their stories.

It turns out that Omega is infuriated at Eggman for tossing him in the abandoned base. Omega wants revenge for his being sealed and thus abandons his original programming. He also wants to prove that he's the strongest of Eggman's creations and therefore decides to destroy all of Eggman's other machines. Teaming up with Rouge and Shadow, he becomes the power member of Team Dark.

After several adventures, Omega and his team finally defeat Metal Sonic disguised as Dr. Eggman. Omega then sets about destroying Eggman's Shadow Androids. Rouge tells Omega that Shadow, the one they know, is a robot, and then turns to leave. Omega says, with a slight sign of compassion, that in order for there to be clones the original must still exist (it is later revealed in the true ending of the game Shadow the Hedgehog that the Shadow in Sonic Heroes is in fact the real one).

Later, Omega teams up with Shadow and Rouge against Metal Madness. Omega is last seen during that event with Shadow next to him and Metal Sonic in his arms.

Sonic Battle
Omega is briefly mentioned by Rouge during Sonic Battle, when she notes the similarities between him and E-102 "Chaos" Gamma after defeating him.

Shadow the Hedgehog
Omega made an appearance in Shadow the Hedgehog, still with the sole intention of getting revenge on Eggman. He assists Shadow in the Hero missions of the "Iron Jungle" and "Lava Shelter" stages by teaming up to destroy Eggman's robots, and helps him battle the "Egg Breaker" and "Egg Dealer" bosses following those stages. In Expert Mode, he talks to Shadow on the "Mad Matrix" and "Lava Shelter" levels, also being some kind of comic relief on the latter, along with Rouge.

Sonic the Hedgehog
Most recently, Omega appeared in the 2006 Sonic the Hedgehog game. Omega has a prominent role in Shadow's story and upon being sent to the future by Mephiles the Dark, Shadow and Rouge notice Omega in stand-by mode in the "Crisis City" stage for unknown reasons. Rouge later goes back to the present alone, where she programs Omega to help Shadow out in the future. Omega then wakes up in future and helps Shadow in a fight against Mephiles, and Shadow and Omega go back to the present. Later on in the game, it is revealed to Omega, by Mephiles himself, that in the near future he would return to his original mission of capturing Shadow due to humanity's fear of him. Upset by the news, Omega proceeded to unload his launchers on Mephiles, temporarily defeating him in the process.

It should also be noted that his design has changed slightly, giving him a taller head and bigger shoulders, along with various small details such as less smooth fingers, giving him a more humanoid appearance. Omega's frontal black stripe has been replaced with a white stripe, making him resemble E-102 Gamma more. Also, he walks, talks, and moves like a stereotypical old fashioned robot, as opposed to his wild, sometimes erratic, human-like movements in previous games. This could argueably be because in his story, he is offlined for 200-300 years. This would mean his joints would be broken and rusty, and thus giving him an old fashioned style movement.

Abilities
Omega has an array of extremely destructive weapons concealed in his arms, including two machine guns, two flamethrowers, two missile launchers and energy cannons similar to those used by the E-2000 robots and likely many more. However, unlike E-102 Gamma, Omega is quite inaccurate, firing a lot of shots in every direction with expectations that some will hit. He can also retract his hands in order to attach a spinning Shadow and Rouge in their place, either using the two as melee weapons or firing them as fireballs.

Like most Sonic characters, but unlike most robots, Omega can jump and turn in a ball, known as the "spinball jump" or "spin attack". Omega is also somewhat fast due to a pair of jet engines located on his back, that apparently can be used for floating (which he does along with Shadow and Rouge, calling it the Triangle Dive).

In Sonic Heroes, Omega is able to use his team's Team Blast, "Chaos Inferno", with Rouge and Shadow, which involves Rouge holding up Omega while he blasts everything around him with large purple energy beams and Shadow stops time with a green Chaos Emerald (regardless of how many Emeralds the player has).

His built-in arm weapons are somewhat changed in Sonic the Hedgehog. He can now fold out machine guns all around his arms instead of just replacing his hands with them, and can instead replace his hands with two powerful black cannons.

Personality
Like the rest of the E-100 series, Omega has a free will and a personality. It is unknown whether or not he contains an animal like the rest of the E-series robots. From his quotes, one can see that he thinks other robots are inferior to him, especially the E-2000 model, which Eggman immediately began working on after shutting Omega down.

It also seems that he lacks any sort of negativity towards Sonic and his friends, and didn't even recognize them during their first meeting, as can be heard when one finishes the Team Battle using Omega ("Group of Shadow-like beings destroyed!").

Omega's only goal in life are to take revenge on Eggman for disabling him, and destroy the doctor's other robots to prove himself superior. In certain endings of Shadow the Hedgehog, Shadow decides to take over the world, but Omega seems unconcerned, and also makes occasional remarks about world domination himself ("Doctor Eggman... I will destroy you, and reign supreme!").

Omega rarely shows other feelings than cold hatred, but there are a few occasions where he seems to care about other people. This is shown at the end of Sonic Heroes, in which Omega comforts an upset Rouge - albeit in a distant, matter-of-fact manner. Also in Shadow the Hedgehog, Omega does not attempt to stop or destroy Shadow when Eggman claims that Shadow is an android that he created, despite Omega's hatred of other Eggman robots. In Sonic the Hedgehog, Omega discovers that in the future he will be reprogrammed to hunt down Shadow. He seems somewhat saddened due to the fact that the two formed a bond in preceding games, and proceeds to attack the person who told him.

Family
Being a robot, Omega has no "family", to speak of. However, there are several figures prominent in/to his creation.
 * Creator: Dr. Eggman
 * Predecessors: E-100 Series

Allies

 * Shadow the Hedgehog
 * Rouge the Bat

Enemies

 * Dr. Eggman
 * Metal Sonic
 * Black Arms
 * Mephiles the Dark
 * Sonic the Hedgehog

Voice acting

 * Video games - Taiten Kusunoki (Japan)
 * Sonic Heroes - Jon St. John (US)
 * Shadow the Hedgehog - Andrew Rannells (US). Rannells also voiced Gamma in Sonic X, though his voice of Omega was taken as a relief among fans who feared he might have received Gamma's higher pitched Sonic X voice. Andrew's take on Omega's voice is widely found to be nearly identical to Jon's, resulting in some fans thinking it was the same person.
 * Sonic the Hedgehog - Madeleine Blaustein (US). This new voice bears no resemblance to his past voices, and has been highly criticized due to being too clichéd, and sounding less tough than his previous, darker, more violent-sounding voice.

Theme songs

 * Sonic Heroes - "This Machine", performed by Julien-K. This theme is shared with Team Dark.
 * Omega's theme is also implicit in "Waking Up" (an ending song from Shadow the Hedgehog), also performed by Julien-K.

Trivia

 * Omega has the capital Omega symbol (Ω) painted on his left shoulder. This is unlike all other E-100s, which had the lowercase Greek letter (ω).
 * In Sonic Heroes, Omega has a purple aura around him while jumping. In Shadow the Hedgehog, it is red.  In Sonic the Hedgehog, he has no aura, and simply jumps using his jets, without spinning.
 * It is possible that he is not powered by an animal like the rest of the E-Series robots (with the exception of Phi). As he was in standby mode for hundreds of years in Sonic the Hedgehog, therefore the animal would have died by then.
 * Omega's first playable unpartnered appearance was part of the "Wave Ocean" stage from Sonic the Hedgehog.
 * If Omega receives an E Rank in Sonic Heroes, he will reference his older "brothers," proclaiming "I couldn't even beat Gamma or Beta."
 * In the Challenge Mode of Sonic Heroes, Omega's eyes appear white while, ordinarily, they are red.
 * The creators of the Sonic the Hedgehog comic once had Omega as a possible character to be introduced in issues following #134, but the idea appears to have been scrapped.