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 fully playable character in the multiplatform game Sonic Heroes, which was first released in Japan on December 30th, 2003. Omega was created by Takashi Iizuka, and designed and modeled by Nobuhiko Honda at Sonic Team USA. He bears a strong resemblance to another character in the series, E-102 Gamma (a possible design inspiration), who is part of the same robotics production line in the series. In the games, he was created by Doctor Eggman, and is out to destroy him due to lack of respect and want for revenge. Omega is 150cm tall (4ft 11in) and weighs a hefty 1,230.512kg (2712.77lbs) making him the heaviest character in the Sonic series. He has the capital Omega symbol (Ω) painted on the front of his left shoulder and on the back of his right, in contrast to all the other E-100s, which had the lowercase Greek letter (ω), possibly representing that he is the most powerful of Eggman's E-Series (though the Original set of E-100s from Sonic Adventure had various Greek Symbols). Though they may have used the capital letter because it's far more noticeable and well known than the lowercase. Omega has helped Shadow (and to a lesser extent, Rouge) in 3 Sonic games, and while not being a major character, is popular enough in his own right. Recently however, he has made less appearances in Sonic games, as he only seems to be in the mainstream canon games as a teammate to Shadow.

Game appearances
Omega is the 24th and last of Doctor 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. Being imprisoned infuriated Omega; he decided to prove his status as the most powerful E-Series robot by abandoning his original programming and taking revenge on his creator and the other machines he built.

When Rouge the Bat went looking for Eggman's secret treasure in his base, she accidentally reactivated E-123 Omega when she released Shadow from a stasis pod. Mistaking Shadow for an Eggman robot and following his new mission, Omega attempted to take out the hedgehog. However, Rouge broke up the fighting long enough to hear both their stories. He soon teamed up with Rouge and Shadow as the power member of Team Dark.

Omega made an appearance in Shadow the Hedgehog (2005), 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. It is unknown whether he is considered the hero helper because he is merely less evil than Eggman, or if he has actually reformed to a heroic Eggman-foiling mechanical partner. In the missions that he appears in, the player must either destroy the Egg balloon (Iron Jungle) or head to the center of Eggman's base ("Lava Shelter") to complete the hero mission. Strangely, whether the player completes the hero or dark mission for "Lava Shelter", Omega will help Shadow fight the Egg Dealer, despite the dark mission being helping Eggman (due to Eggman accusing them of destroying too much of his base). Omega is the only ally character that neither appears during the introductory trailer or in the Last Story.

Omega appeared in Sonic the Hedgehog 2006 with a prominent role in Shadow's story. Upon being sent to the future by Mephiles the Dark, Shadow and Rouge notice Omega in stand-by mode in the "Crisis City" stage. Rouge later goes back to the present alone, where she programs Omega to help Shadow out in the future, in which he goes into stand-by mode until the point in the future when Shadow is in trouble.

His design has changed a lot, with 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/silver stripe, so he resembles Gamma. The stripe also sticks out more. He also has a thinner head, with the eyes closer to the stripe. The flap-like things on his sides also look rougher. He walks and moves in a slower, more cumbersome manner like an old fashioned robot, compared to his wild, sometimes erratic, human-like movements in previous games. Unlike Sonic Heroes and Shadow the Hedgehog, he has a higher pitched voice, this is because his voice actor was changed to Maddie Blaustein after Andrew Rannells quit voice acting for 4Kids Entertainment. These changes could be because this game has a more realistic style than previous Sonic games.

Sonic 06 is also the first game to feature Omega without being partnered up with Shadow or Rouge to be playable.

Omega has been confirmed as one of the 11 playable characters in Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood, but his role is unknown.

Omega is briefly mentioned by Rouge during Sonic Battle (2003), when she notes the similarities between him and E-102 Chaos Gamma after defeating him.

Omega artwork and screenshots from Sonic Heroes can be seen in the "museum" of Sonic Gems Collection and Sonic Mega Collection Plus. Omega appears on two collectible cards in Sonic Rivals (2006), namely the "E-123 Omega (2006)" card and the "Team Dark" card.

Omega appears in Super Smash Bros. Brawl as a collectable sticker.

Prototype storyline for the Sonic the Hedgehog comic book includes possibly introducing Omega into the series.

Abilities
Omega has a huge array of extremely destructive weapons concealed in his arms, (similar to that of the T-X), including two rapid-fire machine guns, (Omega Machine Gun), two flamethrowers, (Omega Fire), two missile launchers, (Omega Missile), two unusual weapons that fire exploding drills, and energy cannons similar to those used by the E-2000 robots in Sonic Heroes and likely many more. However, unlike E-102 Gamma, Omega is somewhat inaccurate, (despite the fact that he has some kind of special targeting system), most notably when he is firing many shots in every direction (which is shown when he and Shadow fought after they first laid eyes upon each other), with expectations that some of them 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 while in the middle of a jump, (Omega Bazooka). He can perform a similar move without Shadow and Rouge were he just fires destructive fireballs directly at enemies (Omega Launcher). It has been confirmed that Omega carries gun magazines, as shown in Sonic the Hedgehog. Omega can also utilize jet boosters built in his back to help accelerate and hover.

Like most Sonic characters, but unlike most robots, Omega can jump and turn in a ball, known as the "spinball jump" or "spin attack"; he can also grind on rails like most characters but unlike most robots. Omega is also somewhat fast due to a pair of jet engines located on his back, (fast enough to keep up with Shadow and Rouge to be more precise) that apparently can be used for floating (which he does along with Shadow and Rouge, calling it the Triangle Dive). He has also displayed considerable physical strength, capable of destroying thick doors and giant blocks of stone with his metal fists.

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 Chaos Control.

His built-in arm weapons are somewhat changed in Sonic the Hedgehog. He can now fold out machine guns all around his wrists instead of just replacing his hands with them (although it is a possibility that Omega has had this ability for a while; in Shadow the Hedgehog, Omega prepares to fire at Eggman without retracting his hand). He can instead replace his hands with two powerful black Gatling gun like cannons.

He also has some kind of built in sensor that allows him to locate enemies and other various objects such as switches.

Personality
Like E-102 Gamma, Omega has a free will and a personality. Although previous E-100 series had used animals to power them, it is unknown if Omega does or is more like the subsequent E-2000 series which don't use animal-based power sources. From his quotes, he thinks other Eggman robots are inferior to him, dismissing them as "worthless consumer models", especially the E-2000 model. He hates side tracking especially when it comes to tracking down Eggman.

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 in Sonic Heroes, as can be heard when the player finishes the Team Battle using Omega.

Omega's only goals in life are to take revenge on Eggman for disabling him, and destroy the doctor's other robots to prove himself superior. At one point in Shadow the Hedgehog, Omega made a comment about how he would "reign supreme". Some fans have taken these words quite literally, and believe that Omega wants to take over the Eggman Empire and become a robot overlord in the style of Metal Sonic. However, subsequent games have shown this less believable, and it is generally taken to mean that he wishes to reign supreme as the greatest of Eggman's robots.

Notably, in all of his appearances (barring the 2006 Sonic the Hedgehog game, in which he behaved in a very odd manner stereotypical of old robots), he makes odd, often erratic movements, such as spinning his head (as it's on a 360 degree axis) in many circles, and spinning during confrontations of Eggman in Shadow the Hedgehog. Whether this is a programming flaw or intentional is not revealed. Also in Sonic 06, when Omega is standing still, he makes odd movements as if he's doing warm up exercises.

Relationships
Omega rarely shows feelings other than cold hatred, very different from Gamma's calm and obedient personality, but there are a few occasions where he seems to care about other people.

Rouge the Bat
Omega is very loyal to Rouge. He usually follows her orders without question and is also quite caring about her. This is shown at the end of Sonic Heroes, in which Omega comforts an upset Rouge &mdash; albeit in a distant, matter-of-fact manner.

Shadow the Hedgehog
Shadow and Omega are close allies. In fact, Shadow is perhaps Omega's closest friend and is even seen worrying over his well being, (which is quite odd for Shadow as he usually keeps a tight lid on his emotions). 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. This is further shown in Sonic the Hedgehog where Shadow and Rouge encounter Omega in the future in standby mode. After Rouge notes that they can't do anything for him, Shadow seems to show reluctance about leaving. Also, in Sonic the Hedgehog, Omega shows anger at Mephiles' hinting of Omega's future betrayal towards Shadow, and proceeds to attack him. Omega then shows sadness while revealing that his mission in the future was to capture Shadow.

Doctor Eggman
Eggman is both Omega's creator and greatest enemy. Omega is constantly trying get revenge on the doctor for imprisoning him and will do whatever it takes to prove himself superior to Eggman's other machines. However, Omega has passed up his feelings of revenge on occasion.

Metal Sonic
The two might have only met once but the fact that he is one of Eggman's robots indicates that the two are definitely enemies, (even going far enough for Omega to pass up his feelings of revenge). They first meet in Sonic Heroes (after Omega finished destroying a room full of Shadow Androids), where Omega helped to defeat Metal Sonic after he turned into Metal Madness along with his fellow team members. He is later seen exchanging looks with Shadow and holding a deactivated Metal Sonic in his arms.

E-Series
Omega harbors a deep hatred to all of the E-Series robots especially the E-2000 which Eggman began working on shortly after shutting Omega down. Omega is determined to destroy all the E-Series and any other of Eggman's Robots which he dismisses as "worthless consumer models".

E-100 Series
Although Omega has never actually been seen with any of his "brothers", he does indicate that he knows of their existence when he says "I couldn't even beat Gamma or Beta" after getting an E rank in Sonic Heroes.

Voice actors

 * Video games - Taiten Kusunoki (Japanese)
 * Sonic Heroes - Jon St. John (English)
 * Shadow the Hedgehog - Andrew Rannells (English)
 * Sonic the Hedgehog (2006) - Maddie Blaustein (English)

Rannells also voiced Gamma in Sonic X, though his voice of Omega was different from Gamma's higher pitched Sonic X voice.

Theme songs

 * Sonic Heroes - "This Machine", performed by Julien-K. This theme is shared with Team Dark.