Gerald Robotnik


 * This article is about Gerald Robotnik. You may be looking for the main villain of the game continuity, Doctor Eggman.

"All of you ungrateful humans, who took everything away from me, will feel my loss, and despair!"

- Gerald Robotnik

Gerald Robotnik (ジェラルド・ロボトニック) or Professor Gerald (プロフェッサー・ジェラルド) is the grandfather of Maria Robotnik and Dr. Ivo "Eggman" Robotnik. Professor Gerald Robotnik is the creator of Shadow the Hedgehog, Space Colony ARK, the Biolizard, Artificial Chaos, and various other projects. Gerald made his first appearance as the main antagonist in Sonic Adventure 2. He was also noted as "one of the greatest scientific geniuses in the world" by Eggman. He is bald with a gray mustache, has blue eyes, and wears a lab coat, brown turtleneck sweater, and pince-nez glasses.

Professor Gerald dearly loved his granddaughter, Maria Robotnik, and was working on a cure for a fatal illness she had, until the G.U.N. forces arrived on the space colony. While separated, Maria was killed by a G.U.N. soldier as she was assisting Shadow in escaping from them, unfortunately causing his mentality to slip.

History
Fifty years before the main series, he attempted to create the "Ultimate Life Form" under the funding of the United Federation, hoping that it would help cure Maria's illness. He failed various times until he contacted the Black Comet and met with the alien, Black Doom, and used his DNA to create Shadow as part of a bargain deal to help his obtain the seven Chaos Emeralds. He learned of Black Doom's true plan (to destroy the planet) and secretly prepared the ARK to act against Black Doom when the time came. Fearing that the government planned to cease his research and imprison everyone who knew about Shadow, he also prepared a contingency video for Shadow to see, explaining his intention for Shadow to make up for Gerald's past mistake by collecting all the Chaos Emeralds and then using his creation, the Eclipse Cannon, to destroy the Black Comet. It's also implied that he also hid the development of the Eclipse Cannon from G.U.N. because the Black Arms were monitoring the ARK's transmission. He also worked on other projects at an unknown point, such as discovering the method of releasing the Ifrit via Chao and the Chaos Emeralds.

Later, G.U.N. decided Gerald's experiments were dangerous to humanity, and boarded the ARK to forcibly shut them down, ending up with Maria among the list of casualties in the process. This caused Gerald to lose his grip on reality, and he created plans to crash the ARK into the planet to destroy it as revenge at the world for taking Maria away from her. Based on his original projections, Gerald designed Shadow's mind, presumably altering his memories, to carry out his wish for revenge, and as well set the Biolizard up to ensure that the ARK would collide with the planet. He was eventually captured by G.U.N. under the guise of disappearing under mysterious circumstances. During his imprisonment, he behind a recorded videotape where he explained his final plan to have revenge on the ungrateful earth by having the ARK crash into it.

The Space Colony ARK
The former home of Gerald, Maria, the would-be commander of G.U.N., and various researchers and soldiers, the ARK was a gigantic space colony where great research was performed. The entire place also worked as a life support system for Maria. While Gerald focused on making inventions for the good of mankind (such as the Heal Unit), little known devices of mass destruction were being made (the Ultimate Life form and the Eclipse Cannon), mostly under the influence of and preparing against Black Doom. Others who lived aboard the ARK were Shadow (who protected the ARK from danger until it was shut down), the Biolizard and Emerl (until he was transported to G.U.N.'s fortress). When Shadow failed to protect the ARK from an inside attack, the ARK was shut down. Many died (including Maria) and Gerald himself went insane. The ARK was later rediscovered by Dr. Eggman, who used it as a temporary base. After this, it seems G.U.N. took control over the ARK once again.

Eclipse Cannon
The Eclipse Cannon is an extremely powerful weapon that is located inside the "nose" of the Space Colony ARK (the ARK resembles Gerald's face). It is powered by Chaos Emeralds, and can destroy planets or even stars with all seven. Gerald built it to destroy the Black Arms when they arrived near Earth, but after he went insane, he reprogrammed it to send the ARK flying into the Earth the next time it was activated with all seven Emeralds. Eventually, it was used for its original purpose.

Artificial Chaos
Artificial Chaos are Gerald's first noteworthy creations. They resemble Chaos from Sonic Adventure and are most likely modeled after him as Maria states that Gerald created them based on "a god of an ancient culture". The Artificial Chaos are made up of a core (the head, shaped like that of Chaos 0) and trillions of nanobots that both protect the core and provide the body for it. While the Artificial Chaos seen in Shadow the Hedgehog had red, half-closed eyes and red marking on their heads, the ones in Sonic Adventure 2 have larger green eyes and an emblem on their foreheads.

When first created they began acting out and attacking the ARK (according to Gerald in Shadow the Hedgehog's Expert Mode, they had their electrode conductors reversed), but G.U.N. (and possibly Shadow), stopped them. They were later fixed, and then adopted by the government to protect the ARK. In Shadow the Hedgehog, when the Black Arms invade the ARK, Doom's Eye calls the Artificial Chaos "the legacy of Gerald" and then announced that they belonged to the Black Arms now, suggesting that the aliens somehow took control of them. There are several types of Artificial Chaos that are listed below.

Artificial Chaos P-1
These Artificial Chaos, which are believed to be the first prototype of the series (hence the name), are tall, stationary, and are able to pull their head into its body to protect itself. They had the ability to cling to any surface and attacked using either a laser built into its eyes, long tentacle-like extensions from its body, or a combination of both.

Float Type Artificial Chaos
These Artificial Chaos would float in midair with its water-part shaped as a large sphere. It either waits for someone to come within range, or floats toward them in the air. They attack with the same tentacles and lasers as the normal one.

Artificial Chaos P-100
This type of Artificial Chaos, which are believed to be the final prototype for the Artificial Chaos line (hence their name), have the ability to split up the nanobots that make up its body into dozens of smaller robots called "Cells". This, however, left the head open to attack and easy to destroy. When the head was destroyed, all the Cells that it spawned would self-destruct. These are also believed to be the version that Shadow destroyed when they ran amok on the ARK, though they acted a bit different, as they attacked with tentacles and only split up when damaged. In Shadow the Hedgehog, they can also grow to immense sizes, possibly by fusing with each other (several G.U.N. soldiers suggest this during the attack).

Artificial Chaos Cell
When the Artificial Chaos P-100 splits its body up, the pieces turn into small blob-like cyborgs that are referred to as its "cells". In Sonic Adventure 2, the cells would crawl on the ground and try to surround you, at which point they would start to self-destruct. In Shadow the Hedgehog, they would emerge from the body of the P-100 when struck, would float around the body for a few seconds, and then re-merge with the head. The cells would all be destroyed when the head is taken out.

Project: Gizoid
Project: Gizoid was Gerald's experiments with the ancient robotic being known as the Gizoid. Gerald discovered that the robot could mimic anything it saw, and that it was powered up by Chaos Emeralds. Gerald soon had to hand the Gizoid over to the impatient government in order to buy time for research on his Project: Shadow. After the government did their own experiments with the Gizoid, it went crazy and destroyed a large part of the ARK, leading to the government closing down Project: Shadow and the ARK itself.

Project: Shadow
Project: Shadow was Gerald's project to create the Ultimate Life Form, a being that would be immortal and would never age. (This was supposedly related to the cure he sought for Maria's disease.) The project was successful, but was deemed too dangerous by the government, who sent G.U.N. to shut it down.

Biolizard
Biolizard was the Prototype of the Ultimate Life. It was a giant lizard hooked up to a life support system. The Biolizard was deemed a failure as it went out of control and had to be sealed up. After Gerald went insane, he programmed the Biolizard to stop anyone from hindering the ARK crashing into the Earth, but it was stopped.

Shadow the Hedgehog
Perhaps Gerald's most brilliant achievement, this was the finished result of Project Shadow, the immortal Ultimate Life form who would never age. Shadow was created after Gerald had gone into a pact with the alien leader Black Doom, using his alien blood to create Shadow with a promise that Shadow would help Black Doom retrieve the Chaos Emeralds 50 years later. However, Project: Shadow was cancelled a week after Shadow was created, and Shadow was eventually captured and hidden away by G.U.N.

Heal Units
Portable box-like devices that send out energy that replenish health and are still used to this day by G.U.N.. The Heal Unit may have inspired the creation of the Heal Cannon, a Bazooka-like weapon that fires shots with the same healing capabilities. Maria Robotnik feels it is Gerald's greatest creation (next to Shadow of course, most likely due to the fact that she is a pacifist).

Bomb Units
The Bomb units produce an unlimited supply of bombs. These are used in the game Shadow the Hedgehog to break walls and find secret passage ways. Their design is very similar to the Heal Units design.

Archie Comics
Gerald Robotnik also appears in Archie Comics as the maternal grandfather of Robotnik Prime.

Sonic X
Sonic X, with some differences, retold the story of Gerald Robotnik. He played a similar role to his Sonic Adventure 2 counterpart, instigating the crash sequence of the ARK. However, his diary entry and ultimately, his motivations, were different, where he was escorted to Union Army Prison and wondering who could possibly believe that someone arrested him. He also implies in his rants in his diary that he was the creator of the "pseudo-perpetual mobile Chaos Drives." He also wonders if his arrest had anything to do with a conspiracy by G.U.N. to take over the Eclipse Cannon and Artificial Chaos, and mentions that Project Shadow is the only thing in his mind, and that he won't stand for such immorality. The diary omits any references to Maria's death or the fact that her death drove him insane. It also contained two cases of swearing in the diary ("Oh, hell" when he discovers that he was going to be locked up in the Union Army Prison and "for Christ's sake" when expressing his distaste at being locked up and citing his being the father of the pseudo-perpetual mobile Chaos Drives), a rarity at the time.

Trivia

 * In the original photograph of him and Maria in Sonic Adventure 2 artwork, he was skinnier than his grandson. However, in a similar photograph of him and Maria in Shadow the Hedgehog, he is shown to be much bigger. Also, his glasses in Sonic Adventure 2 are smaller, but they are bigger and take up nearly twice the space in Shadow the Hedgehog.
 * Given there is a video feed of the professor in both games, it is thought that his appearance in Shadow the Hedgehog is his healthy, "sane" appearance, whereas the version seen by Sonic Adventure 2 occurred near the end of his life.
 * It is strongly implied that the tape revealing his final plan is actually his last words he gave before an execution, as suggested by the other voice in the audio asking if there is anything else he'd wish to say and then giving a vague "Ready" order. However, this is unconfirmed.