E-102 Gamma

"Doctor Robotnik… Enemy. Master Registration… Deleted. E-Series… Friends. Must save…"

- E-102 Gamma, Sonic Adventure

E-102 Gamma (Ｅ－１０２ “ガンマ”), or E-102 “γ”, is a fictional character in the Sonic the Hedgehog series. He is a battle robot created by Dr. Eggman, but later gained his own sentience when he learned of friendship from Amy Rose and turned on his creator. He then assumed his own mission to 'free' his robot brethren from Eggman, and succeeded, though at the cost of his own life. He was first introduced in the game Sonic Adventure as a playable character.

Gamma's gameplay involves the player utilizing his missile launcher to destroy enemies and eventually reach a boss/target within a given time limit. The more enemies the player destroys, the larger the score and extension of time for the given level.

Concept and Inspiration
E-102γ is somewhat a staple in the Sonic series, being the first robot to be fully playable platform-wise and even exhibit a story. His whole life being depicted on screen, he is arguably one of the most developed characters in the series.

Only two pieces of concept art have been found of Gamma, shown on various Sonic fan sites. His most obvious basis is the EggRobo from the earlier games, though he also bears resemblance to many renowned battle robots in science fiction, particularly the ED-209 from the RoboCop series, most obvious due to its "chicken walker" design.

It is believed many fans asked for this shooting ability, but Sega and Sonic Team felt that Sonic the Hedgehog using a gun was inappropriate. The developers thus decided to make another character with this ability in lieu of giving Sonic a gun. In Sonic Adventure 2, this gameplay style was adopted for Dr. Eggman and Miles "Tails" Prower's mechanized walkers. However, in a recent GameSpot interview, a developer assessed Gamma's creation as simply because "Kids like robots".

History
E-102 Gamma is a robotic life form created by Dr. Eggman. As such, its name can refer to many characters in the Sonic universe. Nearly all E-100 models are identical in design, par slight modifications such as expanded weaponry. While they vary in rank, E-100's are considered a profound model by Eggman, and thus usually have a close role with their master, (somewhat replacing the traitorous Metal Sonic as a right-hand minion or personal muscle). Because of their form and origin, however, nearly all E-100s play a tragic role in their starring game.

Sonic Adventure
E-102 Gamma, the second robot of the E-100 series line (technically third including E-100 Alpha), was created by Dr. Eggman. E-102 Gamma is powered by a captured pink Flicky held inside the robot. Although E-102 Gamma was created by and made to work under the orders of Dr. Eggman without question which involves assisting in empowering the Chaos creature, he eventually turns against his maker's will, and devotes his short existence to freeing the animals contained in the other E-100 units.

Immediately upon his 'birth', he is ordered by Dr. Eggman to pass a unique training course and to fight his older 'brother', E-101 Beta, to become a crew member on the Egg Carrier and prove the efficiency of his design. After defeating Beta in combat, his first task on board involves capturing a frog who had absorbed Chaos' tail (namely Big's pet "Froggy", who also held a Chaos Emerald that Eggman desired). The mission also serves as a contest against his younger brothers, E-103 Delta, E-104 Epsilon and E-105 Zeta, who were all modeled upon Gamma. Gamma passes the mission but as a result of his success, he is forced to watch his less-successful brothers be exiled for their failure and remodeled for generic 'Badnik' duty in undisclosed locations. Gamma is distinctly haunted by the memory of Delta turning to look at him as he was warped away; this memory comes up several times later in the game.

Eggman then tells Gamma, now the sole elite robot on board, to acquire a bird from a girl (Amy Rose) held captive in a prison cell on the Egg Carrier. Upon searching for the cell, Gamma accidentally discovers a disabled E-101 Beta in a lab, undergoing a torturous reconstruction process through machines. Though somewhat disturbed by this sight, he quickly disregards this and returns to his mission. After finding Amy, E-102 strictly demands, "GIVE ME THE BIRD" which then causes her to become very defensive. After explaining her and the bird's situation she proceeds by questioning him, and from this Gamma experiences illogicality in his programming due to a conflict of interests. He then inquires, "Why save that which is useless to you? Does not compute." Amy replies that he is too good to obey Eggman. After this, Birdie flies up to Gamma knowing that his pink relative was inside. After a long stare into Birdie's eyes Gamma realizes that he needs to release them, he then proceeds to do this. Surprised and touched by this, Amy exclaims that Gamma must be different from the other robots and tells him she'll be his friend.

Gamma has no time to think about what he's just done before he is called up to the deck to dispose of the trespassing Sonic and Tails. A grueling battle ensues between the three of them, Amy then intervenes and stands in between them, begging them to stop and explaining to Sonic and Tails that Gamma is a friend. They reluctantly submit to Amy's pleads and back down. (In Gamma's story mode, however, Gamma will prepare to fire on Sonic's comatose body, while Amy begs him not to shoot Sonic, with Gamma eventually relenting). As the Egg Carrier begins to lose altitude and slowly fall to the earth below, Amy encourages Gamma to free himself, explaining the virtues of friendship before they evacuate. While hovering to Mystic Ruins, Gamma's life literally flashes before his eyes with pictures of Robotnik, the other E-Series, Amy and the Egg Carrier, flashing faster and faster until he sees Amy one last time and realizes his purpose. Gamma determines that Dr. Eggman is evil, and deletes his master registration program. He then decides to begin a 'rescue' mission, locating his newly registered "friends" (the rest of the E-100 series) and 'freeing' the birds or other animals trapped inside them.

Gamma first finds and destroys Delta in Windy Valley, then locates Epsilon in Red Mountain on Angel Island, and destroys him as well, freeing the animals. Afterward, he runs a scan to locate Zeta, his results show that Zeta is not in any range of the Mystic Ruins or Station Square. Gamma realizes that he must be aboard the Egg Carrier so he returns to the Egg Carrier to find Zeta. After destroying the upgraded and much more heavily fortified version of Zeta, he overlooks his progress, trying to locate the final E-series model, E-101 Beta, knowing that he must be on or around the Egg Carrier. He overlooks himself as the other E-Series robot that must also be "saved". On the deck of the Egg Carrier while thinking, Beta flies by the east side of the Egg Carrier as the newly rebuilt E-101 mk2. Gamma quickly moves to the center of the ship where Beta is waiting for him for the final confrontation. Despite Beta's numerous enhancements, Gamma eventually succeeds in destroying Beta.

Before exploding however, Beta gathers up one last ounce of strength and suddenly blasts Gamma at point-blank range, severely damaging him. As Gamma limps away from the battle field, the bird that was inside Beta flies up close and stirs one final memory in Gamma, of a family of birds together. Gamma, realizing he needed to free his bird, doesn't activate his auto repair system. He then collapses and self-destructs, freeing the pink bird inside, who unites with the other bird. After that, they reunite with Amy's blue bird companion. The pink bird later follows Amy to Station Square after it is destroyed by Perfect Chaos. While Gamma himself could not be there, the bird represents him in spirit.

Despite Gamma's betrayal of Eggman, the doctor continued to build robots based on the E-102 model after Gamma's demise, most likely because Eggman never found out about Gamma's betrayal.

Sonic Shuffle
Gamma is one of the secret characters in Sonic Shuffle, where the game's description says he was "revived with the power of dreams." Like all players he holds a unique playing ability. If he plays a 4, 5, or 6 card, he will change into wheel mode which will negate the effects of minus ring spaces. If he plays a special card during a battle, two roulette's will spin, and the sum of the two numbers will equal the damage done to an enemy. Gamma is unlocked after obtaining the final image in Amy's room.

Sonic Adventure 2
While E-102 Gamma did not directly return in Sonic Adventure 2 and its re-releases, the similar E-1000 are deployed by Eggman. The E-1000 was a mass-produced variant of E-102 Gamma that served as a normal Badnik-style enemy, sporting a pair of cannon arms. Despite being paired for what may seem like double the firepower, the E-1000 line's weaponry, with low-velocity projectiles, and no homing feature, was generally far less effective than E-102's single missile launcher. Their build is also much cheaper, as they are easily destroyed with one attack. As far as it can be assumed by its actions, the E-1000 are not sentient.

Sonic Battle
In Sonic Battle, a new robot named Chaos Gamma appears. He looks much like E-102 Gamma, except Chaos Gamma has another hand where E-102 Gamma had a missile launcher. Chaos Gamma also possesses several more weapons than E-102 Gamma, such as a grenade launcher and an electric dagger, but lacks the 'headlight' mounted on E-102 Gamma chest. After Rouge the Bat notices that he looks like a Guard Robo, she apparently does some investigating off-screen and discovers that Dr. Eggman has been experimenting with the effects of Chaos Emeralds on robot cores. After realizing that Sonic and friends mistake it for another Gamma, she theorizes to Knuckles that Chaos Gamma's body simply uses old parts that they recognize.

During the game, Chaos Gamma makes numerous attempts to capture Emerl for his master, and holds a Chaos Emerald Shard in its body at one point in an attempt to strengthen it.

Archie Comics
E-102γ is depicted in the Archie-published Sonic the Hedgehog comics, namely in the Sonic Adventure story arc. While this adaption is somewhat loyal to the game, many later aspects, including his death, are never shown. It has been explained that many aspects of the game's story had to be compressed in order to fit into the comic's adaption, though it may be also due to the comic's rather different methods of robotization. Seen departing from the Egg Carrier, Gamma's fate was left unresolved for years, until Archie's new series, Sonic Universe, revealed in issue three that Gamma was very much alive. E-123 Omega was sent to eliminate the rogue robot, but Shadow the Hedgehog got in his way.

Though "Archie" made little use of Gamma, they continued to pay homage to him through the character Isaac, who design-wise is near identical to E-102, albeit with a completely golden hue. Interestingly, Isaac is not an E-Series or even created by Eggman for that matter, the comic suggesting the resemblance to be a complete coincidence.

In the Shadow Saga Part 3 or Sonic Universe 3, commander Abraham Tower wants Shadow and Rouge to recruit Gamma who has been destroying Dr. Eggman's E-100 series robots. Shadow goes on his own to capture Gamma saying that he could do more in the fight against Robotnik If he joins G.U.N., and Gamma agrees. Meanwhile at the Eggdome, Eggman has activated Omega to capture the rogue Gamma. Later, Gamma found Omega via his scanner. Omega appears and attacks Shadow and Gamma, but Shadow says he will not allow another living weapon be destroyed, like Metal Sonic. Shadow attacks Omega but gets stuck in Omega's cannon arm and is blasted to a faraway mountain. Later, Gamma flees having weaker weapons and rusting armor. Omega then begins to taunt Gamma, stating that he is more powerful and faster. Gamma admits this is true but states what weaknesses of Omega he can take advantage of, like Omega is unwieldy, heavier, and less nimble than Gamma. Using this, he knocks Omega down with three well-aimed cannon shots. They stand face to face (Omega is about twice the size of Gamma). Gamma then surrenders and Omega shows a sign of respect by stating he could see how Gamma beat the other E-100 series robots. Omega's chest opens and machine guns and missile launchers replace his arms ready to destroy Gamma. Gamma says he has something that Omega doesn't, a soul. Before Gamma was blasted, he wirelessly uploaded emotions onto Omega. After Gamma is destroyed Shadow appears. Omega/Gamma says he has transferred his soul into a new body, but he's acting like it's a virus. Then Omega feels something new, and becomes good. Omega places rocks on the spot Gamma was destroyed and told Shadow ,"If you tell anyone I made a grave marker, you're dead." Shadow and Omega then return to G.U.N. headquarters. Shadow is notably glad for the addition of Omega, who will continue Gamma's mission, but sad for the loss of Gamma.

Sonic X


Sonic X also retells Gamma's storyline. This depiction is somewhat loyal to the game arc, almost down to a word for word re-enactment (though much of the game's dialogue is lost in the transition to the English dub), however rather than battling his brothers he finds them deactivated and uses a unique hacking device in his system to delete their master obedience program, and thus any need to hold their animal captives. This does not work on Beta however, who is still online and attacks Gamma. Gamma attempts to explain his fate to his brother and convince him to free himself but it falls on deaf ears and so, in a last ditch effort, he literally clashes with him, fatally wounding them both and 'freeing' their animal batteries. As they collapse and explode, their hands grasp into one anothers', as a touching final symbol of their unity. Unlike in Sonic Adventure, Amy sees Gamma destroyed and cries.

Like the other E-Series in Sonic X, Gamma's new voice was very high-pitched and according to fans, it was unenthusiastic and drone like. Much criticism was given to the voices of the E-Series robots as the original voices from Sonic Adventure were relatively deep to a low medium range. Also in Sonic Adventure the robots spoke in a manner that while still being slightly robotic, was very intelligent and much more human than drone like.

Personality
Even though the E-Series is a robot line, nearly all exhibit a conscience and personality, opposed to their emotionless physical form and drone-like robotic dialect. Like most of Eggman's sentient robots, they usually betray their master, though unlike over-ambitious models such as Metal Sonic and E-123 Omega, Gamma's leave of duty is usually out of a compassion or remorse for his actions against Sonic and his friends.

E-102γ is renowned for gaining his sentience and more or less being the first to portray the thoughts of an average Eggman robot. However, given his mindless actions as Eggman's slave, it is unknown if he gained sentience or had it all along but simply disregarded it at first. Even under evil alignment however, he holds a sensible and rational manner towards his enemies. However he becomes somewhat uncomfortable to vivid human emotions, to the point that the emotional conflict of his loyalty pains him, leading to his eventual leave of duty.

It should be noted that even when gaining a free will, Gamma still holds a rather regimented attitude and devotion to his mission. He considers his life less important than his friends' and is shown to fight selflessly for them to the brink of sacrificing himself, much like other heroes in the series, the only difference being that Gamma was actually given such an opportunity.

E-102γ, like many other Sonic characters, exhibits traits of a stock character, namely the "dark knight" or "tragic villain". Similarly, these characters are villains by loyalty alone and are usually not actually evil per see, often in fact exhibiting compassion and nobility towards their enemies. Like Gamma, their fate is usually a grim, yet noble end.

Gamma's appearance speculates a rather tragic theory that all past robots created by Eggman, and thus destroyed by Sonic have a sentience and unique personality, though perhaps only Gamma is the first to accept and express his own.

Doctor Eggman
His creator and the first person he sees upon 'birth', Gamma exhibited a strong sense of loyalty and devotion towards his master Robotnik, and as such, made his betrayal a painful and reluctant one. While he eventually turns on his master, he does not attack him directly, perhaps only seeing him as an unfriendly form to avoid rather than exhibiting an actual spite or hatred towards him. To add to this, Gamma remained a favorite with Robotnik, who seemingly never discovered his betrayal.

E-Series
In the later half of his life, Gamma devotes himself to 'freeing' his E-Series brothers, whom having spent his life partnered with, assigns them as his friends. It is obvious the feeling is not mutual however, making his mission a strenuous task of battling and destroying each brother to release their animal counterparts. Ironically, the actions of the E-100s without direct order from Eggman suggests that that they too may have gained a sentience and independence, albeit a jealously and hatred for the brother who upstaged them and ultimately had them disowned.

Amy Rose
Amy perhaps forms the largest bond with Gamma, eventually convincing him of his mission and his friends. Though originally seeing him as a "bully" for trying to take Birdie, (or 'Lily' in Sonic X), she invokes sympathy for him when it is made obvious even he does not understand the point of his loyalty, the thought of an emotionless being upsetting her, little realizing the effect this was taking on his programming. Ironically, while Gamma's act of heroism changed her view of Robotnik's robots, she is well known for her rather cold, violent disposal of them usually. Their bond is expanded upon in Sonic X, where Amy witnesses his death at the hands of E-101β. Though she had completed her goal of reuniting Lily's family, she was heartbroken by the sacrifice Gamma had made in order to fulfill it. Any connection with the two seems to have been severed in the later titles.

Sonic the Hedgehog
Having been trained since his creation to destroy him, Gamma obviously sees Sonic and Tails as enemies of Eggman's. However, unlike other rivals, which are usually in the form of a grudge match, Gamma supposedly sees them simply as a target he is ordered to destroy, rather than a form he truly loathes (much how Sonic merely sees him as another of "Eggman's clunkers"). They are all unwilling to take their battle outside Amy's wishes however, and all back down. Interestingly, it is suggested in the dialogue of Sonic Battle that he, Sonic, and Tails were all friends before his 'death', though this is never expanded upon in Sonic Adventure or it's 'Director's Cut' remake.

Miles "Tails" Prower
Same as with Sonic. Tails was a target that Eggman had ordered to be destroyed by Gamma but by Amy's request they stopped fighting, afterwards they all escaped the Egg Carrier, except Sonic who pursued Eggman.

Tails and Gamma seemed to quickly grow respect for each other after fighting. When Tails picked Amy up to fly away he flew up a little, turned around and waited to make sure Gamma got off the Egg Carrier safely before flying away.

Knuckles the Echidna
Though Gamma never knowingly encountered Knuckles (Knuckles once followed him secretly to discover the location of Robotnik's jungle base), he was trained to identify the echidna as an enemy based on the Knuckles dolls he was ordered to destroy in his training mission.

Abilities
As one of Eggman's destructive gunner robots, E-102 is built for battle. His main weapon is a machine gun that can internally transform into a 15.5 cm missile launcher that can fire Homing Missiles in rapid succession after locking on with a laser targeting device on his head. Due to the targeting device, E-102's shots are always accurate and allows the pinpoint accuracy to find an enemy's weak spot (As opposed to Omega, who simply shoots in all directions, hoping something will hit). In addition to his missile launcher, E-102 has a variety of modes to change his body frame to suit a situation. He features a normal, upright position when he is walking or moderately running; in a hurry, he crouches down so he can roll on a set of wheels behind his feet to increase his speed, and when he encounters water or another insufficient place to walk, his feet fold in and a rotor appears from his torso, allowing him to float over the obstacle indefinitely and to fly in the air like in the cutscene where he left the Egg Carrier after Tails and Amy left it. He also has a headlight attached to his torso, but it is never actually used in-game.

Eggman also installed Gamma with the ability to accept upgrades into his system. The upgrade Laser Blaster upgraded Gamma's weapon and allowed him to lock-on to an increased number of enemies and deal extensive damage. The Jet Booster permitted Gamma the ability to hover for some time and cross longer distances in the air.

Gamma and the Master Emerald?
In Sonic Adventure story, it is never explained how the Master Emerald is shattered at the beginning of Knuckles the Echidna's story. One theory is that, at some point in development, Gamma was to destroy the Master Emerald as an unused mission. While this has not expanded from speculation, there is some evidence to support this.
 * During Gamma's story, there is a large time gap between his first and second mission, where this could have taken place.
 * During the credits sequence, an image depicts Gamma hovering over the shattered Master Emerald. Other screenshots during the credits are pivotal moments of the story. This image is also in the Museum of Sonic Gems Collection.

Gamma's Story Mishap
In Knuckles' Story, after Knuckles finishes his fourth level Lost World, he realizes there are still missing pieces left of the Master Emerald. Soon after, a holographic image of the Egg Carrier appears inside the Master Emerald and Knuckles ponders how he is going to get on board. He looks over to Red Mountain and notices Gamma fall to the ground and run off towards the jungle to Final Egg. Knuckles follows him onto the Egg Carrier. In the overall story of the game, Gamma is still working for Eggman and the Egg Carrier is still running, but Gamma does not travel to the Mystic Ruins (outside of the Final Egg at least) until after the Egg Carrier crashes and he betrays Eggman. In Gamma's story, he is left outside of the hotel in Station Square to go to Emerald Coast. He finds Froggy in Emerald Coast, sees Tikal and returns to the Egg Carrier immediately after he sees Tikal's Flashback. There would be no reason for Gamma to travel to Angel Island to get back to the Egg Carrier because it is on the other side of the Mystic Ruins. This would also make Big following Gamma onto the Egg Carrier illogical because for Gamma to get onto Angel Island, he would have to use his rotors to fly over there. Therefore, Big would never be able to follow him this way.
 * Knuckles and Big both get on the Egg Carrier the same way, by following Gamma to the Final Egg launch station. In Knuckles' case Gamma used his rotors to fly over to Angel Island and ran over to the Final Egg. In Big's case Gamma took Froggy and used the train to get over to the Mystic Ruins then went to the Final Egg. In Gamma's case he gets Froggy in Emerald Coast, sees Tikal's Flashback, and wakes up in the middle of his brothers fighting about the frogs unaware of how he got there.
 * Since Tikal teleported Gamma back onto the Egg Carrier, similar to how she teleported Amy out of the Hot Shelter into the swimming pool area, Gamma could not have transported his way back to Final Egg. Gamma could also not have been at both Angel Island for Knuckles and Emerald Coast for Big at the same time, he also couldn't have been there because Tikal teleported him back instead of him going back to the Egg Carrier himself.
 * Knuckles seeing Gamma could have been because of an unwanted outcome. Since Gamma, Delta, Epsilon, and Zeta were sent to find Froggy anyone of the remaining three could have been used to go to Angel Island but Gamma was used instead.
 * Ignoring Tikal's Flashback, Big following Gamma back to the Egg Carrier makes sense since he could follow Gamma straight to the Final Egg. Knuckles however does not make sense how Gamma got over to Angel Island in the first place and why he would go over there anyway.

Quotes

 * "Preparations complete." - Gamma on the Sonic Adventure Character Select Screen.
 * "Frog captured" - Gamma when he finds Froggy in the Sonic Adventure level "Emerald Coast".
 * "Obtained item" - Gamma when he gets an item in Sonic Adventure.
 * "Does not compute! Why try to save that which is useless to you? Does not compute!" - Gamma's reaction to Amy's care for her Flicky.

Theme
Gamma has a theme that plays whenever he appears. It doesn't have any lyrics, but has a piano and techno noises.

Trivia

 * Gamma is seemingly the first robot in the series to have had a conscience, besides possibly Heavy and Bomb.
 * Gamma is the only E-series robot to have a targeting sight mounted on his head.
 * Gamma is the only playable character in Sonic Adventure to have a theme without lyrics. Tikal and Dr. Eggman also have themes without lyrics, but are not playable.
 * Unless Gamma manages to hit a wall corner and glitch downward, he cannot take step into any water environments. Attempting to do so will automatically transform him into his hover mode until he is moved to dry land. Due to this, along with his targeting system, it is ill-advised to take him into a Chao Garden.
 * Gamma is notably the first prominent character in the Sonic game series to die onscreen.
 * An odd effect takes place in Gamma's Adventure Mode in Sonic Adventure upon completing his story, creating a consistent night-time effect in the Adventure Fields. This happens also in Sonic Adventure DX, but resets upon entering Mission Mode.
 * Gamma is the only playable character in Sonic Adventure not to appear in the end story of that game, although the pink Flicky that powered him is present.
 * E-102 Gamma is the only playable character who never encountered Chaos in Sonic Adventure (unless one counts capturing Froggy, who had Chaos' tail, or in Super Sonic's story when the Flicky that powered him saw Perfect Chaos).
 * Gamma is one of only two characters to have Sonic Channel artwork identical to their first render, the other being E-123 Omega.
 * All artwork of Gamma shows him with two yellow "cuffs", however, Gamma's character model in Sonic Adventure shows him with white "cuffs".
 * In the original Japanese release for Dreamcast, Gamma was a completely silent character during gameplay, only speaking in cutscenes and during his rival battle. This was changed in the International release and all subsequent versions.
 * Gamma's phrase "Resistance is futile!" is a reference to the Borg from Star Trek.
 * In Sonic Battle, Amy said, "Hey! It's Gamma!" which means that she knew Gamma's name, despite calling him "Mr. Robot" the last time they met. It should also be noted that Sonic and Tails never interacted with Gamma (apart from fighting him) and Knuckles only followed him to Eggman's base yet, all three know that his name was Gamma. They most likely recalled hearing his name from when he was summoned by Dr. Eggman, to battle with Sonic and Tails.
 * In the Gimme Shelter hub world in Sonic Battle, other pieces of the E-Series can be seen in production, with a notable unknown green E-Series robot. Its official name and relation to Gamma are unknown.
 * If E-123 Omega receives an E-Rank in Sonic Heroes, he references Gamma in his line: "I couldn't even beat Gamma or Beta."