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, 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 4 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 and Rouge.

History
Omega is the 24th and last of Doctor Eggman's E-100 series robots, debuting in Sonic Heroes. Omega was designed by Eggman 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.

After Omega and his team finally defeat Eggman (Metal Sonic in disguise). Omega then sets about destroying Eggman's Shadow Androids. Later, Omega teams up with the other teams against the Metal Overlord. Omega is last seen during that event with Shadow exchanging looks with him and holding Metal Sonic's deactivated body in his arms.

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 in 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).


 * NOTE: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 finds Omega in the Tropical Jungle Zone for unknown reasons, though judging by the throngs of Eggman's robots it can believed Omega was trying to destroy them. Rouge programs him to help Shadow out in the future, in which Omega goes into stand-by mode until the point in the future when Shadow is in trouble. He then wakes up in the future and helps Shadow in a fight against Mephiles, and Shadow and Omega go back to the present. Later on in the game, Mephiles teases Omega by saying that Omega was clearly made to capture Shadow. Angered by this, Omega proceeded to unload his cannons on Mephiles, temporarily defeating him in the process. Omega then reveals somewhat sadly, that he is the one who captured Shadow in the future due to humanity's fear of him. However, it is currently unknown if the erasing of Iblis from history canceled this future event, as it was Shadow whom the world used as a scapegoat for Iblis' destruction.

His design has changed a lot, with a taller head and bigger shoulders, along with various small details such as less smooth fingers, (making them look somewat skeletal), 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 has a thinner head, with the eyes closer to the stripe. The flap-like things on his sides also look rougher. His hands also look sharper and rather run down. 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.


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



Omega is one of the 11 playable characters in Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood. He is an optional character and has returned to his original design. Firing missiles is his main combat move, which can affect nearby enemies along with the main target. He went to Eggman's city of Metropolis to destroy any robots he could find, but he found the Nocturnus instead. The Marauders had reprogrammed Eggman's old robots to serve them and had sent them to take Omega apart after he had to retreat into a room in north-west Metropolis. The robots were successful, but Shadow was worried about Omega and went in search of him. Shadow then teamed up with Sonic and co. to help find Omega. Omega was found and repaired by Tails, much to the disapproval of Eggman. When Omega saw Eggman, he was going to attack him, but Tails told him that they'd joined forces with Eggman. At first Omega thought Tails had gone mad and suggested destroying him, but Shadow and Rouge confirmed this for Omega. Trusting his friends more than Tails, Omega teams up with Sonic after recharging himself.Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood '''Miles "Tails" Prower: Shadow, I think we found Omega. Shadow the Hedgehog: Great. How is he? Tails: He looks... Wait. There's something here. We'll talk later. Tails out! [...] Shadow: Omega! Doctor Eggman: Oh, don't waste your time on this one. He's been a thorn in my side for years! Shadow: Quiet, Eggman, or I promise you I'll-- Tails: He's still functioning! Just heavily damaged. But I think I can... Yes! With the parts from those guardian robots, I can repair him! Shadow: Do it. [...] Shadow: Omega! Can you hear me? E-123 Omega: SYSTEMS COMING ONLINE -- E-123 OMEGA BEGINNING REACTIVATION PROTOCOL. Rouge the Bat: If I had a nickel for every time I heard that... E-123 Omega: EGGMAN DETECTED. BEGINNING ANNIHILATION SEQUENCE. Tails: No! Omega, Eggman is on our side! E-123 Omega: ORANGE FOREST CREATURE HAS GONE MAD. RECOMMEND IMMEDIATE DESTRUCTION. Shadow: No, Omega. He's right. Eggman is helping Team Sonic against the Marauders. Rouge:As hard as it is to believe. E-123 Omega: THERE IS NO REASON TO DOUBT SHADOW OR ROUGE. THERE IS NO REASON TO TRUST THE REST OF THESE MEATBAGS. Tails: What happened to you, Omega? E-123 Omega: I CAME HERE TO DESTROY ALL OTHER EGGMAN ROBOTS. BUT I WAS SURROUNDED BY STRANGE CREATURES AND FORCED TO FLEE. THE COWARDS FOLLOWED ME. THEY MADE THEIR ROBOTS DISMANTLE ME WHILE I WAS HELPLESS. DISASSEMBLED BY INFERIOR MACHINES. IT WAS EMBARRASING. Shadow: Come with us, Omega. We're going to destroy the Marauders for what they did to you. E-123 Omega: YES. THEY WILL BE DESTROYED FOR WHAT THEY DID TO ME. Rouge: Ugh. Again with the emotionless revenge. It just gets tired. Tails: Let's go, team! Eggman: Yes. We have much work to do! E-123 Omega: I MUST TAKE TIME TO RECHARGE BEFORE COMMENCING REVENGE. Shadow: The stronghold in the Underground, Omega. You can recharge there. Eggman: I never agreed to allow that faulty machine to-- Shadow: Silence, Eggman. Now. E-123 Omega: I WILL GO TO THE UNDERGROUND TO RECHARGE. YOU WILL FIND ME THERE IF YOU NEED ME. Shadow: We'll get the Marauders for what they did to you, my friend. Let's get to it. The Marauders must pay. In combat, Omega has the highest damage power, and the highest armor, but is also the slowest and therefore he only gets one attack per round. He provides most of the end credits for Sonic Chronices, along with Tails and Sonic.

Other appearances
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's 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 and Sonic Rivals 2, namely the "E-123 Omega (2006)" card and the "Team Dark" card.

According to EA magazine, Omega was supposed to be playable in Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games, along with Silver the Hedgehog, Rouge the Bat Cream the Rabbit, (who was later changed to a referee), and Donkey Kong. All of these characters, except Rouge and Omega, can become playable through hacking. Along with Jet the Hawk, Big the Cat, a Kiki, Birdo, a Goomba, an Egg Pawn, a flying Egg Pawn, a Bullet Bill, a Boo, Espio the Chameleon, Charmy Bee, Lakitu, a Toad and a Bandit.

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

An alternate universe counterpart of Omega, called the Omega Care Unit, appeared in Sonic the Hedgehog #193 and #194. It is a special medical suit created by Dr. Ivo Kintobor to help Buns Rabbot with her NIDS, the same disease Maria Robotnik had. Buns uses the suit as means of protecting Dr. Kintobor until he can find a cure for her. Omega prime is still yet to appear. The creators of the Sonic the Hedgehog comic did once have Omega as a possible character to be introduced in issues following #134, but the idea appears to have been scrapped.

It is currently unknown if Omega will appear in Sonic Chronicles 2, but since he was optional in the first one, it is very unlikely.

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 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). In Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood, he has two new abilities called Beam Cannon and Temporal Field. With Beam Cannon, Omega fires a powerful yellow laser at his enemy, in turn reducing the enemies health points by over one hundred if done perfectly. And he can deploy a purple energy sphere that phases an ally and makes that ally hyper with Temporal Field. 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. Also in Sonic 06, he can fire bullets, (possibly lasers) using his wrist guns to blow away anything in close range, (Omega Shot).

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). His walking speed isn't very impressive, but can be boosted by approximately 15% with adamantium double-lubricated actuator joints installed. He has also displayed considerable physical strength, capable of destroying thick doors and giant blocks of stone with his metal fists. Being a robot, he is able to resist certain forms of poisonous gas, psychic manipulation and electrical currents that most of the other characters cannot pass through.

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 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.

Omega appears to be water proof as he doesn't short circuit in Frog Forest, Lost Jungle or Charyb's lair when it's full of water, but he does die when he falls into the water of Wave Ocean like many other characters in Sonic 06. 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. 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.

Omega is fairly loyal and dependable when you're on his good side, a bit of a holdover from his original purpose as a servant, and he's not incapable of looking past differences to forge alliances.

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.

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. In Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood, Shadow joins Sonic's team to find Omega, even calling Omega his friend and showed respect towards him, (which is most irregular for Shadow), and shows anger if you refuse to rescue him.



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. In Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood, she supports Shadow's joining because she doesn't want Omega to be alone. She also shows that she has got tired of Omega always wanting revenge and her having to listen to him ramble on about it constantly.

Doctor Eggman
Eggman is both Omega's creator and greatest enemy. Omega is constantly trying to 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.

Nocturnus Tribe
Omega has a brief encounter with the Marauders, but seeks revenge against them after they disabled and humiliated him by taking him apart with inferior machines. He doesn't seem to want vengeance on Shade the Echidna though.

Mephiles the Dark
Mephiles is one of Omega's greatest enemies, (possibly coming second to Doctor Eggman himself). When they first meet, Omega saved Shadow by distracting Mephiles with his machine guns in Flame Core, after coming out of stand-by mode in Crisis City. They then engaged in battle and Omega and Shadow prove victorious. Mephiles then escapes to the present with Shadow and Omega in hot pursuit. Mephiles escapes but Omega and Shadow keep looking for Mephiles. Omega later finds and defeats Mephiles once again in Wave Ocean. Mephiles then revealed to Omega that he knew the he was the one responsible for imprisoning Shadow in the future. Enraged by this, Omega then proceeded to attack Mephiles with his machine guns. He then revealed this to Shadow and Rouge. He then sets off with the other members of Team Dark in to Dusty Desert, determined as ever to seal Mephiles before he can merge with Iblis. He and the others arrive too late, and then engage Mephiles in a final showdown. They prove victorious yet again, but they fail to seal Mephiles using the new Scepter of Darkness. Mephiles then creates an army of copies of himself, and Team Dark destroy them while Mephiles escapes. Later, Omega and the others are transported to an unkown location by Solaris. He then helps the others retrieve the Chaos Emeralds to save Sonic's soul. He later watched Super Sonic, Super Silver and Super Shadow erase Solaris from existence, thus erasing Mephiles from existence as well.

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 and he thinks them as his inferiors. During Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood, Omega is repaired by Tails using old robot parts from the disassembled E-100 Series that were installed in Eggman's old flying Sentry Drones that had been reprogrammed to serve the Marauders.

Omega Care Unit


So far Omega has only appeared in the Sonic video game series, but a robotic suit called the Omega Care Unit has appeared in the Archie series. The Omega Care Unit looks a lot like Omega, except it's blue, has green eyes, has the peace sign on both it's shoulders instead of just the capital Omega symbol (Ω) on the front it's left, has metal circles on it's wrist instead of spikes, the triangle symbols with lines on Omega's arms and flaps are replaced with circles and the care unit uses it's claws along with stunning weapons instead of destructive. The Omega Care Unit was built by Julian Kintobor to prolong Buns' life after she devoloped Neuro-Immune Deficiency Syndrome. Buns mistook Sonic for Scourge and attacked him and Amy Rose, after they came out of a dimensional portal into Julian's home to try and find assistance against the Suppression Squad. She later accompanies Sonic and Amy to Castle Acorn to find Rosy the Rascal to help stop Scourge.

Reception
Some fans see Omega simply as a bad remake of E-102 Gamma, saying that both Gamma and his story are much more complex than Omega, but others see him as a fun character not really needed to the plot and acts as a sort of comedy relief to the games he's in. Furthermore, some fans see him as a necessary character in Shadow's storyline, and that he plays a role similar to the role that Knuckles plays to Sonic.

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)

Theme songs

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

Trivia

 * 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 over two hundred years in Sonic the Hedgehog, therefore the animal would have died by then. Although he does mention something about a backup power source.
 * In the Challenge Mode of Sonic Heroes, Omega's eyes appear white while ordinarily they are red.
 * In the Xbox 360 version of Sonic the Hedgehog, in the scene where Shadow and Omega return from the future, if you look closely above the purple portal you can see Omega on top of it before he comes out of it.
 * In Sonic Heroes, using the metal character cheat in 2P mode, still affects Omega despite the fact that he is already made out of metal.
 * Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood marks a great deal for Omega. It marks the first time he's has ever been playable on a handheld Sonic game, the first time he's ever been playable outside a main series game and his first time on the Nintendo DS.
 * Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood states that the only reason Omega has ever teamed up with Sonic and the others is because Shadow and/or Rouge was a part of the team.
 * After you win a battle with Omega in your team in Sonic Chronicles, he turns his upper body around and the stripe on his torso is replaced by a thin line.
 * The capital Omega symbol (Ω) on Omega's shoulder keeps changing. In Sonic Heroes the Omega symbol is on the front of his left shoulder and back of his right, in Sonic 06 it's just on the front of his left and in Sonic Chronicles it's on both sides of his shoulders.
 * Andrew Rannells also voiced Gamma in Sonic X, though his voice of Omega was different from Gamma's higher pitched Sonic X voice and sounded remarkably like Jon St. John's, making many fans beleive it was the same person.