Gerald Robotnik

By himself, Professor Gerald never appeared in the games, but he had a huge impact on the story. Many years before the events of the games, Professor Gerald Robotnik was a brilliant scientist in the service of the government. Gerald believed that science would enable him to make the world a better place, to bring hope to mankind. Gerald never particularly got along with the government, for he always refused to create weapons or make major changes in nature, lest he disrupt the natural course of things. However, Gerald also had a family and would do anything for it. Gerald’s granddaughter, Maria Robotnik, was terminally ill since childhood, and Gerald dreamed of finding a cure that would prolong her life. So, Gerald took Maria to the Space Research Colony Ark, where he began researching the creation of the Ultimate Life Form, commissioned by the government. In hypothesis, the research was to result in the perfect immortal warrior capable of protecting humanity from all threats. Gerald hoped that in the process of immortality research he would be able to find a way to extend Maria’s life.

Gerald’s research was not limited to the creation of the Ultimate Life Form. He also managed to create Chaos Drives – Chaos energy batteries for charging mechanisms, managed to create Artificial Chaos – living creatures resembling the god of destruction Chaos, managed to discover the portal to the other world, behind which was sealed the powerful monster Ifrit and described his observations as well as many developments in weapons and chemical elements.

Three stages can be distinguished in the process of creating the Ultimate Life Form. The first stage was finding and modifying the ancient robot of the Fourth Civilization, Gizoid (Emerl). Gerald studied the robot in detail and modified it, giving it emotions and a soul. Gerald believed that even weapons could be made kind and emphatic and took this principle as the basis for creating the Ultimate Life Form. However, with its combat potential, Gizoid was only a robot, so Gerald moved on to the next stage, namely the mutation of a living organism. Gerald modified the organism of a lizard (probably a varan) and created the Ultimate Life Form prototype, the Biolizard. The Biolizard could control Chaos energy, but had no mind, could hardly move, and could not live without a life support machine. That’s why Gerald decided that he was unable to create the Ultimate Life Form on his own.

Every 50 years the Black Comet, home of the alien Black Arms race, flies over the Earth. The Black Arms feed on living things and have long made plans to invade Earth and devour humanity. However, the Black Comet could not overcome the atmosphere, so the Black Arms remained helpless. And then, Gerald offered Black Doom (the leader of the Black Arms) a deal. Black Doom provides his biological sample to create the Ultimate Life Form, in return, in 50 years Ultimate Life Form will have to give Black Doom 7 Chaos Emeralds so that the Black Comet can pass through the Earth’s atmosphere with the help of Chaos Control. This was the 3rd phase of the Ultimate Life Form’s creation, and the most successful, as Black Doom agreed to the deal. Thus, Ultimate Life Form was born in the form of a hedgehog named Shadow.

Shadow had emotions and a soul, had an immortal body, was able to control Chaos energy and was perfect by all parameters – it was a success. But Gerald didn’t plan to keep his promise to Black Doom, so he created the Eclipse Cannon, a powerful weapon capable of destroying an entire planet with the power of Chaos Emeralds. It was this weapon that was supposed to destroy the Black Comet. However, the government considered the events on the colony too suspicious and decided to close the colony and all projects on it.
In one day, the colony was raided, many scientists were killed and the projects were archived. Gerald Robotnik himself was captured. Already in captivity, looking through the logs of those killed in the raid, he learned two things – first – Ultimate Life Form was evacuated from the colony but was captured upon landing on Earth, and second – Maria was killed in the capture of Ark.

Insane grief and despair gripped Gerald and he began to gradually lose his mind. Gerald felt his mind leave him and hatred engulf his entire consciousness, he was afraid of it, he did not want to become a monster, but he was not able to overcome his own mind. Then Gerald finally decided to destroy all of humanity for what they had done to Maria. Gerald altered Shadow’s memories so that Shadow believed that the promise he made to Maria before she died was revenge on humanity, then programmed the space colony Ark to use the Chaos Emeralds to fall to Earth and destroy all life on it, and programmed Biolizard to facilitate the fall of the colony in every way possible. Having betrayed everything he believed in, betting everything on his own creations and bracing humanity for imminent doom, Gerald Robotnik was shot.