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Fridge Brilliance

  • This game's Eggman is markedly Darker and Edgier than the Eggman from the original Sonic Adventure, and is also far more proactive. Whereas Eggman in Sonic Adventure had many slapstick moments (including comical tantrums, crash landings in his Eggmobile, and getting stomped repeatedly by the heroes because he decides to fight them one-on-one), this Eggman is much more strategic, and is only ever humiliated in one very serious fight with Tails. Arguably, this Eggman has matured as much as Tails has. Why the change in character?
    • Unlike the Eggman in Sonic Adventure, who was motivated only by egoism and megalomania, this Eggman has an idol in the form of his grandfather, whose legacy he has recently discovered and even respects. Having something to live up to motivates him to behave with greater dignity and self-respect, even if he still has the intemperance and impatience of his previous incarnation.
    • Whereas Eggman in Sonic Adventure relied on his robots (and Chaos) to accomplish virtually all of his goals, this Eggman has multiple reasons not to do so. Because he is seeking to discover and claim his grandfather's legacy, his mission is much more personal, so it makes sense for him to take to the field. Secondly, this Eggman has learned from the mistakes of his past; both E-102 Gamma and Chaos had betrayed him in Sonic Adventure. Becoming more self-reliant and independently capable is part of his Character Development from the first game.
  • The level design of Tails' desert stage, Hidden Base, is a subtle example of Gameplay and Story Integration. Overall, the entire level serves as a transition stage between the first act of the plot and the second act. You start the level searching for the entrance to Eggman's base. At the beginning of the level, the only enemies you encounter are the same G.U.N. mechs you've battled for the first ten levels, who presumably are also searching for either Eggman or Sonic/Shadow. As you travel through the level and get closer to Eggman's headquarters, you stop encountering G.U.N. mechs and meet Eggman's robots instead. Further serving the level's purpose as a transition stage is the architecture; you start the stage off in the open desert until you move closer to the heart of Eggman's operations and are moving mainly through corridors or small ruins. For a level typically brushed aside as filler, this stage actually fills an important function for the furtherance of gameplay and plot elements - most importantly, that the primary antagonist for the rest of Team Hero's story is Eggman and Team Dark, not G.U.N.
  • In Sonic Adventure 2's "Dark Side" ending, it's shown that unbeknownst to Eggman, the laser has overloaded as he tried to fire it with the power of all seven Chaos Emeralds, which is what the Cannon's power was source was intended to be — whilst it's possible Gerald Robotnik underestimated the power of the Emeralds, in the "Hero Side" ending, Sonic manages to prevent the ARK's cannon from firing, potentially causing the resulting overload that occurs in the "Dark Side" ending. This makes even more sense when one remembers that in the "Hero Side" ending, there is a moment when you see Eggman's hand reaching for the Chaos Emerald. When Amy and Tails look out the window, and we have a clear view of the entire room, Eggman is gone, presumably having taken the Emerald to the cannon's core. Cue "Dark Side" ending. The "Final Story" therefore follows from either, with the major elements of both being true.
  • Question: What do you think would have happened if Eggman had managed to fire the Eclipse Cannon at earth? Answer: Sonic Unleashed, just without the Werehog. Also counts as Fridge Horror.
    • The cannon Eggman created was not to destroy the Earth, it was more to split it, to free Dark Gaia. And heck, had the cannon fired and this happened, the Werehog would have happened anyway, since it was Dark Gaia's influence that created the Werehog, if I remember right. But yeah, if you remember right, Eggman's plan was to split the Earth to release Dark Gaia, and then utilize its power to create Eggmanland.
    • The only possible counterpoint to this would be that Eggman's Chaos Energy Cannon from Unleashed was meant to "inject" the world in pure Chaos energy to wake up Dark Gaia, whereas the Eclipse Cannon was simply using the Emeralds as a power source to decimate with its own laser. It's also shown in the opening to Unleashed that the Chaos Energy Cannon didn't cause any destruction when it hit the planet on its own besides a shockwave from impact, compared to what the Eclipse Cannon could do as shown in this game and Shadow the Hedgehog.
  • The Last Story ending has a subtle reason for why Shadow powers down from his Super form & Sonic doesn't. You start the preceding boss battle with Sonic, and each successful hit switches the other Hedgehog in, whilst the one who is not being used collects some rings to stay powered up, and it's a six-hit boss. Whilst travelling past the boss leads to the characters switching out again, Shadow is meant to be the one to get the last hit.
    • Dialogue during the fight has both Sonic and Shadow noting that Shadow is having a far harder time maintaining a super form than Sonic. The reason why he doesn't appear to do so is very simple — Special Effects Failure.
    • No wonder Shadow's having a hard time maintaining his Super form when compared to Sonic — it's only the first time he's ever gone Super, whereas Sonic has had previous experiences of doing so, and is more experienced at it!
    • Shadow just had a one-on-one showdown with his own prototype, the Biolizard right before going Super. He may well have been exhausted compared to Sonic, who took a breather between getting to the Biolizard's chamber and going Super, and couldn't maintain his Super form as well.
  • Sonic Adventure 2 seems to have the strange implication that people can't tell the difference between Sonic and Shadow, resulting in Sonic being framed when Shadow steals the Chaos Emerald. However, it becomes fridge brilliance when you consider that the organization that blamed Sonic was G.U.N., which may have been framing him in order to hide Shadow's existence.
    • There's also the fact that Shadow's first on-screen news appearance happened at night and the footage of him on the bridge was poorly lit with GUN floodlights. It must've been difficult to distinguish Shadow between the dark night and the red bridge he was standing on (assuming it's based on the SF Bay Bridge, which is over 150 meters tall, it's also valid to assume sheer distance made him hard to distinguish), so the fact that the story as presented to the player makes it obvious that it's Shadow, really, who's going to hear a story about a super-fast hedgehog with an interest in Chaos Emeralds and think "clearly NOT Sonic"?
      • Especially since no-one except possibly a few retired GUN officials from fifty years ago (and one or two survivors from the ARK massacre) even remembers that Shadow exists at that point. Everyone else probably assumed it was Sonic with spine dye and a latex mask to make his face look different.
      • Sonic also has a valid motive - in every game, it seems like he's trying to secure the Chaos Emeralds for himself. In this game, GUN might've just assumed he got proactive before Eggman could debut his latest scheme.
      • Going back to the theory that Sonic was scapegoated by GUN rather than falsely imprisoned— part of Sonic's recap for City Escape is almost explicitly conveyed as a real-time conversation between him and GUN personnel during his initial arrest, with him rebuking their claims that he's a "deserter from [a] military facility"… which should be obvious to GUN since they'd have to have already known that he wasn't locked up in Prison Island no matter what little knowledge they could've had of Shadow's existence. Conversely, Shadow's recap for Radical Highway has him express that he's ultimately apathetic on whether the besieging GUN forces or police already knew who he was prior, but there's still the fact that he brings up the possibility at all. Taking both of these accounts into consideration, along with how GUN forces were trying to intercept Sonic and Shadow at the same time (the Big Foot boss fight and Radical Highway stage respectively), it can be inferred that GUN were most likely aware that Sonic and Shadow were two different people, even if eye-witness accounts were not.
      • If G.U.N. was genuinely mistaking Sonic for Shadow, though they were chasing them at what seems to be the same time, then there might've been some communication problems, which is pretty incompetent.
      • Also, how many other Hedgehogs do you know who are as fast as Sonic?
      • It's worth pointing out that in the preview for the Dark Story, the lighting for Shadow's scenes is much murkier, to the point where he's barely distinguishable from the darkness at times. Shadow already has a similar silhouette to Sonic, so it wouldn't be surprising if most people mistook them for the same person if he was hiding in the... well, shadows.
  • Sonic Battle suggests that Shadow was based on the mural in the Master Emerald Shrine. That Gerald was basing his figure on a legend. But heckaroonies, what's to say that Gerald didn't also believe that it was a prophecy, and he was trying to make something that would fulfill a prophecy of the future? Sonic is clearly fighting what is a robot... and Gerald wants Shadow to resist efforts to be made into a weapon!
    • Considering the amount of research that Gerald had on the ancient Echidnas in Sonic Battle, Shadow may have actually been based on the artwork in the Hidden Palace that depicts Super Sonic with Dr. Eggman. While he would've noticed his semblance to the image of Eggman, the mural does not clearly show them fighting, and could even just be interpreted as the man giving the hedgehog the Master Emerald. It's an intentional reference to the picture, but an unintentional reference to Sonic, who just happens to be the picture's intentional reference. Confusing.
    • This also helps explain the strange trend, how do you go from a gigantic reptile to a small hedgehog? Simple — we know Gerald learned about Chaos, with the creation of the Artificial Chaoses roaming the ARK. He happened upon the mural depicting Perfect Chaos first and designed his first project after this ultimate being, but after the Biolizard proved untenable, Gerald strived for something better: a prophetic mural seemingly depicting a hero using the emeralds' power.
  • GUN's mistaking Shadow for Sonic makes a lot more sense when you realize that Sonic is the only super-fast Hedgehog in the world, and if you saw one, you'd be pretty safe in assuming it was Sonic, even if he was a different color. Maybe GUN thought that Sonic had turned evil and decided to commemorate it by changing his color, a la Venom.
    • That, or all hedgehogs look the same to them.
      • It's possible that since Sonic slightly changes appearance when he goes Super, they believed Sonic simply transformed into an entirely different form.
      • Or that it was just a disguise. I mean, if you were a celebrity who was robbing a bank, you would want to wear a disguise, to at least try not to be recognised.
  • The level timers on Prison Island. In the dark story, following the Eggman vs. Tails battle, we have a cutscene where Rouge is instructed to set the timers on the bombs for 15 minutes. Her level then has a time limit of 5 minutes — followed by Shadow's next level having a timer of 10 minutes. It gets better. In the Hero Story, Tails and Amy proceed to bust out Sonic, who runs around like a madman through the harbor. Neither of these levels are timed, because the heroes don't know about the bomb. After both Metal Harbor and White Jungle, there's the first Sonic vs. Shadow fight. After this, Sonic learns about the bomb. The next level for Hero Story, Green Forest, has a timer of 8 minutes. Considering that Metal Harbor can be completed in around 2 minutes (which is actually the requirement of the 4th Mission), it can be assumed that, canonically, Shadow gets through White Jungle in the same amount of time (which could be possible — its 4th Mission requirement is 3 minutes), leaving Sonic with the 8-minute timer for Green Forest.
  • Sonic nearly dying in Sonic Adventure 2 wasn't an Ass Pull. A key thing to remember about the Chaos Emeralds is their power over time. Which also leads to Destiny. In other words, it's Sonic's destiny to save the world. This literally explains why he's in the right place at the right time to save the world. Destiny finds a path for him to follow.
    • The Chaos Emeralds don't just have power over time, they turn thoughts into power, as stated by Tikal in Sonic Adventure and later by Blaze in Sonic the Hedgehog (2006). So Sonic learning Chaos Control (with a fake Emerald at that) can be best summed up as him believing that he could pull it off. The same can also be said about Silver learning it. Not only that, Sonic's been consciously aware of how the Emeralds work since Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (in Sonic 1's ending, he looked surprised that they created a field of flowers, implying he didn't know of their power at that point), which explains how he was able to surmise that Shadow was using a Chaos Emerald to warp.
    Sonic: Wow... he's fast! Hey, it's not his speed. He must be using the Chaos Emerald to warp!
  • A lot of Chao resemble characters in the game. Most notable are the Shadow, Sonic, and NiGHTS Chao. However, there are three special Chao, known as the Chaos Chao. These chao are effectively immortal (no reincarnation, no death), and are quite difficult to obtain. The dark and hero Chao resemble a demon and angel, respectively, appropriately enough. However, the third bears a vivid resemblance to Chaos 0. This may seem odd, or unimportant... until you remember that Chaos is a mutated Chao. That means that the Chao doesn't resemble Chaos; Chaos resembles his previous Chao form!
  • Knowing that Knuckles takes very seriously his duty as the guardian of the Master Emerald and has been accustomed to isolation, it didn't seem fitting that he also was recognized for something so mercenary-sounding as treasure hunting, let alone the lyrics in his theme song in SA2 "-Large pots of treasure make me feel much better". Looking for treasures implies looking for ancient things, things from civilizations lost in time just like his own. When you see it as a way of bringing light to things so that they may not be forgotten and in turn gaining a bigger sense of historical identity, it definitely sounded as the opposite of, let's say, Rouge.
  • Sonic Adventure 2 showed that not all of Station Square was destroyed in Sonic Adventure, or at least it was rebuilt, which is a relief. Rouge has a newspaper that says Tails was given a Chaos Emerald at Station Square city hall for saving it from the missile attack. This could not have happened until after Perfect Chaos attacked it, since between the missile attack and the Perfect Chaos attack all the Chaos Emeralds were with Knuckles or by Big's house. So there had to be a city hall somewhere, and even if Station Square was rebuilt, it would be kind of weird to reward Tails for saving the city if it was destroyed anyway, so some part of Station Square must have survived.
    • Tails didn't save it from Perfect Chaos destroying it, no, but remember that Tails' last stage in Sonic Adventure is racing Eggman to a missle that failed to go off. While the missle landing itself likely would have caused some damage, maybe wrecked some buildings... the explosion would have caused far more damage, and far more deaths. So Tails was being honoured for saving the city, although it was destroyed later, that was unrelated to the missle. It'd be kind of jerkish to go "well, you saved the city, but since it was destroyed later on by something unrelated, we're not gonna honour you for it."
  • Tails’ fake chaos emerald invention proves that it’s possible to copy the wavelength and properties of a Chaos Emerald. Now did any of you notice the time stopping switches in the Cannon’s Core level? Now what is one power that Chaos Control is capable of? That’s correct, stopping time. It seems that Gerald Robotnik had the same idea as Tails and made machinery capable of containing enough chaos energy inside it for localized Chaos Control, and thus freeze time for a short while.
    • In addition the chaos drives contained in the GUN robots are probably energy cells drawing from Chaos energy, or from residual energy GUN extracted from the Chaos Emeralds when Gerald was experimenting on them 50 years ago. This would explain why the GUN robots on board the ARK are still operational after 50 years of neglect. Needless to say, the invention of something like a chaos drive or a fake Chaos Emerald would bring about a revolution in the development and distribution of human energy needs.
    • The Chaos Drives appear to have a crystal shard inside of them, which could mean that Gerald created and shattered multiple fake Emeralds to power his machines. The next game to touch on Gerald's research showed that even broken Chaos Emeralds are powerful enough to run things like robots.
  • In Adventure 2 Battle, many of the extra characters have special powers, and Chaos in particular is unable to drown, no matter how long you stay underwater, despite none of the others (save Knuckles in 1P) having that ability. It's because he's made of water. Of course he doesn't need air to breathe!
  • Knuckles shattering the Master Emerald may have been a little... extreme, but makes more sense when you consider the last time he tried to retrieve a recently stolen Master Emerald from Eggman, he got electrocuted for his trouble.
  • Everybody's upgrade seems to parallel with their hero or dark counterpart in terms of location and use. Sonic and Shadow get the Light Dash while on Prison Island. Tails and Eggman get their Laser Blasters in their first stages. Knuckles and Rouge get their dig abilities in a spooky stage. Capping this is the location of their respective Mystic Melodies: Sonic and Shadow get theirs in their Final stages, Tails and Eggman in a desert level with quicksand, and Rouge and Knuckles on Angel Island, both in their first stages.
    • Makes sense in some senses. Eggman gets his unique upgrade in his last stage, having one more stage than Tails so having one more upgrade, and Sonic's unique upgrade, the bounce bracelet, is in the pyramid, where Shadow never has a stage in. Some of them don't make sense, though, like Shadow's Flame Bracelet being in his first stage, on the highway, and Sonic's Flame Bracelet being in Crazy Gadget his second-to-last stage, up in the ARK.
  • This game and Sonic Battle show that Gerald had schizophrenia. In this case Gerald's tones in the diary switch from frightened to frightening. The same could be said for his research notes on Emerl during the final few entries: They contradict what happened in SA2, notably with Maria's last words. It is possible that in his fright, he wasn't able to hear her last words properly. The final entry also seems to have been written between scribbling on the cell walls and the execution video.
    • It may very well be that he wasn't originally schizophrenic, but that he basically went insane over his grief over Maria's death, which is very likely. He made a deal with Black Doom, and due to his dealing with him as such, he may have started to get very close to a cure for Maria. And then GUN came, and Maria got killed. It's possible that coming so close to saving Maria, only for her to get killed, made him go insane in his grief, which could also explain the wild variation in his tone and thoughts.
  • The fact that Robotnik has such a resemblance to his grandfather Gerald, and has always escalated his personal plans towards airborne fleets and space stations highlights just how much Gerald meant to him. Recall that the Doctor has admitted that he highly admired his old Grandfather — his admiration is such that he wears his moustache the same way, made sure his knowledge base included most of what Gerald worked upon (aeronautics and the space program, robotics, Chaos Emerald and Chaos power theory, exotic physics related to Chaos power, some measure of cybernatics), and many of his space stations bear the Robotnik face and mustache, much as the Colony ARK did. His entire career and MO has been done in his grandfather's footsteps.
  • The notion of Knuckles being known as a treasure hunter is weird at first, seeing how he never shows interest in anything other than guarding and protecting the Master Emerald, and he never leaves his island unless the Master Emerald was stolen or shattered (at least not until later games). His whole story in Sonic Adventure consisted in him looking for shards of the Master Emerald everywhere. For outside people who know nothing about the Emerald, he must have looked like a treasure hunter seeking treasures all over the place, earning him that reputation.
    • Another possibility is that he likes to explore the ancient ruins in his island during his free time, likely to find out more about his ancestors and the island, and possibly to kill time (he probably needs to take a short break from guarding the Master Emerald every now and then to keep himself from going insane, and it's not like there are many things to do in a deserted island). The Sonic Team-produced Sonic X seems to support this, as Knuckles calls himself a treasure hunter prior to the Sonic Adventure adaptation. He also refers to another character who is shown exploring ancient ruins as "a treasure hunter like me", hinting that this was the kind of treasure hunting he did.
  • Why is the "Evil Side Sonic" called Shadow? Because he's a Shadow Archetype of Sonic. Shadow is incredibly cocky, hilariously edgy (especially in later games) and the stereotypical "Cool" character. He's an overexaggeration of everything people find annoying in Sonic, This would also explain why Sonic commonly refers to him as "Fake", because he's basically a fake version of Sonic.
    • Sonic and Shadow are truly mirrored in this game by their motivations. Sonic is normally a carefree, thrill-seeking soul who doesn't really care if he's "the best". Shadow on the other hand is highly competitive, and loves feeling that he's "the best" or "the coolest". When their lifestyles collide in this game, Sonic is bothered by Shadow's competitiveness ("I found you, faker!"), while Shadow is bothered by Sonic's laidback lifestyle ("What are you anyway?"). Their rivalry is entirely based on this clash: Sonic brings out the side of Shadow that enjoys exploring the unknown and facing new challenges, while Shadow brings out the side of Sonic that enjoys competing with a worthy adversary and testing himself against impossible odds.
    • The whole Team Dark has a vibe of being the shadow of Team Hero/Sonic that goes beyond their similar abilities. You can only listen to each character's theme song and contrast it with their rival's. Here's a comparison:
      • Sonic and Shadow: Both are superfast, super-cocky hedgehogs with a disregard for authority. One travels (and saves) the world out of his love of adventure and drive for freedom, the other threatens the world out of a (warped) sense of obligation towards his family. One shows no worry over the past, the other lets it consume him to the point of committing atrocities. One is extremely independent and follows his own path, the other has his every action ruled by (what he thinks was) Maria's last wish. One is an Anti-Nihilist whose philosophy is to live life to the fullest in the time one has and has saved the world uncountable times, the other is a Straw Nihilist who believes humanity is beyond redemption and wants to end the world. One is a world renowned hero, the other's very existence is a closely guarded secret.
      • Tails and Eggman: Two geniuses. One is far younger and invents to protect his friends alongside the world. One is far older and assumedly has been embittered by his life (especially when considering the speculation that Gerald and Maria's deaths might have pushed him to conquer the world), inventing to impose his will on the world whether it wants it or not. One has a quiet, reserved and modest personality, the other is an egotistical Large Ham with a tendency to put his image in his creations.
      • Knuckles and Rouge: Knuckles is ignorant of the outside world (and so has become a might too trusting) and handles situations with a brute approach, yet is suggested to have a deeper knowledge of matters concerning the Chaos Emeralds, Master Emerald, and the spiritual background of the series. Rouge is much more worldly and conniving, treating something as powerful as the Master Emerald as just another piece of jewelry to loot. Knuckles hunts for treasure out of duty (and perhaps from a wish to learn what he can of lost civilizations like his own) while Rouge does so out of sheer greed and vanity (showing no interest in the Master Emerald's importance as both a remnant of the Echidna's civilization and to the world).
    • Also, in a way, the Biolizard can be seen as the shadow of Shadow himself in the Last Story. At this point, Shadow is fighting to carry out Maria's last wishes and save Earth, while the Biolizard is fighting to carry out Gerald's dying wish and destroy the world.
  • In the Dreamcast version, Big the Cat is a playable character in multiplayer. Sounds a bit out of left field at first, but then you remember this isn't the first time he's piloted a mechanical device.
  • Why does Knuckles' Image Song feature such Mood Whiplash, alternating between expressing Knuckles' tough personality and devotion to his duty, and reflecting on the hopelessness the latter brings to his life? And why does the mid section have a separate verse that is sung along with the main one in a different tone as if it belonged to a separate song? This is because the whole song is a reflection of the duality of Knuckles' personality! On the outside, he's serious and tough, but on the inside, he's pretty lonely and wishes he were as free as Sonic.
    • The overlap between the rapped and sung portions of the song also indicate an internal conflict within Knuckles that wasn't as prevalent as it was at the start of the first Adventure game. The original "Unknown from M.E." was about Knuckles hyping up his macho image and taking pride in how he perceived himself as more competent than Sonic. However, learning more about the sins of his heritage has chipped away at Knuckles' cockiness, and he's now experienced how the world is outside of his island is bigger than he could have imagined. By this game, while he's now fully aware of why his duty as the guardian of the Master Emerald is an important one, he's also become aware of the people and places outside of it, and has at least partially realized that he might want to connect with them more. This may even explain why Knuckles began joining Sonic and his friends on more adventures following this game— he wants to have friends and a purpose besides besides just the one he's already had his entire life.
  • The main theme, “Live And Learn”, is often associated with Sonic, but it’s really about Gerald Robotnik and Shadow. After Maria was killed, both of them were consumed with grief, rage, hatred, and spite, and desired nothing more than to avenge Maria, which, ironically, could not be farther from what she wanted. Alas, Gerald was not present to hear her last words, and in his newfound hatred for humanity, he somehow modified Shadow’s memory so he didn’t clearly remember. The result? Gerald set up a doomsday program and entrusted Shadow with carrying it out, and he did, until he remembered Maria’s true dying wish and forgave humanity for what GUN had done. “Live and Learn” is, if you listen closely to the lyrics, all about how hatred and anger poison the bearer’s mind and destroy their future, and forgiveness is the only way to be freed. It effectively describes Gerald’s fate and Shadow’s Character Development.
  • The title of Eggman's theme song "E.G.G.M.A.N." is strange, since Eggman isn't an acronym for anything. However, the way it's written does invoke the way the game's Boss Subtitles appear one letter at a time. You can almost hear the typewriter sound effect.
  • Gerald's prototypes of ultimate life were based on the mythos of Sonic Adventure. The Biolizard was designed after Perfect Chaos, and Shadow was designed after Super Sonic. This explains why a replica of the Master Emerald shrine was on the ARK, the numerous Artificial Chaos, and why both the Biolizard and Shadow could use Chaos Emeralds.
    • Going from a Kaiju-sized giant lizard to Shadow also makes sense as a prototype when you realize that the two of them share a core basic shape between the Biolizard and Shadow's quills, and while some prefer to consider it Fanon Discontinuity, Shadow's own game goes to show the Black Arms aliens as a horde of lizard-like creatures that infest and control areas to their preference. The Biolizard is a glorified Body Horror offshoot of recreating a Black Arm in full with the legends of Chaos in mind as a full-power entity that probably needs its life support to handle all of its power, before downsizing, perfecting the research and harnessing the prophecy of a super-like hedgehog entity.
  • Tails has an emotionally dissonant response to Eggman's forlorn speech during the final scene. Some may write it off as weak writing, but for all his smarts, Tails is just a kid who lacks social experience. His odd reassurance isn't for lack of trying nor care — it's literally the best he can do considering the circumstances. Even without factoring in Tails' age, it'd be very difficult for most others to relate to Eggman's plight, let alone know what to say. Let's face it: Eggman is facing an existential dilemma that is, for all intents and purposes, unique to him.
  • During the hostage situation, Eggman baits Tails into revealing that the Emerald he possessed was fake. Yet, in the Dark Story, it is revealed that he guessed ahead of time that Sonic and company would try to trick him. It would seem odd that Eggman would coax this revelation out of Tails, aside from maybe just wanting to rub in his superiority. However, consider also that, in the first Sonic the Hedgehog game, there were only 6 known Emeralds — the seventh was discovered in the sequel, and the Master Emerald was found in the subsequent game. Perhaps Eggman wanted a full confirmation before blowing it up, on the off chance that Tails had a newly-discovered 8th Emerald. Sure, all signs point to the Chaos Emeralds only ever being a septet, but Eggman wouldn't question it — the more power sources, the better.
    • Or, more simply, Eggman didn't know which Emerald was the fake. His "Did they really think they could trick me with that fake Emerald?" was dub-only. In the original Japanese script, he instead said "Are they plotting to fool me by using a fake Emerald?", showing that he didn't know what they were doing for certain — it was just a guess on his part, after his radar detected one Emerald too many. He needed confirmation that Sonic's Emerald was the fake before sending him and the Emerald to their destruction, which Tails' response provided.
      • The original line could actually reinforce the idea that Eggman thought there might've been an eighth emerald. In the English dub, it sounds like he knows or has figured out exactly what they're trying to do; in the original Japanese, he sounds more uncertain about it.
  • The final line in the Last Episode's trailer, "Wishes are eternal", sounds like a standard hopeful statement about wishes. So it's a bit odd that it's said with such a sinister tone. But then you realize that the entirety of the last story is set in motion because of Gerald Robotnik's plan which he only left in his video will before his execution. His last wish if you will. And even though it was 50 years ago the machinations have still persisted long enough for Eggman to finish his work.
    • And here's the kicker in all this. The thing that causes Shadow's Heel–Face Turn that turns the tide and ultimately saves the world? Shadow remembering Maria's dying words to give the people of earth a better future. Her last wish. That one line in the trailer encompasses the last episode in it's entirety.
  • Why was Gerald's Ultimate Life Form prototype a giant lizard? Many lizards have impressive regenerative properties, and Gerald's original motive was to find a way to cure his granddaughter's illness.
  • Rouge relying on Knuckles to save her from falling is often criticized, but there's a real-life reason why she needed him. Notice how she was falling with her back facing the ground. Unlike birds, bats can't fly belly-up. In fact, when landing upside down, they have to rely on inertia.
  • Biolizard has gills on his neck approximately half Shadow's height, and several gills on either side of his body more than twice Shadow's height. He also has air vents at the base of his neck, not to mention the numerous pipes connecting him to his life-support system. Yet despite all this, he still has to hyperventilate. It's no wonder that he's the prototype.
  • The Black Arms' involvement with Shadow was potentially foreshadowed in this game. An inscription in the GUN base where Eggman finds Shadow says "ASTRONOMERS ARE CONCLUDING THAT MONSTROUSBLACKS". Could this Engrish be a reference, or just a coincidence?
  • One of the most standout plot holes regarding this game, if not the series' overall lore in general, is how Gerald could have possibly reprogrammed the ARK to perform a Colony Drop while he was incarcerated in Prison Island, let alone set it up to globally transmit a video of his own execution by firing squad in advance. Eggman himself also states that he couldn't have stopped the ARK's collision if he wanted to, indicating that Gerald didn't leave any specific clue to it in his diary, and GUN would have likely noticed if Gerald tried doing anything to the ARK given the already massive lengths they took to lock down the colony. It can be inferred that if there truly was no way for the ARK to have been reprogrammed during this time period, the Colony Drop and worldwide broadcast could only have been set up when someone or something else with the exact same knowledge of how to do so was able to directly affect the ARK… say, a certain someone Gerald planned to "leave everything" to in order to "fill the world with destruction" as per his own will— Shadow the Hedgehog. It was most likely Shadow who directly reprogrammed the ARK for doomsday, presumably just after when he performed a Chaos Control to get to the ARK after encountering Sonic for the first time, and just before Eggman caught up to him after the Lost Colony stage.
    • Supporting this is how, theoretically, anyone with the right tools and skills could've collected all the Chaos Emeralds and found the ARK on their own, and if Gerald did reprogram the ARK before his death, he could've just as easily compiled all the information on the Eclipse Cannon and how to activate it into his diary if he was counting on someone coming across it, meaning that there wouldn't have been any need to involve Shadow in his plan. Therefore, while he did brainwash Shadow to point whatever power-hungry madman responsible for releasing him in the right direction, Shadow's true purpose was to set up Gerald's planetary death sentence, since there's no way that anyone else could have been able to do that on their own.
  • "Chaos is power, power enriched by the heart." Note what's situated above the ARK's replica of the Master Emerald shrine.
  • Many players have been baffled at how Shadow suddenly inexplicably knew Rouge is a government spy near the end of the Dark Story, especially considering the way he says "that government spy, Rouge the Bat", which wouldn't be public knowledge, and even Eggman never learns about this fact by the end of the game. Shadow and Rouge themselves don't interact with each other after Eggman fires the Eclipse Cannon at the moon until this scene, so how did he come to this conclusion? Watch the scene again when Rouge calls her boss. She loudly starts talking immediately after Shadow starts walking out of the room. Shadow stayed behind to eavesdrop on her and connected the dots while Rouge was unaware she blew her cover!
  • G.U.N. being in possession of three chaos emeralds seems oddly convenient, since it allows Team Dark to obtain six of the seven emeralds, giving them a great advantage over Team Sonic. But this makes sense: Sonic had turned into Super Sonic to fight Perfect Chaos using all seven emeralds, so his ability to do so became well-known to the general public. So G.U.N. was hoarding them to prevent Sonic from transforming and opposing them in his super form if he turned evil!
    • As for how Rouge knew the emeralds were there? She no doubt must have done some research into G.U.N. while investigating Eggman and Shadow, so she likely discovered the emeralds' presence in the military base during her investigation. Afterwards, she told Eggman they were there so she could gain his trust to keep her cover.
    • Of course, since Sonic didn't actually do anything and wasn't going to bother the military otherwise, all this did was make things easy for Team Dark by putting a large number of chaos emeralds in one place. Sometimes, planning for any potential adversity doesn't go so well.
  • Eggman seems pretty dang convinced that he succeeded in finally killing Sonic near the end of the game, yet in the Last Story, he's not surprised at all when he sees Sonic standing right in front of him alive and well. Why is this? Well, near the end of the Dark Story, Eggman calls Shadow to inform him that someone is heading towards the Eclipse Cannon after he secured the last chaos emerald. It's possible that Eggman realized in this moment that that "someone" was Sonic, hence why he sent Shadow out to intercept him. Given Sonic and Eggman's history, it isn't out of the question that Eggman almost immediately connected the dots and figured Sonic had pulled one of his usual tricks to get out of his trap alive.
    • Not only that, but Sonic was also the only logical person that could have been making a move towards the cannon. Amy and Tails were in the same room as him, Knuckles is too dimwitted to do such a thing (and wasn't even aware of Team Sonic's plan with the fake emerald regardless), and while he had no idea what Rouge was up to, he wasn't aware of her identity as a spy, so he still thought she was on his side. Given that Eggman knew about the fake emerald and that Sonic himself had just tried tricking him with it, and it wouldn't be too difficult for him to guess who was attempting to stop the cannon from firing.
      • First of all, Knuckles wasn't portrayed as truly dimwitted until later years. Gullible yes, but not outright dumb. And even then, his official character profiles have always attributed his foolishness to his lack of experience with the world outside of Angel Island, rather than dumbness. Even post-flanderization. Second, Eggman was surprised to see Sonic alive, and even commented on it. His reaction just was subdued because he's used to Sonic escaping near death against all odds. He even comments on how he's "an unreasonably stubborn hedgehog" in the Japanese version.

Fridge Horror

  • Shadow was aware that Gerald's ultimate plan involved the ARK impacting the Earth, right? Did he plan on remaining on the ARK the whole time?
    • Considering his backstory, he did.
  • Imagine if the Hero story was canon. If Sonic destroyed the Eclipse Cannon after defeating Shadow, how would the Black Arms be stopped in Shadow the Hedgehog? Without the Eclipse Cannon, the only thing Shadow could do would be to warp the comet back into orbit, only for it to come back again the next 50 years.
    • Despite the dramatic explosions, it's possible he just disabled the Eclipse Cannon rather than flat-out destroying it, which could be one of two reasons why the Cannon wouldn't fire when Eggman got the last Emerald (the other reason being Prof. Gerald reprogramming the ARK). The whole point of Black Doom getting the Chaos Emeralds was to Chaos Control the Black Comet onto Earth due to its velocity being too slow to land on Earth normally, but logically speaking, atmospheric reentry would be able to potentially destroy the comet or seriously damage it, so Shadow could have just as easily Chaos Controlled it into the Sun.
    • Eggman himself could probably fix the Cannon if need be, or even Tails may try.
  • The exact circumstances behind Gerald Robotnik’s capture and eventual execution are never elaborated on in the story. Who is to say that Gerald Robotnik wasn’t the Dr. Eggman of his generation, pulling off the sort of world dominating insanity that Eggman has been guilty of all this time? Except instead of being treated like a Saturday morning cartoon villain and “blasting off again”, Gerald is treated as a war criminal and ceremoniously executed for violations of international law by GUN.
    • He was working for the government, and was captured because they feared his work. Nothing about his actions was outright villainous, at least not until Maria was shot dead and he went insane.
  • Think about the exact framework of Gerald’s plan for a moment. He programs Shadow the Hedgehog with a subconscious desire to see the Chaos Emeralds reactivate the Eclipse Cannon; all for revenge. This was all predicated on the idea that anyone power-hungry enough to seek out Shadow would listen to his advice and collect the Chaos Emeralds, and that whoever could get to Shadow in the first place would be resourceful enough to do so. The fact that his grandson happens to be this person may seem like a coincidence at first, until you realize that the only reason Dr. Robotnik broke Shadow out of his prison is because it was mentioned in his grandfather’s diary. The unsettling implication is that Gerald wanted either his son, grandson, or whatever descendant was willing, to release Shadow so he could have his revenge on humanity. The horrifying implication is that Gerald was so insane with his grief that he didn’t even care that his actions, through Shadow’s proxy, would bring about the death of his remaining family.
  • Building on top of the above: The even more horrifying implication is that Gerald Robotnik was counting on the Eclipse Cannon being dusted off and reactivated one day. He wanted GUN to be the architects of their own doom, by leaving the Eclipse Cannon up there as an irresistible weapon of mass destruction for them to wave over their enemy’s head. And in so doing Gerald’s program would activate and cause the ARK to crash onto the Earth, thus killing all of humanity. Gerald viewed it as the ultimate poetic justice, for the militaristic GUN to be destroyed by their own weapon – all on the account of not being able to let go of their warmongering ways.
    • Considering how long it's been, it's possible that GUN wasn't too keen on dusting off the ARK.
  • When Dr. Eggman ponders with existential dread if his grandfather really meant to destroy them, there's actually a somewhat more horrifying answer than him straight-up wanting all of humanity dead. Given how Gerald was contained in a military prison by GUN, and then executed by firing squad, the man had no hope of getting any revenge on GUN in his lifetime. Unleashing Shadow onto the world to hurt GUN would only inflict limited damage on them, and even if Shadow did succeed in killing senior leadership, the organization would still continue to function. Dropping the ARK on the planet is the most surefire way Gerald could think of that would purge GUN off the Earth. So in a sense, Gerald's hatred for GUN may have been so immense in scope that killing off all of humanity with GUN was a complete afterthought so long as he made GUN suffer for what they did to him.
  • Shadow says that the ARK was being used to develop weapons of mass destruction, and refers to the Eclipse Cannon as "one of them". No, he doesn't put special emphasis on it by calling it the most powerful or the most devastating. He just says it was one of them. What other horrifying weapons are up there?
    • Well, Shadow himself, for one.
  • Maybe more of a fridge Tear Jerker, but it still fits here. Unlike his very tense alliance with Rouge, Eggman seems to genuinely like Shadow. He frequently compliments and praises him, the way he tells Shadow to get off the island comes off more like Anger Born of Worry (note the emphasis he puts on "with you on it") than frustration at complications with his plans, and he even trusts Shadow to finish the job should something happen to him. Now, with that said, what do you think was going through Eggman's head when he realized Shadow was using and manipulating him the whole time?
  • When the Colony Drop begins, Professor Gerald's ultimatum is in the form of a video file. He's standing in front of what appears to be his cell on Prison Island. At the end, once he's finished his speech, someone off-camera asks him if he has anything more to say. When Gerald replies that he does not, that person barks out a "Ready!" to some other people off-screen. It takes a few minutes to realize this, but this appears to be Gerald's last words before he faces a firing squad.
    • In the Japanese version of Sonic X, you can hear the gunshots.
    • From that same speech, he says that he "designed [Shadow's] mind to be perfect, pure" (or, in the Sonic X adaptation, he mentions that he will follow his orders without question). It's a long shot, but it could mean that he somehow manipulated Shadow while he was contained, possibly going so far as to change his memories about Maria.
  • During City Escape and the freeway chase segments as Tails or Rouge, cars are presented as obstacles. Running into them causes them to fly into the air and eventually explode. Some of them happen to be driving at the time. Think about it.
    • That's only if the player runs into them, and if Sega was questioned about it, they'd probably say that in-universe Sonic and co. didn't run into any cars, but we as the players are able to do that since it's a video game.
  • There's a theory that GUN knew exactly what it was doing when they arrested Sonic: If they just told the public that their real target was Shadow, people might get curious (since another hedgehog with abilities comparable to Sonic's would be a big deal), research him, and uncover the ARK massacre. It's unlikely that an organization that seems to simply jump straight to "kill 'em all and let God sort 'em out" doesn't have other skeletons in its closet. Was Sonic the only victim of this sort of misdirection? (For that matter, what would've happened if GUN had recaptured Shadow while Sonic was still in custody? Or, God forbid, he was still in custody and the truth about Shadow and the ARK became public knowledge?) We'll have to wait and see if this was the case or not, with a sort of confirmation or denial coming from new game lore or Word of God.
  • With Gerald being the fall guy and taking all the attention at the time, it is easy to forget that Project Shadow wasn't a one-man show. Gerald had many other brilliant researchers assisting him as well who were shot dead like Maria. Their families are definitely still in the dark about what happened to them and believe that an accident occured. And the one guy who can inform them now isn't too keen on digging up his past anytime soon...
    • Near the end of the Shadow the Hedgehog video game, people learned about the truth from one of Gerald's video recordings. People would've reasonably reacted negatively and GUN would have to regain everyone's trust. Seeing as how the current commander is, he'd probably say how GUN takes responsibility for its actions 50 years ago and is willing to accept any and all consequences, along with saying that they'll atone for those past sins and try their best to heal old wounds. Some sort of grandiose speech like that would be cool to see in a new game, if Sega finally decided to show humans other than Eggman in the games.
  • Given how this is ultimately a lighthearted family-friendly game, it can be rationalized that GUN evacuated Prison Island off-screen depending on whether or not they were aware of Eggman's bomb, but as Ruby of Blue already pointed out, the Flying Dog pilot sealed himself and Rouge in Security Hall, with Shadow only teleporting in and out to save the latter. The pilot of the Flying Dog is absolutely dead.

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