"More ants to crush. I wonder if this world can offer me a real challenge. And as if to answer, the world sends me a trembling child. Are you going to fight and die here, or run away in fear again? Fine, I will teach you fear, then pain. And then... well, at least the fear and pain will end."
— Infinite, Sonic Forces
Sonic the Hedgehog, though usually a lighthearted franchise, becomes much darker when these characters show up to face the Fastest Thing Alive.
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Video Games
Examples
- Shadow the Hedgehog: Black Doom is the leader of the Black Arms and a completely humorless Evilutionary Biologist. Having visited the Earth for thousands of years, he made contact with Gerald Robotnik 50 years prior to the series, agreeing to a deal where a creation using Black Doom's cells, the future Shadow the Hedgehog, would deliver the Chaos Emeralds so that the Black Arms can use Chaos Control to arrive on Earth and bring prosperity to humanity. Gerald realized once Doom left that he was lied to, as Black Doom intended to enslave the human race and use them as a food source. During the events of the game, he preaches about the evils of humanity and how they don't deserve to be free, claiming they would be better served as a food source for the Black Arms, all while showing he has no regrets killing his own men or throwing away his "son" when everything is finished. During the game, he sends his army to kill millions, manipulated Shadow by forcing him to relive Maria's death, destroys an entire city—and most of his army—with the Eclipse Cannon, and spreads a gas that paralyzes Sonic and friends to make it easier for his offspring to eat them. Hypocritical, ruthless and uncaring to even his own, Black Doom is among the worst the franchise has to offer.
- 2006 game: Mephiles the Dark is the malignant conscience of Solaris taken physical form and the one responsible for arranging most of the events of the game. Accidentally created during the Solaris Project alongside Iblis, the raw physical strength of Solaris, Mephiles was sealed within a scepter that landed in the hands of Dr. Eggman. Upon breaking out, Mephiles orchestrated a gambit which involved inflicting pain and suffering on Princess Elise, causing her to cry, release the Flames of Disaster, and in doing so would reunite him with Iblis to become Solaris, allowing him to destroy everything in existence. To do this, Mephiles manipulates Silver into attempting to kill Sonic, and later cold-bloodedly kills Sonic himself—temporarily—to goad Elise into crying over him. Mephiles manipulates everyone he can for the purpose of his ultimate goal and takes a sadistic glee in watching people suffer; unlike the mindless Iblis, Mephiles is fully aware of the scale of his atrocities and does them for no other reason than to see the world decay around him. A being that craved destruction alone, Mephiles's actions heavily damaged the space-time continuum and brought a darkness to the franchise seldom seen prior.
- Secret Rings: Erazor Djinn is a malevolent genie with aspirations of godhood and world domination. Having been forced to grant the wishes of 1,000 people as punishment for his crimes prior to the game, Erazor harbored a hatred for the creator of the Arabian Nights and sought to escape that storybook world. To that end, Erazor began to destroy and absorb the pages of the book to grow in power. When Shahra brings Sonic into the storybook to stop him, Erazor uses his Flame of Judgment curse to force Sonic into finding the Seven World Rings for him before the flame kills Sonic. He also commits other atrocities such as attempting to assassinate King Shahryar, summoning the Ifrit demon to burn the remaining pages of the book, and condemning King Solomon to life as an undead skeleton. When Sonic confronts Erazor at his palace, Erazor reveals his intention was to sacrifice Sonic to gain control of the Seven World Rings and reshape the world in his image. His attempt to kill Sonic is thwarted when Shahra takes the hit for Sonic. Erazor is unmoved by her sacrifice, calling her weak. Self-absorbed, and with the cruelty to match his ego, Erazor's transformation into Alf Layla wa-Layla only reflected the evil within his heart.
- Forces: Infinite is the high commander in the Eggman Empire and the primary reason behind the flawless conquest of Earth. Because of his position and power, Infinite took full part in the iron-fisted domination of 99.9% of the world, gleefully eliminating opposition, heroic or civilian, directly or by proxy through his illusions of Shadow, Chaos, Zavok, and Metal Sonic. He makes his introduction beating Sonic into unconsciousness for him to be imprisoned for six months. In the interlude, Infinite murders the Avatar's helpless friends, only sparing the Avatar so Infinite could relish their fear. He's put Omega out of commission from an early point to the finale; tried to kill Silver thanks to his love for ending heroes and instilling despair; and repeatedly tried to kill Sonic after his escape, only to not go through with it when Sonic is deemed not worth the effort. When the Resistance tried a full-scale assault on Metropolis, Infinite uses the Phantom Ruby to reduce them to even greater shambles. Later, he and Eggman try to trap Sonic in "null space", a void of eternal nothingness, to live out the rest of his days. At the climax, Infinite conjures a virtual sun to drop and burn everyone to death. A raving lunatic of a sadist, Infinite envisioned omnicidal designs even as a lowly thief and stands out for the reasons behind his sadism and hatred for weakness.
- Frontiers: THE END is a cruel and powerful entity that desires to destroy all of existence out of sadistic pleasure. Having destroyed countless worlds and lives prior to the events of the series, THE END eventually invades and destroys the Ancients' home planet before following the survivors to Earth, where it kills many of them before being imprisoned in Cyberspace. Many years later, THE END manipulates Sonic into freeing it by having him tear down the wall between dimensions keeping it imprisoned, claiming it will help him save his friends. As Sonic progresses in his mission to save his friends, the Cyber Energy that THE END has Sonic absorb starts to slowly and painfully corrupt him. Upon being freed, THE END allows the Cyber Energy to fully corrupt Sonic, resulting in his mind being trapped between reality and Cyberspace, before proceeding to resume its goal of destroying all of existence. Upon being defeated, THE END spitefully attempts to blow itself up in one last attempt to destroy all of existence.
Comic Books
Universe
- Issues #55-58 — "Pirate Plunder Panic" arc (primarily): Captain Metal, formerly Metal Sonic v3.3, was seemingly destroyed in Blaze's dimension before being found and repaired by Doc Ratcheturn. Repaying his kindness by stealing his ship and presumably killing the good robot, Metal would proceed to usurp control of the robotic Blackguard Pirates by destroying their leader Captain Boltbeard and using his destroyed remains to further upgrade himself. Metal would then lead his crew in a rampage across Blaze's world, plundering the seas, abusing his crew for for any minor failures, and threatening them with death. Metal would also cut off the heads of any robotic rivals and put the still-functioning heads on sticks to serve as warnings to other pirates, and even feed captured enemies to his pet Kraken to "grind their bones". After finding a Sol Emerald and a multidimensional super-weapon he renamed the Egg O' War, Metal would desire to steal all the Sol Emeralds to power his weapon, not caring that without the Sol Emeralds the world would be destroyed. Desiring to go to other worlds and rain down death and destruction upon whomever he wished, Metal attempted to use Blaze as a battery to power the Egg O' War by torturously removing the Emeralds' energy while forcing her to watch her world and friends be destroyed. When that failed, Metal attempted to fuse with the Egg O' War in one last attempt to destroy the other worlds.
Pre-Genesis Timeline
- The original Dr. Ivo Robotnik, born Julian Kintobor, during the Great War, intended to test weapons he'd developed for the government on his own people and fled to the Mobians' side when he was to be punished for his actions. While acting as warlord for King Acorn, he secretly captured a peaceful village of Mobian monkeys and utilized them in an early attempt to create mechanical slaves by surgically implanting cybernetics, and of that entire village only one survived the process. Afterwards, he sabotaged the Roboticizer developed by Charles Hedgehog just as it was to be used on his wounded brother Jules, making him think he'd turned his own brother into a mindless drone. When Jules's wife discovered the truth, Robotnik had Jules toss her into the Roboticizer and transformed into a robian as well, orphaning Sonic and crushing Charles's spirit to the point of retiring from being a science minister to running a chili dog stand. He then did similarly to Tails's father Amadeus on the day of his birth, making it seem as though Amadeus couldn't care less for his newborn son and subsequently shattering his wife's heart, throughout which Robotnik maintained a straight face. Afterwards followed his betrayal of King Acorn and the takeover of Mobius, during which countless families were broken and millions enslaved, and over the course of a decade, he'd wreak havoc upon planet Mobius, destroying the ecology and pushing more than a few Mobian breeds to the brink of extinction. Just prior to his death, he displayed a deeply disturbing relish at the thought of murdering one of his own kind, and was positively gleeful when he got the chance to use his latest and greatest weapon on a fellow overlander.
- Ixis Naugus was originally Agunus, Nusgau, and Suguna, the last survivors of the Order of Ixis who sought to gain control over the element of fire. They fell into the sun which resulted in a new personality and body. Naugus later became the royal wizard for the Kingdom of Acorn who, disliking Nate Morgan, recruited Kodos to frame him by mind controlling Overlanders into attacking their troops and blaming Nate for the incident. He also did this to cause the Great War between Mobians and Overlanders and retreated to the Zone of Silence until the war ended. Naugus crafted this realm to have harsh conditions that would drive anyone to madness unless they swore loyalty to him. This included the banished King Acorn who still suffers from the trauma of being forced to serve Naugus. Naugus also attempted to cause a civil war between Mobians and Robians by manipulating the king, and manipulated the public into crowning him King, planning on brainwashing the entire city to restore the Order of Ixis; this is one of the primary reasons the world was destroyed.
- Warlord Kodos the Lion was the former bloodthirsty and bigoted warlord for the Kingdom of Acorn. Hating the attention Nate Morgan received, Kodos, alongside Ixis Naugus, framed Nate for getting some of his own men killed, resulting in a war between Mobians and Overlanders. Kodos would further incite this by killing two negotiators for both sides by snapping their necks and sending letters to both sides implicating them, which resulted in the Great War and thousands of deaths. Kodos later took the Overlander defector Julian Kintobor—later known as Dr. Robotnik—and showed him the technology and the Zone of Silence which he planned to use to overthrow the king and take over the world, making him responsible for Robotnik's rise to power. After being banished by Robotnik, Kodos joined Naugus for protection and tried to kill Sonic many times and forced Uma to steal the Sword of Acorns, which Kodos planned to use to destroy Sonic and Robotnik.
- A.D.A.M.—Autonomous Digital Assault Microbe—was originally just a virus in Dr. Eggman's computer before developing free will. A.D.A.M. would then be claimed as Eggman's son and put in control of Eggman's network and all of his robots. For over a year, A.D.A.M. would carry out Eggman's conquest across the globe, including acts of genocide against those who resisted, even directly leading a plan to reduce the world to a nuclear wasteland. Growing jealous of his sister Mecha and the attention she received, A.D.A.M. would scheme to impress his father and Take Over the World for himself. A.D.A.M. would create a secret identity known as Anonymous and would carry out many crimes, such as nearly killing Sonic's father; attempting to use a parasitic city to consume all life on the planet; brutally taking apart the cyborg Bunnie; and sending an army of Metal Sonics to kill his father and destroy Knothole. A.D.A.M. would cause the returns of Ixis Naugus and Mammoth Mogul for his own gain and would frame his sister Mecha for the crime to trick his father into killing his beloved daughter purely out of envy. A.D.A.M. would even take over the body of Sonic's childhood friend Tommy Turtle to steal every Chaos Emerald in the universe for himself so A.D.A.M. could have the power and attention he wanted.
- General Kage Von Stryker is the leader of the Eggman-backed Dingo Regime. After ousting his father Helmut from power, Kage led his people in conquering Angel Island, imprisoning the Echidnas in what were clearly concentration camps, which led to countless deaths. He personally tortured Knuckles's father Locke for the location of the Master Emerald; tried to wipe out the last Echidna village on two occasions; and during the second attack, boasted that he had crushed more Echidnas under his boot than he could remember. While like Helmut, Kage also hated the Echidnas, unlike his father, Kage just wanted to kill them all.
- Knuckles the Echidna Issues #30-32 & Sonic the Hedgehog Issues #140-141: Hunter is a sociopathic Overlander known as a poacher of the Mobian kind. Hunter first debuts forcing Knuckles and his partner Monk into a hunt for their lives by threatening to murder Julie-Su, forcing the two to fight for their lives which ultimately leads to Monk's death. Though seemingly killed afterwards, Hunter is saved by Dr. Eggman and allows Hunter further work in his service, giving Hunter the chance to gleefully participate in Eggman's genocidal hunts and capture scores of innocent Mobians to have the life tortuously drained out of them in Eggman's Egg Grape Chambers, leading to the deaths of dozens. Proudly boasting of the various heads he keeps on his own wall of previous victims, Hunter's supposed sense of honor in his first appearance falls to reveal a sadistic mass murderer who hunts purely for the thrill of it.
Post-Genesis Timeline
- Mega Man's "Dawn of X" arc & Worlds Unite crossover: Sigma was previously a hero and the leader of the Maverick Hunters. However, after fighting for a while, Sigma would start to see Reploids as superior to humans and start a rebellion. Sigma would stage an attack on Arcadia City, bombing the city and having his forces kill off various Maverick Hunters who refused to join Sigma. Sigma returns as a computer virus and travels to the Sonic universe, where he forces Dr. Eggman, Dr. Wily, and the Deadly Six to help him in his plans, mostly with the Unity Engines with which Sigma intends to harness the power of entire worlds and conquer the multiverse. Sigma continues abusing the Genesis Portals—threatening to tear apart reality—all in his plan to become a god.
Examples
- "Total Chaotix", "The Brotherhood of Metallix", & "The Return of Chaotix" arcs: Emperor Metallix is the supreme leader of the Brotherhood of Metallix and one of the comic's most significant early villains. Going rogue from his intended purpose as one of Robotnik's drones, Emperor Metallix begins a crusade to wipe out all life from Mobius and replace it all with machinery. To this end, Metallix forcibly duplicates the Omni-viewer, callously ordering his double agent Nack the Weasel killed when he sells out the Chaotix before trying to terminate the Chaotix themselves. Metallix later drives a crusade to roboticize the Miracle Planet—enlisting Grimer's unwilling help and later threatening to kill Grimer before Sonic's eyes—and, succeeding at that, alters history so that Robotnik never comes into being and Emperor Metallix leads a successful assault on Mobius that leads to the death of most of the planet's organic life and the few survivors relegated underground. Despite being slain, Emperor Metallix orchestrates a posthumous gambit to nuke time itself. Emperor Metallix has no compunction brutally killing whatever stands in the way to it and its own victory, and even Dr. Robotnik rightfully fears and dreads what Emperor Metallix is capable of.
- "The Homecoming" & "Victims" arcs; "The Final Victory": Dr. Zachary, Knuckles's Arch-Enemy, is introduced as a seemingly harmless old man and one of the last of the echidnas. Zachary tricked Knuckles into leading him into the Emerald Chamber, whereupon he shattered the Master Emerald and used the Chaos Emeralds to empower a reprogrammed machine of his. Zachary gleefully allowed the inhabited floating island to fall onto Mobius as a "monument to his genius", intending to butcher the population of the planet Mobius for his own amusement before seeking revenge on Knuckles's people. In his second appearance, rebuilt as a cyborg, Zachary leads Robotnik to the location of the floating island's villagers so Robotnik could use them as components in a biological computer, which would consequentially kill them, a process which Zachary happily watched over. Possessed of a vindictive streak matched by few, Zachary manages to outshine most of the comic's other antagonists despite his relatively minor running as a villain.
- Issues #175-184's "Sonic Adventure" arc: Chaos, the primary villain of the final arc, undergoes significant Adaptational Villainy from his game counterpart. Once a Drakon Prosecutor who fought for the glory of his cruel empire, Chaos was forcibly mutated into a beast made of Chaos Energy when he was exposed to the Chaos Emeralds. Sealed for a time, Chaos immediately goes on a destructive rampage once released by the careless exploit of Grimer, savagely killing Johnny Lightfoot during his confrontation with the Freedom Fighters. Once Chaos comes into contact with the Chaos Emeralds again, Chaos attempts to drain them—uncaring this will cause the populated island they support to collapse into the ocean—and later successfully manages to achieve his Perfect Chaos form upon absorbing them in Robotnik's fortress, announcing his intent to reshape the entire planet and purge everything not part of his destructive image. Sonic the Comic – Online! expands further on his villainy, where he's revealed to have constantly tortured the teenage Tikal for eight millennia while sealed away with her.
Other media
Examples
- Sonic the Comic – Online!: In this Fan Webcomic that has received Approval of God, these two prove to be especially evil:
- Dr. Zachary once again proves himself among the comic's nastiest. Zachary begins his new streak of evil by attempting to enslave Super Sonic to utilize his powers to wreak havoc across Mobius. Quickly cheated of that, Zachary builds up an alliance of like-minded psychopaths he calls The Syndicate and quickly builds a new plot to destroy Mobius utilizing the Chaos Emeralds. Snatching some of Sonic's DNA by capturing his young companion Tails and nearly drowning him, Zachary awakens the dormant Shadow the Hedgehog and uses his powers to draw the Chaos Emeralds out of the Special Zone, consequentially creating a massive chain reaction of Chaos Energy that obliterates the Special Zone and the billions of lives within. Brushing off the death of the Special Zone as a mere side effect of his plans, Zachary attempts to use a device he calls the Chaos Siphon to agitate the Chaos Energy on Mobius to the point where it causes an explosion potent enough to destroy the planet. Eventually foiled and captured by Knuckles, Zachary contents himself with sadistically mocking Knuckles about his failure to protect the Special Zone, and upon breaking out, forces Knuckles into a Sadistic Choice to either allow his friend Tikal to die or let the Floating Island collapse. A total sociopath as always who is utterly remorseless over the billions of lives lost to his machinations, Zachary proves he's no less of a monster here than he was in the original comic.
- Vichama note starts as an enigmatic flunky of Zachary enlisted in The Syndicate before revealing himself as something far worse. Vichama is in actuality the sadistic God of Death, an immortal entity who gained access to the physical plane through a deal with Pochacamac, using his new presence on Mobius to indiscriminately slaughter millions of echidnas. Trapping the souls of all of his murdered victims within his dark temple before he was banished, Vichama is brought back by Zachary and at first eagerly helps the doctor in his plot to destroy Mobius, helping to obliterate the Special Zone by proxy. Once Zachary's plot is foiled, Vichama leaves the doctor to die before rising his temple again and causing mass death through Mobius, assuming his true form as the God of Death. Casually incinerating Knuckles when he's confronted on his plot, Vichama announces his intent to bring the "gift of death" to everything that lives within the universe through all the enslaved souls in his thrall. Cloaking his murderous nature with a posh demeanor, Vichama is motivated by nothing less than a desire to spread mass death for its own sake and proves to be an utter bastard of a god who more than lives up to his title as the God of Death.
- Adventures: Dr. Robotnik was once a benevolent scientist named Kintobor who sought to do good for Mobius before becoming a remorseless power-hungry tyrant. Having conquered most of Mobius, Robotnik has destroyed and/or converted life into machines and left cities in ruins. Chasing Sonic and Tails to a jungle to get the Magic Emeralds, Robotnik orders the entire continent be destroyed and carbonized while gleefully ordering all life there be destroyed. Robotnik holds Amy hostage and kidnaps the Echidna princess Alucion, and throws them including Sonic off a volcano off to their deaths, all while taking a photo to remember their horrified faces.
Animated Works
Examples
- SatAM: Dr. Julian Robotnik is the absolute ruler of Mobius in the present day, having acquired the throne by betraying every person he used to be loyal to and using the monstrous Roboticizer to transform the planet into a hellish, mechanized dystopia. A tyrant whose only love is reserved for the pollution choking his entire empire, Robotnik subjects countless Mobians to Unwilling Roboticisation, a process they object to and fight against even after it happens. One of Robotnik's first victims of this was the Roboticizer's inventor, Sonic's own Uncle Chuck. Robotnik has mercilessly wiped out almost all resistance to his empire and tries time and time again to torture and kill Sonic and his Freedom Fighters, employing his "Doomsday Project" in the finale to kill off all life not already roboticized. Robotnik is also happy to execute his own worker-bots at his own whim and ultimately tries to leave all of his minions, including his long-abused nephew Snively, to die.
- Underground: Dr. Robotnik is as power-hungry and evil as he has ever been. Having invaded and conquered Mobius years before through sheer force and Unwilling Roboticization of a vast majority of its population, Robotnik now rules with an iron fist as he seeks to round up any remaining organic beings to have them enslaved as his cyborgs. Along with regularly abusing and threatening roboticization or death to his Co-Dragons Sleet and Dingo, Robotnik frequently betrays his own allies to serve his purposes. Not restricted solely to roboticizing those who stand against him, Robotnik hopes to find the Sanctuary where resistance fighters raise their children so he may turn it into a "cemetery", and on more than one occasion Robotnik tries to wipe out entire cities of life to demonstrate his might. Robotnik puts Sonic and his siblings through a variety of life-threatening and sadistic choices in his quest to find and destroy their mother, and when all of Mobius is threatened by a Chaos Emerald storm, Robotnik is willing to let the world be wiped out just to spite Sonic.
- Sonic X season 3: Pale Bayleaf, one of the four Metarex commanders under Dark Oak, is a brilliant diplomat whose politeness hides cruelty and sadism. Working for Dark Oak to annihilate all non-plant life in the name of "tranquility and order", Pale Bayleaf manipulates Planet Cascade's resistance group into working for him to deliver Dr. Eggman to the Metarex. When Eggman reveals he knew all along about their plot against him, he attempts to kill him and the Cascade resistance—seeing their treaty as void—killing Molly when she tries to attack him. When working with Eggman and Black Narcissus against Sonic and his friends, Pale Bayleaf and Black Narcissus doesn't hesitate to shoot their own troops so long as they can take down the enemy, a move even Eggman found pointlessly cruel. Tasking the Cascade Resistance to find a Chaos Emerald, Pale Bayleaf locks them inside trees that slowly drain and kill them when they found a fake Chaos Emerald. Devoid of empathy even towards his fellow Metarex, Pale Bayleaf lacked their humanizing traits.
