Despite being known for its usual colorful characters and lighthearted tone, the long-running Sonic the Hedgehog franchise has had more than a few villains perform a full-speed Boost across the Moral Event Horizon.
As many of these examples happen near the end of their works, Spoilers Off applies here. You Have Been Warned.
The main games:
- Dr. Eggman himself has crossed this line at least once or twice despite his Laughably Evil nature, even putting aside his exploitation of poor defenseless animals in his schemes:
- In Sonic Adventure, he attempts to destroy the city of Station Square by detonating a nuclear missile, with only a minor setback and Tails' interference preventing him from pulling it off, and him afterwards sending in his Egg Walker to "make mincemeat" out of the little fox.
- In Sonic Adventure 2 has two possible contenders for the mad doctor:
- Earlier into the game, Eggman shows off a fraction of the Eclipse Cannon's power by blowing up half the moon and threatening to similarly ravage the world below if its people don't submit to the Eggman Empire. And it's shown that he's dead serious about this as only a mix of Sonic's interference and Gerald's secret plan for a Colony Drop prevented him from pulling it off.
- If that somehow didn't count, there's the scene where Eggman seemingly kills Sonic via an exploding escape capsule (after threatening Amy's life to bait him, no less). While the scene itself shows him seemingly bowing his head in respect for his nemesis, his Dark Story recap reveals that he's absolutely ecstatic about Sonic finally being offed.
- In Sonic Battle, Eggman makes Emerl go berserk at the end of the game, even though Emerl was nice to him and thanked him for waking him up. And how does he do it? By destroying several stars.
- In Sonic Colors, Eggman kidnaps and enslaves the explicitly sentient Wisp race to harvest their Hyper-go-on life force to fuel a cannon meant to brainwash the inhabitants of Sonic's world, similarly to Black Doom's plans of using humanity as a food source. The game makes it clear that he's already drained thousands of Wisps and forcefully converted them into Nega-Wisps, a painful process that — while ultimately reversible — would've risked bringing them to complete extinction if Sonic and Tails' intervention didn't happen, as evidenced by how Eggman offhandedly states he'd eventually harvest enough Wisp energy to mind-control the rest of the universe. In the DS version, Sonic even calls him a monster for doing this.
- In Sonic Forces, Eggman uses the Phantom Ruby to create a virtual sun to drop onto the planet and burn Sonic, his friends and the entire Resistance to ashes, wiping the world clean of anyone and anything that isn't on his side so he can build his fully realized Eggman Empire on top of whatever remains.
- Tikal's father Pachacamac crosses it in the backstory to Sonic Adventure. Through the flashbacks, we are told that he wanted to use the Master Emerald to turn his civilization into a utopia. To get it, he storms the Emerald shrine with his soldiers, slaughtering the Chao there and even ordering them to attack Tikal when she tries to stop him. He ends up getting himself and his men killed by Chaos by doing this, but also corrupts Chaos, causing him to become bitter and filled with hatred towards all life. It's pretty heavily implied that he's actually doing all this to use the Master Emerald as a weapon and build a Great Echidna Empire.
- Shadow the Hedgehog:
- Black Doom claims that he's trying to save humanity. How, you ask? By paralyzing the planet with nerve gas from his comet so that his spawn can eat their way through the biosphere and practically reduce all of humanity to cattle for them to farm and consume at their leisure, that's how.
- Shadow himself has multiple potential crossings (all of which are likely non-canon) depending on which path you take, all taken with pure malevolence in contrast to his misguided villainy from Sonic Adventure 2:
- On the "Pure Dark" path, Shadow puts his current total of five Chaos Emeralds into the Eclipse Cannon and uses it to completely destroy the capital city of the United Federation. Even if, unbeknownst to him, the government successfully evacuated it in time, it shows how far Shadow has fallen.
- As the "Dark" mission of the Air Fleet stage ("Semi-Dark" path), Shadow deliberately tries to kill the fleeing president, who is previously shown to be almost comically upstanding; on top of having a great deal of respect for both Shadow and Sonic.
- In the "Neutral" and "Semi-Dark: Hero" endings, he decides to kill everyone's favorite egg-headed scientist and take over the entire Eggman Empire for himself.
- In the "Pure Dark: Dark" ending, he defeats Sonic and Diablon, and with both the power of the Chaos Emeralds and his mind poisoned by both Black Doom and what he assumes to be Professor Gerald's last wishes, prepares to destroy the entire planet with everyone on it. Shadow's insane laughter only barely shows how far he's fallen; and making it worse, not even Black Doom wanted that to happen.
- The "Pure Dark: Hero" ending isn't much better, with him biding his time and betraying Black Doom, then giving a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown to his partial creator. He takes over the Black Arms, and vows to conquer the universe with the power of the Chaos Emeralds.
- Massacring the GUN soldiers in The Doom and triggering the bombs to destroy Central City — both the "Dark" Missions for those stages — are considered them as well, in the fact that committing those atrocities will lock Shadow onto one of the four "Dark" endings.
- Mephiles the Dark commits horrible acts very often, attempting to cause pain and suffering on Elise to release Iblis. After attempting — but failing both times — to trick Silver into killing Sonic and convince Shadow to turn on humanity by showing him false visions of the future, he eventually cuts to the chase and murders Sonic himself in a truly sadistic manner, proceeding to mockingly laugh at her despair afterward to get her to cry and thus break the seal on Iblis. He goes far beyond the Moral Event Horizon afterward when he merges with Iblis to become Solaris and destroy all of space and time, for no other reason than that he simply enjoys destruction.
- In Sonic and the Secret Rings, Erazor crosses it when he manipulates Shara's feelings for him to get the World Rings, and then scoffs at her death when she takes a hit intended for Sonic.
- In Sonic Lost World, the Deadly Six cross it when they activate Eggman's Extractor to drain the world completely of its energy, which would have destroyed it outright if they hadn't been stopped.
- In Sonic Forces, Infinite clearly crosses the MEH through joyfully murdering the resistance against the Eggman Empire, including the Avatar's teammates, and psychologically tormenting anyone he spares just to relish in their fear.
- In Sonic Frontiers, The End already broke past this tens of thousands of years ago though destroying countless stars and planets across the universe— including the Ancients' original homeworld— and taking the lives of countless innocent people with them. It goes even further when, after being released, it attempts to consume all of existence.
Other media:
- The Robotnik from Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog isn't anywhere near as depraved as he is in Sonic the Hedgehog (SatAM), yet many of his plans involve lifetime enslavement at best or mass murder of civilians at worst. For example, in "Sonic Gets Thrashed", his entire scheme revolves around killing his own robotic creations and enslaving many Mobian citizens, and "Mass Transit Trouble" has him committing outright terrorism through his attempts to destroy three of Mobius' most important transportation hubs.
- In Sonic the Comic:
- Emperor Metallix crossed it by having Porker Lewis trapped and tortured on the Miracle Planet after he returns there to stop the Alpha Device, with only his Brotherhood Of Metallix for company. It's never shown exactly what they did to Porker, but over the course of a single month, he's left absolutely traumatized to the point he quits the Freedom Fighters.
- Chaos is already implied to have crossed it well before the events of the comic with his reputation as a feared and hated prosecutor and war criminal from the already-brutal and militaristic Drakon Empire, but he definitively does so by killing main character Johnny Lightfoot, and then absorbing the Chaos Emeralds with the intent of destroying the Planet Mobius and remaking it as he pleases.
- Robotnik crosses it when he snaps from all his defeats at Sonic's hands, kills The Plax — who had prior mistaken him for a God in their culture — and uses their technology to cause a mass environmental collapse across both the planet Mobius and Earth. This would be bad enough on its own, but after Shortfuse the Cybernik undoes the damage and buries him in a cave-in in the process, Robotnik and his assistant Grimer unearth a vessel containing Chaos. Even after being told that unleashing said beast would bring about the world's end upon absorption of the Chaos Emeralds, Robotnik does so anyway. After freely admitting he has no plan beyond that, he gathers the Emeralds to his lair to lure Chaos and the Freedom Fighters there, with full intent for them all, himself and Grimer included, to die together.
Grimer: I don't believe you have no plan! You set this up... you lured Chaos here, you gave him the rest of the Emeralds-Robotnik: I just wanted to be here at the end, my dear Grimer... I wanted to see for myself how Mobius died!Grimer: (horrified) You're mad... completely insane!- Dr. Zachary crosses it when, after tricking Knuckles into leading him to the Emerald Chamber and shattering the Master Emerald (also stealing the Chaos Emeralds to power a reprogrammed machine of his), he gleefully allows the Floating Island to fall on the Planet Mobius. After which, he sets about murdering the survivors and Knuckles' people as a self-proclaimed "monument to his genius".
- Super Sonic gets his moment in the final issue when he, after being forcibly separated from Sonic and absorbing the energy of Chaos to save his own life, betrays Ebony — despite her kindly helping him back on his feet while he was suffering from amnesia and vouching for his character despite Sonic's doubts — and tries to kill her, Sonic and the others. It's made especially so by him going out of his way to pretend that he was still her friend beforehand, before coming after them with sadistic glee.
Super Sonic: I remember what Sonic said about me. He thought I'd turn back into an evil demon the moment I absorbed the Chaos Energy. Only you had any faith in me, Ebony... only you trusted me. But you know what? (pulls a vicious grin as he goes on the attack) You should have listened to Sonic! - Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics):
- Drago Wolf is hated by nearly every fan of the comic, and for good reason. Turning traitor and joining Robotnik? Not nearly as bad as browbeating your abused girlfriend into killing the leader of the Freedom Fighters and framing the titular character for it.
- To make her an even more sympathetic character, she had no idea what she was doing when she nearly killed Sally. Drago gave her a Sonic mask (to make Sonic look like the hero) that had circuitry in the eyes that turned everyone in view into a duplicate of Snively, Robotnik's right hand man. So, to recap: he bullied her into committing murder (even of a villain), gave her a mask that made her confuse her leader with her supposed target, and causes Sonic to be framed on the side. Yeah, Drago's a bastard.
- Robotnik himself — or rather "Eggman." He'd been spending most of his time since his return trying to re-establish himself as a credible arch-villain. Then along comes his Egg Grapes — a set of devices that drain the life force of Mobians to power his machinery. The process is fatal. Eggman re-killed off the echidna race with 'em. Charmy Bee was in one for less than a minute and his brain is still a bit scrambled. When the Grapes were introduced, his sidekick/robotic daughter asked why he would do this when there were many methods of power production that were much more effective. His response was that none of the other methods were "as fun."
- The same goes for the original Robotnik, the man who once called himself Julian Kintobor. The man attempts to take over an Overlander city and ends up being rescued by Mobians. His response? Initiate a coup, roboticize countless Mobians and hold the planet in a death grip for ten years. Before his death at the hands of Sonic himself, he crosses it one last time by setting Sonic up for the death of Sally and proceeds to wipe Knothole off the face of the map (both get better).
- Geoffery St. John. Grief-stricken by the death of his father, he learns of the trapped Ixis Naugus and starts conspiring in order to get revenge on those who led to his father's death. When the rescued King Acorn asked St. John to recruit people for his Secret Service, he purposely recruited people with less-than-friendly reputations for the sole purpose of pinning the blame on them should his Batman Gambit fall apart and he be revealed. In short order, he double-crosses Sonic, gives Naugus one of the Chaos Emeralds, and helps initiate a coup that would indirectly lead to the destruction of the Freedom Fighters.
- Thrash the Devil. The last of the normal Mobian-type Tasmanian Devils as all of the others have gone extinct with time, replaced by the mindless Devil Dogs they are today because of scientific experiments performed by the Echidnas. He enacts probably one of the comic's worst cases of Disproportionate Retribution by exiling all echidnas except for Knuckles and Dr. Finitevus into another dimension, despite all of them, including Knuckles himself, having nothing to do with what happened to the Tasmanian Devils. What's worse, Charmy's wife, Saffron, is caught in the crossfire and tossed in, too! It's made very clear to the reader throughout that Thrash doesn't care who he has to hurt or murder to do it, as long as he gets what he wants. note
- Metal Sonic was a non-sentient Elite Mook for most of the series, but was finally given sentience in Sonic Universe #50. This very first issue of him having a personality has him graphically murder Shard, one of the most heroic and likable characters in the comic, via suicide bombing. This only just happens after a fight that Metal Sonic started by threatening to murder a comatose hospital patient in his bed. Upon returning shortly after, Metal Sonic's only complaint about what he did in that issue was that he didn't get to kill Sonic.Eggman: Don't pout! You are now perfected! You now think as viciously as you attack. You are my undying, heartless weapon of misery and despair! How do you like that?
Metal Sonic: Mission objective is acceptable. All will pay.
- Drago Wolf is hated by nearly every fan of the comic, and for good reason. Turning traitor and joining Robotnik? Not nearly as bad as browbeating your abused girlfriend into killing the leader of the Freedom Fighters and framing the titular character for it.
- In Sonic Underground, Robotnik has a degree of buffoonery and can be difficult to take seriously at times, but he firmly crossed this in "Tangled Webs", when he blackmails Cyrus with his father's life so the boy can spy on the Sonic Underground for him; and thus reveal the location of Sanctuary, a hidden place of refuge for children and infants affected by Robotnik's conquest. So he could destroy it and roboticize all its inhabitants.Robotnik: When we find it, Sanctuary will become... Cemetery!
- Sonic X:
- Black Narcissus shows that he truly crosses the line when he captures and tortures Chris and Cosmo and uses them as bait to have the Metarex prototypes Silver and Gold test Sonic's speed, strength, and skills. This moment is what triggered Sonic's Unstoppable Rage and Superpowered Evil Side transformation, and this action was just enough for Narcissus to cross the horizon itself. Good thing this series' Eggman and his followers came to help calm things down — after all, Even Evil Has Standards.
Dr. Eggman: (to Black Narcissus) It's one thing to take them prisoner and threaten them, but when you actually hurt somebody, that's going too far!- Pale Bay Leaf crossed the line with what he did to Leon and several other anti-Metarex resistance pilots from Molly's home planet: embedding their bodies into the bases of trees and leaving them to weaken within there as a show of betraying them after promising them fame and fortune by inviting them to the side of the Metarex.
- Sonic Boom:
- Rise of Lyric may hype its titular villain as being on the irredeemable side of the line already, but it's the moment he responds to losing a game of Keep Away by taking control of Metal Sonic and using him to raze half of Slowpoke Isle that he makes it clear that all life besides himself is expendable to get what he wants. If that doesn't do it, demanding the Crystals from Sonic and his friends, and ordering his bots to shoot Sonic anyway when his demands are met, certainly will. To drive this last one home, Amy and the others turned the Crystals over, fully expecting him to shoot Sonic if they don't, and asked that he let Sonic go afterwards; that Lyric had his bots open fire anyway just for the sake of "unfinished business" shows that this snake is a total rat bastard.
- In the show proper, Shadow backflips his way over the MEH in “Eggman: The Video Game”, where he decides to destroy the entire universe over being insulted by Sonic. He’s well aware of the destructive paradox having two Eggmen in the same place is, and is willing to activate this out of spite.
- Sonic the Hedgehog (IDW):
- Mimic the Octopus already crossed it from the get-go by helping Eggman kill Whisper the Wolf's old team, the Diamond Cutters, traumatizing her for life. It doesn't help he was on their side at first, ditched them only for selfish reasons, and completely glosses over how much it hurt his former ally when he sees what's become of her. Then to top it off, he tries to kill Tangle the Lemur by sealing her inside an airtight safe to suffocate, taking full advantage of her claustrophobia.
- Dr. Eggman unleashing the Metal Virus, first on the village that kindly took him in as an amnesiac, but then on Cream's hometown for no reason other than piss Sonic off, almost robotizing everyone and destroying the world.
- Zeena crosses it when she takes control of Gemerl and forces him to unwillingly beat up Cream — who, for reference, is his close friend, already suffering badly from her beloved mother and pet Chao being turned into mindless monsters, and not to mention six years old — before trying to have him throw her into a horde of Zombots. She makes sure to drag the torture out, taking a sickening level of pleasure in doing so.
- Dr. Starline walks towards the line several times, but he crosses it for real by mentally/emotionally torturing Belle the Tinkerer (whom he'd already orphaned earlier in the comic) and turning Surge the Tenrec and Kit the Fennec into brainwashed cyborgs so he can overthrow Eggman and rule the world. The psychotic glee and callousness he displays all the while just make his actions all the more disgusting.
- In Sonic the Hedgehog (2020), Robotnik crosses this line in the first act when he sadistically uses a Badnik drone to hold Tom at gunpoint for not fielding his questions and trying to hide "the anomaly", only narrowly failing to kill the man where he stands due to Sonic's intervention at the last moment.
- If Robotnik somehow didn't cross it then, he certainly does when he gleefully mocks Sonic's — unbeknownst to him, temporary — death in front of a grieving Tom, before tactlessly asking to put the hedgehog's body on ice for dissection just to hurt him even more.
