"I really... hate... that hedgehog. I hate him. I HATE him. HATE HIM!!! HATE! HATE! HATE! HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAATE!!!!"
Sonic the Hedgehog (SatAM) is much grimmer than Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, and thusly contains quite a bit of intentional nightmare fuel to emphasize the dire nature of its world.
- Robotropolis: a sprawling megapolis made entirely of gargantuan industrial complexes that stretch for miles in all directions, as far as the eye can see... and in all of it, there are no people, anywhere. Buildings that could hold people - businesses, restaurants, apartments, and the like - can be seen scattered around the less developed areas, but all of them completely empty and decayed by time and lack of upkeep. To top it off, everything is shrouded in dense, purplish fog.
- Instead of people, the entire population is made of robots that are rigidly divided into three castes: Soldiers, Secretaries, and Slaves. In particular, the slaves are former people who are incapable of rebellion, because they have been brainwashed into eternal servitude...which is what they intend to do to you, and to everyone else on the planet.
- If you're thinking of escaping, the outskirts of the city are nothing but a vast trash dump full of all kinds of broken machinery and conspicuous puddles — sometimes even lakes — of deadly chemicals, surrounded in a seemingly endless and inhospitable desert. All in all, Robotropolis is an absolutely eerie nightmare of a place, and it desperately wants to kill you.
- The Roboticizer. Living things go in,
and — a few horrific screams later — robotic slaves come out. These slaves are forcefully devoted to Robotnik, unable to do anything for anyone except him, and as a corollary are forced to oppose the Freedom Fighters, the very team trying to free them. Let's just say that it's the Trope Namer for Unwilling Roboticisation for a reason.- Even worse? When Uncle Chuck is temporarily freed, he confirms that roboticised individuals are fully aware of what's happened to them and of their actions, and are unable do anything about it. Imagine becoming a robot and Forced to Watch as your body is commanded to capture and subject your friends or, worse, family, to the very same fate. Like watching a horror flick.
- Made even worse still by the reveal from "Blast to the Past" that the technology was originally invented to help elderly people live longer by converting them into ageless machine life, but it came at the cost of the roboticized losing their free will. And the inventor (who turns out to be Uncle Chuck) has to live with the dreadful knowledge that his own invention that had in his eyes, essentially failed in its intended noble purpose, had been weaponized by someone truly evil to condemn the entire planet to a Fate Worse than Death, himself included.
- In "Blast from the Past", it is shown that Sonic was in line for roboticization right behind Uncle Chuck, and was Forced to Watch him get roboticized when he was only five years old. It still gives him nightmares. Indeed, in "Sonic's Nightmare", Sonic has a recurring bad dream of hearing Sally chastise him for his lack of foresight, before seeing her get put in a roboticizer and let out an eerie scream of despair as she is converted into a mechanical slave.
- Robotnik himself. Anyone used to Robotnik's portrayal in the other cartoon (and the rest of the Sonic franchise in general) will be thrown off-guard when they first see how truly evil he is in this series. A much darker version of the Laughably Evil Mad Scientist we know and love, this Robotnik has a deep, robotic voice (courtesy of Jim Cummings) with glaring red eyes and black sclera. He's a cunning Evil Genius who successfully took over the world ten years before the events of the series and turned almost everyone in it into his robotic slaves.
- There's also his theme, which fits his personality quite well. Listen and cower.
- And then there's the original designs the artists had in mind for Robotnik! What's creepier than Robotnik's final design? How about seeing what he looked like when they had only their sick imaginations as a visual guide...
- The fact that he and Snively are the only known humans on the planet makes one wonder if Robotnik did something to the rest of humanity...
- It gets worse. The first episode "Heads or Tails" shows Robotnik returning to Mobius from somewhere else. Is he starting to conquer other planets too?
- Robotnik delivers this little gem:Robotnik: Snively, what color is my heart? *thrusts Snively into a Gross-Up Close-Up of his mouth*
Snively: I-I don't see a heart, sir...
Robotnik: Exactly. - In "Hooked on Sonics", Antoine tries to impress Sally by capturing Robotnik himself. He actually manages to get Robotnik into a pit trap, at which point he tells the dictator that he intends to bring him to Knothole to pay for his crimes, thus becoming a hero. Robotnik's response?Robotnik: A nice dream. But dreams are made to be... (activates hover-jets in his boots and flies out of the pit, looming ominously over Antoine) broken.
- Even Mike Pollock's performance in Sonic Forces (a game, mind you, where Robotnik/Eggman had managed to take over the world and seemingly kill Sonic) didn't come close to this level of chilling.
- There's also his theme, which fits his personality quite well. Listen and cower.
- Tails nearly getting trampled by a Terapod herd in "Sonic Past Cool".
- The ending of "Ultra Sonic". Uncle Chuck unwillingly reverts back into an automaton with no free will, snarling at his own nephew like a rabid dog and forcing Bunnie to drag Sonic away and leave him behind.
- In "Fed Up With Antoine", Antoine becomes king of the Nasty Hyenas, only for them to try and eat him. As it turns out, they treat new recruits as their king as a way of luring people in, then eat them for no reason other than the fact they, in their own words, like eating people. The existence of such a group of people is a spine-tingling concept, especially considering that they're eating away at the last remaining life on Mobius. Good thing the Freedom Fighters win in the end, or else Robotnik wouldn't have had to finish the job...
- Even Dulcy's background is a bit horrifying if you think about it. Long story short, Robotnik captured and roboticized most of the dragons save for a select few, of which Dulcy is one of the remainders. Early on, her mother Sabina was captured offscreen (which we do get to see in greater detail in the comics), leaving her all alone until she joined the Freedom Fighters. And as if it wasn't enough that she's one of the Last of Her Kind, she's still a child at heart and essentially the baby of the group from a mental standpoint. Robotnik's takeover forced a child into a horrific struggle without allowing her to learn to grow up!
- "The Void" reveals that there is an entity that even Robotnik finds utterly terrifying; Naugus. While Naugus in terms of character doesn't seem very intimidating (he's largely rather grouchy but comical troll), the sheer power he demonstrates he is quite imposing: he created the crystalline world in the Void, can instantly transform anyone into anything, and handily encases Sonic and the others in crystal... all of this with the casual ease of snapping his claw. His abuse of Robotnik seems to only be comedic - however - right before he starts to turn into crystal, Naugus' face contorts into an angry scowl and his hands begin to glow menacingly - the only other time his hands glow is when he opens a portal into the Void. Until that moment, he'd only been toying around, meaning Robotnik had been saved just in time from a really awful punishment.
- At the end of "Spyhog," the penultimate episode, a foreboding message appears:NEXT WEEK
- Robotnik's Villainous Breakdown when Sonic and Sally are about to defeat him. He says his AoStH counterpart's catchphrase in the most dramatic way possible. Jim Cummings (1952) does a terrifyingly awesome job on how much Robotnik utterly LOATHES his arch-nemesis.Robotnik: I really... hate... that hedgehog. I hate him. I HATE him. HATE HIM!!! HATE! HATE! HATE! HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAATE!!!!
- The final scene of the show. Snively emerges from his secret bunker in a new outfit, having gone off the deep end. Then, in the most unhinged voice that Charlie Adler can bring to the table, he vows to take over from his former master and destroy the Freedom Fighters himself. Boasting that he isn't alone, he steps aside to reveal a pair of ominous glowing red eyes staring at the viewers.note What happens next is left to the imagination...Snively: YES! HAHAHAHA! The big round guy finally let Sonic defeat him! Well, don't celebrate too soon, hedgehog, now it's MY turn! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA...! AND I'M NOT ALOOOOOONE!!!! (glowing red eyes appear, with faint laughter and wheezing heard in the background)
- Ben Hurst's plans for a backstory for NICOLE are terrifying. Nicole was a child prodigy, and Sally's best friend; Robotnik takes notice of Nicole's genius and has his SWATbots bring her to him one day. He says that she's been selected to participate in a research project, but first he needs to give her some forms for her parents to sign. She agrees and follows him into a room with a machine that he asks if she will let him connect her to, to make sure it'll fit. He proceeds to transfer her consciousness to the computer said machine is hooked up to, killing her original body—that's right, Robotnik just straight-up murdered a child—and leaving Nicole, now an AI, trapped in her handheld. She realizes that her body is dead and that she'll have to work for Robotnik, and begins analyzing the potential results: strip every sentient being on Mobius of their free will, leaving her completely alone, or make everyone happy at the cost of also removing their free will. She instead suppresses her personality, mind-wipes Robotnik, and manipulates him into handing her over to King Max, who in turn entrusts her to Sally, who's unaware that the AI is all that remains of her best friend. One can only imagine what her parents were going through.
