Dr. Robotnik, is the main antagonist a brilliant robotics expert and mad scientist who works with the American government, covets Sonic's abilities, and plans to exploit them for personal gain, leading him to become Sonic's archenemy. Carrey compared his character to his portrayal of the Riddler in Batman Forever, saying: "I wouldn't put one against the other. I think they'd be a great team. But you know, it's like Robotnik and every supervillain in Marvel or DC basically comes from a place of neglect with a feeling of absolute worthlessness that manifests itself in magnificent creations that are designed to control the world, put their brand on everybody, and maybe even get inside your bloodstream with some nanotechnology occasionally". In the sequel, he often refers to as "Eggman". After escaping from the mushroom planet, Robotnik teams up with Knuckles to retaliate against Sonic and find the Master Emerald.
Appearance[]
Dr. Robotnik is an average-sized human. He originally possessed dark brown (almost black) hair, light peach skin, brown eyes, a short mustache and ample stubble across his jawline. His hair was usually combed back, and his mustache was usually thin and dark brown (almost black) with handlebar curls at the ends. For attire, he usually wore a black trench coat with customized tails and red piping, a dark grey tunic, black trousers, black shoes, black gloves, black sunglasses and a pair of Robotnik Control Gloves. When later piloting his Eggpod, he donned a red flight suit with black and brown accents and black goggles with red lenses.
After spending nearly three months alone on the Mushroom Planet, Dr. Robotnik adopted a significantly different appearance: he shaved his head completely bald, he let his mustache become overgrown, unkempt, and more mahogany in color, his nose gained a notable pinkish-red sunburn, and the sleeves of his flight suit had been torn off. Additionally, his eyes are more sunken, and have notable wrinkles and dark circles around them.
After Knuckles helped Robotnik escape the Mushroom Planet, Robotnik changed his outfit, wearing a red and black overcoat, black pants, black boots and new Robotnik Control Gloves.
Personality[]
Allow me to clarify: in a sequentially-ranked hierarchy based on level of critical importance, the disparity between us is too vast to quantify. — Robotnik describing his superiority to Major Bennington, Sonic the Hedgehog (film) Robotnik is a malevolent human who has been described as "pure, unbridled evil"[7] and a "psychological tire fire". Usually, he comes across as an assertive and self-confident person who does not let his convictions waver in the face of others. However, his genius intellect makes him very narcissistic. Notably, he will declare himself the head of any operation he is involved on, voicing out his supposed superiority to those he comes across without hesitation or consideration, and viewing everyone else around him as inferior and basic. Arrogant and condescending, he thinks that the hardest thing about being "the smartest person in the world is that everyone else is stupid". He similarly prides himself on his intellect and refuses to acknowledge surprise, instead falling back on the excuse that his movements of surprise do not count since he is "expecting not to expect something." These traits mainly stem from Robotnik's own severe inferiority complex which originate from childhood neglect. As a result, he sees himself as an insignificant speck, and yearns for acknowledgment and recognition. This often results in him bringing up personal accomplishments in order to make himself feel superior.
Robotnik is also characterized by his quite eccentric behavior. This includes sudden mood swings, mimicking robotic noises and movements, using large and complicated words in conversations to describe a simple situation, and dancing wildly to his own scenarios when he believes he is alone.
Robotnik is not one who tolerates failure and is very quick to lose his temper when it occurs, which prompts his violent mood swings. Lacking any concern about morality and collateral damage to boot, Robotnik is willing to do whatever it takes to accomplish his goals, as evidenced by the numerous lethal measures he took to capture Sonic and get rid of anyone helping him, and the destruction he caused to San Francisco and the Great Pyramids of Egypt. Despite his claims of wanting to improve the Earth, he is happily aware that he is "evil" and thus wishes to achieve improvement the way he envisions it, having for example put a label on his lab's light switch that says, "evil lab". He also has a large chip on his shoulder about being bullied as a child and hates being reminded of how he used to be at the mercy of unintelligent brutes.
Robotnik has also an incredibly sadistic streak, seizing any opportunity to inflict pain upon other people, and relishing every second of it. Notably, he would happily talk about how he wanted to dissect Sonic and "see what makes him tick", and smile as he threatened to kill Tom while interrogating him and reciting the US Code.
An egomaniacal and sociopathic misanthrope, Robotnik often voices his distaste for humanity, viewing human beings as inefficient creatures of hubris and desire. Humans similarly bore the doctor to the state that he considers their lives meaningless and therefore he has no desire for having friends, which he is proud of not to have. Robotnik is similarly completely devoid of empathy for any lifeform, be they humans, animals, or those in-between, being unable to understand why Tom would risk everything to help Sonic, and hunting Sonic in order dissect him for his own scientific inquiries. As such, Robotnik hates everybody around him, although he is shown to barely tolerate Agent Stone, whom he compliments for his lattes, albeit very aggressively, and intellect.[8] Due to his arrogance and having a mindset based on science and computational thinking, Robotnik sees human society as a computer system and people as programmable toy monkeys, with his approach to both aspects being based science and how to methodically rewrite such "programs" in his own favor without regard for the moral implications.[8] Interestingly enough however, despite Robotnik openly stating that he would not miss Agent Stone during the San Francisco incident, he did create a stand-in of his lackey to keep him company on the Mushroom Planet. This may imply either that he does desire human company on some level, or that he just needs someone to abuse.
Owning to his hatred of humanity and being a staunch perfectionist, Robotnik values only robotics, which he sees as practical and functional since they always follow their programming and do what they are told. He is especially proud of his Badnik drones, which he displays affection for and praises them for being relentless and effective. In his own words, his machines are everything to him, and he considers them to be a part of the further evolution of mankind.
Over the course of his hunt for Sonic's power, Robotnik's sanity would degrade to the point where he became completely obsessed with obtaining Sonic's power by any means necessary, eventually becoming willing to place himself in life-threatening situations where he would fail to realize the danger until it was too late. After spending almost three months alone on the Mushroom Planet, his grip on sanity would degrade even further despite his claims to the contrary, as he would talk to a stone as if it was a real person. Eventually, after spending over eight months on the Mushroom Planet, the prolonged isolation has had a significant negative effect on the doctor's psyche, with his sanity having nearly completely disintegrated, and losing what little control and restraint he had, acting completely erratic and psychotic.
Robotnik is also treacherous, which ultimately lead to his downfall; right after he managed to gain access to the Master Emerald, Knuckles, whom he betrayed for the Emerald, formed an alliance with Sonic and Tails and helped to deprive Robotnik of the Master Emerald.
Powers and abilities[]
Dr. Robotnik has a genius intellect, boasting five PhDs and an IQ of 300.[9] Growing up, he was a child prodigy, apparently being able to articulate formulas around the time Tom was an infant. In adulthood, his intellect has enabled him to create various types of highly advanced and revolutionary remote-controlled machinery and robot drones. He is so intelligent in fact that he was able to accurately determine Sonic's exact height, weight and entire skeletal structure based on nothing but a footprint of his, and determine and harness the power of Sonic's alien biology. He has also been expertly trained to spot tracks by the Native American Shadow Wolves. He is also multilingual, being able to speak at least English, Japanese and French. He also has keen vehicle intuition, being able to expertly pilot his Eggpod through the narrow streets of San Francisco at speeds compatible to Sonic's while taking accurate shots at Sonic.
Robotnik also has impressive survival skills. After being stranded on the Mushroom Planet, he was able to fend for himself with only a pack of salvaged scrap, his wrist device, and his intelligence for nearly three months. He also demonstrated great skill in setting booby traps.
Equipment[]
Dr. Robotnik wears a uniquely designed controller on the glove of his left hand; with a few buttons presses and finger-thumb movements, he is able to program and command his technology, or secretly and non-verbally control his machines. This controller also has standard internet functions. A variation of this device was later incorporated into the doctor's flight suit, which sported a radio recorder and a date counter.
Transformation[]
By harnessing the power of the Master Emerald, Robotnik can attain a higher state of being. Described as all-powerful, all-knowing, and all-seeing in this form, Robotnik possesses the ability to turn thought into reality while in this state, allowing him to perform various reality-bending feats that include, but are not limited to, telekinesis, heighted senses, flight, energy manipulation, teleportation, and technokinesis,
Weaknesses[]
Robotnik is shown to have low durability, as a single punch to the face from Tom was enough to stun him long enough for Tom to escape with Sonic.
Robotnik also has a massive, but very fragile ego. As his hunt for Sonic continued, he became more unhinged with every defeat, until he was driven completely insane from his plans being foiled.
After his first defeat at Sonic's hands, Robotnik has also developed an obsessive hatred of the hedgehog which can be used against him, as seen when Sonic got the doctor to focus all of his attention on him by taunting him.