Gerald Robotnik

## Professor Gerald Robotnik of the House of Kintobor

Professor Gerald Robotnik, of Project Shadow

Prof. **Gerald Robotnik**, is both a fictional character and deuteragonist from the *SKB's* *Sonic Pokémon* series created by Yuji Naka and Satoshi Tajiri. He was a human scientist who lived onboard the Space Colony ARK.

A world-renowned scientist who is widely acknowledged as one of the greatest scientific minds of all time, Gerald was the scientist responsible for several groundbreaking creations, making him a modern day scientific Da Vinci.

Over 50 years ago, Gerald was asked by the President of the United Federation to lead Project Shadow, a medical program for inventing immortality, which he accepted in hopes of finding a cure for a fatal illness that was afflicting Maria.

Eventually, Gerald managed to succeed by creating Shadow the Hedgehog, who served as his greatest achievement and legacy even long after his death. However though, not without drastic measures; he was later arrested.

He was later taken into custody, later executed, by the military when his work was deemed too dangerous. Before his death however, he learned that Maria was killed by the military aboard the ARK when the project shut down.

Realizing this, Gerald slipped into madness and spent his last days secretly plotting revenge against humanity and prepared Shadow to destroy and exact revenge on the Station Square's G.U.N. military for murdering his granddaughter.

"*The countdown marking my final revenge on this world has begun! In a few minutes, you will be destroyed! Soon, Space Colony ARK will hurtle through the atmosphere and crash into this world with cataclysmic force! All of you ungrateful humans, who took everything away from me, will feel my loss and despair when I lost Maria! You'll see. You will all see!*"

—Prof. Gerald Robotnik, his last recorded message to the world before his execution.

## Appearance & Biography

*Voice Actor*: Mike Pollock (English), Kotaro Nakamura (Japanese), Not Known (Albanian), Not Known (Arabic), Not Known (Basque), Not Known (Brazilian), Not Known (Cantonese), Not Known (Catalan), Not Known (Chinese), Not Known (Dutch), Not Known (Finnish), Not Known (French), Not Known (Galician), Manfred Erdmann (German), Not Known (Greek), Not Known (Hebrew), Not Known (Hong Kong), Not Known (Hungarian), Not Known (Indonesian), Not Known (Isralian), Carlo Reali (Italian), Not Known (Korean), Not Known (Mandarin), Not Known (Norwegian), Wiesław Sławik (Polish), Not Known (Portuguese), Not Known (Romanian), Not Known (Russian), Not Known (Serbian), Not Known (Spanish), Not Known (Swedish), Not Known (Tagalog), Not Known (Thai), Not Known (Turkish), Not Known (Valencian), Not Known (Brazilian Portuguese), Not Known (European Spanish), Not Known (European Portuguese), Not Known (Latin American Spanish), Not Known (Latin Spanish), Youwen Chen (Mandarin Chinese)

### Appearance

Gerald Robotnik bore a distinct resemblance to his grandson. He had broad and elevated shoulders, a round, almost egg-shaped, torso (though not with as large a girth as his grandson's). Like Eggman, he also had an oversize mustache, except its appearance is different depending on the series. He was also not very tall of stature, only being about half a head taller than Maria.

#### Manga & Video Games

He has a slightly over-proportioned arms and legs, and large hands and feet. He was also bald with a dome-shaped head, a long and large nose, and low-set small ears. Gerald's oversized mustache was whitish gray, more voluminous and smoother.

Gerald's general attire consisted of a red turtleneck sweater, brown pants, a white lab coat with black buttons, and blue slippers. He also wore blue pince-nez glasses which had a distinct ripple-like pattern on them.

#### Anime

He had more normal body proportions in the arms and legs, as well as large hands and feet. He also was bald with an oval/dome-shaped head, a chin, a long, large nose, and low-set, average-sized ears. Gerald's oversized mustache was grey and more ragged than his grandson's.

Gerald's general attire consisted of a purple turtleneck sweater and a white lab coat with black buttons. He also wore blue pince-nez glasses, gray pants and brown shoes.

* Hair Color: Gray (originally Brown)
* Skin Color: Peach
* Eye Color: Not Known
* Age: Not Known (Deceased)
* Birthday: Not Known
* Height: 170 cm (5' 7")
* Weight: 88 kg (194 lb.)

## Personality

Before his descent, Gerald was a good man and a profound humanitarian, the very much opposite of his psychotic grandson Eggman. He was devoted to using his intellect to help mankind and bring them happiness and hope through the power of science, which he believed was the reason for his existence. While he was much more serious about his work than Eggman, Gerald remained a caring person towards his family. As old age began to catch up to him, though, Gerald would become more forgetful.

Gerald was a man of strong ethical standards, refusing to use his genius for the wrong reasons. He initially refused to lead Project Shadow since he thought obtaining immortality was against nature and because he had no interest in aiding with war. That said, he was not above breaking his ethics for certain reasons, like when being forced by the higher-ups or when he thought it was for the greater good, such as joining Project Shadow or handing over the dangerous Emerl just to find a cure for his dying granddaughter.

Even when in such situations, however, Gerald went out of his way to make sure his research would have the potential for good as well, like how he gave both Shadow and Emerl genuine feelings and planned to share Shadow with the world to help mankind. He also held the strong belief that power born from the desire to protect rather than the desire to conquer would make all conflicts cease to exist.

Although Gerald was willing to make a deal with Black Doom in order to complete Project Shadow, upon realizing the alien's ulterior motives of conquering the world, Gerald set to retaliate against his benefactor despite promising to give the seven Chaos Emeralds to him, showing that Gerald is willing to undermine a deal for the sake of protecting Mobius, Pokémon, and humanity.

When his beloved granddaughter Maria was killed, Gerald went through a profound change, as he was consumed by grief and slowly went insane. He eventually became a rage-filled psychopath, developing a deep hatred for humanity who he blamed for Maria's death, and grew obsessed with revenge by committing global genocide.

He turned Shadow and the Eclipse Cannon — both of which he originally conceived to defend Mobius from the Black Arms — into weapons of mass destruction, completely in contrast of his original humanitarian and peaceful ideals. Even in his last moments, all Gerald had to express was his contempt for humanity, and he died a broken man.

## Relationships

### Friends/Allies

* Emerl
* Space Colony ARK researchers

### Family

* Jennifer Vasquez [wife; deceased)
* Geraldo Robotnik (son; deceased)
* Evan Robotnik (son; deceased)
* Bertha Robotnik (daughter-in-law; deceased)
* Maria Robotnik (granddaughter; deceased)
* Dr. Ivo "Eggman" Robotnik (grandson)
* Prof. Colin Robotnik (grandson)
* Irving Pavlov (grandnephew; deceased)
* Jack Robotnik (great-grandson)
* Hope Robotnik (great-granddaughter)
* Bio Lizard (prototype creation)
* Shadow the Hedgehog (creation)

### Enemies

* Black Arms
	+ Black Doom
* Guardian Units of the Nations
* United Federation
* Humanity

## Powers and Abilities

Gerald was an extremely intelligent, knowledgeable and gifted scientist with an incredible intellect who was widely regarded as the greatest scientific mind in history, even when compared to present-day geniuses. He possessed many talents, having mastered several areas of study, including architecture, science, astrology and foremost biology, along with genetics to astrophysics to robotics. As a testament to his intelligence, he is regarded as both one of the most brilliant minds ever and the most gifted researcher of all time, only matched by his grandson Eggman.

He was the one who designed the world's first bernal sphere space colony, the Space Colony ARK, which came equipped with living quarters and laboratories surpassing everything available on the planet, and developed incredible devices and machinery such as the Eclipse Cannon, which has the power to destroy planets and pierce stars, the Heal Unit, the Artificial Chaos units, the Bomb Unit, and the pseudo-perpetual mobile Chaos Drives which could contain the Chaos Emeralds' mystical energies.

He was also behind the creation of incredible creatures which was his biggest accomplishments, however, include such as the Bio Lizard and Shadow the Hedgehog (the latter of which used alien DNA), artificial beings with immortal bodies and powers beyond any creature, both of whom are powerful, nearly unstoppable and capable of harnessing the power of the Chaos Emeralds. Additionally, he was a skilled archaeologist as demonstrated in his research of the Gizoid and the Fourth Great Civilization where he uncovered many of their secrets from ancient stone tablets and papers.

## History

### Past

#### Early life

It has been implied that Gerald comes from a long line of brilliant scientists. The greatest mind of his time, Gerald, who believed his purpose in life was to bring the people of the world happiness and hope through science, set out to help the world by dedicating his life's work to the people of the world. During his carrier, Gerald accomplished many great things, his most remarkable creation being the Space Colony ARK, the world's first space colony which he designed.

Other accomplishments included discovering and researching an interdimensional beast called the Ifrit, which he wrote several files about, and being the first to propose the existence of the Fourth Great Civilization. Eventually, Gerald had a granddaughter named Maria Robotnik, whom he became extremely fond of. Gerald would come to live and work with Maria onboard the Space Colony ARK, where he took care of his granddaughter, who needed constant attention because she suffered from Neuro-Immune Deficiency Syndrome, an incurable and inevitably fatal disease.

#### Early Work

Over fifty years prior to the beginning of the series, Gerald, at the height of his career, got a letter from the by then-President of the United Federation who requested his help with a medical project named "Project Shadow", a medical program meant to research immortality and develop an "immortality formula." Initially, Gerald stubbornly refused this request, believing they were crossing the limits of man and that this research could be used for war efforts.

However, upon realizing that the immortality research could be used to develop a cure for Maria's illness, Gerald eventually accepted the President's request and agreed to lead the project on the Space Colony ARK in secrecy. During Project Shadow, Gerald would create more artificial creatures on behalf of GUN who wanted their own "Chaos monsters". His experiments eventually led to the creation of the experimental Artificial Chaos units, synthetic life-forms based on the god of an ancient culture.

##### Project Shadow

Initially, Gerald's fellow researchers doubted the project's success, even with Gerald's brilliant mind on their side. In the first stages of Project Shadow, Gerald researched the Chaos Emeralds, which resulted in the creation of the Chaos Drives, during tests to apply chaos energy to living beings. When those tests proved successful, Gerald and his colleagues moved onto creating an immortal creature dubbed the "ultimate life form".

Gerald and his colleagues eventually produced the prototype of the ultimate life form, dubbed the Bio Lizard. While it lived up too many of their expectations as it grew, the creature proved too flawed. In addition to a bestial and unruly nature, weak limbs and reliance on machinery for survival, Gerald noticed the Bio Lizard grew too fast and requested that the control part on its vital organs was reinforced. Despite these results, Gerald moved on with the project.

##### Creation of Shadow

During the development however, Gerald needed help with his research. He thus contacted Black Doom, the leader of the Black Arms, an extraterrestrial race of aliens from the Black Comet, a celestial body that was passing by the earth at the time, and they made a deal: Black Doom would help Gerald with his work, even providing his blood as DNA for the project, and in return, Gerald would have his creation deliver the seven Chaos Emeralds to Black Doom in fifty years, which would be when the Black Comet made its return.

However, Gerald eventually discovered Black Doom's plans to use the Chaos Emeralds to devour the human race. Realizing his mistake, Gerald secretly plotted against Black Doom by developing the Eclipse Canon, a weapon capable of destroying the Black Comet, and the Black Arms with it, upon their return. Using the DNA of Black Doom, Gerald created a new version of the Bio Lizard, but with another physique, dubbed "Shadow the Hedgehog." Unwilling to make Shadow a weapon though, Gerald gave him a "heart" and "soul" similar to Maria's in hopes that he would not become a weapon of mass-destruction.

##### The Gizoid

Gerald uncovered an ancient robot called the Gizoid from a warehouse. Believing it was made by an ancient civilization, Gerald experimented on it with Chaos Emeralds and accidentally activated it. By researching papers related to the Gizoid and the Chaos Emeralds, and later an ancient stone tablet which he had discovered, Gerald theorized this robot was what caused the destruction of the Fourth Great Civilization. His further research and observations also revealed the Gizoid could mimic combat abilities and weapons, and that it possessed vast amount of data on melee combat and weapons of its age, data that which crashed Gerald's most advanced computers when he tried scanning it.

Theorizing the Gizoid's full potential should it be fully restored, Gerald realized he had uncovered a horrible weapon. As Gerald continued to research the Gizoid, he discovered that the Gizoid would swear loyalty to those with great power by establishing a "Link" with them. To keep the Gizoid under his control and from being used for evil, Gerald successfully made a Link with it by demonstrating his model weapon collection to it. However, in fear of someone with evil intentions forming a Link with the Gizoid, Gerald researched how to re-establish a Link with the Gizoid should it be lost.

##### Government and Shadow

When Shadow neared his completion, Gerald learned the government had become uneasy about the outcome of Project Shadow following his contact with the Black Arms. With Gerald's invention beginning to be perceived as potentially dangerous to humanity, the government considered cutting funding. Unwilling to let his study get ceased now that he was so close to finding a cure for Maria, Gerald made a big risk and offered the Gizoid as a bribe to the government to keep Project Shadow going.

While Gerald ordered the Gizoid not to absorb dangerous technologies, other researchers tried to form a new Link with the Gizoid by demonstrating great power. Eventually, Gerald's fears were confirmed when the Gizoid went on a rampage that destroyed most of the ARK before it was subdued. Deeming the Gizoid too dangerous, Gerald tried to destroy its core but failed due to its advanced technology. Instead, he planted a code-based "heart" and "soul" based on Maria's in the Gizoid that would grant it free will and emotions.

Gerald hoped that these qualities would prevent the Gizoid from becoming a weapon of mass-destruction. In case the Gizoid went out of control however, Gerald implanted a final program in it that would prompt it to self-destruct should that time come. Eventually, Gerald's years of research bore fruit when Shadow was finally created, with both him and Black Doom overseeing Shadow's awakening. Shadow proved to be everything Gerald had hoped for, possessing both immortality, high intelligence, own identity, and independence.

In addition, Shadow became very close to the residents of the ARK, especially Gerald's granddaughter, Maria. Learning however that the government planned to cease his research after deeming Shadow a threat to mankind, Gerald prepared a contingency video for Shadow. In it, Gerald discussed the government's plans to close Project Shadow, while also explaining how Shadow was meant to stop the Black Arms when the Black Comet returned in 50 years. During the time Shadow was raised, Gerald unintentionally had an accident with his Artificial Chaos which caused them to run loose.

Gerald himself dictated this mistake to his old age. Fortunately, Shadow and GUN ensured the situation was brought under control.

#### Imprisonment

Gerald's suspicions were confirmed when GUN attacked the Space Colony ARK sometime after the completion of Project Shadow to eliminate everything and everyone related to the project and shut the ARK down. During the attack, Gerald put his finishing touches on Shadow. When GUN's Special Forces rushed into the ARK's laboratory, Gerald entrusted Shadow to Maria and left them to flee in the ARK's escape pods. He later made sure that one escape capsule was ejected towards earth, and Gerald assumed that Maria and Shadow had escaped to safety.

Gerald was eventually captured under the guise of disappearing under mysterious circumstances and taken to Prison Island where he was forced to continue his experiments under military control. Meanwhile, when it was released to the public that the ARK was shut down due to an accident, Gerald was blamed for causing it. When the military later found Shadow, who got placed in suspended animation, and brought him to Prison Island for Gerald to continue his research.

##### Tragedy, Madness, and Death

While in prison, Gerald saw Maria among the list of casualties when the ARK was shut down and was grief-stricken. Unable to cope with the loss of his granddaughter, Gerald began to lose control of his mind as he could only think of avenging Maria and ending everything, something which terrified him. As a result, he would unwillingly scribble calculations he made for a doomsday plan in his cell on Prison Island. During the period where he was still had control over his mind, Gerald got a hold of the Gizoid again and use this opportunity to make Maria's dying words the keywords that would activate the Gizoid's free-willed emotions-based AI once all seven Chaos Emeralds were inserted into it.

In the end, Gerald lost his grip on reality and went insane, devoting himself to avenging Maria by destroying humanity. Eventually while it was thought that he was continuing his research with Shadow, Gerald secretly created a program with the computer equipment available to him that would cause the Space Colony ARK to fall and destroy the planet once the seven Chaos Emeralds were placed into the Eclipse Cannon and set the Bio Lizard up as well, to ensure this.

In the meantime, Gerald managed to put his finishing touches on Shadow, who had been found by the military and put into suspended animation on Prison Island. By brainwashing Shadow, Gerald altered his memories of what Maria wanted of him as her final wish so that he would carry out his plan once he was awoken. Gerald then left a note behind in his diary that encouraged the reader to release Shadow if they wanted to cause global destruction.

Ultimately soon after, Gerald was sentenced to death by gunshot by the military when they began to fear of how he could retaliate. Just before he was executed, Gerald's last action was leaving behind a recording where he condemned the ungrateful world to destruction for the fate of Maria by giving his estimate for how long it would take for the ARK to collide with the planet.

## Legacy

Because of the tragic deaths Gerald's research indirectly caused and the potential dangers to humanity his discoveries posed, many would view Gerald with contempt. Abraham Tower himself came to consider Gerald insane and held a life-long grudge against him for creating Shadow, which indirectly led to the death of Maria.

After his death, many of Gerald's late creations, research and, discoveries which would form his legacy, including Shadow, and his diary were placed under tight security as a part of the government's plot to erase or bury all traces of Project Shadow due to their potential for calamity. Gerald's Chaos Drives continued to be used by GUN as power sources for their mechs. Prior to his execution, he also conducted several mathematical equations within his prison cell, which would later be found by Amy.

Despite Gerald's bad reputation, Gerald's grandsons Dr. Eggman and Prof. Robotnik both looked up to him and admired him for the great things he accomplished. This inspired them to become scientists, though only Eggman would use his intellect to try achieving world domination. 50 years after his death, Gerald's plan to destroy the world was set into motion when one of his grandsons had gained possession of his diary after hacking into Prison Island's mainframe.

After reading Gerald's diary, Eggman awoke Shadow in an attempt to gain possession of a weapon that would let him take over the world. Like Gerald had intended, Shadow set out to exact revenge against G.U.N. and destroy the world to avenge Maria, operating without knowing his true purpose and unaware that he was carrying out Gerald's will. Shadow stole a Chaos Emerald to help Eggman achieve this objective. Shadow worked with Eggman, eventually acquiring seven Chaos Emeralds in order to use the Eclipse Cannon against the world.

Once the ARK was set on a collision course with Earth, Gerald's last video recording was played around the world. Gerald's doomsday plan was averted however by Sonic and, ironically, Shadow, who managed to recover his true memories of Maria, thanks to Chris and Amy reminding him of his true purpose. Shadow teamed up with Sonic and destroyed the Bio Lizard, saving the world, though cost Shadow his memories and almost his life, but he ended up being saved by Eggman.

When the alien war's final battle began and Shadow was at the mercy of Black Doom's mind control, Shadow finally learned of his true purpose in life from a final video message from Gerald, thanks to Cosmo; to be the protector of all life on the planet and defend them from the Black Arms when they return in 50 years in the future. This gave Shadow the motivated he need to help Sonic defeat the alien leaders and use the Eclipse Cannon to obliterate the Mother Ship and Black Comet.

However, Eclipse with the Dark Arms eggs escaped to Sonic's world in a small rocket. From then on afterwards, Shadow would join G.U.N. as one of their agents and to help Sonic and their allies in order to better protect and saving the world from various threats along with other reasons. Gerald's forbidden research would also be uncovered over time by his family and counterparts, namely Dr. Eggman and Dr. Eggman Nega, who would use it for their own nefarious purposes.

## Theme songs

The video games have featured several theme songs for the character. Shadow's themes consisted primarily of the techno and industrial genres often with synched vocals that are barely audible but, have shown an increasing preference towards the hard rock genre in more recent games.

## See also

* Gerald Robotnik's Diary
* Gerald Robotnik's Journal

## External links

* Professor Gerald Robotnik *Heroes Wiki*
* Professor Gerald Robotnik *Sonic News Network*
* Professor Gerald Robotnik *Villains Wikia*

## Notes & Trivia

* According to Eggman, the appearance of his past version from his younger days was also based off of his grandfather's appearance at a younger age, meaning that Gerald's initial hair color was brown much like his grandson's before aging.
* After Gerald's rant, he was asked if he had any further words, to which he replies "no" before a squad is signaled. This is meant to imply that Gerald was sentenced to death by firing squad.
* In the anime, Gerald's diary entry and ultimately, his motivations, were different in comparison to the games. When he was escorted to the Union Army Prison, he wondered who could possibly believe that someone arrested him. He also implies in his rants in his diary that he was the creator of the "pseudo-perpetual mobile Chaos Drives." He also wonders if his arrest had anything to do with a conspiracy by GUN to take over the Eclipse Cannon and Artificial Chaos, and mentions that Project Shadow is the only thing in his mind, and that he won't stand for such immorality. The diary omits any references to Maria's death or the fact that her death drove him insane. In the Japanese version, it also contained two cases of swearing in the diary ("Oh, hell" when he discovers that he was going to be locked up in the Union Army Prison and "for christ's sake" when expressing his distaste at being locked up and citing his being the father of the pseudo-perpetual mobile Chaos Drives), a rarity at the time.