Does Gerald Robotnik deserve to be pardoned for his crimes?

[cjmoore25]

This is a topic I don't hear too often among the community and on the rare instances it does some say no, others say yes, so I guess I felt like knowing the more general consensus on the matter.

Personally, I say yes, though mostly because he had it really rough near the end of his life. Granddaughter gunned down, falsely imprisoned and executed for creating monsters, and even though he attempted to destroy the world out of rage, I think he made up for it when he set up a way to help save it from the Black Arms (granted he did that BEFORE the fact, but still).

After all the shit he went through, I think it's fair to at the very least restore honor to his family name (even though Eggman probably already tarnished it again.)

[Rey Skywalker-Ren]

He didn't really commit any "crime" persay. Originally, the experiments were made to help mankind but once everything was taken over, Shadow was created to distroy mankind. 

It's mostly just GUN afraid of of their minds in this case and it turn sour from there.

[MetalSkulkBane]

Overall yes, he was wanted to do good, saved planet (indirectly), and was wrongly arrested. (Although I never got exactly why he was arrested.)

But if Gerald somehow came back to live, still wanting to nuke humanity, I would arrest him (if not kill again). I'm pardoning who Gerald USED to be, not is now.

[Dantemustdie00]

Maybe when he was sane yes, but it seems he went batshit crazy after his arrest and I assume hearing about Maria's death. If he got out in his current state he would've been far more dangerous than his great grandson would be as I would imagine him committing mass genocide everywhere.

And no offense to him, I get he was trying to find a cure, but he did made a deal with a extremely hostile alien race and created not one but two bio-weapons.

[Kaotic Kanine]

Hard to say. Yes, he was given all sorts of crap by GUN: having his life's work shut down, his beloved Granddaughter killed, and being wrongly imprisoned. But... He did try to kill all life on Earth over something that is comparatively insignificant. Even if Gerald wasn't in control of his thoughts and actions as a result of complete insanity (which is all too understandable), he still attempted "omnicide" and that's a crime that just cannot be justified or forgiven under any circumstance. Then again, GUN were the ones who started that shit-storm and so technically deserve all the blame.

[Singapore Sling]

3 hours ago, cjmoore25 said:

 

Personally, I say yes, though mostly because he had it really rough near the end of his life. Granddaughter gunned down, falsely imprisoned and executed for creating monsters, and even though he attempted to destroy the world out of rage, I think he made up for it when he set up a way to help save it from the Black Arms (granted he did that BEFORE the fact, but still).

 

If we're operating under the pretense that Gerald committed a crime, considering that he was taking credit for Ark falling down to Earth and was actively blaming literally everyone who existed for things most of them didn't do, "he had it rough" is not a good enough reason to pardon.

[Ryannumber1gamer]

No, not really, at least not in the game's canon. Gerald may have started out with good intentions, but it doesn't change the fact he attempted to destroy the entire planet over something G.U.N did, and ended up going completely against Maria's wishes in the first place. A good guy doesn't do that, and he's never done anything to actual deserve redemption in terms of the series itself. Shadow tries to establish him as a hero who saved all of their lives, despite the fact it was Shadow who did so, and even then it's implied he somehow tampered with Shadow so he'd want revenge for Maria, and then his second plan was some kind of idiot activating the Eclipse Cannon (Something programmed into Shadow for the record), and then having a third plan of having the A.R.K bomb into Earth by using his original proto-type. He had three fucking plans set up in order to destroy everyone on Earth, for something a small group of assholes, that nobody likes for the record, did. I don't give a shit what stupid crap Shadow tried to do to make him redeemable. It doesn't change the fact he later changed his Black Doom plans in order to program Shadow to attempt to destroy everyone through the Eclipse Cannon.

[Sega DogTagz]

Geralds lone redemption came in the form of Shadow, who despite the reasons or justifications for being created, was ultimately made to choose his own path and decide his own future, so I for one am pretty quick to tap the brakes on levying any of that potential toward gerald.

Not only did the Doc try to ghost the entire planet, but he also kick started the chain of events that lead to the black arms coming back expecting a world to fall to its knees in submission. Just because he built the eclipse cannon to stop that from happening shouldn't garnish any less punishment for that. He was merely attempting to fix a problem he himself had set into motion. Would you forgive a guy for shooting your mom if he stepped up and stopped her from bleeding out? You might be grateful for him doing something, but I bet you'll still hold a grudge for shooting her in the first place.

 

No pardon from me.

[Tornado]

"My only wish is that the true Ultimate Life Form, Shadow the Hedgehog, can successfully stave off the aliens or some shit. I dunno. Gonna try to blow up the entire planet myself, so not really bothered either way."

[Sega DogTagz]

41 minutes ago, Hero said:

 deciding to kill almost everyone aboard ARK who are working to cure a fatal illness without any sort of warning was a really rash decision. 

 

***(They were doing a lot more than medical research up there. Shadow mentioned that there were numerous weapons systems installed on the ARC, and we also saw quite a few projects unrelated to project shadow such as the Chaos Drives and Artificial Chaos Clones)****

Yeah, you gotta hate how all that went down, but like you said a bit earlier you gotta look at it from GUN's perspective. If we learned anything from good ol Mephilies, its that humanity was afraid of Shadow. Like really, really, super afraid of what something like that could do (remember this is 35 odd years before a certain blue Hedgehog came on the scene too).

GUN was pushed (either by greed or fear) to act on project Shadow. Something that powerful couldn't be left unchecked. When Gerald refused to turn over a superweapon... well GUN pretty much was forced to choose the nuclear option and take it by force. A few loose trigger fingers, and some heavy handed tactics and blammo, utter catastrophe.

Shadow's life story has a few constants, and chief among them is that the world at large wants him behind eleven locks and ten keys. I can see and sympathize with Gerald's reasoning for doing what he did (not that I would pardon it), but what GUN did when they raided the ARC speaks to equal amounts of desperation. While on the topic of pardoning Gerald, how about talking about a pardon for GUN? Sure they wasted Maria and are responsible for a lot of... questionable decision making, but they have done quite a bit of good in their time too.

[Tornado]

2 minutes ago, Sega DogTagz said:

 While on the topic of pardoning Gerald, how about talking about a pardon for GUN? Sure they wasted Maria and are responsible for a lot of... questionable decision making, but they have done quite a bit of good in their time too.

That's a lot of property damage tho.

[DarkLight]

^For someone who didn't even commit the crime they're accusing him of doing. Hell, they really didn't have any actual proof that he did besides some blurry footage and color-blindness.

 

[Sega DogTagz]

if collateral damage was a big deal in this world then Sonic would be public enemy no. 1

lol

[Nepenthe]

GUN is stated in the 50 Years thingadoodle to have simply hated the ARK project just because, or most likely because the General was a racist-against-hedgehogs douchebag. Then they used as an excuse of the Biolizard, which was already being debated to be shut down, as a reason to go in guns blazing. On top of that they lied to the public about the casualties. I mean, considering they are the actual military you would think they would have government oversight to actually shut the operation down properly. But nah; General Dude had a point to make. And really, what are the human rights issues involved in kidnapping a creature sapient enough to be bound to human law and freezing him for 50 years despite not actually having done anything? All GUN deserves is some people to be tried and imprisoned.

[Nepenthe]

Yeah, I stupidly thought of ShtH's commander while writing that post and the fridge logic of that hit me on the way to the pharmacy. xD

But the point stands! GUN had no justification to do what they did, and the fact that the public doesn't know about it is all the more slimy. Honestly had they simply not fucked with ARK, they would've saved everyone Gerald's rampage.

[KHCast]

Somecallmejohnny's review of SA2 and SHtH does a good job at pointing out all the confusing shit revolving around GUN and their actions. Really it's probably mostly on them. 

[Nepenthe]

Not wasting Shadow is the biggest contradiction if we're assuming they attacked ARK as pre-emptive warfare against the weaponry there. Not storming the ARK yet again when they saw Sonic working with Eggman up there- or when they noticed Shadow's capsule was peculiarly empty, whichever came first- is another confusing thing. I mean, they got up there before with 50 year old technology.

[Sega DogTagz]

31 minutes ago, Nepenthe said:

GUN is stated in the 50 Years thingadoodle to have simply hated the ARK project just because, or most likely because the General was a racist-against-hedgehogs douchebag. 

 

Whoa there. How did you come to that conclusion? Do we even know who the general who made the order to burn the ARC even was?

Commander Tower was a tyke at the time, probably even younger than Maria. I don't think we know even remotely enough about that administration to throw around accusations like that.

nvermd

31 minutes ago, Nepenthe said:

 

Then they used as an excuse of the Biolizard, which was already being debated to be shut down, as a reason to go in guns blazing. On top of that they lied to the public about the casualties. I mean, considering they are the actual military you would think they would have government oversight to actually shut the operation down properly. But nah; General Dude had a point to make. And really, what are the human rights issues involved in kidnapping a creature sapient enough to be bound to human law and freezing him for 50 years despite not actually having done anything? All GUN deserves is some people to be tried and imprisoned.

Eh, I disagree.

Dr. Gerald, A scientist with unrivaled and unparalleled experience and history with out-of-control destroy-the-planet caliber living weapons (thank you Sonic Battle) shot down numerous requests to turn over project Shadow. Gerald's own personal diary (which were left encrypted in GUN's database) laid out an EXCEEDINGLY bleak and destructive consequence for messing with powers that could not be controlled. He blamed the collapse of the fourth great civilization on the power of the last living weapon they came across. GUN had to of known that. Now here the doctor is, locked away on a space station, building another one with powers and abilities that no one down below could comprehend.

The Hog can bend time and space for christs sake.

They didn't need an "excuse" to raid the ARC. The Gizoid incident had to have made every man woman and child shake in their boots at the idea of a living superweapon. Gerald himself acknowledged the need for Emerl to be locked away, and yet here he is tinkering on Shadow. That would make any agency pretty keen on shutting him down, lest they let him finish his uncontrollable killing machine and reap the consequences.

Locking Shadow away like that was the exact same thing Gerald did to Emerl in order to protect the planet. It was the only option they had. The only difference between the two is Gerald needed Shadow to cure Maria, so he was willing to accept the risk... Until GUN kicked his doors down.

[Nepenthe]

I don't tend to really count the handheld games within canon, but just for the sake of argument: Shadow really has nothing to do with the Gemerl incident. His only purpose was to be a link to immortality, the issues of which were recognized and handled by the ARK itself considering they halted and sealed away the Biolizard when it started going out of control. No muss, no fuss. Furthermore, if the Gemerl incident was that destructive- again, I don't think the public knew about this- you would think they wouldn't have based their superficial reasons for going in on the Biolizard being cranky (hence why I don't take Battle as canon). Also is the fact that, as I said before, they lied about the details of the raid and killed people without public knowledge and just buried the incident. Also, Shadow hadn't had a Gizoid incident. He literally hadn't done a single thing to warrant being sealed beyond existing. I don't know; I don't think preemptive fears are a reason to go in shooting children.

[pocket]

About as deserving as Mr. Freeze from Batman.

The guy was trying to save a life ( apparently, I still don't get where this "NIDS cure" thing comes in ), the man shut him down effectively killing the one he meant to save, and he went insane and decided people should pay for it.

His circumstances don't excuse his actions, but from the sound of things, the ones who wronged him should pay for what they've done and he should have been given help rather than execution.

[Jetronic]

In a situation like this, they're all wrong. Of course gun was wrong, but Gerald was going to wipe out humanity as an act of revenge.

He's no saint, he shouldn't be honored, he would have killed both the good and the bad because he snapped. One of the ark's main functions to stop black doom was still a thing, but he still made it so that the entire would slam at full force with the power of the emeralds (infinite power) into the planet, which would have shattered it to pieces.

In other words go to the 5:53 mark of this video. The answer is no.

GUN should still be punished as well, being the direct cause to this man's insanity.

[Nepenthe]

I think the best thing one could do for Gerald in light of him so violently losing everything is for the entire situation to be declassified and for the world to make up its own mind about the matter. There's still something inherently off or wrong with the fact that the public only knows about him through his execution tapes, particularly since he discovered a way to synthesize immortality, one of the scientific holy grails. We've honored shitty people for far less.

[MetalSkulkBane]

Hey, here's the funny though: shouldn't Shadow be blamed too?

Ok, he was a pawn, but he did tried to blow the planet. Heck, he helped blew up Prison Island, was no one killed then? I'm not even mentioning Shadow Game...

[Nepenthe]

Why should Shadow's misdeeds be brought up when he not only lost his free will but also redeemed himself by saving the planet anyway?

[Milo]

Everyone saying that Gerald Robotnik should be pardoned is overlooking a huge issue.

The case has been closed. He was condemned as guilty and sentenced to death. It's gone cold.

In order to pardon him, they would have to reopen the case. This would require sorting through lots of litigation and putting in a ton of money to start it back up.

Even if they managed to sift through the legalese and forked up the necessary funds, they'd have to close the case once again. Because you can't put a dead man on trial.

So there is no point to exhume the man or his trial. It's over.