Professor Gerald's Plan... and Eggman

[juiceDpunk983]

So that Professor Gerald destroying Earth plan seems a bit strange, especially if you think about Eggman. Did Gerald not care about Eggman at all?

At least in the Sonic X Continuity, you could argue and say Gerald put Eggman or knew Eggman was on Sonic's planet. However, in the games it's now confirmed the games are just one planet.

This is actually bothering me now lol

 

[GX -The Spindash-]

While I'm sure some will point out that this plan was seemingly hatched while Gerald was not... mentally stable and working with an alien literally named "Doom" (and apparently also researching Emerl, he sure lived a storied life), I feel like there's a bit of a simpler, less interesting explanation.

It probably wasn't seen as important in writing. Eggman briefly contemplated the idea of "Did my grandfather actually intend to kill all of us?" before Tails, in his comparative 300 I.Q., excitedly postulates that "What's important is that we all did it together!" (The early 2000s still didn't have a high bar for game writing). The game introduces the idea of the Robotnik "family" but doesn't really have any interest in dwelling on it, even though it would raise some interesting questions about Shadow in relation to the Robotniks. Even in the Shadow the Hedgehog game, there's a story thread where Shadow confronts Eggman on the ARK, but under the pretense that Shadow is Gerald and/or Maria's legacy without much acknowledgement of Eggman's own lineage.

Certainly one interpretation would be that Eggman is an outcast from his family in one way or another. Though I lean more towards the idea that... at the time and even up until Frontiers, there's just no stomach in Sonic Team to define clear backstories and family relations to core characters.

As for how it relates to Sonic X... I don't recall exactly what details were and weren't used in the series, but I don't get the impression the "two worlds" concept was in play at the time Sonic Adventure and Sonic Adventure 2 were being written, so when the very premise of Sonic X was designed around Sonic getting Truck-kun'd into a rich boy's pool, the writers either had the option to play it straight and not really highlight the bizarre plot hole, or spend time creating lore that Sonic Team at the time probably didn't want them to define.

[sonicclaasic]

48 minutes ago, juiceDpunk983 said:

So that Professor Gerald destroying Earth plan seems a bit strange, especially if you think about Eggman. Did Gerald not care about Eggman at all?

At least in the Sonic X Continuity, you could argue and say Gerald put Eggman or knew Eggman was on Sonic's planet. However, in the games it's now confirmed the games are just one planet.

This is actually bothering me now lol

I don't know If this helps you to your question This tells you a great details of Professor Gerald https://sonic.fandom.com/wiki/Gerald_Robotnik#Sonic_X of his background Including to your question about destroying Earth plan etc. It covers everything about Professor Gerald and Sonic X etc.

[MetalSkulkBane]

I REALLY want a story covering life of Gerald Robotnik. A novel, game, comic book mini. It's never going to happen beyond fanfics, but man can dream. Personally I see him as saint and clever but a.so desperate man, who though he can outsmart 2 devil (Black Arms and GUN), saving Maria while giving them nothing. He bid, bluffed, lost and paid the highest price.

With that said I'm pretty sure post-Maria Gerald was crazy enough to forget about rest of his family. Besides, Frontiers confirms Eggman was (at best) a baby when Maria died. More likely he wasn't born yet.

[Indigo Rush]

Probably just a combination of him going blind with raging insanity and not really caring or possibly even knowing about Ivo. 

[PinkFloydMania]

Do we have any known interactions between Professor Gerald and Eggman? In Sonic Frontiers, Eggman mentions that he never knew Maria and that everyone seemed more focused on her at his expense. It could be possible that Eggman saw Gerald as a genius scientist worth idolizing and following in the footsteps of without having actually spent a lot of time with him. It's pretty well implied that Gerald was with Maria on the Ark most of the time, so if Eggman never spent time with Maria, it's likely he was never on the Ark with Gerald and might not have actually been that close with him.

[Wittymations]

This really, really, REALLY would depend on what Eggman's age even is.

It's hard to gauge by just his looks. He might be over 50. He could be in his early 40s, mid 30s. Who knows? Maybe dude is in his 20s.  After all, he's not really showing signs of wrinkles. Being bald with a large just mustache is what makes him look older.

So it MIGHT not be "caring about Eggman" but maybe Ivo's dad, Gerald's son. Or perhaps sons, given Maria shares the name Robotnik.  At the time, Maria might have been the only grandchild he had.

We just don't know.

[PinkFloydMania]

11 minutes ago, Wittymations said:

This really, really, REALLY would depend on what Eggman's age even is.

It's hard to gauge by just his looks. He might be over 50. He could be in his early 40s, mid 30s. Who knows? Maybe dude is in his 20s.  After all, he's not really showing signs of wrinkles. Being bald with a large just makes him look older.

So it MIGHT not be "caring about Eggman" but maybe Ivo's dad, Gerald's son. Or perhaps sons, given Maria shares the name Robotnik.  At the time, Maria might have been the only grandchild he had.

We just don't know.

Another good point. I think some Sonic CD concept art tried placing his age as 60, but that seems a bit high, and Sonic Team seems to be canning the characters' official ages now anyway. Even if he was 60, he would have still been pretty young when Gerald got whacked by the government.

[juiceDpunk983]

On 6/1/2023 at 12:18 AM, GX -The Spindash- said:

As for how it relates to Sonic X... I don't recall exactly what details were and weren't used in the series,

If I remember correctly, when Eggman found out he wasn't originally from Sonic's world he was surprised, so I assumed something happened or Someone who's smart enough put him there. The professor would have known about Sonic's planet if he based Shadow off the Sonic characters, and had the emerald shrine replica built on the Ark. My guess, Gerald must have put him there... Maybe.