Solaris (Sonic)

"I'm Mephiles, Mephiles the Dark! What, did you forget me?"

- Mephiles the Dark's famous quote.

Mephiles the Dark is the main antagonist of the (highly disliked) 2006 Sonic the Hedgehog video game. Specifically, he is the Bigger Bad in Sonic's story of Sonic the Hedgehog, the main antagonist in Shadow's story and the true main antagonist of Silver's story, and the game's final boss in the form of Solaris.

He was an evil demonic being that was accidentally created during the ill-fated Solaris Project. Mephiles took Shadow's form after being resurrected and never used anybody else's appearance. Mephiles is the mind and will of Solaris while Iblis is the raw power, and they eventually fuse back together into Solaris and are later defeated.

According to writer Ian Flynn, he believes the Time Eater, one of the antagonists of Sonic Generations, is actually what's left of Mephiles, who managed to slip through a crack in time. While this applies for the comics, it is unknown if it's true for the games, but Ian Flynn states that it is implied for the games, considering the hints and similarities of the Time Eater's appearance and its abilities. However, this might just be a coincidence.

Sonic the Hedgehog (2006)
Mephiles was born from an experiment done on the primordial form of Solaris. The people conducting the "Solaris Project" sought to obtain the power of time-travel, but experimentation on Solaris caused an explosion that split Solaris into two beings; Mephiles and Iblis, both of whom were really powerful and were now escaping the underwater lab the explosion happened in. After he escapes in an formless ooze, he is sealed in the Scepter of Darkness by Shadow the Hedgehog, who traveled through time to 10 years before the events of the 2006 Sonic game.

In the present, Dr. Eggman got hold of the Scepter and Shadow went to steal it, so that G.U.N. could have it. At a rendezvous point with Rouge the Bat at the original castle of the Soleanna royal family, Eggman appeared and brought robot henchmen to steal the Scepter back. He attacks Rogue while she tries to get away, but is saved by Shadow. The Scepter on the other hand fell and broke, damaging Eggman's robots. Mephiles (as a cloudy being) flew out, killed the robots, scared Eggman away and landed into the ground, sucking Shadow's own shadow out and using it to become a demonic version of Shadow. He sends Shadow and Rouge into the future with his new time-traveling powers after he realizes that Shadow does not know who he is. While there, Mephiles somehow found out that Princess Elise the Third had Iblis sealed in her body since the Solaris Project explosion, and the only way to release the demon was to make her cry. She would later also have visions of a frightening future where Iblis destroys everything should he be ever awakened. To accomplish this, he tells Silver the Hedgehog and Blaze the Cat that Sonic the Hedgehog was the cause of Iblis being released into the future (as it has now destroyed most of the world by this point), which led to the destruction of their world. Sonic was, thus, referred to as the "Iblis Trigger". He sends the two back in time, making them believe that killing Sonic would save the future.

Mephiles later tells Shadow (who is still in the future) that the world, and eventually E-123 Omega, will betray him in the future, and asks him to join him in order to punish the world of humanity. First, he explains that when Iblis came around to cause the apocalypse, the world would search for someone to blame ("A search for the guilty. Who did this, you may ask?"), and people used this as an excuse to lock Shadow (in the future, at least) in an energy cage until the end of time. Shadow, however, refused to believe and join Mephiles, and fights him as he takes the form of a crystalline hedgehog while E-123 Omega eventually pops in and aids Shadow.

Mephiles retreats to the present, and somehow transforms back into his Shadow form on the way in order to keep manipulating Silver and Blaze. He tells them that Sonic is at the terminal station, and it's now or never if they want their world to be safe. Later, he encounters Omega at Wave Ocean, who starts to shoot him. After getting shot, Mephiles reveals that Omega himself was created to defeat Shadow in the future. Enraged by this, Omega switches to his machine guns, and shoots Mephiles again. As Mephiles started to fade away, he laughs evilly. After Omega told Shadow about Mephiles' statement, Shadow feels hurt and walks away. Meanwhile, Shadow, Omega, and Rouge encounter Mephiles once again at Dusty Desert, now having discovered his plans to obtain Chaos Emeralds and fuse with Iblis, and fight him in a temple, all while he taunts Shadow and sends clone after clone at him. After they defeated him, Shadow tried to imprison Mephiles with their new Scepter of Darkness, but Mephiles proved to be immune to this imprisoned and pushes Shadow and his partners away. He then uses his Chaos Emeralds to create a massive load of Mephiles clones, enough to take on an army of Eggman's robots. He then boasts to Shadow that he can't defeat him, and asks why he is even bothering to protect a world that will eventually turn against him. Shadow responds by saying, "If the whole world decides to become my enemy, then I will fight like I always have", and he removes rings on his wrists that unleashes a super-power that allows him to bulldoze through the army until it becomes a puddle of goo.

After either Mephiles escaped or survived the battle with Shadow, he finds the purple Chaos Emerald (despite possessing it previously to deceive Silver), uses it to warp to Sonic and Elise's location shortly after they escape Eggman's exploding Egg Carrier, blinds them with the Emerald's powers, and impales Sonic through the back with an energy beam, killing him instantly. Elise cries over his death and, as a result, releases Iblis (as a mere fireball). With this done, Mephiles took his Emerald and used it to fuse with Iblis and transform into Solaris, and release a bright light that engulfs the Soleanna Castle Town and transports all the protagonists (and even Eggman) into a shattered dimension. It is also revealed here that his lie to Silver and Blaze about Sonic being the Iblis Trigger was actually a half-truth: Sonic is indeed the Iblis Trigger, but his death would not stop Iblis's resurrection, but it seems that his death would be the very event that would release Iblis from Elise's soul. The key to Iblis's freedom was an event that would cause Elise to become so consumed with despair or guilt that she would cry, and she had formed a very close (possibly even romantic) bond with Sonic.

Solaris tried to consume all existence while the protagonists go through the past levels in the game to get the Chaos Emeralds. Solaris sends black hole-like anomalies and evil monsters to stop them, but they got the Emeralds and revived Sonic. Solaris was then taken down by Super Sonic, Super Shadow and Super Silver all taking turns, which drops Elise and Sonic into a time-warp that sends them to when Solaris was only a measly flame. When Elise blew out the flame, Mephiles was erased from history and the game's events were actually part of an alternate timeline.

Sonic Universe
Mephiles appears in the Sonic Universe comics, set in the Archie Sonic continuity.

Issue 29
Mephiles has been captured by the Zone Cops and locked into the Zone prison due to his messing with the Zones. His powers where taken away due to the Bands placed around his arms.

During his time here he sat with Void in the cafeteria and talked to him, Mephiles noticed Scourge angrily walking away from the Destructix and wondered what was going on.

Issue 32
When Scourge and the Destructix managed to deactivate the Zones defenses. Mephiles attempted to escape from the prison. It is unknown whether or not he succeeded, though it is unlikely.

Future appearances
Iblis is going to appear in an upcoming Comic, so it is likely Mephiles will return as well.

Personality
Mephiles is a cold-hearted demon, using lies, threats and turning people's friends against each other. He is shown to be extremely sadistic as he gloats over how Omega will be the one to betray Shadow in the future and takes simple enjoyment over killing Sonic. He is cool, manipulative, determined and does not lose his temper once. He is also arrogant and views others inferior compared to him, due to his status as a god. He is also shown to be nihilistic, evidenced by his questioning Shadow as to why he even bothers fighting at all to protect humanity when they will inevitably persecute him later. He also craves destruction, right down to even time itself.

He is considered the most evil villain in the Sonic universe, as he doesn't have revenge as a motive nor does have a tragic backstory, not to mention the above mentioned desire to destroy everything. He is also considered one of the darkest villains in the Sonic universe, largely for the same reasons.

Powers and Abilities
"Drown in darkness!"

- Mephiles the Dark

Mephiles is capable of taking various forms by absorbing an individual's shadow, which resulted in his gaining his common form. Subtle differences are applied, however, such as a far darker shade of various colors, a pale complexion, and bestial green eyes. Besides actually taking on a form with someone's shadow, he also can grow stronger by absorbing shadows, especially if it comes from the same type of shadow as the being whose shadow he absorbed earlier outside of time. This is especially evident with his second encounter, where he managed to effortlessly escape imprisonment from another Scepter of Darkness due to his present self having gone back in time absorbing Shadow's shadow while the latter was sealing away Mephiles' past self.

Mephiles can manipulate and move through time with an ability similar to Chaos Control. Whether or not this was due to taking Shadow's form through his shadow or he had this power all along is debatable; however, being one half of the time god Solaris, the latter seems more probable. In addition, he has enough control over his abilities of time manipulation to separate pursuing enemies, as evidenced by how he managed to escape Omega and Shadow after their first fight in the future. His primary offensive technique is a massive sphere of black energy that is spawned from his hands that home in on their targets. He can also use the energy spheres to move himself and others through time. Since Mephiles absorbed Shadow's shadow, he also has the ability to actually be his shadow, as seen in the first boss fight against him. Furthermore, he can alter his physical form to sink into the ground and merge with the shadow of another. He can also manipulate shadows to create "clones" of himself, although they are warped and imperfect without the power of the Chaos Emeralds. He can also merge the clones together to make large shadow monsters. With two Emeralds, he can create an army of perfect clones. As seen in the "Showdown with Mephiles" cutscene, Mephiles can also blast opponents away by firing shockwaves of energy at them. Mephiles' final attack used before fusing with Iblis to become Solaris was a beam of energy (dubbed the "Dark Chaos Lance" by fans) that he extends from his right hand to kill Sonic.

Mephiles appears to be immortal, surviving every fight he takes part in, and whenever he is beaten he seems to just shift into his base form. Whether or not he is capable of feeling pain is unknown; although he reacts to taking damage during his boss battles with Shadow, he merely stood and allowed himself to be shot multiple times when confronting Omega at Wave Ocean. Indeed, when defeated by Shadow a second time, he also declared himself to be immortal, and invincible.

Since he is the mind and will of Solaris, Mephiles also happens to be very intelligent. This is shown in his ability as a master manipulator, being able to easily trick Silver and Blaze into nearly getting his desired result. He is also shown to have adept knowledge on using modern technology, as evidence by knowing exactly which files in Dr. Eggman's computer to use when trying to persuade Silver to assassinate Sonic. This is most likely due to his apparently endless lifespan and time travel power allowing him to study the world around him for as long as he needs to.

Mephiles has also demonstrated the curious ability to, with one Chaos Emerald in his possession, warp the other six Emeralds to his location instantly, which he did after the Flames of Disaster were released from Elise and before reuniting with Iblis. Presumably, he utilized the Chaos Emeralds' magnetic properties to pull this off.

Mephiles also was capable of creating and commanding various monsters, as evidenced by the various monsters that appeared.

Stalkers
Stalkers, also known as Mephiles Biters, are lizard-like canines that have succumbed to the control of Mephiles. They behave very similarly to their Iblis counterparts in that they leap forward with claws outstretched and whip their tails to attack. However, Stalkers are also capable of blasting lasers from their mouths, unlike Iblis Biters, which breathe flames. A Stalker can be defeated in two hits.

Titans
Titans, also known as Mephiles Golems, are giants with thick, purple armor. Although the Titan's attack pattern is similar to that of its Iblis counterpart (throwing energy balls and making shockwaves with its fists), it is very tough and resistant, having the dubious honor of being the strongest non-boss monster in the game, and can only be damaged with Homing Attacks or thrown objects. Titans must be damaged eight times to be defeated.

Takers
Takers are airborne, skeletal bat-like creatures. They are mostly the same as Iblis Takers, except that they shoot black spheres of energy instead of fireballs and they swoop at their foes when in close quarters. A Mephiles Taker can be killed in two hits. They are useful for crossing large gaps by using Homing Attacks on them.

Worms
Worms are enormous purple leeches controlled by Mephiles. Just like Iblis Worms, they rise from floors, walls or ceilings when the enemy is nearby and attack by sweeping their bodies around. Mephiles Worms also exhale toxic gas for an extra attack. They take six hits to be defeated.

Quotes
"AH HA HA HA HA! Oh, how ironic fate can be."

- Mephiles

"I thank you, Shadow the Hedgehog."

- Mephiles introducing himself to Shadow the Hedgehog after escaping from inside the Scepter of Darkness.

"What you gave to me, I now return to you! A one-way ticket to oblivion!"

- Mephiles

"Such foolishness...very well, let's see if you can entertain me."

- Mephiles

"I'm your shadow...you can't even touch me."

- Mephiles the Dark

"You're just a nuisance...robot."

- Mephiles to E-123 Omega.

"Just as a flower comes from a seed, or a chicken comes from an egg, everything has an origin. You need to find the being originally responsible for this catastrophe."

- Mephiles, misleading Silver the Hedgehog and Blaze the Cat to find the source behind the Day of Disaster.

"With my help, you can...because I have the power to travel through time."

- Mephiles, manipulating Silver the Hedgehog.

"I was expecting you sooner, as you must know, you're already too late...but there is still time for you to change your mind...join me, Shadow. Let us teach this world a lesson, and rewrite the future..."

- Mephiles to Shadow the Hedgehog.

"I'll make sure you regret this, Shadow the Hedgehog!"

- Mephiles to Shadow the Hedgehog.

"The 'I' of now absorbed your power through your shadow in the past. What may have worked 10 years ago, no longer does!"

- Mephiles

"This just proves you were created to stop Shadow, the ultimate life form!"

- Mephiles about Shadow the Hedgehog.

"Finally, the seal is broken! At long last, I'll be able to join with you! IBLIS!!! Now, Chaos Emerald! It's time for the final curtain call!"

- Mephiles using the power of all the Chaos Emeralds to fuse him with Iblis.

Trivia

 * His characterization bore several resemblances to the Matrix villain Agent Smith, including having an implied hatred for humanity, being connected, yet still hateful, of his archnemesis due to stopping them in the past (in Smith's case, Neo destroying him and thus making him into a rogue agent, yet at the same time making him Neo's dark half; in Shadow's case, sealing him in the Scepter of Darkness, only for him to re-emerge later due to fusing with Shadow's shadow after his inadvertent release), and his desire to destroy everything. In addition, his final conversation with Shadow even mirrors Agent Smith's rant to Neo in the climax of The Matrix: Revolutions, including each of them being surrounded by Mephiles' clones.
 * He also has some similarities to Final Fantasy villain Kefka Palazzo: Both villains were born from an experiment that was strongly implied to have resulted in their villainous natures. Both villains also commit various heinous actions for little reason other than simple enjoyment of causing suffering, destruction and chaos, and are also shown in key scenes to be very nihilistic. Both villains also end up succeeding in their overall plans that result in the destruction of most of the world, and are eventually defeated by the protagonists with what ends up being a severe cost (In Kefka's case, he successfully absorbs the Warring Triad's power and ruins the world, becoming the God of Magic, and was implied to be causing the planet to slowly, yet rapidly die off, and when he was defeated by the Returners, all Magic had vanished from the world; and in Mephiles' case, he successfully reforms with Iblis into Solaris, and proceeds to destroy all of the planet and severely damaging the timestream, with it being strongly implied that he's also rapidly destroying the timestream as well, and when he is eventually defeated by Sonic and Elise erasing his avatar, it results in the timeline being altered to the extent that Elise and Sonic's meeting never happened).
 * He has also been compared to the Super Mario Bros. villain, Dimentio. Both are the most evil villain of their respective universe, Mephiles can travel through time while Dimentio can travel through dimensions, both are master manipulators, and both have temporarily killed the main hero, and are the only villain to do so. Ironically both are also killed in part by a princess as well as the main hero and recurring villain (Mario and Peach, alongside Bowser, defeat Dimentio, and after Sonic defeats Solaris, he and Elise are sent back to the past where Elise erases him, with Eggman indirectly ensuring it by guiding the heroes in finding a weak spot in Solaris). In addition, like Kefka above, both of their defeats result in a very heavy cost (in Mephiles' case, it results in the timeline being altered to the extent that Sonic and Elise never met each other, and in Dimentio's case, Blumiere and Timpiani had to sacrifice themselves in a true marriage in order to completely eliminate the Chaos Heart seconds before it destroyed all worlds due to Dimentio leaving enough of his power behind to ensure the destruction of all worlds).
 * He shares some similarities to the My Little Pony villain King Sombra as well. Both have a shadow form and a physical form (of a hedgehog in Mephiles's case, and a pony in Sombra's case), were sealed away years ago, are the darkest and most evil villain in their series, are killed by a princess, and appeared in the part of the series that was disliked by many (In Sombra's case, Season 3).
 * He also shares some characteristics to the Mega Man X main villain Sigma, more specifically his characterization in the Worlds Unite crossover series for the Archie Comics serials for Mega Man, Sonic the Hedgehog, Sonic Boom, and Sonic Universe. Namely, both end up gaining a significant amount of power with their actions also causing catastrophic problems with reality (Sigma specifically became Sigma-3, and his abuse of the Genesis Portals caused reality to collapse on itself, like how Mephiles merged with Iblis to become Solaris and using his time powers to distort and eventually destroy all reality); both were eventually defeated by the heroes in super-forms, but the severity of their actions required time travel and another character to ensure these events don't happen by erasing them from history (Sonic, Shadow, and Silver managed to defeat Solaris, but Sonic and Elise had to travel back to before the Solaris Project with the latter blowing out the flame that Solaris originally was to ensure the events of the game could never occur, while Sonic and Mega Man managed to beat Sigma in their Super Forms, although it was only via Xander Payne forcing the doctors away from the Master Engine of the Unity Engine and using some Genesis portal energies to open up a portal to the past where he shot Sigma in the head that the events of the crossover were averted).
 * Despite the unpopularity of his debut game, Mephiles himself proved to be a very popular villain in the Sonic franchise, largely because of his successfully killing Sonic.
 * Mephiles makes an appearance in The Frollo Show as one of Frollo 's friends.
 * Dan Green, Mephiles's voice actor in the English version of Sonic the Hedgehog (2006) also voices Mewtwo from the English dub of Pokémon: Mewtwo's Return, and Knuckles the Echidna who is a former Sonic the Hedgehog villain turned complete and extremely popular Sonic the Hedgehog hero. However his most iconic role is Yami Yugi from the English dub of Yu-Gi-Oh!.
 * Despite the infamy of his debut game, Mephiles proved to be an extremely popular Sonic villain.
 * Mephiles' name is derived from Mephistopheles, the demon from the legend of the German magician Faust, and possibly after Mephitis, the personification of the poisonous gases emitted from the ground in swamps and volcanic vapors.
 * Mephiles may also be inspired by the false prophet within the Book of Revelations of the Bible as he works in the shadows and manipulates the characters into doing things that would only further his own goals.
 * Silver's theme song, "Dreams of an Absolution", calls him a preacher who lies which could also be a reference to this.
 * Another possible origin for Mephiles' name may be from Arabic, similar to Iblis. Mephiles could refer to "Muffles" (مفلس), in Arabic Muffles means "broke", "a person with nothing". The term extends not just to material objects, but to everything non- material as well, such as good deeds, emotions, hopes, dreams. In religious context, Mephiles/Muffles/مفلس is a name for the devil (similar to Iblis) and it refers to him as having no good deeds, no hope for redemption, and no chance of salvation. Taken this in mind, and Mephiles' nature in the game, they would seem similar.
 * Mephiles is one of the most evil villains in the Sonic franchise alongside Black Doom. While most Sonic villains have a sense of morality, Mephiles has none. He will do anything to anyone in order to complete his goals, and he will do it sadistically.