This is the story of Dr. Ivo Robotnik from the 2020 film, Sonic the Hedgehog.
Early life[]
Dr. Ivo Gerald Robotnik grew up as an orphan, which caused the aspiring genius to heavily begrudge the concept of friends and family. As a boy, during his school days, young Ivo got punched in the face by a local bully, humiliating him. Robotnik achieved revenge through technological means, causing his hated young tormentor to spend a year, as Robotnik claims, eating his meals through a straw.
At some point, Robotnik became an agent working for the United States government, where he allegedly helped them to stop several coups in the Middle East, including one in Pakistan and an uprising in Azerbaijanistan, with his revolutionary drone technology. He also earned five PhD's thanks to his high intelligence quotient. However, most US government officials actually disliked Robotnik due to his personality and ego, though Vice Chairman Walters was the one who tolerated him the most.
Sonic the Hedgehog[]
Robotnik as he introduces himself.
Dr. Robotnik makes his first appearance at the baseball field in the peaceful American town of Green Hills, Montana, where Sonic accidentally unleashed a burst of energy that caused a massive power outage. He arrives at the scene in a heavily modified truck with his assistant, Agent Stone. He proceeds to harass and belittle the military personnel there before dispatching an army of drones to locate the source of the energy surge. One of the drones discovers Sonic's footprints, and Robotnik uses his computer to analyze them. He determines Sonic's exact height, weight, and spinal structure, and discovers that no other organism in the animal kingdom matches Sonic's body shape. Realizing that Sonic must be an alien, Robotnik decides to find and capture the hedgehog and obtain his power for himself.
This leads Robotnik to the house of Sheriff Tom Wachowski, where he attempts to trick Tom into letting him into the house by claiming he is from the power company. When Tom doesn't fall for it, Robotnik forces his way into Tom's house and tries to compel him to reveal where Sonic is hiding. Tom tries to play dumb, but Robotnik is wise to the ruse. He notices one of Sonic's quills stuck in Tom's dinner table and becomes much more impatient, angrily demanding that Tom cooperate. And then, he said that he'll give him 5 seconds to tell him where Sonic is, or he'll kill him with his drone. Meanwhile, some mini-drones infiltrate the attic, where Sonic is hiding. When Sonic freaks out and rolls into the kitchen, he exposed himself to Robotnik. And then, Tom punches Robotnik in the face. One of Robotnik's drones sees this and goes into attack mode, but Sonic and Tom work together to destroy it.
After they escape, Agent Stone enters the house to check on Robotnik, only to be berated by Robotnik for not apprehending Tom and Sonic. Later, while they are on the road, Robotnik catches up to Tom and Sonic in his truck, and he dispatches a robotic car to destroy them. The duo fights back, which proves difficult since the car has several smaller units hidden inside that activate after the original vehicle is destroyed. They eventually manage to destroy the whole thing, much to Robotnik's dismay, but an explosive device from the car leaves Sonic critically injured.
Meanwhile, Robotnik turns to the quill he found at Tom's house, using his technology to analyze and extract the quill's power. Through this process, Robotnik discovers that the quill has unlimited power and realizes he could use this power to take over the world. Thankfully, Sonic recovers after being examined by Tom's veterinarian wife, Maddie, but the friends are still not safe from Robotnik. When the trio heads over to San Francisco to retrieve Sonic's rings from the top of the Transamerica Pyramid tower, Robotnik confronts them in an upgraded aircraft called "Prototype", accompanied by an army of drones. Mocking the egg-shaped design of the drones, Sonic calls Robotnik "Eggman" and challenges him to a fight.
As Dr. Robotnik readies his weapons, Tom frantically reminds Sonic that he and Maddie are completely defenseless against the evil genius, so Sonic comes up with a plan and pushes the couple off the building. Doctor Robotnik is shocked by this, but quickly downplays it by claiming that he was expecting to not expect something. He and his robots go to attack Sonic, but Sonic slows down time so he can disarm the robots. He then goes to use one of his rings to warp Tom and Maddie to safety, but at this point Robotnik's aircraft has tapped into the power of the quill, allowing the aircraft to travel at the same speed as Sonic as Robotnik tries to hit him with lasers.
Sonic is able to send Tom and Maddie back to Green Hills, but has trouble shaking off Dr. Robotnik. He travels all over the world using his rings, but Robotnik's super-powered aircraft is right behind him at every turn. Eventually, Sonic and Robotnik return to Green Hills, where Robotnik lands a hit and knocks Sonic down.
As Dr. Robotnik celebrates his presumed victory, Tom, Maddie, and the other residents of Green Hills stand up to him. Then Sonic, who turned out to have survived the hit, wakes up, musters up all of his power, and bashes Robotnik's aircraft damaging it causing the latter to lose his temper. While Tom uses one of Sonic's rings to open a portal to a world filled with nothing but mushrooms, aptly named "Mushroom Planet". Robotnik furiously charges at the hedgehog but the impact of Sonic's hit heavily damages the ship and knocks it straight through the ring portal with the doctor still inside, leaving him stuck on the Mushroom Planet and defeating him.
Robotnik gaining his iconic bald head and bushy mustache and revealed to still have one of Sonic's quills, intending to return home to Earth and get revenge on Sonic.
Some days later, Tom is visited by the U.S. government agent, Commander Walters, who thanks him for getting rid of Robotnik and dismisses him as someone who never existed, assuring Tom that he will not face any retributions for his involvement on Robotnik's disappearance. Meanwhile, on the Mushroom Planet, Robotnik is revealed to have gained his iconic bald head and bushy mustache, having completely lost his sanity as a result of being stranded on the otherworldly planet for months. He treks through the alien landscape, still possessing Sonic's quill now supercharged. With this knowledge and being aware that he is stranded on an uninhabited planet with no resources or supplies, Robotnik vows to be back on Earth by Christmas to get his revenge.
Sonic Dash[]
In promotion of the film, Dr. Robotnik makes an (unseen) appearance in his Prototype hovercraft jet as a boss in Sonic Dash while retaining Mike Pollock's voice.
Sonic the Hedgehog 2: The Official Movie Pre-Quill[]
Robotnik serves as the overarching antagonist of the comic, being mentioned and/or appearing in three of the five stories. In "Hedgehog Day Afternoon", a gang of bank robbers (led by Lindsey and Jason) attack a bank in Walla Walla, Washington, stealing one of Robotnik's control gloves and a USB drive containing Robotnik's manifesto from a safe deposit box. Sonic arrives in Walla Walla to thwart the robbery, only to be knocked out by Lindsey and trapped in the bank vault--Lindsey then contacts the bank robbers' mysterious employer, who sends some of Robotnik's Badniks to collect the entire vault. Sonic manages to escape and defeats the robbers, while one of the Badniks steals Robotnik's control glove from Lindsey and flees. The Badnik returns the control glove and USB drive to the robbers' employer, revealed to be Agent Stone.
In "The Secret of my Distress", Stone begins reading up on Robotnik's manifesto from the stolen USB drive. In the manifesto, Robotnik declares that, while Stone is a "know-nothing", he is far more intelligent than other humans, and provides Stone with both his philosophy and a detailed contingency plan for how to control the people of America and continue his legacy. Following Robotnik's guidance, Stone integrates himself into society by taking up a job at Karen's Coffee, a coffee shop in Green Hills, and gradually disposes of his coworkers until he is able to usurp control of the business. With this completed, Stone moves on to the second part of the manifesto.
In "Mushroom With a View", Robotnik appears as the main protagonist. Still trapped on the Mushroom Planet, he continues his plans to return to Earth, swearing to prove his superior intellect to Sonic and all of humanity. After discovering an edible blue mushroom. Robotnik begins collecting them to sustain himself long enough to rebuild his Eggpod, finding a cave full of them. However, as he attempts to collect them, he is attacked by a group of predatory mushrooms. Despite being overwhelmed, Robotnik fights back and arrogantly dismisses the mushrooms as lower life-forms, activating a homemade flamethrower made from the remains of his aircraft to incinerate them. Escaping the burning cave, Robotnik declares that he will destroy anything that gets in his way of returning to Earth and getting revenge on Sonic.
Sonic the Hedgehog 2[]
After being stuck on the Mushroom Planet for 243 days, Robotnik would begin the daily routines he had established for himself, musing about getting revenge on Sonic, before turning his attention to his masterpiece. Having constructed an energy beacon from the parts of his Eggpod in hopes of producing an energy signal that would attract the attention of those off-world, Robotnik would hook Sonic's chaos energy-infused quill up to his device in order to power it. Upon doing so, however, Robotnik unleashed an energy pulse that knocked him unconscious. Hours later, some Scavengers appeared from a Ring on the Mushroom Planet and found the unconscious body of Robotnik. When they reached for Sonic's quill, however, Robotnik woke up and took the scavengers out with traps that he had set up before-handed. However, when he headed for the Ring portal in an attempt to escape the Mushroom Planet, he found his way barged by Knuckles the Echidna. When Knuckles asked where he found Sonic's quill, Robotnik told that he got it from Earth and that he would happily show him the way. The two of them would then make a deal: Knuckles would get him off the Mushroom Planet, and Robotnik would show him where Sonic was.
Arriving in Green Hills during the night, Robotnik would cut off the power to the Wachowski residence where Sonic now lived. He proceeded to cut the front door open with his control glove, revealing his return to Sonic. While Sonic, surprised, stated that Robotnik made a mistake by coming to his home, Robotnik told him otherwise as he provoked Sonic with promising revenge against him and the Wachowskis. As Sonic then charged at him, Robotnik stepped aside for Knuckles to take on Sonic. From there, Robotnik stood on the sidelines, watching with contentment as Sonic got pummeled by Knuckles as their fight ensued. During this, however, Robotnik heard Knuckles mention the "ultimate power", which caught his interest. Soon after though, Tails arrived in a police car and saved Sonic from Knuckles by ramming the echidna with said car. As Sonic and Tails prepared to drive away however, Robotnik jumped onto the car's hood and acted rabid, trying to gnaw and lick his way through the windshield until he got thrown off of it. After Sonic and Tails escaped, Robotnik would pursue both them and Knuckles on a riding mower, only to catch up to them in time to see Tails fly Sonic away. In order to proceed with his plans, Robotnik used his control glove to contact Agent Stone, who sent him an orbital space pod with new clothes and Badniks. Getting refitted with new clothes, equipment and a refresher, Robotnik proclaimed that he had been "re-hatched." Finding Knuckles on the cliffside below him, Robotnik inquired Knuckles about the "ultimate power" he spoke of. Knuckles, however, told him that this power, the Master Emerald, did not concern him now that their deal was over. Insisting otherwise, Robotnik used his Badniks to help Knuckles up from the cliff and explained to him that he needed his expertise on Earth. Furthermore, he convinced Knuckles that he would help him find the Master Emerald so that he could use it to destroy Sonic. With Knuckles seeing that he was suggesting an alliance, Robotnik had them seal their deal with a handshake (which crushed his hand). Afterward, Robotnik pulled out his Egg Mobile for him and Knuckles to travel in.
Traveling to the Mean Bean Coffee Cafe in Green Hills, Robotnik found Stone, now the owner of the cafe. There, Robotnik received his favorite latte from his faithful assistant, which he noted could use some mushroom due to his time on the Mushroom Planet. When Knuckles then came in and got acquainted with Stone. Robotnik ordered for the cafe to be renovated. In response, Stone activated the command center that he had secretly installed in the establishment. While there, Robotnik and Stone intercepted a text message between Sonic and Tom. As Stone took notice of Knuckles' lack of understanding of technology and asked him why they were working with an "imbecile", Robotnik told him of his plan to steal the Master Emerald, which would not only let him get revenge on Sonic, but also let him power his wildest designs, get his genius recognized across the galaxy and let him harness unimaginable forces. When Knuckles deduced from the message that Sonic was back home, Robotnik proved him wrong by tracing his call to eastern Siberia. After they then had fiddled with a hologram of Sonic, Robotnik and Knuckles headed for Siberia. As they left though, Robotnik chose to ditch Stone for now, which Knuckles called him out for being dishonorable. Robotnik, however, did not care.
Using the Egg Mobile, Robotnik and Knuckles found Sonic and Tails inside an ancient owl temple in the mountains, arriving there with an army of Badniks, just as Sonic and Tails had acquired a compass that could lead them to the Master Emerald. Following some banter with Sonic, Robotnik fired a missile at Sonic with his Egg Mobile, only for Sonic to redirect it into a statue, causing the entire temple to start caving in. Sonic and Tails, however, managed to escape through an opening. As the duo then split up, Robotnik went after Tails. During the ensuing pursuit, Robotnik managed to snatch the compass when Sonic tried passing it onto Tails, before firing a pair of missiles that knocked out Tails. As an avalanche then arrived, Robotnik and Knuckles took their leave in the Egg Mobile. As they did, however, Knuckles noticed that Sonic prioritized Tails over the compass, which Robotnik regarded as a weakness. Later, using a Ring, Robotnik and Knuckles traveled to an island hundreds of miles away from Hawaii with some Badniks. There, Robotnik found a recess for the compass to fit into using his control glove. After then inserting it into the recess, a great undersea temple was revealed in front of them. Entering the temple, Robotnik and Knuckles found themselves in a great labyrinth filled to the brim with traps. After barely avoiding the first traps, which cost Robotnik most of his Badniks, Robotnik decided to work smarter by deploying some reconnaissance Badniks that he used to map out the labyrinth for them. Eventually arriving in the Master Emerald's chamber, Robotnik decided he had no further use for Knuckles as the latter proclaimed pride in their collaboration. Before he could taser Knuckles with his control glove, however, Sonic arrived in-between them and the Master Emerald. While Robotnik was disgusted by Sonic's motivation to protect those he cared for, he nonetheless began sneaking up to the Master Emerald while Sonic and Knuckles were preoccupied fighting each other. When Sonic and Knuckles finally noticed his attempt to take the Master Emerald though, Robotnik mocked the latter for his gullibility and lack of foresight as he called out Robotnik for betraying their "friendship." Grabbing the Master Emerald, Robotnik proceeded to vanish in a flash of energy.
Robotnik soon after reappeared in the Mean Bean Coffee Cafe, where Stone had been apprehended by Wade Whipple. In his elevated state of power, Robotnik adjusted himself to his new abilities as he teleported around, quickly forcing Wade to surrender while freeing Stone. Stone proceeded to warn him that G.U.N. had the cafe surrounded, but Robotnik revealed that he had a solution to this. Heading outside, Robotnik faced his former superior Commander Walters, Tom, Maddie and a squad of G.U.N. soldiers. There, Walters told Robotnik that he was finished, as the government had seized all his assets. In response, Robotnik used his newfound powers to pull in G.U.N.'s arsenal and various other machinery from the environment, which he used to build the Death Egg Robot. Putting himself in control of the giant machine, with Stone as his co-pilot, Robotnik had the Death Egg Robot trample around Green Hills, forcing G.U.N. to retreat. Soon after though, Sonic and Tails showed up in the Tornado. Though frustrated by Sonic's constant returns, Robotnik decided to shoot him down with a missile barrage. Since Stone had yet to figure out the controls though, Robotnik did it for him, inadvertently electrocuting Stone in the process. Though Sonic and Tails slipped through the barrage, he did manage to catch Sonic with one missile. Knuckles then arrived, vengeful at Robotnik for tricking him, but Robotnik had his Death Egg Robot's hand deal with his attack when the echidna tried attacking him head-on. Tails then tried shooting at Robotnik's Death Egg Robot with the Tornado's guns, but Stone managed to use the robot's 'Stache Masher feature to make the Tornado crash. However, Robotnik was left alone when Sonic returned with the missile and directed it into the Death Egg Robot, which shook the machine enough to knock Stone out.
After sending his Badniks after Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles, who easily dealt with them, Sonic came up to the Death Egg Robot and challenged Robotnik himself. Refusing to let Sonic get the better of him, Robotnik began following Sonic out of Green Hills. When he needed a break though, which prompted Sonic to taunt him further, Robotnik responded with his plans to enslave humanity and conquer the multiverse before opening eye lasers on Sonic. Eventually, Robotnik caught up to Sonic as he was crossing a bridge, which he blew up with the Death Egg Robot's snot rocket, sending a weakened Sonic plummeting down. As Robotnik gloated about his superiority to the grounded Sonic, however, he discovered that he was all-seeing as well, which let him notice Tails break into the Death Egg Robot's cockpit. As Tails began confusing him with holographic images of himself, Robotnik refuted the fox's attempt to outsmart him and took them all out with his powers. However, Tails soon revealed that he was actually a distraction. It was then that Robotnik discovered Knuckles nearby, who managed to punch the Master Emerald out of him. Without his powers from the emerald, Robotnik's Death Egg Robot shut down, leaving, Tails, Knuckles, and the Master Emerald to slide out of the robot. Recovering, Robotnik got to his feet and activated the Death Egg Robot's auxiliary power. Assuming control over his robot again using the manual controls as well, Robotnik had his machine walk towards a weakened Sonic as he went to retrieve the Master Emerald. Before Robotnik could step on Sonic with his Death Egg Robot's foot, however, Tom and Maddie swooped by in a truck and picked up both Sonic and the Master Emerald. In response, Robotnik had his robot topple their truck and trap them within a ring of fire.
Robotnik getting defeated for the second time as he falls.
As Robotnik brought his Death Egg Robot's foot down upon the family, he thought he had finally killed Sonic. Unfortunately for him, Sonic managed to transform into Super Sonic at the last moment with the Chaos Emeralds that fell out of the crumbled Master Emerald. In this form, Sonic stopped the Death Egg Robot's stomp and cut off its head, exposing Robotnik. Seething with anger at his enemy for nearly killing his family, Sonic declared to Robotnik he had lost. As Robotnik tried talking Sonic into a truce, however, he used his control glove in an attempt to punch Sonic with the Death Egg Robot's fists. Sonic, however, easily stopped the attacks and pierced the Death Egg Robot several times before tipping it over with his foot, leaving Robotnik to fall down with it. However, when G.U.N. (alongside a disguised Agent Stone) swept the crash site, they were unable to find any trace of Robotnik. However while deleting him from the US database, the G.U.N. agents found a 50-year-old file buried deep in their system related to the name “Robotnik” a secret government experiment called Project Shadow.
This film marks the 1st time Sonic and Dr. Robotnik refer to each other by their names. However, they sometimes refer to each other as Eggman and Hedgehog, just like in the 1st film.
Sonic Drone Home
Due to his presumed death in the 2nd film, Dr. Robotnik doesn't make an appearance in the 2022 short film, Sonic Drone Home. However, he is mentioned a few times. At the beginning of the short film, Sonic refers to Unit as one of Robotnik's drones. Later, Unit mentions Robotnik when he says that he programmed him to think for himself. When Tails accidentally ties Sonic's legs together, he tells him to try to talk to Unit, so that they can stop him from trying to kill them. And when Sonic asks Unit why he was trying to kill him, Tails, and Knuckles, Unit explains that his programming is to conquer the world. Because of this, Sonic says, "That sounds like Robotnik." Eventually, Sonic and Tails convince Unit to recite a few poems for them. And even though they become friends at the end of the short film, Knuckles still didn't trust Unit. Despite this, Sonic gives Tails permission to keep Unit.
This short film actually marks the 1st time Sonic doesn't refer to Dr. Robotnik as Eggman. Instead, he only refers to him by his name. And even though he referred to him as Eggman in the first 2 films, he also referred to him by his name in Sonic The Hedgehog 2.
Knuckles[]
Although Robotnik is missing after falling from the Death Egg Robot and is presumably dead, one of his former subordinates called the Buyer continues his legacy of world domination by assembling Robotnik's destroyed Badniks into new types of robots, machines and weapons in order to sell them in the black market and build a criminal empire. The Buyer's last scheme is to capture Knuckles and to use his powers to charge his latest mech and to do that, he hires two former G.U.N. agents named Mason and Willoughby to kidnap Knuckles and bring him to him and he even gives them some help to deal with Knuckles by giving them weapons charged with quills that belonged to Knuckles. When the two former G.U.N. agents failed in capture Knuckles, the Buyer threatened to kill them, but decided to spare them and offer one last chance to capture Knuckles after learning that Mason and Willoughby were like him when all three were betrayed by G.U.N., which in the Buyer's case was because he was a comrade of Robotnik in the black ops team that was the precursor of G.U.N. and the government wanted to erased all traces of Robotnik and its involvement with the crazy roboticist, going so far to the point of terminate anyone who worked for Robotnik like the Buyer who survived the assassination attempt. After Mason and Willoughby failed again to capture Knuckles, the Buyer decided to take down the echidna himself with his supercharged mech in order to finish Robotnik's dream of taking over the world, but he was defeated and killed by Knuckles and Officer Wade after they smashed the Buyer's mecha.
This TV show marks the 1st time Dr. Robotnik's first name, Ivo, was mentioned in the Sonic Cinematic Universe. Also, the part where Sonic says, "Robotnik's gone, and there's no new battle to fight", actually foreshadows his return in Sonic The Hedgehog 3.
Sonic the Hedgehog 3[]
After Shadow proves to be too powerful for Sonic, Knuckles, and Tails to fight, they enlist the help of Dr. Robotnik. Later, Robotnik reunites with his long-lost grandfather, Professor Gerald Robotnik. And then, Robotnik betrays Sonic, Knuckles, and Tails, and teams up his grandfather and Shadow, so that they can get revenge on the G.U.N. agents who killed Maria.
Since Sonic, Knuckles, and Tails were asking Dr. Robotnik for help, it's possible that they eventually found out that he survived the fall in the 2nd film.