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  • The dark trio are able to successfully power up the Eclipse Cannon with six chaos emeralds to blast away about 1/3 of the moon. Why does Eggman want more?? What could they possibly gain by "destroying an entire planet"? And none of this explains why Eggman and co. later decide to save the world.
    • I can answer at least one of these. The first part has always bugged me, too. However, regarding the second question: Eggman's original goal was to point the Eclipse Cannon at the world and extort whatever he wanted, on pain of "Make me your supreme ruler or I blow you all to Kingdom Come." Seeing the world actually be destroyed (and at no benefit to him) was another matter altogether.
      • Plus, how was anyone to guess he wouldn't actually go through with destroying the world? He is pretty crazy.
    • With only 6, he was limited to striking at a single country at a time, leaving the others free to gang up and attack, forcing a single country to make a Heroic Sacrifice.
      • The world didn't know that though. He was essentially bluffing the world into surrendering anyway even if he couldn't secure the last emerald.
      • Yes, but as they said, the cannon was taking too long to charge up (after they fired the warning shot) without the last emerald. Even if the cannon was charged, Eggman would still probably want the last emerald, even if the only reason was so it wouldn't be used against him.
      • Eggman is crazy, yes, but not stupid. He knows full well that if he destroys the planet, there won't be anything left for him to rule, and he actually says almost exactly this in Sonic Unleashed, to the point where he's happy (well, not exactly happy, but willing if a little reluctant) to work together with Sonic if something else is actually trying to destroy the world. He was never intended to fire the Eclipse Cannon at the planet, he was just using it as a threat to put the fear of God into the people on the planet.
      • But remember when he picked up the Emerald after his fight with Tails? He tells Shadow and Rouge that he "has all 7 chaos emeralds", inserts the last emerald in the machine, and laughs as it begins to fire, at least before Sonic stops the laser from firing. Wouldn't this mean he DID intend to destroy the earth?
      • Doubtful. I recall he was talking to the president in one scene and said that since he won't comply, his country would be the first to go. He was probably getting ready to do that. Yes, all the emeralds were in, but presumably there would be some way to only use so much power per shot. I think he wanted the last emerald mainly so it won't be used against him, and so the cannon could charge faster, which he would need if people actually tried to revolt.
  • In Sonic Adventure 1, Sonic and his friends saved Station Square and probably the world by stopping Perfect Chaos, but in Sonic Adventure 2, he is chased after by thousands of cops and army men for something that somebody that looked a bit like him did, without him even getting a chance to explain what was going on.
    • Humans Are Bastards.
    • They knew it was Shadow, but didn't want that secret out, so they used Sonic as a scapegoat.
      • Actually, that's a pretty good answer. G.U.N. probably did know that their Biological Doomsday Weapon escaped and had stolen a Cosmic Keystone, but they didn't want that getting out otherwise it would create a panic. So they arrested Sonic, not so they could say that they captured the bad guy, but they may have very well have been trying to recruit him into stopping Shadow for them. Of course Sonic escapes, and they can't just have him running around while the public thinks he's a villain, so...
      • Actually, it gets even better the more you think about it. G.U.N already had a spy in Eggman's midst, who just so happened to have a Chaos Emerald that he was looking for. But of course she then proceeds to direct him to three more of them, and where are they...? Only a place that is both 1. at a G.U.N owned fortress and 2. The exact location of Sonic the Hedgehog (who is there because G.U.N put him there). G.U.N had what Eggman wanted, and through Rouge were essentially were able to predetermine the battlefield, making the Prison Island incident a massive-scale yet subtle sting operation that simply went horribly, horribly wrong. Nevertheless, G.U.N had a lot of influence and knowlege of the game's events (spying, media control, being responsible for key events), it's easy to forget that when aside from their robot forces, they remain very much behind the scenes. There's a great deal of suspicious occurings in the game that can be explained via their involvement... Because chances are, it benifiets in some way to them.
      • Another theory for why the general public might believe it: if Sonic the Hedgehog were to turn to the dark side, perhaps changing his colors would represent this and his blue hue is just a mask. In the game world, there doesn't seem to be too many hedgehogs, so it would be relatively easy to jump to this conclusion.
    • Considering how secretive Project: Shadow was, G.U.N., after 50 years, might have just forgotten about it, since the people in charge 50 years ago are definitely not a part of G.U.N. now, so the current members know nothing of it.
  • How did Gerald Robotnik reprogram the ARK, Eclipse Canon, and the Biolizard from his jail cell on Prison Island?
  • Why was Knuckles running around that desert area with the Master Emerald?
    • Rouge took it there. Knuckles had only just caught up.
    • Wasn't that Angel Island, and they just used the Hidden Base assets for some reason (laziness, time constraints, space limitations)? If you look at the horizon, the area seems to be surrounded by clouds, rather than desert. They probably figured that since that's the first time the player sees those assets (assuming they're playing the Hero Story first), they wouldn't make the desert connection and just take it to be some ruins (Sandopolis? Marble Garden?) in Angel Island. If you're wondering why the Master Emerald was in these ruins and not in the Emerald Shrine, the events that unfolded may have gone something like this: Rouge grabbed it from the shrine and set off flying. Before she could get away, Knuckles threw a boulder at her, causing her to drop the Emerald on one of the ruins areas of Angel Island. Knuckles and Rouge get there and duke it out for the Emerald, until Eggman shows up and attempts to steal it.
    • Actually, come to think about it, Eggman didn't realize the signal he was following was that of the Master Emerald until he picked the damn thing up. Wouldn't the Master Emerald give out a stronger signal than the seven Chaos Emeralds, allowing him to tell that that was what it was?
    • Probably not, given that the Master Emerald's power is inherently suppressed until Knuckles or Tikal tap into its full power. This is a sort of fail-safe, which in turn prevented the signal from being distinguished from the Chaos Emeralds. When not unlocked, it is essentially another chaos emerald.
    • Later in the story Eggman can’t distinguish the fake chaos emerald from a real one. Apparently he’s scanning for their specific wavelength and properties rather than their level of power, which would make the Master Emerald indistinguishable from a Chaos Emerald as well.
    • Back to the original question, ya know how if you turn the game off and start it up you get a recap voiced by one of the characters? If you do that before you finish Knuckles' first stage he explicitly says in his recap that Rouge stole the Master Emerald and took it off of Angel Island, and Knuckles finally caught up to her in the desert.
  • What was Shadow planning to do if Eggman's one wish wasn't to blow up the planet with a giant laser?
    • Shadow would let Eggman rule the world under the threat of a giant laser, then destroy the world.
    • Shadow said that he could grant Eggman one wish. And whatever that was, it could be gotten by threatening the world with a giant laser. Which needed Chaos Emeralds to be powered. Mostly Shadow's plan to destroy the world hinged upon his rescuer being power-hungry and completely insane. And since whoever would open his cell would be looking for a powerful bio-weapon, this wasn't actually too much of a Gambit.
  • Since when is Knuckles the world's greatest treasure hunter?
    • That was obviously Sonic sweet-talking Knuckles into hunting for keys, but if you want to take it at face value... Knuckles IS probably one of the greatest treasure hunters in the world. He's always been able to get his hands on precious jewels, his exploratory skills and abilities allows him to travel to places that other hunters could only DREAM of, such as the Gigan Rocks, the depths of the Lost World of the echidnas and even into the depths of space! It's been implied since the Classic era that he's been an avid treasure hunter, Fang was MIA, and the Babylon Rogues didn't exist at that point. Aside from Rouge, whom he ended up getting the upper hand against in the end, Knuckles was probably the only hunter who could do the things he did.
    • Knuckles as a treasure hunter is part of some older characterization that never quite manifested in the games in a concrete way. It's referenced in Sonic the Hedgehog: The Movie.
      • I believe it was the other way around. The OVA changed Knuckles into a treasure hunter, and the games backported that trait later on. That's why it seems to go against his game characterization. Although you could interpret it as him being interested in treasure hunting less for monetary value and more out of a fascination for ancient cultures, particularly when it concerns his ancestors.
  • How did Amy get on to Prison Island? There's no way Tails would've taken her because she was on the island before him.
    • Amy probably heard that Sonic got arrested on the news and used a boat to get there.
  • Why did Gerald Robotnik want the colony to crash into the earth to destroy it? Why not just have it fire at the planet, we know that once it has all seven Chaos Emeralds the blast can destroy a planet, so why bother with anything else?
    • He wanted humanity to suffer. A space colony heading towards the planet is slower than just blowing it up with a cannon, so it means people have more time to despair.
  • If Rouge is actually a spy on the government's side, then why oh why did she hand 4 Chaos Emeralds over to Eggman? I get that she wanted to trick Eggman into believing that she was on his side, but wasn't there any better way of accomplishing that than basically handing him weapons of mass destruction!? If Team Sonic hadn't saved the day at the end, Eggman would have used the emeralds' powers to obliterate the United Federation! Not to mention that he did get to use them to blow up half of the moon. Nice Job Breaking It, Hero.
  • Also, what's up with Rouge helping Eggman blow up the whole Prison Island? Did she secretly notify the government of Eggman's plans prior to that? If so, how come that GUN didn't set up a trap for Eggman and have Rouge lead him into it?
  • And while we're at it, why did Rouge have to fight GUN to get the emeralds they had in Prison Island if she was actually working with them? Either hand the emeralds to her (if that was part of the plan in deceiving Eggman), or (more reasonably) don't, and have Rouge say that she failed to steal them. Having her fight them for the emeralds when Eggman and Shadow weren't even present was unnecessary.
  • Why don't rings you collect in Route 101 and Route 208 add to your total rings for the Black Market?
    • It is possibly because the kart racing minigame seems to operate separately from how the regular stages do. You can get rings in the 1P and 2P Kart races, but they do not count towards the ring total. Given that Routes 101 and 208 seem to simply be modified Kart races, it may be because of this that missions in those routes do not go towards the total. You do not even get the 1UP jingle when you get 100 Rings, even if you DO get the life.
  • Why are Route 101 and Route 280 labeled like that? From looking at the game map, they're the same route; that they're just in two separate sections of the same bridge.
    • Sonic Adventure 2 has a lot of Californian influence (Mission Street and City Escape being based on downtown streets in San Francisco, the Radical Highway being an obvious homage to the Golden Gate Bridge); Route 101 and Route 280 are based on real, similarly-named interstate highways that run through the San Francisco Bay Area. So, Sonic Team has two kart racing levels set on expansive highways and needs to give them names. Thus, the 101 and the 280 will do nicely. Irl, they're two different highways that just happened to be in the same area, so we can assume that the Routes 101 and 280 in SA2 work the same, or to a similar degree.
  • Here's something I noticed when replaying the game. In the Dark Side Story, because of Eggman being delayed in executing the mission to steal the Chaos Emeralds from Prison Island thanks to his battle with Tails, he tells Shadow to set the bomb timers for 15 minutes. Rouge says that she can clear Security Hall in five minutes, but ultimately fails, ending up battling Flying Dog and then locked in a safe with the Chaos Emeralds. We see the bomb timer shows 09:57, meaning Rouge made good on her word - her clearing Security Hall and battling Flying Dog canonically took five minutes. Shadow's conscience gets the better of him, and he races through White Jungle under a 10-minute time limit (strange, as there's already fewer than ten minutes remaining on the timer, but that's not what really bugs me). He runs into Sonic and the two duke it out until Eggman interrupts by calling Shadow to tell him to get the hell out of there before the island blows up with him on it, also alerting Sonic to the time-bombs on the island. Before Eggman calls, the timer on the bomb shows 01:28, meaning Shadow took about eight and a half minutes to clear White Jungle and fight Sonic. However, Sonic's Green Forest level comes AFTER this - and he has eight minutes to clear it. How can he have eight minutes to escape the island if there's only 01:28 left on the bomb timer when Eggman calls to warn Shadow about the island blowing up?
    • Gameplay and Story Segregation, maybe? 1:28 would have been too short for a level.
    • That particular timer actually could have been just for Security Hall, and the rest of the explosives planted on the island still had more time left on their internal clocks, which is why Sonic had so much time to get outta there. Realistically (even for Sonic Adventure 2), one small set of dynamite packs (planted in an indoor facility, no less) would not be anywhere near enough to destroy Prison Island. So, odds are there were actually explosives planted all over Prison Island, like at the harbor, the weapons beds, Security Hall (obviously), in the depths of the jungle, on tankards or maybe underwater capsules, et cetera et cetera, all set on different times depending on Eggman's calculations (I wouldn't be surprised if the timers in Security Hall were set to 15 minutes, but the ones in the jungle were set to, say, an hour, that way they could cover their tracks better and not risk dying themselves). Sonic Adventure 2 also doesn't have a very good English translation, so that might be why it makes no sense.
  • Tails apparently got all of his intel on a top secret military prison from a public news broadcast. Do they issue brochures and tourist passes and allow reporters to tour the place despite the area being highly restricted?
    • That's a misconception. What Tails claims to have heard on TV was actually Sonic robbing the bank and destroying a military facility. Since he says the sentence "I heard the news about it on satellite TV" right after describing Prison Island, some misinterpret it as Tails having learned of the island via TV. It's less ambiguous sounding in the original Japanese dialogue.
  • So Station Square, according to a one page newspaper, awarded Tails with the yellow Chaos Emerald because he saved the city from being blown up. Only, Station Square was still destroyed regardless. And contrary to how Sonic X wants to portray it, there's no way that roughly 80% of the city's population would have survived an instant attack from a water god. Remember, water was even pouring out of buildings. Finally, it was the yellow emerald which iirc, belonged to Big at the time. They couldn't come up with a less contrived reason for Tails to have the 7th Emerald?
    • It is shown in Sonic Adventure's "Last Story" that, thanks to Perfect Chaos, the Chaos Emeralds all ended up in the ravaged city of Station Square regardless, which is how Sonic became Super Sonic to fight Perfect Chaos in the first place. We also should know that ever since in Sonic the Hedgehog (Sega Genesis), after one uses the Chaos Emeralds, the emeralds scatter across any given part of the world (This was even demonstrated after Perfect Chaos uses them, where Sonic's friends then gather around the scattered negative emeralds and reach up to Sonic). With these two points in mind, let's refer back to Sonic Adventure 2 —— When Dr. Eggman recites the newspaper about how the people of Station Square rewards Tails a Chaos Emerald for saving the city, take notice that the newspaper reads that Station Square held a ceremony at the City Hall in order to reward Tails the emerald for his heroic deeds. It should be inferred by that point that // Tails was rewarded with a Chaos Emerald in-between the events of Sonic Adventure and Sonic Adventure 2, // as the newspaper tells us that since Tails was rewarded // at the City Hall //, then Station Square by that point had to have been rebuilt in order for the ceremony to have taken place there, as we should know that Tails didn't fight Dr. Eggman's Egg Walker at the City Hall, but near Casinopolis, which was where the townsfolk took notice of the fight. City Hall is the area where Sonic first fought Chaos 0 in the beginning of Sonic Adventure —— So to wrap this all up, after Super Sonic finished using the emeralds when defeating Perfect Chaos in Station Square, the emeralds scattered. And thus, Sonic Adventure ends. In the events between Sonic Adventure and Sonic Adventure 2, Station Square was rebuilt, at which point, someone in Station Square eventually found one of the scattered emeralds in the process. Then further along this in-between time, a ceremony was held at City Hall to finally reward Tails for his good deeds and was then interviewed on the situation.
    • As for why bother rewarding Tails when the city was destroyed anyway, Perfect Chaos' emergence wasn't Tails' fault, and doesn't invalidate his heroism. It's also possible that some people left the city between the failed missile attack and Perfect Chaos' attack, meaning Tails' actions did at least save their lives.
  • Why didn't Sonic use Chaos Control to get to the Eclipse Cannon more quickly? He knew he was capable of using it, after all, and didn't seem to have many problems with it in his fight with Shadow. As it was, he only barely made it.
    • He may have felt that he hadn't mastered it enough to teleport right to the Eclipse Cannon, having done it just once. When fighting Shadow, he merely used it to teleport short distances, and to places he could see with his eyes, which likely made it easier to pull off.
  • For that matter, Sonic was already at the Eclipse Cannon when he learned Amy had been captured by Eggman. Why didn't he just put the fake emerald in and then go save her?
    • Because Eggman was demanding the Emerald from him. If he didn't hand it over, Eggman wouldn't have released Amy. He figured he would kill two bird with one stone by giving it to Eggman and letting this one insert it into the Eclipse Cannon, but he didn't count with Eggman's radars picking up two separate Emeralds, and Tails foolishly giving away the fact Sonic's was fake.
  • How the hell did Gerald program the ARK to play a video of his own execution?
  • When Gerald was executed, he announced his revenge... and nobody thought to investigate the ARK after he was dead? Yeah, he was clearly not in his right mind, but considering he was the head of Project Shadow, you'd think that would warrant enough credibility to at least double check his threats...
    • They may have figured that nobody who would be foolish and resourceful enough to gather the Chaos Emeralds and bring them to the ARK (let alone have a reason to). Space travel isn't something the average citizen has access to.
  • If the ultimate life form is a hedgehog...why is the prototype of the ultimate life form a cyborg dinosaur?
    • Because it was the first attempt, and it didn't work out (seeing how the Biolizard has trouble breathing and needs cybernetic implants), so Gerald took a different approach next.
    • Alternatively, Gerald may have changed his mind about what the Ultimate Lifeform should be like between the prototype and the final Shadow, possibly upon seeing Angel Island's Sonic imagery and getting inspired by it (it's known that he was fascinated by Angel Island's history and lore, and Sonic 3 & Knuckles showed that it has murals and statues depicting Sonic to illustrate old prophecies), or as a result of meeting Black Doom and the Black Arms (maybe a combination of both).
    • Even the Biolizard's appearance can be explained by the established connection between Gerald and Angel Island history, as we know from the Artificial Chaos that Gerald knew about Chaos. So it's likely he was inspired by Perfect Chaos' dragon-like appearance to make the prototype of the Ultimate Lifeform a lizard. As for the cybernetic implants, official material established that Chaos Drives were designed as part of Project Shadow as an experiment attempt at applying the Chaos Emeralds' infinite energy to a life, which led to the Biolizard's creation. The thing on the Biolizard's back is likely basically a huge Chaos Drive. Those tubes on the Biolizard that you can see transferring energy during its boss battle? They're transferring Chaos Energy.
    • In addition, SA2, Sonic X, and official material posited the possibility that the Shadow we know was actually created at Prison Island as a weapon for GUN (his memories of the Ark and Maria having been fabricated by Gerald), and the original Shadow who was born at the Ark and was jettisoned to the Earth in a capsule by Maria was never recovered. If that's the case, then assuming the original Shadow wasn't Sonic himself, he might have looked like the missing link between the Biolizard and the red-striped black hedgehog we know.
  • Some of the lyrics from Eggman's theme song really seem self-contradictory
    All my machines are made for destruction
    I will build my empire
Surely it would be smarter to also build machines for construction.
  • He probably means to destroy his enemies with overwhelming and robotic force, and then build his empire from the rubble and free space his victories bring.
  • Why did Knuckles decide to stow some Master Emerald shards in the shuttle's cargo hold? Couldn't he have just kept them on him?
    • Maybe he was tired of carrying them and wanted to take a break? They should have been over half the pieces of the Master Emerald by that point, so they must have weighted considerably.
  • How was Sonic able to retrieve Shadow's flame ring (I think that's what it was he was holding after the boss fight against the Final Hazard) in the Last Story?
    • It probably went something like this: After the final battle, Super Sonic and Super Shadow used Chaos Control to teleport into the Ark, but Shadow lost his transformation just at that moment. As a result, his CC wasn't powerful enough to warp him whole, only extending to his wrist. When Sonic arrived, he found out that only Shadow's bracelet had been teleported, but Sonic himself had also lost his transformation (after warping), so he couldn't teleport back and rescue Shadow.
  • When Amy went to hug Shadow, thinking he was Sonic, how did she not see Eggman and his giant walker right next to him?
    • The moment she saw "Sonic", she ran straight toward him, ignoring everything else, being the crazed Sonic fangirl she is.
  • In the Rouge stage Egg Quarters, Eggman's base is being patrolled by two robots known as Egg Beetles. But these robots are nowhere to be seen in the Knuckles stage Death Chamber, which is also set in Eggman's base and takes place afterwards. Where did they go?
  • Eggman said that he knew the Chaos Emerald was fake because 'Tails told him.' But earlier, he correctly said the Emerald is fake before Tails said it was. What's up with this?
    • His radars detected two Emeralds, so he knew that one of them had to be fake, but not which one. Tails' response confirmed that it was the one Sonic was carrying. Eggman's English-translated line "Do they really think they can fool me with that fake emerald?" just made it sound like he knew beforehand which was the fake, but his original Japanese line was more along the lines of "Two energy signatures... Are they trying to trick me with a fake emerald?", which makes his uncertainty all the more clear.
  • This is rather minor, but why did they change the springs' color from red (SA1) to reddish pink (SA2)?
  • If G.U.N. knew who Shadow was — having kept him in cryo-sleep for 50 years — why were they so keen on arresting Sonic when Shadow escapes and starts doing public crimes? The humans of this world are clearly acclimated to the idea of anthropomorphic animals and Sonic isn't the only hedgehog out there, so G.U.N. could have saved everyone all the trouble and publicly told everyone that the emerald thief was not Sonic. If anything, it could have put the public at ease because since this wasn't Sonic going bad, then they could tell everyone that both their favorite blue hero and the US government are both hunting for this new evil hedgehog. Even with their "resemblances", I would think that G.U.N. could tell the difference between the two and prioritize capturing the actual hostile one. In-fact, the game's continuity confirms that G.U.N. forces where chasing after both Sonic and Shadow at the same time in different areas. There is no reason why G.U.N. would capture Sonic twice and keep him incarcerated.
    • See above. G.U.N. knew full well that it was Shadow that committed those crimes, as this one had escaped from his imprisonment in their very headquarters, they still chased Shadow after capturing Sonic, and they were spying on Eggman's team through Rouge, who worked up close with Shadow. They just didn't want the secret of Shadow's existence and escape to get out, so they used Sonic as a scapegoat.
    • Alternatively, also see above, G.U.N. forgot about Project: Shadow due to how secretive it was and the current members don't know anything about it because of this.
  • "Unlike Sonic I don't chuckle"? What the fuck.
    • Only so many things rhyme with knuckle. "Unlike Sonic I wear my seat buckle" doesn't have the same edge to it.
  • Why do Sonic and Tails even bother bringing the real emerald when they are trying to trick Eggman with the fake one (other than the meta-reason that Sonic and Shadow would be able to go Super if they didn't)?
    • Tails needed the real Emerald to power his Cyclone.
  • Why is Omochao considered an Annoying Video Game Helper comparable to Navi from Zelda by many fans? Unlike Navi, he doesn't blast the player with "Hey!" and "Listen!" every few minutes, nor brings the game to a full stop to talk to the player in select sections. Omochao is always on the side of the road and doesn't bother the player unlike he deliberately bumps into him, not unlike the Tikal light orbs in SA1, or the "?" hints in Heroes onward.
  • Why didn't Knuckles transform and go with Sonic and Shadow to confront the Final Hazard? It's canon that he has a super form, and he was right there. Surely, he would've done more good by fighting alongside them than by just staying on the ARK.

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