While this series might not be as blatantly dark as Sonic the Hedgehog (SatAM), it does have some disturbing themes that, if fully realized, make the world of Mobius out to be much more nightmarish than it appears, with Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine being a good example. The entire series has Sonic and/or Tails barely surviving all kinds of dangerous situations.
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Adventures Of Sonic The Hedgehog
- Dr. Ivo Robotnik, for all of his ham and comedy, is still a threatening character if looked at beyond face value. This version of the character is a petty Bad Boss who will arrest citizens over the smallest things. And his usual penchant for enslaving innocent animals is still in full force. It's not without reason as explained below, but imagine how bad having a Psychopathic Manchild as an Authority in Name Only would be in real life. It's all but stated the only reason he seems like a complete goofus is largely because of Sonic stopping his evil schemes.
- Scratch and Grounder's creation 'Robot' in "The Robots' Robot" only has to meet Robotnik once to decide that he isn't safe around him and that he needs to get away from him as fast as possible. Robotnik essentially tells a newborn child that he's going to kill them! Understandably, Robot is left traumatized for most of the rest of the episode and is initially unwilling to trust anyone out of fear of being taken apart.Robotnik: (upon seeing Robot has accidentally broken much of his china) You are USELESS! I'm going to personally take you apart and turn you into a popcorn popper!
- Scratch and Grounder's creation 'Robot' in "The Robots' Robot" only has to meet Robotnik once to decide that he isn't safe around him and that he needs to get away from him as fast as possible. Robotnik essentially tells a newborn child that he's going to kill them! Understandably, Robot is left traumatized for most of the rest of the episode and is initially unwilling to trust anyone out of fear of being taken apart.
- A few of Robotnik's Villainous Breakdowns can amount to this simply because of how wrathful he can get. His red irises and tendency to growl and/or gnash his teeth don't help.
- A particularly nasty one occurs in "The Little Merhog" after Robotnik gets his ass kicked by the periscope going up and down too quickly. He has quite the deranged expression on his face.Scratch: (quite nervous) Boy, that's what I call a look that could kill! (He laughs nervously.)Robotnik: (sporting a demented Nightmare Face) It's not the look that will kill you... IT'S THIS! (grabs and proceeds to thrash them both)
- And on top of that, there's a dent on the top of his head that makes it look like he's sporting devil horns.
- A particularly nasty one occurs in "The Little Merhog" after Robotnik gets his ass kicked by the periscope going up and down too quickly. He has quite the deranged expression on his face.
- Mama Robotnik is quite a disturbing and menacing presence due to just how vicious and monstrous she is. Robotnik's fear of her is completely justified. As Wes Weasley rightly put it on one occasion, she makes Robotnik seem "as meek as a lamb" by comparison. To say nothing of how she routinely escapes prison, breaking right through the walls and later storming directly into her son's fortress unhindered.
- Katella the Huntress is pretty damn scary in her own right. Past her attractive appearance, she's a ruthless poacher who kidnaps sapient beings and sells them off to zoos. And she is able to essentially vanish them, one by one, without being seen. And that's not even counting how vicious she is towards those she likes, let alone loves. Let her rough treatment of Robotnik and his utter fear of her stand as proof of that.
- The climax to "Robotnikland" has this in the form of a haunted roller coaster, the afore mentioned Hellevator, a grotesque landscape with demons laughing at the villains, a door that sends them into a torture hall, Scratch's shadow getting decapitated (and putting his head back on!), a hallway of axes (where Scratch pulls out his heart), and fire breathing Badniks. The facade of this nightmarish landscape? Sonic's head!
- That scene was a frame-by-frame Shout-Out to Bimbo's Initiation.
- "Spaceman Sonic"
- This episode features a rather freaky slime alien thing. While it has some Nightmare Retardant moments due to its cold, it nevertheless is a Cyclopean monstrosity that seeks to eat Sonic and Tails after having nothing for thirteen years.
- Throughout the episode, the possibility of Sonic, Tails, Scratch, and Grounder being marooned in space forever is treated seriously. Robotnik even remotely controls one of Grounder's weapons to destroy the only way for them to return to Mobius in an attempt to ensure it happens. It takes everyone involved, including the aforementioned alien, teaming up and using Scratch and Grounder's robotic body parts to repair the escape pod for them to make it back alive.
- The episode ends with the alien, now loose on Mobius, chasing Robotnik with the intention of eating him. The Sonic Says segment tries to rein this in a bit with the alien being friendly with Sonic as the hedgehog gives him a drink to help with his cold, but it only does so much.
- Scratch and Grounder melting in "Birth of a Salesman"... while still conscious!
- Sonic gets turned into stone (or at least encased in it) thrice: once thanks to Grounder the Genius, again due to Robotnik's Super Supreme Stopper Zapper, and a third time courtesy of Coconuts and his magic. Imagine what that experience is like.
- "High Stakes Sonic"
- Sonic has to decide if he wants to free Tails or people who got captured in the Casino Night Zone. He has to deliberately lose a race to Grounder in order to get Tails back. While he's sadly trudging along, you hear Robotnik repeatedly yelling "YOU'LL NEVER SEE HIM AGAIN!", and laughing madly. And it's echoed.
- The same episode also has a bunch of Mobian sheep being tricked into losing all their savings and livelihoods. Once they have nothing left to lose, Smiley his flashy con-man representative takes them as slaves to work on building Dr. Robotnik a sphinx in the desert.
- Though Unwilling Roboticisation isn't a horror visited as much as in other series there have been a few cases of Robotnik robotising unwilling specimens like Blackbeard the pirate, a whale, a pterodactyl and worst of all innocent little Beans in Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine.
- The method through which Robotnik transforms lifeforms into robots is alarmingly efficient. Whereas roboticization in the SatAM series requires rare specialized equipment and has significant delay, all this Robotnik needs to do is just shoot someone with his Robot Transmogrifier Ray to instantly turn them into a robot. It gives the impression that he could essentially nullify resistance to him if he wanted to get truly serious, but chooses not to.
- "Mass Transit Trouble" has a particularly disturbing moment where Scratch sadistically fantasizes about blowing up Sonic and his bones then falling into his burial hole in the ground, a la Itchy and Scratchy.
- The whole episode thrives off Realism-Induced Horror. While most of Robotnik's schemes even at their worst are cartoonish and over the top, this one hits much closer to reality as a blatant act of terrorism. Robotnik has his Badniks plant three time bombs at the most important transportation hubs on Mobius relating to land, air and sea to cripple any attempts to escape his reach. All the while, they tire Sonic out with distractions while the bombs are planted so he can't even disarm a single explosive. Robotnik knows that as fast as Sonic is, he can't be in three places at once, especially when he's pushed to the brink of death, almost drowning as he tries to stop all 3 bombs.
- To make matters worse? This is the only episode where Robotnik doesn’t really get any consequences for his Evil Plan. At worst he suffers a self-inflicted injury once he learns he failed.
- "Tails' New Home" has Robotnik making robot parents to capture Tails. Sonic only figures it out when he realizes they kept calling him "Tails", not "Miles", his real name.
- Almost anytime Tails gets captured is this for some of the adult viewers. However, you'll probably become desensitized from it due to it happening Once per Episode.
- Sonic and Tails getting trapped in the past in the Chaos Emerald saga due to Sonic’s time-travel boots being destroyed.
- Goopster is an alien with an insatiable appetite that can devour anything in his path. And Tails wanted to keep him as a PET. Yikes.
- "Sonic the Matchmaker" has a subplot of Robotnik wanting to capture and dissect Breezy and Robotnik Jr. in order to figure out how they pulled off a Heel–Face Turn and prevent it from happening to his latest creation. He succeeds on that front, and has them decapitated so that he's able to poke around in their robotic brains while they're still fully conscious before having Scratch and Grounder throw their disassembled bodies out the window. While robots getting torn apart is often Played for Laughs in this series, this time isn't.
- Coupled with Nausea Fuel, Wolfgang Puke's rotten egg and maggot surprise dish in "Sonic gets Thrashed". Tails barfing was pretty much expected at that point.
- During the beginning of "Robotnikland", Scratch and Grounder make Robotnik hotcakes with syrup, only for him to mash Scratch's head into the food and beat him senselessly until he falls to the ground with the syrup dripping all over the floor. The syrup has a reddish color that makes it look like a pool of blood forming around his head and neck area despite Scratch being a robot, and Scratch doesn't get up and lays frighteningly still for at least 15 seconds. Way past extreme for a kid's show.
Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine
- The game really amps up the pressure during gameplay compared to the cutesy original Puyo Puyo game. When your area begins to overfill, not only is the 'panic' theme a more sinister fast paced remix of the Dark Prince's theme ("Final of Puyo"), but most of your opponents start laughing evilly or bare a creepy Slasher Smile at you. Notable examples include Frankly's fierce glare, Skweel's rapidly flopping head, Dynamight's Cheshire Cat Grin, and of course, Scratch's Smug Snake smirk.
- Robotnik's is even worse. When you lose, he taunts the player with his Evil Laugh.
