E-123 Omega

E-123 Omega (オメガ'Omega'), or, technically, E-123 Ω, is a fictional robot from the Sonic the Hedgehog video game universe, first appearing as a fully playable character in the multiplatform game Sonic Heroes, which was first released in Japan on December 30th, 2003. Omega was created by Takashi Iizuka and designed and modeled by Nobuhiko Honda at Sonic Team USA. Omega has helped Shadow (and to a lesser extent, Rouge) in five Sonic games, and while not being a major character, is popular enough in his own right and has established himself as a main character.

Personality[]

While Omega, as a robot, is largely emotionless, he is capable of understanding those of others, and reacting appropriately. For example inSonic Heroes, when Team Dark is lead to believe that Shadow may be an android created by Eggman, Omega comforts a depressed Rouge (albeit in a distant, matter-of-fact matter) by saying that they needed the original to make a copy, thus meaning that the real Shadow is still alive. In Sonic Next Gen, he shows depression and anger when Mephiles reveals that Omega is the one who will trap Shadow in the future after the world uses Shadow as a scapegoat for Iblis' mass destruction. It is also possible Omega is superstitious, as he believes in omens such as the appearance of stormy weather, though this might have been because of his scanners picking up a powerful magnetic field.

Like E-102 Gamma, Omega has a free will and a personality. However, he is considerably less noble than Gamma; while Gamma destroys only what needs to be destroyed, Omega destroys anything that could possibly pose any kind of threat to himself or his mission. From his quotes, he thinks other Eggman robots are inferior to him, dismissing them as "worthless consumer models", especially the E-2000 model. He hates side tracking especially when it comes to locating Eggman. Omega is also very proud and feels embarrassed after he is defeated by less powerful Eggman robots.

It also seems that he lacks any sort of negativity towards Sonic and his friends, and didn't even recognize them during their first meeting in Sonic Heroes, as can be heard when the player finishes the Team Battle using Omega. This is probably because Omega was made to contain Shadow the Hedgehog and not as a means to defeat Sonic.

Omega's only goals in life are to take revenge on Eggman for disabling him, and destroy the doctor's other robots to prove himself superior. At one point in Shadow the Hedgehog, Omega made a comment about how he would "reign supreme". Some fans have taken these words quite literally, and believe that Omega wants to take over the Eggman Empire and become a robot overlord in the style of Metal Sonic. However, subsequent games have shown this less believable, and it is generally taken to mean that he wishes to reign supreme as the greatest of Eggman's robots, although it should be noted that the Sonic cast acted rather out of character in Shadow the Hedgehog.

Omega is fairly loyal and dependable when you're on his good side, a bit of a holdover from his original purpose as a servant, and he's not incapable of looking past differences to forge alliances. He also genuinely cares for Shadow and Rouge as friends, and accepts the truth of what they say to him over everyone else; for example, in Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood, when the party encounters him, he tries to attack Eggman the moment he sees him, and Tails attempts to convince him that Eggman is on their side; Omega then believes that Tails has gone insane and decides to attack him as well, and he only believes that Eggman is working with them when Shadow and Rouge tell him so. In addition, he will temporarily abandon his vengeful quest against Eggman if he detects a bigger threat, as evidenced by his participation in the battle against Metal Madness.

Stereotypical of most robots, Omega tends to use somewhat lengthy words instead of usual human speech. An example of this is when he uses "negative" or "affirmative" instead of simply saying yes or no. Although he has been known to use typical human speech before, such as one of his Hint Ring lines from Sonic Heroes: "Looks like those guys are guarding that case."

Notably, in all of his appearances (barring the 2006 Sonic the Hedgehog game, in which he behaved in a manner stereotypical of old robots), he makes odd, often erratic movements, such as spinning his head as if it's on a 360 degree axis in many circles and rotate his entire upper body the same way during confrontations with Eggman inShadow the Hedgehog. Whether this is a programming flaw or intentional is not revealed. Also in Sonic the Hedgehog, when Omega is standing still, he makes odd movements as if he's doing warm up exercises.

Weaknesses[]

Omega, though one of the more powerful characters, has a few flaws that have hindered him, and may do so again in the future. It is likely that he cannot swim, so water may pose a problem. He is also one of the slowest characters in the series, which makes him an easy hit should he come in contact with a foe such as Sonic, which is surprising as he was made to capture the equally fast Shadow. However, his speed increases considerably when he uses his jet boosters. Weirdly if one were to run too far ahead of Omega as Shadow in Sonic the Hedgehog he could easily catch up before slowing down again. Although his strength is great and his weapons can cause significant damage, they can't destroy certain materials like gold. Some of his weapons, however, may be exempt to this.

Omega is also known to act before thinking, usually charging head-first into battle without any given strategy. This is Shadow's theory of how he could have been captured in Metropolis by the Marauders, in Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood.

He may also have a faulty or nonexistent targeting system, explaining his reliance on spread-fire weapons and explosives. This is more easily seen in Sonic Heroes, where he doesn't even appear to be trying to aim until the camera shifts to his point of view.

At the end of a level in Sonic Heroes, Shadow the Hedgehog, Sonic the Hedgehog and Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood Omega's torso spins around. It is unknown if it is a glitch or done on purpose, but may indicate Omega may need a few tweaks as has been stated.

Relationships[]

Shadow the Hedgehog[]

Shadow and Omega are close allies. In fact, Shadow is perhaps Omega's closest friend and is even seen worrying over his well being, (which is quite odd for Shadow, as he usually keeps a tight lid on his emotions), it is possible that this is because they were both prisoners of Dr. Eggman (in different ways).

Rouge the Bat[]

Omega is very loyal to Rouge. He usually follows her orders without question and is also quite caring about her (mainly because she freed him from his prison along with Shadow). This is shown at the end of Sonic Heroes, in which Omega comforts an upset Rouge albeit in a distant, matter-of-fact manner. However, as a robot, Omega is generally void of emotion, so this is possibly all he could do to comfort her.

Reception[]

Omega has a mixed reception from fans. Some see Omega simply as a bad remake of E-102 Gamma, that he is just a filler for Team Dark, saying that both Gamma and his story are much more complex than Omega, although some like that because they think quite a few Sonic characters are too complex, like Shadow the Hedgehog for example. Some see him as a fun character not really needed to the plot and acts as a sort of comedy relief to the games he's in. Fans also think of Omega as not being very developed because he seems to add nothing to the series besides trying to kill Eggman endlessly.

After his debut in the Archie Comics, some criticized Omega seeming too Human and less robotic and felt him gaining a "soul" was rather cheesy, but others felt that it was better than how he got his sentience in the games and made him actually have an appreciation for the feelings he had, rather than just gaining them out of anger.

All in all, Omega is a character who has little fan base, but few people view the character in a negative manner.

Trivia[]

It is possible that Omega is not powered by an animal like the rest of the E-Series robots (with the exception of E-121 Phi) as he was in standby mode for over two hundred years in Sonic the Hedgehog, therefore, the animal would have died (although he does mention something about a back-up power source).
The position of the capital Omega symbol (Ω) on Omega's shoulder has changed throughout the series. InSonic Heroes and Shadow the Hedgehog, the symbol is on the front of his left shoulder and back of his right, in Sonic 06 only one is on the front of his left and in Sonic Chronicles it's on both sides of his left and right shoulders. As of Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games, Omega's symbols have been returned to their original place, but in Sonic Colors it keeps moving due to Omega only having a single still image that is paralleled to represent him facing an opposite direction. Most of the time, he faces to the left, however, and on that side his symbol is in the correct spot.
During any battle in Charyb's lair when it's flooded, the player can see air bubbles coming out of Omega even though he does not breathe.
Many people believe that Omega's stripe was originally white/grey/silver when it was actually black. This is because of the character textures that were used in Sonic Heroes and Shadow the Hedgehog, so what they were actually seeing was the shine off of Omega's stripe instead of the actual color. Starting with Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games, however, it has been made an actual silver that seems to be staying. SEGA may have wanted this change permament since Sonic Next Gen, but BioWare made the stripe black again for Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood.
The term "meatbag", one that Omega used on several occasions in Sonic Chronicles: the Dark Brotherhood, is well known for being used by HK-47 who debuted in the game Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic in 2003, another game developed by BioWare. Coincidentally, Omega and HK-47 made their worldwide video game debuts in the same year. They also believe themselves superior to other robots and like to participate in acts of violence. It should also be noted that since 1999, "meatbag" has been used repeatedly by Bender, another robot, of the sci-fi animated sitcom Futurama.
Omega's first English voice actor, Jon St. John, was also the voice of Big the Cat, Chaos Gamma and Duke Nukem from the series of the same name. By coincidence, Duke Nukem is yet another "gun toting" and destruction loving character.
Omega's second English voice actor, Andrew Rannells, also voiced Gamma in Sonic X, though his voice of Omega was different from Gamma's higher pitched Sonic X voice and sounded remarkably like Jon St. John's, making many fans believe it was the same person.
Omega is the only "Amigo" character in Sonic the Hedgehog to fight in a boss level (Mephiles the Dark in the Flame Core level along with Shadow).
Omega and Shadow could be considered to be relatives since Shadow was created by Eggman's grandfather Gerald Robotnik and Omega was created by Eggman.
After the events of Sonic the Hedgehog, Omega's capturing of Shadow is apparently erased from time, but it is currently unknown if the erasing of Iblis from history cancelled this future event, as it was Shadow whom the world used as a scapegoat for Iblis's reign of destruction as they feared his power, so the results could possibly occur again if provoked by a different cause.
Omega was probably withheld from the final story of Shadow the Hedgehog because Shadow was supposed to defeat Black Doom without an ally character and all the others were frozen to the spot thanks to a Black Arm gas that petrifies organic beings, (minus the Black Arms themselves and beings with Black Arm DNA). Since Omega is a robot, he would have been immune to the effects of the gas and ruined the ending of the game. In terms of story, this could be jotted down to him simply not caring about the current events at the time. He also technically was not part of the story proper, as he only took part in the final "Neutral" levels that ended with Eggman's death which clearly didn't happen, which also had nothing to do with the Black Arms and could have been considered a completely different plot from the main one.
Omega's victory poses always involve him either spinning or turning his torso. It is unknown if this is done on purpose or is a glitch in his programming, but it is most likely on purpose because in Sonic Heroes he spins while using his flamethrowers or machine guns.
Omega, Cream the Rabbit, and all three members of Team Chaotix are the only recurring playable characters to not get their own personal theme song.
Omega is the only ally in Shadow the Hedgehog to not receive new artwork for the game, most likely because he was also not included in the opening cinematic and would not have a polished CGI model. This does not include the icon used for his mission in Iron Jungle and Lava Shelter.
Omega seems to have significant knowledge of the Shadow Androids Eggman was employing, as he immediately assumed Shadow was one of them when first laying eyes on him and also told Rouge that they were made through cloning when she discovered a room full of them.
Oddly, Omega was denied a place on Team Dark in Sonic Free Riders and was replaced by E-10000B. In terms of canon, Omega wasn't on the team because Shadow and Rouge were unaware that each team had to have three racers and had to quickly find one to enter, which was how E-10000B got on the team. In real life terms, SEGA chose to not have Omega present to provide a plot twist for the ending, as E-10000B was merely Metal Sonic in disguise who served as the game's final boss.
While using a glitch, you can get Omega into Shadow's section of Wave Ocean, and even complete the stage as Omega. Sonic and Tails can get there also, using various glitches.
Out of all the E-100 robots so far, Omega is the only one whose Greek letter is upper case.
Omega is one of two characters who have Sonic Channel artwork identical to their first renders, the other one being Gamma.
Omega's name is hypocritical as he is described as the strongest of the E- Series robots
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