The Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog (Chaos Emeralds Saga 3) Robotnik's Pyramid Scheme

By Mark Rodriguez

The Sonic cartoon was a wild and wacky ride full of cartoony nonsense and intense energy. Oddly enough for such an episodic show, there was a multi-part story that involved Robotnik going through time to collect the Chaos Emeralds for supreme power, and Sonic would go after him to stop him. With Sonic stopping him from using the Chaos Emeralds of Invincibility and Invisibility, there are two more left to go.

In a bizzare case of actual continuity, this episode starts right where the last one left off, as Robotnik, Scratch and Grounder are running from a lion in a coliseum. Robotnik sees his distant relative Julius Robonikus in the crowd and figures they're saved. Unfortunately, his relative is just as nasty and gives them the thumbs down. The badniks manage to escape and get back in the time machine. As they blaze through time, Robotnik announces he's going after the Chaos Emerald of Immortality.

Sonic is surfing on the beach, trying to hit on more ladies. I think these episodes aired during the summer back in the day, which explains all the beach fun from episode to episode... but man, this series of episodes make Sonic look like a beach bum on his off time. He tries to impress the girl but Dr. Canine-stein returns to ruin the fun, on a surfboard no less, to bring serious news. He tells them that Sonic's family is vanishing one by one and soon he'll also cease to exist. They both figure it's Robotnik up to no good, so they have to go back in time to before he started messing with the hedgehog's ancestors. Instead of the time boots, the doc has now invented a time traveling surfboard. Because sure why not?

Robotnik and his robots arrive at Mobiegypt (....sigh....) and say if they capture a certain relative of Sonic, modern day Sonic will cease to exist (though offing his mom and dad before they met would have worked just the same). They soon find the Sonic of that era, a brick layer named Massonic, and apparently Robotnik somehow knows that this is the day he'll meet and fall in love with a girl named Penelope. Of course if that never happens, modern Sonic will never be born.

Egypt Sonic plans to take a break and heads towards a chili dog stand, since you know, they were always around, and we assume the blonde running it is Penelope. Scratch and Grounder in drag try to seduce Egypt Sonic's attention away but he turns them down down, so Grounder takes him captive at gunpoint.

Sonic and Tails arrive just in time to see this. Robotnik starts tying up Massonic, but Sonic and Tails arrive and wreak havoc with their time traveling hoverboard to take down the badniks. Robotnik is sent flying on a magic flying carpet where he smashes into all sort of things before a stone pillar lands on him. Good thing he's a cartoon.

Sonic and Tails figure they finished saving the day and go for some chili dogs and start heading for Penelope's stand. Massonic also arrives, standing in line after Sonic and Tails. Sonic rudely tells Penelope to hurry up (yeah I know the 'I'm waaaiii-ting' thing is his catchphrase but dude, it was totally rude and uncalled for in this scene. She's making your friggin chili dogs, dude.) Massonic also can't wait and just leaves to eat a falafel. Without knowing that he changed the meeting his ancestors, Sonic vanishes from existence.

Man, Penelope looks totally stoned in this frame....

Robotnik watches and laughs that Sonic basically took himself out and leaves to get the emerald. Tails is alone and figures it's up to him to get Massonic and Penelope together (are those two meeting pretty much common knowledge? Do they teach that in Mobius history books?). Tails takes Massonic away from the falafel stand and takes him back to the chili dogs. Massonic and Penelope fall for each other, and sure enough Sonic pops back into existence.

who knew the way to a hedgehog's part was chili dogs?

Meanwhile, Robotnik and his robots has the pharaoh tied up an demand to know which pyramid has the emerald in it. Robotnik tells Scratch to give him 'the treatment', and the robot chicken tickles the guard's foot with a feather but he doesn't crack. Robotnik says he'll become pharaoh himself and will force everyone to make pyramids until he's told what he wants to know. Sonic and Tails bust in, which surprises Robotnik, but as pharaoh, he quickly sends his guards to capture them and take them away. Sonic, Tails, and Massonic are forced to build pyramids, and Massonic tells them it'll take about 20 or 30 years to finish.

Robotnik conquers Mobiegypt. They realize that the Mobiegyptians must have written the location of the emerald somewhere in the hieroglyphics. Scratch and Grounder translate them and say the emerald is in the tomb of Robotnik's ancestor. Grounder asks if he had the emerald of immortality, why is he in a tomb, but Robotnik doesn't care.

Penelope finds the others and tells them that Robotnik is headed for the pyramid to get the Chaos Emerald of Immortality. Tails reminds them that they're all chained up. Sonic carves a hieroglyphic of himself in chains in the block they were using to form the pyramid. Somehow in the future, Canine-stein will find it and know what it means and sends them a hacksaw back in time so they can cut themselves free. Yeah.... didn't know Canine-stein was an archaeologist too, but whatever.

Sonic pulls a chariot for the gang, but elsewhere Grounder is also pulling a chariot for Robotnik and Scratch. The chariots race each other, and Robotnik uses the spiked wheels of his chariot to take out one of the wheels of the other. Sonic use his sonic spin dash to slice Robotnik's chariot in half and also cut off the wheels. Despite this, the bad guys get to the pyramid first. Massonic's grandfather built the pyramid so he knows another way in.

The pyramid is booby trapped and they run across a river of lava. Taking a cue from the games, they push a block onto the lava and ride it to get safely across. Robotnik pushes his robots past all the booby traps so all the bad stuff happens to them and he's safe.

Totally love it when they remember this is based on a video game and uses actual references from it. 

Robotnik finds a burial chamber with a long drop. As you fall you have to catch enough rings to open the door on the other side. Robotnik shoves Scratch and Grounder down the hole and they scramble to get as many rings as they fall while getting hit by booby traps. They land on the spiked door below and tell Robotnik they were one ring short. Robotnik grabs a ring and drops down safely, and they finally made it to the tomb of his ancestor.

Robotnik finds the mummy of his ancestor, just as Sonic and company arrives. The mummy comes to life and Sonic tries to slice him up, but he can't be killed since he is immortal. The mummy grabs Sonic and throws him against the sarcophagus of his own mummified ancestor. Mummy Robotnik and Mummy Sonic fight it out and Robotnik takes the emerald from his defeated ancestor. Mummy Robotnik is glad he's mortal again since he's had to deal with Sonic for years and years and turns into dust. Robotnik wears the emerald and Sonic can't do a thing to stop him.

Mummy Sonic gives Sonic an emerald he's using that gives him a shield similar to the games, and will give him the ability to hurt Robotnik. Sonic knocks Scratch and Grounder away and then crashes into Robotnik, sending him into the sarcophagus. Sonic takes his emerald and Massonic locks Robotnik inside. Sonic gives his mummified ancestor his emerald back and he returns to his coffin to sleep.

With the rings and the shield, this episode probably has the most references to the games.... ever.

Sonic sends the bad guys off on their time machine. This time they end up on top of a fighter plane.... in mid-air and in the middle of a dogfight with another plane. The pharaoh marries Massonic and Penelope (even though they just met that same day.... those hedgehogs are fast) and they're both wearing the chaos emeralds (won't that ruin history?). Sonic and Tails leave on their time traveling surfboard and pass by a Robotnik faced sphynx, and Sonic carves it up so it's a two headed sphynx with the heads of Sonic and Tails.

Sonic Says-

Sonic stops tails from skateboarding into open traffic (the hell?) and tells him about basic skateboarding safety. You know, stuff like helmet and knee pads and such.

Mark Says-

One thing I noticed about these episodes is that they're a different change of pace from the 'Sonic escapes Scratch and Grounder's Roadrunner-ish traps' and  'Sonic tricks everyone with disguises' thing that gets kinda repetitive. It was a decent episode overall, and we got a bit of Back to the Future references with the Sonic ancestors thing. For a moment there I kinda thought they were gonna have Penelope fall for Sonic (especially since he looks exactly the same as Massonic) and do that whole storyline... but then again this is a kids's show.

Like I said before, this particular episode doesn't show away from the stuff in the actual games. Aside from the Chaos Emeralds themselves, we got to see Sonic pushing a block in the lava and ride it, like in the Marble Zone of the first game, and we saw some golden rings and the shield from the games too.

It was kinda cool to see. Though if Robotnik's ancestor had the Chaos Emerald of Immortality, what was the one Mummy Sonic was wearing? Does that mean there 5 instead of 4? And why didn't he turn to dust the moment he gave it to Sonic? This leads me to....

Overanalylzing a kid's cartoon-

Where do I even begin...? Especially with the time travel stuff. Honestly the moment Sonic vanished from existence, it all would have ended there. Tails would never have met Sonic and go on his adventures. Robotnik would have ruled Mobius long before he ever thought of the emeralds. It would all vanish in a second.

But besides that, we also have the mummy Sonic and Robotnik that are still alive thanks to the Chaos Emeralds..... so why are they still locking themselves in sarcophaguses? Why isn't Mummy Robotnik not out still doing whatever evil schemes he used to do before he found the emerald... and why isn't Mummy Sonic out and about stuffing his face with chili dogs? Did at one point they get so bored of being around for years they just gave up and thought if they pretended to be dead long enough they'd actually die?

Oh and that Back to the Future/Bill and Ted thing again where Sonic leaves something expecting Canine-stein to find it hundreds of years in the future so he can send back whatever item he needs to that exact time period. This time was even worse. Not only is it super unlikely he will ever find a pyramid with that particular Sonic drawing on one of the blocks... how did he get the precise place and time to send a hacksaw to from just a drawing of Sonic in chains? At least time he wrote a letter with, I assume, more details.

Finally we have Sonic trying to kill Robotnik.... Well, the arguement for the mummy is kinda in the air, cause mummies are supposed to be dead anyway, but he is immortal, so um... I don't know....but the main thing is Sonic literally buzzsawed his way right through the mummy.... and the  sawed off his arm, and then tried to cut off his legs. Now of course the mummy just healed right away due to the emerald.... but Sonic was actually surprised it happened. He was actually trying to slice and dice the guy into bloody ribbons. Dude.

FATALITY!!!!!

And then he tried it against Robotnik himself when he had the emerald on. In this case, Sonic just bounced off his belly, but still dude. He was trying to slice up Robotnik too. Who knew Sonic wanted to end his fight against Robotnik in such a permanent manner? It's not unlike other cartoons to do things like this where the only reason a character gets to swing his sword or other lethal object at a character is because the other character actually does manage to dodge it or block it. Otherwise we'd have a lot more blood in cartoons if they didn't dodge in time. And it's even rarer when it's the good guys do it.

Overall good ep. Stay tuned for the final episode in this little saga.