Roboticizer

The Roboticizer is a fictional device from the SatAM, Sonic Underground, Archie Comics, and Sonic the Hedgehog universes that transforms living organisms into robots through a process known as Roboticization.

Description

In SatAM, the device was originally created by Sir Charles "Uncle Chuck" Hedgehog with the intention of allowing the elderly to live longer. However, he was forced to abandon the project when test subjects began losing their free will. It was stolen by Dr. Robotnik, then known as Julian, Minister of War for the Acorn Kingdom of Mobius. Robotnik used the device to maintain his grip of terror over the planet, and in a moment of irony, Sir Charles was roboticized by his own creation. According to the Archie continuity, Sir Charles was also responsible for roboticizing Sonic's father, Jules. Also in the "Archie" continuity, Sir Charles had created the roboticizer so that the victims of the Great War (a conflict between the Mobians and the Overlanders) could be healed.

The roboticizer in Sonic Underground appears to function differently than its counterparts. Its background is never delved into and it can be assumed that Robotnik was solely responsible for its creation. While the roboticisers of SatAM and Archie completely convert flesh into metal, the SU roboticiser only carries the process out on some of the body. The subjects therefore bear resemblance to cyborgs, although there are exceptions (e.g. Argus). Interestingly, they still speak in robotic voices even when their mouth remains organic.

Whilst roboticization wasn't part of the plot in Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, Robotnik did use a device called the Robot Transmogrifier Ray in the Quest for the Chaos Emeralds saga, in which Robotnik travelled to various periods of time to gather the Chaos Emeralds. Using it, he could turn any living thing it hit into a loyal robot version and, in one case, transportation.

In all the series in which it is featured, the Roboticizer comes in a number of forms. Relatively portable versions exist in the form of Roboticizers loaded into trucks or other vehicles, while one of the most formidable is a device called Robostorm, a machine devised to fire Roboticization beams from orbit. Sonic Underground also featured an episode where Roboticizers roughly the size of a pencil were supposedly in production, but this turned out to be a falsehood.

Mentality
According to the SatAM series, although the roboticizer robs its victims of their free will, people who have been put through the process maintain their overall awareness of everything that is going on around them. They simply aren't in control of their actions. The "slave mind" effect can be fought, however. Sonic was able to help his Uncle Chuck regain his free will on multiple occasions, most notably through the use of emotion; Sonic finally managed to use his Uncle's emotional attachments and loyalties against his programming. However, if a subject is still roboticized, he or she can be plugged into a device that renders them subservient even after they have regained their free will.

In Sonic Underground, free will can be temporarily given to robians via use of the hedgehogs' medallions, although it requires a lot of their energy. While the hedgehogs encountered a Freedom Fighter that had been roboticised but retained his free will as a result of a malfunction in the roboticization process, there have never been any examples of a subject actively achieving free will in the same way that Uncle Chuck did in SatAM.

De-Roboticizer
The De-Roboticizer is a device that reverses the effects of Roboticization. It would effectively render the Roboticizer useless. Unfortunately, the device suffers major drawbacks. In the Archie Comics, the De-Roboticizer models built on Mobius are unrefined, and also potentially lethal. In SatAM, the device's effects are only temporary, though they do seem to help the subjects regain their free will.

By far, the worst De-Roboticizer is found in Sonic Underground. In reality, the device is a fake, designed to scam money out of fearful aristocrats. The device supposedly restores people to normal, and can even serve to immunize them against Roboticization. Sadly, the device is a fraud, and Robotnik even made it into a Roboticizer to use on the Royal Hedgehogs as a trap. However, just as Sonia the Hedgehog was about to be roboticized, the inventor grew a conscience and pushed her out of the way, in the process getting himself roboticized.

The Robotizer
The Robotizer is a device appearing in Archie's Sonic the Hedgehog comics, which is similar to the Roboticizer but alien in origin. The Robotizer was created by the alien Bem and far predates the Roboticizer. The Robotizer has the ability to turn any flesh being into a robot equivalent, and any metal being into a flesh equivalent. It was created to turn the metallic alien Biotexans into flesh creatures, but this resulted in their death. As of Sonic the Hedgehog issue #123, every Robian (Roboticized Mobian) has been de-robotized with very few exceptions (such as Bunnie Rabbot and Sonic's father , whose organic bodies would be unable to sustain themselves if they were de-robotized). The Robotizer has also apparently immunized all Mobians against being Re-Roboticized, forcing Dr. Eggman to develop a new method of Mobian neutralization: the Egg Grape Chamber.

Sonic the Hedgehog video games
In the video game series, Robotnik/Eggman often uses small animals to power the robotic Badniks. It is possible that these are the video game equivalent of Roboticized Mobians. If so, then it is also possible that the metallic "cage" found after defeating Robotnik in some games -- the one that Sonic has to blow up to free the Mobians inside -- is actually a video game version of the Roboticizer.

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