Sonic X: the anime series in the Sonic franchise. Before the movies started coming out,
this show gave us a possible answer to the question: What if Sonic came to our world?
Especially with the Japanese dub, this show was willing to do things and go
places with their characters that other Sonic art forms wouldn't even dream of approaching.
I'm Andrew with WickedBinge, and these are Sonic X characters: Good to Evil.
As usual, we’ll be starting with the most noble and heroic character and working our way down to
the most evil. These characters are The Good. The Gold Medal of Good is a 3-way tie between
Maria, Molly, and Cosmo. All three are heroes who selflessly made the ultimate sacrifice.
Maria gave her life in order to save Shadow's, Molly (in the Japanese dub) sacrificed herself
while fighting a Metarex fleet, and Cosmo gave hers to stop the Metarex for good. If it weren't
for their selfless acts, many other characters might have ended up in much worse scenarios,
but poor Shadow witnessed all of them. In a very similar boat is our Silver Medalist,
Tikal. She also made a sacrificial move; this one being to seal her and Chaos away
to avoid more destruction. She's only a spot lower due to events after Perfect Chaos was
defeated by Sonic. She wanted to seal Chaos away again, which, as Sonic was quick to point out,
would only cause history to repeat itself. More lives would be at risk, and that
oversight was avoided thanks to the Blue Blur. Speaking of Sonic though, he and Tails both
get the Bronze medal. They are two of the main heroes, and they are constantly putting their
lives on the line to stop whatever evil they face, Eggman or otherwise. Being best buds,
they often support the other and many other people on and off the battlefield.
One of Tails' biggest moments comes near the end where he, albeit reluctantly, fires a
blast at Cosmo that will save the galaxy. Some bonus highlights for Sonic include voluntarily
jumping in water to save Amy and taking a major blow from Emerl just to protect Cream.
While Cream does sometimes need saving, she still helps out where she can. Most of the time,
she can be seen helping out at the Thorndyke house, but she gets special chances to shine.
One of the most recognizable comes after Sonic takes Emerl's punch to protect her.
As difficult as it is, she, along with Cheese, decides to step in and fight Emerl herself.
She doesn't do as much as we would've liked in the Metarex saga, but by this point, she's shown
to be willing to step in when needed. Another one that will also step in
when they need, too, though usually for more personal reasons, is Shadow. Shadow may have
tried to destroy the world, teamed up with Eggman, and fought against Sonic, but that
was typically because he was under someone else's influence or leadership. After being awakened both
times, he started out working with or for Eggman for one reason or another. By the end of those
story arcs, however, he is fighting for a good cause; with them also ending with him willing
to give his life to help complete the mission. Even when he was attacking Cosmo, it was because
he believed her to be a spy working for the enemy, which he was technically right about (though Cosmo
wasn't aware of it herself). Any time he removes those inhibitor rings, he is risking his own life,
but thankfully he survives every time, including his final moments in the show since his shadow
can later be seen at Molly's grave during the final credits for the Japanese dub.
Shadow isn't the only one that has done work for someone else. The Chaotix
can be hired if detectives are needed. Consisting of Charmy, Vector, and Espio,
the Chaotix aren't in the show much. A good chunk of their screen time comes after they've been
hired by Vanilla (Cream's mom) to find Cream or check on her and her friends. Some antics do end
up happening that could have been avoided, like how they believed Cream needed to be “rescued”
on multiple occasions. They did at least stop when realizing Cream was in no danger. Regardless, when
they did appear, they helped where they could. Even if it wasn't much, they still did their part.
Two characters who appeared much more often to do their part are Amy & Knuckles. These two are
part of the main cast, and, for the most part, are doing the right things for the right reasons. In
Amy's case, she often helps out at the Thorndyke house and joins the fight if needed. Knuckles is
similar, though he typically likes to do things on his own. He at least allowed the Master Emerald
to be used for the Blue Typhoon though. They do have some glaring issues as well. They both don't
always think first before taking action, which can sometimes get them or someone else in trouble.
Amy specifically is also being awarded the Gluttony Medal due to her excessive and likely
unhealthy desire for Sonic (while common, gluttony doesn't always refer to food). For Knuckles,
he's also infamous for being fooled by Eggman, which happens AT LEAST 3 separate times in
Sonic X. Each time it happens, it leads to conflicts that could have easily been
avoided. They're still very much heroes, but their recklessness loses them a few points.
We have another treasure hunter for you: Rouge. Like with Knuckles, Rouge is fighting on the side
of good. She is often working with people like Topaz and the President against Eggman's forces,
and she even contributes towards the fight against the Metarex at times. Also like Knuckles, however,
she doesn't always think before she acts, or she at least doesn't plan something all
the way through. The thought of an easy gem or the chance to cause mischief sometimes
leads her to make foolish decisions. On top of multiple Master Emerald theft attempts,
she also triggered Shadow's memories of Maria on purpose in season 3 just to distract him so
she can look for the Chaos Emeralds. Lo and behold, she almost immediately needs
to be rescued. Lastly, Rouge will also be getting the Lust Medal. She
often uses her charm to either tease someone or try to get what she wants. We
also can't forget that...interesting comment she made in the Japanese dub
upon meeting Topaz when she tried to handcuff her. But she is not the only who has risked a mission
or plan for selfish reasons. Chris Thorndyke is guilty of this as well. Don't get us wrong,
Chris is still a good guy, and he proved at times that he actually can be helpful. By the time
season 3 rolled around, he was a bit older, thus he was able to help in ways he couldn't before.
That being said, he has some issues that we can't ignore. For one, he is notorious for his whining
and his cries for Sonic, which happen way more than they probably should. His biggest problem
comes whenever Sonic has a chance to go home. At the end of season 1, Chris implies that he
would rather leave his family and friends behind than say goodbye to Sonic. It gets even worse
when a device is constructed to send Sonic and friends home, but before Sonic can go through,
Chris shuts it down and runs off with him, which ultimately risked everyone being forced to live in
an infinite time loop if Sonic couldn't leave. Events like this give us cause to present him
with the Envy Medal. His repeated expressing of things like wanting to be like or with
Sonic and his friends tells us he would rather be someone/somewhere else. He's still a good guy, but
he could have used some major character changes. Something similar could be said about the big cat,
Big the Cat. Big is still very much a good guy, but in Sonic X, he's a minor character that only
appears once in a rare while. Generally, only three things are on his mind: finding Froggy,
sleeping and fishing. It's those latter two that lead us to giving Big the Sloth Medal. If he's not
looking for Froggy, he doesn't really do much of anything. He at least shows that he CAN be
helpful when he gives Sonic the emerald he had so he could fight Chaos, so that's something.
We will now have a lightning round of sorts for our next entry, as it will go over a few of the
major Humans in the show. Most of them are good. Chuck is chief among them as he helps the heroes
quite a bit, Topaz is a G.U.N. agent that often worked with Rouge or the President to stop Eggman,
Ella and Tanaka defended the Thorndyke house/family on several occasions,
and Hawk helped Knuckles get a chaos emerald and saved him from E-91. You also got Sam who,
while cocky at times, is part of Station Square's law enforcement. That being said, Sam will be
getting the Pride Medal today due to his efforts to prove he is faster than even Sonic as well as
the issues that stem from that for him or other people. Moving on now, Elmer Johnson wanted
nothing more than to preserve a beautiful baseball field, and Mr. Stuart had some highlights of his
own. One example is at the end of season 1 where he talked to Chris and helped him realize that he
should help Sonic return home. While those are all good examples, there are some who aren't seen in
as good of a light. Molly's crew made an alliance with the Metarex before being betrayed by them,
Li Yan and his Bruiser Boys imprison Knuckles and Hawk...for some reason, and Schmitz was the one
responsible for the death of Maria, but he did at least feel some remorse when retelling the
story. Overall, most of the humans are good, but like in real life, nobody is perfect.
Our final entry in the 'good' section goes to a couple characters that aren't human at all:
Gamma and Emerl. Both of these bots did some bad things at some point in their story arcs,
but they also both got some acts of redemption. In Gamma's case, once he befriended Amy and realized
that Eggman was the true enemy, Gamma voluntarily went on a mission to free his robotic brothers
from Eggman as well as the animals from inside the bots, including himself. For the most part, Emerl
was a good guy after befriending Cream and was quite docile in general. That was the case until
he held an Emerald in his hands and, according to Eggman, the Emerald restored his original
programming, causing him to go on a destructive rampage. Thankfully, this was reverted after his
fight with Cream, but by then, it was too late. Now we head into the GREY AREA, or the characters
that, for one reason or another, fall into the strange area between good and evil.
We will actually start off with even more robots by looking at Decoe, Bocoe,
and Bokkun. These are a trio of Eggman robots you will see more often than most. With Decoe
and Bocoe specifically, they are able to think for themselves much more than other robots,
but they still voluntarily work for Eggman...most of the time. There was a stint of time where they
joined the good guys, boosting their ranking a bit, but that was short-lived. With Bokkun,
he wasn't involved in most fights. Instead, he served more as a messenger between Eggman
and the heroes. He also loved to cause mischief along the way; usually by means of exploding TVs.
These robots might help cause some chaos, but for Chaos, it's in the name. When he's not provoked,
Chaos is actually not bad at all. At one point, he was the guardian of the emeralds, especially
the Master Emerald. However, once he was angered by Tikal's tribe, he went on a violent rampage,
wiping out most of the clan. After being released by Eggman, Chaos would take it
a step further by destroying Station Square, likely taking many more lives in the process.
Once he was calmed down after fighting Sonic, he reverted to his normal self again. As long
as he isn't angered again, he should be fine. After Chaos' story ended, the story of Gerald
Robotnik began. Gerald's story is a tragedy due to where he started and his eventual fate. At first,
Gerald wanted nothing more than to do things to help the human race. Eventually,
he agreed to help find a way for humans to achieve a form of immortality so that he might find a cure
for Maria. Unfortunately, he was never able to and Maria lost her life after G.U.N. interfered
with his work. He snapped as a result, leading to him reprogramming the ARK to destroy the Earth.
His final speech before being executed showed that he never mentally recovered before his own
life was taken. He might've had his reasons for what he did, but he still had to answer for it.
At least Gerald only acted the way he did AFTER he endured tragedy, unlike that of The Knuckles
Clan. It appears this group acts the way they do based in large part on who is leading them.
Before Pachacamac took over, the clan was actually quite peaceful. Once Pachacamac took over, though,
they became much more power-hungry and selfish. It peaked when they decided to raid the shrine of the
Master Emerald. Upon doing so, they trampled over a bunch of Chao and even Pachacamac's daughter,
Tikal. All of this angered Chaos, who went on a rampage, wiping almost all of them out. THIS
tragedy could have been avoided if they didn't act on their own selfish interests. As it stands,
they basically got what was coming to them, and Pachacamac receives the Darwin
Award for his death ultimately being caused by his own motives and actions.
Before going into the evil category, we have one more in the gray area, and that, even to
our surprise, is Eggman. Yes, he is the central antagonist for a good chunk of the show. On Earth,
he often attacks with his numerous robots to try and get the emeralds, not caring what world
he establishes his empire in. Speaking of which, repeatedly attempting to control the entire world,
regardless of which one, to build that empire in his own image leads to him receiving the Greed
Medal. Many events in seasons 1 & 2 could have been avoided if not for him. However, it's season
3 where Eggman barely worms his way out of the evil category. He may have been threatening Earth,
but he would eventually contribute towards saving the entire galaxy. There's also a couple
key scenes we want to point to. When Sonic takes on a Dark Form, Eggman, of all people,
stops him before he gets out of control, leading him to possibly always be angry. He also was the
one who talked Tails' through firing the Sonic Power Cannon so that the galaxy would be saved and
Cosmo's sacrifice wouldn't be in vain. He still did cause trouble from time to time, but that is
nothing compared to most of the characters left. Those characters belong in the category covering
the lowest of them all. These are THE EVIL. Taking the first spot is King Boom Boo.
In comparison with Eggman, most of King Boom Boo's actions may not seem all that bad,
but at the same time, the ghost never did anything to redeem himself. It's heavily
implied that other people completely disappeared when they visited that location before our heroes
found his ghostly crew. He and his ghosts scared and traumatized many characters just for the fun
of it. He even had another ghost possess Amy and attack Chris while he watched and laughed.
Even after his initial defeat to Sonic, he got angry and tried to chase after all of
them. He does kind of redeem himself in the tie-in comic, but we're looking exclusively
at the anime, so that won't count here. The rest of the entries are Metarex that
did way worse things. In 3rd place are Red Pine, Yellow Zelkova, and Pale Bayleef.
Appearing in season 3, the Metarex have one overall goal: remove all life that isn't
plant-based. They want to commit mass genocide, and these three are Commanders of their movement.
Red Pine doesn't shine as much, but the other two certainly do. Yellow Zelkova goes toe to toe with
characters like Knuckles multiple times, and Pale Bayleef was leading the fleet that led to Molly's
demise. He also became part of the Final Mova, leading to Cosmo's sacrifice in the final fight.
Our Silver Medal entry goes to the fourth and final Commander of the Metarex army:
Black Narcissus. He is involved in many of the same events/issues as the other three,
but he has one moment that makes him stand out. When Sonic arrives to confront him, Narcissus
shows him a trapped Cosmo and Chris, who were scared or unconscious respectively. Seeing this,
and being fueled by the dark energy of the fake emeralds there, Sonic lost it and took on a darker
form. No one else has been able to do that to Sonic before or since. Granted, we personally
would love to see more of Dark Sonic, but in context, Narcissus did all this to Sonic just
for the sake of an experiment to test his skills! Every army needs a leader, and our Gold Medal of
Evil goes to the leader of the Metarex: Dark Oak. He may have not been on the front lines as much
as the others, but being the leader, he definitely was involved in most of the bad events that happen
in some way. Even when we first saw him, he fought with and was able to defeat Super Sonic,
so you know this guy means business and not in a good way. He is ultimately the one that
led the charge to remove all non-plant life from the galaxy, which included stealing planet eggs
and causing those planets to lose their life force. He did much of his plotting in secret,
but the effects of his actions can still often be seen throughout season 3. The final battle seals
his claim to the Wrath Medal as well. Right before Cosmo immobilized him, he was getting more and
more enraged, eventually leading to his desperate, last-ditch effort of wanting to completely destroy
the galaxy. Many of that season's tragedies could have been avoided had it not been for
him. The English dub shows him regretting his actions right before he disappears with Earthia,
but the damage was already done, and he will always be the most evil character in Sonic X.