Maria Robotnik

Maria Robotnik (マリァ・ロボトニック) is a fictional character in the Sonic the Hedgehog universe.

Maria is the granddaughter of Professor Gerald Robotnik, and is the cousin of Doctor Eggman. Before Shadow was created, she was friends with the GUN Commander. Maria suffered from the illness known as "NIDS" (Neuro-Immune Deficiency Syndrome), which was considered incurable at the time. She is 140 cm tall, weighs 32 kg, and has blonde hair.

Sonic Adventure 2
While Professor Gerald's government-sponsored research aboard the Space Colony ARK was initially intended to attain an immortal being, Gerald took on the task to try and save his granddaughter, and named the project 'Project Shadow'. Trials of the test had been practiced on the Biolizard, which quickly became unstable and required a Life Support System to continue living. Later, when Shadow the Hedgehog was created, he and Maria became friends. Then the President called a halt to the experiments, due to suspicions of what Gerald was doing, since a mad robot known as Gizoid, who was originally researched by Gerald, went crazy and destroyed large portions of the ARK. The ARK was then stormed by GUN, Maria and Shadow attempted to flee the invading soldiers, and she encased Shadow in an escape pod to escape the ARK. However, Maria was shot by a soldier, and as Shadow watched in horror, unable to help her, she asked him to bring hope to humanity and give humans a chance to be happy. Before she was shot, she pulled the trigger for the capsule. This experience scarred Shadow for life.

Shadow, who was eventually captured, was freed by Dr. Eggman and his robots 50 years later. Although at first he didn't fulfill that promise, Amy (or Chris Thorndyke in Sonic X) helped him remember Maria's words, "Shadow, I beg of you, please do it for me... For a better future. For all the people who live on that planet. Give them a chance to be happy. Let them live for their dreams. Shadow, I know you can do it. That's the reason you were brought into this world." After this, he went to help Sonic and his friends prevent the Earth's destruction.

Sonic Battle
Maria is only mentioned in Sonic Battle by Shadow's dialogue and Gerald's diary. The diary reveals that Maria's last words were "Bring hope to humanity". This would, however, contradict Maria's death as seen in the Shadow the Hedgehog video game. However, Gerald's logs only state "...they said that her last words were...", so it could be a faulty report by the GUN troopers that killed her, or simply a retcon.

Shadow the Hedgehog
In the game Shadow the Hedgehog, Maria makes an appearance during flashbacks on the ARK, in both levels and cut scenes. Maria helps Shadow neutralize 35 Artificial Chaos units in Lost Impact, and wishes to heal ten wounded researchers in The Doom. In the introduction sequence before Westopolis, Shadow recalls her violent death. However, due to the unpleasantness of his recollections (or realistically due to the developers wishing the game to remain as accessible as possible), the scene is censored - Maria's death is never seen by the player. Instead, a GUN soldier raises a pistol, the screen flashes white, there is the sound of a gunshot, and Shadow yells "Maria!" It should be noted the censorship is only in the beta version (see here).

It should also be noted though that in the cut scene where Black Doom reveals all this to Shadow, (which is also visible in some of the trailers) at the point it switches back to Shadow you can see the still image of Maria being thrown backwards as the bullet hits her.

There have also been some changes to the flashbacks. When Maria sends Shadow off in the escape pod, she is on the floor instead of near the control panel, like in Sonic Adventure 2, and also has a different "speech". This may be hinting that Shadow's memory is not completely correct, or it could be a retcon, or just an error.

In the end of the game, when there is a transmission from Gerald Robotnik to Shadow, Maria appears in it, telling Gerald that Shadow would have no problem with saving the world. Notably, since the video is about the Black Arms, it proves that Maria was one of the few who knew about the aliens.

When teamed up with Shadow, if the player chooses hero missions, the 2nd player may control Maria in the PlayStation 2 and GameCube versions. She has a short jump height, and her only attack is a slap. She makes only two playable appearences in the "The Doom" and "Lost Impact" levels.

Personality
In Sonic Adventure 2, Maria was quite calm and gentle. In Shadow the Hedgehog, it shows she was also quite childish and playful (when she was chasing the Commander as a child). Although in SA2 it seems like she cares only about Shadow, this game shows she cares for everybody else on board the ARK. She even feels pity for the rampaging Artificial Chaos in the "Lost Impact" level, and the GUN Soldiers attacking her and Shadow in "The Doom". She pictures Shadow as the protector of the ARK, and hopes that he will bring hope to humanity.

Sonic the Hedgehog (comics)
Maria briefly appears in the Sonic the Hedgehog comic book published by Archie Comics. Her role is the same as in the games, but in her first appearance she was miscolored as a brunette. The comic issue was a teaser to the game and was released almost a month before Sonic Adventure 2 so the color was due to lack of information on the editors part. All other minor appearances of her have her correctly colored as a blonde.

When Shadow takes over the planet Mobius in the alternate future of Mobius: 25 Years Later, he constructs at least one statue of Maria as an angel.

Sonic X
Maria appeared in some of Shadow's flashbacks in the anime series Sonic X, mirroring her role in Sonic Adventure 2.

In the English dub of Sonic X, Maria's death was cut and replaced with Gerald Robotnik (and the GUN agent who killed her) saying that she was "taken away" from the ARK during the raid (although they could be speaking metaphorically), which would suggest that she possibly wasn't shot and was unharmed. However, at one point, a reporter (when talking to the soldier who killed Maria) states that "everyone else was lost" which suggests that Maria was in fact killed. This tactic of avoiding death in anime is often used by 4kids Entertainment.

Death
Maria Robotnik's goal was to one day see the earth (as mentioned in Sonic X) with Shadow. During the GUN raid, a GUN agent threatened to shoot her if she would release Shadow onto earth. Maria was wanting Shadow to bring hope so deeply, she even pulled the switch, which caused the GUN soldier to shoot at her.

The Capsule Mystery
The cause of Maria's death was of a GUN soldier. She sent Shadow off in a capsule to Earth..

In a Sonic X Episode, the GUN soldier who killed her has a flashback about the incident. When Maria was about to pull the switch, it showed two capsules. They both had a silouhette of 2 creatures. Rouge mentions this to Shadow, and starts wondering if he is really Shadow or just a prototype.

It is said, since Shadow's memory doesn't always seem to be correct, that the other capsule was another creation of Professor Gerald Robotnik.

It should be noted that when Shadow imagines Maria and himself in the park, their shadows resemble the "creatures" in the two capsules being set off. This could possible mean a clone was created of Maria, though that is most unlikely

Voice acting

 * Sonic Adventure 2, Sonic X, Shadow the Hedgehog - Yuri Shiratori (Japan)
 * Sonic Adventure 2 - Shelly Fox (US)
 * Sonic X, Shadow the Hedgehog - Bella Hudson (US)

Trivia
Samus Aran due to the hair and blue outfit.
 * Maria appears as two collectable cards in Sonic Rivals.
 * Maria physically resembles Lewis Carroll's Alice as she appears in the 1951 Disney film version of Alice in Wonderland.She also resembles