Lore Maria and Ivo: Iizuka Discusses Robotnik Ages and Relationships at Korean Fan Meet

[GX -The Spindash-]

Despite offshoot cartoons and comics continuously inventing parents, siblings, and other relatives for the cast, the only characters to have any meaningful family connections have been the Robotniks: Gerald, Maria, Ivo, and... probably Nega? (The mid-2000s was a weird time for the lore.) When asked about Maria and Eggman at a recent fan meet-up in Seoul, South Korea, Takashi Iizuka expounded some details on their relationship:

As reported by Sonic City, Iizuka was asked which of the two were older, and if the two knew each other. His answer mostly hinged on the "50 years ago" aspect of the attack on the ARK:

Eggman is probably under 50 (no, he doesn't currently have a revealed age), meaning he's both younger than Maria would be and might not have been alive at the time of the attack. Thus he would not have known Maria personally. The two are cousins, with their respective fathers being Gerald's two sons.

Though none of this is a major revelation, it does give a sense of the how Iizuka sees the order of events. And of course, this all comes with the caveat that an on-the-spot lore question at a Q&A panel isn't the ideal scenario to get new info that will withstand the combined forces of time and retcon.

We're now only left with one major question regarding the extended Robotnik family: why doesn't he call him Uncle Shadow?

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[Wittymations]

Personally, I was thinking the guy is either in his late 30s or early 40s. He doesn't seem terribly old by his face. Just bald.

Edited March 23 by Wittymations

[Shiny Gems]

3 minutes ago, Wittymations said:

Personally, I was thinking the guy is either in his late 30s or early 40s. He doesn't seem terribly old by his face. Just bald.

I was thinking in his 30s, personally, though I would say it is close to being 40.

[ShadowForever]

Hmm, it's always been obvious to me that Eggman is 65. Now you make me understand how wrong I was. XD

[Ratchet25tx]

Has he met Maria yet? If so, 50+ years old

[Sega DogTagz]

Eggman specifically said that he never knew Maria, and followed up that tidbit with a past tense description of the second hand knowledge he did have of her occurred after she was dead.  after she was "gone".

 

Not a confirmation - but a very safe bet that he was either not born yet, or very young when the Arc disaster went down. He's almost assuredly younger than Maria.

[Shaddy Zaphod]

Yeah there's nothing surprising here, I always figured Ivo was born after the ARK raid and was sort of inspired more by Gerald's legacy than the man himself.

[castell-neath]

So, from that explaination and very handy diagram, still plenty of room for sega to call Gerald's son / Eggman's father Julian Robotnik and send certain sections of the fandom in to Meltdown.

If they haven't got the Kahunas to do it, I'm sure Ian Flynn has! Even if its as an Eggman audio log in Sonic Frontiers 2. Lol

Edited March 25 by castell-neath

[Wittymations]

On 3/23/2024 at 1:51 PM, ShadowForever said:

Hmm, it's always been obvious to me that Eggman is 65. Now you make me understand how wrong I was. XD

Usually, when a cartoon character is in their 60s they typically start designing them rather wrinkly, grey hairs, give them "old people movement" where they're slow and hunched over. Like, look at Professor Pickle.

The doc's not any of that. He has a pretty smooth skin, brown-red facial hair (depends on the render), and could run a marathon without breaking a sweat despite his weight.

What makes him look old really is just the baldness and maybe the mustache. And that's not really a great indicator for eyes. Even in real life. Want an example?

Here's Hulk Hogan the day he was given the WWF belt so the WWF could start using his growing popularity to push the promotion into the mainstream spotlight. Very pivotal moment for the company.

How old do you think Hulk Hogan was in 1984?

He looks like he's maybe in his late 40s, right? Maybe even early 50s?

You'd be wrong.
He was 31. That doesn't look like a 31 year old man, does it? The balding, receding hairline made him look older than he really was. Mustache too. But no, he was a young man back then. Shit, I'm older than he was in this photo, but I look younger because of my full set of hair. I also suspect Hulk was doing quite a bit of drinking and drugs at this time so probably doesn't help.

Edited March 25 by Wittymations

[Lorekitten]

"The Robotnik balding gene must hit hard and young."

Oh, that's been implied for a long time. Just look at Snively.