Gerald Robotnik is alive
Jim Carrey plays two Robotniks in Sonic 3. The eccentric mad scientist Ivo “Eggman” Robotnik who he’s played in every movie thus far, and his grandfather Gerald Robotnik. In Sonic Adventure 2, Gerald was long dead and had brainwashed Shadow to carry out his revenge-fueled plan to destroy the world in his absence. The movie version of Gerald is still alive, and able to manipulate Shadow and his grandson into doing his bidding. Eggman has gone his whole life without family, so he’s more than happy to help out his grandfather to make up for lost time, and Shadow’s grief for Maria is so strong, he’ll do anything if he’s told it will be in her honor.
Gerald dies at the end of the movie, though it’s in a much different way than he dies in the games. Eggman kills Gerald in a frankly anticlimactic fight inside the Eclipse Cannon space station, where in the games he’s killed by a firing squad after his descent into madness.
