Chaos, also referred to as the God of destruction is a character that appears in the Sonic the Hedgehog series. It is an immortal mutant Chao and a godlike figure who serves as the guardian god of the Chao and their friends. Its body is composed entirely of concentrated energy, and it has the ability to change form and evolve with each Chaos Emerald that it absorbs.
The first known guardian of the Chaos Emeralds, Chaos watched over a Chao colony in ancient times. However, 3,000 years ago, an attack from the Knuckles Clan led to it being consumed by a fury that threatened to destroy the world. However, it was sealed in the Master Emerald before it could succeed. In the present day, it was released by Dr. Eggman for a plot to conquer the world. Despite initial cooperation however, Chaos eventually revolted and tried to destroy the world. Fortunately, it was soon calmed by Sonic and departed for heaven in peace. Since then, Chaos has only re-emerged in times of great crisis.
Concept and creation[]
For Sonic Adventure, Sonic Team wanted to introduce a new enemy that was bigger and separate from the already-established main antagonist, Dr. Eggman, an enemy which could match up to the impact that Sonic Adventure was going to make by being a bigger Sonic game than any of those before it, namely by taking advantage of the technological jump from the Sega Mega Drive to the Dreamcast. Takashi Iizuka in particular wanted to design an enemy that had not been possible until now due to the limitations in technology. With Iizuka wanting something transparent and liquid since the technology now allowed it, the team came up with Chaos. Chaos was designed to impress the players and appear both bigger than Sonic and much more powerful than any enemy before it. It was for these reasons that the team wanted Chaos from the beginning and introduced it as the first boss of the game in order to emphasize the greater scale of Sonic Adventure in comparison to previous games.
When the team first designed Chaos, they presented the drawing to Yuji Naka, who was so impressed with the idea that he approved of it on the spot.
Appearance[]
Chaos 0, from Sonic Art Assets DVD.
Chaos is a lifeform with a body made of water-like energy. There are numerous forms it can take, although its most recognizable one is its Chaos 0 state. In this state, Chaos possesses a humanoid form with disproportionally long arms and legs compared to its torso. It has thick forearms with three large fingers on each hand, a short stump for a tail, and long feet with two large toes each. It also has two fin-like protrusions on the back of its head, sharp flaps on each side of its head, and a tall bulge on top of its head. It also possesses no facial features, except for two pupil-less lime green eyes. Lastly, it has a round pink brain inside its transparent head, with a brain stem on the bottom.
Personality[]
Said to have a warm heart, Chaos is primarily a very loving and gentle creature who cares dearly for the Chao it protects. Mainly watching over the Chao as an inert pool of water, it only becomes active in times of danger, and only attacks when the Chao needs protection. However, it is noted to have a bad temper; after seeing its sacred precincts being invaded by Pachacamac and his men, Chaos became filled with anger and sadness.
Following the attack on its precinct three thousand years ago, Chaos became corrupted by its own negative emotions, causing to forsake its peaceful and passive ways and become a rage-filled monster driven only by its own immeasurable anger. Its fury proved to be so great that it wanted nothing more than to destroy the world out of spite, even after getting revenge on those responsible for angering it in the first place. In its corrupted state, Chaos remained eternally determined and vengeful, as its desire to bring the world to ruin persisted even after three millennia. However, after Super Sonic neutralized it, Chaos returned to its previous peaceful and gentle demeanor from then forth.
Powers and abilities[]
Chaos is an incredibly strong creature who's power is so great that it is revered as a deity. Even at its weakest, Chaos is said to possess immeasurable powers.
Chaos possesses the ability to absorb Chaos Emeralds, and its form, power, and skills change and increase with every Chaos Emerald that it absorbs. In addition, it is an immortal being.
Transformations[]
Chaos 0[]
Chaos 0, from Sonic Adventure.
Chaos 0 is Chaos' most basic form, assumed when it is possession of no Chaos Emeralds. In this form, Chaos commands limited hydrokinetic shapeshifting, allowing it to stretch its limbs, morph its body parts, and liquefy itself into a puddle of water. It is also bulletproof due to its watery composition and possesses earthquake-inducing super strength. It can also harness the power of spirits and elementals to perform great physical feats (like several tens meters tall leaps), execute strong attacks, and even heal itself. It also has hydrokinetic powers that lets it emit mysterious ripples and even freeze the air around its foes. In addition, it can climb, glide and breathe underwater.
In addition to its wide skillset, Chaos 0 also has very strong combat skills, enough to take on Knuckles the Echidna, who is master of martial arts.
Chaos 1[]
Chaos 1, from Sonic Adventure.
Chaos 1 is the form Chaos takes after absorbing the negative energy of one Chaos Emerald. In this form, Chaos increases in size and mass, and it gains a line of bones that travel down its right arm into its hand.
Most of Chaos 1's abilities are unknown. although it retains its power of hydrokinetic shapeshifting, allowing it to liquefy itself into a puddle of water.
Chaos 2[]
Chaos 2, from Sonic Adventure.
Chaos 2 is the form Chaos takes after absorbing the negative energy of two Chaos Emeralds. In this form, Chaos becomes larger and more muscular with a hunched posture, bones in both its large arms, and vertical hammerhead fins.
As Chaos 2, Chaos is much stronger, and its hydrokinetic shapeshifting has evolved significantly, allowing it to turn into a large ball, liquefy over a wide area and split into hundreds of balls. It can also stretch its limbs over a wide range and generate a force-field around itself.
Chaos 4[]
Chaos 4, from Sonic Adventure.
Chaos 4 is the form Chaos takes after absorbing the negative energy of four Chaos Emeralds. In this form, Chaos looks like an aquatic creature, similar to a shark, with arm-like fins, a dorsal fin, and a blunt horn. It also has bones in its tail section and arms.
As Chaos 4, Chaos' hydrokinetic shapeshifting has evolved further, allowing it more offensive usage of its shapeshifting. It also has new abilities to match its new form, including more control over water and energy wave emission. It is also a quick and nimble swimmer, and is able to levitate in the air.
Chaos 6[]
Chaos 6, from Sonic Adventure.
Chaos 6 is the form Chaos takes after absorbing the negative energy of six Chaos Emeralds, making this its pre-ultimate form. In this form, Chaos resembles a scorpion/spider/frog-like creature with six legs, a long tail, multiple eyes, and a toothed mouth. It also has an extended skeleton inside its body.
As Chaos 6, Chaos commands immense power. In this form, its hydrokinetic shapeshifting has reached the point where it can assume more complex forms that feature a variety of tentacles. It has also gained a vacuum breath and can charge its attacks with energy.
Perfect Chaos[]
Perfect Chaos, from the console/PC version of Sonic Generations.
Perfect Chaos is the form Chaos takes after absorbing the negative energy of all seven Chaos Emeralds. In this form, Chaos becomes a giant serpentine dragon-like beast with a mouth extending far beyond its eyes, which are now reptilian, and a scale-like hide instead of a skeleton. The base of its snake-like body is merged with the water around it. It also has large tentacles extending from its base.
As Perfect Chaos, Chaos is a higher being that accordingly commands ultimate power. It is able to merge with water and has immense hydrokinetic abilities that lets it create large-scale water sprouts, command water tornadoes, and control entire floods which are destructive enough to destroy all of Station Square. It also has incredible super strength and can shoot energy blasts from its body and beams from its mouth.
Weakness[]
Despite its numerous forms and godlike power, Chaos has one consistent weakness: its brain. This is a weak spot that, when hit, will cause Chaos's form to weaken and destabilize. It is also not well protected in most of its forms.
Trivia[]
- In Greek mythology, Chaos was the name of the first deity to come into existence. It is described as vast and formless, much like the being from the Sonic series. According to Hesiod, Chaos was also the dark void from which the Earth goddess Gaia was born.
- Although Chaos first appeared in Sonic Adventure, he was briefly alluded to as early as the prologue in the manual for the Japanese version of Sonic the Hedgehog 3, where Knuckles speculated that the crashed Death Egg in the lake on Angel Island was the egg containing a legendary dragon that was fated to destroy the world.
- Because of positioning on the map, Big the Cat is able to come in contact with Chaos 4 prior to his battle with Chaos 6 by approaching the arena from the proper direction and jumping into it. This is the only time that directly touching Chaos does not harm a character.
- In Sonic Adventure and Sonic Generations, Chaos is translucent, but in all his other appearances he is opaque.
- Chaos 1 is the only seen form of Chaos not to have a boss.
- Chaos 1, 2, 4, and 6 have what appear to be bones, but Perfect Chaos does not have any. The bones are probably meant to hold the Chaos Emeralds in place until he has all seven of them.
- Chaos 3 and 5 are never seen, as Eggman gives Chaos the third and fourth emerald at the same time and he gives the fifth and sixth emerald to him off-screen.
- When the Chaos Emeralds are in Chaos, they look like a gradient color tint rather than their usual diamond design. Additionally, the emeralds that appear inside Chaos are rarely the same color as the actual Emeralds he has received; his second Chaos Emerald, the Gray Emerald, appeared Red once he had absorbed it.
- Chaos was purposefully created for Sonic Adventure to be a boss that would have been difficult to render on systems before the Dreamcast.
- In Sonic Adventure 2, Chaos is featured on several billboards. First, billboards advertising two fictional soft drinks (Chaos Cola and Chaos Soda) appear in several stages, such as Shadow's Radical Highway stage. Second, in City Escape and the Big Foot boss battle, Chaos 0 can be seen on billboards advertising a fictional movie named Planet of the Chaos, apparently based on Planet of the Apes. The movie is shown to be rated PG-13 by the MPAA.
- There is a special kind of Chao, called the Chaos Chao, whose head and limbs resemble those of Chaos 0.
- Chaos and Chaos Gamma are the only playable characters in Sonic Battle that do not have a story mode.
- They are also the only unlockable playable characters in Sonic Battle.
- Chaos was intended to be in Sonic Heroes in a team with E-102 Gamma and Big. This is likely why Chaos and Gamma appeared in Sonic Battle instead of Omega or the Chaotix.
- According to an interview on Sonic Central, Sonic does not know the whereabouts of Chaos, Fang the Sniper, Bark the Polar Bear, Ray the Flying Squirrel, Bean the Dynamite, or Tikal.
Chaos, from LEGO Dimensions.
- Chaos appears as the final boss in the Sonic the Hedgehog Level Pack of LEGO Dimensions. In this game, a giant Chaos 0 from another dimension attacked the Death Egg seeking the Chaos Emeralds, where it fought Sonic the Hedgehog until he could go Super Sonic and defeat the beast.
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