#How suspiciously specific of you Sonic...

[true-blue-sonic]

Wavelength

Summary: Sonic just wants to go on a date. Too bad Silver isn't so adept at picking up on hints and flirting.

Words: ~1500

(Thanks to @siggiedraws for the idea! ^-^)

☆☆☆☆☆

“I was just wondering: what’s your opinion on tomatoes?”

Calmly Sonic pads over twisting roads and past lush greenery, on the outskirts of some city he’d happened to crash into a good friend in. A hectic morning of adventuring had given way to a lazier afternoon of cuddling Chao in hidden gardens and holding fruit-eating competitions while exploring with no care in the world, but that latter half of the day had given Sonic ample time to think about how to spend the evening. A sudden desire had given way to more extensive plotting, beginning with this question: an innocent question in itself, but beyond it the Blue Blur’s got plans. Big plans, fun plans, exciting plans; plans that Sonic aims will give rise to a fun hanging-out with something more.

Specifically, a fun hanging-out with something more with Silver, who’s finally in this era again after weeks of Sonic not seeing him and who rubs his chin most pensively at the question.

“Tomatoes,” the psychic muses, beholding the sky with a deep frown underlining his pondering. Funny how for some things Silver has his opinion ready before he even knows what’s being asked, while for others, for smaller things like his opinion on tomatoes, his thoughts take far longer to form. It’s mesmerising to look at, Sonic smiles to himself as golden eyes flick over to him again. “They’re nice, and apparently they’re very healthy to eat. I like the sweet ones.”

Bingo, Sonic grins. Hook, line, and sinker; his plans for a hanging-out, or rather a date, are setting themselves up masterfully. And thus the speedster leans in most suavely, one arm wrapping around Silver’s shoulders with a casual looseness as if it’s found itself there by sheer accident. “That’s great to hear. You got any plans for the evening?”

“No, nothing. You?”

“Well, I’m getting hungry,” the speedster presents as if it still was that mere sudden desire and not the extensive plotting he’s been busying himself with for the better part of an hour or so. “So I was thinking… You, me, Spagonia, and the finest cuisine it has to offer. Sounds like fun?”

Silver’s ears twitch curiously. “It’s been a while since I’ve been to Spagonia.”

“Indeed, and that was for the Grand Prix. We didn’t go out for dinner,” Sonic continues with the casual-but-suave-and-flirty development of his ploy… before blinking at a little laugh.

“Dinner?” Silver repeats, lips tugging up. “Yeah, of course not! We were busy with racing.”

Stifling a snort in turn Sonic nods. “But we’re not anymore. And it’s not as if Dodon Pa fed us any of the tasty things you can get in the art capital of the world. Food is also an art, after all. And art exists to be shared, don’t you think?”

“You know that better than I do,” the more callous response comes. “I wouldn’t know where to go get food that’s art at the same time. Or that that is a thing, apparently.”

With his grin carefully contained as to not make Silver suspicious the speedster makes a grand gesture with his free hand. “Not to worry! I know the perfect place to get a full meal, plus dessert on top. And with sweet tomatoes: lots of them, if you like them so much.”

“Oh,” Silver hums.

And promptly teasing sparks of cyan make the speedster’s nose flick.

“Hey!” Sonic protests, hand shooting up to grab his poor abused schnoz as he stares at Silver. “What’s that for?”

Silver grins back at him, a glowing finger prodding at Sonic’s nose anew.  “Sonic, listen,” the psychic chuckles… and, where Sonic had been elaborately leaning to the side to escape the sneeze-inducing sensation, Silver’s next words make him crash into a full halt immediately. “I appreciate that you’re worried about what I’m eating, but I’m fine. I’m eating lots of healthy stuff these days,” his friend smiles, warmly and with zero hints he understands just why Sonic’s asking things in the way he is.

Sonic can’t help but blink owlishly in turn.

“Er,” he hums back. The suave grin has long faltered; instead he just stares while scrambling to find something, anything to say. That becomes a: “Uh, yes. That’s good to hear! That you’re eating more healthy. Eating healthy is very important,” and a clearing of his throat to prepare for a new attempt, as his hand laying on Silver's shoulder gives it a gentle squeeze to grab his attention anew. “But-”

“But that means that you don’t need to fret over me,” Silver didactically interrupts. “I don’t want that.”

“I’m not fretting,” Sonic protests, instinctively rubbing his nose at the gentle cool nuzzling him more affectionately now. This is not what he was planning; this has nothing to do anymore with setting up a date! “I’d just, you know… want to go eat together, because that’s always a good time,” he adds, course-correcting as best he can-

Except his hand gets grabbed ever so gently with those psychic sparks, and tugged over to splay against a soft-furred grey stomach.

“That’s true. I like hanging out with you as well.” Carefully Silver lays his own hand over Sonic’s pressing against him, the touch light yet burning through Sonic’s glove with its warmth still. “But you don’t need to be worried about how I’m doing, because I’m okay. Everyone is, because you’re always taking good care of us all, and that includes me. You know that, right?”

“Well… Well, yes, of course! You deserve it, Silver,” Sonic manages to bring out far more awkwardly. Any hint of suaveness has long left him… and he can’t even tell if Silver can tell just what he’s doing to the speedster, grabbing him like that and daring to snort in amusement on top.

“And you also always know where the nice spots to eat are, so I’m happy to come along.”

Standing frozen is so not the right move here; Sonic knows it, the realisation only intensifying at expectant golden eyes looking into his own, and yet it takes multiple seconds more for the gears in his mind to have ground up a decent response this time. “Ah! Then we can go right now, if you want. It’s still a ways to Spagonia, so we gotta hurry if we want to make it in time,” the speedster offers, clearing his throat before pushing his grin back onto his face and pressing his fingers deep into that downy fur. Things already took a nose-dive away from the smoothness he'd been aiming for, so he might as well make Silver laugh. “I can feel just how hungry you are. So empty in here.”

“We had a whole competition to eat Chao fruits,” the dry response of a hedgehog whose sense of humour is far less easily activated than Sonic's gets deadpanned back at him. But that softness that makes Silver’s eyes glow like liquid sunshine shimmers in them still, fingers trailing over Sonic’s before clasping them ever so gently. “But I’d love to,” the hedgehog adds in a murmur; and Sonic’s hand lays in his for just a few seconds more, that go by far too quickly before it’s let go and Sonic’s other hand falls from Silver’s shoulder as he takes to the skies. “Lead the way,” the psychic concludes, laughing at Sonic’s prompt salute before the speedster blasts off.

Amidst blasting off Sonic has to grimace and chuckle alike at the clear heat on his cheeks, his nose getting a final rub to make the tingles on it dissipate. So he needs to rework his hints and clues a lot, the speedster muses in the supersonic silence between them. Or drop them outright and be more up-front with Silver, and just grab him by the shoulders and tell him he wants to go get dinner together for a date. That might be more successful than asking Silver’s stance on tomatoes, and however that made everything spun out of control there.

“Wait. Are we on a date?” Silver asks hours later, when Sonic’s trying his hardest to come up with reasons why Silver should just take the bite of strawberry cake off the speedster’s fork without outright calling it that, and the psychic is very offended when Sonic just breaks out into cackles that he takes whole minutes to recover from. Something about how asking one’s opinions on tomatoes could not possibly be interpreted as a halfway-decent pick-up line, and neither can describing food as art. But the next time if he says either Silver will totally know what he means, Sonic brings up in his defense, and his victory has been claimed when the psychic can’t really argue his way out of that.

“This was a nice date,” Silver murmurs at its end, Sonic chuckling as his tomato-gorged friend flops against him with a huge yawn, and the speedster contently settles in for the night as well with the knowledge that, sudden detours and unexpected revelations aside, his big, fun, exciting plans have been a huge success.

[egg-emperor]

I talk a lot about Eggman gaslighting and lying to the real Shadow to make him believe he's an android, as it's one of the most interesting underutilized concepts in the games to me

But something I haven't talked about but also find cool and interesting is how the Shadow androids in 2 player Battle Mode seem to believe themselves to be real and the others to be fake, with the voice clips of "You might look like me but I know you're just a fake" and "Let's see which one of us is the fake then". I thought up a fun way to canonize it

Eggman programmed them with a desire to fight and prove themselves to be the real Shadow. Any could have an identity crisis just like the real Shadow, which Eggman tried to take advantage of. I can see the bastard programming the android copies with the same issues to try to get the real Shadow to be less suspicious of his own uncertain feelings. Brought them into a life of confusion and desperation to prove themselves as the real and best one (a lot like Metal but without knowing they're artificial).

I headcanon that another reason he specifically included the identity crisis in the cloning process besides not wanting the real Shadow to stand out in his feelings is to make them violent and fight each other to prove themselves for good battle training, so they can have what it takes to combat Sonic, like he said he created them for. Also that by giving them a neverending desire to prove themselves to be the best and real one of many, they'll keep doing their absolute best for Eggman no matter what and work all the more harder for him.

It's out of not just a programmed desire but a desperation to prove they're real and worthy. It makes them aggressive and destructive with intense feelings of urgency. And Eggman would never give the praise and approval they want because the desperation only increases that way and it's a good thing, it drives them to push so hard for his satisfaction. So they have to exist with feelings of uncertainty and insecurity and a fear of being thrown away if they don't prove themselves but they try to hide it with an act of confidence and extreme violence.

And I bet Eggman would like messing with their heads just like the real Shadow. Because he could've programmed them to be aware that they're androids but with an immense loyalty to serve him but he opted for a trait that makes them insecure, desperate, tormented by themselves and their copies with the notion that they're weak and not real and the fake if they can't destroy the other. He enjoys the mental damage, suffering, and vulnerability and exploiting that, talking to them in ways that confuses them, stirring up the fear inside of them of being thrown away, making them hateful and violent to the others

Even to the death for his entertainment and to find out which one is stronger and worthy of keeping while the other is scrapped. They tear each other apart and learn each other are made up of wires and "bleed" black. When they first see it, they don't want to believe the same artificial "organs" and "blood" are inside them, until it happens to them too and they can't escape the harsh truth that there the same inside, just artificial copies, fakes. The two androids fighting both discover that neither are real and they just brutalized and/or killed each other to prove they're real and worthy but their entire existence is a lie

Eggman loves seeing their devastation and finding out who is the strongest and most worthy of keeping, also taking sadistic pleasure in seeing one rip the other apart to impress him. He has his ways of making sure this discovery won't allow them to betray him in the future, if they find out the truth and live on and have to serve him after the battle. The way he'll treat them will make them wish they were the one that had been destroyed, along with how they now feel like inferior copies with no heart and soul- until he takes their ability to feel away after he's done toying with their feelings- or beats them into submission

I'm imagining these battles mostly happening at Lava Shelter, since it's the only stage in 2P Battle mode that's actually one of Eggman's bases

The others are G.U.N, so maybe Eggman sends them to fight at their bases sometimes so they'll go and fuck up and destroy G.U.N and all their shit while they're at it battling to the death too!

I love the Shadow androids, especially the metallic different colored ones in 2P mode. They have a lot of untapped potential in multiple areas that I really wanna explore more 💜

[bltngames]

So, here's some simple thoughts I had about Sonic x Shadow Generations. I was trying to push this one out real fast, but ended up with some technical problems and other stuff you can read about below the cut.

This video was a small technical nightmare to put together because I'm experimenting with new stuff. I capture a lot of my own footage when I can, and when I can't, I go out of my way to find the cleanest, highest quality version of what I'm looking for. That in itself can take a lot of time, but then I usually have to download it off of Youtube. For years, I've used a suspicious website called Keepvid (don't go there) to download Youtube videos, but recently I saw someone recommend a piece of software called "Stacher".

Stacher is basically a front end for another piece of software called "yt-dlp", which was the subject of a lawsuit a couple years ago -- basically, Youtube (Google) was claiming it was illegal to download Youtube videos, and was specifically targeting yt-dlp in the hopes of getting rid of it. A judge ruled that downloading Youtube videos is in fact totally reasonable and legal, and yt-dlp was allowed to keep existing. All of this is because yt-dlp is the best way to download Youtube videos, but it's command line software. I'm no stranger to command line (I've used FFMPEG), but I do tend to prefer having an interface to work with, which Stacher provides.

I picked up Stacher because Keepvid was starting to not work so well. Youtube is implementing new video formats and Keepvid was consistently only detecting 720p30 downloads. Stacher on the other hand will grab the absolute maximum possible resolution, which in this case was 4K60. Which is great! Even though I am downsampling to 1080p60, it still means I'm getting very sharp, very clean source footage. Except Vegas doesn't really like whatever 4K60 format Youtube is using, so I have to transcode it using Handbrake, which for even a 10 minute video can take upwards of an hour.

And then there's editing. My poor little 2015 CPU (Intel Core-i5 4690K) really struggles to work with 4K footage, which probably doubled the length I spent in Vegas putting this together. On top of the hours spent transcoding. So you can really start to see how all this adds up and delays what should have been out by, like, the 12th.

And if I couldn't get it out fast... I do wish I'd spent maybe a little longer explaining some of my opinions. I get the gist across but in particular when talking about what I think is cool about this level design, I think I could have explained a bit more.

Sonic games make you feel so railroaded and there are little hints in this footage of breaking free of that. There's a bit in the footage we've seen where Shadow runs around inside of a tube. This is interesting because:

This is a level design feature that makes total sense with Sonic style physics

This is a level design feature they barely ever use

There's an alternate path where, if you're fast enough on the draw, you can take a grind rail on top of the tube.

Not only would most Sonic games never have this tube section at all, if they did, they would not let you skip the tube and run on top of it. And if you go on top of the tube, there's more than just one grind rail up there, to boot!

So I see something like that, and it gives me a different vibe than most 3D Sonic games typically get. And that makes me excited!

As always I think these work best when I take a step back and think a little. Better Late Than Never is my brand.

[blazehedgehog]

Imagine if Sonic Team made a game similar to the storybook games, but where Sonic enters a classic movie instead. Which movies would you like to see used? Let's say one public domain movie and one copyrighted movie.

Something I drew many many years ago, we'll say around 2009 or 2010, was the idea that Sonic would enter a western.

It was based on two things:

I think Sonic in cowboy boots is a fun mental image

A lasso could be more fun than a sword.

I didn't have any specific western in mind or even any specific storybook in mind, I was just spitballing based on vibes alone. But Sonic the Hedgehog as "The Man with No Name" could be interesting.

Like right away I imagine Sonic is getting suspicious why he keeps getting transported into all these stories so he refuses to give his name in this one, and thus he earns that title and tries to feel his way around and figure out what's going on.

Unfortunately I am not well versed in public domain movies, outside of the usual suspects: Night of the Living Dead, House on Haunted Hill, Carnival of Souls, etc. I know there's a lot of silent-era (and early "talkies") comedy that's public domain now, too. But I dunno how well Sonic would fit there.

For a moment I realized those old classic Popeye cartoons are public domain, including the one where he fights Sinbad, but we already had Sinbad in Secret Rings. Which is a shame, because Sinbad goes on a lot of adventures and it would adapt into a game easily.

The movie itself isn't public domain, but Sonic in Clash of the Titans would be fun. That's my brain making a leap because The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad had special effects by Ray Harryhausen, who also handled Clash of the Titans. Sonic helping Perseus and fighting greek gods would be kind of cool. His friend roster would slot in well there, too.

[solarpunkani]

Solarpunk Ideals and Aesthetics in Sonic Colors

--according to one Solarpunk Sonic fan specifically but dude trust me on this.

This post is the sequel/follow up to my previous post on Sonic the Hedgehog (the character) and Solarpunk Ideals, feel free to give that a read for some context! But for a basic run-down--Sonic the Hedgehog (the Dude) embodies several core Solarpunk tenants in his personality, Dr. Eggman is the antithesis to Solarpunk both in personality and in resulting actions, and I'm such a big nerd I had to split this post into 2 parts and they're still long as hell.

Special reminder: I am a Sonic nerd, have been for 10+ years now. I also have Write Too Much disease. I am going to talk. A lot. Prepare yourselves.

Special reminder part 2: Sonic the Hedgehog is not a perfect franchise, and it's owned by a corporation in the capitalistic hellscape we call life and I promise you I am aware of that. I'm not saying SEGA is Solarpunk, I am saying that parts of their franchise have Solarpunk elements. If I post this and someone skips this paragraph to instead rant at me about some unrelated shit that SEGA the Corporation Guys did That One Time Months/Years Ago I may snap. You have been warned.

Shout out to @modern-solarpunk for being a beta reader for this! Thank you for making sure I was actually being legible and coherent with this.

Let's dive right in.

Sonic Colors Let's Go Let's Go

Sonic Colors came out on the Nintendo Wii in 2010, with an alternate version made for the Nintendo DS. I’ve only played the Wii version, so we’re going to talk about the Wii version. We later got an 11 minute 2D animated short about the game, to celebrate the release of Sonic Colors: Ultimate (which was basically a remake for the Switch). Basic plot synopsis below.

Dr. Eggman claims that he’s turned over a new leaf and has created the Egg Planet Park to make up for his past deeds. Sonic is inherently suspicious, so he and Tails sneak in and start busting up Eggman’s latest evil plot--tying down planets and kidnapping alien creatures called Wisps and harnessing their powers to charge up a mind control ray and make Earth the star attraction of his space theme park. Sonic and Tails promptly set about stopping him, destroying the Eggman robots on each planet and freeing as many wisps as they can while they do so. Feel free to check out this video to see all the cutscenes.

“Ani, what’s Solarpunk about that? A space theme park made by chaining down planets is already pretty unrealistic--” let me get there.

First off, the storyline has resistance and anti-industrialization baked into it. In a sense, we’ve got anti-colonialism too (though by all means DO NOT take this as me comparing the immeasurable harms done to colonized peoples by their oppressors to little fictional alien dudes getting their juices sucked out. But Eggman literally is colonizing several planets). Since Sonic is fighting a villain who’s trying to turn all of space into his robotic wonderland, we are too--and we see this guy as the villain, since he is, which can make people think about how these themes play into other aspects of life. Or at least I did in the fifth grade. Bear with me here.

If you don’t wanna watch 50+ minutes of cutscenes originating from 2010s-era script writing, let’s look at a quote that I feel boils the solarpunk-adjacent parts of the storyline to its bare essentials.

In the 11 minute animated short, Rise of the Wisps, there’s a bit more. First off, we see the aliens resisting a bit more--in fact, there’s a group of little Wisp freedom fighters working to save other wisps before they’re… harvested, I guess is the word for it.

Do they have names? No. But in Sonic Colors we don’t even really see any Wisps with characterizing traits aside from Yacker, so I think having the next few be a band of freedom fighters is pretty cool.

Asides from admiring the visual style of this short (because man Sonic in 2D animation just feels right to me), there’s a quote that I feel fits the Solarpunk outlook on community and problem solving.

“When the problem seems too big to solve on your own, you do what you can. And maybe ask for a little help from your friends. Right?”

Like if I put that in the middle of any other Solarpunk post no one would bat an eye but I’m literally quoting Sonic the Hedgehog here.

The series as a whole, especially Sonic Colors in my eyes, is imbued with hope and standing strong in the face of difficult challenges--leaning on your friends for help when you need to accomplish bigger and better things than you can do on your own. In Sonic, that means defeating giant mech bots or mutated lizards trying to crash land on Earth or purify the world of an out of control zombot virus. For us? That can be restoring a native landscape, vouching for clean energy, starting a community garden, and fighting for what we believe in.

Now let’s talk aesthetics

The Aesthetics of Sonic Color

So we’ve got 5 planets (Sweet Mountain, Starlight Carnival, Planet Wisp, Aquarium Park, and Asteroid Coaster) and two parts of the main park (Tropical Resort and Terminal Velocity) that are playable zones in Sonic Colors. But what’s the most Solarpunky area to me?

Planet Wisp

Planet Wisp is described in the fandom wiki as “a beautiful natural planet full of vegetation and tall trees. The Area takes place during daytime, though stars can also be seen in the sky.” Another page on Planet Wisp says “when seen from space, it heavily resembles Earth,” but its not very big--described as “tiny” in the game. However, it has a wealth of “untouched, unspoiled and unmatched natural beauty”, full of blue-gray rocky canyons and mountains with valleys and fields, rock pillars, etc. covered by plants. The trees are extremely tall, with platform-tops and no other main branches. There’s also lakes and creeks. There’s a minimal level of urbanized civilization--mostly tree slides made from branches and roots and platforms and such. Overall, simplistic stuff--”its untouched nature being largely preserved by the Wisps’ harmonious way of living in nature.” which sounds great! Except this is before interference by Doctor Eggman. Afterwards, “Planet Wisp has large amounts of factories under construction, tearing apart the original plant life and rock and replacing it with red metal.” Eggman Empire-style structures like towers, half-pipes, and roads are clustered around the landscape, and there’s an unknown purple liquid polluting several bodies of water. So! Not all that great! 

‘Ani why do you find that Solarpunk?’ two reasons

A: We the player are literally here to defy the people building the factories so the planet can continue to be full of vegetation and home to its native creatures.

B: it’s pretty, okay? It’s fukin cool.

This map is so cool it was also featured in Sonic Generations (2011) and Team Sonic Racing (2019), so let’s find some pics!

But most of all, the music, you guys.

And here are some other versions of these tracks from subsequent games (Sonic Generations, Sonic Colors Ultimate) and tracks inspired by the Planet Wisp location (Team Sonic Racing)

These tracks. Especially the original ones, but oh my god these tracks. I cannot emphasize enough I feel like. These tracks feel like you uncorked a bottle labeled ‘hope, positivity, relief’ and put it to your ear. And what is Solarpunk about if not hope.

Speaking of Solarpunk and being about hope, let’s talk about the main theme for the Sonic Colors game--Reach for the Stars. If you couldn’t tell by the title alone, this song is also the embodiment of hope--in more of an upbeat, ‘we’ve got this together!’ kind of vibe, but it’s still important to me and also feels Solarpunky (at least Solarpunk-adjacent) so let’s talk about it!

(I ran out of audios I can add so we're getting Youtube Videos instead)

“I’m gonna reach for the stars, although they look pretty far! I’m gonna find my own way, and take a chance on today!” - as Solarpunks, we are reaching for the stars (the sun in particular I suppose) to find hope in a brighter future and share it with others. We’ve all got our own way of doing it, with solutions varying based on individual situations as well as what community efforts can yield, but even still we are daring to dream of a brighter future than the one most often visualized in popular culture. No matter what, we’re gonna keep striving to make changes and create a brighter world for ourselves and those who come after us.

“Just take a chance, we’ll do it right again (we’re gonna reach for the stars!) Just take my hand, we’ll take a chance tonight, reach for the stars, tonight!”

You know what else Solarpunks go crazy about? Community building! You know what else Sonic Colors covers musically? Community building! Or, more so, being open to other people’s viewpoints and communicating to resolve problems, but still!

Now keep in mind, this song is literally based around Sonic and Tails trying to communicate with an alien via a translator, but my point still stands let’s look at some lyrics.

“I’ve been here before, and I know that we must stand up tall! I’m not scared to ask when I’m not sure; we can overcome it all!” - what is community if not being able to lean on other people? Community support, mutual aid, working together to solve problems big and small, Solarpunks have got it!

“If you could tell me how to lend a hand, I would try to understand! No words could say how much I care! Together we can take a stand!” 

And let us not forget the refrain! “Speaking from nowhere else except your heart, you’ll never know if you don’t try! Listen and see the voice I carry with me: ‘Speak with your heart! Speak with your heart!’” In my humble Solarpunk opinion, this feels pretty solarpunk. One of the main things about being Solarpunk--at least, in my experience--is unabashed enthusiasm about our ideas and the colorful sustainable future we’re envisioning! Encouragement from others is what brought me to this space and what draws others to join and stay in Solarpunk spaces! From our art to our writings to our technological concepts and even our arguments all come from sincerity and passion about what we’re doing and the future we want! 

And keep in mind, these are the opening and ending themes of the game! These are the songs where the writers are trying to bottle up the essential vibes of the game into a few minutes of funky tunes! You open up the game for the first time, you hear Reach for the Stars! And after a wonderful story and the satisfaction of finishing a game, you hear Speak With Your Heart! Even the titles alone wouldn’t feel out of place in a discussion about Solarpunk ideals!

Final Words

The Sonic franchise has its flaws, but it sure does speak on hope and resistance. Is Sonic Solarpunk? Maybe not entirely, but I feel it’s got some core elements that are Solarpunk-aligned, even when it’s not always front and center like it is here. I’m not going to pretend that Sonic the hedgehog as a franchise is the pinnacle of a Solarpunk story/game--but it’s got some nice elements that could inspire other stories, and uses those elements in a way that makes people feel like they can and should take action against darker industrializing forces in their life.

Or at least it did for me, as a fifth grader. Maybe that’s not a lot. But if it can help open the eyes of a handful of kids and teens and make them feel hope? Make them feel like they could maybe find the courage to do something? Maybe that’s all we need from it.

[malwary]

a little while ago @neuro-typical sent me this post by @bye2k of a popup that appeared when trying to right-click images on a shadow the hedgehog fan forum, known as Wishes are Eternal (after the SA2 line). this version of the site appears to be an archived snapshot on the wayback machine, and I'm happy to confirm that it is indeed real. though i couldn't get the popup to work in my own browser, the javascript does exist in the source code of the site, so it's very real and very cool.

i had a lot of things to say about this, but i didn't want to blast the notes of the OG post into oblivion with my big funny wall of text, so I've made my own post. below the readmore I'll explain javascript popups on the internet, some malware that has utilized this, and some very interesting sonic fan community history.

first of all: what is this? how did the webmaster manage to create a popup window in your computer to stop you from downloading images?

well, that would be javascript. because JS is just a normal script language that can do whatever you want, creating a popup is no exception. now, whoever ran the site did not write this script themself, this much is evident by the credit you can see in the source code for the site.

this script is offered by a site called dynamicdrive.com, specifically for disabling right-clicks. you see how simple this is? javascript makes it possible to bother users in all sorts of creative ways. plenty of malware on the web utilizes javascript, and you're probably already aware of most good examples.

you're most likely familiar with offiz, better known by the colloquial name "You Are An Idiot". though its status as malware is somewhat debated, most people can agree that the sites it was on abused a javascript function that allowed it to create hundreds upon hundreds of bouncing windows, slowing the user computer to a crawl and forcing the user to restart their machine, meaning any unsaved work they had open was now lost. in that way it was destructive, though indirectly.

offiz is an example of javascript malware that is harmless on its own, but not all JS malware is that friendly. javascript can be used to force your machine to download software, steal user data, serve you all manner of popups, employ many kinds of malicious code through xss, and more. although these cases are rarer than they were, say, a decade ago, that doesn't mean they don't still happen. here is a fascinating little instance of javascript being used maliciously very recently. it's hard to suggest ways to avoid these without just telling you to use common sense, but there's no other way to put it. as is the case with all malware, your best bet when it comes to not getting it is thinking before you click.

browser malware is extremely common. you may have encountered it going to a suspicious website. there is certainly a necessary aspect of social engineering to this type of malware, you have to be paying less attention to where you're going and what you're doing to stumble upon a site so unsecured that it could infect you. users who get themselves into these situations are typically looking for either p_rn or pirated stuff, so they're more likely to act in irrational or desperate ways to get to their content. don't be a fool online and you won't get played for one.

so, why? why does this old, obscure sonic fan forum have javascript that prevents you from right clicking images? prevents you from downloading images?

this forum is very, very old. the last posts on the entire site were about 10 years ago, even to this day. it's no surprise to me that a lot of this site is a relic of its time. the photobucket watermark on the header image, the collecton of midis of shadow themes playable on the site, the use of the term "ripped off" (as opposed to ripped) to describe the action of taking sprites from a game. it's all there on the very first page, the only one in this archive. despite what youtube video slideshows with a single text scroll that says "no copyright intended, pictures found on google" may imply, reposting images was indeed taken seriously at this time. this was a time when it wasn't too uncommon to see a credit to the person who made an anime girl image transparent (a render, for those unaware) in a forum signature. this was a time when someone got caught tracing every 5 days.

that's not to say there were no issues, but people were still very defensive over what they deemed to be theirs. this was especially prevalent in fanart. fan works are hard and are always a labor of love, so it's no surprise nobody wanted their work reposted, especially not without credit. this was especially clear when looking into some parts of the sprite ripping community. making spritesheets was much harder then than it is now, and it was especially impressive if sprites were hand-edited or even made from scratch. this incredibly painstaking work combined with sonic fans reputation for... unwavering passion... could often culminate in a very serious attitude towards doing something as simple as saving an image. in fact, for some people, this mindset has never truly left.

in 2014, fangame creator Leemena Dan published Sonic Gather Battle on SAGE (the Sonic Amateur Games Expo) to mostly positive reception but ultimately little attention outside of sonic fans online. that is, until 2017, when after a seemingly inconspicuous update, players discovered what appeared to be an audaciously malicious form of DRM present in the game.

this malware had everything. all the bells and whistles. when a player would do any number of things from opening software made to decompile games to simply typing "sonic gather battle cheat" into their internet browser search bar, the payload would activate. (which, of course, means it tracks your keystrokes!)

it's difficult to find good footage of both layers of this DRM (or, rather, both payloads of this malware) that doesn't include a facecam of some gamer dude gawking and screaming at his computer screen. even so, I've found two decent ones. layer 1, and layer 2. this DRM also sends your IP address to a privately owned server, presumably so that the DRM would activate even when the game is uninstalled, and when trying to play it, a splash screen would show telling you to abide by the rules.

unsurprisingly, people did not consider this a proportionate way to respond to the threat of people ripping the sprites from a fangame, and the creator has since been banned from SAGE. to this very day, some people are simply so protective of their work that they'd be willing to go to any length to prevent you from saving it. as obnoxious as that can sometimes seem, it does make for some very interesting history.

[jinxedshapeshifter]

Okay, there are some glaring holes in Espio's alibi from the beginning and I think it's super interesting. I'm also gonna dissect Espio's alibi using information we don't find out until after interrogating him the first time, because I feel like it's important to bring up and still brings Espio's alibi into question in hindsight.

Espio claims he was reading in a location where he wouldn't be able to be seen; behind a bookshelf. He also claims he started reading immediately after Amy told him and Vector to stay in the library car, specifically saying "I promptly picked a book off the shelf and made myself comfortable." Two problems with this: he mentions seeing Rouge throwing things around, which, unless he was sitting at the desk next to the bookshelf he presumably got the book from, would've been impossible. He also did actually mention seeing Shadow come through and lock the door the first time, which means he couldn't have been in the location he claimed to be in during the interrogation of him and Vector (unless he moved obviously, although I will be debunking this in another point).

He says "We heard her" when he mentions Rouge shouted "NO WAY!" At this point in time, Vector was still in the saloon car, meaning Espio was in the library car alone (and he even mentions this himself). Vector wouldn't have heard her, only Espio would have.

During the interrogation of Vector and Espio, they both claim Espio was just super invested in the book he was reading. If this is true, and he was so invested he didn't hear the doors opening, closing, or locking, he likely would not have heard Rouge at all, or seen her throwing books around. This is a weaker point, but I still find it worth mentioning.

This is brought up later in the game depending on what you choose to say during the second interrogation of Espio, but given the nature of the Mirage Express AND the fact that a top secret code was on the blueprints, why would its blueprints even be in the library car? The conductor wouldn't have put them there, so how did they even get there? This answer is only actually given if you claim Espio stole the blueprints from the conductor during his second interrogation, that answer being Espio stole them from the conductor, then stuffed them in with the brochures.

Espio claims Vector was the only one to see him reading; Tails mentions that Shadow would've seen him reading, but if Espio knew Rouge was in the library car, Rouge would've also seen him reading, because he claims he started reading immediately after arriving in the library car.

I do genuinely think how protective Vector was of Espio was suspicious, especially given some of his dialogue. When Espio says Vector had to tap his shoulder to get his attention, Vector doesn't say "I remember doing that!" He says "I think I remember doing that!" He's not completely sure on his support of Espio's alibi, which, in my opinion, is absolutely a red flag. I'd even argue that Vector was being protective like he was because he's friends with Espio, which is supported by him saying "Way to tell the room you don't have any friends." if you say Vector's protectiveness is suspicious during the second interrogation of Espio.

Espio can turn invisible, something that actually came to my mind when Barry asked about Espio somehow disappearing. This would've enabled him to sneak by the other players more easily, and it's implied in the visuals that he used his invisibility to leave after hitting Sonic with the blow dart, specifically in this shot during Sonic's recounting of how Espio "murdered" him:

Espio could've easily pointed out where he was if he was actually behind a bookshelf; instead, he literally begs Tails to believe him. What this implies to me is he never went beyond the first half of the library car, otherwise he could've easily pointed out that that's where he was reading.

Aside from everything I've presented here, it's really easy to say you read for an hour, and disproving it is even harder, which Espio used to his advantage in the first interrogation of him. Remember, it's not even Espio defending himself in the final part of his interrogation, it's Barry. Had we not stepped in to defend Espio, he likely would've been accused outright, but because we defend him, Tails doesn't get that chance.

I'm not sure if the amount of holes in Espio's initial alibi was intentional, but if it was, it was really really well done. It's a believable alibi with just enough holes in it that they initially go by unnoticed and you have to stop and think critically about what Espio is saying to notice them.

[prowerprojects]

Lol, new AU: Because of all security measures he made to protect himself and his animal buddies, Tails is the reason Cocoa Island becomes the Sonic's world equivalent of the Bermuda Triangle. It is infamously advised not go near there due to the legendary, but elusive two-tailed creature and its traps *that has claimed many lives.. (Which may or may not peak the interest of a certain blue hedgehog one of these days to rise to the challenge.)

Heh, one has to wonder, huh? (While I don't think Sonic would become as asocial [or blunt] as Shadow, I do think he'd be less laidback. Probably coming off as unintentionally rude [and more awkward] at times due to misreading certain social cues. {Can read emotions just fine, but might run away if you burst into tears cause he doesn't know to reassure you and doesn't want to make it worse] Longer recovery times and more scars due to lack of having a mobile "safety net". But overall, still an adventurous, world-saving dude.

((*Not really, 'tis rumors. A lot of daredevils get scared out of their wits though and flee without hesitation)) This does bring into question of how both respond to each other under different circumstances. This isn't like the shatter counterparts or storybooks where Sonic had prior knowledge and pre-established bonds. (And their bonding probably won't be as seamless as it would if they had met earlier in life, but a close friendship isn't impossible.)

Noooo anon but I actually love this so much. I'm stealing it, now it's an au. I'm gonna call it "Tails's Island" or something. (I can even connect this to my Core & Alana au, so Tails gets to Coco Island specifically because he knows his mom's workshop used to be there, and he finds the coordinates to it somewhere).

Maybe something did even actually happen. Maybe the plot of Tails Adventure with the Battle Bird Armada (Though in the C&A au it's Core (Tails's mom) who deals with them), or he accidentally killed or injured someone else when they got to the island. It was horrified, but now he tries to be more careful to just scare people off. (But when he and Sonic are fighting later on, he accidentally draws blood and it makes him feel awful again)

Sonic hears the rumors and takes them as a challenge. Tails does his best to scare him off, but Sonic isn't easy. It only makes him more excited. Eventually, Tails sees Sonic maybe being nice to the animals or something. They start tentatively bonding. Tails leaves Sonic little messages and gifts. Sometimes Sonic talks to him when he knows Tails is listening. But Tails doesn't show himself to Sonic.

Eventually, Sonic gets impatient and ends up just following Tails home. Tails feels scared, betrayed, and crushed. They have a fight. Tails ends up biting Sonic and draws blood. He's mortified. (Maybe he has a breakdown) Sonic feels lost and doesn't know what to do so he just runs away. (He leaves the Tornado and just runs on water. Maybe he got into a little crash the first time he got there and Tails fixed it up in an attempt to get him to leave. Later Tails finds it and realizes he didn't even need it)

Tails thinks Sonic is going to come back with a backup to get him. (He's both scared but kind of resigns himself to this fate) He keeps waiting but Sonic isn't coming back. He realizes he's now actually missing him. Eventually, Sonic comes back and brings an apology gift. (He initially wasn't going to come back, but something happened that made him change his mind) They decide to start from scratch.

Sonic occasionally visits Tails and brings him gifts/tells him stories about his adventures. Tails wants to go out into the world, but he's still unsure. Eventually, Eggman realizes Sonic spends a suspicious amount of time on this one island. He looks into it and realizes it is the home to a Mystic Artifact (whatever the Battle Birds were looking for there which isn't the Chaos Emeralds in this au). He attacks the island, and Tails helps Sonic drive him away. In the process they find the Mystic Artifact and use it, so Eggman (or anyone else) has no incentive to come back.

Tails ends up deciding to leave with Sonic, and all of his little animal friends encourage him. (I imagine he has 4 flicky companions that he can't necessarily talk to, but they've spent so much time together that they still understand each other). And then they have a lot of adventures and learn the magic of friendship the end!

***

Hehe my take is a bit more melodramatic than yours, anon 😅

But you're right this could also be the perfect au to showcase how Tails's absence in Sonic's life has also influenced Sonic, and not just the other way around!

[skajador]

One of these days your donbros posting is going to wear me down and I'll watch the show. So I want to ask, what exactly Is it about like. Its a sentai show right? But is it more than that? People seem to be going nuts over this one specifically for some reason and I wanna know why

how do i even begin to explain donbrothers

Donbrothers is a Sentai show. Avatarou Sentai Donbrothers.

it's been the currently airing sentai for a year and is airing its finale this weekend.

Donbrothers... is... about love and making connections.

Donbrothers has also been described as "The It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia of Sentai" and who am i to TRULY argue with that.

your main team is: a guy who is so good and perfect at everything that his entire village moved away when he was 7 years old bc they were tired of always getting owned by him. if he lies he literally dies. team leader.

a teen mangaka who had her big break taken away due to accusations of plagiarism. She will run into a hostage situation like "hey take me hostage too, good manga material!" She's Very Normal and Not Violent and Unhinged at all.

a guy who gets burned if he touches money. he prides himself in imagining food to eat and his devotion to haikus and the imperfect beauty of wabisabi. somehow he has a house. he's Very Peaceful and Not Violent and Unhinged at all.

an absolutely pathetic salaryman who appears to be a perfect Wife Guy but commits straight up murder like.. 6 episodes in. his suit form is a fucking 7 foot tall CGI pink bird. he's Very Normal and not Violent and Unhinged at all.

a theater kid who is constantly on the run from the cops. his suit form is a 3 foot tall CGI sonic the hedgehog OC. he's looking for his girlfriend, who looks suspiciously like salaryman's wife.

and this doesnt even get into the Villain team, which includes a guy who wears shorts over his pants and a feather collar who is deeply in rivals-to-star-crossed-lovers with First Guy i mentioned.

this show "has a plot" but mostly consists of Shit The Writers Came Up With Over Drinks (positive, usually, this show has legitimately some of the funniest shit i've seen in tokusatsu)

so enjoy donbrothers. or don't. i cant tell you what to do but this show is... Something Else, alright. It'll make you see shrimp colors maybe.

[junkydrawr]

This is the high quality writing I've been doing in my Snively in Knothole rewrite. Haha.

In this dumb scene, some Mobian guys are teasing Snively about his love life (or lack of) . I tend to just start scenes without a beginning so yeah. Lol

Also, Sonic can't talk.

-

"All right, yes!"

The men laughed. "Yes, what? Be specific."

Snively mumbled. "Yes...I...I've never..."

"Snivvy's a virgin!" Sonic laughed. "Aww!"

"I was thirteen when I ran away from Overlander territory!" His cheeks were brilliant magenta. "And then...surrounded by...by animals..." He coughed. "Barely sixteen when the coup happened. There was just never....a chance for it to happen."

"No wonder you're so miserable."

"No one's even touched you?" Geoffrey sniggered. "Explains a lot."

"Who would want to?" Midge stuck out his tongue.

"I imagine there's a Sheila out there as ugly as him."

"Maybe we should try to hook him up with someone. I mean, I feel sad for the poor guy."

If there was ever a time for a sinkhole to open and swallow him whole, this was it.

More laughs.

"The poor girl, is more like it."

"Who says he wants a girl?"

"That's true," said Sonic. He clapped Snively on the back. "Yo, Snide. If you could hook up with anyone in Knothole, who would ya pick?"

Snively grumbled. "I'm not interested in excessive body hair." He saw the look in Geoffrey's eyes, the impending leer. He knew what was coming. And if they began harping on Bunnie, Bunnie, Bunnie, he was going to bloody snap.

"Aw stop," chuckled Sonic, nudging his ribs. "You can tell us!"

How am I going to get out of this?

He felt the weight of Sonic's arm on his shoulder. Of course! "Princess Sally."

Midge whistled. Wembly said "Ohhh."

Sonic took his arm away. "Yo, man. Not cool."

Snively let his most pervy smile spread across his lips. From the corner of his eye, he saw Geoffrey's hackles rise. "Why...?" He gave the skunk a sneering glance. "Oh, I see. You already have competition and now the stakes have risen even further."

Sonic's quills stood upright. He laughed darkly. "You, competition? I don't think so, pal! Sally doesn't want some dweeb."

Snively smirked. "No? Maybe she's tired of thinking for two when she's around you."

"He's full of it, mate. He's tryin' to get you mad. He wants Bunnie."

"Puh... hardly." Snively brushed some imaginary dust from his shirt. "Have I told you how many times I watched surveillance footage of the dear Princess? Mmm.. slow motion. High definition. Shots from all angles." He chuckled lecherously. "Being on watch wasn't all bad..."

"Yer really starting to tick me off, Needlenose!"

"Heh. Shall I describe my favorite parts of her...?" Snively paused, waited for the punch to the face.

Sonic charged him. "How about you make like a tree..." He snagged Snively by the collar and zoomed up the nearest tree. He hung the small man on a high branch by the belt. "...and leaf!"

"Hey!" Snively screamed as the hedgehog zoomed back down. "Get me down!"

The men laughed. Told him not to wiggle too much. A sudden vibration at his wrist made Snively yelp. His tracker was blinking red.

"Why'd that go off?" asked Wembly.

"Sal will be comin'. Let's git!"

"Wait!" Snively watched helplessly as they dispersed. The bow creaked slightly. He gripped his belt and held his breath.

A few moments later, Sally came trotting along, NICOLE in hand. She looked up and put her hands on her hips.

"Snively Kintobor, what are you doing up there?"

"Get me down!"

She cupped her hand to her mouth. "Sonic! Sonic, I need you!"

The hedgehog appeared suspiciously quick.

"Sonic, did you have anything to do with this?"

"Moi? No way."

"Uh huh. Go get him."

"Why? He looks good up there."

"Now, Sonic!"

Snively clung to the hedgehog as he was taken back down, but once on the ground, he pulled away in disgust.

"Now, can you explain why you stuck Snively in a tree?"

"I didn't!"

"Oh please, Sonic!"

Snively tightened his loosened belt, rolling his eyes. Their inane banter was going to give him a headache.

"He said he had the hots for you." Sonic stuck out his tongue.

"Oh, is that right?" Sally gave Snively an appraising look. "Well, that's crazy. I have the hots for him too!"

"Sal, no!"

"How about we take a walk, handsome?" Sally slung her arm over his shoulder, and despite himself, Snively blushed.

"Sally, you can't be serious!"

She threw a wink over her shoulder as she and Snively walked away. "Oh, I don't know. Sometimes it's nice only thinking for one for a change."

[countlessrealities]

Send ‘Would you kindly’ + a command and my muse has to obey || Accepting !

@technodromes sent: ‘Would you kindly lend me your sonic screwdriver?’ Grum to Rick

Rick glares at Krang, ice blue eyes sharp and inquisitive. It's like he wasn't sure of how annoyed he wants and can be with the Utrom. On one hand, the fact that the bubblegum has chosen that day specifically to come and ask him things is suspicious.

However, on the other, he and Morty have agreed not to tell anyone about their little bet. Has the little shit broken the rules behind his back? He knows that the teen is very much capable to do it, but it should be in his interest not to cheat this time.

After all, if he had cheated, he wouldn't be able to keep insisting that Rick is absolutely incapable of being helpful to everyone, without a second aim, even for just a day.

"An-And what the fuck do you need it..." He starts to ask, but he cut himself off before he could finish. He's supposed to be unconditionally helpful. Which also means no questions asked.

"...Y-You know what? Sure." He sticks his hand in one of the pockets of his lab coat and pulls the screwdriver out. "H-Here, take it. Go crazy, o-or whatever."

Hopefully he will get it back and won't have to build another. Now that would have been a bother.

[true-blue-sonic]

Some thoughts I had about IDW's Duo/Mimic and the New Diamond Cutters below (perhaps an unpopular opinion?):

With Evan Stanley confirming Duo!Mimic specifically has been made to look almost exactly the same to Slinger the Ocelot, I must say I am rather surprised Whisper does not express any kind of recognition or sense of worry about how familiar Duo must look to her. After all, not only does he look 90% the same to one of her dead friends, there is also the issue that...

...Duo's fur colour is exactly the same as Mimic's body. I am really surprised that Whisper just does not notice these similarities or shows anything akin to recognition (and the suspicion that comes along with it), and I really find it a shame! Because I did really like these bits of justification Duo gives for wanting to join:

Mimic knows exactly what to say to endear the entire trio to him at once. He's preying perfectly on the values each individual finds important. For Lanolin, he points out that they need volunteers* and how he wants to make a difference, fitting with her desire to ensure no-one would ever be harmed or terrified again by Eggman's attacks alongside tackling the limited manpower and means of the Restoration. Tangle loves the more adventurous life she lives after meeting Sonic and co. and greatly cherishes the new friends she has made; Mimic points those things out verbatim. And Whisper has greatly suffered under losing her old crew and is a highly serious, if not the most serious, member of the New Diamond Cutters, thus Mimic states he knows the work is dangerous and he will ensure to take it seriously and be reliable. It covers all facets of what the trio finds important in a teammate (dedicated and helpful; fun and adventure-loving; reliable and taking it seriously), which is why I don't like how Mimic manages to pull off such a clever bit of manipulation (if that is the correct term) despite the fact there is no way Whisper should not be suspicious of him with this extremely paper-thin disguise. We as readers of course should know that this is indeed Mimic, but that gets shown literally three pages afterwards anyway and is discussed between Mimic and Clutch beforehand. And since Duo is shown on the cover of issue 67, I heavily doubt that anyone (other than perhaps Silver, who I am 100% certain is not going to be believed anyway, based on the contents of the solicits for issue 63 and 64) is going to notice this. I really would have preferred it if Mimic's disguise wasn't this obvious; it would have made the Diamond Cutters (and especially Whisper) falling for it hook, line and sinker a lot less eyebrow-raising on their part. Mimic's words and reasoning are cleverly done to gain the trio's trust, and yet it should have fallen through immediately the moment Whisper laid her eyes on him, in my opinion.

(*That is another thing I found striking about this issue: the new Diamond Cutters are discussing about how they need new volunteers, and literally two seconds later Duo comes cruising in like "Hi I heard you need new volunteers". And no-one questions how strange it is that he knows that? There is no way he could have, since the concept of recruiting more people has clearly been discussed only between the three girls mere moments prior! Yet Tangle asks him if he wants to join, he says "Yes, I heard you were accepting volunteers", and no-one bats an eye at exactly when he heard it. Again, also this part makes the Diamond Cutters inadvertently come off as far too trusting and simply idiotically gullible to me.)

[egg-emperor]

Only thing I'm gonna say about this but yeah I really don't think IDW should be canon to the games

Before you accuse me of being a meanie hater or something, look at my #IDW Sonic tag on my blog. I've actually praised a lot of the things I enjoy about Eggman in it very heavily. I'd be all for things like that being canon to the games, you know I would love for those badass moments to be things his game self has done! But I will not be seeing it that way when considering the logic because wouldn't make sense due to all the contradictions to the game canon. There's a lot of it undeniably and being a different piece of media, that would be fine- if they didn't try to claim it as game canon universe

I keep seeing people try to argue that Sonic does believe that Eggman can change in the games and lets him get away because of that but there's tons of moments in the games displaying the exact opposite consistently, he can be the first to doubt him turning over a new leaf and be suspicious, and there are times he keeps chasing after him after a defeat or knowingly lets him get hurt. And that's not the same as him being a brutal bloodthirsty killer, people should be allowed to acknowledge this without others acting like they're saying he is lol

Then you have things like IDW Eggman apparently saying that he will "agree to disagree" on his style being evil in the Open Your Heart lyrics reference from Sonic in issue 23, even though he has specifically referred to himself, actions, and creations as evil many times throughout the games. That wouldn't make sense unless they tried to say that he was just being snarky/sarcastic/pretending that he didn't consider what he does evil to rile Sonic up or something. But I'm pretty sure it's not what they were going for, therefore it's a very big contradiction towards who Eggman is and what he believes.

And that's just a couple, there's more that I've seen people cover with all the game canon evidence necessary to support it. It just wouldn't make sense for it to all be canon to the games when considering these things. Plus, it would make it very confusing and people shouldn't need to read comics to learn of entire story events and character introductions that happened only in the comics, then mentioning the events and bringing characters into the games and acting as if everyone has read the comics. My brother who doesn't read the comic for example, has raised this point.

I don't get why the comic needs to be canon one to one in the games. It's completely fine for them to stay separate, it avoids contradictions and the games lacking key moments of the comics, therefore lacking context. I personally don't understand what we'd gain from whole story arcs happening off screen outside of the games somehow having happened in them too. Because you don't even need the comic to be canon to introduce main universe versions of the IDW exclusive characters, just like how they wouldn't need to and shouldn't make the Boom universe canon to the games to put Sticks in it.

So yeah that's my take on it and please keep in mind,

this is NOT an IDW hate post! Just my honest two cents.

[safespaceforfandomhate]

Everything Wrong With Fandoms (My Review)

**REPOSTED FROM 2019**

I want to make something very clear here. I feel the need to say this openly. Tumblr seems to be a big hangout area for a little something called “fandoms,” and I decided to give my review based on both what other people have observed and my own personal experiences. So people have probably been wondering why I put “no fandom blogs” in my description, and I decided to explain in detail. Now I won’t make this a long ramble of meaningless chitchat, so let’s cut to the chase, shall we?

*They’re obnoxious. I don’t say this lightly. They are so obnoxious that they are practically violent. If you don’t ship their ship, they will kill you, threaten to kill you, or tell you to kill yourself. If you don’t agree with the characters or the theme, they will kill you, threaten to kill you, et cetera, et cetera, you get the idea. The Rose Tyler fans in the Doctor Who fandom have a huge reputation for being like this (although some people have said that the Sonic fandom is by far the most toxic). They’re full of little immature 14-year old fangirls that gush over certain hot actors and shame anyone that disagrees with them. (David Tennant fans, anyone?) Even worse, they send death threats to the spouses/significant others of the actors on the show because they’re in the way of their precious “ship” and other pathetic reasons. These young fangirls throw their ship and actor couples in your face and down your throat, which almost makes the subject of fandom-ism a religion. More on that later.

*They’re stalkers. Again, I don’t say this lightly. Basically, all the adults in these communities keep trackers on their blogs, special extensions that literally track a person’s IP address (because having a device that leads you to a person’s physical house gives them more beneficial power than simply turning the anon feature off, apparently). This happened to us last summer when my good friend committed suicide after a suspicious figure was seen in our neighborhood, lurking around and searching for her. She thought she was doing everyone a favor. This individual was bound to kill her eventually, so she saved them the trouble. They were most likely there for her. She already knew she would never be good enough or accepted by the fandom world, and this situation just made things worse for her. Going back to the Rose Tyler fans in the Doctor Who fandom: they had told her to kill herself, threatened to hurt her family, and even had the gall to say she deserved to get raped. She lost it. I know no one here on Tumblr ever knew her, so I don’t expect anyone here to care about the well-being of a total stranger, but I’m sharing it here because she mattered to ME. Trackers are illegal, but Tumblr obviously has no objection to fandom communities keeping them on their pages, so I guess stalking is okay in this sense.

*Pride. They pride themselves constantly. It’s their biggest strength. They say they are the best fandom ever, adding “deal with it” or “accept it” at the end. They work hard on their art and fan fiction just to make sure it’s better than everyone else’s. It’s a big competition. Who is more popular than who, and no matter what anyone tells you, there are always those people that get the most followers and attention and you just want to be exactly where they are and you never will be, no matter how hard you try. Quite simply, the definition of fandom is “popularity contest.” And might I add “to the extreme” at the end? They are only the best fandom ever to specific people: their own members.

*It’s a losing battle. The best solution is to give in to them. If they tell you to do something or make threats, do as they say. Don’t fight it. It’s about making THEM happy, not you. If you obey their whim, then everyone is happy. They win. Better to keep the community together than try to break it apart with petty arguments. Besides, they all know each other. They’re all friends. They will defend their friends at all costs because that’s all they care about. No outsiders allowed. No use expecting fandoms to defend you for anything if you’re not in their group. If you are new to the fandom, good luck. You’re screwed. You came into a group of people you don’t know, and they don’t know you, so the best thing to expect is odd looks and hate messages in your inbox. You’ve basically walked in on a discussion among close-knit cult buddies.

*Spoiler alert. If you are interested in seeing a show, there is no need, since the fans will spoil it for you. They go on and on about characters and plot and have no regard for other people’s experiences. Seriously. They don’t even tag their posts. They are obsessed. Everything they post goes over the top. Why even bother watching the show if you already know what’s going to happen? I watched the first two seasons of Supernatural many moons ago, and that was as far as I got. Unfortunately, I already know who everyone is and what happens throughout, so there is absolutely no reason to call myself a fan or a member of the fandom. You can say that they just lost one member, but for any fandom, it doesn’t really matter, since one member is just one member. They still have a whole lot of other members to worry about.

*It’s basically a religion. I mentioned this in the above statement, where people obsess and go overboard with their beliefs, trying to convert all non-religious beings in their presence over to their practice because it is the only “right” one. All they talk about is this one thing and how amazing and wonderful it is. (I am not religious, by the way, as I also say in my description). If you are in Fandom X, you have to make everything you create about Fandom X and nothing else. Work has to solely focus on THAT fandom. My friend had this crossover fanfiction where she combined different fandoms, and no matter what she wrote, it wasn’t good enough. No one understood what she was even writing about, so she ended up making her own separate fandom out of it, where she and I were the only members. I know how hard it is to not belong and not fit in when your imagination is different from normal people. I miss her every day, and I only wish I could have done more to save her. She would probably still be alive today if it weren’t for fandoms. They can be toxic places, which is why I have chosen to steer clear of them. In honor of my friend, I promise to never associate myself with any type of fan-related blog or individual for the rest of my life, and I know she will be proud of me.

So there you have it. My two cents. I know it was a lot to read, but you hung in there and I applaud you. Hopefully, this will answer a lot of people’s questions and help them understand the situation. I completely oppose fandoms at all costs, and just the word itself is enough to send up all kinds of emotional triggers in my mind. Anyone that has a fandom blog on Tumblr is not welcome in this space, period. No excuses. I have turned the anon feature off to make sure that whoever talks to me is a real person, not a grey face. I need to know for sure who I am speaking to before I answer any asks. If you want to practice your fan-religion and whatnot, I’m totally cool with that, but leave your madness on your own blog and keep it out of this corner. Thank you very much and enjoy the rest of your day.

My overall rating for fandoms: 1 star (out of 5)

[badlydrawnmanic]

part of me thinks it’d be funny to refer to every character’s age as how many years older or younger than sonic they’re supposed to be especially because they just fucking… deleted his age. it’s like measuring how old the earth is based on the year christ was supposedly born (why)

intrigued about what that “sonic’s birthday” thing will entail in the future frontiers updates. feels like a weird thing to put in that specific spotlight

can we talk about how if we follow canon, sonic was 15 for every game between sonic 1 and sonic generations, but even after he physically had a birthday party in the game they were still like “no he’s 15” and he continued to be 15 and i’m assuming he’s still in 15 purgatory until further notice even though he is very much sounding much more mature and so very tired in recent games

imo he was like 10 in sonic 1 give or take a year or two and he’s gotta be at least 18 as of frontiers

you can’t tell me all this stuff has happened within the time frame of one suspiciously long year. it’s like the phineas and ferb summer all over again

[echo-lore]

Look I’ve been thinking about this for the past week and have not been able to sleep so I shall put it out there and see if it brings me peace.

So I saw this one prompt/ idea first on ao3 by I_GiveUpOnGender and I’m pretty sure I saw another thing with the same concept but I forgot by who

Anyway the idea was Hawks being Denki’s adoptive father and the shenanigans that would ensure- and I have not been able to forget it.

Like I’ve been imagining this specific scenario where the league of villains shows up to kidnap denki from his own room due to his electricity quirk which could allow them to use mass amounts of electricity (which they might want for the doctor dude/ need to make more nemus) without any authorities being suspicious about it or even know about it.

Problem is they never told hawks

Problem number two is that the whole reason he was adopted by hawks was because he was sold to a quirk trafficking business where he was used for the exact same purposes the LOV want him for

So when they succeed in kidnapping denki and are dragging him to the machinery kicking and screaming because to many flashbacks to a time he would much rather forget are running through his mind in speeds Sonic only wishes he could achieve- He sees his own dad walk into the scene and starts thrashing and screaming even more, yelling for Hawks to help him

Then from that point I see either two things happening:

1) Hawks fucking rages and decides fuck the Hero Commission and goes to save Denki or

2) Hawks freezes, not knowing what to do because thats his son, my hatchling, mine, don’t fucking touch him- but also his been told time and time again by the Hero Commission to always put his duty and mission first- no matter the consequences. and automatically acts as if he knew this whole thing was going to happened and actively ratted denki out/ help the lov know where he was as he quickly tries to figure out what to do

Denki obviously freaks out even more when he realizes that Hawks betrayed him which he expected from Dabi not his own fucking dad (I love the idea that dabi and hawks are in a weird dating situation and denki just had to get used to having someone who kidnapped his friend over at his house like a new boyfriend of a divorced mother) and he starts just absolutely going into him and yelling and getting pissed as fuck.

The thing is, the lov had forgotten that someone that has an electricity quirk, electricity based quirk suppressants aren’t exactly gonna work.

Denki discharge 5 million volts of electricity at the same time and the whole base where they were at exploded, alerting all nearby heroes to investigate and causing a city power-outage

When dabi saw the electricity start to build up as denki kept fighting back he just yelled to get the fuck out and had to hold hawks back as he kept trying to get to Denki- which would have most definitely get him killed

The only thing left on the scene when the hero comes (which includes Aizawa) is an unconscious denki, compress, and twice (who were the ones that were trying to handle denki/ the closest and couldn’t run away in time)

After this is basically just denki being pissed at dabi, at hawks, at the commission, at the lov, at the quirk trafficking business, and at the fact that he doesn’t know how to handle his anger. His knows how to handle his sadness and his happiness and his love but never his anger cause his supposed to be kaminari denki, his not supposed to get angry.

Also would include him telling all of this to the Bakusquad + shinsou and refusing to go home and just staying in the dorms cause he doesn’t know what he will do if he sees Hawks. It’s also just hawks trying really fucking hard to get denki to talk to him so he can apologize and try to make it up to him but it’s really difficult to do that when he refuses to even acknowledge your existence and decides to give you a taste of your own medicine by acting like everything is completely fine in-front of everyone but the moment there by themselves just glaring daggers at him

None of them are having a good time to say the least