#Robotnik: Well i'm off!

[invader-reggie]

Robotnik: I am going to REARRANGE your ORGANS until you're BEGGING for MERCY and then TAKE you OUT.

Stone: Really?? YES. I thought you'd never realize, Oh my god YES.

Robotnik: Wait you WANT me to cut you open, mess with your organs and then KILL you?

Stone: Oh. Please no.

Robotnik: What

Stone: What

Stone: Latte?

[libraryofjupiter]

quotes that are stobotnik. to me.

(chateau lobby #4 by father john misty, you had me at hello by mchairi mcfarlane, the lost future of pepperharrow by natasha pulley)

[likeanegg]

of COURSE I wouldn't get my wig basically just right until the last day of con X|

[thankskenpenders]

Thoughts on two specific areas of the writing in Sonic X Shadow Generations

The best new 3D Sonic game in over a decade (or even two, depending on who you ask) dropped late last year. And I didn't write anything about it! Sometimes life happens. Well, I've finally sat down to finish Shadow Generations, and by now everyone has already been singing its praises for three months. This is the rare instance where the entire Sonic fandom, and even mainstream reviewers, are in agreement on something. The level design is the best it's been in a long, long time and the cool factor is off the charts, embracing Sonic's peak cringe era in an incredibly confident way. It's great. If you're even reading this post, you probably don't need me to tell you that. So I won't!

No, what I'm really interested in here is the writing. Because this is me we're talking about. But I actually don't want to talk about the main narrative of Shadow Generations, which is really solid little story about Black Doom trying to mold Shadow into his perfect soldier. No, I'd like to zero in on two other aspects of the writing here: the revisions made to Sonic Generations, and Gerald Robotnik's unlockable journal.

The updated Sonic Generations script

The new package mostly presents Sonic Generations how you remember it. There are some tweaks, but it's not a major overhaul. Graphically, I don't think the game has been touched much, if at all. I certainly can't notice any difference without a side-by-side comparison, despite playing it on a PS5. The most notable update is that the game's script has been rewritten by Ian Flynn.

Naturally, this caught my attention. Generations always had a nothingburger story, so with Ian rewriting Pontac and Graff's lame dialogue there was nowhere to go but up. (I don't like to pin the blame for those games' stories entirely on them, as a ton of it was dictated to them by Sonic Team, but, well, I don't think they're very good dialogue writers.) But it's less a complete rewrite and more like Ian was brought on as a script doctor for some minor touch ups here and there. Many lines of dialogue are completely identical to how they were originally written in 2011, and many others only have slight wording changes. Ian was clearly not allowed to request additional scenes or extend the ones that already existed. He has to match the original beat for beat so that they can reuse 99% of the cutscene animations. Don't expect it to be a whole new experience compared to the original.

Still, I think the new script is an improvement, albeit a minor one. Various things have been tweaked to maintain characterization consistency. Cream calls Sonic "Mr. Sonic" instead of just "Sonic." Instead of calling Sonic "buddy," Rouge uses the pet name "Blue," like she tends to do in things like the IDW comics. Espio doesn't have to remind you in the dialogue that he's a ninja, and he no longer has a line making it sound like he has some kind of soul reading power. I also like that Modern Sonic now actually has responses to what his friends say when he rescues them, rather than being silent like Classic Sonic. They won't blow you away, but they make Sonic feel a little more engaged with everything.

In general, the altered dialogue just seems tighter to me, and some of the more childish or trite wording of Pontac and Graff's script has been altered. Here, let's actually make a direct comparison, just because this stuff is interesting to me as a writer. Here's a couple lines from after the Egg Dragoon fight late in the game, in the original script:

Modern Eggman: Ooooh... I can't believe this! I was supposed to beat you this time. Modern Sonic: Aw, I'm sorry! I didn't get that memo. I beat you every time! [Turns to Classic Sonic] No, seriously, we beat this guy every time. It's like it's our job or something!

This is a simple exchange. Eggman is mad that he lost. Sonic is unflappably confident because he always beats Eggman, and he explains this to his younger self. But the wording here isn't particularly good. Eggman's simple and direct wording makes him come off like a little kid who's mad because his older brother beat him at Mario Kart, rather than a mad scientist who just had his plans foiled. It's making light of the situation.

And I've never liked Sonic saying "It's like it's our job or something!" That doesn't feel like a thing Sonic would say, it feels like a thing an outside observer would say about Sonic. This is a frequent problem with so-called "MCU dialogue," where quips meant to echo the commentary of a casual, somewhat disinterested audience are inserted into the story itself so that the writers can be like "See? We get it. We're genre-savvy, too!" It also just reminds me of bad Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric lines like "Rings! It's like they're made for me!"

And then here's Ian's rewrite:

Modern Eggman: I recalibrated everything! This was supposed to be my time! Modern Sonic: Oh, please, keep dreamin', Egg-head. I beat you every time. [Turns to Classic Sonic] No, seriously, we beat him every time. Our score card's flawless.

Eggman's still mad about his defeat, but the line "I recalibrated everything!" makes it more specific. He put all this work into the engineering side of his latest scheme and got tunnel vision, thinking if he got his creations just right there'd be no way he could lose. "This was supposed to be my time!" also turns it into a time travel pun, which is a bonus. He's still pitching a fit over losing, but it feels more like Eggman pitching a fit, rather than sounding childish.

And then instead of saying that beating Eggman is "like his job or something," Sonic says he's got a flawless score card against Eggman. He doesn't take Eggman seriously as a threat—at least, not to his face. He acts like it's all a game. But he conveys this in a way that feels truer to the character, rather than feeling like the words of a real world observer poking fun at the tropes of the Sonic series.

Is this amazing, A+ dialogue that blows me away? No. Again, it's not a completely different scene from the one we already had. Ian had to fit the beats of what was already there. He couldn't go all out and write an all new story confirming his longstanding headcanon that the Time Eater is a remnant of Solaris or whatever. But the wording here makes the existing story land a little better and feel truer to the characters in subtle ways.

But to me, the main change is that the Sonics and Tailses seem to have a more solid understanding of what's going on with the timeline and the Time Eater, compared to how idiotic they sometimes seemed in the original game. Which is good! No more standing outside Green Hill and wondering why it seems so familiar. Thank god. As part of this, yes, there are a few more references to past games in the dialogue, like Sonic briefly being confused about the fact that they're time traveling without the Time Stones, or South Island and Westside Island being acknowledged as the normal locations of Green Hill and Chemical Plant. Yes, ha ha, insert joke about how Ian loves references here. Look, it's Sonic fucking Generations. It's a game built entirely out of nostalgic references. Just own it! And, again, in this instance Sonic and Tails come off as less stupid when they make it clear that they do, in fact, remember their adventures from presumably less than a year ago in-universe.

Eggman, too, seems to have a better understanding of the powers he's toying with. Where in the original vesion his focus was simply on going back in time to undo his previous defeats and he seemed kind of oblivious to how much the Time Eater was actually fucking up the universe, here Eggman says he wants to use the Time Eater to give himself complete control over the entire timeline. Eggman also makes way fewer references to his own failures and shortcomings. Of course he won't admit that Sonic has defeated him time and time again. To him, he's never truly lost—Sonic just keeps delaying the inevitable total victory for the Eggman Empire.

So, yes. The new Sonic Generations script is better. It won't blow anyone away, but it's better than it was. It's been elevated from "kinda lame" to "fine." No, if you really wanna see Ian flex his ability to breathe new life into old Sonic stories, look no further than...

Gerald Robotnik's Journal

Hoo boy.

The story of what happened aboard the ARK has always been... a bit confusing, to say the least. Fans with encyclopedic knowledge of the script for every route of Shadow '05 may disagree, but it's the truth. We've had all the pieces to understand the story for a long time now, but that info was given to us out of order by a pair of unreliable narrators—Gerald, who became a vengeful lunatic shortly before his death, and Shadow, who was subjected to multiple rounds of amnesia and altered memories. Some of the ambiguity left by Sonic Adventure 2 was cleared up in Shadow '05, but that game also retconned in a bunch of new elements to Shadow's backstory (aliens!) that lead to further confusion. Not to mention the fact that that game had multiple routes and only revealed the truth about Shadow if you sat on the ultimate final boss battle for WAY longer than the fight would normally last. Or the fact that Sonic X made its own tweaks in its telling of the story. Or the fact that none of these things ever had the best English translations. I can't blame anyone who hasn't played those games in two decades for not remembering the truth about these characters and getting some details mixed up.

What we needed was something to piece together all of the info we have into one coherent backstory, told in chronological order. And thanks to Shadow Generations, we have that, in the form of an official journal tying together what we knew from Sonic Adventure 2, Shadow '05, and Sonic Battle into the tragic tale of Gerald's rise and fall.

Ian Flynn was the perfect man for the job here as the guy who started his career by tidying up the mess that was the first 159 issues if Archie Sonic. This is what he excels at: taking disparate bits of weird Sonic lore from multiple different sources, boiling them down to their most interesting elements, and connecting it together in a way that will make the audience see the dramatic potential he's always known was there. Rather than feeling like a cynical exercise in franchise building, going back and explaining things that never needed explaining so that people can add more bullet points to the wiki, he puts a new spin on things that retroactively enriches those past stories. The story here means something to the characters involved and gives us a better understanding of them as people, rather than as plot devices to motivate Shadow.

(And, of course, Ian didn't do this journal alone. He wrote the story, but I also have to give a huge shout out to Evan Stanley, who made the final product. All of her handwritten journal entries, sketches, and "photos" included throughout. The physical damage done to the journal over the course of 50 tumultuous years, passing from Gerald to Eggman to a certain special someone at GUN. The way Gerald's handwriting gets less and less legible as his mental state declines. So much love was put into what could have been a mere text dump in a menu, and it really elevates it to the next level. Congrats on officially getting hired by Sega, Evan, you've sure as hell earned it!)

The main idea the journal conveys is that Gerald was under a lot of pressure from a lot of different parties—GUN, the President, his colleagues aboard the ARK, Black Doom, even his own family—and boy did it get to him. The known incidents aboard the ARK mentioned in previous games are put together here to form a story where everything slowly spirals out of control as Gerald keeps compromising his morals to further his research, thinking he'll eventually find some way out of all this because he's a genius. I won't recap that whole story here (if you haven't already played the game and read the journal entries, I would highly recommend at least reading it on the Sonic wiki), but I'd like to highlight my favorite elements of the story, as Ian tells it here.

1) The Eclipse Cannon

Here's something that never quite made sense in Sonic Adventure 2: why does the ARK have a laser that can blow up the Earth built into it? It was supposed to be a peaceful research colony. Sure, Gerald went crazy and swore revenge on the Earth, but, like... when did he have an opportunity to go back up to the ARK and modify it? Did he have someone else do it? How? The ARK was raided by GUN and shut down! And then they arrested him, held him in prison for an unclear period of time, and executed him by firing squad when he was no longer useful! It doesn't add up. Shadow 'the Hedgehog '05 would give its own answer by introducing the Black Arms and saying that the Eclipse Cannon was always supposed to be a secret trump card against the Black Comet. But, like... we know that's kind of a bullshit answer, right? You don't need enough power to blow up a whole planet just to destroy a comet.

Well, the new journal retains what we already knew, but it paints a much more complete picture.

See, long before Gerald ever made a Faustian bargain with Black Doom, he had already made one with an even greater evil: the military. GUN gave Gerald much of the funding for the ARK, Gerald's personal utopian research station in space, but it didn't take long for GUN to start pressuring him to design them weapons. Gerald tried to get GUN off his back by personally contacting the President of the United Federation, and the President gave him an alternative: how about, instead, you just use your genius brain to figure out the secret to immortality for us, so our soldiers can be immortal? Gerald was initially sickened by the notion and found it completely absurd, like chasing a shadow... but given no other option, the sarcastically named Project Shadow soon began in earnest. (Maria would later put a more positive spin on the name after Shadow's awakening, pointing out that a Shadow can show us the direction of the light, like she says in the game itself.)

Of course, this search for the ultimate life form didn't go very well, and without any results on that front GUN kept hounding him for weapons. Gerald would throw them a bone here and there to get them off his back. His research on Chaos resulted in the Artifical Chaos prototypes, which he worried would be used for warfare but could at least theoretically be used for search and rescue missions in floods, in his mind. But that wasn't enough. So he gave them Chaos Drives to power their mechs. And that still wasn't enough. He's got Emerl. He'll give them Emerl. They're not impressed by Emerl. They'll shut the whole ARK down if Gerald doesn't give them something big.

Fine! GUN wants something big? Gerald builds a huge fucking laser cannon into the ARK. However, as a middle finger to GUN, Gerald makes it so powerful that it would destroy the Earth if it was ever fired at any target on its surface. In other words, GUN now has their ultimate weapon of mass destruction, fulfilling his contract, but they can never actually use it. Oh, the delicious irony. (And also Shadow will blow up the Black Comet with it in 50 years yada yada yada.) Is this perhaps extremely shortsighted and naive of Gerald, to believe that such a weapon would never actually be used just because of the risk? Of course. But hey, that's Gerald for you. And I love this as an answer.

(Also, this, uh, kinda echoes something from real life! Remember the bit in Oppenheimer where he says all nuclear war will become unthinkable, and Edward Teller responds "until somebody builds a bigger bomb"? Yeah, Teller went on to conceptualize a superweapon codenamed Project Sundial that would have been able to kill all life on the planet, as the ultimate deterrent for war. This was never made for obvious reasons, but hey, there's a basis for this sort of thinking outside of heightened sci-fi! There's a whole Kurzgesagt video about this if you're interested.)

2) The Biolizard

The Biolizard is, of course, brought up as the initial failed prototype of the ultimate life form, from before Gerald met Black Doom. We don't really learn all that much about it that we didn't already know, but I just love the way it's framed in the story.

As you can see above, we actually get to see a picture of Maria holding up the cute little salamander that would end up mutating into the Biolizard through Gerald's experiments. (Researchers want to figure out how to replicate salamanders' regenerative abilities for humans in real life, too, so this was a natural starting point for the project.) And then, after it grows to a monstrous size and goes out of control, Gerald has to lock it away in an unused sector of the ARK. He needs to keep the poor thing alive for his research into harnessing Chaos Energy, building life support systems directly into it, but he doesn't have the heart to tell Maria what happened. So it just becomes this first dark secret weighing on his conscience. The Biolizard becomes Gerald's Tell-Tale Heart beating beneath the floorboards of the ARK. I love that.

3) Lost Impact was the breaking point for the ARK

Remember the level Lost Impact in Shadow '05? The flashback level on the hero path where Shadow is running around fighting Artificial Chaos enemies on the ARK 50 years ago? Yeah, that wasn't just a random incident. That was important, as we now know due to its placement on the timeline.

See, Emerl's rampage aboard the ARK that was chronicled in Sonic Battle and Dark Beginnings set off a domino effect. Emerl riled up the Artificial Chaos, causing Gerald to lose control of them. They became violent, and so Shadow had to stop them, as depicted in Lost Impact. The thing is, that incident sent an SOS signal to GUN telling them that shit was going down on the ARK. Gerald didsn't fully understand the trouble he was in and assumed that he'd simply be reprimanded by the higher ups, or maybe face legal action. But, well... the next time he heard from GUN, armed troopers were raiding the ARK.

So Lost Impact was the straw that broke the camel's back. I just really like that detail.

4) Maria

And, of course, there's Maria herself. Maria has often been more of a symbol than a character, this perfect embodiment of everything that's good and pure in this world who gets killed to motivate Shadow and Gerald's revenge plots. But I really like the wrinkles this journal adds to her and Gerald's story, and their relationship. This is the most fleshed out they've ever felt.

For one, the journal leans into the idea of Maria's intellectual potential. The rest of the Robotnik family is all geniuses, after all, and she was proving to be a really bright kid. She excelled in her studies on the ARK, and she even helped design Shadow's jet skates and inhibitor rings. When Maria died, the world didn't just lose a symbolic personification of purity. She genuinely could have been a hugely influential scientist who did so much good for the world. That's what Gerald wanted for her. But we'll never know, because GUN killed her.

Speaking of her family, their presence isn't just mentioned for the sake of fleshing out the Robotnik family tree. It's mentioned that as Gerald struggled to find a cure for Maria's illness through his genetic research, he faced mounting pressure from his family. They didn't want Maria to be up on the ARK forever. They wanted Gerald to hurry up and find a damn cure, or otherwise just send her back home to Earth so she could be with her family again. She'd been up on the ARK for so long that Gerald's coworkers started thinking that she had been born up there. Eventually she gains a baby sister on Earth who she's never met. A rift forms between Gerald's two sons, and he's unable to really deal with it because he's so consumed by his work. There's this sense that the family is falling apart, and that everyone is dreading the possibility that Gerald will never find a cure and that Maria will just spend her final years up in space and die far away from her family, because Gerald just couldn't let go. If that happens, it'll break the whole family. But he can't stop now. So he just keeps working. Curing Maria is the only way to win his family back, in his eyes. It can't all be for nothing.

But my favorite detail regarding Maria is this one paragraph:

Maria is growing into a lovely young woman. It breaks my heart that someone as bright and energetic as her is diminished by disease. There are no visible effects, and I've caught my fellow researchers muttering to each other, doubting her illness. It is infuriating. I find all my reason and restraint vanishes when she's slighted.

This is SUCH a great addition to the story! It's always been true that Maria doesn't really seem all that ill, just looking at her in cutscenes. With this one little comment, Ian flips that issue on its head and turns it into a story about invisible disability. She doesn't act like she's in chronic pain, so she must not be, everyone thinks. And this really, really gets to Gerald, as does the pressure from his family. He's dedicating his whole LIFE to saving her, and they think she's faking it?! It's such a small addition, never referenced elsewhere in the journal, but it adds so much flavor to the story, as does the implied family drama. It grounds Gerald and Maria and makes them feel more like real human beings, rather than being pure archetypes. It's just enough info to let my imagination run wild filling in the blanks.

You also get the feeling that Maria being such a walking ray of sunshine was the only real source of joy Gerald had left in his life before Shadow was awakened, and the only thing keeping him from snapping under pressure sooner. All this stuff just keeps piling on, everything's spiraling out of control, but at least Maria is keeping her chin up, right? It makes so much sense that losing her would make him go off the deep end when it's framed like this.

It's just... man, I never thought I'd care so much about Gerald and Maria. But that's the Ian Flynn touch. After years of less than stellar Sonic writing that seemed to be embarrassed of itself, I'm so happy to have new games coming out that fully embrace the history of the series like this, making its world feel so rich and real instead of just serving as an excuse for a string of platforming levels. I don't even like Shadow '05, but I'll be damned if Ian and the rest of Sonic Team didn't make something amazing by "yes, and"-ing Shadow's cringe past here. Sonic has truly reached levels of "we're so back" never thought possible.

[thedemoninyourcloset]

Fellow Stobotnik shippers, I fear we have won the battle

I ACTUALLY THOUGHT THEY WOULD KISS LMAO 😭😭

THESE PICS?? I'M SORRY, STONE IS ON ROBOTNIK'S LAP?? THIS IS ACTUALLY FUCKING CRAZY

Stone cover you tits for God's sake🙄 (PLEASE DON'T OMG)

I CAN'T WITH HOW UNBOTHERED STONE WAS (I feel like that wasn't the first time Robotnik has taken his shirt off)

HE IS WEARING STONE'S SHIRT

Lee said back when they finished filming, that we would lose our minds. Well, I've already lost mine bc of this trailer, so I can't wait to see what the movie has to offer

[technically-human]

goth agent stone is something i've been spinning in my head for the past couple weeks... i've been into goth for, oh my god around a decade now (albeit on and off) so i hope you don't mind if i ramble some thoughts at you as a jumping off point? it's a bit of a niche headcanon so i'm delighted to share it with someone ;; this is a bit of a long one sorry so feel free to ignore it lol i won't be offended

i can imagine stone as having quite a corp goth lean: pinstripe pencil skirts, black trench coat over a suit, cat eye sunglasses, eyeliner!! that sort of thing. not all that different to what he usually wears, just... spookier! i can imagine him in a lot of black leather too, given the whole motorcyclist thing. robotnik might be similar but with more DRAMA. he's a supervillain he's got style he's got flair he's got ribcage patterns sewn into his jacket.

and since stone's someone who sews (and is clearly quite good at it) he'd have so much freedom!! can't find the perfect ruffly blouse? make one! in the '80s especially goth fashion was about hand me downs and DIY he'd be so at home

as for music!! that's the real heart of it. i can imagine them both enjoying the classic, 80s goth roots type of music but i've always pictured robotnik as having an industrial/metal/rock lean. stone feels like he'd be happy listening to whatever robotnik wants to listen to, honestly, as well as some of the dreamier stuff like cocteau twins. music to sway and yearn to.

but uhh anyway if you want a peek into goth culture i'd recommend watching or reading interviews with bands like specimen and fans at the bat cave or just on the street, there were a lot of news outlets that interviewed goths back when it was this really crazy new thing. i'm especially fascinated by the ones from the '80s but there's some excellent modern bands too :-3 and for a look into '90s and 2000s goth there's of herbs and altars' storytimes, please mind the content warnings on them because they're quite heavy but i credit dorian with getting me back into goth after i'd basically abandoned it in my teens.

i did a little happy dance when i saw you were thinking of looking into this stuff, i'm very passionate and this is really just scratching the surface. i could go on and on as all my friends are very aware ;; but i'll stop now. thank you so much if you read all this

Rambling is a love language and I would never ignore someone rambling at me. Feel free to ramble more, even! My DMs are open if you'd prefer!

This goes to everyone, actually. I am very very shy and socially awkward, but I ADORE IT when people talk to me about stuff they love. Everyone is welcome to! I love listening, as my girlfriend would tell you, and I love learning. No excuse needed, you can pop up like "hey I feel like talking about polar bears" and I'll pay attention.

That being said ohoho, this is great! Taking notes, taking notes, thank you so much! I can tell you've put a lot of thought into it. I do agree Robotnik would be far more dramatic with his clothes kinda like that scene in Megaming where he gets his evil outfit ready and I wouldn't be surprised if Stone is the one designing his outfits!

I can also picture this:

[autisticshadowthehedgehog]

So according to this article, the writers of Sonic 3 actually did consider killing off Tom to push Sonic over the edge into Act 3. The reason they decided not to was kinda like. It would be a bit of a downer to end the movie with Shadow, Gerald, Robotnik, Funny Olive Garden Guy, Maria AND Sonic's dad being fucking dead. Leaving Sonic off on a really depressing note as well as killing off a character the target audience seems to like just wasn't really something they wanted to do. Also they called "killing a beloved character to raise the stakes and do nothing else" a cheap writing tactic, which shows how much they care about the quality of their work.

Why I'm saying this is that it's really funny that of the multiple people I've sent this article to, I've got almost a 50/50 split of people going "what??? oh my gosh that would have been insane. thank god they didn't do that" and people going "they should've fucking ended him"

[jester-privilege]

I've been trying to do more colouring, especially to find ways to practice lighting in different styles. This is from one of our AUs, called Do You Come Here Often - Robotnik meets Stone, a bartender, during a painfully boring charity gala and they hit it off.

I wrote a short story based on our RP, so I'm putting it under the cut below!

A charity gala. A waste of time, that’s what it was. Something to stroke the already grossly swollen egos of the guests, most of whom just loved masquerading as philanthropists for the tax cuts. 

It was well below Doctor Robotnik, and yet, he’d been forced kicking and screaming into a suit to sweet-talk potential investors. There was going to be reckoning once he was back in the lab. Maybe he’d launch the latest incompetent assistant into space. 

“ - and another thing - do you use that - that stuff, that comes from babies -” 

Then there was this asshole. Trapped into a conversation, Robotnik could barely maintain his rictus grin as he leaned his elbow on the bar counter, listening to the gormless, chinless man yammer on and on. Rich, politically active, and an absolute imbecile. Robotnik was going to strangle him with his stupid bowtie. 

“Because let me tell you, pal,” his conversation partner slurred. “When I’m a senator, I’m - banning all that shit. It’s not right - it’s just wrong, you know -” 

“Yes, we wouldn’t want the harmless salvage of iron rich cells from biowaste,” Robotnik muttered under his breath. 

“Yeah!” The other man gestured, coming dangerously close to spilling his watered down whiskey. “You get it - good man - what was your name again, Robot - something?” 

“Doctor Robotnik,” Robotnik said, in clipped tones.  

The man chortled. “Oh come on, you’re not a real doctor.” 

Robotnik squeezed his martini hard enough to hear it crack. His smile grew wider, his pupils narrowing. He was going to - 

“Gentlemen! Do I spy empty glasses?” a perky voice interrupted them. Robotnik turned, stiffly, and stared at the bartender - a rather handsome, well-groomed man with dark, twinkling eyes.

Robotnik’s conversation partner blinked, and looked down at his nearly empty glass. “Oh, well spotted, boy. Whaddya recommend?” 

“May I recommend you try my special blend?” the bartender suggested, his voice lowering an octave as he slid forward a glass, his movements mesmerisingly precise. “I promise it has a kick like you won’t believe.” 

The man chuckled, reaching for the fresh drink. “Just so you know, I don’t believe in tipping,” he said, as if gunning for the title of world’s most loathsome man, and downed half of the drink in one go. 

The bartender smiled peacefully. 

“Bit of a weird aftertaste,” the man slurred. He blinked, suddenly tilting forward sharply. A hand shot out, and the bartender grabbed the man’s hair, guiding his head to rest on the counter. 

“There we are,” the bartender said cheerfully. “Nice and easy. Now,” and he leaned back, smiling at Robotnik like he hadn’t just drugged his customer. “What can I get you, Doctor Robotnik?” 

Robotnik took a moment, blinking as he adjusted - and then raised his eyebrow. He was, despite himself, curious. “Not - what, a mix of ketamine and benzo?” 

“Trade secret, I’m afraid,” the bartender said, smiling. The man in the next stool snored loudly. Robotnik stood up, moving a few spaces over, and the bartender followed him. 

“I supposed you did save a life,” Robotnik said, haughtily. “His, I mean. How do you know my name?” 

“I heard the other gentleman mention it,” the bartender said. “Of course, I did recognise it.” As he spoke, he pulled out a glass, pouring in some ice. “I remember reading your paper on hive mind artificial intelligence. I always wondered whether you ever built anything based on your theories.” 

If Robotnik had been curious before, he was now drawn in, like a moth to a flame. Of course, there was a good chance he was going to get murdered tonight. “You read my - “ He paused, taking a moment to lower his voice and curb the enthusiasm. “Early prototypes showed some information lag,” he said, warily. “I’ve made some adjustments to the data compression and prioritisation - out of curiosity, how much of it did you actually understand?”

The bartender, in the midst of pouring something in the glass, blinked. “Most of it, I assume,” he said. “I did have to make some notes, to research and fully comprehend it, but - you’re a very entertaining writer, Doctor. I enjoyed your footnotes.” 

Robotnik’s footnotes were exclusively reserved for insulting other researchers. He found himself smiling, crookedly. “There’s a functional hive now.” 

The bartender looked startled, and then smiled, his teeth flashing. “Seriously? That’s amazing. How many?”

Robotnik shifted in his seat, starting to find his groove. “Three main hives, inter-connected via slow transfer - much faster on their intra-network. Fifteen, thirty-three and hundred and seven, respectively. It would be much more if my budget wasn’t decided by mouth-breathing knuckle-draggers.” 

“That’s still respectable numbers,” the bartender responded, enthusiastically. “I’d love to see them in action some day.” 

“Oh, would you now?” Robotnik smiled. “Which country are you spying for?”

To his surprise, the bartender laughed. 

“I wish I was in espionage,” the bartender said dryly. “I’m just a fan, Doctor. Personal interest - I saw some of your earlier work, in the field, a few years back.” 

“In the field?” Robotnik raised an eyebrow. “What sort of field does a bartender end up in, exactly?” 

“None whatsoever,” the bartender replied, mouth curling. “I was a mercenary. Gun for hire.”

“And now you’re bartending?” Robotnik asked, skeptically. 

“Well, I did just kill that guy,” the bartender said easily, nodding to the slumped figure a few seats away. “So after I clean up here, that’s my night done.” He smiled. “I’m Stone, by the way.” 

“...Pleasure,” Robotnik said weakly. He stared at Stone. He thought for a moment. 

“So,” he said, clearing his throat. “A fan. Don’t tell me you’ve only read one of my papers.” 

Stone pushed a drink towards Robotnik, smiling slyly. He was rather handsome, in a well-groomed, fit and conventionally attractive way, Robotnik had to admit. 

“Of course not, Doctor. That one was just my favourite - well, besides the one you wrote about applied nanotechnology -” 

“That one was utter garbage,” Robotnik said, waving his hand as he accepted the drink. “I’ve since scrapped it, started fresh with a new approach - the new paper is nearly done, if you -” he stopped himself, feeling the skin under his collar heat up. 

“If I what?” Stone asked curiously. 

“If you want to read it,” Robotnik said stiffly. “You said you were nearly done here, right? How about we blow this popsicle stand and - you come over to my hotel room, and I can show you a thing or two?” 

To his confusion, Stone went momentarily quiet, his eyes widening, before the other man stammered out a reply. 

“I - I’d love to! If you’re sure - I mean, I swear I’m not a spy - I just heard you were here, so I took on this gig in the hopes of catching a glimpse, I didn’t -” 

Robotnik raised his hand sharply, starting to feel uncomfortably warm. “Bzzzt! I’m well aware this is an honour for you! Save the yammering for later - I want to get out of here.” 

Stone had been handsome before, but he was much more so when he was flustered. Not that Robotnik cared about that - it was just rare to meet anyone who admired his work, let alone understood even half of it. He might as well use the rest of his night for something pleasant. 

“Okay, sure,” Stone said, clearly breathing slowly to calm himself down. “Uh - I have some protection on me, if we need it,” he added, shyly. 

Robotnik snorted, standing up, starting to already pull off his cursed bowtie. “Maybe for yourself, Stone. I have no need for it.” He paused, momentarily tempted to introduce Stone to his gloves - but decided against it. He’d have plenty of time for it back at the hotel, away from spying eyes. 

Behind him, Stone all but rushed from behind the bar over to him, hurrying to catch up with Robotnik’s long strides. He was blabbering on about hoping they weren’t moving too fast - as if Robotnik couldn’t get out of here fast enough. He glanced back at the other man, his chest tightening briefly at Stone’s earnest expression. Stone really was stupidly good-looking. He supposed that would be nice to look at, while they went over his papers. 

[tharkflark1]

Hi, I just made this account specifically to send you this, and though i'm not sure this is the proper way to do this (maybe i should use messages instead of asks?) i wanted you, and your friend stagemanager to know that your story, 'A Problem of Paradoxical Proportions', has just become one of the most emotionally significant pieces of literature i have ever had the pleasure to read. There is a long story that explains everything, but i don't want to dump a whole bunch of emotional stuff on a random person without their consent, so the tl;dr is that the threads of fate have decided to run parallel between your story and my life in a way that still brings me tears when i think about it.

I want to personally thank the both of you for your work and all the emotions i felt while reading it, and then re-reading it after. I don't know if stagemanager has a Tumblr, so i'm counting on you to pass my gratitude along to them.

Thank you both for making something will stay in my heart forever ❤️

Well dang we don't know what to say!! This is a beautiful heartfelt message and I am forever grateful for it <3 When I drew paradox during a boring class in college and when we (and with a bunch of extra help from @movie-robotnik-positivity ) thought up and wrote APOPP, we were not expecting all the support and fans for it!! It was a silly fanfic idea between friends that went off the RAILS and damn was it fun as hell.

I am happy Paradox and his misadventures were able to bring you joy and laughs and tears. It's people like you that really made Paradox the way he is today and I love you all for it <3 <3 <3 So please, take these drawings from me and Stagemanager <3 Thank you all <3

P.S. Me and @smallpwbbles do have plans on fixing those broken art links! ;3c

[arcaneoddity]

No I'm not done actually bc rewatching S3 had me realizing just how fucking jaded Stone is from the beginning of the movie. Almost as if the added snark happens bc he's keeping an iron grip on the very last dregs the seemingly bottomless well of his patience holds.

He's had a very rough couple months, zero vacation or even much privacy considering the Crab's proportions, and barely any thanks. He's burnt tf out, and pretty much the only instance when we see him crack a genuine smile again is when Robotnik finally gets a fraction of his spark back and gets his ass out of the depression chair.

...and then we have to watch Stone get replaced, fired, and witness the guy he loves and has worked his entire ass off for (who also just so happens to be responsible for All Of The Above, with regards to his troubles) get blown the fuck up. tO SAVE HIM.

Please, I need this man to be so incredibly mad about it.

[ihaznoclue]

Ooh goodie 😊! It’s always a good start to the day when I see one of my fav writers with an open request box.

It’s been a hot minute since I’ve seen a Sonic request and as it just so happens, I’ve had a request in mind for this very occasion.

I was thinking of Sonic, Shadow, and Knuckles encountering a reader of their own kind struggling to fight off an enemy and comes to their aid. So yes, essentially Sonic and Shadow encounter a hedgehog!reader and Knuckles, an echidna!reader. Gender and romantic/fluff genre will be left up to you as well as who the enemy is. It could be Robotnik or G.U.N or whoever you want.

Can’t wait to see what you’ll come up with regarding this request among the others you’ll receive. But also remember to take care of yourself, keep hydrated and take breaks 💕💖

Pairings -> Sonic the Hedgehog, Shadow the Hedgehog, Knuckles the Echidna x Reader

Warnings -> None

Note -> Reader is the same species as them and they are fighting Doctor Robotnik and his robots so they decided to help them

Genre -> Fluff

SONIC THE HEDGEHOG

Sonic zipped through the forest, his usual cocky grin on his face as his ran past everything while passing by. The wind rushing past him, but something felt different this time, a faint but distinct noise of combat reached his ears as his ear flicked at the noise

He then skidded into a complete halt, spotting another hedgehog that look just like him, but you weren't familiar to him as you were locked into a battle with a group of Eggman's badniks robots. You looked exhausted, struggling to hold their own against the relentless mechanical robots

"Yo! You're gonna want to take a break after fighting with these guys for a while" Sonic called out

You then turned around as you looked startled then nodded as you just wanted a break for yourself

Sonic then gave you a little wink as he started to roll his shoulder as he ready up to beat these egg robots

Without another word, sonic dove into action as he whirled around as he took out the badniks with ease. with every twist and spin of him, sonic was gonna get this done in no time

Finally the last robot fell as it malfunctioned, sonic landing right beside you, arms crossed among his chest and he then smirked again

"So, how about next time you let me take care of these things"

You gave out a little chuckle, giving a tired smile "Thanks you really saved me back there"

Sonic gave you a thumbs up "No problem, I'm just doing what I do best! If you need any more help, don't hesitate to yell out" He then ran off, causing your fur and quills to move around

"Wait! I didn't catch your name!" You yelled out

"Sonic!" He yelled out from a distance and you could clearly tell that he gave you a little wink behind his shoulder than speed off

SHADOW THE HEDGEHOG

Shadow stood as he watch the chaos unfold right in front of him, seeing you struggling while fighting Eggmans robots

The air around him crackled with the energy a she stood still, unmoving as he focused on your fighting, nothing that you looked like the faker of a hedgehog sonic

Your fighting skills were impressive but looked like you were struggling most of the time, while taking more robots at a time

As you were fighting, shadow teleported right in front of you as he startled you, catching the robots attack form hurting you

"You're outnumbered" Shadows voice called out as he swinged the robot into a wall, causing you to look shocked

"I-I can handle this, I just need to hold out a little longer-"

Shadow didn't wait for you to finished your sentence as with a burst of speed, he unleashed some of his chaos spears, exploding serveal robots that were in his way

"Tsk, Weak" His voice was low and harsh as he now looked at the damaged and broken robots laying in front of him, then turning to you

You then gulped a little until Shadow nodded, "Ah- Thank you.. um"

"Shadow, Shadow the Hedgehog.." His red eyes watching them then he turned around walking past the robots, kicking some of them while he walked through

"Stay out of the way next time and let me do all the fighting"

Then he left, leaving you in silence, but with a faint and quiet sense of relief that he was there to help you

KNUCKLES THE ECHIDNA

Knuckles was scouting around the house when a loud ramble caught his attention making him sprint in action. He races to the source of noise only to see another echidna fighting Eggmans robots

"Are you crazy?!" Knuckles shouted as he dove into action, hitting his fists into the robot causing them to become damaged

You were highly exhausted as you grunted, swinging your hammer towards a robot that was distracted "I can handle these guys on my own"

Knuckles raised an eyebrows as he hit another one making it fall backwards, a small grin tugging on his lips as he looked at you

"I see, you're brave I'll give you that. but you're fighting a losing battle if your watch your back"

Together, you two made a quick and easy work towards the robots as your attacks were perfectly synchronized with each other. When the last of the robots fell, Knuckles stood proudly, brushing the dust off his knuckle gloves

"You're not bad, what's your name?" Knuckles said

You wiped some dirt off your cheek, offering a smile towards Knuckles

"Name, Name the echidna"

"Knuckles, Knuckles the echidna"

You two then shook hands, Knuckles seeming to have a tight grip with didn't faze you at all

"Well next time name, when you run into trouble around here, don't think twice about asking me for help, us echidna's stay together"

Then Knuckles went off leaving you as you smiled, interested in finding another Echidna on this planet earth

-A<3

[theocddiaries]

[At Stone's café, Robotnik places plates of cookies and sweets in front of the Wachowski brothers and Amy. Sonic opens his mouth to speak, but Robotnik beats him to it.] Robotnik: I know you only ordered juice. But business is bad because all the tourists go to the downtown bar instead, and now I'm a supportive and romantic boyfriend, so either you eat this or… [pulls out a spray bottle]: it's gonna start to drizzle in here. Sonic: The only thing you are is dumb. We ordered drinks, and we have every right to just order that. No one is going to touch these-- Knuckles [having eaten three plates and reaching for a fourth]: Ultimate hedgehog! Bring milk to wash down the cookies! [Robotnik smirks] Tails: The downtown bar, you said? Robotnik: Yep. Tails: No wonder, there was an article recently saying Hemingway ate there once. Knuckles: That bar is so good even zombies go there? Amy: I don't know what surprises me more, that you know who Hemingway is or that this knowledge coexists with you believing in zombies. Knuckles: When they attack, don't look at me to save you. Amy: Don't worry, neither I nor anyone else will. Those guys are after brains. Knuckles: Oh, poor ignorant soul— Sonic: We are not having that argument again. Robotnik: Yeah, we were talking about my problem… Hey, if that Hemingway guy ate at the downtown bar, who's to say he didn't stop by here for some water? We're close by. Sonic [scoffs]: Eggman, please, that was decades ago. The only thing that was here back then was the potato salad, which has been sitting around untouched since the Declaration of Independence was being drafted. [Everyone bursts into laughter. Shadow approaches with a tray holding the milk Knuckles ordered and fresh juices for the others. He’s smiling, trying to hold back his own laughter as he serves.] Robotnik: …Yeah, well… in here there's the potato salad and one pointed Smurf who comes here to only order juice and warms the chair for two hours. [laughs falsely] Knuckles [laughs] Sonic [glares at him] Knuckles: What? He called you a Smurf, it's funny. Shadow [to Ivo]: So what’s stopping you from just making up that someone famous did eat here back when this place actually existed? It’s not like lying is hard for you… Robotnik [nudges him on the arm]: Eeeeh, look at you being all sharp when you want to, Shadow. I almost feel a twinge of pride. Amy: Beeeeeeep. Oh, sorry guys, that’s just my ethic-meter going off because that idea doesn't sound ethical to me. Robotnik: Well, I’ve got an moron-meter, and it’s been going off since the day all of you were born.

[milkytheholy1]

You're My Best Friend

A/N: Howdy, bet you weren't expecting this! Mainly based in the Sonic movie-verse, which I've never written for so please be nice to me! Song featured is Best Friend by Queen! Hope you all enjoy

Movie! Shadow x GN Reader - PLATONIC - Reader is a Maria stand-in!

---------------------------------

It had been two years since everything that happened in London, two years since the ARK was blown to smithereens. Two years since Shadow had been presumed dead along with Ivo. That's why it was such a shock to Sonic when he found out that his new best bud had very much been alive this entire time.

But Shadow wasn't at all as welcoming as Sonic thought he would be...

---------------------------------

A bright light erupted into the sky, momentarily blinding Shadow's vision. Although one sense was down, his hearing was better than most, "What's wrong, Edgelord? Was that too much light for ya?"

"That blue hedgehog again," Shadow murmured. A small fight had broken out in an old Robotnik base, it had been a few years since Sonic and Shadow's last encounter, so naturally, with no place to go, Shadow tracked down different bases that Gerald had hidden away from G.U.N's records. Of course, he had no clue the blue meanie would track him down and ruin his peace.

"C'mon, did that really stun you?" Sonic gloated, blipping from one spot to another with his incredible speed. Shadow huffed and puffed, readying himself for a quick fight, "Why can't you just leave me alone?" he moaned out. Sonic looked appalled by the comment, "Leave you alone, erm, hello? I thought you were dead for, like, two years? I think that counts as plenty of time!"

A few swings and kicks here and there, but alas, both were still evenly matched. Shadow could feel the improvements Sonic had made over the years, he was stronger, faster and a little taller; a much better fight than before. Sonic rolled back from one of Shadow's punches, hopping from foot to foot, "C'mon, I thought we were friends now! We took down the Robotnik fam together, doesn't that, like, make us besties?" he begged.

"I don't want to be friends with you, you're annoying and your overwhelming kindness is too much to handle." Shadow spitted out, trying his hardest to get the blue idiot away, "Ouch, you definitely need to work on your people skills." Sonic joked. Shadow teleported into mid-air, it quickly shut Sonic up as he spun around trying to locate him.

Appearing within a second, Shadow kicked Sonic to the ground, "I wish to be left alone."

"Well, you certainly came to the right place." Sonic groaned, rubbing his head. He cast his gaze into the abandoned military base, it was dark, there was definitely something dripping onto the floor and the smell was horrific; a cross between a sewer and an old person's home.

"What is it about dark dingy places that you like so much, are you trying to be the next Batman?" Sonic asked, hands on his hips. Shadow retracted from his fighting position, but he was still on edge, "I have nowhere else to go, G.U.N wants me dead, the world thinks I'm a monster, my only family is gone. This- this is all I have left."

"That's not true, you have the Wachowski fam waiting for you! Dude, Knuckles would LOVE to have wrestling matches with you, plus I bet you'd love this movie, it's called Speed-"

"I don't care for movies and I don't care about joining your family. I had a family." Shadow grew more enraged, just because (Y/N) and Gerald were gone didn't mean he had no family at all, he couldn't, wouldn't just replace them.

"I know, I know, you had (Y/N) and Gerald. I'm sorry, I never meant to imply-" Sonic backtracked, slowly approaching the ebony hedgehog.

"You should leave." Was all Shadow said as he jetted off back inside the base. Sonic furrowed his brows, "Oh, ho hooo, I'm not giving up on a friend that easily!" he called out, quickly following.

The base Shadow once called home was dark and desolate, the only light coming from Sonic himself. This place was like a maze, Sonic kept rounding corners and taking the same turns, "Hey, S-Shadow, you can come out now! I've seen Oprah so I know a lot about having meaningful chats!"

Just as Sonic was passing by a meaningless corridor, he heard something, it was faint at first but grew in sound.

Ooh, you make me live

Whenever this world is cruel to me

I got you to help me forgive

Ooh, you make me live now, honey

Ooh, you make me live

Sonic followed the sweet and hypnotic melody, he eventually found himself outside of a room. It looked pretty similar to the one he saw at the original G.U.N base, complete with a small blanket fort, a comfy bed with plenty of toys and a record player sitting atop the dresser. The record gently spun, the tune playing loudly out of the small speakers.

Shadow stood staring at the device, mesmerised by the rotating disk, almost like he was living in another time.

------------------------------

"Come on, Shadow! What do you want to do today? We could go skating around the base again-"

"But we always get in trouble for that," Shadow reminded (Y/N), quickly cutting them off, "Oh yeah, hmmmm, what about baking?"

"Too messy, flour always ends up in my fur," Shadow replied, (Y/N) rubbed their chin in deep thought. (Y/N) snapped their fingers as a light bulb appeared over their head, "I've got it, we'll have a dance party!"

"A dance party?" Shadow mused, "But there's only two of us?" he reminded them, (Y/N) laughed, picking up his hand and twirling him to face the bed, "Silly Shadow, we have plenty of friends. Meow, Pumpkin, Alice, Doogle, report for duty!" (Y/N) shouted, standing up straight.

Before them lay a mixture of animals and dolls, all creatures that Shadow got acquainted with very quickly when the pair first met. Meow was a scraggly old cat, his whiskers had been pulled out, his fur was patchy and his ears torn, his eyes were covered in scratches and his tail had been slightly nibbled on. Alice was a small baby doll, her eyes flopped and rolled in different directions, her hair was knotty and had a dainty little bow mangled somewhere in the nest, her dress was covered in stains and her nails had been crudely coloured in.

Pumpkin was a plump orange cat with big green eyes and dark spots on his fur, his tail was long and winding, Shadow often found it wrapped around his neck when he slept. The final guest to their small party was Doogle, Shadow recalled (Y/N) talking about how Gerald had given them this small dog as a gift after one of their treatments. It was based on an old show that (Y/N) used to watch in the lab, personally Shadow found Doogle to be rather annoying.

"Let the party begin!" (Y/N) cheered, setting up the record player. Shadow watched as (Y/N) effortlessly let go of the needle, slowly watching as it sliced through the air.

Oh, you're the best friend that I ever had

I've been with you such a long time

You're my sunshine and I want you to know

That my feelings are true

I really love you

Oh, you're my best friend

"Come on, Shadow, you're not dancing!" (Y/N) chided the poor hedgehog, he watched as they swung their arms around and kicked their legs out.

"I-I don't know how to do any of that, maybe I'll just sit out for this one," he mumbled, a little embarrassed. (Y/N) blew out a raspberry, grabbing his hand in their left and Doogle's paw in their right, "It's easy! Me and Doogle will teach you." Shadow side-eyed the stuffed dog.

Eventually, Shadow got the hang of it, some might say he was even a natural at dancing. The small party was really kicking off, (Y/N) was swinging Meow in the air while Shadow shared a dance with Alice. It truly was a perfect way to spend a slow Sunday.

"Did you have fun?" (Y/N) asked, huffing and spluttering out racing breaths as they collapsed onto the small pillow fort. Shadow soon joined them, their dancing partners surrounding their heads, "I did, we should do it again sometime. Except Doogle-" Shadow muttered, pushing the dog away from his head, "Never Doogle."

"Awww, Shadow, everyone needs a friend, even Doogle!"

Shadow huffed and crossed his arms, a few seconds passed and the pair erupted into laughter.

----------------------------

Oh, you're the first one when things turn out bad

You know I'll never be lonely

You're my only one

And I love the things

I really love the things that you do

Oh, you're my best friend, oh

Shadow sighed, cutting the record off before it could finish. He turned slowly to Sonic, the light flooding his face, "I don't need a new family, but- someone once told me it's good to have friends."

Sonic's mouth bloomed into a huge grin, "Great! We'll take it slow, easeeee you into things. How about we start with a movie night? Oooooh, or a dance party!" Sonic walked out of the room with Shadow, daydreaming about all the things he could show his new buddy.

Meanwhile, the solemn hedgehog looked back towards the room, and there, sat upon the bed covered in dust lay a few old friends. His eyes trailed off to something on the floor, he zoomed over to it, gently turning it over in his hands.

Doogle.

Shadow smiled, this poor dog had seen so much of Shadow's anger, and for what? Sighing, Shadow placed Doogle on the bed with his other friends, "Everyone needs friends, even you Doogle."

[thankskenpenders]

At long last, the trailer for Sonic movie 3 is here, giving us our first look at Shadow! It looks like a fun time, though my excitement is probably more tempered than a lot of peoples' due to a few things I have mixed feelings on. Here are my off-the-cuff thoughts about it.

Shadow

Yes, it does seem like they've really nailed Shadow here. Fowler's attachment to the character clearly shows. The action looks cool and really sells Shadow as a serious threat. He's got his bike, he's doing Chaos Control all over the place, it's great. Keanu is very much just doing his regular voice, but it fits well enough. The backstory from SA2 seems to mostly be there, though I'm sure some details will be adjusted. Mostly I'm still just amazed that we're getting a major tentpole blockbuster movie this Christmas starring Shadow the fucking Hedgehog that treats him as a serious character worthy of respect. We've come such a long way...

I mean, just... what an image to see on the big screen.

I also really like the way they're setting Shadow up as a foil for movie Sonic, kind of his dark mirror image as a Mobian hedgehog whose family life on Earth ended in tragedy and turned him into a vengeful antagonist. It's pretty straightforward, but it works well.

Robotnik(s)

Welp. They put Jim Carrey in a fat suit. I suppose we knew this day would come eventually.

I guess a small part of me is glad that movie Eggman finally actually looks like Eggman in every way that matter, but they're completely playing it as a joke at his expense here. And, yeah, the Sonic franchise isn't immune to fat jokes, the early years of the franchise (particularly Western adaptations) gave Sonic tons and tons and tons of jabs about Eggman's weight. But I thought we'd moved past that. But here we are with a depressed movie Robotnik binge eating and gaining a lot of weight like Fat Thor and the other characters think he's so GROSS and look his clothes don't even fit him anymore, haha! There's so much of this crammed into the trailer. I can only pray they don't do this in every fucking scene he's in in the movie.

I do like the plot of Sonic reluctantly teaming up with Robotnik to try and stop Shadow, though. It's very different from SA2, but we knew it would be, and I think that gives the movie some potential for Sonic to have kind of a dark turn of his own that mirror's Shadow's. I have a feeling that Sonic will try to get back at Shadow for something he does - maybe hurting Tom or something like that - and in the end Sonic sympathizes with Shadow and decides they have to stop their cycle of revenge, teaming up to stop some final threat.

Oh, and, of course... Jim Carrey is also playing Professor Gerald. Who might still be alive? Or maybe it's a hallucination on Ivo's part? I don't know, but either way, I'm here for it. Everyone joked about them doing it and then they went and did it. Yes, it risks playing him as a joke character, but the shot of him and Shadow mourning Maria while surrounded by GUN soldiers makes me believe he won't be a total joke. I wouldn't be surprised if he was the true final antagonist of the film, which would diverge a lot from the games but would work as its own version of the story.

And again, WHAT an image to see on the big screen lmao

Everyone else

The human cast is VERY downplayed in this trailer, but let's not forget that they're still going to get a lot of screentime one way or another. The Sonic 2 trailer barely showed anything from Hawaii. Where oh where is my best friend Wade?

Speaking of the Wade show, Knuckles... frankly still seems to be mostly a comic relief character heavily influenced by MCU Thor here, getting some jokes in the trailer but immediately getting Worfed by Shadow when it comes time to fight. Tails seems to be flying the gang around in a real-ass helicopter, and his big pilot's helmet is funny, but otherwise he doesn't really do anything here aside from getting stomped by Shadow. I really hope they don't get sidelined too hard, but frankly I fully expect them to, Tails especially.

And, of course... I can't help but think about who isn't here. Namely: the girls. Yes, three movies and one streaming miniseries into this film franchise, exactly zero of the female (animal) characters from the games have made the jump to live action. Please allow me to bitch about this.

Despite her being both 1) a main character in the game this movie is loosely adapting and 2) my fave, I suppose I can understand why Rouge isn't here. Paramount took one look at that bat cleavage and went "nope," cowards that they are. There was some speculation that Kristen Ritter could be playing Rouge, but we now know she's just playing someone at GUN. But, again, I at least get why they'd be hesitant to include her.

But Amy... Amy is such a glaring omission at this point. There's no excuse. She's the female lead of the franchise. She's one of Sonic's closest friends. (Honestly, these days it's more accurate to say Team Sonic is Sonic, Tails, and Amy, not Knuckles, especially in the comics.) And she's also a key player in Shadow's arc in the game. Shadow has his change of heart because Amy reminds him of Maria! And yet, she's nowhere to be seen. It sucks.

(I know some fans are still holding out hope for Amy, but the toys for the movie already leaked and she didn't get anything, so I have to assume she's not in it.)

It's not like I really expected either of them to be in this movie, but that doesn't make it less disappointing that they set up the film franchise in a way that makes it logistically difficult to include 90% of the characters and conveniently managed to leave all of the girls in the "low priority" pile. Yes, I know everyone points to how much Tails was downplayed in the third act of Sonic 2 as evidence that it's just so impossible to introduce more than one new Mobian character in each movie and give them the focus they deserve. Yes, I know having to come up with a story excuse to bring more characters over to Earth is an obstacle, especially when they're gonna have to devote time to Shadow's backstory. But these are excuses. It's a writer's job to figure out solutions to problems like this. They could make it work if they really wanted to. I'd take Amy having a suboptimal amount of screentime over her not being in it at all. It's just not a priority for them. That's what disappoints me. You can justify these absences from a logical perspective, but I just care way more about Amy and Rouge as characters than I do about Shadow, so there's no way for this to not sting.

But, at the end of the day, for what the movie is actually trying to do, it seems to be pulling it off well. Aside from the fat jokes. I don't like the fat jokes. But the Shadow stuff is good. As always, this live action version of the franchise is never going to be my ideal version of Sonic, but it's turned out far better than it had any right to, and I'll probably have fun when I go see this in theaters and hear Live and Learn.

[cc-cobalt-1043]

Comforting words can go a long way (A sonic 3 oneshot):

It was late now at the Wachowski campsite, Tom, Maddie, Sonic and Knuckles had drifted off to sleep hours ago but despite his best efforts Tails couldn't sleep.

He could only think of one thing...Stone.

Tails couldn't think of why, but despite being Robotnik's lackey Tails had never thought of him as a particularly bad person, not only had he seemed genuinely horrified when he heard about Gerald Robotnik's plans for Earth, but the man had tried to shield him when Shadow attacked them...that had to count for something right.

After tossing and turning for a good while now and still unable to sleep he got up with a irritated huff and grabbed his backpack walking out the tent.

Sitting down near the now dead campfire he pulled out his Miles electric and tapped away at it.

After several minutes of tapping away he located Stone.

The man was located at Kings Cross Station in London, however according to the schedules no trains were departing for several hours and apparently Stone's signal had been stationary for a few hours now.

Deciding he needed to do something, anything to help the grieving man Tails pulled out a ring he'd been keeping for emergencies he threw it and stepped through.

London:

Stone was sitting on a bench at Kings Cross, the station was deathly silent, the usual trains weren't running at this time, Stone noticed several parked in the platforms but they weren't the reason for him being there.

He was looking up at the stars as well as the now damaged moon, he couldn't get his thought of the doctor.

People only saw them as two madmen but to him Ivo Robotnik was a friend...yes a very very flawed friend, but one nonetheless, the two having met back when Stone was in the military, the two having formed something of a partnerships, neither he nor Ivo had been able to figure out what they were and now they clearly never would.

"Erm, excuse me." A tiny voice said.

Taken by surprise Stone looked and saw the young Fox, Tails or something looking at him with a pair of bright cyan eyes.

Stone blinked not sure if he was hallucinating but after a moment he realised he mustn't be as the fox kit was still here.

"Not to be rude, but how did you get in here?" Stone asked.

"I used a ring, how did you get here?" Tails asked blinking innocently at him.

"That's for me to know and you to find out." Stone said simply.

He looked at Tails who simply stared at him.

"So what are you doing here...Tails was it?" Stone asked.

Tails nodded.

"Technically it's Miles, but you can call me Tails." Tails told him.

Stone nodded.

"So Tails, what brings you to merry old London?" Stone asked.

"I wanted to see you, make sure you were ok." Tails said.

"Oh I'm just fine, all lollipops and rainbows." Stone said bitterly.

"I may be a kid but I can recognise sarcasm you know." Tails said crossing his arms and looking at him with a pout that even Stone thought looked adorable on the kits face.

"Alright fine I'll level with you kid, I've just lost the man I loved over some stupid thing I barely know the details of, he was the first person who actually treated me with some level of respect after I withdrew from Afghanistan and yeah you know what, maybe he was kinda crazy, and maybe he was a bit of a jerk at times but we had each other and that was enough, I loved him kid and now without I'm completely lost and confused, do you have any idea what that's like Tails." Stone snapped.

He looked at the fox seeing his tails had wilted and ears drooped back and he frowned.

"Sorry kid, I didn't mean to go all dark and gloomy on you." Stone said.

"Actually I kinda get it, when I was younger I was always picked on for my extra tail and my smarts, even my own parents had abandoned me by the time I was three." Tails said.

Stone grimaced. "Wow, that's horrible." He said.

"Well I've been staying with Sonic, Knuckles and my mom and dad for a while now they took me in and loved me regardless of my flaws, but if I lost then I guess I'd feel like you do right now, I know it's probably not what you want to hear right now, I just want you to know I understand." Tails are.

Stone looked at the kid in front of him, he would be lying if he said the kid's statement hadn't resonated with his own lonely childhood.

"Sorry, didn't mean to give you my life story." Tails apologised.

Stone shrugged.

"No Tails, that actually did help, guess we have more in common than we thought." Stone said.

"I guess." Tails said.

Just then the Fox let out a very wide yawn, it was then Stone noticed just how late it was, he looked at Tails who looked absolutely exhausted, if he was right about how young the kit was he should have been in bed and fast asleep hours ago.

"You have a way home right?" Stone asked.

Tails suddenly realised he hadnt grabbed a spare ring and face-palmed when he realised his error.

Stone let out an amused snort.

"I'll give you a ride home, want me to carry you?" He asked.

"Tha---s." Tails said, the rest being drowned out by another almighty yawn and he climbed onto the mans shoulders.

Stone simply snorted again and made his way out of the station and towards crab-bot as Ivo had dubbed it.

Thankfully the streets were quiet even by London's standards so thankfully they got very few looks.

Stone wasn't sure when but at some point the kit fell asleep on his shoulders.

The Fox's soft snores echoed in Stone's ears as he walked and not even he could hide his smile at the child's innocence, expecially when the world seemed so determined to snatch it from him.

They got to the crab-bot and Stone set the snoozing fox down in the co-pilot seat, the kid shuffling slightly in his sleep using one of his tails as an improvised pillow.

Stone smiled at the adorable sight before setting course for Green Hills.

By the time they got there it was early morning and when they got to the campsite the Wachowskis were staying at Stone could see the kit's family looking for him.

They certainly weren't expecting to see Stone appear with said Fox snuggled up in his arms.

"Relax, I'm just bringing him home." Stone said seeing the alert looks on Tom, Knuckles and Sonic's faces.

He handed Tails over to Maddie who took the sleeping fox with a much kinder look than the others were giving him.

Tails let out a tiny yawn and groggily opened his eyes looking at Maddie with a sleepy smile.

"Hi mama." He mumbled sleepily cuddling into her.

"Hi pumpkin." Maddie cooed before heading to the kids tent with the exhausted fox, the two talking in hushed whispers.

Stone turned around and was about to leave when he saw Sonic in front of him.

"What were you doing with Tails?" The blue hedgehog demanded.

"Nothing, he came to me, we had a chat and he couldn't get home so I gave him a lift." Stone said truthfully, well he was hardly lying was he.

Sonic gave him a look but seeing no trace of a lie nodded.

"Well, thanks for bringing him back...and look I'm sorry about Eggman, yeah I didn't particularly like him, but he did the right thing in the end, and despite our checkered past...I guess I can respect him for that." Sonic said.

Stone nodded.

"Thanks Sonic...you've got a good brother there, take care of him." Stone said.

Sonic nodded and with a brief smile Stone climbed into the crab-bot and departed the Wachowski campsite.

[tinheart]

So, here is a little something for @hobbystu for the Stobotnik Fic Exchange on discord!

Robotnik survived, and he and Stone are living quietly in Green Hills. The only problem? They're still not together! Enter Tom and Maddie to save the day.

"Wow, you're home early." Maddie told Tom as her opened the front door.

"Yeah, well, we've got a problem. And I think…. I need your help."

That wasn't too unusual. The people in this town turned to Tom for everything, even things that a trained veterinarian would have probably been more equipt to deal with. Maddie tried not to think too hard about why that was. "What is it?"

"Well, it turns out Robotnik might not be as… retired as we thought. I just had to shoot down a few of his ugly flying robots which were trying to carry away Wade."

"Oh my God!"

"Don't worry, I took them out. Not to brag but, it only took one shot each." Tom failed to mention that Wade was still a little too high off the ground when the robots were taken out and Sonic had to keep him from having a disaterous meeting with the asphalt. "Anyway, we need to figure out what to do about this."

"Okay, well… I mean I'm just going to start with the obvious. Why not arrest him?l

"Uh… it's not that simple. For one thing, he doesn't officially exist anymore." When Robotnik had showed up, months after the explosion of the eclipse cannon, the people of Greenville hadn't been convinced it was safe to let him stay. Only the longtime residency of Stone (generally trusted by the populous, barring that brief period where he was complicite in giant robot havok) had convinced them. Well, that and Stone promised the doctor wouldn't create any more problems for the citizens of Greenville.

Technically, he hadn't made any such promises about the rest of the world. But so far, Robotnik had just been quietly living with Stone in the apartment above the coffee shop. For all appearances retired from world domination.

Another factor was, Tom had gone to confront Robotnik, and the mad scientist had insisted he had nothing to do with it. His tech was government owned, and could have been cloned or sold to any number of organizations. Any number of whom could have had a vendetta against a small town deputy sheriff.

"Okay but Robotnik makes a point. Not about foreign governments wanting to kidnap Wade, but why would Robotnik go after Wade? And so obviously too? After all their time here, there would have to be a reason he would risk-"

"Wade asked Stone out."

Maddie's face fell. "Oh no… why would Wade do that? I really didn't think he was the type to go after someone who is so obviously taken."

"Well, that's the problem. Apparently Stone isn't taken… he and the Doctor don't have that kind of relationship. According to Wade, Stone told him that himself."

"What? That doesn't make any sense! The entire world saw that Livestream! Well, except for you."

"Oh no, I saw it later, when I was looking up YouTube videos explaining how the moon got circumcised. It seemed pretty definitive to me too."

"Is it… is there any possibility Stone didn't see it?"

"I mean, it's hard to believe but maybe? But honestly, at this point they're living together, you think someone as smart as Stone would have figured it out by now."

"So… what do we do?"

"Okay, this is gonna kind of sound crazy but, I think for the safety of the whole town, we're gonna have to… resolve this misunderstanding."

"You mean pair them up. Play matchmaker?"

"Yeah. Well, are you in?"

Maddie grabbed her purse. "Say less. I'll talk to Stone, you handle Robotnik."

"Uh, actually, could we switch? I think he still holds a bit of a grudge for the whole… knocking him out thing." And secretly, Tom was still holding a bit of a grudge for the whole trying to kill Sonic thing.

"Okay. But it's going to be hard to lure him out of that Cafe. I think it's best we talk to them separate first. Lord knows together they're hard enough to handle."

Entering the Mean Bean together, Maddie began heading towards the stairs that would take her to the apartment above the shop while Tom approached the counter. Stone, behind the counter, followed Maddie with his gaze until she ascended the stairs, and then turned to Tom. It gave Tom the feeling he had assesssed them both and determined they were not a threat. Slightly insulting, but lucky for them, since fighting to get in to see the mad doctor would probably work against their plan.

"Good afternoon. Have you got a minute to talk?"

Stone smiled. "Am I under arrest, officer?" Gentle, almost teasing.

"Not yet," Tom couldn't help but tease back. He could see why Wade liked the guy. "No, just a friendly chat, if you don't mind." And without waiting for a yes, Tom turned and found an empty table, and sat down.

After a few minutes, Stone joined him, still in his apron and carrying two mugs. One was Tom's standard order, which he placed in front of Tom without comment. Tom had long ago stopped wondering whether it was poisoned. In any case, it was always good enough to risk it.

"So," Tom began. "I need to talk to you about an incident this morning involving my deputy…"

Things had gotten off to a promising start with Robotnik. At least Maddie had finally gotten him to stop calling her Collateral Damage.

"What more is there to say? I saved the world for him!"

"Well, yes, you did that. But all you actually said was that you liked his coffee and considered him a friend. I think that half the town could say as much."

"Wha-guh-Grr! This town is full of simpering, licentious-"

"Look all I'm saying is, it's understandable why he might be confused? I mean, " she pursed her lips to keep from smiling "Since we are all so far below your intellect-"

"Don't!" Robotnik jabbed a finger at her. "Don't presume to place Stone on the same level as the rest of you. While beneath my obvious superior intellect, he is far above your own!"

"Interesting… have you ever told him that?"

"You don't understand the Doctor."

"Well I get that he's a genius…"

"Genius?" Stone scoffed. "That word is so overused. Most "geniuses" are only ten percent smarter than the mean intelligence, if that. They spend their whole lives struggling to maintain their pitifully small elevation about the masses. The Doctor is so far above us, he can't even comprehend our limitations. He's a force of nature. When you fall in-" Stone hesitated, cleared his throat. "When you fall in love with the sun, you don't expect it to love you back. When you admire the beauty of a raging storm, you don't expect the storm to pause and notice you. The Doctor offered me his friendship." Stone looked down into his own coffee, cradled in his hands. "That's enough. That's more than I ever would have hoped for. That's… that has to be enough."

"Alright but what if… what if the storm did notice you?"

Stone looked up at him with such wide and hopeful eyes that Tom had to take a moment and reconfirm the fact he was straight.

"You want me to flattery him?"

"I want you to stop trying to convince him of how smart you are! Trust me, he already knows! Just try talking about him, his interests, what he likes… not about work! Show him you're interested in him as a person, not just as an assistant."

"I feel this would work better if I just cooked for the doctor. He has very specific preferences-"

"Look, Aban-"

"Stone, please."

"Okay, noted, Stone. You have to stop acting like your auditioning for the job of his assistant. Trust me, you have it already. We are ordering in so you both can relax and enjoy each others company."

"I think the doctor would enjoy it more if-"

"It's not just about him, you need to enjoy yourself too."

Stone gave him a look that said, very clearly, that he would enjoy nothing more than the doctor getting exactly what he wanted.

Tom sighed. "Look, you need to help him separate out the idea of dating you from the idea of working with you, okay? Trust me, you want things to change, you have to be willing to do something differently."

"Fine… I'll order in."

"So, is Stone allergic to anything? We don't want to give him chocolate covered nuts if he's-"

"No food allergies, but he is deathly allergic to penicillin, and all dirivitive antibiotics." Robotnik leaned down conspiratorially. "Between you and me, that was one of the reasons he was on the top of the candidate list. It's always good to know how to eliminate someone covertly, if you tire of them." He straightened back up. "What about your lesser half… Fnord?"

"Tom."

"Hmm… sounds like a made up name."

"Uh, I don't think he has any allergies. At least, nothing I know of."

"Hmm." Robotnik pretended to study his fingernails as they continued down the chocolate aisle. "Well, if you got me a sample of his blood, I could run a full screening. As a favor."

Maddie was struck by the fact that she was honestly unsure if Robotnik was being deceptive, or if he was genuinely offering her a favor. " I think I'll pass… gotta leave a little mystery in the relationship, right?"

"Besides which of you will keel over and die first?"

"Uh, yeah, exactly. Here, lets just get an assortment. No flower allergies, right?"

"None of the commercially grown varieties, however-"

"Great! we'll just do standard roses."

The Mean Bean had been closed early. The tables had been moved away so only one remained, in the center of the room. The Olive Garden takeout had been transferred from its styrofoam packaging and plated onto the finest dishes they could find.

At least the table settings matched.

Stone had changed out of his work clothes and was in a trishaded black suit and tie. While it definitely reminded Tom of his government uniform, it was also the best they were going to do on short notice. (Tom had offered to loan Stone some jeans, but Stone had asked if they were going to be doing masonry work in such a scathing tone that Tom was honestly considering buying a suit on his way home.

"Now remember, no trying to serve him, okay? We are shooting for equals."

What Stone shot him was a very pointed look.

"Alright fine, we're shooting for close enough to his level to be worth dating."

Stone nodded grimly.

"Oh cheer up man, it's a date, not a funeral!"

Before Stone could respond, Maddie and Robotnik arrived.

Robotnik was in his "flight suit", although it hadn't been used for flight for some time. The edges of his sleeves had been mended with crochet. He mustache was as neat as they had seen it lately, and he was holding a dozen red roses and a box of chocolates.

"My my, don't you look handsome!" Maddie said to Stone. "Don't you think he looks handsome, Doctor?"

Maddie made an encouraging geasture at Robotnik, who merely began blushing. He strode over to Stone and shoved the flowers and chocolates into his arms with enough force to make the agent stumble back a step. "Here. You know what to do with these."

"Yes sir-uh, doctor. Shall I cut them in half so you don't have any unpleasant surprises?"

"No you imbecile! You consume them yourself! All of them!"

"woah," said Maddie. "Maybe a little less name calling-"

At the same time Tom said "you can wait until after dinner-"

But it was Stone who cut them both off with a tight smile. "Thank you so much, both of you, but I believe the doctor and I can take it from here."

Maddie and Tom looked at each other, uncertain.

"Uh, sure, we'll just--"

"Yeah okay-"

And sheepishly the both went into the kitchen to give the pair some privacy.

"The… weather has been within the standard predictions recently."

"Control of the weather during warfare is by the Geneva convention."

"Really, of course I could devise an undetectable way to- uh, nevermind. Do you… enjoy military conventions."

"Uh, not especially. Can we go back to your weather invention?"

"No"

Agent Stone sighed and stood up. "I don't want this."

"Well, you're the one who ordered-"

"No I mean this," he gestured at everything. "This… stunted small talk. These uncomfortable attempts to be… it's not. It's not us."

The Doctor narrowed his eyes. "Oh? And what is it, exactly, that you want?"

"I want you to… to talk about your ideas and inventions! Even if I don't understand. Especially if I don't understand! And I want to cook for you, and meet all of you exacting specifications. I don't want flowers and chocolates and catered dates and small talk I just want… us."

Robotnik stood and looked over Agent Stone. In the kitchen, Maddie held her breath.

"… so you don't want anything to change between us?"

"Uh, well… maybe… maybe we could just add…"

"Addition, to the equation, something like… this?" and Robotnik gripped his chin and leaned down to kiss him.

Just as Stone began melting into the kiss, Robotnik punched him in the gut. Stone crumpled to his knees. Robotnik never let go of his chin, and smiled evilly. "Left yourself open."

"Tom! How could you just watch that-"

"Maddie it's not what you think-"

"Okay then explain what it is! Because it LOOKS like-"

"Listen, Agent Stone, emphasis on Agent, is a highly trained combatent who is in pretty good shape, and Robotnik has a glass jaw. If Stone didn't want to be in that situation, he wouldn't be."

"So what, he's just humoring Robotnik?"

"Uh, that's not what I'm saying."

"Then what? Spit it out Tom!"

"Okay so, uh, sometimes men—or women! Or anyone— when someone is used to being very physical, to handling themselves, you know for work or something, sometimes they… like… to not. Not be. To just kinda let someone… take over that aspect."

"Thomas J Wachioski, are you saying you'd like to enjoy being knocked around a bit?" And she watched as her white boy turned bright pink. "Oh, that looks like a yes!"

She reached up to grab a fistful of his collar and pull him down into a kiss. "Come on, I think we've done enough good deeds today. Time to be a little evil ourselves."

Later, while absently carding his fingers through Stone's hair, Robotnik was idling musing. "Those two meddlesome busybodies are now privy to entirely too much of my personal life. You'll take care of them, won't you Stone?"

And Stone, enjoying the afterglow and already thinking about gift baskets and bottles of wine he could send to the Wachowskis, said "Of course Doctor."