#Sonic Riders you were PEAK | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

yeonchi · 2 years ago

Text

Doctor Who 10 for 10 Part 7/10: Series 7

For me, 2012 and 2013 were some of the hardest years of high school for me. No, I wasn’t bullied, if that’s what you’re thinking. That first half of high school (from Year 7-9) is probably the most formative out of all the high school years, as that is where fundamental friendships are made, in my opinion. But instead of making friends, I was busy getting into the Doctor Who fandom, waiting for new episodes and ripping off old episodes to make stories while incorporating my original ideas into them, eventually forming and defining what would be known as my personal project.

Each series of Doctor Who in the modern era so far has remained confined to a single calendar year, but the Series 7 split saw it being spread over two years. While the Series 6 split was a creative decision on Moffat’s part, there are a few reasons why the Series 7 split happened; it was a creative decision on the BBC’s part, Steven Moffat wanted to leave as short a gap as possible between the end of the series and the 50th Anniversary, the BBC didn’t want Doctor Who’s coverage being overshadowed by the upcoming 2012 London Olympics (though if a series premiered in March/April it would have ended before the opening ceremony), the production team thought it would be nice to delay production on the series for a few months to allow the cast and crew some time to rest while also allowing Moffat (and Mark Gatiss) to focus on Sherlock, the list goes on.

Thanks to the 50th Anniversary, Series 7 and the 2013 Specials are another peak in the revived series history next to Series 4 and the 2013 Specials. To elaborate, let’s jump into the retrospective for Series 7.

1. Eleventh Doctor Sonic Screwdriver Review

Near the end of 2012, I bought an Eleventh Doctor Sonic Screwdriver toy from an ABC Shop (when those were still a thing) on a school shopping trip (believe it or not, in Years 7-9, the school took us out to a popular shopping centre for “Christmas shopping” but I think everyone else was just focused on hanging out and chilling - I don’t think they did it anymore when I got to Year 10). The intention was that I would bring it to swimming and athletics carnivals for a bit of fun on those days; even when the sonic screwdriver was changed in 2015 I did still get a final year of use out of it in Year 12 because I didn’t want to buy another sonic screwdriver for one year, not when I was just getting into Kamen Rider and tokusatsu.

The sonic screwdriver toy was the 2010 model from Character Options. It was able to extend itself with a touch of a button, though the spring-loaded action was a bit too strong, scaring people who were unfamiliar with the sonic screwdriver. The release button wasn’t that good either - it could extend itself if you flicked your wrist hard enough or sometimes when the red button is pressed, which can’t be good for it in the long run. When extended, the sound activation button wouldn’t work - you could press the red button under the flap on the bottom end of the screwdriver, or you could press the button in the space where the screwdriver extended, which despite looking a bit awkward, doesn’t seem to detract from the fun. There are two sonic noises at high and low pitches and there are two secret sounds that can be activated by pressing the button three or four times.

This model was rereleased in 2014 as the Twelfth Doctor’s Sonic Screwdriver, with touch control or single-button versions available. Both versions improve the weaknesses of the previous model by either changing the activation button to a touch-based system or making it so that the sounds can be activated when fully extended, though the red button at the bottom is removed and replaced with a power core prop in the touch control version. I think the sonic screwdriver was only held like that once in Series 5 so it’s not that big of a loss. The touch control version doesn’t separate in two for the battery compartment, which has been moved to the white ceramic-like portion of the screwdriver. Some people may think it’s annoying but if you hold it with the release button facing up, you won’t notice it all that much.

Speaking of which, according to the comments of this video, the Eleventh Doctor has used his sonic screwdriver more than any other Doctor in the series. Also, considering how long this model was used (discounting times when it was replaced), the Eleventh Doctor’s sonic screwdriver design has lasted the longest in the modern era, at least by virtue of continuous appearances. Overall, the sonic screwdriver design used by the Third, Fourth and Fifth Doctors in the 70’s and early 80’s has lasted the longest, even with slight modifications here and there.

2. Radical changes

Series 7 saw radical changes over the course of the series as a result of changes in production. The major change saw the production move from Upper Boat Studios to the newly constructed studios in Roath Lock. Apparently there was no way to preserve the TARDIS set for the move, so a new one ended up being designed and constructed, moving away from the organic feel of the RTD era to enhance the machine aspects of it, harking back to the classic series.

The darker appearance of the TARDIS console room also brought with it a new darker look for the Doctor, changing from a tweed jacket with braces/suspenders to a more proper purple frock coat with a waistcoat underneath, maintaining the bowtie. Towards the end of Series 6, the Doctor wore a green greatcoat in place of his tweed jacket. After briefly wearing a pair of glasses similar to the Tenth Doctor’s brainy specs that Rory would use to allow the Doctor to see through from the TARDIS in The Girl Who Waited, the Doctor would keep Amy’s round reading glasses. To be honest, I must say that I’m not a big fan of the Series 7 Part 2 look because it makes him look too mature and proper, kind of like the Tenth Doctor. Same with the round glasses as they look absolutely outdated. Apparently, Matt Smith wanted a purple coat at some point and there was a scheme on Moffat’s part for the Eleventh Doctor’s attire to evolve over time. My favourite look for the Eleventh Doctor would have to be the tweed costume look from Series 5. The longer and messyish combed-back hair also accentuates his chaoticness, which gradually stops working when his hair was made shorter in Series 6.

Before the 2011 Christmas Special premiered, it was announced that Karen Gillan and Arthur Darvill would be leaving the series during Series 7, having discussed their desire to wind down their tenures on the show earlier that year. The upcoming split in the series was a great opportunity to create a closing reunion arc for the Doctor, Amy and Rory; Amy and Rory’s time on the TARDIS ended at the end of The God Complex, but the Doctor’s reunion with them resulted in them becoming part-time companions, something which I’m not really a big fan of. I wrote about my thoughts on “the companion commitment” in my review of Series 13’s The Halloween Apocalypse:

Looking at the companion side of things, I tend to prefer having full-time companions who don’t seem to have many significant attachments or anchors, whether it be in the form of employment, family or even education. This is because if you have someone who is already making a life for themselves, you have to remember to go back and address those things, otherwise you make them look as if they’re shirking commitments to be the Doctor’s companion. Also, I don’t like the idea of the Doctor having to pick up and drop off a companion multiple times during the series.

Moffat wanted to make Series 7 comprise standalone stories instead of the arc-driven nature of Series 6, so there were no two-parters in this series. There was a story arc threaded through this series which I’ll get into later. Every episode in this series was created to be like a movie, from the differing genres to the movie-like posters created for each episode. In Part 1, the title sequence for each episode was different, with the Time Vortex and logo designs changing between each episode. A couple of fundamental changes made as well was the font used for the lead actors and episode titles along with the way the logo transitioned into the TARDIS at the end, which really lessened the impact of the title sequence used since The Eleventh Hour.

For Part 2, an entirely different title sequence was created which was rather reminiscent to the title sequences of the classic series, most notably with the reintroduction of adding the Doctor’s face. It’s a more epic and bombastic sequence that kind of fits the darker tone the series was trying to portray. I only wish that the sequence was used a bit more.

Nightmare in Silver introduced a sleeker and evolved Cyberman variant and overcame weaknesses such as their vulnerability to gold and the inability to convert non-human beings. It also saw the debut of the Cybermites as an evolution of Cybermats and the reintroduction of the Cyber-Planner.

3. The overlapping Amy and Rory timeline

In The Power of Three, Amy mentions to the Doctor that she and Rory have travelled with him for ten years, on and off. But what does that mean for Earth’s timeline and the Ponds after their final parting from the Doctor? See, with Amy and Rory being part-time companions, I wonder what year it actually is on Earth because it isn’t elaborated, potentially leading to more complications in the timeline when we move to Clara’s time as the Doctor’s companion. Let’s do some estimates and solve this mystery.

Between the Doctor dropping the Ponds off at their new home at the end of The God Complex and revisiting them at the end of The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe, two years would have passed for them, give or take a few months. The prequel mini-series Pond Life has the Doctor maintaining contact with the Ponds from April to August in what we’ll assume is the third year. Asylum of the Daleks needs to take place two years after Pond Life because before UK divorce law was changed in April 2022, a two-year separation period was required before applying for a divorce, so that would mean it would need to at least take place from August in the fifth year onwards. Dinosaurs on a Spaceship takes place 10 months after, so we’re looking at June in the sixth year. The Power of Three features The Year of the Slow Invasion, which starts and ends in July. The start of that episode is where Amy mentions “ten years”; whether she meant ten years since she met the Doctor or ten years since she and Rory were dropped off at their new home, though given what Amy tells the Doctor later in the episode about how she doesn’t know if she wants to continue travelling with the Doctor when they’ve already built a new life, I’m inclined to believe it was the latter.

So when does The Year of the Slow Invasion take place? Firstly, we can see that Amy and Rory were at the department store in Closing Time, so they would have had to have been dropped off at least before 19 April 2011. Considering the Doctor visited the Ponds at some point after April 2011 and when River told them how the Doctor survived, I think that their cameo scene would have to take place in either Christmas 2011 or 2012, but for simplicity’s sake, we’ll assume the latter, meaning that the Doctor dropped them off sometime in 2010 (probably the day after their wedding, 27 June). This would give Amy enough time to establish her career and still allow for the Doctor’s “death date” while shying away from the 2009 Dalek invasion of Earth. This would also explain why they weren’t dropped off in Leadworth because their past selves would presumably return there from time to time until Let’s Kill Hitler.

From there, Pond Life takes place from April to August 2013, Asylum of the Daleks would have to take place in August 2015, then Dinosaurs on a Spaceship should take place in June 2016. As such, the Year of the Slow Invasion could have started in any July from 2016 to 2020. Considering that Clara’s time on the TARDIS starts in 2013, I can safely say that she misses them enough in terms of location for there to be no paradoxes, but then The Day of the Doctor takes place in 2013, apparently, which takes Kate’s first meeting with the Doctor completely out of continuity.

A reference guide known as The Whoniverse puts The Year of the Slow Invasion from July 2012 to 2013 and the Doctor’s words in The Angels of Manhattan sets the present-day scenes of the episode in 2012, but that obviously doesn’t make sense given what we just learned. I mean, we could bring the timeline back four years (so that Amy and Rory were dropped off in 2006), but then they’d be living through the bulk of the RTD era’s stories. The latter could probably make sense if the Doctor travelled back in time though. I really wish Moffat kept track of the years instead of leaving everything ambiguous so that maybe we could have Clara’s time start five years later, but hey, that’s just me obsessing over little details.

Wait a minute, those episodes were written by Chris Chibnall? No matter the whole timeline is confusing. I suppose Moffat focusing on the 50th Anniversary meant that he didn’t have time to look over other writers’ scripts.

4. A Pond Farewell

The Angels of Manhattan marks the end of Amy and Rory’s time in the TARDIS, killing them off in the same story with no chance of survival through intervention. While having a picnic in 2012 New York, Rory is sent back in time to 1938 by baby Weeping Angels. Upon arriving, he encounters River Song, who had been pardoned from her crime of killing the Doctor due to him erasing or concealing every mention of himself (except on Earth) so that he essentially never existed.

Upon discovering what happened to Rory through the book Amy was reading that was actually written by River, the Doctor and Amy attempt to head to 1938, but they have difficulty landing without landing lights. After landing, River is grabbed by a Weeping Angel and is forced to break her arm in order to free herself. The Doctor discovers this and uses some of his regeneration energy to heal it. I’ll get back to it when we get to the Doctor’s regeneration.

Meanwhile, another baby Angel sends Rory to Winter Quay, an apartment building that the Angels are using as a battery farm. The Doctor, Amy and River follow him there and they discover an old Rory dying. They find the young Rory there as well and they inform him of what they just saw. Deciding to escape from the Angels, the group heads up to the roof. Rory decides to jump off the roof in an attempt to create a paradox and kill the Angels. Amy joins him as well and the ensuing paradox blows Winter Quay out of existence.

Amy and Rory end up in a graveyard with the Doctor and River. As they prepare to leave for the pub, Rory discovers his name on a gravestone and is immediately sent back to 1938 by a surviving Angel. With no way for the Doctor to retrieve Rory due to the paradoxes scrambling the timelines in New York, Amy allows herself to be sent back to the same time to be with Rory. River goes to write the book and send it to Amy to be published while also telling her to write an afterword for him. In the afterword, Amy tells the Doctor to tell her young self about the adventures awaiting her, which kind of ruins the story of her waiting for the Doctor that defined her whole arc but is still a beautiful ending nonetheless.

So how old were Amy and Rory when they were sent back to the past for good and what year did they pass away? Evidence from Series 5 and 6 shows that they were in the same year level at school, so they both would have had to have been born in 1989, making them around 21 years old when they got married. Rory says in Dinosaurs on a Spaceship that he is 31 years old, so if we take off six years to make him 25, that means that he and Amy would have been continuously travelling with the Doctor for four years until he dropped them off at their new home. Put on another year for The Year of the Slow Invasion and Amy and Rory would be 32 when they rejoined the Doctor.

The graves at the end of the episode state that Rory and Amy died at the ages of 82 and 87 respectively. Assuming that Rory and Amy were 32 when they were sent back, this means that they died in 1998 and 2003 respectively. Does that mean that they never got to greet their past selves in The Hungry Earth and Cold Blood? Put the Year of the Slow Invasion in 2020-2021 (instead of 2016-17 at the earliest) and it could be a possible stretch without having to travel through time. This would make them 36 when they were sent back to 1938 and Amy would never get to experience the start of the 21st century for the second time, as Rory and her would die in 1992 and 1999.

In the online extra P.S., written by Chris Chibnall, Rory’s father, Brian, would receive a letter from an old man, who was revealed to be Anthony Brian Williams, Amy and Rory’s son that they adopted in 1946. A week after Amy and Rory left, Anthony met with Brian on his parents’ instructions to give him a letter explaining what happened to them. The scene was meant to be filmed as an DVD extra, but Mark Walliams, Brian’s actor, was unavailable, so the short was only released as a storyboard with narration from Arthur Darvill. It gives some closure to Brian’s involvement in the series and wraps Amy and Rory’s arc in a bow.

5. Your Impossible Girl, My Mystery Girl Part 1

Imagine having a crush on someone. Imagine having a crush on someone so hard that you write them into a story with a deeply established character. Imagine having a crush on someone so hard that you write them into a story with a deeply established character, then retcon that character’s history so that the person you’re having a crush on is involved with the character in times where it wouldn’t have been realistically possible for them to have met. Through recent reflection, this is the kind of vibe I got from Clara and the Impossible Girl arc. And why did I get this vibe from that arc? Because I did something like that in my personal project for Hiroki and Akari.

In Asylum of the Daleks, the Doctor, Amy and Rory are brought to the Parliament of the Daleks, where they are asked to save the Daleks by having them deactivate the shield of their Asylum so they can destroy it. During this, they are guided by someone named Oswin Oswald, who had been hiding out on the crashed starship Alaska for a year making souffles. Oswin refused to deactivate the shield until they came to rescue her. The Doctor proceeded to find Oswin, at which point he discovers that she had been fully converted into a Dalek instead of becoming their puppet. After the Doctor helps Oswin regain control of herself following her realisation, she lowers the shields and the Doctor leaves with Amy and Rory.

After losing Amy and Rory, the Doctor eventually decides to retire to Victorian London, where Madame Vastra, Jenny and a resurrected Strax, now known as the Paternoster Gang, tried to convince the Doctor to begin adventuring again. In the 2012 Christmas Special The Snowmen, the Doctor becomes intrigued when a barmaid named Clara brings attention to some sentient snow that makes snowmen by itself. As the Doctor continues to be indifferent to the situation, Clara manages to sneak onto his carriage, but when he fails to wipe Clara’s mind of their encounter using the memory worm thanks to Strax’s mishandling of it, Clara manages to get away and follow him to his TARDIS.

The next day, on Christmas Eve, Clara, acting as a governess, learns from Francesca Latimer that her family’s previous governess, who died a year prior from drowning in the garden pond. Clara goes to find the Doctor, but is taken to see Vastra, who gives her the one-word test and manages to convince the Doctor to investigate further. That night, after briefly confronting the snow form of the Great Intelligence in Simeon’s lab, the Doctor goes to the Latimer house and so does Simeon. The previous governess becomes animated in ice form and begins pursuing Clara and the Latimer children, but the Paternoster Gang arrives to back up the Doctor while he takes Clara up to the TARDIS in an attempt to get the Ice Governess away from Simeon. The Doctor shows Clara to the TARDIS and offers her a chance to become his companion, but the Ice Governess manages to follow them, dragging Clara out of the TARDIS and to her death.

Together with Vastra, the Doctor confronts Simeon one last time, revealing that the Great Intelligence is a reflection of Simeon since he was a child. Simeon is tricked into being bitten by the memory worm in an attempt to leave the Intelligence with nothing to mirror, but the Intelligence had evolved enough to be able to possess Simeon instead. The Intelligence attempts to freeze the Doctor, but then it is suddenly defeated thanks to the snow mirroring the Latimer family’s tears from Clara’s death as it approaches Christmas Day.

The Doctor, Vastra and Jenny went to Clara’s grave some time after. The Doctor notes that he never learnt Clara’s full name, Clara Oswin Oswald, but when he learns it and recognises Oswin’s name from the Dalek Asylum, he is inspired to end his retirement and find Clara again.

Apparently, during the development of this series in 2011, it was decided that the Victorian-era Clara would be the Doctor’s new companion (who was named Beryl at the time), but by late-January 2012, it was decided that Clara should come from modern-day Britain. Given the circumstances surrounding the loss of Amy and Rory (even stretching back to Donna maybe), the Impossible Girl arc was developed to inspire the Doctor to seek Clara out as his new companion, which we’ll cover next due to length.

6. Your Impossible Girl, My Mystery Girl Part 2

Kicking off Series 7 Part 2 with The Bells of Saint John, while the Doctor was at a monastery in 1207, Clara was given a phone number by a woman in a shop and she ended up calling the Doctor, who immediately goes to find her. After having the door shut on him, the Doctor goes to change, but when he goes back, he finds Clara being uploaded to a cloud by a Spoonhead and interrupts it because she can be fully integrated. The Doctor decides to protect Clara from whoever tried to upload her, but when a plane attempts to do a Twin Falling Towers on them, they escape to the plane and the Doctor manages to save everyone on it.

The Doctor takes Clara to the next morning where the Doctor tries to track down the location but fails due to the security being too good, though Clara manages to do it after being partially uploaded to the cloud and being bestowed with genius computer skills. While doing so, a Spoonhead impersonating the Doctor manages to fully upload Clara. The Doctor heads to the Shard to confront the people responsible for the Spoonheads and get them to download Clara back into her body. The leader, Kizlet, says that they can’t because Clara has been fully integrated, but the Doctor reveals that he is on Clara’s computer, taking control of the Spoonhead impersonating him and using it to upload Kizlet. The Doctor gets the people to download the entire cloud before UNIT is called in to take control. Kizlet reports her failure to her benefactor, the Great Intelligence, and parts with her by having her restore the factory settings, wiping everyone’s minds of being under its influence.

The Doctor learns from Clara that she is acting as a nanny for the Maitland kids because their mother died a year ago while she was staying with them and she decided to return the favour by staying with them instead of leaving to travel. Clara decides to begin travelling with the Doctor, but on a part-time basis. The Series 7 Part 2 opener wasn’t bad, but I think it felt a bit rushed due to the length. If it was done as a New Year’s Special to compliment The Snowmen, it would have been a bit better in my opinion. The episode also introduced a new mystery of “the woman in the shop” which wouldn’t be addressed until the following series the year after, though even I thought Rose Tyler would have had something to do with it.

In The Name of the Doctor, Clara is called into a conference call by Vastra, who informs her, Jenny, Strax and River’s data ghost about the Doctor’s greatest secret being revealed. When they are attacked by Whispermen created by the Great Intelligence, River makes the Paternoster Gang wake up before they find themselves taken. Clara wakes up as well and she tells the Doctor what happened, which leads him to head to Trenzalore, the location of his grave, to save his friends.

As they make their way to Vastra, Jenny and Strax, the Doctor and Clara (guided by River) go through the secret entrance to the Doctor’s tomb, which is actually the dying TARDIS. As they walk through, Clara begins to remember the Doctor asking her about her apparent previous lives in the Dalek Asylum and Victorian London, but the Doctor gets her to run when the Whispermen close in on them. The Doctor and Clara meet with the Paternoster Gang to confront the Great Intelligence and they go into the Doctor’s tomb, which is the console room with a column of light instead of the usual time rotor and console. The column of light is the scar tissue of the Doctor’s eleven lives.

The Great Intelligence goes into the light, scattering himself across the Doctor’s timeline and rewriting his victories into defeats. With the Doctor in pain, the stars disappearing and Jenny and Strax disappearing as well, Clara decides to follow the Great Intelligence into the Doctor’s timeline, splitting herself into a million echoes to help save the Doctor across his eleven lives, including in the Dalek Asylum and Victorian London, and undoing the damage caused by the Great Intelligence.

With the Doctor recovered and Jenny and Strax restored, the Doctor goes into his own timeline to rescue Clara, but not before farewelling his invisible wife which he could somehow sense the presence of. He sends Clara her leaf in order to guide her to him so that he can leave with her, but as they do so, they encounter a previously unknown incarnation and it is there that we are told that we missed the point of “the Doctor’s name”, which is actually like a promise rather than his actual name. The unknown incarnation justifies his actions as being “without choice, in the name of peace and sanity”, but the Eleventh Doctor states that they were not “in the name of the Doctor.”

So how did the Impossible Girl arc vibes relate to my personal project? Long story short, I met this girl at the start of Year 7 and forgot to ask who her name was, fell in love with her at first sight and then after I learned who she was I got the brilliant idea to write her into my stories, then because those stories were also an outline of my personal life, I retconned my own past in them so that we would meet in the times before we would actually meet in real life. She was my Mystery Girl to Moffat’s Impossible Girl and that’s why I’m creeped out by this story arc in reflection, but I stand by my stories because of creative integrity.

The Series 7 Part 2 finale was pretty good, but considering what would come after, I’m disappointed Moffat never addressed the Valeyard’s origin or the Doctor’s actual name. People can say that “not knowing the Doctor’s name gives him a bit of mystery”, but the series has gone on for so long that I don’t care about the mystery and neither should you. Just enjoy the epicness of it like everyone else. Besides, anyone who follows my personal project knows that his name is Hiroki Ichigo (because he was born from him).

7. Chaos in Cardiff 7: Dolphins

There was Chaos in Cardiff before Series 12. Before we move onto the 2013 Specials, here’s a brief look at some production chaos during Series 7.

Caroline Skinner worked alongside Steven Moffat for the 2012 Christmas Special and the entirety of Series 7, but stepped down in March 2013. Bleeding Cool apparently reported that Skinner and Moffat had a “very public row” at a BBC event the month before, Moffat telling Skinner that she was “erased” from Doctor Who, but there’s nothing much apart from that.

Steven Berkoff, who played the Shakri hologram on The Power of Three, was apparently difficult to work with during production, refusing to do what he was told, deliberately ruining takes or throwing temper tantrums. Virtually all the footage shot with Berkoff was unusable, so what was in the episode was all they could cobble together along with some shots allegedly taken between takes. Apparently even filmed footage of Berkoff walking across the floor couldn’t be used either and at this point one has to wonder if his pants were down in those shots. Also, he was apparently supposed to be stabbed to death by Amy and Rory with syringes, but the BBC rejected it and they resorted to having the Doctor save the day with his sonic screwdriver once again.

In the US, the Series 7 Part 2 Blu-ray was shipped early to people who had pre-ordered it, which led the BBC to ask fans to keep the spoilers of the finale secret until the episode actually aired. Needless to say, they did and the BBC released this video of Matt Smith and David Tennant as thanks.

Moffat had a difficult time getting started with scripting The Day of the Doctor because of the complicated contract process. Initially, Jenna Coleman was the only actress contracted for it so Moffat potentially had to draft a version of the special with different actors playing the Doctors after the Doctor erased his own existence by walking into his own time stream. Luckily, however, Moffat managed to secure Matt Smith and David Tennant eventually. He did attempt to negotiate with Christopher Eccleston, but given his previous bad blood with the BBC and his stance on multi-Doctor stories, he naturally declined.

Moffat also attempted to get Paul McGann back as the Eighth Doctor, but it was probably vetoed by the BBC for some reason. Either that or Moffat actually couldn’t see Eight taking part in the Time War, which is a bullshit excuse when Big Finish (and the extended universe) is a thing. Although Moffat created the War Doctor and cast John Hurt in the role while negotiating contracts with Smith and Tennant, getting everything together six weeks before filming was due to start, the BBC somehow allowed Paul McGann to come back for a minisode that would see the Eighth Doctor regenerate into the War Doctor.

It is speculated that as a result, Steven Moffat was burned out from the experience and wanted to quit alongside Matt Smith when decided to leave after Series 7 instead of staying for another series, but the prospect of Peter Capaldi apparently renewed his enthusiasm and he ended up staying. Some people say that’s why the quality of the Capaldi era dropped as it went, but who really knows at this point?

8. The 50th Anniversary

The Doctor Who 50th Anniversary Special, The Day of the Doctor, was the thing that I was waiting all 2013 for. I, like many other fans, had to endure the six-month wait following The Name of the Doctor, but at least I had my personal project to pass the time. They screened a trailer at Comic Con 2013 in July, but it was never released to the public with even Steven Moffat requesting that it not be leaked online, so we didn’t actually get a teaser or a trailer until late in October. Then I had to go on a shitty school camp, but the good thing about it was that the night I came back (or the morning after), we got The Night of the Doctor, which featured the surprise return of Paul McGann. After failing to save a pilot named Cass, the Eighth Doctor’s body is recovered by the Sisterhood of Karn and thanks to Ohila’s elixir (the novelisation says that it was just lemonade and dry ice which kind of ruins the impact of the scene, thank you Moffat) he regenerates into the War Doctor, deciding to abandon his name and the promise it represented.

The special itself was broadcast simultaneously around the world with a worldwide 3D premiere in cinemas as well because 3D was very much a thing back then, but after the special was filmed, the BBC announced that they were putting 3D programming “on hold” indefinitely. I remember getting up early on the Sunday morning to watch the episode live when it aired on ABC1 at 6:50 AM.

The main premise of the story has the War Doctor preparing to activate the Moment to destroy Gallifrey, though due to the interface developing a conscience, it appeared to him in the form of Rose Tyler (as the Bad Wolf) and showed him to his Tenth and Eleventh incarnations, the men he would become if he destroyed Gallifrey. During this, the three Doctors (and Clara) are embroiled in a Zygon conspiracy spanning 451 years, eventually ending in them making UNIT and the Zygons broker a peace treaty in the Black Archive.

Soon after, the War Doctor heads back and prepares to activate the Moment, but the Tenth and Eleventh Doctors arrive as well, ready to help him because for 400 years (frankly, it should have been 100 years shorter or the Doctor should be 100 years older given how old the Ninth and Tenth Doctors claimed to be when the revived series began), he resented that incarnation when he was the Doctor more than anyone else. The Moment shows the Doctors a vision of the last day of the Time War before showing them a vision of everyone coming out from the rubble the next morning.

This leads the Eleventh Doctor to get the idea to change his personal history by freezing Gallifrey into a pocket universe instead of destroying it. Together with all twelve previous incarnations and an early cameo from Peter Capaldi’s Twelfth Doctor, the Doctor successfully saves Gallifrey and destroys the Daleks in their own crossfire, though due to the nature of this being a multi-Doctor adventure, the War and Tenth Doctors wouldn’t remember it until he eventually comes around to the Eleventh Doctor, meaning that Nine and Ten were free to continue believing that he destroyed Gallifrey and was the last of the Time Lords.

As some people have pointed out, The Day of the Doctor felt more like a celebration of the revived era rather than the classic era, but in all honesty, who cares? We’ve got David Tennant back, we’re finally addressing the Time War, we’ve got the Zygons and UNIT back, we’ve got archive footage of previous Doctors (along with surprise appearances from Peter Capaldi and Tom Baker) and we’ve finally addressed the source of the Tenth Doctor’s animosity towards Queen Elizabeth I. Besides, the classic era would get a decent celebration nine years later with the BBC Centenary Special, The Power of the Doctor. Well, not really, Peter Davison and Georgia Moffett created The Five(ish) Doctors Reboot featuring Colin Baker, Sylvester McCoy, John Barrowman and even RTD among those who didn’t appear in the special itself.

The End of Time showed that the Time Lords were just as bad as the Daleks during the Time War, but The Day of the Doctor showed the innocents caught in the crossfire and gave them hope when they needed it the most. The special broke records, with it being the most-watched episode of the series since the 2008 Christmas Special, The Next Doctor, and earned a Guinness World Record for the world’s largest ever simulcast of a TV drama, though BBC Entertainment carried it for most of the world because by that point, very few TV stations were willing to buy rights to air the series.

9. Back to the Pilot (and other specials)

In addition to The Day of the Doctor, another special, An Adventure in Space and Time, was produced and broadcast on BBC Two a couple of days before the anniversary. Written by Mark Gatiss and featuring David Bradley playing William Hartnell as the First Doctor during a time when Doctor Who began to make its mark on British culture. It covers the production of the first episodes, the creation of the Daleks as the first of the show’s iconic monsters and Hartnell’s reluctant decision to leave the series due to his failing health. The ending also features a surprise cameo from Matt Smith, beautifully signifying the future that the series would continue to experience in the 21st century.

Early in his career, Gatiss was interested in developing a TV movie chronicling the early days of the series that was well-documented in Doctor Who Magazine and other publications. He originally hoped that it could be made for the 40th Anniversary in 2003, but the BBC saw little potential in it. He revived the idea in 2010 to help bridge the transition between David Tennant and Matt Smith, however it was ultimately decided that it would be better as part of the 50th Anniversary celebrations, so the special ended up being commissioned in early 2012.

David Bradley, who had previously played Solomon in Dinosaurs on a Spaceship, was later invited back to play the First Doctor in Twice Upon a Time and The Power of the Doctor while also reprising his role in Big Finish audios.

In addition to An Adventure in Space and Time, two other documentary specials were also produced and broadcast in the lead-up to the 50th Anniversary, namely The Science of Doctor Who, a lecture hosted by Brian Cox about the nature of space and time in relation to the series, and The Ultimate Guide, yet another similarly-named retrospective documentary, but about the series as a whole. Both specials contained skits featuring Matt Smith as the Doctor.

10. The Tenth Day, the Eleventh Hour and the Twelfth Night

With the Eleventh Doctor’s final episode looming, there were still some threads, particularly from Series 5 and 6, left to be resolved and as such, the 2013 Christmas Special, The Time of the Doctor, finally addresses the Siege of Trenzalore, the First Question and the Silence. The Doctor investigates a message being broadcast from a planet which is causing thousands of ships to approach it. Picking up Clara to help him, the Doctor meets with Tasha Lem of the Church of Papal Mainframe, who sends them both down to the planet to investigate.

The Doctor finds where the message is coming from; a remnant crack in the wall where someone is trying to break back in, the one thing he feared from The God Complex. Noting that the message was identified to be of Gallifreyan origin, the Doctor uses the Seal of the High Council (that he stole from the Master in The Five Doctors, thank God I somehow had the foresight to adapt this episode in my personal project) on Handles, his Cyberhead companion and he discovers that the message is a question being sent through all of space and time along with a truth field so that anyone within it wouldn’t be able to lie. The question is translated and the translation is immediately available to everyone orbiting the planet; “Doctor who?”

The Doctor tricks Clara into going home while Tasha speaks with the Doctor. The Doctor learns that the planet he is on is called Trenzalore and that if he gives his name, the Time Lords will return and the Time War will begin anew, so the Doctor decides to stay on Trenzalore and become its protector while Tasha dedicates the Church to ensure that the Doctor will not speak his name to the Time Lords, thereby making silence fall upon Trenzalore.

Over the course of the special we get answers to the remaining plot threads from Series 5 and 6; the Silents are actually genetically engineered confessional priests that allow people to forget what they said once they look away from them, the Kovarian Chapter broke away and orchestrated the events of Series 5 and 6, and the Doctor is actually in his final incarnation thanks to the War Doctor and the Meta-Crisis Tenth Doctor. Somehow, River using up all her regenerations to revive the Doctor in Let’s Kill Hitler didn’t give them to him, but I suppose doing so would have made things more confusing.

Eventually, we get to the point where the Doctor has been on Trenzalore for 900 years, with only the Daleks continuing the siege where others had retreated or burned. Tasha picks up Clara and takes her to him before the Daleks demand the Doctor’s surrender. As the Doctor resigns himself to his fate, Clara pleads with the Time Lords to help him, telling them that his name is the Doctor and that is all the name he needs. This leads them to close the crack and grant the Doctor a new regeneration cycle, allowing him to regenerate and destroy the last of the Daleks. The Doctor is restored to his youthful self again and says goodbye to Clara (with a cameo from Amy) before the regeneration finishes and the Twelfth Doctor makes his debut.

Some people say that The Time of the Doctor was rushed because of everything that happened during Series 7 plus Steven Moffat burning out, but I actually thought the episode was pretty good considering what we got. Apparently Trenzalore was meant to be explored in Series 8 but Matt Smith deciding to leave after Series 7 meant that Moffat had to wrap the story arc up quickly. I’ve already pitched the two-parter Festive Special for The Snowmen/The Bells of Saint John, so I’m happy with leaving The Time of the Doctor as a one-parter.

And so we come to the end of the Matt Smith era, the era that catapulted me deep into fanfiction writing and my personal project. Matt Smith and Karen Gillan are probably the Takeru Satoh and Masaki Suda of Doctor Who due to them being featured in Hollywood films following their time on the series.

Series 7 was kind of a mixed bag for me particularly because of the split series format, but the series shows a stage of the show’s evolution thanks to all the changes happening during the production of this series. It started off as being a continuation of Series 6, then by the end it became a celebration of the show and its fans from not only eight years of the series’ revival, but fifty years of the show’s history.

This instalment took longer for me to write than I expected. Stay tuned for Part 8 as we enter the Capaldi era with my 10 takes on Series 8.

#doctor who #doctor who 10 for 10 #doctor who series 7 #eleventh doctor #matt smith

2 notes · View notes

thepeakofsonicmusic · 1 year ago

Text

Round 1 is here!

Round 2

Round 3

Round 4

Semi-finals

Finals

Note: Some polls lasted one week because of some glitch. I didn't count the winner after the polls were completed, but rather just the results after the first day.

Part 1

With Me vs Merlina: Her Wicked Smile (WINNER: With Me)

For The Kingdom and Its People vs Crystal Cave (WINNER: Crystal Cave)

Great Megalith vs Shrouded Forest (WINNER: Great Megalith)

Faraway Avalon vs Molten Mine (WINNER: Molten Mine)

Through The Fire vs Misty Lake (WINNER: Through The Fire)

Part 2

All Hail Shadow vs White Acropolis (Snowy Peak) (WINNER: All Hail Shadow)

Mephiles vs Crisis City (WINNER: Crisis City)

Accordion Song vs Dreams of An Absolution (WINNER: Dreams of An Absolution)

Solaris Phase 2 vs Sweet Dreams -06 Akon Mix- (WINNER: Solaris Phase 2)

A New Venture vs Blizzard Peaks (Act1&2 Mix) (WINNER: A New Venture)

Part 3

Windmill Isle (Day) vs Rooftop Run (Day) (WINNER: Rooftop Run (Day))

Werehog Battle Theme vs Boss Battle (Night) (WINNER: Werehog Battle Theme)

Jungle Joyride (Night) vs Dragon Road (Day) (WINNER: Dragon Road (Day))

Dear My Friend vs Shamar (Day) (WINNER: Dear My Friend)

Super Sonic Vs. Perfect Dark Gaia vs Vs. Egg Dragoon (WINNER: Super Sonic Vs. Perfect Dark Gaia)

Part 4

Race to Win vs Sonic Speed Riders (WINNER: Sonic Speed Riders)

Sealed Ground vs Catch Me If You Can (Zero Gravity) (WINNER: Catch Me If You Can)

Un-Gravitify vs Worth a Chance (WINNER: Un-Gravitify)

It Has Come to This vs Unawakening Float (WINNER: Unawakening Float)

Blue on the Run vs Poison Spear (WINNER: Poison Spear)

#sonic #sonic the hedgehog #sonic polls #sonic tournament #dark age music tournament #dark age music tournament round 1

1 note · View note

leovoid · 2 years ago

Text

Sonic Frontiers is Segas love letter to fans and a come back to what gaming used to be (At least so far...)

I love Sonic, but I’m sure I speak for everyone when I say that the past decade or so has not been good for Sonic ever since 2006. Sonic in recent years has been notoriously memed upon for making empty promises and delivering in failure almost every time. With every installment of a new 3D Sonic game carrying promises of going back to its roots, to surpass the adventure series, etc... Only for those promises to be completely empty, void of any content that seemed to carry that promise or at the very least made that promise believable. Look back to Sonic 06, Sonic Unleashed, Sonic and the Secret Rings, and Sonic Forces, each of them flopped or at least never met up to expectations Each new iteration butchering what once were great characters, and making them shells of what they used to be. Knuckles for example has been reduced to a thick headed and rather naïve individual completely contrasting how he has been portrayed from older games.

Or how self aware they are to how “Cool and Edgy Shadow is”

Again, I love Sonic, but I’m aware of the flack the community gets for simply representing sonic as a loved franchise, usually met with cringe perceptions, OCs and the likes (To be fair I think almost every franchise has these things, but its not nearly as bad or well known as Sonic lol) But those predisposed conceptions aside, I can never devalue what Sonic has done not just for me growing up but for the era of gaming itself. Sega used to be a contender against Nintendo in the console wars, Sonic being the counter part towards Mario. But as time progressed and technology for gaming evolved, Sonic more and more became a character that would not stand as a rival to nintendo, what with the failing of the Dreamcast console (My personal favorite console of all time imo) Although the Dreamcast had failed, The Sonic Adventure series cemented the character into something much bigger and better than a contender to Nintendo.

Sonic was already iconic but now with the adventure series, Sonic was now iconic in the 3D realm of gaming, releasing banger after banger with SA2, Sonic Heroes, and well..... that's kind of it :(

Its sad to say, but Sonics reign in the 3D era of gaming was very short lived, as soon after the notorious Sonic The Hedgehog (Sonic 06) would come out as the debut game for most Xbox 360 players, it failed miserably. I’m sure I don’t need to preface what those misgivings were, as this isn’t really a post meant to analyze this but more so a genuine hype post for what could be a great Sonic game, so if you want to see those flaws you can find it HERE But while I say SA2 and Heroes were the only real good 3d sonic games, I mainly meant it as a game that is widely accepted as a great 3d sonic game, Generations, colors and unleashed are enjoyed but not without its flaws which steered people away from completely enjoying it. At this point Sega plunged Sonic into a confusing mess of mediocrity with games like

^Honestly **** this game lol

Not to say I didn’t enjoy these, I genuinely enjoyed Riders and Black Knights, but what these game did is lead Sonic into a continuity mess. What people wanted was either a continuation of the Adventure story line (Which both Heroes and Shadow the Hedgehog did) or a completely new 3D Sonic game with elements of the Adventure series with it. But instead, time after time we were given none of that, more than a decade has passed, and what Sonic seemed to have been reduced to was simply a mascot entirely kid friendly that made its money being an avatar for the balloons and hats at a kids parties (This is an exaggeration obviously....sorta)

At this point, calling a soon to be released Sonic game trash, or even sonic itself isn’t anything entirely new to the franchise, I’m sure if you look in the right places you’ll see it People complaining about how constantly the Sonic franchise has failed, and how Sonic adventure was the peak for the series, ridiculing and trashing a new Sonic game before its release, etc... However recently Sonic has returned to the limelight in the strangest way possible

I believe it was these movies that spurred the creation or at the very least how much thought is being put into the newest installment to the Sonic Franchise (Sonic Frontiers) With the success of the 1st movie, its possible Sonic Team put their foot down and decided to get their ass in gear for what some are saying could be the biggest Sonic comeback of all time

A year later, Sega drops a very short teaser of Frontiers

I have to admit, at first this TEASER frustrated me

Perhaps I’m spoiled and was used to the massive content dump that Nintendo dropped on us last second as they do with every one of their reveals, but I was expecting something a little more than just a 30 second clip of Sonic running.

I sat at my screen, stating “what a waste of time that was”

But I was curious, hesitant for sure but genuinely curious, at the very least what was shown seemed to be.... different?

You see, unless you’re a notorious gaming title like Final Fantasy where you show a simple 30 second clip with no content would you be able to garner hype and expectation much like Square did with the FF7 Remake teaser back in E3 of 2015.

While Sonics failure is what most fans currently knew it as, it was strange for Sega to do this, normally I would think that in order to gain the most attention possible for a franchise that is widely doubted on, they would need to show more of the game to sell, but something about what they did struck a chord with me that made me curious to see where it was going, but I was genuinely expecting it to flop like the rest.

A year later and we get a NEW TEASER of some gameplay of Sonic Frontiers, at this point we know that Frontiers is an open world game much like Zelda Breath of the Wild, definitely a point of interest for me not to mention that the graphics and presentation are very beautiful. At this point, the game seemed interesting enough to warrant trying it out, but I was still on the thought that this game will more than likely flop but I would at least try it as it is a new genre that Sonic is delving into (Open world)

I’m sure I speak for everyone when I say that one of the biggest and recognizable things in the 3D era of sonic is that it had amazing music, but their lyrical songs stood the test of time forever.

As cringe as Sonic became, songs like City Escape, Live and Learn, His World, etc... were extremely iconic to an era of where Sonic was an enjoyable franchise

After Sonic 06 while the newer games had good music, I can’t say they struck the same chord with everyone much like the Adventure series did.

However, on September 8th 2022 Sega released the OPENING of Sonic Frontiers and it was WIDELY accepted

“Regardless of how Frontiers turns out “I’m Here” and “Vandalize” are phenomenal songs that fit Sonic remarkably well.” - Yearlong Fi-Sci

“I don't want to start any arguments about "eras" but to me, this song is exactly what Sonic...Is. Triumph, heroic, high action fantasy. It makes me so happy to hear a Sonic song like this in this day and age.” - Doctor Minjinx

This game is gonna give off early 2000’s vibes, I can tell. Sonic hasn’t been this badass since his unleashed days - Lil XancheX

I’ve had this song on loop since I started writing this post haha Not only did the song sound great but it was lyrically powerful with dark and mature undertones for a franchise that is mostly geared towards the demographic of children. Something about the choice of its style called out to me that Sega or at least the team behind this games production is trying to get the attention of older Sonic fans with a title like “I’m here” and the style in which the song created itself from. The song itself as Lil XancheX commented gives off early 2000s vibes which further adds to the thought that this game is more and more starting to feel like Sega is making an attempt to reach out to Adventure fans of old. The song alone made me very excited for the games release, what once used to be doubtful expectations became genuine anticipation as more and more content is shown/teased to us.

At the time of writing this post, Sega had released an ANIMATED PROLOGUE to Frontiers starring Knuckles the echidna. And besides how well animated the prologue was, what stuck to me the most was the characterization of Knuckles and how it harkens back to the Sonic 3 and Adventure era of Knuckles. In Adventure and here knuckles is introspective and alone as he usually is, not extremely air headed or expressive as he has been in recent titles, but as he always has been in an era where Sonic was loved. “I do things on my own, that's just how I like it, I don’t need anyone else to get by...but sometimes” - Knuckles As much as I want to gush about the references the prologue makes to the adventure series, with the chaos, Tikals light, Sky Sanctuary and the flashbacks of Adventure, I believe I made my point regardless

I truly wish I had more concrete things to say that could solidify this game as genuinely good, but unfortunately the game won’t be out until next week ^^; I just wish to preface that I am not trying to say that Sonic Frontiers will be the next best thing, or that it will even be a good game void of the flaws of previous sonic games. But I’m hopeful for it. From its first teaser all the way to the animated prologue we received today I’ve found my excitement and anticipation grow more and more, with each reveal/teaser leaving more to be desired with a great delivery regardless of that. The game looks beautiful, music already sounds great (Which is to be expected of a sonic game) and the story line seems interesting and compelling which is a big win for me. And looking back, this is what I missed about gaming. I can’t remember the last time I was anticipating any small bit of detail of a soon to be released game, filled to the brim with references and quality content, created with what I believe to be utmost care to fans of new and old alike, BUT ESPECIALLY OLD LOL This may just be an old man rambling, but I personally feel that this current age of gaming is extremely stale, with nothing new coming out that is genuinely worth being excited about But a sonic game??? SONIC?! Of all games, Sonic is the one that is making me feel the excitement I longed for in gaming for what felt like an eternity? The last time I was anticipating a game with trailers and what not was Nier Automata and if not that then Final Fantasy XV (13 Versus for the old men and women out there ;) ) Again, I’m not trying to make such bold claims that Frontiers is going to revive the Sonic franchise, but the hype and attention it is garnering is undeniable. The methods in which the Sonic Team is using to promote their game, referencing the beloved Adventure series, with music and characterization of Sonic from early 2000s era is Sega sending a love letter to old fans, the greatness that Sonic fans have been asking for ever since the failure of 06, and the methods in which they’re revealing the games story line, gameplay, music is something I haven’t seen a game do in a long time, much less a Sonic game. I tip my hat to the folks at Sega and Sonic Team, whether the game flops or succeeds... I acknowledge, respect, and genuinely love the amount of effort being put into the games promotional content. It has been so long since I was able to feel the heart and soul behind a production, the care and attention to detail that goes into an already loved franchise.

This is a part of gaming I’ve missed so much, this is a part of Sonic that I’ve missed so much.

Needless to say, I already pre-ordered the deluxe edition of the game, and I can’t wait to see what the game is going to be like next week This post was made in the spur of the moment of my excitement so perhaps I may look back at this and cringe, but the feelings in this very moment are true and feelings I don’t feel too often, Its moments like these I live for in both gaming and anime, and I hope that I am able to experience many more like it again. Thank you all for reading, I hope you all enjoy this game ^^

#sonic the hedgehog #sonic #sonic frontiers #Sega #sonic team #knuckles the echidna #knuckles #sonic and tails #miles tails prower #amy rose #video games #retrogaming #steam #gaming

17 notes · View notes

dizzydennis · 4 years ago

Text

My ideas for Sonic Riders 4!

Title:

Sonic Riders: Drift Dimension

I have a lot of ideas for a potential Sonic Riders sequel and I hope you can enjoy what I have to say. I am very passionate about the Sonic series and would love to see the Babylon Rogues again. I wrote a lot, but any comments or feedback would be wonderful! Check it out under this cut!

Story:

I would like the story mode to continue to split between Team Sonic and the Babylon Rogues. For the sake of making this cohesive, I will write out the narrative linearly.

Set a few years after King Doc’s tournament, Wave has convinced Jet to allow her to continue to investigate Babylon Garden even more under the promise that it would improve their Extreme Gears. The 3 Babylon Rogues go deep within the ruins of Babylon Garden by using their gravity modules (from Zero Gravity.) Wave is still worried about the black hole that could occur, but her calculations assure her that it won’t be a problem. However, while in the heart of this floating island, the gravity modules float into the rocky ruins and activate a bright light as Babylon Garden powers up.

Tails pilots the Tornado with Sonic, Knuckles, and Amy in tow. He detected the massive energy surge that cause Babylon Garden to light up. It seems like the garden is warping reality around it, but with their courage, they enter into the void.

It seems that Babylon Garden has teleported to another world. With their airship being grounded due to the warp, the Babylon Rogues hop onto their Extreme Gears to explore. Before long, they encounter a massive airship that completely dwarfs their own. Upon being captured, they learn that Jet’s father, Kaze, is the leader of this group known as the Babylon Legion. The Rogues have been reunited with their ancestors and family. Naturally, they’re overjoyed! Especially Jet who has been longing for his father for years.

Shortly after, Sonic and his friends encounter the airship and are reunited with the Babylon Rogues. Their fun meeting soon turns dire as the Babylon Legion surround and arrest Knuckles.

Later, Jet inquires about why they apprehended Knuckles. Kaze explains that years ago when they crash landed on Sonic’s planet, they had encountered a terrible Echidna Clan who were power hungry to conquer others. When the Babylon Legion refused to give their advance technology to the Echidna Clan, they were seen as enemies. When there were murmurs that the Echidna Clan had awakened a god of destruction, the Babylon Legion tried to get reactivate Babylon Garden to allow them to leave the planet.

Instead, Babylon Garden was stricken deep into the planet and the Babylon Legion was warped to parts unknown. Jet was baffled by what he heard, but he trusted his father. Upon meeting with Sonic and the others, they discuss what happened and that there were plenty of holes in Kaze’s story. Jet, upset that others would accuse his father, argues with them. However, there was one point that Storm brings up that cannot be ignored. How were Jet, Wave, and Storm on Sonic’s planet if the Babylon Legion were teleported to this planet?

They learn that when they were younger, Kaze had volunteered the three for an experiment to see if they could return, but in doing so, the 3 Babylon Rogues were stranded on their own with no real memory of what had happened.

The Babylon Rogues have to choose between siding with Team Sonic or the Babylon Legion, but they soon find out that Kaze intends to use his technology to convert Babylon Garden into Mecha Babylon. Having learned from the Echidna Clan, power needs to be met with power. Therefore, Kaze wants to teleport back to Sonic’s planet with Mecha Babylon being the ultimate weapon; a fortified island with weapons and a metal shell.

All the heroes band together to stop Kaze from reaching the inner ruins of Babylon Garden to allow it to teleport back to Sonic’s planet. During the climax, Kaze activates the portal only for Sonic and Jet to work together to knock him off of it. Torn between going with Sonic or staying with Kaze and the Babylon Legion, Jet ultimately decides that he must go back with Sonic. He claims that “The Babylon Legion had their chance,” as Sonic grabs his hand and the two dive into the portal.

Cut back to Sonic’s planet, Babylon Garden continues to float around the planet, perfectly reflecting Angel Island. Here, Knuckles and Storm reflect that the Echidna Clan and the Babylon Legion were a lot more similar than they were different. Wave notes that it isn’t one’s lineage that defines who they are, but what they do to better that lineage for future generations. Jet and Sonic use that as a means to claim that they’re the fastest as they race across Babylon Garden. Kaze’s words echo through Jet’s mind as he overtakes Sonic and the two ride off into the distance.

Stages:

Tundra Peaks / Frigid Avalanche – A snowbound stage high in the mountains that mixes canyons, rocky hillsides, and snow. The former stage features nice, mountain villages while the latter stage takes place with massive avalanches falling around the player.

Future Mall / Shopping Calamity – A futuristic city that leads into a massive shopping mall. Players would weave in and out of stores while making their way to a large building outside. The latter stage would be at night where a certain band of robots might be trying to get away with a robbery and chase.

Tubular Coastline / Hurricane Seaboard – A gorgeous beach that runs along side an advance city. You can choose to ride along the sand or take to the waves to get some boosts by performing tricks on the water. Be careful of the storm coming in the latter stage that alters the stage in a crazy way!

Thrill Park / Cursed Midway – A theme park with roller coasters, log flumes, and plenty of other rides. Be warned though, the haunted house gets a bit intense at night and changes the entire park!

Neon Woodland / Forest Illumination – A forest hidden within a valley that glows with luminous mushrooms and vines that glow as they are touched. This place really comes alive late at night when a rave party is going on!

Babylon Garden / Mecha Babylon – While not a remake of the original Sonic Riders track, this version would start on the outside of Babylon Garden as you go deep within the floating island. The mechanized version of this stage is far more dangerous with lasers and robots about; players would fire themselves across the island via giant turrets. Mecha Babylon would be the final boss fight against Kaze.

Dimension Hops / Nostalgia Trip – This is a bonus track where you hop between dimensional pockets of Metal City, Aquatic Capital, and Dolphin Resort. It’s a celebration of the Sonic Riders series. Nostalgia Trip sends players through Green Hill Zone (of course it’s here), Final Rush, and Sunset Heights. This one celebrates the Sonic series. These two tracks would not share music.

SEGA Heroics / SEGA Darkness – Much like the other SEGA fan service stages in the series, this one instead separates the two stages between the heroes of SEGA’s rich history and the villains. Lots of fun to be had here!

Playable Characters:

Sonic the Hedgehog, Miles Tails Prower, Knuckles the Echidna, Jet the Hawk, Wave the Swallow, Storm the Albatross, Amy Rose, Kaze the Hawk, Shadow the Hedgehog, Rouge the Bat, Cream the Rabbit, Blaze the Cat, Silver the Hedgehog, Vector the Crocodile, Dr. Eggman, NiGHTS, Kazuma Kiryu, Arle Nadja

Gameplay:

The gameplay would avoid the failings of Sonic Free Riders. Motion controls have been pushed since Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity and they’d be mostly dropped here. The game would implement the AIR system, but with the multiple routes with the gravity modules. Due to plot reasons, the gravity modules themselves can’t be used, so this mechanic would just be a movement of the Extreme Gears. Speed, Fly, and Power routes would still be available based on the characters and not the gears... and would hopefully be better balanced. The springs would be taken out as they were so painfully contextual in previous games. One thing from Sonic Free Riders would be certain items to change the course of the races including missiles, ink traps, and a few others. The grab mechanic to reach out to the left or right can be brought over too as it holds a lot of potential. Also, the vibrant visuals from Free Riders should be carried over! Moreover, the boost from the original game would be present. Lastly, the game would feel faster. Drifting, much like Team Sonic Racing would be emphasized more in this game.

Typical features would include the Story, Grand Prix, Battle Mode, Time Trials, Character Profiles, Gear Shop, Gear Gallery, Online Multiplayer, and Options. Let’s have alternate costumes for the characters too! Also, the Grand Prix mode would have character specific endings that would be simplistic, but still a treat and motivation to play through it with each character!

That’s basically it for my ideas. I know it’s just a pipe dream, but I would love for a Sonic Riders game to really get into the old stories and characterizations of the original two games, while adding some heart for the Babylon Rogues. It doesn’t need to reinvent the wheel, but rather just create a fun racing game that focuses on these amazing characters.

#Sonic the Hedgehog #Sonic Riders #Jet the Hawk #Babylon Rogues #Shadow the Hedgehog #SEGA

50 notes · View notes

chao-chachaslide · 3 years ago

Note

I reblogged the headcanon thing from you and completely forgot to send you a character. I'm sorry! 😭

Sonic, please! As many of the numbers you feel like answering.

Sexuality headcanon

Bi ace and greyromantic. This is where my self projection peaked. I say bi even though I only ship him w male characters cos in theory I like the dynamic of sonaze and sonally, I just have other ships for them. Also he just has bi vibes. As for the aspec, like obviously he shows distaste at Amy's affection a solid 80% of the time; he's just not particularly one for romance.

Also trans guy!

Otp

Sonjet and sonadow. Or both. Solve your ship wars with an ot3. It's funny actually cos these were two of my least favourite ships until a few months ago. Sonadow was a gradual thing. Started to get more neutral to it after the Chao Races Badnik Bases arc of IDW; don't actually remember why I started liking it but it was after Sonjet. Started liking sonjet after watching a riders 2 playthrough and there was no going back.

Brotp

Team Sonic+Amy definitely, Blaze and Silver as well. Silver especially after that last Sonic Channel story.

Notp

Aside from the obvious ones, sonamy maybe? I see where people are coming from, and it did use to be my my otp, but I didn't really like the age gap, and there's certain aspects of it that put me off as well. I also don't like sonfinite.

I wrote all this out and then remembered I hate Elise so uh. Change answer to sonelise.

First headcanon that pops in my head

His parents are dead - everyone knows that. What they don't know is they actually died a lot closer to the present that they think. Let's say 4-5 years before where the games are now. Tails knows this, but everyone else assumes that he can't really remember them because he never talks about them. Ever. It's not a good topic for him.

One way in which I relate to to this character

Swearing in front of children is sadly the only similarity I have with him.

Thing that gives me secondhand embarrassment

When the puns get too corny

#replies #sonic #headcanons #i swear in front of children so much it's a really bad habit #you can tell at the end I decided I really needed to stop writing a whole paragraph for every Q cos now I have to tag it as #long post #dw about forgetting to send an ask lol my phone died just after reblogging the original post

4 notes · View notes

childofaura · 4 years ago

Text

I guess I’m just gonna be filled with bad takes this December but I’m putting out one more while I work on my Sonic Forces comic:

I get kind of bugged about the fact that a lot of the Sonic characters are moving away from their original core personalities, and not in a “the character is growing” sort of way like Shadow when he hit peak character writing in 06 (Yes I said it, I’ll write an essay on why 06 was Shadow’s highest point as a character). But more in a “These characters are slowly losing the aspects of their personality that defines them, either by the franchise writing their characters to fill roles that don’t show those traits or sometimes by well-meaning fans.” I don’t know if it’s because I’ve been around (kind of) long enough to know how the characters were or if I’m just slowly becoming grouchy about it, but let me start:

1. Knuckles. Knuckles is starting to slip from his “rough and tumble and ready to fight” personality. Most of the portrayals I’ve seen from him are starting to slip more into the “cocky overconfident butt-of-the-joke” scenes, or in the case of Forces where he had absolutely no personality at all. Knuckles is supposed to be confident, yeah, but he’s also ASSURED in his might. The most cocky he’s gonna get is when he knows he can take a good swing at someone or something. And he’s stubborn.

2. Silver. For some of the most part, Silver’s thankfully stayed kind of the same, but he too is tripping into OOC portrayals (like that awful line in Forces “I’m an optimist but I’m also a realist”. I swear that line was written by someone who read a summarized bio of Silver and said “Okay I think I’ve got this”). A lot of the time I’ve seen him get put into the “anxious nervous baby uwu” camp, though mainly that’s been from a few comic panels and the fandom that I’ve seen (and honestly I haven’t read enough of the comics so I’ll be happy if I get proved wrong); everyone forgets that Silver’s anxiety wasn’t in the form of “literal baby” but more “I’m so fucking sick of seeing everything in my life get destroyed” to where he has bursts of temper. His intro in 06 shows him floating through Soleanna and when he sees an Iblis flare, he very angrily backhands it psychokinetically. I’ll grant that Forces gave us a brief moment of Silver’s true personality when he rushes into a fight against Infinite (that should have lasted WAY longer and the fact that they crippled my boy’s power level for that scene still peeves me), but that was it.

3. Tails. Not a whole lot to say on this one but this kid is slowly losing his bravery.

4. Amy. Surprisingly, this one actually irritates me the most. For some reason, everyone loves changing Amy the most despite the fact that she hits a very nice medium of personality with her character that most people don’t realize. People don’t allow Amy to be cutesy anymore, and almost every time I’ve seen someone re-draw her or whatever, they aggressively squash out her crush on Sonic and they say, “Well now she’s gonna be more INDEPENDENT and HEAD-STRONG!”

NEWSFLASH.

AMY WAS ALWAYS INDEPENDENT AND HEADSTRONG. YOU GUYS DON’T LIKE HER BECAUSE SHE’S A CUTE FEMININE GIRL WHO DREAMS ABOUT LOVE.

In Sonic Heroes, she rallies up Cream and Big to go save Chocola and Froggy while also wanting to look for Sonic, taking the role of leader in Team ROSE. In Sonic 06, she manages to break into Eggman’s base somehow by accident without being detected and singlehandedly rescues Elise. She also apologizes to Silver and promises to help him find who he’s looking for, and she throws herself in harm’s way to help Sonic. In Riders Zero Gravity, she gets Storm under her boot just by being intimidating. A twelve year old girl!

Let her be head over heels for Sonic. Let her be a cutesy girl who ends up being the damsel in distress sometimes (because a good chunk of the time she also saves herself and scares the shit out of whoever treats her badly). Let her be that compassionate “I pray for peace” character she always was.

And honestly that covers MOST of the characters I’ve had issues with (There’s also Team Chaotix, but the one who gets the shit end of the stick the most is my man Vector). There’s some characters like Shadow, Blaze, Omega, Rouge (Though she’s kind of slipping too), Cream etc, who are staying relatively true to their characters but they’re also kind of slowly being lost.

#Sonic the Hedgehog #Sonic #Sonic Characters #Amy's not even my favorite character but I HATE how people try to make her into something she's not #Like I get that people are allowed to do re-imaginings but I hate when people rewrite Amy into a tomboy with a secret crush #Because EVERYONE DOES IT and then they think that they've made a completely unique characterization of Amy #When they're just doing what everyone else does #Also the fandom's woobification of Silver into an infantile anxious uwu character just... gets on my nerves #Silver's a broody teen who tries his best to do good and always believes things will get better #Like if you had the chart of 'Characters who say Fuck' he is absolutely someone who has said it before

12 notes · View notes

clearkoalacollective · 5 years ago

Text

Christmas 2019 Game Giveaway!

Ho ho ho! The Christmas season is upon us, and my annual giveaway of Steam codes (from leftover Humble Bundle games) is set to begin!

Take a look, pick out ONE game you’d like, send me a private message, and I will send you the key. It’s my gift to you, but first come, first served. If you claim something, I ask that you use the code QUICKLY – I will be editing the post to eliminate claimed games, but if someone else asks for a specific game and the unclaimed key is still in my possession, you may lose out!

Happiness and health to you and yours, no matter what (or even if) you celebrate!

-Aesthete Claus

**THE LIST**

11-11 Memories Retold

Aaero

Acceleration of SUGURI 2

Action!

Action Henk

The Adventure Pals

Almost There: The Platformer

Ame no Marginal -Rain Marginal

Ancient Planet

Anna’s Quest

Anno 2205 (uPlay)

ARMA Gold Edition

Ashes of the Singularity: Escalation

Auto Age: Standoff

Avernum 2: Crystal Souls

Avernum 3: Ruined World

Back to Bed

BalanCity

Bastion

Battle Riders

Beckett

Bezier

Bit Blaster XL

Black Mesa

Black the Fall

Blackwake

BlazBlue: Chronophantasma Extend

Bleed 2

Blockstorm

Bomb Defense

Borderlands 2 Ultimate Vault Hunter Upgrade Pack 2

Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel

Bounty Train

Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 Standard Edition

Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 Additional Content

Carcassonne - Inns & Cathedrals

Carcassonne - Tiles & Tactics

Chime Sharp

Chivalry: Medieval Warfare

Chronology

ClusterPuck99

Copoka

Cosmonautica

Crazy Machines 3

Crusader Kings 2: Dynasty Starter Pack

Cthulhu Realms

Cursed Castilla (Maldita Castilla EX)

Dead Island Definitive Edition

Dead Rising 2

Deep Dungeons of Doom

Defend Your Life: TD

Deponia Doomsday

Deponia: The Complete Journey

Dimension Jump

DiRT Rally

Distance

Distrust

DreadOut

Dreaming Sarah

Duskers

The Dwarves

Emily Is Away Too

Endless Legend - Classic Edition

The Escapists - Alcatraz

The Escapists - Duct Tapes are Forever

The Escapists - Escape Team

The Escapists - Fhurst Peak

Elder Scrolls Online content: Bristlegut Piglet + 15 days of ESO Plus

ETHEREAL

Evergarden

Everything

FaceRig

FaceRig Pro

The Fall

fault - milestone two side:above

fault milestone one

Fearless Fantasy

F.E.X. (Forced Evolution Experiment)

Fidel - Dungeon Rescue

Fight’N Rage

Figment

Filthy, Stinking, Orcs

Finding Paradise

Flat Heroes

Flinthook

Forged Battalion

Forts

Fortune-499

FreeCell Quest

Full Throttle Remastered

Galactic Civilizations III

Getting Over It with Bennett Foddy

Gloom: Digital Edition

God’s Trigger

GoNNER - Press Jump To Die Edition

Gremlins, Inc.

Grey Goo Definitive Edition

Guacamelee! 2

Guild of Dungeoneering

Guild Wars 2 Heroic Edition

Guns of Icarus Alliance

Gurgamoth

H1Z1

Hacknet

Hard Reset Redux

Headlander

Hearts of Iron III Collection

Her Story

Hexcells Complete Pack

Highway Blossoms

HIVESWAP: Act 1

Holy Potatoes! We’re in Space?!

HoPiKo

Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number

How to Survive 2

Hurtworld

Husk

Idol Magical Girl Chiru Chiru Michiru Part 1

Idol Magical Girl Chiru Chiru Michiru Part 2

Immortal Redneck

The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing

The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing: Final Cut

Infested Planet

Invisible Inc.

The Journey Down: Chapter Three

Jump Stars

Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes

Kentucky Route Zero

Kero Blaster

Kimmy

Kingdom: New Lands

Kona

Lakeview Cabin Collection

Lara Croft GO

Laser League

Last Day of June

Layers of Fear: Masterpiece Edition

The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky

Lion Quest

Loot Rascals

Lost Castle

LostWinds

Love is Dead

Love Letter

Macdows 95

Machinarium Collector’s Edition

Magicka

Maize

Majesty 2 Collection

Marooners

Master Spy

Memoria

Memory’s Dogma CODE:01

Metrico+

Mimic Arena

Minecraft: Story Mode

Minion Masters

Mirage: Arcane Warfare

Monstercat Gold 1 Year

Moon Hunters

Moonlighter

MOTHERGUNSHIP

Mr. Shifty

Mysterium - Hidden Signs (expansion)

Mysterium - Secrets and Lies (expansion)

NAIRI: Tower of Shirin

Narcissu 10th Anniversary Anthology Project

NBA Playgrounds

NEKOPARA Vol. 1

Neon Chrome

Neon Drive

NeuroVoider

Nex Machina

No Time To Explain Remastered

Offensive Combat: Redux!

Okhlos

Old Man’s Journey

On Rusty Trails

Outlast 2

Override: Mech City brawl

Oxenfree

Painters Guild

Paradigm

Paratopic

The Park

Passpartout: The Starving Artist

Pirate Pop Plus

Plague Inc: Evolved

Planet Alpha

Pony Island

Pool Panic

Portal Knights

Primal Carnage: Extinction

Project CARS

Project CARS 2

Prototype 2

Purrfect Date - Visual Novel/Dating Simulator

Puss!

Q.U.B.E.: Director’s Cut

Q.U.B.E. 2

Rapture Rejects

Red Orchestra 2: Heroes of Stalingrad

The Red Solstice

Refunct

Resident Evil 5 Gold Edition

Resident Evil Revelations

Restream 1 Year

ReThink

Rivals of Aether

RIVE: Wreck, Hack, Die, Retry

Road Redemption

Rock of Ages 2: Bigger & Boulder

Roombo: First Blood (Justice Sucks)

Running with Rifles

Rusty Lake Hotel

Samorost 3

Sanctum 2

Scanner Sombre

Scrap Garden

Scythe: Digital Edition

Seasons After Fall

Serial Cleaner

SEUM: Speedrunners from Hell

Seven: The Days Long Gone

Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun

Shadowrun: Hong Kong - Extended Edition

She Remembered Caterpillars

Shiness: The Lightning Kingdom

Silence

SimplePlanes

Sleeping Dogs: Definitive Edition

Slime-san

Slipstream

Snake Pass

Sniper Elite

Sniper Elite V2

Sonic Mania

Sorcerer King: Rivals

Soul Axiom

Space Run Galaxy

Spectrum

The Spiral Scouts

Splasher

Squad (early access)

The Stanley Parable

State of Mind

Staxel

Steamworld Heist

STRAFE: Millennium Edition

Stronghold Legends: Steam Edition

Styx: Shards of Darkness

Subterrain

Sudden Strike 4

Sundered

Sunrider: Liberation Day - Captain’s Edition

Super Daryl Deluxe

Super Rude Bear Resurrection

SuperLuminauts

The Surge

Swords and Soldiers 2 Shawarmageddon

SYNTHETIK: Legion Rising

Tales of Berseria

Team Racing League

Teslagrad

Thomas Was Alone

THOTH Ticket to Ride: First Journey

Tiltagon

Tiny Echo

TIS-100

Tom Clancy’s The Division + Survival (uPlay)

Tormentor X Punisher

Tower Unite

Toy Odyssey: The Lost and Found

Train Valley

Tricky Towers

TumbleSeed

Tumblestone

The Turing Test

Twilight Struggle

Uurnog Uurnlimited

Verdun

Victor Vran

Virginia

Wargame: Red Dragon

Warhammer 40,000: Mechanicus

Wasted Pizza

Wasteland

Wasteland 2: Director’s Cut - Standard Edition

We Were Here Too

Witch It

Wizard of Legend

WORLD END ECONOMiCA episode.01

WORLD END ECONOMiCA episode.02

WORLD END ECONOMiCA episode.03

World to the West

Wurm Unlimited

XSplit Premium 1 Year

XSplit VCAM

Yakuza Kiwami

Yoku’s Island Express

Yume Nikki

YUMENIKKI -DREAM DIARY-

Zero Reflex: Black Eye Edition

Ziggurat

Zombie Army Trilogy

11 notes · View notes

navellera · 6 years ago

Text

space cadet

stranger things! au: except there’s nothing to do with stranger things other than it’s in the 80s and they play dungeons and dragons. basically an excuse to write a fluffy 80s chanyeol who’s head is in the clouds 98% of the time. pure fluff

wordcount: 6k

note: i’m sorry for not uploaded in so long, i’ve had a lot of stuff to do with starting uni etc, hopefully i can write a lot more now though, i’ve got a lot of ideas!

You remembered that night like it was yesterday. The cold air brushing against your flushed cheeks as you snuck away from the group of kids you were supposed to be playing with. They were just sitting down on the grass talking about nonsense you didn't care about. You wanted something else, like an adventure, though perhaps not the physical kind - you were worn out from your gym class at school.

You just kept walking, down the street of houses you had never gone in and never would. Further away from your house and the group your parents had pushed you to sit with. It was when you reached the end of the road when you heard it: gleeful shouts and the mechanical sound of pedals on a bike being turned incredibly quickly. Probably too quickly.

"Hey! Chanyeol look out!" A shout from further away met your ears and you turned just in time to dodge the bicycle skidding in your direction, the boy riding it frantically trying to stop with wide eyes.

The boy's bike tilted when he swerved and he, unfortunately, hit the ground with a large crash, a gasp escaping your mouth as you rushed over to see if he was alright. The two other boys reached their fallen friend and you, one of them trying desperately to hold in his giggles.

"Baekhyun I know you want to laugh." The boy on the floor, Chanyeol you presumed his name was, groaned as he sat up under his bike. "Just go ahead."

The boy who had been trying to restrain his amusement let go, a bubbling laughter escaping him as he slapped his knees. You, however, kept your eyes on Chanyeol, who was wincing as he tried to push the bike off him.

Deciding to help since it was slightly your fault that he was now lying on the floor with his bike on top of him, you pulled on the handlebars to lift it up, the bike being heavier than expected, but the third boy, the one who wasn't Baekhyun, helped hold it up too.

Chanyeol got up, his eyes finally landed on you, a sheepish grin on his face. "Sorry, I am a good rider I promise."

You smiled at his words. "Are you alright?"

Chanyeol simply shot you a wide grin, unusual for a boy who had been flat on his back under a bike five seconds earlier, but you let that slide. He then picked up his bike from where his friend had left it on the floor. "I'm Chanyeol by the way, that's Baekhyun and this is Jongdae."

The two other boys he'd introduced beamed and waved at you. Already they seemed a lot more enjoyable than the kids you were with just five minutes earlier. You then realised you hadn't introduced yourself, so you did, telling them your name eagerly.

"What are you doing on your own then?" Baekhyun asked, a baby-like pout on his face.

"I-"

"She can come play with us!"

"Chanyeol," Jongdae whined, frowning at his taller friend. "You said we were going to play dungeons and dragons. Girls don't like that."

"Hey! Why don't we ask her if she likes it or not?" Chanyeol fired back, a determined look on his happy face. "Do you like dungeons and dragons?"

"Yes!" Your excitement was clear in your voice, noticing the proud grin that landed on Chanyeol's face as he heard your answer.

"See! Let's go play now." He said, nodding over to the direction he'd been heading to on his bike. "Your parents would be okay with that right?"

"I'm fifteen, I don't think they'd mind." You replied with a shrug, watching as Chanyeol climbed onto his bike. "Besides, they're out for the night."

"Ugh," Jongdae whined. "She can come but I don't wanna be dungeon master again, you both complained last time."

"Oh Jongdae, you were awful, talk about bad storytelling." Baekhyun retorted, nudging the other boy as he climbed onto his bike.

Chanyeol turned to you with a contagious grin before motioning to the back of his bike; as a message for you to climb on. You looked at him rather dubiously, eyebrows raised as a challenge. After all, the last time you saw him on a bike, he'd ended up on the floor. Thus, you weren't sure how you being on the back of it would help him regain any strength. But, Chanyeol just smiled and motioned for you to get on.

"It'll be fine. I'll catch you."

And with his chaste words, you climbed on and didn't look back.

Now you were back. On that very street, you met that gaggle of young boys who had somehow managed to ingrain themselves into your brain. You'd left town just a couple of months later in aid of your father's job, the thought of Chanyeol's airy smile haunting your brain. You thought you could have become good friends with those boys, but your family life had made it difficult to keep in contact.

Now you were back and a small part of you wondered what they would be doing now, just after finishing high school. Would they be back from college? Would they have a job? Somehow you couldn't picture it, especially Chanyeol. His head was too far up in space for him to have an office job. You pictured him in an amusement park or even an elementary school; his grin working well with the young children.

You craved something special too. Some part of you wanted to go into game creating but you knew how difficult that would be, especially with the competitiveness of that market recently. This decade had been the burst of arcade games; you adored them and wanted your own input. Hopefully, you could find a part-time job while you worked on your own thing for a while.

This small town could allow you the freedom you needed to do that.

"Do you want to take a walk around?" Your mother asked, her voice cutting through the air as you jolted out of your thoughts swiftly. She was basically telling you to get out of the way. "The moving men are going to start bringing in the boxes. I heard there's an arcade around here."

This immediately peaked your interest. "Oh? Is it close?"

Your mother placed her hand on the kitchen counter, her gaze pointed as she nodded towards the door. "I wouldn't have suggested it if it wasn't. Get out and have some fun before we force you to unpack everything later."

She gave you a smile before flicking her hand in a shooing motion, eager to get you out of the house. Which, you were quick to do, grabbing your Bowie tote bag from the arm of the sofa: you needed money if you were going to spend the afternoon at the arcade.

Your walk to the arcade was short, it was nearby like your mother had said, and the bright sun was soft and warm with the mid-spring wind brushing against your face and hair as you headed towards the town centre.

The arcade was next to the cinema: Robocop was on at 7pm today. Your gaze brushed over the cinema and landed on the smaller building next to it. The doors to get in were large and glass, framed with blue and red. Lights from the games were visible through the translucent windows and a bubble of excitement flooded through you. Your eyes looked to the name over the top of the doors. Space Cadets may become your new favourite place in this small town.

Taking in a deep breath, you pushed open the door, faith that new George Michael song echoed through the air, the sound of Pacman acting as an extra bass. A wide grin spread over your face as you took in the masses of games, your feet taking you straight over to the Defender station, one of your all-time favourites.

Surprisingly, the arcade itself was less busy than you'd expected, clumps of friends hovering around popular games like Space Invaders, Sonic the Hedgehog or Donkey Kong. You figured it would get busier as the afternoon progressed, though the town wasn't too big so you couldn't picture too many people finding themselves here, especially on a Thursday afternoon.

Grabbing your coin purse from your bag, you fished through for the required amount before slotting it into the machine, tingles rushing through you as you placed your hands on the controls.

You'd finished a few levels, your knack of the game flooding back to you when you felt a presence behind you. Brushing it off as someone waiting to play the game, you ignored it and carried on playing. You wanted to get as high a score as possible.

"Wow, you're good." A voice cuts into your focus and you groaned as you pressed down too slowly, allowing an alien to hit your spaceship. "Oh. Sorry."

You span around, a frown on your face. "You don't sound sorry."

The boy in front of you was grinning wildly, a striking black and red mullet framing his arrogantly handsome face. But his good looks were not what you were thinking about at this moment, he'd just distracted you and you were about to beat the game's high score.

"You're right I'm not sorry." The boy pointed at the leaderboard, at the top name: ByunKing. The name you'd almost stolen the title from. "I can't have you beating my record, it took me a month to get that. I don't want a newbie coming in and taking that from me."

You raised your eyebrows in a challenge. "Well, maybe you should get practicing. You can't distract me every time I get close can you?"

The boy just smiled, unphased by your retort and holding out his hand as a greeting.

"I'm Baekhyun, nice to meet you," Why did that name sound familiar? His smile grew wider as you shook his hand hesitantly and told him your name.

"I used to know someone with that name. My friend used to have the biggest crush on her, understandable she was a-"

"Baekhyun, what are you doing? You can't pick up any girls with that haircut, so why try?"

"I'm not chatting her up Jongdae, I was watching her play." Baekhyun whined at the new boy, a cat-like grin curled onto his lips. Baekhyun and Jongdae? Surely it wasn't them. You would have recognised them earlier if it was.

"Watching me play?" You scoffed. "More like sabotaging me because you don't wanna be beaten by a girl."

Jongdae let out a loud laugh at your words, immediately smiling at you as an act of gratitude for insulting his friend. They both had a familiar air around them and you couldn't help but wonder if they were those young boys you'd met almost seven years ago.

"You weren't going to beat me." Baekhyun frowned and huffed, his bottom lip poking out in exasperation.

"You should keep telling yourself that, Baek, it might help you sleep better at night and I won't be getting phone calls at 2am because you spilt coffee over your pillow."

Jongdae's retort had caused an amused smile to fall onto your lips and you watched them both argue with a friendly banter, throwing insults back and forth, rather loudly. It almost made up for the fact Baekhyun had ruined your gameplay. Almost.

"Shut up Jongdae- that happened once. Besides, wasn't it your idea to put salt in it in the first place?-"

Jongdae wasn't given the chance to answer because a large figure came into view, his long body leaning against the arcade machine.

"Baekhyun, we both know it was you who wanted a cake that reminded you of the ocean." A deep voice vibrated through the air, causing the three of us to look at the large figure standing by the machine. "Nobody made you change the recipe."

His face was divinely structured, large eyes, smooth skin and a splash of youth as his lips curled into a mocking and smug grin. There was something familiar about the curve of his lips, though you couldn't think of anybody you'd met before who was quite this handsome.

"I hope you're not disturbing my customers, here at Space Cadets we have a game courtesy that we only talk to players who are not playing." This statement seemed to be directed to Baekhyun, before the tall male looked at you, his eyes widening as he stared right at you.

Baekhyun introduced you, telling this man your name before continuing: "and Chanyeol, I wasn't disturbing her. It was a mutual decision to stop playing."

But neither of you were listening to the smaller mullet-adorning boy anymore. Your gaze was fixed on this man, Chanyeol, his intense stare making it impossible for you to look away. It couldn't be. What sort of coincidence would occur for the two of you to meet again on your first day back?

"Chanyeol?"

"Thana?" The sound of your old dungeons and dragons character leaving his lips caused a gasp to leave not only your lips, but the two boys who were watching this encounter curiously.

Baekhyun yelled and pushed Jongdae's shoulder violently, Jongdae shooting him a swift glare as he ducked out of the way of another one of Baekhyun's outbursts. His eyes were wide as he stared at you.

"I knew I recognised you!" He managed to land another hit on Jongdae's shoulder and the poor boy moved closer to you to get away from his loud-mouthed friend. "I knew it!"

"Who else would be able to beat your score on Defender?" Chanyeol rolled his eyes before sending you a stunning smile. "I wouldn't expect anything less from our long-lost friend here."

A flush sent warmth to your cheeks and you shrugged in response to Chanyeol's compliment. The whole situation felt surreal. You were really standing in an arcade with the three boys who had been part of your most cheerful younger memories. And to top it off, Chanyeol was beautiful.

You knew you'd always had a subtle crush on him and some part of you was thankful you'd moved away, knowing if you'd still known him as he was blooming you would probably have fallen in love with the nerdy giant.

"You've grown." Was all you could say.

Jongdae snickered but Chanyeol shot him a dirty look before grinning again, a flutter filling your stomach as you saw an innocent gleam in his large eyes.

"I've been eating my spinach."

It was such a simple response but it allowed all the warmth you'd missed from him the past few years to come flooding back. You didn't even realise that the two of you were essentially ignoring the noisy boys who were reacting animately to the situation. You simply looked at him, taking in his godly-carved features.

You didn't even notice when the other two boys scooted off, whispering to each other about Chanyeol finally making a move, or how much of a coincidence this was, or even how it was unfair that you were still better than Baekhyun at everything.

"How have you been?" Chanyeol asked, cutting through the silence that hovered over the two of you. "It's been a long time."

You nodded, giving him the stereotypical answer that you'd been good. You didn't tell him that you'd missed him, that would have made it awkward, so you kept it simple, glad that you could see him in front of you and it not be a dream. At least you hoped it wasn't.

"So, you work here?" You asked curiously.

Chanyeol grinned. "I don't just work here. I co-own it!"

"Co-own!?" You exclaimed. "That's totally boss!"

The tall boy gave you a wink, that wasn't really a wink as he scrunched up half of his face to do it. But it was cute nonetheless. He then tapped the arcade machine he was leaning against as if to say carry on. But you didn't want him to leave, you wanted to carry on talking to him.

"How long have you been here for?" You asked, causing his eyes to widen just a fraction at your eagerness for a conversation.

He went back to leaning against the machine, though he seemed a lot more visibly relaxed, as if now he knew you wanted him there. And that knowledge brought him great relief and warmth.

"It's only been open a couple of months but it's doing well. I'm just really glad I opened it because this town was so boring before, so now kids actually have something to do that doesn't involve throwing rocks off a cliff."

You smiled at him, enjoying how passionately he spoke about the arcade. He looked down at you, his soft eyes gleaming with a glee that was practically contagious, you felt an overwhelming burst of pride for your old friend.

"Actually - I finish in about an hour," Chanyeol stated, as if coming to a sudden realisation. "We can go get some food somewhere and catch up if you want- I mean, if you don't want to that's fine too but .. I think it would be nice-"

"I'd like that."

Just like he'd said, Chanyeol finished in an hour. After changing from his red and blue polo which was the arcade's uniform (he was supposed to wear a red cap too but apparently he'd lost that) he wandered the arcade in search of you. You'd moved from machine to machine, and he found you at a Space Invaders machine, frowning in concentration with your tongue poked out slightly as your hands moved diligently about the controls.

A small smile fell onto his lips as he watched you, not wanting to make a sound. Maybe you could beat Baekhyun's high score. He wanted somebody to knock ByunKing off the top spot on at least one game. You could do it. You looked so relaxed, like playing games was a sixth sense to you.

It was a couple minutes later when a smile broke out onto your face and you allowed yourself to lose. You grinned at yourself and turned around, your eyes widening in shock and a ragged gasp escaping your lips as you took in Chanyeol.

"Don't creep up on me!" You whined holding your hand over your chest. "You gave me a heart attack you absolute broomhead."

Chanyeol's own eyes widened as he heard your exclamation, his grin widening as he struggled not to laugh.

"Sorry. I didn't want to disturb your game."

You looked back at the arcade machine, a smug smirk suddenly making its way onto your lips. "Oh. You're going to have to break the news to ByunKing that I've beaten his high score on Space Invaders and Robotron."

Chanyeol just stared at you in shock. You'd managed to destroy Baekhyun's months of hard work in just an hour. Not that it was too surprising, back when you used to play with them you were always a step ahead of everyone.

"Actually- I want to be here when he comes back and realises he isn't top anymore." You smirked and cocked your head. "Anyway, don't we have somewhere to be, space cadet?"

And with that, Chanyeol was smiling irridescently at you and leading you out of the arcade to the old diner which you were sure had been here since you were last in the town, but you weren't sure. Especially as it looked a lot cleaner and the menu had finally seen sense and added ice-cream to it.

You let Chanyeol lead you to a table, he seemed to know where he wanted to sit, so you just followed. He slid into the booth, immediately picking up the menu that was slotted between the bottles of sauces. Sitting yourself down too, you watched as his eyes darted over the food choices, trying not to smile otherwise that might look a little creepy. You couldn't help it, he was rather adorable.

"What do you want?" Chanyeol looked up at you.

It was almost as if it was normal. You hadn't seen Chanyeol in years yet it didn't feel anything but natural when you ordered together, uncoincidentally it was the exact same thing. Chanyeol teased and said that at least you wouldn't need to steal any of his, to which you gasped and said that you definitely still would steal his.

It felt so natural, so calm, and you were so glad you'd bumped into him. Moving back had unnerved you, but now you knew Chanyeol was still here, you felt you could feel back at home.

The two of you talked intrepidly over the food you'd ordered, deciding to just put both plates in the middle and share it all. You discovered Chanyeol was hoping to go into game design, much like you, though you felt Chanyeol would have a much higher chance at it. He was so creative when you first knew him, and it appeared that it had only grown.

You could see the passion he had for gaming and creating games in the way he spoke animatedly about opening the arcade. The way his wide brown eyes sparkled as he waved his hands about trying to explain the latest idea he had for a sci-fi game. At one point he very nearly knocked his soda off the table, but he caught it just before any damage could be done.

"It kinda sucks that we don't have phones ourselves," Chanyeol stated as the waitress took your empty plates away. "I mean, we could have kept in touch after you left. I would have sent letters but I don't think that's fast enough."

"What like a phone you can carry around?"

Chanyeol nodded enthusiastically. "Imagine, if I saw a dog I could immediately ring you or even send a message straight away! How cool would it be?"

"I think that's some back to the future kinda stuff." You stated, moving to pick your denim jacket off the seat beside you.

Chanyeol already had his jacket on and was watching you slip yours on over the striped polo which he thought was very cute, but he wouldn't say that, if he did he wouldn't be able to stop saying it, so he kept quiet and watched you with a small smile instead.

"We should do this again." Chanyeol stated once you were both leaving the diner.

You simply nodded in agreement. Chanyeol had his arm draped casually over your shoulder and you couldn't help but notice that his arm felt a lot heavier on your shoulders than it actually was. A stubborn reminder that it was there.

"How about this weekend? I have Saturday off from the Arcade." Chanyeol said. "What would you want to do?"

"Rollerskating?" You'd seen adverts for roller skates on television and still found it irritating that you hadn't been in such a long time. You also kinda wanted to know whether Chanyeol would be as clumsy on the rink as he was on normal ground.

Chanyeol rubbed the back of his neck but nodded. "If that's what you wanna do, it sounds fun to me!"

You smirked. "Are you scared?"

Chanyeol's eyes widened at your words and he shook his head adamantly in refusal.

"No. I've just never been rollerskating before."

You grinned widely at him. "Well now's your chance to try something new."

The smile that Chanyeol sent back in your direction was enough to send warmth through even the coldest places on the planet. It definitely sent warmth through you and you felt the fizzing reminder of a potential crush from your early teenage years come back.

Fortunately, you'd been busy the rest of the week repeatedly moving furniture and unpacking boxes. It was fortunate because you know if you'd been doing nothing your mind would constantly wander back to the tall lanky boy's smile whenever you sat down. So, fortunately, you'd been without many distractions the remainder of the week.

No distractions definitely did not include the phone calls from Yoonhye, who coincidentally was pre-occupied with her own love life, so; your thoughts were distracted by her heart-filled ramblings. It was nice too, hearing a familiar voice, especially since, aside from the three boys you'd met again, there was nobody you recognised in this town. Even the owner of the diner had changed. However, you did think you'd seen the librarian before, though you weren't sure if it was a library in which you'd seen her.

Either way, your mind had been far away from Chanyeol until this morning, when you'd looked at the calendar above your desk and seen his name written in red felt-tip. Once you'd seen it, your heart pounded in your chest, almost like an alarm.

So here you were, an hour away from 6pm, debating whether to wear your beige cords with a salmon jumper over a white polo, or your navy three-quarter length jeans with a yellow 'talking heads' top and denim jacket. You opted for the second choice, knowing you could probably stash your jacket somewhere in the roller rink.

It didn't take you too long to do your hair and makeup, knowing that your hair would end up out of place anyway. Now, you were sitting in the living room, trying to plug in the Famicom in case Chanyeol would come round one day and decide he wanted to play video games.

When the doorbell rang, you felt a rush flood through you, knowing you were going to see that beaming smile on the other side.

"Grab the door will you, Sweetie?" You heard your mother shout from the kitchen and you did so.

Behind the door was the tall boy you'd been thinking about since 9am this morning. Looking extremely adorable in his black courderoys, a baby pink t-shirt and a black corduroy jacket. You gaze automatically went up to his warming smile before it rose slightly higher and you gasped, stepping out of the house and closing the front door behind you.

"You dyed your hair?!" You exclaimed, tempted to run your hands through the pale pink locks.

Chanyeol rubbed the back of his neck as the two of you reached his car which was sitting at the bottom of the driveway. "I didn't dye it on purpose. I lost a bet with Baekhyun - and you know him."

You just grinned. "It suits you."

"Really?"

"Mmhmm, looks rad."

Chanyeol's smile was even wider than it had been when you opened the door, and that unavoidable feeling of a crush erupted again in your stomach as you climbed into the passenger seat.

"No bicycles?"

"A car is quicker." Chanyeol retorted. "Besides, don't girls like cars?"

You smirked a little at his words as you looked out of the window. "They're alright. Why? Do you need your car to get you all the girls?"

"I'll have you know I have people falling for me all the time."

That you believed.

"That's what happens when you trip people up with your incredibly long limbs Mister Chanyeol."

You heard Chanyeol huff out a breath of air in an attempt to hide his chuckle, and then it was quiet. A nice quiet though. You used this chance to talk in Chanyeol's profile as he drove diligently down the road.

It was odd to see him so serious. It suited him in a strange way. His bottom lip stuck out in a slight pout as his large eyes remained on the road, his long fingers flicking the indicator swiftly. You drank in the sight of him as the orange hue of the sunset gave his skin a golden glow. It was almost like a painting. A painting, or artwork for a game, a very detailed game with exquisite graphics. Not the sort of game you would ever see any time soon.

Chanyeol noticed you looking at him, but he didn't say anything. He refused to look at you in case he got distracted by the sparkle in your eye, or the soft heat of your smile, or the shine of your hair. You were perfectly indulging and that was dangerous while driving.

He vowed he'd take your appearance fully in when you both reached the roller rink.

Which, incidentally, was around the next corner. He could see your excitement build up and he only hoped he could get the hang of this hobby fast. He definitely did not want to fall flat on his ass in front of you. That would be embarrassing.

Once you were inside, you headed over to the welcome desk, where you'd hand over your shoes for a pair of rollerskates, not rollerblades, you didn't think you were quite skilled for that level of balance yet; or ever.

When Chanyeol had swapped his shoes, the two of you walked over to one of the wooden benches by the side of the rink, the low blue and purple hues of the lights making it difficult to see. As a result, it was difficult to tie the laces of the roller skates, and you held back a smile when you saw Chanyeol fumbling with the laces.

"You should double knot them," You suggested, wiggling your ankles so that Chanyeol could see you'd finished.

Chanyeol's pout was adorable and you almost showed your adoration on your face, you were just thankful the dark lighting made it easier to hide your expressions. "I never learnt how to do that."

"Well, let me show you then." You patted your lap so Chanyeol could swing his leg up and rest his foot on your lap, your fingers demonstrating how to tie his laces securely. "Is this why you always tucked your laces under the front of your shoes?"

Chanyeol smiled sheepishly. You couldn't help but grin back at him.

"It's never too late to learn." You stated, gently pushing Chanyeol's feet off your lap and patting your thighs before standing up.

At first, you felt a little wobbly, the change from solid footwear to wheeled shoes was unusual but it only took a few seconds for you to get used to it. You guessed the couple of years you spent at the retro 50s diner as a waitress while at college was worth something. Moving your gaze from your own feet to Chanyeol, you had to bite back a laugh.

Already the boy was clinging onto the barrier that surrounded the rink, the two of you not even inside it yet. It was clear that while you were an experienced 'veteran' when it came to rollerskating, Park Chanyeol was not. To you it was as endearing as it was amusing and you held out your hand so you could lead him safely onto the rink. Chanyeol took your hand gratefully, his fingers crushing your own as you pulled him forward.

"I've got you," You said with a wink just as you got onto the rink.

"No it's okay I've got this." He said, his voice suddenly shooting into a higher pitch as he placed too much force into one of his strides, his arms flailing as he lost control of his feet. Hastily, you grabbed onto his hand, pulling him towards you with a firm grip, your eyebrows raised at his flushed cheeks and a sheepish smile.

"You've got this?"

You grinned as Chanyeol pouted in annoyance and muttered under his breath, his spare hand holding onto the barrier of the rink. In order to help him, you held out both of your hands, beckoning him to hold onto them.

"You're not going to learn if you're scared." You told him, as he hesitantly placed his hands in yours, pushing away from the side of the rink.

"I just don't want to fall." Chanyeol shot back, his eyes slightly widened and his bottom lip jutted out as he sulked a little. You simply smiled.

"Don't be scared to fall," You winked before stationing yourself in front of him, while you helped him, you'd keep close to the side, out of the way of the experienced skaters who usually looped around the centre of the rink. "It's best to keep your knees bent."

Demonstrating, you crouched slightly, waiting pointedly for Chanyeol to imitate your actions; he did. Then, you pulled backwards, Chanyeol's eyes widening as he started rolling. You knew he wanted to move his feet but you shook your head, crouching again to demonstrate the stable position.

"Don't try to walk, you've got to push sideways with your feet." You mimicked the action you were trying to help him learn before letting go of one of his hands and coming round the side. Then, you repeated the action, letting Chanyeol copy your movements, which he did.

"I'm doing it!" He exclaimed, his legs less shaky now as he gained confidence.

You loosened your grip on his hand, though you didn't let go of it. Chanyeol was still unsure on his feet, despite his extra confidence and you wanted him to keep that confidence. However, you did notice that he was speeding up quickly, not gradually, which for an amateur skater probably wasn't the best thing to do. Especially when the end of the rink was getting ever closer.

"Chanyeol - careful..." Your voice trailed off as Chanyeol's ankle locked and he slipped slightly, his grip on your hand tightening swiftly, dragging you down as he fell, letting out an oof as he hit the hard wood of the rink.

You gasped as your elbow hit the floor, shocked when your head fell on something slightly softer than the wooden flooring. You backed up slightly, your eyes meeting Chanyeol's as he gazed down at you in a slight daze.

"Hey there," He said with a smooth wink and your eyes widened.

"Did you do that on purpose?" You huffed, frowning and pushing yourself off him. Chanyeol's soft lips quirked into an amused grin and he cocked his head, sitting up on his hands as he looked up at you, innocently. "I know you, Park Chanyeol."

"Don't you want to get to know me better?"

Your eyes widened at his blunt words and you let go of his hand that you'd grabbed in order to pull him up off the floor. He fell backwards with a hard thud and frowned up at you in playful distaste. "Not funny?"

The corner of your lip twitched slightly, trying to keep the smile that was trying to form itself at bay. You held your hand out again and Chanyeol made a point of eyeing it warily, causing you to kick at his feet.

Pulling him up you smiled. "Let's try this again?"

Chanyeol nodded, his warm brown eyes twinkling. Winding you up was something he'd always enjoyed doing; he loved watching the soft pink rush to your cheeks as you looked at him, more flustered than you liked to admit. He was glad you were back, the old crush he had on you rushing back.

"We should have a reward system." He stated, about to make a bold move.

Your eyebrows raised at his words and you folded your arms over your chest, ready to reject whatever his suggestion would be. "Oh really?"

"Every time I complete a lap, you have to give me a kiss."

While you really should have said no and hit his shoulder softly for even suggesting that, the twinkle in his eye stopped you and you found yourself smiling at him and agreeing, your eyes drifting down to his own lips as they formed a triumphant grin.

"Let's get going then."

As he spoke, he stooped forward and let his lips brush against yours, ever so slightly. The touch was so light you barely even felt it, but you felt the heat rush to your cheeks as you looked at him with wide eyes.

"That one was for good luck." Chanyeol's smile was so wide that you found it impossible to be mad at him, knowing full well that you wanted to feel that kiss again. So you just shook your head and motioned to the rink.

"Go on then, space cadet."

And with that, slowly, but surely, Chanyeol was off, determined to win another kiss from you.

#chanyeol scenario #exo scenario #chanyeol fluff #exo 80s #exo au #chanyeol au #exo fluff

109 notes · View notes