#actually sonic forces was staged

[yagirlomega]

Headcanon

that tails and infinite used to be online friends talking about sonadow

[itz-pandora]

To Amy: How do you feel about Sonic and Shadows relationship?

"I think they work pretty well together, and I'm glad they're happy."

"I've been skeptical that they've had feelings for each other for years, and the kiddos definitely are what caused them to settle down. I'm surprised about how well they're doing with raising them."

"And, just in case anyone has any thoughts, I am over Sonic."

[sonic-adventure-3]

oh god. forces. hoo fucking boy. none of this is good vector. god. my fucking god

[celli-ohs]

and scene!

A seven-part written series taking place at EN High School, featuring Enhypen, with supporting roles from Tomorrow x Together, &Team, BoyNextDoor, Le Sserafim, and Illit. Loosely based off of Enhypen's official series En-Drama.

Author's Note: this is going to be a rollercoaster folks! I wanted to basically make a crack/fluff version of En-Drama. I thought the stereotypes they put the members in were cute and fitting of them, but was like "what if I made them all losers lol" and that's how this series was born! disclaimer, the plots for my works are not the same as En-Drama, this is all just for shits and giggles! btw, everything is connected, so stay tuned for each member! lmk who you're most excited to read!!

Status: ongoing

ATTENTION: reply/comment for taglist

and scene! masterlist

I Can't, I Have Rehearsal

socially awkward!park sunghoon x reader; high school au; crack, comedy, fluff

What happens when you get seated right next to the most handsome boy in your entire grade? Well you thought it'd be a great excuse to get to know him better, but the guy won't even talk to you! After a mishap in the science lab, you come to find out that Park Sunghoon, the cold-hearted prince of EN High, isn't in fact rude, he's just afraid of women.

Show Must Go On

secret softie!park jongseong x reader; high school au; crack, comedy, fluff

When you told the waitress to give your compliments to the chef, you didn't expect the chef to come out and thank you personally, and you really didn't expect the chef to be your classmate Park Jongseong. Realizing how bad this could be, he has you keep it a secret. That shouldn't be too hard for you to do he thinks, but you're full of surprises- and slip ups.

Lights, Curtains, Action!

popular!sim jaeyun x reader; high school au; crack, comedy, fluff

You weren't a very sociable person. Sure you had some friends, but you preferred to stay home on your days off. Your family has other plans though, and you're forced to explore the great outdoors during summer break. On your adventure, you never thought you'd find rowdy Sim Jaeyun, otherwise known as Jake, sitting patiently at the docks waiting for a single fish to bite his line. You also never thought he'd reel in your missing shoe before an actual fish.

All the World's a Stage

younger!kim sunoo x reader; high school au; crack, comedy, fluff

You've known Kim Sunoo since middle school when your friend Jaeyun introduced him to you as his 'little brother'. He was a sweet and funny boy. But over the summer, something changed with Sunoo and suddenly you feel your heart skipping a beat every time he looks your way. You'd think he's finally grown up and matured, but there he goes again, quoting some random romcom and you're reminded he'll never see you the way you do him. Or does he?

Tough Act to Follow

loser!lee heeseung x reader; high school au; crack, comedy, fluff

This had to be a mistake. It couldn't be true, how could you end up being seatmates with the biggest loser in school, Lee Heeseung?! You can feel your social status plummeting with every word he speaks to you. But on a late walk from the convenience store, you witness something that changes your view of Heeseung drastically. And maybe he's right, the Sonic the Hedgehog movie is actually kinda good.

Break a Leg

tease!nishimura riki x reader; high school au; crack, comedy, fluff

Nishimura Riki was the bane of your existence. You can't tell where your hatred for him begins and ends. Every day is a constant battle of teasing between the two of you, and you have had it. One day after an accident, Riki shows his true colors and now his insults start to make your heart race, and it's not because you're angry. Surely you've caught something, right?

No Business Like Show Business

student body president!yang jungwon x reader; high school au; crack, comedy, fluff

When you flunked that math test, you didn't think it was that serious- until your teacher assigned you a tutor: Yang Jungwon, student body president. Honestly, you didn't really know the guy, he seemed like the type to be strict and responsible. Except he isn't, Jungwon is just some guy. You'd argue he's even worse at math than you. His friends thought it'd be funny to elect him as president when the poor boy fell asleep during class. So now you're wondering if you should get a tutor for both of you.

[donelywell]

how does your version of the Phantom Ruby work?

Oh buddy you're in for one hell of a ramble.

I don't care that this is stuff I wanted to reveal in my Forces retelling- I'm babbling about it neow! Besides, I have no idea when I'll be motivated enough to continue my actual canon adjacent au, SO WE CAN HAVE FUN WITH THIS!

Tw: blood

Okay, so the Phantom Ruby is an ancient artifact hidden in a pyramid in Regal Ruin Zone (Sonic R Stage because I really do hate it when zones are just a one and done thing, not overused like Green Hill Zone per say, but I want to actually explore the zones instead of just zooming by them for about 4 minutes total).

A legend says that if you sacrifice some of your blood to it, it will grant you the power to make your wishes a reality. Zero (I'm going with the headcanon that Infinites name used to be Zero) was a huge fan of this legend, he heard about it when he was doing some bounty hunts near the zone.

When you give the Phantom Ruby your blood, you and it are locked together until the blood supply is used up. Only the blood user can use the Phantom Ruby.

The Phantom Ruby is a sentient gemstone (haha, watch me make every single gemstone in Sonic sentient gods), but it lies dormant until someone feeds it blood. Because the Ruby doesn't want to go back to sleep for who knows how long, it starts whispering things into the users mind, feeding thoughts into their head to make them use the ruby more. To give it more blood, to be consumed by the lust for power.

The legend told of a god who was banished and imprisoned into the ruby. Centuries later a crow mobian found the ruby and brought it to their travel group an echidna, a leopard, a tortoise, and a scorpion. They were ambushed later that night and the crow bled onto the ruby in the battle. They realized it had the power to grant wishes, and the crow grew insane with it's power, becoming consumed by the ruby.

The other members of the group realized they need to stop the crow and cut its connection with the ruby, so they begged the gods to give them a way to save the crow. In turn, the gods gave each member a gemstone blessed by different gods a citrine, jade, amethyst, and an onyx. With the gemstones powers, they managed to save the crow from the ruby and lock it deep in a pyramid covered in complex traps and curses as to keep people away from the cursed Phantom Ruby.

Eventually, the group disbanded, with each of the members who helped save the crow carrying the gemstone they had with them as they all scattered to the different corners of the planet.

Ehem- now past this goes into the plot I have for Infinite in my Forces retelling, so you can skip this if you want.

Zero managed to get past all the traps in the pyramid and capture the Phantom Ruby for a bounty he accepted from a mysterious person who wouldn't reveal their identity. This however led to him getting the Phantom Ruby inserted into his chest and have it drive him insane with the whispers it constantly had speaking in his head. He snapped, going completely insane and mindlessly following the voice. He became Infinite, the vessel for the god of illusion.

The legend wasn't lying, as he continues to abuse it's power, the Phantom Ruby slowly started to consume him. Literally. The Phantom Ruby slowly turns his body into it as he uses the power. The process is accelerated when The Resistance begins to be able to push back after the 6 months, making him use his illusions more.

It's up to The Resistance to find the legend of the Phantom Ruby, get the citrine, jade, amethyst, and onyx (names still deciding on), and stop Infinite (and Eggman).

Thank you for letting me ramble about this! I tried to hold myself back a little bit at least from spoiling some of the plot I have for the retelling because I don't wanna ruin the story (if it ever gets made) by spoiling everything about the Phantom Ruby.

[fantasiac]

Sonic X Silver Unleashed would be really cool

especially for 2026, which seems like it might be year of Silver, as Sonic 4 has rumored to have Silver in it, sega would probably want to do the Sonic X Shadow generations success again, as well as finally establishing Silvers origin and finally Sonic Unleashed for modern consoles, and a pc port that people have been BEGGING for

Giving silver the chance to fix his origin would be a great chance to take if they decide that his Rivals story isn't canon (because of the way it breaks Eggman Nega), or just isn't well known enough by fans, finally setting why everyone knows him would be cool

although, he wouldnt actually meet sonic in this game, but maybe he could interact with characters that aren't in the original story, adding more to it, and maybe could have sonic and silver meet in an epilogue short like Dark beginnings

it would also probably just fit really well, with silver coming back in time to fix the ruined planet, not that I want another "silver comes back to the past to fix the future" plot, but it could work, especially if they decide to rewrite him, and because it would take place during unleashed, it could definitely work as a good introduction for his character to the world, as it's the next main game after 06 (besides secret rings) so it could probably be much more of a "this is what happened instead of 06 because the timeline reset", if they decide to lean into that (it would live up to the stuff 06 was claiming to be, a cool new direction/reboot to the Sonic world, setting Unleashed as what happened instead of 06 would not only make that statement correct, but also reintroduce silver around that time period in the series)

they could also put shadow in it, because all the fans new and old would want more of him in games, especially in "the best game in the franchise", also seeing shadow post shadow 05 would be cool, Ian Flynn could work in the Super Hard Mode being canon, where he joins GUN at the end, bringing "Shadow's best characterisation" not only into main canon finally, but also into the best game in the franchise

it would print millions for sega

and Silver's powers could get reworked for the boost engine, which would be interesting, and his powers could react with the dark Gaia energy somehow, changing the playstyle to match up with base unleashed

and I somehow didn't mention that I DESPERATELY want more of that peak unleashed world building, with the distinct cultures in the world, it would blend into silvers story really well, as he's not used to all the people and life, finally capturing that "woah, this time period is beautiful" element that wasn't there very much in 06, despite it helping his motivation to save his world so much

and because unleashed is already one of everyone's favorites, bringing it to the forefront of the Sonic franchise for new players to enjoy would probably put sonic back on top as a gaming icon

also a mixing up more of the anthros from Forces into the humans of unleashed, would not only be cohesive, but add to sonics world, Sonic, Tails, and Amy wouldn't be the only animal characters seen in the game where you see the entire planet, making sonic seem special among them and explaining why nobody really questions sonic's existence

unleashed is one of the only games that really builds up a full world for sonic, and all the other games subsequently forgot about it all instantly, I desperately want to know where Station square is on the map, or White Acropolis, or Westopolis, or Seaside Hill, or Sunset Heights, I want all the stages from the games on one big map.

Frontiers also confirms that unleashed is part of the canon, so it would set standards for the next games to add on to it, because the stages in unleashed are considered the best In the whole franchise, in music, stage design AND worldbuilding. we need it to be a base for the rest of the franchise to follow at least a little bit when making new stages, a remake would not only fix that, but also give the silver game that people have been begging for for 18 years, and finally give him a base intro to the story for the wide audience to fall in love with, because silver is rad as hell

also a game that takes place before whatever forces does would be cool, because after unleashed, the games barely even touch on the world of Sonic anymore, Colors? in space, Generations? timeless void, Lost World? Lost Hex, only really touching on it in Forces, where Eggman completely shapes the globe in his image, but they don't even really show what he changed besides "sand hill", and then Frontiers is on a separated island that we don't know where it is on the planet, if unleashed was remade, it would bring back the worldbuiilfing it had, and open up the doors to have games that add on to the main timeline come out while sticking to that worldbuilding without it seeming off because unleashed is a recent and well talked about game by this point

it could work so well sega, pleeeaasse

I just love unleashed so much, and I'm not the only one

[skimmingmilk]

Wow, when I sent that ask I thought just give a headcanon or two, but dang you wrote a whole fic and just! I cried reading it, oww my poor heart! The babies 🥺 they are the most brothers ever. And Sonic having to explain /death/ to Tails was just so sad, especially when thinking about later during your forces fic, Tails not believing that Sonic could ever die, oh the foreshadowing of it! And Tails so worried about his brother that he risked going dumpster diving for him 😭💖 And then him finding Sonic in the snow cause of course Sonic woke up while Tails was gone and freaked out and tired to go find him even though he wasn’t in any state to do so…. Someone give these poor babies a warm blanket and a hug, my heart can’t take it!!!

I could gush about your writing all day long, but anyway thanks for the awesome little fic of the brothers 💖

Hehehehe >:3

No, seriously, thank you so much! In all honesty, I didn't expect a whole fic either. Certainly not 7k words worth of sick!fic! It's hard to tell when a certain ask or prompt will ignite my inspiration to the point where I have to write a fic about it, because it definitely doesn't always happen. Sometimes prompts are lucky and happen to align with an idea I was already working on, but sometimes they really do just come out of nowhere! I find that the "less is more" approach works best for me. The less details a prompt has, the more room I have to play with its potential, and the more likely I'm going to think of something to write for it! So vague little headcanon requests like this will often open the floodgates to a bunch of ideas!

I'm really glad you enjoyed the fic! It did go a bit darker than I expected with the fear of death looming, but it was tough figuring out how much Tails would actually know about being sick when he never had anyone to explain what he was going through or how to fix it. I also kind of wanted to set the stage for Tails eventually getting to the point where he'd figure out that if Sonic's heart stopped in "Where Water Wears Away the Stone" that he'd die and be gone forever </3

But Sonic got better! And he's going to go get another coat soon, so he's not going without every time he shares his with Tails xD They'll be very warm and happy and Sonic won't get sick again for another year <3

[hadesknockedupintheunderworld]

Okay I just need to say that I knew I'd like this Tailstube as soon as I saw the thumbnail (after all, I am a Sonadails enjoyer, and Tails is literally in the middle of them in the thumbnail)

But I think probably something that stood out the most to me when I watched it was just

The hints that Shadow and Tails have a relationship outside of Sonic??

The first thing that tipped me off to this was that not only did Tails convince Shadow to join in on his show, he also convinced him to stick around to its natural end?? You know, Shadow. The guy you can't force to do anything and frequently will just dip if he's bored or doesn't want to be there. But even while Sonic was annoying him and he made it clear he wanted the "interview" over with, he still never made a move to chaos control out of there because of any of this.

And the second thing that tipped me off was this:

When Shadow is both confused and annoyed at Sonic, he chooses to complain to Tails about Sonic. And so Tails steps in to try to "explain" what Sonic meant by what he said (i.e he told Shadow something much nicer in the interest of getting them to be on better terms). The fact that he looks to Tails to complain to about Tails' own best friend and possibly even to explain that which he does not understand in a social context tells me just how highly he regards Tails. And since both Shadow and Sonic are being childish here, it's amusing to see Tails regarded as something closer to a trusted figure with more power here.

From an objective analysis standpoint, of course this means they have their own friendship. And this is a prospect I enjoy (The idea that Tails and Shadow are good friends)! It actually means a lot to me that Tails could form a frienship or bond with Shadow outside of the context of Sonic (in terms of who initiates it and for what reason it's initiated).

But, my friends, from a biased standpoint, I'm shipping trash. And to me this Tailstube was a fun show for Sonadails fans. Honestly, Tails staging this episode to get Sonic and Shadow to talk and "bury the hatchet", as well as how he acts during the show, read a lot to me personally like a guy trying to get his two boyfriends (who happen to be rivals) to get on better terms, if not just tolerate each other. I quite like the idea of Tails dating both of these idiots and just trying to get them to play nice when they're all together (although frankly I think the ideal scenario for Tails in my biased reading is that Sonic and Shadow get together as well).

This is also not to mention the dynamics showcased here! Sonic and Tails as best friends, with Sonic assuming that he and Tails were gonna talk shit about Shadow behind his back, and Tails trying to get him to play nicer. Shadow and Tails as friends, with Tails trying to convince him why he and Sonic are in the perfect position to become friends and helping him out socially, and with Shadow choosing to do something he doesn't want to because of Tails, as well as looking to Tails to complain to when Sonic is annoying him or when he doesn't understand something. And then there's Sonic and Shadow. In short, their relationship in this episode reminded me a lot of the dynamic I plotted out for that Sonadow post I wrote up where the two just beat the crap out of each other. In slightly longer terms, I find interesting how Mr. Flynn maintained Sonic and Shadow's dynamic during SA2 (with Sonic bothering Shadow and trying to fight him, while Shadow is just annoyed that Sonic won't leave him alone) while also showing the audience that they are rivals. And in longer terms...Sonic was clearly seeking a fight during this episode. And the facial expression, the mocking, his tone of voice, it doesn’t really matter whether or not he actually dislikes Shadow and believes they could never be friends. He's trying to annoy Shadow and goad him into a fight because he wants to fight Shadow so badly it makes him look stupid. And we can tell by how he expresses his confusion to Tails that Shadow is just not getting this. To him Sonic is just being annoying and confusing. Sonic is targeting him specifically, and Shadow shoots back with his own words. And so it's also pointed that Shadow reciprocates/actually decides to fight Sonic when Sonic specifically challenges him. He doesn't respond to Sonic trying to goad him on, but when Sonic challenges him specifically he's much more interested in opposing him.

Anyways guys I love Shadow and Tails having a soft on the side relationship while Sonic flirts by convincing Shadow to fight him somehow😂💖

[silverthehedgehogexplained]

History of Silver the Hedgehog canon appearances (Japanese Translated Edition)

Sonic 06

Silver the Hedgehog debuted in a game that is an epic story about the city of water, the Principality of Soleanna, and the “Flames of Disaster”! His ESP action of moving and stopping objects was fresh and new, with an unprecedented sense of control.

Sonic Rivals

Sonic Rivals 2

Sonic Colors (DS)

Sonic Generations

A commemorative game for Sonic’s 20th anniversary, in which the two Sonics can relive famous scenes and stages from the past! Many characters from the series make appearances. Silver mistook Sonic for a fake who came to steal the Chaos Emeralds…?

Sonic Forces prequel comic

A prequel comic to the Sonic Forces storyline! Suddenly, Knuckles and Silver wander into an ancient Knuckles tribe settlement that was supposed to have been destroyed long ago, and a shadow creeps up on them…!

Sonic Forces

A world where 99.99% of the world is controlled by the Eggman Army! Sonic fights against the Eggman Army along with the Resistance Army. Fighting alone against the mysterious enemy “Infinite,” Silver did not back down even in the face of his mighty power.

After Sonic Forces is IDW Sonic which I obviously can't link here in its entirety.

Team Vector Interview (Team Sonic Racing tie-in character interview)

Team Sonic Racing

A racing game in which teams of three players race through courses in a car! After receiving an invitation in the future, Silver joins Vector’s team with Blaze. He tries to find out the true intentions of the race organizer, but…

Sonic & Silver (Silver Introduction Story)

An original mini-novella that portrays the appeal of various characters through their relationship with Sonic! To prevent a catastrophe in the near future, Silver asks Sonic for help, but…?

While all Sonic Channel stories are canon this one specifically introduces Silver's character and comes highly recommended for Silver fans, especially the third portion which explains key aspects of his character like how he struggled through the apocalypse and can deal with things too head on.

and that is it! Once again Silver only has seven canon game appearances and is only a main character in four of them. (He only has a few scenes in Colors, Generations and Forces)

Because there are various script differences between the English and Japanese versions I recommend checking out both versions and examining the differences for yourselves. Sonic 06 and Team Sonic Racing in particular have many significant differences between the English and Japanese versions. Besides Lost World and Frontiers the Japanese versions of every Sonic game are actually written first so they can be considered the more "canon" versions. (The Sonic Rivals games were not released in Japan so they only have English versions.)

[rairai-raven]

Theory Time Theory Time!

So with the newest trailer for Sonic X Shadow Generations, I feel like I can confidently say who all of the bosses will be.

To start, the base version of Sonic Generations had 7 boss battles, 3 big bosses (being the Death Egg Robot, Perfect Chaos, and the Egg Dragoon), 3 rival battles (being Classic Metal Sonic, Shadow, and Silver), and the final boss (the Time Eater). For the sake of this theory we're going to assume that Shadow Generations will follow this formula too.

Adding on, all of the bosses that will be presented in this theory will have some form of connection to Shadow, meaning that any bosses that Shadow has not interacted with, even if the boss is popular, will not appear.

And lastly, each of the bosses must have appeared within the game where the stage has originated. Here are all of the stages that have been confirmed as of the Doom Powers trailer.

Radical Highway (Sonic Adventure 2)

Final Chase/Rush (Sonic Adventure 2)

Bullet Station (Sonic Heroes)

Westopolis (Shadow the Hedgehog)

Kingdom Valley (Sonic 06)

Sunset Heights/Park Avenue/Ghost Town/Enemy Territory/City/idk pick a name (Sonic Forces)

Chaos Island (Sonic Frontiers)

Getting the obvious out of the way, we have our 2 confirmed bosses, being the Biolizard and Metal Overlord.

The connection between the Biolizard and Shadow is a no brainer so I won't talk about it, however Metal Overlord is interesting and may be deeper than what most people think.

Bullet Station being the featured stage of Sonic Heroes, and what happens in at the end of Bullet Station?

We find a Shadow Android (followed by Neo Metal Sonic copying Shadow's data). Seeing that Android leads to a currently amnesiac Shadow to question his identity and if he is a clone. And who pray tell was the first one to propagate the misinformation?

Neo Metal Sonic. Even if Eggman himself kept the charade going, Neo Metal Sonic (and by extension Metal Overlord) was the one who started the doubt. By fighting Metal Overlord, Shadow can confidently say that he was wrong about who Shadow is, and the only robotic copy around is the one in front of him.

Deciding who the last big boss has been a toughie, and while there is the obvious, I'll be saving that one for the end. Who do I believe is the best candidate then?

The Knight from Sonic Frontiers. Admittedly this one is more of a stretch, however with the given stages we are shown our pool of potential bosses is slim, but that doesn't mean there isn't a connection. In Sonic Frontiers, the Ancients have fled their home planet and landed on Earth with the Chaos Emeralds. With Shadow being both part alien and having chaos abilites, it's not so far fetched. But here's the kicker.

Gerald has visited Angel Island in the past, along with actually seeing the Master Emerald. And what are heavily connected to the Master Emerald that our Ancient friends have brought? Now everything's coming together. So why the Knight in particular? Mainly because it's on Chaos Island where the fight originally took place. But really any of Sonic Frontiers' main bosses would fit.

Now onto the rival battles! Starting with an easy pick, MEMPHIS TENNESSEE Mephilies.

Despite being erased from existence, Mephiles has played a huge role with helping Shadow assert his identity, choosing to forever protect the world even if it turns against him. And with the Time Eater's shenanigans bringing back Crisis City bringing back the erased God wouldn't be impossible.

Not to mention Kingdom Valley is actually where Shadow first met Mephiles in his campaign, the God using Shadow's shadow as a base for the we all know him as.

The second rival battle I believe will happen is everyone's favorite weakling, Infinite.

Given that Sonic Forces is being represented, the character whose whole identity and image have been shattered by the hedgehog makes sense showing up. Although this leads me to ask, why is Sunset Heights in particular the one that's being represented?

Well, that's where the Shadow Clone appears of course.

This is where we learn that Shadow wasn't a bad guy again and was merely being copied by the Phantom Ruby. Perhaps as an intro cutscene to the fight we could have Shadow see his clone doing bad things, with Black Doom taunting him about his inevitable fate of a creature of destruction, before revealing that it was one of Infinite's clones. Shadow would then fight the creator of the clones as an affirmation of who he is.

Now for the final rival battle, I have two options. The one that will most likely happen, and the one I want to happen. The first option is Emerl the Gizoid.

The Dark Beginnings prologue features Emerl, an ancient robot of destruction who Gerald later rediscovers and creates a soul for it based off of Maria. As the prologue shows, Shadow was there during Emerl's rehabilitation and fights him in Sonic Battle. If what shown in the prologue actually happened on the Ark and is not some sort of hallucination, then this rival battle will show the beginnings of Shadow's good hearted nature as he protects Gerald on behalf of Maria.

Despite there being no Sonic battle stages, the fight itself will most likely be apart of the Space Coloney Arc as shown in the prologue.

However, there is one rival battle I really want to happen. Sonic The Hedgehog.

In Sonic Generations we fought Shadow, so how about we fight Sonic in Shadow Generations? However this time it won't be on the Ark, nonono. Instead, it will be on Prison Island.

Faker rematch time! Bonus points if they redub the beginning cutscene to that fight. Plus, with Shadow Generations taking advantage of the fact the fights can take place in a 3D place (as shown in the Biolizard fight), we could be fighting Sonic in an arena instead of the race in Sonic Generations. Now why do I want the Prison Island fight in particular?

Prison Island is where Shadow does his first truly good thing after reawakening from status. Saving Rouge. While claiming it's for the emeralds, deep down he's a good person at heart, he's just so blinded by rage at this point.

With all the possible bosses listened, there's an interesting theme going on, that being Shadow's identity. With Emerl, Shadow wants to save those he cares for. With Sonic, Shadow proves that he is a good person suffering through grief. With the Biolizard, Shadow recognizes what Maria's wish truly was and defies his creator to see it through. With Metal Overlord, Shadow has seeds planted in his mind wondering if he's an Android. With Mephiles, Shadow asserts that he will always fight even if others don't believe in him. With Infinite, Shadow sees that his future self will never turn to villainy again. With the Knight, Shadow will learn more about his origins.

All of these bosses are connected to Shadow's identity, and who pray tell wants to mess with's Shadow's identity the most?

THE DEVIL FROM THE BIBLE

Black Doom.

All throughout Shadow the Hedgehog he's been gaslighting Shadow into joining his side for his own gain, manipulating the hedgehog with promises of showing him his past that he cannot remember, trying to make Shadow something he's not.

It is my firm belief that we will not be fighting the Time Eater as the final boss, Sonic's got that covered. Instead the final boss will be Devil Doom.

It's the final boss of the hit game Shadow the Hedgehog TM, how can you NOT including him as the final boss of essentially Shadow the Hedgehog 2?

After so long since defeating Black Doom, Shadow has grown and reaffirmed who he, and he's not gonna let dear old dad dictate his life again.

Well that got a bit fanficy at the end! Jokes aside, I hope you enjoy my speculation on who the bosses are and what the potential story could be!

[beevean]

Frontiers really wants us to believe the events here spark such immense self-actualization from the characters and I'm like "man this shit is so random" like apparently just helping the koco and seeing their memories just makes them go "I'm gonna develop" this game has such an inflated sense of self-worth, it believes itself to be the most deep thing since *insert deep work because I can't recall one from the top of my head*

Sonic Frontiers is at the same time a Sonic Generations that takes itself way too seriously, and a meta apology for the 2010s. "We're sorry for the bad writing, we'll do better now! We'll fix the bad characterization! Here, Adventure fan! Remember these arcs from that game you played in 1999? Since you liked them so much, we're going to do them again, because now we like the Adventure era! :D"

yeah yeah tails wants to stop being wildly inconsistent and become his own hero separated from sonic. anyway it's really cool that in SA1 you have to play Sonic's story as Tails for 80% of the time, which almost feels like a waste of time, but then the two get separated which forces Tails to self-reflect upon his status as Sonic's sidekick and then decide that he can't depend on Sonic forever, giving him a final level where for once he doesn't retrace Sonic's steps, but goes through the stage in his own unique way. that was really good. it helps that I played as him :)

[thankskenpenders]

There have been some interesting bits of Sonic-related news lately! This is the post where I comment on them.

Sonic Superstars

Finally! A new Sonic sidescroller! It's been too long.

Admittedly, in a perfect world, I would've wanted a Sonic Mania 2, but I'll take a 2.5D game with all new zones for sure, especially when the art direction for it looks this nice. And four-player co-op with Sonic, Tails, Knuckles AND Amy playable? Hell yeah. Also Fang is back, and there's a new funny little guy designed by Naoto Ohshima! Wow!

There's been some concern over how this will play, particularly after it was discovered it's being co-developed by Ohshima's company Arzest. They're perhaps best known for some mediocre Nintendo games like Yoshi's New Island, Hey! Pikmin, and the 3DS version of Mario & Sonic 2016, as well as, of course... co-production on Balan Wonderworld. The thing is, Arzest is very much one of those "silent collaborator" type companies. They're hired gun developers who do the grunt work on projects for other studios without being put in the spotlight. The quality of their games isn't really up to Arzest, who are presumably just doing whatever they're directed to do with whatever resources they're allotted. It's up to their publishers.

Based on the side-by-side physics comparisons that have been going around Twitter, it seems clear that SOMEONE on this project is invested in making Superstars play just like the classic games. I'm admittedly no Sonic physics purist, but the extended gameplay footage (with placeholder music from Sonic 4 Episode 2) looks spot on to me. Christian Whitehead also seems to know things about the game, stating that "the Mania physics were indeed fully translated to modern 3D." It seems that at the very least they consulted his previous work on this, regardless of whether or not he's actually involved.

But even if this ends up not being true, honestly, I'll take a new Sonic sidescroller that's "just okay" if it has all new zones, nice art direction, and good music. If Sonic 4 had checked those three boxes but played exactly the same, I would've been way more into it.

Really, it's the music that has me most concerned. Obviously we all love Jun Senoue, but hearing he's trying to do "classic-style" music again makes me worry that he's gonna bust out the fake Genesis synths. I'm actually a weirdo who likes the Classic Sonic stage themes in Forces, but those weren't by Senoue, whose otherwise very strong compositions were really hurt by the sound palette chosen for Sonic 4. Like many others, I'd prefer it if Superstars went for the new jack swing sound of Sonic Mania - and considering Tee Lopes is contributing, hopefully he's allowed to tap into that sound a little. But I'd be open to other styles, too. I just really don't think a game with HD visuals should be going for a fake 16-bit sound.

But yeah, overall, I'm looking forward to Superstars. I think we've needed something like this for a long time, and I'm glad they're finally doing it.

Sega union update

We don't have many details on this, but the newly forming Sega of America union, AEGIS-CWA, is facing resistance from management. Apparently some form of "anti-union campaign" (their wording) is underway, also described more worryingly as "relentless attempts at union busting." We unfortunately don't have more details right now, and it seems like no news outlets are doing anything with this story.

This behavior is unfortunately not surprising, even from a company that purports progressive values like Sega. Remember kids: corporations are not your friends.

In the face of this, the members of AEGIS-CWA are still trying to convince management to stay neutral with the help of their fan petition that raised over 4300 signatures. At the time of writing this, their first union election is also underway. I continue to wish them luck in their efforts. We're currently seeing a wave of unionization attempts the likes of which we've never seen before, and I have to hope that at least some of them stick. We need real change in the game industry, an industry where if you're able to stick around longer than ten years without burning out then you're one of the lucky ones.

Okay now time for the thing y'all really wanted me to comment on

Penders says he's leaving Twitter

Earlier this month, Penders announced: "Since Twitter is promoting anti-trans nonsense, I can’t in good conscience continue to be associated with it much longer."

He's certainly not wrong. Elon's been doubling down on his transphobic fearmongering, and Twitter's already weak moderation of hate speech has only gotten even weaker. (They quietly removed their rule against intentional misgendering in April.) But based on the date he tweeted this, I assume Ken was referring specifically to Elon promoting Matt Walsh's shit ass transphobic documentary, which Elon personally allowed to be hosted on Twitter in its entirety. I'd quit the site myself if it didn't feel necessary to promote my work and stay connected with my peers. (Both the furry community and the gamedev sphere are very much centered on Twitter.) Assuming Ken does actually leave in protest, hey, good on him.

There's been some surprise over the fact that he's apparently a trans ally, but for all his many flaws, Penders has always been your average baby boomer Democrat. Half his tweets are about hoping Trump goes to jail. He has many outdated views that he refuses to unpack (I am not going to devolve this post into a catalog of stupid shit he's tweeted), but he at least understands that "progressive" is a thing you should try to be. He's that uncle who you wouldn't go to for a nuanced view on queer identity, but like, he knows trans people exist and are discriminated against and that that's bad.

Of course, instead of just leaving Twitter, he's announced that he intends to leave by September 30th, after which point people will have to contact him via his website. The idea of someone scheduling a date four months in the future on which they're going to leave a social media platform in protest is very, very funny to me. I wonder if he has something planned for September that needs to happen first - like, you know, maybe finally releasing at least a portion of The Lara-Su Chronicles?

Lord knows when the hell we'll be able to read the first part of the comic, but in the near future you WILL be able to buy THIS on a t-shirt!

Wait did he change that one character from Anthony Mackie to Ernie Hudson???

Anyway, my one hope is just that even if he does leave Twitter, he doesn't delete his account. His tweets have long been one of my most important sources for behind the scenes info on Archie Sonic, even if you do have to take some of it with a grain of salt. Gallagher and Bollers are simply not going on Twitter and talking about this stuff on a regular basis like Ken does. With so many old forums and fan sites now gone, only partially preserved by the Wayback Machine, Ken deleting his Twitter would truly be the burning of the library of Alexandria for old Archie Sonic behind the scenes drama.

You know, assuming he actually does leave Twitter.

...

Aaaand that about does it for Sonic-related news lately, I think? Okay, back to my hiatus. I would still like to get back to updating sometime this year, but I'm still in recovery mode following SLARPG's launch, so I can't promise when that'll be. I appreciate everyone's continued patience!

[descendant-of-truth]

Heads up, I'm gonna be discussing Sonic x Shadow Generations leaks below the cut, so if you don't want extra-early spoilers then just feel free to skip this one for now.

That being said: it's come to my attention that the Sonic Generations portion of the game is, in fact, being rewritten... but not reanimated. Meaning that it's just new dialogue on top of the pre-existing animations.

This is. quite possibly the worst route they could have taken. not to mention the weirdest??

I can see what the train of thought most likely was, to be fair. Shadow Generations is being written by Ian Flynn, while the original game was written by Ken Pontac and Warren Graff, and their versions of the characters are very different from Flynn's. Clearly, they wanted some sense of internal consistency between the writing of the re-release. That part is normal.

But then, I guess they just... didn't have the budget, or interest, or whatever it was they needed to reanimate everything from scratch. So they just added some lipsyncing when necessary and called it a day.

The problem is that doing it this way fundamentally kneecaps what you can actually do with a rewrite. The revised dialogue I saw in a video doesn't feel any less stilted or awkward, and the only thing it really changes is giving the characters slightly more reasonable priorities, or filling in gaps in their knowledge that were there before.

And those aren't bad things to do, but it's... kind of the ONLY thing they can do. It doesn't fix the game's story. It's barely putting a band-aid over it. All it does is read like an amateur fan project, especially with the addition of Modern Sonic responding to his friends after he saves them where he didn't before; I'm convinced I've seen videos of fans doing that exact thing in the past.

Yes, everyone knows that the few seconds of silence while he gestures felt unnatural, but so does trying to fit a relevant sentence over such a short animation. The official attempt isn't going much better, adding this really out-of-place and forced "alright!" when Sonic gives Knuckles a thumbs-up, and it doesn't flow naturally with the rest of what he was saying at all. It's there seemingly just to fill the space, so that there's no moment where Sonic is animating and not talking. It's bad.

Not to mention, I kind of assumed that the reason Modern Sonic was silent during those segments was because Classic Sonic was. You can play either Act of each stage in whatever order you want, so you could rescue the others as either Sonic. It would give people an unfair incentive to always play Act 2 second if it meant they would get more dialogue that way, and they would miss out on Classic's interactions as a result. Sure, neither of their interactions are anything to write home about, but... that's not really the point, here.

Trying to insert new personalities and character dynamics into animations that were meant for something different only works if you're doing a fanmade parody. Doing it in an official capacity feels... weirdly insulting to both the original writers and animators, honestly?

Like, no, that's not the script they spent hours animating for. That's not the tone they were trying to convey with those character movements. No, Sonic isn't face-palming in exasperation because Amy's too focused on "saving Sonic next time," he's doing that because she's joking about how scared she was that she'd never get to flirt with him again. Those are not comparable interactions.

I understand why they wanted to change the script, I really do, I don't even like the original version but for crying out loud, swapping out the dialogue does not make the game more interesting. There's a reason the story felt utterly bland and lifeless and an extremely large part of that was the animation and cinematography. The white space that most of the cutscenes took place in was literally just the side-scrolling hub world, they had maybe five square inches that each character could move around in and it was really, really boring.

A rewrite of Sonic Generations, especially with the goal of making it an equivalent experience to Shadow Generations, desperately needs more than this. Shadow's story is going all-out with the animations and camera angles and the severity of the situation and the deep-dive into Shadow's character and Sonic gets. this. a slap in the face to the original writers with no attempt to meaningfully improve upon their story.

It doesn't solve the problem of Sonic's story being jarringly lackluster in comparison to Shadow's. If anything, it's just going to stand out as being even weirder, because if this was all they were going to do, then... why did they even bother? What was the point? Does Tails recognizing the Chemical Plant from Sonic 2 mean anything when there's no new scenes that actually take place in it? Are we really making "Sonic References: the Game" into nothing more than a vehicle for Slightly More Accurate Sonic References and Nothing Else??

And what really gets me about this is that I would've gone nuts for an official Generations rewrite as a kid. My Sonic Generations Phase(TM) was both extremely long-lasting and filled to the brim with others' fan projects, because I couldn't get enough of this idea of Sonic and Tails meeting their past selves while trying to save the very fabric of reality. It's such an inherently cool and fun idea!

But what I was invested in as a kid was just that: an idea of a story. The reason I was obsessively reading and watching fanfic about it was because the actual game gave me nothing to work with. Now, it seems we're still getting nothing, just in a different flavor. Like, plain oats, but this time they're gluten free so that means they're totally what I wanted, right?

No. I didn't want a Sonic Generations fandub that happened to be paid for. I wanted a story. It should not be this difficult to give me one.

(To clarify, this is not a diss on Ian Flynn himself or his ability to write. I think he was given a task that was impossible to do well and I'm mad at whoever made this decision)

[miloscat]

[Review] Sonic Free Riders (Xbox 360)

They made hoverboards fun and exciting, then the fans made it actually playable.

After Zero Gravity, Sonic Team were apparently not done with the Riders series. Not done using it for motion control experiments, that is. The next and final instalment was a launch title for Microsoft's ill-fated Kinect motion sensor accessory. This camera apparatus could track a player's full body and so you needed a large, empty area to play your games in, which has never been practical for me. So I considered this game essentially lost media as far as I was concerned, until I recently learned about a mod that reworked the game for traditional controllers that I could use on an emulator. The updated version of this patch was buggy but the original release worked a treat and I was finally able to experience this title.

Compared to previous entries, the plot is very low-stakes. Eggman is hosting another racing tournament in disguise, shenanigans ensue. The cutscenes are merely static character portraits, the dialogue nothing but banter and posturing with the framing device of Omochao reporting on the racing for a TV broadcast. But the strength this has over prior Riders games is including a broader range of the cast, with Teams Rose and Dark being involved and playable in their own story modes in addition to the usual Heroes and Babylon stories. Well, Team Dark is missing Omega and substitutes a random eggbot who is more than it appears in perhaps the only notable story development. And Team Rose is Amy, Cream, and... Vector... so Team Sonic Racing wasn't the first to randomly force him in to fill out another team, or to have a weird addition to Team Rose.

As for the racing, from what I could tell from the tutorial, there's a lot of actions you need to be able to do. It seemed complex and the pace of gameplay quite fast for something you control just with various body motions to an unresponsive IR sensor grid. In other words, compared to Zero Gravity it didn't feel as compromised by the control scheme, and translated reasonably well to a controller, so it's a shame they never officially offered that as an option. The game reviewed terribly at the time on the basis of its controls, but with a pad in hand I had a fun time. Sure it was easy most of the way through, but by the very last stages it did even offer a decent challenge.

There's no drifting, but a heavy turn assist helps with cornering. There's a boost function that drains your air meter, as well as a "lean forward (tilt control stick up) to go faster" mechanic. Stunts are done in Zero Gravity style, by jumping at the right time off a ramp, although you can spin to do a better trick (not supported in the original mod release). Arm flailing is a factor, where you can lean to grab rings that are just off the course, throw items that skew a little more Mario Kart in their effects while still being unique, rub steam or splatter off your screen, or grab poles to swing around and take shortcuts. As a power character you can punch to destroy obstacles, and flight characters have to have arms outstretched to remain airborne when necessary. It sounds exhausting but all these functions are mapped pretty well to a controller in the mod, and I got to grips with them quickly. And while it may sound overloaded with gimmicks, I thought it was a better balance than the previous games of keeping up your pace while doing them, or being ignorable entirely.

It may sound like I'm being contrary but this quickly became my favourite of the Riders games. Because it expects you to be flolloping around, it's so much more forgiving and I found I wasn't constantly struggling against the game and its demands. It integrates a mission-like structure into the campaign so most of the time you're doing various objectives and single-lap runs of the courses in story mode, which moves things along at a quick pace. It also looks gorgeous, the environments varied and ultra-colourful, helped of course by being in HD for the first time. The tracks have fun setpieces like toboggan or minecart sections, jumping onto rooftops, or surfing while being pulled by a dolphin.

Free Riders kind of fulfilled the promise of what I wanted the series to be, for the first time. Fast-paced and bombastic, not overly punishing or bland. It's such a shame that that lively energy had to be locked behind an impractical peripheral gimmick. The assets were all there for a potential conversion or fourth instalment that takes the strengths but makes it play like a normal video game that people can actually play... but alas. As is often the case in the Sonic series, it was up to the fans to fix what Sega had broken, and I'm very thankful to Rei-SanTH for doing so in this case (please fix not being able to turn right on v1.1!).

[waroferas]

from one hyrule warriors enjoyer to another... i bestow upon you the scared question...

what are your favorite things about hyrule warriors?

i'm honestly just curious because your like, one of my favorite blogs when it comes to hyrule warriors and i would just be interested to get peoples different responses!! it's cool to see what people think!!

(p.s. your hyrule warriors art is so banger i would give you the BIGGEST hug if i could)

AWW MAN !!! THAANK YOU SO MUCH for giving me a reason to talk about this because i have actually answered this question before . but now that i’ve actually come to learn how the game works i hold a lot more respect for it overall LOL

i put forward Link’s arc with the master sword/temple of souls in the first post but i would rlly like to revisit that and get a bit more specific abt WHY i love it. under the cut bc it’s screenshot heavy LOL

to start out stage 12, they explain that link is Really jamming on the master sword

you start at the Front of the hyrulean forces and are immediately thrown into combat while Proxi cheers you on, and Impa seems apprehensive

Overall this stage is Overwhelming. you have lots of keeps to capture across the entire map, only one warrior to control, and they keep spawning Very annoying Very powerful enemies that immediately begin advancing towards Zelda. After you’ve neutralized that threat, Cia only makes things worse

this is awesome . this is actually so great . i LOVE dark link as a concept and i ADOOOOORE the way they really expand on the whole “manifestation of the darkness in your heart” thing by giving link Specific Flaws to be fighting against.

not to mention the fact that it’s a flaw that you could argue was present Before the master sword ie. ignoring his comrades and running into battle despite still being a trainee in the Opening cutscenes.

couldnt find a natural way to weave this in but i also find it so interesting that these things are Both true.

when impa told link that hes the chosen hero he “did not believe himself worthy of the honor” despite knowing he’s an excellent swordsman . really shows that when he embraces his role later on a little Too enthusiastically there is Growth .

i think i would kill for this game to have the capability of providing a more intricate and moment-to-moment narrative just to see how this arc would play out on an intimate level, AND what it actually means when link considers himself not worthy yet. but this game canonically spans a matter of Months adding up the several “weeks passed” timeskips so that would be crazy. i will have to do it myself >.o

this rlly is just about one thing . MY BAD!!!

a couple Quick honorable mentions:

i think it’s cool we get to play with characters who would never reappear in the franchise otherwise. its one hell of an excuse but i am still delighted by it

this seems like a Good strategy game as far as gameplay goes . it has been fun and challenging cutting my teeth on this new format

i reaaaally like the adventure mode . it’s whacky and Really Hard at times but bringing in the old maps ? deeelish.

LINKLEEEEEEE

SHEEIIIIIIIIIIIK . if anybody deserves to be the most op most broken breakdancing Freak it’s that blue guy . can you tell i’m a sonic fan

my fairy is comical in ways that delight me . TO THE SALON!!

i’m trying not to just name all the women on the roster . i LOVE WOMEN. impa just one chance babe

oookay that’s all i can think of off the top of my head . THABK YOU AGAIN FOR THE ASK !! and thank youuuu teehee i Love drawing . here’s a sneak peek of smth i will hopefully finish soon

[skimmingmilk]

Hi, I'm a big fan of your Sonic fics - they're so good! :)

i've read Fried Liver with a Side of Emotional Indigestion a few times because I love the dynamic between Tails and Shadow, and the little moments where Sonic is jealous! Do you have any headcanons of Sonic being jealous of Tails and Shadow's growing friendship?

Thank you so much!! I'm very happy you're enjoying them! :D

That's awesome that you've reread "Fried Liver," it was surprisingly fun to write :)

I have so many headcanons for Sonic being jealous of them and I wish I could talk about it more, but a lot of it has to do with events that I haven't shared (or written out) yet! And it's hard for me to separate my headcanons from my fics because I put almost all of them into the Picket Fence universe xD

That being said, I can talk a little about how the jealousy is expressed at least! Sonic will often do what he's doing in Fried Liver - butting in and making himself the center of attention, lol. He'll also get extra competitive, challenge Shadow to random things in an attempt to irritate him. It's satisfying to make Shadow just as annoyed as he is~ Without pushing it too far, of course.

When it comes to how he acts around Tails, once Tails knows that it's a touchy subject, Sonic will let himself be a bit clingier. Hang around the workshop for longer, offer to be a test subject for anything, try to drag Tails into town with him, and make himself useful in a way that's like, "see? you don't need Shadow for this! you've got me!"

But he does actually like that Shadow is an option for Tails to go to, it's not buried so deep down that he can't recognize it could be a good thing. Doesn't mean it can't still hurt his pride a little though.

In context, I think it'll make a lot more sense why he goes to these lengths with Tails and Shadow. Sonic and Shadow are going to go through something together that will force them to bare a little more of their vulnerable sides to each other, even if it's not by choice. Then later on, Shadow will do something that Sonic perceives as a breach of his trust and that sets the stage for the pettiness later. Fried Liver takes place after all that goes down and is ultimately resolved, so it's a bit more lighthearted here.