#also if the timeline is wonky... no it isn't you saw nothing

[tinysnippets-sometimes]

A while back someone on r/fanfiction gave the prompt "love, hugs, inside jokes, and incredible violence" and I thought that worked really well for c!Borealtrio, so I wrote this little thing (now edited up just a little bit for posting here :)

Ranboo POV, Peer Pressure Duo, Emerald Duo, Relationship Analysis (?)

~

Over the month or so that Ranboo had known Technoblade and Philza, they had begun to notice a few things about the two's friendship. Of course, the first thing they'd noticed was how incredibly devoted and loyal the two were were to each other; that had been obvious even back when Ranboo had was being dragged along by Quackity and the rest of the L'Manburg cabinet to hunt Techno down and try execute him in front of Phil. The two blatantly cared about each other a lot.

The next thing Ranboo had realized more recently, something that had surprised them at first but seemed as natural as anything else now, was how physically affectionate the two were. It wasn't uncommon in the least to find the pair curled up on the couch together, especially when Techno was preening Phil's wings for him, or when Phil was braiding Techno's hair. Ranboo was pretty sure they had even walked in on Phil napping beside Techno during his hibernation once, though they weren't fully convinced they hadn't imagined it given how unreliable their memory was and how they had refused to write it down.

Another thing Ranboo noticed was that the two had developed way too many in-jokes for him to keep up with. Of course he understood the "Technoblade never dies!" catchphrase, but anything deeper than that went over their head. Like, sure, a baby zombie is a pain to deal with, but they were still confused by how over exaggerated Techno's reaction was every time one got within ten feet of Phil, and at this point they were scared to ask for an explanation.

And finally, perhaps one of the more immediately relevant things Ranboo had noticed, was how especially Technoblade used wrath and violence as possibly one of the greatest signs of care. That's what Doomsday was when it came down to it; the two taking revenge on L'Manburg for what it had done to themselves and each other. That was why no one ever dared trying to hurt either of them any more, they were terrified of seeing their home destroyed once more — or worse.

... So what did it mean then, when Bad commented that Techno didn't like people, and Techno had butted in to say that he liked Ranboo? When, after Ranboo was injured during Bad's ambush, Techno had all but carried them home? He'd teased Ranboo about how for once, he got to be the main character instead of them... And now, just a couple months later, Techno had gone out and come back to report how he'd teamed up with Quackity, Quackity, to take down Bad's so-called Eggpire. What was that all supposed to mean?

[beevean]

I'm of two minds about Ian Flynn being the head writer of Sonic Frontier; on the one hand, I personally think he gets elements of the characters/world right, he does do a fairly decent job, particularly on things like dialogue or decent setup/pacing of dramatic scenes (if you disagree on this that's totally fair- s'all subjective innit). On the other hand, let's not pretend his writing is flawless- it isn't- and yes, he has very clear interpretations of how certain characters are or should be that doesn't always gel with what we see elsewhere, and yeah, comics writing and games writing are two entirely different beasts in terms of pace and structure. More pertinently, the plot details revealing that this is yet another "Eggman finds a Power/Creature/Thing, tries to control it, loses control, things go wonky" story has left me a little bit cold- regardless of writer, surely that story is well trodden ground by now? It's something that can be revisited, sure, but that's particular setup has been at the very least the backbone of every mainline title from Heroes (arguably Adventure 2) to Generations; for what issues Forces has, it at the very least bucked that particular trend and I'm not very thrilled to see it make a comeback in the game immediately after it.

I'm a little cool on Fromtiers in general so far; I'm not outright uninterested and I cannot fairly judge a thing that's not even done yet, but for as technically impressive as the world shown off looks it felt a bit... drab? Obviously the final game will have more location variety (well, you'd like to think so), and what we see in the teaser may be spruced up further, but I'm not wholly sold on it yet. I think part of it is a style clash- that more realistic-ish looking setting might work better for something that's... not Sonic, but I dunno. I'm also a little unsure about the music- this one's not to do with the trailer itself, but I know Forces' soundtrack (which I really liked) caught a fair bit of flack, whilst the Team Sonic Racing tunes (which Jun Senoue had a lot of a hand in, and whilst I don't dislike his work I'm so beyond tired of Buttrock Sonic Tunes at this point) went down a lot better; I'm worried that that indicates a style shift back to that Senoue style sound, possibly to the point of other Sonic Team composers- Naofumi Hataya, Kenichi Tokoi, Fumie Kumatani etc.- taking a backseat and contributing very little, which would be a huge shame as despite their not getting the same degree acclaim as Senoue and lately Ohtani, they're extremely talented composers with really interesting styles that I wish the series would explore a little more. Again, of course, this is all entirely subjective taste-wise and, more importantly, is pure conjecture and speculation drawn from basically nothing, but it is something on me mind. We'll just have to wait and see, I suppose.

Conversely, Sonic 2 looks pretty good. Like, really good. Far better than it has any right to be- much like the first film did (and ultimately was). It is so surreal to me that I can sit here and say "I am really looking forward to the sequel to a live action Sonic the Hedgehog movie, possibly even over the next actual game, in which beloved and talented actor and musician Idris Elba has been cast as Knuckles" and mean it. What a weird timeline we've found ourselves living in!

You know the thing?

I know that Flynn is so praised because he saved Archie Sonic from the absolute ungodly mess that was what Ken Penders left behind. And I appreciate it! From what little I know, he did a good job!

But I never read Archie, so my exposure to Flynn was IDW, which started off as great and tumbled down into sheer stupidity after 19 volumes. Sonic became OOC, Eggman became OOC, Shadow I don't even know whose fault was for his IQ being dropped, Starline lost everything that made him interesting, Belle is too bland for how much focus we got...

I saw Flynn as someone who looked like he could extrapolate the hints left by the games and build a coherent, interesting world with compelling characters, and then ripped all of that away from us.

Then he started directly contradicting canon, and that's when I decided I wasn't going to bother with him anymore. I had fewer positive experiences with him than the older Archie fans, that's all.

Anyway. Writing for a comic and writing for a game are two different things, for different reasons. Maybe he won't pull an IDW 2.0. We shall see, even though the concept itself sounds so boring and outdated.

It's something that can be revisited, sure, but that's particular setup has been at the very least the backbone of every mainline title from Heroes (arguably Adventure 2) to Generations

Adventure, Adventure 2 and Unleashed were all about Eggman unleashing an entity that then replaced him as the villain. Heroes and Advance 3 had him simply replaced by his own robot, and ShTH and '06 had him replaced by an alien/divine creature.

Colors, the first game written by Pontaff, avoided this cliché completely, and then every game had a different twist: in Generations he managed to tame the beast, in Lost World he survived the Zeti attack and waited until Sonic was done with them to attack, in Mania he battled against Heavy King, and in Forces he dispatched Infinite when he became useless. I love this! It all shows how clever and resourceful he is. I wasn't expecting for the next game to go back to the old "eggman fucked up" concept.

Agree with the rest. I won't judge just yet, especially because the trailer was nothing more than a showcase of the Hedgehog Engine 2, but I hope that in the actual game it doesn't look like Sonic was plopped into a generic fantasy setting. The music was pretty, but surprisingly un-Sonic for something composed by Tee Lopes and Tomoya Ohtani.

Well, I love Senoue's buttrock so I wouldn't complain if he came back :P I personally wish Ohtani took a break, he's great but they really squeezed him to the bone in the 2010s. I doubt Senoue's music will be used for this kind of game, though - the pipedream is that Kenichi Tokoi and Mariko Nanba will come back and the music will sound like '06's <3

Nothing to add about Sonic 2. Sonic as a vigilante is a bit odd, but it could lead to his canonical portrayal of someone who does heroic things out of fun. Tails is adorable, Eggman is cool, and Knuckles holy crap that one like sounded way more badass than it had any right to be. Even in Italian! I swear these are the only movies that I can enjoy in my language without cringing <3