#best sonic game ever i don't fucking care

[dany36]

just when i think this game can't get any better, the first stage of the last island is METAL. FUCKING. HARBOR.

hmmm. excuse me for one second.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[creepercraftguy]

My thoughts on BOWSER VS EGGMAN

This was easily my most hyped matchup thus far. Knowing that we were getting Bowser Vs Eggman this year, I was definitely more excited for this compared to Bardock Vs Omni-Man.

This matchup carries a fucking legacy with it. These are the two most notorious video game villains of all time, and the chance to see them actually bash against each other is something that, for Death Battle, has been a long time coming.

But was the episode good and did it live up to the hype? Let's see.

Everything is under the cut as per normal, because I will be spoiling the episode:

Okay. Short answer?

Yes.

Yes it did.

You want to know what my biggest regret for this fight was in general? The fact that I didn't think to grab a goddamn bucket of popcorn before I watched it because MY GOD.

I!

JUST!

WATCHED!

SOME!

CINEMMMAAAAA!

I'm gonna talk about this in the order that I normally talk about this, which means I'm gonna start by talking about the analysis, but...to be perfectly honest, I don't really CARE about the analysis this time, lol.

I think it's because it's honestly VERY hard to come by someone who DOESN'T know who either of these guys are and what they can do. Like I said, they're easily the two most notorious and well-known video game villains to ever exist. Even if you're not a gamer, no doubt you know who Mario and Sonic are, and by extention, you should also realistically know who Bowser and Dr. Eggman are.

With that said, I didn't really have a problem with either of these analyses besides the fact that they're a little hard to follow. They were intuitive, but it also just kind of felt like STATS STATS STATS NUMBERS MORE STATS MORE LORE STATS LORE LORE LORE!

Besides the overabundance of lore squishing and stat squishing, it's all good and kind of fun, especially in the editing.

Also, for Bowsers segment, it surprises me just how little time they spend talking about Kamek, despite how in the post-analysis, Boomstick mentions that Kamek is one of the largest reasons why Bowsers army triumphed.

And in Eggman's analysis, they brought up the Hard-Boiled Heavies and...I didn't even see them in the fight the first time I watched it.

Most of the limelight in terms of the minions was given to Kamek, Metal Sonic, Bowser Jr. and Sage, and that's kind of what I wanted anyway, but still, why bring them up if they're not going to show up?

And I expect this, and this isn't a nitpick at all, but there are several points where they talk about resources that don't really matter, because they're never actually used in the fight. They CAN use everything, but we'd be here forever if they did, it ultimately comes down to what's their best kit, and who's best kit is better.

But with that said, I will be coming back to this in the post analysis because there's something else that's kind of important that I need to mention.

Either way, what's most important to me with the analysis and post analysis is that bost combatants are respected, and made out to be as powerful as they can be, and for this battle, that was done very well.

Even listening to the stats, it didn't give me a clear indication of who was going to win in the end, and I actually think that's a good thing because it makes me more hyped for the fight.

Okay, NOW we talk about the fight! YES YES and more YESSSS!

I just want to take a moment to talk about the animator for this fight, MORO. With these analyses, I don't really talk about the actual animators behind Death Battle, because I treat all of them with an equal amount of respect, and I will only talk about the actual animator if the battle itself stands out.

And trust me. THIS stands OUT!

I said in my previous analysis of Joker Vs Giorno that I was really hoping that MORO would blow it out of the park with his battle, because that's what I cared about most of all, and holy fucking hell he DID IT and he DID IT WELL!

MORO first started working with Death Battle in Season 10, and no doubt bringing him on to work on the show was one of the best decisions that Death Battle have made in their entire run. Bill Cipher Vs Discord, Gojo Vs Makima, and Stitch Vs Rocket are just a few of his previous battles, and all of them were hype as fuck.

This one is EASILY the most hype though. The way everything happens in this fight, well...I could break it down and...you know what? I think I WILL!

Especially considering that...well, I can't speak FOR him, of course, but I get the feeling that MORO really loved animating this fight, because the thing I wanted to say about the post-analysis is that it features fully-animated scenes of the alternate outcomes, and a post-battle scene of Eggman's forces signing up for Bowser's army, which we haven't seen in YEARS.

I doubt MORO NEEDED to make these scenes, but he still did it because he cared so much about exploring these alternate outcomes, and covering everything that they discussed in the analysis, so they could go over all of them in the post analysis.

Because there are so many ways this fight could have gone, and thanks to this gigachad of an animator, we got to see all of them.

Okay, but the fight itself, and what we DID see in the MAIN sequence. Yeah...It's GODLY!

Something I absolutely loved about this fight was that going into it, we all knew that this was going to be an all out battle of armies, and everyone leading up to this was "This is less of a battle, and more of a war."

And goddamn it FELT like one!

The ambiance of this entire fight, from beginning to end, felt so goddamn chaotic and...honestly FRIGHTENING! Like, this goes above and beyond just the simple cartoonish antics of the Mario and Sonic series. This fight is fucking GRITTY, and EMOTIONAL! With stuff like the grey sky, the copious amounts of destruction that comes as a result of the fighting, the rain, the ambiance, etc.

And no, that's not me memeing. This generally felt like a short war flick, just with silly superpowers in it. There's genuinely a climactic and emotional weight to this fight, and one thing I noticed upon rewatching is that this lacks something that Death Battle is famous for, and yet it still manages to be a fantastic battle anyway:

Blood.

The lack of blood in this episode is pretty surprising, because when the characters die, they die in ways that replicate their deaths in the original games; i.e. kind of just popping out of existence. Even when Metal Sonic runs Bowser through post-transformation, there's no blood. Bowser just collapses to the ground.

And I actually don't mind it!

I genuinely think that even if this is a war, and it feels like a war thanks to the ambiance, if there was loads of blood, it would actually take away from the experience for me. The lack of blood doesn't reduce the impact of what's going on for me, and I think if there was this much gore, they'd be trying too hard. They were trying to make a spectacle of Mario's arch-enemy and Sonic's arch-enemy and their respective armies brawling each other, and they damn well succeeded.

This is very much backed up by the voice acting from everybody, which in general is very well done. Only three characters; Bowser, Eggman, and Sage, (Metal Sonic gets I think ONE line) speak in this. I don't actually know who voiced Sage, but they do a very good job, but even more importantly is Arthur Romeo as Eggman.

I don't know if Romeo was intending to go this route, but I really like that his Eggman impression is more reminiscent of Deem Bristow instead of Mike Pollock. I love Mike Pollock as Eggman, don't get me wrong, but Deem Bristow (for those who don't know, Bristow is the one who voiced Eggman in the Adventure games) really works for this fight because it's not the kind of scenario where Eggman would be the kooky villain that he is in a lot of the modern games, where it's kind of funny to see him fail.

This fight is treated VERY seriously, and the voice really works for it. As for Bowsers' VA, Zack Watkins (an animator who has been with Death Battle for a long time now, with his first animated fight being Batman Vs Captain America) his voice is pitch-shifted because...well, it HAS to be, because you can't really reach that low gruff voice if you don't. But when he DOES get a good line, he sells it really well. The highlight for me is Bowsers rage after Junior gets whomped by Metal.

The fight admittedly starts very weirdly, even if it's pretty funny. I think what was supposed to be going on is Eggman tricked Bowser into thinking he was marrying Peach so that he could get all of his forces in one place to wipe them out at once, which is admittedly cool in concept, but for me at least, I didn't get that on the first watch. It felt more to me like Eggman pulled a prank on Bowser, then announced that he was going to take over the Mushroom Kingdom.

Also, I know that people weren't very happy about the Snapcube reference, but...what's the problem with it? It's a neat reference, but you're not supposed to linger on it.

But yeah, in case I haven't sold it hard enough yet, this fight is brilliant from the establishing shot that shows the two armies and when they launch themselves at each other, right until the end when Bowser deals the final blow. MORO absolutely KILLED IT, and I CANNOT stress that enough.

Like, genuinely, there was so much stellar animation, and so much emotional weight, power, and feeling to this fight that it genuinely made me tear up a little, and I'm not joking. Like I already said, this was CINEMA, there is no other way to express it.

Side note: I genuinely wasn't expecting Infinite to be in this fight, but its hilarious how he shows up for about...10 seconds, does his bullshit, then dies almost immediately, and I...do NOT care, lol.

Honestly, had Infinite been in the fight any longer than he was, I might not have liked it as much. So to have him here to establish how Eggman has the Phantom Ruby and little more was honestly the perfect way to go about it, especially since we get a brief "clash" (I'm hesitant to call it that because King Boo basically just one-taps him) between Infinite and King Boo with their similar abilities.

And I love how in this scene, you can really see the difference between Bowser and Eggman in that, instead of trying to find a way to fight back against Infinite's control, Bowser is instead using his dark magic to protect his minions, and it's up to King Boo to take Infinite out.

That doesn't only show me how much Bowser cares about his minions like they're his family, but also that he TRUSTS them, because to me, it felt like he knew he couldn't take out Infinite without sacrificing his men, but trusted King Boo to do it.

Both Bowser and Eggman are written masterfully in this episode, and I'm glad because they are already such phenomenal characters on their own, and to show both of them for who they really are inside is wonderful, especially if it's done in a way that is this subtle that it doesn't take away from the action.

Just...GOD I LOVED THIS EPISODE!

I don't want to go into a full breakdown, because we might be here for a while, but beyond this opening sequence that shows how both of these sides are treating this war, here's a list of other moments in the fight that I think were absolutely godlike. And keep in mind this is just a FEW stand-out moments for me personally:

Metal Sonic's transformation into Neo Metal Sonic, and the step he does towards the camera before he pounds Bowser's ass.

The scene where Bowser Jr. turns Bowser into Fury Bowser, and Bowser's "SHOWTIME...!" as he transforms. As I said, even if his voice is pitch-shifted, and even if he lacks in the dialogue department compared to Eggman, when Zack Watkins delivered a line, he delivered it in a pristine package with a nice little bow wrap.

Sage throwing a legion of robots at Fury Bowser, and Kamek building a war of pipes to block it - Absolutely mindblowing choreography.

My absolute favourite moment in the fight: Metal Sonic Vs Shadow Mario, being a nice callback to Mario Vs Sonic, and Bowsers reaction when Junior gets knocked to the floor and is badly hurt. The rage in his voice and the blast he lets out that absolutely DECIMATES not just Metal Sonic, but creates a black hole that wipes out most of Eggman's fleet is so Dragon Ball-like.

Bowser shielding his ENTIRE ARMY against the Death Egg blast! THIS is the moment that made me tear up! Like, how could you NOT root for Bowser after this!? The guy absorbed the full blast to prevent his minions from getting annihilated, to the point where it completely shed his skin off his body and almost killed him, but he held his ground because he would rather have DIED than let his army; the people he CARES ABOUT, get wiped out by Eggman. And then the motherfucker comes back swinging anyway and ENDS that bald bastard!

Eggman's death isn't climactic for the death itself, but for what Bowser does to him during the sequence, as well as the actual setting. Again, the animation and choreography for this episode is godlike, but this shot at the end when Bowser is reassembling himself as Dry Bowser ready to deal the final hit, it's important to note that Bowser has his son at his feet, and his minions rallying behind him. They are in the middle of a warzone, many of their comerades have died, and yet they are STILL WITH HIM! And as for Eggman, he has no one. Not even Sage is there anymore. And as Bowser sucks him in for the final blow, Eggman exhausts all of his options, and Bowser counters all of them. Bowser's final line might as well have been "YOU'RE FUCKED!" because yeah, he just was, and Bowser let him know it regardless. (Also, it's revealed in the end that Kamek also survived, despite being knocked into the horizon by Metal Sonic.)

Alas, despite all this grandeur, I have one minor complaint. Granted, it's not a huge one, and it doesn't affect my overall opinion of the fight, but I still feel like I should bring it up.

I understand that it's next to impossible for every single one of these minions to get a time in the limelight, but what was important for me going into it was that Junior, Kamek, Metal Sonic, and Sage all got some time in the limelight to absolutely kick ass.

And most of them did...except Sage.

It's not like Sage did nothing, but compared to Bowser Jr. and Metal Sonic especially, she didn't really do an awful lot beyond throw things, block an attack, and activate the Death Egg when Eggman told her to. Metal was doing most of the fighting and yeah, okay, Metal is built for combat while Sage isn't, but Sage can still fight. I would have absolutely loved to see Bowser's son throw hands with Eggman's daughter though.

Again, it's not enough to completely throw my opinion to the wayside, but had Sage been given more to do, that would have made this episode absolutely perfect.

And overall, my least favourite part about this fight, genuinely, is that it ENDED!

Like, I KNOW these can't go on for more than a few minutes but I didn't want this fight to stop. I could watch a whole MOVIE about these two armies going at it.

More specifically I would watch it if MORO was the one animating it. But again, the guy has done MORE than enough.

And of course, the last thing that I have yet to talk about is the music.

My god the music, especially when it hits in the fight. Remember how I said my favourite moments in this fight were when Bowser rages over Junior, then blocks the Death Egg? A big part of what made those scenes so phenomenal is that the music went full-capital HARD for those scenes!

Like...Brandon Yates! HOW does he DO it!?

I genuinely think Brandon Yates is one of the best music composers of all time, and that's not even an exageration. I love all of the work he does for Death Battle and I love all the work outside of it. I love that the Death Battle crew are lucky enough to have found this man because he, and Therewolf Media too, are a massive part of why the Death Battle fights are so enjoyable to watch. Music makes these fights so good, and the modern episodes are so much better compared to the old episodes where they had to use other audio.

Also, I'm not gonna ignore Victor Borbo and Tyler Anderson who sung the vocals for the track, because they together are, medium, 50% of the reason why it absolutely slaps.

Final thoughts: When this fight was coming out, I genuinely expected that Eggman would win it. But now that I've actually watched this episode, and I got to see Eggman and Bowser at their full potential and doing everything they can to destroy each other, I actually think that had Bowser lost, I wouldn't have been as satisfied.

As they said in the post analysis, Bowser actually cares about his minions. Eggman doesn't, except for Sage. And as I pointed out, there are several points in the fight where Bowser actively tries to protect his minions over trying to take out Eggman's. When he defends them against the Phantom Ruby and Infinite, and then when he shields all of them from the Death Egg. And they REPAY that loyalty and kindness in the end, and are with Bowser during the final blow.

I was rooting for Bowser, but betting Eggman, but after this whole fight ended, I don't care what anyone else has to say about the stats, or whether things add up or not. That Koopa King EARNED and DESERVED THAT W!

It's honestly hilarious how I'm both a Persona fan and a JoJo fan, and Joker Vs Giorno didn't captivate me NEARLY as much as this spectacle did. It's not that I think Joker Vs Giorno is bad; I rewatched it a dozen times. But this fight is hands down the best fight they've done in YEARS! I think it even beats out my top contenders from Season 10.

My last note is the next time:

Okay, I wasn't expecting the 2024 finale to be such a meme matchup, but...I know that this was a thing that people kind of wanted to see, but I'm genuinely curious HOW they scale this with any kind of logic.

My current bet is on the Imposters because they actually kill things and have stuff in their bodies and equipment that are designed to kill, and the Fall Guys are just stupid beans that get knocked around a lot.

So my biggest thoughts about this are 1) how the fuck to you stage a fight between them, and 2) What kind of stats do you calculate?

Like, as a meme, I like this fight, but now that it's an official episode? I don't know, man. I really don't know how to feel about it.

Teaser was hilarious though.

Final score for Eggman and Bowser? 10 out of goddamn 10.

[cartoon-buffoon]

Sonic X Shadow generations came out and cool but just as I expected I am beyond disappointed with the inclusion of metal overlord because it feels like fan service that somehow manages to slap the fans of metal sonic in the face at same fucking time. Now my main gripe with the fight in general is it's inclusion because ultimately—NO MATTER WHAT SHADOW IS NOT GETTING NOWHERE NEAR TO BEAT METAL, THE RED AND BLACK AND BOZO WOULD GET KILLED THE SECOND HE TRIED TO 1V1 M-OVERLORD!

This is gonna turn into a VERY LONG ramble of why I love metal more than anything however if you wish to indulge the words of a lunatic who loves a fictional metal anthropomorphic hedgehog then bear with me because this makes me IRRATIONALLY MAD! I have no reason to be this worked up yet I still am, shut up I'm allowed to be stupidly passionate about this. Also I would like to note the criticism that I have is gonna be located at the VERY END OF THIS (gonna reiterate) VERY LONG RANT and the criticism I have is gonna disappoint but I don't care and ultimately you should take my words with an ounce of salt because I'm a stupid cartoon yelling on a soap box here and if this nonsensical blame my ADHD.

Anyways disclaimer done: my main gripe with the fight as stated is it's inclusion because of the premise of what Metal Overlord is. Metal Overlord is the final form of Neo Metal Sonic which is Metal Sonic that was upgraded to the point he gained a voice and intelligence enough to know he did not need Eggman. With an understanding of his new powers and the ultimate goal of killing sonic to be the one true sonic (his metal empire plan was 100% second place to killing sonic lmao) he threw his own creator in a closet, locked him in there, and then proceeded to lead the sonic heroes on wild goose chases just to collect their bio data to perfect himself which—his perfection is the Metal Overlord form. That's at least what Metal Overlord is in a really quick summary that can be taken with only a quick look at what it is but the reason for metal doing all this ultimately stems from character development that kind of just happens off screen? Like I know there's Archie and the OVA which is forever gonna be the best sonic movie in terms of both plot and animation because holy fuck it is peak (go watch the Sonic OVA it's free on YT and it will help you understand why metal is such a great character) but ultimately his appearance in the comic and the OVA in general is non-canon to the mainline games and exists as side media. Metal's first appearance and really main appearance outside of heroes is Sonic CD which he acts as Sonic's first proper fake, look alike rival who stems to destroy him and help Eggman.

Metal naturally loses the race he challenged Sonic too and from there he moves onto his second appearance which is in Knuckles Chaotix where—I don't even know if that game is canon because it is a spinoff that DOES connect to CD because Metal Sonic's appearance as the villain of the game is if I remember correctly supposed to be after his loss in CD but it's never referenced or talked about like, ever? Anyways—Metal Sonic does appear in that game and he fights Knuckles and the Chaotix (and Mighty + 2 robots who presumably just die as their never referenced again) yet he still once again loses even after obtaining a pretty cool powerful form called Metal Sonic KAI. From there the events of Mania happen which we don't really know where it does because Mania IS CANON but on the classic timeline with superstars it's kind of messy, but it definitely does come sometime after Knuckles Chaotix because in Sonic mania metal gets his giga form which is directly based on his KAI form from Chaotix although his giga form is a sort of perfected version it using the Phantom Ruby. In any case his appearance in mania isn't as important as the series of short animated episodes called the "Sonic Mania Adventures" that were made because metal is in them and it gives us a clear idea of Metal's hatred for losing.

In the shorts Metal plays as a helper to Eggman as per usual with his main goal being to help the doctor track down the chaos emeralds, very standard setup. Once Sonic, Tails, Mighty and Ray arrive to get the two emeralds back from Metal and to stop Eggman from getting them all this turns out to be just one big trap and we see Metal use the power of the chaos emeralds to go "super" (not proper super like Mecha MK. 2 does but he does get a yellow aura) and single handily hold off Sonic, Tails, Ray, AND MIGHTY WHO IS STUPIDLY STRONG! Like Mighty iirc is stronger than Knuckles but he is more of a pacifist who prefers not to actually get into fights but is still more than capable of crazy feats of strength. The only reason why Metal loses is his systems were hacked by Tails who freezes him, knocks the emeralds outta him, and then once Metal tries to recover by harassing the master emerald power he gets suprise attacked by Knuckles stopping him before he could do that. From there we get a very sweet animation where we see Metal at first abandoned by Eggman although through Amy's help he reunites with his creator who manages to accept him back—however a small detail many misinterpret/don't catch is the start of Metal's tragedy and what I believe is the turning point for him.

In the 6th and final Sonic Mania Adventures short which takes place after the first 5 installments Eggman throws a temper tantrum after his defeat that takes place in the aforementioned previous 5 episodes. In this temper tantrum Eggman kicks Metal once out of frustration because he is an egotist and can't accept defeat thus naturally blaming the ineptitude of the things HE creates. Now after the first kick Eggman doubles down and kicks Metal more forceful the second time around, however I believe this kick wasn't out of anger and moreso as motivation and a way to say "get up! We have to go rebuild and come up with a new plan"

Now this doesn't work and Metal goes back to lying face down in the dirt, and I see a few people misinterpret this entire thing as Eggman getting mad at Metal and leaving him behind which is—in my firm belief—NOT the case! As evidence by Eggman's next expression once Metal goes limp he seems thoroughly surprised and only then does he get angered and storm off, almost wishing that Metal DID get up but he has no time for the angst of a creation who's not even old enough to be considered a teenager.

Now there is of course the argument to be made Metal was too damaged to get up and walk and Eggman didn't wish to bother with his creation which ya know, does effectively mean he abandoned him. However considering he does repeatedly move his head and DOES move his joints/body like when Amy saves him where he's on his hands and knees before getting knocked back down it does seem like Metal isn't damaged beyond the point of moving but it's moreso he doesn't care (that first kick probably did become engraved into Metal's memory and was probably a key factor into Eggman getting thrown into a closet in heroes though lmao). In any case it seems both by Eggman's reaction and the display of Metal moving that Metal simply lost all hope and fell into a sort of robotic depression. Only once did Amy physically drag him to Eggman's base did Metal finally go back to his creator, although once again if the context clues point to metal once again be PERFECTLY CAPABLE of movement then metal could at ANY POINT WALKED/FLEW BACK, but he didn't. He didn't go back because that defeat right there was what broke the camel's back, after the repeated loss after loss did metal finally be able to take no more and accepted his defeat. Cold, alone, and partially broken he remained there with nothing to do other than look through his memories because nothing points to Metal going into a sleep mode so we're sort of led to believe metal was turned on for that ENTIRE duration of time when he was in the dirt. And what does Metal's memories consist of? Oh that's right it's practically only filled with the repeated times he lost by the hands of someone who he deems inferior to the point he believes himself to be the superior version. I feel like this is the moment where the true bitterness brew, his choice of words as Metal Overlord demonstrates just how much Metal despises Sonic.:"Long time no see, Sonic, my loathsome copy!" Is a line that I always felt like so much power because Metal doesn't hate sonic, he LOATHES him. What was simple hatred grew into something so much more because reminder Metal's entire purpose is to beat Sonic and kill him yet never being able to do that ultimately lead to something more than just him merely serving his purpose, no, Metal's feelings towards Sonic turned personal.

Also really quick Metal does appear in sonic adventure which is after the classic era. He is playable in the DX version but he has no proper story and is merely a fun reward you get for getting all the medals, but his main appearance even in the OG version is in this vat in the egg carrier. It's possible Metal is still turned on during this considering his eyelights ARE on meaning he still could be thinking but there's no evidence to support he's awake or in stasis and because this model is ripped directly from SA2 battle which ya know, has him turned on. Still something neat to note but probably not important.

Anyways with all that being said the mania adventure shorts is something we got in this modern era to provide some lore on Metal Sonic and just some neat filler stuff that adds world building. Back then there was no little extra bit of talk or content regarding the canon game material with Metal as a character but stuff is still implied with all the dialogue written in Sonic Heroes where we see Metal in his ULTIMATE FORM. With his new Neo form Metal gains the power to copy the biological data of whatever life form he can thoroughly assess and he uses this power to scan everyone's data as well as the biological data of the primordial god of chaos which is in the form of Froggy who holds Chaos' tail and Chocolate which is a chao which are kin/apart of Chaos or at least the master emerald. Once with all the data in tow he transforms into Metal Overlord which is not only the pinnacle of Eggman's hubris but also a manmade god capable of adapting to whatever is thrown at it and becoming stronger. It's a learning machine that simply gets smarter and stronger the more you throw at it until it gets the power to best you with it now able to copy what you threw at it. It is such a threat that once Eggman sees this he truly realizes that he was Icarus who flew too close to the sun and is paying for it in the form of his creation which power far outclasses that of the chaos emeralds. As said by doctor Eggman himself who is known to be a man full of ego and pride he still understands how truly fucked they all are upon seeing Neo Metal transform with him saying "it's useless! Metal Sonic has combined your data with the power of chaos and super strong! We can't defeat it!" Even when he groans about the singular possible chance of being able to fight Metal with all the 7 chaos emeralds upon seeing them he doubles down on Metal Overlord's power by saying "even with the emerald's power our chances for victory are slim! It would take a miracle!"

Eggman himself makes the clear statement of even with the power of all 7 emeralds and the capability of 3 users of the power of super the odds are SLIM and dawg says it would take a god damn MIRACLE if they wanna win. Not to mention he says this with the most genuine fear ever because as I remarked before, my man is regretting the time he kicked metal and probably real quick turned from a man of science to one of religion and started praying to Gaia that he doesn't go to the Sonic universe's version of hell. Bottom line is Metal Sonic is ridiculously powerful and team Rose, team Chaotix, and team Dark which includes Shadow—AND FINALLY GETTING BACK TO WHAT THIS RANT STARTED OFF AS— can't do anything but hold him off while Sonic, Tails and Knuckles charge up. With all 3 teams attacking Metal Overlord doesn't really falter as all they're doing is catching him mid-transformation and simply fighting to buy time because as Metal states himself "You all are useless now that I copied your data!" And even Shadow understands this because after holding him off with Team Dark Shadow says "Sonic! We're counting on you!" Because he too registers that if Sonic, Tails, and Knux don't pull it off they are all totally fucked. Oh this is also not mentioning that after the 3 teams held him off Team Sonic could only hurt Metal in his overlord with team blast which was 3 people hyped up on chaos juice jumping him all at once! I don't need to go on with just how powerful overlord is as a transformation yet this is all a prerequisite to understand SHADOW IS NOT FUCKING TOUCHING METAL OVERLORD NO MATTER THE UNIVERSE OR WHAT NEW POWERS HE GETS!

Metal ultimately is better than Sonic but somehow can never come out on top. Despite being faster he still somehow loses races to his "loathsome copy". Metal is a cold calculating robot who can analyze whatever is being thrown at him and adapt even if not in his Neo form we see in the mania shorts without the chaos emeralds supping him up he goes for the master emerald trying to improvise and fight on the fly. Unlike Sonic who bleeds and will eventually fall to time and age Metal won't, metal will stay constant in his prime only ever getting stronger with each encounter and fight he's in with Sonic but in the end he will still lose. With his jet propulsion system and overdrive attack Metal is easily capable of out speeding Sonic, beating him at what he does best and being faster than the fastest thing alive, but his greatest strength is also his greatest weakness. While it's true Metal is faster than the fastest thing alive ultimately that's what makes him inferior, his lack of life and a soul with the capability of only doing what he has ever known. Even when betraying his creator and getting free will he doesn't for a second stop his goal of being the one and only Sonic, in the process LITERALLY turning himself into a monster (which he acknowledges) but that doesn't stop him from trying and leads to his defeat.

AND THEN WE GOT SONIC X SHADOW GENERATIONS WHERE THIS RED SON OF A BITCH COMES OUTTA NOWHERE AND BEATS HIM IN A 1 v 1!

get the fuck out with this SHADOW FAVORITISM BULLSHIT SEGA! Do not fucking tarnish Metal's character by giving Shadow the ability to suddenly face him! Like I'm gonna go as far to say FUCKING BASE METAL outclasses Shadow because Metal is still capable of evenly matching what Sonic can output to the end, he's Sonic's lesser by a tiny margin and the idea that Shadow—WHO IS NOT STRONGER THAN SONIC MIND YOU—can magically fight the form that can be implied is stronger than fucking chaos is laughable and bullshit. So much bullshit in fact that I could create a healthy and thriving fucking garden in my front yard which is more dead and lacking of nutrients than the Sahara fucking desert's land! That's how much bullshit there is! Oh but of course the people who love riding that hedgehog's hog will go and say "um shadow also has a soul so wouldn't he be able to beat metal?" And my response is: IT WASN'T JUST SONIC'S SOUL THAT WON HIM THE METAL OVERLORD FIGHT! Sonic would of died there if not for Knuckles and Tails who are A KEY PART OF SONIC'S CHARACTER! The use of only using team blast to fight Metal is more than simply a game mechanic to prolong the Metal Overlord fight, it's also a key display of who Sonic is as a character and his development. Sonic had grown from a lone wolf character who was as free as the wind to now a complete extrovert who cherishes his friends and allies with his life, it's his friends who truly make him who he is because it's the power of friendship, their words, and the knowledge that their all counting on him that helps him press on, and having two of his closest friends fighting right by his side is just the push he needs to give it his all. That sounds cheesy as fuck but Sonic has always been a cheesy franchise and character, what's a chili dog without some cheese on top huh!?

Now with all of THAT being I'm sure a few people will ask "okay smartass would you prefer metal overlord to be totally forgotten and not included at all?" And to that I say: kinda yeah. But if you're looking for genuine criticism of mine then I do have one: remove Metal Overlord's wings and make him the imperfect overlord as seen here↓

... That's it. That's truly it, my one complaint and my correction.

"did you really write an essay as to why you hate this boss fight only to give the smallest design correction and nitpi—" I DON'T GIVE A FUCK IF THIS IS A NITPICK THIS MATTERS! Metal has always been my favorite character and it's made VERY CLEAR his perfected overlord form is one of the most terrifying and potentially powerful things in the verse and I'm not gonna have all the character and depth behind it GO TO HELL FOR THE SAKE OF FAN SERVICE! It's not fan service, it's a fucking fan DISSERVICE! It's such a little change and would of been SO FUCKING EASY, they could of made Metal simply levitate or some shit with several jet engines as to make it different and diverse from the original Metal Overlord fight. This would also make sense because shadow did NOT fight perfect Overlord and instead fought imperfect Overlord when he was still connected to the egg carrier and properly processing things and powering up. Like did they forget that or did they just truly not give a fuck and decide to disregard the deep complex story behind as to why Metal Sonic is a giant monster because the design change isn't too drastic but even the untrained eye can see THE ONE ON THE LEFT AND RIGHT ARE TWO DIFFERENT VERSIONS!

Like I made this entire fucking thing for this simple complaint which one may call childish which granted is kind of fucking childish but I don't fucking care anymore because I will NOT STAND FOR METAL SLANDER NO LONGER! I've seen people suddenly thinking Metal Overlord is some bitch ass transformation that shadow can single handily take down which is NOT the case and the implication that he could is dumb! I don't give a fuck if it's the year of Shadow Metal is one of the longest standing villains right next to Eggman and he gets fucking cucked for this red streak, speeds by, weaker than Sonic fucker who ISN'T EVEN THE FUCKING ULTIMATE LIFEFORM BECAUSE MAY I REMIND YOU SHADOW HIMSELF SAID SONIC MAY BE THE TRUE ULTIMATE LIFEFORM WHICH WOULD OF BEEN THEMATICALLY FITTING AND WOULD TAKE AWAY NOTHING IF SHADOW LOST THAT TITLE!

"are you just bitching about Shadow now?"

yes the fuck I am because this pisses me off to no end. I've GENUINELY got a headache as I'm writing this because Metal Overlord's inclusion irritates me beyond belief. Whatever you get my point, ramble over and Toon out I'm fucking tired

[randomthefox]

You hit the nail on the head. Sonic fans will mindlessly regurgitate and enforce things solely on the basis that it's what the majority says.

You're not allowed to say Sonic Forces is a good game because most sonic fans say it's a bad game. You're not allowed to say Sonic Colors is a fine game because every sonic youtuber has declared that it's what ruined the franchise. You're not allowed to dislike 06 due to it being an embarrassment that nearly killed the franchise because "it had more ambition than the current stuff" or whatever.

Sonic cracking jokes during the adventure era and in Black Knight is "raw" and makes him cool. But Sonic cracking jokes in Colors and Forces is lame and cringe.

For example. Sonic fans love saying that Black Knight is the best depiction of Sonic ever. But when you ask them WHY they either have no answer or resort to repeating the same buzzwords about wind and freedom that they heard from some youtuber. None of them UNDERSTAND Sonic's wind motif or its relationship with the character. They just know that a bunch of other mindless drones say it's "raw" so that means they also have to start saying it's the best thing ever.

I'm sure you're familiar with this one. The fandom wide declaration that everything that's a video game or made by sonic team is an abominable trash heap. And anything that's NOT a game and NOT made by sonic team is automatically a flawless masterpiece.

They endlessly repeat things until they brainwash themselves into believing it. Facts and reality be damned. Their their statements and opinions aren't based on individual experiences or history. They're simply conforming to the hive mind.

Yeah it's very conformist and I have an instinctive repulsion to that kind of thing. You can always tell when something someone says is a genuine opinion that they have because they've thought about it and came to that conclusion with their own brain, and when it's something they were just TOLD to think and have never questioned it. I grew up Catholic, I grew up in a conservative town, I got accused of being a "democrat" (pejorative) in high school because I thought Bush was a shithead. Children who were just sponges and absorbed everything from their parents and squirted it out on command. I know that shit when I see it.

I don't care what you think about something as long as you are THINKING. If we have a difference of opinion then that's not something I'm going to be pissy about. It's when people are thoughtlessly reciting Dogma that I start getting pissed off. And that's what a lot of the "common consensus" Sonic opinions are. Just Dogma. You can fucking TELL by the way they TALK, by the way they EXPRESS these opinions, that these are not actual human thoughts that they arrived at with their own brain. It's just something someone else said and now they're saying it without questioning it or putting any independent brain power into it themselves. I have no respect for it.

[dr-spectre]

Hey Spectre, got a simple question for ya this time. Did you like either of the story book Sonic games?(I think that's what they were called. I'm talking about 7 Rings and The Black Knight)

Ah.... Sonic and the Secret Rings, and Sonic and the Black Knight huh. THOSE games hmm?

Well, i feel like these two games share the same positives and negatives. Both have really great narratives, presentation, music, art style, etc. But the gameplay is just.... Uh... Not the best the series can offer you know? To say it lightly....

Secret Ring's story is kinda crazy because it's actually about the toxic relationship between Shahra who is the guide of the game, and the villain Erazor Djin (yes that's his name). A Sonic the Hedgehog story actually being about an abusive relationship between two genies and Sonic helps Shahra overcome her troubles and eventually defeat Erazor Djin is crazy to me. I'm not joking around btw. And it's actually done very well and in a subtle way too...

The cutscenes too look phenomenal and hold up very well cause you know, it's just artwork and it looks DAMNNNN GOOD! The ost is just MMMMMM!!!! Look it up if you get the chance, it has a lot of vocal tracks and they are very catchy. Same with Black Knight.

However the gameplay.... oh man... Now look, i played this on the wii and didn't use a regular controller on dolphin. And let me tell ya, by the time the game was done, i was so happy it was over....

Sonic doesn't stop running and you control him by tilting the wii remote... Everything is shaking and tilting and sometimes it just does NOT work! The level design somewhat accommodates for it and you know what, sometimes the game can be.... fun... It's kind of a guilty pleasure for me but that doesn't mean it's a good game gameplay wise, hell naw. It sucks.

The final boss WILL hurt your arms and give you a damn good workout lmao. Also, you have to UNLOCK BETTER CONTROLS VIA AN RPG LEVELLING UP SYSTEM! WHY!?!? WHY DO I GOTTA UNLOCK BETTER TURNING AND EQUIP IT?!?!? If i have to slog through hours upon hours of grinding just to get better controls then I'm sorry, that's a bad game in my eyes tbh. I don't care if it "gets good after 20 hours." You can fuck off with that shit.

However Black Knight on the other hand, that's a pretty good game and i can say that with confidence. The story of Black Knight is even more crazy and surprisingly mature. It's about this clash of ideologies as Sonic believes that everything comes to an end, but it's about living life to the fullest in the time we have, to run head first to our problems and solve them before we die. To have fun and enjoy life before it's over. And the villain is scared of death and wants a world that lasts forever, so that flowers may never wither and that the kingdom the game takes place in won't come to ruin. Sonic can be seen as the bad guy of the story in a certain lens as if he wins, the kingdom WILL die. He even says himself "i don't mind playing the bad guy every once in a while." LIKE THAT IS SOOOOOO FUCKING RAWWW!!!! I LOVE IT!!!!!

Sure the story rushed and short but... oh my god the story and fan service is truly amazing idc. It marked the end of an era, the end of the "dark age" of Sonic, before we got games like Colours, Generations, Lost World, Forces, Boom that took such a drastic turn in tone and got rid of the 4Kids cast of voice actors. This was the final time Sonic felt like it truly gave a shit about it's story and was made by people who cared and had something to say.... Well... until Frontiers of course.

Sonic's characterisation is some of the best it has ever been in both games. He's snarky, confident, energetic and cheeky, but he's also gentle, kind and loving. It's so well done.... literally the final line he says "Every world has it's end. I know that's kind of sad but... That's why we gotta live life in the fullest in the time we have. At least, that's what i figure." breaks me into tears every time i hear it... I'm not joking.

Black Knight also has moments where it plays certain themes from previous games when certain characters show up and that shit makes me grin ear to ear and laugh in autistic excitement i tell ya. Hearing It Doesn't Matter before Sonic takes on the final boss is so. DAMN. GOOD!!!!! AHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The only other time i can recall getting giddy and excited over a Sonic game is... Frontiers? The first titan boss made me scream. I was screaming and in pure happiness. And the final boss from update 3.... Made me cry dude... But that's a topic for another day. i can go on and on about this blue rat....

Yeah Black Knight is a good game... but.... the gameplay is uh... just okay? It's not bad but it's not great either. I think what really kills the gameplay is that there isn't enough platforming in the levels and a lot of the sword moves kill Sonic's speed which makes the sword combat feel so sluggish and ughhhhh.

Also a big issue between both games that they have a mission system and not standard acts and it kills replayablity for me. If the games got remastered today and had 3 acts and a boss in each area it would be 10x better I'm telling you.

Anyways, yeah, the storybook games are awesome... aside from gameplay. I recommend only playing Black Knight and configuring it on dolphin to tie motion swings to button presses. And putting the pointer controls on the r stick as well.

Don't play Secret Rings unless you are a diehard Sonic fan and are curious to see the game.

[ghduck]

The Art of Shit Stirring: The Story of My Life

by Troglodyte

CHAPTER 3

It had been apperent that by second grade, there were a few concerns about my behavior; negatively speaking. Second grade had been an interesting ride I'll say. It was around this time that I had got a new music teacher.

Whos name was Mr. AdCOCK (Laugh all you want)

My new friends and I, as well as other students in my grade at that point would normally make fun of him for his bald spot, horrid singing voice, and his teeth, which were extremely yellow.

I don't care if he sees this writing someday. He can fucking kick it.

I had a massive obsession with video games around this age, usually gushing over Mario and Sonic games whenever I could. That's how I found my best friend at that point, who had the name of Knowledge.

There was also I girl in which we hated each other, and I would casually attempt to start a fight or argument with her for no reason. This happened almost every single day. Somehow my parents never got called over this, and I'm still in shock.

Anyway, our teacher at the time, is still one of my all time favorites, mostly because she got hilariously angry to the point of breaking her own possessions.

FUNNIEST. SHIT. EVER.

I believe the only real time I got in trouble in second grade, was when I said something inappropriate in the school bathroom (which I will not repeat). My teacher ended up calling my Dad over the situation, which I don't remember how it ended.

When third grade hit around, this is when I had my first "crush".

Oh christ.

At the time, I was in the third grade, while she was in the second. I recall getting playfully bullied for this interest, to the point of my cousin telling her herself. Later in the year, we became closer friends, but we were too young for relationship s anyway. I haven't seen her since 4th grade.

Throughout third grade, I also had many mental meltdowns, to the point of destroying school property (Which leads to question myself on having an anxiety disorder mostly later on in life). This was the last time my crying phase stopped, as well as temper tantrums.

My brother had revisited the popular game "Alien Hominid" on the Xbox 360 at this time. I remember being around 3 to 4 years old watching my brother play the bloodiest, most vulgar flash games on newgrounds.com, and alien Hominid was one of them. Although it was mildly gory, it was helly fun to come back too. Even nowadays, I still come back to this game.

That's how I aslo discovered the game Castle Crashers.

Third grade was also when I learned about sexual content on the internet. (We won't talk about that)

Then when fourth grade spun around, this was when I started switching classes. My math/science teacher was very cool though. She had a great sense of humor, and we often had a great relationship. It has become known to me that my behavioral issues also stopped in this grade.

During the middle of the year, I struggled with a few things mentally, constantly thinking I was a failure, due to me don't ng quite poorly in my grades. But, that got sorted out within a month. My friends at this time were very "show offy" I'll say. They often got in more trouble than I ever had at any time before hand.

Then things all went to shite months later.

When the month of March came around, BOOM. Pandemic takes a chokehold of our life's and we are all stuck at home.

Here are some artifacts from 2018-2020

[hishighnesstheprincess]

MY HATER POST

literally made a hater post just to talk about stuff in the sonic series that I dont like ❤️ if you don't like this post then fuck you block and/or blow me. this is disorganized as fuck btw and i dont care

sonic frontiers was the best mainline sonic game in over a decade but thats really not saying much

i think tangle is kinda boring and whispangle is kinda boring by proxy. whispers cool tho

surge is the best rival sonic character since blaze and the only thing dragging her down is that sonic in the idw comics kinda sucks as a character

its great that we are getting more female characters in idw and the games but quite a lot of them are kinda boring and we still need more female villains

metal sonic is basically nothing but a jobber in idw rn and its really depressing

idw please treat the babylon rogues better, theyre goofy characters with serious storylines just like basically every other sonic character, stop making them NOTHING but a joke

lanolin is an interesting character, yall just cant handle women who are even SLIGHTLY rude to a fan favorite character

the worst part of idw is that its tied to game canon because they cant shake up the status quo too much or have character arcs for most of the main characters

rouge is ABSOLUTELY a sexualized character and always has been. learn to like a character despite the faults in how they are portrayed or shut up about it

sally was the best canon romantic partner for sonic and you cant change my mind

the second worst part of idw is the titular character himself

i dislike surg/amy because of the age difference andalso the fact that everyone wants to disregard surges character to have her be redeemed

if sega is going to keep teasing son/amy then they should just stop dancing around it and make them canon already, make the shippers happy and get the drawn out agony over with for the rest of us. also age amy up for the love of allthat is holy

also, sega should stop ship teasing ships they have no intention of making canon in general, its shitty and edges into queerbaiting when done with gay ships

the above does not apply to whispangle

idw art is overall much much MUCH better than any other sonic comic and its not even a contest

there are a lot of things i disagree with about the current state and direction of this franchise but we are in a much better place than we were even just two years ago and we should be glad for all this success

the worst parts of archie are the most atrocious things that this franchise has ever put out, in art, storytelling, basic morality, etc.

most of the popular ships in this fandom suck ass

unless sega stops rushing sonic team and actually gives some resources to them we are never going to get better than 7/10 games. corporations are not your friends and you dont have to thank them for giving you a mid product

sega should have been sued into oblivion for the literal seizure inducing state sonic colors ultimate was released in and we should never, ever let them forget it

remain skeptical about every single sonic game until release, we've had "WERE SO BACK" moments before that turned out to befalse

the edm in sonic frontiers cyberspace slaps but isnt as memorable as previous sonic soundtracks

stop ghosting sonics friends (sonic frontiers, sonic prime, sonic dream team) its kinda weird and puts way too much importance on sonic again. this is a good cast, USE THEM

sonic frontiers dlc being hard wasnt a bad thing, the jank, glitches, and lack of fairness were bad things that tarnished the experience

the games have never ever been properly translated from japanese into english and that is just an objective fact. but also dont shit on people for only having interest in the english version, you have to go WAY out of your way to get a good translation and that's on the franchise, not the fans

this franchise's "canon" has been fucked since the original classic games, trying to fix it in the sense that you can somehow make every little detail perfect is a lost cause. just pick and choose what you like

of all the characters that deserve a game to themselves blaze deserves it the most. girlie has a whole other dimension that we could explore can you IMAGINE an open world game in the sol dimension COME ON

if lots of people are criticizing something you like then you should give some consideration to the fact that they may have some points instead of just disregarding it as people being nitpicky and nasty. you dont have to listen to it but if you dont do that then you cant dismiss it out of hand either

the stories of sa1 and sa2 arent even the best stories in this franchise

06 sucks ass and no amount of "potential" means jackshit when it comes to actual quality. if we're just evaluating "potential" then congratulations everything ever made is a quality product have fun with that

its okay to games with goofier and lighthearted stories

team dark are just friends

i prefer amys hammer to the cards

let this franchise have its edge back. but also let sonic be cute. they arent mutually exclusive

keep good physics and momentum in the games for the love of god please its what this franchise was built on

sega of japan may do characterization better but the closest brushes to death that this franchise has ever had (Dreamcast, 06, Forces) were all on them as well

this might be the hottest take of all time but sonic team shares some of the blame in how a lot of sonic games turn out very bad, its not all on sega

stating that some sonic-inspired games (spark the electric jester and freedom planet) or sonic fan games (project 06) have turned out better than actual sonic games is kind of objectively correct but youre a dick if you say it just to make sonic fans feel bad about the games or themselves

if you ONLY consume sonic media you need to branch out more. for your own health please

flynn is neither the worst person to ever walk the surface of this planet or gods gift to the sonic fandom, practice some moderation in your opinions people

i think discourse is good, actually. except for when it harms people. and fictional characters do not count as people

sonic frontiers open world biomes are boring and nowhere close to most open world games, even ones from a decade ago

silver was never sonics rival

it would be nice if we could go back to having smaller games on handheld consoles coming out on a regular basis while mainline sonic games come out once every couple of years on a bigger scale and higher quality than weve been getting. and no locking games behind apple arcade PLEASE

sonic lost world isnt a terrible game or a good one. its just weird and boring

sonic riders was fun and its a travesty that it got downgraded into generic cart racing games

sonic unleashed daytime stages are the best boost stages in this entire franchise because they actually rely on quick decision making and reaction times instead of just smashing your way straight through the entire level with little to no effort

the werehog combat sucks ass and the fact that its super slow and super long and takes up like 75% of the time youre playing the game is why unleashed isnt peak. sorry

stop using green hill stop using green hill stop using green hill stop using green hill stop using green hill stop using green hill stop using green hill stop using green hill stop using green hill STOP IT

a lot of fans of sonic do not understand what they are talking about and that includes me a LOT of the time

sonic himself cant just be whatever the writer wants him to be. the reason characters are characters is because they have certain character traits and you cant just change that without getting a different guy, im sorry

archiehad the worst moments but the sonic movies are the worst adaptation overall

the above will change if movie 3 kills off shadow or tom. then the worst adaptation will be underground

game sonic being a static character is cool, actually

sonic fandom is sexist as fuck and that includes the tumblr side of it

sage getting revived in a post credits scene was lame. give us more time before confirming shes alive

the sonic twitter takeovers are not canon. no, not even if you think a thing they said on it was funny

they should let female characters be naked (dont make this weird) and give the boy characters outfits sometimes

amy having a crush on sonic is totally fine but they took it WAAAAAYYYYYYYY too far at many, many points. i dont care if its funny amy threatening chris in x or intimidating cream in various games (battle, rush) was NEVER a good thing

rouges design does not need to be changed, it needs to be framed and posed in less sexual ways

rouges heroes and prime outfits sucked ngl like just from a color and design standpoint like theyre kinda ass and overcomplicated and an eyesore

if sega is gonna age the characters up they should actually go ahead and post the new ages on some official channel, dont just leave us in this horrible limbo where we have to argue with weirdos online about who youre morally okay to thirst over certain characters and whether a different voice counts as a character becoming an adult

the fact that the main official english sonic account only posts memes and advertises hilariously overpriced """"""""products"""""""" kinda sucks tbh. i have to go to other language accounts to get stuff like concept art and celebrating the anniversary of a game the released a year ago. were well past the era of laughing at sonic just for being sonic, now lets act like it

stop harrassing people involved with this series even if theyre doing an objectively bad job. thats a real person and you should care more about them than you do a fictional character

the above DOES apply to ken penders. hes a piece of shit but still a person

criticism =/= harrassment. this goes both ways

cream IS a hero thank you very much

reference to a thing you like does not equal good character writing. critically, it does not equal bad character writing either

amys not a damsel in distress and hasnt been in over 20 years. if we count characters just getting captured as being damseled then congratulations, sonic himself is a damsel in distress (Forces), apply that shit equally across both genders

ryan drummond was the best english va, but jason got the better scripts. roger is getting better and most of the work hes been given is just. bad. so i dont feel okay judging his work. but he is my least favorite

gameplay>story when it comes to the actual games, every time. if you have a good story to tell its only hampered by being in a shitty game

worst game in the series is sonic colors ultimate. say what you will about 06, forces, rise of lyric, or whatever other game. at least they werent literally physically dangerous to play

all the main female characters in the games are asskickers, they just need to be utilized more. as does every member of the supporting cast

the sonic franchise fucking needs to stop having long gone ancient civilizations. please have new ideas

this is the end of the list. go away

[birdsareblooming]

god i wanted to be positive about sonic superstars because i am about every sonic game, especially with how still negative everything around sonic games can be. It's visually stunning and they actually tried something new with the areas instead of green hill reskins, at least mostly. but im confident i'm not choosing to be negative and picking anything to be mad about.

the game is infuriating to play. when just running through the levels as sonic it's mostly okay, but later boss fights ESPECIALLY for trip's story you have to play more than perfectly, and even if you play frame perfect the game will fuck you over via lack of planning. A blue missile just won't show up on your screen or in a way that's reachable. multiple of final boss fang's attacks are one-hit kills, which wouldn't be so bad if all of these boss fights weren't 5-10 minute long segments, where if you die at the end to some bullshit you have to go back to the very beginning. this includes Fang in golden city, where in the in-between segments things will hit you offscreen.

multiple times in the gameplay you are punished for going too fast. not stopped, punished. hit if not straight up killed. The point of the game is to build up speed, and if you do what it's designed to do in final boss fang as trip, you hit a one hit kill barrier and have to start all over.

Speaking of Trip, i hate to say it but after looking at her for very long her unmasked design is disappointing at best. She looks like a recolored modern Amy. And if that was the point like it looks like it is, it's a dumb idea. They should've focused on making her look like her own character and actually like a lizard. Other than the thing glued to her head she looks like a recolored amy you'd find on a forum in 2008 and I mean that in a poor way. She doesn't look like a lizard or even a sunglider. They gave her a hair accessory and an undercut and called it a day.

activly while playing as her i wanted the helmet back on. it's a much more fun/different design. everytime i looked down at her I just saw Amy. full stop.

don't even get me started on her dragon design. it just looks stupid. not only should they have leaned towards a more eastern oroborus dragon but god it just. looks dumb. not only that but that super transformation seems too overpowered for a character supposedly forgotten by the main cast until recently or just. some random girl.

At this time i have not reached the final boss, this is in the state trying to beat fang and once again dying to some bullshit on the first phase. Ive only ever reached phase 2 once and got hit by an intakill.

i don't care if it's "authentic"

the old games were also hard as balls for no reason. they were based on an arcade-style idea despite not designed for an arcade, where you want the character to die a bunch and go back to the beginning so they waste their quarters.

not only is this not an arcade game, but you already got my 60 dollars. The old games had many problems with how they played that I only survived via save-states.

this game consistently made me wish i pirated it. Specifically for the save state feature. with that feature I would've actually had fun. But I'm sent back to the beginning of a 10 minute long boss battle.

it's 2023, not 1991. why is your game like this. why is her design like this.

especially after following the bullshit that was the master king trial specifically. one guy on reddit sad fronteirs was easy and they decided to make all of their games need frame perfect runs to be beatable.

not only is this a disgrace to wanting games to be accessible to anyone, but holy shit I have a disability. my hypermobility makes my fingers hurt after all this. anyone with worse disabilities are fucked, and again no easy mode or save stating is offered.

i don't know if doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results is the definition of insanity. but being forced to do the same thing over and over again for different results sure makes me feel insane.

if you read this thinking of buying the game and didn't have spoilers tagged. if you do. pirate the game. you'll have a much better experience than I am paying 60 dollars.

sonic superstars overall was disappointing in everything but visuals. and that's coming from someone who goes out of my way to spread positivity about sonic projects because I actively see them. I don't here.

truly the best way to describe it is disappointed.

[joshhhhhhhhhhhhhhh]

Okay I feel about ready to talk about Shadow Gens. Please assume spoilers. I've like 99.9% completed it btw, literally just the hard mode bosses and like a straggler S rank or two that I'll actually need to try for, and then I'm like done done. But yeah no I think this game is really fucking good lol. Gonna do bullet points for this since I have a lot to say and no idea how to segue any of it into one another

Shadow feels... I think the best that any character has felt in the boost era? Like they just got his controls and his physics and stuff so right. I've never felt so confident controlling a character in 3D Sonic since the Adventure games.

The level design I would sort of describe as being like a fusion of Unleashed and the Frontiers cyberspace stages. There aren't quite as many brancing paths as Generations proper and you're typically being tasked with reaction obstacles to end up on those other paths, although it's not as demanding as Unleashed. Bit wider and better feeling than Cyberspace too. You will often end up in pretty different parts of levels by finding and capitalising on shortcuts and stuff. Kingdom Valley is the best stage in the game, it's just so sprawling and expansive and so fucking pretty.

White Space pulls from Frontiers' open zone style in being a 3D hub world playground thing, although it's a lot smaller and more congested which fits this game really well. It's fun to run around in and looks really nice, and I think it actually has enough memorable locations to where you don't even really need the map that much to know where you're going (although that's more true after you've done the missions since then colour is restored and stuff)

The missions are pretty decent, I'd put them above Generations proper - they tend to do a solid job testing you in your ability to use Shadow's various skills and stuff, although they are perhaps a little on the shorter side. I was going for 100% from the get-go so if you're just speeding to the end I don't really know how the missions do progression so no comment there lol.

Biolizard is a fairly boring boss, but also the first one so sort of a tutorial. Metal Overlord is really fun, and has a surprisingly tight S rank I enjoyed going for. Mephiles is a little repetitive but honestly his dialogue in the fight is so good that I wasn't caring - he's actually more endearing in this game than he ever has been. Our final boss, Devil Doom, is a Metal Overlord reskin at first which is eh, but turns original and is then pretty fun. Final phase is a nice twist on the usual Super form final boss, although ngl you get the Doom Wings like a stage prior and all they do is glide so it took me like a solid minute to realise I was able to move up and down in this phase. This isn't a criticism but I'm kinda disappointed Shadow didn't finish Black Doom off with a Chaos Blast, it just would've been raw as fuck is all.

There isn't actually much of a story here but what is there is fine. Maria is really likeable. Could've been cool to spend a bit more time in Gerald's head. Shadow's the best he's been since 06. Black Doom does his job well enough. I think in a more filled out version of this story we could grapple more with Shadow losing control to the Doom Powers as well as his conflict regarding staying with Maria and Gerald, but it's all good. The fake Emerald ploy was funny to see although it was a bit of an odd pull. I made sure to talk to the NPCs constantly and everyone's got a lot of really good dialogue, Big and Omega especially.

Chaos Control is very fun, I almost wish the game contrived more excuses to use it.

I like the Doom Powers a fair amount, although they lead into my biggest and only real issue with this game, and it's that the Doom Powers are all very... maybe situational is a bit harsh? But you can only really use them in the contexts the game wants you to use them.

I was really excited for Doom Blast I imagined you'd get to do some like crazy speedrunning shit where you throw an enemy somewhere crazy and teleport to them and shit - and technically you can do that but the range is limited and they're never really positioned in a way that accomodates that - instead there'll be like one or two highlighted areas to blast them to, and it's definitely fun I enjoy doing it a lot but it has potential for more.

Chaos and Doom Spears it's sort of the same - they activate some context-sensitive buttons and disable enemies for a short time, except the latter one only really matters if the enemy can't be attacked for some reason anyway. Again, fun - it feels like the sort of Unleashed reaction based press the right button thing, train your eye to see an enemy with like an electric barrier or something and you know you gotta Doom Spear before you homing attack - I do like it. But I think there could be more.

I think Iizuka said we might get more Shadow games or playable Shadow in Sonic games or something if this does well, and it seems to be doing well. With that said then I hope Doom Blast and Spears are iterated on. They don't feel tied to the Black Arms in the same way as the other Doom Powers so you could just give them to Shadow without it feeling weird and it'd be very fun and stuff.

Morph, Surf and Wing are all a lot more specific to this game and this setting and I don't really need them to return. Morph is actually quite hard to use, I don't think the game does a good job teaching you how its swinging vs propelling itself thing works. I like Surf. Wings are rather overpowered for use in normal levels but you don't unlock them until right near the end so hey. But just playing the levels normally is more fun than gliding over them.

Everything I said about liking the levels earlier is true but I do think they're a little easy and could stand to be on the harder side. Like the Doom Powers and Chaos Control and stuff are supposed to enable cool shortcuts but they're so telegraphed and reactable that instead of it feeling like "if you're good at the game you're rewarded with shortcuts" it feels a bit more like "as long as you can hold a controller you'll probably always be on the fastest route" which is a little sad.

The White Space treasure chests and rocket parts are quite fun to collect although I sort of wish they had like a radar or something because by the time you've gotten most of them you're just gonna have to start running around the world aimlessly until you chance upon whatever you missed. I spent 40 minutes on the last 2 parts.

Collection room is kino.

I think Iizuka said the Terios skin would almost make you feel like you were playing a different game but it has all of Shadow's animations down to the skating so it looks a little awkward. Neat bonus though.

I am considerably excited for the Movie Shadow DLC

I think that's it. tl;dr very good game, very little in the way of like meaningful flaws, they cooked so hard with this Shadow they have to keep him going forward, this is the best control in any boost title.

[beevean]

I came across your IDW post about which ships have been teased in the comic so far, and something that I always find.... surprising, I guess, is that fans do not seem to notice or care just how many ones contain Sonic. One day Sonic gets carried bridal style by Shadow and bam they're bfs now it's canon Sega approved this everybody!!!!!!! The next Blaze is making googly eyes at him and Sonaze canon everybody!!!! Sonic held Lanolin's hand it's canon!!!!!!! Amy is gushing and blushing and oh my god it is totally canon!!!!!!!! (Where, funnily enough, Sonic carrying Amy bridal style elicited much less of such a reaction than Shadow carrying Sonic did in the It Is Canon Now debate, at least from what I could tell on Tumblr. Though considering this is Tumblr, I can think of some reasons, lol.) This happens in the games as well, except the fact I do feel those lean a lot less into deliberate ship teasing like the comic does.

And you know.... if there is so much to be teased in IDW and so much "canon" and every single issue at this point contains a different character for Sonic to be making his smug face at while they simp and/or get all tsundere... maybe it is a clear sign that all this means nothing and is only put in to make fans go "!!!!!! THEY APPROVED MY SHIP I AM SUPERIOR NOW TO ALL OTHER SHIPS CUZ IT IS IN OFFICIAL [*cough, cough*] MEDIA!!1!!1" as opposed to actually going anywhere for Sonic ship-wise? Not that the fans will ever realise that, sigh.

I noticed, actually. The only non-Sonic ships that so far have been teased are Whispangle (and how), Knuxamy in #62, and absolutely accidentally Staregg in the MV arc lol (I don't care how accidental it was, Staregg OTP in my heart :< starline totally wanted to clap those eggcheeks don't @ me)

I think I saw a tweet jokingly calling Sonic a slut when #63 dropped? Don't quote me on that though, I don't remember the phrasing but it was a joke about how many people he has flirted with recently lol (including the heavy Sonknux vibes of Frontiers)

(it's also funny that Sonamy gains far less traction than all those other ships lol. Maybe it's because it's almost "canon" and so not as interesting. Or maybe we know why :^) )

But yeah. I understand enjoying the crumbs of ship teasing, I really do, especially for the minor ones such as Sonaze (Sonanolin is kinda funny though lol, I doubt that one has many fans). But there's a difference between "HOLY SHIT THEY HELD HANDS THAT'S CUTE" and "HOLY SHIT THEY HELD HANDS IT'S TOTALLY CANON GUYS!!!". And cynically, the overabundance of teases involving Sonic can be explained as 1) him being the protagonist and the more interesting character to ship, to generate views and attention (only, like, 6 people cared about the Knuxamy tease and i was one of them), and 2) the dude is so irrelevant in his own comic that this is the best they can think for him. The OCs deal with a semi-serious plot, and the titular character protagonist of the massive franchise IDW Sonic is attached to is reduced to shallow fanfic fuel. Granted, I'll take slut Sonic over Preachy Pope Sonic any time of the day, but you get what I mean.

The Sonadow teasing is IMO the worst. Sonic emotionally manipulates Shadow in #6 by making leverage on the way he had been twisted to carry out Gerald's evil plans? OMG THEY'RE TOTALLY SHARING BEDROOM EYES SONIC SO WANTS TO FUCK HIS BF <3 Shadow is an utter cunt for the entirety of the Chao Racing arc? AWWWWW MY LITTLE GAY BABIESSSSSSS SONIC IS SO HAPPY TO FALL IN HIS ARMS AS SHADOW INSULTS HIMMMMM <3 NVM THAT SHADOW SAID IN #19 THAT SONIC DESERVED TO BE PAINFULLY INFECTED <3 <3 <3 And you know what I also roll my eyes at "I heart you too Shadow" from Prime, for how out of context it was taken. I didn't watch Prime in full, but I did read IDW, and there is no way you can see a healthy chemistry between Sonic and Shadow if you actually pay attention to the whole story and dialogue. ... the fact that Flynn hosted a whole Bumblekast episode dedicated to Sonadow at the end of Pride Month also doesn't help, he deliberately fanned the flames because he knew how much his fans would eat from his hand :\

As for the games, yeah, the ship teasing is usually played for laughs or subtle and understated. Amy went from comically chasing Sonic, to having more serious moments such as her hugging him in the ending of Frontiers. Knuckles and Rouge had some odd tension by the end of their arc in SA2. Sonic and Blaze had that whole "slowly holding hands" moment at the end of Rush. Sonic and Elise... yeah that one took a decade to be accepted for how prominent it is. ShTH is still the king of teasing ofc :P the series is mostly about friendship, not romantic love.

[skaruresonic]

I know that what I say will probably make little difference but for what it's worth:

You're one of the most level headed people I've seen around these parts, a trait that is rarer in fandoms than water in the desert

You always try to explain your points as best you can. Are there snide remarks here and there? Even mean ones? Maybe. But nothing too serious and honestly everybody makes them when talking about stuff that ticks you off. You've certainly never gone off to harass anyone as far as I can tell

You shouldn't feel bad about your fandom feelings because you really haven't done anything wrong

Thank you. I mean that sincerely. I know I could probably stand to be nicer, but at the same time I feel like life has beaten all the fluffiness out of me and I'm just. Done.

Incredibly sick of fandom continuing to push these one-sided narratives despite every effort to explain and clarify. We're always brushing up against this double standard and it just becomes sickening after a while.

Again: I am not perfect, and I do admit I say negative and mean things pretty regularly. But in that, I also strive to be level. At the bare minimum, not to stoop to the level of shit they fling at me. I feel like I'm already trying to uphold my end by drawing a boundary where I do not engage, since IDW staff have crossed that line in the past, and frankly, I don't trust them, much less IDW stans, not to cross that line for me. You wanted zero engagement from me and you got it. What else do you want from me? Now you're trying to tell me what not to say? On my own blog? Do I come onto your blog and say you can't shittalk Pontaff games? Do I imply you must be mentally ill for being frustrated at all the finger-wagging?

So someone criticizes a book on their own blog, so what? Who cares? Does it impact IDW's sales? Why are you so emotionally invested in it to the point where you have to whisper to your friends about the freaks you'd never be caught dead conversing with?

You'd think actions speak louder than words and my no-engagement rule should prove I'm not going around hurting people and twirling my mustache over it. But no, the fact that I chose to forgive someone who made a joke that I did not condone - I even unfollowed Random for a while due to it; he can attest to the conversation we had - means more than the fact that I do not ever talk to IDW staff (how can I harass people I don't talk to?) and thus this makes me a horrible person.

The irony of saying all this when fandom insists Sonic is oh-so-merciful towards his enemies despite their crimes is absolutely not lost on me.

No one honestly speaks up on our behalf, and it's enough to make me wonder if we're really that rancid or if perhaps something else is rotten in the state of Denmark. The people who do agree with our points stay silent or otherwise risk intense ostracization. No one (and I don't blame them, they'd get crucified) ever says to the other side, "It's fucked-up of you to keep wagging the finger at people who are already harangued by trolls, and your silence means you're just as culpable, especially if you're going to hypocritically lump them in with extremists."

Once again, I don't expect to be treated with kid gloves. But the fact that they can't be honest about what we say bugs me immensely.

[demonsfate]

LAYER ONE: THE OUTSIDE.

name: jin kazama

eye color: very dark brown.

hair style/color: spikey with splits because he often skips brushing it. he has bangs that hang down, but they're usually parted in the middle.

height: 6'0"

clothing style: hoodies & biker wear (such as racer jackets & leather jackets) are his favorite clothes to wear. so, he has a slight punk-ish style going on.

best physical feature: his eyes & lips. though, he does have a very muscular body.

LAYER TWO: THE INSIDE.

your fears: “death, especially my family and friends'.”

your guilty pleasure: “... doja cat is one of my favorite american artists. i may have other guilty pleasures, but i'd rather not give too much information.”

your ambitions for the future: “i'm actually thinking about what i want to do. before, i wanted to be a mechanical engineer. maybe ... i'll go back to trying to achieve that. maybe violet systems will hire me, and i can start a family.”

LAYER THREE: THOUGHTS.

your first thoughts waking up: “gotta piss. then coffee."

what you think about most: "probably my pets right now. 6 little guys take up a lot of your time..."

what you think about before bed: "i think really hard about sonic the hedgehog because i want to dream about him."

what you think your best quality is: "i think i'm a cool friend.”

WHAT’S BETTER?

single or group dates: “single, usually.”

to be loved or respected: “loved.”

beauty or brains: “brains.”

dogs or cats:  “do not make me choose!!!!”

LAYER FIVE: DO YOU…

lie:  “i try not to.”

believe in yourself: “yes.”

believe in love: “if love doesn't exist, then what is life?"

want someone: “yes.”

LAYER SIX: EVER BEEN…

been on stage: “does a fighting arena count?”

done drugs: “only because devil did weed.”

changed who you were to fit in: “never.”

LAYER SEVEN: FAVORITES.

favorite color: “black and red.”

favorite animal: “do not make me choose!!!!”

favorite movie: “riki-oh is pretty cool.”

favorite game: “i am the one who feeds the nintendogs.”

LAYER EIGHT: AGE.

day your next birthday will be: “august 5th.”

how old will you be: “23.”

age you lost your virginity: “what's with this question?” (depends on verse, sometimes never, sometimes 21/22)

does age matter: “yeah. old people can get it.”

LAYER NINE: IN A PERSON.

best personality: “i like those who are full of energy and optimism. i find them to be very entertaining, and they always know how to lift my spirits up - get me really going, too. i also like those who are compassionate and protective.”

best eye color: “i'm partial to hazel, but it doesn't matter in the end.”

best hair color: “i don't really care.”

best thing to do with a partner: "sparring is something i'm quite used to. but i would also love to stroll in the forest with a partner, pointing out the animals we come across. a drive on my motorcycle is also nice.”

LAYER TEN: FINISH THE SENTENCE.

i love: “all the animals in the world.”

i feel: “quite content.”

i hide: “my food. either devil fucking eats it, or SOMEHOW the cats open the cabinets, and eat it too.”

i miss: “azucena's blend. it was a good coffee, but i refuse to support any company that sided with g - corp.”

i wish: “for azucena to release an official statement about her association with g - corp and to give me at least a million as a part of this apology.”

[measlyfurball13]

Fanwork creators self rec! When you get this, reply with your five favorite fics/art/podfics/etc. that you've made, then pass on to others. Let’s spread the self-love 🌼

Well, I'm a fic writer, so prepare for an esoteric assortment of fics in no particular order!

I'll open with my most recent, and the one I consider my best. This is a found family hurt/comfort fic starring Team Dark (comprised of Shadow the hedgehog and his two closest friends Rouge, and Omega, for those unfamiliar with the franchise.) Shadow is immortal, nearly indestructible, and saddled with some truly terrible PTSD around the ones he cares about dying on him, and it was interesting to portray that through a narration style I'd never tried before. This was also the fic where I really fleshed out how I write Omega, who is my all-time favorite character in the Sonic franchise. He's the most delightful blend of blunt and violent but also more caring than he lets on.

This one also deals with the unusually serious subject matter of post-mortem care. I remember waffling about posting this fic for weeks, worried that people would think a Sonic fanfic with such a down-to-earth subject matter would be scoffed at. Surprise! I was wrong. Once I posted it, this fic got a ton of positive attention, which I was grateful for.

Next up is a truly strange pick- it's a League of Legends fanfic, yet it's not about Veigar, the character I hyperfixated hard on for a solid year. I like the fics I've written with Veigar, don't get me wrong, but I like this one better. It stars Kassadin, a lone desert warrior who lost his family to the darkness he's trying to find the heart of, and Kai'sa, a woman who was consumed by said darkness but managed to wrestle back control of her body.

I really got to develop a unique character narration for the lead, Kassadin. It's a particularly strong, mature, and unique character voice, one that I enjoyed writing a lot and am quite proud of. I also leveraged some fantastic dramatic irony- anyone familiar with League lore knows that the monster he encounters is actually his long-lost daughter, Kai'sa. Yet his attitude towards that fact continually fluctuates, before ending on a negative-leaning note, something that was very challenging for me to do! (I'm a chronic therapy-speak writer, something I'm constantly working to avoid.)

I think it's underrated. League isn't a big fandom anyway, and I posted this onto an otherwise Veigar-focused blog. Perhaps I should post it on AO3.

I just had to mention one of my famous Sigma Overwatch fanfics on this list. I wrote a shitload of fic for this character, and almost all of it blew the fuck up back in 2019. I was the first person to post fic for Sigma once he came out on this website! (Not this fic in particular, mind you, but I thought that fact was worth a mention.)

Of my absolute deluge of Sigma fic, this is probably my favorite. The rest are good, but are a little simple. This one, though, has the thematic thread of "control" woven throughout it that I'm quite proud of. I also feel that this is the fic in which I captured the morally grey character of Moira the best- her emotions towards Sigma are complicated, but ultimately, she is his superior and the one responsible for a portion of his mistreatment here at Talon. This fic is essentially about her coming to that realization, and I think that's a powerful moment. It's a character dynamic I haven't seen anywhere else in media/fic. I'm proud that I wrote it.

Okay this next one is weird. By all odds, it should be my least favorite work, right? I'm not a romance writer. Doomfist is far from my favorite character. Hell, I'm not attracted to men, yet this fic continues to linger in my conscience as one that I'm immensely fond of.

I wrote it for and to evoke the writing style of the lovely amazing @ow-old-men. Gabe (op of that blog) has such fucking amazing imagery in his fics, and my imitation of that resulted in some of my favorite imagery and vibes I've ever written. I also think it's some rather strong character work- it's a moment where a confident, practically invincible socialite allows the mask to slip for just a second with a stranger.

Particularly, it's that singular moment that the entire fic was based around, the one that I suggested to Gabe in the first place. The idea that one of the proudest and most powerful men in the world would kneel for you without question so that you could kiss his forehead. Idk man, I still remain in love with the vibes of this one, even though it's so far outside the confines of my usual writing.

And finally, to finish this list off, I just have to plug my longest posted fic to date. This is my incredibly niche crossover of two obscure sci-fi shows that have my whole heart. It was also my first true practice at writing a long-form character arc, to which I think I succeeded.

Kitt, the AI from Knight Rider, wakes up far in the future and realizes that his closest companion is likely long gone. Over the course of this fic, he goes from wanting to deactivate to learning to open back up and allow a new person into his life. There's also some good ol' buddy-cop shenanigans between him and Garibaldi, the security officer aboard the space station that Kitt wakes up on, including a particularly fun scene where Kitt helps him cheat at cards.

This fic is showing its age just a tad with some of the writing and characterization of the Babylon 5 characters, but I'm still immensely, immensely fond and proud of it. Writing this fic taught me a lot that I'm applying to my current projects now. I wouldn't be where I am now without this one.

[agender-witchery]

I wanna just. Ramble about things. Gender, and sexuality, and romantic orientations, and all the other ways we describe our marginalized ways of interacting with others. This turned out to be long as shit, so uh, under the break it goes.

I'm big on pushing against the "born this way" narrative. It served a purpose, once. It was used to gain legal rights. It was used to gain access to medical care. But I think, at this point in history, "born this way" doesn't really achieve those things. What more, I don't think it was ever true, it was just useful.

My gender, if I am giving someone a completely accurate full history for whatever reason that may be, is that I was born and assigned male at birth. My earliest memories of gender, and coincidentally my earliest memories period, are of me resisting this. This is like, 4 years old I'm talking. In fact, when it comes to my childhood, all of my clearest memories are about gender. Or Pokemon. One of the two.

At 4, pink was declared "a girl's color". But I loved pink. I didn't wanna let go of pink. But it was a girl's color, and everyone said I was a boy, so I guess red was okay. Then red became a girl's color, and I realize now in my late 20's that this is what the youth call "bullying". But I'd always been a stubborn kid, so I just went back to professing my love of pink. Even if I didn't know it was bullying, I did catch on immediately that the winning play for me was to simply not play at all.

Another "taboo of boyhood" at this age for me was being friends with girls. Which is what I did. All of my best friends at age 4 were girls. I was made fun of over that for a while, but you know, when you're a rad as fuck 4 year old who hangs out with the girls, eventually they stop bullying you and start protecting you. So that was cool.

Let's push forward a year or two. Ages like, 5-7. I had friends, and most of them were boys. But like... most of them also had sisters. It was still kinda taboo for a boy to be friends with a girl at this point, but I figured if I went to a friend's house who had a sister, I got to play with the girl toys. Sometimes I would have to put on this facade, acting like I wasn't interested in dolls and framing my actions as bullying. That was acceptable. But secretly, I just wanted to play dress up with the barbies.

One friend though? This friend was neurodivergent as hell. Lived right across the street from me too. I would go to his house to play, but he was so engrossed in video games that he would often completely ignore me. He had some cool games and a Dreamcast, and Chocobo Racing was fun, but watching him play Sonic could hold me for like 5 minutes. He had a sister though, so eventually I hatched the diabolical plan where I would go to his house and then immediately go play in the garden with his little sister.

I had another friend (who I was actually friends with) who was a middle child. He had two sisters, and I would play with his younger sister pretty often as well. The older sister was like 4 years older which is basically an adult at that age so I didn't talk to her much. Anyway, his little sister had an Easy-Bake Oven. I nearly fucking cracked. There was nothing I wanted more than an Easy-Bake Oven. I couldn't ask for one though, the man who called himself my father was a tyrant and would probably berate me for asking for girl toys. It would've been so cool though! I almost asked for one after my mom got her divorce, but I was 13 by then. I am absolutely pushing for my brother to get one for his kids though just so I can use it.

Anyway the point here is that, despite being AMAB and passively accepting the label of boy, I never identified heavily with that label. I didn't have the words for it for over a decade, but it's plainly apparent that the label I identified with was girl. And I stand by that, when I was born, I was a girl right from the start. Except I'm not a girl. Not anymore.

In high school, I started feeling a lot more genderfluid. Sometimes I felt boy, sometimes I felt girl. That was natural to me. I never told anyone. Didn't have a word for it. Some time in 11th grade, I started identifying as a trans girl. I don't know if having the word genderfluid would have changed that. I do have fond memories of getting home, playing MapleStory, logging in on my female character, and just... losing the feeling of being a boy.

So, to recap, up to this point, I went from feeling girl, to feeling genderfluid, to feeling girl again. Following? Good.

Anyway, ALSO in high school I had this thing called puberty happen, so I guess I also developed a sexual identity. Now, a big reason I didn't identify any particular way for most of my life with regards to gender is because gender wasn't part of mainstream discourse yet. But because people actually talked about gay people when I was in high school, I was able to develop a sexual identity. That identity was "straight" but I was mistaken in that identity. I have never been straight, I was merely misled to believe I was a boy. It was something of a rock though, so I clung to that identity for life.

However, while a rock may ground you, it also prevents you from moving. Early on in my transition, during the stage where I had to come out to myself before I could even formulate thoughts on the matter and come out to others, I actually never experienced distress at the thought that I might be a girl. There were movies that were weird about trans women, but I didn't watch movies that much and also a running trend through my childhood that you may have noticed is that I do not care particularly how I am perceived if I get to have fun.

Being GAY though? Heavens no. Being gay was BAD and SOMETHING TO MAKE FUN OF. I couldn't possibly be gay. So that means, if I was a woman, I would have to like men! But I didn't like men, at least not at that point. This was literally months of struggle for me. Once I just accepted that being gay is fine, actually, and my life would not be ruined, I merely cried myself to sleep over the fact that I had a boy body. That was an every night thing for like, a year. Maybe two. I wouldn't come out until I was in college. I had to do it twice, because when I told my mom "Hey, I'm a girl actually" she would always giggle when correcting herself after deadnaming or misgendering me and I straight up said "If you're not going to take this seriously, then don't bother with it at all". She apparently did not parse the anger there, so I ended up having to come out again like a few months later. I also told her not to tell anyone else and that I would come out on my own timeline. She told all her sisters, who I believe count as other people, but I may be wrong about this. I was not happy.

So now, at this point, I am a trans woman, I am a lesbian, this is my identity, and I assert to this day that I was correct in that identity at that time in my life. I also started hormones around this time, which is when I learned the magic of holding your boob for comfort.

I go through college. It's not working. My mom doesn't want me to get surgery until I'm finished with college. My father (my real father who cares about me, not the shit stain that lived in the same house as me for 13 years) convinced her that, hey, if my grades are suffering, maybe surgery will help me out actually?

So I got facial feminization surgery. This did not help my grades and I eventually dropped out, but overall this was a win because I had like half a diploma but I also had a very networked family so I could get a job just by having someone call in a favor. I'm now disabled and forever unemployed, but an attempt was made I guess.

Back to the surgery though. The immediate results are... well, they're puffy. I'd just had my face literally rearranged, so there was a bit of swelling. However, even once all the swelling had gone down... I didn't see a woman in the mirror. That was a big thing I struggled with, looking in the mirror and seeing a body that didn't reflect how I felt. And I thought FFS would fix that, that it would let me look in the mirror and see a woman. I have never seen a woman when looking in the mirror, not even in VRChat where I have a very unambiguously feminine body.

And that felt... normal? Correct, even. Because while I didn't see a woman, I also didn't see a man. I saw... nothing. I didn't see a gender at all. I started identifying more and more toward agender. I changed my pronouns from she/her to she/they. Eventually I dropped all pretense of a feminine identity and moved to they/them exclusively. This has been the way I've identified since, although nowadays I'm trying out it/its alongside they/them just to get a feel for it. Agender isn't even really an adequate descriptor for me, since I still view agender as a specific gender within common discourse. More accurately, I would describe myself as having no gender. It's an inapplicable concept to me and has no meaning to my life. That might change, but that's where I'm at right now.

So what we have, is an AMAB kid, who is a girl, who later goes on to have genderfluid feelings and incorrectly identifies as straight, who then later goes on to correctly identifying as a trans lesbian, and who past that correctly identifies as having no gender with a sexuality of girl-and-girl-adjacent-liker. This is not the end of the story.

Anyway, even while identifying as a trans lesbian, there was always the occasional dude-oriented person who I would look at and say "would fuck". To be clear, if I looked at someone who I thought was a girl, went "damn she's hot" and then he introduces himself as a trans man, I was immediately turned off. My lesbian exceptions were VERY specific and someone who'd been bathing in estrogen for most of their life to the point that they had to tell me they were a guy for me to know they were a guy was not reaching the physique I found hot in men.

This changed entirely when I started playing VRChat. I flipped the pansexual switch on so quickly, you have no idea. I still have stricter standards for men I find attractive vs women I find attractive, and the nature of VRChat means that there's a LOT of disconnect between whether I'm attracted to the person or the model. Ultimately there are a lot of weird new variables when you bring VR into the mix, but I maintain that I am solidly pansexual regardless.

But, hey, wait, I've actually skipped over something. I did that for a reason, don't worry, it's my romantic orientation. I'm quoiromantic, I think, I've only actively identified with it for about a year and I'm still figuring myself out. I'm certain I'm somewhere on the aromantic spectrum, and quoiromantic seems like an adequate word for what I experience, and truth be told, I'm not a massive pedant when it comes to the specific words used to describe me as long as the correct idea is conveyed, so I don't care too much about inquiring within myself as to whether quoiromantic is the best word for me.

But wait, if I've only been identifying as quoiromantic for a year, why is it something I've skipped over? Well, that's because 7 years ago, I read a webcomic. Goodbye to Halos. And this panel in particular resonated with me in a very particular way. I read the comments. A lot of people said "quoiromantic". I looked it up. It felt right. And then I buried it in the back of my head for 6 years because it didn't feel particularly important for me to identify on the aromantic spectrum at the time.

So, in total, I'm some person who was assigned male at birth, whose first conception of gender as it relates to themselves was "girl", who would later go on to feel a bit genderfluid and think they were straight, who would then go on to identify as a trans lesbian with some exceptions, and then I would move on to no gender with an ambiguous sexuality that can be described accurately as "hot boys only", and I would then identify as pansexual, and now I am exploring my quoiromantic identity.

The ONLY point in that entire sentence where I would say I was "wrong" is the part where I identified as straight. I passively accepted labels that others put on me, but that was them being wrong, not me. And so my gender has changed quite a few times over the course of my life. And my sexuality has changed a few times as well. And I fully expect my romantic orientation to go through a few changes before I find something comfy. Perhaps I'll find a new gender identity that feels comfy, or a new sexuality that feels comfy.

The point is that the person I am today is completely incompatible with the "born this way" narrative. And I shouldn't need "proof of girl" to get a vagina installation. I shouldn't have had to lie to get bottom surgery, because the truth is, I just didn't like the way my dick looked on my body. I don't believe I was lying when I first got hormones, but also, why the fuck did I need a medical diagnosis of "Gender Identity Disorder" to be taken seriously by doctors? Is my word of "Hey I feel like a girl, please give me the girl pills" not enough?

Also, if you've made it all this way to the end, please don't use ace tags for this post. I love y'all but I am very not ace and I am very talking about myself here.

[ilaiyayaya]

My PSP Is So Overpowered >:]

It's insane how vast the PSP modding scene is. Like, to an extent I already knew it was pretty in depth, it's one of the most heavily modded consoles ever made and is generally considered one of the best pieces of hardware ever made for emulation but like, it's way deeper than I even expected. You can practically turn a PSP into an unrecognizable system on the software side, or even probably the hardware side if you know console hard-modding, but I don't, and I don't really care enough to learn, modding hardware isn't going to give me Umineko Background!

The closest thing to hard modding I'd probably ever do would be like, making a custom shell, but I wouldn't consider that the same thing since it doesn't affect the internal function of the system, and it's also pretty simple.

So far modding this thing has been really simple too, like, I'm dumb, like really really really dumb, and the only console modding I've ever done was some minor Wii U modding like, 3 years ago, but that was extremely minor and was also 3 years ago. But the PSP has some really good guides online and the process itself pretty much just comes down to transferring files onto the memory card and occasionally (that took 3 attempts to spell that correctly and I do this every time I type occasionally, it is an impossible word for me to speel like I said I am very idiot) making a couple of new folders and .txt files.

For now I'm sticking to some pretty entry-level modding, mostly just aesthetic stuff like custom themes (I want that fucking Umineko theme goddammit) and better sorting for the home screen, along with loading a few emulators mostly just to test them out (althooo I may end up actually using this in the long run as my main way to play GBA games cuz like, handheld :) and maybe Game Gear (I LOVE SONIC BLAST!!! I FUCKING LOVE SONIC BLAST!!!!! you could genuinely not pay me any amount of money to ever play that game again. You could however give me a coooool freaking Sonic factoid in exchange for my service on the front lines of Sonic Blast) also possibly the Wonderswan). Depending on how much my neurons activate by the time I'm completely done with my planned modding, I may dive deeper into some more complex stuff, not really sure what exactly I would want to do that's more complex but like, I'm sure there's something I'd find interesting, it's a super deep area there's gotta be some freak shit in there.

BUT that's for later, for now, I am far too absorbed in looking at all the existing custom themes available for download that I can add to MY personal Sony Playstation Portable, there's so many good ones. If it's not super difficult I may also attempt making one myself too, I love making custom UI's and stuff for things I use I love custom Zeedmillenniummon mouse cursor.

So far these are some of my favourites, obviously there's the Umineko one earlier and I just realized I accidentally typed "favourites" instead of "favorites" British typo I'm not fixing it it's funny but there's a lot of outher good ones chew:

I have still not watched anything beyond the first episode of Monogatari and considering how long it is and since it's still getting new parts, if I ever do it will likely not be soon. But I like the way the show looks! And I think a lot of the character designs are nice so like even though it would make me a fake fan, I'd maybe include this one in the routation.

I have also not watched the Clannad anime, and by extension After Story, so this would also go into the Fake Fan category, but I did read a bit of the common route of the VN a long time ago, didn't get anywhere near the end though so still a fake fan. But I just really like the way this one looks, I think the yellow silhouette over the pink clouds in the background looks really nice, the plain font text in the center does kinda take away a bit of the charm, but it's not too bad.

No I will not download the Elfen Lied one, moving on.

Ah yes, my Microusoft Xbox 360 Portable... This one's just a fun meme but like, it's kinda funny, and the UI is like actually different and kinda creative so like, not bad for a lying, cheating, faker console.

I FUCKING LOVE MEGA MAN ZERO!!!! there's a really small image limit on Tumblr posts so I'm not adding this one I just wanted to shill Mega Man Zero.

I will however add the Chris Paul theme. I know nothing about sports. I know nothing about Chris Paul. But judging him entirely off this PSP theme, I think he seems like a very polite gentleman, and yes I think I do wish for him to be constantly staring at me as I load my pirated games on my Sony Playstation Plokable.

There's a lot of like, just genuinely good looking ones I'm skipping past that I don't have anything to say about, I hid the website link the Umineko Beatrice picture earlier I don't need to write a 12 page essay about all of them

I could write a 13 page essay on this one however, just look at that beautiful stare. My lovely ex-husband Sanji Weedsmoke on his iconic 77 billion dead poster. Shrimply magnificent.

This is just the Among Us drip picture like, the fucking angle I can't keep looking at it all I see is fucking shoes, fucking Among Drip Shoes.

SONIC! GREEN SONIC!!! why is one of them green sonic, I don't think that's his normal colour I think they did something to my favorite little blue guy. And of course it's the fucking 06 renders, I mean they're fine enough renders on their own but like, they look so out of place, and the basic green background. I'm sorry, I'm being so mean but like, it looks so shit I'M SORRY OKAY!!!!

That's all of the noteworthy ones none of the other ones are interesting/funny enough to comment on, I will report back in approximately 800 system hours to report on how cool and epic the Umineko theme is. Thank you and goodbye.

SHUT THE FUCK UP SLITHER WING AND FLUTTER MANE PLUSHIES GOT ANNOUNCED RIGHT BEFORE I WROTE THIS and also chien pao and whatever the jigglypuff paradox form is called idk i only care about the robots and flutter mane. This was almost a coherent post, with a decent narrative throughline. Almost. But I just had to fuck it all up at the end. This is intentional you know? This is the bit. The joke. The joke is that I'm crazy and there are rats in my brain and they won't let me talk about the PSP like a normal person without also talking about my love of Flutter Mane.

[monsterhighalumni]

natm 4 thoughts/reaction

late to the game but you already know [major spoilers ahead]

i love how feral they allowed every character to get in this movie (ESPECIALLY sacajawea), them working together to gaslight gatekeep girlboss the night guards into leaving was (chef's kiss)

also love how this canon basically completely ignores the (terrible) ending of natm 3, love that larry's still involved with the museum, amazing, perfect, no notes

unpopular opinion, i love that nicky's a lil dweeb full of anxiety now. that feels more like the natural progression of his character than becoming a kind of jerk-y frat bro. OG!nicky doesn't make his own mixes and pre-records his sets, NATM4!nicky is a music nerd, loves vaporwave, and accidentally reinvents electro-swing. slay king

[sees the bisexual flag on nicky's notebook] [sonic voice] woah he's bisexual! i didn't know that!

larry is like. such a good dad here. good for him, he's much more supportive than he would've been in the originals. OG!larry probably would've insisted on shadowing him the first night and stood like two feet away making comments about how nicky should be doing things the whole night lmao i love him but this is true

I'M SO GLAD THAT THE EXHIBITS BRING UP THAT NICKY IS LIKE FAMILY AND WAS PRACTICALLY RAISED IN THE MUSEUM cause in the 3rd film nicky just. doesn't seem to care about them that much that boy just wants to LEAVE

i love joan i don't even care that much that she was shoehorned in, she's a lil unhinged and a badass and FINALLY wea has another female friend

BUT WHY DOES SHE LOOK LIKE TAYLOR SWIFT SKREEEEE

laa die challenge. should've been eaten by the crocodile.

it would've been so cool and amazing to explore the basement and the archives and the idea that it's the "deep ocean", dark, fucked-up part of the museum is amazing. but it's also funny that they were just. fucking with nicky jfghfjh

"KAMENRAH THE DISAPPOINTING SON" KDJFGHDKFHJGLKGDFHB

kamenrah thinking nicky was larry giving big "rose quartz steven universe" vibes but also would've been funnier if he then proceeded to call him "nicky daley from daley devices" as a callback to natm 2

i feel like it diminishes the impact of not ahk not seeing his parents for 60+ years that sentient images of his dad, merenhakre are just. everywhere.

speaking of which, i don't even need to say it. everyone's already said it. ahk should've been in this movie and we all know it, but also he wasn't even acknowledged and no one bring him up?? not even kamenrah?? this makes me feel like there's a copyright or licensing issue going on here or SOMETHING cause damn

seth die challenge. stupid little jackal man

the epic highs (using the tablet like a musical instruments to unlock a tomb and playing the squares like chords) and lows (TIME TRAVEL WE'RE REALLY DOING THIS NOW HUH) of the tablet's canonical magic

hnnnnnnn i really dislike the time travel

i think my biggest problem with natm 4 is that the best part of the original movies was getting to explore the museums and meet all the fun new historical characters and the adventures were constrained by the environment therefore THEY SHOULD'VE STAYED AT THE MET

although it is SUPREMELY funny that not only do the met egyptian mummies know of kamenrah, they just decide to fuck off from the narrative cause they just don't want to deal with him JFKDHG

everyone is complaining about teddy's characterization idk man i actually thought that his main bit was pretty funny. of course he just talks about himself, he's mr. the museum

didn't love jed though maybe it was the new VA trying to sound like owen wilson, maybe he felt dumbed down, but the jedtavius moments were very good like everyone said they were

you ever see a couple so married and so divorced at the same time, i love them

overall i'm not mad with the new designs, i think they capture the energy of the original and cartoonify them well — the fight scenes were animated well too, i love that it was 2D and it was charming without FEELING explicitly low budget

yeah yeah i feel similarly that i didn't love the rehash of natm 2, the door, the summoning the minions of the underworld, etc — if it were up to me the movie's main conflict should've been kamenrah versus all the OTHER egyptian pharaohs and mummies at the met vying for power

BUT!!! IT ENDED WITH A DANCE PARTY!!! THAT'S ALL I CARE ABOUT THAT'S WHAT I WAS HOPING FOR AND IT HAPPENED!!!!!!

overall it was cute and fun and i hope it converts into a tv series and also tumblr is way too mad about it for what it is. 6/10