#endless summer spoilers

[queenbirbs]

alright, for my first playthrough of all three books I spent roughly ~1200 diamonds and almost 100%’d the third book (I think I was missing four or five clues)

I played all three endings and teared up at the ending that shall not be named, but I did still like the one everyone on the subreddit bitches about because it felt like a possible book four setup (from what I can find ES was always plotted to be a trilogy, but a girl can fantasize about another timeline where there were four books).

I’ll probably let the series simmer for a day or two, then restart the entire thing (esp since there’s a bonus diamond event going on through the 11th, so might as well snag the scenes I didn’t before)

[ryuuisnotpresent]

a message to pb:

FUCK YOU FOR THE RELEASING VANUU ENDING. I KNOW I DIDNT HAVE TO PICK IT BUT UGH

well, on the bright side this gives me a lot of ideas for fanart. all of them are angst, obviously

[counterspelling]

Endless X-Men 97

[molinaskies]

Sonic and the Mirror of Trauma: Scrapnik Island

Scrapnik Island is by far the most intriguing and impressive IDW Sonic miniseries so far. Daniel Barnes wrote an excellent story about recovering from trauma, struggling to escape your past, and facing the setbacks that come with both of those, and Nathalie Fourdraine and Jack Lawrence produced some beautiful art.

On its surface, the story has the potential to be a cheeky, cliché one-off akin to a spooky Halloween story (that started in December… hehe). But, when you look deeper at the plot and some of the tropes, and once you remember that it takes place between issue 56 (which I’ve crucially discussed at length) and issue 57, it suddenly becomes so much more important.

Mecha Sonic is a version of Sonic who has been forced to address the pain of his life and dabble with the consequences, and he represents the moment that Sonic has to face his own trauma—and that scares him.

Scrapnik Island sets off with the Scrapniks pursuing Sonic to help him, but Sonic, of course, has missed the memo. Mecha Sonic is hottest on Sonic’s trail, which stands out to me as not only is Sonic visibly afraid of Mecha (both from his sudden presence and from his memories of their last encounter), but he’s actively running away from his trauma, his past, his fear.

Even after Sonic’s been set straight on the Scrapniks’ deal, he’s still put off by Mecha Sonic’s silent demeanour and their history. So, Sonic treats him coldly, and this animosity triggers something deep within Mecha that he fights to starve off.

There is lots of visual storytelling to indicate that Sonic and Mecha Sonic are meant to be literary foils, but below is my favourite example. A flashback of a decommissioned Mecha Sonic fades into a present shot of Sonic “taking it easy,” but more so getting fed up with his situation.

Sonic is also particularly distrustful (and afraid) of Mecha Sonic, compared to the other Scrapniks. However, as time runs on, Sonic comes to an initial understanding of Mecha’s changed ways and wants to make peace. However, right after this, Mecha Knuckles attacks, Mecha Sonic defends and, in a way, sacrifices himself for Sonic, and things fall apart from here.

After Mecha Sonic is triggered during his battle with Mecca Knuckles (after a forceful encounter with Mecha Sonic’s past that sends him down a path of relapse), Mecha Sonic loses his ability to starve off Eggman’s primary programming. He turns on Sonic once again, but instead of serving Eggman, he strives to serve himself. While Mecha is falling victim to his traumatic past and coping mechanisms, the unfortunate thing about this is how it all reads to Sonic: another betrayal of his trust. It all calls back to Mr. Tinker, Metal Sonic, and Surge.

Mecha Sonic’s plan is to swap bodies with Sonic so that Mecha can use Sonic’s speed to escape the island, but the Scrapniks attack before the transfer can complete. This leaves Mecha and Sonic in an in-between state where they hear each other thoughts and feel each other’s feelings.

Even though Sonic states that the anger and sadness in his head is not his own, he’s still clearly shown to be feeling those feelings. They don’t originate from him, but their presence mingles with his own emotions to produce something darker and more irritated. Their presence also acts as a gateway of sorts, where the latent anger and sadness that Sonic can’t suppress makes it harder for him to put away his own feelings. Couple that with his physical pain from his sprained ankle (on the same leg he busted up a few issues prior), and soon, Sonic snaps for the first time in the entire IDW comic’s run.

I love whenever Sonic’s anger is allowed to shine because he is never enraged for petty reasons. Sonic has an attitude that often leads him to cranky comments, but Sonic is genuinely angry here because it hurts him to see someone speak so lowly of themselves, to have been hurt by the world so poorly. Mecha Sonic is also yet another person who has been created by Eggman’s terror specific to oppose Sonic. It’s another example of Surge’s “I will kill you or die trying” with the added complexity of Mecha’s attempt at redemption being corrupted by the trauma of Eggman’s influence. This puts pressure on Sonic because these impositions put Mecha, Surge, Kit, and others like them in direct opposition to Sonic for reasons entirely of no fault of his own—and that angers him. All Sonic strives to do with his life and his gift is help people, and to have so many people come out of the woodworks to say that the only thing he can do to help them is to kill himself is absolutely devastating to him. Not only because he believes in the direct opposite—that the only person who can give one purpose is oneself—but because it threatens to strip his own purpose away from him whenever these notions are unearthed.

Sonic isn’t angry at Mecha, personally. He’s angry at the system created to hurt them both.

The most important thing to remember is that, unless I fully missed something*, that strange mind-link thing between Sonic and Mecha Sonic is never undone. After Sonic cries Mecha Sonic’s tears, the story cuts to Tails officially deprogramming Mecha Sonic and Mecha Knuckles from Eggman’s directives, but it’s never explicitly stated that Mecha Sonic’s and Sonic’s mental link was reversed.

It can be reasonably assumed that it occurs off-screen (off-page? Outside of what is shown to the reader) because that would make general sense, but then again, so did the reprogramming, and that was explicitly mentioned. Further, it’s a general rule in writing for media that if you want something to be known about your story, it needs to be shown to the audience if not alluded to or directly referred to having happened. So, this is either an oversight, or it’s entirely intentional.

* The only way I can imagine this being accounted for is that the machine that linked Sonic and Mecha’s brains, the Egg Noggin, is (obviously) an Eggman device. Thus, whenever Tails removed Eggman’s programming from Mecha Sonic and Mecha Knuckles, perhaps it also restored Sonic’s brain to normal. This, however, feels like a bit of a stretch because we never see or hear of Sonic needing or receiving any treatment, but I am willing to consider it to be a viable reason. Either way, I think the point I’m about to make still stands as either a physical change or an emotional change in Sonic’s character.

This experience, this sharing of minds in such an intimate way where they can both so clearly hear each other’s hearts, taught them something. I read this as some sort of floodgates being opened, where while Mecha Sonic can more easily feel compassion and listen to the good in his core, Sonic now more clearly feels his anger and has a harder time suppressing his emotions. Whether there is lasting physical damage left in Sonic or he’s simply reeling from the depth of his emotions felt in this adventure, there’s been a clear impact.

Even if Sonic isn’t fully delving into things just yet, he’s taken a lesson away from all of this.

(From the IDW Endless Summer One-Shot, set between issue 64 and issue 65 and after the 900th adventure one-shot)

If nothing else, Sonic clearly understands trauma better now. Sonic is absolutely traumatized by his experiences with Eggman and other high-stakes adventures, but again, due to his tendency to push away his darker emotions, he hasn’t processed much of this. Sonic puts all his sadness and rage and fear and confusion into box after box after box before shoving everything onto a big, cluttered shelf, never to be seen again… until now. With such a clear look into the mind of someone actively reeling through trauma, a trauma so like his own, that shelf has collapsed, and now everything is spilling onto the floor before Sonic, quick as can be, can stop it.

Sonic is finally starting to understand the bigger picture, but I don’t think he’s fully on the path of self-awareness. I think there’s more boiling under the surface, more than even he realizes. And if Sonic keeps taking these micro-risks (instead of his usual Hail-Marys) that are fueled by his anger, like storming the Eggperial City too soon, then something will have to give.

Scrapnik Island is incredibly important to the IDW storyline because it showcases not only Sonic learning the depths of his pain and the pain of others but also yet another nail in Eggman’s coffin.

[marmolady]

My three absolute favourite Choices Love Interests....

So. Apparently my type is 'DRAGON'.

More please.

[honorthysalad]

I'm too tired for a proper introduction. I don't like yoshiki's dad and how he's being portrayed in the manga.

Before ch25, the most we see of yoshiki's dad is from the hgsn light novel’s bonus chapter, wherein we get a lot of focus on the disparity between parental roles and how mothers are expected to care solely for the children while fathers are expected to work for the family. Like that's the problem with their relationship: Yoshiki’s mom wants her husband to *care* about their kids and Yoshiki’s father thinks that solely because he’s their father that the amount of care he’s showing (almost none) is acceptable. She goes up to him, asks if he thinks it's okay that Kaoru isn't going to school, and he just further pushes the responsibility onto her by telling her that surely as Kaoru’s mother she knows best. She presses more for his opinion, and he continues to refuse to think about it, becoming frustrated when she pushes back to the point that when the argument is done he’s hitting tables and slamming doors like a child because talking to his wife 'annoys' him so much.

And the thing is that Yoshiki's mom still currently works. She has a job and is expected to do all the housework and decision making for the kids on top of that, and Yoshiki's dad is the one who is stubbornly clinging to these typical roles because it's upsetting for him when it's pointed out that he's failing as a parent. His wife is practically begging him to care, and he just refuses.

(And it makes sense the disparity gets focused on here because Len didn’t write it.)

ANYWAY, looking at this, it makes perfect sense why Yoshiki doesn't want to talk to his dad. His dad doesn't want to talk to him, slams doors when he gets confronted with the idea he may have to *think* about his kids, and so, if Yoshiki's dad wants to be absent from Yoshiki's life, Yoshiki wants him to be absent too- in all forms. From the moles he's inherited to the supposed similarities between them, Yoshiki wants nothing to do with him.

(There's a misconception going around that Yoshiki's dad beats him. This is from a mistranslation of the light novel; Yoshiki's dad only hits objects. Feel free to write him however you want tho, I know I hardly stick to canon lol. I just wanted to preemptively avoid ppl informing me of that)

But if you’ve only read the manga, then why doesn’t Yoshiki like his father? He… knocked over a glass once maybe? Looked real pathetic getting yelled at? Grabbed Yoshiki’s arm and said some vague stuff about the unuki. In the past people told Yoshiki he was like him. That's what we got of Yoshiki's dad before ch25.

Then in ch25, Yoshiki's dad is some like... idfk? Pathetic little guy who wants to spend time with his family but he doesn't feel like he has a place to belong in the house :( I mean sure he's clearly in the house at a normal time when everyone else is in the house so it's not like he's working insane hours and can never see them, but didn't you know he's so scared of his wife :(((( and look he's actually not a bad parent cuz one time he read Yoshiki a book, and he's got an artistic side cuz he wanted to be a novelist, and he's such a funny little clumsy guy :) also he's got himself a little family tree with daddy issues of his own :))

I'd almost entertain that this is him putting up an act around yoshiki like yoshiki's mom says, but it's pretty unlikely from what we see of him in extras. Len wants us to see him as a person who just struggles to assert himself and that's what causing the breakdown of the family, not what the light novel presents where he asserts himself with his actions, and what he's saying he doesn't care about the family.

It's just kind of frustrating because I liked the examination in the light novel, highlighting the flaws in what’s assumed as a normal family dynamic in Japan, and I think it perfectly fits the themes HGSN explores with maintaining flawed traditions that only work on the surface. In turn what we’ve got in the manga is just… muddled and weird.

[omegacrapper]

My favorite part of IDW Sonic Endless Summer

[kindahoping4forever]

Michael @ The 5SOS Show Tour Rio de Janeiro - 23 July 2023

[sparkles-rule-4eva]

Not used to seeing Whisper act like this but honestly, give me more

[angelofdiamond]

IDW Endless Summer was a huge fresh air yesterday and there are so many cool one-shots that it is hard to choose buuuuuuuut...here the mine 😁

Same vibes people...same vibes 😏 (you don't notice that we're triplets 😏? )

"Please this cool (adorable) hedgehog is all vibes here 100% in all muscles"

At least he hasn't said: " lost it" 😂

~Extra~

" Are you in search of me ladies? Well, kudos you found this cool hedgehog"

[dislyteshack]

SPREADING THIS SO MY OOMFIE CAN PEEP THIS TOMORROW

MAJOR SPOILERS HERE

My theory is that she tried to save the town with a shield and that took so much out of her that she's effectively in an endless sleep/coma

And that timeloop dream is what she is experiencing in the coma

I think Lian has no time bending or world bending powers

So she retreated to her mind

[zhoras-bitch]

Somewhere out there, in the deep infinite void that precedes space and time, there’s a group counselling session for immortal eldritch beings, and ILW MC and ES MC are both in it.

[sonknuxadow]

I LITERALLY JUST SAID NOT TOO LONG AGO THAT SONIC WOULD LOVE SUMMER AND GOING TO THE BEACH WITH HIS FRIENDS AS LONG AS HES NOT EXPECTED TO GET IN THE WATER AND THEY JUST SHOWED THAT IN IDW SONIC. thank you idw for backing me up always

[counterspelling]

Endless X-Men 97

[janexromantic]

they did it. they really did it. they pulled the endless summer card on us. i'm out.

[taoofshigeru]

New S-tier ship dynamic: Jewel the Beetle x paid vacations