#great ideas on how to develop robotnik!

[ashlynthecarrottop]

SONIC RANT!1!1!1!

My review for Sonic 3 >>>

Okay, first of all, WHAT!? The story line and character designs are insane!! I love how they created Shadows character and how keanu reeves kept is voice slam or good for whatever reason because of how Shadow’s character really is like.

Gotta add points to having Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles still as the greatest team the whole movie, even when Sonic left them out of his rage. I thought it was so sweet when they threw that little party for Sonic when he first got to earth, I just thought the little references with Tom and Sonic from the first movie was so nice to see and just overall a great start.

Tbh, I thought the part when Sonic and Robotnik were talking about family and how he didn’t have any was a great part on why he acted like a inspired child towards his grandfather when he showed up. I think it was weird but interesting on how they made robotniks grandfather, also Maria’s grandfather…sooo…does that make them siblings-? IDK JUST A THEORY- MATPAT CMERE

The greatest part of the movie to me was the end when both Sonic and Shadow used the emeralds to use their ability TOGETHER to save earth. The slow-mo scenes of them and just the duo coming into a movie was just so awesome for me to see.

MY LEAST FAVORITE PART IS WHEN SHADOW DIED WITH ROBOTNIK!! LIKE I GET ROBOTNIK BUT WHY SHADOW??? HES MY FAVORTIE WHYD YOU HAVE TO DO THAT😭🤚

But to be fair, shadow isn’t apart of Sonic’s actual team. We can see that through old shows like Sonic boom and all them when we have his team full of knuckles, tail, any, rouge and all them, but shadow isn’t apart of it. If he is he’s there as the idea of an episode, or just there in the background for a problem. So even though it’s sad that he was killed, at least he did it to save the world.

CHARACTER RANT

Sonic>>

Of course, the blue-blur is at it again, never sad, and always has the biggest ego. LOLL-

I’m glad they kept his character the same, it definitely was a plus to keep the movie was flopping like most people thought- only because it’s the third movie. I thought it was so sweet and emotional when Sonic near the end was in rage and trying everything to get revenge because shadow hurt Tom. Even though he knew it was wrong in the end, I still couldn’t help but feel that he did that more because he cared, then revenge, and that stood with me through that entire scene. So overall, Sonic in this movie, and just like all the others, didn’t disappoint

10/10

Tails>>

Gotta say, I have no complaints, over then he didn’t get enough screen time. Tails gadgets and positive attitude is cute and just fits him perfectly like it always has. I’m always impressed with the development and change in Tails mechanics because it definitely got better from the holograms to the gadgets stopping Robotnik. And the part when the little girl said he looked like detective pikachu was so cute and true I swear😂🤚

10/10

Knuckles>>

Just like Sonic, his character didn’t let me down with him wanting to be on top, and be the smashy smashy guy and it was just funny to hear him again after 2 years. I don’t know if anyone notices but he does speak like everyone else, but he doesn’t speak fully it’s like he takes away the words that aren’t needed…for example

Normal ppl - “So this is love”

Knuckles - “I feel the love”

Soo….yeah

10/10

Shadow>>

LEMME JUST SAY. KEENU REEVES DID NOT DISAPPOINT, and his character design and actions were just so cute to me and I love him so much😭😭…If I’m being honest I could probably do another rant but it’s literally just about how much I love shadow. Form him on the motorcycle, to him with Maria, to the flashbacks and change in emotion, to when he was with the emeralds, to him just being him, I love it all. I thought his backstory with Maria really shot through with this movie and I really enjoyed it.

“The world still shines when the star is gone”

-Maria & Shadow

100/10

The robotniks

Just..sigh,..no . Only good part of this movie was the dance when they were going through the lasers, nothing more.

Robotnik - 7/10

Grand papi - 2/10

And let me shut say that I feel bad for dr stone bro. He also most drowned, was rejected multiple times by Robotnik during this movie and then got replaced with robotniks terrible excuse for a family member😭🤚

Justice for stone🙏

8/10

ENDING RANT

FIRST OFF. We’re 3 movies in now, if you don’t sit in your chair and sit for after the credits to see the downfall of the next movie your an opp and not a real sonic fan ALR!? I said it.😤 BUT ANYWAYS-

WE GOT THE ROBOT SONICS!? I CALLED IT-!

AND AMY?!?!?!??

yo I can’t wait 2 or more years for this😭🤚…it was torture waiting for this movie to be finished. But I think it’s gonna be funny and cute to see a bit of Sonic and any shipping and blushing and cute crushing stuff lol.

So overall, I loved this movie and we be watching it on repeat for forever til SONIC 4 BABY!!

[egg-emperor]

Sorry for all the hate your getting, I just wanted to ask your opinion on Stone x Robotnik, and which version of eggmans your favorite!

Thank you I appreciate that, I'm used to it this point and all the hate doesn't get to me anymore, instead it only fuels me to keep being myself and expressing my passion even more hehe 🥚🌟💜

I don't ship movie Stobotnik because I'm personally not a fan of movie Robotnik or his characterization and their dynamic doesn't compell me, if anything the best it was was the first movie from what I recall in the one time I watched each on release days and I'm not really into the development in Sonic 3 because I prefer it to feel mostly one sided in terms of emotional involvement as I do all my ships with Eggman, as that's what is most in character for game Egg. I don't wanna sound like a negative hater though so I won't talk anything more about that lol

I'd say I kind of ship it when it comes to the idea of game Eggman x Stone though. I mean, I don't think and create anything about them a lot myself because the dynamic that would work for game Eggman involved specifically is already something I write all the time and always have long before Stone existed, as my self ship, Starline x Eggman, etc, is literally exactly the same as Stone would realistically be with game Eggman already. So I'm not all that invested in writing the same type of things again with a third different ship you know XD

But I do like seeing other people's creations in fandom like art (haven't tried looking for fic because I'm unsure of if anyone would pull it off in a way I feel works and would prefer but non story based art doesn't involve that) when it involves game Eggman's classic/modern design and is done in a way that feels in character. And they're just fun to see. I love when people embrace the massive size difference because game Eggman is a beast of a giant bear, that's always hot. I like when they're both drawn loving evil together rather than romance, that's all up my alley

I personally wouldn't want Stone/Stobotnik officially be in the games though. Not exclusive to this ship as I wouldn't want Stone, myself, or anyone else I ship with him to be in the games with him. I think Eggman works best far away from all other living beings, only around his superior robots and programs. I've always liked that he seems to be comfortable and happy in it unlike jimbotnik. Seeing how he talks about his creations being superior to natural life, he feels they're truly superior and prefers how he's more likely to have full control over them in creation and programming than living beings

Considering that he's expressed no desires to exist in the close proximity of anyone besides his own creations or discontentment with his current way of living, I can imagine he only sees living beings as his subjects to rule over when he takes over the world, not to live in close presence. He probably doesn't want any of them ever thinking they could be on his level or worthy of him, so he'd prefer to stay living as an untouchable ruler far above them and not start to mingle with common inferior beings, let alone have a connection with any. It fits him very well

But I think it's still something fun to explore scenarios of in daydreams and fan stuff for me, while considering what his in character interactions would be like if there was a reason for living beings to at least temporarily be around him and him doing gay stuff with them. As he has teamed up with living beings in the games a few times but they never last/are intentionally temporary and I think that's best and makes the most sense for him and wouldn't suddenly change under any circumstances. That's my feelings on it based on what I see

But I'm very happy people are finally considering and embracing gay game Eggman stuff. There's always been plenty of potential in the games alone that people still aren't aware of but the movies are making more open and that's great. Stobotnik isn't one of my biggest ships as it's only official form is in movies I'm not a fan of but I'll take any gay Eggman ship as a fan for 19 years where for most of that time it was rare for him to be shipped with anyone, let alone considered gay. It's nice there's been a shift, all I can ask for is for more with gorgeous game design Eggman!

To answer your second question, it may be pretty obvious now with this post alone and one glimpse at my blog that my favorite version is none other than game Eggman! XD

Both the beautiful modern and classic designs, in every single game and era from beginning to present and future, as he's the exact same guy I know and love across time in all. I'm actually not a fan of most of the versions in non canon adaptions and ones I do like are determined by how alike to the games they are. He's the first one I got to know and love and he'll always be the best!

He was my introduction to the series and he's so handsome, funny, and evil, three most important things about his character that made me fall in love with him. He's always so consistently entertaining and captivating in his characterization in all the games too. I've adored him for 19 years and almost no other version has came close to the passion and adoration he makes me feel

And he's so gorgeous all the time, from his adorable spherical classic design to his sexy egg shaped daddy modern design. He has reached absolute peak perfection in the source! 🥰

My collection kinda reflects this very well lol. Very outdated photo but you can see that his modern and classic design absolutely dominates the shrine lol

[blazehedgehog]

Unlocked the second row of tracks in Ring Racers and the amount of fun I'm having with this game is very quickly evaporating. Everything hits SO HARD and tracks get SO COMPLEX and the AI rubberbands to catch up with you SO EASILY that I have reached a point of feeling completely overwhelmed by frustration at this game.

It's great that they have an "everything and the kitchen sink" approach to the tracks they include. Like no idea was ever considered bad or too outrageous or too complicated. But I also feel like there are tracks in this game (and even in SRB2 Kart before it) that would have been cut in a more mainstream product for being esoteric and too unfriendly to anyone but the development team.

I've blinked near bumper mines that launched me with such force it sent me backwards half a lap. On something like the Gumball Machine track a bumper mine will probably actually send you back an entire lap if you hit it just the right way. It doesn't even have to be a bumper mine, either. I got invincibility and tried to plow through someone with some shark missiles and it bounced me away about as strong as a bumper mine would have.

There are tracks where a "shortcut" will actually put you driving the wrong direction, like they expect you to blast through a speed barrier at top speed, and then figure out how to flip a U-Turn and still maintain the advantage of that shortcut.

And the entire Balloon Park track could have only been made by someone with a deeply black heart. I have never in my life ever seen a kart racer track that's trying to make you lose the race. Every single turn of that thing is a new, awful nightmare you have to figure out how to steer around while worrying about how if any of the eight other racers even so much as breathe on you then you're never going to recover.

Even the Crash Team Racing remake was more forgiving than this, and I hate that game and refused to play it once I finished my review.

I have never played any racing game that has made me feel more dejected and miserable than Dr. Robotnik's Ring Racers. Once you clear the first set of tracks and see the credits roll, it turns in to a playable headache. I feel like I swallowed a nuclear warhead playing this game tonight.

That's the last time I'm touching this thing until I hear about serious balance changes.

[doomlazy]

My Most Problem About Movie Tails.

So, one of my most criticism about This One Character, Tails... And that's why  I feel don't like the sonic movies anymore because if that. Who responsible this infamous scene with tails? Are they blind?! Fans, critics, audiences and filmmakers or writers who did this...?  Because of knuckles' portrays and his screening and well written, that makes tails more awful, because of more focusing some important popular character like knuckles, especially shadow that both are getting more spin-off than tails wasn't got his own?! Always knuckles, always shadow, and sonic too, even eggmans, ivo & Gerald robotniks, but what about tails.?! It giving him a worse screening for him?  I hate really people of filmmaker and writers doing such a poorly developing to him, that's a insults, and disrespectful. This is not how to make him deserve better. It is make him so very Worse?! I hope people and filmmaker and writers, to understand that criticism, and not just blinding and poorly written him?! It makes people a lot of hate to him. Like the main game version of tails, it was just like and predicted?! I hate some people hating him,  for being useless and treating him as annoying character. I really hate that treatment to him... That's cruelty and insult. That's bullying to him by others, like haters... That every single people don't understand to him... How many years, that never got his chance to get his more screening not just the same always useless, they should give him his own spin-off than knuckles, because we don't know what's his origin, or his backstory...?  They are never cared about him. They treating him annoyance and poorly developing him...?!

But the idea to make him a villain... That's a very great choice decision. Motivated his anger and jealousy, by knuckles, shadow or everywhere else to appear in the big screen. Even sonic,  was the one who trying to care d about him, or...? "sigh"

Why they always doing to him...?

We Need A Strong Criticism, Like The Infamous Wedding Scene From Sonic Movie 2, and wade's more screening and being main character from knuckles show, that we really hate and disappointed. we should make a strong backlash and criticism for him.

JUSTICE, FOR TAILS! ✊😤

#JUSTICEFORTAILS

Also This Edited Movie Tails Image By Tailss On Facebook.

Here's The Link https://m.facebook.com/tailsmeboy/

[metal-harbor]

Shadow headcanons :3

Humans call their planet Earth while mobians call it Mobius, Shadow refers to it as Earth as he was raised by humans

Gerald was somewhat cold to him when he first awoke; his previous experience with the biolizard and gizoid made him jaded to the fact he had made a conscious, autonomous being. It didn’t help that it took a little while for Shadow’s personality to come through - once it did Gerald treated him with much more warmth

While acclimating to regular life on Earth it was common for him to refer to days as ‘day cycles’ and ‘night cycles’. Each cycle was around 12 hours, and he would instead refer to a day as a ‘full day’ or ‘whole cycle’. This was due to the way the lighting system worked on the ARK.

Shadow has no idea how money works, he doesn’t know how much he has (it’s a lot) and he has no real concept of how much things cost. The government sends him money each month and will pay him for any missions he helps Rouge with.

Shadow will almost always have a chaos emerald on him. It’s a great way to ensure all 7 don’t fall into Robotnik’s hands, and he likes to get around with chaos control.

He’s actually very smart, especially in Gerald’s preferred subjects of chaos energy, physics, robotics and bioengineering. Despite this, he was bored by schooling and was a poor student.

He has helped Tails with developing chaos based technologies before. Shadow surprised Tails with blueprints and some of Gerald’s unpublished scientific journals on the subject.

Vanilla cares for Shadow’s chao when he is away for long periods of time.

Shadow is hypoallergenic, his spit is antiseptic and he doesn’t sweat. He doesn’t need to eat or sleep, but chooses to when he wants to.

[robotnik-mun]

Boy, it's been a while since I jawed about Robotnik, hasn't it? Well, thanks to Dune 2's interpretation of the Harkonnens and their homeworld Giedi Prime, I've developed an interpretation for why Robotnik was the way he is! So hey, might as well jaw about it.

So, as we know, the closest we ever get to a motive for bolt boy (aside from him being an asshole control freak) is that he is driven by a desire to create a 'perfect, ordered' world...

... and it's pretty clear that the end game for this vision of the world would basically be a lifeless wasteland of robots and machines, all controlled by him. It's a pretty insane goal, and you have to wonder how he ever developed such a vision of 'perfection' to begin with.

Well, I might have an idea, and it begins in Robotnik's home country of Overland. One detail we got about Overland was that it was heavily polluted, and running short on resources before the Great War broke out...

Like I said, I got this idea after watching Dune 2, and in Dune in general the Harkonnen homeworld of Giedi Prime is depicted as an over-industrialized, heavily polluted hellscape, and the films take it a step further by suggesting that, in part, the Harkonnen's over the top viciousness/insanity is influenced by generations worth of exposure to nonstop pollution.

So, that got me thinking about Robotnik. Predictable, I know, but then Vladimir Harkonnen IS one of the Lost Robotniks, heh.

So, what does this have to do with Robotnik?

Picture, if you will, that pollution in Overland was bad. Really, really bad. Bad enough that it causes widespread health issues, even going so far as to cause physical and mental defects. Robotnik is born Julian Kintobor and grows up with this, and despite being one of the upper class, his family is not untouched by it- he witnesses his peers succumb to it to various degrees, watch as bodies and minds break down or are left twisted by chemical exposure. He may have had friends who died young or were left ravaged. Heck, he and his brother might not have been the only Kintobors of their generation, just the only ones that survived.

Growing up, Julian sees all this and is terrified of the same happening to him. Eventually though this fear twists his mind something fierce, and soon he grows to not fear the rampant pollution for ruining so many Overlanders, but instead learns to despise the frailty of flesh that shatters so easily to toxins and chemicals. From there it extends to a hatred of organic life and sentient beings, who would willingly do this to themselves. He begins to see machines as superior to all-to-easily broken Mobians and Overlanders. By the time he's an adult he now has visions of a 'perfect' world free of organic weakness and organic chaos, and his view of the sub-par nature of flesh is only strengthened with the birth of his nephew Snively, clearly another victim of the warping effects of the pollution.

This also might explain why Robotnik wantonly pollutes as he does.

He does so as an expression of his hatred for the frailties of the flesh, seeking to create a world where organic life cannot thrive. Where weakness cannot thrive. And, in a sense, to demonstrate his mastery over the very thing that once terrified him so. He no longer fears the pollution, but is now lord of it, reveling in it and how it expresses his power and control over the world.

Or something like that. I'm pathologizing a cartoon villain from the 90s, cut me some slack XD

[thelediz]

I haven't watched Sonic prime bc something in me went "egh, no" after the first three minutes but when I heard abt Nines I immediately though about how you said Tails could be incredibly dangerous and his relationship with Sonic raised him out of a bad path hehe. I just kind of gauge Sonic and Pokemon stuff through your worldbuilding now lol I can't help it

Asides from that, I wanted to ask your thoughts abt Sonic's relationship with Gaia! You've mentioned you had Thoughts abt it in a couple of posts and it stuck to my mind bc I've always thoughts of Chip as a very one-off character (as in, I like him, but I've never thought of the Gaia mythos outside the context of Unleashed) but since you made a point of highlighting environmentalism in the Lost Prince I'd honestly really love to hear however much or however little you've thought on his relationship with the personification of the planet (both of them, even!)

Let me reassure you that "egh no" is a perfectly valid reaction to any media. Especially the first three minutes of ANY episode.

As to Sonic and environmentalism - honey, don't tempt a 90s kid.

I would argue that finding a balance with nature and sustainability has been part of the Sonic franchise since AT LEAST Sonic CD, if not the very beginning. And Sonic himself has been a literal force of nature since his inception, you just don't get into it very often because his ACTUAL purpose is to show off how the Mega Drive can go very fast with lots of colours, stop thinking about it so much.

(And you are skirting DANGEROUSLY close to my going on a gushing rant about why I love this franchise and the whole concept of controlled chaos. I shall try to contain myself.)

First off. I repeat: the actual purpose of Sonic the Hedgehog was to show off the capabilities of the Mega Drive and the technical skill of Sonic Team. Play any Sonic game on any platform (except 06, Lost World, and Boom, which all had Other Issues) and you will see how that team pushes the hardware to its absolute limit without causing problems. These people are skilled developers and they want you to know about it.

Now let me get madcap about character symbolism and worldbuilding.

Now, there's obviously the whole thing about Robotnik/Eggman being evil technology and polluting the environment, yes, yes, par for the course with half the other villains created in the 90s.

But the thing that made the Sonic franchise different is that Sonic never had any issue with technology AS A CONCEPT. He flies a bi-plane, Tails is an inventor himself, the good future as depicted by the Sonic franchise ALWAYS incorporates both technology and nature, and the whole idea of using chaos as a power source is basically code for sustainable engineering and renewable energy, because CHAOS ITSELF is as natural and inescapable as the sun and the wind and the only way we're going to lose them as a resource is if we -

Okay.

Stop.

Come back to the point.

Sonic's relationship with Gaia and the environment. Great.

Short point to be taken as a given, but which I can understand newer fans not realising because of the world they grew up in: the Sonic franchise, since its inception, has carried a theme of sustainability. You can take this to extremes by pointing out some vaguely anarcho-environmentalist takes about freeing captured animals, but I think it's more about the theming.

Every Sonic game starts in Green Hill Zone or a close equivalent: they're always lush and green and beautiful, and the deeper into Eggman's territory you get, the less naturalism you see. Eggman has gotten better about pollution, but he is always destroying nature in favour of machines. He uses and abuses the resources he finds until they cease to be visible, if not wiped out entirely. He has no thought about what he's going to do when these resources run out. He has no interest in how his desires impact the rest of the world. He just wants to build his theme park, staffed by robots, and anyone who disrupts that plan is impinging on HIS DREAMS and -

-cough-

Anyway.

Meanwhile, while Sonic and Tails use resources, they do so in measured ways, and only ever enough for their needs. In fact, in games like Sonic Colours, the resources (wisps) are actively forcing themselves on Sonic to be used. They transform him, and he just kind of goes along with it.

Because (and this is where I begin to actually answer your question), Sonic is a force of nature himself.

There are many versions of early Sonic lore, and you can take whichever one works for you, but in some of them, Sonic's first appearance in the world was him just... wandering lost in the woods, with no memory and no idea how he got there. He just appeared.

A spirit that appears when influence is needed on the world

Similarly, in most franchises these days, Sonic doesn't... live anywhere. He wanders the earth, he goes where the wind takes him, he isn't trying to do good, necessarily, he just stops the spread of bad when he sees it. In most current franchises, even when he DOES have a fixed address, it's... weird. Basically just a place for him to get out of the rain and store his strange collection of Stuff. Because he doesn't and isn't supposed to exist in the way of 'normal' people. He just is.

A lot of this is tied up in Sonic's relationship to Chaos, but I'd argue that nature and creation are inherently chaotic things. Have you ever seen what happens when a rose or blackberry bush is allowed to grow on its own? Madness! Trees will grow wherever they want, dandelions think a scrap of dirt in concrete is a wonderful spot to start a family, animals don't care about this concept of personal property that you have, and the human body doesn't give a damn about your 'schedule', it has NEEDS, dammit, and YOU ARE NOT PROVIDING THEM.

Go drink something. When was the last time you felt sunlight?

Anyway.

Even in the franchise, Sonic is unique among the characters for his relationship to chaos. All three male hedgehogs can use Chaos Emeralds to turn Super, but Shadow is artificial, and there is an argument that Silver is Shadow's son (don't @ me, I'm not invested and I don't want to get into it. Just accept the Dragon Ball Z reference and move on). Sonic is still an anomaly.

ALSO. Since Sonic Adventure, Chaos has been tied to emotion, and Sonic represents the positive side of that. The Water God Chaos represents the negative side of it. When they do battle, and positivity wins, neither side is destroyed. They just calm down and go away. You can't destroy emotion, you can only -

STOP.

So. If we agree that chaos is a part of nature, and Sonic is inherently tied to chaos, then you can see how Sonic can be read as a LITERAL force of nature. He exists to exert nature's influence and re-establish balance by being a positive chaotic force on the world.

And that's why he can also be inherently problematic because sometimes humans need nature to be controlled in order to live safely and SERIOUSLY LEDIZ STOP

The Adventure series made the subtext supertext, and Unleashed happily made it TEXT, but it's always been there. Sonic has always disrupted manEggman's march over the environment with nothing but his speed and natural resources.

Chip was a one-off character, but he is the continuation of a discussion enforced by Chaos, and then Shadow, and in many ways Metal Sonic, and Merlina, and lately followed up by Sage: personifications of how humans and their technology can disrupt and be disrupted by natural forces. Sonic's continuing triumph over these forces is a reminder that with good intent and effort, we can find a way to survive and maintain a sustainable future.

-DEEP BREATH AS WE EMERGE FROM THE THEORY MINES-

Watch me defend the Sega mandate about who can have a Super form with this madcap theory of mine

Listen to me get all cultural studies about how this ties Sonic into the storybook series because fairytales are implicitly tied to nature fables

The point is, Sonic is tied to nature, and so whenever the planet OR technology is personified, in any way, shape, or form, he WILL have a relationship with it.

And I will go back in my box now, thank you for not getting upset with my ramblings, please.

[shadowiie]

sprinting at u full speed shadow hedgehog

Oh this is going to be very fun to compare and contrast from my answer months ago

One aspect I adore about Shadow is his independent and aloof attitude. Sonic has the same traits, but the specific ways in which it manifests within Shadow I find particularly interesting.

Combined with his selfish tendencies, it often leads to him going off on his own without consulting the rest of his teammates. In 06 after Mephiles phase 1, where he takes off right after returning to the past because he now needs to find out who Mephiles is, In Sonic Forces: Episode Shadow, when he refuses Omega's help, stating "I'll handle things my way." In SA2 when he dips after the Finalhazard fight

He's so focused on whatever his goal is that he doesn't even think about how it affects others. It's a very interesting choice

One aspect i wish others understood about him (aside from his overall assholishness) is his bluntness. Chances are, if he says something, he means it. Literally.

It's great analysis-wise because sometimes you don't even have to guess why he's doing the things he's doing, but I think a lot of people (myself included!) underestimate how often something that sounds like it's an exaggeration or contains subtext is actually him being completely, 100% direct.

In SA2, when he says after saving Rouge "I didn't do it for you, I simply needed the chaos emeralds for my goal", he literally means that if he didn't need the chaos emeralds for his goal, he wouldn't have saved Rouge.

It's also a good example of canon evidence the hog is autistic :)

One uncommon(?) headcanon I have for Shadow is the idea that he likes to sleep outside in nature, like up in a tree or something. I got it from Jib Candyypirate and I think its neat :)

I like to think at one point he and Sonic slept in the same tree at one point bc neither saw the tree was occupied.

One person I love seeing him interact with, surprise surprise, is Sonic. Now, I get extremely squicked out when I see the two in a romantic context (which was the primary reason I had to mass unfollow even people I'm friends with), but their canon dynamic is absolutely up my alley.

Their competitive rivalry and contrasting yet fundamentally similar personalities are endlessly entertaining, and their scenes together in SA2 are so memorable I'm able to recite most of them at will.

They're something about their dynamic that's so compelling, and while I don't like seeing it I can understand why they're the most popular slash ship in the series.

One character that I wish they would interact with more in the series is Gerald Robotnik. I recently went on a deep dive into both Gerald and Maria, and discovered the Sonic Battle diary entries and hooooooooly shit.

Those last few diary entries really moved me.

It isn't even my headcanon that Gerald was forced by GUN to turn all of his creations into weapons, it's just fucken canon.

They literally state somewhere (I forget where) that Gerald was initially hesitant to accept GUN's proposal for creating an immortal creature, he eventually agreed in order to develop a cure for Maria's illness.

From Chaos Drives, Space Colony ARK, to the Gizoid, to Project Shadow, literally every single one of Gerald's projects were taken by GUN and turned into weapons.

I don't necessarily want Shadow to interact with Gerald himself, but I'd love to see his reaction to Gerald's diaries. I kinda just used this question to go on a tangent about Gerald himself because I find his descent into revenge (and GUN's massive hand in it that's downplayed in later games) to be immensely cathartic to piece together.

One headcanon I have that involves Sonic and Shadow that I've previously mentioned before but still hold onto is the hc that blue chaos cola tastes like ramune, red chaos cola tastes like cola, and Sonic and Shadow have this massive petty argument about which one is better. You bring this Convo up you will never get them to shut up about it.

[scruffyplayssonic]

Are the ArchieSonic comics actually an 80's/90's syndicated cartoon? Episode 22: Explosive case of amnesia, and episode 23: Hero is brainwashed to be evil

Welcome back to my look at the ArchieSonic comic series, and how it shared a lot of the same story tropes as a typical ‘80’s or ‘90’s syndicated cartoon! I’m going to be looking at two episode tropes for the price of one today, as these things both happened in the same story!

Episode 22: Explosive case of amnesia, and episode 23: Hero is brainwashed to be evil

This story took place in Sonic the Hedgehog #27 and #28, and kicked off when Sonic went on a mission to retrieve a secret message in Robotropolis. After running face-first into a Swatbot and knocking himself off, Sonic was captured and awoke with a bad case of amnesia.

Snively wanted to take advantage of the situation to just eliminate Sonic while they had the opportunity drop into their laps, but Robotnik wouldn’t have been much of a supervillain if he’d just roboticised Sonic while he was unconscious and helpless, would he?

…okay, to be fair he learned from that mistake in a later issue and did that exact thing, so who says Robotnik can’t have character development?

Anyway, Robotnik tricked Sonic into thinking the Freedom Fighters were an underground rebellion aiming to take down the government - which is actually true when you think about it - and tasked Sonic with finding their secret base. Sonic was pointed in the direction of the Great Forest and sent on his way, unaware that a tracking beacon had been placed behind his ear and a group of demolition tractors was in hot pursuit, ready to annihilate Knothole should he manage to find it.

Sonic soon managed to find a secret tunnel leading to Knothole, but set off the security sensors because of the tracking beacon he was carrying. Sally and Rotor didn’t fully understand what was going on, but decided to be cautious and tried to block Sonic off from getting any closer. When that didn’t work, Sally decided, “Well, guess we’d better kill him!” and ordered the tunnel flooded.

Sonic managed to escape though, and continued on his way to Knothole where he beat the ever-living snot out of his former teammates.

Antoine tried to ambush him in the dark with the help of Sally’s former trainees, and Dylan the Porcupine managed to get a lucky hit in, knocking Sonic out.

Sonic awoke with his memory restored, and led the demolition tractors off a cliff instead of to Knothole. Robotnik came to the conclusion that somehow Sonic had outwitted him again and that he had never been close to finding Knothole, and all was well.

…except Tails threw a tantrum about Sonic beating him up, which led to him heading off on his own and running afoul of the Fiona Fox auto-automaton. Whoopsie.

It’s worth noting that this story shares a lot of similarities with the season 2 SatAM episode, “No Brainer.”

In this episode Sonic got hit with a memory scrambler when he was freeing prisoners from Snively’s clutches, and Snively befriended him in the hope of using him to find Knothole. This was possibly the first time the creative team adopted the stance of, “Can’t think of any good ideas? Just copy from SatAM!” but it wouldn’t be the last. Heck, they even did full adaptations of two SatAM episodes in the comic, with horrible, horrible art.

Anyway, that’s all I’ve got for today. Are there any other cases of amnesia or brainwashing that I’ve overlooked? Be sure to let me know in the comments and come back tomorrow for the next post, where I’ll be looking at episode 24: villain forced to act good!

[maxwell-grant]

i have been watching old (and sometimes new) gmod animations and i grew up watching enough ytps to know the general idea behind them, and i recently gained a sort of fascination for them. there's something special about them that i couldn't quite put into words, but i think you got it down perfectly in your post about grand guignol. basically, thanks a bunch for that.

Well thank you! And, yeah, I pretty much grew up watching GMOD and YTP constantly and even today I still come back to those a lot when I'm restless and taking a break from work, and I think there's genuinely a lot that can be learned or discussed from them as uniquely 21st Century art forms.

I've been rewatching a lot of Raxxo's content lately and I think it was his content in particular that kind of convinced me that the "GMOD/SFM - Grand Guignol" analogy wasn't nearly as much of deranged word salad as I assumed it was, because in all honestly, if you had to try and condense his videos into a genre or definition or something of the sort, what the hell else can you possibly call this that in any way comes close to describing what you experience?

Like, all of his videos are described as "GMOD animated in SFM", because SFM is usually associated with more straightforward dramatic content while GMOD has been cartoon madness from the start (and it's fascinating to watch just how tame even the early Rubberfruit videos are compared to the kind of stuff Eltorro64 or Dr Lalve are putting out), and Raxxo is the latter in the style of the former.

And his videos are not just a non-stop barrage of brain-breaking, because they have weirdly dramatic pauses, and moments of straightforward action, or simple sentence mixing, and there's continuity between his videos, and incredibly smooth and natural gestures following by the characters stretching and deforming like jello monsters on the next second as their screams warble to drown the soundtrack and then everything's back to normal, and then they start doing things that kinda even make some sense as a narrative, but you cannot even begin explaining properly why, and I've watched these so many times that I even kinda start to see what makes sense and what doesn't, even though literally no one other than Raxxo is ever going to guess why he made the choices he did, and god these jokes must have taken hours if not days to render, why does the scretching Soldier head saying "Sputnik!" shows up in everything he does, and oh did I mention he also makes up the soundtracks he uses himself and they don't match in the slightest most people's perception of his content?

And for the finale of the Soldier Dispenser saga he created maybe the most batshit collaborative animation effort on Youtube, which is about an hour's worth of 200 animators all creating their own little batshit mini-stories in reference to his own and, seriously, who the hell could have possibly predicted something like this existing back when computer game Team Fortress 2 was announced in 2007? Or when Youtube was created?

Who could have possibly predicted something like this existing at any point in human history? Where else could anyone possibly experience this much audiovisual chaos anywhere? I can't even bring myself to watch the video in full again, but that this exists at all, and that it's far from the only one of it's kind, and that Team Fortress 2 fan content has spiraled so hard past anything the creators could have possibly predicted that it has self-sustaining meme ecosystems (Remember when smexuals were a thing? Or the Freaks?), that it's still fucking going 15 years past the game's debut, is, it's kind of a lot, is what I'm saying.

Like, I'm speaking as someone who studies a lot of pop culture and combs through it's most obscure and weirdest recesses to find stuff to write about, I'm still just as baffled by how far these things have gotten as I was when experiencing it for the first time. And you can find a lot of stories like these digging through Youtube Poop and the specific styles of certain creators or certain developing memes for franchises that grow and grow and permutate.

Think about what has to have happened to make a video like iteachvader's What'll It Be? happen.

Long John Baldry, blues musician extraordinaire, voiced cartoon villain Dr Robotnik in a Sonic cartoon. Said Sonic cartoon and performance was lucky enough to survive through Youtube clips. People noticed one of said clips of his performance has him saying a word that sounds like penis in a funny way, so they start making jokes about it, and parodies, and then literally hundreds of parodies popularizing the concept as a source of comedy, some of which take the form of music. Said music is done by cutting, remixing and splicing audio from said performance over music beats, which can be a PAINSTAKINGLY LONG PROCESS as someone who's tried doing that several times now, all this to make something with "Poop" in it's name (which I guess isn't that different from pulp writers spending weeks and months breaking their fingers to put out a novel's worth of content every month, for newspapers and magazines that were literally going to be used as toilet paper later)

These parodies catch on a bit and die out for a bit, until iteachvader comes along, and he proceeds to build a career not just by making funny parodies of said cartoon, but also knocking out genuinely really, really good musical parodies, editing voice clips of said performance to make it sound like the villain's singing (and additionally, he also creates his own tunes, and he's shown that literally every sound he uses is taken from the show, which is just, absolutely mind-boggling effort). He's also created over the years a running joke of Tails being Dr Robotnik's son that people liked enough to ask for more, and then we come to the video above, which is a song about Dr Robotnik spoiling his son Tails asking him what he'll want, which is not at all in line with how the two characters are canonically. And said remixes would eventually get remixed even further, even with crossovers with other characters or musicians, and so forth.

And that is the story of how dozens of creators working separately, and with little intent other than goofing around, single-handedly revived a dead man's music career, as the voice of the fan reinterpretation of a animated adaptation of a videogame villain, popular to the billions if not dozens of billions of views over a decade in the making, on a broadcasting platform said man didn't even live to see being created.

I think sometimes we like to think of ourselves as advanced and jaded enough that nothing surprises us anymore, and if we went back in time and showed an iphone to our great-grandparents they'd start screaming in sheer confusion. And, maybe they would, yeah, but imagine if you were Long John Baldry at any point in his life, even after he finished recording his lines as Robotnik, and someone showed up to you and explained that all of this was going to happen to you, to your voice, to your performance. Imagine if you were one of Valve's lead developers working on Team Fortress 2 during the nine years it spent in development, and someone showed you Raxxo's work and Soldier's Dispenser Quest and just, everything that had happened to characters you hadn't even fully created yet.

I imagine Long John Baldry would have taken it well enough eventually, by all accounts he was a fun person who loved to try new things, and he was an openly gay British vocalist in the 1960s when it was literally illegal to be gay in Britain, so I imagine nothing could possibly rattle his cage that deep in the long run.

But can you honestly tell me you wouldn't freak out at least a little trying to understand just what exactly the future was showing you? Can you honestly tell me your cynicism and world-weariness would be worth anything in the face of all this knowledge about what the world was going to do with your creations and work?

Can you honestly tell me, just now, that you have any idea what the hell is your legacy or reputation as an artist, or even what your art is known for, going to look like in a decade or two from now? And that things aren't going to get weirder than they are now?

I find that fact both frightening and strangely assuring at points, and exciting above all.

[mashounen2003]

Sonic opinions - 2

In large portions of every fandom, it looks like it prevails the idea that you can only take one of two positions: praising the story in every respect, including both the ideas themselves and their execution by the writers, or admitting not to like the story and not to praise any element of it at all. I think my ideas regarding the Archie-Sonic comics and the Sonic franchise in general cannot be pigeonholed into either of these two extremes.

More below the "keep reading" cut.

I loved all the world-building in Archie-Sonic, the elements the comic introduced, their many characters and the potential to tell stories about them; I also really liked much of the art and personal styles of several artists Archie-Sonic has had throughout its history, with very few exceptions (and such exceptions include Ron Lim, of course). That's why, of all the Sonic continuities, I often use the pre-reboot Archie-Sonic comic as the primary source for world-building elements and story ideas.

What really makes me feel bad about that comic, what motivates most of my criticism, is the ideas’ execution by the main writers, as well as aspects that I think are more linked to each writer as a person, the unique way in which each of them has written their stories.

Firstly, Michael Gallagher: the writer for the first few dozen issues of the comic had a terrible sense of humour, and this hurt the comic hugely since those first issues were fundamentally based on that low-quality comedy style. The characterization of the entire cast also suffered greatly from this; in Sally's case, something quite ironic happened too: Gallagher portrayed her as bossy, annoying, temperamental, usually bickering with Sonic, and now that's also how Sally is seen by many fans of the videogames’ continuity (at best). Other than this, not much more could be said about him.

Karl Bollers wrote quite decent stories with some nice comedy, with “Return to Angel Island” being his best work, one of the best stories in the entire comic and perhaps even one of the best in the franchise; but Bollers’s work was "torpedoed" by Ken Penders and then-editor Justin Gabrie, which ruined the stories’ final versions sometimes or led to elements introduced by Bollers being "retconned" and overwritten by whatever Penders smoked and decided to do when taking over. The characterization of Fiona Fox is one of the main examples, with Bollers's Fiona being a quite under-utilized character but with a great potential that would later be wasted by both Penders and Ian Flynn. Another similar case was Sally breaking up with Sonic: Bollers tried to give context to such a drastic decision by Sally and show how she was the one who was suffering the most at that time and also that both she and Sonic were partially right, but Penders and Gabrie didn't let Bollers develop this subplot properly and all we had was a quite infamous scene that unfairly made Sally one of the most hated characters. It’s also known of several plans Bollers had for future stories, and one of them was Antoine being corrupted by the Source of All and turning into a villain; this had the potential to be a good story by subverting the concept of the Source of All and making it an actual threat, but on the other hand, it’d have meant resorting once again to the resource of "this character isn’t doing anything, let's make them evil", something quite disappointing, which later would have disastrous results when Flynn did the same with Fiona a few years later. However, these plans of Bollers were just ideas, and the quality of a story created from them still depends a lot on execution. In the end, I can't say anything about how good or bad Bollers was as a writer, simply because I have no way of knowing what his stories would have been like if he had been given more freedom and had stayed as the writer longer.

There were two writers who influenced Archie-Sonic comics far more than any other writer in its history: Penders and Flynn. The first of them was a retarded pervert with an overly inflated and fragile ego. He became obsessed with the primitive, toxic ideal of "family" North-Americans have. He wrote nonsensical, contradictory stories, having already decided the end down to the last detail long before even thinking about how the story would come to that end (I also made this specific mistake a few times when I was just starting to write fanfiction, I must admit). He increased Fiona's age in order to be able to pair her with the Don Juan that Sonic had become, which also ruined Fiona's characterization forever. The issues 150s -right before being replaced by Flynn- were the worst part of Penders’s run, as Bollers was no longer there to put a stop to his madness in any way, and it was at this time when there was the most egregious case of Penders pouring into the comic his worst perversions and retarded ideas: he hinted at a sex scene in one of the most infamous cases in the history of the entire Sonic franchise, although it wasn’t infamous for the implied sex per se but rather because what happened was technically a rape by deception; to add insult to injury, the writer implicitly blamed the victim some years later when asked about it on Twitter.

I could go on talking about “Ken Perverts”, but I think that's not necessary and would be a waste of time since, as everyone here already knows, he's been the laughingstock of the entire Sonic franchise for years; @ponett even has a whole secondary blog, @thankskenpenders, mainly dedicated to this. On the other hand, there’s still another writer who has also contributed a lot and also made huge mistakes but is not criticized in the least by almost anyone, simply because he was better than Penders.

Ian Flynn usually reduced the characters to slightly oversimplified portrayals, similar to the personalities of the characters in the most recent videogames. Under his pen, Sonic was more sympathetic but his words sometimes sounded too empty and shallow, his apologies for past mistakes didn’t lead to genuine changes on his part, and sometimes he even seemed plain insensitive to all the tragedies happening around him, especially at the Mecha Sally Arc (I nickname Ian Flynn’s Sonic "Plastic Smile" for this). Admittedly, this had already happened several times with previous writers (Penders portraying Sonic as a Don Juan, as I already mentioned), and this is why I think the original Sonic from Sonic SatAM was always better for feeling more "genuine", less "empty", and more heroic and likeable as a result. Perhaps the only ones to escape the oversimplified portrayal have been Shadow and E-123 Omega, whose characterizations in Archie-Sonic were the best in the whole franchise.

Besides, Flynn had strong favouritism for Amy Rose, which only made things worse because this Amy was much more similar to the one in the videogames from Sonic Heroes onwards. Anyway, this also happened with previous writers, like when Amy wished to be younger at the cost of a chance to save Sally's mother and no one ever berated her for it.

Let’s look at the villains. Unlike the typical Eggman from the videogames, with his follies, eccentricities and other absurd aspects, the Robotnik “inherited” by the comic from Sonic SatAM was explicitly a genocidal bastard and crueller while at the same time being sane enough to realize everything he was doing (@robotnik-mun already spoke in detail about this once); however, Flynn tried to combine the two characters into the pre-reboot Archie-Sonic Eggman, and the result created some severe problems with the stories’ tone. Something derived from this was how Sonic let Eggman live and even felt sorry for his fall into madness, in addition to treating him as if they were the Sonic and Eggman from the videogames, Sonic X or Sonic Boom; it’s worth remembering this Eggman technically is a sort of reincarnation of the SatAM Robotnik (his exact nature is quite complicated and includes parallel universes, but yes, he’s supposed to be exactly the same as the SatAM Robotnik, with memories and everything) and this Sonic is supposed to have fought a bloody decade-long guerilla war against him just like his SatAM counterpart.

Scourge was turned into a massive Mary-Sue who achieved easy victories, as subtle as a huge neon sign saying "the bad guys win"; he was also an abusive manipulator towards Fiona Fox, and Flynn was unable to show that properly for fear of making his pet look no longer cool, which makes you wonder how alike Flynn and Penders might actually be in some ways. To clearly understand the horrible damage this has caused: it not only created a generation of young Sonic fans -mostly boys from the USA- who romanticize abuse either consciously or unconsciously, but also there are even women -including scholars, committed feminists and transgender people who are also activists for social justice- who either sympathize with Scourge or think Fiona made a right, wise, rational or informed decision by joining him in the story (I’ll not give names of those women, I’m not really eager to get into heated fallacious discussions about “the true meaning of Feminism”); to top it off, among the writers who started working with Ian Flynn either on IDW-Sonic or the last years of Archie-Sonic, there’s at least one person who got the job of writing official Sonic comics after gaining quite a bit of fame with a fan-comic where they used the pairing of Scourge & Fiona to inspire its readers to feel sorry... for Scourge. And speaking of Fiona specifically: the subplot of her career as a villain was ill-conceived, was built by using as a cornerstone the A-story of Issue #150 (that quite infamous and widely known story written by Penders where Scourge may or may not have raped Bunnie by deception), and was also seemingly "abandoned" as Fiona ended up merely being Scourge's new abuse victim girlfriend and her status as a traitor didn’t even have a significant emotional effect on the Freedom Fighters.

Flynn also followed something like a pattern of taking tropes from famous works and then using them when writing the comic but not actually understanding why those tropes had worked in the first place. Perhaps the prime example of this was Scourge giving Sonic the Joker's "One Bad Day" speech: it almost felt a bit like giving the same speech to the Batman of Batman vs. Superman, as Sonic had already had a whole "bad decade" and was still a hero despite it; also, Sonic's answer to that speech (telling Scourge it only takes a tiny bit of selflessness and decency for him to be a good person) wasn’t that great, not at all compared to the mildly masterful answer Batman had originally given to the Joker in The Killing Joke, and it even made Sonic look more like a bad judge of character.

Lastly, the entire Mecha Sally Arc was poorly planned, had some contradictions with itself and with previous stories, was stretched through dozens of comic issues no matter if that felt forced, and the main events and plot twists throughout the story arc were heavily based on shock-value without giving any substance to this or making it a bit more sense when putting it under scrutiny; meanwhile, Flynn always seemed to have quite a hard time when writing long story arcs, so these long stories looked like he was trying and outright failing to imitate Toriyama (someone quite known for putting together stories ad-lib according to what seemed most convenient at the time).

Despite this, it looks like those Sonic fans who are still interested in material outside of the videogames will keep buying and reading whatever Ian Flynn or one of his colleagues writes, simply because they’re better than Penders... even though it's been 15 years since Penders wrote something official about Sonic. Seriously, we should have gotten over it by now, instead of continuing to compare all material in the franchise with Penders's work, which sets the bar too low for any official content creator. Now that I think about it, Penders's work is to the North-American Sonic canon what Sonic 2006 is to the videogames: people can criticize the latest games all they want, and rightfully so, but if someone even casually mentions Sonic 2006, any Sonic game from 2010 onwards instantly becomes a masterpiece just for being marginally better than Sonic 2006; the same happens between Penders's work on pre-reboot Archie-Sonic and any other North-American Sonic comic written by Flynn after Penders left.

Right now it looks like it's also forbidden to criticize Flynn as a writer at all just because he's much nicer in his personal life and engages with fans more directly through his podcasts, or because Flynn is truly progressive while Penders claimed to be progressive and a feminist and was affiliated with the USA Democrats but his work showed how misogynistic, perverted, retarded, reactionary and downright sick he was. Also, now saying something about Flynn other than total blind admiration for him and his work, even asking for the Freedom Fighters to return in the IDW comics, has become synonymous with agreeing with those assholes who cry "Rally4Sally" or "Udon4Sonic" on Twitter: "nostalgic" fans of SatAM and Penders's work on Archie, in their 40s or 50s, deeply conservative and absurdly paranoid, who claim that those new inclusive cartoons such as Steven Universe or She-Ra "are ruining their childhood", are mad at Flynn just because he hinted Sally and Nicole may be a lesbian couple (and in a rather platonic way, not even romantic in the traditional sense), and try to justify their own warped ideas and fantasies about SatAM by ignoring any “liberal” political messages SatAM may have had at the subtext level.

[sonic-the-hedgehog-fanfiction]

Chapter 4: Acorn Liberation

"I'm Charles, though many know me as Uncle Chuck. During a heavy defeat, Sonic, myself, and our family - and young Miles of course - began to plan our comeback, with me, Bernie, and Jules heading off to the Kingdom of Acorn to help out the Royal Family. Wish us luck!"

Using an extra biplane, labelled the Tornado 2 for convenience by Uncle Chuck, the trio make their way to the Kingdom of Acorn, having been there on various occasions.

"My goodness, the Kingdom of Acorn. The idea of seeing a place like that again is certainly nostalgic," Chuck says, giving a more jovial tone despite the situation.

"I know. Its where me and Bernie first met," Jules says, reminenscing a bit with Chuck.

"Oh, Jules. I was just some local shop keeper making ends meet. If anything, you and Chuck were way past cool," Bernie says with a chuckle.

"And yet, who was the one who took down that one thief all on her own? For a mere 'shop keeper', you sure knew how to kick butt," Chuck says before the trio laughed.

Bernie, though smiling, was concerned. "Uncle Chuck, do you think this is a good idea? I know this will benefit us in the long run, but heading straight for the enemy's main base is a bit...reckless, isn't it?"

"I know the feeling, Bernie. And I confirmed it with Sonic. But he has faith for us to do our part while he and Tails does his. We'll avoid getting the Chaos Emeralds. It would be too much of a hassle try to find them and they are likely to be guarded heavily," Chuck explains, with Jules agreeing.

"But the Royal Family will be equally guarded...but then, you have a plan, don't you?" Jules asks, with Chuck just smiling with slight confirmation.

"If we're lucky, most of the robots will be working on the Death Egg, leaving the castle mostly unprotected. If there was ever a great opportunity, it would be now," Chuck explains, preparing for a landing.

Just as Chuck noted, the robots were thinned out thanks to the doctor issuing an order for a speed up in the development of the Death Egg. While the temptation to slow down that development process was there, Chuck and others had to stick together and concentrate on the bigger prize.

As they reached the throne room, they saw Robotnik in a conversation with a Buzzbomber. "So you found the Floating Island?" he asked, the wasp robot confirming.

"Yes, doctor. The Floating Island is above the Albion Sea. We have also confirmed the presense of a lone guardian protecting the Master Emerald," the Buzzbomber explained, showing footage of a red animal not seen before sitting next to the Emerald.

"Hmph. A poor fool who'll likely be crushed and roboticized," Robotnik says before re-thinking that plan. "No... I may have a better idea... Sonic's most likely heading to the Floating Island, so... Why not have this thing do the work for me?" Robotnik planned aloud. "Prepare the Flying Battery for take off! Once I have the Master Emerald, launch the Death Egg! We'll be leaving at once!"

With that, Robotnik leaves, readying himself to claim his prize. Once the coast was clear, Chuck and family open the doors before closing them behind themselves so as to keep nosy robots out. "So Robotnik plans to use the Master Emerald's own guardian against Sonic... That's not good..." Chuck says to himself.

"Don't worry. Its Sonic. He'll handle himself," Jules says before Chuck nods.

Bernie looks at a tall covered object under a veil before pulling off said veil, freaking out over what she found. It was the Royal Family, frozen in crystal. "Guys! I found the King and his family!"

"King Maximillan," Chuck says before looking at the crystal. "Hmm... We can break them out. But we need a lot of blunt force."

"So like this mace?" Jules asked, dragging a heavy mace behind him.

"That'll do," Chuck says, helping Jules out. With the two hedgehogs lifting then mace, they slammed it onto the crystal, an alarm going off.

Robotnik, at the hanger, just looks annoyed before ordering some robots to go take care of it. He'd rather not delay for some rats.

"King and Queen Acorn... Are you okay?" Jules asked, helping the two while Bernie checked on the Princess.

The King, Maximillan Acorn, a Mobian squirrel in royal garb, manages to stand after being imprisoned for so long. "I am fine. The last thing I recall is Doctor Kintobor coming into our throne room while I was speaking to my daughter before..."

"You were frozen, my king. But we got you out," Chuck says as the Queen, a Mobian chipmunk in a royal dress, also recovered the feeling in her legs.

"Hey. You're new. Would you happen to be the Princess?" Bernie asked gently, lending the princess a shoulder.

"Yeah. My name is Princess Sally Acorn. Though... What's going-"

"Freeze!" a robot shouted as Egg Pawns slammed open the doors, aiming blasters at the Mobians.

Max immediately jumped in front of everyone, drawing a shield and sword as he glared furiously at the robots. "Sorry, but I don't plan on being put on ice again," he said before charging at the robots and slicing them with his sword, blocking any oncoming fire with his shield or a chopped up robot. "Alicia! Get Sally and our new friends out of here through the secret path! It'll lead right out of Mobotropolis!"

Alicia nods before turning to some ornaments behind their former throne. "But what about you, Dad!?" Sally called out.

"Don't fret, my dear daughter. I shall handle these curs while you escape! I'll die for my kingdom before I let my family ever get hurt!" he proclaimed, showing his determination as he sliced another robot, causing the Egg Pawns to request some back up.

"This Max we're talking about, sweetie. He isn't the well respected King of the House of Acorn for nothing," Alicia reassures before twisting a sword ornament on the wall to point right instead of down. A wall door opens up, allowing the Hedgehogs and Royal Family to escape whilst Max fought to the bitter end.

Sally was a bit upset over the idea of leaving her father behind, but Bernie was there to provide some support. "Don't worry. King Acorn would've wanted you out of harm's way. And I'm confident he'll be okay," she says reassuringly to Sally, to which Sally does smile up at the Hedgehog.

"I do wish to thank you, Sir Charles and Sir Jules. It has been so long since you last stepped into our castle," Alicia says, happy to see the two brothers.

"Sorry, your majesty. I just got married and got busy raising kids. I just couldn't go out and explore like I used to," Jules admits with a light chuckle.

"And I've been far too busy with my projects. Not to say I'm against a nice bit of adventuring though. But now we can concentrate on another problem... Robotnik is heading to the fabled Floating Island to take the Master Emerald there," Chuck explains to Alicia, catching her up to speed.

"Robotnik? Is that what he's calling himself now?" the queen asks, sounding rather confused.

"Apparently. Sonic says that's his name..." Chuck says, unsure of how to answer.

"How did Robotnik turn you three into an ice sculpture?" Bernie asks, looking at Alicia.

"Sigh... About a year and some months ago, a strange doctor calling himself 'Doctor Ovi Kintobor' came to our castle, promising us designs of granduer to help in our kingdom's development. And he did seem to live up to that promise, creating robots to clean the streets, take care of hoodlums that would rob our fair people, and even help in construction," Alicia explains.

"He even created a robot based on a lynx to act as my guardian named Nicole," Sally added on. "Though... She advised me to go to the throne room when I wanted to go exploring beyond the kingdom."

Alicia does recall the conversation vividly, continuing right around there. "Yes. Max wasn't against the idea of letting Sally go on her own, but he was worried she wasn't mature enough yet. As his only daughter, he was just worried, like any good father. But as we were reaching an understanding, Kintobor bursted through the doors and froze us. We don't remember much else beyond that..."

"I see. He preyed on your good natured heart and trust, only to later betray it to take over your kingdom. No doubt the robots built were to pin down your guards and subjects, making sure none of them could retaliate," Chuck surmises.

"Its ingenius, I'll give Robotnik that much..." Jules says with some relunctant respect. "But now we have another issue."

"My second son and daughter, Manik and Sonia, were turned into robots. Completely robbed of their humanity to the point of hurting their own family without a second thought," Bernie explains, Sally and Alicia looking shocked.

"R...Robotnik is that cruel? To even stoop that low?" Sally asked, her shock turning to anger at the idea.

"I am so sorry, Sir Charles, Sir Jules... If there is anything we can do..." Alicia says, looking at the hedgehogs.

"No need... We'll think of something later. I'm just catching us up on the current situation. Sonic and a new friend named Tails are heading to the Floating Island. If what that robot said, it'll take them by the afternoon to reach the Albion Sea," Chuck explains, looking determined.

"Yeah. First we stop Robotnik, then we work on saving our kids and the King," Jules said, looking equally determined.

Sally looked at the Hedgehogs before nodding. This sounded like an adventure and she wasn't going to pass it up. Whoever this Sonic was, she could only hope he would succeed.

Once out of the caves, they come out of a hollow tree just outside the city, with Alicia and Sally staring in horror at Mobotropolis had become, as well as the Flying Battery taking off. It was clear that Alicia and Sally would not see their home for a good long while.

But with Phase 1 of the plan done, it falls on Sonic and Tails to finish their side and make sure Robotnik doesn't take the Master Emerald. Can they handle the likes of this guardian? Or will they be in over their heads? Find out next time on Sonic the Hedgehog!

[blazehedgehog]

Maybe I’m missing something , but was the whole “post-apocalyptic Earth” setting that the Archie Sonic comics used to implement was relevant?

It was their way of explaining where Robotnik came from. In the Archie lore, you had this great cataclysm that took place hundreds of years prior which lead to "the days of fury" as lands were staked out by the creatures that came to make up the world of Mobius.

The implication during the "days of fury" is that this is when the furries still retained their animalistic traits; they were wild, but learned to tame their instincts and grew intelligent. They developed language and society and embraced civilization.

But there was another race -- a much rarer race -- that did not get along with the furries mobians. These were the "Overlanders." Humans. The comic occasionally mentioned Overlanders, though it was never clear what Overlander society looked like, where it was, or how many people existed. There was just this vague gesture that they were "over there" somewhere.

In fact, for years, all we knew was that Robotnik had been ostracized from the Overlanders, chased out of their lands, and he sought asylum in the Mobian kingdom of Acorn. There, he gained their trust, became a warlord, and eventually staged a coup and overthrew the kingdom, using it as a base to establish his new empire of Robotropolis. Robotnik seemed to hate all forms of life and would rather rule over subservient machines, where he had total control. This was the reason given for him wanting to transform all living creatures into robots.

What was eventually revealed is that hundreds of thousands of years ago, Mobius was known as "Earth," a planet populated almost entirely by humans. An alien race called the Xorda visited Earth, and their scout ship was attacked and captured by the humans. The aliens piloting it were killed and dissected.

The Xorda took this as an act of war, but, not wanting to hurt all of the other life on Earth, they devised special genetic bombs that were programmed to erase humanity (and ONLY humanity), sparing all of the world's innocent creatures. But there was a defect in the bombs, and human genetic material ended up combining with and mutating many animal species. This was "the days of fury." When the mutations stabilized, Mobian society was born.

But the Xorda were not all-encompassing. Small pockets of humans survived the attack. These became the Overlanders.

Some of this was probably retrofitted to help explain how places like Station Square could still exist (and indeed, the whole story arc where we learn the truth of Earth and the Xorda return to finish the job was called "Sonic Adventure 2.5")

But some of this had seemingly been in the works for a lot longer, as there were maps of Mobius dating back to early issues of the comic showing the planet was a corrupted, future version of Earth (with locations like "Soumerca", "Efrika", and so on). And the concept of a cataclysm leading to the transformative "days of fury" was introduced way before Sonic Adventure came in to the picture.

Some of it probably even dates back to SatAM itself, where Ben Hurst once outlined his plan for future seasons to tackle Robotnik and Snively's origins as the universe's only humans. His idea was something like Planet of the Apes, where Robotnik and his nephew became lost in space, only to return to a future version of Earth that was totally alien to them (now called Mobius).

None of this ever applied to the games. As I implied earlier, if anything, the comics were forced to mold around the games, not the other way. When Sonic Adventure said "oh, humans have always been here" the comics had to invent a way to say there was a contemporary Earth city somewhere on Mobius (it was effectively a lost world, hidden on a secret island eternally operating as if it never stopped being 1999).

All of this went away when they had to reboot away from anything Ken Penders had contaminated (the comic basically transitioned in to the Sonic Unleashed timeline almost quite literally, as one of the first post-reboot stories involves rescuing Professor Pickle).

[aawesomepenguin]

“[The Sonic Movie] was always one of my dreams”, Takashi Iizuka and Sonic Movie staff reveal new details

The Sonic Movie release in Japan is very close, and in order to celebrate, 4Gamer has done an interview with Takashi Iizuka (Head of Sonic Team),  Nakahara Toru ( Senior Executive Officer of SEGA SAMMY, and also SEGA’s Lawyer), Jeff Fowler (director of the Sonic Movie) and Toby Ascher (Sonic Movie Producer), and in it, they gave us some details about the movie and what the experience was like.

Remember that the translation isn’t 1:1, but it gets the point across.

Q: What advice did Sega give to the movie staff in the making of the Sonic movie? Iizuka: Advices related to Sonic in various situations, such as how he looks and moves, and his character, as in "Sonic would never say that". Sega has some guidelines for giving advice to people who do not know Sonic, but it is not a comprehensive guide, so I commented a lot during production. Toby: Mr. Iizuka's advices on Sonic's personality and design were very helpful. I wanted to make Sonic the correct Sonic that fans know. Iizuka: Since this work is a hybrid movie that combines live-action and animation, there are many scenes where actual actors and Sonic are involved. The movie isn’t set in Sonic’s World,  so I proceeded to think on how he would react to all of it.  The biggest challenge for us this time was that we had to think about Sonic from a completely different perspective when compared to the games.

Q: What did you pay most attention to not betray your fans? Toby: I was under pressure because I knew that the expectations of fans were very high because we are from a generation that played Sonic games when we were kids. But at the same time, I also wanted to make a movie that a newcomer to the series could also enjoy. I was very concerned about that balance. I wanted to make it possible for people who don't know Sonic to enjoy the world of Sonic, while putting in a lot of material that fans can still enjoy. Nakahara: That was the mission behind this movie. To please our generation raised in Sonic and children who have little experience playing with Sonic. I hope this movie will create a new generation of fans.

Q: Are there any differences between the Sonic from the games and the one from the movie? Jeff: This is the first time we're introducing Sonic's backstory! Iizuka: Baby Sonic is a young Sonic that hasn't appeared in games. In the movie, it’s shown how his experiences as a baby changed him, and how his personality was formed. The games feature an already grown up Sonic, so it's good that the story up to that point wasn’t very clear [in the games, allowing the movie team to be creative with Sonic’s backstory].

Nakahara: Baby Sonic is being compared to Baby Yoda's in Star Wars. They’ve become big rivals. Jeff: Let me tell you, Baby Sonic is an idea that we came up with before Baby Yoda was revealed (laughs). It takes time to make characters and CG... Nakahara: Baby Sonic’s design was created under the supervision of Mr. Iizuka, but the actual CG animation was created by Marza Animation Planet Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of the SEGA SAMMY Group. Hollywood companies are included in the special visual effects of this movie, but Japanese companies such as Marza and Sega played a central role in the animation of Baby Sonic and Sonic. Toby: That's one of the great things about this film. As a fan of Japanese animation, a collaboration between Japan and the United States made me very happy.

Q: When you hear that it's a joint production movie between Hollywood and Japan, there are some movies that didn’t succeed, but this time it seems different. Nakahara: Most of the Japan-US collaboration in movies so far involved only the Japanese content holders signing IP licenses. So Japan doesn't get involved with the production, and they don't pay much for the production. As a lawyer, I've seen many contracts where you only get a license fee. That's not really the case. However, this time, we have invested in the production costs for Sonic, and we are on an equal footing with Original Film, the company that has produced the blockbuster movie series, Fast and the Furious, the director of "Deadpool," and Paramount Film Company. There was also a big discussion, "Can you do a movie with an equal partner with so many different creative visions?" That's a big risk. But in the end, including the terms of the deal, the decisive factor that brought all of us together was that Sonic needed to be a movie star. Sonic is a big star in America. Because of that background, we joined hands in conditions that everyone was satisfied with. As SEGA, they jumped over the license agreement and suddenly became an equal partner, and there was a mix of expectations and anxiety. As a lawyer, I've been involved in a variety of works, but I was able to establish a relationship of trust that surprised me, "How can we collaborate so well?". Of course, small issues have come up every day, but I feel that we have been able to overcome them comfortably throughout.

Q: Weren't you able to make a case against Hollywood because you Nakahara-san, are a certified American lawyer? Nakahara: I may not be the one to say it, but this all truly is Sonic. Everybody loves Sonic. Whenever some big development occurs, a lot of it can be attributed to Sonic. Sonic is like Tom Cruise in the way that he has this presence of greatness that makes him feel like a star from throughout the years. Q: Is there any reason for making it a hybrid movie? Jeff: I thought it would be more fun and more enjoyable for the audience to get into Sonic's sense of speed when it gets put into the live-action world. From Sonic's point of view, the world is always slow, but from a human perspective, he is always moving at super-fast speed. The important thing was to express the power and speed of Sonic in a fun way. The baseball scene in the trailer is my favorite, and he uses his speed to enjoy baseball alone. From a child's perspective, if you were to move at that speed, you would want to play all the positions yourself, right? Q: Sonic has established a star position in the West, but what do you think was the reason why Sonic is particularly popular with Westerners? Iizuka: Sonic is a character born in Japan, but from the beginning we were aware of the West. With a Californian image of the blue sky, blue sea, and palm trees, we added a sense of speed with a deep blue appearance. Sonic’s character of strongly sticking to his morals and to his justice without ever being affected by anything else was also a characteristic of Western characters. And also, Sonic’s World doesn’t take much elements from Japan, or Japanese culture. In fact, Sonic’s World is more Western, and the coolness of the Western people we always see around have been incorporated into Sonic's world, so it has been accepted by Westerners and supported so far. Sonic has always been western in nature, so our goal in a way has always been making Western-style games, create characters with Western-ness, and that eventually landed us a Hollywood movie... so I feel like I've finally arrived there in the 27th year.

Q: Please tell me about the character that Jim Carrey plays. Iizuka: Dr. Robotnik, the villain in the movie is called Dr. Eggman in the games, but in them, he has a round body and thin legs, and a figure that can’t be seen in a live-action human being. So if we wanted someone actually human, we had to create a new Doctor Robotnik look. Should Dr. Robotnik in the movie resemble Dr. Eggman from the games? Would they talk in a similar way? Jim Carrey splendidly created a new Doctor Robotnik! Dr. Robotnik always was a crazy scientist, but Jim Carrey's Dr. Robotnik is crazy, unlike anything we had imagined. That's very interesting. Did Jim Carrey bring half the fun for the movie? I think he played a really good Dr. Robotnik. Nakahara: Jim feels like a gentleman and a calm philosopher during the breaks. But once the camera turns, he becomes a different person and a lot of energy comes out. 

Q: What are the highlights of this work? Jeff: Jim Carrey and James Marsden, of course, but the star of this film, Sonic, is definitely the highlight. Laughs, charming, confident and laid back. Fans will definitely enjoy it. There are many easter eggs. If you send me a list of how many you have found, I will tell you that there are still some that have not been found yet (laughs). Toby: It's a movie designed to be enjoyed over and over again, so every time you watch it, you'll discover something new. Also, Dr. Robotnik's dance! It's great!!

Q: Please tell us about your future plans for Sonic. Iizuka: This year, we finally made a movie about Sonic. That was one of my dreams, and since we are about to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Sonic next year, many people will have been brought in by the movie, and then they’ll have more opportunities to come into contact with the series through the [30th Anniversary] game. I hope we can get you a better game. Sonic is evolving with the evolution of game technology, so I hope we can continue to release surprising game titles.

SPECIAL thanks to @dizzydennis​ for helping in the translation in some parts.

Source

[britbritwrites]

i love ur work! 🥺 headcanons for robotnik x a black reader would be really cool to see!

(A/N: Awww I’ve had this idea for a while so I’m glad someone requested this. Also, I am so sooo sorry for the late reply, anon! but I hope you enjoy this! 😄)

Robotnik meeting his Black S/O 

-Boy let me tell y’all something

-When Robotnik first met you

-He was completely mesmerized by your beauty

-He seen a lot of beautiful women

-But you had a different kind of beauty

-He remembered when the first time he laid eyes on you

-The sun had hit your brown skin and it looked like you were glowing

-Your 4C hair that was curly and kind of long was bouncing as you were walking down the street

-And your smile? It could light up an entire room

-You looked like walking angel on earth

-Oh he  wanted to spend the rest of his life with you right then and there

-But unfortunately for him

-He didn’t know how to approach you at first

-He got real nervous when getting ready to but he never took one step towards you

-He practiced almost all week on how to do so

-Also, he had told Agent Stone about this situation and he was happy to help Robotnik

-He gave him tips on what to do and how to act when he wants to approach you

-Robotnik doesn’t think he can do it

-But Stone tells him that things will go well and that he believes in him

-The next day he saw you again

-You had your hair done in an afro puff this time

-He thought it looked so pretty on you

-He remembered what all the things Stone told him he should do and got the courage to go and finally speak to you

-And he did just that

-“Hello there”

-You looked up and saw him stand over to you with a friendly smile

-You had to be completely honest, you didn’t know who this man was but you thought he was really good looking

-(A complete and total snack more like 😍😂)

-“Oh, hey there, what’s up?”

-“I- I really like your hair, it looks very mesmerizing and it brings out your beauty”

-You began to blush and smile at his compliment

-“Oh, thanks! That’s really flattering of you to say that”

-Sometimes you would hear the rude things people say about your hair at your workplace

-So the fact that someone actually said that to you really made you feel all happy inside

-“You’re so very welcome, my name’s Ivo, Ivo Robotnik”

-“Wow that’s an….. Different name but I mean it in a good way” You laugh a little bit

-He thinks you have the cutest laugh

-“My name’s (Y/N), (Y/N) (L/N)”

-“Beautiful name and I mean that in a good way, no sarcasm” He chuckled

-After y’all introduced yourselves, he sat down with you and had a good conversation

-Both of y’all just clicked just like that

-He found you to be quite an interesting person and the more you guys talked, the more he started to like you

-You were successful in a job you were working at and carried yourself very well

-You had great sense of humor

-And you were also outgoing and friendly

-And loved to meet new people

-Oh yeah, Robotnik fell in love with you right then and there

-Well, not “love” because y’all just met but he did develop a huge crush on you though before it turned into real love later on

-Y’all exchanged numbers and became very good friends

-As y’all grew more closer, that friendship started to blossom into something else more

-At first, you liked him but as a friend at the time

-But as time went on, you realized that you were starting to have feelings for him

-He was smart

-He was funny and loved to make you laugh

-He was there for you when you needed him

-(Well, except when he’s not busy trying to catch Sonic of course, but you totally understand. You handle some things on your own though)

-And he was a great friend to you overall

-Y’all eventually started to date and became a couple

-He’s been treating you like a queen while being with him and you loved and appreciated every second of it and him in your life as well.

[a34trgv2]

Why It Worked: Sonic The Hedgehog (2020 film)

Introduction: Sonic The Hedgehog is a 2020 live action/animated hybrid film based on the popular video game character of the same name. Directed by Jeff Fowler, the film stars Ben Schwartz, James Marsden, Tika Sumpter, and Jim Carrey as Sonic, Tom, Maddie and Dr. Robotnik respectively. After being in development limbo for decades, the film was finally released on February 14th, 2020. Critics gave mixed to positive reviews to the film (63% out of 238 reviews aggregated on Rotton Tomatoes gave an average rating of 5.8/10), but audiences and fans of the Sonic franchise welcomed it with more open arms. The film was a box office success, grossing $319.7 million on a budget of $81-95 million. I've been waiting for this film to be made ever since I was a kid. While I've had my own ideas for what a Sonic movie would look like, I was more than happy with the film we actually got. So let's not waste anymore time and dive into why this movie was worth waiting almost 20 years for.

The Plot: This film tells the origin of the rivalry between our titular blue hero and the nefarious Dr. Robotnik. It starts with Sonic being sent to our world and him making sure he isn't seen for a decade so that someone doesn't try to use his powers for nefarious purposes. Once he's discovered and accidentally loses his rings, he tags along with the local sheriff, Tom, on a cross country road trip to find them. All the while trying to escape the clutches of the dastardly Dr. Robotnik. The story isn't anything we haven't seen before in a family film, but it makes up for it's predictability with funny gags, well made action and genuine moments of heart. One of the funniest scenes in the film comes when Dr. Robotnik first sees Sonic and screams like a goat before Tom socks him in the face. This scene had me in stitches because of Jim Carrey's iconic facial expression and perfect timing. The action is brought to liglfe wonderfully through the use of CGI, which looks so life like and is well integrated into the environments. This is especially true for Sonic, who stays true to his original video game look with more details added such as having quills all over his body and the stitches on his gloves. My personal favorite scene in the film is the when Tom tucks Sonic in a reads his bucket list. Without any dialogue, this scene shows Tom caring and empathizing with Sonic like a true friend, which is all the little blue blur wanted. For Sonic fans, there's plenty of Easter eggs that make references to the games, such as Sonic eating chili dogs and Green Hills being the name of Tom's town.

Cast and Characters: Sonic has had several voice actors over the years with each one giving their own unique spin on the cockey yet kind hearted hedgehog. Ben Schwartz is no exception as he nails Sonic's personality. Sonic is a wisecracking happy go lucky hedgehog who has a good heart as evident in moments like when he saves a turtle from getting run over to risking his life to save Tom. Speaking of Tom, I was quite pleased with how relatable and well rounded this character was. Tom wanting out of his small town hits home for me, and it's a good thing Sonic convinced him to stay because he's such a nice guy to the people of Green Hills. I also think James Marsden did a very good job as the character and he has very believable chemistry with Sonic. I also appreciate the fact that him and his wife, Maddie are a mixed couple as I don't often see it in fiction. Maddie, of course, is a vet and supports Tom even if she doesn't agree. Tika Sumpter also has great chemistry with James Marsden and you really by their relationship. The true stand out though us the one and only Jim Carrey, who perfectly captures the eccentric and maniacal nature of Dr. Robotnik. It was also nice to see Jim Carrey be over-the-top and zanny like he was back in the 90s and early 2000s. Also, Jim Carrey rocks that mustache!

Where It Falters: As much as I realy like this film, I do have a couple gripes with it. For one, I think we could've spent more time with Longclaw, Sonic's guardian. I understand not wanting the opening to drag on, but an additional scene or two with Longclaw (maybe in flashback form) wouldn't have hurt. I also don't like Rachel as her dislike for Tom feels forced and superfluous. Like, what is her grudge against Tom anyway? I think the film would've worked better if she was cut and have Maddie be in San Francisco to see her Mom or something.

Conclusion: Sonic The Hedgehog is my personal favorite film based on a video game and was worth waiting almost 20 years for. With a strong cast of characters, amazing CGI, intense action and witty humor, the film overcame the odds and proved to be a very well made film based on a video game. I'm looking forward to the sequel soon to come. Thanks so much for reading and I'll see you soon ;)