#grrghrghrhghrhgh..........

[infizero]

MORE STUFF I WAS THINKING ABOUT THAT SOMEHOW TURNED INTO AN ENTIRE PLAN FOR A FINAL SCENE WITH INFINITE:

ok something else i want to add that i just thought of while listening to virtual enemies - i feel like you could do something more with the fact that infinite's main ability is creating illusions. that ability paired with the fact that he has tried to completely reinvent himself and if you will, give off the "illusion" that is is an entirely different person..... i feel like something more could be done with that.

in addition to showing how his illusions affect other people (such as shadow hearing the illusions of rouge and omega which. is a whole other topic), i feel like this could be something that plays into infinite's own character. the idea that this entire "infinite" identity is itself an illusion and that despite how he presents himself, he really has not changed as much as he thinks he has. the way he acts in most of the game is not who he truly is - it's a front. an illusion.

and i think that if i went down this path of the avatar having known infinite before the events of the game, this could really be played into more. you as the avatar are able to progress through the game via not getting pulled in/convinced by infinite's illusions; in short, the avatar is a character who (by the nature of being you) can see through infinite's illusions. so of course it would make sense that they could see through the illusion of infinite's new identity, and use their knowledge of who he once was (and still is) as an advantage in defeating him.

i dont know if i'd really want infinite to be reformed, but idk maybe his "death" could be changed to a shadow sa2 situation where in the end he sacrifices himself for the greater good, after being changed by the avatar's influence. though if that's the case then i would probably want him to stay dead so he isn't totally copying shadow LOL.

i think the scenario i'd like the best is that infinite has moments of doubt throughout the game which seem to imply that he might turn good by the end of the story; glimmers of hope. however by the climax with the final boss battles, he ends up choosing the bad side despite everything, leading to the final fight with him. like in canon, he would be defeated and seemingly die. HOWEVER. there would be a post-credits scene which wraps up both his and the avatar's stories - at least for the time being.

(side note. we gotta change this climax cause super anticlimactic battle with infinite and him just like. dying and then eggman being like LOL actually im the final boss... kind of screws over infinite as a character and feels both really anticlimactic and same-y with it just being eggman again)

i think the scene at the end would involve him being revealed to be alive, and the avatar character finding him - likely extremely weak and injured. this could be a moment where infinite gives up - being truly defeated and losing the power of the phantom ruby has just reinforced to him that he is weak, his main insecurity which shadow instilled in him. (although i think it'd make more sense for this to be a feeling infinite has struggled with his whole life, and that shadow beating him so easily and calling him weak was more of a "final straw" situation rather than what actually caused this insecurity to develop.) he states that he's weak, pathetic, and encourages the avatar to just kill him and put him out of his misery.

however, of course, the avatar doesn't do so, instead offering him a hand. infinite is baffled at this, giving the usual "after all i've done to you...?" kind of spiel - though more bitterly and unconvincingly than that usual kind of thing is. i think what would convince him is perhaps some kind of reference by the avatar (nonverbally of course) to their shared past. i still dont know exactly what i'd want that past to entail, but whatever the avatar communicates to him would be something that reminds infinite of their bond in the past, something which basically implies that the avatar doesn't see him as weak and that he doesn't need to be "infinite" in order to feel fulfilled; he can just be himself.

infinite likely hesitates but eventually accepts this, and takes the avatar's hand. they pull him up, perhaps gesturing to the direction of the resistance. infinite states that he doesn't want to see them... he'd rather set out on his own. the avatar looks back at where the resistance is, in thought, before seemingly making a decision. they indicate they want to come with him, and although infinite is unsure about the idea, he eventually is like "very well." they begin to leave together, but infinite hesitates for a moment. he draws a hand over the mask on his face, already slightly destroyed from the battle. after a moment of silent reflection, infinite takes the mask off, revealing his true face (normal mobian, scar and heterochromia aside. he's just a guy, not this big powerful villain he tried to become), and walks back towards the avatar. they smile at him, offering their hand once again. infinite awkwardly takes it, and they walk off together, with a final shot of the mask left on the ground.

^ WHOOPS i didnt mean to write out a whole script. i just came up with a very specific idea and kept writing it LOL. i think this would be a more interesting way to wrap up the avatar's story, since they end up leaving anyway at the end of the game. i know this would sort of lock the avatar into a set ending instead of it being left open to personal interpretation, and also all this would make it so if a player didn't like infinite their avatar wouldn't really act accordingly but like also. you don't get any choice about their actions anyway other than their appearance, so i dont think this would matter much.

personally i'd rather have the avatar be an actual character with certain things about them set in stone and unable to be personalized, rather than how they are in the usual game where they are literally the blankest slate imaginable and have a laughably small impact on the story outside of being the self insert hero or whatever. yeah its less you get to make up about them, but i feel like it'd also make the player feel far more INVOLVED in the story rather than just playing through the levels and having characters be like "wow rookie you're so cool! nice job rookie! you're so awesome rookie!"

like idk about you but that shit just feels like such.... nothingness. its so self-inserty and boring. obviously i wouldn't get rid of things like customization or characters praising your skills, but i think it'd make it way more interesting if your character actually had direct personal involvement in the main plot rather than just being. some guy who shows up and saves everyone despite having no relevance to anything going on here. thats just my opinion tho

ok thats about it for now. im not actively thinking about this stuff at all but every time i listen to the forces ost it jumpstarts this again in my brain. hope any of this made sense. at least it wasnt written at 3am this time LOL

one day i will make a beautiful full rewrite of sonic forces like ive always dreamed of doing since i was a 14 year old girl

(ok so um. i started writing stuff in the tags and it accidentally got so long i went far beyond the tag limit. whoops. so this is just an actual post now. read more for my insane sonic forces rewrite ramblings)

i want to so fucking bad. every time i think about the wasted potential that is forces it makes me so depressed ToT i cant help but love forces despite it being garbage. the soundtrack is banging, the character customization is fun, i LOVE infinite, it attempted a darker story like the good ol days..... its so fucking bad but there were so many cool ideas and it drives me insane

also its one of the few sonic games i've actually played firsthand. purely because it was free on like the playstation game pass thing or whatever its called. and i did genuinely have fun with it even if it was pretty easy. also for the longest time of me being a sonic fan, forces was the latest mainline game. that era is when i got into sonic so idk. i cant help but look fondly on it even though its writing choices drive me fucking batty

while thinking about all this i came up with an interesting idea. so. there's something so fucking cool to me about infinite and the avatar's dynamic like. the way that infinite, despite his powers... him being a mobian and that scene of him flying right beside you and stuff..... idk its like he feels more on your level then some like ancient god villain or whatever.

that flying side-by-side scene esp inspired this but ANYWAY. what if, to make him AND the avatar character more interesting.... they were like. childhood friends or something. or just knew each other in the past in general. that would add SO much depth to their interactions within the game of like. infinite calling them weak. flying side by side. infinite's whole classic "character trying to reinvent themself" thing.

like infinite is using the power of the phantom ruby, trying to become strong because shadow called him weak and everything <- which btw this motivation has gotta change/be expanded upon cause this shit is still so silly. shadow called him gay and that's infinite's whole motive. cmon now we can do better than that

ANYWAYS. but that desperation from infinite to become an entirely new person - changing his name, wearing the mask, etc etc. that could become even more interesting if you add someone into the mix who knew infinite BEFORE his transformation.

and i know i know the avatar is supposed to be able to be projected on and stuff whatever whatever. but like idk man. plenty of protagonists have pasts that are part of the story even tho they're customizable. and besides it wouldnt be like a full backstory for the avatar. just the fact that they knew infinite once upon a time. and maybe something happened that split them apart or something. idk. but whatever happened between then and the events of the game wouldn't be elaborated upon, so you'd still be able to come up with your own story for your character if you want to.

and then the avatar's presence in the story could present a conflict for infinite. maybe despite him trying to act like he doesnt care, he like. hesitates. or lets the avatar go at some point. or something. and that gets him in trouble with eggman <- on that note. MORE CONFLICT BETWEEN EGGMAN AND INFINITE. im a little fuzzy on that aspect of the game but from what i can remember that never really goes anywhere. i want infinite being fickle about eggman's orders to MEAN SOMETHING!!!!!

also. i guess infinite could still ambiguously die at the end. but he'd definitely survive and show up in a later game, a la shadow. i need him to. my special boy.

anyways but going back to the avatar and infinite. i rlly think this could make both of them far more interesting than they are now. infinite rlly doesnt have like. an arc over the course of the story? hes just kinda. there. we get his backstory but in the present he kinda just. fights you a few times and then he dies. the end. this would actually give him something to do during the story, even if it was just like. brooding over why he let the avatar go or something.

and like..... i feel like forces SHOULD focus a lot on infinite? at least more so than the actual game did. like it doesnt have to be a shadow sa2 situation where like the whole game is centered around his story but i honestly... wouldnt be opposed to that either. like the war stuff is not that interesting im gonna be real.

also btw OBVIOUSLY the whole "sonic being imprisoned and tortured for 6 months with zero consequences" thing would be changed. that shit is so stupid and pointless. idk for sure if i'd just get rid of it outright or alter it, but probably the latter. cause like it IS actually an interesting scenario: how would these characters react to sonic being presumably dead? (long-term. 06 does not count LOL)

like that genuinely is a fascinating scenario to explore but i think one of the main things is that it would have to take place soon after it happened. none of this 6 months later amy wistfully going "sometimes i still dream sonic is with us....." shit, that is so dumb. WHAT is the point!!!

i'd want the story to start like fairly soon after sonic gets captured. and it wouldnt just be "sonic characters act as war generals" simulator. if we're doing this we are going ALL in. full focus on the characters' emotions and mental states which fluctuate over time. at the beginning they're hopeful but as more time passes with no sign of sonic and them losing more and more land to eggman, things start to crack. that could genuinely be so interesting to watch as long as it was treated with the actual seriousness it deserves instead of the cop-out edginess with no repercussions that the actual game has.

speaking of this part. TAILSSSSSSSS tails in forces was the wasted opportunity of the century. im gonna be real after having so much time to think about it, i really dont think that tails cowering after sonic was defeated was THAT egregious. i definitely think it could've been handled better, considering he had both beat chaos before and thought sonic had died before, BUT. tails is, at the end of the day, still a little kid. no matter how much hes grown and everything, thinking his big brother is fucking dead is probably still gonna fuck him up big time!!!

i also think that the idea of tails out on his own is SO fucking interesting and i am so mad every day that they barely did anything with that. maybe tails DID stay with everyone else at first. maybe after enough time everyone else presumed sonic to be dead and tails got upset because he knows sonic can't be dead, he always comes back, he did last time this happened right? and he left one day without telling anyone, attempting to try and find sonic himself.

and then he comes across omega all trashed up, and him fixing him, oh, idk, ACTUALLY MATTERS? (crazy i know) omega gets fully restored (plus some upgrades, of course) and it becomes the two of them against the world. throwing in a little craziness here but what if omega sticks with tails bcuz tails (who is definitely um. a lil more fucked up from everything) promises that hes directly interfering with eggman here, and that he'll actually allow omega to full on KILL eggman if/when they get the opportunity to. (tails is not fucking around) i just really need these two working together to be a thing.

rouge and shadow could also be MIA. i dont know if i'd want them as part of the larger resistance, they'd probably just be trying to help stuff on their own, but maybe at some point they'd realize that shit is really fucked this time and the only way they'll be able to stop eggman's reign of terror is by joining forces (lol) with the larger group. power of friendship and teamwork and all that, as is forces' main theme.

anyways. this is kind of all ive got swirling in my brain right now. i dont know how i'd tackle sonic's imprisonment itself. i definitely dont want to be in a position like the canon story where sonic should 100% be traumatized by what happened. bcuz i feel like thats probably a bit much lol... so maybe keep him imprisoned that whole time but get rid of the torture. idk, if we want to really get crazy with it we could throw in a whole thing where its like hey eggman why arent you just killing him? isnt that what you've wanted to do this whole time? funny how you're... keeping him alive like that. isnt easy bringing yourself to kill this kid you've basically watched grow up huh? even if he is your biggest enemy. idk that could result in way too much going on. but it could give a reason for sonic being kept alive + a reason why his imprisonment wasnt too crazy bad. just spitballing here.

ANYWAYS ANYWAYS. for real thats it I NEED TO GO TO BED. good god. maybe i'll rb this post at some point with more ideas if i have them. hell maybe i'll even write this whole thing someday..... regardless. GOOD NIGHT NEW YORK CITY!!!!!!!!!!