#i think that sonic shadow and silver probably deserve to say it the most and rouge is the most likely to say it if she was allowed to do so | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

crusherthedoctor · 4 years ago

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Can we have some unpopular Sonic opinions?

I tried to cram in a lot, so I hope this satisfies you. :P I tried to stick to the ones that I haven't brought up quite as often, since by this point, we all know that I think IDW's storytelling is dire, SA2's story is overrated, X Eggman is an embarrassing portrayal (at least from season 2 onwards), Blaze shouldn't be handcuffed to Silver, Shadow's backstory had issues with or without the Black Arms, Neo Metal Sonic looks silly, etc. But anyway, here we go:

- Knuckles may be tricky to incorporate into plots that don't relate to Angel Island, but making him obsessed with his duties is no better than having him forget about Angel Island entirely.

- I like Marine, and never found her annoying. Oh, I understood what they were trying to do with her, but I honestly wasn't put off by her, and found her Aussie lingo more endearing if anything. Since her debut was during the period in my life where where I couldn't stand Sonic himself, I instead thought he was irritating (and hypocritical) for getting annoyed with her for doing shit he would often be guilty of.

- Silver is just as guilty of being shoehorned into games and plots as the Deadly Six are. Having more fans than the latter is irrelevant, since we're still talking about a character who constantly has to time travel in order to be present.

- Speaking of Silver, if he has to stick around, please do something different with him. They've pulled the doomed future routine multiple times now, and it's been boring every single time. I wasn't interested when it involved Iblis. I wasn't interested when it involved Knuckles drinking the edgy Kool Aid. I wasn't interested when it involved a council of dumbasses... give it a rest already.

- The Tails Doll can work as a mildly creepy thing, with maybe more to it than meets the eye when it's time for a boss fight or what have you. But the memes about him stealing your soul are just dumb, and I thought it was dumb even back in my teenage youth.

- “Eggman is supposed to be clownish!” Yeah, well he's also meant to be a genuine villain with a 300 IQ. These qualities don't have to be mutually exclusive.

- “Sonic is supposed to have attitude!” Yeah, well that's not the same thing as being an absolute cunt. Sonic was only ever meant to come off as having an edge compared to Mario. He was never meant to be a GTA-tier protagonist.

- Rouge is not a villain, and never was a villain. Literally the whole point of her role in SA2 was to reveal that she was working against Eggman and Shadow the whole time, albeit using sneakier tactics to do so. You'd think all those people who exult SA2's story would remember this, but apparently not. She barely even qualifies as an anti-hero, since aside from stealing the Master Emerald, she rarely does anything morally questionable otherwise. She's got a lot more good in her than people give her credit for.

- Captain Whisker is a better Eggman Nega than the actual Eggman Nega. And as far as robot characters in this franchise go, Johnny's design is pretty underrated.

- I don't like Iblis or Mephiles, but I DO like Solaris, and it annoys me that it was out of focus for most of the story due to all the time spent on its less interesting halves. Had they kept the backstory with the Duke and his experiments, and worked from there, I think they could have provided an interesting contrast with Chaos (since Solaris can also qualify as a monster with a sympathetic backstory) instead of recycling the surface level schtick.

- Black Doom may technically be just as bad as Mephiles, Nega, Scourge, Mimic, etc, since he's yet another villain with one-note characterization and fucked over Eggman. But because he never gained a disproportionate fandom, he doesn't annoy me to the same extent. It's easier to ignore him by comparison, and his Dr. Claw voice and face shaped like a lady's delicate part make him enjoyable to mock.

- Likewise, while Lyric is also on the same level as these other villains, it's easier to dismiss him because I was never invested in the Boom games anyway, and being an obvious alternate universe (compared to Sonic X or IDW, which retain the Modern designs and plot elements), it never had an effect on the main series. I also unironically like his design, and if nothing else, at least this snake didn't start a hypnotism fetish across the internet.

- Sally - and the rest of the Freedom Fighters for that matter - have had their importance in the franchise severely inflated. They may have been lucky to be the face of popular media (SatAM and Archie), but they're not these magnificent entities that the game characters are but a speck of dust in comparison to. Having a “legacy” doesn't make them more entitled to shit than any other character, old or new.

- Conceptually, the treasure hunting gameplay is one of the better alternate gameplay styles IMO. But it was let down in SA2 by its one track minded radar (the levels may have been big, but I don't think that would have been an issue on its own if the radar was better). If they brought it back and made it more like SA1's treasure hunting, I'd be all for it, although it would probably be better suited for a spinoff title.

- This goes for a lot of games, but when it comes to 2D, I prefer sprites over models. Not that the Rush models are bad (though the ones in Chronicles sure as fuck are), but the sprites in Mania and the Advance trilogy are just so charming and full of character.

- I actually like Marble Zone. Yeah, the level design is a bit blocky, but I love the concept of an underground temple prison, mixed with lava elements in a zone that otherwise isn't a traditional volcano level.

- I also like Sandopolis Zone. Again, completely understand why it's not the most popular zone around, but I've been a sucker for the Ancient Egyptian aesthetic since childhood (you can thank Crash 3 for that), and Act 1 is visually stunning.

- I prefer the JP soundtrack for Sonic CD over the US version overall... but I also prefer Sonic Boom over You Can Do Anything.

- SA2's soundtrack isn't bad by any means - I love Rouge's tracks, and The Last Scene is one of my favourite pieces of music - but as far as variety goes, it's a step down from SA1's soundtrack.

- If Sonic X-Treme had been released, it probably would have been unenjoyable and confusing. Whatever your thoughts on SA1, it was probably the better option between the two as far as Sonic's first legitimate translation into 3D goes.

- I have no qualms with Modern Sonic and the other Modern designs and characters, but I also fully acknowledge that changing gears from Adventure onwards - and doing it with a great amount of fanfare - was always going to create one of the biggest divides in the fandom, and fans shouldn't act surprised that this happened. The fact that they felt the need to hype up a new design and direction in the first place (compared to Mario, who has mostly been the same since the beginning, with only the occasional minor change with little fanfare) also indicates that they weren't confident enough in Sonic and his universe being the way it was, which often gets ignored by all the “SEGA have no confidence!!!” complaints you see with their recent games.

- Unleashed did not deserve the incredibly harsh reviews it received back in the day... but it doesn't deserve its current sacred cow status either. It had more effort put into it than '06 to be sure, and I can respect that, but much of it was misguided effort, and even if you like the Werehog, you have to admit that the idea came at the absolute worst time. The intro cutscene may be awesome, as is the Egg Dragoon fight, but 2% doesn't make up the entire game. Chip was also quite annoying, and I wasn't particularly sad when he pressed F in the chat at the end.

- On the other hand, while Colours definitely has its shortcomings, and people have every right to criticse those shortcomings, a lot of its most vocal detractors tend to have a stick up their arse about the game because people actually enjoyed it, and it had a gimmick that people actually liked. Yes, it may have been the first game to have those writers everyone hates, but then SA1 was the first game to give the characters alternate gameplay styles and have other villains upstage Eggman, so...

- Forces is absolutely not on the level of '06. It's nowhere close. A game being flawed does not make it the next '06, clickbait YouTubers. Or should I say, the game they want to retroactively apply '06's reception to, since they've been trying hard to magically retcon '06's own quality...

- To echo @beevean, ALL of the 3D stories have their issues. SA1 is probably the most well-rounded of them on the whole, but even that one isn't perfect.

- To echo another opinion, although I do love SA1, I'm not crazy over the idea of a remake, and would prefer them to just take Sonic's gameplay from SA1 and work from there. Because with a remake, you're stuck in a hard spot: Do you keep it the way it is bar the expected graphical upgrades, and risk accusations of not doing anything to actually improve the experience? Or do you try to address past criticisms, and risk the wrath of the fans who will inevitably go on a #NotMyAdventure crusade about it? What people fail to consider is that the Crash and Spyro remakes were accepted gracefully because their original iterations were still unanimously beloved for the most part, whereas SA1 - and especially SA2 - have always been divisive, and have only gotten moreso over the years.

- People take their preferences for the character's voice actors too seriously. I have my own favourites like anyone else, but I don't make a big deal out of it.

- And with fandom voice actors, they usually focus too much on doing a basic impression of their preferred official voice actor, and not enough on the acting. So you end up getting a lot of fan voices who sound like decent impressions of Ryan Drummond or Jason Griffith on the surface, but they sound utterly empty beyond that impression, because there's no oomph or depth to the actual emotions. They think about the actor rather than the character, when it should really be the other way around.

- The thing with Ian Flynn is that he is capable of telling a decent story, and he can portray some characters well. But he's proven time and time again that everything will go off the rails if he's given too much freedom (ironic, given how quick he is to point the finger at mandates when something goes wrong).

- Ian Flynn and Shiro Maekawa are not the only people in the world who are allowed to write for Sonic. I understand that one should be cautious when seeking out new writing talent, but for all the fandom's accusations of playing it safe, they sure aren't in a rush to experiment outside of their own comfort zone.

- And of course, the big one: You don't fix the franchise's current problems by crawling back to its previous problems. It's much more helpful and constructive to discuss the good and bad alike with each of the games. Less “THIS GOOD, MODERN BAD”, and more “This could work, but maybe without that part...”

#Crusher's Asks #Opinion #Sonic the Hedgehog

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neutral-emerald · 4 years ago

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I hope you don’t mind me asking about your roleswap AU. Anyways, I was curious about Silver. Like what’s his relationship with Shadow? I get that he’s a fanboy since Shadow saved him (read the tags) but beyond that we don’t really know anything about their relationship. Like I read that he asks Shadow for help with his powers and I’m kinda wondering how that goes down.

buddy i am absolutely DELIGHTED to be asked about my au :D but anyway silver. i’m sticking a readmore here because uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh lotta words. lotta pictures. i went Off.

so i should start by saying some of these posts are Pretty Old and don’t really line up with my current understanding of the au, so take anything more than a year old with a grain of salt. i barely even remember writing some of it.

that being said, yeah silver’s view of shadow is pretty solidly centered on hero worship and thinking he’s the Bees Knees.

at the time of their first meeting shadow isn’t really as cool as silver thinks— he’d unlocked a latent teleportation ability a few months earlier and still doesn’t have anywhere near full control over it.

but to silver, who can sorta bend a spoon if he really tries, this is the COOLEST PERSON EVER and he MUST know his secrets. but shadow doesn’t have any secrets, he’s just Doing His Best and would really like to stop being pestered.

over time i think silver mellows out as he realizes they’re both just kids trying to figure out how their brand new abilities are supposed to work, though the hero worship remains to a degree. shadow is still the Coolest Person Ever, but it’s not because he can teleport! it’s because he’s such a cool hero who saves people! and he’s silver’s cool friend!!!!

...and shadow does kinda appreciate the ego boost. not that he enjoys being the only one to just get up and save the damn world, but he does look pretty cool doing it and it’s about time he gets some respect.

of course, a friendship built on hero worship and ego-boosting isn’t exactly the most stable. sa1 probably involves silver properly working out that actually, he’s Also pretty cool, and there are tons of things he can and should do that shadow most certainly can’t. like tearing open the bars of a jail cell.

which shadow also appreciates.

now taking a brief detour through sonic’s character bc there’s some stuff there which is relevant to silver, in sa2 sonic is kinda. uh. traumatized and lashing out, as one might be coming fresh off a tragic backstory.

i’ve rearranged a few things for him— i’m not 100% on who exactly ivo was to him, but current working idea is he was part of a team of researchers in charge of him. he called him Eggman because when he was teeny tiny baby hedgehog he would sneak him boiled eggs as a Treat. which lead to sonic being a spoiled little brat who would be as inconvenient as hedgehogedly possible until given the Egg.

fast-forward to the ARK incident, eggman tricks sonic into one of the escape pods and launches him down to earth alone. sonic, dazed and confused by the whole situation, interprets it less as��“saving his life” and more as “gtfo you little rat”.

compound it with some extra trauma from dealing with GUN and gerald messing with his memories, and he comes to the conclusion that no one is Actually good, they’re just trying to lower your guard and get something from you.

it does not help that this is exactly what tails does.

so with that kind of thought process, it’s no wonder sonic is 100% fine with just throwing a space station at the planet. they deserve it.

now, getting back to silver. obviously he doesn’t agree with like, any of this. obviously people can do wrong, and sometimes they lie and pretend that it’s actually good. but people do real good too! and not just to get something out of it! sometimes it actively makes things worse for them, but they help anyway because they care. because someone has to.

which is what leads to sonic realizing Oh, Yeah, That Wasn’t A Betrayal, He Was Saving Me, I May Have Fucked Up A Little, then he goes and helps save the world et cetera et cetera.

.............and now i dunno if i have a nice elegant way of wrapping this up, this was just me rambling about swap au for a while with visual aids. tl;dr hero-worship turned genuine role model? and shadow mostly thinks he’s a pretty nice guy who could stand to get a few more friends. and sonic has issues.

#cattyanon #silver the hedgehog #shadow the hedgehog #sonic the hedgehog #swap au #au #my art #dot txt #you should definitely ask me more about my au because by god i will TALK

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sonicroommatesau · 4 years ago

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Roommates AU Chapter 1; Meeting the Neighbors

A cab parked by an average looking apartment building. It was a normal city-type complex, so no one really paid attention to it. A pink hedgehog, around the age of 19 had gotten out of the cab. She looked around, and then looked at her phone. ‘This is the place, I guess.’ She took her bags out of the taxi, and went to door number 15. Out came a whiteish-grey hedgehog.

“Hi! You must be the new girl! I’m Silver the Hedgehog.” The hedgehog introduced himself to the pink girl.

“Hi. As you might know, I’m Amy. Amy Rose.” Silver chuckled. Amy had a puzzled look on her face. Why was he laughing? Was there something on her face?

“Sorry. It’s just that, all the hedgehogs I’ve ever met usually have ‘The Hedgehog’ as their last name.” Amy giggled.

“Well…not me. My dad wasn’t in my life, and so I had to go by my mom’s maiden name. Rose. But, she wasn’t really in my life, either. She left me when I was three and I grew up with my aunt and uncle.” She looked up with determination that Silver didn’t know was possible for the young girl. “Ehh. She probably died. But that’s okay.” Silver was very surprised now. He opened the door fully, and helped her bring her bags in.

“I was wondering when you’d get here, I was about to call a group meeting. Now that you’re here, we can begin!” Silver told her to put her suitcases in an empty room. He then led her into his living room where a bat, three hedgehogs, a cat, a fox, and an echidna were sitting in. There was a specific blue hedgehog that had caught Amy’s eye. He was staring back at the pink hedgie. They both blushed and looked away.

“Okay Silver, we’re here. What do you want?” a black and red hedgehog asked.

“Shadow, relax. First of all, the landlord won the lottery, and said that as a surprise, he’ll decrease the rent.” Everyone cheered. “Secondly, we have a new neighbor. Amy Rose.” He scooted to the side, so everyone could look at her. She froze at the attention.

“U-Uhm, hi? I’m Amy Rose. I’m 19 years old, and I am a college student at Mobius University. I also have a bakery nearby that’ll be opening in two days. I hope we all become good friends, thank you.” She stepped behind Silver again.

“Let’s all introduce each other as well.” Silver gestured over to Sonic, who was sitting at the far end of the couch. He looked away from the pretty pink hedgie, and cleared his throat.

“Hey, I’m Sonic the Hedgehog! I’m fast at everything!” The turquoise hedgehog girl sitting next to him scoffed.

“Everything, BUT, relationships.” She stood up. “I’m Lyra the Hedgehog. I’m Sonic’s little sister, and I’m also a medical student training to become a psychiatrist. (giving my OC the job I’m studyin’ for LOL) I love coffee, the night, and I really hope we become good friends, Amy! You seem really nice! I even hope my brother fal-” She was interrupted with Sonic smacking his hand over her mouth.

“Ugh. I’m Shadow the Hedgehog. I am not in anyway related to Faker over there, or his annoying and ugly sister, or Silver over there.” Silver seemed to be in a daze, so Amy snapped her fingers to break him out of his trance. There was a purple cat next to Shadow, who looked all professional and had the aura of a businesswoman.

“I’m Blaze. Blaze the Cat. I am an accountant, and I live in the middle floor with Rouge the Bat. Speaking of roommates, who’s yours?” Silver spoke up.

“Me.” They all nodded. Sonic looked a little less cheerful, making Amy wonder why his emotions changed all of a sudden. Silver turned towards the twin-tailed fox.

“I’m Tails the Fox! I’m a mechanic, so if you have a car in need of fixing, just let me know! I’m also a scientist studying at Mobius University, so I might see you often.”

“Don’t fall for him, Ames. He’s a womanizer.” Sonic said, chuckling a bit. Amy didn’t focus at what he said at all. She only focused at what he called her.

Ames.

She didn’t recognize this feeling, and didn’t know how to feel except hot. At the cheeks and ears.

“What do you mean, womanizer?” the bat asked, intrigued at where this conversation was going.

“He’s two-timing innocent little cinnamon rolls.” Lyra answered, taking out her phone.

“And who might they be?” Rouge asked leaning over to Tails, getting the red echidna next to her upset.

“Guys! The introduction?” Silver yelled, trying to get them out of their gossiping state. They all shut up, and leaned back in their seats.

“Hi hun, I’m Rouge the Bat. I love to party! I’m an FBI agent just like Shadow over there.” She jerked her thumb over at Shadow.

“Rouge, why is it that you’re trying to tell the whole world what our jobs are?” He asked, clearly annoyed at her.

“Because why not? She doesn’t seem like the type to go around doing bad stuff.” Rouge said. Shadow made a ‘Are you fucking kidding me?’

“Are you actually-? You know what? I’m not even going to argue.” Shadow stated, not attempting to explain to her that she shouldn’t be assuming things.

“Anyways, passing whatever all that was…I’m Knuckles the Echidna! I-”

“TAKE STEROIDS!” Sonic yelled, interrupting what Knuckles was about to say. Everyone, including Amy began to laugh.

“NO I DON’T!” Knuckles yelled back.

“YES YOU DO!”

“I SEE WHERE THAT ANNOYING HABIT OF INTERRUPTING PEOPLE CAME FROM, LOOKING AT YOUR SISTER!” Knuckles shouted at him. Lyra put her hand to her chest, as if she were offended, but she actually was.

“LISTEN HERE YOU HOT-HEADED ENCHILADA, I WILL NOT HESITATE WHEN YOU CALL ME ANNOYING!” Lyra screeched at Knuckles, trying to get her point across. Sonic cleared his throat, as if saying that she wouldn’t hesitate in her brother being called that either. “or my brother. Still, you better watch your words, or your dick will be chopped off, and I will shove it down your throat.” She threatened, having the red echidna sink all the way into the couch.

“Maybe threaten something else that isn’t his dick?..” Rouge asked. Knuckles glared at her with fury.

“…Um…Amy, why don’t you go check out your room? I need to talk to everyone.” Amy nodded, and slowly walked to the room where her suitcases were. It wasn’t a very big apartment, just two bedrooms and two baths. She heard Silver’s voice and couldn’t help but eavesdrop on their conversation.

“Seriously guys? I just wanted you to introduce yourselves, but no, you just had to go and start yelling out the most stupidest things! Now Amy’s going to think that we’re freaks, and move out as soon as possible!” As soon as the phrase “Amy’s going to think we’re freaks,” she heard Sonic yell “NO!”

“Don’t worry, Silver! I think that you guys are amazing, and I’m staying, no matter what weird things I might catch you all doing!” Amy found herself saying, as she stepped from behind the wall.

“You definitely are. You see, anytime someone moves here, we always have this test to determine their personality. You, have passed this test. Beware, for there are more tests to come.” Silver said. Amy only nodded, as everyone got up and started going back to their apartments. Sonic, the blue hedgehog, seemed to linger. Once Amy was in her room, she turned to the door to see Sonic at the doorway.

“Hi!” Amy exclaimed, a little too excitedly. Sonic blushed red, and put a hand on his neck.

“Hey.” Was all he said, which made Amy internally swoon. “Um…You said you own a bakery nearby?” He asked.

“Yes. It’s called Rose Cafe. It’s going to open in a few days.” She said, while unpacking her suitcases and putting her clothes in a closet.

“Nice…So…ya need any help with unpacking?” He questioned, as he walked over to her bed and sat on it.

“No thanks, I’m fine. Now, before we start talking anymore, tell me about the others. The people that live here. What’re they like, and how willing are they to make friends?” She asked, as she took out a red halter dress, pausing to take a piece of lint off.

“Well, I’ll start with Shadow. He usually never talks, but if he seems a little open to you, that either means you might mean something to him, or you’re a suspect of a crime without even realizing it.” She rose her eyebrows in interest. “Then there’s my sister, Lyra. She’s a chatterbox, but she’s also a bit comforting. Children love her for some creepy reason, and you should never get on her bad side, because she can smell your weaknesses and use them against you. She’s like Shadow and Rouge, but more idiotic. She likes Shadow, but I feel like he’s looking at Silver. If he were to look at my sister, I’d kill him.”

“Do Shadow and Rouge work together?” Sonic nodded at her question.

“I guess you could say that their partners, but also friends with benefits. Rouge loves to party all night. She can gather information really quickly, and uses seductive charm on people to get it. Even through girls. Even if they’re straight.” Amy looked petrified at that. Sonic chuckled at her reaction. “Then there’s Tails. He’s really nice, but is a Ladies’ man. Probably because they all think ‘Oh, he’s cute as a button!’ or ‘He’s so polite!,’ well, don’t fall for that, he’s already got two girls who don’t know about the other.”

“Why is he dating two girls at once?”

“He claims that he loves them both, and I guess I understand?” He shrugged, and continued talking. “Knuckles says he’s not on steroids, but I’m pretty sure he is. Why do you think he’s so bulk?” Amy giggled at Sonic doing an impression of Knuckles flexing his muscles. “He’s dating Rouge, but she’s constantly cheating on him. He’s too dense to notice, and it annoys me. Poor guy doesn’t deserve that slut.” Amy thought that what he had called the bat was rude.

“Sonic! Even though she may seem like a slut, maybe there’s a reason she does so!” He only scoffed at her comment.

“If you say so. Anyways, then there’s Silver. He’s really close to the landlord, who lives three cities away. He’s kind of like the leader of the place. He’s really nice, and he also likes Shadow. It causes some rivalry and competition between him and Lyra to win his affections. Although, I don’t think he notices either of them. I think that’s all-”

“You forgot Blaze the Cat.”

“Oh. Well, I don’t know much about her, seeing as she’s always in her office, I think she likes Silver, and doesn’t like talking, but when it comes to Rouge doing something that pisses her off, she starts going off like an airhorn.” Amy giggled. “At least there’s another girl here. You could stop them from arguing. Lyra would do that, but she always gets herself into the argument as well.” Amy smiled.

“Yes, sir! I will try my best, and won’t stop until the war has been won!” She saluted him playfully, making the two laugh. She put her suitcase in the closet, and put her p.j’s on the bed. Sonic hopped off, and went towards the door.

“It was nice meeting you, Ames. See you tomorrow!” And he walked out, leaving a shocked Amy.

He called her Ames again. She made sure to lock the door behind him and squeal in delight. They’ve known each other for barely a day, and he’s already gave her a nickname. What a guy.

#sonic roommates au #sonic the hedgehog

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bloodraven55 · 5 years ago

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V6 Soundtrack Review

Here it is... my more organised thoughts on the soundtrack. This is of course just my opinion, and music is very subjective, so feel free to disagree. I’ve covered each of the full songs including the acoustic and remixes individually, and then briefly mentioned some of my favourites from the instrumental pieces at the end since there are a lot of them and I’m not an expert on composition or anything.

Anyway... enjoy!

RISING

Rating: 9/10

Favourite lyric: Love’s the choice we made

Thoughts: I love the shimmering synths at the start and just the general energy. Especially the way the groove picks up with the second verse. Speaking of that part, Casey's deeper vocals there sound amazing. And the rapid beat of the bridge is a surprise but a very welcome one. The lyrics are very uplifting and I like the use of nature imagery. Maybe my favourite opening song.

MIRACLE

Rating: 9/10

Favourite lyric: Desire to preserve life/Is powering the light

Thoughts: I absolutely love the way the opening builds with the drums, piano and guitar combining. And Jeff and Casey's alternating vocals are brilliant. The brass touches are wonderful and very catchy. The creepy, almost discordant bridge is extremely chilling and I like the tonal shift a lot, especially with the way the upbeat section then takes over again almost like the song being taken back from pessimism. The lyrics perfectly embody the show's theme of hope in the face of adversity and they make me feel optimistic.

ONE THING

Rating: 9/10

Favourite lyric: A single light, a single friend/But you’ve made that end

Thoughts: I feel incredibly sad for Neo after this song. I think it was an excellent choice to give her a song since she has no voice or way of expressing her feelings in the show. It really gives her depth and makes me feel a lot of empathy for her. It has a good rhythm and a very memorable melody. I love the way the instrumentation cuts out on “What a sweet release/When you rest in peace” to really add to the impact of the line and emphasise the harmony of the vocals. Also Casey's overlapping vocals on the final chorus are a great addition to enhance the ending of the song. Apart from that the other thing I'm taking away from it is that Cinder is so very dead 😄

LIONISE

Rating: 8/10

Favourite lyric: Watch them fall as I am glorified

Thoughts: I really appreciate how dark and twisted this song sounds. It's the perfect match for Adam himself. Jeff's vocals are almost unhinged and nearly screeching at times, and it fits Adam's mindset well. The lyrics paint a very accurate portrait of how arrogant, narcissistic and self-centred Adam was and how he only wanted power for himself and revenge on all of humanity rather than to truly help the Faunus or to gain equality for them. In particular the shift from “we” to “I” over the course of the song is very clever and a good representation of that. All in all it's not one of my absolute favourites sonically but it's an interesting look into Adam's backstory and a very good track.

BIG METAL SHOE

Rating: 8/10

Favourite lyric: You would be great and terrible but only if you had a brain

Thoughts: The music box intro is wild but it's unique and it makes sense with the nursery rhyme/fairytale lyrics. The guitar riff kicks so much ass and this song just has an amazing groove. Again Casey and Jeff taking turns on the mic creates this wonderful back and forth exchange that really adds to the track. I love all the nursery rhyme and fairytale references in the words and given I didn't expect to like it that much I'm pleasantly surprised by how much I'm a fan of this song.

NEVERMORE

Rating: 10/10

Favourite lyric: Nevermore/You’ll torture my heart and my head

Thoughts: This song just contains so much relief and freedom and it makes me so emotional. Adam had haunted Blake and Yang for so long and they didn't want things to end the way they did but he left them no choice. This track just feels like a release of so much emotion for both of them and it's so intense. They've suffered a lot but now they can finally move forward together without that shadow hanging over them and it's a lot. The references to Lionise with the sole purpose of tearing it apart, plus the use of dialogue from the confrontation in the show, are all fantastic touches to make it even more meaningful too.

Musically, I love the mixture of Blake and Yang's individual styles/themes with the piano and the guitar and the sound of the song really lines up with the lyrics and creates this hugely cathartic anthem for them overcoming their personal demons. Especially the way the music softens and quiets as Blake looks back on her hopes for Adam and the WF that never came true before it kicks back in with a vengeance as she accepts what she has to do to end all the pain that he's caused.

INDOMITABLE

Rating: 10/10

Favourite lyric: Though our body is weak and breakable/The spirit is indomitable

Thoughts: I cried. A lot. It sounds breathtaking. Casey's performance is spectacular. You can feel how much everyone involved in the show and the song love Monty in every second—every note—and it's probably my favourite on the album. I don't know if I can say any more without getting emotional but yes, it’s absolutely beautiful.

FOREVER FALL

Rating: 9/10

Favourite lyric: You’re my forever fall

Thoughts: I cried at this one too. I miss Pyrrha. She didn't deserve the ending she got, but also she died doing what she felt she had to do and she wouldn't have regretted it. She was a true Huntress through and through. I feel so bad for Jaune as well. It's just a whole mess of emotions but it’s a gorgeous song.

ARMED AND READY (ACOUSTIC VERSION)

Rating: 10/10

Favourite lyric: There’s nothing that I won’t do for her

Thoughts: BEEHAW! Okay but seriously it's just crazy and hilarious and brilliant. It's so out there but Casey sells it completely and I love it. Her and Jeff's dual vocals on the chorus remind me of a father/daughter country duo and I can't. It was the last thing I anticipated but I am not complaining at all.

THE TRIUMPH (KAIRI REMIX)

Rating: 7/10

Favourite lyric: We’ll be the ones to touch the sun/The triumph will be ours!

Thoughts: Not much to say here. Remixes are very hit and miss for me but I quite enjoyed this one.

THE PATH TO ISOLATION (HEAVENVIEW REMIX)

Rating: 6/10

Favourite lyric: Mirror, help me/Who am I?

Thoughts: This is one of my favourite RWBY songs of all time in its original form but this version didn't completely do it for me. It just felt a bit weird to me but I didn't mind it, it just wasn't really my thing.

FAVOURITE INSTRUMENTALS

Protecting Each Other - every part of this is so powerful, but the triumphant reprise of the Nevermore melody near the end is what always gets me thought the melodies from This Time, Lionise and Armed and Ready and the choral vocals are great too.

Silver Eyes - it's very calming but those Red Like Roses and This Will Be the Day motifs have me fucked up.

A Delicate Balance - the almost ethereal vocals are awesome and it has a really grand feel that I like.

Our Creation - it's very mellow and chill for the most part but the sudden reprise of Divide and the eerie strings near the end caught me off guard in a good way.

Down the Cannon - it's just straight up badass with the guitar and the choir and the use of Bad Luck Charm is noice.

Trouble Aboard Argus Limited - it's just very epic and bombastic and it gets me hyped.

Flight to Atlas - it's a really nice closer with several character themes included and a cool dramatic ending.

Jaune's Arc - I love the way it swells and the hint of Rising at the end.

OVERALL RATING: 9/10

#rwby #rwby soundtrack #whoop there it is

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toaarcan · 5 years ago

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Sonic X, Sonic Heroes, and IDW, or: How a bad anime from 2004 spoiled a comic from 2019.

Now, I haven’t been following IDW Sonic all that closely. I get regular updates from Nemesis via Discord, and additional info from some of the Tumblrs I follow that are invested in it, but I don’t really have a desire to touch it myself. Here’s why.

There’s a multitude of reasons for this. Starting with the background of Sonic Forces wasn’t really a good place to begin from, and being based on present-day game lore in general was always going to hurt it, mainly because SEGASonic canon is currently a confusing mess of retcons brought on by Iizuka taking the J.K. Rowling approach.

Wait, no, he’s just saying stupid shit that contradicts previous canon, not trying to score woke points and hoping nobody notices the frankly terrible stereotypes and TERF tweets. Iizuka is taking the Greg Farshtey approach.

Added, as anyone that’s had experience with my opinions will tell you, I started falling out of love with Ian Flynn’s writing somewhere around Issue 200, and moved to outright dislike during Mecha Sally, and to make matters worse I started noticing that some of the flaws in the 200-247 era were also present in the 160-199 era, retroactively making those harder to go back to.

I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again: I kept up with Archie for the SatAM cast. SatAM reruns back in 2004 were my Sonic, moreso than anything else, and even now I still have way more attachment to those two seasons of animation than I do to most other aspects of the franchise, warts and all. So Archie providing me with additional content for said characters was a major draw for me. I’d generally put up with a lot just to get myself more SatAM content.

That in itself is a large part of why I fell off the Archie train during Mecha Sally. The entirety of the SatAM cast were removed from the regular lineup, just leaving three SEGA characters with their personalities stunted, even if that didn’t make sense in-universe. But that’s a discussion for another day.

So being written by someone whom I no longer enjoyed the writing of, set in a mess of a canon with a thoroughly shite game as the main basis, without the cast I read the previous comics for gave me little reason to invest in IDW Sonic. It wasn’t for me, I’d just keep reading Transformers and move on.

Then MTMTE/LL ended with a heart-twister and Ex-RID ended with a giant Unicron-shaped fart, and the new comic is dull as fucking dishwater and started by killing off one of my favourites, who was also one of the franchise’s confirmed LGBT characters. So now IDW is getting none of my money. Which is good because I’m broke.

Tangents aside, my lack of interest wasn’t something set in stone. If it turned out that the comic was actually really good, then sure, I’d try it. I was up for being proven wrong. But so far, I haven’t felt compelled by the responses from the internet. If anything I’ve been more turned off.

I could talk about how zombies are really fucking boring. I could talk about how SEGA’s recent confusion over what to do with Amy has combined with Ian’s need to include a Sally-esque character to make IDW Amy into Sally Lite. I could talk about how Ian seemingly fundamentally misunderstood everything that was cool about Neo Metal Sonic and somehow managed to reduce him to a boring Eggman minion in an arc where Eggman was out of action due to amnesia… But I won’t.

Instead I’m going to talk about how the comic has done something that would legitimately make me think twice about picking it up even if the FF were to debut tomorrow.

Yeah, I would pass up a SatAM fix because of this, that’s how much this ticks me off.

Now, I presume that if you’re reading this, you have a favourite Sonic character. And you probably feel pretty strongly about how your favourite character is portrayed. If they get a bad run in a game or two then you probably get a little salty about that. Tails and Knuckles fans in particular, as of late, seem to be the ones getting the short end.

Well, my favourite character in the entire franchise is Emerl the Gizoid. I will take Gemerl as a worthy substitute, they’re basically the same character. And the comics have been doing them dirty since the Archie reboot.

(Sidenote: I will be referring to Emerl with male pronouns from this point on. The Maria-soul thing isn’t as widely known as I’d like it to be, so I’m going to compromise for the sake of keeping the focus on the actual point)

However, not everything about this can be laid at the feet of Ian Flynn. Arguably his portrayal of said character is merely a symptom of a long-running issue that has plagued Sonic storytelling for roughly 15-16 years now.

But before we get into that, let’s get into something important: Why Emerl is my favourite Sonic character.

Part 1: Emerl in Sonic Battle, or “How I learned to stop worrying and love the Gizoid”.

This game doesn’t get enough love.

Now, I totally understand why it doesn’t get enough love. There are game design choices, like the grinding and the repetitiveness of the story mode that really drag it down, and because of that, Battle can become a slow-going and tedious experience, and that’s a real shame, because the story that’s hidden in this game is a thing of beauty.

Like most Sonic games from the 2000s, this game introduces a new character to join Sonic’s list of friends. Unlike the games that aren’t SA2 and Sonic Rush, this new character is actually good (This is hyperbole, Omega, Silver, and Shade were fine too).

Emerl enters the story as a mute, barely-functional robot that doesn’t do much of anything for a while, and only seems to come to life when Sonic locates it and attacks it. However, as the robot absorbs more Chaos Emeralds, slowly a personality starts to form, largely pieced together from other characters’ traits.

Emerl, as he is dubbed, is initially childlike and naive, but as he grows he develops a sassy streak, and his speech becomes a lot more developed. Maturity sets in, as Emerl grapples with his own nature, particularly the legacy he carries from the ARK, and Shadow’s ongoing turmoil with regards to the whole “Living Weapon” deal. Ultimately he becomes a hero, following in the footsteps of his mentor, parental figure, and closest friend, Sonic.

That’s right, Sonic, not Cream, is Emerl’s closest friend. We’ll get to that.

But this heart-warming story of Sonic becoming a dad for a robot doesn’t have a happy ending. Despite Shadow and Rouge finding a way to neutralise Emerl’s destructive Gizoid programming, Eggman has a way to reactivate it anyway, driving Emerl into a berserk rampage. This is kind of the one sticking point I have with the game’s plot, Eggman shouldn’t have been able to do this after Shadow and Rouge neutralised Emerl.

Additionally, while Emerl was on the ARK getting Maria’s soul crammed into him, Gerald also added a self-destruct mechanism that would trigger if he ever went Ultimate again.

So with Emerl quite literally exploding with all the power of the Chaos Emeralds, but his destructive programming forcing him to turn Eggman’s latest Death Star knockoff on Mobius/Earth/Sonic’s World, Sonic races up to confront his mecha-child, and things take a turn for the Old Robot Yeller.

In a moment that really deserves more attention, Sonic confronts his own child on the bridge of a space station, while Emerl is running on the power of the Chaos Emeralds and outputting more energy than he can physically take, and they fight. In the space of thirty seconds, they have a ten-round knock-down, drag-out brawl, and at the end, Sonic stands triumphant. Without using a single transformation. Yeah, that’s how powerful this guy is, that’s not travel speed, that’s combat speed. Looking at you, Death Battle.

It’s not really clear whether Sonic outright defeats Ultimate Emerl, or just survives long enough for his opponent to reach his limit and self-destruct, but the end result is the same. Sonic cradles a robot that became his own child over the course of the past few weeks, someone he raised from a baby-like state into a mature and heroic individual, and Emerl looks up at him and asks “Sonic… am I going to die?” And despite Sonic desperately trying to get him to keep it together, Not only does Emerl die, but he’s aware that the end is coming, and bids farewell to all of his friends as Sonic pleads with him to hold on. Shadow is equally distraught, his only friend with a connection to the ARK, someone he can call a brother, someone who carries the soul of his deceased sister within him, is dead.

Emerl: “Sonic I don’t feel so good.”

Like it’s canon that Eggman basically murdered Sonic’s kid.

And goddamnit this ending hits me hard. It frustrates me that Eggman was able to pull a means to drive Emerl into his Ultimate freakout mode out of his arse, but other than that, it’s so gutwrenching, I love it.

Gamma’s story from SA1 gets a lot of praise on the Internet, but for me, this is even better. It’s like Gamma’s story, but if Gamma was actually central to the plot of the game and the characters other than Amy gave a shit about him, and gave a shit about him for longer than a single cutscene, after which they are never mentioned again. Hell, due to Chaos Gamma being a thing, Gamma gets more love from the other characters in Battle than he does in SA1.

But, unfortunately, it doesn’t end there.

Part 2: (Sonic) Anime was a Mistake, or: “Sonic X ruins everything.”

I’ve made my dislike of this anime quite clear in the past. The characters are flanderized, Sonic is a B-lister in his own damn show, the villains are weaksauce or boring or both, the plot is only remotely close to good when its cribbing from two videogames which told the stories in question better, and for the first two seasons the entire show actually revolves around not Sonic, but the least relatable audience surrogate ever made. The third season would continue to include him, but shove him (And everyone else) to the side in favour of a Pokemon whose only move was “Flashback”, making audiences the world over question why he was even there in the first place.

Oh, and it also near-singlehandedly destroyed the thin shreds of character development that Tails, Knuckles, Amy, and Eggman had received in Sonic Adventure 2.

All four of these characters had been significantly enriched by the then most recent console game. Eggman had been revealed to be motivated by an admiration for his grandfather, Gerald Robotnik, but in the same game learned that Gerald had lost his marbles and programmed the ARK to smash into the planet and kill everyone on it, probably including his surviving family, i.e. little baby Ivo Robotnik. Gerald betrayed Eggman posthumously, and it’s clear from Eggman’s interactions with Tails during the credits of the game that this is giving him a lot to think about.

Knuckles is a weird case because most of his characterisation in SA2 is conveyed via… the lyrics to his rap music. Yes, really. He gets minor growth through the cutscenes, most notably in his decision to shatter the Master Emerald early on. Having already reassembled it once after it was broken in SA1, he’s now confident that he can do it again, so is willing to break it to prevent Eggman or Rouge stealing it. Via the rap lyrics, however (Yes I just wrote that), we also learn that Knuckles is slowly warming up to Sonic, gaining a greater respect for him, that he is more in-touch with his history and ancestors after SA1 (Though fortunately not in a Ken Penders way), and that he’s also struggling with feelings for Rouge, a plot element that went completely out of the window after this game.

Tails and Amy, however, get it the worst, as both went through arcs in SA1 that are followed up on and expanded in SA2. Amy had come to the conclusion that she didn’t need to rely on Sonic for everything, and that she would make him respect her as a hero in her own right. And while Amy is clearly in way over her head throughout the events of SA2, she still makes a significant difference, not only freeing Sonic from his cell on Prison Island, allowing Tails’ invasion to be a distraction and stealing a keycard to facilitate it, but of course, she later saves the world by motivating Shadow to join the fight to stop the ARK drop.

Tails had a similar plot, about learning to believe in himself as a hero, without having to rely on Sonic, and in SA2 he gets to prove it, not only partaking in the same rescue operation as Amy and fighting Eggman on even footing, but effectively taking command of the heroes and becoming their new leader, and for the first time, Sonic defers to him.

And then Sonic X came along and fucked it all up.

Eggman became a clownish antagonist with no semblance of nuance, and he actually got off the easiest.

Knuckles became a loud, dimwitted loner who got tricked by Eggman constantly, which would go on to be his personality for the rest of the franchise, ultimately culminating in the travesty against all sense that was Boom Knuckles.

Tails was reduced to a wimpy taxi driver, incapable of doing anything without his giant mecha plane to sit in. This was largely exacerbated by the presence of Donut Steele, who usurped his role as Sonic’s best friend and sidekick for two seasons, a problem which only got worse in the third season when Donut Steele suddenly became a genius inventor too, encroaching even more into Tails’ territory. Tails did get himself some more focus in S3, but only to make googly eyes at the Pokemon, a role which frankly could’ve gone to literally anyone else and would have made no difference on the plot. I would say that Tails being involved in a romance story at all is weird, but given the comics and Boom the weirdest thing about this latest tragic love story for the kid is that the Pokemon was actually close to his own age, because outside of this it really does seem like Tails goes for older ladies. Though she did turn into an adult at the end so I guess that counts?

But Amy arguably got the worst of it. Not only was her crowning moment in SA2 taken away from her and given to Donut Steele, but the poor girl had her promising character arc cut short and replaced with an obsessive, unhealthy fixation on Sonic, combined with a violent temper and an eagerness to smash anything that displeased her, Sonic included, with a giant hammer. Her admiration and crush on Sonic were warped into her being a possessive, mean-spirited stalker, whom only got away with it because she was an anime girl and therefore it was cute rather than creepy.

I want to take the time at this point to stress that stalking is not okay, under any circumstances. A girl obsessively following an older guy and threatening him and everyone around him with violent assault if they ever so much as imply that he isn’t interested in her is not cute, it means it’s time for a restraining order. Sonamy is not cute.

Now that I’ve swatted that particular hornet’s nest with a cricket bat, let’s move on!

I’ve always found it ironic that, despite being the adaptation with the most oversight from SEGA and Sonic Team, and the most endorsement from them too, Sonic X had easily the worst characterisation of any of the shows at the time. But, for all its faults, I can’t blame everything that went down in the aftermath on it. It had a comrade-in-arms. Mediocrely-written arms.

Part 3: Partner in Crime, or “Sonic Heroes also ruins everything.”

Sonic Heroes has a lot to answer for. And I mean a lot. It was the beginning of the franchise’s obsession with references to the classic games, it codified the really awkward ages for certain characters, and it seemed to be dedicated to completely unpicking everything established in the Adventure duology.

Shadow’s sudden resurrection is one thing, at least they had the graces to include a means to preserve his sacrifice via having him be an android, the blame for that not taking should be laid at the feet of his own game.

But the rest of the cast? Ohhh boy. Sonic’s still fine, he didn’t change much in the Adventure games, but then there’s Tails. Despite all the development he went through in SA1, in this game he needs to turn to Sonic when Eggman returns, and honestly this whole setup could’ve been fixed if Tails sought Sonic out not for the sake of having him lead the charge, but rather simply to recruit him into the counterattack he was already planning. Nevertheless, throughout the rest of the game Tails is almost as wimpy as his X counterpart, not helped by the voicework he’s given. No offense to William Corkery, who was probably like six when he recorded his lines, but this what you get when you choose actors via nepotism, rather than talent. But at least he does something.

How about Knuckles? As the other side of his derailment, Knuckles just turns up in this game, buddy-buddy with the characters he was only just starting to warm up to before, and blatantly not caring about the Master Emerald until Rouge mentions she’s going to steal it at the end. This will combine with his becoming a dumbass in Sonic X and become basically his entire character for… ever. Even in Forces, where he’s supposed to be doing slightly better as the leader of the resistance… but he’s a dumbass, and even Ian Flynn, who kept Knuckles as competent and intelligent in the Archie comics (Making the best version of Knuckles we’ve had in forever), kept this ongoing in the IDW comic. The Forces prequel portrays him as deciding to become leader of the Resistance (To an empire that hasn’t actually formed yet) purely to be a glory hound, and then goes on to establish that he was basically a figurehead while the real work was done by Amy, of all people.

And speaking of Amy…

Yeah, poor Amy is basically her Sonic X counterpart. But worse. I didn’t think that was possible, but at least X’s Amy seems to care about her friends. In Heroes, we’re treated to an equally violent and stalkerish Amy, who ostensibly starts searching out Sonic because he’s implicated in the abduction of Cream and Big’s pets, but when they actually catch up to him, Amy clean forgets why she is looking for him in the first place and tries to force him to marry her. Despite being twelve.

Y’know when Amy said she wanted to marry Sonic in SA2, she was joking, right?

This is why I find the idea of Amy being the real leader of the Resistance frankly absurd: Because the only time she led anything, it was a team that consisted of herself, a small child, and a man less intelligent and aware of reality than said small child, and she completely forgot their actual objective the moment she set her eyes on Sonic. Add in an unfortunate stint of very poor eyesight that got less and less understandable with every instance, and we got Amy’s rough personality for the next decade.

While Knuckles mostly stagnated at the same level of stupidity during that time, Tails got worse and worse, losing all of his badass traits with every game, a factor only increased by the “Sonic only” mentality costing him playable status, until he reached his nadir in Forces, cowering in terror from Chaos 0, and crying out to Sonic to save him, despite knowing full-well that Sonic was captured already. Amy, meanwhile, limped along at the same level until about 2014, where it seemed someone at SEGA finally realised that A) Having the only female character you regularly use be a pink-coloured gender-bent version of your male hero whose only function is lusting after said hero doesn’t and shouldn’t fly in this day and age, and B) violent stalkers aren’t cute, and dropped this trait. Unfortunately, this has been more of a lateral move than a fix, as, much like Antoine in the comics, they forgot to give her anything substantial or fitting after she lost her negative traits, leaving her a bland and dull character, and when you’ve had a character be consistent for ten years, even if they were consistently bad, then changing it without cause or warning is still going to be jarring and awkward.

Part 4: Two Wrongs Don’t Make a Right, or “Why the fuck did this happen?”

As I said in Part 2, Sonic X was made under heavy oversight from Sonic Team, and was heavily endorsed by them at the same time. There were promos for the show inserted into Sonic Adventure DX, a few episodes were released on GBA cartridges, and it received a long-running comic from Archie that ran alongside the main book, even after the show had ended. Additionally, characters that debuted in games from 2002-2004 were restricted from appearing in Archie’s main book for years afterwards (Which will become relevant later). The third season was commissioned solely off of the response to the first two, and primarily overseas response, hence why the original sub was never aired in Japan.

Sonic X was huge. And with that in mind, it’s plain to see that the portrayals of the characters in Sonic X were intended by SEGA. Yeah, all that horrible characterisation was intended as the vision for the franchise going forwards, and subsequent games were adjusted to match it.

And unfortunately, not only did this have a serious impact on the main cast of the games, but it had an even worse effect on Emerl.

Part 5: Emerl in Sonic X, or “Emerl vs. ‘Emel’”

Sonic X’s original mission statement was to adapt Sonic Adventure, Sonic Adventure 2, and Sonic Battle. Why they skipped Sonic Heroes, despite Shadow being a major player in Battle’s story, I don’t know.

For whatever reason, the show took a full season to actually get to the first game adaptation, SA1, and instead spent the first 26 episodes on bland episodic “adventures”, in some kind of strange reverse-Isekai series. However, once it got there, the adaptation work was fairly faithful to the source material, which the exception of Donut Steele’s being crammed in to the plot. However, he mostly followed Big around, and since Big was the least involved in the game’s plot, he didn’t disrupt too much.

Sidenote, after 26 episodes of filler, the actual SA1 adaptation only lasted six episodes.

SA2 was likewise only six episodes, but with the exception of Amy’s big scene, it likewise wasn’t too bad. Tails suffered this time around too, which is somewhat surprising since he was mech-dependent in the anime anyway.

After some more filler, which introduced the Chaotix and then did nothing with them, Emerl finally made an appearance, albeit they got his name wrong.

‘Emel’ looks like Emerl, and somewhat works like Emerl, but might as well be completely different. ‘Emel’ stays completely mute for the entire time he’s around, never advancing much beyond Emerl’s initial silent, pre-first Emerald persona. He does get better at fighting, but he’s limited to only absorbing a single skill at once (Except for when he isn’t).

Dispensing with Battle’s interesting, rich, and heart-twisting plot, Sonic X instead has ‘Emel’ linger in ensemble for three episodes, before condensing the entire game’s premise into a two episodes of really bland tournament arc, where Sonic himself doesn’t actually fight and we get two rounds of Donut Steele being a dick to his friend and his father.

‘Emel’ wins the tournament, and is given a Chaos Emerald, and just when you think it might kickstart him becoming an actual character, instead it just drives him insane and he immediately becomes a pathetically weak version of Ultimate Emerl. After kicking the crap out of the entire cast, he is defeated by Cream and Cheese, because even though he can take on Sonic, Knuckles, and Rouge at the same time and win, along with Tails, Amy, Donut Steele and everyone else, he… can’t handle two opponents at once.

This is stupid.

You’ll notice that I haven’t talked about Sonic’s relationship with ‘Emel’, and that’s because he doesn’t have one. The wonderfully-written parental bond that these two characters share in the games is completely excised, and instead the focus is put on Cream. Bare in mind, Cream is so inconsequential to the actual game that she doesn’t even get mentioned individually in Emerl’s dying speech like Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, and Shadow do. Instead she’s just grouped in with Amy.

This is also stupid.

And as a result of this, it means that what is arguable base form Sonic’s most impressive feat just doesn’t happen in the anime, instead Emerl dies because he is lightly kicked a bit by Cream. Yeah, unlike the Advance games, Sonic X’s Cream is not an unstoppable engine of destruction, she’s basically just a small child who can sometimes fly.

Instead of Emerl’s tragic speech and Sonic’s desperate attempts to keep his son alive, we get treated to a prolonged scene of Cream crying over the death of her “friend”, something that is probably meant to tug at heartstrings but doesn’t because Cream’s voice sounds like nails on a chalkboard.

And Shadow isn’t even there! He doesn’t come back until a third of the way through Season 3, and never meets ‘Emel.’

This is really stupid. And, for those keeping track, that means of Sonic X’s originally commissioned 52 episodes, and the full series run of 78 episodes, a stunning total of seventeen of them were actually adaptations of the games that the series was supposed to focus on, leaving us with 61 episodes of what might as well be filler.

And, unfortunately, that franchise-wide initiative had damning consequences for Emerl.

Part 6: Gemerl and Sonic Advance 3, or: “An incomplete resurrection.”

So, Gemerl. I know his name is apparently G-Merl now but fuck that I’m calling him Gemerl. If the comics can do it then so will I.

Gemerl is the worst thing Eggman has ever done to Sonic. Like, there is no contest. Some of his other schemes might be more destructive and generally evil, but in terms of personal pain inflicted, nothing has topped this.

Eggman salvaged Emerl’s corpse, and brought him back to life as a mindless murderbot under his control. So not only did he kill Sonic’s robo-son, but he also brought him back as a weapon.

Come the conclusion of the game, Gemerl predictably betrays Eggman, steals the Chaos Emeralds from Sonic, and goes on another rampage. I have… headcanons about this fight, but that’s something to worry about later. What’s important is that, once again, Sonic is victorious, and Gemerl’s defeated body plunges into the atmosphere.

Fortunately, Tails is able to bring Emerl back properly this time, presumably using the Chaos shard that was left over at the end of Battle’s finale. So, it’s all a happy ending, right? Sonic has his child back, Shadow has his connection to his history restored, and Emerl is alive and well, right?

Wrong.

See, the vile spectre of Sonic X rears its ugly head once more, and sabotages this conclusion. Gemerl doesn’t return to Sonic, in fact we never see him reunite with his father. Instead, Sonic X’s version has enough clout now to take precedence, so Gemerl is now Cream’s playmate.

Bear in mind that Emerl’s idea of a fun game is all-out combat against his friends, and Cream doesn’t like fighting (Even if she’s really good at it in Advance 2 and 3).

And then he never shows up again. Even when Cream is part of the game’s plot, like in Rush or Generations, he’s not there, and most egregiously, in Sonic Chronicles, where Cream is not only an active player in the plot, but so are Gizoids, the creators of said Gizoids are the main antagonists, and Emerl himself is mentioned… Gemerl is not there.

But he did make it into the comics, for better or worse. Mostly worse.

Part 7: Embargos, knock-offs, and misused tropes, or: “Ian Flynn dun goofed.”

For a long while, Emerl/Gemerl was barred from the Archie comics, due to the Sonic X embargo, and when it was lifted, he didn’t appear until the reboot. We did, however, get a suspiciously similar substitute in the form of Shard.

Shard was the original Metal Sonic, but when he was brought back and rebuilt for the Secret Freedom arc, he was given a colour scheme ostensibly derived from Metal Sonic 3.0, but one shared with Gemerl, and a personality that was a lot like a watered-down version of Emerl’s own.

On some level I can understand Ian’s decision to bring back Metal Sonic v2.5, rather than use the character that seems to have been an inspiration for this new incarnation in some way. He’d need a fully-formed Emerl, necessitating a skip over the whole story, since there wasn’t room for an adaptation during the Mecha Sally arc that the Secret Freedom story was framed within. Heck, for all we know, the similarities between them may simply be a pretty sizeable coincidence.

But then the reboot happened and Gemerl finally joined the comic cast. And to say it was underwhelming would be an understatement.

You’ll notice that I said “Gemerl” rather than “Emerl”, because his entire story was indeed skipped. The events of Sonic Battle and Sonic Advance 3 had both happened already. This wasn’t Ian’s decision, as far as we know, his intention was for the comic to start over from the beginning. However, due to the interference of Paul Kaminski, who wanted a softer reboot, Ian was forced to fill the characters’ active histories with a large chunk of the games’ stories. Battle and Advance 3 were among those that had already happened, so Emerl made cameos in both incarnations via flashback… which unfortunately led to a plot hole.

See, Advance 3 and Sonic Unleashed are rather difficult to keep in the same continuity, because both share a common plot element: The world breaking into seven pieces.

For a long while, it was generally assumed that the handheld games and console titles were only semi-canon to each other. This avoided the awkward question of “If the Gaias were already there, why didn’t they emerge when Eggman broke the planet in Advance 3?”

Ian shoved them blatantly into the same continuity, and gave no attempt to explain what was different about the Advance 3 world-break compared to the Gaia incident, which served as the backbone to the reboot’s three year long Shattered World Arc. Why didn't the Gaias wake up during Advance 3? Because that's now a question we have to ask of the comics' world.

When Gemerl finally showed up doing something other than yard work for Vanilla (Despite allegedly being Cream’s friend, Cream spends all her time with the rest of the cast, and Gemerl is basically Vanilla’s maid), it was to get effortlessly dispatched by a brainwashed Mega Man with a terrible name in the extremely lacklustre Worlds Unite event.

This one was more than a little bit of a slap in the face, considering that Emerl and Mega Man are very similar in concept- robots that can copy the abilities of other characters- but Emerl is demonstrably more powerful. Now, if Ian had established that Gemerl had been nerfed when he was rebuilt, either by Eggman or by Tails, that would be fine. But he didn’t. In fact, Gemerl is given the title bubble “Super Gizoid”, implying that he’s stronger than a regular Gizoid.

Worlds Unite is generally pretty bad for having its corrupted heroes easily curbstomp every other character around, to the point that the only thing that can stop them is each other, but in Gemerl’s case it really serves no purpose.

This is the only thing that he actually does in Worlds Unite. He shows up to get beaten up and make Mega Man look stronger. That’s it.

This is something that TV Tropes refers to as “The Worf Effect”, a trope wherein an established powerful character is defeated easily by a new character, in order to demonstrate the latter’s power. Now, there’s nothing wrong with using this trope, but please note that I said establishedpowerful character, which Gemerl wasn’t.

At the point that this comic released, Gemerl’s last appearance in any Sonic media was over ten years prior. None of the comic’s intended target audience would remember him, and they wouldn’t know why defeating him was impressive. And this was, in addition, a terrible way to introduce him to new fans. Though the worst part is easily that this was unnecessary. Mega Man had already defeated everyone else, and had established his power pretty well just on them, and he was about to get removed from play permanently in the next issue. There was really no reason to throw Gemerl under the bus for this.

He made one more appearance in the event, getting controlled by the Zeti along with every other robot, and after that he got bopped on the head and just flew away.

Later, he’d make another appearance in the Panic in the Sky arc, and while his portrayal was far from the worst thing about Panic in the Sky, it only adds to the issues caused by the previous showing.

Gemerl makes one appearance, and promptly gets pinned down by the Witchcarters and Team Hooligan. Bear in that one of those groups are the joke villains who nobody takes seriously, and the other are a gang that was defeated by Tails before he met Sonic.

Archie Gemerl was a character who only existed to lose to villains in a vain attempt to make them look better, and that’s legitimately all Ian ever did with him, which makes me wonder whether he disliked the character. And it didn’t even make the villains look good, when you think about it. For anybody that was actually the intended audience for this book, Gemerl had no significance. He was just a robot that got beat up all the time. But for anyone like me, who does remember the games he appeared in, it stands out, not as good writing, but as a blatant narrative device and misused trope.

In this situation, I would simply rather Gemerl never appeared in Archie. At all. If Ian wasn’t going to give him time to shine, or at the very least be an adequate member of the supporting cast, he shouldn’t have used him at all.

Part 8: A Fresh False Start, or: “Wait, how did this get worse?!”

And now we arrive at IDW.

The one nice thing I can say about Archie Gemerl is that at least his personality was mostly on point. He read like a generally accurate take on the character that Emerl was at the end of Battle, which is what he’s supposed to be.

The same cannot be said for IDW.

In the pages of IDW, Gemerl acts like the most generic robot. He speaks in emotionless, stilted sentences with little in the way of actual grammar, leaving him to read like a poor man’s Soundwave, or Soundwave in one of those comics where the writer can’t decide whether they want him to speak normally or adopt his speech pattern from the G1 cartoon, so they just sort of do both.

Emerl pretty much never talked like this, as far as I can recall. His speech development is much more reminiscent of a child learning words, and the only time when he did adopt a more robotic speech pattern, it was a clue that he was slipping back into his destructive programming. He only spoke like a generic robot when he was in mindless destroyer mode.

He gets thrown for a loop by a simple logic flaw, unable to reconcile “Protect Cream and Vanilla” with “Don’t kill the zombots”, and has to be talked out of killing everything around him, when the entire point of Gerald’s modifications to the Gizoid was to make him a bringer of hope rather than destruction, and give him a compassionate heart.

The part of Battle’s story where Cream imparts a pacifistic mindset doesn’t frame her as being right. In that part of the game, they are cornered and under attack by hostile but ultimately mindless drones, and when she convinces Emerl to stop fighting, he almost dies. It’s Cream that learns the lesson there, that sometimes fighting is okay.

This character is already compassionate, he shouldn’t need to be talked into not killing the zombots by a small child, nor should he need her to point out that they’re innocent people who have been made this way by Eggman, because he was made into a killing machine by Eggman twice, and the first time he did die because of it. The character that lay dying in Sonic’s arms, scared and bidding his last goodbyes to his loved ones shouldn’t be the one experiencing this struggle when Omega is also in this arc.

That’s it, really. He’s not Gemerl. He’s a second, less goofy Omega. And it boggles my mind that, despite getting Gemerl’s character, if not his combat abilities, down almost perfectly in Archie, Ian is now subjecting us to this travesty.

Like with the Archie example above, therein lies the crux of why the steady decline of Emerl/Gemerl that began with Sonic X is pushing me away from IDW: I don’t want to read Ian’s take on this character, because, to me, No Gemerl is better than Badly-Written Gemerl,

This isn’t the first time I’ve said this, either. Way back in 2016, when I complained about Ian’s portrayal of Gemerl in Panic in the Sky, I said that the way he handled characters that I liked tended to make them the least likeable parts of the stories he wrote. As well as stating my dislike for his handling of Gemerl, I also stated that I used to really like Fiona Fox, moreso in concept than in execution, but under Ian’s pen she was largely an insufferable antagonist, little more than a trophy to make his pet recolour look better, and almost every story she was in only added to the “List of reasons she needs to stop lying to herself and just start the redemption arc already”. Additionally, I said that I didn’t want to see him bring back Neo Metal Sonic or Mephiles in any context, and we got the former, and it was exactly as bad as I thought it would be.

So, that’s basically why I don’t want to read IDW. That’s why, even if the aspect that was a big sticking point for me back when the comic launched was to be undone soon, I still probably wouldn’t pick it up. Because I don’t want to see my favourite Sonic character continue to be written badly by a guy that should know better, and has done better in the past.

If he were simply screwing up Gemerl’s personality the first time he wrote him, I would file it away under the same category as “Emel”, but the fact that he’s done better before, in a book where he had greater restrictions on what he could do with the characters, really settles this as an interest-killer for me.

Well done, Mr. Flynn. I legitimately didn’t think you could make me actually miss SEGA’s tighter control, but you somehow managed it. I would be impressed if it weren’t so sad.

#Sonic #Sonic the Hedgehog #Sonic X #IDW Sonic #Archie Sonic #Emerl #Gemerl #Emerl the Gizoid #Gemerl the Gizoid #Critical #Sonic Heroes

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classicdaisycalico · 8 years ago

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Sonic and Mario ;D

Give me a fandom and I’ll tell you :

Hoo boy, a twofer! Let’s do this thing!

(Edit: I’m putting this under a “Read More” because this shit got L O N G.)

SONIC:

FAVORITE MALE CHARACTER: Silver the Hedgehog. Poor baby; he deserves better and he has so much potential, but given the way SEGA is treating every character besides Sonic, Tails, and Eggman, I don’t think it’s gonna be getting better any time soon. Part of me blames Pontaff for this, for some reason…FAVORITE FEMALE CHARACTER: Blaze the Cat! I just love her character development from the beginning of her creation all the way up to now. Look how much more comfortable she is around her new friends!LEAST FAVORITE CHARACTER: Elise. Dear God, why was she even relevant again?FAVORITE SHIP: Shadouge. Sonic series OTP forever. I know not a lot of people ship it, but there’s just something about the way they work together and how they consider each other to be best friends. After all they’ve been through, I feel like anything could happen with those two. But, ya know. Ships are subjective, and the Sonic fandom is all about subjective, as we both know.FAVORITE FRIENDSHIP: Sonic and Tails. There’s a reason they’re called the “Unbreakable Bond”. They’re just such good buddies and they’ll stick together through thick and thin and thick again!FAVORITE QUOTE: “Even if you believe everyone will be against you, know that I’ll always remain by your side.”~ Rouge the Bat, “Sonic ‘06″.Yeah, the game sucked, but it says a lot about her character. She may not be the type to form any kind of relationship with anyone; Rouge always struck me as someone who is perfectly fine with literally flying solo, but dammit, she will put in just about any effort into a friendship if that person is worth her time. And Shadow is definitely worth her time.WORST CHARACTER DEATH (IF ANY): Probably Emerl. I gotta admit, it gave me a fair share of feels.THIS MADE ME SO HAPPY YOU HAVE NO IDEA MOMENT: See “Favorite Quote” for more details.SADDEST MOMENT: Probably when Blaze sacrificed herself for Silver in “Sonic ‘06″. And to rub even more salt in the wound, she basically told Silver she liked him before physically carrying out the act. Imagine if the person you like had to give themselves up in a time of dire need, while all you can do is stand there and watch. And right as they’re about to die, they tell you they love you. What could have been is now nothing. And that really, REALLY hurts.FAVORITE LOCATION: I’ve always been partial to Apotos, for some reason. “Sonic Unleashed” is a really good game in a lot of respects, and the plot line is one of them. But there’s just something undeniably beautiful about Apotos. I think it’s how it’s based off of Greece. Now, I’ve never been to Greece, but I’ve seen a picture of Santorini and…OH MY GOODNESS. It’s so fucking gorgeous. I want to travel there. Really badly.

Well, that’s it for Sonic. Now for Mario!

FAVORITE MALE CHARACTER: It’s-a Luigi, Number One!Okay but honestly, I really adore Luigi as a character. He’s sweet and kind and totally genuine and isn’t afraid to wear his emotions on his sleeve. So he’s not afraid to cry or be afraid or anything. He’s like, the polar opposite of what “being a man” is, and I think that’s beautiful. Not everyone has to Be A Man to be a hero. He can be his own kind of hero as long as he gets the job done! And he does! Super well, I might add! And people really like that! It lets people know that this kind of thing is perfectly okay! (We need more guys like Luigi in the world.)FAVORITE FEMALE CHARACTER: Princess Daisy. I mean…it’s kinda obvious? My blog is named after her, after all!But let’s talk for a second. Just like how I like that Luigi doesn’t fit into the traditional “Be A Man” hero mold, Daisy isn’t a typical frail-and-pale princess. And that’s totally okay, too! Actually, it’s super great, because just how Luigi’s spiel tells guys it’s okay to be emotional sometimes, Daisy’s character tells girls it’s okay for girls to be loud, strong, and sporty while also enjoying traditionally feminine princess things like picking flowers, drinking tea, and wearing dresses. Look at Nintendo, breaking societal norms all over the place!LEAST FAVORITE CHARACTER: I don’t actively hate any characters in the Mario-verse, per se, but if there’s one I do find annoying, it’s Koopa Kid. I know Nintendo killed him off because they no longer found him necessary, but that’s just it. Why did he exist in the first place? He literally existed nowhere else except in the “Mario Party” games. So if you REALLY want to talk about being stuck in spin-off purgatory, I think our dearly departed friend KK had it the worst.Still, if that was his only relevance was Bowser’s right-hand in “Mario Party” 1-7 and nowhere else? That’s pretty sad.FAVORITE SHIP: Luigi and Daisy. They’re my Mario series OTP and I’ve basically been shipping them since before I even knew what shipping was. But remember what I said about Luigi and Daisy smashing gender norms and how great that is? WELL GUESS WHAT? The two of them as a couple lets people know that these kinds of people can still find love in a toxic society that pressures guys to bottle in emotions and pressures girls to just sit and look pretty. It lets people know that people like guys who aren’t afraid to be sensitive. It lets people know that people like girls who are unapologetically loud and proud. Keep doing what you’re doing, Nintendo. And while you’re at it, can we get some real character building behind this ship? I want more interaction outside of spinoff games, ya know? We can’t keep Daisy in spin-off limbo forever. It’s gotta end someday.FAVORITE FRIENDSHIP: Peach, Daisy, AND Rosalina. In the midst of the more toxic side of the fandom pitting these princesses (and one queen) against each other when talking about “who’s better”, I prefer to think that these girls are all super great in their own special way and would definitely support each other like the badass girl squad that they are. (We need a platformer with all 3 of these girls as playable characters. Maybe throw in Pauline, as well, since she needs more love, too!)FAVORITE QUOTE: “All life carries the essence of stars. Even all of you.”~ Rosalina, the end of “Super Mario Galaxy”Space Mom just dropped some bomb-ass knowledge. But I think this particular quote is probably the most motivational quote in the entire Mario series. In the context of the game, she’s addressing Mario, Peach, and even Bowser after this giant Big Bang recreates the entire universe up to just before the very beginning of the game. And before that, she says something about about the cycle of life never repeating itself the same way, which I guess means she had a hand in saving the cosmos (and their lives).But out of context? Say that to somebody who doesn’t feel like they’re enough. And they’re gonna feel like the most powerful being in the universe. Because it’s true! Everything in the entire universe is made of the same stuff as stars. And stars are super powerful, enormous, BEAUTIFUL celestial bodies with enough energy to unleash EXPLOSIONS when they die. And even before stars are created, and even after their remains are scattered around the cosmos, we see these magnificent clouds of gas and dust that goes into creating these powerful stars. People look at pictures of this stuff. Scientists look through telescopes to find this. Artists paint pictures of this. And all of them think this stardust is the prettiest sight they’ll ever see in the universe. This stardust goes into creating humans. WE ARE MADE OF STARDUST. To tell someone that they are just as admirable and mesmerizing as this glittering stardust is probably the biggest compliment to give to someone when they’re feeling down. You are literally a star. The universe made you out of a star. YOU ARE WORTH EXISTING IN THIS UNIVERSE, because THE STARS THEMSELVES saw something special in you while they created you. And that, I think, is the most beautiful thing to say to someone.WORST CHARACTER DEATH (IF ANY): I think the Lumas sacrificing themselves for Mario at the end of the first “Super Mario Galaxy” was definitely a heart-wrenching moment for me. They wanted the hero who saved the home of their Space Mom (Rosalina) to stay alive, but their home (the entire cosmos) was dying because of a giant black hole that will swallow up the entire universe whole, so what do they do? They throw themselves into the black hole as a last act of heroism to let him and his friends live. And I’m talking about thousands of these little cuties. And technically, in the Luma phase of their life, before they permanently transform into comets or planets, this means they’re still children. So it hurts even more when you think about that.But that’s okay, because then we have that giant-ass big bang that resets everything back to the very beginning, thus prompting the events of “Super Mario Galaxy 2!”THIS MADE ME SO HAPPY YOU HAVE NO IDEA MOMENT: That statue in Daisy Circuit? Both of them, actually. The ones of Luigi and Daisy holding hands and dancing together? I don’t know the context behind it (even though I really REALLY want to), but this basically cemented my OTP as canon. And I think the fact that Nintendo made one of them as babies was kind of a way of saying “these guys are totally meant soulmates. They’re made for each other”. #LegitCouple #SteadySweeties(Although I think a very close second would be Daisy’s trophy cutscene in “Mario Power Tennis” when she calls Luigi “sweetie” when he gives her the trophy. Also, that slow-mo moment when she catches the trophy in the air after Luigi loses his grip on it? He’s totally staring at her. Actually, I think “gawking” would be a better word for it.)SADDEST MOMENT: See “Worst Character Death” for more details.FAVORITE LOCATION: I know nobody’s seen it in decades, but Sarasaland. I want to see it again. In 3D. In HD. In a mainstream Mario game. The most we got was it’s debut game, “Super Mario Land”…and that’s it. Ever since then it’s been reduced to nothing but mere mentions in Daisy’s character bios. That’s not fair. Younger fans who are still growing up with the Mario series have probably never even seen Sarasaland for themselves, and now that we’ve seen what the Switch can do and how powerful the Switch is, I feel like Nintendo has literally zero excuse at this point.So Nintendo, bring back Sarasaland! Put it in a mainstream game! And put Daisy in there, will ya? It IS her home, after all!

***

Phew. That took forever. But thank you so much! :D

#ask me things #kaotickanine #mario #sonic

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