#might be the first time Eggman felt GENUINE fear

[fortheloveofred]

This will never not be my most favorite scene in all of Archie.

[tenebraevesper]

Sonic Prime (My Thoughts)

So, I had just a marathon of the first 8 episodes of Sonic Prime and here are my initial thoughts before I start thinking rationally. Since my thoughts are too much of a mess to create any sort of proper cohesion, there will be spoilers.

First of all, Sonic Prime is awesome! I had so much fun watching it and every time one episode ended, I found myself craving for the next one. You know that something is good when you come to the end and find yourself wanting more. The animation, the voice acting, the action, the comedy, even the angst... it all hits right. Now, I might be biased, but honestly, I don’t care. I know that some people might not have the same opinion as I do, and that’s okay. I am proud to say I fully enjoyed every second of this show.

Next, the episodes themselves. Unless I have missed something, I don’t believe there was any filler episode. Instead, we have non-stop action, lore drop and even quiet moments. I did hear from someone that, at least in the beggining, the pacing is a bit off, but I guess this show needs a bit of a warm-up, but once it gains momentum, it just keeps going. I genuinely felt my heart racing at times (and it still is). Also, another thing to note is that episodes have flashbacks to show us more about Sonic’s life before the whole Shatterverse happened, including how we came to that moment. I can imagine that some people might find them tiring, but I didn’t.

The plot is also very simple. Sonic has to find the Paradox Prism Shards and save his friends and his world. Most episodes are centered around New Yoke City, which is the main world Sonic returns too whenever he leaves another world, with the Chaos Council (consisting of five Eggman at various ages) trying to track him down after learning what the Shard can do (also, Mr. Dr. Eggman wears a toupee).

Following next are the characters, and I gotta say I really enjoyed how they were all written. Although, I can imagine that some people will find Sonic obnoxious due to being very impulsive and not focusing (and Shadow constantly reminding him of that). However, he has his heart in he right place and genuinely reflects on his mistakes and wants to fix them. As for the other characters, I adore them all, especially Tails Nine (he’s definitely my favorite Shatterverse character). By the end, I just wanted to give him a hug.

Now, I’m pretty sure you’re wondering what the deal is with Shadow. After all, he was the character people were worried the most about when it came to writing, fearing he’ll be reduced to a Vegeta-esque behavior.

Well...

In all honesty... I absolutely love Prime!Shadow!

Now, I gotta give more context regarding his character in Sonic Prime, so be warned, this is spoiler territory you’re entering.

Shadow was basically introduced in the first episode watching Sonic’s fight with Dr. Eggman and him unleashing a blast of energy that led Eggman to the Paradox Prism. Then he appears again, telling Sonic how everything’s broken, before finally reappearing in the flashback and clocking Sonic in the face.

So, what gives?

Well, we learn in the second episode that the reason why Shadow was in Green Hill was because he was searching for a Chaos Emerald and eventually finding the green one.

Why was he searching for it, I have no clue, but I guess it would be a good idea to have one Chaos Emerald at hand just in case. We then see him reacting to the blue blast of energy and foreseeing what will happen next.

“Sonic!”

Not gonna lie, I legit laughed at his reaction. Out of context, it feels as if Shadow has a sixth sense for whenever Sonic messes things up. So, he quickly races to where Sonic is and punches him straight in the face, questioning him about what he had done, which leads to them fighting each other.

So, to put the debate to end, yes Sonic was just minding his own business when Shadow attacked him, but Shadow was also minding his own business when Sonic caused that energy blast.

In any case, Sonic engages in some banter, with Shadow telling him to listen for once. What he doesn’t do is tell Sonic what he saw (admittedly, Shadow was never the best at communicating) and the two continue their fight, with Sonic noting how he’s on a mission, only to not tell Shadow what this mission is about.

Let’s just say that this wouldn’t have happened if both Sonic and Shadow failed at communicating. In any case, Sonic manages to to get the drop on Shadow (in the most hilarious way possible; idk if that beats Boom!Eggman’s attempt to trick Boom!Shadow in Sonic Boom, but it was funny to me) and get back to his friends, with Shadow following him.

He manages to get to the entrance of the cave, just in time to see Sonic shattering the Paradox Prism and use Chaos Control to save himself.

However, that leads to him getting trapped inside the Void, which is basically a space between the worlds of the Shatterverse. He cannot escape it, but whenever Sonic kicks with his super speed into overdrive, he can somewhat communicate with the latter, trying to tell him what is going on. His exact advice was for Sonic to keep on running, as this is how they can maintain communication and it also appears to be a way for Sonic to go between worlds, since he is juiced up on Paradox Prism energy.

In the (currently) last episode, Sonic manages to enter the Void again, coming face-to-face with Shadow.

Sonic is surprised to see him, thinking this is another Shatterverse!Counterpart and tells him he just wants to go home. 

“Home? Home doesn’t exist anymore because of you!”

Furious, Shadow punches Sonic again and before we can see the end result, the episode’s over. Episode 1 ends with Shadow punching Sonic and now Episode 8 ends the same, and I’m all for it.

Man, that was a roller-coaster. I definitely love what they did with Shadow and considering the information we’ve been given, Sonic and Shadow will have to learn to work together to figure things out (and hopefully get better at communicating). I read that there will be a whole episode centered around the two and I’m looking forward to seeing it.

Also, Sonic? Introducing your rival with “It’s complicated” makes me really raise an eyebrow.

Oh, and this gem...

‘‘...and by the way, he roller-skates!”

“They’re air shoes.”

Shadow just casually interrupting Sonic’s narration and breaking the 4th wall is everything.

In any case, I absolutely love Sonic Prime and I want more from it! Also, I’m probably gonna be insufferable about it.

[looniecartooni]

Okay- I’m distracting myself from all my work to analyze these lines from Sonic 06...

Mephiles: “Its futile. The world will betray you. Why fight at all? Why risk your life for those who will persecute you later?”

Shadow: “If the world chooses to become my enemy... then I’ll fight like I always have.”

(Warning: Very lengthy analysis. Skip to the next time you see these lines for the main point.)

So first off- let’s start with the Sonic world implications. This is the last exchange between Mephiles and Shadow in Sonic 06. I don’t know the original Japanese script, but these lines are telling for both characters. As I’ve analyzed before, Mephiles himself was betrayed by humanity by being separated from Iblis perhaps more than once (given how the King of Soliana knows how to seal off both him and Iblis and was pretty adiment on trying to get his wife back). And being a time traveler guy/ god of time’s conscience, he’s probably seen Shadow’s past and future. That and/or “The ‘I’ I now absorbed from your shadow in the past” connects him deeper to Shadow.

Anyway, Shadow up to this point has lost his best friend to the organization he now works for, lost his memory and told he may not be himself, got tricked by a bunch of aliens he’s related to in letting them invade the earth all while being blamed for the death of his best friend and an enemy of humanity by his now boss- he’s been through a lot! And he’s been used a lot too! Eggman, Black Doom, Gerald Robotnik, the GUN, now Mephiles. Mephiles tells him he’s going to get locked away again for being too powerful (which I think is what happened to Shadow originally- but then you’ve got the 326 endings of Shadow the hedgehog where he might not even be Shadow the hedgehog- but we aren’t going to touch that). Mephiles even tells one of Shadow’s friends (Omega) that he’s gonna be the one to seal off Shadow and betray him. Rouge is the first one to swoop in to say “That’s not fair!” and that even if Shadow feels isolated, she’s gonna stick with him. The funny thing is... until Mephiles told Omega he’d be the one to seal off Shadow, Shadow was quick always to say “That’s absurd. Whatever it is you want to do, you can do it alone.” Shadow is done being used. He knows better now. He has people he can trust. When one of his friends is told he’s going to be the one to betray him, they tell him (and being Omega/ a really awesome protective bestie just machine guns him- man, I wish the graphics and editing were better for that scene). Suddenly, Mephiles has penetrated into Shadow’s world. Humanity won’t just betray him, one of his closest friends will. Omega and Rouge are Shadow’s like only actual “I’ll acknowledge you as friends but never say it” group. Shadow doesn’t truly trust anyone else. Sure he’s rotten to them like “My assignment was to rescue you. Nothing more.” but they’re the kind of friends with clever rebuttals to his claims knowing he truly does care and won’t admit it (not because he’s edgy but probably because when he usually displays trust in someone, they end up using him *cough cough* Black Doom *cough cough* Eggman). Having a friend say “I’m going to betray you in the future” probably hits Shadow a lot harder given how many times he’s been used and betrayed and unlike Mephiles, he let Omega into his trust bubble. Shadow doesn’t speak a word, but Rouge is quick to defend Shadow which you may or may not have not really expected from her. But considering all she’s done with Shadow and through every pit fall, she’s managed to support him and in the scene where Omega says he’ll be betraying Shadow, she admits she’ll stick with him even through the worst pitfall he may have to fall in. And that’s exactly in that moment what he needed to hear.

Ok- now that I’ve dedicated a... lengthy paragraph I don’t know how to shorten to Shadow, let’s get back to Mephiles. Mephiles has no one he truly trusts. Those who he did “trust” he manipulated an have now come to the understanding they shouldn’t have trusted him. He sees Shadow as an opportunity. Maybe not just an opportunity, but an ally. Someone just like him the world betrayed or took advantage of his power. He quite literally reflects Shadow/ Shadow reflects him. At first, Mephiles hated Shadow for sealing him away and then seemingly not recognizing him. But he sees how they’ve lived similar lives (admired for their power, sealed away for decade(s), betrayed and used by the world) and thinks that Shadow still wants what he wants- to persecute humanity. And Shadow’s been told many times reasons he should betray the world, but not as personal as Mephiles makes it. Mephiles even seemingly over does it by saying things like “Let’s end this foolish world of humanity. Its only fair to give back what was intended for you. You have every right to want justice.” And when Shadow says “no” for things that haven’t even happened, Mephiles goes over the top mad, transforming and fighting Shadow. Later on, when Silver confronted him about being a liar, he was a lot more calm and collected and just walked away like nothing happened. Why would Shadow make him more upset about saying he’s absurd than Silver? Mephiles either thought Shadow would be an easier pawn to control like Silver or Shadow has been known to nearly kill or be on parr with Sonic multiple times so having him as an ally would be essential- but for the sake of this lenghthy analysis, I’m gonna over look all that.

(You still there? Cool!) Let’s get to the final confrontation! Mephiles tries a third and final time to get Shadow as an ally which at this point is kind of silly but may also indicate just how personal wanting Shadow as an ally is to Mephiles. Shadow accuses Mephiles of having no desire for revenge and just wanting to eat all of time until there’s noting left of it to which Mephiles replies, “Its a pity, Shadow the Hedgehog... Truly ashame you wish to go against me.” Mephiles probably thought that of everyone in this world, Shadow would understand how he felt. I always found it off putting that Shadow just accuses Mephiles of being just a common bad guy, but going back to Shadow’s trust issues, making others just seem like bad guys probably helps him not feel bad for when he becomes an enemy with someone (he does it all the time- but this analysis is too long. I’ll do that one another time). Mephiles doesn’t reject Shadow’s claim, but even through bad graphics and lack of a mouth and eyelids, you can see he’s genuinely disappointed Shadow didn’t want to join him. Now I feel like someone’s going to say something like, “maybe he wanted Shadow to join him because Shadow was going to be the one to seal him again.” I won’t deny that that could have been a possibility, but given how confident he was when he broke free of the scepter when Shadow tried to seal him in again, he basically said “ I copied your shadow- you can’t seal me because I’m like this now lol.” and right after that... we get to the lines I was analyzing. He says after making a bunch of clones, “You must realize now you can not hope to stop me with your limited power.” (man-I love these lines!!!!) To which Shadow refutes with, “So you say.”

Mephiles: “Its futile. The world with betray you. Why fight at all? Why risk your life for those who will persecute you later?” 

This is coming from someone who was honored like a god before being split into two entities that were sealed away from each other for 10 years after being labeled as threats. He has an understanding of Shadow and his future and quite possibly his past. He knows Shadow will be betrayed by one of his closest friends and sealed away again. Why would he continue fighting? Why doesn’t he want to end it all like him?

Then Shadow responds while freeing himself to full power: “If the world chooses to become my enemy... then I’ll fight like I’ve always have.”

After losing someone he loved, sealed away for 50 years, manipulated countless times, almost closing off his closest friends after Mephiles told one that they’d betray him... Shadow simply tells him he’ll just keep fighting. Fighting for what he believes is right. 

Now- if you’re still reading after this whole essay of thought (or just skipped to the end) let’s take into account how these lines fit into our world. How many times have we felt betrayed by the world and tempted by our demons to just end everything after injustice? To just want to get rid of our enemies or the enemies within ourselves? Why bother fighting for what’s right? Why stand up for what you believe? Shadow and Mephiles went through similar experiences and yet both want to do something different. Mephiles just wants to end humanity, just get rid of his problems, just end everything. Shadow wants to keep fighting through it. If it gets worse, he’ll just keep fighting. They’ve both lost people they loved(Maria and Iblis) and want to be with again, they’ve both been betrayed and fear/know they’ll probably get betrayed again. But where Shadow prevails is that he’snot going to let those feelings of anger and betrayal weigh him down anymore. He now has people he can truly trust (Rouge and Omega- Omega even told him what Mephiles said as a warning) while Mephiles just manipulated people to believe what he said and do his bidding.

The point I’m trying to make here is when times are tough, be careful not to fall into being like Mephiles. Mephiles didn’t really have anyone to fall back to or stand up for him or any reason to want to keep fighting after the world hurt him. Shadow allowed himself to be vulnerable and trust his friends. When you feel the world is against you, don’t turn against it. Don’t try to get rid of the pain because you don’t want to feel it anymore. You have to fight through it like Shadow does. And how Shadow fought through his pain was choosing to trust people. Even though in the past that hurt him, he still managed to let Rouge and Omega be close enough to him to where they wanted to protect him even when his demons were telling him to isolate the world because it was only going to hurt him more. A true friend stays by your side, even when the monsters tell you otherwise.

I don’t think Shadow truly considers Sonic a friend. They have a frienemy relationship where they always have to one up each other and Sonic’s usually pretty cocky when it comes to helping Shadow like, “Oh- you’re in trouble again? Alright. You’ve better play it nice then.” and Shadow’s usually like, “Fine- whatever. Do what you’ve got to do and leave me alone.” But I’ve always wondered what would happen if Sonic and Mephiles truly crossed paths if the events of 06 would have been different. Ah- but that’s another theory for another time. Beware of your demons, kids and sorry for all the rambling. Share thoughts or find a way to summarize this if you’d like and I hope you have a good day.

[mashounen2003]

Sonic opinions - 2

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

More below the "keep reading" cut.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[cutegirlmayra]

Oh prompts are back! Okay here's an interesting idea, Mephiles and Scourge both decide they want to take over the dimension and rule as king and also decide they need a queen to rule at their side and they both pick Amy. So they're fighting to rule and also make Amy their bride so Sonic has to both fight them off and protect Amy from them marrying one of them. Extra comfort for sonamy would be great please and thank you!

I shall do my very, very best.... at the very least lolol

This is gonna be AU as heck.

PROMPTS ARE ON SHUTDOWN DO NOT SEND ANY. THE TIME TO SEND HAS ENDED. Enjoy the prompts that have already been submitted during the frame that they could be~<3

Prompt:

As per usual, Eggman had conducted an experiment to try and harness the power of dimensions and worlds to his bidding. The result? After a long and tedious feud between the dimensional Eggmans on who was to rule all, the original was defeated by the many Sonics that appeared, and his friends sealed up the holes in the dimensions.

However...

Some individuals didn’t return... scourged by the humiliating ridicule of his universe, one hid to avoid capture and plan his revenge and final takeover.

Another withdrew into shadows,... lurking in wait as he found a way to keep a hole to his dimension open... traversing the timeline by acquiring this world’s Chaos Emerald and trapping his universe in a ‘frozen’ state.

Very complexed stuff, but the leaking of dimensional energy allowed him to pull his Other Half through to this dimension... but something was going horribly wrong.

“No!” Mephiles was trying to use the power the Chaos Energies to combined himself at last with Iblis, but Scourge had found the dimensional leak, and wanted in on the conquest...

He smirked as he gripped the Master Emerald, standing upon it as power radiated through him like electricity. “Woooo, snooze and you really do loose, buddy!” He held his fingers up like he was going to snap, having already seen Mephiles take out Knuckles who was lying upon the ground... “If I’m gonna be king over this pathetic universe, I’m gonna need some of that bodacious power!” he seemed to be purposefully trying to tick Mephiles off, not knowing who the being was, but seeing the flames circling the emerald and his focus in trying to blend his power with it’s own.

“You are useless, and I am not one who takes such inferior taunts!” Mephiles rose the emerald up, deciding to take care of the insect before he lost full concentration and Iblis was released into another form, which would tip off the heroes and led to a continual, strenuous chase to reach and combined first with him before Sonic and the gang defeated him yet again.

“You’re trying to seal those flames inside you, right?” Scourge pulled out a ring, but to Mephiles, he didn’t see the significance of this exchange. Scourge snapped and the ring glowed, “Then I’ll make a wish to have this power in-!”

Before all of this, Tails had been hosting Amy at his house, but the flames of Iblis leaked in streaks across Angel Island and they quickly set out to check it out.

Now, as Scourge was declaring his chaotic and powerful desires, Tails had landed the X-Tornado and Amy rushed to the scene first. “Amy, wait-!” he cried out, but she jumped down and rushed to see Knuckles slowly waking up from getting beaten down, and...

“Sonic..?” She looked horrified up at the Green Hedgehog.

“Erk-!?” He gritted his teeth, seeing another dimensional Amy. “YOU!?”

Suddenly, as though the command already issued, Iblis’s power completely broke it’s ties to Mephiles, spinning wildly out of control like a whipping hurricane of lined flames tumbling over each other to spiral down and head towards Amy.

“WHAT!? No! That’s not my-! Nooo..!!!” Scourge watched as the Ring shook his hand and finally burst, letting it’s power merge with Amy as Iblis swarmed her being.

She bent down and screamed as the flames dried up the gloss in her eyes, the tears from the pain, and then only left her with the seared ground beneath her feet as she collapsed.

“You insufferable fool..!” Mephiles dove down, pausing midway as he saw Tails rush out from the cover of the trees. “My Iblis...” He glared, slowly... down at Amy. He began to form a plan to reunite with Iblis... but it couldn’t be as of yet...

“Uhh... I have a feeling this makes that annoying pest somewhat valuable now...” Scourge bit his teeth down as he spoke, raising his head up as though also trying to figure out what to do now.

“I must reunite with... her now.” Mephiles hunched his body forward, as ghostly shadows started leaking from his being, crystalizing himself as though outwardly showing his resolve.

“Unite with... Woah! You sayin’ the only way I can get that power out of her is to-!?” Scourge looked aghast, as though that was the last person he’d want to ‘have fun’ with. He looked to the camera with a face that was clearly disgust, but also extremely agitated. “Ugh... If I have to... might as well let it burn.” a slow rising smirk spread across his face as he looked back at Amy.

Tails looked to the waking Knuckles and then the fainted Amy, before his eyes shook at the strange figures above him... One standing with his arms folding in secret delight at the prospect of conquering more than a new dimension... and the other looked ready to fight anything and everyone to secure himself to the new host of his full, undefiled power source once more...

“Sonic’s gonna hate me, which makes that a bonus, right? Taking his little wench in this dimension and killing off the rest of practically anything else with those flames will make for one heck of a wake-up call.” Scourge pulled his glasses down to cover his eyes, “So... Looks like you’re first, little cinders.” he teased, his glasses reflecting Amy in them... “Sadly, something’s gotta fit.”

After a terrible defeat from an already wounded Knuckles and an unexpecting assault that Tails didn’t plan for, having nothing but his flying-abilities to fight back with, Amy was abducted briefly before Mephiles and Scourge started playing tug-o-war and keep-away, trying to keep the ‘host of Iblis’ so they could harness it’s power by unleashing it again... Sonic had finally found them.

They didn’t get too far, the two were dueling each other as Amy was told her friends had died trying to destroy the flames inside her, and that they thought of her now as a ‘sacrificial lamb’ to save the world.

Hoping this would make Amy cry, Mephiles and Scourge were amazed to discover her resilience. She wouldn’t yield to their lies, and kept trying to flee as she was tossed back and forth between the two.

“Iblis, you must rejoin with me!” Mephiles, through the power of the Chaos Emeralds, was able to summon Shadows and large beams to strike at Scourge, who expertly dodged and weaved through them, taking out the Shadows and grabbing Amy around her waist. “Solaris is our destiny!!!”

“You’re not hot, and I can barely stomach calling you ‘Babe’, but there’s a fire in you that I just gotta taste.” Scourge tilted his head enough for her to see his eyes under the sunglasses, but she was more confused since he really did look like the spitting image of Sonic, just... different colors.

This wasn’t like her mistaking Shadow and Silver for Sonic... this really confused her.

“You... Who are you people!?” She kept pushing against him as he kept trying to bring her closer. “Let me go, you creep!”

He scaled his hand up her bare back in a weird, perverted crawl. “Now, now, the time for cute nicknames can wait, Babe. First, let me get rid of the audience...” Scourge had a wicked sense of delight at spooking her like this, but his attention soon turned to Mephiles, who didn’t realize Scourge’s error in not understanding what he meant by ‘reunite.’.

“If she doesn’t release the flames willingly... I’ll pull them out of her...” He reached out for her as Scourge threw her up on his shoulder, getting ready to fight and depart. “Along with the last breath she’ll ever take...Hahahahah!!!” Mephiles rose in the air before Sonic spin-dashed in a wild stream of light into Scourge, slamming into his gut as Amy was flung from his arms.

“What’s this?” Mephiles curled his fingers and watched as a more ‘familiar’ Sonic uncurled and raced back into the scene.

“I don’t know what you two weirdos want with Amy, but it’s not happening!”

“Sonic!” Amy cried out but some Shadows caught her and started hauling her back as Mephiles hovered down to her.

“So... this is your universe’s hero...” He glared deeply, “Another Sonic...”

Scourge was fuming with leftover hate for the other dimensional Sonic in his universe, and decided to take it out on this one. “Do me a favor, just act like you know me and don’t like me, then I can make this fight reaaaaall satisfying!”

“That shouldn’t be too hard.” Sonic smirked, charging into Scourge who speedily dodged and rammed a punch into his face. ‘What!? He has my super speed!’

“HAHAHAHA!!! You’re even more lamer than that Other Me!” Scourge adjusted his jacket and pulled out a pocket-knife. “No offense, but this is entirely personal...”

While the two were distracted, Mephiles turned to Amy and his minions held her up in the air, “Ah! H-hey! Why am I such a big deal all of a sudden!?” She tried to summon her hammer, and did in fact beat two away, but Mephiles grabbed her hammer and sent a crystalized clawed hand up to her chin.

“I can see them...” His eyes reflected her own... and like flickering flames, she gasped at her reflection. “If you won’t submit to your hopeless fate... then I shall destroy this husk that prevents me from joining into my true self!” he swiped but she bent her head back and dodged, but now... she knew what he meant.

“You’re both trying to kill me... for those flames that encircled me!?” She felt genuine fear then as Mephiles threw his energies into her shadow, causing her to cry out before he lifted her up and and held her in place. “Finally,... I shall have Iblis... And you, Amy Rose, will have some unparalleled significance... For a brief moment after your heart is burnt to a crisp, HAAHAHAH!!!!” He pulled his hand back to power up an attack, similar to the same beam he had used to once destroy Sonic, but Scourge threw his knife and it ‘tink’d off of his head.

“Now, who would be so stupidly ignorant of their own mortal ficklety?” He pivoted in the air as Scourge had gripped Sonic’s head to stop him in-battle... and clearly had thrown the knife.

“So, you lied to me?” Scourge laughed, “If I knew all I needed to do was strangle the girl, I wouldn’t have bided my time having fun with her first!” He laughed, “I’ve still promised the ugly trash a date, kinda hard to please a waiting corpse. Plus, I know that’ll just tick you off in the end anyway...” He turned back to Sonic, who kicked his hand away and looked up to Amy, shadows keeping her up in the air as she struggled and tried to use her hammer to give her some space between the ghostly vines that held her.

“Urk! What the-!? Weren’t you the ones who threw this thing at me in the first place?” Amy kicked her feet as the shadows kept crawling to reach her below. “Ah!”

“Oui, I called first!” Scourge grabbed Sonic’s raised leg and thrashed him with a mighty swing into the shadows.

Mephiles shot beams and hurriedly secured Amy to him, gripping the back of her head so she wouldn’t struggle anymore.

“Ahh!” She cried out as Sonic spun and threw Scourge to the remaining Shadows, who slowly overwhelmed him like zombies...

“No, quit it! Get your hands off the merchan-Nooo..!!!” He was enveloped by them as Sonic turned to Mephiles.

“Whatever thing you forced into Amy’s body... get it out!” Sonic pointed an accusatory hand to Mephiles, before swinging his arm out wide.

The two fought, but all the while, Mephiles was using it to get Amy to see Sonic suffering.

On the verge of crying, seeing Mephiles overtake Sonic and about to jab his sharpened crystalized hand through him, Amy cried out and the Flames encased the sky...

“At last...” Mephiles still went for the kill shot, but something strange happened, Scourge jumped to Iblis, trying to absorb the flames that would not accept him as a host.

“Darn! He’s still connected, huh!?” Guessing it was Amy, he grabbed her and the dark, ghostly flames around her released her from their hold.

Sonic shook his head away and grabbed Mephiles’s emerald, “NOO!!” the shadows all dissipated to the ground as the sound of a plane suddenly threw everyone down slightly as it passed towards the flames.

“Now, Blaze!” Tails cried out as Silver lifted Blaze into the spiraling flames.

The flames joined with her and she disappeared from his world, but the two emeralds she carried fell to Sonic, who finally had enough juice with all seven Chaos Emeralds to go Super Sonic.

“Heheh...” Scourge still knew he had the power of the Master Emerald, he could take on Super Sonic, “A kiss of death for the road?”

“What?”

Amy was jabbed with a knife and fell to the ground... having Scourge’s lips still lingering on hers.

He stuck out his tongue to Sonic and then wiped his mouth as he dropped her down, “Not really my type.” He joked, as Sonic’s color turned darker and he suddenly cried out as he transformed into Dark Sonic.

Mephiles’s eyes twitched at Blaze uniting successfully with Iblis, “But... how!?” before a shadow touched his own. He flinched, turning to see Shadow, Rouge, and Omega behind him.

He slowly began to laugh at the irony... then his laughter rose as he unleashed an all out attack at them.

Silver followed Blaze’s trail, but the universe was becoming unfrozen, and soon... that time-collapse ability was being to rewrite everything back to what it was.

With a flash of light, Amy was back at Tails’s home. She touched her lips and then her side... felt shadows and flames lick at her skin... and the cold, crystalized fingers piecing into the back of her head...

“Amy?”

She looked up from her teacup, shaking her head like nothing was wrong. She looked out the window, seeing nothing strange on Angel Island...

She felt a jab in her side and what felt like a cramp and gripped it tighter, then felt something soaring in her heart as though a beam of darkness binding her back to that timeline...

But she wouldn’t yield to it.

She wouldn’t cry.

She let the pain carry on till the leaking was done and the event... never happened...

“You seem kinda spacy.” Tails made a face and she assured him.

“Come on, you know I daydream constantly.” but she was sweating... she could feel ice tickle under her neck and chin where Mephiles had threatened her, she looked down into the reflection of the teacup... and saw his eyes reflecting flames in hers.

The teacup broke and she covered her mouth, racing out as she remembered a forced, smelly kiss and then the blood from the knife...

She remembered the black... then a dawn of light... and the flames blazing through her.

What she didn’t know... was it was the residue of the timeline that had just occurred, still lingering... almost passed...

She fell to the hill of Tails’s home and gripped the ground, shaking as she forced herself not to cry.

‘If I cry... then that other timeline will exist again!’ she felt her shadow suddenly pull from her, and with terrified eyes, saw Mephiles form out of her elongated silhouette.

“...You saved me...” He gave a low, billowing chuckle that rocked her entirely. “How unfortunate... for you...” He slowly moved towards her, and as she backed away, suddenly felt herself freezing.

“Wha...What’s happ-...” she couldn’t even form the words right, as she felt a chill still her entire being.

He rose his hand and gripped her mouth gently, but with enough force to make it feel like he was going to suffocate her, and looked deep into her eyes again.

“Shhhh... You’ll be dead soon, anyway. Struggle... cry beneath me... it won’t matter if you shout now... Your friends failed to completely remove that timeline from existence. Silver... His accomplice... Their plan has failed you.” He moved closer, a zombie-like head wobble as he looked like the spitting-image of Shadow now... but dulled colors, and she couldn’t figure out why.

That other man... looked like Sonic.

Now this man... looked like Shadow.

What on earth was going on!? Were these beings... forms of other Sonics and Shadows!? How could that possibly be!?

She couldn’t close her eyes, his power in freezing his own timeline failed, but he had joined with her own to preserve himself as a last resort.

Which meant she was the flickering flame... if he blew her out, she really would reset time and he could try all over again.

She didn’t know what to do... Time was jumbled within her core, she was the bridge to multiple timelines and intersecting universes...

“Shh... Just bend to Time’s will... I am infinite... inevitable... you cannot hope to prosper and win this time...” he slowly pulled her down, as though pushing her into the darkness of her own shadow. “I’ll steal your time-energy... take it as my own... and as Time resets, I’ll anticipate those annoying headaches you call ‘Sonics’ and become the destructive force revered as Solaris! I’ll be a God again-!” as though growing impatient for that time, he began to slam her into the darkness where she honestly couldn’t breathe now.

She struggled, swinging her hammer in pitch-blackness, grabbing his unwavering hand and arm in hopes to break free of his hold on her.

But the darkness was draining her time-energy... soon... she would disappear.

‘Sonic...’ she thought to herself, ‘He’ll destroy you... and if I’m connected to the other worlds... he’ll try and use that power to destroy you too... I can’t allow that... I can’t... breathe...’

Then the flames of Iblis burned a light into the world, and swallowed Mephiles in it’s wake.

His eyes widened, “Yes...” he cried out, “YYYEESSS!!!” but just as time was about to be conquered by Mephiles... He let go of Amy as she sunk into the darkness... and another gloved, white hand reached in and pulled her up.

Mephiles was back in his time, it unfroze and he was defeated and erased just as like the first time.

He couldn’t change fate.

But Sonic did.

Sonic pulled Amy up to him, his blackish-blue body encasing her in his own darkness.

A flickering darkness... to match her flickering flame of light.

With Iblis now out of her body, he threw her through a portal made by his uncontrolled Chaos Energy, speedily making it time for her to breathe again,... this time, back at Tails’s house again.

“Amy? You seem kinda spacy.”

Tails’s voice pulled her out as she gasped and the teacup broke again.

“Ah! Hey! Are you okay!?” Tails rushed to her but paused as she darted to the door. “Amy!” he cried out, reaching for her but she had already bolted down the hill.

“Sonnniccc!!!” she cried out, tears bursting from her eyes as the memory she had of that other timeline was quickly being erased from her.

She stopped suddenly and turned to her shadow... seeing Dark Sonic’s glowing white eyes in it.

“...Sonic...” she bent down to reach him, and he matched her action, but her shadow wasn’t of her, it was his own form...

“You’re safe now... Amy.” His eyes bent slighlty, “Time can’t hurt you now.”

“Sonic...” she dug through the earth, wanting to be with him, “What about you! You’re from that time! You’ll fade away!”

His eyes closed and his form turned from her, “That time shouldn’t exist... anything from that time shouldn’t... a world without you... is a world I choose to destroy.”

“Sonic!!!” she watched as her shadow faded in the light of the day... and her tears seemed to ripple into the dark-world she had almost fallen too...

Then Sonic’s silouette appeared coming from behind her and she turned to see Sonic holding three chilidogs. One in each hand, and one sticking out from his mouth.

“Whahh hapahpan?” he spoke with it in his mouth, blinking innocently at her tears. (What happened?)

She tried to hold it in, but dashed to him, hugging him as he struggled to not drop the food.

“I-!” a flash of light... and when she opened her eyes.... she couldn’t remember why she was crying. “I don’t know... I can’t... remember...”

The pain in her side, the fire in her soul, and the cold icy spikes on her face were... gone.

“I guess... I just missed you.” she pulled away then, “Are you okay?”

He blinked, raising an eyebrow. “Yah’re wahrd.’ He answered back, then saw Tails flying towards them. (You’re weird.)

“There you two are!” he waved, having also forgotten everything as in that flash, the teacup was still upon the table, undisturbed...

They waved back to Tails and it appeared to be another normal evening...

(I hope I did alright XD Not as evilly romantic as you may have wanted it to be, but I felt it fit their characters more this way..? and yes, Timey-wimey, wibbly-wobbly logic that makes this perfectly in line with Sonic 06 logic >u>; )

[crusherthedoctor]

When taking Lutrudis as a concept into account, it could be argued that the decision to have her live in a big, fairytale-like castle would be an unwise idea, maybe even counterintuitive, since a place so extravagant might undermine her intended loneliness and yearning for a more fulfilling life, adventure, and all that jazz before Sonic and company entered the picture. The last thing I’d want with Trudy would be to remind people of Chris “woe is me” Thorndyke and his rich kid mansion lifestyle. Not to mention that since some of the townspeople in Lime Shores can act rather ignorant (and in some cases, antagonistic) towards her, a lavish castle might also undermine the underdog nature of that particular setup.

Despite these concerns however, I felt confident with my plan, and I figured that as long as I knew what I was doing, readers would understand what I had in mind. I’ve explained in the past that a castle would better accommodate someone with her EDS, so right off the bat, you already have a practical justification for it. It also helps that whereas the accursed Thorndyke had his parents, friends, grandad, butler, etc etc etc etc... Trudy genuinely had no one to turn to before the heroes arrived for their intended vacation. So with that said, let’s examine this particular building for a bit, complete with pics for comparison’s sake, as well as a certain cavern full of Ethereal goodness that happens to be nearby...

Creating the Residence: Trudy’s Castle

Let’s get the obvious out of the way: The outside environment is not too subtly inspired by Autumn Plains from Spyro 2, better known to non-Spyro fans as my blog background.

A serene yet lonely autumnal forest backdrop, with a big stone castle smack dab in the center. It’s not one-to-one the same of course - instead of a pool, the front area boasts a lovely garden full of different flowers, and there’s also a lake nearby - but the mood is more or less what you see here.

However, this partly serves to contrast with what’s behind closed doors. As acknowledged in Beyond the Stars proper, the interior of the castle instead goes for a different and grander, yet equally inviting atmosphere when you take that first step inside. Instead of stone, you see marble and wood, and instead of grey and green, you have reds, creams, maroons, and golds (with a few complimentary blues and purples thanks to the flags hovering above).

As the lady herself mentions, Trudy discovered that the interior was in a state of disarray when she obtained it, and she was of the belief that a castle as beautiful and rich in history as this one deserved better than to be forgotten and wither away in the coming generations. The least she felt she could do was give it a modern, yet respectful redecoration, and give the old building a second, loving life in the process.

Yes, that means every spot of detail inside this castle was done single-handedly. Entirely on her lonesome. It took ages to complete, especially when taking her EDS into account, but she was determined to give the place its due, and lo and behold, the effort more than paid off. (You know, such levels of determination bring a blue hedgehog to mind...)

And that’s just the intended vision for the main hallway! We haven’t touched the other rooms yet! (Since a castle would have quite a lot of rooms, it goes without saying that for the sake of keeping this post from going even longer, we won’t be covering literally every single room... just the most important and/or most noteworthy ones. :o)

The bathroom can be described as a mix between the two examples below, combining the semi-medieval build of the former with the sky blue palette and general relaxing style of the latter.

Though that said, while the bath remains there for any guests to use, Trudy personally uses a shower since it’s more convenient for someone with her condition.

The kitchen (or as Sonic likes to call it, “the palace of chili dog magic”) mostly comes in cool browns and blacks, and its intended appearance is probably one of the more obvious combinations of old-timey and modern. It also has a slightly country aesthetic compared to the other rooms, because ha ha, horses, geddit.

The greenhouse at the back brings back the heavy amounts of green (well duh, the clue’s in the name, isn’t it?), while also providing contrast with the whiteness of the structure and architecture. Complete with giant arched windows, because of course.

And the segue point between the greenhouse and the rest of the castle looks something along these lines, at least with the way the building itself connects.

Even the chambers underneath the castle manage to look classy and clean. And just as well, since it’s where Tails parks the Tornado for the remainder of his time in Viridonia, once he FINALLY remembers to get it off the Lime Shore beach...

You know another benefit of such a spacious area? You get to turn it into a makeshift workshop for all your gadget needs, Tornado-related or otherwise. I’m sure that won’t come in handy at some point...

The guest bedroom is one of the most curious rooms of the lot, because even though it’s as nice and tidy as you’d expect, it’s also rather... muted compared to everywhere else. Perhaps Trudy felt no need to modify it further in any specific way, since no one had ever bothered to stop by anyway... until you-know-who and the gang.

And we can’t forget to mention our fair equine’s OWN bedroom now, can we? Her bedroom opts for darker colours, yet no less therapeutic, which includes the canopy bed that she rests in. You can actually see the general idea with the bedroom (and the outside of the castle for that matter) for yourself, in the Dame of the Daisy mini-comic, courtesy of my awesome friend @benignmilitancy​.

Likewise, although this shot is currently incomplete (don’t worry, Benign is fine with me using it :P), meaning some details haven’t been added yet, you can also get a basic idea of how the balcony is supposed to look here, along with the complimentary view of Viridonia’s oceans.

So what kind of music would befit Trudy’s castle, you may ask? Well, taking every detail into account, we would need something that goes for that perfect mix of adventure, wonder, warmth... and a faint hint of sadness lurking beneath. Something that gets all four across, but not in a generic, run-of-the-mill orchestra sort of way. Something a little more ambient and down-to-earth, with a more unique and specific kind of intimacy. Something like...

This would apply for when you’re inside, mind you. Outside the castle, the surrounding forest would have a theme of its own, though it would share that similar combination of melancholic friendliness. So for the outside, we would go with something more like...

Overall, the idea behind Trudy’s castle - aside from being her residence and looking enviously pretty - is to add to Trudy’s own character. It’s said that one’s home can say a lot about a person, and I made sure that every room shared a consistent narrative when reading between the lines. They may differ in shape, and they may even differ in colour, but the story is kept consistent at all times. We know that our girl is elegant, we know that our girl has slightly antiquated tastes... and we know that until the arrival of Sonic and Co, our girl was extremely lonely, and isolated by her peers, to the point of staving off said loneliness and isolation by making the place as lavishly detailed as it is in the first place. And just as the stony exterior hides the more fanciful interior, so too is there more to Trudy herself than at first glance.

Besides, not counting Eggman’s endless list of tributes to himself, we don’t often see the characters’ homes in the games, do we? We’ve seen Angel Island for Knuckles, the Space Colony A.R.K. for Shadow, that shack belonging to the Chaotix in Heroes, a few pads of varying consistency depending on the game (Tails’ workship in SA1 VS his house in Battle)... but not much more than that. And what better contrast to Sonic being something of a nomad, than by Trudy living a place like this?

But we’re not done just yet. Last but not least, we can’t forget that mysterious cave hiding down below, where countless amounts of Ethereal Crystals can be found undisturbed... You can bet that such a place would be suitably attention grabbing.

Since the crystals themselves come in practically every shade of the rainbow and then some, the resulting combination - specifically their reflecting shine - ends up painting the cavern walls with just as much colour.

It may feel a tad surreal and almost alien, to the point of being a little intimidating for some, arguably. But you know in your heart of hearts that as long as Eggman isn’t in the equation, there is no need to be fearful. After all, Trudy knows it better than anyone else, and although the crystals and their properties may hail from unknown, possibly uncomfortable origins, the horse herself continues to use them for wholly benevolent purposes.

Such a cavern would deserve a theme of its own, no? We’ll need something that drives home the point that the power within has no inherent morality, and can only be as good or as evil as the person using them. So although Trudy’s own intentions are firmly on the side of good, we’ll also need an added touch of minor eeriness lingering in the background, to represent the overarching threat and subsequent implications of Eggman dipping his own hands into the metaphorical Ethereal well, on top of its already unexplained otherworldliness...

So yes, it’s quite a pleasant castle that Trudy has, eh?

But this isn’t the only castle that can be found in Viridonia...

Well, it used to be the only one of its kind on the island... until a certain doctor stopped by, decided to beat the horse at her own game, and create his own, darker counterpart in response... But we’ll get to that when we get to that, ho ho ho.

[mobius-prime]

154. Sonic Super Special #14

Law of the Land

Writer: Evan Skolnick and Jim Spivey Pencils: Suzanne Paddock and Harvo! Colors: Josh and Aimee Ray

This is more of a silly story, which, while the timeline isn't specified, I estimate to take place sometime before Eggman's return at the beginning of the era. This is due to the fact that it begins with Sonic and Sally strolling peacefully through the forest while discussing how nothing has been going on lately, a statement which is hugely at odds with what has been going on lately. Suddenly, a zone portal opens up in front of them, and two echidnas in riot gear burst through, slap Sally knocking her out, and grab Sonic while telling him he's under arrest for "extreme mental anguish and permanent emotional scarring," which if you ask me just sounds like an average day on Tumblr. They drag him through the portal into the city of Litigopolis, and take him to the castle, where the J.U.D.G.E. - the Judgmental Unrelenting Digitized Governmental Enforcer, which of course looks exactly like original Robotnik - is to sentence him for his apparent crimes. He's greeted by Johnny Snively, the prosecutor, but luckily for him his lawyer is Sally McAcorn, there to act as his defense. It takes them ten hours in court, but McAcorn eventually manages to get him out on bail, and explains how the law became so strict in the city.

Eventually, the amount of lawsuits and crimes became so high that the king hired Robotnik Enterprises to build the J.U.D.G.E., a supercomputer which was supposed to help manage the city's legal system. It of course quickly took over, sentenced the king to life in prison for "ruler malpractice," created a bunch of new, unreasonably strict laws to keep the populace fearful and complacent, and hired a bunch of echidnas as his security force. McAcorn tells Sonic that no one has tried to shut off the J.U.D.G.E. because of their fear of said security force, which is of course Sonic's cue to race away hoping to pull off just such a scheme. However, as expected, the moment he enters the J.U.D.G.E.'s HQ…

He runs for his life, deciding to abandon his attempt for now and racing back to safety at McAcorn's residence. She's irritated at his rash decision, thinking he's only made the case for his innocence worse, even though they now have video proof from amateur videographers on the streets that the original crime he was arrested for wasn't even committed by him.

Of course it would have been Evil Sonic, zone-hopper extraordinaire. McAcorn cautions Sonic against committing any more crimes, thinking it best to lay low as committing even one more crime might cause the J.U.D.G.E. to have a massive meltdown. And thus, Sonic gets his second crazy idea of the day.

The plan works, and the J.U.D.G.E. blows up, sending Snively flying out of the building. When Lieutenant Knuckles of the police force tries to show up to arrest Sonic once more, McAcorn simply whacks him with her suitcase. Sonic worries about how he'll get home, since the technology used to create the zone portals was destroyed in the explosion, but you know who always ends up showing up when zone-hopping takes place - Zonic, of course! He cheekily sends Sonic back off to his home zone before he can get a grateful kiss from McAcorn, which is probably a good thing even though Sonic's mad about it, because… well, c'mon buddy, that may be a Sally, but that's not your Sally!

Best of Times Worst of Times

Writer: Ken Penders Pencils: Steven Butler Colors: Josh and Aimee Ray

So Knuckles' whole story has kind of been put on hold lately, due both to the cancellation of his own series, and the Sonic Adventure adaption that had been taking up all the screentime until recently. But Penders has finally found a solution to this: from now on, until the end of the fourth era (with only a few exceptions here and there between issues), Knuckles and his race get the backup story all to themselves. Karl handles most of the main stories of each issue, which all deal with Sonic and Knothole and, you know, the main thing most people are probably coming to the comic to see, while Penders gets to handle everything past each halfway mark. I would say this is mostly a good thing, as there's quite a few loose ends that need to be wrapped up from KtE, and y'all already know I quite liked that series. However, now that all of Knuckles and the other echidnas' ventures have been reduced to backup stories within the main comic, the quality of said stories begins to suffer drastically. This story is of the same quality of the original KtE, probably because it gets to be a normal story length thanks to the double length of Super Specials, but it also marks the beginning point of a pretty infamous arc within the comic, simply dubbed the Green Knuckles Saga by many fans. Wondering what the hell the Green Knuckles Saga might be? Well, we only have a few issues left before we find out - so for now, let's press on!

This story hilariously opens with an honest-to-god *record scratch* "Yep, that's me. You're probably wondering how I got into this situation" moment. A confused Knuckles finds himself running for his life from a massive, expanding orange blast of energy, which chases him all the way to the edge of his island. Having no other choice, he leaps for his life over the edge, into the ocean far below.

Well, that's probably not good. But how, indeed, did Knuckles *record scratch* get into this situation? It all began at his mother's wedding that morning. She and Wynmacher have finally gotten married, and while Knuckles is still a little torn about how to feel, ultimately he's happy for his mom, recognizing that Wynmacher really is a genuinely good guy.

Romance is in the air on this day, and Vector, predictably, has a bit of a sour attitude about it, flippantly dismissing the mood while Julie-Su happily hangs onto Knuckles' arm. They find Constable Remington in the crowd with his pretty companion Komi-Ko, but they don't get long to chat before he gets a call from the precinct, calling him back to deal with a brewing situation. While he leaves, telling Knuckles he'll call if he needs backup, we head over to Haven, where we find a very, very unexpected guest visiting.

Man, just when you thought Kenders had introduced enough grandfathers, we get one more! This guy is the father of Hawking, who if you'll remember is still lying in the medbay on life support in a coma. If you're wondering why we haven't heard of him before, it's because he apparently transcended his physical form a while ago so he could spend the rest of his "life" in quiet meditation in another zone, you know, as one does. However, just a little while ago he felt a disturbance in the Force, and realizing that Dimitri was amassing his forces for yet another attempt to take over the island and echidna civilization as a whole, Mathias just plopped himself back into the physical realm somehow so he could lead his many, many descendants into battle against the Dark Legion. I really just can't get over how this guy, never once mentioned or even hinted at before, has suddenly appeared out of goddamn nowhere to introduce the next plot hook. While this is going on, Knuckles, Julie-Su, and the rest of the Chaotix (still minus Charmy - he's really been missing for a long time now, hasn't he?) all saddle up on some streaking pashas and gallop out of the city to let off some steam. Really, now that the whole Chaos situation has been resolved, life seems positively idyllic on the Floating Island, doesn't it? After dropping Komi-Ko back off at her apartment, Remington hails a cab which just so happens to contain our old friend Harry, who is not at all happy to see him.

He tells Remington that apparently, General von Stryker has decided to organize a massive protest - meaning, since we're talking about the dingoes here, more like a riot - as apparently, conditions for the dingoes in the city still haven't improved, even despite Remington taking a personal interest. Remington is worried that with the High Council due to make a decision on the matter soon, things will quickly spiral out of control if the protest goes forward, and Harry apparently agrees, as he doesn't even demand payment for the cab ride, just telling Remington to forget he ever saw him there as Remington meets up with his men nearby. Meanwhile, we learn that Knuckles apparently didn't take everyone along on the pasha ride purely for leisure - he's in fact led them straight to the Grand Conservatory, the very place he first met Archimedes and fought Enerjak.

Well well, nice to see Julie-Su actually acknowledge the meeting she had with her adoptive father a while ago! Though it's certainly suspicious that he apparently just "disappeared" shortly thereafter… Now get ready for some rapid skipping around between characters! Knuckles isn't the only one who's come to the Grand Conservatory - Mathias has led the entire Brotherhood there, as it's apparently where the Dark Legion has holed up for now. Spectre rushes especially aggressively into the battle, with the others noting that this seems personal for him, and the entire Brotherhood teams up to begin the assault on the Legion's new makeshift base, causing them to begin an evacuation. Far away from here, Wynmacher and Lara-Le land in their personal aircraft on a landing pad at the "Albion Chalet," which despite its name is just a luxury destination on the Floating Island itself, for their honeymoon. At the same time, von Stryker leads his soldiers into their riot, firing their guns wildly into the air with the safeties off, shouting about how the echidnas aren't treating them nicely enough. Gee, I wonder why, General? Remington and his men arrive at the scene, and Remington orders everyone to hold fire, still hoping that he can convince the general to see reason. On Knuckles' side of the Conservatory, Legion members begin pouring into the room, and before Knuckles can react a group of soldiers grab Julie-Su and drag her off into one of their flying saucer vehicles, which flies away leaving the others unable to help her as they're attacked by more soldiers. And finally, back at Haven…

Man, I genuinely feel bad for Hawking - he was literally kept on life support this entire time, with obviously no hope of recovery, and he had to wait until everyone was out of the place to even be allowed to properly die. Remember, it's been nearly a year by now of him just lying on this table, with Locke even expending his own energies to keep Hawking alive at one point when he started to flatline. Julie-Su is taken to a large battleship flying just off the edge of the Floating Island, where Lien-Da gloats about capturing her and mockingly reminds her of how she's her half-sister, clearly still not over their father having remarried in the past. Geez, what a petty bitch, right?

Oh man, we finally get to see Simon again, as well as seeing Floren-Ca for the first time! Back on the bridge, Dimitri defends having had Julie-Su abducted to Moritori Rex, who has by now gotten rid of his visor to reveal perfectly normal-looking organic eyes (something which seems a little at odds with his previous backstory), saying that Julie-Su is still a part of his family whether Moritori likes it or not. Huh, didn't take you for the sentimental type, Dimitri. He then orders Moritori to fire the Quantum Beam, and it bursts out of the ship's cannons in an explosion of light, consuming every part of the Floating Island, interrupting every scene, happy and unhappy, over the entire island.

Goddamn. Honestly, this kind of reminds me of the scene from Sonic '06 where Solaris begins consuming all of time and space. Dimitri expresses regret that he had to pull the trigger with Knuckles still on the island, but ultimately recognizes that Knuckles only ever stood to get in their way, and claims that they can finally reclaim what is rightfully theirs. The ship flies off toward the island, which has begin to fade from existence as if into another dimension. No one is aware of Knuckles' survival, a lone figure floating unconscious on debris left in the waters far below…

[the-sapphire-general]

My Thoughts and Feelings on Sonic Forces

Well, I played Sonic Forces recently, and before anyone decides to ask, I finished it...but I will not upload a playthrough of it. I changed my mind after going through the entire game, which didn't take too long. Well, actually I didn't even finish the game. I watched the rest of it online because...well I'll explain shortly. I decided to delete whatever videos I recorded and any screenshots I took with the exception of one. The playthrough I was excited to do for a long time has been cancelled. Yes, my first cancelled playthrough. This isn't just my thoughts and feelings about a game unlike Final Fantasy 15 and Crash N. Sane Trilogy where I simply praise it and say little criticism (but really, Crash didn't need any since I don't mind any of their minor changes). Sonic forces me to write this review. Get it? lol But let's get serious. This is my own review of Sonic Forces.

Oh boy, where do I even begin? Sonic Forces, the latest Sonic game in the franchise was released on November 7th, 2017. What do I think? Well, hang on to your seats because I will tell you....It is a disappointment. Yeah. You heard me. It's not a very good game, and this is coming from a longtime Sonic the Hedgehog fan who enjoys the games regardless of what other people think. Even I'm still shocked that I feel this way towards this game, a game I was so excited to play ever since it was announced only to have it all gone after I got my hands on it. I was so hyped for Forces, you had no idea how I felt throughout each month, excited just like everyone else as I saved money for it. Apparently, that money should have been better off being locked in my bunny bank and spent on another game.

I now officially understand what a lot of fans have been feeling for years despite the fact I enjoy the games they claim to dislike or flat-out hate. I never had any expectations for Sonic games as long as I had fun with them, but I got caught in all the hype because I actually had expectations. I had so many of them that I hoped Sega could deliver well to repair the Sonic series' reputation and get people to stop being hateful, only to find myself siding with them. Unlike them, however, I do not hate the Sonic series out of the blue. I just hate this particular game. You may be asking, "Why don't you hate Sonic '06? What about Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric/Shattered Crystal?" First of all, back in 2006, I hardly knew much about Sonic '06, and because I didn't own a PS3 or an Xbox 360, I couldn't check out the game for myself. Second of all, it's been 11 years now, and there's no point in me hating it. Sure, I bought it in what? 2014? The vitriol towards it died down, so it doesn't matter whether or not I hated it. In fact, I don't hate it. It's alright, but not as great as Sonic Colors, Sonic Generations, Sonic Rush, Sonic and the Secret Rings, and Sonic and the Black Knight (my favorite Sonic games). As mentioned in a Sonic fandom post I wrote before, I only hated Princess Elise (you should know why, it's because of what she did that pissed me off) and Mephiles (again, you should know why. Hint: The Last Story.). But that doesn't mean I was blind to see why people loathe Sonic '06, and all those reasons have been repeated over and over and over, so I will not go any further by writing my own review. There's no point. As for Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric and Shattered Crystal, I never played them because I don't have the consoles, but I did watch gameplay for both...they don't impress me, but I don't despise them.

With that tangent out of the way, Sonic Forces was the first game where I had a lot of expectations. I mean, Dr. Eggman takes over almost the entire world and Sonic and his friends form the Resistance to start a war to end his tyranny while facing a new adversary that managed to easily defeat Sonic, so they have to find a way to stop him as well. Also, a new recruit (aka your avatar) joins them to fight Eggman, and the avatar can be designed by the player. The premise sounded so cool at the time, and I was aware of the avatar creator causing concerns, and you want to know what my expectations were for this game? A Sonic game that had a great story to fit with the war theme that was going on, a difficulty spike, amazing gameplay, a fun avatar creator, challenges to unlock stuff for my avatar, cool missions, tons of levels to explore, and Infinite being the most intimidating villain ever. I have been going on for a while, so I will say this. All my expectations were destroyed.

Okay, at last I can get to the game itself to get all of this off my chest. Sonic Forces was a major disappointment. I don't know what ticked me off the most, the story, the gameplay, I don't know, but they all disappointed me. From all the hype it was getting, Sonic Forces had a good story idea, which kind of reminded me of the SatAM Sonic cartoon, but without the Freedom Fighters from the show and the super dark tone (I would have hated to see Sally Acorn in this game, but that's just me). The story, as much as I love the concept, failed to deliver. It had so much potential! The story had a lot of potential to be great, but instead of an interesting storyline to match with the hype and its concept, it came out as a rushed story. Well, rushed and just plain boring. Not much happens in it, and it had a lot of great ideas that just weren't executed well. I know this is a series meant for kids, so we shouldn't expect it to be an utterly in-depth story, but they could have done so much with it. Eggman conquers most of the world and Sonic runs in hopes of thwarting his plans, only to encounter Infinite, Eggman's new ally and a new adversary for Sonic. Sounds cool, right? Wrong. Infinite's introduction was rushed, and Sonic was defeated too fast. As much as I loathe seeing Sonic get hurt, his fight and defeat should have had a better impact. After he's captured, all of Sonic's friends form a resistance, and six months have passed since Sonic disappeared. It is assumed that he might be dead, but nobody shows genuine concern. Amy does, but it was barely there. Yes, they have to find a way to stop Eggman, but what about Sonic??? Did they actually care? How did they feel? How did these six months affect them? Again, the series is for children, but that doesn't mean Sega should ignore being realistic or not add depth to their characters. If I had lost someone I love, a mad scientist conquered almost the whole world, and six months have passed with no word about the person I care about, I would not be calm. I would be anxious, frustrated, basically stressed by all the chaos while I fear that my hypothetical friend may be dead. I would be sort of like Shadow, but without trying to get revenge on all of humanity. I wouldn't be as dark as him, but I would to a degree.

Now they later find Sonic imprisoned, and it was mentioned he was tortured during those six months. He didn't look or act like he suffered. He was pretty happy, like he's been only imprisoned for like twenty minutes. Now I love Sonic, and seeing him unharmed did give me relief, but it should have been handled better. I said I love Sonic, right? You should know already that I'm a fangirl (a sane one, might I add), and watching him get hurt gives me the urge to protect him. I don't like seeing that, but despite my own feelings, Sega should have went for the torture idea other than just mentioning it. They should have written it to have Sonic actually experience being tortured. Yeah. To make a good story, you have to "kill your own darlings", meaning you should make them suffer, go through obstacles, and deal with conflict because that's how reality works and that’s how we identify and feel for characters. It doesn't mean you should literally kill them, but it can work if your story requires it. I was happy to see that Sonic was fine, but at the same time, I felt like I was tricked. The game was supposed to have you go on a rescue mission and treat it like a serious deal. After all, Sonic is in danger, we have to save him! But no. He's fine, and it made us look like idiots for believing he was in peril.

Now to speed things up, Sonic and the avatar fight to reclaim the world from Engman’s rule and they battle Infinite, a new enemy who uses the Phantom Ruby, a ruby that is the source of his powers, which I can describe as…the ability to warp reality? Making illusions, and at some points he looked like he could glitch. Err, I don’t know how to explain it better. So, Engman threatens the team by saying that in three days, his master plan will take full effect, so Sonic and the whole Resistance begin a war against Infinite’s clones of Chaos, Zavok, and Metal Sonic. Speaking of which, yes, none of the clones weren’t the real Chaos, Zavok, and Metal Sonic. These clones served no purpose other than to make Eggman and Infinite appear more intimidating. Their bosses were boring and easy, and the Chaos clone never had his own boss. Then why have him there? So, eventually Sonic and his friends are in utter danger, but thanks to the avatar, they have a chance to stop Eggman. They succeed, the Resistance disbands, everybody starts to clean up the mess, and our avatar parts ways with everyone in a rushed manner, robbing the ending of a heartfelt and meaningful finale that failed to match the ending theme song (which deserved better because it was beautiful).

The story isn’t all that serious and it’s just rushed. Not much happens and things are dumbed down for their target audience. Now I’m not saying the game’s story should have been more like a Final Fantasy game, but the story should have been better. Children aren’t stupid, they could have understood what was happening if Forces had a deeper story and taken advantage of their ideas. I will give my own ideas that could have improved the story. Now the beginning was alright, though I would have liked to see how Eggman started taking over the world in the first place. We were just thrown into the game in the middle of the action. Maybe a few levels to get us on track of the action where everything is alright and then Eggman begins to conquer the world. Things get difficult as Tails tries to protect the Mobians (okay I know their world wasn't named Mobius and that's from the Archie  Sonic comics, but I'll say Mobians). Sonic comes to the rescue only to encounter Infinite. Now instead of making it a rushed battle where Sonic loses just like that, the battle is longer as it grants Infinite the opportunity to show off his abilities, shocking both Sonic and Tails (it kind of happened when he moved right before Sonic could attack him, but that was super short). Tails could have assisted Sonic in some way while still trying to analyze Infinite only to be unable to do so. The battle lasts for a while, leading to the first boss battle. Infinite defeats Sonic with actual effort, and (much to my dismay), Sonic is defeated terribly. Now we go to six months later, and there could have been character interactions as to what they have been through, how they feel, and how everything has affected them now that Sonic is gone. They assume he's dead, and they show actual concern and grief. Here's one example. Tails has been through a lot, and denies that Sonic is dead, even if others try to convince him of the possibility, but he wouldn't want to hear any of it. Amy, although she would hate it, she would respond out of anger and pain by telling Tails that they would have to accept it even if it hurts. That could cause conflict between the two. Heck, Shadow would be just as worried, but wouldn't show it because, well, he's Shadow. Rouge would ask what's wrong, but he would just say nothing. She presses further until he reluctantly admits he wonders if Sonic is alright. He may have had a rocky relationship with Sonic, but he does care in his own unique way. He lost Maria fifty years ago. Losing another person he cares about (though differently from Maria) would take a toll on him.

Now Knuckles is the leader of the Resistance. Personally I would prefer Sonic as the leader, but then again, I doubt he would want to lead and this is just my own preference (and the fact I would listen to him in a heartbeat). Well, Knuckles is better than Sally. I'd listen to his orders. In an improved story, his role would be a bit bigger such as getting his teammates to reconcile and remind them that they have to focus on their mission while still understanding how they feel. After all, he would feel just as bad. Let's say he was there with Sonic and Tails before Infinite arrived and defeated Sonic. He would feel guilty for being unable to stop him from taking Sonic away, but puts on a brave face to not have others worry. Fast forward to where Sonic is revealed to be alive. Again, although I DESPISE picturing this, Sonic would be shown actually getting tortured. I don't know how because like I said, I hate imagining this. Something that isn't too gruesome for children, at least. This isn't Final Fantasy or some other series that's serious and stuff. The avatar, our customized character, comes to the rescue and the mission is actually treated like serious business. Everyone counts on them, Knuckles, Tails, Amy, everyone! Everyone would want Sonic to get out of his prison alive and well. Once he's rescued...*sigh* Sonic shows signs of trauma. Again, not serious trauma to scare children (no shit), but he shows signs that he had suffered. Now to stick with his character, I will say Sonic appears that he has been through so freaking much, but would attempt to put on a brave face, though it would not be like what was shown in the game, all happy and casual as if nothing happened. No, he would not be his usual self. At least, not completely. To be honest, this part sounds kind of dark, but I'm sure it could have worked if Sega added far more effort in this game in the first place.

So the story would go from deep characterization for everybody, conflict between characters, more focus on Eggman and Infinite and their interactions, and of course the avatar gets their own development somehow. The game could have been long, with lots of levels and a big story. The battle between the Resistance and the Eggman Empire would last throughout the game as Sonic and his team search for the Chaos Emeralds (seriously, where were they?), Infinite would threaten Sonic and cause actual trouble, meaning he would actually take advantage of his abilities. Come on, he's supposed to have infinite power for goodness sake, hence his namesake! That could have been utilized better. Then near the end of the story where the Resistance prepare for war against all the Chaos, Metal Sonic, and Zavok clones, or other kinds of clones, would be the same but better, you know? An all-out war that could take a couple of levels, maybe an additional boss battle. Heck, the game could have used a few more boss battles. Then Infinite tries to use his powers to burn everyone into a crisp with the sun (which I admit was the only moment that showed things were serious, though it could have been better, as I mentioned before). Sonic and the avatar, heck everyone, would try to stop their demise, and they succeed. Infinite gets pissed, Eggman gets pissed, so boom! The final boss! Not just a boss that's a pushover, but a real final boss battle where you give it your all. Maybe it could have had like multiple phases. And of course, Super Sonic would be included. Sonic and the avatar fight them, hoping to end the war once for all. With some trouble along the way, they defeat them at last. The ending would be like the one in the game but more meaningful. The Resistance disbands now that there's no need for it, and Sonic recovers from his experience after realizing everyone has been there for him and if he could overcome such an experience, he can overcome anything. The avatar decides to part ways, which would be a bit hard for everyone, even Sonic because they got to know them well. But they would understand and bid them farewell, with Sonic giving them a friendly fist bump while he wishes the avatar to show the world what they can do. The end.

It had so many missed opportunities as you can tell, and I know other people believe so too, so they came up with their own ideas for the game. Prior to the game's release, people had ideas that would have been better than what we got. I still remember the theories, such as Tails is Infinite from another dimension, or the avatar is Infinite or is at least connected to Infinite in some way, or Sonic from the future becomes Infinite (looking back, that would have been interesting, albeit painful, to watch). People came up with ideas that were far more interesting than what was presented in the game.

Okay, now that the story is out of the way, I can move on to everything else. The gameplay...It is a mess. The controls are stiff and you can barely do anything well, and due to these issues, you can't maneuver through each level without accidentally dying. And running through the levels was a bit slow. Sonic wasn't as fast as I remembered, and Classic Sonic was worse to control! You fail to gain momentum when you try to run up some ramps, so you are forced to spin to make up for speed, and it happened a lot for me. Controlling both Sonics and the avatar was just awkward and movement didn't feel smooth at all. I didn't notice any of it right away until I died against Zavok on the first try.

Speaking of Zavok, well, the Zavok that Infinite created, what was his purpose? Zavok, Chaos, and Metal Sonic were just shown just to make Infinite look like a threat (which didn't help much). It should have been the actual Zavok, Chaos and Metal Sonic. Maybe Zavok could have gotten revenge for his defeat in Sonic Lost World (the rest of the Deadly Six could have been involved somehow as well), and Metal Sonic could have returned courtesy of Eggman. As for Chaos, perhaps he could have returned after being revived (I don't know how) and he would have been brainwashed, I don't know. Also, Classic Sonic being there was unnecessary. He was just shoehorned into the game out of nostalgia to entice older fans. And Episode Shadow was not only super short but boring and the stiff controls didn't make it any better. Aside from better gameplay, it could have been improved on story-wise, and it would have still remained as a prequel to Forces. And this was mentioned somewhere, but Silver could have had a bigger role. Everyone should have had a bigger role. Let's say Silver realized things had gone awry in his time so he travels back to Sonic's time to fix his future. That could also give more meaning as to why he went against Infinite because he knew he was the reason why his future changed. He also could have had his own battle if that were the case. And I'm still waiting for a Silver the Hedgehog video game (deal with it).

Finally, the last thing that has bothered me the most besides the lackluster story is...Infinite. No, don't give me the whole edgelord baloney. Infinite the Jackal is not an edgelord and he's not edgier than Shadow the Hedgehog. I had high hopes for this guy, even though I hated how he pummeled Sonic in his trailer. I listened to his theme song so many times, just as much as I heard Fist Bump. I really liked his song, and it just screamed "deep and complex character". The lyrics gave me the image that Infinite has been through a lot prior to Forces, he's dealing with a lot of pain so that's why he hides his face with that mask of his, he wants revenge, and he will get what he wants even if it means taking everyone down that dares to oppose him. Even a portion of the lyrics made me picture that he could have seen Sonic as a formidable opponent and vice versa, and would be willing to fight Sonic to reach his goals. In addition, the lyrics also made me think they're referring to the player themselves, which was a nice touch if you think about it. Sonic and the player/avatar both had to fight Infinite. See? The song had tons of stuff going on, and what do we get??? Infinite being a pathetic excuse for a villain.

Hear me out now. I didn't read the comics that take place prior to Sonic Forces, but I did look up that he was part of the...Jackal Squad? So Infinite and his squad try to...what stop Eggman? But his squad gets killed?? I have no idea. Fast forward to Episode Shadow, and Infinite gets owned by him. Shadow calls him weak, and Infinite...well...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rYNO36bFwE4

So Infinite snaps, joins Eggman, and strives to become stronger to destroy the world...all because of that???????????...This is the lamest backstory I've ever seen for a villain. So the whole war occurred because of this??? Even Mephiles had a better backstory, and I despise that bastard! Yes, Infinite's squad was attacked, but that doesn't mean they died. Or maybe they did. I don't know. Also, if his desire prior to joining Eggman was a desolate world, then what were his reasons for that?? And were the members of the Jackal Squad his family? Friends? Pawns?? If they were loved ones, then him wanting to become stronger is somewhat justified, but taking it out on the whole world and throwing a tantrum about a single person calling him weak and pathetic just seems like poor writing to me. Infinite, quit being a big baby!

*sigh* Alright. I guess I was more angry about this than I thought. Infinite had wasted potential that just screwed him over. Let's see. Infinite could have been better if he had actual motives. The Jackal Squad could have been like his friends and/or family. Maybe members of a clan or something. They try to stop Eggman for whatever reason (maybe he tried conquering their home), so they set out on a mission to stop him. The plan backfires and his whole squad gets killed. Infinite grieves, feeling rage, guilt, and sorrow for being unable to protect them, and sees Shadow a short distance away from the gruesome attack. He accuses Shadow for killing his entire family, and decides to have revenge on him, unaware that Shadow was not at fault. No, I don't believe Shadow would have killed the Jackal Squad. This is where his desire to cause destruction to the world is revealed. He has experienced loss before, and losing his friends/family turned out to be the last straw, the last loved ones he had, so he tries to take over the world and get rid of everyone would prevent him from experiencing any more pain. He would not join Eggman in this scenario, so he would instead be vengeful towards him since he caused him pain from past memories. Infinite works to become stronger after stealing the Phantom Ruby, and willingly decides to forget all about his past, along with his old self believing that he was weak (hence the mask), and he would never want to feel that way ever again. He had lost everything, and he didn't want to deal with all the pain so he shuts all his emotions down, thinking emotions are for the weak. And so, Infinite, with no one to care for now that they're all gone, sets his mind on destroying everything, becoming cold, cruel, and calculating. What would his fate be for this? I don't know. Redemption seems tempting when I think about it, but it would depend on what you guys would choose with your own ideas regarding Infinite. For mine, I would consider redemption, though it would be a long journey for Infinite.

I'm not finished yet. Although I have been critical of Sonic Forces, I don't believe everything about it is bad. The level design is pretty good, but the levels should have been longer. They take like a few minutes to finish, and with better gameplay controls, it could have worked. The avatar creator is okay, but I hoped for it to have more. I mean, I couldn't create my character Sorina!

Yes I know you can unlock stuff, but you start off with little to nothing. It was so limited! At least Square Enix's avatar creator for Final Fantasy 15′s Comrades DLC had more (despite the few limitations from the start). And unlocking stuff isn't that hard, but I didn't like half of the stuff I saw. I was disappointed that I couldn’t create Sorina, so I wound up creating a random avatar. As time went on, however, I warmed up to my avatar. Everyone, meet Aquamarine the Hedgehog.

She’s cute, just as cute as Sorina. Maybe I can make her related to her, perhaps a cousin. Or a fan who admires Sorina! And I prefer Aqua to have only those two triangular spines as opposed to the short Sonic-like quills, so I didn’t take the screenshot with her head turned to make it look that way.

The game lacks any difficulty, which is sad because I was hoping for a difficulty spike. They just give you stuff after you pass the levels with little to no effort, and it's super easy to get an S rank on the levels. And the secret levels are boring and dull, and the missions aren't even real missions (Ex: Stomp once on Mission whichever one that has Modern Sonic). Those weren't worth doing because they are just lame. Now the thing that I truly love is the music. I love the music for Sonic Forces! I have several songs as ringtones for my phone, and I want to download the entire soundtrack so I can listen to it anytime I want. It's unfortunate the game didn't match the music. I heard Sega worked in the game for several years. I don't see it. I only saw like a year's worth of work. If it were four years, then the game should have been the best Sonic game ever! But it fell short in so many areas. If they had put actual effort during those four years, it would have been great. I wouldn't have complained if they delayed it for a while longer just to polish it.

Now just because I agree with a majority of the fans, it doesn't mean I will not defend anything about it. There are some things that I do actually like, such as Sonic's portrayal (minus the few problems I had), and Tails' portrayal was not bad to me. He's a child. The way he felt was normal because he believed he lost his friend, his big brother, and lost hope because of it, and their reunion was sweet in my opinion. Though it could have been sweeter. Returning to Sonic, I must confess that I can agree that he should be more...complex. Heck, the entire cast should get the same treatment. Sonic is my idol, my hero, and as much as I enjoy seeing him the way he is, I do wish he could have more depth so I can relate to him more. So I get why some people want that, and it would be nice to see Sonic showing multiple sides, be more multidimensional. For me, the last time I saw that was in the Sonic Storybook games. It's no wonder I love those. Maybe we'll get something like this in the new Sonic comics. But please let him be in-character! I know about his OOC moments in the Archie comics, and don't get me started on the old Sonic the Comic series.

Oh my gosh, this may be another one of my longest posts ever. lol I will end this in a bit. My overall score for Sonic Forces, as shocking as it may be, is 3/10. It has so many flaws: there’s too many wasted story opportunities for me to count, a terrible villain whose potential was never fully utilized, wonky gameplay, very short levels, a low difficulty level, and a short length. The game lacks replayability even if you wish to 100% complete the game, and to be honest, it's not even worth completing 100%. The music, the amazing level design, the fact that you can create a Sonic character, and the amusing "Sonic Forces" puns are the few perks I like, but the levels and avatar creator did not reach their full potential. For the very first time, as a longtime Sonic the Hedgehog fan, I now have my least favorite Sonic game. You may disagree with me on any of the things I said in this review if you wish, but my position stands. Sonic Forces could have been more than what we got, and it's a shame that we never had the chance to see what it could have been.