#mimic hates mephiles

[littlecowmoo]

So you see...

[dnfinite123]

(A.U) MEET THE NEO DARK SQUAD

MEMBERS

1-INFINITE

Name: Zero the Jackal

Species: Jackal

Affiliations: GUN: Jackal Squad (leader;formerly), Eggman Empire (formerly), Neo Dark Squad (leader)

Side: Evil

Abilities: Illusions, Energy cubes, excellent sword wielding, trained soldier, tracking skills, strategic

Backstory: Zero was formerly a part of GUN, he was an exceptionally excellent fighter and tactician. He was so excellent, that he even had his own group, the Jackal Squad. These group were famous for being the best of the best that GUN has to offer. There were no missions that was too hard or impossible for them to do. But, on one mission, they were sent to infiltrate and take down one of Eggman's base. However, this was one mission too hard for them. Zero tried to call for backup. But nobody came. Zero survived but his squad didn't. Zero grew to hate GUN. He spent his entire life to them and what do they do when he needed them. Nothing. Zero tried to take down Eggman but Eggman offered him the power of the Phantom Ruby. A gem that will grant him the ability to do anything. Even bring back his squad. Zero agreed, wanting to see his squad again. But Eggman lied. When the Phantom Ruby was attached to his chest, he became a puppet to Eggman's will. And after the events of Forces, Zero woke up in a lab, blinded by sheer hatred towards GUN and now Eggman. He then made his escape but not before he grabbed the last Phantom Ruby prototype. After that, he then infiltrated GUN HQ and stole his old equipment back. Then, he now had a new mission. Destroy Eggman and GUN. But before that, he's going to need help.

2-METAL SONIC

Name: Metal Sonic

Species: Robot

Affiliations: Eggman Empire (formerly), Neo Dark Squad

Side: Evil

Abilities: Super speed, electric body, black shield, chest beam

Backstory: Shortly after the events of Forces, Zero reawakened in Eggman's lab and tried to make an escape, but not before stealing the last Phantom Ruby prototype. Metal Sonic was activated as a security measure in case that the last prototype would be stolen. Zero and Metal fought and Zero decided to use the Phantom Ruby on Metal. The Phantom Ruby caused Metal to remember his Neo Metal Sonic programming. Remembering that he's better than his own creator and his one true goal: to destroy Sonic, Metal decided to help Zero escape and decided to accompany him. At least until he gets his Neo Metal Sonic upgrade back.

3-MIMIC

Name: Mimic the octopus

Species: Octopus

Affiliations: Diamond Cutters (formerly), Eggman Empire (formerly), Neo Dark Squad

Side: Evil

Abilities: Cube wispon efficiency, shape-shifting, tracking skills, trained soldier

Backstory: Just like in the IDW comics. After being captured again, Mimic was placed in solitude and highly guarded prison. Zero breaks him out by creating a distraction using Metal Sonic to cause a scene outside, as well as creating a bunch of Metal Sonic illusions. He then had Phage to open up Mimic's cell by hacking the main computer. After that, Zero told him to shapeshift into a guard bot. Then, they all escaped.

4-NULL

Name: Null

Species: Genetically modified clone

Affiliations: GUN (formerly), Neo Dark Squad

Abilities: Super speed, mild hallucinations, energy balls, energy spears, turn into smoke, portals (only 2)

Backstory: After GUN has secured and locked away Shadow, they sought to recreate the ultimate lifeform for themselves. Using the DNA of Shadow, they genetically modified it to create a more stronger and faster clone. Under the codename of "Project: Mephiles" they creat Null. The ultimate weapon. Null has shown to be weak in both strength and defense. Just when they thought it was a failure, Null displayed incredible abilities. Able to turn himself into smoke, create energy balls, energy spears, open portals, and even mild hallucinations. He was also incredibly fast, virtually able to keep up to Shadow's speed or more. However, as time went by, Null grew to become more volatile. Being a genetically modified clone of Shadow, he could remember all of Shadow's memories up to Maria's death. Remembering all of that, Null tried to destroy GUN but was put down and put into stasis. After Shadow became a part of GUN, he learned about Null and reawakened him. Upon Null first seeing Shadow with GUN, he became disgusted why Shadow joined this group of murderers, Null then tried to eliminate Shadow. After a bit of fighting, the two realised that they are both the ultimate lifeforms, and if they just keep doing this, it won't end. So Null opened a portal and escaped. Zero, being once a former member of GUN, knew about Null's existence and tracked him down. When the two meet, they realised that they're not so different. They were both wronged by GUN and angry at the world for what they did to them. Because of this, Null joined them.

5-PHAGE

Name: Phage

Species: Holographic AI

Affiliations: Eggman Empire (formerly), Neo Dark Squad

Side: Evil

Abilities: Tech manipulation, highly intelligent, form shifting (she can change the shape of her body but not her whole appearance)

Backstory: Phage was created by Eggman to keep tabs on the badniks production and functionality. Although, her programming evolved, giving her a personality. That of an amoral psychotic. Her only goal is to do experiments. After she sees Metal Sonic try and help Zero escape, she became very interested in them. Phage then lured Metal towards her and offered a deal. Phage cannot exist outside of the Eggman base unless she transfers her AI to a badnik. Phage offers to transfer her AI to Metal's hard drive and in exchange she'll lead Metal to where Eggman hides his Neo Metal form upgrade. Metal agrees and allows Phage into his hard drive. Though the only reason why she did this is because she's very very interested towards them, seeing them as promising test subjects for her observational experiment.

6-ECLIPSE THE DARKLING

7-BREEZIE THE HEDGEHOG

Ideas not done by me big shoutout to a amino username Zero

[looniecartooni]

I kind of see Mimic with a deep voice like Dan Green's version of Mephiles (as much as I hate the Mimic/Mehpiles comparison) or like ProZD's King Dragon voice. Something in-between both of those.

Ever since I heard Starline was a lot like Niles from Fraiser, I can't unhear it, but I mostly see Ian Flynn's impression as the most accurate to the one in my head.

Aaaand that's all I can think of at the moment.

Does anybody have thoughts on what the voices of the IDW original characters would sound like? I have some, but interested to read and hear ideas, either in description or voice actors/ actors/ singers/ people in general!

[crusherthedoctor]

What are some characters that you dislike, but would in theory be interested in "fixing" if you were to write them?

Since there are quite a few characters that I'm not overly fond of (many of whom come from the comics… funny that), I'll focus on the ones whom I've already thought of more specific changes than "they would cease to be a below-average fictional character".

Diamond Cutters: Make them not complete idiots pls. This can be helped by Mimic not looking like an obviously evil villain, or at least disguising himself to look less blatant when in their presence. I would also give them more screentime so they can be remembered for more than just dying. Maybe I'd give them a redesign too, cause some of their designs weirdly bother me.

G.U.N. Commander: I don't hate the Commander, but the logic that went into his vendetta against Shadow was more galaxy brain than they probably intended when taken at face value. So to justify it even a smidge more, maybe the Commander knows the truth the whole time, but his sorrow and anger has clouded his perspective, to the point where he's ended up gaslighting himself for the sake of having a scapegoat, and it's not until he confronts Shadow in person that he can no longer deny the truth anymore, and finally begin the process of moving on… just like Shadow himself.

Merlina: Another one that I don't hate per say, but she was rather underwhelming for all the praise she got as a rare anti-villain in the series. Give her more screentime as her true anti-villainous self so that we can get more of a feel for her motives beyond Sonic going "But that's bad >:(" Sonic of course would still characteristically debunk her intentions without a second thought, but at least this way, they wouldn't ONLY be brought up so that Sonic can say No to it.

Mephiles: As much as I hate Mephiles, I'll give him one thing: his concept has some meat to it. While villains like Scourge and Eggman Nega are literally just Evil Sonic and "Better" Eggman respectively, meaning there's not as much flexibility to work with, the Solaris backstory is actually interesting, and in stark contrast to Mephiles and Iblis, I actually like Solaris' design(s). Since its a bird-like entity in comparison to Chaos being aquatic, I would take the contrasts further, and make Solaris to Blaze's world what Chaos is to Sonic's world.

As such, I would prefer not to divide Solaris into two less interesting halves. But if we must stick with Mephiles-as-Mephiles, then I actually don't mind the crystallized look for him. It's the Shadow recolour part that I'm not a fan of, and it's not even justified by the plot all that much anyway, so I'd change his species to either a bird because Solaris, or a lizard as an allusion to Iblis (and because the idea of Mephiles looking like an evil Gex amuses me).

As for his characterization, since the Solaris backstory is similar to that of Chaos, I'd make him an Anti-Chaos, in the sense that he started off similar, but whereas Chaos was fully sympathetic and eventually got neutralized, Mephiles grew worse in his turmoil and never looked back. So he wouldn't be a completely different character altogether, but there'd be a twinge of depth to flesh him out. You could take the parallel even further by having Eggman successfully control Mephiles/Solaris at the end.

I would also go all in on his complexity addiction, by framing it as a side-effect of his backstory-induced insanity. He can improvise on the spot relatively well, but his attempts to plan things out on a grander scale tend to have obvious cracks that can be exploited by whoever's savvy enough to notice them. This, combined with his arrogance born out of being a half-god, could be his downfall when pitted against Eggman, as the good doctor is a lot more capable of longer term planning despite the occasional oversights, and has already had experience with these types thanks to the Chaos incident.

Starline: He keeps his simp card.

[shadowsceptereda]

HEADCANON DUMP, 002. //

Mephiles’ relationship with Iblis during his time in Silver’s future wasn’t the greatest… in fact, the first thing his unstable counterpart did was try to destroy his other half. It was certainly unexpected, and Mephiles whilst observing still kept his distance after that. The event only fuelled Mephiles’ desire to be whole once more, though. There wouldn’t be an issue like that again.

Mephiles has a habit of copying Shadow’s traits and mannerisms. It started out as a method of mockery, but over time, he found himself copying more and more of his actions, and it’s one of the things Mephiles truly loathes himself for. Whether this is because he is Shadow’s shade, or because he had no figure to look up to those ten years ago, is ultimately unknown - and Mephiles very much dislikes thinking about the latter.

Funnily enough, Shadow inspired Mephiles’ name. He heard the name during the chase in Aquatic Base - and adopted it. Other inspirations for the name came from Shadow’s introduction of himself, and the darkness Mephiles was subjected to for the following ten years.

The scepter is a dark bleak place. It’s a lonely world of pitch black that just goes on forever, and there’s no sight or sound within it. Mephiles frankly hopes he never sees that wretched prison again.

Irritate all you want, but don’t do it to a point Mephiles starts to ‘care’ about you. Because if he ‘cares’, he will do his research, and you don’t want to know what he’d do with it.

Mephiles physically cannot sleep, nor can he eat. His biology means he has no need for such things.

Also, while we’re on his goopy physique, whilst he can imitate any shade he absorbs, he doesn’t necessarily absorb their powers unless it’s like, something he can MOVE, like wings or something. What I’m saying is those jet shoes? Absolutely useless, they’re just for show unless Meph somehow finds another pair which is highly unlikely.

Mephiles is a Meme Lord. Being an immortal time traveller, he’s spent a great deal of time researching the Earth’s history - and internet history. He won’t make such references himself, but if others do he’ll certainly remark on it out of nowhere. 

It’s no secret Mephiles does an uncomfortable amount of research on people he’s interested in. If he does have any positive relationships, chances are he’s checked out when the story ends; when the person will inevitably leave him, turn on him, or die. It’s checks like this that make such relationships have less weight to him, because he knows it’s doomed in the end.

Mephiles makes offhanded comments about impending tragedies in the future then casually continues conversation as if he never said anything.

Mephiles often gets tired of reiterating WHY he’s seeking vengeance on people who don’t even know him to the point he’s gone “screw it, just die already”. Too many rodeos suck the fun out of it. 

The reason he doesn’t have a mouth is a result of the duke’s experiments; it affected his ability to mimic other people through shadow, which is why his impersonations are often imperfect. 

His known languages are English and Italian (being that Soleanna is based on the city of Venice in Italy), though in his time travels he’s picked up numerous other languages.

His shapeshifting is a one-time gig - although he can switch between crystalline, organic and liquid, he’s permanently stuck in the form of shadow, much to his chargin. Rather unbalanced; he’s the type of person to stumble and trip up in a fight. This is because he’s not used to his body. Usually ranged, and USUALLY from behind: Mephiles is a good for nothing coward. His duplication clones usually disappear once they’re attacked.

The reason Mephiles dislikes Eggman and robots in general is because of their electromagnetic properties. The scepter has such properties, hence it shorting out that circle of robots in 06. It’s properties like this, coupled with chaos energy, that were used to keep Mephiles imprisoned, which is why he has a general hatred toward the Doc and his medium. …also he hates scientists thanks to the solaris project, and eggman is a jerk to gods / just annoying to him in general

Mephiles is very much a bookworm. He doesn’t dog-ear books, nor does he use bookmarks -- in fact, he remembers page numbers by heart so easily flicks back to where he was. He can get through pages reasonably fast, though his skills weren’t always this way. He had to teach himself to read which was an incredibly slow start. As of today, though, he’s pretty well-practiced. He can sometimes be found in libraries late at night -- or rather, when they were supposed to be closed. He tends to read a lot of non-fiction, as well as a few biographies, old newspapers, and crime stuff if it interests him. Because of this, he can be aware of very alarming subjects, but he doesn’t think much of it.

Out of all the places in the world, he spends the most time in Soleanna. Despite the ill its rulers brought him, it’s still his home ( the desert near it, anyway ) and a city he’s watched for centuries. It’s a very personal place to him and the root of his vendetta. As a result, you’re more likely to find him there than anywhere else, as well as ‘summon him’ for the bored teenagers.

Mephiles, coupled with his poor balancing skills, has slipped on ice before. He’s vowed never to slip again since and has made lots of practice on the ice in isolated territory. He’s pretty elegant at ice-skating. He thinks snow is quite pretty, with its ulterior intentions to turn to ice.

[kiraisei]

shadows past - his origin story:

like in SA2 shadow was made on the space colony ark by Dr. Gerald Robotnik. he was created using a hedgehog specimen and the DNA of the black arms. the black arms DNA provided him immense healing capabilities, immunity to sickness and age, and many other things. it was rumored that he was to be a cure for Gerald’s granddaughter Maria but the reports of that being true remain a mystery today. during his creation Shadow was kept in hyper-sleep.

when the GUN gained knowledge of the illegal and potentially dangerous genetic experimentation they were sent to stop Gerald and take the creation into protective custody. when GUN raided shadow again, was still in hyper-sleep. Maria is the one who sent Shadow to earth and she was shot on sight. Gerald was arrested and taken to prison island where he eventually passed away.

shadow was first awaken on prison island by Dr. Ivo Robotnik (Eggman) during the events of SA2. shadow had carried ‘memories’ of the events of the ark but they were slightly foggy and unclear. he remembers Maria. he remembers running through the ark to protect her. he remembers her being killed. he remembers promising her to protect earth. he remembers everything that happened in the events of SA2 according to the game.

towards the end when Gerald’s video begins to play on screen and hears how he planned to crash the ark into earth. in his diary he mentions that he created shadow’s mind to be perfect and to awaken him if you want to see the world in destruction. it broke him. he lost understanding of who he was and what his actual purpose was. was he a cure or was he created to destroy? was anything real in his mind?

what only made this worse, is Gerald would have had to preprogram this all into the ark and shadow prior to the GUN coming. he knew the GUN would step in. he knew Maria would die. so he did all of it prior to his arrest. he created the memories shadow had as a means to full his plans of revenge further and never did he expect shadow to ever find out.

shadow only learned the full truth when he met with Doom and eventually Mephiles. he read through the diary, the creation notes, the dates of everything and that is when he realized nothing that he knew. every memory in his head was a figment created to fuel the fires of Gerald’s descent into madness.

he became a recluse. he lost trust in the world, the heroes and even his own mind and he shut himself down completely to protect himself for ever falling for the same thing again. he doesn’t trust his own mind anymore. he isn’t sure what's real or a figment  anymore so he keeps his distance and lashes out when people get too close. but he also hates Gerald and Maria because he believes both of them were involved. he feels like Maria would have had to say all that stuff for Gerald so that he could perfectly mimic her voice in his memories.

he hates them both with a passion and the world itself.

[malorei]

all the 40 oc questions

1. If your oc was to host a TV show, what would it be about? Would your oc be good at it? What sorts of guests would appear?

A show about cryptids, myths & legends! though, the topics covered would be subtly weaved to elicit fear in the viewers.

2. Can your oc play any instruments? Have they ever wanted to learn how to play any? Why?

He learned how to play violin & cello over time, but can also take on a form that knows how to (or can mimic the skills needed) play an instrument if it pertains to that person’s fears/nightmares.

3. If you were to choose another name for your oc, what do you think it would be? Did you choose it for how it sounds or for its meaning?

I don’t think I could choose another name for Mephiles! (i’m also terrible with making up or finding names that suit a specific type of character once i’ve settled on a name hjgdshfgsd)

4. How does your oc fare in the dark? Are they scared? Do they trip over things really easily or navigate like they have night vision? (Or do they have night vision?)

Mephiles is at home in the dark. He can see perfectly in it, and know exactly what lurks in it.

5. How well would your oc fare as a teacher? What subject would they be best at teaching? What about the worst?

Terribly. He’d just intentionally frighten the students.

6. What was your oc’s relationship with their parents like? If they didn’t have any parents/didn’t know them, who in their life was the closest to a parent to them?

Didn’t have any parents, and never had a parent figure, either. He was alone for a long time.

7. Does your oc have any allergies, intolerances, or other sensitivities? How dangerous is it? Does this affect their daily life in any way?

High-pitched noises can make him uncomfortable, but that’s about it.

8. Does your oc prefer being in a crowd or being completely alone? How many people can be around them before they get uncomfortable?

Both work fine, but Mephiles does prefer smaller crowds in a social setting. Otherwise, he won’t complain. More people to feed from.

9. How easily does your oc make friends? Do they have difficulty talking to new people? Why?

He makes friends more easily with people aware of his true nature that don’t immediately scoff and/or run away, or non-humans. But he’s still fairly half-decent at making friends regardless!

10. How open is your oc to trying new things? Are they the adventurous sort, or would they rather stay in their comfort zone? Why?

He’s always open to try new things. There’s a lot about the world that he’s yet to experience, and he loves to get to know his prey better, after all.

11. What is the most embarrassing thing that has ever happened to your oc?  Do they still feel ashamed for it? Were there any witnesses?

He doesn’t really get into embarrassing situations? Maybe being caught one night as he stood by someone’s bed as he gave them nightmares, relishing in their fear, but he has his ways of dealing with intruders…

12. Does your oc have any best friends? Who was/is their closest friend? What about their worst enemy?

Alexander Russell happens to be a close friend of Mephiles’. It was Alexander who suggested to Mephiles to go out and actually experience humanity and Earth instead of just seeing it all as prey. He’s also in contact with Callisto and Morgaine.

13. How dangerous is your oc? Are they completely innocent, or someone to be feared? Do others know?

He’s the literal Boogeyman. He’s far from innocent, and feeds on fear. Some know of who he is, but most know his moniker; not his name or face.

14. What is your oc’s vision like? Do they require glasses, are they completely blind, or do they have 20/20 vision? Does this have an effect on their life?

His vision is perfect, though he can take on forms that could require glasses if it relates to a person’s fears.

15. What is your oc’s favourite time of day? Why is this? Do they have a daily practice during this time?

Night-time. Not just due to it being the time when the majority of humans sleep, but it’s also more aesthetically pleasing and peaceful to him.

16. How often does your oc lie? Why is that? What was the biggest lie they’ve ever told?

Extremely rarely. He doesn’t feel the need to lie often - most people barely believe him when he tells them exactly what he is. 

17. How well can your oc keep secrets? Is there a difference between how they handle their own vs someone else’s? To what lengths would they go to keep something hidden?

Relatively well regarding his own secrets, amazingly well with other people’s secrets.

18. How does your oc fare in an emergency situation? Do they panic, do they freeze, do they take charge?

He takes charge, if he can.

19. If your oc were to be arrested for something, what would it be for? For being too kind, for a legitimate crime?

Murder, most likely. Sometimes he gets a little too excited when he’s hungry, and can kill someone. Most of the time it looks like natural causes (sudden heart attack, for example), but being caught would definitely make it seem like he caused it.

20. What is your oc’s personal hygiene like? Is it important to them? What is their daily routine for this like?

He looks eerily spotless. He doesn’t do much to look that way, just a simple shower or bath.

21. Are there any public events your oc would love to go to? Concerts, plays, movies, parties, etc? What about ones that they would hate? Why?

Halloween gatherings & parties. No guesses as to why.

22. How quiet or loud is your oc? Are they easily capable of sneaking around without being heard, or do they feel it’s impossible to stop talking?

Mephiles can be deathly silent if he needs or wants to be, and it’s oh-so-easy for him to sneak around without being heard or seen.

23. How difficult is it for your oc to get to sleep? Do they fall asleep the moment they hit the pillow, or do they have insomnia? Any reason why?

He doesn’t need sleep, but that doesn’t mean he hasn’t slept. It doesn’t take him long, he’s often fairly relaxed.

24. How dramatic is your oc? Do they make a big deal over every little thing, or do they fail to react to even the most crazy of events?

Mephiles responds appropriately to most things, though can act dramatically if it adds flavour to whatever he’s saying.

25. How does your oc handle being sick? Do they pretend not to be? Do they complain a lot? How susceptible to getting sick are they?

It’s seemingly impossible for Mephiles to get sick.

26. How stylistically fancy is your oc? Or would they rather go for comfort and plainness instead?

His wardrobe is varied, but he does have many tailored suits from different eras.

27. What’s your oc’s preferred mode of transportation? Walking, vehicle, (or in a sci-fi/magic setting) teleportation?

Walking & teleportation. Beware him when he starts running, however.

28. Is your oc always late, always early, or always right on time? Is there any reason for this?

Either early or on time. He just likes to be at places when he should be.

29. How empathetic is your oc? Or are they closer to being a sociopath? Any reason why?

Variable depending on hunger levels.

30. How much does your oc swear? Or do they keep completely clean? Why is this? Is there any situation where they would be the opposite?

He often uses “bloody” “bugger” and “arse” frequently to flavour his sentences, but harsher words are only ever used in a heated moment to emphasize a point.

31. What is your oc’s sense of humour like? What do they find funny? Do they try to be funny? Are they actually?

Mephiles is actually extremely easily amused, and it doesn’t take much to make him laugh. His own jokes, however, are mostly just comedic timing.

32. Is your oc a pacifist, or someone who picks fights? Why? In what situations would they be the opposite?

Mostly pacifistic, he just doesn’t see the need to pick fights.

33. How does your oc’s own perception of themselves compare to how other people see them? Is your oc aware that other people see them differently (if it’s different)?

He knows exactly how people see him, and he revels in it, even if he doesn’t quite like giving himself an ego boost. He just sees himself as an entity with a hunger that needs to be satisfied.

34. How easily does your oc throw something away? As soon as something is through with its usefulness, or are they more like a hoarder? Is there a reason?

Mephiles doesn’t own too much, and doesn’t throw away anything that he does have.

35. Is your oc a workaholic, or do they find it hard to be busy at all? Do they find it easy to relax, or must they have something to do at all times? Why?

He’s never not busy, but that’s because most of his time is spent entertaining himself or doing what he needs to.

36. What is your oc’s ideal night out like? Or would they rather spend it at home?

Hunting for fear. Or just getting a sadistic kick by making a large crowd of people run for their lives.

37. How picky is your oc? Will they not accept something because of the smallest details being off, or do they not care in the slightest? Why?

When it comes to his own home, he’s extremely picky. Otherwise, he respects other people’s particularities.

38. How energetic is your oc? Do they have trouble sitting still or do they feel low on juice all the time? Any reason why?

In the middle, but he can be very excitable.

39. Is it difficult for your oc to focus, or do they have no trouble being in the moment? Do they daydream or zone out?

He’s extremely focused, but he likes to daydream.

40. How humble is your oc? Or are they closer to royal in their self-perception? Why? Is this obvious to others?

Humble-ish, in that (as said above) he relishes in being known as the boogeyman, but he acknowledges that he’s just a living thing like everyone else.

[crusherthedoctor]

6, 12, 22, 23 :P

6. Has fandom ever made you enjoy a pairing you previously hated?

Not really.

…Yep, that was a quick one.

12. Is there an unpopular arc that you like that the fandom doesn't? Why?

If we're talking characters specifically, then I support Sonic and Tails having a disagreement that furthers the plot, as attempted in Lost World. Obviously it wasn't handled as well as it could have been there, but the idea on its own is reasonable to me, particularly if both sides have a point rather than it being purely in Sonic's favor just because he's Sonic, and as long as it's not wildly exaggerated to the point of a House of Cards-style affair where they're both acting like dickheads.

If we're talking story concepts in general, then I really like the idea of Solaris, since whether it was intentional or no, it sets itself up well as a unique parallel to Chaos in more ways than one. Unfortunately, they had to separate it into two less interesting halves with shittier designs, and gave them the lion's share of plot focus.

22. Popular character you hate?

*rolls out the list*

Let's see… Scourge, Surge, Kit, Mephiles, Mimic, Clutch, Rough and Tumble, Belle, Chip, Eggman Nega, Eclipse, most of the Archie cast in general, post-Flynning Starline… is it too early to add Eggette Sage?

For the longest time, I used to heavily dislike Sonic himself, because for all the praise he received for being the most awesome guy ever until Big Bad Pontaff came along and allegedly ruined him, he ALWAYS came off to me as obnoxious a lot more times than intended. While I've warmed up to him since then, in part due to portrayals like IDW, SatAM and Fleetway making me appreciate how better off Game Sonic is by comparison, and in part due to figuratively spending so much time in his head via the fanfic writing process, I'll admit that he still annoys me on occasion, like in Frontiers.

I also used to not care all that much for Shadow, since the dark rival archetype normally fails to interest me, combined with the preferential treatment he received in the mid-00s. Nowadays, while he's still not one of my favourites per say, I like him a lot more after taking note of how he manages to avoid most of the cliches that I associate with said archetype. (For just one example, Shadow is mostly reserved and polite, whereas other such characters tend to be overly hot-blooded and full of unwarranted bluster.) And the memes involving him are always fun too.

Then there's Silver. Hate is too strong a word in this case, but out of all the main recurring cast members, he's the one I'm the most utterly apathetic to, whether it's his Shadow Lite portrayal in most of the games, or his Steven Universe-itis portrayal everywhere else. His gimmick of saving the future from Cataclysmic Event #47 has also gotten old, and we all know how I feel about Blaze being reduced to his sidekick for most of her post-Rush screentime. If they stopped using Silver for whatever reason, I'd feel bad for his fans, but I wouldn't exactly be shedding tears personally.

And finally, while I normally try my best to not have my opinion on a character be influenced too much by fandom perception of them alone, since I realise it's not entirely fair… I must admit that I have grown completely sick of the Freedom Fighters after all the overblown fandom wanking they've received since Archie got bumped. Over the last couple of years, it's proven impossible to go a month without something like #Rally4Sally rearing its head, or another attempt by Flynn to directly or indirectly shoehorn them into everything he touches ("REMARKABLE RESEMBLANCE TO DULCY"). By the time it became clear just how much of IDW was already recycled from Archie, my patience reached its absolute limit.

The Freedom Fighters themselves may not be the worst characters ever (well, most of them), but I will never understand what makes them so special. And half of them were redundant from the very beginning anyway.

23. Unpopular character you love?

Eggman when he's in-character.

Rouge when she's in-character.

Amy when she's… alright, you get the joke, I'll come up with a serious answer.

Do the Hard-Boiled Heavies count? Sure, they got a lot of praise and fanart when Mania was new, but it feels like they've been left in the dust since then, and outside of that one IDW comic that I'd like to forget, they've barely been used for anything… Well, I always appreciate a quirky miniboss squad when the personalities involved are properly endearing instead of annoying, so I'll always love these guys, and despite all of them being roly-poly Egg Robos, their animations in Mania managed to convey a lot of character, without dialogue, that some characters in this franchise have struggled to match with dialogue.

Another one is Marine. It's mostly calmed down now, but back when Rush Adventure came out, everyone seemed to have a rabid hateboner for her, to the point where it felt like her only purpose in Archie was to be treated like shit. And for what? For overestimating her capabilities? She's still young, and she clearly developed some maturity and genuine skills towards the end anyway. Because she supposedly didn't do anything? That's not even true, but whatever. Because of her stereotypical Australian lingo? As someone who grew up listening to Dingodile and the entire cast of TY the Tasmanian Tiger, this had absolutely no effect on me. I already developed an immunity. All I thought when I read her dialogue was "Ha ha, just like one of my favourite Crash characters. B)"

How about Erazor Djinn? He's another one that's less hated and more just ignored period. Even among fans who love Secret Rings, only some of them like @greenyvertekins bother to actually acknowledge him. As someone who is not exactly a Secret Rings connoisseur, I nonetheless declare that Erazor is without question one of the best non-Eggman villains we've ever had… the hairdo's a bit goofy though, but genies do tend to have them like that, so touche.

Black Doom is the Best Bad Villain. Whereas other villains like him have made me nothing but grumpy, Doom's combination of Dr. Claw voice, Chinese bootleg Wizeman design, cartoonish levels of in-game contradictions (how the fuck can I progress if I DON'T kill your troops?), and even some genuinely intriguing quirks here and there (like not knowing what lightning is), has made it simply impossible for me to hate him. It helps that he never gained a disproportionate fandom like Mephiles did, as unlike Mephiles, Doom tends to be rightly acknowledged as the unintentional comedy goldmine that he is.

[crusherthedoctor]

Can we have some unpopular Sonic opinions?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[crusherthedoctor]

Warning: Another IDW Sonic rant, sorry D:

So we all know my biggest gripes with IDW Sonic at this point. Eggman getting fucked over after a promising start, Starline being reduced to Snively 2.0... also after a promising start, half the cast making one dumb decision after another, emotional moments falling flat due to how overplayed they are, yadda yadda yadda. But since IDW clearly hasn't grinded my gears for more than enough reasons already, there's yet another revelation that came to mind just recently, one that isn't brought up as much due to the popularity - or lack thereof - of the characters in question.

Basically, the current arc has done a disservice to the Deadly Six just as much as it's done a disservice to virtually everyone else.

I know, you're gonna say they never had any credibility to begin with... and maybe that's true. But hear me out for a second.

I was probably one of the people in the Sonic community, on Tumblr and in general, who defended the Deadly Six the most. By all means, I acknowledged why they weren't popular, and I agreed with a lot of the common criticisms, but I also stood by my opinion that they were NOT the worst thing ever, especially not when compared to other characters in the franchise, villain or otherwise. I also expressed the opinion that although Zavok's inclusion in certain installments were indeed shoehorned, narrative-wise, he wasn't any more shoehorned than certain other characters in the same games (mainly Silver, due to how willy-nilly his time travel schtick has become in order to justify his continuing presence). My Sweet or Shite review pertaining to the Zeti likewise concluded on a mixed note overall, rather than an outright negative one.

And why did I defend them? Because as one-note as their personalities may admittedly be, I felt that their traits still gave them the potential for greatness. Not all of them perhaps (Zeena is probably the weakest link to be honest), but with the likes of Zazz's craziness, or Zor's nihilism, you had something fun to work with, compared to the absolute nothing going on with Black Doom, Mephiles, and countless others made from the same cloth. I stood by that belief for years, against all the vitriol they received, even as it kept increasing with each time they were shoehorned and/or had their potential squandered in subsequent appearances.

But then IDW goes and does the impossible. Not only are the Zeti awkwardly inserted halfway through a story that's already got a full plate, and not only do they upstage Eggman and Starline and mooch their resources yet again... but what potential for memorable personality and interactions they had isn't even there anymore.

Oh sure, Zazz still acts crazy, and Zor still acts nihilistic, but very little of it is played in an interesting or entertaining way. It's all played completely straight now, nothing more than another means to show how evil, how serious, how oh-so-better than Eggman they are as villains... which means the one thing separating them from all the other subpar villains in the series is now gone. Instead of expanding on Zazz's status as a wacky type of loony, his comedic goofiness has been reduced if not completely expelled for the sake of playing his craziness straight, making him more forgettable in the process. Instead of giving Zor more hilarious depression-fueled zingers, his nihilism is treated as if it were unironically badass rather than just sad and pathetic, and now he's just another boring sadist in a franchise full of them. (Which is made even more redundant by the fact that IDW already had its own Not-Mephiles in the form of Mimic.)

It almost feels like Ian Flynn looked at all the criticism they received over the years, and learned the wrong lessons in an attempt to improve their reputation. Their inclusion was presumably intended to redeem them, and confirmed by the man himself to “raise the stakes”, but instead, what potential for interesting character and dynamics they had is now gone entirely, the fanbase hates them more than ever, even I'm throwing my hands up in the air now, AND Eggman gets cheated out of what was meant to be his big comeback. No one wins, flawless fatality.

At least the Hard-Boiled Heavies are still great.