#not to say that sonic doesn’t have his own valid reasons but

[itsaflyingiraffe]

Like imagine being eight growing up in a world full of people who hurt you for no reason then finally having a dude who treats you like he’s known you his entire life come along and chuck a few authentic compliments your way only to find out he’s talking to you like that because you’re the shadow of a person that he loves. Imagine literally being face to face with the image of this person, this ‘you’ that you could never be and having to live with the fact that the only thing between you and that ‘you’ was him. You’re the you you are because he never came. You’re more ‘you’ than this hologram because you decided all alone who you were going to be. All the pain and suffering you endured, for all you tried to help he still can’t see how it’s all for nothing when he still chooses the ‘you’ who never felt it all in the first place over you like you were nothing more than a placeholder. When he’s the only him you’ve ever known. He’s the only him you ever needed, and he’s failing you again and refuses to see it.

and also you’re eight

starting S1 of Sonic Prime and laughing my ass off at the concept of ‘angsty’ tails only for nine to obliterate me physically and mentally for a season and a half moodboard ✌️✌️✌️ (🥲)

[sareisnot]

Lahai: Well Worth The Wait

This was another leftover from that list that "best of" list I was writing

Sampha - Lahai It’s safe to say that Sampha’s Lahai was one of the most anticipated albums of last year, and most certainly one of its longest-awaited. It’s the follow up to his album Process, which came out in 2017. That’s right, for almost 6 whole years, fans were rapturously begging for a follow-up. Every discussion of his music seemed to end in a cry for Sampha to just announce his new album already. The music world is no stranger to long wait times for new material, but when an album has this much hype before it’s even announced? It’s almost a guarantee that the album's reception will be at least partially defined by how long it took to get it.

Unless you’re me.

I didn’t listen to Process when it came out, so I hadn’t really been anticipating anything. He had an absolutely killer feature on “Father Time,” but that’s about as far as my enthusiasm went. I went into Lahai with no hype, knowing only that it was an album a lot of other people were excited for. Maybe that qualifies as some level of anticipation, but my expectations were tempered regardless. This long preamble is intended to make one thing clear: I did not have the kind of hype that could carry me through Lahai, just based on anticipation alone. And yet, even without that, it still blew me the fuck away.

On Lahai, Sampha makes frequent mention of Jonathan Livingston Seagull, name dropping him on the track “Spirit 2.0,” and titling a later track after the character. In his titular fable, Seagull was a seeker of knowledge, his curiosity reaching far beyond the confines of his world. He sought answers to fundamental questions, hoping that perhaps he could understand himself in the process. Sampha casts himself in this role on the opener “Stereo Colour Cloud” stating, “Hard-wired, forever seeking out / Subjects mysterious like time and love.” This seemingly sets the record up as for a heady, high-concept work which seeks to question the nature of life itself. But, while the record does touch on those impersonal concepts, it still remains very human. It’s using these large, universal concepts to make sense of Sampha’s own personal experience, to introspect, and investigate what time, the universe, and life really means to him. The title of the aforementioned “Spirit 2.0,” indicates some kind of ascension, but that heightened spiritual presence comes from the comfort of a partner, and the joy you get from being with them. These moments are frequent on Lahai, where the nature of the universe and the human experience are blended, providing fertile ground for the exploration of both. Perhaps the best example of this kind of contrast is on “Evidence,” my personal favorite track. Throughout its runtime, Sampha mentions his musings on whether the universe has any meaning, or any inherent, cosmic reason to continue living. He finds the answer to this question, not in any cosmic entity or greater spiritual force, but in his young daughter. In his words: “You’re enough evidence for me.” He doesn’t need any further validation from the cosmos; his child gives him all the meaning he needs. In emulating Jonathan Livingston Seagull’s quest, Sampha finds his answers exactly where he started, only revealed when viewed from a different perspective. When finished with this album, I feel as if I’ve taken a journey to another plane of existence, and come back home with just a bit more insight.

To reuse the simile from the last paragraph, Lahai’s sound is what happens when someone visits some higher plane, and tries to replicate it in sonic form. The record is coated in boundary-pushing sounds that bolster the existing messages of introspection, searching for meaning, and using the little things to answer big, sweeping questions. The instrumental for “Dancing Circles” sounds like a sped up angel’s waltz, with its repeating chords, and the sparse piano lingering in the background. It’s a track that utterly stunned me on first listen, and just captivated me throughout. “Stunning” - that’s an apt word for the record. So many of these instrumentals just utterly take my breath away on first listen, and every time I revisit them, I want to pick them apart, to see what genres Sampha’s blended this time. On Lahai, he’s taken from so many influences, that he’s operating in his own sonic lane. On “What If You Hypnotize Me?” you get pieces of soul and r&b, with a breakbeat instrumental and some soft piano keys, all blended together to create something utterly sublime. That’s true of nearly every instrumental on Lahai, and they all create a bunch of wonderful pieces, but the real connective tissue tying those pieces together, is Sampha’s gorgeous voice.In my opinion, that is this album’s defining characteristic. His vocals are instrumental in giving the album its unique sound, being a near constant, angelic presence. But it still feels human. Sampha’s greatest vocal moments on the album are when he’s able to fully embody a particular emotion, like the panicked verses on “Suspended,” or the warm, loving embrace of “Evidence.” That gets to the heart of it, I think. In sound, this album feels like a life-changing hug from something ethereal, divine, human, and everything in between.

Inevitably, the excitement for this release is going to wind down, marking the beginning of the waiting period that lasts until the next album cycle. If past trends are any indication, it’s going to be a painfully long one. In that time, I can absolutely see myself falling into the exact same kind of excitement that Lahai had, frothing at the mouth for something new. But I will wipe the foam from my lips, and wait patiently (partially because I’ve got a whole album of unlisted material in Process). I will still be waiting, however, and I don’t care how long it takes. Because if Lahai is any indication, whatever is on the other end is going to be well worth it.

[themattress]

Lol. After @ultraericthered pointed out that their behavior is exactly why the Sonic fandom gets such a bad rep online, the SammyClassicSonicFan Gang apparently had themselves a group therapy session where they told themselves comforting lies rather than actually engage with arguments and facts. And I just need to show some of them; they’re too good to pass up.

No, that’s what I’m doing to you now. What I was doing before was giving reasonable arguments as to what about SatAM warrants legit criticism and what doesn’t, and how all of its flaws and inaccuracy to the game doesn’t make it an invalid take on Sonic particularly when you consider the context of the times and position the show’s developers were in with SEGA of America. Rather than respond to that, you went “La la la la, I’m not listening!” and regurgitated your old positions as if I hadn’t just given you new information to consider.

You’re allowed to do whatever you want. It makes you look like a jackass, but you’re allowed.

Also, way to miss ultraericthered’s point - he was being sarcastic about your “an adaptation must always adhere to game canon!” stance because Lost World is a canonical game, its events and characterizations are therefore canonical, so by your own logic Tails behaving like that is part of his canon characterization and should be adhered to in adaptations. As we will see later, these peoples’ definition of “dismissing the mainline game” is “pointing out issues with them”, and they’re accusing us of doing it out of bias toward SatAM...which I have also pointed out issues with, repeatedly. Nuance and an even-handed perspective, what is it?

........................And the world of SatAM didn’t?

How anyone can read what we posted and say we were “treating the side canon as the mainline canon” is beyond me. What we were saying is that the game canon is the mainline canon, the side canons are the side canons, the mainline canon is not obligated to feature anything from the side canons but the side canons are also not obligated to do everything like the mainline canon does it. If you’re really an Underground fan, you should agree with that.

So “shitting on” certain games or certain aspects of certain games = “dismissing the mainline games canon”. Right. I’m a big fan of the original Sonic game, Sonic CD, Sonic 2, Sonic 3 & Knuckles, the Adventure titles, Unleashed, Generations, the Storybook titles and Sonic Mania, see a lot of positives in games like Lost World and Sonic Forces even if I think they overall failed in execution, and even have a nostalgic fondness for that shitty 3D racing game with the Tails Doll.....but nah, I totally hate the games canon and am just a SatAM fanboy.

It boggles my mind that this is what people like this actually believe. The vast majority of people I’ve seen don’t ignore the games canon and love it on the whole, they merely have justified constructive criticism about many of its post-2000 entries. These people apparently think any criticism of the games canon is an attack on it and that everyone should just shut up and unconditionally love every game ever released because they’re part of the core canon.

Note that neither I nor ultraericthered have used the “SEGA stan” label. I agree it’s ridiculous.

.........I mean, what else can you even say to this but

This is literally insane. It’s an argument I never once made. I never said the games have to be non-canon. They are fucking obviously canon - the CORE canon, as has been said before. The argument is that not every sub-canon needs to ape the core canon in order to be a good and valid interpretation of Sonic. That’s it. Also, I’ll tell you how the core canon won’t improve: jumping down the throat of everyone who likes parts of the franchise that are different from it (while still enjoying the core canon too, mind you!) and dares to suggest they be allowed to consider them as Sonic and themselves as real Sonic fans, not “normies”.

More misrepresenting the argument to comical degrees. I never regarded the games as “secondary canon”. I literally called SatAM and the Archie comics “sub-canons”. These clowns think me talking shit about games mean I disregard the games as canon in favor of SatAM and the Archie comics, which ignores that I talk shit about SatAM and the Archie comics too. I’m a free-thinker, I’m not gonna blindly worship or blindly condemn anything.

1. I watched the cartoons, read the comics, AND played the games as a child. Many did.

2. Part of why I can’t take any of these guys’ arguments seriously is that they keep showing how ignorant they are about what they’re talking about. The Archie comics did NOT “continue SatAM’s storyline”. There are many crucial differences between the world and characters in the Archie comics and the world and characters in SatAM. They aren’t the same thing. Behaving as though the Archie comics ever picked up right where “The Doomsday Project” left off is the very definition of misinformed, because that’s not what fucking happened.

3. Bringing Doug Walker into this? Really?

Yes, and that mindset is stupid. Just like your mindset of expecting Sonic to always be exactly like the core canon. There should preferably be overlap, but differences should be allowed.

Have you ever met the Pokemon fandom? I think you’d be surprised.

Also - trying to ascertain one’s “faults as a human being” due to their behavior as a fan?

So yeah, it’s been fun, but also really sad. I’m a lover of Sonic as a whole franchise (games, shows, comics, movies, etc.) and I wanted to make the case “Hey, even if SatAM, an admittedly flawed show, isn’t your cup of tea, couldn’t you still acknowledge it as Sonic and its fans as Sonic fans whose views are just as valid as your own?” and the response I got is “WAAAAH, YOU’RE JUST A BLIND SATAM / ARCHIE FANBOY WORSHIPPER WHO HATES THE GAMES AND WANTS TO CONSIDER THEM NON-CANON! GTFO OF HERE, HERETIC! WHEN WILL YOU LEARN THAT YOUR ACTIONS HAVE CONSEQUENCES!?”

@ultraericthered​ was spot-on in his assessment, it seems.

[atomicblasphemy]

Can’t promise this will make sense.

But I think I’ve seen people theorize this lovely enormous andominous guy is in fact not King’s dad:

And I’m inclined to agree. I mean, Lilith does mention the island King was hatched at was ancient. So odds are he was being incubated for quite a minute and, when the time was right (which may or may not have something do with that sky window thingy or Emperor Phil’s meddling with the island innate magic), he finally hatched.

Moreover, whatever magic is used to cloak that wee island, to produce King sonic rainboom, or to animate Jean-Luc is probably of a different source to that elemental one harnessed by demons and witches from the Boiling Isles since Hooty was unable to pin down what type of demon King was, suggesting he may not even be one. (Also, on a bit of a tangent I just think that’d play nicely with the contrast between Emperor Phil’s bri’ishness and King’s more francophone tendencies).

Lastly, the carvings, the plant life, of the that Island, the fort’s architecture, the writing system, and the very fact that they managed to build what’s probably the most sophisticated bunker in any dimension would in my eyes point  to two things: one, whatever civilization made the island was powerful, foreign, and is long gone; and whoever King’s dad was he was important enough a figure to justify a lot of resources being used to protect his son. And you know how monarchies are: the king is dead, long live the King. Also, we know next to nothing about the world beyond the Boiling Isles other than Eda telling the Selkidomus to hide further into sea and the fact that the Emipre has some form of navy (be it it a military of commercial one, in either case this suggest the existence of other nation with whom to wage war or engage in trade).

Now, I know, essentially, this brings nothing new to the table. But there’s to things I’d like to point which might do just that.

First and weaker evidence:

This looks like a place that has a similar origin to the Boiling Isles, but not really it.

The reason why this can hardly be called evidence is simple though: Eda was undergoing a very bad acid trip when this happened. So while that whole sequence offers a lot of insight into her psyche, that’s all you can take from highs. Everything else there has a very blurry relation with reality. I mean, I’m not even sure that figure people thought was Amity is really someone from Eda’s past or just a way her mind found to cope with the trauma from years of persecution by a fascist state on account of factors way beyond her control.

Regardless, if this is a real place (and consequently faux-Amity a real person), this would mean confirmation that lands other than the Boiling Isles do indeed exist, and on top of that would suggest at least one candidate for King’s true place of origin (and possibly of Eda’s curse, after she became Icarus she did turn into that suspicious looking scroll after all). Hopefully though, the show won’t really focus on that. I mean, just look at how the show sidelined Willow this season then just imagine what the sheer amount of lore this would imply would do, especially considering how short the run time ahead of us is.

But hey, I don’t even know why I’m speculating on all this and seeing how given what we know pretty much all bets are off... so you know... no harm, no foul.

Anyhow. as I briefly mentioned before whoever the lovely guy (fig. 1) is, he seems pretty huge. And that’s actually quite important. Because there is one physically big (to fit her big heart ofc) with a very unclear backstory that the show seems to bring up only when strictly necessary. This lovely gal:

The one on the left.

The reason why I point this out is: I like her and want to see more of her; her backstory was left deliberately hanging after her second appearance; what we do know about her is that she was part of the “staff of a giant” some thousands of years ago; she’s takes care of palismen which put her in a collision course with Emperor Phil; I like her and want to see more of her.

Now, those second and third points are important because as previously stated that guy (fig. 1) is buff. And so was that other figure portray on King’s forts walls. Maybe enough to call them giants (we don’t know what their growth limit is), but not so much to be a Titan. If there’s really a kinship relationship between them and King, then we should probably expect him to undergo a growth spurt, maybe not one of continental proportions, but still a growth spurt.

Anyway, not only that, but Luz (the one on the right in fig. 3) did offer to help Bat Queen find out more about her past, and the offer probably still stands. Meaning that the show writers have this avenue open, and if she really was King’s dad’s palisman then that make her the most poised one to give him the insight he needs on his past (and that his dad is, most likely, long gone, making his story pretty much like Luz’s and Eda’s in the sense it could be described as learning to accept what you can’t, change what you can and from that forge a self you can actually like). Not only that, but this would make her have a deeper connection with Luz’s camp against Emperor Phil, giving her chance to avenge all the palismen he ate over the years (which as of now she’s probably not aware of).

Also, if all of that is the case and King’s civilization is as ancient as Lilith suggested that’d probably mean she is among the oldest palismen out there if not the oldest, which could offer a solution to the palistrom wood shortage problem. And it would also raise the possibility of King’s dad being the inventor of palismen or something along those lines, not sure what that’d entail and I’m into way too esoteric territory to comfort. 

But on a mostly unrelated note and seeing how I’m taking a few hours to aimlessly speculate: Luz’s palisman. I’ve seen people suggesting she’d pick all sorts of different animals from bats to blue cardinals.

I just think she won’t really get a palisman at all. She will get a staff though, Hunter’s artificial one to be exact.

Here’s the thing, getting a palisman and the accompanying staff is kinda painted as this whole rite of passage from witchling to witchhood so to speak. Meaning that from that point on they are a witch, a part of the Isles. A huge commitment for a human to make, and her character’s  whole subtext thus far this season has been a balancing act between her human past and her magical future, culminating in the promise she makes to Camila.

That’s why the Bat Queen (fig. 3) calls her out on her insecure, tentative response when pushed to state her purpose to the potential palismen - even if covered by her usual upbeat presentation (that girl’s mind is a storm right now, poor child). In other words, for good reason, she sees getting a palisman as too much of a commitment, implying certain sacrifices (her link with the human world) she is not ready to make. 

On the other hand, she found in the Boiling Isles everything she was missing in the human realm. She was accepted there, she has a family, friends, and a girlfriend now, all of whom see her as a cherished part of their lives as much as they are of hers. She belongs in the Isles, she belongs in the human realm, and those two are on equal measure to her.

That’s a pretty tough place for some who just started learning who she is - I mean, she is 14 after all. And as of the place that the show left after Yesterday’s Lie, there’s really nowhere she can say to her self that she belongs to.

However, since we are apparently getting a Hunter redemption either way because that’s what popular media is now, every story has a quota of redemption arcs to fill (preferably of officials of monstrous regimes, but i digress) him and Luz could form a sort of parallel. If, as certain sects of the fandom believes, he is a clone of Emperor Phil’s brother (Bob, that’s his name), that’d make them along with Phil himself the characters with the closest connection to the human. Phil is the one pulling the strings so I can’t really tell what  the parallels there would be other than some kind of “what if Luz had less of a moral center to her”. That’s not the interesting parallel though.

By the way, obviously, this whole word soup’s validity depends on the Emperor being either Phil, Bob, or some derivation. I know the show hasn’t made it quite canon just yet but I mean, come on, they’ve been throwing so many bones at this theory that we could build a skeleton army.

You see, Hunter’s staff is great symbol of the relationship he has with Phil. Something that symbolizes that, the way things are, seeing how he is a magicless witch in magicful world, his only way to truly be a part of the world and of society, the only way he can have a sense of belonging is through Phil, it is through the magic he provides via the staff’s artificial magic.

Moreover, if Phil being human ever comes out, and that Hunter is Bob’s clone, then Hunter would have this delightfully existential question to answer: “Who the fuck am I then?”

Essentially, he’ll be in a similar mind space as Luz buuuut their ways out of that are opposite. In order to make a self for himself the first thing he has to do is to sever his connection with Phil and reaffirm what he wants to do with his life (wild magic). And now he has the means to do just that, he has a staff and a palisman (made of wild magic) of his own, he doesn’t necessarily needs the artificial one anymore. A way he can cut that connection is by giving his old staff to Luz.

From Luz’s point of view that would solve her own existential problem, this staff, made with artificial magic - thus suiting the existence of a human in this magical world - would allow her to either/or conundrum: she can be a witch AND a human. She hasn’t gone through that rite of passage, so she didn’t forgo her humanity (in a metaphorical sense, of course). But she was given, from possibly her biggest enemy, tangible proof that she has a place in the Isle, not by birth, but because she made one for herself through the relationships and bonds she formed, through the way she changed people’s lives just being there and being herself. It isn’t a complete solution, but it is a compromise between those too sides of her being

That leaves that piece of palistrom wood Eda gave Luz out of the equation. What the show would try to do with it is anyone’s guess. But I think something along the lines of “Willow finds out a way to replenish the palistrom wood forests, she needs Luz’s branch to do it, Luz gives it to her out of a sense of moral obligation but is torn about it since she feels she’s giving up her chance at having a staff” would be pretty neat. You know, building up a bit of dramatic tension and whatnot.

Anyway, that’s it. Word soup’s over.

[gallifreyan-heart]

The Husbands of River Song

Okay, this is gonna be a long one, kids. I know it’s the unpopular opinion, but I have issues with River - that’s a post for another day though. 😅

So, now that I’ve finally recovered from Face the Raven - Hell Bent (I mean, recovered as I’m likely ever gonna be), I decided to finally watch this and boy do I have thoughts. I even made gifs. lol. 

TL;DR - basically, the whole “in love with River” thing is more kindness than anything and even with the block, he still remembers Clara. 

To start though - really, this whole neuro-block thing makes no f***ing sense at all. Like, he doesn’t wonder why there’s graffiti all over the box with the girl from the diner on it?! He sees a message on the chalkboard, but doesn’t react or think ‘hey, that’s weird, someone’s been in here’? So he can remember some of what they did, but not her? 🤦‍♀️ Convoluted much? Ugh. Anyway...

1) The TARDIS was trying to ‘cheer him up’ from a melancholy he couldn’t have understood, right? Obviously it also knew Clara and everything between them, having been there for most of it. The TARDIS’ memories weren’t erased, so that’s a real sad start right off the top. Geez.

2) River - the supposed genius, ‘great love’ of the Doctor, his ‘wife’ of all people, couldn’t figure out it was him? Really? Or as he said, “Seriously?” Even after he flat out said it like 5 times?!  Look, Clara MF Oswald would have figured out it was him, I guarantee. Just sayin.

3)  DOCTOR: “Stop holding my hand, people don't do that to me.” Ok, ouch,  right in the “things he’s forgotten” feels, I see how this is gonna go. 

4) Here, however, I think he absolutely was still having bits of memories about Clara (even if he didn’t realize it/couldn’t see her?). The first one that struck me was in the restaurant. I whipped up this GIF - just look at his face here:

He is so uneasy. You can see he’s thinking it’s familiar somehow, but he can’t place it, so it’s upsetting him. Even River asks why he’s frowning. He blames it on concern for the deadlock seal, but I don’t think so... ’cause, well, hello:

5) “I don't like lying down people.” It struck me as such an odd comment. This one may be a stretch, but all I could think was...

6) I’m big into body language cues, especially with people who can’t seem to use their words to say how they feel *cough* 12 *cough*. When Flemming is asking River about the Doctor, he’s watching her. BUT when he says “ You're the woman he loves” - he immediately glares at him & looks away, swallowing hard. 

Aversion of the eyes relates to uncomfortable feelings & embarrassment. The hard swallow indicates high stress & embarrassment as well. If the statement were true, there would be no reason for him to feel ashamed. He feels bad. 🤷‍♀️

7) Speaking of body language... her reaction when she finally realizes it’s him:

Looks *super* thrilled, doesn’t she? WTF. To add insult to injury, the first thing she says is that he needs to dye his hair. Are they serious with this? I realize it was supposed to be funny, but I didn’t think it was, she looked 100% dismayed.

8) River asks how he managed to get a new face and he simply replies “ A thing happened.” So...does he not remember what or how? That the only reason he is even still alive is because of a ‘thing’ that is 5″2′, with big brown eyes who loved him so much, that she literally begged the Time Lords to save him? 😒

9) As the towers play music, River notices him looking very sad and even asks if he’s crying. People assume it’s because he knows it’s their last night, BUT I disagree and posit that it was making him think of Clara for several reasons: 

Of course he averts the question, but moments later he says... EVERY CHRISTMAS IS LAST CHRISTMAS! Literally. Quoting. Her. 

River says she expects him to save her somehow and he flat out tells her I will torture myself for 4.5 billion years and burn this whole fucking universe to the ground to try and save you no. Adding, rather bitterly, that he can’t always save the day and there's no such thing as happy ever after. Hmmm...

The Doctor, about the towers, “when you least expect it, but always when you need it the most  (ahem) -pause for him to get INCREDIBLY choked up- there is a song.”  Literally the last thing Clara would ever say to him:

           You said memories become stories when we forget them. Maybe some of them become songs.

10)  RIVER: You can't expect a monolith to love you back.

       DOCTOR: No, you can't.

       I mean... that seemed pretty clear to me, especially with her reaction.

11) Supposedly a night on Darillium is 24 years, but does that necessarily equate to earth years? This was about the most out of character thing. I’m sorry, but when have you EVER known the Doctor to be able to stand being in one place for a long time (not including 3 because he was exiled without a working TARDIS, so that was unwillingly). Not to mention leaving Earth unprotected for a quarter century??? 

12) Having the hotel built, making her a sonic and staying with her are all touted as grand gestures that validate his love for her. I've never gotten that vibe with them though. Whenever I see the Doctor interact with River - I feel like it’s watching that one friend that falls all over themselves about a guy who’s really not interested. But he’s nice about it, not wanting to hurt her feelings - because he can see how much she idolizes him and he *does* care for her in his own way. But is River Song his ‘true love’? Absolutely not. Sorry. 

13) No Kiss?! You finally have an “age appropriate” (insert eyeroll) woman, they’re in this big romantic setting, on supposedly their last night, on Christmas and nothing? I feel like that kinda speaks volumes on its own.

As an aside, I’d also like to point out in 7x13 when River begged him not to go into his own timestream. He had no idea if he’d make it out alive, which if he didn’t, would have ended their story. Instead, he sweetly kissed her goodbye and yeeted himself right in there with no hesitation - all to save Clara. 

Oh, did I mention the 4.5 BILLION YEARS OF TORTURE? Ok, just checking. 

Airing only a couple weeks after “Hell Bent” felt like kind of a slap in the face in a way, if that makes sense? Just seemed to me more like fanservice for the Yowzah crowd & Moffat wanting to wrap up her storyline before leaving the show. 

This is all just my opinions, and how I see it. It’s okay if we disagree.  ✌💙 

[geekgemsspooksandtoons]

GeekGem’s Major RE8 Rewrite Details & More

I am writing this because my good friend @kaijuguy19​ was very interested in this. And I want to kind of get it out of the way. So I am gonna write a post that almost seems like a leak of before a movie or a game gets released like this very old Sonic movie leak that I still recall. https://www.reddit.com/r/SonicTheHedgehog/comments/7e8a15/some_info_about_the_upcoming_sonic_film/

Including I will reveal other details such as changed canon relating to RE6, and this version’s RE9. But it is mainly about RE8.

I am done with the post and I put, “& More” in the title....be warned. If you’re gonna read this, this is long. And there is some sensitive subjects I talk about. If you’re interested...I hope you can enjoy this. Which sounds very sick considering some of the details in this.

1. The protagonist of Resident Evil 7, 8, and 9 in these rewrites is going to be Emma Rosemary Winters. The daughter of Ethan and Mia Winters. Originally she was meant to be a different character and Rose was still a baby, maybe a sibling. But things just developed and she’s now the daughter that was a big deal in RE8. In this version, Emma is the focus of the trilogy. And not as a plot device.

She was born in 1999, making her 18 in 2017, and 22 in 2021. Much older than her, “Canon” counterpart. She was born a year after the events of Resident Evil 1, 2, 3, and Code Veronica.

2. More classic characters would be more involved. With Jill Valentine possibly being more involved in RE7 and not as a ending surprise for RE7. With her character being what Chris was to Ethan. But it’s more of a aunt and niece relationship in a way. Especially in Resident Evil 8.

Including other details that are revealed in this that Jill sadly became infertile because of being used as a BOW by Wesker in Resident Evil 5. Making a strong and sadly...depressing connection to that game. Along with the many infections that have happened to her in her years. Including she mostly has been dying her hair brown for years. 

3. Spoilers for Resident Evil 6. Compared to the, “Canon” events of the timeline. The USA is no longer a superpower. After the knowledge that the US military had a hand/knew about Umbrella’s development of BOW’s in 1998. 

Ever since 2013, America has been mainly disowned by other countries and maybe not actually demilitarized...and my comment is that America became pussyifed. Which my friend found to be a derogatory term to describe demilitarization. But it is likely not a failing country, but one that is no longer in control of many others.

4. It is likely Leon joined the BSAA sometime or somewhere else. But in 2015, Leon and Claire finally...boned with Leon moving on from Ada. So that Redfield bloodline stuff is done with.

One of the reasons why is that the CGI films are likely not canon in these rewrites...or mainly the recent ones.

5. Resident Evil 8 biggest themes would be about mothers. And that Mia and the truth of who she is. It is a big focus and Emma trying to find her possibly. But also on another mission.

6. As with classic characters returning. Hunk is supposed to be a major part in RE8. Along with the return and the canonization of the Umbrella Security Team Delta known as the Wolf Pack. 

Having first returned in a DLC story to RE7 featuring Jake Muller, Nikolai Zinoviev, and Sherry Birkin. Which features Hunk as the playable character killing Nikolai, rescuing but using the already captured Sherry(Who was captured by Nikolai) as bait for Jake. Which results in a fight to the death between Jake and Hunk. With Hunk winning and killing Jake, but leaving Sherry alive.

This ends in possibly Hunk(Who was hired by The Connections to kill Nikolai and Jake) being able to get into the BSAA as a mole and get close with the Winters family.

7. Replacing the stupid twist at the start of the game. For the next four years, Hunk has been secretly posing as a different man. But using his real name because his real identity has never been revealed.

Originally having the name Derek. His real name is Hank, and called, “Uncle Hank” by Emma. He has been keeping tabs on the Winters family for The Connections. 

But during one night, personally sent by Bailey(The leader of The Connections), Hunk and the Wolf Pack invade the Winters home and replaces the opening scene from RE8. With a moment of Emma realizing Hank is Hunk, but telling her to not call him that, but instead what he’s usually called.

And during the scene with him saying, “I’m not sorry Emma” before kicking Mia in the face in front of Emma. Showcasing even more Hunk did not validate or cared about Emma’s own trauma or well being.

8. In RE7, the Bakers are gonna be less sympathetic minus Zoe. Maybe having some tragic angles, but there’s no mind control really. Instead, Eveline is portrayed in a more tragic light and as a victim. Instead of how the, “Canon” RE7 did with her treatment.

With the tragic angle of Emma seeing Eveline at first as a young girl. But soon understanding she’s not who she is and what she was built for. With Emma knowing she has to kill her, despite she doesn’t want to. And even Eveline not wanting die as well.

9. The story with Emma in the RE8 rewrite is a big thing. And it’s what I have really focused on. While still using a lot of the same story from RE8. But being inspired by Mortal Kombat Legends: Scorpion’s Revenge.

After the events of RE7, Eveline dying, and some months after that sneaking out with Party Girl to a mall. She gets kidnapped by Ada and put for ransom for her mother to secretly help her to give her information from the BSAA and The Connections. And to make sure Emma doesn’t know her involvement too.

For years, Emma has slowly grown a little bitter. Despite being compassionate. Having developed anger toward hers captor and not wanting to be a victim anymore. But in RE8, this is where her mindset starts to darken even more.

But the night Hunk and the Wolf Pack invade their home, kidnap them. Including one scene akin to Mission Impossible 3, with Hunk shooting Mia(Who is somehow still infected with the Mold) in the head in front of Emma. But Mia doesn’t die and slowly healing. With Hunk doing this to force Emma to be complaint and quiet.

Because of this moment, Emma vows revenge by saying she’s going to kill of the Wolf Pack, and Hunk personally. Developing a hatred for the man the most after he revealed who he was and what he had done. Including the Wolf Pack leader Lupo after she thinks she learns a hard truth.

Throughout the game, her mindset darkens as she starts to think humanity isn’t worth saving as she faces against the four Lords, and the Wolf Pack. 

While not killing all of the Wolf Pack. She does brutally hack Bertha to death, and somehow killing Beltway and possibly Vector. But when she thinks she learns a horrible truth that the Wolf Pack leader known as Lupo may of somehow murdered her father.

She fights the woman, breaks an arm of hers, and stabs her in the side of the breasts. But before killing her, Lupo reveals she wants to see her family one last time. Which stops Emma cold once she hears those words.

With it resulting in Emma turning Lupo in to Jill. And Lupo somewhat, “Redeeming” herself by revealing vital information about The Connections. But also getting a visit from Burton’s and apologizing to them.

10. A big theme and...it’s gonna be dialed down. Is that Emma is slowly sharing this dark view on humanity. As she starts to share similar beliefs such as Mother Miranda, and other similar villains. She feels like vengeance is going to help her against the Wolf Pack and the four lords.

Originally, her story was inspired by the story of Scorpion/Hanzo Hasashi from Mortal Kombat. But...things are slowly changing.

But the point is with my original intentions. Emma was gonna be more savage in these RE8 rewrites, hating the lords such as Alcina Dimitrescu, Karl Heisenberg, Moreau, but not really Donna. But her focus seemed to be more on the Wolf Pack. But again, things have changed.

Yet what’s the cause of this is that she is viewing the world in such a black and white way. With Jill, the Duchess, and whoever else trying to teach her that she needs to realize this isn’t how things should be handled.

But the big twist of the game is where Mother Miranda reveals to her who Mia is. Which shakes Emma’s viewpoint forever.

11. I have talked about dialing things down. With understandable criticism I needed from a friend who’s been helping me. 

I felt like my intention with Emma was very extreme. I felt like my idea was very disrespect towards people who have endured trauma and Emma’s reaction seemed more selfish and she seems unaware of certain shit. 

The best way my friend put it as. I’m gonna share this one paragraph.

“That being said, I do think with the way girls are raised, even in modern times and with strong mothers like Mia probably is, the reaction to trauma is less "I'm gonna go burn down everything in my way" and more "I want to get strong enough to move past this pain." Maybe that sentiment's changing with the kind of upbringing people have now, especially with feminism encouraging women to speak up and not be shut up, but I'll also say that there is a big difference towards fantasizing about revenge and actually having to cope with the often unavengable violence many people have to deal with. Like if everyone just acted out vengefully over every single 'wrong' done to them, the world would be a far more chaotic and unstable place. I think even with all the pain and anger Emma feels, her socialization as a 'normal' girl would have her motivations be more geared towards trying to spare others the pain she felt rather than necessarily a desire to torture and destroy.”

Along with the mentions that she isn’t a Mortal Kombat character or a soldier. While there is some vengeance stuff and anger going on...it’s gonna be dialed down a bit. Bertha is likely still killed brutally liked how I mentioned, and the fight with Lupo is still brutal. I feel this paragraph helps with what I’m talking about too.

“Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying Emma can't be a fighter and I actually do like the irony of this small and terrified damsel managing to survive extraordinary odds and defeat incredibly powerful enemies...I just think she probably wouldn't just be swearing and yelling all the time, and honestly she'd probably be better using guns rather than doing everything up close. Think of all the RE heroines and how none of them needed to really punch a boulder (or carry a stupid huge BFG, at least before the remake) to be "strong" - of course, I know part of that is that their designs are meant to appeal to the 'male gaze' and that's why they're all so curvy yet skinny, but I think if you are going for "realism" and "horror" then it's MORE believable to have a protagonist who isn't a brawler. Think of Silent Hill, or Clock Tower, or Fatal Frame.”

12. A major new character or some what new is Eris.

A BOW originally named in developed as, “The Perfect Nemesis” because he is a Nemesis BOW The Connections have made. But what made him perfect was the combination of the Mold with the Nemesis Parasite. Making it easier to control him. Despite thinking about it, he looks more akin to the original Nemesis than the remake version. But with some differences.

He is dropped into the village after Hunk contacts The Connections for a little help to find Emma and even Mia. Including the realization of the four lords and the powers they possess.

But the major twist is that Eris is actually Ethan Winters. Who back in 2017, was murdered by Hunk in a likely story DLC maybe titled, “End Of Ethan”. 

Ethan does pop up in RE7, but supposedly dies. But it is revealed in a DLC he is somehow alive. Considered to be a biohazard and maybe trying to save his family, including his daughter. But it ends with Hunk finding and killing him.

Due to the Mold being in Ethan’s body. He is the perfect candidate for Eris. Being sent on missions to kill certain people. And nearly killing Leon Kennedy on one mission but failing.

He doesn’t really mutate because of the Mold, which controls the Nemesis Parasite. Thus, making him perfect in a way, easier to control.

But compared to Nemesis, who was still quite intelligent for a BOW. Eris seems to showcase more intelligence. Such as being able to talk a bit more. Talking in a way similar to the likes of Grimlock from Transformers. Because of the Mold and this Ethan’s memory slowly popping up. 

Basically, he can’t talk regularly. He just has a bigger vocabulary. Such as these.

“Eris....head...hurt”. “Winters....familiar”. “Emma.....Rose.” And whatever else, it depends.

There are also snippets of blonde hair on Eris’s head. Showcasing the last remaining human parts of Ethan.

It is likely he does at the end of his arc, remember who his daughter is and maybe is the one who kills Hunk instead of Emma. Despite my idea of Emma stabbing Hunk in the balls and chest, but him being so stubborn to pain that he doesn’t care.

During the story, Eris tries to follow Emma and Jill around the village. And even facing off against some of the lords such as Alcina, maybe Moreau, and likely Heisenberg.

It is likely Heisenberg is the one that kills him. But I think I’ll have Emma kill Hunk instead. I want to put that in. Yeah...Hunk is maybe getting stabbed in the balls.

The big reveal where Emma finds out(With Jill telling her) Eris is her dad. Which seems to replace the scene where Ethan discovers Rose’s head in a flask. Because of some reason, she thinks Lupo is the one who murdered her father. Which results in her trying to find the woman and killing her. Until she finds out she was wrong and Lupo reveals it was Hunk who did it.

He dies with a death scream in a similar way of how Superman dies in the beginning of Zack Snyder’s Justice League. And in way...Eris is basically a more tragic version of The Iron Giant.

13. In a retcon or not. The part of Wesker in Resident Evil 1 saying Barry Burton’s family was taken hostage is actually true in this. With the Wolf Pack taking them hostage. But leaving them alive after they hear on a radio Wesker betraying Umbrella, but also because of Lupo due to Kathy holding out for her children.

Outside of the main story. Kathy, and many well known RE characters such as Jill, Chris, Leon, Claire, Sheva, are considered family friends to Emma and Mia. 

With a mention from Emma that people like Jill, Chris, Leon, and Claire(Maybe others like Barry) posed as family for Emma’s college graduation in 2020. It’s really meant as the closest easter egg and to namedrop certain characters without using them in the story.

Along with the fact before RE8, Jill, Sheva, Rebecca, Kathy, and likely Claire have also talked with Emma about personal things. Such as trauma. And that she had therapy for years. But Mia has not done any therapy. Which bothers and saddens Emma. 

At times she tries to ask her mother if she wants to talk about what happened in 2017 and even the events with Ada. But Mia politely asks her she doesn’t wanna talk about it.

14. Compared to their Operation Racoon City counterparts, which was their first appearance. The ages for the Wolf Pack and Echo-6 are very different.

Most of the Wolf Pack are near the age range of Chris Redfield. Such as Lupo being a little older than Jill. Such as maybe being born in 1971. Making all of them middle aged in 2021.

Most of Echo-6 were born in the 90′s. Making them mostly in their 20′s in 2021.

15. Compared to the, “Canon” version of RE8. There is almost a three way war between The Connections/Wolf Pack, the BSAA/Jill with Echo-6, and Mother Miranda with the four lords. 

With Emma in the middle trying to find her mother. And considering the notes, it is likely the BSAA is still corrupted. But that’s another topic.

16. Unlike the, “Canon” story, Donna Beneviento lives with Emma not wanting to kill her after she discovers some things that makes realize Donna isn’t in the right mental state. I won’t reveal much more more of this.

17. Compared to her father in, “Canon”. I have called and thanks to my friend giving me this idea. But I have called Emma the, “Perfect Hybrid” because she was infected in RE7 during her time at the Bakers. I’m gonna share some shots.

Despite my original intention to make Emma normal...she kind of still is...

So she’s not having her limbs cut off. But this explains her recent increase in strength and anger in RE8.

18. Compared to how the real RE8 is. Mia is a bigger focus with the biggest twist in the game is Mother Miranda revealing that Mia was a clone of hers. How she escaped the village years ago was because of an arranged kidnapping done by Heisenberg.

But the big twist is that Miranda reveals that Mia was responsible for being involved with The Connections, knowing who Eveline was and what she did to the Bakers, knowing who Ada was and why she was kidnapped. And also saying Mia was the reason Ethan was murdered and turned into Eris(Which she wasn’t).

She puts it in a way that Mia was responsible for every horrible thing that happened to her. Including that she’s the reason their family was destroyed.

After this and it’s not a boss fight. It results in well...I did make some dialogue. But it’s deep somewhere...I just wanna share some shots.

But the idea I’ve been thinking Jill finds her after the reveal. And takes her back to this small HQ where the remaining survivors of the village and Echo-6 are at.

I don’t think that, “Megamycete” might be a thing. I want Miranda to be fully aware of what she’s doing.

The point also being Miranda see’s Emma as a perfect host because she sees a younger but more savage version of herself. Including she decides to reveal everything of why some characters are saying, “You don’t know who your mother is”.

19. Elena, and maybe Luiza survive. Along with a new character named Vincent survive. The entire village doesn’t die...that just wasn’t needed. Some die, but not those three.

20. The Duke is now the Duchess...who’s basically a more kinder and wiser lady who may not look that good. And usually when I read the word Duchess, I think of the character from Foster’s Home For Imaginary Friends.

21. One of the ideas is to showcase more of the Dimitrescu’s because of their popularity. But also to make them possibly...more evil and whatever else. Seeming more like sexual predators(Which they are in a way.), and Emma having a huge desire to kill them. But one of the daughters, Daniela showcases more of her humanity. Who feels like she’s in love with Emma. But she’s really not right in the hand.

Including one of the weapons Emma gains is a flame thrower...which may do some damage to the daughter’s and even Alcina.

22. Considering the zombies in the Dimitrescu and Beneviento areas are themed to fit for those places. Instead of Lycans in Moreau’s area. You have more Gillman like creatures. Which fits the fish aesthetic of the area.

23. It is likely Chris is in there...just not a whole bunch now. He’s likely in RE7. But Jill overtakes his role and...he’s not doing the stupid shit in RE8.

24. For RE9, the focus is on Emma working with Leon trying to save president Ashely Graham on an island with the help of Carlos Oliviera. Including Claire Redfield is involved. Along with Emma and Leon having to work with Ada. Despite Emma having an intense relationship with Ada as she realizes this is the woman that started her downward spiral into anger.

With Natalia from RE Revelations finally being the leader of The Connections because of Alex Wesker controlling her. Including the island is the home base of The Connections...

25. Mia is gonna be more...sympathetic is maybe the word. She’s more akin to Bioshock’s Brigid Tenenbaum. She regrets things she’s done. And she didn’t want her family to know because she was afraid of her daughter hating her. And the relationship with Mia continues in RE9. 

Despite her relationship with Emma is scorned. A little in the ending of RE8 maybe and in RE9. She soon hugs her mother and forgives her.

RE9 is basically gonna be my own RE4/5.

26. I think this is gonna be the last part. I’ve been writing this for way too damn long. Maybe nearly two hours or so....

So....why did I stop this for awhile...I have talked about this has honestly depressed me.

Dealing with themes such as trauma, a young woman discovering her mother was a bioterrorist basically, Jill being infertile, Lupo’s children actually found out who she was and disowned her when they got older.

There is also the old idea(Might still add it) that Lupo was raped and one of her children were born because of that(Yet Lupo later on in life would murder the man). But also Miranda was raped by the soldiers(An idea from me).

But also Ethan becoming a BOW and forced to hunt down his daughter...it’s also the whole tragedy of the Winters family too and other thing that really dampened my mood for sometime. Including the whole theme about trauma, governments, and vengeance.

This...this was the shit that depressed me and why I needed a break...this is what I was talking about in some of my other posts...this is why my interest kind of...changed to cartoon stuff.

This is why I worried of being a, “Diet Neil Druckmann”. 

I think I’ve written enough...I’m gonna have to warn the readers about how long this is.

[viviane-lefay]

Yeah, no fucks to give here!

Really not into this ship - at least not in a romantic & sexual context.

—

At this point, I think it is best, if I put a little clarification here, before I continue:

This is just about my personal opinion, theories & headcanon - and by no means lays a claim to general validity (nor does your POV, btw).

I have more of a pick & choose approach to fandom subjects, anyway, so I can customize the experience exactly according to my needs and wishes. This is fiction, after all - the realm of endless possibilities - where anything goes, and where there is a place for the preferences of all of us.

That said, I really want to point out that I have nothing against people shipping the Dr. with Agent Stone - but since I, personally, prefer m/f ships, I’d rather choose the female OC approach, as it’s also my beloved villain x heroine constellation (not the subject of this post, though).

My take on the dynamic between the Dr. and his assistant is, therefore, quite a bit different from the fandom popular one. Well, to each his own.

What this post definitely is not, is an invitation for a debate regarding character interpretation, shipping choices, etc. - and all the potential drama that this might entail. If that is what you’re after, then I’d politely ask you to leave now, because all you are doing is wasting both of our time.

Let’s just agree to disagree and move on, k!?

I do my thing and you do you, guys!

I suppose, I made myself abundantly clear now.

—

Anyway, to return to the topic …

Where have all the male friendships & professional partnerships in fandom gone!?

Because, personally, I think agent Stone rather relates to his boss on that level…

Robotnik being a role model of some sort, that is - not unlike a kohai & senpai, or a younger & older brother constellation, actually - where the former looks up to the latter due to certain traits that he admires (and Stone certainly does). Regarding the age difference of the two, this could also make sense.

I’d estimate that Stone can’t be much older than his mid-twenties at most, since he’s in the position of a junior agent and assistant - still at the very beginning of his career path. And he’s very capable, disciplined and professional, at that, which is probably why he made it as Robotnik’s assistant at all (unsurprisingly, given the man isn’t the most patient).

Speaking of whom - I think, regardless of Jim Carrey being in his late fifties at that point - he, himself, can’t be that old, actually. My personal take (& preference) here would be late thirties, which would still make a lot of sense regarding his academic and occupational career. Being this overachieving genius, I guess that he finished school in time-lapse mode, skipping one, or even more grades - same goes for uni. Therefore, it wouldn’t surprise me if he was done by the age of 25 - his five PhDs included (bet he did two at once), which would still give him plenty of time to make his way as an agent and scientific government official up to the time of the events of the movie.

Aside from that, I can’t help but see parallels to the dynamic of Piett and Vader here, as well - a mixture of professional esteem and a bit of intimidation. But certainly no outright fear, as Stone is hardly under the threat of being strangled to death by his superior, like poor Piett is.

That is not to say that Robotnik’s still frequent misconduct towards him is ok (it definitely is not), but it certainly is more mild than he behaves towards, say, pretty much anyone else. Btw, that includes the “pin yourself to the wall”, grabbing him by the bottom lip and dragging him towards himself, while glaring at and chiding him (For what exactly!? Not being perfect, or as smart as him!? Chill, man, the boy is doing his best, and he’s doing a good job!).

Fandom, of course, does what it always loves to do - construe this as “evidence” for the alleged attraction between the two, which is pretty far-fetched, imho (…although you’re surely free to interpret it this way, if you so please. As I said, this is just my pov & to each his own. *shrugs*).

Anyway, you can clearly see Robotnik displaying this type of behaviour, along with the invasion of personal space, towards other male characters as well - be it “Major Nobody Cares”, “Officer Brainfart”, the big bar dude he threw out of the window, or Tom Wachowski. So, following this line of argument, does that mean he’s into these guys, as well!? Honestly, that’s pretty ridiculous!

If anything, it is a blatant display of asserting dominance, bringing the message home that he is the alpha male, while putting his opponent / subordinate in his place - and that’s it! What this behaviour definitely is not, however, is something remotely shipping related.

Besides, there are many examples of other male characters doing this for similar reasons, too - amongst others Darth Vader (remember that scene between him and Orson Krennic!?), and Severus Snape (after Harry invaded his memories during the occlumency lessons). And Robotnik does that quite aggressively in the cases above. In fact, it seems to be a fairly consistent behavioural pattern with him (not that he actually needed that though, but that’s an entirely different matter).

As for Robotnik’s personal attitude towards his assistant, I think Stone’s one of the very few people he actually respects, and even likes, because the young man’s esteem for him is so genuine, while everyone else regards him pretty much like nothing more than an asset, or a threat.

It’s not like he doesn’t somewhat encourage being kept in that position himself, behaving like he does - aside from actively reducing himself to his intellect & academic prowess. This isn’t all that surprising, as it is something he apparently gets his entire sense of self-worth from, and likely the only thing he got any appreciation for from others, which is, perhaps, also why he constantly needs to spotlight said trait (no behaviour someone truly at one with himself & his abilities would display, btw). Then, there is his little tolerance for failure - especially when it comes to himself. He truly expects to perform flawlessly, like a machine, and when he doesn’t, that really seems to unsettle him (that face when Tom points his unsuccessful attempts to catch Sonic out to him … he was so offended, he almost looked like he wanted to cry ^^;;).

So, of course it is likely that he becomes quite attached to the sort of attitude and behaviour that Stone displays towards him, even though he wouldn’t think of it this way - because, you know, emotional bonds with other human beings obviously are beneath him (Yeah, sure, we did see the veracity of that claim afterwards, didn’t we!?).

But, then again, growing up as an emotionally starved child and adolescent, used to being brushed aside, and, later, deliberately distancing himself from other people, he actually might have no clue whatsoever how to appropriately deal with things like these, and thus brushes them aside as “weakness”, which really does make sense, especially in the context that he was bullied as well.

Same goes for him eventually adopting the habit of pushing other people away via plain disagreeable behaviour. I think this phenomenon is called “hedgehog’s dilemma”, and it is quite ironic that he is more afflicted by it than his blue nemesis.

It is so painfully obvious that this guy has some massive issues, stemming from past emotional neglect and negative experiences - so much, that he even rejects all things human altogether, along with his own humanity.

His excessive idealization of and identification with technology, therefore, comes quite in handy as a defense mechanism in order to cope with said experiences.

Machines don’t ask much of you, they do what they are told, they are predictable, and they - above all - can’t suddenly abandon, betray, humiliate, and hurt you (which, I think, is the crux of the matter here).

Even though he might claim that his robots are everything to him, and that he doesn’t need anything and anyone else - his actions, however, prove otherwise … let alone his constant spiteful remarks on the matter, which just sound so damn bitter.

We can recognize that quite clearly when he is forced into involuntary seclusion on that mushroom planet at the end. This is where we see that what he truly is missing are not his machines (I bet he could have easily built a robot to accompany him out of the wreckage of his vessel), but one of the few people (maybe even the only one at that point), that he had apparently grown to value as worthwile company - namely agent Stone.

And, yes, it is very evident that he misses him (platonically, for me - but this isn’t even the point here) - he even tries to make a rock resemble Stone’s likeness in order to have someone to “talk to”, and mimic the social interactions he had with him.

Essentially, all those objects and machines are but a substitutive gratification that he tries to use, but that never come remotely close to the real deal, let alone are ever able to replace it.

In the end, he’s still a human being, along with all the human needs that go along with it - human contact and care included.

If the psycho-social and emotional makeup of his closest known relatives is any indicator to how his own might be structured - and it usually is (I’m speaking about the nature aspect, not nurture) - then he can’t be such a bad guy, after all - at least not inherently.

Taking his grandfather Gerald Robotnik, for example, who loved his granddaughter Maria (a total sweetheart) so much, that he was willing to do anything for her, in order to heal her from the fatal illness that was afflicting her - and who literally went insane with grief after losing her - then it shows someone with a strong emotional life, who feels what he feels very keenly and deeply. Furthermore, he is also someone that happens to bond very selectively, but if that is the case, it has this virtually absolute quality about it, with a love just as intense and profund to match (which is quite beautiful, actually).

On the other hand, though, that can also mean someone that has a high degree of emotional vulnerability, and who, therefore, is susceptible to sustain lasting damage from interpersonal traumatic experiences (which happens to be the case here, imho).

More often than not, it is this type of person that is likely to cork up their feelings and harden their hearts as a result - and who use every opportunity to deride the very traits, needs, and wishes they worked so hard to push away, if they see them in others. That is, amongst others, what gives them away. It’s pure projection - which is why I think that his caustic remarks should definitely not be taken at face value.

There are many, many examples of villains (or anti-heroes) that fit this type. Robotnik would hardly be an exception.

Besides, it is nice to see that Jim Carrey seems to have a fairly similar take on that matter (not that I actually care, but still):

“… and all it really comes down to is, he wants to be special to somebody, only it’s gone megalomania for him.”  [x]

Ouch! Poor guy, actually.

He seems a lot like Ozai in that regard. No wonder I dig this dude (aside from him being hot, that is, haha) - he’s totally the type of villain I fancy.

And also, like it’s the case with Ozai, I can’t help but wonder about his past, given there is known so little about it (aside from a few hints), so the following will be about some of my personal theories and headcanons about him, his family, and his past.

These are such important characters (main antagonists, no less), yet the creators can’t bring themselves to be more specific about the most basic facts concerning their families. Ugh, huge pet peeve here! Nobody expects a huge ancestral chart down to the tiniest details, but they could at least offer more info about their closest relatives - especially the parents, who happen to have the most formative influence on a person.

How old was he, when his parents died, anyway!? That they died seems pretty much a given, as that is what being an orphan is about, per definitionem (and he referred to himself as such). But how did they die? Did he witness their death, or was he absent?

Personally, I have this theory that their demise might very well be linked with what happened to his grandfather Gerald Robotnik, and his cousin Maria. Perhaps they were on that space research colony during the military assault, and were also amongst the “collateral damage” there.

From what I read, the recruited scientists lived there, so I reckon that they did bring their families with them, which is likely, since it is said that Maria was born there, so at least her parents must have lived there for an extended amount of time, as well. Since Ivo isn’t Maria’s brother, but her cousin, Gerald must have had at least two children, who lived alongside him (… and his wife!? No info about her, either.) on that station.

While I think both of Ivo’s parents were from prominent scientist families (after all, that is what the population of this space station was comprised of), it is still unclear whether or not they remained on that station. I am inclined to believe they might have split their time between there and Earth, as Maria and Ivo don’t appear to have been particularly close, such as, for instance, her and Shadow (who was pretty much her only friend there), but I think that might also have been the case due to a difference in age.

Maria was 12 years old when she died during the military attack on the station. Since Ivo apparently seems to have no significant memory of his parents, and seems to have spent his childhood as an orphan, he can’t have been older than 3-4 during this incident.

With Gerald arrested, and pretty much the rest of the inconvenient Robotnik family gone, aside from that small child, I think the military decided to take him along, simply because of the vast potential of this child, coming from a bloodline of geniuses, that was now theirs to mold and to exploit.

They likely left the boy in an orphanage afterwards, mostly to his own devices, and without any support, or caregiver whose bonds transcended the mere duty of keeping their fosterling alive - a lonely life, largely deprived of emotional warmth and attachment.

However, they did keep him under close monitoring, so they could intervene anytime they saw fit, to stir him in the direction they wanted - like a psychological experiment of sorts. I remember that in the movie the presiding pentagon guy referred to him as “a lab rat with teeth” - which is rather telling regarding how they perceived him, and pretty nasty, considering the implication.

The Robotnik name, though, they obviously did not refuse him - a decision they would come to regret later. While this allowed him the only tie to his ancestry, their legacy, however, didn’t do him much good.

Gerald Robotnik was a disgraced man, known to the world as the genius madman, imprisoned and sentenced to death as a criminal - which was, by far not the whole truth. And yet, he was turned into this idealised picture of a hero by his grandson, who so admired his achievents and strove to become a scientist because of it, despite knowing only the official version of the story.

The tainted reputation of his grandfather would haunt Ivo for a long time to come. It would also become the lens through which he was perceived and judged by the world at large, and this turned out to be the main reason he was rejected, and, furthermore, relentlessly bullied by his peers - irrespective of his own accomplishments, which earned him at least the praise of his authority figures.

That he eventually snapped and retaliated, did not exactly improve the situation for him. While the bullying did stop for the greater part, the peoples’ suspicion had turned into fear, as their concerns had come to pass after all, and, as a result, he was shunned even more.

In the following years, he was further on groomed to become this perfect military asset - a morally unchecked scientist and ruthless agent, that the government could deploy like the weapon they undoubtedly saw him as.

Unfortunately for them, however, their experiment didn’t quite have the outcome they had anticipated, as he not only exceeded their expectations on an intellectual and scientific level, but, at the same time, became increasingly unstable, unpredictable (”psychological tire-fire”) and, hence, potentially dangerous - to such a degree that they became very hesitant to deploy him at all (despite the “perfect operations record”), and even downright terrified of him.

Frankly, I think they’d also have ample reason to be afraid of him, other than just his obviously ambitious nature. The most prominent being a possible event, where he finds out about what truly happened to his family and himself, as well as their role in this. Needless to say, that he wouldn’t take this lightly, considering all the shit he had to endure because of it, and likely seek revenge. I’d really be curious about such a scenario.

[thankskenpenders]

So, about the movie...

At long last, a week after it came out, I was finally able to see the Sonic movie. The Daytona 500 being held across the street from my favorite theater and conflicting work schedules had been keeping me away, but now I’ve finally seen it. And it was...

Decent!

Which is way, way, way, way, way better than a movie with this awful premise has any right being. That’s for damn sure. I enjoyed my time at the theater. I don’t know how they did it, but they did it. If you like Sonic and haven’t already seen it, you will probably get a kick out of this film. If you don’t like Sonic (or Jim Carrey), there is very little in this movie for you

Okay, now that that’s out of the way, it’s time to break that whole movie down. This will contain full spoilers for the Sonic movie

This movie kinda gave me deja vu because it’s set up so similarly to the Bumblebee movie. Both open with a slavishly faithful CGI sequence on another planet to ensure long time fans that the creative team gives a shit, but a conflict sends the title character to Earth. There, they form an emotional bond with the human lead as they’re pursued by the bad guys, who are working with the US government and tracking the energy signature of the title character. This setup worked extremely well for Bumblebee, because it’s so similar to the usual plot of Transformers. For Sonic, it was... a mixed bag. But it worked better than I expected

(This shot does not happen in the movie.)

That opening though, huh? Green Hill Zone looked great, and I was pleasantly surprised to see they did, in fact, use the Hyper Potions track from Sonic Mania in the actual film. (The piano rendition of the Green Hill theme used later was also lovely.) Longclaw was also interesting. I’ve seen one person bring up all the bird-themed ruins in Sonic 1 and 2 as a possible source of inspiration for the character, and I think that’s a valid take. And man, the echidnas! I wasn’t expecting that AT ALL. I guess that was probably the Knuckles Clan or something? I would never, ever picture them being alive during Sonic’s lifetime, but like... I guess Knuckles had to come from somewhere, right? If they do another movie with Knuckles, will the rest of his kind have died out?

Sadly, though, this sequence felt like it was over in a heartbeat. We barely see Sonic’s life on his home planet, and we’re expected to feel emotional over Longclaw’s sacrifice when she only gets like three lines before Sonic is sent to Earth. This is a common theme with the film--it goes for these big emotional beats that it just does not earn with its rapid fire pacing

Anyway, then we fast forward and Sonic’s a teen. This is actually kind of an interesting one if you’re constantly neck deep in Sonic Character Analysis like me, because it’s a pretty different take on the character. It’s hard to give them credit for doing something somewhat fresh with the character, though, because like... how much of that was intentional, and how much was just Hollywood writers trying to squeeze a generic action-adventure movie out of Sonic? (Honestly, it’s probably mostly the latter.)

The closest other piece of Sonic media to the movie would probably be Sonic X, a story in which Sonic isn’t really the protagonist. The Sonic of the anime is fairly emotionally distant. He cares deeply about his friends, and does nice things for them, but he’s totally fine with running off on his own for extended lengths of time, and he doesn’t really talk about his feelings. He’s not the character the audience is meant to sympathize with, but is instead this cool older kid who Chris wants to impress. This is pretty much in line with how Sega likes to depict the character. He cares about his friends, but he’s also cool with being a loner. It feels like he only runs into them incidentally, usually when Eggman is causing trouble, and then when the crisis of the week is taken care of he’s back to going on his own adventures. There’s a reason why one of his catchphrases is “long time no see”

The Sonic of the movie is the polar opposite. His main conflict is that he’s lonely and desperately seeks friendship. He’s also an overly-eager, extremely earnest goober. He literally flosses twice. (Which I loved.) I’ve seen him compared to Silver, and honestly, that’s not a bad comparison. I did like it, though! I don’t mind Sonic being a more emotionally open character, like he was in a lot of older Western media. I mean, he cried in like the second or third episode of SatAM

It’s just that, like many things in the movie, it feels less like a deliberate creative choice and more like a logical string of decisions to make when writing a generic action-adventure film for general audiences. Sonic’s the only one of his kind on Earth, so of course he’d be lonely. He has to have some sort of arc for audiences to connect with him, and if he’s gotta be accompanied by James Marsden for the whole movie, well, his arc’s gotta be about them becoming friends

I’ve gotta say, though: Ben Schwartz is great as Sonic. As much as I like Roger Craig Smith, I wouldn’t complain if he became the new main voice of the character. And thanks to the redesign, he looked great. I can’t imagine how nightmarish this movie would’ve been if Sonic wasn’t cute

My main fear with this movie, though, was that Sonic wouldn’t really be the protagonist. As a fan of Transformers, I know all too well that the cost of doing a full CGI character usually means that said character can’t really be the star of the film. Optimus and Bumblebee aren’t the stars of the Transformers movies--they’re supporting characters who are primarily present for the sake of the action scenes. The humans are the real stars in those movies, and the robots are barely even characters. I was terrified that Sonic would be the same, with the actual character I paid to see taking a backseat to James Marsden The Cop

I’m not quite sure if they struck the right balance there, but they did better than I worried they would. Sonic is central enough to the film and gets enough screentime that you can easily say he’s the protagonist. BUT there is absolutely too much of Tom and his family. The human cast is fine, the performances are fine, and there were a few good jokes, but every time the movie tried to get me to care about Tom’s life I was bored out of my mind. It’s just so trite and passionless. The other characters barely felt fleshed out at all, including Tom’s girlfriend (wife?) and Agent Stone. The little girl who gives Sonic the shoes had some cute moments, though

I do, however, love the part in which James Marsden is walking around in a San Francisco t-shirt, to remind us that he’s planning on moving to San Francisco... which then becomes the excuse for Sonic to think about San Francisco and accidentally send his warp rings there, which becomes the excuse for the buddy road trip aspect of the film. And as much as that was a focus of the marketing, the actual road trip part is like... maybe 20 minutes of the movie? There’s like three scenes with Sonic and Tom on the road and then they’re in San Francisco for act 3. The movie tries to act like they’ve formed this deep bond and I just did not give a shit. I don’t care about the cop. All Cops Are Bastards, and that absolutely includes Tom, whose dream in life is to join the extremely corrupt San Francisco PD

The whole excuse for Sonic having to sit in the passenger seat of a car going the speed limit for a good chunk of the movie is also, just. Stupid. If he doesn’t know where San Francisco is and time is of the essence, just... give him a map?

And then there’s Jim Carrey. I was worried about this one. The previews tended to highlight his most Jim Carrey Being Wacky moments, and as fond as I am of movies like The Truman Show and Bruce Almighty, that’s just. That’s not Robotnik. I was pleasantly surprised by the actual movie, though! I thought he was pretty good. I’m not sure what incarnation of Eggman I’d most compare him to, but like... it was close enough, and he was entertaining enough. I’d pay to go see another movie with him as Robotnik. Sure. (Especially with how he was looking at the end of the film.)

There were some other little interesting tidbits here with Eggman, although again, a lot of that is less “let’s do a new take on Eggman” and more “let’s do a marketable movie with Eggman in it, which requires us to explain some stuff.” Like him straight up just being a normal human from Earth, with none of the confusion present in the current “two worlds” canon of the games. Or him apparently being an orphan who was bullied in school, and who trusts machines more than other humans. It’s a safe way to depict the character in a Hollywood movie, but I thought it worked

The way they got to his nickname was kind of funny, though. Like, obviously they didn’t put Jim Carrey in a fat suit, and thank god for that. So instead of mocking his weight, the nickname is derived from the egg-shaped robots he uses. Which made sense, I guess. It at least felt logical for this incarnation of Sonic, who had annoyingly been calling Tom “Donut Lord” the whole movie, to make up the nickname “Eggman.” (Said robots, by the way, were a weak point of the movie to me. They just didn’t have that Eggman whimsy and felt very safe and very Hollywood. Honestly, though, if they had just made Robotnik’s ship grey and slapped some hazard stripes on it, it’d probably be fine.)

As a whole, I thought the humor of the movie was... okay. Sonic had a lot of good moments thanks to Schwartz’s great performance, as did Robotnik. There were just so many weird lines, like James Marsden telling Robotnik that he was breast fed, or the agonizingly long child trafficking joke with Sonic in the duffel bag. Stuff like that

The action was great, though. They definitely owe a lot to the Quicksilver scene in that one X-men movie (I forget the one), but they had a lot of fun with Sonic’s powers and it felt extremely true to the character. Seeing him do one of his Smash poses during the San Francisco fight was great. The action scenes were an absolute delight

And then the ending. Oh, that ending

So, I had already heard that Tails shows up in the stinger before I saw the film. And when I heard that, I expected it to be like, the classic Tails origin story. Maybe Sonic would return to his planet, and run into this precocious kid who decides to follow him around... but no! Not at all! Tails is already the Tails we know and love. He’s already an inventor, he’s already tracking down Sonic. I’m shocked that Sonic actually stayed with Tom instead of running off to have new adventures, but hopefully this is a sign that more characters will be brought into the fray if they make a sequel

And boy, they better make that damn sequel. This movie had a great opening weekend and a positive reception. They have no excuse not to. GIVE US SONIC AND TAILS GOING ON AN ADVENTURE

Other stray thoughts

Holy shit they put Sanic in the movie

The Sega logo animation meant that Kiryu from Yakuza was in this movie for a few seconds

The pixel art credits sequence, which featured both the Sonic 2 special stage and Get Blue Spheres as well as the Eggman logo screens from the Studiopolis Zone boss, was cute

The Saturn logo could be seen on the diagram of the other habitable planets

Robotnik had a label for “Badniks” on his circuit breaker. I wonder if the drones in the movie are intended to be Badniks, or if we’ll see actual ones if a sequel gets made

Also, was it implied that Robotnik committed war crimes for the US government

One of the government guys who I think only got one line was played by Garry Chalk and as such sounded exactly like Optimus Primal

I can’t tell if Sonic getting a red race car bed was an intentional shout out to the Archie comics or if it’s just a coincidence, but I loved it

A dude about my age wearing a Sonic Mania t-shirt literally stood up and clutched his head in shock when Tails showed up

After the movie a very excited kid got his mom to take his photo with the Sonic display in the lobby. Afterwards he was so excited that he flossed

I can’t believe they talked about Olive Garden so much

[palmett-hoes]

Hi, I really loved your post with the monsters as Birds of Prey! Was wondering if you had any thoughts on the Foxes as Marvel or Mcu characters? I feel like I could see Dan as Carol Danvers and Andrew for sure is Jessica Jones, idk about the rest.

oh wow old post!!

haha unfortunately i’m not really a comics person so i don’t feel like i can really give the best analysis possible, but i have seen most of the mcu movies and bits and pieces of the netflix show so i’ll try my best. also im using dc characters too bc i want to

1. Dan: I think your instinct with Dan as Captain Marvel is spot-on (at least uhhh,, based on the movie lol sorry comics ppl). Her direct, forceful powers and fighting style are definitely reminiscent of dan’s no-nonsense leadership approach. similarly the themes of overcoming sexism and acceling in a male-dominated industry in the captain marvel movie is pretty much the same as dan’s story establishing herself as the first female exy captain (tho sports is way more valid than the military). plus there’s a lot of emphasis on love and friendship between women that dan is ALL about. also lashana lynch would be a god tier dan wilds fc. Dan could also def have that lawful good Okoye from Black Panther energy. Loyal, disciplined, no-nonsense leader. no powers except discipline. no hair. also danai gurira in 2012 with the dreads and the sword and the cape on TWD was definitely part of my middle school sexual awakening

2. Kevin: Aquaman. this is based pretty much exclusively on the fact that jason momoa is my #1 kevin fc and also that Pasifika kevin is phenomenal and mandatory, actually. otherwise i think he has a decent amount of stick-up-the-ass cyclops energy. or dick grayson nightwing energy but i don’t have any evidence for why. kinda looks like him tho

3. Andrew: andrew gets the most characters bc he’s my favorite. i think ur jessica jones instincts are absolutely correct, both in her storyline (i only watched the first season) and her powers. i’ve seen some powers au and the tendency seems to be giving andrew like,, psychic powers or the like, and i don’t really agree. andrew is a very direct character. he’s pragmatic, he confronts problems head on, and he doesn’t muck about in details. to me this really translates best into physical powers like super strength that help u big punch straight thru all ur problems. also i def think andrew would be not just a solo hero but a mercenary (or a detective) because he’s not altruistic enough to be a standard vigilante. he doesn’t care enough about other people to hang out on rooftops all night waiting for Crime to occur. there’s a price for that.  which brings us to the NEXT andrew hero: deadpool. maybe in personality more of a drugged andrew but the superpowered mercenary is really a perfect fit for andrew. also, healing powers have a decidedly tragic poetry to them on andrew. already he’s self-destructive, if he had a healing factor his concern for his own well-being would be so beyond rock bottom it’d be in the earth’s core. even worse when you remember that with a healing factor, as opposed to indestructibility, you still feel all the pain. which brings us to Wolverine and X-23, who have the same thematic points as deadpool but are much more of a personality match and they have knife hands, which i really think andrew would appreciate. ending that sadness train and onto another tho, andrew’s aesthetic and Vibes fit the Winter Soldier just SO well (just that movie tho, not really civil war or anything past that) and a reinterpretation of the captain america story using the twinyards would be incredibly interesting. and finally, one last hero that would work really well for andrew: rogue, only remove the angst around not being able to touch people, andrew would love that. one touch and their comatose? baller. don't fucking touch him.

4. Matt: Shazam. I didn’t see the shazam movie but my dad and brother did and they said it was very funny and all the trailors looked like it had a lot of fun himbo energy and i really think that fits. in terms of matching himbo disaster energy i think i’ve heard good things about comics hawkeye (not mcu). thor?

5. Aaron: Mr. Fantastic. now this might be a stretch but aaron is a character who uses a skin-deep veneer of anger to cover the fact that he’s actually quite pliant and bends to other people’s wills. and he’s a doctor or w/e. he could alse be like,, antman. he’s smart right? hank pym not paul rudd. katelyn can be wasp

6. Seth: Arm Fall Off Boy. no i will not elaborate.             ..... ugh fine, but i'm using my favorite piece of superhero media of all time: x-men evolution, the one where they're all teenagers in public high school. seth can be lance alvers/avalanche who’s a bit of a jerk and has a lot of issues with authority and has a rivalry with cyclops very reminiscent of seth with kevin, but still there’s the recurring theme that he’s lashing out because of low self-esteem and a bad situation and he’s a surprisingly sympathetic character who i’m very fond of. his power is earthquakes but i think the name makes that pretty self-explanatory

7. Allison: Iron Man. cocky, bitchy, and rich rich rich. sounds like allison to me. then to elevate it a level higher: emma frost, rich bitch extraordinaire. also if allison had telepathic powers she would be unstoppable. plus one more bitchy, morally-gray blonde (but chaotic this time): Harley Quinn

8. Nicky: Okay so I do wanna give a quick shout-out to Northstar, the first openly gay comicbook superhero, who’s a speedster which I’d actually say fits Nicky pretty well. However, if i had to choose a superhero to represent nicky in presence and powers it would have to be Jubilee from x-men (... from what i’ve heard lol. i’ve never actually consumed any of her Media hahaha anyway) she’s a joyful, energetic presence and her powers are setting off fireworks which i think is a good balance of nicky being a supportive cousin-parent AND a chaotic train wreck garbage trash man. also gonna throw in johnny storm for a cheap 'flaming' joke

9. Renee: Thunder/Blackbird from Black Lightning bc she’s a fufkin lesbian lol. (i don’t watch the show but i do follow nafessa williams’s tag). now the fr ones i’m gonna do together because to me they have the same Vibes so i chose them for the same reasons. Wonder Woman and Storm who to me have the same  reserved, impartial, regal energy. honestly ethereal and somewhat otherwordly, and quite literally goddesses. also op as hell.  black widow and her “red in my leger” looking for redemption story also fits thematically.

10. Neil: okay lazy answer first: the flash or quicksilver. get it? because they run fast? and neil run too? yea i like to think i've proven myself to be better than such a surface level interpretation but worth the mention ig. so for srs now, mystique and her shape changing powers would be an interesting interpretation of neil's identity issues, but i wanna push it a step further. nightcrawler would actually be possibly the MOST interesting hero to apply to neil 1. because powers still very movement go fast place to place 2. because of the thematic focus on neil's unusual looks and the lengths he goes to hide them, very much in line with the way nightcrawler will use a hologram-projector in order to look human, yet in both cases it's only a surface-level illusion, and 3. his parentage. here, mary would be mystique, which i also think works very well considering mary seemed to be the far more effective chameleon on the run than neil, and also fits with her place as a morally grey character, as mystique herself is often a villain or an antagonist, with her own agenda and shadowy motives. then nathan matches well with nightcrawler's father: azazel, a literal demon, and also where kurt gets his appearance. it's a shockingly coherent narrative between the three of them. then, to also give neil some powers that aren't contingent on his fucked up geneology and rather on his own merit and abilities, Black Canary and her sonic voice parallel the way that neil began to anchor his identity and take ownership over himself through his voice and his sick roasts

and 1 extra, wymack: batman, on account of his altruism, his dedication to second chances, and his many, many adopted children

---

anon, ik it's been a sec since you sent this, so i hope it gets back to you. i had a fun time with it and it prompted like,,, 7 different au s that i'll never write

[popculturebuffet]

The Loud House Valentine’s Day Double Feature (Back in Black and Stage Plight) or My My My Once Bitten Twice Shy

What is up my Loudites? And while I am returning to the Loud House I do have some sad news to get out of the way first.. i’m ending regular coverage of the Loud House. I don’t like doing this.. but when I picked up the show, I didn’t really have a set schedule.. and that was a bad thing as I didn’t get nearly everything I wanted done. Now I have one and honestly it’s been great: it allows me to stay focused and if I end up not feeling what I was going to do that day, provided it’s not a comission or specfically needed that day, I can swap things around a bit easier. 

The reason I bring this up is Nick’s way of scheduling means I CAN’T reasonably put the show on the schedule. They often don’t announce airdates until the wee before, which isn’t a bad thing WATCHING, and isn’t unresonable for a children’s network. But for someone who likes to have a concrete schedule at the top of the month, still flexable and able to make changes if they come up but at least some idea of what i’ll be doing and when, that’s a non-starter, as not knowing when a show’s going to be there or not really messes with things. In contrast Disney puts up their entire programming schedule for next month towards the end, so I know if a show’s coming back, and thus that it’ll probably be around for next month’s too. And if it goes away a week earlier than expected then super I have that space for other sttuff. But I just have too much other stuff, paid and on my own time, to keep friday’s open in perpetuity.

I will however still reviewing the show infrequently as I still love it, Season 5 will probably have plenty of episodes I want to talk about, already it has Leni running for mayor which sounds like one of my wonky spinoff ideas and I love it all the more for that, and ther’es tons of episodes I have and haven’t seen to dig into. So like Lori I won’t be in the house on a daily basis but i’m still going to show up a lot. I already have an April Fools special planned, as well as a retrospective ready for some time in the future. And of course if more Sam and Luna episodes show up, you know i’ll be on those as fast as humanly possible so yeah not leaving the show.. just not coveirng it because I like having some control of my schedule, it’s a thing with me. 

Good then we can get to why your ACTUALLY reading this unless you’ve already scrolled past or scrolled up to this. Next Sunday is Valentine’s Day, and so to continue Valnetine’s Shenanigans on this fine blog, i’m doing some romantic style episodes of the loud hosue for you. I did intend for this to be bigger, but frankly i’ve been running behind on reviews and running out of steam lately, so I paired it down to the two I wanted to do most. So for today we’ll be covering two of the show’s couples: One they badly need to bring back and I question why they haven’t, and one that I feel has gotten a lot of flack for things that aren’t it’s fault. Both are really adorable so expect some awkward blushing, bats, blood, and other stuff rhyming with B under the cut!

Back in Black: So we begin our double feature with Lucy

Yeah I have not covered this adorable harbinger of death enough on this blog, and intended to do this one, among other lucycentric episodes back in october.. and the fact I didn’t is a good argument for why I have a schedule now ain’t it? But sometimes your plans not panning out right at the exact time you planned them works out for you. Not getting to do Plan 9 From Mission Hill during Pride Month meant I got to do it on comission later. And not getting to do this one at Halloween means it still works fine just fine for valentine’s day.  

So we begin the episode with Lincoln working on his science project, with Rusty coming over to help. 

Shockingly though not only is he not just taking a nap or hitting on Lincon’s sisters while Lincoln works but actually helping, he’s actually good at it. I’m as suprsied as you. Though this is early in his characterization, so he hasn’t’nt been established as horribly sucking at everything or his friends being done with his bullshit QUITE yet. Give him time.  This is an interesting moment in the character’s history though, as it’s the episode that firmly establishes him as a close friend of Lincolns. While he was already turned from a member of a random violence gang to LIncoln’s buddy in the span of season 1, this episode cements him as one of his closer pals simply by him coming over and the two being fairly familiar with one another. Granted by that same token Girl Jordan should be in the group.. and I have nothing to add to that. Add Girl Jordan to the Lincrew. Just do it. 

Anyways Rusty brought his brother along. And you’d expect me to be terrified as there’s now three of them. But.. nope I like Rocky. He’s a chill kid and his personality goes together well with Lucy’s as while he’s a more typical kid, he’s still very subdued in his emotions like she is. Also he mentions both parents so my divorce theory.. is honestly still valid as this was three seasons ago and I could buy their mother left during that time. 

And yes Lucy’s in love.. and stalking him a bit as she follows him around the house sighing while he wonders who did that.. though it is a nice clue their compatible. When you can sense the presence of someone whose big running gag is showing up out of nowhere to scare the crap out of people that means something. And it’s either that you’d really get that person or your Wolverine. Or one of his kids. Or his clones. Or clones of his clones. What i’m saying is Rusty’s mom banged the wolverine and his family tree is really weird even by marvel standards. 

But I do give her a pass as she’s not trying to be creepy or obsessive, she just doesn’t know how to talk to him as he’s your average kid and she’s a creature of the night. It’s just a kid being shy which is very refreshing both because pre-savnio being fired the show had some very messed up ideas about relationships and gender politics at times, the latter of which actually crops up here, and because having grown up with the cartoons of the 90′s and 2000′s.. I had to put up with things like this. 

Full Disclosure: I DO ship sonamy.. but only after around Sonic Chronicles, where Bioware and then Sega decided to not make “Constantly harasses sonic despite him clearly not being interested and saying so vocally” and “Obessess over him to a point I worry she’s going to break his legs so he’ll never run away from her again”, as well as aging her up from 12. Still find her ungodly annoying at best and terrible at worst before that point, Sonic CD and Sonic Advance excluded. And yes I am that huge of a nerd, damn proud of it too. 

What i’m getting at is that a little girl unable to talk to a guy and only being kinda creepy because that’s what she does is LEAGUES better than “IT’S NOT CREEPY WHEN A WOMAN DOES IT”. Given this episode was written by a woman that probably helped a lot if not entirely but I don’t blame her for that.. more on that later. 

Point is she’s smitten but her first attempt to talk goes back as he rushes to leave after she tries talking to him.. and also appears out of nowhere to spook him. Come on man, your better than that. YOu sensed her before why not now? Up your game. But yeah Lucy’s depressed while Lincoln talks to her about it, about them leaving and once Lucy confesses she’s into rocky asks what he’s into. Lincoln.. has no idea as he’s barely been around Rocky. He’s just an average kid he dosen’t quite understand. Normal is the word he uses and Lucy ponders that.  We next see the three most traditionally feminine sisters, Lori, Leni and Lola, all pissed someone stole their stuff, though Lori does suspect Lola at first because let’s face it, this fits her MO of being an entitled brat and not being above petty theft. But no the culprit is Lucy who genuinely apologizes and understands that their mad but the other girls are fine with it given the context, which Lucy explained, and are happy to make her over.  This is where the problem I was hinting at comes in: ALL the girls are on board with this makeover plan. the problem is.. only the three who came in in the first place make actually sense making Lucy more tradiotnally feminine. Lori loves fashion and is a control freak who has troubles with empathy at times especially at this point in the series, Leni while not INTETIONALLY hurtful is kind of ditzy and thus can miss some cues, and Lola has a yawning starless void where her soul should be. For these three? Yeah this plot actually makes sense they wouldn’t think of Lucy’s feelings and actually help her use who she is to get rocky or tell her it doesn’t matter she’s beautiful as she is.. then presumably bring the wrath of god down on that poor child before things were cleared up.  The issue is more dragging the other sisters into it. It only fits the three above to really give a shit about making Lucy more “normal” and “Girly” and “Other stereotypical bullshit”. Luna is very chill and empathetic and would be the first to say “Wait maybe making her the opposite of herself isn’t a good idea”, Luan is likewise empathetic though I could possibly see it she really doesn’t need to be in this plot, Lynn ENTIRELY doesn’t fit as she prefers sports and getting dirty and what not and is the closest to Lucy out of the sisters and thus would probably be the most defensive about her not changing and that could’ve actually been interesting, Lana would be the same minus the being closest and Lisa is coldly detached a lot of the time and wouldn’t care about any of this on a good day. It feels HORRIBLY offensive and out of character to have them all suddenly be “nah your not girly enough”. These girls don’t give a shit about whose more feminine than who and it’s really bad to pidgeonhole them as that.  However.. I dont’ blame episode writer Gloria Shen entirely for this. She wrote it, she gets some of the discredit.. but she didn’t DIRECT the episode and a LOT can change from page to screen. No  THAT was series creator and known sexual preadator Chris Savino. And i’m not just blaming him because he’s a creepy asshole, but because the seasons he directed, seasons 1, 2 and most of 3, had a bad habit of having episodes where all the girls acted as a group and often to weak ends, like the green house, the one where they all fought, the gender swap episode or  heavy meddle.. which is a headache for another day. Point is it doesn’t surprise me he didn’t fix this or even genuinely cared to differentiate  them and it’d be until next season where the show fully became an ensemble piece. SO yeah I blame him on this not for his horrible history, but simply because it sounds like his writing style and as director, and a producer on the show, he had the power and responsibility to fix things and did nothing. So if it wasn’t directly his fault in the first place , he certainly didn’t fix it, call it out in storyboarding or well anything. So yeah shared blame all around.

So after a makeover montage, Lucy is uh... well I can’t describe the abomination they’ve created. 

I mean.. none of it works, and I think that’s very much the intent, dosen’t make it any less horrifying. Nothing about this is right: makeup REALLY shouldn’t go on a child in any circumstace so the blush on her cheeks is creepy and makes her look like one of those creepy porcelian dolls that i’m 100% sure either are planning to kill us all one day or were made to keep the souls of the damned trapped inside forever. The ear rings just look creepy and again are a bit much for an 8 year old, and the blonde hair just brings it all together. The pink outfit is fine.. I guess but the face is just so unsettling I can’t process the rest of her outfit and i’m not even going to try. 

Point is she looks terrifying, and not in the fun way she usually does, and Rocky dosen’t know what to make of this. Oh and if your wondering why he’s here Lynn just.. took a hockey stick to Lincoln’s project to get the Spokes Boys back over here, and Lisa mocked him for pointing out the obvious holes in their plan despite being 4 and LIncoln having a girlfriend at this point. Granted his relationship with Ronnie Anne at this point is also kinda effed up, but given you all pushed him in this direction, Lisa still has no room to talk and they amicably broke up at some point once the writers decided “Let’s pretend like this never happened and they were just friends, despite her being introduced with a crush on him and us still replaying episodes with said relationship in play, instead of actually dealing with this directly”. You may be easily able to guess what hte retrospective’s about at this point.  So Lori comes in for phase two .. WITH BOBBY!

Just.. I cannot tell you how much I needed my boy to calm me down after the last two scenes of horribly off character writing and ... that thing up there. He dosen’t do much this episode but every episode is better with Bobby and that’s a scientefic fact. So Lori claims they had a double date fall through which Bobby barely follows along with.. and it does kinda feel pressurey to kinda force Rocky’s hand here but her intentions ARE good, and a group date is a good way to relive presssure. It just ends up falling through becaue Lori wants her to act intentionally helpless, which makes no sense both for Lori’s personality given how driven and controlling she is and how Bobby clearly knows both things and likes the first and she worked on the second for him. So yeah the golf date falls through and Lori apologizes for being a bitch about all of this, as they all do, which again. .has me questioning WHY we needed the whole sister group instead of just Lori and co. Or even just Lori. The show REALLY needed to learn character ballance and while it is struggling on occasion, as seen with how lincolncentric this season has been so far, this episode reminds me it used to be MUCH worse. 

But Lucy thanks them because their intetnions were good, i’m going to need a citation on that given it came off as them wanting her to change because they found her weird nad not because they genuinely wanted to help her, and goes off to sulk about being alone. Lincoln dosen’t know what to do till the next day where, again suprisingly, Rusty had the right idea and had them come over to his place. We also find out he’s scared of blood.. which.. I can relate to. Seriously i’ve only insulted the guy once the whole episode

But we find that out because Rocky made his own because he actually found Lucy’s really cool, what a kid. So Lincoln gets the brothers over to his house by damaging the project himself then claming they need to go back and once he sees Lucy’s around has Rocky go into the kitchen to get them some sodas which he agrees to because why not. 

So in a nice little change-up on the running gag Rocky shows up startling Lucy and we get a really fucking cute scene as they hash things out. They have a normal conversation, finally getting past their shared awkwardness, in part because he admits he prefers her as herself.  As it turns out Rocky wasn’t scared.. he just thought she was too cool for him and felt intimidated and like Lucy had no idea what to say. The two then blush and after my heart melts and I freeze it back into shape in a few hours, the two decide to go look at her coffin collection and the next day proudly show off their perfected fake blood.. which destroys the project one more time. WAH WAH WAH. Oh rusty... I knew I could count on you to fuck up at least once. 

Back in Black Final Thoughts: First off Black in Black: Weird Name. I mean it kinda gives the game away, not that fans would thikn horrifying mistake lucy would stick but still, and dosen’t really fit. Call it “Why Do Ghoul’s Fall in Love” or something like that or something related to makeovers. Makeover Mistep. Don’t Make Me Over. Makeover Your Case... okay that last one sounds more like the Legally Blond equilvent of Cobra Kai but the point is it’s just weird.  Outside of the parts I already went in detail about why their dreadful.. this ep is pretty good. That one bit isn’t enough to derail the episode, merley take it’s goodness down a notch, and Lucy is genuinely fun to watch and her heartbreak is hard to watch, and Rocky was an engaging new character with lots of potetial. A large part of why I did this episode. is to ask WHY he hasn’t come back. Rusty’s now a major character, to the point he’s co-headlining an episode next week with Zach... why Zach’s getting an episode, a SECOND one at that I have no earthly idea but the point is the show’s getitng comfortable enought heir giving lincoln’s friends starring episodes without him too, as Liam got one , if alongside Lynn the power couple of 2021 I tells ya. My point is, besides when is Stella getting an episode dammit, that Rocky really should make a come back as he both provides another character for Rusty and the rest of the lincrew to bounce off of, and he and Lucy had genuine chemstiry and now she has her OWN cast there’s an easy story there about her friends reaction to her dating a non goth. There’s a lot of story potetial with this precious boy bring him back.  But overall Pretty in Black is a decent episode, worth checking out if you haven’t seen it and rewatching even if you have.

Stage Plight: So we open with Luann, whose one of my personal faviorites along with Leni, Luna, and Lucy. Granted I haven’t checked out her yearly bouts of going ax crazy on her family yet, but we’ll see in april. But outside of that, which is easy enough to isee iven it’s three episodes out of 214 where she’s like this and she gets her compuance, I find her precious, awkward, and entertaining, from her habit of saying “Get it “ to her love of puns, to the fact she’s essentially a wholesome version of the batman villian the ventriloquist..

Yeah in case you forgot about this gag, she often talks through her dummy Mr. Coconuts.. who functions as her sounding board and helps her figure things out, talks like he’s from the 40′s or 50′s, and in general is a delight. He also once or twice, including this episode acts of his own free will so I don’t know if this is a Child’s Play situation and a dying comedian put his body in her dummy and she’s just rolling with it, if she somehow put a piece of her soul in a dummy or what the hell’s going on here. Compared to the series recently what with it’s mayoral campagins, children murdering guys, and actualy factual spies, this is mildly sane. MIldly. This may also be a serious and untreated case of Disociative Identnity Disorder, but given it’s not framed that way, and Coconuts just seems to be Luann’s way of talking with herself, for now she has’nt gone full vintriloquist. Thoguh givne her april fools day behavior and her profession as a comedian, she probably WILL become the new joker at a some point. 

So the two are talking about Luann’s crush on Benny. Benny was introduced back in L is for Love and is one of the only three love interests there to actually return, and along with Sam the only onen to get multiple episodes about their relationship with their respective loud and a full personality. He was also MASSIVELY hated. For those who joined the fandom more recently, Luann was massively shipped with Maggie, an emo girl who showed up in Luann’s second spotlight episode and one where she didn’t torment her entire family, one I still need to see but have read about. It was pretty cute and nothing was wrong with that or the opposites attract dynamic. But said fans got REALLY and understandibly upset about his introduction and were presumibly none too happy he got to return and got his roll expanded.  And I.. genuinely like the kid. I have nothing against Maggie and in fact poly ship her with both Luann and Benny, as both seem like they’d be open to that and her dour demanor creates a nice contrast between the chipper luann and the somewhat chipper but also chill benny in the middle. I just feel he’s a very likeable character, sweet and awkward and very much on Luann’s wavelength. Like Sam he’s SIMILAR to his love intrest, having Luann’s love of puns, mime and the theater, but is also not quite as giggly about it and as I said has a bit more of a chill to him, in contrast to how sam is slightly more energetic to Luna’s near constant calm off stage. 

I also like him because he’s voiced by Sean Giabrone, an up and coming voice actor who I first met watching the Goldbergs as Adam. His other biggest role so far has been playing Jeff on Clarence, though he’s currently picked up another lead voice roll as Yumulack on Solar Opposites, easily one of the best parts of that show, and has done othe rminor and recurring work, but I feel he’s got the potetial to have a long and fruitful career in voice acting if he wants it. I mean he’s far from the first former ABC star or former Ron Stoppable to make a long and successful voice career of himself. Be the next will fredle man you can do it. 

But yeah I like him and think their cute together and feel demonizing a ship for one that had a low chance of happening isn’t fair, especially when you know, we’re in a fandom where incest runs rampant and is STILL a recurring problem to this day. Pick your fucking battles for god’s sake. As I mentioned you can put maggie in with this relationship or Still ship luaggie regardless. 

So back in the episode Luann and Coconuts notice Benny signing up for the school play and decide to join him. 

Yeah i’ve noticed that a LOT of school set plots are about one of the mains joining a play to either be near or play romantic lead with their crush, or romantic hyjinks happening anyway.  Seriously i’ts a lot. I DID think most of them were around romeo and juliet, and Proud Family, Pepper Anne, and Ned’s Declassified all are probably why, it’s actually way more diverse and i’m happy to give credit to shows and movies for that:  Jimmy Neutron used Macbeth (IN SPACEEEEEE), American Dragon Jake Long used Antony and Cleopatra, as did the comic strip Foxtrot (That one I remembered), Daria used the canterbury tales, Arrested Development used Much Ado about Nothing, and one of my faviorite instances is the film Get Over it. It’s a cheesy as hell early 2000′s high school pg-13 comedy, that I loved as a teen and nos nostalgicaly love but am aware it has issues and some stitled acting as an adult where our hero joins the high school play in order to win his ex girlfriend back from the douchebag she’s seeing now and ends up falling for his best friend’s kid sister instead. They do a mid summer’ night’s dream, which is not only awesome SOMEONE thought to use that one , as the film has given me a special affection for the play.. but it’s a cheesy musical version written by the gloriously over acted director of the play played by martin short. 

My faviorite part of it is the boy band style number about Hermia. Yes really. And I didn’t even get into the fact Siquo is one of the main character’s best friends, Kristin Dunst had to reshoot a scene while making the first rami spider-man , our heroes weird parents who are sex therapists and have no real filter AND offer Coolio a threesome on their advice show, and yes the actual coolio and yes that was an actual person that existed, or best of all the douchey rival who stole our heroes girlfriend, whose not only a former boy band member whose band peformed the song love scud, but also threatens our hero with nunchucks at one point. 

Just see this movie.. i’ll hopefully talk about it some day. 

Point is this kind of plot is stock.. but it’s the good kind you can do a lot of twists and turns with as every example mentioned, even the ones using the crush thing, had some clever twist or turn. And this one is no exception as we’ll see. 

So we meet Ms. Berardo, the schools HAMMY as hell drama teacher who gives herself an entrance and is just wondrously entertaining throughout. She’s played by Grey Delise Griffin, which I could recognize immodestly and man does she bring it. Seriously bring her back. Wonderful character. So our heroine and her leading man audition and in a refreshing change of pace they do not get the lead rolls, instead a modern valley girl and a jock who writes his stuff on his arms do so instead.  But since Bernado’s a bit nuts, she decides to have the Montagues and Capulets practice separately despite tha not making a ton of sense, to drive up tension and what not. I mean isolating an actor to drive up tension is a vallid technique but even having not read Romeo and Juliet since high school, over a decade ago, I can tell you they have several scenes together and this is a logistical nightmare. However our heroine finagles her way over to swapping camps so she can talk to Benny since honestly given the whole thing was a way to get to spend more time with him, she might as well quit otherwise. It also.. isn’t a bad tactic. She wants to know him before asking him out properly, which is fair and a good way to go, and they already know each other and are friendly, and it’s something she likes doing anyway as they were both involved with a play in his first appearance and her liking theater makes sense as she’s a comedian, and while she clearly prefers standup, it’s often a natural evolution to go fromt hat to acting in comedy stuff or making your own show, so it’s not a bad idea to learn that side of the buisness too. 

So Luann FINALLY gets to talk to Benny.. after fast ball specialing mr coconuts in the way of someone trying to sit down

But we get a really cute moment as the two just.. talk like two dorky teenagers; They talk about the real mimes of la, which I want badly to be a show.. even if it’s just to find out what the Mime from Animaniacs is up to now. Where DID that guy go? Did the anvil finally kill him? These are the kinds of things that keep me up at night.. which is probably why I’m finishing this at 4 in the morning. But the two have genuine chemistry with Luann offering him her banana, phrasing, and making a pun he chuckles at. It’s adorable as all hell. 

And Bernardo notices, and since her leads have no sparks she regretfully demotes them.. though their reaction is hilariously realistic as both are just happy to have less lines and walk off. She decides to cast Luann and Benny despite being freshman which would never happen but eh this is a unvierse with a snakebird and spies trying to destroy cherries with a death laser why I do I care two seasons later if two freshman got the leads in the play. Still I love the twist: our hero wasn’t trying to get the lead to creeiply force intamacy or anything.. the two just had natural chemistry and the director noticed that and wants to use it. 

But while this should be great.. it isn’t as Luann keeps dodging actually kissing Benny when they rehearse the kiss. The reason.. is really frigging endearing. Luann simply hasn’t kissed anyone before, this will be her first.. and naturally she’s REALLY nervous about having it in front of a crowd or Benny thinking she’s a bad kisser. And I mean... while I had no personal experience at that age in kissing, most media and personal accounts detail it as awkward as fuck. But that’s the irony: she dosen’t KNOW it’s always awkward and thus is putting a ton of pressure on herself like anyone her age.

So she breaks under the pressure despite the reasurances of her Dummy/Possible Sign that she needs therapy and while she finds a way out the next Day Benny has aburbtly quit because of “chess club”.. which he’s not in. Luann finds him and talks to him about it, worried it’s her fault.. and she’s right, though Benny bowed out because she clearly wasn’t comfortable with him and didn’t want to make her kiss him when she clearly wasn’t comfortable with it. What a man what a man what a mighty good man. Luann TRIES to explain.. and then lets Mr Coconuts do it. Which usually in high school would lead to humilating rejection. instead Benny brings out his own puppet Mrs. Appleblossom. 

Just those eyes.. black and souless.. like a doll’s eyes.. because htey are a doll’s eyes. So yeah Benny also has a puppet he uses to say the things he’s too nervous to say. Which is endearing even if again , KILL IT. KILL IT. I mean i’ts like tha tone guy from victorious if the puppets were actually charming and one of them looked like it was about to play hide the soul. Mrs. Appleblossom explains that Benny is also nervous and with the air cleared and the two realizing theyw ere nervous about the same thing... the inevitible happens

So that fades into the kiss happening on stage, with Luann’s family cheering her, our heroes take a fookin bow and Coconuts and Appleblossom look on.. and talk somehow...and somehow got in the seats on their own. 

Stage Plight Final Thoughts: This episode.. is one of the series best, with great pacing, a low amount of repetition and a relatable conflict, while building up Luann’s love intrest to be a wonderful and engaging guy, and giving us a hell of a guest character and Mrs. Gerardo. This episod eis great, the chemistyr between Gambrone and Pucelli is fantastic. This one is just awesome and worth a look especially if the ship contrversy had hit you hard. It really is good. And there’s always room for benny. Until the next rainbow it’s been a pleasure. 

[beevean]

Sonic and speed: are we misunderstanding them?

This article was originally written in Spanish by @latin-dr-robotnik​ on his blog - you can read it here!

Today on SHP, I’d like to bring attention to a topic that I keep noticing being discussed everywhere (especially now during quarantine), and that somehow worries me: are we misunderstanding Sonic and his characteristic speed?

During these last few weeks there has been a new, relatively unusual explosion of videos and comments on the Internet regarding Sonic and, relevant for today, what is the best game or the best level. The simplest reason has to be the lockdown we’re going through, and which is leaving us with more time to play or think about those games we want to play, or never will. On the other hand, the most cynical side of me believes that this boom of Sonic-related content is because Game Apologist’s video about S3&K and Sonic in general was so popular, it sparked the “interest” of other creators (the video itself is great, and I elaborated my opinions on it here). Whatever the case, there is a greater discussion about Sonic going on right now, and I feel like it’s not directed where it should be.

Before starting: there are a bunch of videos that helped me shape a good part of the opinions I’m going to explain today. You don’t need to watch all of them, and they’re not mandatory to fully understand this article, but if after reading it you’re left wanting for more, or you’d like to hear different options, I’d recommend you watch these:

1.     Sonic and Speed (Errant Signal)

2.     The First Levels of Sonic Games (Super Bunnyhop)

3.     SONIC the HEDGEHOG: How Level Design Can Break a Game (Broken Base Gaming)

4.     How Sonic Mania Makes a Level (RelaxAlax)

5.     City Escape is Peak Sonic Game Design (ZoomZike)

6.     Lost Valley Is Not Peak Sonic Game Design (ZoomZike)

What is the problem?

In a series as big and ever-changing as Sonic’s, there is a wide repertory of formulas and possible answers to the question “how to design a game?”. In some cases we’re still looking for an answer, in others we’re looking for alternatives (I talked not too long ago about the accessibility of Sonic Mania and 2D Sonic in general – Spanish only!), and most of the time, the answer has already been given in the past.

This looking for answers in the past has taken us in many directions, like constantly looking back to Sonic Adventure to solve the great enigma that is 3D Sonic; but I’d add that the recent retrospectives about Sonic and its first 2D games have raised some criticism and questions that, while valid, end up muddling a formula that has proven itself to be effective and crucial in the design of everything related to Sonic.

What really worried me is the criticism about Sonic’s speed and the levels that are considered “slow”, and we’re going to delve into this.

The basic Principles of Sonic

Speed. Platforming. Exploration. These are Sonic’s basic Principles and have always been, from its beginning until today. These three concepts are at the core of not just the level design, but the games themselves as well. The best levels in the series know how to balance these aspects, and the best games are those that can keep a balanced flow, preventing the game from going too fast, and losing its exciting component along the way, or from going too slow and becoming boring, causing the player to lose interest. Naturally, in these games there have to be all sorts  of levels: faster, more relaxed, more open and more labyrinthine, all coexisting in harmony and without going too far in one direction. Ignoring these Principles puts the quality of the levels at risk, and even our understanding of the character.

I would have put my own examples here, but just before starting to write this section I got some wonderful ones from Beevean. If you don’t remember her, she helped a lot with the article about the music of Classic Sonic, and I already warned her that if she kept posting examples this good, I would have had no choice but to feature her again. The discussion started from this post, and she says:

If you approach Sonic thinking its only characteristic is “gotta go fast”, the game you’re gonna get is Advance 2. The very flat, boring, “there’s no way to put normal obstacles in these levels so we’re gonna throw bottomless pits at the player until they get sick of them” Advance 2.

Some fast levels can be awful - Stardust Speedway is a disaster from a level design standpoint and the whole level seems to work against you. Some slow levels can be super fun - you rarely run in Lava Reef and you spend most of the time dodging obstables, but that doesn’t stop it from being one of the most beloved levels in S3&K. There’s no arbitrary reason that separates “good” levels from “bad” levels, it’s an amalgamation of many factors - plus of course your personal enjoyment.

And in her tags (because we both include more information in our tags than in our posts) she adds:

The levels that are widely considered bad usually put too much focus on one of the factors you mentioned.

Marble Zone is too slow and linear.

Luminous Forest is too fast and linear.

The Doom and Lost Impact are too labyrinthine.

And so on.

My personal example is Sonic Mania and its progression during the mid-game, from Flying Battery to Mirage Saloon:

Flying Battery is a long level, filled to the brim with speed and emotions, especially during Act 2. After beating the boss, the player is likely going to feeling exhausted after being thrown left and right, and so…

The following level is Press Garden. Act 1 is a relatively closed and relaxed level, but still moving at a reasonable pace. If the player is familiar with the level they can finish it quickly, but they still can take their time appreciating the view of the printing and the machinery of the zone. Act 2 enhances this, with an absolutely lovely view and an active but still relaxed flow…

Then there’s Stardust Speedway, which is divided into two completely opposite acts. Act 1 is a relatively fast level, but very relaxed and almost a Zen-like experience when the player lets himself be carried away by the starry night sky, and with a relative absence of lights or discomfort on the screen (enemies and obstacles aside). Act 2 is the other way around, a largely colorful, explosive, fast level (to the point that I, anything but a speedrunner, managed to finish the level in 31 seconds, 2:10 minutes if you include the fight with Metal Sonic), culminating in one of the longest, most intense bosses in the game that marks the halfway point of the adventure…

After such an exciting journey, the next level is Hydrocity, once again split in half with a calmer, more exploration-oriented Act 1, and an Act 2 that, similarly to the original level, is one of the most adrenaline-filled water levels in the series. The boss is intense as well, but verging on being tedious and not nearly as fast as the level itself…

And finally, Mirage Saloon. Every version of Act 1, regardless of the quality, are there to set up Act 2, a largely open, fast-paced level.

In short, the Mania experience is made of peaks and valleys of emotions and adrenaline, keeping the game to a reasonable pace and with a good dose of speed, exploration and platforming. The player can break the flow anytime to look for Giant Rings and other hidden goodies, and that doesn’t ruin the charm of the level. In the same way, the faster levels require the player to be familiar with them and to know how to platform to get the best results, without giving you free speed like it’s not worth it (looking at you, Advance 2).

Even the worst levels have the chance to redeem themselves, like for example Labyrinth Zone in the “Misfit Pack” Mania mod.

 Breaking the Principles.

When a level or a game breaks the balance for too long, it might become too easy (the infamous “hold right to win”), too boring (the most common argument against Sonic 1 because of levels like Marble Zone and Labyrinth Zone), or too obtuse (the criticism against Sonic CD). The key word is “for too long”, as Beevean already explained how levels that prioritize one thing over the others can still be considered good stages by the majority of the fandom (example: Lava Reef, and I’d add Spring Yard and Final Egg).

As I said before, Mania shows us how there are levels that prioritize certain aspects, but only for a few minutes at a time. Mirage Saloon Act 1 for Sonic and Tails may be a slow, boring level, but it’s only 3 minutes long in a game that lasts 2-4 hours. Same goes for Carnival Night Act 2, a long, tedious level, but that is still a 4-9 minutes long interval before getting back on track with Ice Cap and Launch Base.

3D Sonic is a much more complicated situation, as every game has its pros and cons. Adventure 1 is one of the games that experiments the most with the Principles in a 3D plane, but it breaks the flow of the stages with the plot and hubs worlds to explore (which are pretty divisive even to this day; for the record, on this blog we’re pro hubs). Adventure 2 gets rid of the time-wasting hubs but each character focuses on one Principle at the time: Sonic and Shadow focus almost exclusively on speed with some platforming, Tails and Eggman on action and platforming, and Knuckles and Rouge are all about exploration (and RNG…). Sonic Unleashed does pretty much the same, just reintroducing the hub worlds, while Sonic Generations is at its core a balanced mix of speed, platforming and exploring (plus a much smaller hub between levels), and… well, I think I made myself clear. 3D Sonic is a mess of ideas that orbit around the fundamental Principles, but that for some reason are never kept consistent between games.

Going back to utterly breaking the Principles, there’s one level above all that destroys every one of those extremes, never taking the middle road and without worrying at all about what players might think of it. This level is…

Eggmanland

If Sonic Mania is a clear example of a relatively balanced flow, in its mid-game at least, Eggmanland may be the biggest example of what happens when each and every one of the Principles is taken to its extremes. Let me explain:

Speed: Eggmanland can be both too fast for the player to react, between QTE and super quick jumps that may lead to your death if you’re not fast enough (and you rarely will), or too slow of a slog to navigate (the long Werehog sections).

Platforming: Eggmanland can have too much tricky precision platforming, made even harder due to a lack of a drop shade (the second Werehog section is infamous for this), or it can throw stretches where you do almost nothing but hold X and maybe go through a QTE, which if failed lead to your death once again; at worst you have to wait, which sends us back to our previous point.

Exploration: Eggmanland can be a giant, confusing labyrinth (there is no shortage of stories of player getting lost in this behemoth of a level), and at the same time it can have some long linear room to room progression, separated by doors about as fast as Big the Cat.

I should say that, despite all of this, I love Eggmanland a lot, and same goes for Beevean; but this is something that has to do with what we mentioned before, personal preference. From a technical standpoint, and according to many players, Eggmanland is an absolute nightmare.

Are we misunderstanding Sonic?

Going back to the central topic of this article, I believe that I put enough emphasis on the importance of balance in Sonic, so let’s go back to the previous question: what is the problem?

In short, I disagree with the voices that call for redirecting Sonic towards “fast”, adrenaline-filled stages. These people, with their own retrospective, are doing some sort of revisionism with Sonic levels, automatically branding levels that aren’t as fast as others as “bad”. We’re ignoring the true value of platforming and exploring the levels, and the perception of the character is at risk.

Like Beevean said, looking at Sonic just as “gotta go fast” is, plain and simple, absurd. Sonic is much more than this restless teenager that, just like that movie with the bus, if he doesn’t run at speeds higher than 90 mph his heart will stop. Yes, going fast is a big part of his initial appealing and his way of life (“My stories only end when I stop running”); but when Sonic’s speed is brought up in these discussions, the rest of what makes the character is left outside: how much he admires nature and how much he likes to take a rest every now and then before the next adventure. Sonic OVA, Sonic Adventure, Sonic X and even Sonic Lost World’s ending show that Sonic is not just speed, but also rest, curiosity, exploration. There are even cases where the journey and the friends and memories made along the way are much more important than the destiny itself (Sonic Heroes, Sonic Unleashed), and on several occasions it’s been shown as an actual weakness of the character the fact that he would act recklessly and under the influence of the fateful “gotta go fast”. This aspect of Sonic’s attitude might probably be product of the aggressive marketing campaigns this character endured (ever since the Genesis “Blast Processing”), but it doesn’t tell the whole story, and it’s unacceptable to enforce this line of thought over everything we know about the character.

And to end this long section where I was hinting at one of the most important points of one of the most thoughtful games of the series, let’s not forget that Sonic is pretty aware that everything has a beginning and an end, because that’s the Nature’s way of things and we have to live life at its fullest, for it is finite. Running at top speed is just one of many ways Sonic lives his life, and his eyes will forever be filled, not so much with speed, but with curiosity.

Conclusions

To recap this long article, let’s remember that

Speed, Platforming and Exploration are the three basic Sonic Principles. The momentum in the games comes from the interaction between these elements.

Speed is not something that’s delivered for the sake of being delivered: it usually is a reward or an incentive to keep the player interested, engaged and excited for what’s to come.

Breaking the Principles impacts the experience of the game in many aspects… unless you’re Eggmanland and you’re breaking every single Principle in one level anyway.

To narrow Sonic down to just “speed” is to ignore everything else that this character represents. “Gotta go fast” is a facet of his design and personality, but not the only one.

Starting from this, we can sit down and discuss about “good” and “bad” levels in the series all day long, but I don’t think it’s necessary. Now that we’re about to discover what’s next for the series, I believe it’s important to clarify what Sonic represents in every stage, so that with some luck we can see better consistency and quality in his future adventures.

Speaking of this last point, I just remembered The Geek Critique’s series of Sonic retrospectives, another series of videos that inspired me and I found enlightening. Do you guys remember the videos I linked to at the beginning? Well, it’s time for you to watch them :P (if you want to, of course)

(I’d like to thank Beevean again for suggesting the best examples I could have needed. Seriously, she helped much more than it looks)

What do you guys think? What is the ideal Sonic level, and why? Do you agree that Sonic is much more than a speedy blue hedgehog? In the meantime, we’re hopefully going to see each other very soon. See you next time!

I feel this theme is strangely fitting to conclude this article, lol

~

After the Spanish article was posted, I reblogged with this:

To add something more, I was chatting with a friend of mine who pointed out that, for all the talk in the fandom that we want to see less linear levels, most of the fan favorites are pretty linear - Ice Cap, Speed Highway, City Escape, Rooftop Run… I told him that yeah, linearity isn’t a synonym of bad level design because linear levels can still be enjoyable: with these particular cases, what makes them different from a random Lost Valley is that they have other elements that make them stand out (snowboarding, running down a skyscraper, skateboarding through San Francisco, climbing the Big Ben…). Plus they have something to compensate for the linearity, like fluid platforming.

In the case of Ice Cap and Speed Highway, there’s also a contrast between their halves: IC Act 1 is cramped and heavy on platforming, while Act 2 is much faster and without many obstacles, almost as a reward; Speed Highway starts out as fast and exhiliarating, with little platforming getting in the way of running, but the At Dawn section is a short open space, to let the player catch their breath, to the point that even the music and the aesthetic are much more relaxed. So, as you said, the balance is kept, and when you add a memorable setting and music, you have a great level in your hands.

Thank you @latin-dr-robotnik​ for giving me the permission to post this! I just had to translate this fascinating article to share it with everyone :>

[peterstanslizzie]

Reacting To: Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts (Season 2 Episode 7)

Episode Title: Benson and the Beast

Spoiler Warning: Kindly proceed if you’ve already seen the episode or are able to handle spoilers.

1. The past few episodes have been starting out with flashbacks huh? Well, this episode is no exception; We travel back one year into the past and we see Benson climbing down into a deep den with baby Dave in his backpack. He’s there because he wants to get his cassette player back from two giant bat mutes. However, they catch him red-handed and tell Benson they need the player to build an alien communicator to reach out to the aliens. 

2. Baby Dave then molts rapidly across one entire cycle and stops at his toddler stage. This makes the bats think that he’s an alien. Why are they so sure that he is though? Lol. So afterwards, Benson and Dave were able to escape with his cassette player. 

3. We are now in present times and it picks up where things left off last episode; Full Mega Jaguar Kipo is chasing after Scarlemagne who has her mother, Song aka the Mega Monkey under his mind control. One of the Nobles tries to shoot Kipo with an arrow but he gets taken down by the three scientists with a paralyzing dart. 

4. Kipo goes on to attack them and Dr. Emilia retaliates by shooting the darts at her. Luckily, she’s stopped by Wolf and Benson then tries to calm Kipo down and remind her who she is by showing her, her family photo. However, Zane points his arrow at Kipo, which startles her and accidentally bumps Benson to the ground in the process. He tries again one more time and Kipo manages to turn back into a human. Wow, that sure was suspenseful!

5. The scientists immediately recognize she’s Lio and Song’s child (I think) and they try to act like they know nothing about her parents. I think they are gonna try to kidnap Kipo themselves to experiment on her. They claim to be part of the human resistance that’s against Scarlemagne and they plan to wait till the Noble whom they just took out snaps out of his mind control state in order to extract information about Scarlemagne’s plans. 

6. It looks like Benson has dislocated his shoulder; Poor thing! Dr. Emilia tries to trick them into following them back to their headquarters but Wolf is highly suspicious of them. We also know that the scientists were actually looking for Kipo for 13 years! Okay, so they definitely know she’s Lio and Oak’s daughter. Also, they secretly plan to use Kipo as their weapon and dispose of her afterwards. Yikes! That’s evil! Anyways, despite still having reservations about them, Kipo and the others agree to follow them because they really need for Benson to get medical help. 

7. Another flashback!; This time, we go back to the time when Song decided to stay back to answer the knock on her and Lio’s apartment door. As I’ve predicted, the same scientists were the ones behind the door. Song opens it and Dr. Emilia immediately calls her out for lying to them about being able to isolate the mutagen. 

8. If I’m not wrong. there’s two sides here. The first side, which Song and Lio belong to are the ones who want humans and mutes to live in harmony with one another and that’s by genetically modifying humans to become half-mutes in order to survive on the surface world. And as for the other side, which the scientists belong to, they just want to take mutes down and turn them back into animals so that humans can go back to being the dominant race again. 

9. Dr. Emilia tells Song that she’s going to find Kipo and take her away; Song tries to resist them but accidentally falls off the balcony. Luckily, she transforms into the Mega Monkey just in time. That was a cool scene I must say. 

10. Back at the scientists’ HQ, Dr. Emilia is able to fix Benson’s dislocated shoulder. She then gives them a tour of their offices and we see more scientists busy working on plans to rescue the mind-controlled humans in Aurum and they have a tunnel that can take them there. We also get introduced to some of the things they’ve created to use against the mutes like a pheromone proof room and their Sonic Emitter, which emits sound waves that can only bother mutes. 

11. However, the sonic waves unknowingly wakes up the two mute bats. Are these bats supposed to be good or bad? We discover later on that the mind-controlled human they managed to capture is actually Troy’s dad, Roberto! Finally! After 6 episodes, we get a mention of Troy again. I miss him. And so does Benson hehe. Lol, look at Dr. Emilia’s face in this picture. 

12. Dr. Emilia now wants to train Kipo to control her powers and Benson wants to come along since she needs her anchor. Before leaving, he asks Wolf if she could make him look good in front of Troy’s dad. LOL! He still gotta impress his boo’s dad even during a time of crisis. Well, he still has a date set with Troy after all! I hope we get to see this date by the end of the season!

13. During the training, Kipo is finding it difficult to go back into her full jaguar form again. By the way, Dr. Emilia is INTENSE! Benson tries to talk to Kipo to figure out where her head’s at and Kipo tells him she’s afraid of hurting him or anyone again. Well, that’s a valid fear to have.

14. Meanwhile, Wolf is re-telling the story about how Benson and Troy had set up their date to Dave. Suddenly, Roberto wakes up and Wolf explains to him what happened, including letting him know that Troy is safe with the Timbercats, thanks to Benson. Roberts asks them who these people are to which they explain everything to the best of their ability lol.

15. I appreciate Dave for trying to talk Benson up to Roberto lol. I mean, that’s gonna be his future father-in-law. Zane and Greta discover that Roberto is awake and asks him to explain Scarlemagne’s plan during his future coronation; He reveals that Scarlemagne plans to gather all the humans in the arena to mind-control them. Benson, Kipo and Dr. Emilia joins them and Roberto tells Benson he’s impressed with the heroic things he didn’t do, thanks to Dave. 

16. Suddenly, the mute bats barge into the building and fortunately, they’re not evil/mind-controlled but they are really obsessed in trying to find that “alien communicator” they so desperately want. They (Geli and Jibralta) start rummaging through the place and attacking whomever in standing in their way. Kipo tries to stop them with her two jaguar arms but it’s not enough. 

17. Because Benson recognizes these two, he tries to lure them to him by telling them that the sonic emitter is the communicator. However, they think he is an alien whisperer and they grab hold of him and take him away. Aww, Dave is upset that Benson’s gone. Finally, Kipo is able to trigger her transformation into her full Jaguar form. 

18. The crazy bats take him to their den and ask Benson to use the “communicator” to make contact with the aliens. Kipo, the full jaguar then jumps into the burrow and starts to chase the bats. Wow and she’s giving them a beating for sure lol. As Kipo is about to attack them some more, Benson manages to calm her down by showing the family photo to her again. Phew! I’m glad that she’s able to transform back again because you know how some shows will try to make it more dramatic by not allowing its characters to do something for some random reason. 

19. But they still have to deal with Geli and Jibralta and it turns out, Kipo is able to transform back into a jaguar again without any problems, in order to scare them. Wow, I’m impressed; She’s getting good at this. Afterwards, Benson gets on top of Kipo and they head off. 

20. They reunite with the others and Kipo impressively turns back into her human form once again. She’s happy that she’s able to now control her powers and she’s confident in taking down Scarlemagne without hurting the humans. However, Dr. Emilia wants Kipo to use her powers to specifically take down the Mega Monkey. But Kipo doesn’t say anything. Why can’t she tell them that the monkey is her mom? It’s not like Kipo was given the impression that the scientists already knew of her or her family. 

21. Awkward moment alert! Roberto tells Benson that he should date Wolf because she’s been saying nice things about Benson to him. LOL! His plan backfired. Benson decides to tell the truth and Roberto immediately gets the hint and it seems like he would be happy for his son, Troy to be with Benson. Phew! For a minute there, I thought Roberto would be that homophobic parent we all hate tbh. But considering the fact that the show’s setting takes place very much in the distant future, I’d like to think that gay relationships would be much more normalized by then. 

22. Kipo is facing a dilemma because she might have to fight her own mom, who is mind-controlled. Benson, yet again, comes up with a plan to get Kipo and Roberto to sneak out in the middle of the night and Roberto navigating through the tunnels to get Kipo to reach the place where her mom is being kept. She goes up to the surface to immediately find her mom who is asleep but it looks like she’s tied to a giant tree? 

23. OMG look at that face; I just want to cry. Song wakes up and they share an emotional reunion. However, Kipo gets grabbed by a flamingo and is dropped onto an empty clearing in the forest.

24. She is then greeted by Scarlemagne and her mind-controlled father. So she has no other choice but to hold herself back from attacking. The episode then ends here. 

25. That’s the end of my review of episode 7. Thank you guys so much for having read my review/reaction. I really appreciate your support. Please check out my review of episode 8 for when it will be out tomorrow. Till then, bye!

[ghostmeep]

Overall, I like Sonic’s reactions to what is happening in the IDW Zombot arc. 

So i’m late to be commenting about issue 24, but like?? Looking back and seeing some peoples thoughts on it? I’m a bit confused? Mostly on all the animosity to the latest arc. I mean, some I agree with (like how Shadow and Eggman are being handled) And sure if all this angst isn’t your cup of tea that is valid. 

But one thing I can’t agree on at all is when people say Sonic is showing lack of remorse for his actions? 

I, for the most part, agree that Sonic screwed up and this Zombot infestation is pretty much due to his actions - But Sonic knows that too. And to me he also shows plenty moments of regret? And he does it in character, and full of imperfect moments that really makes him seem like a full character.

This is going to get long, just a warning. But also has lots of pictures

------------

Letting Eggman live without supervision and especially letting Metal Sonic go was all what led to this disaster. (he’s not the only one at fault imo, but talk for another post)

But Sonic absolutely thinks it’s his fault, and is constantly showing remorse.

He’s just doing what he can to not let the situation get to him, because what the world needs right now isn’t a remorseful Sonic, it’s a Sonic that is always on his feet and able to handle all the bad guys. 

Everyone literally needs Sonic to be acting the way he is???

In the game Sonic Forces, it was outright said how Sonic was the people’s hope. And I believe that’s true for the comics as well. How demoralizing would it be for people if Sonic of all people got all down and drowned in self-pity? Sonic is an iconic figure in his world, and that means he needs to put up a front. He can’t just break down in front of people.

He can’t break down completely at all, because there is no guarantee that he’ll be able to pick himself back up in time.

He says it himself.

Sonic not getting down on himself is half the battle. He knows this. The mental fight is huge.

And I get that people just want to see a little more remorse from Sonic and for him own up to his actions - but to me he is???? 

The only reason he keeps saying how ‘I did the right thing by giving Eggman a second chance’ is so he won’t slow himself down. I don’t think he wholly believes that he made the right choice, and I don’t think he is trying to shoulder off the blame. He’s just trying to keep his spirits up as best as he can.

You can’t tell me this isn’t remorse

Yes, he shakes himself out of it and goes on to say how he made the right decision, but what else can he do???? He needs to snap himself out of it and get back to saving the world.

Because just look at this. This is exactly what happens when Sonic starts to doubt himself. 

He stands there and debates and can’t take any real action.

And we know that he isn’t the type to normally doubt what to do. He would have 100% barged in and did what he could to save any potential survivors and work it out from there.

The only reason he stopped and debated there shows just how badly this whole thing is affecting him. 

“Which is ‘right’?” -- This is what he asks himself because he is starting to think that the decision of leaving Eggman free was ‘wrong’ before. And he does’t want to make another ‘wrong’ decision.

And he does blatantly admit that he is screwing up left and right. And he does it during the only time he can -- when he is by himself. 

I mean, look at that. Look at how much of him is shiny and metal and how he is surrounded by Zombots. The colouring itself is even so bleak to show his mood too. 

He can’t say these thoughts in front of anyone. He can barely say these thoughts to himself. 

Because what happens while he is saying this? He is literally sitting there as the virus takes over and Zombots surround him.

His eyes have even turned red like the Zombots by this point. - they were green in the panel just above. If he sat around a moment longer he probably would have been completely infected.

And he honestly looks super close to giving up here. Just look at him. He’s tired. He’s tried of running, of all things, and he’s tired of messing up. 

But giving up isn’t what heroes do, isn’t what Sonic does, so he does what he can to snap himself out of it.

What more do people want??????????

I’m honestly curious here. This is pure Sonic regretting his actions and making up the resolve to do something about it. I don’t know how more remorseful he can be.

Let’s look at his encounter with Espio

Sonic’s first reaction is to attempt to comfort Espio. But then Espio - completely understandably since he lost his family - loses his cool and blows up at Sonic. 

And look at the progression of Sonic’s expressions. He is worried, shocked, and then angry. His next words are said as a result of Sonic losing his own control. Because he literally only just got over his own moment of sorrow, and he just made up his mind to be strong and focus on what he can do in the here and now. And yet here is a friend throwing what Sonic already knows into his face only moments later.

So what does Sonic do? He just says what he has been chanting to himself all this time. That he wasn’t wrong to give second chances. 

Because it’s pretty much the most he can to keep himself going.

Again, just look at his expression. This isn’t the face of someone who is acting all haughty. It’s the face of someone barely keeping it together. Yes, this is not a good reaction from Sonic. I don’t think it is meant to be. He is just reacting emotionally. Because it’s been a long long couple of days, and Sonic can only stand so much. Not to mention, Sonic has not been able to sleep or rest since he got infected.

And side note, but Sonic isn’t really wrong. Exactly how many friends and allies of Sonic started off as antagonists???? From Knuckles to Shadow. Second chances are sometimes for the better. 

And letting Metal Sonic go was ---- a lot. But we saw Gemerl, another one of Eggman’s robots, change. So why can’t Metal Sonic? At that moment Sonic believed that Eggman wouldn’t be able to influence Metal Sonic and make him dangerous, so what was the harm from that viewpoint?

But anyways, back to Sonic and Espio. 

We get this pause where the two just looks at each other before mutually deciding to end the argument and go back to saving people.

To me it’s clear that while the argument wasn’t exactly settled (we can see Espio still angry as he poofs away) but they both realize that yelling at each other isn’t going to solve anything. 

This wasn’t a typical comic ‘I’m too cool for emotions’ moment where they disregard emotions in characters. The exact opposite really, because these two completely lost themselves for a moment due to all the stress they’ve had. They just realized that they needed to get their prioritizes in check right now and they can’t let their emotions run rampant because then nothing will get done. 

It’s going to build tension and I can see this blowing up again, but they way they reacted is just so believable to me. They are both under a lot of stress, and they are lashing out. Who wouldn’t if they were in their shoes?

Then we get Sonic seeing his friends again. And instead of the boost he usually gets from them, it’s just more sadness as Sonic has to inform them that he failed them. Again.

Sonic can’t even bring himself to look at Tails directly. He’s so full of guilt. And look at Tail’s face. I highly doubt that Tails really believed that Sonic just had the recorder hidden. But it was his last bit of hope so he asked. 

But Sonic has to let his best bud down once again. 

Look at this moment where they are all just silent. 

No one can say anything at the moment because they know just how bad the situation is. 

And then oh boy, Tangle.

Sonic only moments ago said to himself how he keeps screwing up, Espio rubs salt into his wounds, he sees Cream of all people lifeless, and he let his buddy Tails down. And now this. One after another there is constant hefty reminders that Sonic screwed up.

And I want to point out - this isn’t how Sonic fights?? He doesn’t stop fighting to talk. Here he is letting a Zombot come up behind him and Tangle is the one to knock it out. But usually Sonic is moving while he is talking. Here, and with Espio, he isn’t. And I think that just adds more to how weighted down he is by all that is happening. Because again, he can’t take the actions he usually would because of all the guilt.

But Tangle is such a breath of fresh air for Sonic

Finally Sonic gets the reassurance he needs. Tails - the wonderful friend that he is - tries, but it isn’t really believable when he has tears streaming down his face.

Sonic needed someone telling him it wasn’t his fault. I don’t think Sonic completely believes it, he is still full of guilt, but it must have been so nice to have someone show such unwavering support for him at this time. Like I said, a breath of much needed fresh air. 

For the readers too. Please tell me I wasn’t the only one who smiled when Sonic and Tangle team up. Look at them

And Tangle is able to comfort Sonic not only mentally - but physically too. 

When was the last time Sonic touched someone that wasn’t a robot???? 

Sonic is all about freedom - but he is all about his friends too. We saw Sonic team up with his friends one after another before this arc started. And he welcomed it. He invited each one (Tails, Amy, Knuckles) to come with him as he went to destroy more badniks, despite that meaning he wouldn’t be able to just run as fast as he wanted when going from place to place. Because he really likes teaming up with people too. 

And this whole mess is just preventing him from leaning on his friends for support like he usually could.

Thank you Tangle for giving this poor boy a hug. 

But that breath of air Sonic got didn’t last long. Because now he has to report to the rest that he failed again. 

And then this

Not only is he seeing another friend suffer because of his failure, but he can’t do anything to make it better. Amy is directly asking him for help - and he can’t. 

He can’t do anything in this situation that won’t make things worse - and that has to hit hard for Sonic. 

And finally we get this

This just really hits home that despite Tangle’s upbeat attitude and how she lifted Sonic’s spirit for a bit - it didn’t magically make everything better. 

Because reality is still bleak, and Sonic still blames himself no matter what Tangle said before. We can’t see his expression, but it isn’t hard to imagine him regretting everything that happened.

He’s alone - again - with the one person that gave him that moment of refresh is a Zombot, and he can’t do anything but watch as they retreat. And it’s all his fault and he knows it. 

It’s not like he ever said ‘Yeah, you’re right Tangle. None of this is my fault.’ All he said in that conversation was ‘You aren’t going to let this go’ and ‘Yes ma’am’ in response to the less moping and more moving. That to me isn’t anywhere near Sonic feeling he is absolved from guilt.

---

And yeah. I really can’t read through this and see Sonic as someone brushing off responsibility and not showing remorse. Sonic has been through a lot and we see him going up and down with his thoughts. And it’s getting harder and harder to keep his positive attitude. 

I hope that this got someone to see why I feel like Sonic has shown enough remorse over what is happening. - And that is really all this post was about (though I admittedly got distracted at some parts) I wasn’t trying to say that this arc is perfect, but at the very least, Sonic absolutely feelings guilty. 

I’m just going to end with one more screenshot. Just look at Sonic’s expressions

[rhydium]

Info dumbo about the StarFinite story?

aright u asked for it anon GET READY [cracks knuckles] this is gonna be long so obligatory cut in 3, 2........

...1!

so the uh, the au! the story!! w/e yall wanna call it! full disclaimer, i only began working on this whole thing a while ago, but it's totally taken over my fukn brain. like, we're talking big hyperfixation hrs. am i cringe for being this invested in my own content? yes? cool i do not Care >:3€

i should also throw it out there real quick that i am kin w/ infinite, n this is actually one of my two canons (both of which are my own aus lmfao wow). i didn't go into it expecting it to be but sfsfsgdfs here we are ig!! for that reason it's got extra importance to me n this definitely contributes to the euphoria i get from it!! it's a lil odd writing ur own canon,,? but i kinda just go w/ the flow!

the au n, the story that i will start Eventually, revolves around infinite n starline (obvi) n it's honestly just ... the tl;dr is big healing momence n, what's this? uh oh sisters !!! they are falling in love 😳😳😳

uhhhh so infinite is an android, made by eggman. that's like, the most notable canon divergence here! super important context to have. i've got a whole big theory on the possibility of sega originally intending infinite to be an artificial being (which i explored in the works for my Other canon too), stemming from not only the scene in forces wherein infinite comments on sonic's "data", but a line of dialogue from tails in one of the last stages of the game where he Literally Says "so this is where eggman built infinite". that ... i mean. that contrasts w/ episode shadow pretty hard don't it?? would explain why that dlc was so rushed, n the comic too. ANYWAY adsfsfs um that's a seperate ramblepost. yeah!!!

they are also agender n use they/them (primarily) as well as he/him!! so i'll be refering to them w/ those pronouns!

after the war, infinite is taken in by the resistance n, instead of being dismantled, they're basically given a chance to rehabilitate themselves. it's agreed that they won't be reprogrammed, as despite the potential risks, it feels wrong to do so; like a violation of their free will, individuality n thinking. if infinite is to be a good person, it's not gonna be bc other ppl recreated their entire personality, it's gonna be bc it's what they themselves truly want. robot ethics idk man!! u can't tell me that sonic n co wouldn't offer this to infinite if they offered it to metal in IDW,,,, i am Standing By This!!!

it's, yknow, a bit rocky, at first. infinite has to really fight the urge to return to eggman (something they already tried once, before the resistance found them; they were cast out). it's a struggle against what they were built to do, against giving into unhealthy familiarity over facing a, while healthier, unfamiliarity. new faces, a new life, turning their back on their mission n creator, it's like, a lot.

they work for/with the sonic crew, rebuilding the world they tore down as deemed fitting justice, being closely monitored for a bit as a natural precaution. as it becomes apparent infinite truly no longer has any ambition to harm others (they don't have much ambition for anything, really), they're then granted more freedom, n start taking on more important missions!! it at least gives them something to do, keeps them occupied. they have issues with dissociation, unreality, whether they're truly a real person bc, well, android. feeling purposeless, n a lack of worth, especially. a need to prove themselves. heavy stuff. i'll kinda go into that a bit more in a sec. their work grounds them, if only temporarily.

n soooooo... IDW comic stuff happens. metal virus time. starline gets kicked out of the empire.

now, as the comics are ongoing, n as this is already an au, there's gonna be divergence, n i must admit i haven't planned out all that yet. there's a lot i have to consider!! infinite being w the resistance/restoration is a big game changer ... tho i Do believe that they were absent, likely on a far out mission during most of the chaos. eggman doesn't know abt them, nor does starline or anyone else other than the sonic crew; n some civilians that recognise them.

i'm not 100% sure of Exactly when it happens, but i think it's just after bad guys, that infinite is sent to locate n bring in starline. it doesn't prove too difficult. there's a whole, starline realising "oh fuck it's you???", some bickering n, the two don't hit it off right away. they're both kinda like. not mentally stable ddgddgdds,,,

so uh. starline ends up essentially going thru the same sorta shit as infinite. careful watch, rebuilding, all that jazz, making sure he can be trusted. he's like... very very lost, quite like infinite is. the world has kinda calmed down, in the meanwhile.

it's at this point i'm gonna go ahead n drop a bit of a ramble i subjected my friends to a while ago, to articulate the way i see the two, n their dynamic together!! i was considering making this it's own post a while ago!

analysing their characters a bit... let's look at starline. Like. so we have this, in bad guys, which SENT ME tbfh;

i feel like it's the moment that triggers starline onto the path he is rn canonically,,, he's clearly like. rly mad n bitter. the core of this?? he wants his work n his efforts to be acknowledged.

he's big angry. still kind of in denial at this stage. he has himself obsessed w/ the idea of making eggman see him as Worthy, that if he just tries hard enough, that'll happen. he's dependent on eggman's validation, n i mean, it's no surprise; he's followed him a Long Time by the sounds of it.

then in the recent issue, hold the fuck up, bc we got, This;

god. my god it's all comin together now homies. this???? this right here??? it is the CLASSIC "i have to do this to prove i'm strong n powerful n smart n worthy n should be respected please Give Me Acknowledgement" ..... n who else is Like That? can u see where im going w/ this?

i think most ppl are aware of infinite's character being extremely indicative of self worth/esteem issues n the need to prove themself, right?? the extreme adversity, repulsion, perhaps even fear toward the idea of being weak. the compulsion to prove otherwise, to show their strength, to become powerful, to conquer to make a point. their theme exudes this same energy as their behaviour in-game; an aggressive attitude, trying to assert themself, while if u rly listen...? the lyrics are actually really sad in places. it reeks of cover up, although composition wise, a v interesting thing to note is a lot of the more telling lyrics are prominent while some of the affirming ones are in the background. indicative of a desire to have their true feelings be heard but caught in a vicious loop?

okay okay that's yet Another different analysis. AHEM.

not to get deep on main (oh who the hell am i kidding that's the point of this entire thing) but i think starline has issues w/ his worth in a similar way to infinite. they both seem to have this need to Prove something, whether it's to others or themselves, n get caught in a toxic spiral of doing worse n worse things for Some kind of validation or acknowledgement. they'll go to really big lengths chasing that, n both of them ultimately sought validation in the wrong place n wrong way.

this is a big part of my starfinite dynamic,, n so, what happens, as they get closer n open up??? we have them BOTH realising together that they don't have to do fuck all to prove anything to anyone. they don't need to do all this to show they're strong n smart n worth something, not to anyone else OR themselves. they're enough as they are. they bond over that shared feeling that they have to do xyz, to prove themselves, n that desire to just finally be acknowledged n appreciated n help each other thru it. to help each other understand that other ppls approval, or lack thereof, doesn't define them, their strength, intelligence, and worthiness.

i feel like they have an interesting parallel between them in like... the above could be taken as a general analysis, but to go more in depth on this au specifically?? ...

starline followed eggman for presumably a long time n it no doubt left him feeling a heavy and deep regret for all that time wasted n spent on an unhealthy path. infinite kinda teaches him that what matters is what he's doing Now n also reminds him that if none of it happened, starline wouldn't have learnt a lot of the serious skills he has. n while starline still feels bad, he also realises himself that, he likely never would have crossed infinite's path if none of it happened. for that reason, he wouldn't take it back.

infinite has only been recently made, on the other hand. they haven't really existed long, yet, but so far their experiences haven't been very positive n it can be .... discouraging. starline sorta, shows infinite their limited experiences w/ the world are a very tiny fraction of what's out there, n things can absolutely change, yes, including for the better; that's the essence of life, a neverending, constant flow of change.

it's a big tale of moving on n letting go, honestly; made easier as they're doing it together. n as they heal n grow, well... these bitches gay. sfshshdgds like, ig that's putting it p bluntly but!! they start to trust each other, understand each other more. as they get to truly know who the other is, they both start developing The Feelings. they're both pretty oblivious n the reveal is totally unknown so far!! yeah, i know, bummer. i suck. boo. adafsfsds however i can say there will be lots of content in the making!! if that soothes the soul! i've got of ideas i hope to bring to life.

ofc there's still a lot of more specific things i haven't covered here so! if y'all want more juice hmu w/ more focused questions but !! this is the overview n i hope it was a decent read now that gave some uhhh! Cool Insight! yea!!! ✌

[mobius-prime]

248. Sonic the Hedgehog #179

House of Cards (Part Two: Royal Flush)

Writer: Ian Flynn Pencils: Tracy Yardley! Colors: Jason Jensen

Sonic and Tails are still embroiled in their fight from last issue, with Sonic trying to convince Tails to stand down so he can rush off to stop Rosemary and Amadeus from doing anything stupid. Tails, of course, refuses, hitting him again, and Sonic angrily tells him that while he understands sticking up for his parents, he's not cool with this whole "punching your best friend" business, to which Tails simply yells that Sonic's had this coming for a long time.

Oof, this is even worse than we previously thought. Rosemary and Amadeus approach the castle's side entrance, and Amadeus is suspicious when the codes he enters on the keypad let him in without a problem, realizing that since they haven't been changed since his arrest this must mean Elias is inviting him in. Indeed, inside the castle we see Elias urging his wife Megan along with their baby daughter Alexis to take shelter inside the nursery while he deals with the revolutionaries breaking in. He quickly orders Nicole, standing nearby, not to wake up his father under any circumstances, just as Amadeus and Rosemary enter the room.

I mean, while you have a point, Elias, the city is hardly going to fall to anarchy the moment it stops being ruled by a monarch. Keeping the peace is kind of the entire point of a democracy. Rosemary calls him out, insisting he should listen to his people who were just calling for a reformation earlier that same day, but Elias insists he won't step down, so Amadeus draws his sword. Elias reveals two honestly pretty cool-looking short double-ended blades beneath his royal cloak, and thus, the two parties clash swords…

And speaking of a clash, Sonic has finally gotten tired of fighting Tails inside the jail, heckled as they are by all the onlookers. Sonic rushes outside, and Tails follows him angrily, and what follows is possibly the most bizarre and scattered string of accusations he could possibly make. He calls Sonic out for, in order: leaving him behind on a lot of missions when he was younger, teasing him when he talked about his own adventures (to which Sonic objects that he teases everyone), and finally not immediately breaking his father out of prison when he got arrested. Sonic is truly baffled by the last one, considering Amadeus wasn't even in jail for a full twelve hours, and then Tails finally screams out the real reason he's so angry - Fiona. Yep, that's right, he's still hung up on Fiona - or should I say, Ian is still hung up on using her as a weird plot point in Tails' character arc.

Okay. You guys already know how I feel about the whole "Tails loving Fiona" thing. It's weird and unnecessary and just doesn't seem to fit literally anything else about Tails' character. But let's assume for a second that it is a valid thing to be upset about and that the whole plot point isn't weird as hell. A ton of things have just fallen into place with his little speech here. Tails has indeed been acting weird ever since Sonic returned from space, and he and Sonic haven't had a single good, honest heart-to-heart about it in all that time. Things have been strained between them for a while, and honestly, I'd say this is even less about Fiona than it is about Sonic being careless and forgetting to show Tails that he actually respects him. He's gotten so used to taking Tails' devotion for granted that once things started getting tense, he didn't know how to handle it, and ended up settling on the less-than-healthy option of  ignoring the problem and hoping it would go away. I've seen plenty of people point to this issue as a bad case of these two being totally out of character, but the problem that people cite always seems to be that Sonic and Tails are fighting at all, rather than what they're fighting about. And frankly, while Tails' initial stated reason for fighting Sonic - to help his parents overthrow the government - didn't make a ton of sense, anyone who knows anything about psychology knows that when one person is mad at another but isn't able to properly express why, those bottled up feelings can come bursting out in all sorts of bizarre ways, including many that don't seem to make any outward sense. And, of course, this can include blaming the other person for things that seem totally out of the blue - because that's not actually what they're angry about at all.

My takeaway from all this is that, again, Tails is not angry about the Fiona thing so much as that the Fiona thing represents a lot of what he has actually been upset about, and he's been carrying around these feelings of resentment that have been slowly building up for years. It's a very believable and reasonable reason for these two to end up butting heads, especially considering Sonic can be quite arrogant and self-centered at times, even without meaning to. In essence, what Tails is ultimately expressing in this whole outburst is that he's no longer content to simply be the forgotten sidekick who always has to take a backseat to Sonic's glory. And if you're wondering why Tails in the comics needs this character arc but not Tails in the games, that very premise is mistaken from the get-go - because he did get this moment of character growth in the games, just under totally different circumstances. Remember how the comics' Sonic Adventure arc never included Tails battling the Egg Walker or saving Station Square from the missile Eggman fired? In the games, that was a very important part of Tails' growth as a character - learning that he could be independent from Sonic and didn’t always have to rely on him or trail behind him, that he could be a hero in his own right. But that entire sequence was cut from the version of the story we got in the comics, and thus, Tails was still left as the sidekick, the little kid, the dependent younger brother without a family of his own. I would imagine that he had to teach himself a lot of that lost independence in the year that Sonic was missing - and it had to be jarring once he got over his initial joy at having Sonic back in his life, the realization that to Sonic, he was still the little dependent sidekick when he'd grown so much since those days. And since his life situation has so drastically changed even in just the last few weeks, all of these feelings have finally come bursting out of him in the form of siding with his biological parents over Sonic. With his above comments about Fiona and about taking away everything he cares about, the entire situation has just become crystal clear to Sonic, and now he wants to make amends, finally knowing exactly what has been bothering Tails this whole time.

But ANYWAY! While all that is going on above, Elias and Amadeus continue to battle it out, only to be shocked by the sudden appearance of a solid wall of nanites in between them. Nicole cheerfully announces from the doorway that while Elias told her not to wake up his father, he said absolutely nothing about waking up Sally, and that's exactly what she's done, with Sally glaring at the two combatants in stark disapproval.

See, this is why Sally should have been involved in the proceedings from the beginning. Outside, Tails has halted his attack after Sonic's words, uncertain about what Sonic is getting at, so Sonic explains himself.

There you go, Sonic. That was what he needed all along - a genuine apology and understanding of his feelings. Tails calms down once Sonic reassures him he's being sincere, and Sonic lightens the mood by joking that Tails has gotten too good at kicking butt for Sonic to want to continue being beaten on by him. Tails says he still wants to talk a few things out, but for now, they agree to team up, rushing to the castle to try to prevent Tails' parents from doing anything they'll regret. They're quite taken aback when they burst through the doors only to find Amadeus and Elias sitting down to a peaceful talk over tea, having agreed on a compromise. The government will be reformed into a combination of a democracy and a monarchy, with a council of six elected citizens being presided over by the king as a seventh member. This way, the people have a government that actually represents them, while they don't lose their monarchical heritage! That's actually probably the best solution that could have possibly been reached, and I applaud these two for having agreed on such an elegant solution.

Oh, Maximillian, so stuck in your old ways. Honestly, though, all things considered, I actually do not think he's a bad person. He's stuck in rigid tradition, but it was something he was indoctrinated into his whole life, and it's not surprising he'd be so resistant to change, especially after everything he's been through in his life. Remember, this guy can't be older than his mid-forties - it's not like he's some old and wizened ruler who has had time to process his life's experiences, he's barely halfway through an ordinary person's life span! That's a lot to deal with in a short amount of time. Outside, Sonic, Tails, and Sally watch the election take place, and Sonic asks Sally why she didn't run for a spot on the council, to which she slyly replies that it's likely for the same reason that Sonic didn't. I presume that means that she wants to have free time to herself to help lead the Freedom Fighters and not continue to be stuck at home, but we don't get a lot of time to think about that, because out of goddamn nowhere, Dimitri shows up in his little head-bubble and scares the living hell out of all three of the heroes, asking after Knuckles and warning them that Enerjak has returned…

[another-sonic-blog]

Here's a request! Whats your list of personal/what you think are the best shadamy fics to read? And your reasonings why? Again love your work! ♡ (i literally redownloaded wattpad after 5 years of staying away just to read your ff 😳😅)

Thank you so much! I am really happy that you like my work, I am honored ... Thank you!

Alright before I start this list, I will be making a few disclaimers.

I. Honestly, I don't have a favorite ShadAmy fanfiction. I've read a lot of it but I usually drop the story for the following reasons. (Opinion based)

-The story plot is the same as other fics. (Ex. Amy gets lost after chasing Sonic and rejecting her, Shadow gets there. He saves her, Amy dates Shadow. Sonic is jealous and loves Amy and blah blah blah)

-They depict Sonic as a jerk.

It's ok to have a different interpretation of a character, but it really gets uncomfortable when a friendly character like Sonic starts screaming and even punching Amy.

-Over-sexualization of characters. It's ok if there's sexual tension, it's normal in teens. However, explicitly writing sex scenes with characters that are made for kids it's a no for me.

-Writing Amy as suicidal. This one just hits home too much. It makes me uncomfortable sometimes to read about a character I relate to being depressed and suicidal because it reminds me of dark times in my life.

-Shadow being a complete jerk and having an abusive relationship with Amy. This is a big NO for me. Romanticizing toxic relationships is wrong and shouldn't be accepted.

-There is more I don’t like. Shadow bullying Amy or Shadow keeping Amy as captive. Shadow being abusive towards Amy and her falling in love with him even when Shadow keeps mistreating her. And other cliches in the ShadAmy fanfiction I don't like.

II. I am a fanfic writer. However, the one criticizing the following works would be me, as a reader. If I say any 'negative' comments, it doesn't mean I do it better nor it means I am better than them. The one analyzing their work is the reader, the one who consumes their content.

And because I don't really have a lot of fics to share with you, I will be sharing a few comics I enjoyed reading a lot!

Let's start!

3.Scripted Romance by BitterKiss 

Link: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13210221/1/Scripted-Romance 

Alright, this story is good maybe because I have something for comedy romance. This story is a Sonic Boom!AU where our main cast are actors for the Sonic Boom TV series. There is a heavy tension between Amy and Shadow where everyone notices but them. Amy and Shadow have a pretty good friendship and chemistry which is refreshing. Shadow likes Amy and its fun to read how he fails every time he attempts to get closer to her. I can't honestly say much about the story because although the writing it's good, there are only five chapters and there's not much to criticize nor analyze. (Which is not a bad thing, every writer has the time to take the time they need to write.)

2.One Hundred Moments by Laineybug04

Link: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13153102/1/One-Hundred-Moments

This story makes me sad but not in a bad way. Ten good written chapters with good quality and extremely good character development. Some stories have the mistake of rushing relationships but in this story, they take it nice and slow. Not so slow that there is no development and not so rushed that their relationship looks fake. The story has a Romeo and Juliet premise. Two hedgehogs who want to be together but can't because their friends think they will betray their own responsibilities. It's really good to see Shadow doing things he wouldn't normally do just to please Amy. It's great to see Amy being vulnerable with Shadow. Not only that but it's great to see how other characters react to their friendship. Rouge may be a bit too overwhelming since at this point she is the main one who tries to separate them. Although I think her reasons may not be the most valid, they are reasonable. This story is beyond entertaining and in only ten chapters, the writer was able to create a growing friendship and romance that will leave you wanting to read more!

1.Team Dark's Rose by Nothin’Fancy

Link: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13221856/1/Team-Dark-s-Rose

Uff.

What can I say? There are only two 'negative’ things I can say about this story.

One. Rouge and especially Shadow may be too mean to Amy. However, everyone has their own character interpretation. The writer is free to do whatever they want to do with such character as long as that leads to development.  

There is a fine line between a character teasing, showing they dislike another character and being abusive.

The writer does not cross this line and I am sure they are aware of the difference.

I honestly can't wait to see how the writer develops Team Dark and how they start to open up to Amy. It's going to be really nice to see the characters realizing their mistakes and misjudgment towards Amy.

Second, the story only has seven chapters so far.

Seven chapters filled with character analyzation and world-building.

The premise of this story is "What if Amy joined Team Dark?" Although it sounds simple, it's far from that. The writer really takes the time to develop each character and explain the reasons behind their actions. Each character is equally important. Although the protagonist of this story is Amy; the story, in reality, is about Team Dark trying to accept Amy.

There are two main conflicts in the story. External and internal conflicts and to create a good story, you need both. In this story it goes like this. External: GU.N.'s discrimination towards Team Dark. Internal: Team Dark's denial of accepting Amy. Of their disliking and even jealousy towards her.

The ShadAmy is there but right now it's slowly developing. If you want a story that it's more focused on their relationship then I recommend reading the first two stories I mentioned earlier.

Comics:

Damn, I write too much, the reviews for the following comics will be shorter.

3.Love & Life by Cardonanavas.

Link: https://www.deviantart.com/cardonanavas/art/L-L-Family-page-1-279994522 

Have you ever wonder what would be the life of Shadow and Amy as a family?

The story develops after 'Just a ShadAmy comic' (Which I recommend as well, but in my opinion, the sequel is better than the first comic)

Here we see the still developing relationship of Shadow and Amy. After three years of dating, Amy is ready to take the next step as she feels like her time is running out (Because she is sick) Shadow, however, doesn't like the idea of having a baby of his own with the thought he might become a weapon. Shadow is unaware of Amy's sickness until one day ...

Shadow will go the impossible to have a normal life with Amy but the story is not only about that. It's much more! Drama, mystery, comedy. It's everything!

Right now, the comic is in progress but still, it's totally worth a read!

2.ShadAmy comic by Zketcherz

Link: https://www.deviantart.com/zketcherz/art/Shadamy-comic-pg-1-717180957 

This comic is in progress but it's still extremely good! Amy and Shadow are relatable characters and they are slowly developing. So far, there's not much ShadAmy but the interactions they have are really good and they are not over the top. There are no overly convenient romance cliches and the situations they are put in are realistic and they react well according to it.

I can argue, however, that I don't agree with how Shadow reacts later on the story. I can't say much about this simply because that would be spoiling you an important part of the plot.

1.Shadow the Hedgehog by 0Carkki0

Link: https://www.deviantart.com/0carkki0/art/Shadow-The-Hedgehog-25822745

I have nothing to say about this. The only bad thing about this comic is that it's incomplete and it will probably never be finished. However ... there are 208 pages! 208 pages filled with greatness. There is no 'love' but there is a lot of teasing and kissing.

I won't say anything about the plot, do yourself a favor and just read!

.

With this, I conclude my list. I hope you enjoyed it! Once again, thank you so much for reading my stories and I hope I gave you other stories you can enjoy as well. Sorry if my answer is too long, but believe me this is the shortest I could do. These stories are great and I strongly recommend reading them!