#potential spinoff

[thevideogameshutterbug]

The Murder of Sonic The Hedgehog: Can We Get More of This?

No joke. You might have noticed from my sudden return to activity after a while, but I really, really liked The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog. Gaming April Fools jokes are quirky and weird by nature - that’s the point. But every once in a while a game developer will release an April Fool’s joke that is so fun and unique in its quirkiness that it takes off and completely captures the audience with its charm. Sometimes these are even on purpose - attempts to test the waters and deliver some fun at the same time, like the trailer for Fighting Ex Layer. Sometimes it’s probably not, but... maybe it could be. I think that’s what The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog could be.

I‘ve been a Sonic fan for a very, very long time. I��ve loved most games in the series for the whole length of that time. There are few Sonic games I could say I outright dislike, tbh. But something I’ve long felt the Sonic series could’ve benefited from way back when was a stronger spinoff game. I think people give spinoffs a bad rap just on principle. “Why make disposable spinoffs when we can focus on making mainline games?”, people say (Sonic fans are also a bit unreasonably petrified of alternate gameplay styles). But I think that’s the missing the point. Spinoffs are a major part of what gives game series their identity - especially family focused series like Sonic. Not just because they give accessibility to a wider range of gamers, but because they make a buffer zone. Main line games take a long time. You have to wait years to see it, and if it has problems... well... that’s the reputation of the series for the next few years until the next game comes around. Spinoffs, however, mean that there’s always something involving the character out there to keep people interested. I means that if even if one game isn’t so good, there’s always others out there delivering quality. It gives the series something to look at at all times, and that gives it longevity. So why think about Sonic, a series about super speed and hi-momentum platforming, and make a visual novel spinoff? Visual novels are slow by nature, static images and careful deduction. Well... you make it for exactly the reasons everyone loved Murder.

People like these characters. People really like these characters. They’re fun. They’re all unique from each other. And they bounce off each other so well. But Sonic fans rarely get the chance to really experience the characters. Sonic’s long had a problem of loads of characters without quite knowing what to do with them. Characters like Rouge, a jewel thief primarily used for spy parodies, just plain isn’t going to be in most Sonic games - the games don’t have those kinds of plots often.

But that’s where a visual novel shines. Visual novels are all about going from scene to scene interacting with large swaths of characters, quirky conversations and unexpected character and plot developments. It’s not just that you can use tons of characters, but that you can give them center stage far more freely than you can in a platformer or a more action-focused plot. Sonic has been absolutely killing it this past year with adaptations and projects that were all about exploring the characters and what makes them fun, and Murder’s just the latest example. All the characters get segments to themselves to show off, tell jokes, and be fun - it’s silly and cartoony, charming with lots of character moments and eccentric turns, and it’s perfect for Sonic. So I really want to see more of this sort of thing!

We could get more parodies like this - hey, if Detective Pikachu can be a thing, why not more Detective Tails? Or we could get more involved stories. Something more Adventure-esque, or something more Saturday Morning Cartoon-y like Colors. Or a mixture of both! Character focused, or whole cast all at once just like this. Another everyman as the focus character, or one of the cast - Tails actually makes a very good protagonist for this sort of thing. The sky is the limit, here. Even this little April Fools joke gave us a surprising amount of worldbuilding and fun ideas I hope get revisited someday. Plus, it has to be said that visual novels take an entirely different creative process than platform games, and this game indeed was made by a third party, so the crowd nervous that any spinoff could take away from the development of the main titles doesn’t really have much to worry about: in the end, these would be made by different teams. It’s just a good idea all around. So I really hope this doesn’t get abandoned. Give us the continued spinoff visual novel / point and click adventures of Sonic and friends. I imagine any future ones wouldn’t still be free, but sure I’ll pay for it. Why not? I mean, you’ve got a perfect premise right here:

Eggman Industries’ Famous Eggscape Rooms! They’ll scramble your brains. And maybe your lifespan.

[kaahmbem]

legend has it that the young witch circe and the once beautiful nymph scylla shared a complicated past...

[jojoblessed365]

Okay, I have another idea: a spinoff with the Charles' children who are like a modern Holmes and Watson but gender reversed.

They would be: Nic and Norman Charles.

Ideal casting:

Tom Holland as Norman Charles

Izabela Vidovic as Nicolette Nic Charles

They would be perfect!!!

I miss a couple like Nick and Nora Charles in today's media; can anyone make a movie starring Hugh Jackman and Sutton Foster as the Charles'???

They're perfect as the new age Nick and Nora Charles!!!

Or even a Fred and Ginger movie!!!

[nyc3]

One thing that is now unfair to ask is...what is Nine's name? Look hori treated him as an afterthought but his lack of origins works better than the comical twnko's origins.

Yes his family was all killed thanks to him but ...I can't help to think that scene was too ridiculous.

We never saw anyone mentioned them again, not even shig. (He remembers them in MVA and we do see the disgusting human puppet hori flay around) But that's it.

So Nine...

Im not one of those people who think a new character needs to be related to a pre stabelished one. Nine doesn't need to be a Todoroki, Shimura or hell even a lost Midoriya (hahahahahahaha as if hori would care for this family)

But ....imagine if Nine was related to Oboro, somehow, wouldn't that be interesting?

Maybe, maybe not.

Oboro's character became a thing to turns Aizawa into a better character...and fails. Kuro was sacrificed for nothing.

The thing about Shigaraki/Tenko backstory is that it feels... a bit overdramatic?

Well we can say that about his whole character, but the part of his backstory in particular when he kills his family is so exagerated for the sake of shock value that it kinda feels comical.

Horikoshi tried a bit too hard on make MVA feel like the edgier and "different" arc of the series, but the contrast in so big that I can't take it seriously.

Especially when Hori already nailed a dark tone without being super explicit or over the top.

Take the simplicity of Eri's backstory for example:

No blood, no unnecessary violence, just two panels giving a basic idea of what happened to Eri's father and yet the image of those clothes lying on the floor is much more haunting and eerie than the enterity of Shigaraki backstory.

Why Horikoshi stop being subtle with his storytelling?

...

Anyway going back to Nine real name, or the lack of one, I think it's interesting how that aspect of his character adds to the underlying theme of how AFO and Garaki dehumanize people, especially the ones that are part of their experiments.

We know very well how AFO doesn't view other human being as persons but rather objects that belong to him. This starts with his very own twin brother, which name Yoichi means something like "my first possesion".

And just like Nine, number 6 from Vigilantes was a child which whole life was modeled by AFO. They both are just numbers without a real name.

In this case the idea is presented even more explicitly because Six was a child who suffered some kind of amnesia and couldn't even view himself as a normal human with a face.

He even died as a monster without ever know if he had an identity outside being the number 6.

It's funny how you mention the idea of Nine and Shirakumo being connected somehow, as isn't the first time I've hear that.

It's interesting notice how they share this common theme about sky and clouds as part of who they are (Nine's name also is supposedly a reference to the term "cloud nine") both Nine and Oboro are individuals willing to sacrifice their own lifes for others, and ironically both of them ended being experimented by Dr Garaki.

I even have the headcanon of Kurogiri being the "Number 7" in this line of experiments were Nine and Six belong, as sort of missing link between Six and the sentient nomus.

I probably should make a post later explaining better this idea.

And yes for Horikoshi, Shirakumo was just a diposable character to make Aizawa look cooler and more edgy.

While the author of Vigilantes clearly invested a lot of effort on making Oboro a real and memorable character which complements Aizawa rather than just being an accesory. But that topic deserves it's own post as well.

P.S: I have an idea of what real name we could give to Nine, but I keep it for me at least for the moment.

[bleulone]

BEGOÑA VARGAS as CAMERON in BERLÍN (2023-)

[nenoname]

im gonna explode his dad

[faelapis]

at least rebecca sugar is keeping busy i guess 😭

[zoya-withthepoodlesalready]

Shadow and Bone show CANCELLED? RIP Ice Court Heist, possibilities of Dark!Alina, Zoyalai my beloved, Kanej drama, everything. You will be sorely grieved 🙏😞

[bricky-brikson]

The Axolotl is a being associated with death, the afterlife, and rebirth, guiding souls through to the other side and helping them reincarnate. (As far as I can find) Xolotl, the god for which the animal is named, is a psychopomp as well. Dogs, the animal he's associated with, are guides for spirits in the underworld. Additionally, he protects the sun every night as it travels through the underworld, a cyclical cycle of "death" (setting sun) and "rebirth" (rising sun). Sounds similar huh?

This makes me wonder: in the Gravity Falls universe, did mesoamericans know of The Axolotl ? Which name came first ? Did mesoamericans have the god Xolotl, made contact with The Axolotl, and give it that name ? Or did they have contact with The Axolotl, and from there it became Xolotl ? I feel like it's not a coincidence that The Axolotl and Xolotl share similar roles AND are etymologically related AND of all the things it could've looked like, it looked like an axolotl from Earth.

I just think it would be interesting...we know Bill has had impacts on human religions and civilizations, so why not other powerful beings? How might've The Axolotl contacted humans in the first place?

If you're knowledgeable about indigenous mesoamerican religions and this is inappropriate/inaccurate let me know and I'll edit or take it down.

[mattzerella-sticks]

Thinking about the current X-Men serieses, and how they have framed Rogue and Cyclops as the new Xavier and Magneto. And I have to laugh at the beautiful storytelling set-up of -

Xavier's first student, his most loyal soldier, who Xavier most likely considers as a son (more than his own tbh) and who he had hoped would follow in his footsteps, becoming the successor to the role Xavier's best friend took on during one of their many 'splits' as he rails against the system.

The daughter of Magneto's most trusted General, who was a member of the Brotherhood of 'Evil' Mutants, whose power is 'stealing' others' abilities and life force dedicating herself to protecting the world and guiding its people to a future of harmony and understanding while playing within the system.

The narrative symbolism is just 😘

[welcome-to-green-hills]

I’ve been thinking about the next two SCU installments (Shadow spinoff and fourth movie) and had two different ideas about them:

A. Shadow doesn’t turn up in Sonic 4 because the spinoff is telling his story, allowing the new characters of that movie a chance to shine, and he shows up in the movie after that, and B. His story ends up continuing into Sonic 4, possibly to the newbie’s detriment.

As much as I love Shadow, I’m hoping scenario A is what happens, but scenario B feels more realistic from a filmmaking POV.

Hello, my dear❤️✨

I can’t necessarily see point “A” happening to the SCU. Shadow is a very popular character. If he were to have a spinoff, people would expect him to appear in the four… this was the same thought with Knuckles and his miniseries for the third film.

Option “B” seems the most logical choice to me.

[cecelianonymous22]

would you rather have unlimited squid beatz but no splatoon 3

or

splatoon 3

unlimited splatoon 3

but no splatoon 3

[spybrarian]

there is light somewhere (it may not be much light but it beats the darkness)

Rating: Mature Summary:

On the longest night of the year, Jade loses Kit.

It’s – it’s bad, of course it’s bad. The kind of bad that’s been building for weeks.

Struggling with everything they've been though, Kit and Jade fight at the worst possible time: it's winter solstice, the most dangerous night of the year when it comes to demons, to powerful forces sent by the Wyrm. But when things look their darkest, Jade opens her eyes and finds the goddess she's always believed in, fishing her out of a puddle. But just because you believe the world is one way, it doesn't mean that it is.

Part two of the exorcist Jade au! With the Tanthamorewinterfest prompts: longest night, and light in the darkness.

[yasyassie]

I'm genuinely so upset about the SaB cancellation... Despite everything I still had hope but Netflix obviously had to crash it and cancel the show like they do with every good story on their platform.

And why couldn't they just have announced it months ago instead of clowning us like this???

What is media becoming when writers don't even know how to write their seasons because they don't know if their show is getting renewed or not... cancellation feels like a constant threat and fandoms can't even get excited about a piece of media in case they cancel it.

No mournings no funerals but I'm mourning for sure

[floralovebot]

prayer circle that all the characters we haven't seen yet look good too 🙏

[m0e-ru]

I think for me the allure in base releases in persona games is how it feels cloudy and there's still mystery involved regarding how one should go about the concepts and characters introduced in the story. as inconvenient as it is, it's fun to scour different media release after, or even before, that release, to see how they tried to present these concepts and characters, how they actually came out to be, and how they decide to shape them henceforth, adding on to what was already introduced and simply building on it, or topping on details that probably weren't obvious in the initial release, or something they wanted to be more prominent to evoke a more specific image of those ideas.

it's fun to look at famitsu magazines and decipher what those game teasers were all about. it's exciting to read through novels or listen to drama tracks to look a new perspectives of the same story, or even look beyond it. the art book gets released and youre looking through creator comments and concept art and deciding whether to agree to these ideas and decisions or not

but when the re-releases came, golden and royal for me, the whole charm of the game was wiped away and just became too... saturated. the eerieness of bright eye searing yellow wasn't eerie anymore, it just look more mellow and hopeful. from fog and static, theres sub and glitter. which is I guess what they were pretty much going for, when they decided to try out a new technique to draw an audience in. the red and white and black gave a monochrome outlook to the player's worldview, and the flashy and chaotic elements of the ui and other game design made it feel like you were breaking out of the off camera elements that felt too limiting, too controlling and tame, yet dark. now, the flashiness felt like too much sugar in a dessert meant to be a bit more bittersweet. there's a new meaning of rebellion vs control considering how yal's prominence in the plot was completely overshadowed with what az had going on.

I guess what in trying to say in the end is that both the base releases and re-releases have their own charm and can be enjoyed in different ways and through different perspectives. it just makes me a little sad to see how these concepts and characters shrouded with mystery and aching to be uncovered, which is what intrigued me in the first place, were just... stripped naked entirely. you look under the sheets torn off by the people that wanted more people to look at these creations and you see that it wasn't even the same thing underneath. it feels like they stuffed all the things people could like than retaining what these things had that people already like, it's just that they didn't realize they liked it in the first place. their insides were mangled and now their outsides were prettied up as well. all this mystery and intrigue I once found were just blank spaces filled in by someone else rather than the audience themselves

yosuke's closeted nature, kanji's relationship with his own orientation, naoto's own identity and representation. even chie's tomboyism and teddie's malleable inhuman body. and even outside of that, there's adachi, another label slapped on him and exaggerated only the traits that would make him more marketable to an active market that wants to be spoonfed to fill their egos and say they're right. and I sit here looking over all that had happened to realize these writers are not as sincere as they could seem. it's a big project after all, and there's too many people looking over your shoulder.

and the nature of fandom itself, I suppose. if there's mystery and intrigue pressured by audience reaction profit, then then fog shrouding them would dissipate and theres no fun looking through the unknown anymore