#sonic on the other hand does not believe he is dead

[thealpacaavenger]

About Sonic IDW #56 (Post electric shock syndrome)

(Info found at https://www.verywellhealth.com and https://electrocuted.com)

Dang. That’s the best I can sum up this group of panels. I decided to look into the effects of electric shocks to the body. I swear, the authors did their absolute best to ensure that the amount of pain Sonic would go through would be as insane as possible.

Let’s start with this set of panels.

You can probably assume that the amount of volts Surge is sending into that water is excessive. Now, when someone’s skin is wet, not only does this make the shock more painful, it also makes it more deadly.

Next, are these panels. You can see here that Surge has her hands around either Sonic’s neck, or his shoulders. Either way, both areas are quite close to the heart. Shocks to the heart are another way to make electrical shocks more deadly. Another thing that makes an electrical shock more lethal is prolonged exposure. Which Sonic gets a fair share of. In the comic’s time, I’d say this lasted about 20-40 seconds, which may not seem long, but that is a very long time to be exposed to such a heavy voltage.

For obvious reasons, this causes Sonic to scream in pain, as you can see in both when Sonic first falls into the water and in the action panels (In the first, I believe it’s Sonic’s fist, though I struggle to tell. In the second, it’s clearly Sonic’s eye, meant to display fear or pain. And most importantly in the third panel, you can see Sonic’s mouth open screaming in pain).

When Surge passes out, Sonic is left in shock (no pun intended). Though, I have reason to believe he may have been dead in that panel.

Now, let’s talk about all the things Sonic would’ve gone through after that event. -Severe burns, both inside and outside his body. -An inconsistent or dangerous heartbeat -Numbness and tingling sensation throughout the body -Possible seizures -Weakness -Chronic pain

The weakness is one thing that is shown. Sonic needs help from Tails in order to get up. I also feel as though the patched hatching throughout Sonic’s body could also be interpreted as external burns.

Now, not only are there immediate physical reactions to getting electrocuted, there are also mental effects. These mental effects are labeled as post-electric shock syndrome. The symptoms are quite similar in nature to depression and PTSD.

-behavioral changes -Increased difficulty with memory and attention -irritability -anger -insomnia -aggressive behavior -difficulty enjoying hobbies -difficulty engaging with other people and work

In this next panel, I obviously don’t think that the only reason Sonic is angry is because of PESS, but I do think it may have made it a little harder to contain that anger, and maybe magnified it.

Sonic went through hell this time around. I suppose he always does.

[sparklingdemon]

more thoughts about monochrome.exe and the character dynamics bc i have brain worms-

tails: believes that sonic is still inside nix somewhere deep down, and tries to do anything he can to bring him back out. tails would never hurt nix on purpose, but he ends up leading them into dangerous situations…

but even after any accidents nix might get into, tails is never concerned about their safety, because he knows that sonic will always come back from anything, no matter what!

knuckles: after years of torture, knuckles has finally given up the master emerald as his object of worship, realizing that it is powerless compared to exe. knuckles reveres nix as a wrathful god, expecting to be wrathfully smitten for acting out of turn. is convinced that this "new side" of exe is just a test of his devotion. any time nix is visibly annoyed by knuckles, he immediately grovels and begs for nix to punish him by killing him again. nix DOES want knuckles and the others dead, but feels extremely weird and uncomfortable about killing them with their bare hands now…

eggman: while eggman does believe nix's claims that they aren't exe anymore, he can also very clearly tell that this isn't sonic, either. nix has the same sharp wit as sonic, and the same god complex as exe… but none of the power or confidence to back it up. sonic never got motion sickness from running too fast. sonic was never afraid to jump across pits of spikes. sonic never ran away from a fight with eggman. this WASN'T sonic anymore. eggman is outraged. he should have been the one to best his rival, not have that victory be ripped away from him by supernatural forces beyond his control. sonic the hedgehog was murdered, and his dead body is being inhabited by this cowardly little nobody who killed him. nix tries to bargain with eggman, saying he can conquer the world for all they care, they'll LET him do it, but the only thing eggman has on his mind now is getting some long-awaited revenge.

[simplyofthestars]

I'm yapping about some sonic shit i came up with (maybe a fangame if i actually knew how to game develop but im learning)

Okay so everybody knows and loves shadow right? and then there's Shadows shadow who every one knows is Mephiles and Mephiles doesn't get shit from Sega.

Yeah he might be in some games but that's just as playable skins and makes cameos every now and then (correct me if im wrong). His main role as an antagonist went to one of the worst Sonic games in history and I personally believe that he deserves something better than that.

HE'S SUPER COOL

He was a big bad who was a sun god split in half like how cool is that? And his design was fucking awesome, like look at this:

Even just by looking at him you're like "This guy is up to no good" cause he's so evil and icy looking which is the opposite of Iblis (still evil looking but fire related instead)

Now I don't give a flying FUCK that this guy is canonically dead, it's Sonic 06 so nothing is canon (aside from the managing to actually kill sonic part, i wanna keep that in)

You rn: "Okay pump the brakes yapfest, the tags promised me sonadow and rouge the bat. What do they have to with Mii-files."

Me: "SsssshHHshHSHsHHHHHHHhhhh. I getting to that."

Now imagine this with me Rouge stans,

✨Evil counterpart that is like the Rouge version of Mephiles✨

"Oh but that can't happen cause Mephiles wasn't originally a copy of shadow he just took that form"

"Mephiles didn't even meet Rouge"

"Mephiles is dead"

SHUT UP, SHUT THE FUCK UP, LET ME DREAM

EVIL ROUGE

Rouge is a boss bitch who's such an under-used concept in Sonic games and she deserves a game when she's the STAR and not on the sidelines.

Like you can't be serving this much cunt and just be a side character

So Mephiles was named after Mephistopheles who's a german demon guy (either that or Mephitis which is poison gas from swamps and volcanos and stuff) So why not give evil Rouge a name that'll make half the christian population angry? (And to the chill christians who're fine with that, you guys are cool i like you guys)

So I was thinkin: "Hmmmmmmmmmm. Rouge wants the chaos emeralds for her own gain and cause they look pretty. I mean that would sit her somewhere under Envy (cause she WANTS that shit, also im not calling her mammon(greed) or belphegor (sloth)) so that's Leviathan. I would have to re-name her into something that still lets you know 'yeah that's rouge' but also lets you know 'that's not our rouge' so I guess I'll make it Levia (Leh-vee-ah) or Levia (Leh-v-eye-ah)" (ya'll choose which pronounciation ya'll like)

THE STORY OR SOMETHING

So Levia and Mephiles are like "Okay, brother we ain't having that shit, time to kill everyone" for no reason (my excuse is cause I haven't figured it out yet)

Sonadow fans: "LIAR"

Me: "FINE I'LL EXPLAIN THE SONADOW PART"

SONADOW SEGMENT

Everybody knows how fruity they were in Prime and the fact that Sonic (sort of) HUGGED Shadow and he was just like "yep this is happening" and didn't force Sonic to take his hand away like in the past was a dead giveaway

Now obviously they're still arch enemies (what's he arching? his back? okay I'm done I'll get back to explaining) but they would obviously be closer after the past 23 YEARS that they've been fighting. And everyone knows that when it comes to fighting each other they don't hesitate (I mean maybe Sonic does) but then an even bigger evil shows up (Mephiles for example) and they work together.

EXAMPLES:

Nines in Prime (Working together to get their univese back)

Black Doom (Stopping Shadows evil dad from killing all of humanity)

Mephiles and Iblis (Trying to stop them from forming Solaris)

Eggman in fucking everything

Okay I'm out of examples since I know Sonic stuff but im not THAT much of a nerd

So yap yap yap, yada yada yada, they gay

BACK TO THE STORY OR SOMETHING

Levia and Mephiles build a giant evil omega (no i'm not calling him Alpha or Beta, im tired of those jokes) who is basically as big as eggmans death egg in the 2nd movie (but like half the size since he still needs to go everywhere with Levia and Mephiles)

He doesn't actually fight or that would be unfair so he just puts his arms around the battlefield, smacks them down every now and then to shake the ground and keep you on your toes and just sits there.

Now for obvious reasons, Mephiles changes his form a little since he can't look like Shadow forever and learns how to sustain himself without Iblis and fights like a champ but Levia is like "Dude, we can't do nothing without the chaos emeralds if we want to destroy this world and it's meaningless purpose" and Mephiles is like "Ight" and that's as far as I've gotten

I'm going to draw them maybe and ya'll sit tight 🫡

[skaruresonic]

https://www.tumblr.com/skaruresonic/758528409170313216/yes-woolie-you-can-win-any-argument-if-you-just

I want to point this it. The person defending the comic unknowingly completely eradicated any ground their argument could have stood on.

"Criminals don't deserve to be free if they're gonna hurt people"

Then why does IDW Sonic keep letting his villains run off scott free when he himself acknowledges that they're gonna continue being evil and hurting innocents?

The single real and true answer is that this comic has abysmal writing. But stans don't want to accept that. They'd rather make up increasingly baffling conspiracy theories.

Exactly. It gets even worse when you realize Sonic presents himself as an arbiter of freedom: he wants people to do what they want, as long as it's the "right choice."

He is the one who decides what is right. He may not explicitly come right out and say so, but that is what he says through his words and his actions. And rather than accept the notion that some people will choose something other than what he wants, he'll punish you by chewing you out or beating you up, despite any mitigating circumstances, such as Surge's abuse at Starline's hands or Metal Sonic and Eggman TELLING HIM THE KILLER ROBOT HAS NO FREE WILL.

The only thing more dangerous than an authoritarian is an authoritarian who's a fucking idiot.

That may or may not be the comic's intention, but that's what ends up being the takeaway when we're given these lengthy lectures about the supposed sanctity of freedom, only for Sonic to betray his own principles.

He doesn't give a shit about anyone's pain. That much is clear.

He leverages Shadow's trauma against him to win an argument.

He ignores how Espio is grieving the loss of his friends to obnoxiously argue "oh so we should murder everyone, huh, Espio? is that what you're saying? we should never give anyone a chance?"

He makes fun of Belle at several points and even looks annoyed when she's angsting about her situation in one instance.

He claims he'd be willing to give "even [Eggman and Starline]" a second chance, only to eulogize Starline with "big oof."

He ignores Surge's pain just to say he'll kick her ass, then eulogizes her with a line so cold you'd think it came out of Eggman's mouth.

He shuts down Tails' misgivings about Metal's release not once but twice.

He drops the "Surge is dead" bomb on Kit without any real tact or follow-through to make sure the traumatized child is okay.

He tells Kit that Surge is "hurting herself."

Yet he throws a fucking pity party for himself in issue 23 about how Eggman "makes him pay" for daring to believe in the "good in people" every day.

Cry me a river. Kick rocks. Get bent.

IDW!Sonic lacks the emotional intelligence to distinguish when someone in pain is lashing out vs. a bona fide unrepentant asshole killing people for fun.

To him, both are the same errant children in need of a paddling. Just as he'd lack the pragmatism to seal the Erazor Djinn in the lamp because muh freedom, he'd lack the empathy to comfort Shahra afterward.

[literaryxbones]

Analyzing Songs by The Cure

Analyzing The Cure's Music

In light of The Cure's new album release, "Songs Of A Lost World", I'll be analyzing some of their classic hits to decipher their meaning. Lyrics, woven together with the band's earlier macabre atmosphere, will be taken into consideration. Before delving into the conversation, it must be acknowledged that interpretation is subjective. The beauty of music is experienced on an individual level. People may walk away with different conclusions to the same song. That being said, we are not the artists, producers, or writers. We can't know for sure what Robert Smith's original intent was. Since we don't know him personally, his musical secrets may very well flit over our heads.

A Forest - Seventeen Seconds

The instrumentals introducing us to the song are iconic. They seem to imbue every goth with nostalgia, familiarity, and joy. I consider this track to be a standout number among their discography.

"A Forest's" lyrics are simple. Hunted, watched; a character slinks into the woods following what he thinks is a girl's voice. Haunting instrumentals evoke a sense of being tracked. Smith's vocals carry a hollow bleakness. His voice turns raw as he reveals the man's delusion.

While the lyrical content avoids overt complexity, it's the atmosphere and sonic progression that binds me to the song. Memorable chords, incredible vocals, and a unique, dark soundscape immortalize it in my memory.

This entry happens to remind me of The Corpse Bride (2005.) Victor escapes to the woods after lighting his mother-in-law's dress on fire. Rehearsing for the wedding, he slips his ring onto a dead, hand-shaped tree branch. Emily, the corpse bride, emerges from the soil and begins to pursue him. In disbelief, Victor is quick to dismiss this event as a bad dream.

In terms of an actual confirmed meaning, Robert Smith has given "conflicting information" according to Genius. "It's just about a forest," he says.

Lullaby - Disintegration

Now, this song tends to be controversial within the goth community. The subject of this track is heavily debated.

TW: Mentions S*xual Assault/P*dophilia/Gr**ming

In a recent poll in the Goth Community Chat, 15.2% of people think the song is about sexual assault, while another 15.2% consider it to be just a spooky track. Another popular result suggests that the "spider-man" is an allegory for depression. (12.1%)

Before proceeding further into any conclusions, it is paramount to acknowledge that sexual assault, grooming, and r*** are common issues that plague alternative communities. The goth subculture is no exception. Some of the scenes' most prominent artists have been outed for predatory behavior.

Alternative people are often fetishized by the media and men. Because of our fashion styles, macabre appreciation, and social status, people wrongfully assume that most goths are into BDSM or other similar fetishes, are societal outcasts; and thus are easier to abuse. A person having dark interests does not mean they will tolerate or accept toxic behavior and fantasies.

I myself have been the target of sexual harassment just on the basis of being alt. That does not even begin to include the objectification I've been subject to in general.

With that being mentioned, we must remember to hold aggressors accountable. Especially if they are musicians or in a position of power. People like Morrissey should not be idolized because their actions dwarf the impact his music would've had.

I'll probably make a separate post discussing this in the future, but for now I'll share my personal thoughts on Lullaby.

On a darker note, I believe "Lullaby" is about pedophilia. The title itself references calming songs that a baby listens to before falling asleep. Lullabies provide a sense of security, especially if sung by a caregiver.

The aforementioned "spider-man" creeps up to the bed while the victim shivers. He wraps his arms around his prey. An image of his tongue is burned into the subject's brain while his face is licked and devoured.

What he says seems to corroborate my theory. "Be still, be quiet now, my precious boy, don't struggle like that or I'll only love you more."

It's clear there's a power balance between the two. How the "boy" is referred to suggests he is younger. Controlled by the man's whims, the survivor endures this horrifying experience. In the morning, he awakes in the "shivering cold." Alluding to this detached loneliness, the song concludes by saying that the "spider man is always hungry."

Smith says the song was inspired by a story his uncle used to tell him. The spidery monster ate children in their bed. A line from Mary Howitt's poem "The Spider And The Fly" is used in the outro.

“Will you walk into my parlour?” said the Spider to the Fly, ‘Tis the prettiest little parlour that ever you did spy; The way into my parlour is up a winding stair, And I have many curious things to show you when you are there.” “Oh no, no,” said the Fly, “to ask me is in vain; For who goes up your winding stair can ne’er come down again.”

Such evidence defines my analysis. These sources are the reason why I think that these songs have these particular meanings. This blog post ended up being way longer than I ever expected, so I'm turning it into a two parter.

Sources

1. JupiterCure. “A Forest- The Cure (Lyrics).” Youtube, The Cure, 18 April 2013, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPLgL_hGQ1M. Accessed 09 January 2025.

2. SadChild, and Keith Pixton. “The Cure – A Forest Lyrics.” Genius, Genius Lyrics, 2014, https://genius.com/The-cure-a-forest-lyrics. Accessed 9 January 2025.

3. giaco74. “the cure - lullaby with lyrics.” Youtube, The Cure, 26 October 2010, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bXNLdBxR_1g. Accessed 09 January 2025.

4. 46 Contributers. “The Cure – Lullaby Lyrics.” Genius, Genius Lyrics, https://genius.com/The-cure-lullaby-lyrics. Accessed 9 January 2025.

Credit

Red Lace F2U Bat Border - @battampria

Black Roses w/ Cross Border - @fawndollie

Written By - @literaryxbones

SORDID

[applestorms]

i was gonna write a more extensive post about this, but. fuck that i have too many points to write proper sentences rn, here's a bullet point list of my review of sonic 3. spoilers, obviously. tl;dr: i'm a hater

maria is fridged to hell and back, she is such a nothing character i have secondhand embarrassment for the writers every time she shows up. maria exists only to smile in flashbacks and lie in the flowers and go, "noooooooooooooooo, shadow :(( you can totally be whatever you want, dude," and then die on the floor. we don't even get to see her getting shot. fucking rip off.

to clarify-- maria absolutely does NOT have to be a fucking dead wife trope incarnate, imo. she can very easily be used that way, yes, but i think doing so also misses the core of her character and what she means for shadow. part of the appeal of the conversations that maria & shadow have on the arc in SA2 comes from the fact that they are characters coming from a very similar position, both being incredibly alienated from the rest of the world/humanity, daydreaming about it more than they are able to interact with it directly. like, come ON, they literally live on a fucking space station, the symbolism does not get that much more obvious?? it is the fact that maria CHOOSES to love humanity anyways, despite being unable to interact with it/live within it, that makes her words meaningful. jesus fucking christ.

anyways, speaking of. shadow has NO arc in this movie (literally and figuratively. did you seriously put the spaceship in Ohio) and it drives me up the wall. perhaps i'm just out of the loop on the Current Shit, but it feels like Nobody knows how to write that guy nowadays :((

not that i could fucking tell anyways in this particular movie from how little he shows up or SPEAKS. LET HIM SPEAAAAAK. i swear to GOD, he interacts w/ the main cast like three (3) fucking times in this entire movie and two of those interactions are fights. if you want those cute, quirky, somewhat cringe sonic/shadow interactions, you're better off watching the trailer plus whatever clips of the final fight inevitably end up on youtube, since that's basically their only real conversations in the entire movie.

the ending falls incredibly flat because of this. in the last movie, we at least had some decent character interactions between sonic & knux which made their fight and eventual team up at the end that much more satisfying. there was something to dig your teeth into, a back-and-forth that was entertaining (by sonic movie standards) but also established who they were, not only why they didn't like each other but how they could eventually bond. you had reason to care about knux, and reason to root for them to fight together!!

instead, here we got a whole lotta nothing. sonic and shadow fight, and it's cool, and it does all the Sick References and wowie yay clapping my hands live & learn blue/red lights cool. epic. yet i'm still left sitting here like WHO IS THIS BITCH??? WHO IS HE?????

fundamentally, the problem with this movie is that it Does Not Know what it's primary storyline is, or even who the main character is, and it falls flat on its fucking face because of it. there is no focus. sonic maybe barely kind of squeezes out an arc about teamwork and believing in your friends (a repetition of the last movie, i would argue, but whatever). eggman gets a much more hefty plotline about coming to terms with family, which i would be able to appreciate a whole lot more if it didn't feel like the only meaningful story arc in the entire fucking movie. robotnik bullshittery should be the B plot guys, come the fuck on. and shadow, of fucking course, gets NOTHING. he stands around looking grumpy and cool (and very cute, the animators did alright, i'll give them that), and emotes jack fucking shit. i know he's not a certified yapper like some people, but come the fuck on, he can still like. say words. right. RIGHT

is this review even comprehensible even more? i don't care, this is driving me insane. are you guys seeing this shit. are you.

this isn't even just me being a shipper and going wahh wahh no sonadow moments. you put those bitches on the poster why are they not talkinggg. even just an argument would be Great. it was like the one thing sonic prime figured out, why is it so empty here.

this also leads to the fundamental issue where i have NO fucking idea why either of them are so chill with each other by the ending. not only do i not know why shadow is so chill with sonic, considering he was just dead set on ending the fucking world to get revenge and one conversation is not enuf to convince me that he would get over it (even the lowkey suicidal tendencies fall somewhat flat for me since AGAIN. NOTHING), but i ALSO don't know why SONIC gives a shit about shadow!! or why he's so happy go lucky about all this!!! dawg he just killed the closest thing you have to a father. as much as i hate the humans in this series, even i have to sit for a minute and go uhh what? there is absolutely NOTHING to make their team up at the end of this emotionally meaningful other than the bland, surface level reaction of Yay Shadow And Sonic On Screen :) like the movie itself simply does not build up their rivalry in a meaningful enough way to make it feel worth it. one conversation can do a lot, but only if you have the build up to MAKE it mean a lot. aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaugh

the ending being almost exactly the same as the beginning thus doesn't surprise me in the slightest cuz like. what else do you do. sonic Does Not have any reason to care about that bitch and neither does anyone else. his actual enemy eggman is presumably dead, so. who cares. a couple good fights then nice knowin' ya man o7 thanks for sacrificing yourself to save the world or whatever

the scene where shadow stalks the individual team members through the remains of their old military base/Ohio Arc stand in or whatever is cool, yes. one single hand clap for that. i like them making him ominous as fuck. but i just-- i need everybody to shut the fuck up for like two seconds so sonic and shadow can talk directly and have a proper fucking conversation before the literal end of the movie, like please just argue or SOMETHING. DO. SOMETHING. MEANING. LIKE A CHARACTER THING. WHO R U

also the eggman/stone shit drives me up the wall. another set of bitch ass writers too scared to make their characters canonically queer, so they bury their gays instead. idfc that they're inevitably going to revive him again, it's still stupid as shit. stone also does nothing in this movie so his internal "conflict" is dumb anyways aaaaskjdflksdjfl smacking my head on the keyboard

there comes a point in this movie where it really does feel like Everything is just about eggman and gerald. tails and knux stop being meaningful characters with personalities outside of quips by approximately the chao garden. sonic's weird human parents aren't even given a meaningful storyline outside of the one time that shadow punches him when they try to set up some miscommunication bullshit or whatever at the end. sonic and shadow fight but even that gets interrupted by... whatever the hell they were doing??? again, all of this would be way less aggravating if those scenes were able to fulfill their actual purpose: side bullshit funnie stuff to break up the serious scenes of the main plotline. unfortunately, this movie thinks a flashback to the traveling wilburys is sufficient to make its main character a complex, nuanced person. face in hands

seriously. why is that scene of eggman & gerald telling stone & shads to get back in the crab a microcosm of this entire film. orz

also also, before someone bitches at me for not paying close enough attention to [x] specific detail or whatever-- anything that you can easily miss on a first watch through should Not be integral to the plot of a movie. istg, i write scripts, i know how this shit works. if your audience can't figure out the emotional arc of a character after one watch, you have fundamentally failed your job as a writer. a flashback is not sufficient character writing, jfc.

and really, that's what it all comes down to, isn't it? the writing. it's always the Fucking writing with these movies. the animation here is, for the most part, fantastic, the voice acting is decent at worst, even the awkwardness of a half-human cast is somewhat smoothed over. yet the writing for these movies never fucking improves-- the jokes are still cringe at best, the references are blunt and unnatural, and the characters. have. no. arc.

perhaps it was somewhat inevitable that we end up at this point. this movie series has already been building up an entire universe of Other Bullshit, and it is here that we feel a lot of that crashing back down. the shelf could only stand up for so long.

i suppose in conclusion, my main takeaway from this movie is that it is an adaptation that fails. it does not understand who its characters are or what they want, it does not know why people connected to the characters it attempts to introduce on an emotional level, and it does not know how to make its own confusing lore work with all of the new details.

[lightninghikaru]

I have a very specific image in my head that I can’t shake Lol! I can imagine on the rare days where Sonic and Shadow get into fights, Sonic is feeling very down and upset. He seeks comfort in his friends but Omega just offers to elimate Shadow for him to make him feel better. Sonic has to explain that violence can’t be the answer for everything. Omega still believes destroying Shadow would fix Sonic’s problem.

*Before Days of Reckoning

After their fight, Sonic had hid in his room. Only coming out to eat when either member dragged him out. Today, Omega decided to drag Sonic to the previous test lab turned sparing room at GUN. Hoping letting out some steam would help Sonic get out of his funk about his argument with Shadow.

They watched Sonic's signature smile slowly return further and further as they continued to exchange blows. Never serious enough to do real damage but just shy of making them think it would.

Then he laughed.

Omega immediately stopped, hearing Sonic have fun and let loose was exactly what he needed. To free himself from an enclosed room where he sat there spiraling about what went wrong or if he made a mistake.

"You okay there bud?" Sonic asked after taking a sip of water when the robot called for a break.

"REORGANIZING PRIORITY HIT LIST." Omega said,

"Oh yeah? Who's in the top three?" Sonic asked, "No, no wait! Let me guess!" First's gotta be Egghead. Second, hmm... Metal? Yeah sometimes I feel like you hate the guy more than I do." Sonic pondered as he tried to figure out the third. Pacing around his metallic companion.

"I don't know many other people you'd be mad at... Maybe Knuckles? But that would be more if he did anything to hurt Rouge...But he’s also against Eggman…"

"PRIORITY THREE... SHADOW THE HEDGEHOG."

"What?" Sonic turned to them, jumping back startled at hearing Shadow's name. “Whoa, wait! Why Shadow?”

“YOUR CURRENT CONDITION WAS CAUSED BY SHADOW. ROUGE AND I HAVE BEEN ATTEMPTING TO SOLVE YOUR ISSUE. BEST SOLUTION: ELIMINATE SHADOW.” Sonic’s ears lower at that. So his teammates were worrying about him while he was fighting through his heartbreak, not sure how to convey it into words.  

“Sure I’m mad at the guy but that doesn’t mean I want him dead.” Sonic said, placing his hands on his hips. “This is the part where Rouge would lecture you about violence not always being the answer.” 

“THAT DOES NOT CHANGE THAT KILLING HIM WOULD BE A PERMANENT SOLUTION TO YOUR PAIN.” Omega said. 

Sonic softly smiles at his friend. They just wanted to protect him the best way they knew how, with destruction. But he knew he had to handle Shadow his own way. “I appreciate the offer bud. But I gotta take point on this.” 

“PRIORITY RESET. HOWEVER, IF YOU EVER CHANGE YOUR MIND…” 

“I know you’ll have my back.” Sonic said with a smile. “C’mon! Let’s go for round 2!”

...

My hand slipped...

[cartoonedin]

sapphire dorm + video games hcs. probably ooc but idc <3

sophia touches grass too much to be considered a gamer girl but after rory introduces her to first-person shooters? you're dead. you're gone. you're her dad you're reporting her but she'll never be dead or gone because pro teams all over the country are trying to recruit her. which country. who knows. she only plays at her friends' houses on saturdays because she doesn't want her brother to snitch on her swearing but sometimes she uses her 'oops i fell off a cliff again and need to call for help' projection and gets banned from those houses too. she and her horse-poop-covered hands hate mobile games. her parents are the reason new candy crush levels are still being added but she has neither the patience nor the long-term planning skills for level one. did the genocide route on undertale in record time because she thought it was how the game was meant to be played. into red dead redemption for the horses and the bearded cowboys who learn about fatherhood via gunfights.

ava is a handheld console girlie. if pokemon nurse were an actual profession she'd be employee of the month thirteen times a year. her animal crossing island has a better economy than every continent combined. that being said the day her brothers introduced her to warioware was the day the world was introduced to true bloodshed. has broken at least one controller because of sheer emotional attachment to a cute character. treats pikmin like a survival horror game and dead space like a sci-fi romcom. got the pacifist ending in undertale and does not understand why other rpgs don't have the mercy option. unless rory's in the game at which point she brings out the laser guns or whatever to get back at him for making her reveal her middle name. you know he's let that slip to more than one call of duty lobby ok let a girl live.

layla's favourite game is google chrome. she's boring and i love her for that. she speedruns minesweeper and solitaire to get her mind off particularly devastating biographies. she's friends with everyone's parents on candy crush and scrabble. she could be a gm on chess.com but she overthinks her moves to the point of losing on time despite playing as white. she's almost been hacked so many times because she can't resist correcting bad moves on word formation advertisements and gets led to online casino #infinity or something. she has a lifelong streak on every new york times game except vertex because you cannot tell me wildstar's constant use of her magic didn't destroy her eyesight even further.

isabel puts the bro in smash bros. rotates between king k. rool, sonic, and greninja because she has a brand and it must be tangential to adhd medication. in the same vein as sophia i think she touches grass too much to be considered a gamer girl but she makes rory keep up with madden and fifa news just to figure out if she's been added to the latest installment. she has a skateboard on her dorm wall but never uses it so i'm thinking she played through the og trilogy of tony hawk's games as a kid and echoed every voice line to the point of perfect memorisation. take the word dude away from her and she's mute. also i think she discovered happy wheels on her mom's computer and ruined several important business presentations that way.

valentina is a slightly grown ipad kid. i'm sorry but you can't tell me she didn't steal her style from dress to impress. also she rates everyone one star on those games not because she's a corrupt voter but because she has a sixth sense for when a bitch is hiding bacon hair beneath a hundred layers of sparkles. up there with isabel in terms of lacking screen time video game wise because i truly believe her family would spend their money on better (read: elite-r) past times but she 1000% plays the sims. one world is for planning fashion moments and carrying on the digital furi bloodline. one world is for drowning people by deleting their pool ladders and saying "not now sweetie mommy's cyberbullying the mayor" to her baby who's on fire.

rory's room looks like a gamestop. idc about his canon phone case he is SILLY. he will play anyone in smash as long as it looks funny next to the other character but he has a soft spot for kirby, yoshi, zero suit samus (isabel side eyes him very hard for this at first but it's still a very gay choice i promise) and wii fit trainer. his personality is held together by goat simulator, untitled goose game, and donut county. also duct tape and blue raspberry gum. he trolls a little (a lot) on first person shooters and mmorpgs mostly so he can pretend with an ounce of plausible deniability that he's just having a fun unserious time when sophia and/or ava beat his ass at both even though they're on the same team.

[phantom-fleetways]

I was wondering if you have any kiturge thoughts/headcanons to share?

Sorry I just like to see ppl talking about them and I was curious what you think

Sure sure! I love gushing about these two!!

Personally, I think Surge and Kit are a Queer Platonic Pair. This is due to my personal idea that Surge has no frame of reference for Romantic Love, and Kit is just brimming with it.

I also believe the two are T4T. Mostly because I just read Surge as trans-masc and Kit as being nonbinary.

I don't think they're wholly healthy per say, but I do think they are perfect for one another. They are both possessive. While I think Surge might be willing to let Kit and her go their separate ways, I know Kit won't. Despite this, they are genuinely better together than apart. As odd as it might be.

Now this is just a more personally niche headcanon of mine, but I think both have weird ways of expressing their affection to one another. Surge does so by allowing things that others won't get away with.

If Kit decided in the middle of the night to crawl into Surge's bed and snuggle her, nothing would be said. Surge would simply just let the fennec make a blanket burrow next to her and go right back to sleep in a few minutes. Maybe even permit him to actually lay on her like a proper couple would. If Sonic was insane enough to attempt this, he would be covered in 3rd degree burns. Along with a good couple bite marks for extra measure.

Kit on the other hand, shows and has always show his affection for Surge through acts of service. Example:

If Surge wants something, Kit will do everything in their power to get it. Surge wants Sonic dead and no distractions? Kit will pull crowd control until she achieves her goals. Surge is crying and needs comfort? Kit will drop literally everything to rush over and attend to her needs.

Kit is naturally selfless towards Surge, but don't mistake it for altruism. Kitsunami isn't actually altruistic, he's plenty selfish. They're merely obessed with being Surge's person.

Anyways, I just think they're neat at the end of the day. And while they're not perfect people, and a bit toxic, they were simply made for each other. Literally.

[trappedinchemicalplantzone]

Could you pretty please spare us some information and lil facts about your Sonic OC?? 🥺 just a little morsel for us pleasee? 🥣🥺

SOMEONES ASKING ABOUT MY SONIC OC??? I LOVE TALKING ABOUT MY SONIC OC

now I don't know which one you mean, but since I got this right after mentioning Carmine, I gonna assume it's about her, and plus I get to talk about Scarlet as well.

So, Scarlet was found when she was a cub, she was found out in the woods by a forest spirit named Faunus, he takes the form of a big ghost-like deer (the earth kind not the mobian kind, but he can take the form of one of those as well) Faunus takes Scarlet in and raises her as his own alongside another young one he's raising, a wolf pup named Borealis who's just a few years older than Scarlet. Scarlet doesn't know who her biological family is nor does she really care to seek out that information, her family is Faunus, Borealis, and her friends!

Faunus teaches Scarlet how to fight, the tiger becoming very proficient with a spear, and sees how dedicated she is to protecting wildlife and others so he blesses her with power of the wind. (Borealis also got his power of lightning from Faunus) Scarlet then starts to naturally fall into the role of Guardian of Nature alongside her brother, Borealis, but while Scarlet sticks closer to home and the woods she was raised in due to it being close to where Eggman is most active, Borealis travels farther to help people around the world recover from events that affected the world (ex. the events of unleashed, you can't tell me there wasn't major clean up that needed to be done after the world split in pieces)

Meanwhile for Carmine, being the anti scarlet from the anti mobius, her story is similar yet so different. Carmine was also found by a forest spirit, the anti Faunus known as Inuus, after being abandoned in the woods. She was raised alongside a wolf, also named Borealis, he doesn't end up going by a different name like many of those from Moebius. These three aren't exactly a family like the prime version of themselves, instead Inuus is raising these two children he found and creating them into the perfect weapons and servants for his bidding. While Inuus' relationship with his children is very different than his Mobius counterpart, anti borealis and carmine still very close but in a more codependent way. They are the only two who know what eachother have gone through, they are the only person the other is close with, they are all eachother have. Until a certain green hedgehog unknowingly rips them away from eachother forever, creating a chain of events he could have never anticipated.

that's some basic background on the two, now for some facts !!

-Scarlet is a quiet yet stern person, due to her quiet nature it makes people believe she will be easy to pressure into doing things or to intimate her, but she always stands her ground and stares them dead in the eye as she refuses to yield. Very rarely does she let her fear control her and cause her to flee from a fight (Infinite during events of Sonic Forces being one of those few.)

-Scarlet has relative ease when it comes to getting along with people, a lot of it comes from her smiling and nodding along to what their saying and providing small feedback. She lets people feel heard and they like that about her, along with how understanding she is towards people who have made mistakes. She really is a kind person and hates to refuse providing help.

-Carmine on the other hand has extreme difficulty getting along with others, thinking only about herself and her father and brother. She could care less about the rest of the world, as long as those two are safe and happy, which is why she willingly goes along with Inuus' desire to rid the world of its tainted lifeforms and machinery.

-While Scarlet has the title of Guardian of Nature, Carmine has her own title, Nemesis of the Machine. A title that turns quite ironic considering some of her actions later in the story..

-Carmine also has a different weapon than Scarlet, preferring a pair of gauntlets that have sharp blades attached to cause pain more up close. (think Vega's claws from Street Fighter)

-Scarlets eyes originally used to be brown! When she was given the gift of the wind by Faunus, they turned blue with hints of purple! If she were to lose her powers or if she were to have one of those power collars from no zone slapped on her, they would turn back to brown.

-Without the wind letting her fly and help her achieve speeds that let her keep up with sonic, her best feat is her strength! She is a tiger after all, she's really strong, but people kinda forget that it's not due to her powers and it's just default Scarlet.

-Scarlet is a bit bigger and taller than the average member of the sonic cast, she doesn't really tower over anyone but it's clear she's definitely a few inches taller than almost all of the hedgehogs. (you will always see me draw scarlet taller than scourge, if she is somehow shorter than that's not my art/j) and yes she's chubby and very fluffy and soft, she's like the best person to hug and cuddle (lowkey jealous of scourge ngl but also he deserves one thing nice I GUESS)

-Scarlet also works best as a support type character! Her favorite kind is making people like Sonic go even faster thanks to the wind giving him even more of a boost !!

-Carmine on the other way is a bit malnourished so she's much smaller than Scarlet is, she's shorter and thinner than most of the hedgehog cast, it's clear this girl was underfed and still is, but she can still pack quite a punch.

-Carmine and Scourge never actually meet until she starts seeking revenge for what happened to Anti Borealis, which is after Scourge meets Scarlet and has been living with her on Mobius for a little over a year at this point.

-speaking of meeting, scourge and scarlet actually originally met while scourge was still just evil or anti sonic! one of the times he dimension hopped to Mobius to pretend to be sonic and cause problems, they bumped into each other. Scarlet, not knowing about the anti dimension yet, thought it was just sonic who suddenly got a weird fashion sense but thought nothing else of it and proceeded to forget that event as time went on. But Scourge remembers it, he didn't at first when he saw her again, but he couldn't forget that bright red hair that reminded him of fire when it moved in the breeze.

I have so much more, especially about Scourge and Scarlet's relationship and how she encourages him to become a better person and more of his own person instead of continuing to be just a worse and evil version of Sonic, letting him see that he can be more than that. So yeah !!

and finally, as a last bonus. I've mentioned before how Scourge and Scarlet are my "I love you in every universe" ship, the only universe where they don't work out is as Sonic and Carmine. Which is so fuckin ironic to me and so tragic. I so badly want something to be between Sonic and Carmine to directly mirror Scourge and Scarlet, but unlike them, Sonic and Carmine will always remain a mystery and an uncertainty, because the moment something definitive happens between them that's the moment they become doomed. Because they are the one universe where they are never meant to be.

[klowncoreperson]

Masterpost

Hey yall!! This is officially gonna (likely) be my new pinned and the masterpost for something I call “5 Minutes to Midnight”, a multiversal crossover thing centered around the NES Godzilla Creepypasta!!

What’s it about?

The events of NGC still occur, but with a twist. At the moment where Zachary defeats Red, it wasn’t enough…when Zachary disposes of the cartridge believing Red is dead, it doesn’t go to Carl right away…instead it appears in the home of a man named Winnie Bosko. Thinking of the cartridge to be harmless and decides he should give it to his childhood friend Augustine for his birthday, he plays tests it…and it goes wrong.

Characters! (These are main/major ones for now, supporting cast will be made soon. Images are also down below in order of the list):

Name: Winnie Bosko

Age: 18, 19 (Post-NES when his birthday came around)

Summary: Originally secluded and introverted in childhood, he’s usually seen as very energetic to other people today. Upon discovering the NES alongside the anomalous Godzilla: Monster of Monsters cartridge, his life is turned to the worst due to what’s within. He serves as the protagonist.

Name: Augustine Orlov

Age: 19 (His birthday had passed during the events)

Summary: Winnie’s childhood best friend. He was like his present self when he was younger, but nowadays you usually see him distant. Throughout the events he consistently tries to contact Winnie to no avail. After no answer for about a week, Augustine goes to find him. All he finds is a distressed best friend.

Name: Daisuke

Age: 19-20 (personal headcanon)

Summary: Originally an intern on the Tulpar, this takes place if he ended up surviving the crash. He bumps into Winnie who ends up befriending him. He visits very frequently, even spending the night on a few occasions to talk with him. He never goes into detail about what happened to Daisuke, but he doesn’t mind (most of the time), he considers Winnie as a little brother figure.

Name: Sebastian Solace

Summary: He ends up escaping Urbanshade way before the story’s events happen, and meets Winnie during his navigation through Trance (after someone had broke the tv and accidentally made the game come to life). He takes care of Winnie even after the events.

Name: Sonic [Where Was My Hero]

Age: 25

Summary: From a universe where Tails never met him, Sonic feels guilt for having to kill him. When he meets Winnie during the events, he becomes protective of him and does whatever he can to keep him safe. He is considered as the deuteragonist.

Name: Marieanne “Manon” Vacher

Age: Late 20’s-30’s

Summary: The ex-girlfriend of Rody, she meets Winnie one day and ends up befriending him alongside Sonic. She’s unaware of what happened, but knows some of it.

Name: Oswald

Age: 10

Summary: One of the youngest of the group that is friends with Winnie. He had previously dealt with a killer rabbit that had taken his dad. After meeting Winnie, he begins to view him as a big brother.

Name: Post-Mortem Sonic

Summary: His world was destroyed, leaving nothing left except for him and his enemy…but then he escaped the confines of the game, landing in the real world. He meets Winnie shortly after his escape, becoming his best friend.

Name: Ruby

Age: 12

Summary: The second youngest and one of the recent Winnie has met. She opened her Christmas present early, having a toy Tattletail. But it came with consequences. She meets Winnie after accidentally leaving the front door open. She is usually almost always seen with him, seeing him as a big brother.

Name: RED

Summary: Also known as “Red” or “The Hellbeast”, he serves as the main villain. After failing to kill Zachary, the game falls into Winnie’s hands. Red takes this opportunity to try and cause more havoc, constantly chasing down the poor guy and attempting to indirectly murder him multiple times through the Not-Monsters. In the final battle, he murdered one of Winnie’s friends in front of him and attempted to murder him by paralyzing his heart. He was unsuccessful and was defeated…but it didn’t mean the end. Despite his defeat, Winnie is inflicted with nightmares and hallucinations…

[hadesknockedupintheunderworld]

Archie Sontails Moments: Part 4

Disclaimer: This post/series does not claim to contain every single Sontails moment in the Archie Sonic the Hedgehog comics, only as many as this user has on hand. Some of the moments presented may be arguable (as in, some may argue that they do not count as sontails moments). As this series focuses on their relationship as presented in the comics (albeit as fuel for others who ship the pairing, but nevertheless), there will be images included which describe/denote the two as being "brothers".

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<< Part 3 | Part 5 >>

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Sonic the Hedgehog In Your Face! (Special)

Description: On the cover of the "In Your Face!" special, both Sally Acorn and Tails can be found riding a Sonic themed amusement park ride. The two have just exited the mouth of the giant, Sonic shaped structure that the ride's track runs through.

Description: A pin up art piece included in this special issue which depicts Sonic and Tails together (which I also have rotated for ease of viewing).

Description: As the part of the forest he must traverse through is too thick for flying, Tails is traveling to the local Sonic Fan Club's big convention by foot. As Sonic's sidekick, Tails was invited by the Sonic Fan Club as a "special guest".

Description: Once at Sonic-con, Tails is introduced to Posey, a resident Sonic expert. She calls Tails "Sonic's apprentice", but Tails corrects her, saying that he prefers the term "sidekick". It's at this moment Tails also learns that he was invited to the con to give a speech to the fans in Sonic's stead (as Sonic turned down his original invitation to Sonic-con as a special guest).

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Sonic the Hedgehog Issue #20

Description: The cover of Archie Sonic the Hedgehog issue #20 depicts Rotor, Sally, and Tails crying at Sonic's grave over his apparent death. Tails in particular is crying the hardest and is hugging Sonic's grave.

Description: After Sonic the Hedgehog is caught in the explosion that also destroys Dr. Robotnik's anti-matter machine, Sally returns to the freedom fighters in tears and with news of Sonic’s apparent death. Tails, although surprised by Sally's words, is the only member of the freedom fighters who refuses to believe that Sonic is truly dead. Tails believes that "Sonic is the greatest and nothing could destroy him".

Description: Tails declines the offer to work on Sonic's heroic memorial statue because of his refusal to believe that his buddy is dead. Sonic quickly exclaims that Tails is right and he is alive, but the freedom fighters do not hear him. Sally attempts to get through to Tails that Sonic is gone, but Tails yet stands his ground on his belief.

Description: Sonic arrives back at Knothole, only to find the area deserted and a letter from Tails nailed to a stump. In the letter, Tails tells Sonic that he made the note because he knows that Sonic is still alive, and lets him know that the Freedom Fighters are currently on the way to Robotropolis to avenge him. The letter is signed off with "your loyal pal, Tails". Tails also left an additional note at the bottom which bids Sonic not to pay attention to the letter if he truly is dead.

Description: After Dr. Robotnik bails out of his plane and the plane itself crashes, Tails proposes his bet that it was Sonic who stopped Dr. Robotnik (in truth, Tails is correct as it was Sonic's doing). Sally, frustrated, goes to ask Tails when he'll admit that Sonic is dead, but she's cut off by Sonic's arrival. Tails exclaims that Sonic is alive.

[mirersc]

MLB AU x SONADOW

What's the result?

A chaotic AU with the most unbearable slow burn of all ages.

Yep, we're doing this. Or at least we will talk about it, because I need to share it with someone. Anyone.

Warning: contains spoilers of MLB movie

So ever since the new movie of MLB came out -btw you should go see it, it's pretty light-hearted and adorable- my head is spinning and thinking what would happen if our two hedgehogs had been instead on the main characters' place, but with their own personalities.

Sonic would take Marinette's role, I haven't thought of a backstory yet, -and no he is not shy and without confidence, he is sly and cocky as ever- but he lives with Tails -when he isn't on one of his trips- and together they attend Chaos High on Green Hill -I'm still planning the settings and the names in my head-

On the other hand, Shadow takes Adrien's role, but unlike him, he's actually moving from his home in Station Square to go live with his best friend, Rouge, for a while, who miraculously lives in Green Hill as the others. And surprise, surprise, Gerald is alive! Does that mean that he is Hawk Moth and that Maria is Emily? To be honest, I'm still debating if Gerald is the real villain, because I want to include GUN in the game as well, but oh man, stuff like that takes time.

For sure though Maria takes Emily's place.

There's a high possibility though that she isn't dead. Just pretty sick. For now at least ;) *cough* I meant, she will be fine!

Tikal is the guardian so she takes the place of Master Fu and there are no kwamies. Yes, that's right. Instead of kwamies -do I even spell that right?- we have chaos, thus and why Tikal is the guardian of them. And instead of having a plethora of them there are only seven of them, each of them bearing a chaos emerald.

So skipping into the plot we have first day of a new year with everyone knowing everyone and Shadow being the new transfer student, who clings to Rouge's side and his personal robotic assistant Omega -yeah we're bringing him because we stan Team Dark!-

Introductions are made and oops, the two hedgies make a brief eye contact while at class. Neither of them shows any interest. Ouch I know, but wait, we have track. That's right. And where Sonic believes that his only rival is Jet here comes Shadow to steal the spotlight with his AIR SHOES, even if Sonic deems them rocket shoes. And just like that the blue blur finally pays attention to the stoic new student. Not as if he's fallen in love, but he is intrigued by him! I mean, have you seen any other running as fast as him?

Note; there are no super powers in this world, but Tails still is the smartest of the group, lol. That's just his nature. However he doesn't know that he can fly with his second tail. That's something that he'll discover later.

Anyways moving on, Hawk Moth -or however I'll remain the character later, because I'm not keeping those names for copyright issues- suddenly awakens the purple emerald, thus and the chao with it that have been lost in the fight that have broke between the echidna race and Tikal is forced to call upon the chaos of the dark blue and red chaos emeralds, named -that's actually a good question, I'm debating on Azul and Shade, but that's just basic? Or nah- Anyways, both chaos don't go well with each other and decide like in the movie to select on their own their champions.

Long story short, because there's no way I'm revealing everything, Azul ends up with Sonic and Shade with Shadow and they both activate their powers -after a lot of convincing by both ends, I know surprise for a specific blue hedgehog but sus- I was thinking that the could say, “Chaos Activate” with their respective chao on the start of the sentence, but working on it. Oh they are on their super forms, when powers activated, because I couldn't think of something better and thus their original abilities are unlocked, a.k.a Sonic's speed and Shadow's manipulation over chaos energy.

So the heroes meet while trying to discover where the corrupted with dark chaos energy is -yep, no akumas either- and they do not get along. Shadow having thought of it more, had already picked a name for his secret identity, named -I'm bad at names, but I was thinking something to do with Chaos, like Chaos Controller, but that's just too big so I'll think of something better-. Sonic soon realises that he still haven't thought of his own name, but then the corrupted arrives and interrupts them.

So they fight, they banter, Sonic haves a panic attack, Shadow almost loses his emerald, but they work it out. But like in the series they forget to cleanse the dark chaos energy something that BOTH Sonic and Shadow are able to do with the power of the chaos emerald.

They both find their way after that, working together, learning from their mistakes. Surprisingly, it is Shadow that finds a name for Sonic. Without even thinking of it too hard. He just calls him something and Sonic likes it so he keeps it.

And here's the moment that you all waited for.

The love matter.

Which takes a LOT OF TIME to finally come.

So to put it simple.

Sonic loves Shadow.

Shadow loves Super Sonic.

-this is where you all start clapping and fangirling-

There I said it. You can all just toy with the idea now, if you haven't thought of this already. And oh they both get refused by the other like the movie. But first is Shadow who declines Sonic and then Super Sonic who declines Super Shadow. Why? Because one thing led to another and Sonic accidentally reveals his like to the other hedgehog. Shadow of course is taken aback, because he didn't expect Sonic to like him. Not that Sonic would like to change anything in their current relationship, because it's perfect as it is. He just wishes to know if Shadow would like to keep it like that and after graduation. Shadow, however, likes Super Sonic and thus declines Sonic. Of course he doesn't express this in a harsh manner. He is considerate of the other's feelings. But Sonic of course is hurting. So imagine the SAME time in the evening to getting asked by Super Shadow, if he would like for their relationship to grow into something more. Sonic just can't and he leaves immediately like he'd done a prior hours ago.

Of course I'm not telling you how they get together or how they overcome this, because where's the fun in that? Don't know, if I'll make it into a fic this idea yet, but feel free to send me asks, if you have any questions.

Furthermore you can even take this idea and turn it into something unique. Just be sure to let me know so I can keep an eye out of it. I wouldn't mind reading an AU like this or seeing art of it.

Thank you for managing to come this far. I am super grateful and hopefully my next posts will not be as big as this one. Be safe and be happy! Gotta love our two hogs.

[johnny2071]

Why Team Dark Doesn't Work (As Established)

Thanks to a few rude individuals, I now have to include this disclaimer: I HAVE played both Sonic Adventure 2 and Sonic Heroes. This is just my opinion, so don't attack me for it.

I think that Team Dark is team that was simply thrown together for the sake of gameplay convenience. While I don't see anything wrong with bringing Shadow back from what many were expected to believe was his heroic sacrifice at the end of SA2, it's everything else that comes after that.

At the point of Shadow's re-introduction, he clearly has amnesia. But then we're introduced to Omega (meant to be a Gamma 2.0, since that character is canonically dead, as well as the Knuckles/power-type for Team Dark), who comes in guns a-blazing, and an epic scuffle ensues. Next, we have Rouge break up the fight, piece together their situations and motives from her mouth and not theirs. At this point, Rouge is clearly interested solely in stealing Eggman's treasure hoard (that he apparently has). So with two character conveniently nearby, Rouge proposes that they team up and work together.

In short, Team Dark was form solely on a whim, of someone else's material ambitions. There are so many problems I see with this, so I'll explain each of them.

Rouge. Since her introduction in SA2, Rouge has been portrayed as a vain jewel thief who is a stark contrast to both Knuckles' noble sense of duty (regardless of what little we know about how he came to this role, and how much he's held to it) and the value of the Master Emerald itself. Later on in the game, Rouge nearly falls to her death, but is humbled a bit when Knuckles saves her. Rouge still maintains her arrogance and snark, but has enough decency to hand over the rest of the emerald shards out of gratitude. After the entire drama regarding Gerald Robotnik's post-mortem motives and Shadow's sacrifice, Knuckles ask Rouge if she plans on stealing more gems once they return to Earth, to which Rouge vaguely replies that she has something else on mind. But with gem-obsession aside, Rouge has another side to her character, where she's also a freelance spy who will take on any job if payed upfront, and we eventually learn that she's been hired by the president to investigate Project Shadow. So in short, even though she's still somewhat of a mystery, what she does make known is that she's quite the lively and extravagant jewel thief who just happens to take her spy work professionally from time to time. She's also not big on bonding with and warning up to other characters and their personal woes. So why on Earth should any of us believe that Rouge is the type of character who gives a crap about teamwork and people getting along with each other, while also invested in Shadow in particular socializing with others (Sonic and Amy's respective birthdays). And that's not even getting into her character in both Sonic 2006, the Archie comic reboot, and other entries in the franchise since.

Shadow. In Heroes, Shadow has zero memory of his past and any of the events that unfolded in SA2, but his personality is as antagonistic as it was in that very game. By the time of his reintroduction, he just awoken from a chamber-like device and was greeting by Omega launching an open fire barrage on him. Since Maria's death, Shadow never had any reason or obligated to befriend anyone, especially those who attack him first, but has even more to deal with taking his amnesia into account. Why would this already angst hedgehog work with a robot that just attacked him and a take-charge bat girl telling him to play nice. In a better written scenario, Shadow would just fend off Omega, and after getting enough distance from the robot, Rouge would then show up and greet Shadow. Shadow naturally wouldn't want to be bothered, but Rouge would tempt him to meet her at specific location for more information on his past: the one thing that would be of concern to him. But in Team Dark's actual formation, it just feels like Shadow is an easy person to bait and that all his angst/distrust is small potatoes to what Rouge wants from both of them.

Omega. Back in Sonic Adventure, we filled the entire campaign of E-102 Gamma, from the moment he went online, to his interaction with Amy, to his sacrificial explosion. Then we cut to Sonic Heroes, which tries to bring back several characters as part of an all-star adventure game. However, unlike Shadow, Gamma couldn't just be brought back due to the nature of his existence (exploded robot parts and one small bird happily living its life). So SEGA created a new robot who was meant to be a spiritual replacement. SEGA also made Heroes very teamwork-focused and wanted each team of three characters to lazily play the same way as Team Sonic, so they needed this robot to fill the same power character role as Knuckles. Cue Omega, folks. Yeah, we know next to nothing about Omega as a character, since unlike Gamma, he never had any individual focus or character growth. He's simply a robot who likes to destroy things and is angry at Eggman for keeping him locked up, something that no other Eggman robot has felt (if anything at all, and don't even get me started with Metal Sonic). And also unlike Gamma, he feels like a one-note parody who boasts about all his targets being inferior consumer models, and even has cringe one-liners that would never come out of Gamma or the other five E-Series robots. There's Duke Nuke'Em and then there's Duke Nuke'Em the Robot. In creating replacement character that was meant to last for several decades, SEGA forgot what made Gamma (or any robot character since) special in the first place. Omega just feels like team formation filler who's simply there, and a distant reminder that Gamma once existed (and that's without getting into Chaos Gamma from Sonic Battle, who's even more questionable).

The Team. Since the name of the game is Sonic Heroes, each team is formed and established from the get-go or on the fly without regard for any of the team members' other roles and responsibilities, or if they have any close connections (if at all). Team Dark is pretty much no exception to this. Again, this entire team is formed mainly to fulfill HER worldly desires. We never get to see Shadow seek Rouge out on his own ends and steadily form an alliance with her. We also never see Rouge's savvy of the intel underworld/proper bargaining skills, and we never see Omega take on other E-Series robots solo, get way in over his programming with the later bosses, get a beat down that humbles his elitist character, and see Shadow and Rouge properly invite him as their third member, with Shadow now acknowledging him as a kindred spirit. Heck we never see Sonic encounter and clash with him as stand-alone enemy, just as a hangers-on without any nevermind as to how/why is Shadow back, and what Team Dark's business is. The sad thing is, this was a missed opportunity. The whole plot could focused on Shadow's return, Omega, the rest of the E-Series robots, the formation of Team Dark, and THEN the big reveal of Metal Sonic's return, instead of the "🎵 We're on our way to the wishing star 🎵" romp we ultimately got. Also, these guys (especially Shadow) have absolutely no business or obligation working for G.U.N. (especially Abraham Tower, since that name is now canon).

Despite Team Dark's shoddy execution, the team has since become quite iconic and I would never breakup or undo any of that. In terms of Sonic trios for three-person events and plots, these three absolutely belong. I just wish things would have been handled better, instead of this team feeling ironic and used for "light humor" under Flynn's pen, where they're OOC or have "UC" (unfitting character).

But yeah, this has been my write up on my thoughts on Team Dark as whole.

[badnikbreaker]

@camotix : "i'm not going to hurt you." espio is far from a pacifist, but they've heard enough to not want a fight here. they briefly hold out their hands as if to say 'see?? no weapons.' before crossing their arms. besides — something about the kid's appearance nags at his mind. "[ ... ] i'm espio." // for kit!!

The words are no comfort / Kitsunami flinches away from the other, even as apparently unarmed as he appears. Surge says that everyone wants to hurt the. Surge says the whole world wants them dead. SURGE KNOWS EVERYTHING / SURGE IS PERFECT / SURGE IS WHY HE EXISTS. Surge — isn't here, doesn't know he's here, and that leaves Kit feeling cornered, bad at making his own choices. They're afraid but they're not drowning the other. Not yet. Tendrils of water curl instead of the frightened fox, protective.

They would always be afraid, but being in THIS PLACE makes it unfathomably worse. He'd wrecked almost all of the lab when he and Surge had fled after the last fight, but since she'd awoken, Surge keeps talking about returning, about their pasts — HE DOESN'T WANT PASTS. HE BARELY WANTS A FUTURE. He'd come back to destroy the last of it before she could try to return, as if the lack of this place might enable him to trick her into giving up — the last of the tubes and the last of the fields Starline had used to test and kill them. There shouldn't be anyone else here. NO PERSON SHOULD BE HERE, IN THIS PLACE WHERE TWO UNPERSONS WERE MADE AND KILLED.

"E — Espio ——" They whisper, repeating the sound back like they're testing it out. Espio. Another person in the world. It's so jarring, to remember that the world isn't just Surge and Sonic and Tails and Starline and him. It doesn't feel fair. His terror is so all - consuming / his agony so big and so specific all at once / what right does anyone else have to exist? To exist free of pain? It isn't fair. It isn't ———

This person says they won't hurt him. Espio says they won't hurt him. Kit doesn't believe that, but he wants to. He wants so badly to believe someone, anyone won't hurt him. Even Surge hurts him, sometimes. "I — I'm Kit....Kitsunami. I d - don't — understand why anyone would come here." No one should come here.

[true-blue-sonic]

The thought of Eggman Nega having a hand in Silver’s “creation” is hilarious. The Robotnik bloodline just cannot escape the curse of at least one of their best creations turning against them in some way.

…Actually, right after I sent that last ask, I happened to remember something. I know it’s been mentioned before that Silver likely isn’t an artificial creation because he mentions having been born, but isn’t it possible in the Sonic universe to implant fake memories? I always thought that that was the way Gerald got Shadow to believe he had to destroy the world. And that was 250 years before Silver’s time, so imagine what the tech from his time could be capable of

I think it would also fit with the fact Eggman Nega is just so bad at being a credible villain that he never managed to get Silver back under his control again. Eggman reprogrammed Metal after the events of Heroes to have unwavering loyalty to him once more, and Gerald was long dead by the time Amy managed to make Shadow remember his true wish (and in ShTH Gerald's video message furthermore inspires Shadow into a second wind that allows him to beat Black Doom, so he managed to undo the destruction of the world after all like his sane self would have wanted).

But indeed, on the topic of Gerald and Shadow, in Gerald's speech in SA2 in the Last Story he says: "I designed its mind to be perfect, pure…", implying to me that he meddled with Shadow's mind somehow (because the Shadow we see in earlier flashbacks is quite kind with Maria, while pondering over his purpose and why he was created). We also see that Shadow at first does not recall Maria's actual wish ("Give them a chance to be happy. Let them live for their dreams."), and instead only remembers bits and pieces. Here it is interesting to note that in those, Maria never says the word revenge or anything urging for it. She just says "Shadow… I beg of you… please," and "Do it for me… for all the people… on that planet…", which Shadow fills in with her desiring revenge. I'm not certain if this is indeed what happened, but I figure Gerald actively repressed the parts where Maria asked Shadow to protect the world and put the idea of revenge in Shadow's head instead, while still leaving enough pieces of Maria's presence and words for Shadow to recall she had a wish for him to fulfil. So from that, I figure tampering with memories is absolutely not impossible in the world of Sonic.

In canon, I doubt Silver is indeed an artificial creation because there is nothing pointing towards it, but I quite like the idea of a story where Nega created him to be the ultimate fighter in his army or something like that... and somehow managed to make a hoglet with such a strong sense of justice and desire to help others that it all backfired on him immediately. I can imagine Nega pulling a Starline-esque move wherein he kept erasing Silver's memories in attempts to this time get him to be loyal, except Silver somehow managed to escape and be free from his control between memory wipes. He'd remember enough about Nega to know he's very dangerous and wants to destroy the world, and he also knows enough about himself that he doesn't want that to pass, and thus them being archnemeses is settled for life. And Nega is never going to be able to defeat him, haha! I think it'd be even more interesting if he made Silver with just some base powers (some telekinesis, maybe being able to teleport), but Silver keeps developing himself further. And now he can fly at the speed of sound! And make knives from pure psychic energy! Some precognition and telepathic abilities, why not? Lifting literal tons of weight at once, sure! Eggman Nega can't even be proud of the fact his creation is able to do all this, because it's only ever used to wreck his plans. He'll be beyond bitter about it!