#sonic rivals 2 ifrit

[true-blue-sonic]

The Ifrit's mind powers seemed to be entirely its own; and I guess it could probably even be argued that Nega might not have actually been aware of the extent of it, considering that the only two routes that the mind powers are seen in (Sonic/Tails and Knuckles/Rouge) are also the two routes in which Nega doesn't interact with the heroes in the Ifrit's dimension.

Which is still a damn shame cause we were cruelly robbed of the angst of Espio and Silver fighting each other like in those two other routes—BUT anyway

*yeeting open Word* WHO WOULD BE MORE LIKELY TO BE MIND-CONTROLLED, SILVER OR ESPIO

If I am not mistaken, Gerald apparently did a bunch of research on the Ifrit and wrote a whole book about it that Nega got his hands on... and then subsequently proceeded to lose basically all the pages of, lol. But one page says "The Ifrit held the power of destruction, and the power to blind one's soul…", as read by Tails. Of course, 'blind one's soul' is exactly the kind of vagueness that tells you nothing about what it means, but I figure the mind control is what is indicated with it. Interestingly, all four characters note that their mind-controlled companions do not seem to be entirely under the Ifrit's control and/or are trying to fight it and break free, so I figure it's something that can be warded off if the recipient is strong enough. Thus, even if Eggman Nega had somehow been able to make the Ifrit use it on Silver, I doubt it would have worked in the long run, considering Silver's determination and strong spirit and all. Same for Espio. I honestly think Nega would have been tremendously disappointed that the Ifrit's mind control is not absolute, haha!

So overall, we can conclude that Nega probably had little to do with the Ifrit's mind control. Though, I am wondering if there is an in-game reason why only on the Sonic/Tails and Knuckles/Rouge routes a character got mind controlled; it makes sense from a gameplay perspective because the other two groups are fighting Metal Sonic 3.0 instead and thus the 'rival slot' in the boss battle was already filled, but I do wonder. There's no doubt in my mind that if Nega had been able to control the mind control power (and the plot had had room for it), he'd have had no qualms to use it against Silver and/or Espio. I think it would have been quite nice to have Silver embrace Espio's help so much that he's able to fight him out of his mind control and care for him afterwards! Though in the same vein, Silver is Nega's archnemesis, so for him to be mind controlled instead and having Nega taunt Espio about it is interesting too. Hmm.... My curiosity is piqued!

[cakebird-art]

I keep seeing Ultraman Rising clips and it made me think… what if a baby Ifrit follows Cake out of the Inferno Zone when he rescues Nega…

[silver---linings]

sending you to eeby deeby

[beecarmine]

Findings from reading Gerald’s journal (spoilers!)

• The journal was supplied to Abraham via an “Archival and Requisition Department,” and was signed “-T”

• Gerald had two sons: one was interested in robotics, the other in archaeology

• Project ARK had other funding outside of the United Federation

• Experiments were being conducted on a chaos emerald on the ARK, which was simply “acquired” at some point

• There is a direct reference to Ifrit from Sonic Rivals 2

• Emerl was found “in a warehouse” by Gerald’s archeologist son.

• Emerl may very well have eradicated The Fourth Great Civilization

• Maria was diagnosed with her illness later in life and was, presumably, not born with it

• Maria was moved from Earth to the ARK with the begrudging/unsure consent of her parents

• Maria is officially referred to as being the “adoptive daughter” of everyone aboard the ARK

• Maria had to use mobility aids

• Abraham Tower was the result of an accidental pregnancy

• Gerald refers to the pursuit of immortality (as requested by the president) as being “as intangible as a shadow,” and that he can use that pursuit to “chase [the] shadow” of finding a cure for Maria’s illness

• The Chaos-inspired robots were Gerald’s first answer to GUN’s demand for weapons, though their original intention was for search and rescue

• Chaos Drives were invented as a way to infuse Chaos Emerald energy into living tissue safely, as direct contact with the Chaos Emerald proved too dangerous

• Lizards (salamanders) were chosen as the first test subjects of the newly invented Chaos Drives for their regenerative properties and “manageable size.”

• Early Chaos Drives were also given to GUN’s mechs to power them

• Gerald felt incredibly guilty about the biolizard, and tried to keep it as comfortable as possible knowing that it was in tremendous pain

• Gerald may or may not have lied to Maria about what happened to the salamander

• Gerald was fiercely protective of Maria and had no tolerance for anyone who doubted the validity of her illness

• Gerald equates his agreement with Doom as being a deal with the devil

• Somehow, the development of a “small, sturdy biped” (hedgehog) was born out of necessity, and not to imitate other bipedal hedgehogs

• “Project Shadow” was named by Gerald with “scorn and mockery,” but it took Maria to help him realize that “A shadow tells you which way to go to find the light.”

• Gerald wanted Shadow to be “A champion of life and hope”

• “Gizoid” means “everything”

• The Gizoid (Emerl) establishes an unbreakable, protective link with whoever can exhibit the most power

• Gerald established a “link” with Emerl by firing multiple model guns in front of him

• The stress Gerald was under is reflected in his journal entries becoming more rushed and erratic

• Emerl was handed over to the government when they threatened to shut down Project Shadow

• Gerald created the Eclipse Cannon in response to Emerl not being “flashy” enough, and deliberately made it so that it would be impossible to use on a single enemy without destroying the world

• The Eclipse Cannon was meant for Shadow to deal with the Black Arms; as in, “This is Shadow’s cannon. My gift to him in a battle he never asked for.

I’m so sorry.”

• Maria helped design Shadow’s accessories to help ease the strain of the chaos power in him (specifically his shoes and rings)

• Gerald’s sons started to drift apart, divided in their relationship with their father

• Shadow and Maria’s relationship rekindled some hope in Gerald and what he was working towards

• Maria’s parents had another daughter, and Gerald felt it was a sort of “replacement” for her. No indicator to how Maria may have felt

• Emerl rampaged the ARK after having a new link established and learning enough to become “A god of wrath,” as described in ancient stone tablets

• Emerl’s rampage turned the Artificial Chaos to behave erratically and dangerously

• Both Shadow and Emerl are “equipped with heart”

• Gerald became so distraught from Maria’s death that he completely lost all sense of self

• Gerald left “everything” to Shadow

• In the last paragraph, Gerald seems to refer to Shadow using “it” and “he” interchangeably, but it’s a bit unclear if he’s referring to Shadow exclusively

• The journal has an Eggman sticker on the back, marking it as “Property of the Eggman Empire”

[disabled-battlekukku]

Thimking about how Shadow treats Metal in Rivals 2 and how Metal responds to this...

The way Shadow understands Metal without the need for words

The way Shadow chats with Metal even when he doesn't know if Eggman's communicator is working or not

The way Metal immediately dashes to Shadow when Eggman says "bad transmission, grave danger"

The fact that Metal rarely uses his "code talk" around Shadow besides that one time when the Ifrit is approaching them

The fact that when they're entering the Ifrit Dimension, Eggman never mentions Metal's existence but Shadow does

How he refers to Metal 3.0 as "Eggman Nega's copy of Metal Sonic" and NOT "Eggman Nega's copy of Sonic".

The way Shadow just seems happy around Metal

The fact that Metal Sonic GAVE HIS LITERAL CURRENT FUCKING HEART TO SHADOW TO SAVE THEM

[maplethedarkshine]

Random sonic headcanons

Sonic does have a house, but he only uses it to store his things and basically never spends time in it

Mighty and Ray haven't appear in modern sonic because mighty is somehow still missing and ray is searching for him

In the future, since there's no longer equidnas, silver is now the guardian of angel/onix island

Also, every time he goes back to the past is because the master emerald shows him a vision of it and he goes to check if everything if ok

The chaotix only have 2 rooms in the house and espio sleeps in the sofa

Mighty is the one who gave the cowboy/ treasure hunter hat to knuckles

Metal sonic actually died/was destroyed in back in rivals 2. The one that appears in team sonic racing is a prototype of eggman to try to rebuild him, but he's not complete and has no AI programed yet

Speaking of. Eggman nega died (left to die by espio-) in the ifrit dimension in the same game

The early concept of sonic in a band actually happened early in the timeline. So, vector and sonic know each other, but since they're really not longer friends they pretend like they don't recognize each other

The only ones who remember sonic 06 are sonic, Elise (partially) and blaze (partially/regained her memory in generations)

Mephiles/solaris didn't died when Elise blew up the flame, he just lost his corporeal form and now he's exclusively an omnipresent being

Charmy bee is literally god /j

Classic sonic isn't mute, he simply refused to talk in generations-forces because he was annoyed and hated almost everyone (look at the rescue friends cutscenes from classic POV, he looks pissed)

Omega is still pretty much alive by silver's future, shadow not so much

Surprisingly, the only one good with handling Money on team chaotix is Charmy. Espio wastes it all in gambling and Vector gets scammed 24/7

Idk, that's all, bye

[multbasa]

I never got into the Archie comics for a variety of reasons, but one of my issues with it was the portrayal of the future where Silver is from. I really really dislike the idea that the future is "stable" and it doesn't matter what happens in the past even with time travel because it won't affect the future. I honestly hate it.

What's the point in traveling back in time if it affects nothing? It doesn't reflect the actual canon future in the Sonic games which is clearly volatile and changes often in response to present events as we can see with Silver's numerous appearances where he had a good future in Colours but a bad future in Forces.

And this will offend some people, but I didn't like the Article future cast either. Silver having his own crew of friends in some unchanging future really defeats the purpose of his time travel and I much prefer the existential horror of the delicate existence of everyone Silver may meet in any one future.

The idea that some existences will be erased or changed when he goes to the past all for the greater good is much more reflective of Silver to me. He's someone who considers the bigger picture over the few which contrasts him from Sonic who had seen what Eggman has done but still would not go so far as to kill him.

We see this side of Silver in '06 where he and Blaze promised to fix the world at any cost, and he struggles with the thought of killing one to save the world. He ends up being unable to choose the world over his only friend and when the sky clears, he looks away even though that was what he wanted all this time.

We also see this in Rivals 2 (albeit more aggressively because every character is super aggressive in that game) where Silver is very driven to complete his goal even at the expense of others for the greater good. He and Espio end up leaving Eggman Nega to die in the Ifrit dimension.

And even though I hate Forces' portrayal of Silver being a "realist", the fact that he prioritizes the bigger issues over finding Sonic does make sense for that part of his character—my issue with Forces is that he can't be a realist because a realist wouldn't travel back in time, and Silver being pessimistic about Sonic surviving while he was optimistic in '06 even when Sonic was dead in front of him is such a mischaracterization.

Silver is the way he is because of how volatile the future is with how much is on the line. He's an optimist who holds onto hope that he can fix everything (which also gives him a bit of an ego). Giving him a stable future defeats the purpose of his time travel and diminishes his motivations. He is the way he is because the future can be changed and changes often.

The IDW comics have Silver in the past for "no reason" which is fine to keep him around in the main cast, but they are not allowed to show details of the future created which is mandated by SEGA. A lot of people hate this, but since the writers are from the Archie comics, I'm actually glad because I fear they would just tread the same ground and make the future impossible to change because it would affect original characters. I'm happy that Silver can be involved in present events because he gets to interact with the main cast a lot more. In Sonic Team Racing, he is shown to be a bit paranoid about things that could happen with a bit of a strong intuition which I think is something that can be explored in the present. He's so focused on the future that he struggles to relax when there isn't an obvious threat. IDW already touched upon this which I think is great and I want to see them explore his character more.

Also give us more depictions of Silver's power. I love the fact that Silver is threatening but everyone is fortunate that he is so focused on doing good. I like seeing characters in the series like Mimic see Silver as a threat.

I think there's a lot that can be explored without establishing some cushy happy future with cushy happy friends. Silver is alone in his time travel and the people he meets in the futures he creates may not exist in the next one and that is way more interesting to me and includes a moral question that is more meaningful than "Silver goes back just to make the past a little nicer which has zero impact on the future because the future doesn't change."

[monsterfuckerconfessions]

The Sonic series is responsible for making me a monsterfucker, specifically a dragon fucker. Chaos? Fucking love him, I want to get fucked by him in his Perfect Chaos form. The Ifrit from Sonic Rivals 2? Equally as hot. It's a giant demonic dragon, how can that not be hot. And then there's Wyvern from Sonic Frontiers. A robot dragon? Fucking hot.

.

[beevean]

I find it very interesting (A.K.A. annoying) how the idw comic tries defending this whole "sonic never kills" nonsense by bringing up every bad person who's turned around. But they also blatantly ignore all the times Sonic did kill or was fine with letting someone die

Dark gaia

Time eater

King Arthur

Solaris

Erazor Djinn (eternal damnation)

Ifrit

Captain behemoth

Bio Lizard

Explicitly tells Infinite he's going to kill him

The Ifrit (the one from Sonic rivals 2)

Captain whisker

Black Doom (Shadow was the one who finished him off, but the point is Sonic has no problem with other people killing either)

The idw comic's writing only barely functions if you blatantly ignore everything outside of it, and even then, it's still extremely iffy.

Secret Rings is canon to IDW, btw. Sonic had a flashback to the events of that game in #16.

"Everyone deserves a chance to be free, even the evil doctors," Sonic says after he yeeted Erazor Djinn in lava :)

Also yeah, some of these are creatures whose level of sapience is questionable... but not all of them. Solaris never speaks in his full form, but Mephiles is explicitly his mind, so we know that he's a cunning, sadistic deity. Sonic slashed King Arthur fully believing he was a real person, and he did act like one. Also Sonic is the very first person Shadow meets in his game, and the very first thing he asks of him is to kill all the aliens in Westopolis, with the goal ofc of reaching the "big boss" if you go through the Pure Hero route. Again, the sapience of the Black Arms is questionable, but those are still living creatures who might as well be slaves for all he knows. Doesn't care! He'll kill them all!

Sonic doesn't have a rule when it comes to his enemies: he's not a pacifist, he's not the Punisher. He either listens to them, or cuts to the chase: it depends on how unrepentant they come across. The very idea of him having a "principle" about it is ridiculous. Sonic doesn't have principles, he doesn't follow rules, he does what he wants to do.

I get the moral dilemma around Mr. Tinker: he's a blank slate genuinely willing to do good, so does he deserve to be punished for crimes he didn't commit? I don't know why Flynn felt the need to insert such a moral dilemma in a book that he himself has said is for kids and thus can't properly explore the concept of identity and sins, but whatever.

Problem is that, somewhere along the line, they started to treat him not as a brain damaged version of Eggman who might as well be a different person, but as "Eggman reformed", which is insane and even creepy from Sonic. It's just absurd that IDW Sonic based his entire moral code, that everyone has the chance to become a better person, after he witnessed his war criminal of an archnemesis simply getting brain damage, and somehow thinking that this amnesiac personality reflected Eggman's real ego. What the fuck.

Oh, and then this ridiculous shit lmao:

Not only Sonic would never play villain apology for Eggman of all people, but those examples are nothing but proof of how selfish Eggman is. He never cared about protecting the planet because of some hidden depths. My man spells his reasoning out very clearly:

But now Sonic passes off those strained alliances as some good deeds and proof that Eggman is not so bad after all. "Grade-A jerk", huh? Is that how you describe the guy who broke the planet into pieces and was willing to destroy the spacetime continuum for the sake of killing you? What's next, is Black Doom with his plans of turning humanity into cattle "a big meanie"? Why are you trying so hard, man?

Ah, and then he has to resort to guilt tripping Shadow about his own "crimes" (read: being forced to follow Gerald's programming) to get his way :) piece of shit who pretends to be morally superior when in reality he's just an awful person.

[miloscat]

[Review] Sonic Rivals 2 (PSP)

Does Rivals 2 really rival Rivals 1?

Almost exactly a year after Rivals, Backbone produced a sequel. Given the quick turnaround you can't expect too much has changed—we still have a 2.5D race-based platformer—but they've done a good job stuffing new features and content into the package this time around. Is the new stuff a worthy addition though?

First I'll address the general refinements. Characters' signature moves are no longer at the whim of the rotating pickups, but given their own button and a dedicated meter that fills by collecting rings. This is a great change that adds dynamism to play, and makes character choices more meaningful. The action feels faster paced, with shortened windows to execute vaulting moves, for example. Presentation is a little more slick and the card collecting more transparently tied to your accomplishments (although they don't factor into the plot anymore). Weapon use has a little more depth as it's possible to avoid hits, and stage gimmicks get more involved at times. All these tweaks make for a stronger game experience, but I did feel like the bot players were harder, and story levels took me more retries on average... especially when playing as the characters with weaker abilities.

So the headline feature is the new playable characters. Added to the prior game's roster of Sonic, Shadow, Silver, Knuckles, and Metal are Tails, Rouge, and for some reason Espio. They bring new abilities of varied usefulness; Tails's flight is rarely helpful and Espio's merely makes you disappear from the level progress bar, but Rouge's homing bat missile is great. Apart from these powers, everyone plays identically. Story mode is still split into four perspectives as the roster of eight pair up... you can pick either character within a pair but I think this only changes which order you play out events within a zone, while each character still has a separate campaign progress. It's an odd choice.

The story follows its predecessor's example of constant misunderstandings and miscommunications as an excuse for the characters to get into petty conflicts. It also reuses the "Nega disguising himself as Eggman" plot device, although this time Eggman has an actual role in the plot. Not content to rip off its own prequel, Rivals 2 steals shamelessly from Sonic 06, as it culminates in a city of the future devastated by a raging beast of elemental fire whose name is taken from Islamic folklore, Iblis Ifrit! At least this game doesn't completely erase itself from history. Anyway, more characters means more interactions and this time the cutscenes—while still just text boxes and portraits visually—are all nicely fully voiced.

A new world map screen helps to contextualise things well and the new environments are just as nice and colourful as they were in Rivals 1. Among the race levels and boss fights (whose quality is on par with the prior entry's) are new level types. Some just have you run through a level solo against the clock or trying to collect rings or Chao; not very satisfying. Others are head-to-head battles in small arenas, and despite pushing them hard in the story mode I feel like these are a dud. Even with the standard multiplayer-type variants of deathmatch, capture the Chao, bomb tag, etc. these always seemed a drag when they came up in the campaigns. It's a shame that all these attempts at adding new things to do end up not as fun as the core gameplay.

At least the soundtrack is a step up, catchier and more exciting. The exception is the addition of a key vocal track, which only plays on the title screen and oddly in level one. It stands out, and not in the good way that His World stood out in 06. This sums up Rivals 2 in a nutshell: the core is enhanced and refined, but its new additions and ideas are a real mixed bag. This leaves Rivals 1 as a purer if rougher experience, which I prefer. Unfortunately Backbone didn't get another chance with Sonic as a couple of years later after a flurry of acquisitions and mergers this particular studio was closed down. There wouldn't be another Western-made platformer in the series until Boom seven years later... well, unless you count Unleashed for mobile phones, Jump, Jump 2, Jump Pro, Jump Fever, Dash, the Sonic CD remake, Sonic for Didj... you know what, never mind.

[divisionofsimilarities]

Sonic x Shadow Generations Guesses

Dreamcast Era

Level: Space Colony ARK (Sonic Adventure 2)

Rival: Sonic the Hedgehog (Sonic Adventure 2)

Boss: Biolizard (Sonic Adventure 2)

Level: Bullet Station (Sonic Heroes)

Rival: Ultimate Gemerl (Sonic Battle)

Boss: Metal Overlord (Sonic Heroes)

Modern Era

Level: Kingdom Valley (Sonic 2006)

Rival: Silver the Hedgehog (Sonic 2006)

Boss: Mephiles the Dark (Sonic 2006)

Level: Chaotic Inferno Zone (Sonic Rivals 2)

Rival: Metal Sonic 3.0 (Sonic Rivals 2)

Boss: Ifrit (Sonic Rivals 2)

Future Era

Level: Sunset Heights (Sonic Forces)

Rival: Infinite (Sonic Forces)

Boss: Death Egg Robot (Sonic Forces)

Level: Chaos Island (Sonic Frontiers)

Rival: Supreme (Sonic Frontiers)

Boss: THE END (Sonic Frontiers)

Final Area

Level: Black Comet (Shadow the Hedgehog)

Rival: Sonic & Diablon (Shadow the Hedgehog)

Boss: Black Doom (Shadow the Hedgehog)

Final Boss: Devil Solaris (A Devil Doom/Solaris fusion)

[true-blue-sonic]

I've heard at least one person suggest that the one who tried to get the Chaotix to go after Silver was, in fact, Eggman Nega; as, in his ideal turn of events, the deal would've simply ended with Espio just capturing Silver and thus preventing anyone from interfering with Nega's plan of releasing the Ifrit and powering it with Chao. The fact that Espio decided to hear Silver out at all and then started trusting him inexplicably is the only reason it ended up backfiring.

OH DAMN

OH I LOVE THAT

You see, I was reasoning that Nega actually wouldn't do that: why would he direct more people towards the Chao disappearances who could intervene and rescue them? He'd just be shooting himself in the foot by asking a group of detectives to mingle themselves into the problem, with the chance they'd take potentially-capturable Chao from right under his nose and/or find out what's truly going on. But you're absolutely right!! Even with Sonic & Tails and Espio & Silver rescuing Chao, Nega himself says he has enough of them in Mystic Haunt Zone to make the Ifrit invincible anyway. The only reason this doesn't succeed is because Sonic and Tails just so happened to find the room and take all the Chao along with them before Silver and Espio did and before Nega could continue with the plan. Add to that the fact that Eggman in Shadow's/Metal Sonic's story figures Nega is Rouge's client and is making her collect the Chaos Emeralds: we thus know Nega has done so with at least one person in the past. Furthermore, this isn't mentioned explicitly in the game itself, but Vector does somehow know Silver's name and that he "showed up" one day, despite Silver being a time traveller whose prior adventure was kept entirely contained to Onyx Island and like four other people. Even if it's not explicitly said in the game Vector got that info from the client in question (and the wording seems contradictory to this idea, even, but it could maybe be an As You Know introduction for the player), it's also not impossible either. And lastly, Nega is noted to be short-sighted and lose track of the tinier details easily, so him figuring that the Chaotix couldn't possibly find out his real identity and plans does fit here as well, I would say.

I love how, in this scenario (and my Espilver fic because I am absolutely going to be diving into this more), there was so much hinging on Espio chasing down Silver and capturing him... and he just did not, lol. You know how Sonic Channel's story with Sonic and Silver in Soleanna mentions how Silver's "way of life" inspires people and makes them want to watch over him and cheer him on forever? If I can nicely write that into Stories with Silver and Espio, I'll be one happy gal <3

[greenyvertekins]

At the rate Sonic is going, you have to wonder if he took off bits of his lifespan with everything he's gone through [so far]. xD (On the other hand, he'd likely be the most spry hedgehog at elderly age.)

Let's do a "maimed count" shall we? :3 - Nearly blown-up on the Death Egg (Sonic 2) - Has the emeralds punched out of him by Knuckles (Sonic 3) - Put to sleep by sleeping gas (Sonic Adventure) - Gets tackled by Knuckles head-on (Sonic Adventure) - Falls out of the sky and lands head-first in sand (Sonic Adventure) - Falls out of the sky and smashes into the ground face down (Sonic Adventure) - Almost blown up in an explosive capsule. Chaos Controls with a fake emerald and passes out temporarily (Sonic Adventure 2) - KO'ed by Blaze during the boss fight against him (Arguable canonicity, Sonic Rush) - Is shown severely beaten in the opening (Shadow the Hedgehog) - KO'ed by Shadow in various endings (Arguable canonicity, Shadow the Hedgehog) - Is wounded on the upper arm whilst protecting Elise (SONIC '06) - Beaten-up by Silver (SONIC '06) - Impaled through the heart/stomach by Mephiles and DIES (SONIC '06) - Possessed by the Ifrit (Sonic Rivals 2) - Faceplants after Jet knocks him off Storm's Extreme Gear (Sonic Riders) - Has his board explode courtesy of Wave's bomb (Sonic Riders) - Washes-up on the beach of Southern Island unconscious after plane crash (Sonic Rush Adventure) - Catches a cold (SatSR) - Shot with a life-draining curse that takes the form of an arrow of flame lodged in his chest (SatSR) - Almost faints outside entrance to Night Palace due to said life-draining curse (SatSR) - Is forcibly transformed into Darkspine form very painfully (SatSR) - Is forcibly transformed into Werehog form very painfully (Unleashed) - Faceplants (Unleashed) - Has Dark Gaia's fragment forcefully torn out of him, weakening him greatly (Unleashed) - Passes-out in super form. Would've suffered a lava-baked death if not for Chip (Unleashed) - Faceplants. Again (Unleashed) - Smashed into a wall by Baker and becomes unconscious (NoTW) - Vehicle he's in crashes, almost falls to his death (Zero Gravity) - Faceplants after being summoned to another world (SatBK) - Is beaten brutally to within an inch of his life by the Dark Queen (SatBK) - Gets knocked into unconsciousness by Time Eater (Generations) - Gets knocked into unconciousness by Time Eater. Again. (Generations) - Injured during teleportation (Sonic Runners) - Beaten brutally by Infinite (Forces) - Tortured over a 6 month timespan (Forces) - Knocked into unconciousness after exiting Cyberspace first time (Frontiers) - Beaten brutally by Giganto. Wakes up HYPERVENTILATING (Frontiers) - Absorbs cyber energy multiple times and gradually becomes eroded by it. To the point that he starts losing his sense of self (Frontiers) - Cyber-corruption reaches its peak and he effectively becomes comatose (Frontiers) - Shot with a sedative inside a blowdart. Has a bad reaction (The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog) - Beaten-up whilst poisoned by said sedative by the train's arms (The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog)

This is just the games.

[doggirldick]

sonic x shadow generations has put me back into my sonic zone

hi i play the games and don’t really know anything about any other sonic media. but this was my hyperfixation zone in like 2017.

i really like metal sonic and sonic cd, the jp/eu ost is my all time fav game soundtrack. for a long time, my url on this site was 7-3-d which is the internal stage id, seen in the stage select, for the bad future version of metal sonic’s boss fight (the bad future version have the best tracks)

metal sonic is a robot eggman often gives orders that had he can be cold and violent to accomplish but left to his own devices, he believes he is the real sonic and must defeat sonic to prove himself.

while all of eggman’s creations could be considered his children, it seems that metal is the neglected older brother to orbot, cubot, and sage now.

i don’t care for sonic heroes giving him a voice but it did provide an opportunity for him to get some thoughts in. he does consider sonic to be his copy. and he did overthrow eggman and hatch a plan to copy data from sonic, shadow, and chaos to undergo a ridiculous transformation in the hopes of finally beating sonic. that’s his deal, and though unsuccessful, he did earn a lot of respect he wanted. even omega, who wants to destroy all of eggman’s robots, let him go.

imo, the best way they’ve handled metal communicating was in sonic rivals 2 in which he was partnered with shadow and communicated mostly through unvoiced warning messages, he was also able to transmit eggman’s voice so shadow could talk to him.

additionally, at the end of their story, it’s revealed that metal had a chaos emerald inside himself all along, presumably being used as a power source. this is revealed when shadow and metal end up sealed inside the ifrit’s dimension after the portal closes without them but metal destroys himself to retrieve the emerald to allow shadow to use chaos control to warp them out. though metal can be fixed up later, he shows a more heroic and selfless side that he’s willing to sacrifice himself for others if the situation requires it.

thanks for coming my ted talk

[skaruresonic]

Shadow is the raw "fuck around and find out". Sonic mutually is similar. If forced to disturb each other, they will duke it out. Otherwise neither really need to. Nor is this exclusive to Shadow and Sonic, Shadow will fight with anyone. And I think that's missed on fans for the Vegeta descriptor. It also marks a problem with DBall fans thinking of Vegeta only in relation to Goku, and indirectly assuming Sonic is Goku

Heroes and Gens that said are piss for how the fight started, but both games also aren't exclusive to them (Rouge is even more aggro to Chaotix for 0 reason, Silver in Gens). And then this ignores Shadow being noble end of Heroes to stall for charging up, and Gens for giving encouragement and sticking for the party (not to mention Gens it's strictly to celebrate anniversary rival battles)

I also feel you misread Battle; Shadow asking is pretty huge, and largely because he was dealing with fear/self loathing over the course of the game (which given Heroes and ShtH makes sense. He gained ego, but is absolutely aware a worse version of him can happen). The choice prompt's onus should be on Sonic disagreeing, not "oh Shadow didn't actually care regardless of choice". Him asking Emerl last story to prove himself is only partially ego, it's to ensure Emerl can actually fucking stand up for himself. It takes a lot for him to open his mind and change, and Emerl's death definitely affected him

06 Shadow is definitely combatitive to those disturbing him. He's bluntly dismissive to Rouge beginning, catty to Sonic when he suggests him to be late, chases after Mephiles even when others didn't, and Silver he beats him up and only suggests "finding the truth" due to a freak accident + hearing Mephiles mentioned. Even then the fight still happened :V. In game quotes further show his ego and self confidence, and there's a bunch of scrapped quotes of a Sonic/Shadow side mode with them being more catty, but not to destructive flanderized "battle me now". He's self actualized to not hate himself, and in a way honors Emerl and Maria without mentioning them regarding his mission to humanity...but not falling down if hated

Rivals 1 and 2 again have him focused on his mission. He fights even Rouge in Rivals 2 due to her being coy and unhelpful despite having leads regarding the Ifrit. His relation with Metal is actually interesting as he continually shows respect to him, with Metal similarly being more than just a walkie talkie with its sacrifice in the end

Colors DS he's on a mission again, this time with Omega. His relation to Sonic is to test him, but he isn't aggro as Sonic isn't instigating nor disturbing. He actually compliments him when he leaves

Free Riders is kinda shit, but not for direct reasons. He has no reason being in the tournament, he barely interacts with anyone besides "hmph" and "Did you think I'm not good". He's not Ooc, but his usage is boring. Partially noble to the robot surprisingly, but Rouge being bitchy is ehhh

Gens again ehhh

Forces he's misused in terms of >doing nothing for 6 months, though in char. He's mad Infinite has copies, though more concerned of the world over his ego. It's Sonic that chips despite his apathy. Ep Shadow he's bluntly telling Infinite to fuck off with his backstab attempt, yet fandumb take offense to that :V

So with that said.. I find the Tails Channel thing to be meh flanderizing of Sonic mainly, but not as bad as fans are bitching. Shadow's nuance is being Vegeta in isolation, not being Vegeta in Goku rivalry. I feel this is missed cuz Ian Archie turning him into a naive wuss + ignoring that Heroes, ShTH and Battle are vital to his char dev + oversimplifying/overglorifying 06 + people still acting like Boom and Twitter are continuity tied when they fucking aren't

I'm... getting the feeling you guys think I'm not taking Shadow's entire character into account when I'm instead trying to highlight one aspect to make the overall point that you kind of have to take the thorns alongside the roses with him. You (general you) can't just accept his better qualities while refusing to acknowledge the rougher edges of his personality; that's neither fair nor equitable.

Yes, I know he's pragmatic and goal-oriented. That doesn't necessarily negate the fact that he can be bullheaded as well. In every example you listed, (except for '06 and Free Riders which I can't vouch for bc I haven't played them), Shadow's displayed varying degrees of pettiness and stubbornness to accompany his nobler moments.

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Heroes and Gens that said are piss for how the fight started, but both games also aren't exclusive to them (Rouge is even more aggro to Chaotix for 0 reason, Silver in Gens). And then this ignores Shadow being noble end of Heroes to stall for charging up, and Gens for giving encouragement and sticking for the party (not to mention Gens it's strictly to celebrate anniversary rival battles)

Exactly. The "aggro" attitude Sonic's rivals have in Gens is not limited to just Shadow, which should imply that the characters are stuck in whatever pocket of time they got sucked into until Sonic unfreezes them.

It would make sense for Shadow to say that this is where he "ends" Sonic if he believed he was back on the ARK trying to stop Sonic from reaching the Eclipse Cannon; one of his idle quotes in Final Chase is that he'll "destroy" the interceptor.

Besides, I don't know why people are harping on Shadow challenging Sonic to a race when Silver literally tried to Katamari Sonic to death lol like isn't Meteor Smash way worse than a verbal threat

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Rivals 1 and 2 again have him focused on his mission. He fights even Rouge in Rivals 2 due to her being coy and unhelpful despite having leads regarding the Ifrit. His relation with Metal is actually interesting as he continually shows respect to him, with Metal similarly being more than just a walkie talkie with its sacrifice in the end.

in Rivals 2, Shadow progresses from taking Metal along for the ride to showing some concern for him and has a pretty civil conversation with Rouge. And also threatens to knock Sonic out merely for being in his way. xP

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I also feel you misread Battle; Shadow asking is pretty huge, and largely because he was dealing with fear/self loathing over the course of the game (which given Heroes and ShtH makes sense. He gained ego, but is absolutely aware a worse version of him can happen). The choice prompt's onus should be on Sonic disagreeing, not "oh Shadow didn't actually care regardless of choice".

...kind of missing my point a little. Shadow doesn't politely ask Sonic for custody of Emerl, nor is it exactly him who offers you a choice. Rather, the game does. And given that one of the points the game makes with that choice being a false one is that Sonic and the player are not the same entity, the distinction between game and character are worth consideration, I think.

He demands Sonic hand Emerl over to be destroyed once he realizes Emerl has already established a Link with Sonic. And then the game - not Shadow - gives you, the player, a false choice where Sonic refuses regardless of whether you say yes or no.

Shadow's response of "Then... I'll destroy you too" remains the same as well.

The choice being a false one sends a twofold message: that A.) the player and Sonic are not one in the same, and B.) Shadow isn't fucking around. Otherwise, why make it a choice at all? Why not just write the scene linearly and have it lead directly into fighting Shadow?

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Forces he's misused in terms of >doing nothing for 6 months, though in char. He's mad Infinite has copies, though more concerned of the world over his ego. It's Sonic that chips despite his apathy. Ep Shadow he's bluntly telling Infinite to fuck off with his backstab attempt, yet fandumb take offense to that :V

I do agree that Shadow could have factored into the plot more, in the sense that I agree with the overarching sentiment that Forces is a tad underwritten and could have benefited from more showing instead of telling.

That being said, that doesn't necessarily mean he was misused or mischaracterized in the role he was given. Vegeta!Shadow accusations lobbed against Forces!Shadow baffle me the most because it's like bitch where. Folks may have a (slightly) better leg to stand on in almost any other game, but Forces? Forces, my dude? I just. :v

He told Infinite he was pathetic? bruh Infinite is a power-hungry sadist who straight-up does not give a shit that his squad's been destroyed. Finny was not some uwu sadboi whose face Shadow pushed into the dirt, that's just fanfiction

In fact, I'm pretty sure you could read his quiet contribution to the Resistance as some kind of lesson in humility that Infinite's antics taught him. Consider his snarky comments about Omega in the DLC vs. his attitude in the main game, where he smiles at the end of the final battle and notably sticks around Resistance HQ. His time in Virtual Reality being taunted by Rouge and Omega's specters seems to have taught him the value of camaraderie, if just a little bit.

It's Sonic that chips despite his apathy.

Yeah, this is one point where Forces could have clarified how he escaped. We kinda don't know whether he bounced after Virtual Reality or if he was stuck there up until the moment he reappears to save Sonic.

[patchdotexe]

Did you ever find out in which what game Eggman discovers hell

according to somebody in the notes of that post it MIGHT be sonic rivals 2??? but that doesn't fully track because as far as i can piece together from the wikis (i know fuckall about rivals firsthand) its a) eggman nega doing stuff, not eggman himself and b) the ifrit isn't being used as a power source, it's being used as a "blow up the world" weapon. and even then there's no ties to the afterlife besides "there's some demon-ish guy in another dimension that's on fire"

i don't really know what deals with afterlife stuff in sonic besides frontiers, and even then it's about the koco and what they are and there's no Hell Dimension unless some really weird stuff happens in the final horizon dlc that jorb hasn't told me

im baffled. in what game does eggman re-enact the plot of doom. i want to know