#sonic rush is the best sonic game just for these two alone

[chaos-central86]

Mustering all the social courage I have to ask this w/o anon

Can we get sonaze please? If not then just blaze maybe?

YOU'RE SPEAKING MY LANGUAGE I love sonaze

[maxilsmaster]

au where eggman adopts sonic

now i know what you’re thinking, “there are already sonic villain aus out there”, but i’m here to tell you, this ain’t no sonic villain au! sonic is still a hero here! the difference is backstory.

the tl;dr is that eggman adopts sonic and tails but they’re not evil and he is, but he’s a good dad anyway

eggman finds little baby sonic (by baby, i mean somewhere in the 4-7 range) all alone on christmas island. the hedgehog doesn’t speak, when asked if he has a family all he does is shake is head, he’s quite obviously abandoned. so eggman adopts this little blue hedgehog! he learns sign language, teaches it to sonic, puts his kid in school, and overall is actually a really good parent. but there is one problem: he’s still evil. he still wants to conquer the planet. sonic disagrees with this. when he fails to convince his dad through words, he ends up taking action and destroying robots. eggdad is not pleased by this, but he supposes that it was inevitable that his kid might not turn out to be evil like him. he still continues his schemes of course, but sonic also continues to stop him. eggman does make sure to program his robots to not target sonic, too.

at some point, eggy creates metal to be an artificial brother for sonic. metal matches sonic’s speed, and is also mute. sonic is overjoyed at his new brother :)

and then he meets tails. the two immediately take a liking to each other, and sonic learns that tails’ situation is similar to how his own used to be. immediately sonic takes tails to eggy and demands he adopt the fox. eggdad accepts and now there are three brothers :)

at some point, sonic and tails arrive on angel island. sonic gets the emeralds punched out of him by knuckles, who has NOT met eggman and just doesn’t like intruders. when eggman learns about this, he’s pissed and steals the master emerald. after this whole situation is resolved, sonic tries to get eggman to adopt knuckles, but knux won’t allow it, so he’s an unofficial brother

at around 12 years old, sonic starts speaking verbally (though in periods of excitement or stress he’ll still go back to sign) (this is just how i headcanon sonic normally but it’s still relevant)

i have the plots written down for a lot of the games, so i’m gonna go through the mainline modern ones briefly

sonic adventure: eggman tries to keep chaos out of sonic’s way, fails miserably

sonic adventure 2 is a fun one! the beginning is mostly the same, eggman finds shadow, sonic gets arrested, etc, but then eggman finds out sonic got arrested and is PISSED, so he has shadow rescue sonic. sonic is pissed about the false arrest and fights shadow, shadow is forced to use chaos control to bring sonic to eggdad before the island explodes, and now sonic is with the dark story for the rest of the plot. eggdad brings sonic to space, tails, knux and amy follow, sonic learns shadow is technically his (uncle? second cousin once removed? it’s one of them, idk which), sonic is NOT launched off the ark bc eggy wouldn’t do that to his son. plot happens, shadow “dies”, and adventure 2 is done!

at some point, eggy finds shadow, and sonic and tails are aware of this. they don’t tell anyone shadow is alive though (and eggman doesn’t tell them about the androids)

sonic heroes happens bc metal thinks he’s better at being evil than eggman, now everyone knows shadow is alive yay, and also sonic and tails are immediately sus of this plan

rush happens too but i don’t know enough about rush to accurately change the plot, but i’m sure the plot changes at least a bit

we’re not gonna talk about 06 bc it gets retconned by itself

unleashed has shadow as the protag instead of sonic

colors is almost entirely unchanged except 1, yacker gets hypnotized in the one cutscene instead of tails, and 2, eggdad did his best to make the amusement park enjoyable for his kids :)

generations! hoo boy! eggman doesn’t get invited to the birthday party (it’s his birthday too) so he causes Issues! oh and shadow gens happens lol

lost world… oh boy. this one is traumatic for everyone involved. there’s less arguing involved, but sonic is still an impulsive dumbass (leading to tails getting kidnapped, which traumatizes sonic and eggdad) and eggy presumably falling to a fiery death (only sonic is around to see this). so sonic is having a Terrible Horrible No Good Very Bad Day all around, and the zeti are also trying extra hard to kill him to spite eggface. luckily it all works out, except that therapy Will Be Required

forces is another fun one! for me ofc, not the characters. infinite betrays eggman early on, locking him up, then also defeats sonic, locking him up too. bc i am merciful, i am reducing the time the war takes down to one month (mainly bc really, that’s more than enough time for everything to go to shit). sonic and eggman are NOT tortured (bc that was just a weird translation thing), but more therapy will def be required. also rookie/gadget saves both sonic and eggman

at some point, eggdad creates sage. he does not intend for sage to become his daughter. but also sonic and tails both know sage from the start, which is relevant for this next bit

frontiers happens next, and really, the main issue is that sage Refuses To Properly Communicate With Sonic. eggy doesn’t want to put his kids in danger so he tells sage not to run any simulations where that happens. in the end though, sonic still has to get involved. and also now there is a Sister :)

tmosth also happens because i fucking love tmosth. the train is sentient which is why sonic gets knocked out

will add some links to character descs and stuff when i post more about this au (and i’ll also try to come up with a name while i do that)

[true-blue-sonic]

for the ship number game; espilver, number 20? 👀🙏

20. …on a scar.

Silver figures his chest probably doesn't look very good if Espio's distraught face is any indication.

"It doesn't hurt," slips past his lips with practiced ease. "Only right after Infinite sent me flying. My back's hurting worse."

Espio doesn't say anything in return. Instead his hands clasp one of Silver's, and the hedgehog is sure he can feel a tremble in them, for just a moment. Such worrying is not needed, he wants to tell Espio, though he knows his beloved will not listen to that. But if Silver hadn't distracted Infinite in the jungle, who knows what that monster would have done with their forces fighting a losing battle amidst the burning foliage and the relentless explosions? A whack right against his chest with claws as sharp as glass and a crash into a wall and then the ground weigh far less heavy than all the people's lives when it comes to suffering and hurt.

Except the way Sonic had winced when limping back to Silver after losing his battle with Infinite and sending his collapsed body a look clings to Silver's mind still. And the sheer panic from everyone in the Resistance headquarters when Sonic had rushed them both to their hideaway, Silver sprawled out over his back and feeling too feeble to really move much, does too.

Stupid, the hedgehog sighs. He should have just walked the final few hundred meters, or at least through the hallway of their headquarters. Now everyone is panicking about how Infinite managed to injure two of their best fighters, and Espio had been the most distressed of all.

"Those wounds might scar," the chameleon mumbles out after a while. "They're quite deep."

"They won't. I've been through worse and you can hardly see that on me," Silver retorts, shoulders squaring up; to convince Espio and himself alike. "And even if it does, what does it matter? It's just a scar. I'm proud to wear them if it means I saved people."

Espio shakes his head slowly. "I'm... glad you're okay with it. I'm glad you're okay."

"Hmhm. No worrying about me, alright? We're in the middle of a war, we've got way too much other stuff to do."

That earns him a snort, at least, the chameleon leaning closer and Silver gladly nuzzling their faces together. Infinite could never understand this, he's sure: how could the world not be made of hope if people can be together like this, protecting and cherishing each other while never giving up on their dreams? How could there not be love and kindness, if Espio exists and cradles him close like he's the most important person on the planet? "Ever practical, you. But before that you will rest, tenshi. You need it," he gets commanded, Espio's lips pressing against his cheek first. And then, ever so carefully, they move down, to Silver's mane and then the four lines carved into his flesh, a most fleeting kiss pressed just above each. "And you'll give these time time to heal," his beloved adds, pleading seriousness in his gaze. "Please."

"For you," Silver agrees with ease, because he can't say no to Espio. But with his beloved here, he's sure those wounds will recover before he knows it; and any scars that are left after this war is over, Silver won't mind at all, and he knows Espio won't love him less for it either.

They're a sign Infinite is wrong, and that alone could not make Silver prouder to carry them, and he knows Espio feels the same.

[divinefeline28]

get in losers. i am embarking on a journey to play and review every mainline* sonic game, in order*, on as much original hardware as i can. as of right now, the only games ive ever actually played are the original three on genesis, and mania - i have never actually played a 3d sonic game. i am so excited! i am also so incredibly bad at video games!! therefore im not holding myself to 100%ing them, or even getting all the emeralds unless its plot relevant. im just looking to complete the "canon" or best story and hopefully have a good time.

*completely arbitrary distinction based on what i actually want to play, list and current collection image under readmore

(1991) sonic the hedgehog - genesis (1992) sonic the hedgehog 2 - game gear ($5.99) (1992) sonic the hedgehog 2 - genesis ($9.99 (manual)) (1993) sonic the hedgehog cd - sega cd (emulated 2012 vers) (1993) sonic chaos - game gear ($4.99) (1993) sonic the hedgehog 3 - genesis ($17.18 (case)) (1994) sonic & knuckles - genesis ($29.99 + $20 (manual) + $30 (recreation box)) ---(1994) sonic triple trouble - game gear (1995) ---knuckles' chaotix - 32x (emulated) ---(1995) tails adventure - game gear ---(1993) dr. robotnik's mean bean machine - game gear/genesis ---(1995) tails' skypatrol - game gear ---(1995) sonic labyrinth - game gear (1996) sonic 3d blast - genesis *(1999) sonic adventure - dreamcast (~$50) ---(2000) sonic shuffle - dreamcast †(2001) sonic advance - gba (~$16) *(2001) sonic adventure 2 - dreamcast (~$75) †(2002) sonic advance 2 - gba (~$16) (2004) sonic heroes - gamecube ($20 + $18 (manual)) ---(2004) sonic battle - gba †(2004) sonic advance 3 - gba (~$16) (2005) shadow the hedgehog - gamecube ($64) ---(2005) sonic rush - ds ---(2006) sonic rivals - psp ---(2006) sonic the hedgehog - ps3 ---(2007) sonic rush adventure - ds ---(2007) sonic and the secret rings - wii ---(2007) sonic rivals 2 - psp (2008) sonic unleashed - wii ($19.99) ---(2008) sonic chronicles: the dark brotherhood (ds) ---(2009) sonic and the black knight - wii ---(2010) sonic the hedgehog 4 (2010) sonic colors - wii ---(2013) sonic lost world - wii u ---(2014) sonic boom - wii u (2017) sonic mania - switch ($34.99) (2017) sonic forces - ps4 (playstation plus) (2022) sonic frontiers - ps5 ($24) (2024) sonic x shadow generations ($49.99) current total: ~$523.11 *SA and SA2 were purchased bundled with a dreamcast console, two controllers, and mvc2 for $350 so prices on the games alone are approximate. †sonic advance 1, 2, and 3 were sold bundled for $50 total. recapped/backlit game gear $124.99 (prices for consoles (dreamcast, game gear) are not included in the total cost.)

if a game has a console listed then i have it. also for as much as id love to play sonic cd on original hardware, sega cds go for over $200 and thats awfully steep for a console i want exactly one game for :(

[sonic-hot-takes]

@halloween-cats said:

Sonic and The Secret Rings is fucking fantastic you guys are just mean. I think it and Black Knight are some of the best Sonic games ever.

(although for the record I watched a playthrough of those games instead of playing it myself, so I cannot in good conscience defend the gameplay. What I care about is the story, characterization, visual design, and music. And they're damn good at that!)

1) It’s not fair to say something like “this is one of the best Sonic games ever” when you haven’t played the actual game. Story and presentation are important, but will always come second to the core gameplay in a platformer.

2) secret rings OST is mid as hell ngl. Extremely forgettable in a series known for its bangers

3) Here’s why I think Secret Rings is the worst Sonic game:

When rating games in a big franchise like this to determine which one is the best or the worst, I consider two thing: quality and scale.

Quality is self explanatory. How good is the finished product? Is it fun to play, are the mechanics well thought out, is the story good, yadda yadda. This is how most games are analyzed and reviewed.

Scale is a bit trickier. What was the game trying to achieve, and how well did it go about achieving it? What kind of impact did it leave on the series as a whole? Is it a big, 40 hour console game, or just a fun little mobile game to waste time with?

That second one is why I scoff at people saying stuff like “Sonic Labyrinth is the worst Sonic game!” “Sonic Jam on game.com is the worst Sonic game!” “Sonic Schoolhouse is the worst Sonic game!” In isolation, these games certainly don’t hold a candle to 90% of what this series has put out, but at the same time, they were never trying to compete with them. It’s obvious that games like these aren’t trying to be anything more than what they are: low budget side games there to turn an extra buck for Sega. They are filler. They don’t count.

(Granted, there is some gray area as to what “scale” can entail. Games like Chronicles and Free Riders can fall on either side of the argument, but for the purposes of this post, it’s not all that important to get into)

With all that in mind, the worst games in any given franchise are the ones that promise the biggest scale but have the worst quality. They’re not just bad, they’re disappointing.

I’m sure that you’re thinking “by that criteria, 06 is the worst Sonic game.” And yeah, you’re right! But there’s a silver lining to it.

It’s no secret that 06 had a rough development. Like, “it’s a miracle this got out at all” rough. While Sega rushing the game for Christmas was definitely the final nail in the coffin, the two biggest factors in the game’s failure are as follows:

Yuji Naka, the game’s director, leaving halfway through production. In a post Balan society it’s easy to say that this was a good thing, but it’s difficult for any project to bounce back after losing its director, let alone a game of 06’s scale.

The development team splitting in half to make, you guessed it, Secret Rings.

Having played through a decent bit of the Project 06 mod and cross referencing it with vanilla 06 on my 360 (which I’m astonished hasn’t red ringed yet), I’ve realized that Sonic 06 does have some good ideas trapped deep inside its messy, messy code. The level design really isn’t that bad. The mach speed sections are great when you can actually control your jump. The more I play Project 06, the more I think to myself…what if Sonic 06 had more development time? Or better yet, what if Sonic 06 had more developers that weren’t forced to work on another project?

Basically, I blame Secret Rings for a lot of the issues with 06. There’s an argument to be made that that’s not really fair to Secret Rings, and sure, it’s fine if you think that, but I hold to my opinion for a few reasons.

Secret Rings has had virtually no impact on the series otherwise. This applies to Black Knight as well, but Black Knight has better music, marginally better gameplay, and didn’t cause another game to suffer by eating up development resources. At least 06 gave us Silver (even if @spiritsonic is the one who made him good).

Even on its own, Secret Rings is not a good game. Controlling Sonic with the Wii remote feels incredibly awkward and I don’t think any amount of fine tuning would’ve fixed that, especially not for a game of its era. The fact that you’re on rails leads to level design that blurs together in your head, so nothing ever stands out. The missions are all monotonous and tedious, so you rarely ever feel like you’re pushing the story forward through the gameplay, which is essential for a video game with any semblance of plot.

I don’t feel guilty for pinning 06’s failure on Secret Rings. Truly, it can not be overstated how much of a negative impact 06 had on this series—you still get gaming journalists who go “remember when Sonic kissed some real woman?”—and if Secret Rings hadn’t existed, if Sega just held off on releasing something early in the Wii’s lifespan and relied on Sonic Rush to reel in Nintendo gamers, things might have been a whole lot different. Since Secret Rings doesn’t really have a legacy of its own, whenever I look at it, I just think to myself, “they cut Sonic 06’s development team in half for this?”

[doubleddenden]

I had the pleasure of finding some fun and cheap steam games

Toree 3d, Toree 2, and Toree Saturn (Demo). They're short, but pretty fun, and cheap af. Toree 3d was 90 cents. CENTS. IN THIS ECONOMY.

What I got was about 19 levels overall, all of which were pretty fun and with replays encouraged to increase ranking, getting new characters, etc.

The overall gameplay is similar to a Sonic vibe, where you're platforming as fast as you can through levels to the end goal- the exception is that you can't really do harm to enemies (bare few instances) an can't survive a single hit. Your goal is to be fast and get to the end, all as a little birdy to save your ice cream from a cybernetic edgelord.

Level design overall is pretty cute, reminiscent of N64 type levels with sort of various vaporwave style aesthetics. Toree 2 is probably my favorite because it has ways to go even FASTER with boosts as well, which makes it fun to just shoot across levels super quickly. Overall pretty quality.

Saturn is one I'm gonna look forward to, but it is significantly harder than the last two games. However, it does seem even FASTER than 2, so I'm excited.

The music is also great, too. In Saturn, I hear some Sonic Rush isms in the title music alone, and the music sounds very fun and energetic too.

Play the games! They're cheap and fun, the best kind of fun.

[atangledfate]

Belle could hear tails chuckling on the other end. It was true, alot of Sonic had rubbed off on him over the years. But he considered it a compliment. As a kid he wanted nothing more then to be like his big brother, he struggled all his life to catch up. Only to fall behind every single time. It wasn't until he was a teenager facing down Chaos that he finally realized he didn't need to be Sonic. He could be his own hero in his own way. Those memories made him smile, and gave him even more confidence!

He wasn't that ratty little fox living on the streets anymore. He was a real Hero who'd saved the world so many times--- this was nothing next to what he'd faced in the past! His ears twitched at Belle, knowing she could do this. He had confidence in her abilities even if sometimes she doubted herself.

" Hey! no worries Belle! you got this... if you can hack the eggnet what doe these guys have on that? "

He shifted his plane between two rockets as he sped toward the Airship yet the closer he got the riskier it got.

" So this is less world domination and more a financial scheme. Think you can reverse it? I mean be a shame if these guys found there money was casually donated to Restoration... a real shame "

Taking out the ship was never the plan he just needed to get close, he wanted on board. Looked like the main hanger was filled with Goons. He knew what to do, it was risky but it was his best plan. He took a deep breath and gripped the flight stick and exhaled as he knew how dangerous this would be. He went from playful fox enjoying a game to the Hero under the mask.

" Right, Priority 1, save the chaotix... then find Jewel, then, then we can deal with the guy in charge. I doubt Eggman is going to be a real threat, if anything he might do our job for us--- Belle focus on getting those funds back if you can. I'm going board the airship... so i may go radio silent ... "

He pushed the throttle to full and rocketed his jet toward the air ship at high speeds. Twisting and turning his jet while spinning around and launching a barrage of chaffe into the air to disable and confuse the missile systems. He could hear his wing take a hit but he just kept going as he turned his jet upside down! He pushed a lever to cause the cockpit to slide back as he passed over the airship. He flicked the auto pilot on and unbuckled his seat belt and dropped out of the jet.

He flipped around spinning his tails and tried hard to slow himself down as he hit the top of the airship. He rolled and tucked in and landed flat on his face with his head spinning. A second later he heard the explosion of his new tornado and glanced off in the distance. He was officially pissed as that was his baby! but sacrificed had to be made---he hoped Belle wouldn't assume the worst... but he couldn't risk using coms now.

================================================

An entire half a world away the pink hedgehog had finally caught up to Blaze! her Tarot could find anyone, and blaze was no exception as she rushed down the street waving her hands at Blaze! The pink hedgie had this wide brimmed smile on her face as she jumped up and down flagging her down! She knew she was on vacation, of a sort and didn't want to interrupt it but really needed to talk to her. Of all those who might help her, Blaze was maybe the one person who could!

" Blaze!! Hey! found you at last! haha! you sure are a hard person to find! Sorry to interrupt your vacation! i just wanted to ask you something... "

She paused as her phone gave a buzz and she sighed and slumped as it was the worst time for someone to call her! She opted to ignore it just for now she'd check it soon! She promised BUT first she had to talk to her friend! because well they never did get a girls day out let alone a chance to talk in peace times!

"I'm starting to think Sonic's impulsiveness is starting to rub off on you Tails." Belle knew she couldn't talk Tails out of it by this point, though wouldn't stop her from saying something. The tinkerer would still keep most of her focus on hacking into the airships servers. "Security was one of the few things I asked them not to give me, though I'll see what I can do." It'd be dangerous if Eggman got a hold of someone who could open access security and turn it off.

That said, checking The Restoration system was far easier as some things were tied to the airships. "Oh, gears and starters. Someone as taken all the funding and donations. If we can't get it back The Restoration will go under meaning we'll have to start from scratch." Not to mention all the current rebuilding projects they currently had would come to a grinding halt due to this.

"Oh, I just got into the security cameras," Belle said, starting to look through the footage only to see that Eggman and Metal Sonic were on the airship now. Along with some wearing a cloak with the hood up and a mask. "Bad news, you'll have Eggman and Metal Sonic to deal with, though it looks like Jewel is safe." The tinkerer continued to look through the footage to see if she could find anything else of importance.

"The Chaotix are captured too?! Just what happened on that airship?! Tails, whatever you do, DON'T try to take out the engine. It'd put The Chaotix at risk of getting blow to bits!" Belle would have to try and hack faster to turn off those weapons or at the very least temporary disable them long enough for Tails to land on the airship. This day was getting extremely chaotic fast.

[theguywithaplan]

List of video games turning 10 years old in 2022:

- Armored Core V - Assassin's Creed III (the final Assassin's Creed in the Desmond Miles arc) - Assassin's Creed: Liberation (the first Assassin's Creed game with a female protagonist) - Asura's Wrath - Binary Domain (a third-person shooter from the Yakuza team) - Borderlands 2 (dear god, Gearbox needs to find some new jokes to tell) - Call of Duty: Black Ops II - Counter-Strike: Global Offensive - The Darkness II (a solid third-person shooter based on the comic book of the same name by David Wohl, Marc Silvestri, and Garth Ennis) - Darksiders II (one of the last games that THQ made before they went bankrupt in 2013) - Dead or Alive 5 - Diablo III (remember when this game was taking forever to come out?) - Dillon's Rolling Western - Dishonored - Dragon Quest X (only in Japan) - Dragon's Dogma (an action RPG from Hideaki Itsuno, the guy who helped make Devil May Cry what it is today) - Dust: An Elysian Tail (one of the best indie games you've never played) - Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two - Far Cry 3 - Fez - Final Fantasy XIII-2 - Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Future Soldier - Gravity Rush - Halo 4 - Hatoful Boyfriend (the visual novel about dating pigeons) - Hitman: Absolution - Hotline Miami - The House of the Dead 4 - Journey - Kid Icarus: Uprising - Kingdom Hearts: Dream Drop Distance - Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning (deserved SO MUCH BETTER) - The Last Story (an action RPG from Hironobu Sakaguchi, the creator of Final Fantasy) - Lego Batman 2: DC Super Heroes (the first Lego game to use actual in-game dialogue instead of pantomiming everything) - Lego The Lord of the Rings - Lollipop Chainsaw - Lone Survivor - Mark of the Ninja (another of the best indie games that you have never played) - Mass Effect 3 (and its controversial ending) - Max Payne 3 - Medal of Honor: Warfighter (one of the last MoH games before it took an extended hiatus) - NeverDead (not a good game, but such a fun and unique concept) - New Super Mario Bros. 2 (COINS ARE BACK, BITCHES) - Ninja Gaiden 3 (plus its extended version, Razor's Edge) - One Piece: Pirate Warriors (what if Dynasty Warriors, but Luffy?) - Paper Mario: Sticker Star (the one that not a lot of people liked) - Persona 4 Arena - Persona 4 Golden - PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale - The PlayStation Vita - Pokémon Black 2 and Pokémon White 2 - Pokémon Conquest (what if Pokémon was a Final Fantasy Tactics game? And crossed over with Nobunaga's Ambition?) - Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask - Prototype 2 - Resident Evil: Revelations - Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City - Resident Evil 6 (yeah, 2012 wasn't a good year for RE fans) - Retro City Rampage (once again, a great indie game that nobody has played) - Rhythm Heaven Fever - Ridge Racer Unbounded (RIIIIIIIDGE RACERRRRRRR) - Silent Hill: Downpour (the last Silent Hill game before you-know-what happened) - Skullgirls (THE LAUNCH PARTY THAT NEVER ENDS) - Sleeping Dogs (one of the best games I have ever played. Not even joking) - Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed (what if Mario Kart was better?) - SoulCalibur V - Spec Ops: The Line - Street Fighter x Tekken - Syndicate (an FPS reboot of an RTS series from the 90s) - Tekken Tag Tournament 2 - The Testament of Sherlock Holmes - Thomas Was Alone (indie games are so good, you guys, JUST PLAY THEM) - Tokyo Jungle - Transformers: Fall of Cybertron - Twisted Metal (the reboot) - Telltale's The Walking Dead (still not over that ending) - The Wii U - XCOM: Enemy Unknown - Xenoblade Chronicles - Yakuza: Dead Souls - Ys Origin - Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Reward - ZombiU

[sequinsonic]

boom!sonic x reader coffeeshop!au hcs!

pairing: boom!sonic x gn!reader

genre: fluff! | coffee shop!au | headcanons

warning(s): none:>

word count: 854

note: lol this has been sitting in my drafts for a while now but i wasn't sure what else to add to it, so might as well put it out now:> and it's kinda all over the place, so i apologize ㅠㅠ. also, sonic's personality in this is a lot like how he acts in boom as well as the other characters, that's the only reason this is titled as such ^ enjoy!!

+ so you and amy have opening shifts everyday except for fridays and sundays

+ she only works till noon tho because for some reason she always has to attend some lesson

+ "sorry i got a yoga lesson at 1:00, then a book club at 2:00, then psychology class at 3:30, then—" girly is like barbie trying out every single thing you can think of

+ then on fridays, you get to open along with the energetic co-worker that shadow is /hj

+ BUT SONIC DOESN'T WORK ON FRIDAYS

+ which means you're stuck with shadow for the day and his very limited topics of conversations

+ unless it's a "hello" and "can you brew this order?" he says there's "no reason to talk during business hours"

+ you'd think he's just tired but homie drinks like 5 cups of americano daily so that's impossible

+ pretty sure the guy just hates everyone

+ but anyways, onto sonic already

+ where to begin ohmygod

+ y'all have the most fun together out of everyone

+ hell, even the customers know how chaotic the café gets when you're both working the same shifts

+ you guys are usually alone from 12:00am to 2:00pm before shadow and sticks clock in

+ "c'mon y/n! just one more time!"

+ "sonic we have 10 more minutes before the rest show up. would you PLEASE put away your game of trashball"

+ he always lets you play whatever music you want for the day

+ oh and doesn't like it when you're cashier

+ he says there are customers who tend to get too "friendly" with you

+ no rlly the amount of napkins he throws away with a random number written on it happens more than you'd think

+ your pure ass didn't understand what that meant, but it also saves you from another annoying task so who are you to complain eh?

+ when there's someone other than you two working, he likes to sneak into the back with you

+ "we just have some organizing to do back there" and boom you're gone for 20 minutes

+ but it's not like you guys do anything bad

+ maybe. sometimes. idk

+ 90% of the time you're just munching on leftovers or gossiping about what's been going in the village

+ the rest of the 10%? prob playing your 20th round of uno lol

+ but anyway, buckle up. shit gets real when you two become a thing

+ you two came to an agreement that you weren't going to tell anyone abt y'all just yet

+ sonic just wasn't ready for that type of teasing

+ he likes to make you a cup of vanilla latte during every shift

+ "hey, you come here often? let me set you up with this amazing, extraordinary and never done before cup of latte"

+ "sonic i work here"

+ he's trying his best to not pull you to the back every chance he gets

+ he's so obvious abt it tho

+ just wants your attention rlly

+ not that he'll ever EVER say that lol

+ "listen i know we're in the middle of a rush but i'm just so drained so can i please have some motivation—"

+ "you have the oddest way of asking for a kiss"

+ i mean it when i say that you guys can't be separated even while working

+ y'all have somehow managed to convince shadow that every task is a two person job lol

+ "really hard at work holding a cup while amy pours in the ice, aren't you sonic?"

+ "shadow— listen. you don't understand. i must do this. one cube of ice misses the cup and we're done for. we'll be short on stock and as you know it's really hard to survive in this economy and—"

+ "alright, shut up. i get it. now get back to work."

+ the thrill of your relationship is trying to hide it from everyone else ngl

+ sticks says she always catches you staring and stealing glances at sonic or vice-versa

+ and god forbid he looks at you while you're putting your quills (?) in a ponytail

+ he just loves that sm idk it makes him wanna kiss you so bad

+ this information, however, is not news for you

+ "look at him ringing up that order, his side profile is so—" "y/n you're spilling everything!"

+ it's the same the other way around lol

+ closing shifts with sonic are always the best

+ y'all usually stay together afterwards to clean everything and leave it ready for tomorrow morning

+ relaxing music is on, no one is there to bother you, only the two of you

+ we know sonic can't stay still for long, so him knowing he gets to go home with you if everything gets cleaned up asap is a good offer

+ the comfort of it all is knowing sonic is probably gonna crash at yours afterwards

+ "shouldn't you sleep at your shack tonight?" "no i like your bed it's very comfy"

+ a nice cup of tea before heading home and your day ends on such a good note

+ both of y'all are so obsessed with each other to be honest

+ sonic generally loves spending time with you, so working at the same place together? what a steal!

[niyana-the-ambiguous-mobian]

Headcanons of the Wachowski's bros in Father Day's ?

This father's day would be another memorable one since he's upgraded to now 3 kids to be thankful for and although only one of them for now calls him 'dad', he still sees them as his boys regardless.

Unlike how they started mothers day, how they begin father's day is just with craziness as Sonic leads the other two by literally rushing into the master bedroom and jumping on the bed to wake Tom up, which also wakes Maddie up, to which she moves out of the way and watches on while they tussle around and hit each with pillows.

Tom preferred to usually make breakfast, even for special occasions so he just makes everyone their food for them.

Then come the gifts for the beloved donut dad.

Sonic would give him a blue Hawaiian like t-shirt that would be custom made to be decorated with a many vary of donut designs because that is Tom’s signature name and he should wear it proudly. 🍩

Tails would probably create something that he could use on a daily basis since he works all the time. Like a advance digital watch or a coffee thermos that can hold hot and cold liquids. ☕️

Knuckles would give him a handmade pocket knife he wittled from wood in the forest with Tom’s initials carved on the side. 🔪

I can see them driving around the town together in the truck for the day, Sonic in the passenger seat while Knux and Tails are in the back. Most likely they'll head towards the park, where they have a special father's day picnic for the families.

And Tom, like his usual goofy self, tries to compete against the kids, like having a race, arm wrestling, etc, knowing full well that they outnumber him 3 to 1 but he does it just to see them crack up at his attempts.

He evens come up with a mini game for them to compete against for fun, saying that whoever wins will receive shoulder rides for as long as they want to. Tails ends up being the winner even though Knuckles was close to success and takes the prize in full pride.

For the boys, it would be a one they hold close to their hearts since for Sonic and Tails, they didn't really vivid memories of their birth parents, nonetheless their fathers so they make sure to make every bonding experience they have with Tom is a memorable one.

But with Knuckles, he does remember. He remembers what it was like to have his father around before he was taken away from him forever, the memories of them training together, the time he spent with him, his presence making him feel safe whenever he felt scared and the strong, warm hugs that he missed so deeply. It was something he'd thought he'd never have again and was given a second chance for it.

Near the end of the day, all four of them are sitting on the roof and hood of the truck, chatting about random little things. Tom suddenly asks them to has them to get off, each of them hop off and Tom kneels down to their level, looks them each in the eye and tells them,

"The way you three came into me and Maddie’s life was something I'd never thought would ever happen to me, let alone anyone else on the entire planet. But it did, it happened to us, and that random occurrence gave me the best kids I could ever wish for. I care about each and every one of you, never doubt that, never forget that. I'm so lucky to have you as my boys."

Of course, it ends with a massive group hug, as well as some tears that are shed. They head home with good feelings and they promise of ice cream after Tom had offered it to them to not tell Maddie that he “made them cry” during the day.

[spinningbuster98]

..well since you asked so nicely...

Sonic Adventure: Only half of a Sonic game, the other half is a bunch of gameplay styles that have little to do with Sonic as a series, and even the stuff that is appropriate for it is often very undercooked (like Tails' stages being recycled bits and pieces from Sonic's). That amounts to about half the game being questionable in terms of quality, which is enough for someone to make an argument regarding its overall quality

Sonic Adventure 2: Literally only 1 third of a Sonic game, one third mech stages with stiff controls and one third treasure hunting stuff with a nerfed radar.

Sonic Heroes: Very slippery controls, much greater emphasis on combat in a series that had never made it its focus. Forces you to replay the game 4 times in a row to get the true final boss, meaning that those issues I just mentoned (and more I'm not for brevity's sake) get multiplied by 4

Shadow the Hedgehog: Many of the same issues as Heroes but jacked up to 11, complete with a shift in story tone so severe when compared to everything that came before (including the adventure games) it creates a sense of alienation at the very LEAST

Sonic and the Secret Rings: Incredibly obtuse and unresponsive motion controls make the simple act of moving around a chore, let alone playing through its levels and fighting bosses

Sonic Unleashed: Half of the game is a dumbed down God of War clone and medal hunting severely hinders the pace, forcing you to have to trudge through a lot of stuff you may not like (last I checked people don't tend to play Sonic games for beat em up gameplay) just to get to the good parts

Sonic and the Black Knight: Extremely simplistic level design due to the on-rails approach makes most levels feel very samey and wagging the wiimote around to swing the sword is not everyone's idea of engaging gameplay

Sonic Colors: Greater emphasis on pure platforming to the detriment of speed can make the game feel more like a generic platformer at times rather than a Sonic game

Sonic Lost World: See above

Sonic Forces: Very clearly rushed, level design much simpler than the previous games', characters like the fake Chaos are wasted without even getting a boss fight and even Infinite's final battle is a borderline reskin of Metal's

Sonic Frontiers: Even more blatantly rushed with obnoxious pop-in, reused levels that only come in 4 different flavors and even reused level design from past games

I could add more, but I think I got the point across, with my point being NOT that "Sonic has always been inconsistent so shut up".

See these games? I like over half of them, Colors and Heroes especially are in my top 10 favorites. I'm not here to claim that Sonic has always sucked, I'm here to point out that all of these games have issues, sometimes pretty fucking big ones at that, like faulty controls and whatnot, and there are plenty of games like this in the series, hell in ANY series

My point is that while most if not all of these games have plenty of positive aspects to them that make good argument points as to why they are great games (SA1 having a solid story, great art direction, some of the best level design and controls for Sonic, Unleashed's speed stages being breathtaking, the music being great across the board, i could go on), there's a lot of shit too with many of them, enough so that people can take genuine fucking grievence with how the series has been handled and no: not everyone who has an issue with it is a slackjawed moron typing shit on twitter that has been regurgitated ad nauseam by youtubers for some clout

Because while it may be absurd to imply that a series that has been as successful as Sonic has "always been inconsistent", it's equally absurd to think that it has never had a bad apple except maybe one or two cases and that the faulty reputation it has garnered over the years is just 100% due to some incredibly elaborate conspiracy theory perpetuated by the ENTIRE gaming community (NOT denying for a second that there isn't an anti-Sonic bias btw), over a period of several decades and one that apparently is also shared by Sega themselves given what we know about how some members of the company have started to see Sonic as a joke

Look

You wanna live in your own little bubble where everything is hunky dory with the series, almost every game is great and fantastic and anyone who says otherwise to any extent is just a meanie and a hater, because you're sick and tired of seeing people pissing all over your favorite stuff? Good! Be my guest and do so!

But

Do not

For a FUCKING second

Give me shit for actually being honest and trying to look at stuff critically

I could literally go on for paragraphs upon paragraphs about how literally every single sentence in this is wrong. Like, is tonight impressions night? Because that's an incredible impression of a completely moronic pigheaded dribbling douchebag of a Sonic hater. You're all set for Halloween with the costume already picked out, bud.

>"Sonic is an inconsistent series in terms of general quality and direction that's actually true."

Its quality has Always been Good, so. No. And I don't even know what "direction" is supposed to mean? Define your terms. I'm sure you'd prefer to be as vague as possible to make it easier for you to insist that this so called "direction" has been "inconsistent" but I'm afraid I'm going to need you to provide an actual definition. Otherwise I'm marking that one as invalid.

>"I'd even argue it's undeniable"

I'm denying it. So. You lose.

>"the series has gone from the highs of the classics to the lows of 06"

That's 13 years of games, all of which were good until 06. So the series had a "low" of a single game. The games since the first game were all good, the game immediately preceding 06 was good, the games released AROUND 06 in the very same year were good, but oh Sonic 2006 exists. And that one single game was bad. So huh, guess you're right, it had the "lows" (plural) of a single bad game. You got me. One bad game exists. Consistency: in-ed.

>"to gaining back its momentum with the like of Gens and Mania"

Okay like, first of all, Unleashed came out right after '06 and it was a good game. And so was Sonic Colors. It didn't SUDDENLY "gain" back anything with Generations, it had already been good again (after the SINGLE bad game) for years before that release. And uhhh Mania came out SIX YEARS after Generations. That quite a fucking gap to bunch those two together, especially given OTHER GAMES came out inbetween.

>"to losing it again thanks to Boom and others."

Sonic Boom came out BEFORE Sonic Mania. Your timeline is kind of all over the fucking place. And Boom was a spin off, a cartoon tie in. That's like saying "the mario series has had its highs like Mario 64, to its lows like Dance Dance Revolution Mario Mix." A Jak And Daxter emup from the Jak and Daxter developers doesn't even qualify as a footnote in the franchises history.

I also gotta love "others." What, pray tell, qualifies as "others"? I LITERALLY do not actually know what games you're referring to, considering you went from "generations and mania" to "Boom" so you're obviously not going in any kind of chronological order. I LEGITIMATELY have no idea what games you consider to be bundled in with Sonic Boom in terms of "other" lowpoints for the series. For all I know you mean "Sonic 3D Blast" when you say "others" after all that'd make just about as much sense as grouping Generations and Mania together.

>"Even direction wise: sometimes it's silly, sometimes it's dark, sometimes it's both, other times it's who knows what?"

I would love some examples. Because again, I have no idea what "direction" is even supposed to mean in this case. I don't really see how a series sometimes being silly and sometimes being dark is "inconsistent" though, especially when you then say that it can be both at the same time. Apparently it's actually quite consistent in occasionally being dark and occasionally being silly in equal measure. And in this false dichotomy you end by suggesting there's a secret third thing it can be which is neither dark nor silly? With no clarification on what the fuck that's even supposed to mean? Are you suggesting there is a game, or even a scene from a game, that is neither dark nor silly but you cannot tell what it's supposed to be?

And I still have no idea what "direction" is supposed to mean. Do you mean TONE? "Silly" and "dark" are both descriptions of tones. Am I to assume that's what you mean? That the TONE of the Sonic franchise is inconsistent? Because it isn't. Sometimes it's dark, sometimes it's silly. And it is entirely consistent when it is one or the other of those things. Are you suggesting that having moments of levity in an otherwise dark and serious story is "inconsistent"? Are you suggesting that having moments of drama in an otherwise comedic story is "inconsistent"? Because that's fucking retarded.

>"the series has had so many ups and downs"

It has had ONE down. You have failed to demonstrate any other downs. Aside from that ONE bad game from twenty years ago, it's pretty much been all Ups. For there to be downs plural, there would presumably have to be at least one other down? The only other down you managed to suggest was a spin off made by a different developer. Compare that to, say, Megaman X6 AND X7 which were developed in house by Capcom and released as mainline titles in their series. Now THAT'S a series that's had "downs". But if I were to suggest that, for example, Megaman Soccer was an example of the series "downs" then you might just suggest I was being deliberately disingenuous for lack of any other examples to make that point with.

In conclusion no the fuck it isn't shut the fuck up

[true-blue-sonic]

Hello, Good Morning/Afternoon/Evening!!

For the Ask Game: Blaze

do I like them:

Blaze used to be my favourite character when I first got into Sonic, and she's still my favourite female character of the whole cast. So yep! ^-^

5 good qualities:

Even though she is a princess, she never lets that power get to her head. Instead, she treats her responsibilities with the utmost seriousness, and we can see in Rush Adventure that her subjects adore her.

Once she has become available in Rush Adventure, the player has NO reason to EVER play with Sonic anymore (except for the obligatory minigame islands, iirc?): Blaze's jump is so much higher, she's got flame resistance (hello, Sky Babylon), and I never got the feeling she is even remotely slower than Sonic or has a slower-raising Tension Gauge. Blaze's gameplay is superior in every way; change my mind.

Speaking about fire, pyrokinesis! Love myself some psychic powers :> I also like how the drawbacks of possessing such powers are touched upon, with Blaze being isolated due to her duties and because people fear her powers(?), and then furthermore also inflicting that isolation on herself and rejecting friendship. It's a surprisingly realistic description of what it would be like to have such powers in a world where no-one else does, in my opinion.

Sonic Rush has an amazing storyline: sweet, touching, interesting, and simply plain fun! I couldn't have asked for a better game for Blaze to be introduced in, not to mention she plays just as good as/even better than Sonic himself.

I honestly can't recall ever disliking one of her voice actors, even though she's undergone some changes in those over time. They don't all sound the exact same, but I feel like they all give Blaze a voice that nicely fits her.

3 bad qualities:

Does she have a family? Does she have parents or other kin who rule over the kingdom while she is away on adventures? Eggman Nega states it was her royal family who kept the Scepter safe for ages in Rush Adventure, but no mention is made of whether they are alive or not. Blaze herself states she 'has always been alone because of her powers' in Rush, so just what is going on with her family?

It's also hard to think of any for her, just like with Espio... Maybe, for a character who is often linked with Silver, it would be nice to actually see the two build up the friendship they had in 06? I feel like it would make their team-ups be a bit more believable than just 06 nostalgia.

favourite episode/etc:

Sonic Rush! I also like the final boss of Rush Adventure, with Sonic telling her she has to keep a level head as Princess of the Sol Empire to protect her people.

otp:

Used to be Silvaze, currently none.

brotp:

With Silver!

ot3:

Also none.

notp:

And none!

best quote:

Her speech from Sonic Rush in her storyline when fighting Sonic and the aftermath always touched me; even without voice acting, it is raw and full of emotion without diving into angst territory, in my opinion. It also helps that it is short but sweet, and it gives a good explanation just why Blaze is so opposed to having friends. And afterwards, when Sonic gives her his advice, she listens! For me, it very nicely shows off her character development over the game.

head canon:

Has learned over time to use her pyrokinesis for more mundane things, like heating up a cold cup of tea or starting a fire in the fireplace with little issue. She used to dislike doing that before meeting Sonic because she felt that was a banal use of her powers, but she's warmed up to the idea that they exist to make life easier for her and others, and thus can be used for the simple and more unimportant things as well.

[crusherthedoctor]

6, 12, 22, 23 :P

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

Not really.

…Yep, that was a quick one.

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

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

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

22. Popular character you hate?

*rolls out the list*

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

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

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

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

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

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

23. Unpopular character you love?

Eggman when he's in-character.

Rouge when she's in-character.

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

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

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

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

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

[birdsareblooming]

Sonic may actually be lost royalty

I keep going down these rabbit holes I shouldn’t go down BUT! Although this theory is one that I don’t fully believe in (unlike the infinite/solaris theory and the chaos emerald theory) I still have a good argument that I want to talk about very bad.

I also tried to make this as short as possible but there’s a lot of ground to cover, but at least it’s not the infinite/solaris theory. But I have a TLDR at the end.

[Spoiler Warning for Sonic and the Black Knight]

let’s start with a ✨numbered list✨

1. Blaze the Cat

Blaze is the biggest caveat for this theory, but I think it’s best to start with her.

Now, firstly I need to clear up some things.

[Eggman: My world...]

[Eggman Nega: and my world...]

[Eggmen: are in a manner, inextricably linked!]

[Blaze: Like two Eggmans?]

Part of the Blaze’s world is that it’s a parallel universe. Parallel Eggmen, Parallel emeralds, Everything else that isn’t stated outright. Like how Tails and Marine are definitely counterparts. Seeming as Tails came from South Island and Marine came from southern island, Tails is definitely based on a kitsune and Marine, in theory, based on a tanuki. 

And, although not stated completely, Blaze and Sonic are universal counterparts.

[From Sonic Wiki: Blaze was designed as a charater who was equivalent yet and alternate version of Sonic’s character.]

Much like the Sol and Chaos emeralds, Sonic and Blaze are a mirror version of one another, although slightly different.

Alright, now that we have that out of the way:

Looking at the connections between the others, Sonic and Blaze seem, a bit too different.

The Sol and Chaos emeralds fulfill the same role, although their different appearance, and have a similar story.  Tails and Marine fulfill the same role, although their different appearance, and have a similar story. The Eggmen fulfill the same role, although their different appearance, and have a similar story. 

Blaze and Sonic fulfill the same role, although their different appearance, and have a... completely different story. 

Blaze was born to a royal family, and set to protect the Sol Emeralds and the Jeweled Scepter as her birthright, and it’s somewhat hinted that her powers may also be a birthright. Sonic, on the other hand, has no known past, and seems to have just run into the Chaos Emeralds by accident. 

You could claim that Blaze does take on the role of both Sonic AND Knuckles, which is fair and stated on the wiki, however Knuckles is also never stated to be any kind of royalty, and certainly doesn’t have that kind of past, his past being one of the more tragically alone ones. 

And here’s something interesting.

Time has warped our vision of Blaze. We all know her as “Princess Blaze the Cat.” But from watching Sonic Rush, her opening game... she is never mentioned to be a princess until the very end.

[Burning Blaze: As princess, it is my duty to protect the Sol Emeralds...]

From what I remember, this is the FIRST mention of her royal status. 

From this game’s viewpoint, they reveal the mirror status of the dimensions. They then show both Blaze and Sonic having mirror super transformations using their emeralds, highly implying that Sonic and Blaze were mirror versions. (also this was implied already by just Blaze’s shoes.) and then it’s revealed that Blaze is royal, and a princess. 

So if she’s the mirror of Sonic, what does that mean for Sonic? Especially right after showing the two of them being, well, mirrors.

2. King Arthur

SATBK is much less transparent about the counterpart universe thing.

Now this is an alternate universe, set up by Secret Rings, and surprisingly not just a story Sonic told as an elaborate excuse.

They don’t hide obivous Sonic characters being put into roles, and their in these roles for a reason.

Blaze and Silver as Percival and Galahad, the knights who quested together for the holy grail. Knuckles as Gawain literally only because of “Gawain and the Green Knight” But I respect that so much. Jet as Lamorak because of Lamorak’s fiery temper and competitiveness.  Shadow as Lancelot because he’s the “closest knight to the king” stated in game (👀) Tails as a Blacksmith because that’s p much the medieval version of a mechanic. Amy as the Lady of the Lake because like. Fuck she’s the most powerful one there. (but seriously, in forces she’s shown to be the most level headed leader and strangest, especially in Sonic’s absence. As well as “sensing” that he was still alive and having a past in tarot.) And Merlina as Merlina because... well that’s a whole other theory.

(all my theories are being brought up in the post. like i know the first two were expamples of theories I fully belive in but damn this is like a avengeners, ok,)

But Sonic as King Arthur makes sense when it’s revealed. Although he wasn’t anyone’s counterpart in Secret Rings (because secrets rings was confused as hell) He is in this game, and as the ring leader of everyone following him in SATBK, it makes sense. 

Although something that was never brought up...EVER is the Knight’s backstories, which are EXTREMELY important not only in Arthurian legends, but for the knights in Sonic lore. All of the knight’s mentioned backstories are important to their character, in both contexts. Although their never brought up.

*DEEP BREATH* Alright. The similarities between Sonic Character/Knight backstories.

Shadow and Lancelot have pretty simmilar backstories when getting down to it. Shadow/Lancelot were both raised for greatness, but still outshined by Sonic/Arthur. Although remaining loyal to them, even if for Shadow it’s only in times of need. Shadow doesn’t want to admit he’s a supporting role to Sonic, although Sonic generations kinda throws that Idea out of the water when Shadow cheers Sonic on while watching from the sidelines, much like early Lancelot.

For Blaze and Percival, in multiple interpretations Percival is of noble birth. Upon meeting Sonic’s Gang/The Knights, Blaze/Percival get’s inspired by their heroics and eventually joins them.

“Lancelot and Percival prove morally superior to Gawain who follows the rules of courtliness to the letter rather than the spirit.“ Is an actual quote from Wikipedia. Although it is VERY hard to find a concrete backstory for Gawain other than “separated from his home”, I think this proves enough. As well as the Gawain and the Green Knight story (in which Gawain tries to slay the green knight and then he picks up his head and says “see you in a year” is pretty representative of Knuckles constantly breaking the master emerald in a comedic light.) 

Lamorak/Jet are known for challenging Arthur/Sonic to competitions. 

Galahad/Silver are searching for an object/person aided by Percival/Blaze

So now that we’re all good, do you see the similarities between part one.

Although everyone else has given backstory similarities, Sonic is given none, seeming as, as far as we know, Sonic HAS no backstory.

But isn’t it interesting that King Arthur’s backstory is being lost royalty? And the secret son of the king? Wack.

3. Sonic Fucking Underground

Now, most of you are probably unfamiliar with Sonic Underground. Good.

If you’re not, you watched it as a kid and you’re nostalgic, and let me tell you I watched the entire show recently and it’s not as good as you remember.

But Sonic Underground’s quality and history could be a post on it’s own, it doesn’t matter here. What matters is the plot:

[From Sonic Wiki: Sonic, Sonia, and Manic are the children of Queen Aleena, the rightful ruler of Mobius and are pursued relentlessly by Doctor Robotnik and his bumbling bounty hunters sidekicks, Sleet and Dingo. As infants, the siblings were separated and placed in hiding to fulfill a prophecy made by the Oracle of Delphius (a spoof of the Oracle of Delphi of Ancient Greece) that the triplets would grow up to find their estranged mother, overthrow Robotnik and take their places once more as Mobius' rightful rulers.]

FORGOTTEN ROYALTY YOU SAY.

Now, Sonic Underground is VERY SEPARATED from Sonic Lore, and nothing has ever taken from it besides Manic appearing in some comics, although from what I know he’s never mentioned to be Sonic’s brother. So This is the part I always take with a grain of salt, however;

4. In conclusion/TLDR

We have Two Instances of Sonic being lost Royalty (One in a separate reality and one in a separate continuity) We have Two Instances of Dimentional Counterparts of Sonic being Royalty (Blaze and King Arthur) We have zero given backstory for Sonic We have Three instances of Sonic, or a counterpart, being royalty

And from what I remember hearing, three’s a pattern.

[spinningbuster98]

I'd argue that the main issue with The End is that it's a boring and generic purple rock with shit writing. It having to completely change game style has little to do with an issue of escalation and everything to do with the latter half of the game being really rushed and recycling stuff: the last two islands are basically just Kronos and Supreme is just Giganto with a big gun

Also, at the risk of sounding like a jerk, but I don't see what Super forms have to do with the series not having "more creative finales" because...Super forms or not there's only one way a video game like Sonic can have its ending and that's with a flashy final boss fight. This doesn't REQUIRE a big Super form brawl, but even when there isn't one, as with most of the 2010s games, i.e Colors, lost World and Forces, the general dynamics are pretty much the same: it's Sonic VS the Final Boss in a generally climactic setting. It can't even be said that Super Forms specifically make it impossible for other characters to join in the action and just be reduced to simply cheerleaders because while that is usually the case (special shoutout to Shadow's game,06,Black Knight,Gens and of course Frontiers), none of the games that DON'T have s Super Sonic ending have ever worked in any other way: Tails is pushed away at the last second in Colors, he just...doesn't participate in the final battle in Lost World and in Forces we...have the avatar I guess? Hell even Sonic 2, the game that introduced Super Sonic, doesn't have a Super Sonic final boss and yet it's Sonic alone that gets to fight the Death Egg robot! Yeah you can do it as Tails as well if you play as him but he doesn't get the cool ending drawings and it's clear which of the two scenarios is canon. On the other hand Heroes actually had Knuckles and Tails take a swing at the Super Sonic final boss (it wasn't perfect as the other teams just stayed back but it's certainly different from having just Sonic or just the usual male hedgehogs), so clearly it's not an issue of whether or not the ending includes Super Forms or not, it's an issue with Sonic Team just often excluding other characters that are not Sonic from the final battle and from plot important moments and having a generally one-way view on how to do things

And honestly? Pondering on whether or not a certain element of the series is good or bad depending on how the fandom reacts to it is a bad idea I find, because the fandom will always push for what they want: if they get it (like with Frontiers) they'll want more. If they don't (like with the 2010s games) they'll still want it and cry franchise death for it

One of the biggest issues that Sonic Team has is their obsession with doing every stupid thing the larger fandom asks them to, regardless of whether or not it's actually good for the franchise, and that's what mainly resulted in many of Frontiers' issues and if the franchise will keep using the same repeated ending formula in the future that's because of said obsession and unwillingness to go against the loudest fans and actually think about what they truly believe would be best for the series...if they even know in the first place

Unpopular opinion: the franchise and fandom alike looking at stakes with the mindset of "Does it have Super or not?" is one of the problems tied to Super being overused in place of more creative finales. There are people who think the games that don't have a Super finale have low stakes just because of that (even when it involves stuff like Eggman literally conquering the world), and now we've got Frontiers milking the shit out of Super Sonic as a result.

If you're referring to my post about IDW, I mean, it's true that it has had very low stakes after the MV arc. It happened to have Super Sonic and Super Silver because Flynn wrote himself into a corner and had to make Super Silver's telekinesis impossible to solve the situation. After that, the arcs have been either slices of life, or with a "serious" conflict but contained (Surge, the expanding city). It was an answer to "imagine if the OCs got Super forms": well, not even canon characters go Super anymore lol

The city conflict could have been a good example of a serious climax that didn't need Super forms... but it was too messy, and overall irrelevant. Did anyone care about that? No, the Diamond Cutters and Whispangle canon was the main point of that arc.

I don't have an opinion on Super Sonic used for final battles. I didn't get tired of him, I understand why it has become tradition to reserve him for the climax. I also can think of a few bosses without it, mainly Colors and Lost World, and in my opinion they work just fine tone-wise... but I can't speak for the rest of the fandom, obviously. I agree that Frontiers cheapened Super Sonic, though, all in the name of elevating the Titans to the level of gods. It's yet another reason the fight against The End is very anticlimatic, and why they had to rely on changing the gameplay to a random bullet hell.

[zmeu-ra]

Organizing my thoughts on Sonic Frontiers:

Sonic Frontiers is my favorite Sonic game in a decade (Generations was the last one I wholeheartedly enjoyed). But it’s far from GOTY material.

The story takes itself seriously! Hallelujah! So refreshing. I haven't decided if the plot is that great yet, but it's definitely more competent than what we've had lately. There are both genuinely touching and funny moments.

Sonic feels good to control in the islands. I appreciate the option to tune his handling. Once you find what works for you, getting around is a lot of fun.

The island layouts are messy. They’re giant playgrounds with routes and challenges to explore ("open zone"). This is a cool idea in theory, but messy in practice. I hated the random boost pads and springs that pull you into challenges if you accidentally touch them while running somewhere. It’s like Sonic has ADHD and is constantly shifting between different hyperfocuses. I’ll admit it was fun at first; zooming across the island, getting pulled into exciting new challenges, but once you’ve completed them, they become useless obstacles. If they could somehow give me a reason to go through these routes again, they would be less annoying.

One of my main issues with the "open zone" layout is that it disconnects Sonic from the game space. Most things you interact with - platforms, springs - aren't part of the world, they're just laid on top. It would've been nice to interact with the world itself, characterizing the Starfall Islands a little more, but I also see how difficult of an undertaking that would be to design and program.

Cyberspace is a cool concept with hit-or-miss execution. The 3D parts are nice, the 2D parts are not. In 2D, Sonic's physics skew just enough to be sluggish and annoying. I do appreciate the level designs inspired by past games, it shows how well layouts like Metal Harbor hold up. It should have all been 3D, but that’s pretty demanding so I get why they didn’t commit. And of course, all the stages have total banger tracks.

The combat is a little bit... meh. It's fun and flashy, but doesn't have much depth (this is coming from a DMC fan, so take it with a grain of salt). Also I played on Hard Mode, in which I died a lot but was still never very mentally stimulated, so I wonder how brainless combat is on the lower difficulties.

That pinball machine was torture.

The Titan battles were the stars of the show. I was jumping out of my seat fighting Giganto, and my heart was racing for Knight, but Wyvern truly sent chills down my spine! Just wow. The music, Super Sonic in the moonlight, those combat setpieces... the Titan battles are just *chef's kiss*

Except for Supreme. What a letdown! Did they run out of time working on him? He’s just a spicy Giganto! Why is the apex of the Titans, corrupted by an eldritch force from space, so boring??? And I totally burned through his health without even thinking about it. “I’m Here” barely hit at all.

And that final boss? Ikaruga? I’m down for sudden genre shifts, but shouldn’t the game’s grand finale be a climax of all the mechanics the player has learned up to that point? You go from Metal Gear Rising-esque adrenaline rushes against creatively-designed Titans, to shooting a monologuing rock for 2 minutes. Was there a planned phase two that was more like a Titan? Idk, it wasn’t badly made or anything, but it felt like a weird decision.

Finally, I'm curious how much the plot will change the status quo. It sounds like Amy wants to go "spread love" whatever that entails, Knuckles is considering leaving the Master Emerald more often, and Tails wants to adventure solo to prove his heroism to himself. Does that leave Sonic alone in the next game? Is he open to hang with different crowds, like Team Dark or Silver/Blaze? If so, bravo for creating an opportunity to work with other characters, Mr. Flynn.

All in all, good game. Room for improvement, but still the best we’ve seen from Sonic in a long time. Not bad for a team of 60~ devs. I'm hopeful for the future! 2022 is the year of Sonic!