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joshhhhhhhhhhhhhhh · 3 years ago

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My Top 10 Favourite Sonic Characters wooo!

Here’s a post that’s existed in my mind for centuries and my inconsistent ass motivation to write things at all hasn’t let me actually write until just this moment. My favourite characters from a series I’ve been into for pretty much my entire life, ranked as well. Obviously subjective because objectivity is fake, definitely subject to change I’d say since on some random days I’ll just be really into a character I may otherwise not think about that often, all that fun stuff. You know, it’s a top 10 list, it’s for fun, yeah. Let’s.

10. E-123 Omega

Definitely will say this number 10 spot is probably the most volatile on the list, and there are like 4 other characters that could be in this position if idk the stars were aligned a little differently. But hey, Omega’s really cool! Certainly one of my favourite robot designs in the series, Omega’s built like the powerhouse he’s supposed to be and has a super nice colour scheme, I like that there’s not as much white on him as prior E-Series models, creates a sense of finality appropriate for who Omega is. Also a fan of his personality – he’s a pretty simple character across all the mediums he’s appeared in, largely defined by a drive to prove himself to be the best thing Eggman’s ever created by way of… destroying everything else he’s ever made lmao. Lots of funny dialogue derived from that, and while I’m not into his “haha meatbags” shtick from the comics and such they still let him have fun gags, destroying the barrel of doom comes to mind. I also think what makes Omega particularly fascinating is his unexpected compassion? “The original must exist somewhere” line in Heroes and his general bond with Team Dark through 06 and stuff really give what would otherwise be just a robotic killing machine quite a lot of depth. Even with how volatile this number 10 spot is Omega still feels like an easy pick for this list.

9. Vector the Crocodile

Fearless leader of the Chaotix Detective Agency, accomplished singer, zero-income loser with a heart so gold he can’t even take payments for the jobs he does, and of course, a seasoned milf hunter – Vector’s certainly multifaceted by some definition. Nah but for real I love this dude, he manages to both be always off in his own little world with his crappy singing and listening to his amazing theme song, trying to run a successful detective agency but being too kind-hearted to actually take money, while also being surprisingly level headed and perceptive. Espio and Charmy are too serious and childish respectively for their own good, but Vector manages to keep them together. Maybe the permanently bankrupt Chaotix seem comically incompetent, but Vector may as well have solved every case he’s come across. And fuck SEGA like this guy enough to put him in teams he doesn’t even belong in in Free Riders and Team Sonic Racing, as well as somehow even getting into Boom – so he’s surprisingly well travelled and has more character interactions than most, which I think is a little weird but pretty cool tbh! At the end of the day Vector’s still a pretty simple character but he’s got a lot of charm and personality, and he is also a crocodile. That’s awesome. Love him for it.

8. Blaze the Cat

Sonic cats are funny we literally only have 2 of them and they’ve got the most dimorphic designs of any species we’ve had lol. But yeah Blaze is fucking badass, fast as fuck pyrokinetic princess of another dimension and even has access to her own unique Super form? That’s fucking hype dude. Her playable appearances actually do take advantage of what makes her distinctive as well which you really love to see. In being a female character Blaze also has the benefit of quite a lot of designs across the various spinoffs and shit, which hey we love to see. Her character arc’s quite a simple one, and the execution is arguably not great since Rush is pure text boxes and everyone telling Blaze to lighten up – but the archetype of cold-hearted person learns to open up and trust others is always gonna be a nice one, and Blaze is no exception. Further titles and comic stories and stuff would further this arc by letting Blaze learn to have fun and giving her an even wider group of people to bounce off of. Mostly Silver. Hey at least their designs go nicely together. But yeah Blaze is dope as shit, nothing not to love about her. Was actually my main in Team Sonic Racing too lol.

7. Silver the Hedgehog

Speaking of, here’s Silver! You know in another post I talked about this element of tragedy regarding how popular SEGA clearly wanted Silver to be vs the actual result, largely informed by 06 just not being so great. But I’m glad that Silver stuck around all the same, because for as much as people might argue about how much sense it makes for him to be constantly travelling back and forth in time or whatever, I still think the character himself is a good one. Awkward and naïve to a fault due to the whole “grew up in an apocalypse” thing, yet driven by nothing more than simple hope, and the determination to do what’s best for everyone – definitely a combination of traits that make for a fun character to just witness and have stories be told with. I’m enough of a magical girl fan to think characters who want to believe in hope more than anything are based as hell, so Silver gets extra props from me for that. Also think his design is pretty fucking cool, even if it’s maybe a bit overdesigned compared to what the series started with. And hey psychokinesis? Yeah they’ve never made it play well but holy shit they still manage to make it cool as hell, even just his flying zoom throughout the city in his first cutscene in 06 is dope, and the Generations boss fight is one of the best in the series – I’d say perhaps the single best rival battle? Don’t quote me on that. Also. Ah. I like his voice. Specifically Pete Capella. I don’t care if it sounds pubetic or whatever it’s how Silver sounds to me and I like it. Quinton Flynn also a good Silver tbf. Not into Bryce Papenbrook Silver whatsoever but hey. Fan of Silver, basically.

6. Doctor Eggman

It feels downright bad to have the series’ main and best antagonist this low down, but it is what it is - there are just a few characters I like more. But let’s not understate Eggman here – he’s one of the biggest baddies in video games for a reason. That this selfish narcissistic man-child is a genius with an IQ of 300 capable of inventing fully autonomous intelligent robots that give Sonic the fucking Hedgehog a run for his money, or being able to create entire airship armadas out of basically thin air – it’s impressive as shit. This funny old egg guy awakens ancient deities and literal gods of destruction just for the hell of it. And he’s increasingly getting way better at properly controlling them too – Generations sees Eggman in control of a being that’s able to rip through space-time. His own inventions aren’t anything to scoff at either – the likes of the Egg Carrier, Egg Fleet, Metal Sonic or the Death Egg would make his whole planetary conquest goal a walk in the park if not for all the spiny little pincushions running around. But Eggman doesn’t give up either – he’s utterly determined to get what he wants and will stop at nothing to accomplish it. Fucking love it. Both complimentary to and perfectly antithetical to everything Sonic represents and stands for – a perfect villain. I think what makes Eggman even better is that he is technically just an ordinary human guy – he’s surprisingly strong physically and obviously ridiculously intelligent, but he’s still not really anything special. And yet the man controls gods and builds machines that surpass gods. Not bad for a giant talking egg.

5. Tails the Fox

I don’t know quite what changed between childhood and uh, not that, but Tails actually used to be my favourite character. Which is weird – I am a little brother but in terms of playing Sonic games in multiplayer I was the big brother to my own little brother. I got to be Sonic and he got to be Tails because he was younger than me so he’s a cucklord that doesn’t get to have fun. And yet I preferred Tails anyway. Maybe I just generally related to him still - he’s the kid that wants to be cool like his hero he’s always chasing around. And he’s also smart as hell. Just like child Josh fr. But yeah being in 5th place he’s obviously not held quite as strongly in my mind, but I still like Tails a lot. He’s got a really cute design and at his best offers a lot to the team while still being loveably humble in a series where everyone else is constantly hyping themselves up. And that classic arc of learning to have more confidence in himself and faith in his own abilities, we love it for a reason yo. There’s not necessarily much to Tails ever, came from a simpler time in the franchise’s history and despite being probably the 3rd most recurring character in the series beside Sonic himself and Eggman he does largely just play support roles – but he’s been in the franchise through thick and thin for a reason. Love this guy. Here’s to stronger characterisation in future titles and getting a real fucking variant in Speed Battle and Dash and such.

4. Knuckles the Echidna

We’re definitely getting to the point where spots are extremely competitive – again on a different day Knuckles might’ve been in a different position entirely. But that different day is not today, and today, Knuckles is right here. Sonic’s first rival and a franchise mainstay for a reason – Knuckles is just fuckin cool as shit, you know? As strong as Sonic is fast for however much sense that makes and a vibrant red to contrast Sonic’s blue, he definitely serves as one of Sonic’s best rivals while being a strong and unique character in his own right. Particularly a fan of his characterisation around the Adventure era, where we had a Knuckles with a generally cool head who was still easily agitated. Able to make the call to smash the Master Emerald so Eggman doesn’t get it, but also afraid of ghosts – multifaceted guy really. His characterisation in this era was helped by having perhaps my favourite voice for the character as well. The best Knuckles likes to banter too – OVA and Heroes Knuckles have quite a playful rivalry dynamic with Sonic, but are still proud to call him their best friend – it’s fun. The OVA also has Knuckles’ hat and, yes. Wanna give shoutouts to the movie version of Knuckles for being the best portrayal of him we’ve seen in years and giving him a genuinely good character arc. Knuckles in general often has some nice arcs – even as far back as his literal debut game with 3&K we see him shift from antagonist to hero basically instantly, because despite his upbringing leaving him socially withdrawn and consequently a little naïve and gullible, Knuckles is someone that’s able to assess a situation really well and adapt accordingly. Eggman’s taking the Master Emerald now? Well shit, Knuckles has already realised what’s going on and is immediately ready to both apologise to Sonic and Tails and help them out with what they’re doing. I like that a lot – he’s not caught up in the lie or spending time brooding over it, he realises what needs done and gets on it. Very strong start for the character. Knuckles is also really good in the Riders games of all things – where they really take advantage of his treasure hunter knowledge and shit, being able to decipher ancient texts. We’re all a bit tired of haha Knuckles is an idiot so looking back on these earlier titles where he really does offer a lot to the team is awesome. On treasure hunting by the way, his Treasure Hunting variant in Speed Battle and Dash and such is dope as hell. Hoping for a good playable Knuckles again one day.

3. Shadow the Hedgehog

I realise as we get closer to the end of this list that anyone doing process of elimination might be wondering who else is left. Sonic himself presumably, but Shadow’s only number 3. Wonder what the other spot will go to. Well, we’ll get to it when we get to it. For now, Shadow. The second most popular character in the series, arguably Sonic’s greatest rival character yet, the only character in the modern era to even get his own game, and even getting a starring role in the eventual third Sonic movie. People love Shadow dude, and not without good reason. He’s got one of the most well realised and fleshed out arcs in the series – and certainly the most detailed backstory, ups and downs included. But hey, in spite of some hmmm portrayals here and there (but who isn’t this true for) Shadow at his best still really resonates with a lot of people, myself included. He’s calm, cool and collected, but still with a bit of a competitive streak, and able to hype himself up here and there despite his otherwise humble disposition. He fits in with the rest of the cast but stands out at the same time. I particularly think David Humphrey’s Shadow in SA2 is really well done – we get a Shadow that’s more softspoken than the rest of the cast, who has the right amount of melancholy when he needs to sound sad and the right amount of confidence and pride when he’s being more confrontational. It’s a surprisingly good voice performance for SA2 in particular given the game’s infamous voice directing. And, you know. I’m just a human being. Normal like anyone else. So when Shadow says “If the world chooses to become my enemy, I will fight like I always have” I just find that badass as shit dude, completely unironically. No irony, no haha edgy hot topic, no general cynicism in terms of loving what I love – Shadow is just sincerely a cool as shit character. Really excited to see what the future has in store for him, movie 3 especially.

2. Mighty the Armadillo

Yeah okay here’s our surprise pick lol. Unless you like know about my retired Sonic blog I suppose. I don’t even have half the justification to have Mighty this high as I do any of the other characters. We’ve got very little to go off of in terms of his personality in the games – he’s basically just a nice, peace loving pacifistic guy, yet one who’s very strong anyway because what’s a Sonic character without some random superpower? And that’s about it! Even if you go to the comics or something Mighty’s not really any different from that basic character description but just slightly more detailed, and also with a sister in preboot Archie. What really made me pay attention to Mighty though is the real life history behind the character. A few of the early characters made for Sonic 1 before it was Sonic 1 would get repurposed into something new and unique – Eggman came from a Roosevelt lookalike in pyjamas, the game Ristar was built off of the Feel the Rabbit concept, Vector was gonna be a in a band in Sonic 1 before getting scrapped and brought back 4 years later for Chaotix, that sort of thing. One of these early concepts was an armadillo character that could roll into a ball, and it’s not really a stretch to assume that this eventually turned into Mighty. Mighty makes his playable debut in an arcade game very few people have played because emulating track balls is hard, and then a few years later makes his second appearance as basically a sprite swap of Sonic in Knuckles’ Chaotix. And that was just it for over 20 years. Mighty was just gone. This dope character design and fun if a little simplistic personality just didn’t exist in the games for over 2 decades. We’ve even since learned that he was planned to be included in Heroes and just didn’t make the cut. We could’ve had a modern Mighty design where he has an actual voice actor and shit and we just don’t. And that just made me sad, and yet got me weirdly invested in the character and wanting to see him return. Even had #BringBackMighty as a blog title for a while lol. You can imagine I lost my mind when he was announced for Mania Plus, and would even be appearing in Mania Adventures as well. My boy looks better than ever and he’s playable in my favourite game of all time. Fucking awesome. There’s not much more to it, really. Writing wise he’s one of the more basic in the series yeah, but that real life history got me randomly obsessed all the same. I kind of hope we do away with the “Mighty is a classic character only” thing that SEGA has going on, but even if we don’t reach that point I’m happy to see that he’s a part of the cast in some way again.

1. Sonic the Hedgehog

Yeah here’s a predictable outcome. But can you blame me? SEGA made one of the best character designs of all time, put him in a series that’s still going 31 years strong with an enormous fanbase despite all the ups and downs, and made that character completely sincerely cool as all hell. Sonic’s a genuine inspiration, always living life to the fullest, playing by his own rules and following his own heart, while capable of being a hero and always looking to help others live their lives with the same freedom he adores himself. He’s cocky, but never by putting other people down. He always speaks his mind, but he’s considerate of others. He treats everyone fairly, but if you don’t do the same he’ll take you down. Nobody stands up against oppression and cruel treatment of others quite like Sonic does. And certainly nobody manages to do so while being as cool as Sonic is blue. I genuinely love this character and what he’s represented to me throughout my life. I don’t think I could even process the impact he’s had on my life – Sonic 1 was the first game I ever played and that was probably like 20 years ago, bearing in mind I’m not even 22 yet. This series and Sonic the character have quite literally always been with me. I don’t even know where else to take this paragraph, I just think Sonic’s awesome as shit. No other character could possibly be my favourite.

And yeah that’s it! I think. I mean it is definitely “it” in that it’s my top 10 favourite Sonic characters anyway. I’m just writing this part with less consideration for “writing well” and instead just spitting out whatever words enter my mind. Actually ended up nearly fully rewriting the top 4 characters because I didn’t like what I’d came up with at 2 in the morning, and I’m happy I did because I feel a lot better about what’s there now versus what was there before. Sonic is fun. Sonic characters are fun. Hopefully you had fun reading this. Hopefully my friends have fun reading this also. Since I’m writing this before I format the whole thing for Tumblr and go find images I hope I have fun like, doing that. Yeah. Dab.

#sonic #1.9.22 #mfw mighty doesn't have yuji uekawa artwork so sticks out compared to every other image chosen

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neoclassic-sonic · 5 years ago

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What about the rest of the Forgotten Sonic Characters?

With Sonic Mania Plus comes two returning characters, Mighty and Ray! After 20+ years they’ve finally made their comeback ever since their debut in the segasonic arcade game! Even the Hooligans have made a semi-cameo appearance in the form of the Heavy Magician’s illusions in Mirage Saloon Zone! Since Mania is a celebration of every Sonic game ever it was nice to experience these old characters revitalized back to life!

But with the revitalization of old characters, what does that say about the state of the rest of the forgotten sonic characters? Will they ever see the light of day again? Do some have a more chance of appearing again? Or are they doomed to obscurity? Let’s review the list, starting from when they were introduced and their last major appearance! Starting with:

Sonic CD’s Rosy the Rascal (1993) Latest appearance Sonic R (1996)

I’m sure all of us were disappointed when she wasn’t playable in mania plus. But! With her appearance in the christmas special, she may become playable in the next sonic mania game! Or at least a cameo other than an Amy Doll.

Sonic Triple Trouble’s Fang the Sniper (1994), last appearance Sonic Fighters (1996) and you know what? Let’s throw in Bean and Bark (1996), last appearance Fighters Megamix (1996)

“Hey! What’s the big idea! We just saw them in Mania! You even said they were in Mania!” Well that’s where you’re kinda wrong kid. I said semi-cameo. The hooligans did not actually appear in Sonic Mania, at least not in their actual forms. Right, remember those three were just illusions by the magician. While those were references sure, those aren’t actually the hooligans. While their appearance in a next game like mania is less likely (given they were mirage saloon’s gimmick, and they’ve already had their representation) I wouldn’t be surprised if there wasn’t at least one reference to them in the near future.

Next up! Knuckle’s Chaotix’s Chaotix! (1995) with Espio’s last appearance in the Sonic Fighters (1996)

“Uh hey, what gives? The Chaotix crew have already appeared in modern games, they were just in Forces and Vector is in TSR! what are you on?” Well what I’m on, you see reader, is on Iizuka’s bullshit! You see since their first modern appearance on Sonic Heroes, Takashi Iizuka has stated on record that the modern chaotix crew is not the same characters as the ones in the 32x game. You see when development on the chaotix game was shifted from sonic team to another developer, the story hadn’t been written yet. Same with the characters characterization. That’s why you have a sophisticated 16 year old Charmy. Hot headed detective Espio. Pacifist nomad Mighty. God-fearing, music-loving Vector! While some of the character traits were carried over (like charmy being the glue that held the chaotix together, mighty is still a pacifist in mania, vector still has his headphones, while espio’s detective shtick got applied to the whole crew), they were basically new characters. Even though the chaotix game was viewed noncanon for years, with countless references to it in sonic mania, it seems that sega is much more willing to accept the chaotix as it was. It is very likely that this may get retconned (given how bullshit some of Iizuka’s statements on plotline are), they even might actually cameo in the next mania game if ever!

Tails Skypatrol’s Witchcarters! (1995)

Finally some actual forgotten characters! Bet you didn’t know they exist huh! Well you probably do if you’re reading this list, but i digress. Introducing the witchcarters, Carrotia the Rabbit, Fockewulf the Wolf, Bearenger the Bear and Witchcarter. These characters served as one-off antagonists and henchmen in this spinoff game, where they were left ignored for around 20 years until Archie Sonic’s Eggman’s Dozen arc where they were given redesigns to fit the modern era. They are the less iconic of the two groups of antagonists that Tails has had to fight. But they are very likely to appear in the next mania-like game.

Tails Adventure’s Battle Armada (1995)

Oof another Game Gear title but one that’s more memorable than skypatrol! Along with a metroid-style gameplay, we are introduced to the battle armada! Speedy, his father and Dr. Fukurov are a few of the notable casts introduced here! For around 20 years they were ignored until Archie Sonic (again). They are given a much bigger role compared to the witchcarters! The idea of Speedy as a rival to Tails like metal sonic is to sonic, is such an interesting concept to me! they have a greater chance of appearing in the next mania like game as compared to skypatrol!

Sonic the Fighter’s Honey the Cat! (1996)

Yeahhh, ok let’s be blunt. I love honey the cat. But she probably won’t appear in a game any time soon. Here’s why: She’s basically the mobian version of an already existing character (candy from fighting vipers). She’s a hacked character in the arcade version, removed from the gcn port and an easter egg in the latest port. She was only limited to cameos in the comic before finally debuting properly in the sonic the fighters arc in archie sonic. While Sega has definitely been more lenient with her, unless there’s another fighting game that will come out, honey won’t be appearing any time soon. (and if she does I really hope they use the rest of the fighting vipers cast too, Pane the Boar exists now! and it’s not like anyone’s using the IP! I’d like it if they just,,,, retooled fighting vipers and it’s characters for a sonic fighting game spinoff without sonic characters haha)

Sonic R’s Metal Knuckles and Tails Doll (1996)

Sonic R introduced the counterfeit counterparts to the other 2/3s of team hero. Metal Knuckles and Tails Doll. While I bet they were only created to fill out the roster, we can’t deny that their designs are cool. I don’t want to rule them out because they’re 3d characters since Bean and Bark made 2d appearances in mania, but it’s a mystery on what kind of role they’ll fulfill. Metal Sonic’s first appearance in CD was explicitly clear that he was your rival, someone to beat. These two’s appearances are kinda shoehorned as someone you have to race with but there’s no backstory. Unless there’s racing challenge in the next mania game or these characters are retooled to being a miniboss, they probably won’t appear in a major role in the next mania game, if they ever appear it’d probably be as a background cameo. (which is a shame!)

Sonic Adventure DX and Adventure 2 Battle’s Tikal and Chaos! (1999) latest appearance Tikal-Sonic Runners (2015) Chaos(illusion)-Forces (2017)

Finally we’re out of the classic era and into the adventure era! The adventure era is regarded by a lot as either a. a transitional era between classic to modern sonic, or as a part of the modern sonic era. either way this is where tikal and chaos’s first and playable appearances were made. Now this is a weird case since Chaos came from the Master Emerald and Tikal is a ghost. In their ending you can see them hanging with the chao. Ever since then they’ve been MIA. While I thought they went back into the emerald, it seems that it’s actually questionable what happened to their fate. Will we ever get to see them again? Well this is where things get pretty dicey here on out. These characters don’t have “Classic” immunity, meaning they dont have the possibility to appear in the next mania-like game since they aren’t classic. Unless we have another storyline regarding the echidna colony (unlikely due to penders) then we probably wont see tikal and chaos in a major way any time soon.

Sonic Shuffle’s Void and Lumina (2000)

With character designs looking more akin to NiGHTS into Dreams than a sonic characters, void and lumina are the more different looking characters. Opting for a more fairy look instead. Sonic Shuffle is a board game somewhat akin to mario party. These characters were one-off characters, and i guess that’s it. Unless sega makes another board game using the mainline sonic universe (not storybook sonic) then we won’t see these two again anytime soon.

Sonic Hero/Advance 3/Battle’s Vanilla and Chocola and Emerl/G-merl (2003-2004)

Woof, that’s a lot of characters. So let’s tackle them one by one shall we? Vanilla is Cream’s mother. Kidnapped ala princess peach style in the advance games, she is cream’s driving force to join sonic’s team into taking eggman down. Likewise, Chocola is Cheese’s brother. These two chao are pets of Cream. Chocola is Cream’s driving force to join team Amy into taking down eggman in sonic heroes. Emerl was a robot that died in Sonic Battle and Gemerl is the reconstructed gizoid from emerl’s remains, after the events of advance 3, gemerl lives with cream and vanilla, often portrayed in the comics as the bodyguard for the two. So how likely are they to appear? Well not anytime soon by the looks of it. They only appear if Cream has a heavy role in the story, and with each passing installment cream has been getting lesser roles. I like to think of Cream as the “next sonic”. She has the drive and the heart to become the succeeding hero. I’d love for her to get her own series of games where she is the hero. But unless she gets more roles or she gets her own spinoffs (not likely), these three wont appear anytime soon.

Sonic Riders (2006) latest appearance for storm-Sonic Free Riders (2010) for Jet and Wave-Olympics (2020)

Sonic Riders introduced three babylon rogues. Jet was introduced as Sonic’s rival when it came to races, a title loosely held by metal and shadow (metal was created to be sonic’s rival at everything and shadow was conceptualized as being an antithesis to sonic, jet is the first to be his rival in speed only). Given the nature of these games it’s actually a surprise as to why they didn’t appear in team sonic racing, or in their two previous racing games. Jet and Wave appeared in the olympics 2020 recently but storm has been mia lately. When the next racing game does come out and when they expand their roster we might see the babylon rogues debut in some sweet rides!

Sonic 06′s Elise

Unless it’s in a remake Elise has no chance of returning back due to the whole nature of 06 (and it’s storyline)

Sonic and the Secret Rings and the Black Knight’s Shahra, Merlinus, Caliburn

Not likely given that they are one-off characters in a storybook.

Sonic Rush Adventure’s Eggman Nega and Marine (2007)

I’d really love for Marine to appear again. Eggman Nega appeared in Rivals, he even appears in the olympic games, why can’t marine appear again? Sadly, unless we get a game that involves the sol dimension, these two are out of the question.

Sonic Chronicles’s entire cast (2008)

Haha. no. Most well-known as the first rpg-like game that involves the sonic characters. This game introduces Shade along with other characters. However due to the Penders lawsuit, these characters are now off limits, even to sega. this may also be the reason why we have not seen gemerl again.

Sonic Unleashed’s Lah and Chip (2008)

Chip is the Light Gaia and Lah was made for the special. We probably won’t see these characters again despite having the best writing so far.

Sonic Colors’s Yacker (2010)

Yacker didn’t fare well compared to the rest of his wisp friends. and honestly? I don’t feel too bad. while he may appear if sonic ever does need a flagship representation for the wisps, i doubt he’ll have another big role like in colors.

Sonic Lost World’s Zeti (2013)

Cause let’s face it, only Zavok and Zazz are in the limelight recently. The Zeti are a very polarizing addition to the sonic cast. they don’t have the same rep as the wisps, yet they’re designs are a bit too unique to just be left behind again. What sega’s doing now though is a bit disappointing. Half ass shoe horns into plots. Well at least for TSR, which is a racing game spin-off. We also saw this in forces (along side chaos and shadow of all people). I just hope this isn’t a trend that persists. Either make a proper plot or don’t include the character at all sega. as to when we’ll see them again, that is up to sega. this is a bit of a cloudy are cause sega doesn’t seem to be afraid to use them, but for some reason they arent too confident either.

Sonic Boom’s Sticks.(2014)

Unless There’s another boom game or Sticks is redesigned to modern standards as opposed to boom standards, we’ll probably not see her again. which is disappointing.

Sonic Forces’s Infinite and OC character (2017)

They aren’t really forgotten since it’s only been 2 years. But infinite’s basically been forgotten already! He has no appearances in other games outside forces. Not even in team sonic racing, you’d think he’d be a shoe in, but he isnt! You’d think the make your own avatar would be something that’d be implemented from everygame onward (ngl it was the only good thing about forces) but it’s also isnt seen in tsr. which seems like wasted opportunities!

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vedj-f-bekuesu · 5 years ago

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2019 in Retrospect

2019 has been fairly quiet, so I decided to start off this year by looking back on it. I’ll be dividing it by main fandoms/characters/ships because this year there were actually some new ones. That hasn’t been the case since, like, 2013.

Sonic the Hedgehog

It was an...alright year for Sonic. TSR was fine but too light on content, Mario and Sonic Tokyo felt like a step down from Mario and Sonic Rio but was still alright, and I have not played SEGA Heroes (and haven’t bothered with the Chao in Space short). Lowest spot for me was the IDW comic; the Zombot arc has had one interesting story so far, but the rest has had either bad writing (primarily aimed at Shadow’s turn) or it’s just been wallowing in its bleakness in a way even Shadow the Game didn’t. Then again, I find zombie stories uninteresting to begin with, so no duh I’m not interested in a Sonic take on it.

Chaotix kind of mirror that. Vector’s managed to get a good showing in, batting 3 for 3 on the game front, and having a key role in two of them. And like I said before, the Chaotix have genuinely had the most interesting stories within the Zombot arc, although with Vector and Charmy turned this may become more limited. Speaking of though, Espio and Charmy have had weaker presences. Espio managed to get into all three games in some form but to a lesser extent (one just by name), and Charmy was really left behind.

As for Vecpio, it’s been pretty bare for canon material stuff. Espio got mentioned in TSR as contributing the report that reveals Dodon Pa’s true role (with him and Vector being the key to making everyone shut up about him being suspicious, proving they’re best as a team). And Mario and Sonic Tokyo has something if you headcanon some stuff; when Vector talks about the medals, Espio is the first person you’re directed to. Nothing is said by Vector about Espio in text, but you can implicate that Espio was chosen first because of his strong link to Vector, being the first one Vector would trust to compete at a gold level. Other than that? Dry. And with no announcements for Sonic games in 2020, this may just continue.

Crash Bandicoot

On the reverse side, we have Crash Bandicoot having a really strong year. CTR:NF came out (which is a remake of my favourite Crash game) and has been doing gangbusters. On top of this, it has been going out of its way to revive pretty much every dead character in the franchise, to the point that we have RIlla Roo back in the fold (something I genuinely didn’t think would happen 19 years beforehand).

Skipping straight to the shipping for this, I wouldn’t have imagined it for Crash ever, but there’s actually some in-game material for me to latch onto for DingodileXKomodo Joe! Dingodile has been pushed into a more jovial character since N-Sane Trilogy, being even more doubled down on in CTR:NF. However, for the past 20 years Komodo Joe has managed to avoid being given traits closer to Espio. This game finally catches up to him, and does it hard. Seriously, his character took a hard turn for the stoic badass Espio did after Heroes, and when did Joe ever use Martial Arts magic ever? Aside from making that dynamic naturally more matching, Slide Coliseum joins in the fun with the visual upgrade. It has holographic projections of a trophy girl repping a couple of racers dancing each, and guess who the devs felt could be paired up for how they go together rhythmically? That’s right, my reptile boys. Man.

Super Mario Bros

What a weak year for Mario for me. What Mario got for new games this year were Luigi’s Mansion 3 (which I’ve not played), Mario Maker 2 (which isn’t new story content and doesn’t interest me in the slightest), Yoshi’s Crafted World (which I forgot was a thing) and Mario Kart Tour/Dr Mario World (which...um).

Because of this set-up, Bowser hardly got anything to do so he’s really been on the backburner. Considering how he’s been pushed in the rest of the decade that’s saying something. In fact, the most character stuff he got was in Mario and Sonic Tokyo, and even that was mostly just alright (I think Bowser Jr got the best deal out of that).

Spyro the Dragon

Spyro was alright, but this one’s more understandable. With 2018 being the big year for Spyro’s return, 2019 was a rest for the little guy. That being said it wasn’t completely quiet; Spyro Reignited Trilogy finally got its port on the Switch, and to tie in with that Spyro got an appearance in CTR:NF.

Because of the latter point, Gnasty Gnorc got a surprisingly strong year. Not only having more people learn about his glow-up in SRT, but bringing over that petty and angry character to CTR:NF. Seriously, his bit in the grand prix intro video is great, and he has more lines in his racing quips than any other game.

OK KO

I don’t think I made a post about OK KO on Tumblr (or maybe I did one, I can’t remember). But I did manage to get into this just before it got cancelled so there’s that.

I maintain that the Sonic crossover (aka the first thing I really knew about OK KO) didn’t give me a good impression of the show.It just seemed like “here’s the Sonic and Eggman dynamic but with more cartoon shenanigans*” and it spent more time making endless Sonic references. While some were deeper cuts which actually were impressive, most were references I could see in pretty much any Sonic-referencing material. It wasn’t until I decided to look up more info on Lord Boxman sometime after because I wanted to check if N.Gin was an influence that I found out the plot of the actual show (crossover notwithstanding) was pretty nuts and way more up my alley.

Speaking of, there’s Voxman. Whereas other ships on here I have to dig through material to construct nuggets from them, this was literally in the text. And why not, they have a good dynamic and are usually the most fun to watch bounce off each other. And I still like the fact that if KO and Lord Boxman were the Sonic and Eggman parallel, the story ends with Eggman becoming Sonic’s stepfather. Let’s see IDW tell a story like that, it’d be better than the Zombot stuff.

*I think that was the point but still.

LEGO

Man I wouldn’t have thought they would have remade LEGO Racers but the one they made this year was gre--

Okay no, this year basically reignited another flame that I thought was snuffed out like 16 years ago. For a brief history of me and LEGO, when I was six I had a freestyle box which I used to make an elemental superhero persona. I played with this until I was 11. Before then, my sister got some LEGO Harry Potter sets (which we still have in the loft), I played LEGO Racers a lot (and wasn’t very good at it), and I owned two random other LEGO sets (the trike from Life on Mars and Lava from RoboRIders).

After that, I only dabbled in LEGO when there was a Sonic set done for LEGO Dimensions. I did try to play more into it, but it was really prone to crashing in certain worlds so I eventually got frustrated enough to stop playing it. Sometime in the interim though my sister started enjoying LEGO films without me knowing, so when February came around I was dragged to see LEGO Movie 2 when all I wanted to see in 2019 was Toy Story 4. Dad insisted on it since we rarely have family outings. In retrospect;

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LEGO Movie 2 hit me in a way a piece of media hasn’t for years, or even decades. It’s shot up to be my third-favourite film of all time. And it’s revealed to me that LEGO is shockingly good at making endearing characters. So much so that breaking it down (pun not intended) has to be done by theme.

LEGO Movie: Part of the reason why I didn’t get into LEGO earlier was because I did see LEGO Movie back in 2014 when my sister was given it on DVD (she wasn’t into LEGO then) and I wasn’t impressed with it. In retrospect, I can appreciate what it did more, and I bring it up because it’s what makes Unikitty, Benny and Metalbeard so endearing when combined with what happened in TLM2. Lucy’s okay (moreso in the sequel), Emmet’s cute, President Business is fun but the MVP is definitely Rex Dangervest, who’s this feral monster but with Emmet buried away deep inside ready to flesh him out. When I make LEGO stories, I just have Rex change his mind on rescuing himself after getting the dinosaurs, and instead wreaking havoc in the present. This kills Emmet off in any story I do but it’s a worthy sacrifice.

LEGO City Undercover: As a video game person I’m kicking myself for not getting into this before. Frank Honey is the best; he’s adorable and weird yet still feeling very much human and basically the Emmet of his city. Rex Fury has grown on me lots since my initial assessment of him,it’s infectious how much fun he has with being a criminal (while Vinnie is more fun when not doing criminal stuff and Chan seems to be more focused on doing criminal stuff as a job. I also think his calmer side is criminally (no pun intended again) overlooked). Also Ellie is underrated, she is the best straight man you could ask for.

LEGO City Adventures: As I’ve said before, pretty much everyone in LCA is adorable, especially Duke and Harl. Still hoping for more Daisy time in the second season, she could be a riot if played properly and not just a Fendrich stooge.

Ninjago: Coming in with the hot take here; I prefer the movie version of Ninjago to the series. I think the problem with the series is that it has so much baggage from before the series started to iron out some of its issues and cliches that it’s kinda hard to get into as a new person, whereas movie Ninjago is a lot more approachable and written better off the bat (although I do see why it wouldn’t go down well with existing Ninjago fans). This all just makes me think of that moment in series 11 where Nya sees her worst fear of being normal in an artefact and it shows her movie self, almost as a take that. It just makes me think the show writers are salty about movie Nya kicking show Nya’s ass in being a better character. Also shout outs to Kai, Cole, Zane and Lloyd for being great characters as well (Jay is cute in the movie, his show self can be punted off a cliff for all I care). And I am with the movement to have Cole come out as gay (or at least bi if they want to keep Tournament of Elements I guess).

Nexo Knights: This show is regarded as another Ninjago wannabe, but it feels very different to Ninjago to me. So much so, there’s not a single one of the heroes I don’t like and they all need to be cherished. Macy gets props for being the best female character to me, Aaron is probably my favourite now and this is a house of Clance for future reference.

So, with all that being said, what do I think of the prospects for 2020? I think it’s going to be quieter than 2019 to be honest, since there’s a lot winding down, and on the game side there’s been zero announcements. Crash and Spyro having a rest is understandable, Sonic’s going to have to get past the movie before gearing up for 2021 probably (for the record I have no interest in the movie) and Mario just needs to try harder. And with OK KO dead, only LCA is holding the fort for guaranteed new content I want to engage in right now.

You know what would be fun though? Series 20 of the minifigures theme is due at the end of this year. Wouldn’t it be awesome to use the occasion to give some phsical minifigures to characters who never got them before? LIke, Rex Fury somehow still has enough demand to be a persistent feature in the customs market, give him an official figure (especially since he’s the only character from LCU that’s not Chase that’s even appeared in merch outside the game). Or let Sky Lane get her LEGO Universe look in physical form to go with her LIXS look. Or heck, finally give Rocket Racer his original look, that’s how I discovered the minifigure world in the first place!

#VEDJ-F talks #a lot #2019 #sonic the hedgehog #Crash Bandicoot #Spyro the Dragon #super mario bros #ok ko #lego #vecpio #tagging the vecpio because this is still a vecpio centric account at heart #but please I do not want lego chaotix that would just look weird

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redqueenmiku · 5 years ago

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A DECADE’S RETROSPECTIVE, REDQUEENMIKU STYLE

Here we are, facing down the start of a brand new decade. This decade has had its ups and downs for everyone. For me, this has been an extremely eventful decade. So much has happened that it’s actually ridiculous.

So, I got to thinking: as we enter 2020, I want to take a look back at my past ten years of existence and really give you guys a peek into my mind. You’re going to learn where I came from and how I got to where I am now. This decade contained my first experiences with the great wide world of posting to the internet and everything that came with it.

Are you ready? Let’s travel back in time to the start of this decade…

2010

2010 started with the final half of my eighth-grade year. I was an awkward child with a million original characters and no friends.

It was pretty sad.

Eighth grade came and went and summer came around. Wow! Look! What’s that?! Toward the end of the summer that year, a certain character named Jake Speed was born and Diametrics, then known as Lightning Speed, officially commenced. If you don’t know about my precious brainchild, Diametrics, don’t worry. I have something big planned for this summer to coincide with the series’ tenth anniversary that’ll answer everyone’s burning questions.

Then, toward the end of the year, after entering ninth grade, something amazing happened. I officially began my long and storied internet posting career.

Where did I start, you ask?...if you have to ask at all, I mean I’ve mentioned this probably a million times by this point but YES. I got my start as Shinymew76 on Nickelodeon’s official Invader Zim message boards. I was just getting my bearings at this time, so I didn’t do all that much of note, but I was getting ready to make my very first power move…

2011

Now, if you don’t know anything about what the Invader Zim message boards were like, we were kind of a hot mess. We were a tight-knit hot mess, though, and dang if we weren’t proud of it. The main activities of the message boards were making OCs and writing fanfiction. You know how sometimes on fanfiction.net you’ll find those really weird stories that are written entirely in script format? That was our bread and butter on the IZ boards. Just about everyone wrote that way. We had to be pretty kid-friendly too. I mean, what you could get away with depended on what our mod, NickZa, was feeling like that day, we were generally pretty restricted.

It’s important to remember that we were also little baby teenagers in a community revolving around Invader Zim.

In 2011, I began to really try to make a name for myself on the message boards. I started a short-lived gameshow series where people could submit their OCs to compete. It was a Total Drama kind of deal but it never really took off all that well. Then, though, I started a fanfiction titled “200 Years From Now”, which told the story of Dib accidentally transporting himself and Gaz to the future, where Zim has been exiled and a new Irken has been assigned to conquer the earth: Miki. Then, Zim returns to earth and something something rebellion to take down the Tallests. I don’t remember most of the story considering a good chunk of it was lost to time, but it definitely existed. The story also featured Zaz and Zelena, other people’s OCs that they submitted to be part of the story.

I don’t know how big that story made it. I really don’t know the scope, so I couldn’t say with certainty how many people read or enjoyed that story. Younger me, however, thought it was THE BEST. Immediately after it ended, I was already planning for a sequel with the same characters, adding villains from the still-thriving Lightning Speed. The story never actually got written and there was no real plan for anything about it aside from what I just told you, but there you go.

I also branched out further, spreading myself to other Nick.com boards with a variety of usernames because I was a coward. One account was 2darcara2, which was meant for the Danny Phantom and TUFF Puppy boards. I never did anything on the latter, the only remnant being an OC for the series known as Agent Darcara Fox. The former, though, came with two OCs, Annette and Aria Spectrelle, and a fanfiction: Eternal Darkness. The story revolved around Danny Phantom meeting Annette, who was being bullied by her older sister, Aria, and something about Aria being ultra-powerful and wanting Danny dead. Again, much of the story is lost to the ages. 2darcara2 also had an Invader Zim OC to coincide with it: Invader Erin, who had dark powers a la Raven from Teen Titans.

In case you couldn’t tell, 2darcara2 was the edgy one.

Then there was the other account: xxpetalxx. This account was meant for the iCarly and Victorious boards and also had her own Invader Zim OC, a human named Miriam. xxpetalxx published two stories, actually. The first was a crossover for Victorious and Invader Zim, where Zim and Dib end up at Hollywood Arts and Dib tries to get Tori to team up with him against Zim. It never finished, but it was something. More importantly, though, there was iMeet a Hero in Hollywood. I can’t even remember which board this went up on, but it was a three-way crossover between iCarly, Victorious, and Lightning Speed. Yeah. I was getting rather crazy here. I’ll talk more about the unfortunates of iMeet a Hero in Hollywood during that big surprise project I teased earlier, but it was a huge mess. Besides the fact that no one cared and I was way out of my element, it just sort of...dropped off the face of the earth.

Back to the main account, though. I lost the Shinymew76 account somewhere along the way, so I had to take up a new handle for my main account, JS712, named after Jake Speed. After getting bored of trying to maintain two secondary accounts, I cut the whole thing off save for iMeet a Hero in Hollywood and decided to just do things with my main account. That was when I decided to check out the miscellaneous boards. One was a board dedicated to original writing. Of course, I dabbled with posting the first story of Lightning Speed there only to have it rejected the first time around, likely because one of the characters was holding a gun. Yeah. This is how strict things were around there. I got it up the second time, but only by getting rid of the gun. The story never garnered any attention either, so that was a waste of time.

Then there was the video game board. This was a place for discussion about anything and everything video games. I remember everyone there making a big fuss about Chuggaconroy and how he was the best lets-player out there. Simpler times, those were.

On those boards, I attempted to launch a Sonic-themed series known as “Adventures in the Z-7 Station”. The series starred a character named Krystal the Hedgehog, who owned a boarding house called the Z-7 Station, where Sonic, Tails, Amy, Cream, Rouge, Shadow, Omega, Vector, Espio, Charmy, and Eggman lived. I also invited people to submit their own OCs to be included in the story.

No one gave a crap.

Even so, I endured, writing a good number of stories for the series. None of them actually went up, though. Sad, isn’t it?

Finally, I extended myself to the Penguins of Madagascar boards, writing a story known as “Penguins of Madagascar Humanized: Unleashed”. The story revolved around the adventures of the penguins, the lemurs, and Marlene, but as humans. There were also humanized versions of Dr. Blowhole and the android version of Skipper that showed up in, like, one episode of the show. They were the villains of the series alongside an OC named Violet. The story actually garnered a fair bit of recognition...until the whole thing randomly disappeared one day. Considering I didn’t archive it at all, that meant the whole thing was completely lost to time.

Of course, the message boards weren’t the only thing I was doing at this time. I was writing other fanfiction on the side too. One of these things was Shadow’s Story, a mega-crossover where Shadow the Hedgehog journeys across a crud-ton of different worlds to find the Chaos Emeralds to defeat an evil force that has made Sonic into its slave. It was one of the dumbest things in the history of ever, but I wouldn’t be mentioning it if it didn’t become important later.

Then, there came the end of the year, namely the date of November 4th. This was the day that I created a DeviantArt account under the handle KristoonzArtist76, and my life changed forever.

Immediately in the next two months I posted artwork for Lightning Speed, Penguins of Madagascar Humanized, 200 Years From Now, Shadow’s Story, and Adventures in the Z-7 Station. There was also the version of Lightning Speed’s first story that went up on the message boards as well as an attempt to recreate Penguins of Madagascar Humanized in comic form...and it was complete garbage.

I also met back up with people from the message boards during this time, seeing as they also had DeviantArt accounts. The most notable of these were Heidi and Mollie, both of which had been a constant presence on the Invader Zim boards and had actually made pretty significant names for themselves there. Mollie, though, had also been significant on the Penguins boards. I believe she even read the Humanized story before it was deleted.

Anyway, that brings us to the end of 2011. Now we move right into…

2012

2012 was when I started to get really frustrated with the boards...and I pretty much just left. You’re not really going to hear anything about the boards from here on out.

The first significant thing about 2012 happened in February: I bought a thirty-five dollar digital drawing tablet off Amazon. It was a cheap, floppy, plastic thing, but, to a younger me, it was the greatest thing ever. It was with that that I started my grand excursion into the world of digital art, starting with Microsoft Paint.

At the end of February, I decided that I was going to do something special to commemorate the leap year. This took the form of a new original story called The ExPERiMENT, which was about two experimental humans with the absolute worst names in existence, Haretaieto and Aidamizumi, nicknamed Hareta and Mizu for short. The two of them were labelled as defective and scheduled for execution, but are saved and brought to a secret compound for...well...undecided reasons. The story was meant to be told in the form of diary entries dated to the actual days each of them were to be released, but this quickly fell apart and ended up spelling the story’s doom. It stopped after the rescue on April 2nd and was never updated again, despite one or two unreleased efforts on my end to revive it.

In another turn of events, I published what I had for Adventures in the Z-7 Station on DeviantArt. The series went on to introduce Sonia and Manic from Sonic Underground, as well as several new OCs: Spright the Raccoon, Leigh the Hedgehog, and Raven the Echidna. A friend’s OC, Silverdust the Husky, was also included.

Then there was the day I logged on to find children staring me in the face. Heidi, one of the friends I had mentioned earlier, had written a story about her Invader Zim OCs that had also involved characters from Lightning Speed. In particular, the main character, also named Heidi, was involved in a romantic relationship with Dnias Speed, as agreed upon and supported by both of us. Then, one day, Heidi posted drawings of a theoretical set of children for the couple.

Those two children were Dante and Jupiter Speed. They will become extremely important later.

Lightning Speed continued to flourish in this time and I was still keeping up with trying to start getting good at digital art. At the end of May, I opened up five request slots, which ended up getting decent reception...from a bunch of bronies.

Did I forget to mention I was in the My Little Pony fandom at this time?

Things continued on from there. I went to prom, I made more Invader Zim OCs, I reached 100 posts on DeviantArt, I quit the message boards, I started learning how to drive, I pared down my ridiculous number of OCs, I read the Warriors series and actually started writing Warriors fanfiction with a whole four clans full of OCs, I made a group on DeviantArt for Lightning Speed, and many things continued as they already had.

Then, September rolled around and everything changed again.

It began with a class trip and the friend I sat next to on the bus. That friend introduced me to many things that day. One of those things was Law of Talos. Law of Talos is a phase in my life that I referenced for two seconds and then continued to haunt me for the rest of eternity.

The more important thing, though, is my first introduction to Vocaloid. On that day in September of 2012, I became a Vocaloid fanatic for the rest of my natural-born life. This would quickly become both a blessing and a curse.

Then, October rolled around and blessed me with Autodesk Sketchbook Pro. I immediately ditched MS Paint and embraced the new art program whole-heartedly. It was a whole new world. Suddenly I had layers and a color wheel and drawings that didn’t look pixellated.

Then, when Christmas came along, it also gave me a shot at a brand new tablet: a real Wacom Bamboo tablet.

I got fed up trying to get used to it and went back to my old tablet, handing the Bamboo off to my sister. I can’t tell if that was a terrible mistake or not, but here we are.

2013

In January of 2013, I discovered MikuMikuDance. MikuMikuDance is a free program that lets one pose and animate 3D models, primarily for use with Vocaloid models but with models for just about everything under the sun existing in one place or another.

This program was the worst thing that ever happened to me period.

Slowly but surely my art started to get completely drowned out by constant MMD images. I had MMD OCs, being crappy recolors of Miku and Rin. I had bizarre lore for different models. I put together those stupid Jewel Hearts that people keep downloading to this very day and I get messages of people favoriting them on DeviantArt constantly and it makes me want to scream because all I did was take a half of a heart someone else had made and just slap the two sides together and recolor it a few times yet it’s literally the most popular thing I’ve ever made someone please end meeeeee.

*ahem*

The MMD stuff wasn’t so bad in 2013, but this is where it started, so I’m obligated to mention it.

As for things that weren’t MMD that happened in 2013, we first have Lightning Speed. In 2013, the final material for the first run of the series was posted on DeviantArt. It wasn’t planned to be the last, but that’s how things worked out. The series still continued outside of DeviantArt, but there’s nothing on the internet to show for it.

There was also the X-Factor OC tournament, a tournament run by Heidi where various Invader Zim characters would be put up against each other in a literary battle of the ages. The character I entered was one I had adopted off the message boards before my departure: Quinn. Three of the tournament’s four rounds took place this year, all of which were wins for Quinn and my admittedly lackluster writing.

2013 also happened to be the time of a monumental shift in fandom for me. I voluntarily left behind the Sonic the Hedgehog fandom. To fill the void, though, I turned to...Koopalings. This, again, was both a blessing and a curse.

And, on top of that, 2013 was the year I attended my very first convention and wore my very first cosplay. I was a hastily-put-together Kagamine Rin. The costume was crap and the convention was just a tiny local event, but I still had fun nonetheless.

Then, at the end of 2013, something incredible happened. Heidi had created a shipping meme some months prior. As her friend, I filled out the meme and, in the process, I jokingly decided to pair Miku up with a cloud. Eventually, the joke devolved, said cloud eventually turning into one certain character of mine that had once had a cloud-like form. Then, that Christmas, I produced my very first annual Christmas shipping picture with said couple: Miku and the character known as Red King.

Yes, dear friends. This is where Red Queen Miku was born.

Oh, I also got a laptop for Christmas. That happened too.

2014

The first thing I did in 2014 was start up a challenge that would quickly become the bane of my existence: the MMD 100 Themes Challenge. This absolutely massive undertaking was the death blow for anything non-MMD related on my DeviantArt account. By that point, I was rarely posting actual art. 80 of 100 themes were posted this year alongside many more MMD images, dwarfing all other posts from this year.

Even through the MMD, though, I found the time and energy to start up my very own OC tournament: the Nightmare Manor OCT. Character submissions for the tournament began in February and, after the final audition phase from April to August, 14 characters had been entered and matched up for round one. After that, round 2 began in December, now down to only 6 participants after eliminations.

2014 was also the year that the first run of Lightning Speed finally came to an official close after over fifty quote-unquote “seasons”, ending officially on September 13th. In its wake, though, emerged Cannonfire, the story of Dante and Jupiter and their quest to escape nonexistence after being removed from their world. At the end of the story, Dante and Jupiter return from the city of those that don’t exist, Cannonfire, now existing in a parallel reality to the Lightning Speed series. The story was written early in 2014 and posted that summer.

Besides that, there were also my first full-fledged fanfictions for the Mario fandom. There was The Show Must Go On, a story about Lemmy Koopa getting kidnapped by a gang of thugs and Iggy and Larry venturing out to try to save him, and Cold Wind, a series of short stories about the Koopalings living in a normal neighborhood, going to a normal school, and doing normal things, based off of events from my own past. A few tertiary stories left over from the original run of Lightning Speed were also posted

Also this year, the final round of the X-Factor OCT began. Quinn ended up winning once again, securing victory over the entire OCT with a piece of writing that, honestly, was rushed and kind of lazy. I’m convinced I only got by because my opponent did literally nothing.

August 2014 would also mark the last time I’d open up requests on DeviantArt, this time only being single-character sketch commissions. I believe it was sometime after this that I abandoned the My Little Pony fandom for good, although not necessarily because of it.

And then tragedy struck. 2014 marked the release of my first Youtube videos featuring terrible voice acting that I tried to pass off as being good. People still watch these things to this day. I hate these videos and everything they stand for.

Most importantly, however, 2014 was the year I graduated from high school and the year I started attending college, going for an Associate’s in Simulation and Game Development at the local community college. I spent my first semester learning the basics and getting adjusted, eventually making my first college friend.

2015

2015 is the year that absolutely everything started changing for the better.

...well, almost everything. First, let’s get the bad news out of the way.

Checking back in on the Nightmare Manor OCT, the tournament’s second round of six contestants garnered a grand total of half an entry. After two separate calls to action, the tournament was abandoned in May without an official statement; a mistake on my part, but I was pretty depressed about the whole thing, so can you really blame me?

The MMD 100 Theme Challenge was also abandoned this year, stopping at theme 97 out of 100. Fun fact: the last three images actually exist. I just never posted them.

Then there was Curtain Call, the sequel to The Show Must Go On. Curtain Call was a disaster and it’s probably the worst fanfiction I’ve ever written besides, well, Shadow’s Story. Please don’t ever read it.

Now for the good news.

Firstly, 2015 was the year that I finally stopped using MMD. Even in the beginning part of the year, I was already posting far less of it. This meant I was focusing more on my art and, when I say that, that’s no exaggeration. 2015 was a huge year of improvement for me, from learning new techniques to adopting a vastly different art style that was more fun for me to use to ditching Autodesk in favor of Krita, allowing me to finally move past my inhibitions and actually use things like pen pressure, which I was too afraid to do in Autodesk, where I’d kept my settings the exact same since 2012. I also obtained a new drawing tablet: a Wacom Intuos 3 given to me by my uncle as a hand-me-down.

The things I wrote this year weren’t anything particularly special, for the most part. Cold Wind continued and Surveyor’s Wings, a crossover involving Larry, Wendy, and Roy Koopa getting transported to the world of Attack on Titan, started up, going into indefinite hiatus a short time later. There was also This is Me, a short one about Larry Koopa accidentally switching bodies with Luigi. Above all of them, though, was In Memoriam Vos, a twisted story where the Koopalings are suddenly thrust into a world that wants Lemmy Koopa dead. This was also the year I created an account on Fanfiction.net, named RedQueenMiku, where I posted “This is Me” and “In Memoriam Vos”.

This year was also the year of the Mushroom Timeline, my first attempt at a Mario timeline that also came with its own map. With that also came my first time arguing a Game Theory video, being that I couldn’t just ignore the fact that their timeline came out the day before I posted my own.

This year was also the year I entered another OC tournament: Origins OCT. I entered Dnias from the Lightning Speed series, partnered with his mental companion of cynical disposition, Yang. The tournament was a blast and I had a lot of fun with it, even with all the mistakes I made in the process. The first three rounds took place this year, all of which I won.

Lightning Speed also received a hard reboot this year, transitioning into the short-lived “Lightning Speed 2”. The first story of this run released this year.

This was also the year that I discovered and subsequently adopted a group of bootleg Koopalings I began affectionately referring to as the Bootleglings. Nonexist was created to coexist beside them later that year. The Sesonia AU was also launched, being an AU that shuffles around Koopalings from both the games and the cartoons and Bootleglings, placing them in a fantasy world heavily themed around the four seasons where magic is a prominent feature. Also, there was KoopaDoopa4321, a joke account I made on DeviantArt. I never did all that much with it, but it existed and I posted some art produced in MS Paint there.

This was also the year I created my Tumblr account, RedQueenMiku, this being the second account of mine to bear this name after the Youtube account the year before (because the Fanfiction account came afterward). Because of this, 2015 was my first year participating in the yearly Tumblr event known as Koopalings Week (as well as the year I created my human designs for the Koopalings). Later in the year, I created a second blog, justkristoonzartist76things, for posting small blurbs and generally ranting out of the way of the main blog. It took me a while to find my footing on Tumblr and get comfortable enough to start posting art, but, eventually, my main blog transitioned from reblog city to a mainly art-focused blog. Two more blogs also popped up toward the end of the year: little-red-dolls, which was dedicated to a dress-up game kick I’d had at the time as a big guilty pleasure that didn’t last that long, and frame-by-frame-mario, a blog devoted to weird inbetweens and animations errors in the Mario cartoons.

Finally, this year had one more significant occurrence: I witnessed my future anime husband, Sakaki Yuya, for the first time over my friend’s shoulder in class. Due to this, I asked my friend to teach me how to play Yugioh. Now you know why I started playing Yugioh. It was all Yuya’s fault for being so handsome.

2016

2016 built a lot upon what 2015 started. In fact, in a lot of ways, I regard it as a continuation of 2015.

2016 was also the year I snagged myself a Core Membership on DeviantArt and finally renamed my account from KristoonzArtist76 to the iconic RedQueenMiku you see today. I also changed the name of my second blog to correspond with this, it becoming justredqueenmiku things. From here on, RedQueenMiku would become a constant handle for me on absolutely everything.

The biggest thing that happened at the start of 2016, though, was me finally playing a certain indie game that had come out the previous year: Undertale. I immediately became obsessed. I drew art for the series, I made a blog specifically for it, rqmundertaleparty, to keep spoilers away from those that didn’t want it, and I undertook the challenge of drawing every single major character from the game, which I ultimately succeeded with, coming out with sixty-two drawings for the challenge.

Then, there were the AUs. Many of my AUs for Undertale at that time were simple derivatives of things I already had, like Sesoniatale, Yangtale (which was planned to have a story, but was scrapped), and Nostritale (based off of the Memoriam series, which had recently gained a new entry in the form of a very basic version of In Memoriam Nostri, which would be expanded upon later). There was also Underfire, an Undertale derivative of Cannonfire that had its own short series of comic strips, and Mariotale, which was my attempt to cast Mario characters in the roles of Undertale characters.

Lastly but most importantly, for April Fools that year, I decided to, as a joke, revive Adventures in the Z-7 Station as an Undertale AU titled Krystaltale. The revival, though, ended up having twisted meta elements that eventually warranted its continuation from the three parts posted on DeviantArt for April Fools. In the AU, Krystal was changed to a skeleton named Lucida, but still retained her memories from her previous incarnation and wished to recreate what she had in this new world she suddenly finds herself in using the powers of resetting and scripting to make events exactly the way she wants them. Sans catches on to them and starts to oppose Lucida, creating the back and forth that would persist for the rest of the series.

Also for April Fools that year, I attempted to start an ask blog on Tumblr for the Bootleglings, titled ask-the-real-koopalings. The blog never took off, however, mostly due to my own lack of motivation.

Also in 2016, Cannonfire received a sequel, Cannonfire 2, in which Dante and Jupiter are brought back to Cannonfire, where this time they would remain alongside another Lightning Speed child, Thicket, and a character that had been scrapped during the transition from Lightning Speed to Lightning Speed 2: Nightmare.

In January of 2016, the final round of the Origins OCT came and went, with myself taking the runner-up spot. Later that year, a second season of Origins would begin, this time with myself entering Dante. After the first round, however, the tournament abruptly ended.

2016 was also the year I finally started watching Yugioh Arc V. I made it through nearly forty episodes this year. I also updated my human Koopaling designs and started doing DeviantArt memes for fun, notably posting the very first version of the first crack lovechild meme I did. My first palette challenge was this year as well and, slowly but surely, I was moving myself away from DeviantArt and toward Tumblr as my primary platform. There was also the first death of KoopaDoopa4321, meant to be on April Fools, but accidentally delayed to April 2nd. This was also the year I changed the anniversary of Lightning Speed from July 12th to July 29th and posted the second and final story of Lightning Speed 2.

Speaking of, there wasn’t a lot of writing that came out from me this year. Besides Krystaltale and Lightning Speed 2, there was a one-shot based on my old headcanons about Bowser’s past titled “Her Name Was Annabel” and a story revolving around Ludwig von Koopa after the birth of Bowser Jr and the subsequent revoking of Ludwig’s birthright that also included elements of Superstar Saga, this one titled “Decomposure”. These went up exclusively on Fanfiction.net along with a cross-post of The Show Must Go On. There was also one more part of Cold Wind that went up on DeviantArt before the series went into indefinite hiatus. Behind the scenes, though, I was already starting up stories for the Sesonia AU, the Bootleglings, the Memoriam series, and multiple things for Undertale including two crossovers and two one-shots. I also received a dare from a friend this year to finally write a sequel to Shadow’s Story in the worst possible way as a great big joke, so that happened too, resulting in Shadow’s Sequel.

On top of all this, I finished the Simulation and Game Development program I was in, our capstone project being producing an RPG titled “Life’s Memory”. It was an extreme prototype of a game, but I believe we accomplished what we set out to do.

Then, at the end of the year, I posted the final awful voice acting video I ever made. It was meant to make fun of the previous ones, but it ended up being cringy in its own right, so I still regret it immensely.

2017

2017 for me started with news of an upcoming move that summer, which immediately sent me into a depression over having to leave behind the place I’d been living for nearly ten years by that point. As a result, I feel into a rather extreme slump. I took on an expression challenge to try to cure my art block, not posting a single finished piece outside of that until the end of February. I started several sketches for images that I never completed and subsequently threw out. I abandoned the frame-by-frame Mario blog after trying to hand it off to someone else with no reception. I didn’t return to DeviantArt until April due to anxiety about the amount of messages piling up from a posting flood at the end of the previous year. Generally, I was just feeling like a piece of garbage.

There wasn’t much that happened in the first part of the year. I was certainly writing more than I was drawing, though. I started two more Cannonfires and a project named “I Can Fix You” that was supposed to go up at the end of that year, but ended up being shoved back. There was also the next story in the Krystaltale saga, “The Mispersonification Ray” which actually did go up on DeviantArt. I did also create the Barian Koopalings AU at the start of this year as well.

Over the course of the year and especially during the move, I started watching more Yugioh Arc V, eventually finishing the series by September. I also watched Yuri on Ice this year. I also got back into the crack love-child meme and, after finishing my second one shortly after the move, I came up with the premise for “The Great S.T.O.R.K. Machine” and created worlds for all the children to live their lives, quickly revamping the first meme shortly after.

Then, on July 29th, I officially revealed Lightning Speed’s final reboot to Diametrics. I’ll talk more about Diametrics in that thing I keep teasing, though, so keep an eye out for that later this year.

Then Koopalings Week 2017 came around, I set unrealistic standards for myself, and it crushed my soul again.

This year also just so happened to be the year that I looked back on my rant on the Game Theory Mario Timeline and said “Yeah, I could have done better”. This led me to start writing theory rebuttals that would eventually turn into full-fledged videos. I created the first version of a video on Game Theory’s Rosalina Unmasked video this year, as well as wrote the first draft of a script on Game Theory’s Mario Timeline and a couple other theories.

Things proceeded as normal into the end of the year. I drew more Arc V art, I started writing my first Arc V fanfictions, I posted the somewhat-sequel to In Memoriam Vos, In Memoriam Eius, I made a Wattpad account that I posted Cannonfire 1 and 2 on and then swiftly abandoned, I drew a piece for Hatsune Miku’s tenth anniversary, I posted a Christmas special for Krystaltale, I made an account for the Yuri on Ice Amino, and…

...oh...right...

that drama started this year…

So, in December of this year, I was approached by a user I’ll keep anonymous for her own sake. This user, who I’ll call “T”, directed my eye toward her DeviantArt account, which contained uncredited drawings of her characters wearing some of the outfits of my Bootlegling designs and Nonexist. I asked for these to be credited and they weren’t. This doesn’t escalate, though, until…

2018

In 2018, the T drama escalated from an argument to an all-out war. I did some things I’m not proud of, but I tried to come at the situation with as much grace and dignity as I could muster. I’m not going into detail because, in the end, it doesn’t matter to the present day—the whole thing is over and no one needs to bring it back up like that—but the only thing worth knowing is that I unintentionally stoked a fire I was ill-prepared to deal with and, somehow, I gained a crud-ton of followers on DeviantArt because of it.

Finally, in April, after T had been ignoring large majorities of my messages and the situation moved far beyond needing my input, I dropped out of the whole thing, making my final statement and leaving it be.

Now I can talk about everything else that happened in 2018. Gracious.

The beginning of 2018 was slow because of the drama debacle, but I started a palette challenge on Tumblr and I drew pieces for Yuri Plisetsky’s fictional birthday and Mar10 Day, along with a third crack love-child meme for The Great S.T.O.R.K. Machine, finally revealing the whole thing on DeviantArt toward the end of the year and even starting on a fourth entry, and I entered a contest on the Yuri on Ice Amino with a picture of Otabek that didn’t end up placing.

April Fools then rolled around and, for 2018, I decided to re-release Shadow’s Story alongside the sequel I’d written two years prior on my newly-acquired AO3 account. The whole thing was massively ridiculous and even included pictures every few paragraphs, just like the original had so many years ago. I don’t know if anyone even caught chapter 19, though...

Summer came, I moved Diametrics’ anniversary to July 31st, I started up a challenge called the RedQueenMiku Redraw Bonanza where I redraw, like, a bajillion old pieces from my past, and I drew pieces and wrote a whole slew of bios for Koopalings Week 2018. Fall came, I went off on Nintendo’s announcement of New Super Mario Bros U Deluxe and the existence of Peachette, I started on a brand-new Mario timeline, I finally posted Roy, I started and subsequently failed my first attempt at a Goretober after only three days, I played Deltarune, I posted a redraw of an image involving Karl from Castle of Nations and Law of Talos that was actually a huge mistake to post, I started a Twitter account, and I created and started taking requests for a brand new challenge called the Yuri Expression Challenge, where I draw characters with expressions from various screencaps of Yuri from Arc V. Brilliant, I know. Praise me for my intelligent brain.

2019

And we finally come to the year we’re leaving behind us tonight: 2019. 2019 has been a heck of a year on its own.

2019, in itself, was a lot like 2017. I started off massively depressed, then, in the summer, we moved again.

In January, we lost our dog and I spiraled into depression again. Between that and computer issues, I didn’t actually do a lot in January. I did, however, join an art group on the Yuri on Ice amino in this time: Artevivo. I posted one more piece for the Yuri Challenge before my desktop failed on me and I was forced to either do art on my quickly-dying laptop or go traditional. The latter is what I did for the first Artevivo prompt post, though I took the former route to make a doodle post announcing my sort-of official return to the Sonic the Hedgehog fandom.

Next up was February. I did a few more traditional doodles, one set of them revealing an Arc V AU known as the Dragonia AU, before I finally got my desktop back online. I drew a couple more pieces after that, including an Artevivo prompt for Valentine’s Day involving Otabek and Mila.

March came with Mar10 day once again and an Artevivo prompt about boy bands in which I made a stupid joke by drawing Yuuri, Victor, and Yurio as Dreamboat Express a la Sonic Boom. I also entered a contest on the Amino for St. Patrick’s Day and, while I ended up just shy of winning the whole shebang, I did place first in my category, earning the title of Emerald Princess. Most importantly, though, I dropped a bunch of titles for future writing projects. Some of them, like “I Can Fix You”, “Yu-Gi-Oh: Arc INFINITE”, “Sesonia: The Dark of Spring”, “In Memoriam Nostri”, and Cannonfires 3 and 4 had already been previously announced, but others like “Tales from a Dark and Stormy Night”, “49”, “Jump Up, Superstar!”, “Memory to Hunt her Down”, and, most notably, “In Memoriam ihr Zerbrechliches Ego”, were brand new announcements.

April came around with a half-hearted failed attempt at an April Fools event that we don’t need to talk about and not much else. There was an Artevivo prompt about Cherry Blossoms, another entry in the Redraw Challenge, and I drew some bears. That was really about it.

In May, I traveled for Animazement 2019, which ended up being a heck of a lot of fun. There was also an Artevivo prompt about sea creatures AND the release of the first real story in “The Great S.T.O.R.K. Machine”’s series on AO3. At the end of the month, though, I had a real scare. I backed up everything on my laptop onto an external hard drive then, about a week after that, my laptop sang its final hurrah, dying to a critical hard drive failure.

June was a much slower month. I drew a few pieces at the beginning of the month, but, by the end, we had already begun our next big move. I managed to squeeze in a Sonic birthday sketch dump before we left and I even got the Artevivo prompt for that month done ahead of time. The rest of the month, though, was pretty much completely dead, as I had to pack up my only remaining computer for the move. At the very end of the month, though, I bought a brand-new laptop, meaning I was officially back in business and better than ever, at that.

July started with me taking on a style challenge on the Amino and just generally drawing a whole heck of a lot. This continued all the way through July.

Then, August came. I kept up with Koopalings Week like I never had before, ending it out with the least fatigue I’d ever felt coming out of a Koopalings week. I also finally finished an enormous piece for Diametrics that I had planned to finish for the anniversary, but that took much longer than expected due to the sheer scale of the piece. There was also an Artevivo prompt about fruit somewhere in there too.

September was a month that I vowed to be productive for considering the previous year’s September I did absolute bupkis. What a productive September it was too. I drew some Sonic characters in Vocaloid outfits, released an Undertale two-shot called “Vodka en Rouge”, added another three entries to the Redraw Bonanza, completed an Artevivo prompt for Fall, and started preparing for another crack at the Goretober I’d failed the previous year by drawing six different practice pictures. We also finally got into our new house this month, so that was great too.

Then, Goretober finally came. Did I succeed this time? Well, no. I managed to get most all of them done, but 27, 28, 29, and 30 were never completed. Even so, I produced a grand total of 25 images this month, which is still absolutely insane. I also made a rule for myself that I couldn’t draw for the same fandom twice, meaning the variety of pieces was vast and I even drew characters that I had never previously drawn like Twelve from Zankyou no Terror, Katara from Avatar the Last Airbender, Sakura from Zombieland Saga, Luluco from Space Patrol Luluco, and Kaoru from Ouran High School Host Club.

When November rolled around, I swore to myself I wouldn’t let myself slump into inactivity like I had after previous challenges like Koopalings Week 2018. With that resolve, I kept drawing. I drew a piece celebrating the new Sonic movie trailer drop. I did a short livestream only one person came to. I drew a piece of steampunk art for the Artevivo prompt. Finally, though, I started the Youtube channel I’d been preparing for for two entire years, RedQueenMiku2, and I started with newly-revamped videos on Rosalina Unmasked and the Game Theory Mario Timeline, just like I’d planned to do years ago.

Finally, we come to the present. December came with three more videos, a Silvaze Christmas piece, a Christmas Aretevivo prompt, and the retrospective you’re reading right now. Really, looking at 2019 as a whole, it’s like what 2017 could have been if I’d done things right. In 2017, I let depression get the best of me and let my work suffer because of it. In 2019, though, I pushed through and vowed not to quit, bettering myself because of it.

That’s the big thing here, really. 2010-2014 was all about me trying to find myself as a young, impressionable teenager, 2015 and 2016 were me discovering where I wanted to be and how I wanted to present myself, and 2017-2019 were me coming to terms with myself and pushing through my own mental roadblocks. Looking at where I started and where I’ve ended up, the difference is staggering. Of course, it has been ten years, after all. Now, as we look ahead to 2020 and the start of a brand new decade, I can only hope things will just keep getting better from here.

Happy 2020, everyone. Cheers.

#sorry for the long #this is just something i wanted to do for posterity's sake #it's fun to look back and see where you came from #also i'm highly sentimental #to a ridiculous degree #so yeah #that's where all this nonsense came from #*jazz hands*#happy new year everyone!!!

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lea-andres · 3 years ago

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(Time for way too much information on how this would work.)

Okay, so first things first, difficulty. Let's propose for a second that point and click adventure games exist on a spectrum. On one end is the Sierra games (King's Quest, Space Quest, etc.), where there's a million ways to die and/or permanently screw up a puzzle, and you'd have to start over if you want to win the game. And on the other end is the LucasArts games (Monkey Island, Sam and Max, Day of the Tentacle), where the only punishment is if you can't figure out a puzzle, you don't move on in the story until you do.

A Team Chaotix point and click adventure game should sit more on the LucasArts end of the spectrum. This is mostly because again, a point and click adventure game set in the world of Sonic the Hedgehog is a really, REALLY weird idea, and it's very possible this game could end up being some Sonic fans' first exposure to the genre. I'm not saying the game can't be hard (it's Team Chaotix, there BETTER be hard puzzles!), but if this could potentially be a lot of people's first point and click, hard puzzles should be the only thing they have to worry about.

And when I say we're playing as Team Chaotix, I mean we're playing as Team Chaotix. Vector, Espio, AND Charmy would all be playable at almost all times (unless one of them gets kidnapped as part of the plot, or over the course of a puzzle one of them gets stuck in a conversation or activity that renders them unplayable until you complete the puzzle) The best way to do that I think would be to blend together Sam and Max and Day of the Tentacle's methods of multiple protagonists: You play as one member at a time, the other two mill about the scene/room and can be interacted with like NPCs, and you have pictures of them in your inventory you can click on to swap characters.

And they'd have a shared inventory. Would that lead to some continuity issues where you find an item while playing as Vector, so he picks it up and pockets it, then you're playing as Charmy when you figure out what to do with it, so now he's pulling it out of HIS pocket like he had it all along? Sure, but trust me, that beats wrestling with three separate inventories.

I know most people would probably just play as whoever their favorite is for the majority of the game (Believe me, I know I'd just play as Espio), but to warrant the three protagonists, each member of the Chaotix would have a unique ability that can be used to solve puzzles AND would have a unique approach to dialogue that can get specific reactions out of other characters, so you're encouraged to give everyone a try.

Let's start with special abilities:

I'd hope Espio's is obvious: his stealth. If you need access to a guarded area, or a character is doing something whenever they're alone, but stopping whenever the Chaotix enter, you can send Espio by himself, and he'll turn invisible and go sneaking in.

Vector is ridiculously strong. If a big heavy item is blocking your way, you can make him pick it up. Also, we could bring back the crumbling wall thing from Sonic Heroes, and you can send Vector busting through weak walls to get into new areas.

Charmy can fly, so you can send him to high up places Vector and Espio can't easily reach. He's also a lot tinier than both of them, so he can be sent into small spaces they can't fit in. (We just need to make sure it's visually obvious only he will fit, because if it looks like Espio would fit if he crawled, people are gonna get mad when he refuses to do it. 😂)

And then you could layer these on top of each other to make some interesting puzzles. Maybe when Espio does go sneaking into a guarded room, there's a weak wall in there. Obviously you're supposed to get Vector to bust that down, but how do you get him past the guards? 🤔

And while this doesn't have to happen, it would be fun if the Chaotix had little interactions with each other's special ability puzzles. Vector and Charmy getting caught and booted out of a guarded area instantly, Espio and Charmy struggle to move a heavy object before giving up, and Vector and Espio sizing up a tiny hole going "There's no way I'D fit in there!" (You could even go as far as a fourth wall breaking joke here, where you try to make Vector get in the small space, and he just turns and gives the camera a "You're kidding, right?" Look.)

Next: Dialogue. Each of the three would have their own list of dialogue options to pick from (which sounds like a nightmare, but it wouldn't be. We'll bring in TellTale's method of graying out conversations that have already been thoroughly explored, so if you, for example, go through all of Vector's options and switch to Espio's, a lot of stuff would already be grayed out so you know not to pick them again.) I'm sure they'd all think to ask the basics (Who are you, why are you here, what do you want, etc.), But each one would have unique stuff as well. Let's say they're talking to a character who's developing a nasty rash on his face. Espio would have the tact to not bring it up. Charmy would have "What's wrong with your face?" As a dialogue option. Stuff like that.

But because they're detectives, and this would be a mystery game, sometimes the NPCs are just very uncooperative. Because of this, the dialogue puzzles would turn a bit more into... Interrogations. I call these sections "Good Cop/Bad Cop/Charmy".

Espio's the good cop... Sort of. Sure he's not overly social, or even the friendliest half the time, but his goal is to find a reasonable, logical solution that benefits everyone and saves them from any major headache. "We need this, you want that, perhaps we can work out a deal." Some people just need to be reasoned with.

Vector's the bad cop. He's a gigantic crocodile, he's not afraid to be the bad guy and get nasty with someone if it means they get what they need for a case. So Vector's dialogue options can get really antagonistic, sometimes even threatening. Some people just need to be terrorized.

When all else fails, if Espio can't reason with them, and Vector can't threaten them, Charmy will get as obnoxious as possible in an attempt to irritate the person to death. Charmy knows people sometimes find him annoying, and he uses this to his advantage if they've hit a wall. He'll just talk and talk and talk until the uncooperative NPC breaks. "Fine! I'll give you whatever you want, just SHUT HIM UP!"

And like the special abilities, you can combine the Chaotix's dialogue styles to get the effects you want. I've plotted out an entire dialogue puzzle with Knuckles that utilizes the Good Cop/Bad Cop/Charmy method, where you need to use Espio AND Charmy to get what you need:

Rouge sends the Chaotix to Angel Island to retrieve a Chaos Emerald Knuckles took from her, warning them she's already tried and failed to get it herself, so expect Knuckles to be in a bad mood.

Charmy (serving as the audience surrogate), gets excited about the idea of fighting Knuckles for it, but Vector and Espio shut that down immediately. They're on a time crunch with this case, so they don't have time to get into fights with Knuckles. If they can't talk him into handing it over, they're going to have to trick him into handing it over, but they can't get into a fight right now (basically serving to remind the audience that this is a point and click, there's no boss fights here. Because trust me, combat in point and click usually sucks. Looking at you Monkey Kombat. Fuck you Monkey Kombat.)

There's three areas to Angel Island: a beach where you can see the island floating in the distance (you'll find out why that's part of it in a bit), a jungle clearing where you actually land on the island, and the Master Emerald shrine where Knuckles is sitting on steps, tossing the Chaos Emerald in the air and grumbling to himself.

Knuckles is definitely in a bad mood, but he's trying his best to not take it out on the Chaotix, so he's being civil with them (for now). He's not handing over the Emerald though. He's intending to keep it at the shrine so mad doctors and jewel thieves can't get their hands on it. The Chaotix attempt to lie and say they'll keep it safe, but Knuckles is firm: He's the Guardian of the Master Emerald, he's the best person around for keeping things safe.

(Vector starts to call him out on how many times the M.E. has been stolen, but Espio ninja chops him in the ribs to shut him up.)

Espio can actually get Knuckles to calm down even further with his dialogue options. He still won't hand over the Emerald if asked, but you'll hear his mood lighten and he'll get a lot more laid-back and less short with the Chaotix. Eventually, you'll get this exchange:

Espio: *trails off from what he was saying to squint inquisitively at the Master Emerald*

Knuckles: What?

Espio: The Master Emerald... Never mind.

Knuckles: What about it?

Espio: Is that... Lipstick kisses on it?

Knuckles: WHERE?!?

Knuckles will leave the Chaos Emerald on the steps, and begin circling around the Master Emerald with a polishing rag, muttering angrily while he buffs and shines it up. And yes, you do have plenty of time to grab the Chaos Emerald before he comes back. :)

Now most people at this point would bail out of the conversation and try to leave. They have the Emerald, time to go give it to Rouge, right? Not quite. If you attempt to leave the island, Knuckles will stop you at the jungle clearing. He's aware you have the Emerald, and he tells you that if you want to get it off the island, you're going to have to fight him. Espio will hand over the Emerald to avoid a fight, and Knuckles will return to the shrine.

Don't worry, nothing's permanently botched, the puzzle's just reset. (Which does sadly mean Knuckles will fall for 'There's a smudge on the Master Emerald!' over and over again, but that's really the fault of the game genre, not the intelligence of the character.)

If Vector attempts to threaten Knuckles, Knuckles will match his energy, until eventually the two start gearing up to start hitting each other. Espio steps in quickly at this point, getting Knuckles to sit down and chill out, scolding Vector for forgetting they're on a tight schedule, pretty much telling him to back off and shut up. (Vector isn't useful in this puzzle, but I like it when there's as many unique responses to things as possible. Really makes the whole game feel more fleshed out)

Knuckles will also get mad at Charmy, but not in an openly aggressive way like with Vector. He will just get progressively more annoyed each Charmy dialogue line you pick, until eventually he'll interrupt with:

"Look, no offense, but I'm really not in the mood to deal with you right now. If you say one more thing to me, I'm throwing all three of you off my island."

If you pick one more line of dialogue from Charmy's page (including his exiting the dialogue tree line, because I know some of you would try to pick that and be like "haha, I said one more thing and you didn't throw me off!" Including me, lol) a cutscene will play of Vector and Espio getting chucked off of Angel Island, and falling into the ocean below. Charmy gets thrown off after them, but he's able to catch himself with his wings, so he just flies after them. Vector and Espio splash down into the ocean, and when they surface, Espio's on Vector's back, and he's doing his crocodile swim back to shore. (This has happened before, or at least we should get that feeling from how they're reacting.)

And so they regroup on the beach, and after a brief "Well, THAT didn't work!" moment, you're free to return to Angel Island and try again.

So what you're SUPPOSED to do, is get Espio to calm Knuckles down until the "smudge" on the M.E. gets pointed out, grab the C.E. while he's distracted, and then irritate him as Charmy until he chucks you off the island. 😂

Okay, I'm done for now, I could go for eons about this. I basically plotted out the entire game in my mind over the course of 2020 to keep my old job from driving me insane, so I have way more to say if people want to hear more. @_@

I'm extremely curious to see if anyone else in the world would be as interested in this idea as I am, or if I'm just crazy.

What if Team Chaotix were the protagonists of a point and click adventure game?

(if you're unfamiliar with the genre, think TellTale. Or the Sam and Max remaster. (NOT the VR game!) )

I'm sure I'm just gonna get told I'm crazy, but come on! They're detectives! If anyone could make the jump from fast paced Sonic games to story driven puzzle games without it being extremely jarring and distracting, it would be those three!

(In the event I'm not completely crazy and someone does want to hear more, don't be shy. I have game mechanics all figured out, and a good chunk of a potential plot too. 😂)

#team chaotix #espio the chameleon #vector the crocodile #charmy bee #team chaotix point and click adventure game #knuckles the echidna

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taco-night-frenzy · 5 years ago

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Stuff I wanna write

I’m pretty tuckered after writing so much, but I want to blab about other ideas that have been floating around for months and months that I still wanna do some day maybe.

Obviously lots of F/F and short Trails in the Sky fics (maybe one medium sized one) and then one big Luigi and maybe a few Sonics. Anyway here’s the list because I just... I want to write down ideas and put stuff out there. It’s what I like doing. Support me and tell me I’m great if you want, I love that, but don’t feel you have to. I'm full of myself and love compliments and nice words like “Wow that sounds cool, you should do this idea!!” Or maybe like “I also like that pairing, here’s what I’ve always thought about that too!” And just you know, nice interactions are cool.

Estelle/Dorothy. Wanna do another NSFW one that takes place in Zeiss. Would technically be right after Estelle/Josette fic but I wouldn’t tell you that really shh. Estelle gets a “quest” from a mysterious sender, turns out to be Dorothy because Dorothy spelt her name completely wrong. Dorothy wants to take pictures of Estelle, and Estelle’s like FINE SINCE I’M HERE. Anyways, Dorothy makes Estelle feel really good about her body and takes great pictures and ... you get the rest.

Another Estelle/Anelace (Possibly just Estelle & Anelace). SFW this time. I have much less worked out on this one, but I want Estelle and Anelace to go on a mystery together and solve a murder or something. Not super romantic, but a few light touches here and there and some fun plot. I’ve not nailed it down well..

Schera/Aina. Maybe spicy? Maybe NSFW? Who knows. I want to write something with them. Maybe about the time they’re on the run from that weird Mafia that actually happened and they had to spend the night in an abandoned home together. Lots of talking and developing feelings... or maybe another idea completely but with a similar preface. Estelle/Female!Joshua genderswap I GOTTA do Estelle/Joshua!! They’re a good ship! I just wanna make Joshua a girl for my own needs. Been struggling with a plot on this one. Maybe Joshua finds out he likes dressing up like a girl more than he realized (I always loved that Estelle called him beautiful and seemed genuinely attracted to him when he crossdressed.) Maybe while he’s been out on his own exploring ancient ruins something turns him into a girl and its a weird experience and he’s feeling vulnerable and strange and calls to Estelle to help him work it out and then you get some nice romantic hurt/comfort... And last but certainly not least... Detective Luigi 2: Hotel Wario

I have already written like 10k+ of this one and written down the basic plot and all that. It can be a real struggle writing such a long thing again, though, but for the most part this one takes place a year later from the last mystery. Daisy and Luigi are invited to Wario’s brand new hotel with a bunch of other fancy rich or famous people like Bowser, King Boo, E. Gadd, Prince Peasly, Lord Crump disguised as someone else... and Booster and Valentina and... A lot of others. Have plans for Goombella and Toadette to return and help and also Vivian now too. Basically general plot is someone steals Wario’s ancient relic, and Dr. Crygor’s automatic defense system locks EVERYONE in until they can find who did it. A locked box kind of mystery with a lot of Mario RPG characters and decent Wario world/ware theme.

I wrote it actually before Luigi’s Mansion 3, but it’s been good inspiration. It continues where it left off where Luigi is learning to be his own person, learned how to say no to when people ask him for things. But there’s more to life than just saying no all the time and Luigi still has to struggle finding a good balance.

There’s a lot going on and a lot of people have different motivations and feelings that have stayed the same or changed over the past year. I think I’ll just post what I got on Tumblr sometime later if I can get myself to working really hard on another long fic.

And I do have one idea that I’ll probably never do but have always sort of daydreamed about...

Chaotix Mysteries starring Vector and Knuckles. I really don’t think I’ll do this one but who knows. Station Square city and Team Chaotix already lend themselves really well to doing mystery AUs. Wanted it to mostly be Vector as the main detective and his partner Knuckles with occaaaassional Espio and Charmy help. Been a lot of gem thefts in the city and a lot of trouble in general, and it’s definitely not Rouge because that would be really obvious and boring, but they’d be asking around with Rouge and Shadow first thing and.... well again it’ll be YEARS if I ever ever ever get to this one...

I have a lot of Sonic Mania stories I started and never finished too.

Knuckles first person journal as he explores Mirage Saloon. I actually wrote some of this too years ago. Knuckles keeps a journal around and gets lost in a desert and finds himself in a crazy weird saloon with Fang/Knack and tries to get to the bottom of it by like punching stuff. Also Knuckles tries to write down rap lyrics a lot because he thinks they’re cool. (They’re not.)

Another one I started with Sonic Tails and Knuckles at flying battery... Sonic has to fight Mecha Sonic and tries his best to keep it away from Tails and Knuckles. It doesn’t work well and he’s losing a lot and he learns (probably doesn’t) that it’s okay to rely on Tails and Knuckles a little sometimes. Remember, this is Classic Sonic, so he’s still young and kind of rude and thinks he’s all that. I started this one too like a year back. It was mostly Sonic getting beat up and Knuckles shittalking to Tails how Sonic’s a jerk, and Tails is just like trying to live his life and find Sonic. About halfway through, Mecha Sonic goes Super and Knuckles has to fight him again. Mecha Sonic is way stupider than Metal Sonic and way more basic, so Sonic has trouble with that. Knuckles is better at fighting against brain dead idiots. Sonic’s able to keep up with Metal Sonic since Metal is more advanced and has Sonic’s thoughts and feelings kind of programmed in there.

Then one at Titanic Monarch... I also barely started this one... Just wanted it to be Sonic running off ONCE AGAIN on his own to fight Eggman. The illusions are strong, it has like every last boss all at once. Metal Sonic, Mecha Sonic, Big Arm, al lthat... Tails and Knuckles show up and are like GOD you IDIOT let us fucking HELP and Sonic’s like o, sorry.

Another Sonic Mania one with Studiopolis where Amy’s just watching TV at her apartment and its mostly from her perspective. Eggman hacks the TVs and turns the world into weird illusions and makes everyone watch his broadcasts as he spreads propaganda about how Sonic’s evil and bad, and Amy’s like NO!!! He’s NOT BAD!! Anyways, you only see what Eggman shows you, and Eggman like kidnaps news anchors and forces him to say how great and good he is and Sonic is bad, but then Sonic saves the day anyway and Amy’s watching the whole thing like SEE I TOLD YOU and just screaming and being a maniac.

ANYWAYS THAT’S ALL MY IDEAS I’VE GOT PROBABLY. I want to write them all some day, but it’s tiring...

#personal #fic ideas #long post #Trails in the Sky #Mario #Luigi #Sonic #maybe one day I'll come back to this post and look through some of my ideas and pick them out to do again #Hoping at least a few of these get done...#fanfiction #my stuff #I just wanna BLAB you know #I wanna blab and blab and blab forever

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geek-gem · 7 years ago

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My Dream Sonic Movie Stuff

I felt like putting revealed but just I’m worried it might not be all of it. Also was listening to this and was thinking of this. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=YUN7DIDGpjk Infinite’s theme but I first thought of this when I was at Target. Yet didn’t wanna type a big thing and my phone battery was low even right now 33 percent. But I feel I should just reveal this.

Ever since the leak from Reddit I have it on my blog I’ve reblogged it and think should I tag it. Yet just….would get more attention just something I mean the leak itself. Including shared it with my friend Fatpinkraccoon and I think he said it was decent and wait

So I was trying to find the draft and he said it doesn’t sound horrible and he’s open up to it or some shit. Just seriously I was trying to find this draft I saved now 31 percent.

Yet seriously but I’m gonna get what I’m talking about. It’s about just I wanna be honest but or just…I feel like it went it’s good that if the leak is true or not. I mean my version is honestly kind of crazy. While the movie is kind of simple and alright. Despite some stuff I’m bothered with and liked.

Yeah it’s possibly better then my ideas I’ll explain.

Since I’m a Zack Snyder fan and I’ve even said I want to see Zack Snyder make a Sonic film. Which just…it can’t be weird yet I like him very much and Deborah Snyder too who helps him. Including I’m a DCEU fan and just it’s rare to find some Sonic fans and DCEU as one but found some.

Yet my ideas were basically kind of crazy I wanna talk about the ones I should just reveal. Because I feel like it’s not gonna be how I imagine it.

Including spoilers for the DCEU but mainly for Batman V Superman Dawn Of Justice only that but just in case beware.

So mainly keep thinking of a trilogy or even a series of movies that’s kind of similar mainly to BVS to Justice League. While the first movie okay I think I have a story but not much.

Basically what I keep thinking is Sonic and Eggman or Robotink being said more have known each other for years. With Metal Sonic being introduced in the film. Including the film basically just has references and these ideas of these movies.

Is that they have awesome visual references or just being based upon certain stuff. Such as the origin of Metal Sonic basically being based upon his origin from the OVA even a shot to shot remake I guess of his birth. Even the, “Strange Isn’t It” line is reference because of how much I loved that movie. Including how it interpreted Metal Sonic.

Along with the music the soundtracks being scored by Hans Zimmer if he was up for it along with Junkie XL most likely would for scores. Including very meaningful ones.

While the songs are some picked from the games to go with certain events.

Theirs even a remake version of the Sonic CD intro almost left Boom but you know the song and have it there but with Modern Sonic or movie Sonic. Even stuff like the Death Egg Robot but the story was a problem whether go with the Death Egg or Little Planet in respect of Metal Sonic and my friend Fatpinkraccoon messaged me about don’t be hyped for movies just it didn’t show the whole thing didn’t press it. Might be how he meant about Sonic Forces.

Yet also the music the songs not just from the games. But new ones selected from certain musical groups. Such as Linkin Park despite the tragic event that happened, Red, Disturbed and seriously, “Ten Thousand Fists” is amazing and just have that during a team up battle scene.

Then theirs the sequel and the crazy idea Sega would want Shadow early but I want Chaos done first too. Yet I was even making myself think that giving it a exuse. But the idea of mixing Sonic Adventure 1 and 2’s story together to have both Shadow and Chaos working together along with Dr. Eggman, Rouge, and Metal Sonic.

Including it’s still difficult of how to put those together. Such as Gerald’s plans and Perfect Chaos and the Ark. Also Tikal is in there too even talks to Shadow at times along with others.

Their is also the idea that the sequel is basically the Dawn Of Justice of the Sonic movies where the ending is of Super Sonic, Super Shadow, Perfect Chaos now reformed, and even Metal Sonic who knows the planet will die if he doesn’t help they all fight the Biolizard who’s strong as fuck.

Including it’s basically the Trinity vs Doomsday in BVS and it’s on Earth. Including in a weird way Metal Sonic is in Wonder Woman’s role because coming out of nowhere because he knows he needs to get involved.

Even the ending and I’ve made a huge text post where Shadow kills the Biolizard and the Biolizard kills him too. They even seriously bury Shadow as well and it causes people to think and makes them sad.

Then the sequel is basically Sonic Rush and Sonic Lost World into one no Eggman Nega but Blaze, Marine, and the Deadly Six. Where it even features Shadow’s rebirth.

Even his rebirth is basically a visual reference to Sonic X in the third season. He seriously launches out of his grave and but you know see his face but I guess his well shadow see what I did there or even feet or back of him looking at his monument.

He then just finds where a battle is at and his rings his inhibitor rings he took all four of them off and Amy has them. Including he finds these two Chaos Emeralds or how many were there when he returned and everyone is like HOLY FUCKING SHIT SHADOW BACK FROM THE FUCKING GRAVE HE’S ALIVE AGAIN the whole world goes ape shit or just so surprised.

Yet Shadow lost his memory when he supposedly died and I wanna put this he’s like I CAN’T REMEMBER SHIT BECAUSE I GOT STABBED BY A FUCKING BIOLIZARD or some shit. I forgot basically or was it like I CAN’T FUCKING DIE I WAS IN A COMA or some shit okay yeah I WAS HEALING FOR A SHIT LONG TIME FOR MONTHS or something because he can’t die. Yeah he got stabbed in the chest where his heart is at and everyone finds out about that he seriously can’t die.

But also he’s like not able to remember anything even they tell him he scarificed himself for the Earth and forgot does he just get out of his grave quickly or does he look at his monument forgot the first time of how I thought of it.

Yet even them telling him about the Ark he just can’t remember and doesn’t wanna help until something happens like characters words and actions he remembers everything before his death and back to the Ark and when he remembers he’s like to Zavok DON’T YOU DARE THREATEN MY FAMILY or YOU DARE THREATEN MY FAMILY while beating the shit out of him. That’s a reference to Man Of Steel and just the word family is a big word. Including Shadow because of Maria and Gerald the word means something to him or bothers him.

I even forgot in the sequel when kicking Sonic’s ass theirs a Martha moment I even made a post of that before Sonic Forces but it’s a moment I like and I understand it. Yet when Sonic says what about Maria or some shit and he even says SAVE MY FAMILY and okay WHAT ABOUT MARIA basically the scene where someone ether Amy or Chris tries to talk to Shadow. This basically haunts Shadow and he’s like STOP SAYING THAT NAME because he thinks he should be the only one to say that name. I’ve even quoted this and afterwards he’s like NO ONE’S FAMILY IS DYING TONIGHT.

I should just reveal basically Shadow’s role is mixing Batman and Superman’s character into one in a way.

But just I’m being weird and I need to talk about other stuff. Theirs Tails and I like Tails. You guys know and I was gonna say remember his Tornado yet weird it’s Sonic’s plane or whatever they say. Including remember it can turn into some vehicle in Sonic Adventure 2.

Also in Sonic X it’s the X Tornado and just imagine this. It’s a lot more fucking badass that even it’s vehicle forms has even more fucking guns kind of like tank. Basically just imagine the Bat vehicles even the Batmobile and just Tails is a fucking badass in that thing. It’s got fucking guns and can fly. Even other people can ride it.

Their also seems to be a lot of shouting WOOOOO mainly Sonic because I do that mainly Sonic Unleashed or some shit.

Including the other weird thing okay having the film be all CGI isn’t weird.

But I’m just also this I’m like so how are we gonna have, Catherine Taber (Lori Loud), Noel Wells(Lord Dominator) Ashley Burch (Enid) basically Loud House, Wander Over Yonder, OK KO and other actors how are we gonna fit them in and still think like human characters and new characters and others.

Including now with Sonic Forces out I’ve even revealed stuff. Such as a Team Chaotix movie with Vector, Espio, Charmy, Mighty, Ray, and maybe Madonna and forgot or might of thought of having Honey in there. Even the villains being Fang, Bean, and Bark and Sonic shows up at the end to help the Chaotix.

Their was even a Shadow film but not based upon the game but a new story. A Sonic Unleashed film as one of the sequels. Then a Sonic Mania movie. Now we have a two part movie of Sonic Forces with Silver appearing in the first one and this is all before Sonic Forces came out.

Including it’s not the big epic game I was hoping for that Fatpinkraccoon said I had false hopes about. Along with Infinite not being the Darkseid/Thanos of the Sonic universe where he kicks everyone’s ass. But yeah Sonic Mania being a prequel to Sonic Forces like how the game is too. To set up Classic Sonic and give classic fans a movie they want.

Yet just….over time shit changes. Even though I like Sonic Forces I still play it but I’m mixed on the game. Including my mindset has really changed. Such as I like the avatar and Infinite despite what his real story is……

I feel like that should be enough to be revealed. Such as just…I’ve talked about it before even sound tracks I listen from BVS I think of those scenes and just…..

Really it’s I thought in my head best that I’m not in charge of these films. I’ve basically created a franchise in my head and it’s caused me to go insane at times.

I said in my head let me have this like this leak. But even if it’s fake or not almost left rare instead of fake. Really just I like it oh head.

Okay but seriously it’s simple. Seriously my stomach even at the start of this somewhat but I’ve thought so much shit but not the first movie that’s all.

Got tags done and think no one else in other tags wants to be bothered. Wanna say 16 percent gonna charge this after I answer that message. Yet I’m surprised the Sonic movie 2019 tag showed up first

#sonic the hedgehog #sonic movie 2019 #sonic movie

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isakthedragon · 8 years ago

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A Dragon Sized Adventure Chapter 23

Chapter 23: The Dark Master's Puppets?

*Cubot and Orbot get off the ship to survey the new land. Orbot had placed the emeralds near the one they use as their power source thinking that no one would find them.*

Cubot: "Our captain would love this place! It lets him look down on the scallywags he can plunder below!"

Orbot: "That, and Sonic would have a tough time getting up here without getting noticed."

*Unfortunately for them, Spyro and all the others appear out of the rift just a few feet away.*

Sonic: "So this is portal hopping for you guys, huh? Efficient, but not great for us who are grounded." *He notices Orbot and Cubot and the flagship.* "Hey! What the heck are you guys planning?!"

Orbot gets surprised from their entrance. "Ah! It's Sonic, Cubot! What do we do?"

Cubot: "Yar! Pirates and fiends are about! Return to the ship and ready the cannons!"

*But before they can do so, a portal appears behind them and Eggman's arms can be seen grabbing the 2 and taking them with him before it shuts again.*

-----

Crash's Universe, Death Head / Space Egg

Eggman: "Told you I would be back soon... and I can see that you left the emeralds there."

Orbot: "Ah! We're sorry, boss! I didn't-"

Eggman: "Relax. Your incompetence was for good reason, for once. I needed you to leave those Emeralds there for Sonic to find so they can eliminate the threat there. I knew you guys would not take them with you."

Cubot: "You're welcome, Capt!"

Orbot: "I think that was an insult to us."

Cubot: "Eh. Praise is praise."

Eggman: "Now, come on. I have to introduce you to Cortex..."

-----

Sonic: "Darn it! We were too late!"

Tails: "I don't know, Sonic. I don't think they were expecting it either."

Rouge: "Enough about them. You noticed they left their ship here too. We need to investigate it."

*One ship search later and all they find is the logs of what they have done and...*

Vector: "Hey! You guys! Look what I found!"

*The others come his way and see...*

Knuckles: "The other Chaos Emeralds!"

Sonic: "So that's how old Eggface hid them. Too bad he didn't hide them well enough."

*Shadow can't help but notice the flaw in Sonic's thinking, but he knows that Sonic isn't going to care. He decides on being extra vigilant instead.*

*They exit the ship with their findings.*

Spyro: "So, you guys have 7 of them, huh?"

Knuckles: "Yep, and they serve to a larger, controlling emerald, the Master Emerald."

Spyro: "I won't really ask for much of a history lesson, but what do you guys use them for?"

Sonic: "Basically, a transformation to achieve a stronger state of ourselves. It usually means we move faster and are a lot more indestructible. Spikes and running into things won't hurt us."

Spyro looks excited. "That sounds cool! I wonder if I have one!" *But then he looks at the castle ahead of them.* "But first, we must stop Malefor." *Spyro charges into the door and heads into the castle. Shadow hurries ahead to join him.*

-----

The Sorcerer's Castle

Gem Count: 2000

Black Critters: Critters that have pledged their allegiance to Malefor. They gain some horns, are now jet black with lizard-like yellow eyes, and have a dark aura around them. They're still pretty weak though. Dragon Rhynocs: Since he couldn't find any dragons, he decided create some rhynocs that have some dragon qualities, mostly the additions of wings and horns. They're jet black colored too along with those lizard like eyes. They look tough, but they are still weak enough to go down in a few hits. Crazed Demons: Strange beings that seem beyond the realm you're in. It appears they came from wherever Malefor left from. They were tricked by Malefor's corruption into serving him, perhaps explaining his escape, their lizard eyes suggesting the pact made. They chase you around, swinging their pitchforks and spikes at you. They are strong, but I wonder how they can take Shadow's Chaos Spears...

Welcome to Malefor's (originally the Sorcerer's) Domain. The castle is definitely foreboding, with its purple and red color scheme and its black and white checkered floor. It has furniture and items fit for a dragon, the most noticeable things being busts and paintings of the Sorcerer everywhere. The walls are made with gray bricks with purple and red banners all over the place. They all have the symbol of Dark Aether on it.

Your aim is to get to the roof from the use of the staircase, but force fields (With the Dark Aether insignia on them as well) prevent you from getting up the stairs. There is a switch on each floor that will drop the fields when hit, but watch for the enemies patrolling around. Fight your way to the top to come face to face with Malefor...

Achievement Unlocked: A Lesson in Evil Architecture

-----

*Everyone gets on the roof when the barrier appears again, stopping them from exiting. A dark voice booms as Malefor appears from the shadows of the now dead Shadow Amplifier.*

Malefor: "Well, so the hero of everyone in this pathetic world has returned and has brought his friends to compensate for his weak nature."

Sonic: "Friends aren't a sign of weakness, Malefor! It just means you have more strong hearted heroes to deal with!"

Malefor: "Is that so, Sonic? Yes, I know all your names. Same goes for you too, Spyro. Let me show you just how weak you and your friends truly are!"

Malefor targets Tails. "I'm surprised you made any friends, Tails. Not many people like genetic freaks like you."

Tails: "I-I know my friends like me! They care for me!"

Malefor: "Do they? Or do they just use you as a tool, to either to fly around or to leech of your genius?"

Tails stammers: "I-I-I- AH!" *He is suddenly forced into his Were form, but his eyes are a white color with no pupil.*

Malefor: "Too slow! I know I had you! So weak mind- huh?!"

Sonic: "Tails! No, it's not true! Remember, you look up to me and see me as your hero! And you're my best friend, buddy! You're uniqueness makes you, you."

Tails: "Really?" *The dark energy is forced out of him, returning him back.*

Sonic: "Really."

Malefor gives a low growl. "Hmm, no matter, there's more here." *He turns to Knuckles* "Yes, like you, Knuckles. Protector of the Master Emerald... Tell me, who's watching it now?"

Knuckles is surprised at such a question. "N-n-no one..." *He is forced into his Were form, but...*

Sonic: "Hey, you confided to me that you want to explore the world, but you were worried about leaving the Master Emerald alone. But, remember, I said, 'it's okay to leave it alone'. Barely anyone can reach the island in the first place. And if Eggman takes it, we can easily get it back. I saw you had a nice face of relief on you when I said that."

Knuckles: "Hey, that's right!" *The dark energy leaves, and Knuckles is normal again.*

Malefor decides to move on to Shadow.

Shadow: "Your mind games won't work on me."

Malefor: "Hmph, I'm surprised you trust these weaklings. All they do is fight each other. How is that worth saving for your precious Maria?" *Shadow responds with a punch to Malefor's face. He barely flinches.* "See? You're just like them. Weak, easily angered; just the kind of being you hate and want to kill."

*Shadow is unfortunately thrown off guard long enough to be forced into his Were form, but Rouge saves the day.*

Rouge: "Snap out of it, Shadow! You can't let him insult you like that! I know that's not you. You're a compassionate hedgehog you are worthy of your 'ultimate' status you give yourself." *The others agree.*

Shadow: "I am? No, I am!" *The darkness blast off him*

Malefor moves to Rouge with a frown on his face. "You stupid bat! How can you say that when you would probably dump him for a cache of treasure and jewels?" *He makes some appear behind him.* "I bet you want that."

*Unfortunately, he gets a kick to the face and a Chaos Spear in his side, which he pulls out. So he moves on.*

Malefor: "Omega... Such a weird robot. You're aligned to Eggman, yet you want to kill him? Such a conundrum."

OMEGA: "YOUR LOGICAL FALLACY WILL NOT WORK ON ME. I ADMIT THAT EGGMAN DID A SUPERB JOB THERE, BUT THATS IT. CONTINUATION OF YOUR QUERIES WILL RESULT IN BLASTING."

Malefor moves on to Amy, but she says: "Don't try it, lest you want a hammer swing. I know I need to reduce my wanting for Sonic a bit to not look crazy. Besides, I think I need a new approach any way."

Vanilla steps in front of Cream. "And don't try my daughter either, unless you want to incur my wrath."

Silver and Blaze show off their powers, making Malefor back off.

Malefor moves to Big. "Such a simple minded cat, all you care about is your Froggy! SO SIMPLE!"

Big retorts: "Looks are deceiving, Malefor. There are a multitude of things you are oblivious of. And hide that fear, it shows. And why do a sense a second entity?"

Malefor gives a loud growl, but calms down and moves on to Espio, Charmy, and Vector. "Ah, Team Chaotix, AKA, the worst band ever."

Espio: "At least we admit we suck. Your jedi mind tricks won't work on us, you clown!"

Charmy: "♪ Yeah! ♫"

Malefor starts getting angry as he moves on to Agent 9. "Oh, here's that action figure of a monkey. Don't you have Rhynocs to chase?"

Agent 9: "Nice try, but I don't care about them any more. I'd rather make you dance."

Bentley: "And I know Bartholomew is safe and can trust he can hold his own defense if need be."

Sgt Byrd: "Living with hummingbirds has been quite beneficial and they taught me the secrets of flight."

Sheila: "They don't call me a boxing kangaroo for nothing! I can kick your butt!"

*Malefor starts showing his fangs*

Elora: "I've dealt with fools like you. I know your tricks."

Blink steps in front of the Professor: "Don't underestimate moles, either. You don't even know what we do underground."

Hunter prepares his bow and arrows. "Do you think you can beat the speed of a cheetah? I wouldn't take your chances with my archery"

Bianca: "The Sorceress was worse than you'll ever be, and we beat her."

Ember: "You'll never break our love for each other." Bandit: "And I know I'm among friends here."

Malefor seethes as he reaches Cynder and Spyro. "You... you little weaklings! Thinking you can hide in front of your friends! I bet-"

Cynder: "Don't even try it. I was never your puppet. It was only fate that brought me and Spyro though everything."

Spyro holds his head up high. "And you'll never be able to take away those that I love and those that I care for. The world isn't meant to be destroyed by Purple Dragons. We are here to make it better! And you know what?! I think you're the weak on here!" *He fires a blast of Light Aether at Malefor, who is unexpectedly thrown back.*

Sonic: "Underestimated us, did you?"

*Malefor, in quite a surprise, collapses to the ground. A pillar of darkness is exorcised out of him and surrounding darkness collects in to a being nearby in the form of a jet black dragon.*

It snarls. "I can't believe it... weak fools like you have exposed me..."

Spyro: "No... it can't be!"

Ignitus: "But it is!" *He appears from behind them along with Volteer, Cyril, Terrador, and a large dragon army.* "It's the Dark Entity!"

The Dark Entity gives a deep, dark growl.

Sonic: "The creator of the dark elements?"

Ignitus: "Yes, but what you don't know is that he is the darkest evil. No one can resist his powers, or at least have lived to tell the tale."

Cyril: "So, does that mean..."

Dark Entity: "Yes... it was all me. You guys exiled an unfortunately named dragon for being too curious. It was easy to invade his mind, promising him a new world for him to be ruling over." *He looks at Spyro* "But you, you pesky dragon, have been my bane. You've never fallen for my corruption... and I think I figured out why! You... were met with Him, the Light Entity! You're too pure not to be blessed by Him!"

Spyro looks at Ignitus: "Is... is that true?"

Ignitus: "Yes, but don't be sad, son. You're were a miracle to me and your mother. She... she died giving birth. You should have been dead too, but it was a miracle. Your egg survived. I'm sure she would be proud of who you are."

Dark Entity: "It was bound to happen, we always have to meet, to battle for supremacy of this world! And I will win!"

*He fires some Dark Aether breath at Spyro, but Spyro's Light Aether dissipates it.*

Dark Entity: "Too bad you're still a child. Even then, you should still be easy to handle."

*The Dark Entity starts trying to barrage Spyro, and he attempts to fight back.*

Sonic ask Ignitus: "Is he right? Is Spyro too weak?"

Ignitus: "When he's in his pure form like this, maybe. He needs help."

Sonic: "Would something like these help?" *They pull out their 7 Chaos Emeralds.*

Ignitus: "Hmmm." *He examines them.* "I think so. Send their energy into Spyro, and let's see what happens."

*Sonic (Dark Blue), Shadow (Purple), Omega (Green), Silver and Blaze (Cyan), Amy (Red), Tails (Silver), and Espio (Yellow) stand near Spyro and direct the Chaos Emeralds' energy his way. Spyro absorbs it, and gains a white aura around him that blocks the Dark Entity's attacks.*

Dark Entity: "What the-?"

Spyro's scales change color from purple to white as his Light Aether power gains strength, matching up with the Dark Entity's power.

Dark Entity: "No! I will not be defeated by you! Prepare yourself!"

(At this point, Shadow jumps in to help, since he has the only energy attack of the group.)

-----

Final Boss: DARK ENTITY

Dark Entity: "Evil shall triumph!"

Here it is, the darkness that had corrupted Malefor into embracing the Dark Aether. And this being loves using Dark Aether, making it rain from the sky. He does have some other attack too, like shooting rings of Fear at you that need to be dodged or jumped through. If he feels really threatened, he will envelop himself in Shadow breath and disappear to a different part of the roof. And very rarely, he will use Poison grenades to force you away. Finally, if you get close, he will try to swipe at you with his front paws.

Thankfully, Spyro and Shadow don't necessarily have to rely on close combat. Shadow does have his Chaos attacks to hurt the Dark Entity from afar. As for Spyro, he does have his 4 Element attacks (Fire, Ice, Earth, and Electricity), but he does have his new Light Aether breath, which is, in a word, devastating. It will take away chunks of the Dark Entity's health when used on him. But you need rings to be able to use it. Hey, we need to be fair. Just go near Sonic's friends and they will drop rings for you. The Dark Entity won't know what hit him!

Achievement Unlocked: Shining a Light on the Darkness

-----

*The Dark Entity collapses and he starts dissipating away.*

Dark Entity: "Don't think you gotten rid of me, you worthless dragons! I'll be back! I am the destructive force of your universe!..." *He disappears entirely, his voice echoing.*

Sonic: "Good riddance!"

Ignitus: "Indeed, he shouldn't be bothering us for a while."

Sonic: "It's funny, he sounds similar to Dark Gaia in our world. Hopefully, you guys can keep handling this."

Ignitus: "I think so... Spyro will at least be older then. I know my son can handle it."

*Spyro has finally returned back from his super state.*

Spyro: "That... was AWESOME!"

Sonic: "Welcome to the club." *He rubs Spyro's head.*

Spyro: "So... what about Malefor? The Dark Entity's gone, but what about him? I don't get the feeling he is dead."

*Malefor stirs slightly, but falls back asleep.*

Ignitus: "Indeed."

Terrador: "I don't get that evil presences around him any more."

Cyril: "That means that it was all the Dark Entity's doing for all his evil acts."

Volteer: "No. Don't you see, it was all our fault. We made Malefor what he is. We stifled his curiosity and then exiled him. We gave him his hatred and the Dark Entity saw an opportunity to latch on to him. He amplified Malefor's negative thoughts, giving him contempt against us. I know it was fate, but we shouldn't have thrown him out like that. Thank goodness we had Spyro to help us."

Ignitus: "My, Volteer, I never thought your fast talk would say something so wise... but you're right. I think... we should allow Malefor back in. I think we can trust him. I hope the world isn't too strange for him."

Shadow: "Now that his threat is gone... can we go now and deal with The Doctor?"

Sonic: "Yeah! Sorry we can't stay, Ignitus, but we got our own villain to deal with."

Ignitus: "Of course, but I hope we can see you guys again sometime."

Tails: "Well, we aren't going to forget this adventure anytime soon. And I'm curious about this place too."

Amy: "Yeah, we will be back."

Espio: "Hopefully not on evil terms."

Ignitus: "Indeed..."

Next Time: "One more Sonic stage for you guys? It's not that expensive you know." -Moneybags

Pay Moneybags 10000 gems to move on to ARK Antics Zone?

Yes. No. ----->Fuck you, Moneybags! (Proceeds to attack him like in Spyro 3)

#Isakthedragon's fanfiction #A Dragon Sized Adventure #ADSA #ADSA: Chapter 23

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