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(Rare) Snively Post

This is kinda a side note/continuation of my last post, but it exists in its own context so I wanted to make a post specifically about it.

That is to say, given that I've pretty much run out of solely Robotnik-focused stuff to mentally explore and think about, I've shifted more into analyzing the show as a whole. I mention this, though, because I've been particularly interested in the parallels between Snively and Sonic, being Robotnik's and Charles' nephews respectively, and it's also led me to just being more interested in Snively as a character.

You can hate or love DIC/Ben Hurst/the scriptwriters as much as you want, but in my personal opinion, Snively was probably one of the best-written (if not THE best-written) characters in the show - a detail that would've become way more obvious in the third season, had it been realized. For a side character, Snively is the only character in the show to go through a genuine character arc. Some of the other characters change in small ways... like Robotnik's very slight, slow escalation into madness that's seen in the second season, I guess? But the point is, almost every other character remains stagnant - and if they do change, it's really only an intensification of pre-existing traits.

So, why do I say that Snively was one of the best-written SatAM characters? Well, it's debatable, obviously, but from my point of view, there are a few important markers of change and development. Firstly, we don't really see Snively directly antagonize Robotnik until the latter half of the series. You could say that the show just didn't actively show his distaste for Robotnik in the earlier episodes... and you may be right, honestly. But in my opinion, it's really interesting to see how Snively begins to disdain his uncle with escalating fervor as the Freedom Fighters become an increasingly large problem.

This also adds room for conjecture, in the sense that perhaps Robotnik was somewhat less physically aggressive and abusive before the Freedom Fighters started causing problems. It would make sense, after all - but I'm really only adding this as a side note because we rarely see pre-Freedom Fighters Robotnik and Snively interact. They have a few interactions in the second part of Blast to the Past, but I don't recall any of them being physically violent. The "It means, you'll call me sir!" interaction in the first part was physical, yes, but it's extremely tame in comparison to the way that Robotnik is implied to abuse Snively offscreen in other episodes. I guess you could say that this was a change on Robotnik's part, but I doubt it - I feel like the aforementioned "sir" scene shows that he was still very much capable of that level of violence, even back then.

But back on track, all of that just sums up to mean that maybe the Freedom Fighters were an inadvertent trigger for Snively's escalating hatred of his uncle. Either way, the fact that there's an apparent change in Snively's behavior is pretty much undeniable. He does still fear Robotnik, yes, but I don't think that discredits him. I mean, aside from his position of power, Robotnik is obviously physically imposing - wanting to avoid further bodily harm is kinda a given.

This change in Snively comes to a head during the Doomsday Project. Canonically, all we know is that Snively had purposefully installed a 'safe room' of sorts within the facility without Robotnik's knowledge, but I think that's a little too convenient given the circumstances.

My theory? Snively had a hand in the failure of Doomsday, ala the Archie iteration of Snively directly sabotaging the Ultimate Annihilator. Why go through the effort of creating a secret failsafe for yourself if there's no guarantee that things will go wrong? (I mean, obviously you'd want a failsafe, but keeping it secret is suspicious.) Given this is just a theory, I can't really say exactly what Snively did - it could've been technical, possibly electrical to prevent Sonic from being roboticized, or maybe even tied back to the Secret Stones - Robotnik was under the assumption that the other Secret Stone had been destroyed by Sonic, so he didn't account for having to deal with that kind of power. There's the slightest chance, though, that Snively somehow knew about it being a decoy; he's seen to be the one in charge of controlling the security cameras most of the time, after all. Conveniently forgetting to inform Robotnik of that minor detail could prove rather troublesome, yes? I dunno, I just think it would've been more interesting for Snively to have taken such decisive action when all he had done at that point was an occasional mumbled insult.

This is all theoretical, of course, but when you take the plans for the third season into account, it all lines up really well. Other characters really only exist to be 'the hero' or 'the villain,' but Snively walks a weird line between being a background character and almost seeming like... a really cool protagonist? Like, I would totally read a novel from his perspective if all of this was actually canon.

All in all, I guess the TLDR for this is just that Snively was intended to have a really neat storyline that went something like this: somewhat loyal lackey -> disgruntled assistant -> ruler of a literal empire (post-Doomsday) -> truly 'free' man that actually has control of his own life and fate. (post-Naugus expulsion)

^ Obviously VERY simplified.

Maybe it's just because I haven't really looked at many of the other non-human SatAM character's so closely, but I genuinely can't think of any other character that was meant to experience so much change and development. (Maybe Nicole? I personally don't think it's as profound.) Obviously, his writing and the execution thereof isn't perfect - that's not what I'm saying. But when you really take a step back and analyze what the characters of SatAM were meant to be, Snively has one of the most interesting stories by far.

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James Gunn’s thesis statement for his Superman is simple and effective: "Be good. Do good. Be human despite the bad things. That is the most punk rock thing in a world so stoic and cynical."

And that’s how it should be. That’s beautiful, the new Superman movie is beautiful.

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Obligatory dog sass.

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"You… you must be… our rescuer."

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SHUT UP. EVERYONE SHUT UP

HE STOLE SOCKS FOR HER.

HE STOLE HER BROTHERS SOCKS FOR HER AND HE WASN'T GOING TO TELL

EVERYONE SHUT UP IM DEAD

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A solar halo is a ring of light that appears around the sun. It's caused by sunlight refracting through ice crystals in high, thin cirrus clouds.

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I'm just a girl

Sitting at a concert

Waiting for Shinedown to come on

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They’re like; 😳

(Sonic the Hedgehog #195)

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nothing funnier to me than when AI does math wrong. like I get why it happens, it's a language model that's treating the numbers you feed it as words rather than integers and then giving you an answer based on how those words typically appear in a block of text instead of actually performing a calculation. but the one thing computers are genuinely incredible at. you fucked up a perfectly good calculator is what you did, look at it it's got hallucinations

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waow

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in recognition of World Down Syndrome Day on March 21

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The idea of a Sonic and DC crossover comic is so silly to me. I love it lol

Reminds me of all those old cameos back in 90’s and 2000’s cartoons. Back when Ben Tennyson showing up in Generator Rex blew my mind.

Anyways. It’s fun to get to draw super cartoony and semi realistic at the same time!