#and also her seemingly having history with rouge

[noel-levine-fan]

tiara is crazy imagine you're the first new main character introduced since the first game and on your first apperance you already have a solid basis for ships with like 6 different women

[nagichi-boop]

Why I Love Shadow the Hedgehog

So it seems a few of you actually wanted me to make this — thank you for encouraging me to express myself! Hopefully my thoughts are cohesive enough to follow. I don’t really have an order to this, so uhh…buckle up lol.

(In a way this is sort of a vent post, so if you’re here for good times, maybe this post isn’t for you. There’s a reason the PTSD hedgehog is my favourite.)

Spoilers for Dark Beginnings, Shadow Generations and Sonic 3 movie throughout the post

I suppose the overarching reason for why I love him so much is how much I relate to him. It’s a bit ironic that I love a character I relate to yet am so hard on myself, but maybe this is my brain’s weird way to compensate for my lack of self-love.

Shadow is a lonely, hurt person. Even before Maria’s death, he felt out of place and even saw himself as a monster. I feel that distance and emotional disconnect from others myself. I feel like no matter how hard I try to fit in, I am always an oddity. I wouldn’t say I prefer being alone, but it’s definitely easier. (I touch more on the idea here.)

Shadow lost his sense of purpose and his best friend in one fell swoop. I haven’t had something quite as intense happen to me as Shadow has, but when I was around 13 years old, I lost my friend group seemingly overnight because of a miscommunication. (TL;DR I opened up about being depressed/anxious and unbeknownst to me, my friend concluded I shouldn’t be invited out with the group for my benefit but didn't tell me she did this until much later, and by then I’d assumed they all got bored of me.) I spent the rest of my teenage years basically alone — I’d come home, go to my room and sleep, eat dinner and then retreat to my room again. At best I would be invited out once a year, but that was it. It really shattered my self-esteem and self-worth because I felt like I was unlovable. In hindsight, I think it was the side effect of being unknowingly AuDHD, so I had no support and was left with only myself to blame for not being able to maintain friendships.

As a result of what happened to Shadow (and also in part because of the autism I headcanon him with, but that’s for another post I intend to make), he became aloof and distant with others. Even with people he cares about deeply like Rouge, he would still prefer to keep his issues hidden. In Dark Beginnings, he only stops to think about Maria and have a panic attack when he is alone. And in Shadow Generations, he doesn’t talk Rouge after leaving Maria and she is only aware that he is upset because a tear of his hits her cheek. It’s clear he likes Rouge and trusts her, but he still feels the need to keep a distance. Part of that is probably his pride as the titleholder of Ultimate Lifeform, but part of it is probably a fear that history will repeat itself.

Again my situation isn’t the same, but I find myself having similar feelings. I have a few friends now and get invited out more than I did as a teenager (not that the bar was high), but I don’t feel close to anyone or really trust them. Unlike Shadow, I tend to mask by being bubbly (think Prime!Sonic), and if I bring up something that is important to or sensitive for me, I tend to say it with a tone that basically mocks it, almost as if I’m trying to minimise the hurt if someone tries to hurt me because of it? I prefer to just handle my problems on my own. I even stop myself from crying at a movie in front of people because I am scared of being mocked.

That’s not to say Shadow is always cold with people. In Sonic Prime, he helps Sonic, despite being frustrated at their predicament. And in The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog, Shadow attends a party, despite it being clear that he doesn’t enjoy them (it’s shown in both the IDW comics and Dark Beginnings/Shadow Generations). Why? Because he cares about Amy. He even ends up looking suspicious because he was trying to hide the surprise present he got for Amy and ends up going to a concert with her. He also compliments Sonic and Tails in the game, even though he’s not necessarily friends with them. And if you take into consideration the Twitter Takeovers (I’m aware they’re not canon), he has done this multiple times since and has gone shopping with Amy, too. Despite his trauma and his difficulty socialising, he still makes an effort to be cordial with them at the very least, but in the case of characters like Amy and Rouge, he has a genuine concern and kindness for them.

Whether or not you believe Shadow is autistic, it is undeniable that he is disabled. I may develop this idea in another post, but I’ll briefly cover it here. For one, it’s heavily implied that he has PTSD. Not only did he watch his best friend die in front him, but he also had multiple people gaslight him (Gerald, Eggman, Black Doom) in his vulnerable mental state. In Dark Beginnings, it’s implied that he has nightmares and he even stops himself short of a panic attack in the last episode. I’ve also mentioned in a previous post, but Shadow is also implied to be physically disabled because of his chaos energy, with his inhibitor rings and air shoes or more-or-less outright stated to be mobility aids. I won’t go into my issues here cuz I already feel like I’ve yapped too much about myself, but having the Ultimate Lifeform be disabled like I am feels so refreshing as representation.

I would be remiss if I didn't also mention Maria. In the games at least, Maria is disabled. More specifically, her condition is a dynamic invisible illness — that means it fluctuates and you can’t ‘see’ it. I mentioned it in the post I linked in the previous paragraph, but the way they talk about Maria’s disability in both Gerald’s journal and the game is such refreshing representation. Some days she can be more lively, some days she uses mobility aids like wheelchairs, and other days she is completely bedridden. Shadow loves her through all of this. He doesn’t see her as a sick girl, but as his dear friend. He doesn’t like it when she pushes herself, but his care for her is out of love, not pity. It’s just so refreshing to have a young disabled character in media spoken about in such a realistic way, especially in one I already love so dearly. And for the Ultimate Lifeform to view her as a best friend is just…chef’s kiss. (I know some people could argue Shadow is only friends with her because she is sick, but his purpose was to cure her — being her friend was not a requirement.)

Even if he shows himself as being cold and uninterested, ultimately Shadow deeply craves emotional connection. He may not be good at communicating it and he most certainly tries to push people away, but we have seen how deeply he misses Maria and the comfort she provided. He quite literally daydreams about her sitting with him and having her tuck him in with a blanket! She is one of the few people he felt comfortable being touched by and I think he misses that connection very deeply. I’ve never personally had that strong a connection with someone, but not a day goes by where I don’t imagine being held and comforted by someone I care about, albeit imaginary. I feel really uncomfortable being touched by basically everyone, but I so deeply crave that physical closeness with someone I love. I want to have a deep connection like the one Shadow and Maria had. I want to have someone important and to be important to them.

I don’t know if any of this makes sense. It was supposed to be a post about why I love Shadow, but it was mostly me blabbing about my own issues (even though comparative to Shadow I’ve lived luxuriously). I hope this wasn’t dreadfully boring to read. I did try not to go too expositional on my personal stuff.

Maybe I’ll delete this at some point, idk.

[edgy-ella]

I’ve been playing a little more Shadow 05 lately and I’m realizing that while yeah, this is Shadow’s game, I think the game could’ve benefitted a lot from exploring how the rest of the cast is handling the Black Arm invasion.

Up to this point in the series, Sonic has only ever fought robots, be they Badniks or GUN mechs. He’s duked it out with some rivals like Knuckles and eldritch beings like Chaos, sure, but they were either on par with him or didn’t take much lasting damage (outside of the Biolizard/Finalhazard I guess lol), and he only ever had to fight one of them at a time. But the Black Arms are different. They’re not mechanical. They’re alive. Worse than that, there’s a lot of them. Sonic spends at least two levels back to back (Westopolis and Lethal Highway) having to comb through the city and kill as many of these strange aliens as he can whether or not Shadow helps him, his fur drenched in their thick green blood. Sure, they’re all a part of an alien hivemind, but it’s still…different than what he’s used to. I wonder how he feels about that (same goes for Tails).

During the level Air Fleet, Black Doom mentions having personally placed the airships/temples in Glyphic Canyon to the planet over 2,000 years ago. So not only is Black Doom really, really old, he’s also got history with Earth/Mobius/Sonic’s World/whatever. Knuckles and Rouge pride themselves on being treasure hunters, with Knuckles in particular seemingly having a strong interest in old archeology. Makes you wonder if they’d at least heard of the Black Arms through some ancient texts or stone mural or something like that. Hell, if we wanna go really deep, we could also look at Tikal—she would’ve been there during Black Doom’s first visit. If she was at all conscious inside the Master Emerald and/or had the ability to leave it without the emerald shattering, there’s a chance she could have met or even tried to fight Black Doom. Hell, what even happened to Angel Island during the invasion we see ingame?

Even Cream could get something to contribute. Ingame you only ever see her once; you have to help Amy find her in Cryptic Castle as a part of that level’s hero mission. But that raises the question: why was Cream in a place like Cryptic Castle all by herself to begin with? It feels out of character for her, she’s usually not the type to get lost, but then you realize that she’s a little girl in the middle of an alien invasion. The Black Arms could’ve destroyed her home already, and she wanted to find some place isolated to hide. Where’s Vanilla in all of this, by the way?

Granted the game probably needed to address the elephant in the room of why no one ever sits down and talks to Shadow about his past/amnesia before it decides to tackle the emotions of its supporting cast, but still. Fun to think about.

[karaokebearwithal]

Mutuals Mutuals Come one COME ALL!!!

Put your various sona's and appendages together for the unveiling of a lil' something I've been working on while being distracted from animating Dame Aylin's wings (Its long, hard, fun as all hell but the concentration required to do so seems physically impossible for a beast of my genus)

I drew all my moots tavs/pseudo-companions!!! It took a bit, but it was well worth it! Everyone's design is so unique and fun to figure out. (10 is a big number of moots)((which I am very grateful to have :3)) So without Further Ado!!! (there will be so much more Ado):

(page break cuz the images are 400x400 each but 10 times, I also go on for a bit about how much I like each Tav/pseudo-companion character) ((if anyone can give me tips on how to size pieces in a normal style digitally i'd be very grateful))

First of all is Sivvus the Fey Prince (he/him)! This elusive Eladrin Tav belongs to @thedomesticanthropologist! A gorgeous yet seemingly cold-hearted druid who tends to keep his cards close to his chest. Though if you want the challenge you can see for yourself if you can try and get close to him to see if Sivvus is as closed off as he seems to be. To be quite honest, Sivvus really grew on me. A very fancy Eladrin with a high society (fey society) upbringing ( with very good looking mood boards to match) and the like only for him to be thrust into the bg3 world with a worm to boot. He is charming! Also his backstory? <3 Defienetly go read it! 10/10 would draw the snob again :)

Second off we have Gum (He/They)! A Githyanki Cleric of Mystra. Being @piipaw's Tav you'd find this charming fruit lover trying to live a peaceful life after escaping from the creche that raised them. I like Gum a lot as the concept of a githyanki trying to find their own way in Faerun while also having no idea about any of the social customs is very gripping to me. I recommend greatly to check out the blog for Gum fics, fanart and a very cool moot . :)

Next is H'rayn of Verkos (she/her)! Now different from all the character's I drew, H'rayn is not a Tav! She's actually a pseudo-companion character with a lotta lore and history! She even has her own quest, party banter, approval and disapproval things. It's the whole deal!! @githkisser made an amazing post all about H'rayn . If you want a ton of indepth and fun info that's really really well documented, I cannot overstate how much you should it check out! I find myself going back to learn more about H'rayn as she really is as well thought out as in game companions! It's quite fun thinking up of ways tavs can interact with her and the art is mwah!!! very good indeed :3

4th! Tavern (Tav) the Bard! (they/them) This darling bard ran away from the circus.....from birth! Created by @avocado-writing, Tavern plays their way into your heart with their silly antics, warm heart and eldritch pocket dimension in their chest!

Tavern is a doll to doodle and I am amped to draw them even more in the future. The heterochromia and the inclusion of instruments does make them a fun challenge (i will draw instruments accuratley with these paws eventually). Go check them out!! :D

5th! Hvinidyr the Barbarian (he/him)! @star-bear-art (I just realised after all this we aren't actually mutuals. Which is funny since we kinda have the same name and theme with the bear thing XD) If you wanna see wonderous art of Hvinidyr as well as the other companions, go look right over here!

Winnie (Hvinidyr) has a lot of forms depending on the time period you wanna look at. The one I chose was the most recent with the large scar tissue all over the left (right? I'm horrible at directions, my paws don't make an L shape for me to tell). He was really fun to sketch out (and probably later colour in) and has a really unique design that I appreciate :)

6th Vierlin the Enchantment Wizard (and a lil' bit rouge)!!!(she/her) @sybaritick's Tav!!! Now!! This classic drow has a keen intrest in enchantment magic, teaching her crafts to nobles in Amn. After the whole tadpole fiasco, she also finds another use for her multitude of arcane skills. Most notabley depicted with a local wizard.

Now I won't get ahead of myself here but the fics that Sybaritick wrote about Vierlin are like....licking a warm pan of thickened maple syrup or a fancy meat meal with so much demi-glaze you're left smacking your lips for at least 20 mins after eating. Its indulgent. And I couldn't recommend it enough!! Read it!! (it took me a good 8 times to get the 'ie' part of Vierlin's name right, the letters look the same to me)

7th Fink the Spores Druid (they/them) belonging to @causticcontemplation! They're a pretty short Tav a 2.5ft and have a whole modern AU fic about them!!! You can read all about it here! (the pun name is amazing!)

I found it cool to use the fic to figure out how to colour them in, I ended up sending an anon ask instead and it helped great! Lovely Tav 10/10!

8th Korydass the Druid!! (She/her)!!! Conjured by @cfcreative, this seemingly non-emotive bronze dragonborn lights a spark in viewers as her tail and love for nature portrays otherwise. Art of Kory is many and also very good. Reading through her lore is fun watching her dynamics with the different origin characters change as she opens up to the party.

Now I do have slight bias, I like drawing Kory the most since her head shape is less humanoid. It's just so satifying, also her design is crazy awesome to work with so all around its great recommend I like her a lot :3

9th Asheera the Paladin (she/her) produced by @optiwashere.

To be quite honest I wouldn't even have a blog if it wasn't for Asheera's fics. They are EXCELLENT. If you want to go through a journey of a half orcs struggles, successes and gripping romance with Shadowheart, VAULT YOURSELF into Opti's A03 page and devour. You will have negative regrets about it just like I! Asheera is great I love her a lot I am the most normal about her.

(I'll keep it brief since this post is long enough to cross a river)

10th Quin the Bard (he/him) composed by @quinthebard (who'd have known?)

This darling plucky bard is the star of an ongoing comic that is very dynamic and very gripping. (My fave panel is this one). Despite being 100, Quin still maintains his joyful and kind nature when traveling with the tadpole gang.

Definetly one of the most friendlies Tavs out of all the ones i've drawn. (he was also the first i drew out of all of these!) He's a delight!! Go check him out! Thanks to all my moots for giving permission, having such great characters and being such lovely moots! <3 <3 <3

(Any pronouns or other changes that want be changed, feel free to DM about it. I love those! )

[mirchloe]

give me your thoughts on Kitty for the bingo!

OHHHH KITTY!!!!!!!!

what immediately stood out to me about kitty was phoebe's reaction when quentin says, "i dunno, it's like she has some sort of spell over me," and phoebe, for all her confidence and assertiveness, just gives a quiet, concerned, "uh oh."

kitty is fantastic! she's a queen bee, she's affluent because of her father, but she also has a lot of hidden depth. on the surface, kitty is very much the mean girl trope - she belittles and demeans and goes after people she thinks are lesser than her. she doesn't have a big circle of friends - just franke, because out of everyone, she likes franke the most, likes her enough to comfort her and be with her and brush off anyone who tries belittling franke because they don't know franke like she does.

and that makes the hinted past she has with lili so interesting! kitty only comments on lili's profile to make fun of her elton situation, but it feels implied that it was kitty who encouraged lili to "make" a campster, and lili went out of her way to try to comment on her page. she backs out with "Kitty is cool, and she-- oh, man, Kitty." there is something there!!! when lili stands to the side and derides franke and kitty for making friendship bracelets, who do it in a very public way, as if kitty is aware of lili's presence, kitty has a big ol' grin on her face! their untapped history is so great!! what went down between them? between a girl like kitty who has learned how to be manipulative and stand at the top and a girl like lili who has now closed herself off?? what were they like before?? it drives me crazy because i feel like kitty and lili once had what kitty and franke have *now.*

but back to kitty!! she's got a whole lot of issues simmer under the issues. she invokes her lawyer dad to threaten to sue, but i don't think she's as close with him. it's like a princess morbucks situation, except at least princess morbucks' dad would actually come around to her sometimes - i think kitty and her dad are pretty emotionally distant. he likes to buy her things, and she takes them, but there isn't really a connection between them, and with how he had to move around a lot in the navy, it seems kitty never learned how to maintain genuine friendships - so, what she once had with lili and currently has with franke is pretty unique! everyone else? well, she's gonna get them wrapped around her finger, like quentin and benny, and whoever isn't, she makes sure she has ways to keep them at bay.

and all of this at only twelve!! kitty thinks she knows what she's about! a high society life, grandeur and power and staying at the top of the pyramid! but it's so superficial, even though she clearly loves dressing up and putting on her makeup and flaunting what she has (she's the only cadet with a unique camp shirt!) and entirely stylish! she's seemingly one-note on the surface, and she might not show it, but there's a strange loneliness to kitty. she only has franke because she chose to genuinely care about franke. everyone else? she's confusing them, or she's belittling them. several kids are wary of her, and she's guarded to the point where only sudden, shocking comments really get a rise out of her, but then, she goes right back to being on top. it's such a controlled personality that she tries to covering with blush and rouge and concealer.

it can't last forever! i just think about her future, and i just know her dynamic with her father isn't going to be well. there's only so much she can get from a father who isn't emotionally responsive. there's only so much she can feel from new clothing, jewelry, etc. it's a unique isolation because people know kitty is a manipulator. it's hard to tell when she's being genuine. franke can tell, sure, but who else can? when she wants to be genuine, maybe even trying to make something of herself without relying on a father who probably doesn't ask how her day is anymore, who will believe her when she's asking about their day out of an honest interest? when will she lower her walls, or how will she lower them when all she's known is the manipulation she's gathered, studied, and perfected as a kid?

i half-put mommy issues because i don't think she has one! i think her dad has a lot of girlfriends, and kitty's mom is no longer in the picture (not dead - just not around). it doesn't really impact her that much not having a mom, but the constant swirl of her father's new girlfriends trying to win her over gets pretty exhausting as she grows up.

on a funnier note, i do think she still beefs with raz and bobby forever. they're just incompatible. completely incompatible!! but i think she does make up with lili and opens herself up more genuinely and still likes to parade her style and kiss as many girls as she can. she's lifting up mirtala at camp all, "is anyone going to teach her how to be a true yuri warrior?" and scampering off with franke when raz tries to take his sister back.

[seaquestions]

Once again making the best fucking diety art for the souls series! I wanted to share my headcanoms with you about Caitha.

First, I like to think that her tears are what fill the divine blessings and rouge water, if we are going off you're art showing her tears can be both water and blood.

Second, I believe that Caitha and Velka are the only Gods connected to the Abyss. There are other powers and entities that wield it or are born from it, but these are the only divine figures that have a connection to it, Velka more so.

Last, Caitha is dying. I think all of them are except Velka. The life of the gods is greatly tied to fire, and that's dying in drangliec. Velka will remain as she is at least half tied to the dark, which is thriving.

I can go more into detail on that last one if you dm me actually, I have thoughts!

thank you so much!! love to design ethereal women… also these hcs are so interesting! the divine blessings/rouge water thing is so clever actually, that feels So right. the divine blessings being “holy water blessed by a goddess whose identity was denied by so-and-so institution” works Very well for caitha.

and ive never thought abt connections to the abyss but when you think about it, it’s for sure possible.. like velka especially is already associated with darkness, and the fact that she is Incredibly Not In The Game while also seemingly having a big hand in things or her presence lives on maybe points to that.. and caitha is, essentially, the goddess of mourning/grief…

and ohhh yeah 100% for sure! i do believe most everything is dying in drangleic it does feel like the world itself is in a transitional space, like we’re living in an era between “ruins of a kingdom that died” and “total wipeout of the society we knew rebuilding into a different society”. i have likee.. a little comic idea about this that also incorporates water in ds2 as a motif (bcos water!! should!! be a major motif in ds2!! like the land itself is going to drown, god or human or undead we are all going to drown, washed away by the rain, by the tides of the ocean, and everything will sink into the seafloor, into ancient history, like the countless societies that rose and fell before us.)

velka wld live tho 😏 if anyone cld outlive a flooding its her i believe in my girlboss

[autisticshadowthehedgehog]

Sonic X Theory: the other Ultimate Lifeforms

In Sonic X’s adaptation of Sonic Adventure 2, they make an interesting claim about the Ultimate Lifeform prototypes on the ARK. When Rouge hacks into the base, she informs Shadow of one thing- he wasn’t the only prototype from Project Shadow that escaped the ARK massacre. 

[ID: screenshots from Sonic X: one of Rouge looking up Project Shadow, surprised and reading “Shadow? Secure and dispose?” Another shot of two escape pods falling towards a planet, with the caption from a GUN soldier: “Our mission ended when we sealed away the prototype of the ultimate lifeform.” End ID.] 

Rouge makes the claim that neither of these escape pods was Shadow... so in X Canon, is Shadow even who he thinks he is? And just as importantly... who are the other prototypes? 

Full theory under the cut. 

So first off. Let’s look at Rouge’s claim that Shadow isn’t who he thinks he is.

Part One: Is Shadow from the ARK?

[ID: screenshots from Sonic X of Rouge and Shadow talking, with the following dialogue:

Rouge: This is the progress report for Project Shadow, a plan to create the ultimate life form. The body they created is still held there.

Shadow: I know. That’s a prototype. I’m the Ultimate Lifeform they created afterwards- 

Rouge: Two capsules were ejected when the ARK was shut down. But neither was found. They couldn’t lock up in prison what they couldn’t find. Do you understand? I wonder who you really are.

Shadow looks troubled. End ID.] 

So two capsules were ejected and neither was found in the fifty years it’s been since the accident-- except I think Rouge is wrong about one thing. Shadow is who he thinks he is- because his capsule was sent out alone. It must have somehow not been logged. 

How do we know this? Shadow’s flashback of being sent away and the man who worked for GUN are completely different- first of all, the GUN soldier doesn’t remember her saying anything to Shadow, or Shadow even being there- it seems that she died to send away something or someone else. Second- Maria is in a different position around the lever in both flashbacks. See the GUN soldier’s first-- 

Though we don’t see the full room, we get the sense that it’s small from the other shots that I don’t have the time to screenshot. She’s around an elevated platform not attached to a wall, and either facing the pod she’s sending away or in a completely different room. 

But, both of Shadow’s alternate memories of Maria sending him away-- the first one more stylized, the second one we can assume more real-- neither looks like this. 

In both, she’s in a differing position. In the sepia flashback, she’s not facing him, and pulling a lever attached to a wall. In the second flashback, she’s already on the floor, and the lever pad we see would cause her to be facing away from Shadow. In neither of these do we see any evidence that anyone other than Shadow and Maria are in the room or even nearby. 

Shadow also has enough evidence he’s who he thinks he is- he has the right powerset, the GUN soldier says that they did, indeed, seal away an Ultimate Prototype, Gerald mentions Shadow enough in his monologues, and... honestly there’s really no evidence that he isn’t Shadow, other than the two pods. And two pods? Shadow was sent out alone, we saw no evidence of a second pod in either flashback. So he wasn’t with anyone else. 

So what’s the conclusion? The conclusion is that these are two different events- one where Maria releases Shadow, and one where she releases another- or, possibly, the others, the two pods that were logged as escaping. 

Maria either freed Shadow first and then the other two, or she freed the first two, got shot, and then managed to survive long enough to send Shadow away. Either way-- these events are separate.  

So what was in the other two pods? Two other prototypes of the Ultimate Lifeform, clearly, but nothing like the Biolizard, they’re too small. 

Now let me ask you something... wouldn’t it make sense for the Ultimate Prototypes to look similar, if they were similar lifeforms? 

And who do we know who looks similar to Shadow? 

Part Two: Sonic is an Ultimate Lifeform

[ID: Shadow looking down at Sonic, and saying, “I see. We actually do look alike. It’s like looking in a mirror.” End ID.] 

Okay so like. Unless you’re very colorblind I think you’ve noticed that Shadow and Sonic are completely different colors. But let’s ignore that for now-- they do have a very similar silhouette... in fact, Shadow’s silhouette is incredibly close to SuperSonic, which is Sonic at full power. And in-universe, they look similar enough that in low lighting pretty much nobody can tell them apart. 

And not just that- Sonic has a lot of power for a seemingly “normal” mobian. [Yes, I know they don’t use the term “Mobius” in Sonic X but let me simplify this somehow.] His superspeed, ability to survive so much shit... he’s powerful enough that he presents a rival for Shadow without chaos emeralds (though Shadow is nerfed a little by the Inhibitor Rings- more on that later). 

[ID: Sonic and Shadow racing; they are keeping up with each other. Shadow says, “It seems your appearance isn’t the only thing that’s similar to me. Who are you?” Sonic responds, “I’m me.” End ID.] 

Shadow’s right- their appearance isn’t where the resemblance stops. And of course there’s probably the most damning similarity-- they are the only two characters we see go Super and have the ability to control the Chaos Emeralds.

[ID: First image is SuperSonic and SuperShadow, having absorbed the power of the chaos emeralds. Second image is from the Third Season, where a MetaRex shouts, “There are two individuals [referring to Sonic and Shadow] who can draw out the power of the Chaos Emeralds?” End ID.] 

Oh and SPEAKING OF Sonic/Shadow similarities-- there’s a scene in Season Three where Sonic is being lectured by the villain about how all life ends eventually so why bother etc. and Sonic says that life is worth the good bits, all that jazz. Here’s the scene:

And exactly 1:25 in.... guess what starts playing

This song is scarily similar to “Recollection of the Ark”... Shadow’s sad song about his memories of the ARK... while Sonic is being lectured about still having faith in humanity. You know. Like MARIA WANTED.

Interesting how we know absolutely nothing about Sonic’s past, huh-- pretty much all we have before he meets Tails is that he says he’s fifteen years old, but honestly... are we even sure about that? First of all, if Sonic was revived alone, there wouldn’t be a way to tell his age, he’d probably just accept the first age someone assigned him. 

Alternatively, we know from the end of Season Two and the beginning of Season Three that time works in a very wonky way from Earth to Mobius- in the ~2-3 days Sonic’s alone with Chris, a week passes on Mobius, despite the fact we know he can chaos control at any time. In the third season? Six years pass on Earth while six months pass on Mobius. So time doesn’t really work in a reasonable way, meaning it’s possible that Sonic is fifteen... and he lived fifteen years on Mobius after awakening, while fifty years passed on Earth. 

And we know for a fact that travel between Mobius and Earth was possible even before the events of Season One... because Eggman was born on Earth.

[ID: Eggman looking shocked and turning around in a chair, announcing, “I was born in this world!” End ID.]

Eggman was born on Earth and somehow ended up on Mobius-- but he was young enough he didn’t realize until he saw that Gerald lived on Earth. So was he in the second escape pod? It’s possible, but I don’t think so-- he’d have to have information on Gerald, and it seems he had a picture of Gerald and Maria, so it’s likely he traveled with a parent or guardian, or at least some kind of family history, which I doubt Maria would think to store in an escape pod while everyone was running for their lives. This plot element was probably just to set up that travel between the dimensions happens more than we think. 

Neither escape pod from the ARK was recovered, probably because they ended up on Mobius. 

It’s most likely that they Chaos Controlled into the other dimension-- I know I said Maria probably wouldn’t think to store anything other than the lifeform themselves in the pod, but if the lifeform needed Chaos Emeralds to practice/control their powers, or the Chaos Emeralds were already stored in an escape pod for safekeeping-- or if, possibly, GUN was attempting to capture the Chaos Emeralds as well, and the Robotniks knew that they would use them in a destructive way-- all that combined could mean that the emeralds would also be important enough to send away in a pod. 

If even one of the pods had Chaos Emeralds, it’s possible that the lifeform inside could have sensed danger and unconsciously teleported them to the most safe place from GUN-- another world where GUN didn’t exist and couldn’t reach them. And even better-- a world where mobians like them lived. 

From Sonic X lore that I don’t have the time to find and screencap, we know that the two worlds used to be the same but split at some point in history. If this was after, say, the events of Chaos destroying the Echidnas-- which, sidenote, interesting how they disappear and nobody knows where they went, so it’s possible that Chaos straight-up split the dimensions just to get rid of the Echidnas-- then enough of their lore could remain. Old cave paintings, wall carvings, etc., could show enough mobians that scientists could probably think “oh, wow, that looks like a god figure. might as well design our ultimate lifeform after that, esp since they had this god that could control chaos and the chaos emeralds came from here.” 

Wanna know what’s interesting about those ancient echidna temples? Guess who’s there-- if we go by Sonic 3 & Knuckles, a game that ofc had been released by the time X was being written...

SuperSonic. 

Both the ultimate form of Sonic, and the silhouette of Shadow. 

So let’s say they find this on the ARK studies, and they’re like “okay so our ultimate lifeform goal is a hedgehog. Got it.” There’s two options after this:

They make Sonic, but deem him a failure for reasons and cryo-freeze him until they need him or can release him. They then proceed to make Shadow, who they believe actually is their ultimate lifeform. 

They made Shadow first, but after a while kept experimenting and making more prototypes, just in case, or possibly because they decided Shadow wasn’t powerful enough. However, the prototypes weren’t ready to awaken before the ARK massacre, Shadow never met them. 

So as I’ve made clear, I’m pretty sure that one of those prototypes was Sonic-- who, of course, has no idea. Either he only entered consciousness after arriving in Mobius, or his memories of the ARK were so vague, traumatic, early, or a combo, that his mind blocked them out. Either way, it doesn’t matter, what matters is that he and Shadow are both prototypes, which is what gives Sonic his power. 

And Sonic’s power, btw, isn’t limited like Shadow’s. Because he doesn’t have inhibitor rings. 

If prototype!Sonic was sent away with inhibitor rings, he ditched them. Which would make sense, especially if he woke up with no memory of the ARK and didn’t know why these weird bracelets were on his arm. He would notice that the rings slowed him down and ditch them fast. And that’s assuming they even stuck rings on the prototype. 

But if we do assume they stuck rings on the prototypes... maybe we can find the other lifeform that was sent away along with Sonic. 

Part Three: Who is the Third Ultimate Lifeform?

Okay. Let’s do a headcount. 

Who, in Sonic X, 

Existed on Mobius at the same time as Sonic, 

Doesn’t appear to have a lot of power but has a lot of incredible strength if you pay attention, 

Sometimes shows strange abilities, such as far leaps into the air, a speed great enough that they can sometimes catch up to Sonic (though not as great, possibly because of the inhibition), even potentially the ability to summon weapons out of thin air, 

Looks similar to the Mobian Hedgehog-- or, perhaps, with influences from a Mobian Echidna, who were the ones who had the SuperSonic glyphs in the first place, and thus could potentially serve as a design point, 

Wears rings around their wrists at all times?

[ID: Amy Rose being absurdly powerful in several screencaps, often glowing; though this is normal anime expressionwork, it is something that exclusively happens to Amy in Sonic X. End iD.]

And, of course, this beauteous moment: 

[ID: A scene from the season two finale of Sonic X. Eggman’s ship, on which Amy’s hammer is stuck, is high above her, and Eggman taunts “It doesn’t matter if you’re angry because your hammer is stuck up here!” In the following image, a moving gif, Amy summons a hammer out of thin air, a puff of smoke coming from it, as she is still glowing with a fire-like energy. Eggman’s robots shout “She has another one! How many does she have?” End ID.]

That’s right! This was all an excuse to spout out my “Amy Rose could kill God” propaganda! But it’s not propaganda if I’m right!

Part Four: The Lifeforms

So. It’s been a couple months since I made this post, but I was rewatching Sonic X with my sister, and we did notice that you do see prototype lifeforms for a flash in the GUN soldier’s story.

[ID: Screenshots from Sonic X; The GUN soldier narrates his story, as we see GUN soldiers arresting scientists, while standing in front of empty tubes of bubbling green liquid. The caption reads, “There were many rumors about ARK. Such as doing research for eternal life or creating the Ultimate Life Form.” The GUN soldier steps to a tube that has something in it. End ID.]

We see a brief flash of an experimental lifeform in this memory, as seen above; we also see two more, the ones that were explicitly stated to be the ones Maria was freeing.

[ID: Screenshots from later in the same episode of Sonic X, the first showing two tubes with dark figures inside, surrounded by dark blue bubbling water. The next screenshot shows Maria preparing to free them, with the captions reading “An experimental life form? She’s planning to free it!” End ID.]

So, these silhouettes. Let’s uh. Let’s take a look at those huh

Now, the bodies are too thick to be standard mobian bodies- but we can also see wires attached to the prototypes, as well as, you know, whatever that liquid is. It’s entirely possible there’s something wrapped around their bodies, to keep them safe/asleep/etc.

But..... ok so I might be reaching here but analyzing the face silhouettes, using red lines to mark quills and green to mark potential laid-back ears, it really could be long-quilled sonic and short-quilled Amy.

As well as this, in the shot of the GUN soldier looking at a prototype, I swear I can see a mobian ear.

tl;dr this is all fascinating me and I think we should let the Sonic X crew return to making this show as if they never left so that we can get answers to this

[geekgirles]

Marinette, her friendships and Lila

If there’s something that’s been bugging me (pun non-intended) is the possible implications of Lila’s threat to Marinette.

When I first heard it, I assumed (like probably many of the members of the fandom) that it was only foreshadowing a disastrous episode that would, in the end, still have stand-alone value. “Ladybug” would be a good example of this, or we were probably all expecting an Akumanette episode when we watched Chameleon for the first time, too.

However, now I wonder if it was actually foreshadowing a series of events that started with Lila’s appearance.

If I’m not mistaken, we were told that Marinette would have to face changes in the dynamics she has with people. 

After “The Battle of the Miraculous”, it’s obvious that Adrien/Chat Noir, Kagami and Luka will be part of that change, but will they really be the only ones affected by it?

We, salt shakers (this time, pun totally intended), have been on edge about Marinette’s friends since Chameleon, especially Alya. And, when given some thought, we might have seen hints on the blogger changing sides for a while, all of them going unnoticed.

The one moment that makes me the most suspicious is when Alya had just turned into Rena Rouge and mentioned that she looked just like Lila did when she was akumatised.

However, there hasn’t been the slightest mention of that ever since!

At least, not in a hopeful light.

For example, despite Ladybug mentioning twice during Heroes’ Day that Volpina had been active, both times with witnesses, none of those times have helped the characters to connect the dots and realise that Lila wasn’t in Achu like she said!

BUT

If there’s something you have to learn the hard way when you’re part of the miraculous fandom, that’s that Lila’s never featured nor mentioned without a purpose.

Let’s take a look at Timetagger or Félix, for instance.

In Timetagger, the episode seemingly had nothing to do with her, and, yet, she appears. Not long after we discover that there’ll be a different Hawk Moth in the future, no less. Now, if that’s not a hint.. I don’t know what is.

In Félix, she appeared for a few seconds as part of the video chat Alya had opened to discuss ways to cheer Adrien up on the day he lost his mother. And still, it was her who alerted Nathalie and Gabriel of “Adrien”’s strange behaviour.

Where do I want to go with this?

Lila saw Alya transform into Rena Rouge.

Listen, it actually makes perfect sense.

Catalyst, Mayura and Ladybug showed that Lila lives around the park and that, moreover, she’s actually been keeping a close eye on Marinette and the class for quite some time.

Alya transformed in the park!

Lila could’ve seen it and strategise from there. For instance, it explains how on Earth she hasn’t lied about being Rena Rouge yet. Let’s think about that situation for a moment, alright? 

If Lila didn’t know Alya is Rena Rouge, she could have tried convincing Adrien that the incident in Volpina was just Ladybug’s way of protecting her secret identity from being exposed, claiming that after that they’d decided to change her superhero alterego and rename it to Rena Rouge as it to not arise suspicion. 

But she didn’t do it!

And it’s clearly not because she’s learned to not lie around Adrien, because she has indeed tried to in Chameleon, Oni-chan and Ladybug. Even if she is perfectly aware that he knows she’s a liar.

So I wouldn’t put it past her.

So that brings me to this: Alya might abandon Marinette for Lila.

It’s true she tried to help Marinette in Ladybug, and that she cares about Marinette; but there are moments and behaviours that hint on this happening.

To this day, Alya hasn’t doubted Lila once. Not even when her best friend is so stressed out around her. Sure, we can always say that Alya’s seen the most unreasonable and irrational part of Marinette, but that doesn’t excuse anything.

In Ladybug, she quickly dismissed Marinette’s suspicions on Lila, telling her she shouldn’t jump to conclusions like that, and when it came to actually talking to Lila about it, she actually comforted her instead of showing the slightest caution around her. She even went as far as mentioning Marinette’s jealousy rather than letting the poor girl talk or even explain  her reasoning behind her claims!

Now, if we compare Alya’s behaviour towards Lila and Marinette with the way she acts around Marinette and Kagami, it’s clear there’s some serious bias there. 

Until Ikari Gozen, Marinette was actually just jealous of Kagami, unlike her feelings towards Lila.

Unlike Alya’s teasing and scolding regarding Marinette’s reactions and decisions concerning Lila, where she never fails to mention she’s just defensive because Lila’s close to Adrien  (utter bullshit, btw. Alya, please, do change your glasses.), she never does anything of the sorts when it comes to Marinette’s actual insecurities towards the fencer.

In Ikari Gozen, instead of telling her that she barely knows Kagami and that she should be more open with her (like she did with Lila in Chameleon), she was sympathetic of Marinette’s distress. She practically encouraged her to lose the contest on purpose!

The only conclusion I get from this is that Alya is that way towards Kagami because... She’s not Lila. And, since Alya isn’t very fond of her either, then it’s not so serious if Marinette is actually unfair to her or not.

And that sickens me. Quite honestly.

Aside from this, we also have the events that took place in Feast; despite knowing first-hand that the miraculous is something that the less people know about it, the better, that didn’t stop Alya from talking about the different miraculous holders throughout History and the exhibition on her blog.

Marinette thought it was something so grave she actually confessed she shouldn’t have entrusted Alya with a miraculous!

And that loss in faith is something very serious, especially in this show.

Because, if in the future Ladybug has no choice but to never hand her the fox miraculous again (something very possible considering the events that took place during Miracle Queen), maybe Alya will act as entitled as Chloé did. Questioning why would Ladybug not entrust her with it when she did give it back to Chloé. More than once.

After all, after Chloé, we saw in Sapotis that Alya was the less willing of all of Ladybug’s allies to give her the miraculous back. She almost kept it.

And, if Alya loses faith in Ladybug, that would be the perfect opening for Lila, who could reveal to her that she knew of her secret identity all along and try to get her against Ladybug and, maybe, even Marinette.

Just imagine, she could even say she was the Fox Miraculous Holder before her, Volpina, but that  after some silly argument Ladybug was petty enough to take the miraculous from her. But that she lied about still being friends with her for the sake of Paris.

Now, that would be a major change in dynamics.

But, just as I’ve written about the worst case scenario, I also have some hopeful news about Marinette’s next confidant.

Alix.

I’ll admit, of all her friends, Alix has always shown that she was the least convinced of Marinette’s distrust towards Lila. Always being very quick to show her anger towards Marinette for her actions.

Even so, we must not forget that she will soon entrust her with the Rabbit Miraculous. Giving her the power to fix everything, even when the clock is against the heroes.

And I think I know why she entrusted it to her in the first place.

In Chat Blanc, Bunnix told Ladybug that the reason she chose her was because “She’s very good at keeping secrets”. On the other hand, she suggested that maybe the reason Chat Noir knew of her secret identity was that Adrien had told Nino, that had told Alya, that had published it on the Ladyblog.

What if this is more foreshadowing?

What if Bunnix is subtly warning Marinette about Alya and that the Ladyblog is actually more important to her than her role as a superhero?

But going back to the reason Ladybug chose Alix as Bunnix, maybe it will be Alix the first one to discover her secret identity, and will promise to never reveal it to anyone.

If that were the case, Alix would also be the first one besides Adrien and Marinette to know that Lila is a liar and that Marinette had every right to be as distant to her as she was.

Maybe Alix will be Marinette’s first ally against the Italian girl in and out of the suits (aside from Adrien, of course).

After all, if there’s something Thomas Astruc has proved he’s good at, that’s misleading us. Ehem, Chloé’s redemption, ehem. Ehem, Félix, ehem!

[slashingdisneypasta]

Can you recommend some musicals? I never watched a musical 😱😂

Oh!! !!

Okay so the only musicals I've actually seen are Aladdin, Wizard of Oz, and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory in theatre. And Come From Away via bootleg on YouTube. But I do listen to a lot of musicals, so... I'm gonna recommend from whatever I'm familiar with, is that okay? Hah ^^

If you like a splash of HISTORY with your showtunes:

Bonnie & Clyde || Blues, Gospel and Rockabilly: A D E F I N E T E personal favourite of mine. Oh my god, I love it. Aside from romanticising criminals, its amazing! Beautiful music, and multiple love stories to actually enjoy ^^ - if you can separate it from the real thing. I know some people cant and are uncomfortable with stuff like that (Especially with Lizzie, which I'm gonna talk about after Hamilton) but if you just enjoy Jeremy Jordan and Laura Osnes you're good XD

Hamilton || Hip Hop- I just put this here because everyone (Seemingly, except me) love it and you probably will too! ^^

Lizzie || Punk Rock Opera: Another All Girl musical! Cuz we can never have enough of these ^^ This time its about Lizzie Borden and her murdering her father and her stepmother in 1892 (So this isn't everyone's cup of tea, obviously). I'm loving it at the moment though because, again, the actor's voices are all gorgeous, and emotive, and music is amazingly written and passionate.

Six || British Pop music: This is about Henry the Eighths 6 wives (Divorced, Beheaded, Died, Divorced, Beheaded, Survived) and what happened to them. It involves them explaining THEIR side of the story (Whether its historically accurate or not) and trying to decide 'Who had it worst?'. Its just... so much girl power, and the costumes are so colourful and cool, and the actors are all so t a l e n t e d, and are all very cool too ^^

If you like VILLAINS- which you probably do. You are here on this blog after all ^^ :

Be More Chill || Pop Rock: Hooooly crap, the Squip (Super Quantum Intel Processor) is hot. Way too hot. Its no far. He's literally a computer. But anyway, the musical (And book) is about this teenage boy that climbs the ranks of school social hierarchy by swallowing down a pill from Japan that has a supercomputer in it designed to help him get popular and 'more chill'. Its very popular and for good reason- I definitely recommend 'The Squip Song', if nothing else!

Beetlejuice: If you didn't like the movie version of BJ, you might actually like this one! Alex Brightman's version is a little less totally disgusting, while still upkeeping that familiar gross, flirty vibe that defines him.

Heathers || Rock: Whether you listen to the original Broadway cast or the West End version, you get a myriad of antagonistic/villainous characters to choose from, varying from the lunkhead football players, to bitchy 90's Mean Girls, to the man of the hour JD who is basically Billy Loomis with pyromaniacal tendencies. This is another one about a teenager climbing the ranks of social hierarchy in highschool- but this time, with murder.

Mean Girls || Rock: Basically, modern Heathers! Regina George is a super villain in her own right, e s e p e c i a l l y in the musical version of the story. Songs like 'Apex Predator' and 'World Burn' really give her that impressive, badass, wicked energy that sets your villain senses alight haha XD

Moulin Rouge || Pop : Oh my god oh my god, my favourite. This is Jukebox musical which means its made entirely of covers of pre-existing songs (Highlights from Katy Perry, Elton John and Pink feature) mushed together to make a story. The Duke is the villain in this story and he is such an evil, possessive Sugar Daddy. Like a Disney Villain with actual sexual references.

If you want your heart warmed!:

Come From Away || Traditional Musical Theatre styles and Traditional Nefoundland orchestrations: Okay I know I said Moulin Rouge was my favourite... but Come From Away is REALLY my favourite. This is about 9/11, but not the violent parts. This is about all those passengers in planes that day that survived, but couldn't touch down in the USA that day so had to stay in Canada. It follows multiple storylines with (Real life) people dealing with what has happened and what could have happened to them, among other things. Okay my description has done nothing for this magnificent show but trust me, its fricken magnificent.

Legally Blonde: Okay I think most of us are familiar with Legally Blonde but in case you aren't!- An 'air head blonde' works hard and gets into Law school in order to prove to 'the love of her life' that she is serious, until she realises that he is a piece of crap and that she actually likes Law and that she can help people with this and beats him out in classes. Its just *chefs kiss*. We stan women being themselves and being as feminine as they goddamn like and that not having anything to do with their IQ.

~

I also recommend & Juliet (Juke Box musical; 'If Juliet didn't die at the end': Representation), and 35MM (Theirs some REALLY GOOD, DARK stuff in there).

[darkershining]

Just watched episode 29 of Tropical Rouge Pretty Cure, in which the Cures must deal with a new type of Yaraneda, ultimately leaving them with more questions regarding the Witch’s motives.

The episode begins with the Tropical Club being interviewed for the school paper about their successful event at the festival, with the girls having to distract them when Kururun nearly gets herself discovered, instead drawing the other students’ attention to the dresser they made together.

In the Witch’s mansion, the Witch is having trouble sleeping, as she continues to have dreams about a girl who seems familiar to the Witch, yet she can’t recall who it is no matter how many times she calls out to the girl. As the Butler checks up on the Witch, the Witch forms a new type of Yaraneda orb. The Butler decides he will personally handle this mission, and put the new orb to use.

At Manatsu’s place, Manatsu and Laura have a conversation about mirrors, regular and magic kinds. In the night, the Butler tosses the new Yaraneda orb into the water. Later that night, Manatsu has a dream where she follows Laura’s voice inside the aquarium, eventually finding a mirror on the ground. Manatsu is then pulled inside the mirror, where she sees a vision of a girl, who Laura identifies as the legendary Pretty Cure.

The next day, Manatsu tells Laura about her dream, and asks Laura what she knows about the legendary Pretty Cure. Laura states that from the legend, the previous Pretty Cure fought a Witch, but Laura admits she isn’t sure if it’s the same Witch they’re fighting now. She wonders if the legendary Pretty Cure might’ve been trying to tell them something, but their conversation is interrupted by the sudden appearance of the new Yaraneda type, the Super Zettai Yaraneda. Sango, Minori and Asuka also discover multiple Yaraneda have spawned in different parts of town.

As the Cures transform and begin fighting, Cure La Mer attempts to scan the nearest Yaraneda, but the Aqua Pot doesn’t detect any Motivation Power. Cure Summer figures this means it hasn’t drained any yet, and that they can just take it out. However, after seemingly defeating it, even more appear. Cure Summer suggests they split up to deal with more of them at once, although Cure La Mer has some concerns about this plan. In the meantime, Cure Coral is struggling against her opponents, when Cure Papaya and Cure Flamingo come to the rescue. The three of them team up and exchange information about the situation.

As Cure Summer approaches the school, she suddenly remembers that they may have accidentally left Kururun in their club room, and goes to rescue her as a smaller Yaraneda gets into the room. Cure Summer rescues Kururun, apologizing for accidentally leaving her there. Working together, they knock the small Yaraneda back out the window, with Kururun making sure the dresser the girls had made together doesn’t fall to the floor. However, the small Yaraneda is then absorbed by a bigger one. Cure Summer continues to try to defend the school, but is eventually overpowered, and her transformation trinkets are knocked off, leaving her suspectable to having her Motivation Power drained.

Meanwhile, the other three Cures meet up with Cure La Mer. La Mer informs them that she hasn’t been able to find any Motivation Power, leading Cure Papaya to suspect that there might be a main Yaraneda that split up into all the other ones, and if they can find that one, they could put an end to the attack. She also guesses they’d be able to identify the main one, as that one would likely be the one to have all the Motivation Power the others have gathered.

Kururun suddenly shows up, startling Cure Papaya into attacking before realizing it’s just Kururun. She apologizes for hitting her with her eye beams, before Kururun alerts the others to the danger Manatsu is in. They begin to hurry towards the school, with multiple Yaraneda chasing after them. Cure Papaya hopes that the many Yaraneda gathering together will increase their chances of locating the main one.

While all of this is going on, the other villains take it easy back at the Witch’s mansion, commenting that the Butler must be feeling pretty flustered by everything going on if he went out to deal with them personally. As they discuss things, they begin to wonder why they are forbidden from talking about the Pretty Cures in the presence of the Witch.

Trapped within a Yaraneda, Manatsu struggles to not succumb to the effects of it attempting to drain her Motivation Power. Somehow, Laura’s mirror and the dresser respond to their feelings and connect, allowing the other Cures to contact Manatsu. Manatsu tells the others that she’s okay for now, only to be interrupted when it starts draining her motivation again. The Cures realize they need to hurry, but there’s a giant Yaraneda blocking their path. However, they refuse to let it stop them, and their Motivation Power reaches Manatsu through the mirrors, allowing her to transform and free herself from the Yaraneda that trapped her. Reuniting, Cure Summer thanks the others for coming to her rescue.

The Cures fight the large number of Yaraneda that have gathered near the school, while Cure La Mer continues scanning them to find the main one. She finally manages to locate it, and the Cures begin to focus their efforts on taking it down. Cure La Mer takes back the stolen Motivation Power, and everyone works together to weaken it for Cure La Mer to purify. However, her Bubble Shower attack isn’t enough to purify it. Cure Summer tells them they’ll simply have to keep trying, and suddenly, time seems to slow down as the dresser reacts to their Motivation Power once more.

The girl Manatsu saw in her dream manifests on the school roof, giving the Cures a good look at the legendary Pretty Cure. She gives the Cures a ring, and tells them to save the world and the Witch who became the Witch of Delays. Their dresser also transforms into a new power-up item, and the Cures use this new power to purify the Yaraneda. The Butler comments on the appearance of the legendary Pretty Cure, having not seen that coming, noting that she even gave them her Land Ring.

At the Witch’s mansion, the other villains note that the Witch finally seems to have calmed down. However, the Witch is still having dreams of the girl, calling out to her. She still can’t remember the girl’s face.

At school, the Cures wonders what the Witch is trying to accomplish, and note that their enemies continue to get stronger. Manatsu states that it’ll be fine, as long as they keep working together and make use of their new power.

Another really good episode! We got quite a bit of new information regarding the Witch of Delays and her history with the legendary Pretty Cure. I’m really curious to see where this will go. What is their connection? Who was the Witch of Delays before she became what she is now? Why can’t the Witch remember her? Also, the villains bringing up that they can’t talk about the Cures around the Witch was also an interesting detail. The Butler clearly seems to have the most knowledge of what is going on, and seems to be withholding things from the Witch. But what are his intentions? Is he doing it out of concern for the Witch, or does he have another reason?

And seeing the legendary Pretty Cure was really cool. Her hairstyle might be a bit much, but I really liked her design. Also, apparently the legendary Pretty Cure was a green Cure. Nice. I liked the Cures’ new group attack, and their new forms during the attack looked pretty cool too. The battles have been pretty fun this season, with creative attacks and some clever strategies.

I’ll be looking forward to the next episode!

[impressivepress]

The Striking Absence in the Detroit Institute of Arts’s Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo Blockbuster

“The number of reverberations between then and now becomes horrible, and frightening, and amazing.” So said Detroit Institute of Arts curator Mark Rosenthal last week, at a preview of “Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo in Detroit.” He’s right, possibly more so than even he knows.

During the Great Depression, the museum almost went under; the storm of publicity surrounding its commission of Diego Rivera’s epic Detroit Industry frescoes in 1932 saved it, inspiring the city to step in to fund DIA. Having just suffered another near-death experience amid Detroit’s recent bankruptcy, DIA is clearly hoping this show focusing on the art-history power couple’s year in Motor City can serve as a symbolic comeback. It will certainly bring crowds. (The show runs through July 12.)

Of course, by now it is Frida, not Diego, who is the main attraction (see Frida Fever: Iconic Photos of Frida Kahlo by Edward Weston and Others at Throckmorton). The Detroit Institute of Arts’s new crowd-pleaser is unlikely to change that gospel; her mordant self-examination just feels more contemporary than his grandiose political allegory.

And yet “Diego and Frida in Detroit” shows the Rivera/Kahlo pairing in a new light for me. There’s a story to be told—and since we are talking about parallels to the present, that should be told—about their art’s relative merits that is less about our changing tastes, and more about the tangled relationship of art and money, art and power.

The show features work from “Before,” “After,” and “During” their sojourn in Detroit in 1932.

In the first category are examples of Rivera’s stately images of flower sellers, as well as Kahlo’s double wedding portrait of the two—he a giant, she tiny—painted while they were visiting San Francisco in 1931 (this picture represents the first time her self-conscious costuming makes an appearance in her art).

“After” features a focused but wide-ranging gathering of canvasses that give a sense of where they each wound up, aesthetically: Rivera’s stylish, willowy Portrait of Ruth Rivera (1949), his daughter from an earlier marriage; Kahlo’s gory true-crime painting A Few Small Nips (1935), showing a man having just butchered his wife.

But the heart of the show clearly resides in the galleries that chronicle the crucial year of 1932: the large-scale cartoons Rivera made to plan Detroit Industry, his meticulous 27-panel cycle depicting scenes from Ford’s River Rouge plant, which surround the DIA’s Rivera Court, and which are widely considered Rivera’s most important mural work in the United States. Also in these galleries are Kahlo’s series of canvasses and drawings showing her sharp turn towards Surrealism.

Detroit’s Agony

When they arrived in Detroit, the 44-year-old Rivera was one of the most celebrated artists in the world. As the key exponent of “Mexican Muralism,” he had built up a level of art fame that is now probably unthinkable. His retrospective at the young Museum of Modern Art was only the institution’s second devoted to a single figure. The first was Matisse.

His wife, 25, was a brash near-unknown. The two had ejected themselves from the Mexican Communist Party in 1929, but were still celebrity radicals, given to blustery anti-capitalist talk and mercurial symbolic gestures. The commission for Detroit Industrywas $20,000 at the height of the Great Depression, more than $300,000 today. It would be paid for by Edsel Ford, the son of Henry and the chief of the Ford Motor Company, the era’s single most emblematic capitalist name.

Detroit, meanwhile, was deep in the throes of the Depression, swollen with the homeless and unemployed. Ford’s River Rouge plant, which Rivera would depict with such muscular bravado in Detroit Industry, had laid off thousands of workers and was operating at reduced capacity. Pay had been slashed for the remaining workers—River Rouge paid more than $181 million in wages in 1929; two years later, just $76 million. Two months before the couple arrived, workers had marched on that very plant, demanding higher pay. Company security and police reacted with violence, killing six. The result came to be known as the “Ford Massacre.”

Rivera’s Compromise

As he had been everywhere he went on his US tour, Rivera was wined and dined in Detroit. He would remember that Henry Ford was a “true poet and artist” and that Edsel had the “simplicity and directness of a workman in his own factories.” Kahlo seems to have been less enthused, resorting to impotent needling of their hosts, asking Henry, a well-known anti-Semite responsible for injecting the Protocols of the Elders of Zion into the public mind, whether he himself was Jewish.

How did Rivera square the circle of his revolutionary beliefs and his arch-capitalist patron in his head? A book could be written about the combination of industrial romanticization (he claimed that during his visit to Russia in 1927-28, he had seen Ford’s image revered alongside Marx and Lenin) and artistic self-delusion (he believed that if he won the Yankee masses to his mural style, he had secured a public for revolutionary art) at play, but there is no doubt that it deeply compromised him, politically and artistically.

Detroit Industry is a heroic and memorable depiction of factory labor, which is not nothing. It has passed deep into Detroit’s civic symbolism. But the striving enfilade of auto workers who form its central image are stolid, impassive—it is a picture of labor peace painted at a time of labor strife. They are also pointedly multiracial, when in fact the Fords kept their plants segregated.

Most importantly, it is, ultimately, a celebration of the boss: Edsel Ford, inserted in a panel at the corner in the manner of Renaissance paintings of patrons, gazes out benignly. It is a bravura work, but it is also an image that could serve in any PR pamphlet emphasizing Ford’s “progressive” corporate values—which is how it has often functioned.

As his final act in Detroit, Rivera wrote to Edsel Ford, asking him to rehire one W.J. Settler, a photographer with whom the artist had worked. In the words of Rosenthal’s catalogue essay, Settler “had been fired from his job with the Ford Company for smoking in his own home, thus violating one of the rules for employees.”

Edsel Ford did not rehire Settler. On some level, Rivera must have known that he had let himself be used.

Indeed, with some of this in mind, the most famous controversy of Rivera’s career—when, in the ensuing months of 1933, he inserted an image of Lenin (and what Rivera would describe as “a night-club scene of the debauched rich” featuring John D. Rockefeller, Sr.) into his Rockefeller Center mural commission in New York, provoking its destruction—appears to be a desperate grab at socialist credibility after a very public cop-out in Detroit.

Kahlo’s Breakthrough

In the lead up to Rivera commencing Detroit Industry, Kahlo became pregnant. On July 4, 1932, she lost the child. (The DIA show’s public text and audio indicate a miscarriage; the catalogue authors suggest that it was a self-induced abortion; I gather the truth is not known.) The emotion of this event, all the more focused as Kahlo felt stranded in a hostile city, knocked her art in a new direction, with lasting effects.

The painting that compresses all this is the compact, devastating Henry Ford Hospital. A bed floats in a barren plane. On it, Kahlo has painted herself, blood staining the sheets. Red threads branch from her abdomen connecting to various floating objects, hieroglyphic representations of trauma: an anatomical model; a crumpled orchid, inspired by the ones that Rivera had brought her in the hospital; a fractured pelvic bone; and so on.

Rivera’s art was seemingly affected by the loss of the child as well, possibly accounting for the most idiosyncratic element of Detroit Industry. He had been planning a tableau of agricultural labor for the main East Panel. Now this section was taken over by an image of an unborn child, cradled in the bulb of a plant, a bit of personal mythology embedded in this very public statement.

But most importantly to me is how Kahlo’s laceratingly personal Henry Ford Hospital can be read as a kind of rebuttal to Rivera’s mythologization of Detroit. On the side of the blood-soaked bed, Kahlo has stamped the title, “Henry Ford Hospital.” Yet she has placed herself not in the interior of the hospital, but outdoors, exposed in public; on the horizon in the background, Detroit’s industrial architecture is arrayed like a collection of castoff toys—the very structures that her husband was researching with a view to glorify. It is as if the painting were saying, “All is not right in the world of Henry Ford.”

Here, then, is an aesthetic hypothesis: If Kahlo’s work strikes us today as more alive, this is not only because social realism has gone out of vogue in favor of the intimate and the psychological. It’s almost the opposite, I think: Because Rivera became trapped in celebrating his host, he had to step back from the painful reality of the world he was depicting; Kahlo’s art, unencumbered by this burden and focusing on her own experience, actually does express some of that missing reality.

In this case, because Kahlo’s work is more personal, it is also more political.

Ford’s Gamble

There’s one final, long footnote on a part of the story of Diego and Frida in Detroit that doesn’t get told correctly.

Part of the legend of Rivera’s Detroit Industry, cementing its reputation as an enduringly subversive work, is the uproar surrounding its opening. Upon its unveiling in early 1933, conservatives protested the murals as atheistic, communist, dangerous. The debate in the press attracted hoards to the opening. There was even a bloc of workers who organized to defend Rivera’s opus.

Edsel Ford is given credit for having put a lid on the fracas by issuing a statement to those alarmed at the specter of the Mexican artist’s socialist politics that declared, “I admire Rivera’s spirit.” A key detail, however, is that this controversy was very possibly trumped up by Edsel Ford in the first place by planting incendiary stories in the papers. According to current DIA director Graham Beal, when Ford’s assistant showed him the attacks on the murals in the papers, the industrialist is said to have told him that “we’d accomplished what he wanted.”

Why? Ford had been personally bankrolling the museum through the Depression. The Rivera controversy attracted popular attention; the popular attention brought in big crowds; and the big crowds convinced the city to raise the museum’s budget, thereby taking a money-suck off his hands.

But there is another, much more important piece of context that doesn’t get nearly enough attention in telling the tale of Detroit Industry: the Detroit Banking Crisis of 1933, a disaster in which Edsel and Henry Ford played a very, very prominent role. To escape his father’s long shadow, Edsel had moved into banking in the 1920s, heading up the Guardian Trust Company. It expanded rapidly and unwisely, gobbling up smaller banks with real estate holdings that went dramatically sour after the stock market crash of 1929.

Throughout the entire period of the commission, creation, and unveiling of Detroit Industry, Edsel Ford would have been principally consumed with the intensifying crisis. He personally had to inject money into Guardian to backstop its escalating losses. Looking over its books, the national bank examiner would describe its operations as “the worst I’d ever seen.” In February, the government desperately tried to broker a rescue—but the deal would have involved Henry Ford freezing his massive deposits. Instead, the elder Ford threatened to remove them, ensuring disaster. “Let the crash come,” said the man Rivera remembered as a poet.

On February 14, 1933 after Ford refused the Feds’ rescue plan, all banks in the state of Michigan were shuttered. Five days later, on February 19, the first cartoons for Detroit Industry were shown at DIA.

This Lehmann Brothers moment—touching off a cascade of panic—was the immediate context of the unveiling of the work. Banks would not open again until March 24; and the Rivera Court, transformed with Rivera’s murals, debuted on March 21.

Perhaps the controversy that roared up around the DIA murals was fueled by their association with Edsel Ford. Indeed, the same right-wing radio preacher who attacked Rivera’s Vaccination panel as sacrilegious had been inveighing relentlessly against “banksters,” provoking alarming deposit withdrawals from his followers on Mondays after his sermons.

Yet one can also imagine that Edsel Ford might actually prefer, at such a moment, having a spotlight on his support of a left-wing artist’s depiction of labor instead of his role as figurehead of a failed company that was unleashing nationwide economic chaos.

Indeed, Ford’s support of Rivera continues to play that role to this day. Consider the catalogue for the present show, which contains an essay by John Dean titled, “‘He’s the Artist in the Family’: The Life, Times and Character of Edsel Ford,” extolling his “love of place, family, hard work, self-reliance, community, capitalism, and competition.” Dean argues that Edsel Ford’s partnership with Rivera makes him an example of the “businessman as artist.” He does not mention his role in one of the most catastrophic incidents of the Great Depression, despite its proximity to the Rivera event.

A little radical art patronage, it seems, buys you a lot of good PR, and for eternity. But it would be a shame to let the allure of art celebrity occlude what should be the larger moral of this show’s story, one that seems very relevant for the present indeed: Ford giveth, and Ford taketh away.

~ Ben Davis · March 16, 2015.

[popculturebuffet]

Hickman’s X-Men One Year In: Part 2: The Dawn of X

And we’re onto part 2. Since it took me a while to talk about Hickman’s Series outside of Giant-Size and the setup here, that’s in part one if your curious, I split this little retrospective into two parts, with this part here talking about the rest of the books. This isn’t to say they aren’t great, many of them are, it was just easier to do this as a two parter so with HIckman himself out of the way how did his hand picked batch of talented writers handle the lofty status quo he set up?Find out under the cut. Pax Krakoa baby. 

Mauraders Okay just to get this out of the way this is my second faviorite x-book running, after X-Men itself and it often equals it and far and away the best tile of the run and restored my faith in Gerry Duggan.  Duggan is not a bad writer and I blame the messy finish of his otherwise awesome guardians run with infnity wars on marvel trying to cram other characters into it and then a weird mash up idea that while cool, kept the guardians out of their own damn event and from confrting a now mad gamora, but that and deadpool made me forget the guy is a good writer and can do great things. Maruaders however won me back to him with intrest.  A unique concept, the x-men as pirates helping ferry goods to krakoan allied states and ferry trapped mutants from hostile ones, is fucking awesome. The only thing missing is nightcrawler and it’s clear hickman has other plans, though I still feel he shoudl’ve been on the boat as he has both the relation to kitty pryde and pirate pedgree that fit in perfectly.  Speaking of kitty after years of writers misusing her due to having a crush on her as a kid and shoving her into half baked romances with peter quill and her ex peter rasptuin, the latter failing so badly that marvel pulled the plug on their wedding because fans clearly didn’t want it, and battling my own reluctance ot see her front and center again, Duggan makes good use of her again: Kitty is given the unique hook of the portals not working for her and no one, even her old friend Doug after he gets back, being able to figure out WHY. Though I do hope Doug does show up here and explain it more, as him being kitty’s best friend once is rarely brought up since he got back and it’s silly it hasn’t been. But rather than take this on the chin Kitty strikes up a crew consisting of big sister Storm, first class graduate x-man, badass gay and kitty’s friend and ex iceman, bishop who reluctantly joins as her bishop more on that in a second and the best of them by a mile: Pyro. The original, finally brought back and given some intresting backstory: he was the first mutant brought back and felt good about it..t ill he realized that despite sacrificing himself to save a, if your familiar with the various cartoons this will be baffling but trust me, reformed senator kelly as Pyro himself was dying from the legacy virus, only to find out they did him first because they considered him expendable basically and naturally was upset over that, drunk a bunch of the liquor kitty smuggled in, for logan naturally, and passed out and then joined in on the rescue mission that formed the team because why not and stayed because it was a great offer.  Speaking of offers with a new purpose, Kitty accepted her old enemy Emma Frost’s offer to be red queen, which includes a seat on krakoa’s council and was basically emma’s way of saying fuck you to her old cohort who she was forced to bring back on to handle the seedier side of Krakoa’s dealings via his underworld connections, sebastian shaw. Emma is the fincical  backbone of krakoa, having the shipping connections to get the flowers in and out and now having kitty to handle the stuff she can’t and do some of the shipping, as well as again tell Sebastian, who naturally wants both gone and is pissy at Emma being so far ahead of him, wants gone. And while he’s seemingly succeded with kitty I not only have every expectation that while ressuection is failing to work on her she’ll be back, but that trying to murder one of the most beloved x-men whose consdiered family to among others three of krakoa’s captains, bishop after this series, four of their council, five if you include Doug whose best friends with both his left arm which is also a deadly space robot and the very place they live on. The only reason he’s not going to die 80 times in increasingily horrifying ways is because the five can’t take on that kind of workload and one murderous ass beating from half of krakoa and krakoa itself is close enough. 

Emma is easily one of the books best parts, being written back as she should: An anti hero who while quick with a cutting quip, truly cares for her charges, and mutantkind as a whole and has grown from the monster she started as or even the kind of person who’d use a therapy session from a desperate man having issues opening up emotionally after apocalypse used his body as a rental car to convince him to fuck her.  And yes that’s how things started with Scott and Emma and yes it’s really fucked up and yes the story treats it as such, though I still wish Scott would get actual therapy, but as Linkara recently pointed out in his House of M Review the Marvel and DC universes weirdly lack therapists for the most part and thus it was left on my mind the last two weeks.. and yes I know DC tried but when your final product at trying to serious tackle mental health is heroes in crisis.. I award you no points and god have mercy on your soul.  But while Emma and Kitty get the lions share of the focus the rest of the group is enjoyable, well done and intresting, if not given many arcs to themselves, but still have enough character moments to counterballance that. The standout of the rest of the crew is easily Pyro, taken from “why is he still dead despite being super popular and used in a heavy role in X2 that’s garnered fans of that version to this day and bafflement he became a foot note in the next movie and used in every adaptation” to fun side character with a skull on his face and a love of booze and setting things on fire. He’s finally given the respect he deserves sorta and while I hope more is delved into his ressurection angst, he’s a ton of fun and it again makes me wonder why it took 20+ years to bring him back, but i’m glad the right person did it. The rest of the crew are fun with Bishop being another standout.  That being said part of the reason there isn’t a lot of focus is simply because in additoin to our brave crew the book is juggling a LOT of characters.. the morlocks and calisto, both given a proper treatment after wya too long, jumbo carnation a minor character from morrisons run who was introduced in the same issue he died is emma’s designer, shinobi shaw and christian frost, the latter I question why a main relative of one of marvel’s a-list mutants who was one of marvel’s earlier gay characters hasn’t been used in a big way till now but no time like the present, Sebastian and the people he shares his big bad spot with Homines Verde aka those tweens who ran the hellfire club during jason aaron’s run because the man is nuts and who I only seemd to liked, brillinatly revamped as a racist replacemnt for the hellfire club and so far a clever threat. The book is just stuffed iwth good characters, beautiful art, and a great tone that combines spectacular humor with really good story and worldbuilding. It’s also a nice contrast to hickman’s stuff: don’t get me wrong I love hickman’s writing style but it’s nice to have something JUST as good.. but with a cheerier tone and less weariness to it, while still not lacking weight. I can’t wait to see where this goes.. it’s a pirates life for me. 

Excalibur:  Like most of the dawn of X-Line outside of fallen angels, more on that in a minute and even then that had an intresting new directoin for betsy braddock, I was pumped for this one. A team I loved: While I struggled to find a run I loved with Claremont’s run having Brian Braddock be a raging dick whose terrible to his girlfriend and gets away with cheating on her and Claremont not really bothering to explain Saturnyne or other characters and their history with Brian well to us yanks who never had the chance to read those tales.. though why stories by alan moore and chris claremont haven’t been republished properly or in epic collections is beyond me. Warren Ellis, who I now loathe for being a scheming weasel who treated women like garbage, had a decent run with plenty of warlock, in a weird phase where he thought he was doug, Moira and Wolfsbane stuff I loved.. but also had 30-40 something pete wisdom shacking up with 18 year old at most kitty pryde, with Pete at the time being basically Warren Ellis badass self insert character, and given recent revelations i’m pretty sure he damn well knew kitty was just 18 and even if he didn’t having his own fanfic character deflower her is just all kinds of EWWWWWW. He also had Colossus, fresh of being a villian for a while for understandable reasons, nearly beat pete into a coma in a jealous rage over the ex.. the ex he dated while she was still a minor, and left because HE , and editorial, was uncomfortable with it for damn obvious reasons. I can see why fans like to see her as bisexual and pair her with Illiayna.. I mean why the fuck not? They have better chemistry than most of he hetrosexual intrests and are paried because of that and not because the writer wanted to make out iwth kitty as a teenager and forgot “oh yeah she’s fictional and i’m 40!”  Christ thank god for Gerry Duggan.  But yeah moving on from that I was still pumped as a magical x-men book with Besty Braddock now captain freaking britan, and apocalypse on the roster. And rictor and jubille? nad rouge and gambit I guess.. I don’t knokw if they fit but whatever. Sign me up. The actual result is a mixed back. I do like Tini Howard’s work here to a point: Betsy gets good character stuff and theres actually good tension from the fact that the new captain britan is no longer primarily a british ctizen, and the book brought back a character I felt marvel needed to do more with: Jamie. if you don’t know, Jamie is betsy and brian’s, her brother and the former captain britian, older brother who went insane due to his powers and thus just goes around in his underwear convinced reality isn’t real and he can do what he wants and the tension with Jamie refusing to have anything to do with his brother for no good reason is really good. Rictor and Apocalypse are likewise good sensable additons: Rictor turns out to be a natural to being a druid which is a nice twist and makes sense given when he lost his powers the biggest issue with that was loosing touch with earth after having a connection to it be a vital part of him for years. Apocalypse as an ominus chess master slowly securing magic for mutantkind with some goal we’re about to get answers to is really investing and adds a layer to his character, that much like doctor doom he’s as much sorecer as he is scinetest and given the guy’s immortal, it dosen’t feel like it was pulled out of nowhere.  The problem is the other half of the cast.. dosen’t really work. I fucking love Jubilee, a faviroite of mine as an xman despite not being a huge 90′s x-men cartoon fan, just feels kinda shoe horned in. Her son becomes a dragon and she worries about him constantly, but her worrying about her son possibly not being a mutant on mutant land could be done in any other x-book, and fraknly I feel her personality would fit better with the maruaders, and it’d be intresting to see kitty and her on the same team since both really haven’t interacted. Here she just feels like “well tini wanted jubilee and no one else did soooo I made her son a dragon to justify getting her”. I feel more could be done and hope Tini has better plans for her. Rouge is one of my faviorte x-men and All New X Factor and Kelly Thompsons work with him and Rouge made me like Gambit again, and I DO love their marriage and it was a way better idea than the one Guggenhiem had planned.. but while the idea of Rouge being reborn is intresting and all, she still dosen’t really get to do much and like Jubilee just feels weirldy out of place while Remy has that plus he’s annoying, as while he’s the only one rightfully supscious of apocalypse he also won’t shut the fuck up about it for five minutes. Ig et where he’s coming from  but it dosen’t make him less annoying. These aren’t bad characters, but sof ar they just feel weirdly out of place in a magic based book and unlike Rictor tini hasn’t made any of htem but Rouge feel in place. 

That being said I could ignore that more.. but the villians are also week. So far at least, as the return of Satyurne has given the book it’s first good antagonist.. but what I feel drags the book down the most from it’s potential is the bad guys; Morgan Le Fay is the first antaognist, being mad at apocalypse’s intrusions and corrputing Brian.. but her motives are just so boring: She wants power and to rule, she hates mutants... while “hates mutants” is a qualifier for every other antagonist so far, she just feels bland.. Tini just dosen’t make her feel like a good antagonist and it’s a shame as mutant hater or not she’s something DIFFRENT from the throngs of mutant hating conspiracies, mostly from russia in the other books... she’s just so bland it dosen’t work. And after her is Cullen Bloodstone who as far as I can tell is written out of character.. haven’t read his book but I had both a friend confirm it and having read his marvel wiki entry, it just seems like an odd turn to have him be a racist asshole. But even with all my problems and underwhelm here.. I still WANT the book to get from okay to amazing, and feel it genuinely has the potetial. I’ve seen books sharply improve after a rough first arc, Duggan himself showed me that with his Guardians run. Sometimes it just takes time for something to truly blossom and I have a feeling even with my issues, with x of swords coming up howard’s going to flip it all on it’s head and leave me standing there gasping like a moron. I have hope for that. And if nothing else the book is at least UNIQUE. And not in a trainwreck way: by giving mutants a piece of the magic pie and having them tackle far weirder threats, it’s at least doing something new and it probably lands for other people if not me, and if nothing else it does brian 80 times better than the claremont run did. not a high bar but I do like the character and it’s nice to see him take such an intresting path, and the same goes for Betsy. Tini’s still got magic to do, and I have a feeling it’s going to take me by storm very soon. 

Fallen Angels: Now for the other half of the coin as it were. Some fans weren’t happy about Betsy getting her old body back, and yes Psylocke wasn’t orignally asian but a white british woman bodyswapped iwth a japanese assasian and yes that’s as ludicrious and unteitonally offensive as it sounds, because horrible implications of said Body Swap or not, Psylocke was one of the few asian superheros of note. So to compromise , Hickman and co decided to split the diffrence: Betsy would come back and get a rank up to captain britan, while Kwannon, said assasian, would take over as Psylocke. Hence Excalibur above and fallen angels here and I was excited about it. The Body Swap thing went on a decade too long and this way fans got the character they knew as Psylocke in another book while the face they recognized would finally get some fleshing out. I was excited about that and while probably the least excited about this book of the intitial 5, it did have an intresting lead, two characters I did like (Kid Cable I grant was only under hickman who turned him from that brat version of cable who killed the one I really love to a good character in his own right), and an intresting antagonist in a sentient machine.  In practice it was okay. The best I can say is that writer Brian Hill DOES do a great job taking a mostly minor x-character and really fleshing her out and making her engaging and Kwannon’s quest to save her daughter is really compelling.. but the premise of those who don’t fit with krakoa dosen’t work with the roster given. Laura Kinney is not only sticking with the x-23 name after dropping the wolverine mantle for no reason previously, something Hickman fixed as soon as he realized how fans felt for her apperance in the main book, while Cable feels nothing like the far more fun version from Hickman’s X-Men and later Duggan’s Cable. Add in Husk and Bling who do deserve to be on a team but feel out of place here, and it just.. is okay. The book has an intresting angagonist and a great lead, but just dosen’t work as a team book and would’ve been better off being JUST about kwannon herself, who is far and away the best part about the book and i’m glad she got fleshed out. Not TERRIBLE but nothing special and it’s a shame given the antagonist, whose name I can’t even remember at this point, is intresting and ties into mutantkind’s greatest enmies being man and machine accoridng to house and powers.. basically a decent concep twith a flawed execution. Maybe hill’ sbatman and hte outisders run is better. I need to get on that. That being said the premise and idea is so far being done well in Hellions which we’ll get to, even if I’m being cautious really getting into the book with Zeb Wells track record. But more on that in a bit. 

X-Force: Time to make noise, bad guys leave us no choice.. you know the rest. But yeah X-force. The concept here grabbed me, having X-Force rather than just be the black ops squad but be literal black ops for krakoa, was really great and fit the brave new world.. what worried me was the writer, Benjamin Percy. Now a lot of x-fans probably knew him from the much beloved “Wolverine: The Long Night” podcast, which i’ve heard is utterly fantastic as is it’s followup.. but I hadn’t heard it, and had only heard of Percy from DC comics where under his belt was an okay teen titans run and a not very good and politcally unsubtle green arrow book. And i’m not against politics in comics it just wasn’t done at all well there and the “oliver queen looses hif ourture due to a shadowy conspiracy thing” was already done better by jeff lemire. So yeah I was going to give this a chance but figured like those books it’d start strong and then peter out.  I. Was. Wronnnnggg. X-Force is easily one of the best of the dawn of x and uses said premise well. It started a bit roughly, mostly becasue the first arc idnd’t make clear x-force didn’t exist yet but was a great origin story: a squad of military commandos working for a shadowy consirtum who become x-force’s big bad, plunge onto Krakoa and massacre a bunch of mutantas and assinate charles xavier. He comes back, though it’s trickier for obvious reasons, but it’s clear from this, and from wolverine and kid omega’s sucessful investigation and finding domino, that this can’t go on and thus X-Forces is formed; The intellegence and black ops arm of Krakoa and the one arm of it’s goverment exempt from the ‘dont’ kill humans rule”. What followed was nearly a years worth of fast paced adventures with good character stuff: Wolverine is in his element, kid omega, while I had my doubts due to quinten being way overused , turned out to be a perfect choice basically being a more compitent teenage sterling archer, cocky and loving this but also really good at his job, while Domino gets a great arc dealing with her trauma over her mutalation and having some of her power stolen by the shadowy masked dickheads while Colossus deals with his trauma over what went down when he rescued some Russian mutants, with the book slowly building up new threats and towards a showdown with Russia, something that’s also been built up by conflicts in Wolverine and Mauraders, which again makes the world of x feel more like an actual world instead a bunch of comics in one cast herd.  Jean Grey is good for intellegence, though by now seems to have noped out as she couldn’t take the toll, it’s not for everyone and most notably after 5 or 6 years of being treated worse and worse and written worse and worse and becoming a bigger and bigger piece of shit Beast is FINALLY put in the right spot: his darker turns aren’t ignored but he’s back to being an actually intellegent hero as X-force’s director, still a bit greasy but now for good reason and without a god complex or some such bullshit and with a tiny bit of his humor back. Not much else to say really, X-Force is well paced, enjoyable and gritty, getting the spirit of the team at it’s best down right while doing something fresh with it. 

New Mutants (Ed Brisson) Last one, New Mutants is the odd duck of the dawn of x line in terms of how it was launched. Fallen Angels ended up being a mini series both due  to Hill being busy and it’s cast being needed elsewhere but will presmibly get a follow up later, but it’s not the ONLY mini series in the line with Fantastic four/x-men, the giant sized one shots and now Empyre: X-Men all debuting in wave 2. New Mutants however is the first book to change writers and said writer STARTED in the middle of hickman’s run, partly due to scheduling delays but even before that it was partly by design and those issues haven’t been collected yet, with hickman’s short run being collected first. So you have a run that builds off what Hickman started but with it’s own ideas that started insidei t and suprisingly it .. really works.  While I do think there are better books in the line Brisson’s new mutants is enjoyable, combining humor and character work. New Mutants focuses on the sextant, which was first brought up in hickman’s run, the series of habitats for younger mutants on krakoa that the new mutants look out for, and while the original new mutants are in space, Armor decides to try and bring some old friends in to join in paradise with the help of Glob Herman, that big pink guy with a visable skeleton and eyes, and Maxine and Manon, who in the tradition of layla miller were created for an event and not great htere but turned out amazing under the right writer.. who I think also wrote that event but whatever, a pair of empaths and telepaths who have trouble grasping the right ethics for using their powers.  The four go to get one of my faviorite x-men back: BEAK! I missed him even if he’s weirdly suddenly repowered. Beak and his wife Angel only haven’t joiend in with their kids because his dad’s sick, and things soon escalate when a bunch of criminals try holding them all hostage and it’s up to boom boom, bored since everyone left her alone, to save the day! After that we deal with Magik rangling them and the team’s new mission statment: not wanting ot mess up again like she did with beak, who did join them but not without loosing his dad and then his memory of his dad thanks to the twins misguided efforts, Armor still wants to try welcoming new mutants in with the vetrans help, and thus we have our puprose: focusing both on how these younger mutant 20 somethigns of various ages from early to late work together to make a better world nad help their own get back to this world. it’s intresting.. I’m not in love with it like mauraders or x-force, but it’s still pretty good and their first big foe so far, DoX, a blog that well.. doxes mutants that haven’t arrived yet, seems to be intresting. Not much to say just pretty good and and better at mixing comedy and character stuff, and getting the cast right. Ed Brisson had already proven himself on old man logan, but this cements him as one of the hottest new x-writers around and i’m glad he was given a book here. He’s also succeded in making me actually like Glob Herman so that’s a plus. 

Fantastic Four/X-Men The first title of wave 2 and easily one of the best, right up there with mauraders nad probably JUSST behind it and ONLY because i’ts a mini series, giving the X-Men their first real step into the rest of hte marvel universe. Sure the 4 had cameoed in the first issue and there’s been mentions of krakoa in other books and one off issues but mostly Krakoa really hadn’t impacted anything.. but that first issue also set things up with Scott’s conversation with Sue Richards

Yeah and in case those who haven’t been aware of what’s going on with the FF lately and either remember franklin as a 6-11 year old or wondered why the hell he was suddenly a teen when they read this crossover, it’s actually simple; At the end of secret wars the Richards family was put on a bus, also so marvel could shove the ff as a proper team out the door due to the whole fox rights thing, and when Dan Slott had brought them back.. and cleverly had more time pass for the richards than for the 616 proper, so he could age Franklin up to his late teens and Valeria up to her early ones, allowing the richards children to actually age since Franklin’s age always had to stay vauge due to marvel’s vage and wobbly time scale. This way they get both consitant ages and more agency.  But the return also came with a price as Franklin, who if you didn’t know is so powerful he can create whole universe and shape the sturcture of the universe, had his powers break saving his family, and thus since he came back, he’s onlyg got so much of them left in the tank before they run out entirely, and it’s been an issue for him in Slott’s run as he worries about being the normal human in a fantastic family and comes to a head here, though rather than Hickman himself, who as mentioned last time has a marvelous track record with the family or FF series writer dan slott Hickman choose a wild card for this, though had both Hickman and Slott’s permission to do whatever he wanted: Chip Zdarsky, a modern marvel for marvel who’d writtne the four in marvel two in one but for some reason didn’t get the main book and this book makes me hope whenever Dan Slott bows out he gets his turn and while this is his first x-men work, Zdarsky proves he’s just as good here as is in most of his work on Howard the Duck, Jughead and Star Lord.. a weird selection I know but all classics. 

With this power outage, Franklin is worried his dad is, at least subconciously, not really trying to help him and to make matters worse teh x-men show up to offer their help.. and Franklin his birthright. The arguments made by both sides are great and I will be covering the series in full soon but in a nutshell the four dont’ want to give up their son/nephew, Reed dosen’t trust Xavier and feels he wants to use his son’s powers while the x-men feel it’s franlin’s choice and he’s old enough to make it, he belongs with them and he’ll be safer there. It also works because Franklin understandably isn’t swayed by either as neither is reallyt alking to him more at him, especially his parents .. and only tries the gate when Kitty Pryde, the two  bonded back in the 80s and a young franklin stopped her from comitting suicide long story but really moving, is the only one to tell him it’s his choice. This dosen’t go quite well though since Reed Richards, father of the year, decided to make a device to mask his son’s mutant gene and no one, including his own family, is happy about htis.  Naturally Franklin, with Val’s help, runs away.. and then as if it couldn’t get worse DOOM shows up wanting to help so now it’s a three way dance between them for hte fate of franklin. The series has gorgeous art form the dodsons a really damn compelling story and great setup for further stories for both lines and feels like the best of both franchises. It’s the x-men’s first huge impact on the rest of the marvel universe,a nd it feels like it with the ending showing that and showing this might not be the last time both sides crossover. It’s everything you could want from a crossover and i’m only being so brief because I want to review it soon as a huge fan of both groups. Easily one of the best x-men stories of the line and one of the best stories for both groups period. 

Wolverine:  We’re onto the final two, and Percy’s second book and the first solo.. and it’s logan again! Makes sense though: Wolverine only just came back from the dead, and while both is daughter and alternate future self carried the woverline banner for him, the original hasn’t gotten his own ongoing in some time. And so far.. it’s pretty good> the first issues a bit messy due to it’s lenght, but overall the book is intresting and has Logan graple with being the best at waht he does and if he can be better or if he deserves paradise while also delivering a compelling solo mission teaming Wolverine up with a federal agent who resents mutants. it also does some good world building, explaning why Krakoan drugs have things like wait lists (they want to control production closely both to avoid having the flower taken away and for quality control), and expanding the russia subplot while using Dracula of all people as a major antagonist, which is clever especailly since this isn’t his first rodeo with the x-men. Just a fun book wiht loads of promise.

Hellions: NOt much to say here as it’s hard to judge after two issues, buti f nothing else this series brought back the delightfully batshit Nanny, who just with last weeks issue offered to nurse Greycrow (who had his name changed from scalphunter because of course marvel did why wouldn’t they) and falling down. It combines humor with an odd but well thought out cast and makes Alex Summers intresting without making everyone else assholes, a hard but earned feet. If it continues to be good.. I dunno, especially since i haven’t been impressed by any of zeb wells other works especially his new mutants run, good god that one’s am ess, but so far he’s winning me over with a clever concept and roster full of deep cuts.  Final Thoughts:  I won’t be covering Empyre: X_men, though I did enjoy it and i’l save that one for next time. For now this has been a hell of a year of x-men comics, with even the weaker books still having something intresting and none being outright terribule and only one had a bad grasp on some of it’s cast and for a line this big and expansive, that’s a gold medal achivment. After YEARS of stasis the x-men have finally risen again better, bolder and stranger than ever. IS every book A+ gold star etc etc, no, but what’s important.. is that it’s all DECENT. There’s enough standout books to make it work but as i’ve made clear what isn’t the best of the best is still good or decent. There’s nothing bad, no one phoning it in or not giving an effort, everyone is trying thier hardest and succeding on SOME level even if not completely and that.. that’s truly amazing and I look forward to more of it as this line continues. Pax Krakoa and hopefully i’ll see you again. 

[secretagentspydetectiveninja]

Alien Spaceship Pyramids

(Very mild Kwamibuster spoilers. Also on AO3)

-

Alix was not a happy bunny when she went back to the Louvre that evening.

“Did you see me on TV?” Jalil said immediately, jumping up in excitement. “My theory was accepted! I’m so happy!”

“Yeah, I saw it,” Alix snapped. She threw her schoolbag down on the floor and went off to go find her skates – she really had to do something fun and distracting or she would go mad.

“What did you think? Was I okay? I did get lots of followers on my history blog, so I’m glad at least that my theories are gaining traction–”

“Aliens, Jalil? Really?!” She spun round to face him. “You do know it’s possible for humans to build pyramids, right? That’s an actual thing that humans actually can do. I can do it myself, just gimme a few Lego blocks and I’ll happily show you. ‘Alien spaceships’, honestly...”

“But I have proof! The pyramids are so ancient that primitive human technology of the time can’t possibly have built structures as mathematically magnificent as that!”

“They just piled a bunch of rocks on top of each other, how hard can it be?”

“But they’re so huge, and – and – I have other proof too...”

She sighed. “Look. I didn’t care about the necromancy thing, even if it was so cringey that you got akumatized over it. I didn’t care about the Atlantis thing. I got super into the Area 51 thing, if you remember. I get that conspiracy theories are fun. But this? This is a step too far!”

“Why?”

“Because you’re acting like our own ancestors were too dumb to build a freaking pyramid!”

Jalil crossed his arms. “You sound just like dad.”

“Pfffff, dad doesn’t talk like that, he’s way less informal.”

“You know what I mean! Anyway, come on, can’t I count on my own family to support me? I support your skating thing, even though you keep getting injured from it!” He gestured towards the bandage on her knee.

“Jalil, dude. I have supported you through so much. Like that hang-gliding fad, or your weird rivalry with that Theo guy, or that bloody necromancy ritual you never shut up about. But now I’ve had it. Next you’ll be saying the moon landing was a hoax, or the earth is flat, or that vaccines are bad, or that Rena Rouge is Marinette, or... or...”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” he scoffed. “Rena Rouge is Mylène, of course.”

At the end of her patience, Alix turned away and began walking off to find her skates again. “I’m disowning you.”

“Hey! You can’t do that!”

“I can and I will!” she called out over her shoulder. “Dad was right to give the pocket watch to me! And guess what? I’m gonna go find Juleka’s mum and get her to adopt me, and then I’ll get an actual cool older brother instead! Not a weirdo like you...”

“Fine!” She heard Jalil stomp his foot, like some immature little kid. “I’m not talking to you anymore.”

“Me neither!”

Good riddance – she’d had enough of him and his stupid conspiracies!

 -

 “You can’t just get my mum to adopt you,” Juleka said, rolling her eyes. Well, the one eye that was visible anyway. Who knew what the other one was doing.

“Why not?” Alix asked.

“Because you’ve already got a parent. My mum would have to marry your dad, and uh... yeah. Not happening.”

“But it’s so unfair! You get a cool big brother who’s actually supportive and nice and didn’t try to convince you that Beethoven is an alien time lord when you were only 3 years old...”

The quiet twangs of Luka’s guitar could be heard from where he was sitting out on the deck. Imagine if Jalil could play the guitar? But no, the stupid nerd had to go for drums, and it was so frustrating to have to hear that boring repetitive tapping whenever she was trying to do her homework.

Juleka’s one eye widened. “But Alix, Beethoven really IS an alien time lord.”

“Haha, very funny.” Alix turned away.

“Hey... Jalil is a grown-up, isn’t he? Surely he’ll move out soon and then you won’t have to deal with him?”

“I doubt it. He works in the museum with dad. It’ll be me who has to move out, and I’ve still got years left before I can do that. Meanwhile my brother is on TV going on about alien spaceships while yours is on TV because you guys are in a rock band.”

Couldn’t Jalil be in a rock band with her? Sure, the age difference was a lot bigger than Juleka and Luka’s was, but still! Sibling rock bands were such a cool idea. Why couldn’t Jalil ever think of something like that? “Sibling archaeology team” didn’t have quite the same ring to it, especially when said team ended up getting chased out of the park for digging up all the grass.

“It’s not like Luka isn’t annoying sometimes too,” Juleka said, seemingly trying to put on a reassuring smile. “For example he... uh... hmm... he thinks ethereal wave is better than darkwave. It’s really annoying.”

“Ah yes, arguing over music genres. Jalil thinks the Hurrian Hymns are better than the Jet Set Radio soundtrack and I want to slap him. Like no offence to the Ancient Sumerians but they could really have used more bass.”

“Well um... Luka also won’t use mascara even though I keep telling him it’ll really make his eyes pop.”

“Yeah, and Marinette and Adrien still won’t stop obsessing over him. Jalil fricking wears scarfs indoors. Like, inside when it’s warm. I don’t care about fashion and even I want to nominate him for Queer Eye.”

Juleka shrugged. “Oh, I give up. Luka is a great brother. I’m sorry.”

Alix nodded, getting up to leave. “Never mind. I guess I’ll just have to deal with him then, though I’m not gonna stop giving him the silent treatment...”

Anyway, Juleka constantly trying to make her feel better wasn’t what she needed. She needed a brick wall to vent at who would just nod along and not really care, and let her be as annoyed as she wanted in peace. She needed... ah yes... a certain emo who would certainly be in the art gallery back at the Louvre right about now...

 -

 She hadn’t even made it there yet before hearing the unwelcome voice of Nuisance #1 chasing after her down the street.

“HEY ALIX! Your brother was awesome on that show earlier! Wait come back! Stop!”

Screeching to a halt on her skates, she turned around. “What do you want, Kim?”

Kim did that weird half-dab thing he had been doing all day. “The show, Alternative Truth! How do you get on it? I wanna be on it too!”

She rolled her eyes. “For what? What stupid conspiracy are you going to go with?”

“Well don’t tell anyone but...” He looked around and then lowered his voice to a whisper. “I think your dad might be Hawk Moth.”

“God, and I thought Jalil was bad...”

Kim didn’t seem to have heard her. “So how do you get on the show? How did Jalil do it? What do I do? Do I need to make a history blog too? I follow Jalil’s one now and it’s really great but he hasn’t mentioned anything about the show yet so...”

Alix made a mental note to remember to block Jalil’s blog from every one of her accounts at some point in the near future. “I don’t know and I don’t care. Go ask him yourself.”

“Well I would, but I can’t go in the Louvre, the security guards banned me after I broke that statue that one time...”

“Oh yeah, that was great,” she said, allowing herself a grin despite how annoyed she was. “Fine, I’ll let you in through the side entrance. But only on the condition that you never speak to me about Jalil ever again.”

His face fell. “Why not?”

“Because he’s the worst brother ever and I hate him.”

“Wow, that’s kinda harsh...”

“I don’t care. Now hurry up and follow me, I’ve got a tomato to meet up with.”

She skated off and trusted he was following. He was always bragging about being able to run super fast, well surely he’d be able to keep up, right? If he couldn’t then too bad for him!

 -

 “Alright, go through there,” Alix said, pointing at the corridor that led towards her family’s quarters. “I’m going to the art gallery. And if you get kicked out or arrested by security guards then I’m absolutely throwing you under the bus and pretending I had nothing to do with this.”

“Cool. In return, I’m gonna tell Jalil what you said about him being the worst brother ever and that you hate him. See ya later!”

Kim turned and ran off before she could even process what he’d said.

Wait... he was going to actually tell Jalil that? To his face?

Alix ignored the weird pangs of guilt. Anyway, it was true! Jalil was the worst. She definitely didn’t care if someone told him so. He deserved to be insulted.

Her gut twisted painfully.

No! No guilt. She stuffed a pair of headphones on and skated off towards the art gallery.

 -

 The best thing about Nathaniel was that he just didn’t care. It probably worked both ways – plenty of times he’d been the one sitting here, ranting about something while doodling in that little sketchbook of his, and Alix would just skate around and listen. Now it was her turn to rant.

“Jalil is so annoying! I can’t stand it any longer! His conspiracies don’t even make any sense, he’s just doing it to be edgy and weird and I hate it!”

“Mhm.” Nath didn’t even look up from his sketchbook.

“I never even minded before, but this alien spaceship thing has gone too far. And to think he was on TV, and everyone saw it! It’s the most embarrassing thing that’s ever happened to me!”

“Yeah. So embarrassing.”

“I used to wonder why dad is so harsh on him all the time, but I kinda get it now. He’s just – just so–”

She stopped just short of saying the word useless.

Was Jalil useless?

Well... he had been the one who had bought Alix her first ever pair of skates. Heck, he’d even been the one who bought the skates she was currently wearing.

Nath finally looked up. “Having second thoughts?”

Alix had been so busy venting that she hadn’t noticed the songs that were playing through her headphones, having just put the thing on shuffle and let it do what it wanted, but she suddenly noted the vaguely familiar tones of an ancient lyre.

Pulling her phone out of her pocket, she looked to see that it was... oh yeah, Hurrian Hymn No. 6. That time when she’d downloaded it just to see what Jalil’s hype about it even was. It was okay, she guessed. Not her type of music, but hey, the Ancient Sumerians only had a limited availability of instruments to work with, it wasn’t her place to judge that.

She sighed and went to sit down beside Nath.

“It’s a bit weird... me and Jalil have never really fought like this before. He just does his own thing and I do my own thing. I... I’m not used to being mad at him.”

Peering over, she noticed that Nath was drawing the pyramids themselves. It reminded her of what she was annoyed about in the first place.

“I just can’t believe he literally went on TV and called the pyramids alien spaceships! Does he even hear himself? I usually stick up for him when dad is calling him out on his dumb theories, but this one just doesn’t make any sense at all...”

“So this is the first time you haven’t taken his side?” Nath asked.

She nodded. “I guess that’s why he’s mad at me too... he’s used to me sorta passively supporting him... I mean most of the time his theories aren’t any more or less zany than the stuff Alya comes up with, so it’s not usually a big deal...”

The lyre was strangely haunting. So much reverb, echoing around like the thoughts in her brain. It was enough to calm her down a bit – probably a good thing, because getting akumatized was not exactly a priority today.

Her phone buzzed. She looked at it again to see–

Ugh, a notification that Jalil had updated his blog. She’d forgotten to block him.

But even as she unlocked the screen and went to do so, she couldn’t stop herself from reading what he’d posted, at least the first few lines.

Apologies to all my dear fans and followers who watched Alternative Truth today, but I am renouncing my theory that the pyramids are the remains of ancient spaceships. I have come to realize that I was misinformed and that there is a high possibility that the Ancient Egyptians really did build them through their own power, and...

What?

“Nath!” Alix leapt to her feet. “Jalil doesn’t believe that alien spaceship theory anymore!”

Nath barely even blinked. “Okay. Cool.”

“How did this happen? There’s no way he’d just stop believing something like that, he’s always so adamant that he’s right! Unless... unless... oh no...”

Was this her fault? Her saying that she hated Jalil, that he was the worst brother ever, and Kim deciding to tell him so, did that really hurt Jalil so much that he’d renounce his own theory? Had her words affected him that much?

“Oh my god I have to go apologize to him.”

“Uh what?”

“I’ll be back later! You keep drawing, I have to go...”

Leaving Nath there confused, she skated off at top speed.

 -

 “Jalil! Jalil, there you are!”

Jalil frowned. “Alix? I thought you weren’t going to talk to me anymore?”

Too much momentum to stop in time, she skated right into him and almost knocked him over. “I’m so sorry I was mean to you okay, I mean your theory was definitely stupid and I’m glad you renounced it but please ignore whatever Kim said, I don’t think you’re the worst brother and–”

“Wait, what are you talking about?”

“I’m talking about the things I said about you behind your back! Kim said he was going to tell you...”

Jalil scratched his head in thought. “That’s the kid with the Tintin hair, right? I didn’t get to talk to him at all, I saw him getting kicked out by security actually.”

“So he didn’t tell you that I said I hated you?”

“No, not at all!”

Oh...

“Well then why did you renounce your theory?” she asked. “I thought it was because I made you feel bad.”

“Something really strange happened to me actually!” Jalil said, his eyes lighting up in the way that they always did whenever he was going to go off on a conspiracy tangent. Alix mentally prepared herself for the worst. “I met a superhero who claimed to come from the future! She had the powers of time travel and said that she would prove me wrong, and so she took me through a portal back in time to thousands of years ago, and briefly showed me the Ancient Egyptians actually building the pyramids themselves. And I know it sounds too good to be true but I promise I’m not lying! This really happened to me!”

Superhero from the future? She was about to say how far-fetched that sounded, when she noticed Jalil looking at her very suspiciously.

“The superhero... looked very familiar, now that I think about it...”

“Uh... who did it look like?”

He hesitated for a few seconds before answering. “...Never mind. Just a conspiracy theory.”

“Is it one with proof this time? Because as long as it’s not as stupid as the pyramid one, I’m willing to hear it.”

He shook his head. “I’ll tell you someday, but just uh... not yet.”

“Um, okay.”

“Anyway, you were right about the pyramid theory being wrong, and I’m sorry I didn’t listen to you.”

“Cool. And I’m... I’m sorry I was really harsh about it.”

“No, it’s good that you were! I shouldn’t be giving all the credit to aliens for things that humans did. And you’re usually really nice about my theories, so if it was something that made you annoyed, then it surely had to have been bad...”

Alix smiled – it was nice to be back on her brother’s good side. “All forgiven. I’ll still stick up for you when dad’s being annoying, I promise.”

“Thanks, munchkin.” He patted her on the head. “I like it better when we’re not bickering.”

“Same.”

Something popped into her head all of a sudden.

“Oh yeah, Jalil? How did you get onto Alternative Truth in the first place?”

“Why do you want to know? Are you going to go on it?”

“What? No! Not me! Kim stans that show, he was bugging me about it earlier...”

“Oh right! Well it was like this...”

He launched into an explanation. Phew – things were back to normal. Jalil could be annoying, sure, but he still helped Alix with her homework, and covered for her whenever she was doing anything she wasn’t supposed to, and cheered for her at skating competitions, and so many other things she was grateful for. In fact, he probably kept her in line as much as she had done with him today. Of course, being so much younger, it wasn’t exactly easy to boss him around without him getting overly annoyed about it. But at least he was still there for her.

Superhero from the future, though... who on earth was that?

 -

 It was several years later when Alix kicked open the door to Jalil’s room, pocket watch in hand.

“Hey Alix, what’s u–”

“The superhero was me, wasn’t it?” she said, deadpan.

“What superhero?”

“The one who showed you the pyramids years ago.”

Jalil’s eyes widened. “Oh – the bunny? You mean that really is you?”

“Oh hell yes, it was me alright. You were being such a twerp that day, it still annoys me when I think about how I had to sit through that stupid TV show...”

“Wait you’re a miraculous holder?!”

Alix didn’t pay him any attention. “I’m going back in time to that day right now and proving you wrong. Your alien spaceship theory doesn’t stand a chance.”

“Wait wait wait you’re telling me my little sister really is a superhero???”

Alix turned back around and walked out of the room. How had it took her so long to put two and two together? Well, whatever. Time to fix mini-Alix and mini-Jalil’s friendship, and put an end to the alien spaceships once and for all.

[mobius-prime]

192. Sonic the Hedgehog #124

Sonic Adventure 2.5: Λlphλ

Writer: Karl Bollers Pencils: J. Axer and Steven Butler Colors: Jason Jensen

All right everyone, we've finally made it to the "Endgame" of the fourth era! While it's not quite as epic and game-changing, this story, spanning this issue and the next, alters the setting and the plot quite a bit, and also sees the return of Shadow the Hedgehog, whom we only got to see a quick cameo of back in Sonic Adventure 2. Also, amusingly, the word "Alpha" in the title is actually spelled with the Greek letter Lambda, not the actual letter Alpha. I know it's for the Aesthetic™ and all, but it's still funny. But anyway, let's jump in and see what this era's finale has in store for us!

So first, we learn the story of how Shadow survived his fall from orbit. Turns out, he didn't actually fall at all! Before he entered the atmosphere, he was caught in a beam from an alien spaceship, and brought aboard.

Well now, isn't this interesting! These are the same aliens that transformed Eggman and Snively back to their organic forms a few issues ago. It seems they're quite interested in meddling in the affairs of the planet, for whatever reason, and now they're using Shadow as a method of escaping from a second spaceship full of different aliens who appear to be quite aggressive. Shadow tries to fight back against them, but the ship hits him with an energy beam, and he begins to lose consciousness once again, falling back towards the atmosphere just as before. Meanwhile back in Knothole, Sonic wakes up, seemingly excited about something big today. He races to Knothole Castle where he kisses Sally hello, the two now openly dating now that they've admitted their true feelings for each other. She asks him if he's ready to "pop the question," to which he says he… is… wait, what question is this, Sally?! You can't mean…

At the same time, in Station Square, the president finds himself contacted by Eggman, who tries to make him a deal to become allies in exchange for advanced technology and protection. Of course, he's trying to propose an alliance to the same people who literally nuked his city because they didn't like him, so this goes about as well as you expect. Naturally, Eggman doesn't like this response one bit.

Rouge swoops in to save the president and his driver as the car careens into a river, but just as they think they've escaped danger, the entire false sky above the city shatters under the attack from a mysterious foe… But before we find out who has done this, it's time to find out what question Sonic is supposed to be asking.

…okay, honestly, this is just bizarre to me. I get that absolute monarchies tend to want to marry their heirs off young to secure alliances, but really? These two haven't even properly dated yet, beyond a little these past months (as at least a couple months are implied to have passed since Sally's kidnapping), and now at the age of sixteen they're planning a future wedding? This entire bit seems so weirdly out of character for both Sally and Sonic, if you ask me. The comic has flirted with the idea of marriage between the two in the past, but that was mostly during the earlier issues when each story was only focused on being silly and telling a funny, self-contained story. Obviously, these two have had a deep crush on each other for years now, and have a lot of chemistry in their own way, but a de facto engagement between the two of them is just strange. Sally is much more pragmatic than that, having broken off a potential relationship once before in favor of focusing on her official duties, and as for Sonic, we've been directly shown before that he's flighty, afraid of commitment, and generally prefers casual friendships to heavily romantic relationships. Now, this might make more sense if you instead view it as an announcement of convenience, a plot concocted by the both of them to get Sally's parents off her back about being married off to a "suitable partner" as the future ruler of the kingdom. If it were portrayed this way, then maybe I could give this a pass. But we're given no such inkling that it's anything other than exactly what it appears to be. And that, to me, makes this plot point a completely bizarre departure from the usual attitudes of both these characters to romance and relationships. Even weirder, as we'll see, this doesn't even affect the plot of the comic at all in future issues - while there's a reference to it here and there, it's nothing plot-important and could have easily been written out without much trouble.

Anyway, Sonic runs out to investigate the boom only to find Shadow lying in a crater outside the castle. Man, lucky for him that he just so happened to land here instead of literally anywhere else, huh? Sonic approaches him and Shadow lashes out in confusion, knocking Sonic aside, before coming to and apologizing. All this does is rile Sonic up and he tries to attack Shadow in retaliation. Really, Sonic? You thought Shadow was freaking dead, and the moment you see him again you try to punch his lights out? Sally, luckily, steps in to reprimand him for his behavior, and Nicole contacts her, telling her there's an emergency message for them back at the castle. The Freedom Fighters, along with Shadow, follow her back in, where both Eggman and Rouge contact the royal family simultaneously, each claiming their cities have been attacked by an overwhelmingly strong foe. Shadow confirms that this is likely an attack from the same vessel he had just been fighting, but then… something happens. A telepathic message spreads out across the globe, echoing in the minds of every single sentient being on the planet, demanding the attention of the "inhabitants of planet Earth…"

Well, this is bad. And now, they're back to finish what they started… Eggman panics and tries to immediately get King Max to agree to an alliance of convenience, but Max cuts him off without another word, justifying his actions to his shocked onlookers as making sure Eggman is good and ready to accept a truce on his terms by making him sweat a bit first. Sonic expresses confusion that the aliens seem to be confusing Mobius with another planet called Earth, but they get a call from Angel Island at that moment where Locke offers his assistance. Of course the Freedom Fighters ask about Knuckles, and he sorrowfully informs them that he's dead. They're shocked and saddened, but don't have time to mourn, as they have to prove the Xorda wrong about their planet. Sally begins some research into the history of the planet, but Hope unexpectedly steps forward, offering her own insight into how the Xorda ended up here in the first place.

Oh boy, Shadow, I sense we're going to have some emotional turmoil over Hope in our future. Also, I just wanna note that this issue claims that the Xorda were last here three thousand years ago, but future issues retcon this into twelve thousand years. Anyway, Sally soon discovers something shocking in her research… Mobius and Earth are, in fact, the same planet!

This. Is. It! This is the big reveal that I've been so carefully dancing around for almost two hundred issues! I have been meticulously wording every reference to Mobius being an "Earth-like planet" to be spoiler-free but also totally accurate in the light of this reveal. Yes, ladies, gents and enbies, the Archie Sonic preboot takes place twelve thousand years into our own future. The first Xorda invasion was, in fact, the first recorded Day of Fury, which is why it's recorded as having wiped out nearly all life on the planet. And this is also the origin of the split between five fingered humans, and four fingered Overlanders. The humans survived underground, unaffected by the gene bombs dropped by the Xorda, while the Overlanders are the result of, essentially, re-evolved humans that were affected by the gene bombs. And as for Mobians? Well, we are talking about a weapon called a gene bomb, so Mobians obviously came about through severe mutations caused by said bombs, eventually becoming the dominant species of the planet! This is why the planet's continents look very similar to those of Earth, with the differences easily explained by not only twelve thousand years of continental drift, but the massive geographical alterations that such a dramatic cataclysm would have caused on the planet. All those old references to previous Earth civilizations exist because those things actually happened, even if the people making said references no longer know what the Confederate States were, or who the Aborigines were. I know this reveal wasn't particularly liked by a lot of readers, and certainly without the context of the previous two hundred issues it sounds downright absurd (hell, even with the context it kind of does), but in the end my personal opinion is that this was a bit of a masterstroke on Karl's part. It's a great way to tie a lot of old plot threads together and develop a more cohesive and solid history for Mobius as a planet, and ultimately provides us with a more clear timeline of events for the various races and civilizations of the world. And it's all thanks to a species of creepy vengeful Mother Brain octopus alien things deciding to commit genocide!

Afterlife (Part Four)

Writer: Ken Penders Pencils: Art Mawhinney Colors: J. Jensen

So, Kenders. With the big milestone issue fast approaching, is there anything you wanna add in this next installment of Afterlife? Like, perhaps, finally addressing what exactly is supposed to, y'know, happen in the afterlife? Knuckles certainly wants to know, having spent the last two issues doing nothing but reliving his entire previous life verbatim. Aurora explains that though he feels it's unfair that he died, it was unavoidable, as he simply came into his power too quickly and couldn't temper it or learn to control it quickly enough to pull off his saving-Dimitri stunt without essentially going supernova.

This part actually does interest me, because Knuckles' reaction implies that until now, the fact of his death hasn't fully sunken in. He seems to be under the impression that he can come back from it and just resume his life where he left off, instead of traveling onward into the next phase of life. Aurora apologizes and explains that everyone only gets one chance at life, and beckons him toward the mystical portal to the Chaos Force. Knuckles requests only one more thing, to become his normal red self once more, and when Aurora gently corrects him that he doesn't need her help for that, he finds himself instantly back to his old color scheme with a mere thought, which raises the minor question of whether he would have been able to revert back to red all along, or whether it's due to the malleable nature of existence in the afterlife that he's able to do so now. Regardless, the reign of Green Knuckles over the comic's B-stories has finally ended, and Rad Red steps into the portal, ready to claim his destiny. And thus, we get ready to say goodbye to our favorite echidna once and for all, as he takes his place amongst the… wait, hang on a second…

Good old Athair! I missed you, buddy. Aurora tries to argue that Knuckles should still advance forward into the Chaos Force, but Athair merely frowns and crosses his arms, leaving the ending of this story ambiguous… and ripe for a true conclusion next issue, as we hit another major milestone in the history of the comic!

[tearsofahime]

Anyways buckle down folks this has been sitting in my head ever since I started seeing spoilers about the identities of the zodiac heroes that have been revealed in Season 3

Click below on why I think Marc Anciel will get a miraculous in season 4/5 and what I will predict it will be (Spoilers for everything up to Party Crasher and Ikari Gozen):

The first and obvious piece of evidence that would lend some form of credibility to this theory is based off of the number of confirmed (and shown) miraculouses in the show vs the number of eligible users. As of season 3, we know that there are 19 miraculouses in Paris: The Ladybug and Black Cat, The 2nd-tier Miraculouses (Bee, Fox, and Turtle as well as the Butterfly and Peacock), and the 12 Zodiac miraculouses (Rat, Ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, goat, monkey, rooster, dog, and pig). Take away 2 of them (the Butterfly and Peacock as they go to Gabriel and Nathalie) and you are left with 17 miraculouses that can be given to new heroes.

As we have seen from past episodes, Ladybug tends to appoint new heroes based off of who she is close with and can trust as well as who is best fit for the task at hand. So far, the people Ladybug has appointed as heroes have all been Marinette’s friends (or her peers), and given that this is also a kid’s show designed to cater to and be relatable to kids, it would stand to reason that ALL of the new heroes would be around Marinette’s age. In addition, in “Timetagger”, Older!Alix also talks about there being a TEAM of superheroes in the future, which presents plenty of opportunity to explore the lore of the show through each Kwami and their powers and what better way to do that then to add new superheroes to the Miraculous team (plus it would be a waste to see some miraculouses be used but not all of them over the course of the show, even if some light is shed on past heroes in history).

Back to the math: There are 17 miraculouses, and 15 members of Madame Bustier’s class (including Lila), plus recurring students like Luka, Kagami, and Marc, totalling to 18 candidates for kwamis. As “Ikari Gozen” and “Party Crasher” confirmed, Kagami and Luka both get Miraculouses, leaving 15 to be distributed amongst Marinette’s peers and classmates. The Cat, Ladybug, Fox, Turtle, and Bee miraculouses were all accounted for with Adrien, Marinette, Alya, Nino and Chloe, leaving a total of ten left. Alix, Kim and Max were confirmed to be Zodiac heroes of the Rabbit, Monkey, and Horse, respectively. This leaves 7 miraculouses remaining, and 8 potential candidates.

Now this is where the theory and predictions of who will get what remaining miraculouses occurs.

If you go off of the popular fan theory that the girls of the class will each get a miraculous (Which many had used to predict Alya and Alix’s miraculous holder statuses so would hold more weight as a basis for a theory), the remaining girls in the photo, Juleka, Mylene and Rose, will each respectively get the Tiger, Rat, and Pig miraculouses. I know it’s confirmed through reference image leaks posted by Jeremy Zag that Marinette will be a temporary wielder of the Rat miraculous, but that is just that: Temporary. Marinette is Primarily the Ladybug holder and as such if given the chance (which is certain there will be), she will gladly give it to someone else who can use it to assist her in saving the day.

Many a Fan theorist will also suggest that Sabrina, due to her immense personality trait of her loyalty to Chloe, will be a shoe-in for the Dog Miraculous.

This now just leaves Ivan, Nathaniel, Lila, and Marc and the Ox, Rooster, and Goat miraculouses to be distributed amongst them.

As stated earlier, we’ve seen that Ladybug appoints new heroes based off of people she knows she can trust from her civilian life (with the exceptions of Queen Bee, which was an accident but one that served to better Chloe, and Kim, who Master Fu himself appointed, although I’m sure had he not given Kim a miraculous then Marinette would have anyway). With the matter of trust, we can ABSOLUTELY rule out Lila based on the virtue of her being a liar hell-bent on ruining Marinette’s life (As well as how the show seems to hint/imply her being a future villain from the end of “Timetagger” and from Lila allying herself with Gabriel which means from a plot standpoint, her being willingly given even one of the “Lesser miraculouses” like a zodiac one will be unlikely).

With Lila out of the way, that leaves an equal kwami-to-remaining-friend ratio. If one goes off of physical appearances and traits, Ivan with his size and strength would be a shoo-in for the Ox, and Nathaniel with his bright red hair and fiesty-if-you-anger-him temperament could work well with the Rooster (who could also help him learn to open up and be less shy).

That leaves Marc with the goat.

“Why Marc? Why not another recurring teenager like Aurore or Wayhem as an alternative candidate to Lila?”

It’s doubtful that Marinette even KNOWS Wayhem personally outside of being Adrien’s fanboy, and we’ve hardly seen Aurore on-screen except to have Stormy Weather be a plot vehicle for the intro episode and a recap episode, and we hve yet to see Marinette and Aurore interact in a way that would suggest that they’re actually FRIENDS and not just mere acquaintances.

MARC on the other hand, has been established in the show as being a friend of Marinette’s (as seen in “Reverser” with Marinette already showing her familiarity with him), and is also the one character outside of Madame Bustier’s class that is seen frequently hanging out with the rest of the ensemble class (as seen as being invited to the Heroes Day Picnic in “Mayura”, getting invited to test play Max’s new video game, and getting invited to Adrien’s boy’s-only party (that had initially just been amongst Adrien’s school friends).  

With Marinette already being familiar enough to Marc to be friends with him and him being close enough to Nathaniel and the rest of the class to be invited to hang out with them relatively frequently, it is ABSOLUTELY plausible that Marinette would consider him to be trustworthy and enough of a team player to give him a miraculous.

“Why the Goat though?”

Marc getting the Goat miraculous would be fitting for many reasons. One of the most obvious would be the similarities in color schemes and patterns between Marc’s Reverser form and Ziggy (the goat kwami).

This would not be the first time that a Kwami-Holder match-up would make a callback to the holder’s past akumatization: Alix’s time travel powers as Timebreaker ended up being similar to her powers as Bunnyx, and other Kwamis like the snake, fox, and bee kwamis all design-wise had at least SOME similarity to their holders in terms of physical appearances/character designs.

Another reason, appearances aside, that a goat would be suitable for Marc is that his personality would be suitable to be matched with a goat. Goats/sheep are popularly characterized as skittish, anxious, and overall kind of shy, which are all personality traits that can be used to describe Marc. Some kwamis match their users in terms of similarity of personality, others are opposites that complement their holder’s personalities. Either way, one would agree that a goat would be very fitting personality for Marc. There is also the fact that Hope Morphin (a friend of Thomas Astruc and who was the inspiration for marc) also said on her twitter (I couldn’t find the tweet at the moment) that Marc’s favorite animal is the sheep/goat. Make of that what you will, as she could just be banking on a popular theory.

Speaking of Hope, the creators of the show, through various tweets have confirmed Marc is LGBT, and given that Marc was based on Hope, who identifies as genderfluid and bi.

That, along with Marc’s comparatively more “feminine” features (like his painted nails, his visible eyelashes and his pink-tinted lips which suggests he wears lip gloss), lends to lots of fans and show creators referring to him as “androgynous”.

Why bring up Marc’s androgyny as a point? Good question. Consider Ziggy the Kwami. Thomas Astruc confirmed in a tweet that Ziggy was named after David Bowie’s stage persona, Ziggy Stardust.

David Bowie’s “Ziggy Stardust” alter ego was FAMOUSLY known for his androgyny.

Now back to Ziggy the kwami. Another interesting feature design-wise about the goat kwami is her seemingly “feminine” features like her long eyelashes (just like a certain androgynous writer). The goat kwami, though genderless like all other kwamis, does prefer female pronouns according to the wiki. However, just because Ziggy uses feminine pronouns doesn’t automatically mean that it rules out that Marc won’t get the goat simply because he doesn’t match the “gender” of the kwami, as although most of the male miraculous holders have been given kwamis with preferred masculine pronouns, female holders like Ryukko and Rena Rouge have kwamis that use masculine pronouns. Given Marc’s androgynous design and behaviors, it wouldn’t be out of the question for him to have Ziggy as his kwami at all, On the contrary, it would be a PERFECT fit from a symbolic standpoint (and let’s face it, writers, ESPECIALLY showwriters like the miraculous ladybug team, LOVE their symbolism).

“I don’t think Marc should get a Miraculous. He’s hardly there in the story.”

We’re all entitled to our opinions and I respect yours as long as it doesn’t step on mine. Personally, I think giving characters a day in the limelight as a newly-appointed hero provides for LOTS of character-development, which is something that admittedly, most of the miracuclass could benefit from having more of. Even so, the show was confirmed for their fourth and fifth seasons, which leave plenty of episodes for which less frequently-seen-but-still-relevant-enough characters like Marc (and let’s face it, Nathaniel too) could get more episodes focusing on them. And if not, they’re still considered very good enough friends of Marinette’s and valuable and cherished members of the Miracuclass to still be considered in the running to be Zodiac heroes, especially over other characters that have even LESS story presence like Wayhem or Aurore.

[crusherthedoctor]

Sonic Villains: Sweet or Shite? - Part 13: MEPHILES

There are some villains I like. And there are some villains I don’t like. But why do I feel about them the way I do? That’s where this comes in.

This is a mini-series of mine, in which I’ll be going into slightly more detail about my thoughts on the villains in the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise, and why I think they either work well, or fall flat (or somewhere in-between). I’ll be giving my stance on their designs, their personalities, and what they had to show for themselves in the game(s) they featured in. Keep in mind that these are just my own personal thoughts. Whether you agree or disagree, feel free to share your own thoughts and opinions! I don’t bite. :>

Anyhow, for today’s installment, we’ll be covering the malevolent spirit of Sonic the Hedgehog 2006, and #1 Shadow cosplayer across the nation: Mephiles the Dark.

The Gist: On Sonic's 15th anniversary, a little game was released. You might have heard of it. People like to bring it up a lot, regardless of the time or reason. It's called Sonic the Hedgehog, ostensibly, but we tend to call it Sonic '06.

It did not live up to expectations.

But what's the story?

Life was suffering for poor Silver the Hedgehog. His world was ravaged by a fire monster, he could never truly defeat said fire monster no matter how hard he tried, and his sole companion was only there because the writers didn't understand how backstories work. Things appeared to be looking up for him though, when he was approached by a mysterious black hedgehog, who offered a permanent solution to the hero's seemingly fruitless quest. Silver looked at this hedgehog with no mouth, slitted eyes, and ominous deep voice, and accepted the offer without hesitation.

"If only they knew..." *wink*

The completely trustworthy hedgehog reasoned that in order to destroy the Flames of Disaster, Iblis, Silver must destroy the one who unleashed it in the first place. The "Iblis Trigger", if you will. Who is this catalyst though, according to this perfectly benevolent hedgehog? None other than Sonic the Hedgehog, the hero of whatever Sonic's world is called this week. No more Sonic, no more Iblis, so says the absolutely well-intentioned hedgehog. Silver accepts all of this without question, because his intelligence ranks somewhere between "potato" and "Madoka Magica protagonist". He's then sent on his way by the definitely good-natured hedgehog through the means of time travel. This is barely questioned as well.

Meanwhile, in the present day, Shadow the Hedgehog is doing his duties as a new member of G.U.N, as they were fortunately able to make amends and can now look back and laugh at the time they killed his friend. His mission is to assist fellow agent Rouge the Bat in the kingdom of Soleanna, and when he catches up to her, she reveals a peculiar discovery: a tool known as the Book Scepter of Darkness.

Even the PS3 lighting couldn't contain its power.

After a brief discussion about the kingdom's history, they made their way through the ruins of the ancient Soleanna castle, where Anti-Furry Activist Dr. Eggman was waiting for them, in the hopes that they would politely give the Book Scepter of Darkness to him. The two comrades tussle with some of the doctor's robots, but the Book Scepter suffers in the midst of the crossfire, and is destroyed completely... releasing a slightly phallic surge of dark energy in the process. Eggman promptly gets the fuck out of there, and the darkness soon takes the form of Shadow himself... and the same hedgehog that would appeal to Silver's wishes. He also knows who Shadow is.

"Fucking hell, this is my design...?"

His name? Mephiles the Dark.

Not Mephisto.

Not Mephistopheles.

Mephiles.

The Dark.

Mephiles the Dark.

Mephiles the Evil.

Mephiles the Hoodlum.

Mephiles the Wrong'un.

Mephiles the Right Prick.

So you know he's a villain who demands to be taken seriously.

Mephiles quickly sends Shadow and Rouge on what he dubs "a one-way ticket to oblivion", which is actually just the same place where Eggman forcibly sent Sonic away to, alongside his buddies Tails and Knuckles. It's Silver's time period, the one plagued by the Flames of Disaster. Shadow contemplates these recent happenings as the colour palette suddenly dies for no reason.

A minor disappointment in an otherwise high-quality gaming experience.

Since the computers in this horribly ruined world still work better than Windows Vista, they use one of them to figure out the nature of their plight, and maybe check out Craigslist while they're at it. They are understandably concerned about the answer, as a madman with time travelling capabilities is no laughing matter. Shadow takes this potential threat very seriously, and he will not be distracted under any circumstance.

When they meet up with Team Sonic, they decide to work together in order to figure out how to get back to their time, because friendship truly is magic. Along the way, Shadow and Rouge discover the dusty form of a sleeping E-123 Omega, and they leave him there. Because friendship truly is magic.

Soonafter, the five of them encounter Iblis, and a tedious battle ensues until Iblis itself gets bored and fucks off. Using the power of two Chaos Emeralds, they induce Chaos Control, which in this game means...

*spins Deus Ex Machina wheel*

...they go back in time. Alright then.

So they do. Except for Shadow, who catches sight of the evil Mephiles the Dark and immediately gives chase. Mephiles has a surprise for him however... another Shadow. An imprisoned Shadow. Mephiles claims that he was used as a scapegoat for what happened with Iblis, which naturally unnerves the Ultimate Lifeform.

RAW EMOTION

Mephiles offers Shadow to join him in his cause for justice, under the belief that humanity hates Shadow, humanity fears Shadow, and humanity will make a martyr out of Shadow the first chance they get. Unfortunately for Mephiles, Black Doom said all this beforehand, and he's dead now, cause Shadow ain't taking this shit anymore. He made a promise to the Professor and Maria, and he intends to keep it. It's time to live up to his family name, and face Full Life Consequences™.

They fought.

Shadow won.

With a little help from a non-dusty, present day Omega, who was sent by Rouge.

Mephiles escaped with his time travel prowess, and Shadow and Omega followed after him. They arrived back in the present, but with no sign of the deadly demon. Meanwhile, said demon was reiterating to Silver that Sonic is totally the Iblis Trigger he's after, absolutely, dead-on. Silver barely questions him once more, and as punishment for his extreme foolishness, Shadow finds him and teaches him a lesson in pain.

"I'm Shadow the Hedgehog. Get shanked. This is who I am."

During battle, they accidentally induce Chaos Control together, which summons another time portal that Shadow somehow already knows in advance where it'll take them. They travel to ten years prior, where they find the then-alive ruler of Soleanna, the Duke, attempting valiantly to harness the energy of the omnipotence known as Solaris. Instead, he gets an explosion in the face, and Solaris divides itself into two different entities. Aggressive flames, and a mass of darkness... Iblis and Mephiles. They were two halves of the same being the whole time.

The two hedgehogs split up to stop the two halves from escaping. Thanks to the Book Scepter of Darkness the dying Duke gave him, Shadow successfully seals the formless Mephiles away, thus explaining how Mephiles knew who Shadow was ten years later. Shadow and Silver eventually return to the present, but not before Silver laughs in the face of Sonic continuity and gives his blue Chaos Emerald to the young Princess Elise, the daughter of the recently Wasted™ Duke.

After reuniting with Rouge, and after obtaining a brand new Book Scepter of Darkness, Shadow and her learn that E-123 Omega is engaging Mephiles, meaning they must head to Wave Ocean (head to Wave Ocean?)... ... ...Shadow and her learn that E-123 Omega is engaging Mephiles, meaning they must head to Wave Ocean immediately. (Sorry about that, I'll fix it in post.)

Omega was indeed engaging Mephiles. Very easily at that. Yet Mephiles took his humiliation in stride and escaped while laughing all the way. Omega confesses to Shadow that he is in fact the one who will go on to imprison him in the future. Rouge reassures her old friend that even if the rest of the world turns against him, she'll always be at his side no matter what. Shadow in turn expresses gratitude for one of the only instances of good writing in this game, and the three of them leave for Dusty Desert, where Mephiles is hiding away like a Scooby Doo baddie.

When they finally confront Mephiles, he tries the exact same tactic that failed to bring Shadow over to his side to bring Shadow over to his side. He did not succeed in bringing Shadow over to his side.

"Ugh, blackcurrant."

They fought again.

Shadow won again.

And with the new and improved Book Scepter of Darkness, he seals the villain away once more... for about five seconds, before the Book Scepter unexpectedly tears itself apart. The fiend has apparently developed an immunity to this old song and dance.

"Now for my next trick, I shall make my credibility disappear!"

He then summons a whole pack of Mephiles's's's's's to do away with Team Dark. But unbeknownst to him, Shadow has a trick of his own up his non-existent sleeve. By removing his inhibitor rings, he could become even more needlessly overpowered for a limited period of time. This was more than enough to send the army of clones flying like skittles.

Alas, the real Mephiles escaped yet again. And this time, he topped himself by fulfilling IGN's dreams and killing Sonic the Hedgehog himself. The older Princess Elise, his latest friend, was grief-stricken.

RAW EMOTION

Unable to keep her emotional turmoil in check, the princess wept, which released the mighty Iblis into the present time. As it turns out, this was Mephiles' real plan all along. He intended for Silver to kill Sonic so that Elise's ensuing tears would unleash the flames, but he finally decided to do the deed himself. Using all seven Chaos Emeralds, which he warped them to where he was like it was nothing, Mephiles rejoined with Iblis once more, and Solaris was officially back in business to corrupt reality as he saw fit. Time distortion? Environmental disasters? Soulja Boy game consoles? It's all the work of Solaris.

But while Solaris was fucking time and space's shit up, Sonic's friends (and Silver) gathered all the Emeralds together, and with some... curious assistance from Elise, they brought the dead hedgehog back to life. In his super form, no less. Shadow and Silver were granted some of Super Sonic's power in order to turn super themselves, and the Hedgehog Master Race obliterated Solaris so bad that he reverted to his original form of a tiny white flame... which was soon blown out by Elise, despite knowing that time would reset itself in the process. The threat of losing her memories with Sonic took a toll on her, but with the hedgehog's own encouragement, she pulled through regardless.

Merry Christmas.

Thus, from the Soleanna Festival onward, everything started over. This time around, the festival could commence in peace, as Eggman wasn't there to menace the princess with his golden udders. For the Flames of Disaster, Iblis, Mephiles, Solaris... they were all literally forgotten by time itself until Generations. Why they were now holding a festival for a god who never existed remains a mystery, but Elise couldn't help but feel that the "wind" was strangely familiar, and pleasantly so.

That same wind enjoyed a good night, possibly aware of what he had to go through to get there.

"That's a lovely full moon. A lovely full, whole, complete, non-fractured moon. Would be a shame if something happened to it."

The Design: Mephiles spends his initial scenes as a shit recolour.

"This is my Chaos Emerald OC, his name's Genocide the Blitzkrieg."

On the other hand, he spends his later scenes as a shit recolour.

He can't believe it either.

Which is a shame, because there is an appeal in the concept of a shadowy being made of crystal. It's just incredibly undermined by how it's mimicing Shadow's form, and for little justified reason at that. Outside of a single quip about him being Shadow's shadow, Mephiles doesn't really do anything to warrant the "Evil Shadow" angle he's apparently going for, which makes his recolour status even more pointless.

(And yes, I know his chest hair kind of looks like Solaris. That doesn't mean his design is suddenly good or clever.)

The Personality: Remember how Black Doom was a complete and utter void of evil for its own sake? Good, beause Mephiles is exactly the same, and it could be argued that he's actually worse than Mr. Ten Packs a Day.

Oh sure, you say. He might have a motive in the form of wanting vengeance for being experimented on. Too bad this is not established in any way whatsoever with what we see of Mephiles in the game proper. When he's not transparently fooling Silver, he spends all his time cackling and taunting. Any time he brings up humanity is when it involves Shadow's expense, not his own. His goal to rejoin with Iblis isn't given any tragic or sympathetic angle, and is purely to serve as his Cause Even More Destruction Card. Even Shadow lampshades his lack of motivation beyond craving destruction, and you can’t say his imprisonment in the Book Scepter of Darkness made him go mad, because even before he got sealed the first time around, he was already threatening Shadow with death.

And make no mistake, not all villains need to be especially sympathetic. Villains who are just cruel or selfish bastards for petty reasons can work just fine. Eggman does it beautifully in this very franchise. But Eggman is also funny, brave, intelligent, and has a clear motive beyond evulz that's backing up his actions, despite that motive's simplicity.

What else is there to Mephiles?

His weird attempts at being cryptic...?

"Is Lara-Su Chronicles legit?"

His lackadaisical Crash Bandicoot impression...?

Cortex Laughs Back

There's just nothing to this guy. And for a character with his backstory, it's all the more noticeable and disappointing. But hey, at least he's a cunning schemer and a powerful opponent, right?

Well, about that...

The Execution: I'm going to get straight to the point. I don't like Mephiles. I really don't like Mephiles. Next to Scourge the Hedgehog and Eggman Nega, Mephiles is one of my absolute least favourite characters in the entire Sonic the Hedgehog franchise, adaptations included.

"But why is that?", I hear you not asking. "Why do you detest him so? Is it his design? Is it his lack of personality? Is it his story?"

Those are all key ingredients, yes. But more than anything else, it's that he's played up to be a cunning mastermind, and is regularly applauded even by '06's detractors for being a cunning mastermind... when in reality, he is one of the absolute dumbest characters in the whole franchise. No, that is not an exaggeration. Silver and Elise in the same game were far from flawless, but Mephiles deserves much more ridicule than either of them. He is completely undeserving of the kudos he frequently receives for his supposed magnificent bastardry, and I'm about to tell you why.

Strap in, folks.

We're about to go through why the evil plan of poor Leslie makes no sense whatsoever.

Well done in advance if you don't fall asleep.

Too late.

1. He could have fused with Iblis at any time he wanted. Despite what many fans claim, NOTHING in the final game so much as implies that Mephiles needed certain requirements to fuse with Iblis. Meaning he could have completed his mission at the beginning of the game, from the moment he met Silver for the first time. Instead, he’d rather monologue to Silver and butcher the English language.

Guess I'll go and done that.

Let’s put that aside for a moment though, and assume that Mephiles needed the Chaos Emeralds to fuse with Iblis. That’s reasonable, except...

2. He could warp all seven Chaos Emeralds to his destination immediately. That’s an incredibly useful ability to have, especially when you're plotting something as major as reuniting with the other half of a god-like entity. He has no reason to not use this ability as soon as possible, aside from him simply forgetting he could do it.

Well, Silver had to have some vital role in his plan, surely...?

3. He had no use whatsoever for Silver. He goes out of his way to rely on Silver to eliminate Sonic, but he could easily kill Sonic himself with no trouble at all. Nothing is preventing him from killing Sonic. He’s not trapped somewhere. He’s not been sapped of his powers. All he’s guaranteeing with Silver is giving himself a potential enemy in the future when the jig is inevitably up, and sure enough, in the rare moment when Silver actually questions him, Mephiles dodges the query in the most suspicious manner, and always gives vague, shifty half-answers.

Fig A: The Twitter defense.

He’s only complicating things even more for himself, and again, for no reason. His only potential motivation for manipulating Silver is because it’s the evil thing to do. And the only reason Silver falls for his ruse is because he was made to be a complete idiot in order to make Mephiles look smarter than he actually is. Not that Silver was alone in that department...

But you think “Well, maybe Mephiles is tricky, but not actually that strong. So he needs Silver to kill Sonic since he can’t do it on his own.” It would explain why he’s a damage sponge in his boss fights, and why he relies on minions and clones to do all the work, right?

Nope.

He eventually kills Sonic himself anyway. Which leads us to...

4. He has no limitations to his powers. You might be inclined to assume he would be weak, yet smart, in contrast to Iblis being strong, yet dumb. Admittedly that would make logical sense, and it would tie in thematically to their motifs of being the consciousness and the raw power of Solaris respectively.

But that’s not how it went. Maybe that was the intention (again, note how he’s something of a sitting duck when you get past his minions), but in cutscenes, he’s as much of a powerhouse as the likes of Shadow. Which reinforces the fact that he wasted his time with Silver, because he could have - and did - kill the Blue Blur with his own hands.

But at least he actually killed Sonic, right? After all, that was the key to unleashing Iblis courtesy of Elise’s tears, yes? Weeeellll...

5. He could have killed Elise instead. Elise’s crying is NOT the only way to release Iblis from within her. As the report that Tails read in Crisis City confirmed, Elise had died in that time period due to being aboard the exploding Egg Carrier, and Iblis’ presence is very prominently felt in that time period’s future. So Mephiles could have killed the princess herself and achieved the same results, without ever needing to bother with Sonic and/or Elise’s emotional connection to him.

Okay then, what about Shadow? Mephiles was pretty serious about swaying the Ultimate Lifeform over to his side... wasn’t he...?

6. He wasted his time with Shadow too. Like Silver, his frequent mind games with Shadow served him absolutely no benefit in relation to his goal to reunite with Iblis. He wasn’t even truly invested in turning Shadow evil to begin with. Whenever Shadow tells him to fuck off back to the Antarctic, Mephiles shrugs it off every time. It’s just a game to him, and it’s a game that prolongs his objective even further. Compare this to Black Doom, who at least was genuinely committed in getting Shadow to join him, and as dumb as it was, at least Shadow was actually a vital part in Doom’s scheme.

"It's just... I wasn't ready before... I wasn't sure if I could commit..."

Despite everything however, he still managed to become Solaris in the end. How did he lose then...?

7. He threw the Chaos Emeralds away, thereby giving Sonic’s friends a chance to nab the Emeralds themselves. Which of course revived Sonic, turned him super, and you know the rest. He could have kept the Emralds to himself, or maybe even destroy them outright. Instead, he was generous enough to hammer the final nail in his coffin.

Also, what did he intend to do afterwards? When all of time and space was destroyed, would that have included himself? Or would he have sat around with his thumb up his arse in a featureless void for all of eternity? Your guess is as good as mine.

And finally, let’s go over a few leftover arguments:

“But Crusher, he still KILLED SONIC!”

You’re right, he did. But how did he kill Sonic?

Not by beating him in a fight.

Not by using genuine brilliance.

No... he killed Sonic by distracting him with a light, and stabbing him from behind.

This is hardly flattering for either character. Sonic gets a laughably undignified death, and Mephiles’ method of execution is extremely unimpressive. And on top of that, the dynamic between the hero and the villain falls flat, because there is no dynamic. Sonic himself doesn’t have any kind of connection or relationship with Mephiles, because up until his death, he saw Mephiles a grand total of once. And even then, he knew nothing about him, not even his name. So the person who killed Sonic the Hedgehog - from Sonic the Hedgehog’s point of view - was literally just “some guy”. (Sonic didn’t even acknowledge his existence. It was Knuckles who did that.)

“But Crusher, he still played the other characters for fools!”

You know who else can do that? Del Boy. :P

Mephiles only looks like a master manipulator because with the sole exception of Shadow, the rest of the cast suffered the same fate as Silver. Instead of Mephiles being genuinely intelligent, everyone else is made insanely stupid to hide the fact that Mephiles himself is stupid. Instead of him achieving his goals because he’s legitimately talented or brilliant, he “achieves his goals” because the plot hands them over to him on a silver platter.

“But Crusher, Eggman makes mistakes too!”

That’s true. Eggman does make mistakes. However, there are two small but significant differences that render this comparison moot:

1. None of Eggman’s blunders are on the same tier as Mephiles’ fuck ups. An Eggman mistake is putting an obvious weakspot on his giant boss mech. A Mephiles mistake is going out of his way to jeopardise his entire plan from start to finish.

2. For all his intelligence, Eggman has always had a comedic, goofy edge to his character, so the occasional questionable decision is expected and par for the course for that particular character. Mephiles does not have that excuse. He was intended by the writers to be suave and slick, meaning he has a lot more to lose when he makes consecutive dumbass decisions.

......

I think I’ve made my point. Mephiles the Dark’s reputation vastly overshadows his actual capabilities. To appreciate what he could have been, or what he was meant to be, is one thing. But I’m looking at Mephiles for what he is, in the final product. And what he is in the final product, is one of the worst villains this franchise has ever had. People can laugh it up about Infinite, or the Deadly Six, but they have nothing on this guy. No amount of Dan Green can save him, and while I don’t like to put all of a character’s fans in the one basket, I do strongly believe that at least a sizable margin of his popularity stems from the fact that he’s a hedgehog. Either that, or the fact that he killed Sonic, despite how underwhelming that kill really was.

I’ve went on long enough about Mephiles. Anything else at this point would just be redundant. Here’s a bunch of old memes I’ve made in the past at Leslie’s expense. Enjoy.

Also, his name is dumb.

Crusher Gives Mephiles a: Thumbs Down!