#this could also extend to gerald + maria and shadow

[scribblekatz]

i think eggfam is at its best when its not wholesome family stuff and instead showcases how little eggman seems to really care about his creations (more specifically metal sonic) and how except for sage the most affection they’re given is less “wow i view you as a child of mine” and more “wow i view you as a trophy/example of my utter genius” but i dont think the fandom nor sega is truly ready for that yet

[sonichaunt]

So I had an idea, for a sonic AU: Black Arms infused Maria.

She still gets shot and sends Shadow to earth, but this time she just doesn't stay dead due to the Black Arm cells (from Shadow's blood) she's been infused with by her grandfather. Gerald did this in a last attempt to cure her as he feared GUN would soon come for him and his research- he was right of course... The cells mass multiplying to save the host have changed her body, slowed her aging significantly. Spending a large part of the last 50 years hiding away from GUN after escaping their facility thanks to the commander (once he reached a high enough rank to even discover she was there), she doesn't really look as kindly upon humanity any more. Even though the commander claims Shadow was never found ( and likely dead) she is is searching for him endlessly, becoming very science savvy in the process and gaining full control over her grandfather's creation, the artificial chaos.

She can sense Shadow is alive, the black arm part of her sharing a connection with him. However, this connection also extends to Black doom and when he returns to earth he becomes aware of her. Unlike Shadow this human "child" is far more susceptible to his mind control and influence. Shadow in turn might not fully remember everything, but he feels a strong bond with Maria, in more ways than just his lost memories could explain which confuses him. Since she's on the side of the Black Arms, going against them will become a lot harder for him. Hopefully Sonic and/or Rogue manage to get through to him, or earth will have an issue. Outside of Black Doom messing with her head her goal is to live with shadow on the ARK, away from the humans that could hurt either of them. Black doom offering a way for them to be able to live on earth itself without the threat of humanity coming after them (after all of humanity have become part of them- he meant as food, Maria thought he meant like she was, infused with their essence) did plant some ideas in her head however, even after their defeat, maybe she'd take a page out of Eggman's book and want Marialand, using her grandfather's memory altering tech to create a way to keep people in line.

[blazehedgehog]

Most obvious question in the world, maybe, but hey, I'm interested! What'd ya think of today's Sonic Central?

There was a part of me that really regretted watching it. They definitely had a lot to announce, but a LOT of it was like...

Mobile games I hate (because of f2p mechanics) or cannot play (because they are in Apple Arcade jail).

Merchandise I either can't afford (Lego), don't want (a motorcycle helmet) or don't have space for (statues and action figures).

After a while I started to get that melted brain feeling like when you watch too many late night infomercials in a row. I could feel my fight or flight mechanism trying to kick in. Framing one of them as an actual infomercial did not help.

The two ones of most interest were, one, the Sonic x DC crossover.

We're going to be getting two years (24 issues?) of some sort of alternate universe where The Justice League is made up of Sonic characters. I don't know what to make of it, but I'm willing to keep an open mind about it.

There's a part of me that wonders if this is Sega testing the waters just in case IDW folds -- my understanding is they aren't very stable right now, but then I suppose the same could be said of a lot of the North American comics industry. I don't read much outside of Sonic, but I absorb some degree of the culture through my friends, and I know Marvel and DC aren't doing super well in the comics space either right now, and that's been an ongoing, long term issue (long enough term that it's been cited as the driving reason Marvel pivoted to the MCU over a decade ago, since the comics biz has been suffering so much for so long).

I floated "maybe Sega is shopping around in case IDW folds" in a Discord earlier and was told pretty definitively that's unlikely, and I think that's fair. You never know, but DC also did that ridiculous Looney Tunes crossover series a few years ago.

They just do weird stuff like this. Which is nice, really. More power to them.

The other notable thing being more information about Sonic X Shadow Generations. A peek at Mephiles, a look at more levels and bosses, and the possibility that through the time distortion Shadow finds himself in, he may be able to see and interact with Maria and Gerald again. There's mention of "correcting the timeline," which could mean a lot of things. I'm used to hearing that in comic books, where it means "we get to clean up clutter we don't like."

Speaking as someone who does not like their involvement in the story, would be funny if Shadow Generations ends with Shadow somehow making it so Gerald never made a deal with the aliens. In theory it wouldn't change our Shadow; for the same reason that in Sonic 06, defeating Iblis in the past did not get rid of him in Silver's future (see also: "Classic Sonic is from another dimension.") But I think it would be cool to say "I didn't just kill him, I erased him from the timeline."

But yeah. It continues to look cool. Cool enough that I preemptively spent my Twitch earnings to pre-order the game after the show. I won't get paid those earnings for another three weeks, but it's fine. Hopefully.

I guess they also announced they're going to be putting up the Shadow Origin series for free on Youtube starting today, when it originally sounded like those would be exclusive to the Digital Deluxe on PS5. Now the Digital Deluxe is merely getting "extended and deleted scenes." At least they'll be included with the game this time, unlike most of the other animations Sega's put out to promo a new game.

But it's very telling that their "one more thing" was a Sonic movie 3 feature that was basically just one of the... producers? writers? director? standing on the backlot telling us "the movie is going to be so good you guys" while interspersed with clips from the one and only trailer we've seen. I can feel myself being carried away on everyone else's hype for that movie, but the realistic expectations in my heart is that, bare minimum, I personally won't like it.

Outside of that first movie I haven't felt like this series has been put together very well and I could see it all crashing and burning with this third movie.

[kittydoremi]

I have seen the video, and I do think it's a good video. But I still don't think Amy should be in Sonic Movie 3.

I still think it would be alot more fitting if Sonic gave the speech to Shadow, it would make alot more sense for Movie Sonic. He has lived amongst humans, and he's grown close with several of them. And we, the audience, have seen this, both in the first and second movies. So him giving the speech would make alot more sense AND be alot more impactful.

If Amy were to show up on Earth and deliver the speech in the same movie, it wouldn't be nearly as impactful, considering Sonic had two movies worth of getting to know humans and grow close to them.

In the games it made more sense for Amy to give the speech because she had lived amongst humans for a long period of time; she even had her own apartment in Station Square. Not only that, she was the most "normal" of the group; Sonic had his speed, Tails could fly and had his intellegance, and Knuckles had his super strength. Amy didn't have any of that. But what she DID have was her compassion, and she used that compassion to help Gamma and Shadow, amongst other characters. Her appearing in the movie wouldn't have the same impact because she hasn't lived amongst humans for an extended amount of time.

Plus it would make the movie feel overcrowded as it tries to balance developing both Shadow and Amy, the same problem I had with the second movie. Shadow also already has two other characters in his story, Maria and Gerald, so it would make the overcrowded problem even worse.

I'd prefer if Amy got the spotlight she deserved in a fourth movie that adapts Sonic CD. I don't want her to have the same problems Tails had in Sonic Movie 2, because I had ALOT of problems with how Tails was handled there. Plus, I just don't see Amy adding much to Sonic 3, especially when it would be more fitting Sonic to do the speech.

Opinion: I don't really want Amy or Rouge to be in Sonic 3 that much, or at least I wouldn't mind if they weren't in it.

1: The 2nd movie already felt so crowded with all the characters it had. Tails and Knuckles were fighting for screentime, and Tails' developmemt ended up feeling super rushed and forced. I'd like if the third movie just focused on developing Shadow so it doesn't have a similar problem.

2: As far as Amy goes... I think it would fit better if Sonic gave the speech to Shadow, not her. Sonic has spent a long time on Earth getting to know humans, and has formed close bonds with several of them. If he did the speech, it would be alot more impactful then if Amy just appeared on Earth and did it in the same movie. If she were to appear in a movie, I'd prefer it to be in a possible fourth one that adapts Sonic CD.

[neurotypical-sonic]

It's interesting that you bring up ableism and internalised ableism as a parallel between Shadow and Tails because I have a headcanon that since we don't really know how the rest of the ARK took to Shadow compared to Maria, Gerald and the Commander, while he was at least accepted by his adoptive sister, the other inhabitants were afraid of him and/or didn't treat him like an actual person due to his origins, similar to how Tails was ostracized for his polymelia

Oh SO many thoughts on this. I really want to write I proper in depth post at some point but I want to answer this NOW so just uhhh very roughly for now:

SHADOW. His particular brand of internalised ableism does stem from how he was treated on the Ark. Before I say anymore I'm gonna quickly note i still haven't finished playing sa2 or watched the cutscenes of shth, so take this with a grain of salt. The scientists on the Ark were very ableist towards Shadow, but not intentionally or in a noticeable way. He was Project Shadow, the ultimate lifeform, and so when he acted more like a person, flaws and all, and not like a Project, and especially when he showed symptoms of autism, he was reprimanded, told that there wasn't any excuse that he should be better.

I think about this a lot, I could say and explain more but I won't yet. Yes Gerald and Maria loved him, but this was the 50s and also people who love you can hurt you. Gerald hurt him sometimes, careless words and actions that cut deep into Shadow's soul. Maria's also autistic, and she never hurt Shadow, she was nothing but loving and supportive of Shadow. But Shadow had to watch Maria receive the support that he was denied because he was supposed to be Better Than That. Maria did her best to extend that same support to him, to make everyone else treat him the same, but there was only so much she could do.

Most of Shadow's internalised ableism comes from that way of thinking, he's supposed to be Above that. He's the ultimate lifeform!! He shouldn't be acting or feeling like this, it's childish and stupid!!

TAILS had similar when he was younger! the dehumanisation, the being told you should be better than that etc etc. I'm getting really tired I'm gonna have to wrap this up soon. And he put that thinking on himself - for a start it was a survival/coping mechanism, he was abandoned and left to fend for himself, so he told himself that he couldn't afford to be childish, he was above it all. He didn't have anyone to lean on for support, and he couldn't provide it for himself, so he convinced himself he didn't need it.

Then he met Sonic and suddenly he HAD that support. long story short, it took a lot of time and effort to deal with that particular brand of internalised ableism, and he still struggles with it sometimes, but Tails found his support system a lot younger than what Shadow did, and has more time to start to heal. Shadow has only just started that journey. This is making it sound like Tails is 100% fine now, I promise I'm not saying that I'm just really simplifying things

AND SO Shadow sees himself in Tails, a lot. Especially autism wise. He sees tails exhibit the same symptoms as him, ones that Tails has grown comfortable with and accepted as himself, but one's that Shadow still believes he should be above, that he should be BETTER. And Shadow projects on to Tails, hard, and ends up taking it out on Tails, and so all that internalised ableism just becomes regular ableism. Shadow genuinely doesn't mean to be an asshole, in his mind he's trying help Tails be Better, but like. Still ableism, dude

I hope all this, especially the last part, makes sense. I'm so sleepy I'm about to drop off at any moment. I want to talk more about how Shadow projects his internalised ableism onto Tails in more detail but later

[scribblestatic]

Aaaaand more Sonar.

With Project Shadow underway, they needed to utilize the Chaos Emeralds and chaos energy for ultimate potential. Gerald got this idea after he had creates Sonar using residual energy from the god Chaos.

Gerarld's team creates the Chaos Drives, since they only have a single emerald on hand and can't spend a bunch of time trying to find all the others. But at least they can test how to use chaos energy with living beings.

And, well. They already had someone to test it on.

Gerald's pet project became even more integral into studying chaos energy for Project Shadow.

He tried not to be overly cruel to Sonar. After all, he did really enjoy watching Sonar grow and develop into her own person. But his granddaughter was now even more at risk, and Sonar was simply not strong enough to help. So, she needed to be stronger in other ways.

The tests were not entirely without pain. Sometimes, the reactions weren't very efficient. Sometimes it would lead to shocking and burning. It was a delicate balance of cellular and energy management that had to slowly adapt to a being who, ultimately, wasn't meant to naturally connect to chaos drives. Emeralds were one thing. Perhaps it would've come as easy to her as water. But not like this.

However, eventually, they proved the ability to connect a living organism with chaos drives. It took a lot of tinkering on the drives until they became the most efficient and utterly non-aggressive toward living cells.

Sonar survived, and after normal testing resumed, they found she'd become stronger after extended exposure to chaos energy. The process required her to reform her cells through healing, and the reformed cells could stand greater amounts of chaos. Her water power had increased, as had her ability to form, recognize, and use vibrations. Her humming turned to singing instead, and she's gained a lovely voice, perhaps from the wolf cells.

However, it can crack glass and damage objects, so she was eventually told not to sing. Sonar, tired after all the testing, somewhat fearful of Gerald, yet still wanting the former interest and affection once given to her, obliged.

Gerald moved forward with Project Shadow and was able to create the prototype: The Biolizard. He also worked on the Artificial Chaos guards around the same time, utilizing many traits from the cells of his previous project.

However, perhaps Gerald expected too much of the Biolizard because of Sonar. Unlike Sonar, the Biolizard did not create its own personality or heart. It instead became a massively destructive entity that had to be sealed away for the greater good of everyone on the ARK.

This began G.U.N.'s secret plans against Gerald, whose experiments were becoming more expensive and detailed, occasionally leading to some rather unsavory outcomes. Even the Artificial Chaos guards ran amok for a while when he accidentally switched the positive and negative charges within them.

All the while, Sonar's testing continued, only occasionally interrupted whenever Maria got sick. Then, she'd be injected with a stronger strain and forced to heal herself to get better, after which her blood would be used to create a medicine used to heal Maria.

Despite all of this, Gerald still praised Sonar for her successes, even though her movements were now heavily confined and constrained. And as the source of most of the affection she'd receive, Sonar didn't hate Gerald for it.

Under it all, Gerald still watched those old videos of Sonar as she developed her own sense of self and felt guilt over how she was now treated. But he convinced himself it was for the greater good. That he needed to do it to save his granddaughter.

So, he knew he needed something that could form a personality and a heart. He began working with memory creation, destruction, and overwriting. Of course, there once again was no better subject than Sonar.

Fragmenting her memories, taking some of them, adding others that never happened... It all only somewhat worked. For some reason, Sonar's mind was particularly resilient. Even if the memories were taken from her, she would eventually recall them after a while. The same for false memories: like a virus, she would erase them with time. A very strong Sense of Self.

But the studies did help him recognize how the memories worked. Like a tree, there was the Seed, then the Roots, forming the core of the person, the Trunk, which feeds new memories into the Seed and evolves that personality and heart, and the Branches, the additional memories that came with time. It all fed into each kther to create a sense of self.

The Biolizard lacked the Seed, leading to a destructive, nearly mindless being. That wasn't something Gerald could risk happening with the completed project. So, he looked for new ways to try creating the Seed naturally.

In the midst of trying, he received communication from a passing comet.

Black Doom reached out to him in his time of need.

[ganymedesclock]

So okay hey y’know what’s a thing that bugs me about Shadow’s arc throughout the games?

The Biolizard and the Black Arms.

Because... two times, there’s the person that Shadow has the actual, justified beef with, and then a second party who is connected pretty directly to Shadow. A peer. 

The Biolizard is Shadow’s prototype, which, considering Gerald, at least before the massacre, was as far from a cold uncaring researcher as possible- this is Shadow’s older sibling. And, yeah, as a prototype organisms, she has some serious health concerns- her tendency to hyperventilate definitely being one of them- but it doesn’t seem like she’s suffering.

And, yeah, she doesn’t vocalize, isn’t small and Mobian-like but there is clearly someone home. A mindless animal ruled only by instinct would not be taken as the vehicle for Gerald’s revenge. A mindless animal couldn’t operate the ARK’s systems, much less by projecting them, or use the sophisticated, complex attack pattern that the Biolizard does- comparable to Eggman’s boss robots. Hell, one of the hardest things to do fighting Biolizard is dodge. She’s a really good shot, and the one exploitable opening in her combat is where she needs to stop and hyperventilate with her life support, which, she can’t exactly do anything about.

Hell, you’d argue considering the whole repetition of “power enriched by the heart” that whatever nebulous sources we have in Sonic would state that Biolizard has a soul. She has to have a will and “heart” or how would she be able to use Chaos Control?

Biolizard is smart. And what’s the other thing we see about Biolizard? That video left behind by Gerald- repeating over and over and over again.

The video left behind by Gerald- who tampered with Shadow’s memories and otherwise twisted a quiet, sensitive, traumatized individual into his vehicle for revenge.

This is the one thing we “hear” from Biolizard who is absolutely smart enough to communicate somehow. Who, if we assume she, like Shadow, is synthesized from Arms DNA, would probably have been on some level communicating with Shadow the entire time- considering Shadow’s the one utterly unsurprised when Biolizard warps in to mess them up.

The Biolizard was manipulated and exploited by Gerald just like Shadow was. Much like Shadow, we have no reason to believe she is inherently violent or hateful. There is no good reason to carefully and lovingly deliver Shadow from Gerald’s machinations and kill Biolizard.

“But Clockie, she would’ve killed everyone with the ARK!”

So would Shadow, given he was instrumental in delivering the emeralds to Biolizard in the first place, and literally in the scene leading up to the Biolizard fight he’s calmly looking out the window waiting for the impact.

Literally- Shadow’s realization that this was wrong was a last second incident.

What did the Biolizard believe? What was her perspective on the ARK? She’s so large and heavy- unable to move through most of the facility except by teleporting- did she hide and avoid GUN? Was she captured? We have no idea. But Gerald clearly tampered with her- the presence of the video aligns directly with her appearance.

Just like Shadow, she was acting on his orders. And we don’t know how easy it is for Biolizard to communicate or understand- it might be hard for her to get a grasp on her situation just through eavesdropping on the united Hero & Dark teams.

I could write this entire post on the ambiguity of “Supporting Me” and how much it sounds like a conversation more than a soliloquy. “I know you were supporting me,” and the repetitions/variations on that- who is he talking to, or, rather, who is talking to him? A lot of the lyrical SA2 themes are very straightforwards- almost comically so at times- but Shadow’s themes for that game are... weird. Ambiguous. Distorted. I’m honestly kind of sad they dropped that for his later games, but that’s getting off topic.

Biolizard, in every way, is just like Shadow, and we watch her rip herself apart trying to fulfill Gerald’s revenge with no idea if this was ever what she really wanted. The finalhazard form looks incredibly painful. This is someone who has a body that does not lend itself well to stress-free movement and the tendency to hyperventilate when overexerting herself and she never hesitates to protect herself.

And, for all that? For all of her sharing Shadow’s tragedy? We get nothing. No sympathy. Not even a second thought except “wow wasn’t that a cool boss fight” in Sonic Generations. Shadow calls her an ugly prototype. Her downfall is treated as synonymous to Gerald’s downfall- she’s treated as a mere symptom or face of his revenge.

And this is, quite frankly, so much of how the Black Arms are handled. Shadow finds another messed up branch of his family tree in Black Doom, who is all too eager to do exactly what Gerald did- gaslight Shadow and use him for Doom’s personal vendetta. Only unlike Gerald, Doom isn’t a desperate specter from the past, he’s the patriarch of an entire species. What he’s trying to do to Shadow, he’s already done to all of the other Arms.

The Black Arms- who are, seemingly, hypersocial, mentally linked on an incredibly intimate level, and who would be, thus, incredibly vulnerable to exactly the kind of manipulations and attacks Doom lavishes on Shadow.

Once again- the only reason Shadow is our hero, the only reason he’s spared, is because of the people who reach out to him, in past and present. And this is framed as a very narrow thing- sure, most of the routes, especially the dark routes, are noncanon, but it’s still emphasized as a very real possibility that Doom is able to break Shadow entirely to his will.

But again- for the Arms? There is no sympathy. They’re in exactly the same boat as Shadow, as far as carrying out Doom’s orders against Earth, the angle of the True Ending tells us that the Pure Hero route is as noncanon as the Pure Dark route- that at bare minimum, Shadow gave Doom the Chaos Emeralds and put Earth in danger. Hell, even more than Biolizard, you can argue the Arms may have actually had no awareness or control of what they were doing- Gerald’s manipulations just convinces the person that this is what they need to do in a guise they’re least likely to refuse, but consider how incredibly off Shadow acts in the scenes where he’s heavily under Doom’s influence.

And this is infuriating to me not only because Biolizard and the Black Arms are written off, but because- a significant plot thread for Shadow going onward from his decision to turn his back on his history and try to use his power for good is that he has like two friends and is in an incredibly difficult situation to relate to people.

What I’ve seen of Archie’s plot exploring Eclipse and the Dark Arms... also, honestly does not encourage me, because Shadow’s sibling seems to be presented overwhelmingly as a corrupting force, and the heroic course of action is for Shadow to once again fight off his extended family.

Which... if Shadow’s a Black Arm, and the Arms are a hypersocial colony species... is it really any wonder Shadow’s not doing so hot, or why the familial ties of Gerald and Maria meant so, so much to him? Sure, genetic influences only do so much in the realm of the psychological but if Arms aren’t even supposed to be completely alone in their own heads, outside of the freaky subjugation that Doom gets up to- there have been studies that babies will die from insufficient contact. 

I could write an entire different post on the beautiful, beautiful found family feelings I have over Team Dark’s relationship, and how wonderful Rouge and Omega are as stabilizing forces in Shadow’s life (I mean, heck, look at the fact that in some of the worse routes in ShTH they’re there for him- Rouge in particular is your lone ‘get out of jail’ card to help you away from the worst ending)...

...but that’s not to say that he’s fine, and it doesn’t matter if he’s alone.

Nobody’s going to argue they should’ve blown up Earth with ARK, or that Doom was anything but an abusive, tyrannical person who needed to get his miscellaneous appendages out of Shadow’s brain. And I’m not trying to spin this at all to suggest leaving his biological family means Shadow’s Never Going To Be Happy- that’s an awful message to send because sometimes, people really do just need to cut ties with their blood relatives.

What aggravates me is that there’s no satisfactory explanation or even acknowledgement for why Shadow is the one redeemed and not his siblings, when it seems like the only thing that separates them is once again, that people reached out to Shadow.

Which is ridiculous because our supporting cast is packed with people who care! 

Rouge paints herself as only in it for personal gain in contrast to the selfless, duty-bound Knuckles, her rival- and yet even her debut game framed her repeatedly as someone who ultimately is kind, trustworthy, who says things like “Even if the world turns against you, I won’t,” and means it. Hell, in SA2, she was the one who was actively an undercover agent for the forces of good.

Eggman wants to take over the world but god dammit he has standards, he deplores senseless destruction- we see him angrily decry both Gerald and Doom, the former rather personally since Gerald was his hero.

And Sonic? It’s pretty solidly established Sonic will take under his wing and give an affectionate nickname to anything that’s around him for more than ten minutes.

This is not an arrangement of people who don’t care. There’s no actual good in-universe justification for the Biolizard and the Black Arms being met so coldly when none of the amounts of violence they enacted or attempted exceeded Shadow’s.

Also there are so many incredible ways to explore the idea that Shadow is related to a freaking space dinosaur. Literally whatever character you ascribe to the Biolizard, it’d be amazing. 

[asktheevilgeniusesson]

“I think she means it because you help her find the light in her life when shes probably not always so happy, with her illness, you, however, little shadow—“ Ivo moves to boop the little one’s nose with his free hand. “—help her with just that, when they let you see her ofcourse. You’re a very special little hedgehog, you know.” He gives a reassuring smile, the best he can, atleast.

“Yes, ofcourse i’m sure its alright, little one. I wouldn’t say one thing and then go back on it, that’d just be plain rude wouldn’t it?” Eggman sighs in a soft manner, however his brows lift when the little ones paw extends twords him. He sighs, and takes his large hands to easily scoop the little thing up. He struggles tor a moment to hold him in a proper way, being so small compared to him- he struggled with zero aswell, holding little critters was not something he was used too. “You should rest even moreso then if they took blood, that could be dangerous if they take too much without breaks, it makes you very loopy, little hog.” Ivo explains softly, giving a gentle smile. The comment about his speed.. he really was the shadow of sonic if that was the case. But alot more easier to deal with and not an annoying little shitbag he wanted to punt into the sun. He usually favored shadow anyway because of his robotnik blood. They were family, in a way. But he couldnt tell him that. It’d be too confusing to tell him he was geralds grandson. Right? He assumed so atleast. Might also snap the timeline abit and he wasnt trying to push it with mephiles. “Air shoes, hm? Sounds like you’ll have some fun when you get those, speedy boy.” Eggman snickers as he stands up fully, stretching his legs abit as he does. “I’d love to see how fast you can go when you get them, if you’d ever like to show me, shadow. Now, wheres your room? Or i could take you to maria if you’d like.”

Gods. He was really far back if the hoglet didnt even have his rocket shoes on his feet.. no matter. He’d still treat the little one with respect. That was the best he could do for him without ruining his entire future, fucking things up more, and leading to innerste getting madder then he probably already was for fucking with time in general. Gaia above, give him strength.

He moved to wrap the blankie more snugly around the hoglet as he gets closer, making sure it wont slip off him as he moves to rub the others head, gently, in an assuring sort of way. But he cant hide how disturbed his words make him. 5 hours. Did he hear that right? Five whole hours under the water without checking on him once. If he wasnt painfully aware of umbras immortality, he would’ve panicked. But the little hoglet was immortal. Therefore, he supposed staying under for that long made sense. But the way he seemed so fine about it. That the people testing him didnt care to check within the first few minutes- it made him angry. For some reason. He hated shadow as much as he hated sonic. But hearing how he was treated as a hoglet was.. not making him happy. “Thats.. not good. They should’ve checked on you at the very least. How rude of them, hm? I’m glad you’re alright atleast, little one.” Ivo sighs, he cant be rude or explode about it, it’d startle the little thing.

“Mh. Just call me ‘eggman’- its what everyone else has stuck to calling me by now, and what would your name be, hm? Your actual name, not that stupid little tag on your ear.”

[blazehedgehog]

Pretend Sonic Forces actually had boss fights with all of the antagonists they advertised, and they weren't replicas. What order would you fight them in (weakest-to-strongest?) What motives would they have for fighting Sonic?

That’s a tall order and puts a lot of pressure on the person imagining this line-up.

So what was our lineup in Sonic Forces? Zavok, Shadow, Chaos Zero, and Metal Sonic, right?

Zavok is first, obviously. He’s a clown. What even were his abilities in Sonic Lost World? He was big and muscly, he grew really large one time, and he could apparently control robots. Whoopee. For Sonic, that’s like a Tuesday morning. He’ll be taking a nap on a beach somewhere later that day.

Next up, I imagine, would be Metal Sonic. He was built to match Sonic’s abilities, but has never really been necessarily better than Sonic. And assuming it’s the basic form of Metal Sonic, Sonic has proven he can handle things multiple times. Metal’s not useless, but copies are always inferior to the original.

Zavok and Metal would probably just settle for revenge as a motive.

Shadow the Hedgehog comes next, and he’s the first one who is probably more powerful than Sonic. At the very least, if Shadow really cut loose and did not hold back, he would test Sonic’s limits. If Shadow is stronger than Sonic, it’s not by much, and vice versa. They would fight until they were both totally empty and it would come down to whoever could land one, final, exhausted attack.

Shadow’s motivation are hard to reconcile, but it’s possible Eggman could falsify orders coming from GUN in order to command Shadow to fight Sonic. Sonic, like Shadow, has some pretty serious powers, and I could see Shadow believing the government would want Sonic taken out or at least incapacitated. I also imagine Shadow would be skeptical of such an order, but it’s easy to hand-wave a justification in there, like Shadow scopes things out and has it confirmed through some kind of coincidence that Sonic is bad news.

Alternatively, Eggman was making Shadow clones, right? Surely he has a few more of those hanging around. The original Shadow is supposedly a “biological android” or something, meaning he isn’t totally flesh and blood. Some or even most of him is a (very, very advanced) robot, which is why he is theoretically immortal. Eggman could just reprogram one of his existing clones to fight Sonic, or maybe even use his knowledge of Shadow’s systems to further trick him. In the extended reading material from Sonic Adventure 2, that’s technically what Gerald did -- he warped Shadow’s memories of Maria, right? Eggman could figure that out.

The strongest would be Chaos, because he’s literally a deity. He could wipe out entire civilizations. He probably killed hundreds, maybe even thousands. Though you “win” most of the boss fights in Sonic Adventure against Chaos, the cutscenes directly following those battles usually shows Chaos growing stronger and escaping, meaning Sonic technically lost in the long run. The only way Sonic really has a chance against Chaos in the end is to become Super Sonic, and even then, Sonic only neutralizes Chaos. Sonic never actually defeats Chaos. He goes Super just so he has the ability to say, “Hey buddy, you need to calm down.” Chaos is always and forever way out of Sonic’s league.

When you get Chaos angry it seems like it’s hard to stop him. You don’t get called The God of Destruction for your gentle demeanor. Much like how it’s easy to trick Knuckles in to attacking Sonic, it’s probably pretty easy to send Chaos on a rampage. Plus, like, are we even sure Chaos speaks English?

[clowngames]

Alright, strap in.

50 years ago Professor Gerald Robotnik probably built the Space Colony ARK with the help of the global military Guardian Units of Nations (G.U.N.). The ARK is, as its name implies, a space station built to be habitable by people in the event of a world-ending catastrophe. It's on board the ARK that Prof. Robotnik worked on Project Shadow.

Project Shadow's end-goal, much like the origins of the ARK, was a little bit nebulous. We're led to believe it was to create the Ultimate Lifeform - Shadow the Hedgehog - only for it to be revealed that the real goal was to create the perfect being in order to study the qualities necessary to extend life. In particular, to cure a terrible terminal illness which plagued Prof. Robotnik's granddaughter Maria.

Indeed, Robotnik would not have started this project if he didn't think he could save his granddaughter's life. This is why his first attempt at the ultimate lifeform was a lizard which never stopped growing, which ultimately became the Biolizard.

The illness that Maria suffered from was vague in the games, but in the comics it was fleshed out, and it's a disease known as Neuro-Immune Deficiency Syndrome, or NIDS. Few symptoms are described in detail except for the general way it weakens the victim, but let's be real, this is AIDS with the first letter switched out. Whether it was for the lowered gravity of the ARK allowing her to live more comfortably in a weakened state or the quarantined nature of the ARK, it was the best place for Robotnik to keep her while he sought a cure.

Well, just like the real thing, the government didn't really care all that much about curing NIDS and was more interested in how to use Robotnik's research in a military capacity, enhancing soldiers and maybe getting a cool hedgehog-themed superweapon. I'll admit the direct parallels stop working out pretty quick.

It's worth mentioning that Sonic Adventure 2, the game which spawned all of this, was developed during the height of the AIDS epidemic. That said, the first time it was actually specified to be called NIDS was in 2007, so it's unlikely that the original developers envisioned it to be a critique of governments' failure to respond to the AIDS crisis (I don't even know the history of AIDS in Japan). Especially since SA2 was more focused on criticizing the military industrial complex.

Project Shadow was shut down before it could be completed - by which I mean G.U.N. boarded the ARK and killed everyone they could, and arrested Robotnik and put him in Guantanamo Bay Prison Island where they would later execute him via firing squad. How many people were on the ARK when that happened? Hard to say. At minimum, the world's top scientists were all there, and probably several of their families. In Shadow the Hedgehog we see a flashback stage where Shadow is tasked with getting first aid to civilians who are hurt by a security breach of Artificial Chaos onboard the ARK, which suggests that at least several dozen people were there.

We also know that G.U.N. killed everyone on board because A) they shot Maria, killing her even though she was a child, implying they were less than discriminate and B) the ARK was entirely abandoned and unoccupied in the 50 years since.

In summary, Shadow the Hedgehog was created to cure Fictional AIDS in a story criticizing government for entirely different problems.

At tumblr user @clowngames , what do you mean shadow the hedgehog was made to destroy aids