#to do ANYTHING to keep robotnik from super exploding

[kerbubbles]

What if i did a timeloop stobotnik fic

[sairenharia]

Of Hedgehogs, Chaos, and the Warrior's Heart

So here is the thing.

We don't know why Longclaw wanted to hide Sonic.

Sonic 3 spoilers ahead.

So upon rewatching the movies and Knuckles miniseries before movie three, this thought has been niggling my brain. Why was Longclaw hiding Sonic. We know Longclaw wanted to hide Sonic for his power, and the first real thought is his superspeed.

Except, when you think about it, superspeed is rather hard to use against a person's will and one of the harder people to contain. Freedom of movement is necessary for full usage, and if you have a speedster with freedom of movement, they can do a lot of things to escape. And really, what do you use it for? Super soldier, maybe, but it gets into that containment thing. Have in a hamster ball forever? Sure, but how do you keep him running and keep him optimal?

When it comes down to it, being used for his speed doesn't warrant Longclaw's actions.

Longclaw wanted an apprentice for the Master Emerald and selected Sonic for being superpowered? Well, possible, but that would mean Longclaw was doing EXACTLY what she was warning Sonic to watch out for. More over, its a pretty terrible thing for Longclaw to DO. If protecting the Master Emerald required isolation, that is a terrible thing to do to a child, especially a child as extroverted and friendly as Sonic is. So no, I don't think Longclaw's hiding away of Sonic had anything to do with the Master Emerald. I think she had ANOTHER reason and since she was already raising and isolating this kid anyway, might as well have him as the guardian after her. The Master Emerald duty was one of convenience, not intent.

So Sonic isn't wanted for his superspeed or his relation to the Master Emerald.

So obviously, I'm getting at his unlimited power source quills and EMP abilities. Or at least what they indicate.

Because let's be real, those abilities are weird. Those are not base Sonic abilities. Whatever is going on is something different from usual canon.

Now, a seemingly infinite power source like the quills able to grant things superspeed is definitely a hell of a thing people would want.

Then there's the sticking point.

Because Knuckles has the same thing going on. Why didn't Knuckles need to be isolated?

Especially as the Prequill comic implies Sonic is a known entity to a certain degree. His speed is well known despite his being a child at the time. Longclaw is known. Tails knows a fair bit about their relationship and what Sonic could do as a child. Sonic, himself, was a KNOWN entity as a toddler.

Which is weird because he wasn't doing heroics then as far as we know.

What is the difference between Knuckles and Sonic. And it was driving me up the wall because Longclaw is hiding Sonic for some reason, and Knuckles was allowed to run free, and the power ups isn't a Mobian thing in general, because Tails has yet to be a sparky sparky LED eyeballs with fur that grants superpowers.

And then we saw Amy Rose.

And the Metal Sonics.

And a lot of things started clicking into place, including a lot of weird things that have cropped up along the way.

The Metal Sonics teleported in as an army. Now generally Metal Sonic is made by Robotnik, but he didn't really have time to do that. More over, why is Amy here in time to deal with them at all. If Robotnik survived the Eclipse Cannon exploding (and let's be hones,t he almost definitely did), Tom is still injured. We max a few months after the Eclipse Cannon and Robotnik probably needs to recover himself.

So I don't believe he's the one who made Metal Sonic in this universe.

So the question is who.

And why.

First weird thing: The Scavengers. Here is the weird thing about the Scavengers. They dress as birds. They're not bird people and it seems the Owls may have made the same path as the Echidnas.

The scavengers, and the Metal Sonics are working in the same vein. Because its known that Sonic was raised by an Owl. Dressing as birds could be a ploy to put Sonic into a false sense of security, lower his guard for them to get the jump. The same for designing the Metal Sonics that way. They want to put Sonic into a false of security.

But that is a lot of work for a Hedgehog that they may or may not know is still alive. Its been years and he was on his own as a literal child.

Weird thing number two. Tails calls Sonic a legend. Why? Because by that point, literally the only thing of note that we know of Sonic that he's done is hide away most of his life and fight ONE guy with a moderately sized robot and stopped some petty crime. Now at first this could just be Tails seeing someone weird being cool getting some hero worship, but we see in the Prequill that Longclaw's home is considered a sacred site.

And we see Tails is cracking chaos energy. Sonic was confused for a place destroyed by chaos energy.

Weird thing number three. Knuckles and Tails say Sonic and Shadow look alike, which is weird when they would be around more mobians and aliens in general. Sonic looking at another Hedgehog and thinking 'they look like me' tracks because Sonic doesn't remember seeing another Hedgehog. If you see a pack of wolves, you're gonna think they all look the same until you're around the pack enough to tell the difference. Knuckles and Tails should be able to tell the difference, while the Hedgehogs are new to seeing any pack.

Weird thing number four. Knuckles says its impossible. That's a weird word to describe meeting another Hedgehog. They knew they were going to see an alien. Why not another Hedgehog? What about Hedgehogs makes it such a surprise?

Why does Longclaw need to hide Sonic?

Because Hedgehogs are hunted down.

The Scavengers dress as birds because there is a long history of Owls trying to protect Hedgehogs.

The Metal Sonics are Metal Hedgehogs, with a paint job because they're aware of Sonic's existence, so they made it more specific.

Amy is dressed like a survivor type because she is being hunted down too and she has to keep herself covered up and she's on Earth to protect some fellow Hedgehogs.

Why is Knuckles different from Sonic (and Shadow)?

The Echidnas may not be so different and that's why their numbers were decimated since not ALL of them should be hunting down the Master Emerald. A lot of Echidna's might have died in pursuit of power, but they may be close enough to Hedgehogs that they get tracked down for either use or destruction.

But they're not as scary as Hedgehogs.

Because Hedgehogs can access Chaos Energy with ease and Echidnas have to work at it.

We know in the Knuckles Miniseries that Knuckles knows he's had chaos energy all his life, but he wasn't able to access it. Not without training and hard work and a warrior's heart.

Sonic and Shadow, we know, never had a day of training in their lives before they were going nuclear.

Echidnas are a crafted blade.

Hedgehogs are a lake of gasoline.

Longclaw needed to hide Sonic because he was a Hedgehog and someone wanted Hedgehogs either to use or destroy. Hedgehogs in the wild are rare enough that his natural abilities were taken stock of.

Sonic is a legend because, by being a Hedgehog, he is destined to be something powerful. He was weird. He was unique. He was amazing. And he choose to help people with these abilities and that's why Tails considered him a legend.

(There is also a possibility there is just straight up a prophecy and Tails hasn't quite caught on how much Longclaw did NOT tell Sonic things. A bit of a 'this is a normal fact to Knuckles and Tails so it doesn't enter their minds Sonic DOESN'T know it' but that is very speculative without a lot of evidence to go off of.)

Circling back to the idea of the Warrior's Heart and the importance of the Hedgehogs we see.

Here is the thing, Sonic the Hedgehog has established that the power of friendship/family/love is, in fact, a thing that happens. We see Sonic go from on the floor to fighting Robotnik with the Wachowski's and town reaching out. We see the Chaos Emeralds react in face of a familial love. We see Knuckles go from the ground and drained to raring to go for his home. We see Sonic get the upper hand on Shadow when his love for Tom is provoked, and we see Shadow use his love for Maria to move the Eclipse Cannon.

And throughout the series we see a human do an act of superhuman ability without any aid of technology or magic gems a grand total of once.

Wade Whipple.

In Flames of Disaster, he does a standing jump inside of the cage, through the roof, several feet above it, and land without getting seriously hurt. While we may not know the exact material of the roof and it looks like cardboard, the standing jump is not a realistic human feat, let alone for Wade Whipple.

But he was selected to be the inheritor of the Echidna's way. Sure, his selection may have also been about getting Knuckles to live his life, but I think his selection was two pronged. One part was to help Knuckles learn to live his life, but another was Wade had a potential.

Chaos Energy.

How much, who knows, but it was enough that when Wade figured out how to connect to the Warrior's Heart, he was able to access that power he had to jump through the roof.

And Wade's journey is about trying to be good enough for his dad. The daddy issues were real. He wants to prove he's a warrior, prove he's good enough, to be able to reach his dad again. That was his motivation for his way of the warrior.

Connection is key for chaos energy.

Which makes it funny because the used of a lot of it have largely been those who experienced great loneliness.

Which can also go a long way to explain why the quills retain their power. Because the quills are weird. The quills being pulled off should mean they're dead tissue so while retaining some energy for a while isn't such a hard thing to believe, we know they can last one to fifty years with no problem. And that is base Hedgehogs. That points to an active connection with the quills. Which also goes along with Sonic's quills lighting up when he gets worked up.

Which goes into the Elephant in the room.

What's the deal with Shadow?

He wasn't created by GUN or Gerald. He may have been a natural born Hedgehog for all we know. But here is where we get into theories.

Because the other known factor for Shadow's creation is Black Arms.

And why I think Hedgehogs are hunted down.

And why Longclaw focused so hard on Sonic's heart and to not let himself be used.

And why GUN got real lucky Maria existed in the first place.

My firs thought is Black Arms like to target Hedgehogs for infection. Usage. Hedgehogs are so intune with Chaos Energy, they're prime candidates to convert into their hivemind and Shadow was the first experiment into that. Make him the hybrid.

Which may be the case.

A friend mine proposed another theory that feels more secure in what we've seen.

Hedgehogs ARE Black Arms.

Chaos reacts to connections. It doesn't have to be a positive, it just has to strong. The want to protect family, the home, tradition, is just as strong as grief, vengeance, and loneliness. Connection is the key.

Much like a hivemind.

And it would explain why the quills are active so long. To tap into chaos is to tap into a hivemind and then every part of someone becomes part of the entity. The quills don't lose charge because they continue to LIVE, even if they don't have THOUGHTS.

Its also why the quills so READILY give out their powers to others. Knuckles grants strength. Sonic grants speed. Shadow just grants pure, unfiltered power.

Its also why Sonic and Knuckles are able to absorb their power back from stolen quills or energy drains.

Maybe its why Shadow survived the Eclipse Cannon, its his power, he just needed to be able to absorb it again.

They're calling back the power from a hivemind.

It may be why Knuckles can see ghosts of his ancestors, because they have accepted this lowkey hivemind when they embrace chaos.

Other creatures need to work to achieve this state. To connect to Chaos, to have all of their body alive with chaos, and potentially connect to other in Chaos.

Hedgehogs are scary because they don't need to work for it.

Sonic didn't want to knock out the power in several states and a sattelite. He just wanted so desperately to connect to anyone, his powers reacted and called out anyone who was interested in him.

Shadow, despite his introverted nature and treatment from the scientists, connected hard with Maria and she became the light in his life. A light that caused madness in its absence until he formed an empathetic connection that let him see it could still exist.

And then there's Amy Rose, known advocate for all things love and friendship.

Hedgehogs have two ways they can go.

They can become the Black Arms, who are going to be scary, dangerous beings in the galaxy, enough to warrant scavengers to disguise as birds to put them at ease whether or not they're looking for them specifically. To warrant a robot army.

Black Arms who lean hard into the hivemind, the connection to others, to lead them to take and take and take for the betterment of themselves.

Or, what the Owls have discovered, if they can get to Hedgehogs early enough, they can teach them to love and care in a less destructive way. Perhaps something they learned in their long standing feud with the Echidnas, who have tapped into the power, but remained more sane than Black Arms. Their hearts can be good and pure. They don't need to let others use them for their powers. They can be an individual and remain free, even if their quills are in the hivemind.

Teach Hedgehogs to be good people who can do great things, as long as they are allowed to make decisions for themselves. Instead of being used by the larger group.

Shadow may be a hybrid. He may have been just someone who converted early into the state of Black Arms, but crashing into Earth cut him off.

But either way, whatever is going on with Hedgehogs, I'm pretty sure they are indeed an endangered species.

[thevoiceofoddie]

THE SIXFOUR KART WORLD TOUR MEGAPOST

Oddie here, bringing you a pretty big post about Sixfour Kart: World Tour, a massive total modification of Dr. Robotnik’s Ring Racers with new tracks, characters, and a lot more under the hood changes. If you have already played Ring Racers most of this will be stuff you know.

= General Changes =

= Items =

First off, every single item in Ring Racers has been reskinned to fit the general aesthetic of SKWT. The list is below:

Rings - Coins

Orbinaut - Squirtle Shell

Jawz - Chewtle Shell

SPB - Turtonator Shell

Banana - Nanab Berry

Sneaker - Oran Berry

Rocket Sneaker - X-Speed

Super Ring - Stack ‘o Coins

Pogo Spring - Air Balloon

Hyudoro - Haunter

Eggmark - Fake Item Box

Ballhog - Bullet Seed

Proximity Mine - Blast Seed

Land Mine - Blast Trap

Drop Target - Bumper

Gardentop - Spinning Top

Flame Shield - Flame Charge

Bubble Shield - Bubble

Thunder Shield - Zenith Shield

Gachabom - Gyro Orb

Invincibility - Awakening Emera

Grow - Wishing Star

Shrink - Minimize Ray

Additionally, SKWT contains three items not seen in Ring Racers. These include...

= TORKOAL SHELL =

Meet the volatile cousin of the Squirtle Shell, the Torkoal Shell! This item which is based on the Black Shell from the Mario Kart Arcade games is a very hard but very rewarding item to use. When used, it functions similarly to a Squirtle Shell, though instead of causing normal damage, it explodes on contact!

= CRACKED WISHING STAR =

A returning item from the original Sixfour Kart that was axed for Ring Racers, the Cracked Wishing Star makes its return as a powerful last resort item! Upon usage, all drivers in front of the user will be stunned, shrunk, and prone to being wiped out when rammed into! It appears extremely rarely in the roulette, only when you’re very far behind.

= ICE SHARDS =

Ice Shards are used similarly to Blast Traps, they pop right out of your kart and land on the floor, and cannot be thrown forward. When someone runs over it, they freeze and start sliding along the course with zero control! In order to regain control, you have to mash the drift button to break free.

= Physics =

Not too much to see here, aside from adjustments to how slopes and water work. Slopes are much easier to climb now, and turning underwater feels a lot more loose.

= Characters =

SKWT’s character list is giant. So much so, that we can’t disclose how many characters are in the game yet. However, we do have tons of new and returning characters from the original Sixfour Kart, so be on the look out for that!

Also, shields will now properly scale with your character’s size. Previously, it would look awkward with how tiny a shield would look on a large character, so this change should hopefully bring some visual consistency!

= Race Mode =

SKWT contains three main race difficulties, and two unlockable ones.

Breezy - 50cc racing. Kick back and enjoy the sights!

Normal - Fast paced fun for everyone at 100cc. Are you up to it?

Brutal - Kick things up to 150cc with harder CPUs!

Nightmare (UNLOCK) - CPUs are at their best and will do anything to win!

Godhand (UNLOCK) - 200cc. This isn’t even remotely fair.

Grand Prix races have been significantly altered for Normal mode. CPU players will start to get better midway through the GP, keeping things challenging but still fair for newcomers. Your rival will also have the same item odds as you on Normal, but from Brutal onward, they’ll put up a fight!

= Closing Words =

Before I close off this post, I would like to showcase a few maps.

= Sixfour Raceway =

= Starlight Bridge =

= Sapphire Lake =

That’s about all I have for now, I will continue to showcase more gifs and screenshots as time goes on! Thanks for reading this, this is Oddie, out.

[dualiti-real]

OC-tober Day 5: Relationships

I was going to do a chart but I have too many characters and I haven't introduced them all yet so instead I'll take this as an opportunity to introduce two OCs at once, my two absolutely terrible guys, Laurel and his husband Faust!

(warning for brief mentions of mind control in the context of Laurels powers, lemme know if there's anything else in here anyone would want a warning about that I missed)

Laurel is the closest thing Dualiti really has to a villain, as mentioned in his neocities blurb. but due to Dualiti's very static state of being, he's mostly been bothering the same places and people for the last 1000 years, the only thing changing being who's being sent to fight him. either way, he is extremely content with the status quo he's in, where he has a lot of control in his little bubble and can do basically whatever he feels like. He and Vex have a very complicated rivalry, but that's a whole different quadrant- *I AM IMMEDIATELY DRAGGED OFFSTAGE BY SECURITY*

His husband is Faust, a mad scientist who is the absolute worst. just about everyone who meets him is immediately repulsed by his personality, which is "I am smarter than everyone else and anyone who claims otherwise is stupid and wrong, even when I am actively failing at something". somehow, though, Laurel is absolutely charmed by his cringefail demeanor. it also helps that Faust is equally head over heels for him. they are both completely terrible but I guess somehow they cancel eachother out, so that's nice? I'm glad they managed to find eachother.

Laurel Fun Facts:

Though Laurel looks like just a really tall elf, (he is 7'6". elves in the universe of Dualiti do not get that tall ever.) he's actually a sentient magical organism that is puppeting a corpse to function as his main body. that organism is the slime, which manifests on his body as the hair coming from his head.

when Laurel (the magic organism) consumes matter, it produces more slime, which can be used as structures, weapons, and as means of controlling others.

He can make hunters by basically infecting people with himself, (someone ingests the slime, it gets into an injury, ect.) and puppeting them from the inside. once he's infected someone, they're basically already on his network, and he can step into the controls any time. (you know, like vris- *I am once again dragged offstage*) he doesn't use it a lot unless he has to, though. he likes the challenge of convincing people to work for him.

(also just to get it out there because I mentioned Laurels powers and I want to make it clear that, no, Faust isn't being mind controlled or anything. he just encountered someone who actually genuinely liked him and went full Gomez Addams about it)

He is very much inspired by my love of classic disney villains. always love a character who is awful and is having so much fun with it. Shoutout to my girl Maleficent she inspired SO much about Laurel without me even realizing it.

as mentioned, he and vex have sort of a weird rival thing going on. do they hate eachother? are they best friends? something else? fucking. I don't know man.

(shout out to Hark a Vagrant by Kate Beaton for the reference)

you can tell thats old art because laurel doesn't have his cape yet. anyway, now we're moving on to

Faust Fun Facts:

Faust is very much inspired by characters like Doctor Robotnik, or Berdly of Deltarune. basically characters that are very confident in being super smart even when they probably aren't actually.

this isn't to say he's bad at what he does, he's really good at making robots and doomsday devices and the like- he's just bad at realizing that maybe he shouldn't keep putting in the function for them to explode randomly or at the slightest interference. high intelligence, fucking AWFUL wisdom.

He and Laurel met when Faust accidentally crashed his egg-mobile type thing into Laurels mansion and DIRECTLY onto the table Laurel was having tea at.

it's honestly a miracle Laurel thought he was funny and didn't end up killing him.

Faust does smoke, even though as a hunter/undead he doesn't really like, get any of what you would get from a cigarette. old habits die hard. (maybe he just likes the taste.)

as mentioned he is absolutely hopeless over Laurel. Laurel could literally do anything and Faust would think it was great. thankfully Laurel likes him just as much right back, which means that Faust can fuck up his evil schemes as much as possible and Laurel will not even care. he loves his silly little idiot so much.

[randomfandomfamily]

So this is a post about what I think might happen during the sequel to the Sonic Movie.

This started out as a few thoughts , turned into a lot of ideas, and eventually manifested into… whatever this is.

Look, I have exactly zero self-control, and hyperfixation is an absolute monster at this time of all the time. So like… oops, I guess? Enjoy? Maybe? I dunno. Just gonna yeet this out there and scoot.

Warning: This is a really long friggin’ post. How long? Nearly 3,000 words of pure hyperfocused writing long. I would say I’m sorry, but I don’t think you’d believe me if I did.

I know everyone is freakin’ hyped that Sonic is going to have a pal for the sequel. If past incarnations tell us anything, it’s that Sonic and Tails are 100% going to click, no problem. And I don’t doubt that is exactly what’s gonna happen this round too.

But here’s the thing. The premise for pretty much all of Sonic and Tails’ meeting before now has been Tails looking up to Sonic and Sonic deciding he’s gonna look out for Tails. They see each other as total equals, of course, but a lot of it stems from Sonic’s confidence in his abilities. Tails admires him for it, and Sonic knows he can keep Tails safe because of it. It gives Tails more confidence in himself. And that gives Sonic more confidence in Tails. They give each other the confidence and reassurance that they need.

This Sonic? This Sonic is a child. And he’s pretty much always been a child, a teen of fifteen in most cases, but we rarely see any incarnation of Sonic acting like a child. He’s usually just saving the world, and when he’s not doing that, he’s saving the world again. But the Sonic in the movie genuinely loves being a kid. And confidence in his abilities? Not so much. He used them once on purpose, and only after he had nearly died.

He’s not the usual thrill-seeking, needs to constantly be on the move, adrenaline junkie that we’re used to. He lives in house. In a small town. With friendly people and no one to fight (anymore). And he likes it that way.

Because of this, the set-up for Tails and Sonic’s relationship is going to have to be different. It’s most likely going to rely a lot on Sonic just being excited to see someone from his home planet. He might not question how Tails knows him. He might not question how Tails found him. He might not question anything at all.

The first movie taught Sonic that he absolutely does not have to be alone in life. It is, in fact, the worst way to live your life. He learns that it’s okay to rely on people, and he didn’t have to do this alone. The first movie taught him trust.

Sonic relied on blind trust in the first movie and it worked out. He trusted Tom. And in true Donut Lord fashion, Tom not only helped, but he and Maddie had pretty much adopted Sonic by the end of the movie.

Tails comes along. A resident of Sonic’s old home. Tails is nice, crazy smart, seems super interested in his powers, and also doesn’t want to kill his parents. Great! Immediate trust for Tails, too.

Now like I mentioned it before in another post, but I’m willing to bet that Tails found out about Sonic through the Echidnas. Though I’m also willing to bet that it was one specific Echidna that told him.

Gonna intervene on the Sonic/Tails analysis to bring you some unscheduled Knuckles. In all of Knuckles’ lore, he is the last known Echidna. Now they might throw that specific part of his history out for this incarnation, but it’d be interesting if they kept it.

Super Sonic was nearly a part of the movie, but they decided the main focus of the movie should be Sonic the character, not Sonic the classic hero archetype. That doesn’t mean Super Sonic will never be introduced, it could still happen. The thing is, that requires Chaos Emeralds. And who was known for his connection to those? Exactly.

Y’all wanna see somethin’ neat?

We gotta map with eight planets on it and something that looks nearly identical to a Chaos Emerald in the corner. Rings are used by advanced civilizations, and Earth ain’t one of them. Ta-da. Seven planets. Seven Chaos Emeralds. And that that circle in the middle looks like a great place for a Master Emerald, doesn’t it?

‘Wait a minute’, I hear you protest, ‘the mushroom planet is uninhabited! Why would a Chaos Emerald be there?’

Sure it’s uninhabited. You know, unless it isn’t. What proof do we have that it is? Because Sonic said it was? Because he opened up a portal, looked through it, and saw nothing?

Look, Robotnik is a brilliant scientist, I’ll give him that, but no way in New Heckistan is he going to find a way to find a way home with mushrooms alone.

But say he stumbles across a poor soul who’s trying to protect one of the seven most powerful gems in existence. Say he steals that gem and uses it to find a way back (as a mad scientist do). Maybe he even stole the set of rings that the poor unfortunate soul had. After all, there were six more gems to find. Why settle for 1/7 of the power when you could have it all?

How long has Sonic been with Tom and Maddie now? Long enough for him to be enrolled in school? Long enough for them to fix the house and start repainting? Long enough, perhaps, for a mad scientist to start fixing the remnants of his busted ship and power it with an alien source? I mean, probably. He is pretty smart.

Actually, hang on. Maybe the planet is uninhabited as far as living creatures go, but isn’t Eggman (Robotnik’s nickname from Sonic) known for having two robot assitants? That’d be an interesting way to introduce them. And they’d know the other planets, and could open the portals.

So perhaps Robotnik finds a planet with another Chaos Emerald ripe for the picking. It’s protected by, oh let’s say… a tribe of Echidnas? All sworn to protect one thing. The thing he wants. They put up a fight, of course they do, but they don’t know who they’re up against.

But maybe, just maybe, there’s one left behind. Knuckles. Who had heard tales of a being that could harness the power of the Chaos Emeralds. His tribe had tried hunting him down years ago in fear that he might steal the power for evil. They had failed. Thankfully. Because it looked that being they tried to hunt down was going to be their only chance of stopping the psycho with the mustache.

So Knuckles confides in a local inventor that he knows. A clever little Fox named Miles Prower. He tells Miles that there is someone that could help them, but it was going to be difficult to find them.

If I’m right, and Tails did find out about Sonic through Knuckles, that explains his timing. If he was just tracking Sonic’s power, he could have found Sonic after the incident at the baseball field. But he needed a reason to find Sonic, and a scientist destroying a tribe of people for a gem seems like a good reason. Might also explain why he’s hoping he’s not too late. Who knows how long it would take Robotnik to find the other Chaos Emeralds? They had to get to them first.

Sonic meets Miles, nicknames him Tails, and they hit it off immediately. Sonic is more than willing to help Tails track down the rest of these things. No way in hell Tom and Maddie are letting him go alone, so they’re coming too.

Tails doesn’t think to mention that it was an Echidna that told him about Sonic. Tom and Maddie are kind of suspicious about it at first (I thought no one else knew about him? Who is this guy and how does he know?) but Tails seems like a good kid and Sonic trusts him.

They find the first Chaos Emerald (there are probably many shenanigans that ensue, but I don’t know what the other planets are like so I can’t predict them). No one really knows what they should do with it. Keep it with them? But what if they’re confronted by Robotnik and he takes it somehow?

So Tails tell them that a friend of his back on the island that could watch over it. Robotnik wouldn’t think to go back there because he already attacked it once. That seems like a solid plan, so they go back. Sonic is thrilled to be back. Everything looks the same as it did. Except for… that part. That part looks like a warzone.

Now, why is Knuckles not part of this mission too? Not sure. Maybe he’s injured after the fight. It’s very probable that he would be. So he’s injured, grieving, worried sick about the eight year old he just sent looking for the one person that can stop Robotnik.

He’s relieved when he sees Tails with a hedgehog, who he correctly assumes is the being who can control the Emeralds’ power. He’s even relieved to see the two humans. At least someone is looking out for the kid since he’s not able to.

You know who’s not thrilled? I’ll give you three guesses, and the first two don’t count.

The phrase ‘eyes glowing with rage’ is all too literal when it comes to Sonic. And he looks ready to explode on the spot. He immediately accuses Tails of betraying him, leading him to the people that killed the only person on the island that cared about him. He even throws in a spiteful ‘Miles’ because the name ‘Tails’ was only for friends.

Tails and Knuckles don’t have time to explain before Sonic takes off like a bullet. He’s out of sight in milliseconds, but you could hear the electric energy from a mile away.

Tom and Maddie decide to hear them out, because they obviously did need their help with Robotnik on the loose. Tails explains that Knuckles is the last of his kind and really isn’t much older than Sonic. He had nothing to do with what happened to Longclaw.

So Tom offers to go talk to Sonic (huzzah for fatherly life lessons), and Maddie offers to help fix up Knuckles as best as she can. Being a vet paid off in the weirdest ways sometimes.

While Tom explains what actually happened and that no one betrayed anyone, Knuckles and Tails have reluctantly opened up to Maddie.

Knuckles has been trying to keep up that rough and tumble attitude we know and love, but it’s kinda breaking down with this nice human  wrapping his arm with the bandages she brought (because of course she brought bandages, she’s a vet and a mother) and asking if he was okay. He was not okay.

And Tails… well, where was Tails’ family? Did they know where he was? Any friends he could think of that might be able to help them? That ends in a solemn silence. Tails is family-less too, and his inventions aren’t always well received on an island that is almost completely organic. There was a very kind Rabbit mother and daughter that checked on him from time to time, but other than that? He was on his own.

Maddie makes a mental note to tell Tom that they’re adopting two more alien children and no it’s not up for discussion, they’re doing it (not that Tom would have argued with her anyway).

Tom returns with Sonic, who apologizes for accusing them of betrayal and murder. That’s when he and Knuckles finally realize they’re about the same age. (I’m gonna guesstimate Knuckles’ age at around 15/16). It’s baffling to the both of them.

When Knuckles heard about the powerful being his people had hunted, he had expected… not a teenager. And worse, it happened a decade ago.His people had hunted down a toddler and, apparently, killed his parent. He was a little more understanding of Sonic’s anger.

As for Sonic, Echidnas were pretty much cold-blooded murderers to him. He had never stopped to consider that there were also, you know, kids. And this kid had just lost… everything. He instantly feels terrible about his outburst. This guy didn’t even know who Longclaw was, much less what had happened to her.

But, emotional breakthroughs aside, they still have a huge problem and his name is Eggman. Or Robotnik. It really depended on who you asked. Either way, they needed to figure out which planet Robotnik was going to be at next. They decide to just collect the Chaos Emeralds they could and worry about Robotnik later.

Sonic gives Knuckles his set of rings, just in case. They have Tails’ so they should be fine. Off to the next planet to find an Emerald. It becomes clear that they’re gonna need a more efficient way of doing this, so Tails modifies the tracker he made for Sonic to track the Emerald’s energy instead.

It works, obviously, because Tails is a precious little genius. But no one stopped to consider how the mad scientist was finding the Chaos Emeralds. It makes sense that he would find a way to track their energy by using the one he found on the mushroom planet, but nobody thinks about that until Tails finds a way to do it.

Then they remember they just left Knuckles alone with a Chaos Emerald. They open up a portal to get him, but Robotnik is already there with a monologue about how how stupid they all were for assuming he wouldn’t return to this planet, he was the smartest individual, not just on Earth, but in the entire universe, and blah blah blah, psycho scientist banter, he’s Jim Carey and his blood is made of cocaine, you get the picture.

Cue rescue sequence for the resident Echidna of the group. They manage to get Knuckles and the Emerald away from the crazy doc, maybe even steal the ones that Robotnik has, Perhaps we even get a heartfelt response from Sonic because ‘you idiot why didn’t use the rings to escape, I told you to use them, we are not losing anyone else to this fight’.

And not to bring us to an abrupt halt right there, but as I’ve said earlier, we’ve got no idea what the other planets are like, so I can’t make any solid predictions. Though I guess you can’t call anything about this solid. It’s literally all speculation.

But, you know, they get the seven Emeralds somehow because teamwork. There’s probably a bunch of cool aliens to meet, some Chao maybe? That’d be rad. And, of course, tons of fight scenes because that’s what the Eggman vs. Sonic thing is all about. Who wins: A ex-government hired genius fueled by spite and pure rage or one Spikey Child and his Fam?

I’m thinking the final fight would have to take place one that circle in the middle, which I’ve already speculated could be a possible location for the Master Emerald. And that fight would. be. dope. I mean, it’s Super Sonic, for cryin’ out sideways!

Since the good guys always win the fights, Sonic and crew win. They probably wouldn’t kill him. Why would they? They’re the good guys. Knuckles very seriously considers it though. Like, Tom kinda puts a hand on his shoulder just to make sure he doesn’t because homeboy looks like he wants to shank the local nutcase, not that anyone blames him.

(this also serves a purpose for something else that always bugs me about Knuckles’ character, which is that he is very gullible when it come to Eggman, we see it all over the place with him. a scenario like this? eradicates that odd quirk in his personality without erasing any of his other good qualities. harmless pranks? sure, gullible as all get out. Tails and Sonic could even prank him at the end of the movie, and that’d be just the sweetest thing. but when it comes to Eggman? hell nah. nah nah nah, get that outta here.)

So they beat Eggman, maybe yeet him back to mushroom planet again–this time without any kind of tech. No ship for you, Eggy-Boy.

Then it’s time to go home. Here’s where it could go two different ways. Tails is going with Sonic, that seems pretty obvious at this point, and Knuckles could go back to Earth with them too if he wanted.

I don’t think he would, though. Being Guardian of the Master Emerald is an integral part to Knuckles’ character. And while, yes I would love to see him hanging out with Sonic and Tails more, I think this is something that will have to stay part of his history.

But if you think they aren’t inviting him over for Movie Night you are mistaken, sir. Knuckles is always invited to Movie Night. He doesn’t always accept, and that’s okay. They visit him too, just to see how he’s doing.

Sonic taught Knuckles and Tails to floss and that is a vital part of the sequel, shut up, yes it is.

And viola! Sequel! Oh, but of course we need a post-credit scene, don’t we? See Sonic being around the age of thirteen does have its benefits.

Because you see, that means we can give him two years of peace with Tails and his parents before before he’s fifteen, the age most Sonic incarnations seem to stick with.

Fifteen is old enough for a rival, right? Teenagers, you know what I mean.

And I’m not saying that Robotnik had the technology to replicate DNA and modify it, but I am saying… that he probably has that kind of tech laying around somewhere.

The government seems to fund the science department pretty well. And there’s a certain individual who followed Dr Robotnik around for a while, learning all his tricks. Mmmmmmmmmm-hmmmm. Agent Stone.

And I’m not saying Agent Stone is evil….

I’m saying:

What if Agent Stone created Shadow?

*aaaaaaand fade to black*

Now, if you made it this far… wow. Thank you! Like, seriously, holy shit. This was so long. I appreciate you for sticking it out with me. It took… a while to write. I don’t wanna admit the actual amount of time it took. But really, thank you for giving this a read.

[mobius-prime]

126. Knuckles the Echidna #25

Childhood's End

Writer: Ken Penders Pencils: Manny Galan Colors: Mark Bernardo

It's finally time for a reunion a long time in the making - the reunion, of course, between Knuckles and Locke! Due to this being the 25th issue, it's not part of a larger arc, it's standalone. Knuckles is helping Julie-Su clean up the mess left behind by the fight against the Legion in the base where they were both held captive a couple issues ago, when upon picking up Benedict's robotic skull, he spots a reflection on its side that stuns him. He drops the skull as Julie-Su calls after him, racing after the figure he saw reflected and ending up on the streets of the city.

There's a lot of things Knuckles could do here. I'm sure many people expected him to be angry, yell at his father for leaving him and keeping secrets, act on any feelings of betrayal he may have. But in the end, this is a teenager who, according to the intro page, hasn't seen his father in six whole years, ever since he jumped into the wall of fire in front of him, and so he begins to cry and embraces Locke, saying how happy he is to see him. They just stand there hugging for a moment, and then Knuckles begins to boil over with questions, wanting to know everything. Locke leads him away so they can talk more privately, and they head out jut as Julie-Su emerges onto the street as well, looking for him.

Ooh boy, I sense a conflict coming up. Locke and Knuckles get into a shuttle and Locke pilots them to Haven, which Knuckles asks for more information on, seeing as he didn't spend very long there before and thus didn't get many answers about it. And so Locke begins a flashback-laden history lesson, pretty much par for the course for anything Kenders gets his hands on. Haven was originally built by the fire ants to be a base for the current Guardian, Steppenwolf (remember him? Son of Edmund), to carry out his duties. Eventually Steppenwolf had a son, Moonwatcher, and trained him to be a Guardian as well. However, soon enough, Steppenwolf realized that there might be more danger to the Floating Island than just that from within.

Man, why are the Overlanders always so evil in these earlier issues? It's like the entire species is constantly plotting to take over everything and kill Mobians just because they can. Then again, the ones up there are led by a Kintobor, so I guess the Kintobors have always just been a crappy family. Steppenwolf senses their insincerity, and proceeds to mind-torture them with extreme pain until they agree to never set foot on the island again. Geez, man, I get they were traitorous, but did you really have to go that far? Turns out it was the fire ants with their telepathic powers that were able to warn him of the Overlanders' intentions. Steppenwolf had a chat with his fire ant mentor Christopheles, and together they agreed that there would always be more people trying to invade the island, so they should take extra security measures to ensure it would be properly protected.

As Locke tells this story, they land in Haven, and Knuckles begins to ask about it again, prompting Locke to reveal that it wasn't always kept a secret from the current Guardian. He continues his story - originally, Steppenwolf decided that there should be more than one Guardian always at the ready to protect the island, so he brought Moonwatcher to Haven, and they began to trade off duties. One would explore the surface of whatever landmass they were flying over, while the other would remain on the island and look after everyone on it.

I like how Harlan looks like a totally normal Knuckles clone while Rembrandt looks like this crazy hippie who decided to only dress himself in articles of clothing he found at grandpa's garage sale. The family line continued up to Rembrandt's son, Aaron, which is probably the most normal name for any echidna we've seen so far. Aaron was on the surface of the planet one day when he encountered a squad of Overlanders roaming around with, to his shock, some Dark Legionnaires, who, upon seeing him and recognizing him as a Guardian, tried to capture him. Aaron tried to run away but ran straight into Menniker himself (who was still alive because of the slower passing of time in the Twilight Zone, if you'll recall Kragok mentioning before), next to a giant missile. Apparently the Dark Legion was conspiring with the Overlanders to just straight up explode the Floating Island, and, panicking, one of the Overlanders fired the missile prematurely, to Menniker's fury. Aaron jumped up and managed to land on it, and was doing a fine job of disarming it midair until Menniker landed on it as well to stop him.

Both Aaron and Menniker were vaporized in the explosion, and Rembrandt and the rest of the Guardians were distraught at the loss. However, the family line didn't end there, as Aaron's younger brother Jordan offered himself up to become the next Guardian in his late brother's place.

Thus began the tradition of a father training his son in isolation on the island, then disappearing to Haven when the time was right to allow their offspring to take over their duties alone, this time never leaving the island's surface. Knuckles is somewhat relieved to hear that his father never abandoned him all those years ago, though he perhaps may have been slightly less relieved if he'd known that he was spying on him all that time, including all his private conversations with friends and Julie-Su, but I digress. When Locke mentions something about Knuckles' training being more important than any other Guardian before, Knuckles presses him on the issue, insisting he's ready to hear the answer when Locke hesitates. Locke explains how one night after being married to Lara-Le for a while, he had a nightmare of a strange series of events, which included a giant robot looking kind of like Robotnik destroying a city while his future son faced it down. He awoke in a cold sweat, but had this dream again and again, which prompted him to go to Athair of all people for advice, who told him it was a dream of the future that he must prepare for.

Yes, that's right. Locke altered his own genetic material so that he could shoot mutant super-sperm into his wife to create a superpowered baby, without telling her any of what he was doing, of course. But then he wasn't even satisfied with that! As soon as his wife laid Knuckles' egg, he took it and stuck it in the Chaos Chamber where he blasted it with radiation from the emerald in front of the rest of the Brotherhood. This is the true backstory of Knuckles' birth, and his apparent destiny. I've heard it summarized before as "had a bad dream, better microwave the baby," which, yeah, that's basically exactly what happened. Locke could have, with his foreknowledge of things to come, simply worked on training his son adequately for the future he saw, ensuring as well that he had the full backing of the rest of the Brotherhood for his entire life. But no, instead he did… well, this. (Ironically, the vision as seen in his nightmare depicted above never even slightly came to pass over the course of the comic, due to things like changing storylines and new head writers. Perhaps Locke's actions averted that future, or perhaps he really did just have a bad dream and microwave the baby as a result - there's no way to know for sure.)

And did it work? Did Locke's son, in fact, come out of the egg as a superpowered savior of echidnakind?

Oh, did you think those were just part of his gloves installed there to help him punch better? Nah, out of all the echidnas, only Knuckles has actual echidna knuckles. Somehow, this one tiny detail was enough to convince Locke that his genetic alterations worked and that Knuckles would be the ultra-powerful savior of the echidna people, even though it could also have been, I dunno, a genetic defect caused by all the mutant sperm and radiation that went into making this child. Of course, Knuckles is intimidated by all this - I don't think anyone has ever had a positive reaction to hearing they're a genetically-engineered destined hero - but Locke retorts that he had similar misgivings when he was still a Guardian trainee, and that his decision to microwave his baby was also really hard for him, calling it a decision between "sacrificing the world or siring a son to save it." I'm still not buying it, Locke, but Knuckles seems placated for now, and Locke suggests that, for the time being, they just spend some long-overdue time together as father and son. Knuckles happily agrees, exchanging "I love you"s with his father for the first time in who knows how many years.

So my opinion on all this? Well, I've already given some of it above, but honestly, I think that Locke far overreacted to his whole nightmare situation. He's been awful to Lara-Le both through their entire marriage and after as a result, constantly lying to her, keeping secrets, and interfering with her attempts to be a part of her son's life. He put his son through a lot of emotionally traumatizing experiences, allowing him to believe his own father had incinerated himself just to try to teach him self-reliance, and then spying on his every private moment from afar. The thing is, every bad guy sees themselves as the hero. And while I don't necessarily categorize Locke as an out-and-out villain, I do believe that, in almost every decision he ever made, he was in the wrong. You can even see it in the way the other members of the Brotherhood treat him, where even though most of them went through the same training regimen with being left behind by their fathers and all, nearly everyone in Haven, especially his own father, thinks Locke is too distant from his son and should reveal himself to him. Locke waited this long - Knuckles is almost sixteen, as we'll see in more detail next KtE arc - and almost every one of his plans went awry somewhere along the line, causing a lot of strife, bad feelings, and chaos for Knuckles throughout the course of the comic. Locke had the best of intentions, and the worst of executions.

Here's the thing. Kenders has said before that he based Locke on his own father, with whom he'd had a difficult relationship when he was younger. I see nothing wrong with basing a character on someone that one knows in real life, but one must also take into account the ramifications of such a thing, seeing as you wouldn't want to portray someone you care about as a bad guy. As it is, I feel that Locke would make a much better villain than… well, than whatever he currently is. If some plot points, character attitudes, etc. were changed, Locke could end up as this mastermind behind a plot that Knuckles would have to uncover, only to heartbreakingly discover his own father behind everything he'd been through. If Knuckles then rejected his father's path to instead carve his own, Locke would become angry, and there would be a lot of strife, a lot of fighting that could come of such a thing. But he wouldn't be a pure villain, either - he'd have a redemption arc, where he'd begin to understand just how badly he'd messed everything up. Then there would be more conflict concerning whether his self-awareness came too late to repair any kind of relationship with his son, let alone achieve forgiveness, or indeed forgive himself. Kenders is trying so hard to portray his own father-insert in a sympathetic light that there's this weird disconnect between how his selfish actions are portrayed by the writing in the comic, and how they come across to anyone looking critically at the plot. I understand his intention in writing everything this way, I really do, but ultimately, he was unwilling to put good storytelling first, and now we've ended up with this muddled mess.

That said, I know I've talked about this before, but I'm far less… I don't know, hateful of Kenders' work than many people in the Archie Sonic fandom. I think he's put together a truly fascinating world here, with many varied characters and a lot of potential for conflict to arise out of any situation naturally - true character-driven conflict, where the mores and values of different people clash dramatically causing strife, which I've always seen as the most interesting kind of conflict. The problem with his work, in the end, usually comes down to execution, and to, well, his own limitations as a writer of dialogue in particular. Seriously, not to insult him too harshly, but his dialogue is so often stilted and awkward that I really think he'd be better off as creative director of any project he worked on, coming up with characters and plots and worldbuilding and the like, while leaving the actual writing to someone else. In addition, quite frankly, he needs an editor that's willing to tell him "no" sometimes, but I've also heard that he's quite hard to work with, always wanting his own ideas to go exactly the way he wants them. And while as a writer myself I understand to a point being protective about one's own ideas, if you're working on a comic like this, dude, you have to be willing to work with others.

But anyway, I've rambled on far too long about this. One textbox aside next to the panels of Locke's nightmare promise us an epic upcoming "Knuckles Twenty Years Later" story in a future Sonic Super Special. As anyone who's read the comics already knows, that whole shebang is kind of infamous for being… well, boring, uninspired, and ultimately unimportant to the plot of the rest of the comic. It's one of the few parts of Kenders' work that I'm wholly uninterested in, not really even a little bit, but I'm still going to cover it once we come to it (which isn't for quite a long while, actually), as there's a lot of criticism to be had there, and what's a comic review without a healthy dose of criticism, eh?

[tecknarn]

#1 JAB - Just Another Blog

Its true, isn’t it? 

There are probably several million blogs in existance and I won’t promise anything different really. Come on, just go ahead and try something else? Heh if you are still here I congratulate you. 

Sooo, I assume introductions are in order, after all, Who the hell is a me? 

Thankfully you don’t have to worry, because I have no clue. But sometimes I do know about myself. I am a girl, or maybe its more correct to call myself woman now, I am almost 22 after all. I was a girl since puberty started, others might have claimed otherwise but they can sod off. 

Life is rarely easy, I mean I keep having to deal with a lot of shit but it is also what makes those sweet, rare good moments so much better, in the end I am an optimist, a cynical optimist if that even makes sense but still optimistical. 

Why am I writing? 

Well to be honest, why the hell not?

Really, sometimes you just need to vent all of the stuff you need out into space, you want to reflect over the mysteries off life and maybe just why that pancake recipe turned out so poorly. 

I am probably not introducing this in the most serious way, but eventually I will probably try my hand at that too, hopefully not in the middle of the night. Why a blog is great is probably the fact that I can actually share my shit and finish writing stuff without having to feel a pressure to make it super great. Instead of working on my writing doing books that I will never work on over one chapter, I’ll throw out these texts! It might work out better. 

I am glad to try my hand at this though, its better than not doing anything

Finally some true jabs at myself and others

Shit happens. (This is my life motto.)

I keep having ambitions that are never fullfilled.

My art sucks and I suck at creating, aka why there hasn’t been art on here in years. 

The 2020s is actually the future but not very futuristic. 

The Sequel Trilogy is mediocre at best.

Trump Sucks.

Gender Studies are actually fun and interesting, give it a try.

I am currently fluctuating sexuality wise between being a panromantic lesbian and just being straight out pansexual (heh, straight.)

I wish I could be butch without exploding in dysphoria.

Welcome to Nightvale is a tree growing out of your left ear and whispering about greatness and godhood.

I do think people need to learn more history.

We could use a bit more empathy around here.

You should not kill unless you are ready to die. - (Lelouch from Code Geass, yes I like anime at best.)

Agent Stone and Robotnik is the best ship (might not be listening to Where Evil Grows by The Poppy Family.)

People really need to cut down toilet paper consumption.

Lets be honest, cinnamon buns are the best.

and hey, feel free to actually disagree. I don’t mind, and its just good that you have your own opinion. Preferably it is a nice one that also respects other’s ideas and opinions. :)

Okay, nice all of that is out in the open. What now, why bother?

Heh, that is up to you to decide! For me I am going to bed. Maybe someday soon I will actually write again. Hopefully when my one true love, Animal Crossing has finally released. Unless I cease to exist from the face of the Earth.

Maybe some posts will just end up being something a bit more after all, remember always watch your flower pots for mysterious letters. They have a tendency to shriek ancient mantras after all, and do eat all the shrimps around.

Sleep well readers!

[sonicpositive]

Sonic Character Analysis: Dr. “Eggman” Robotnik

A hero is nothing without a villain, and the longest-standing villain in this particular story is the genius Dr. Eggman. Over the years our favorite supersonic hedgehog has butt heads with the good Doctor over and over again, and seen him characterized many different ways. From a laughing stock to a remorseless killer, and everything in-between. In the interest of being somewhat brief, each of these portrayals will be analyzed one at a time. Let’s get to it!

Requested by: In Honor of Eggman Day!

Non-Sonic references:

Sonic News Network: Doctor Eggman (Pre-Super Genesis Wave)

Thomas “Eyokir” and Evan Stanley: Sonic Adventure DX Commentary

Other content warnings: GIF images (1)

The Comic Relief Opponent

Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog

The version of the doctor most known for painting him as nothing but a bumbling idiot is the old show, Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog. He throws temper tantrums like a child when things don’t go his way, which is very often. Despite his smarts he can’t outsmart a teenager and his five year old sidekick. Not to mention, he’s extremely unattractive.

The thing is, all of these were intentional. The show was going for a slapstick cartoon feel, and in order to do that they had to very deliberately make Robotnik someone we wanted to laugh at. An old animation guide for the man shows some insight that went into his design:

(Source: pr0jectneedlemouse

Remember: Robotnik is not a straight villain. He is an object of ridicule. When drawing him, keep that fat adult you hated when you were a child in mind. Or your least favorite politician.

Big, huge, fat and repulsive.

It’s clear this man is never meant to win. Yet, despite that, there were times in the show where he did come close. For example, take the episode “Over the Hill Hero, where he actually captured Sonic in a small force-field.

Sonic is rendered completely helpless for the second half of the episode, unable to escape or to help the people of Mobius. Attempts to saw through the field with his spin-dash only result in the Doctor manipulating it to trip up his stride and make him fall flat on his face. The only reason he escaped was because of the help of an older hero Robotnik had decided was incompetent. Otherwise, it would have been game-over.

Despite having him be a comical villain very deliberately, his plans are just clever enough that we worry they might succeed. But he doesn’t, because if he ever did he wouldn’t be funny anymore.

Sonic Underground

Another, similar portrayal of Eggman when he was still using the “Robotnik” handle is Sonic Underground... which is decidedly ironic, since it was based off of the Saturday morning cartoon.

He certainly doesn’t look as comical, and his tactics are shown to be as ruthless as those in SatAM. But actually re-watching the show, I was surprised to realize he wasn’t nearly as dark as I had thought when I first saw the series.

And I also realize a way to tell; how competent his help is sets the tone for the Doctor himself.

Sleet and Dingo are constantly bumbling their way through their attempts to capture Sonic, Sonia and Manic. They get some good breaks, and Sleet is actually rather clever, but they’re never exactly threatening.

Because of this, most of our exposure to Robotnik himself is paired with these two, and the fact he even entertains their company magnifies the silliness factor of what he’s doing. Even during the final episode of the Chaos Emerald Crisis arc, one of the most serious points in the show, he falls victim to easy tricks and slapstick comedy, despite otherwise being portrayed as competent and dangerous.

So, as oppose to Adventures Of where he is funny but his plans are potentially dangerous, we laugh at Robotnik here because he might be dangerous, but his plans will never work. Any threat he might have is undercut by the fact he truly believes nothing could go wrong.

Sonic Boom

“But these are old cartoons!” I hear you saying. “They hadn’t established his character yet!” This is true. But what’s also true is that in the Sonic Boom TV show, he’s been given the exact same tone.

By now, Eggmans character has been several years in the making, solidified and polished to something consistent. But Sonic Boom, besides being an alternate universe, doesn’t benefit from this tone. The show is meant to be silly and mostly lighthearted, with the Doctor being an episodic nuisance.

However, this portrayal does differ from the other comedic roles in one important way; he’s shown in many ways to be a secondary protagonist as oppose to an antagonist. Episodes center around him, and he has a somewhat friendly, albeit very complicated, relationship with the heroes. In many ways, he’s more similar to a rival than an outright villain. He helps them if it benefits him, but more importantly, they help him as well.

The episode “New Year’s Retribution” is a good showing of this; with his self-esteem in the gutter, the Doctor desperately tries to best Sonic before the year is over at ANYTHING. And when Sonic realizes this, he challenges him to a dance-off and intentionally loses. Despite the fact that time and time again he tries to ruin their day, when he’s truly distraught the heroes let him win.

The reason Eggman is funny here isn’t because he fails at his plans. Instead, it’s because we as the viewers end up seeing him in some ways as a hero, not a villain. He’s just really bad at being bad.

The Merciless Dictator

Sonic the Hedgehog (SatAM)

On the completely opposite end of the spectrum, the doctor has been portrayed as the epitome of evil nearly as frequently as he has been a joke of an adversary. The one most fondly remembered for this is likely SatAM.

Considering SatAM was in production at the same time as Adventures Of, you can see the stark contrast. His design is much harsher, even including a robotic arm (not shown in the gif above). His personality and how he handles roadblocks is also much different; he’s a cold, calculating enemy who still gets angry, but in a much more dangerous way. Snively is actually afraid of him, whereas many times in other shows his underlings actually are not.

He’s a threat, certainly. But he’s also... flat. We don’t love him, we don’t even love to hate him. He’s just “Sonic’s enemy.” He hardly even seems human. He shows fear in one episode, and only towards Naugus. The only reason we get on-screen for him hating Sonic is that the hedgehog ruined his plans and inadvertently roboticized his arm. He’s barely a character; more often than not, he’s simply a walking “big bad” trope.

Sonic the Comic

I know, not one we talk about often, right? But the Sonic the Comic iteration of the Doctor is actually interesting in many different ways, and balances having a stock “evil villain” character with a realistic, compelling backstory.

Uniquely, in this version of canon Robotnik did not simply start out as a mad scientist in search of power. His intent was to make Mobius completely perfect by taking away all the negative Chaos energy in it. He even functions as Sonic’s origin story, giving him his shoes that provided super speed.

But, the best laid plans never seem to work; his experiments backfired on him and sent everything he was trying to destroy into him, transforming him into the same cruel villain SatAM shows. He terrorizes the world just because he can, and if he can’t have the planet then he’ll destroy it and make sure no one can.

While possessing more depth than other Dictator Doctors, it feels in some ways cheap. It almost seems that he is not the curator of these actions, but rather negative Chaos energy itself. It’s kind of pathetic, oddly. As if his body is just a host for some parasite that wants to suck the whole world dry.

Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics, Pre-Super Genesis Wave)

Somewhere between “to much backstory” and “not enough,” the early Archie Comics issues of Sonic the Hedgehog found a midpoint that worked pretty well. I will admit that I didn’t start the series until after the Super Genesis Wave, and going back to read all the issues prior to that requires time I simply do not have, so I will be directly citing the Sonic Wikia.

The Archie Comics were in the unique position of needing to adapt their version of Eggman as new media was put out to keep it current. They started from the SatAM version of Robotnik, and had to melt game-canon Eggman into more or less the same character. For how difficult a task it was, they did surprisingly well.

Being stated on several occasions as being many times more nasty and evil than the original Robotnik ever was, Eggman has shown himself to be far more prone to toying with his opponents than his Mobius Prime counterpart on numerous occasions. As opposed to simply wiping out Knothole from the get-go, Eggman decided to "have fun" with his Mobian enemies and take the time and resources to engage in "war-games". [...]

Like Robotnik, Eggman is also arrogant, and egotistical, both of which may be his greatest weaknesses. He has a habit of frequently putting "Egg" into the names of numerous inventions and places [...].

Despite his genius, Eggman has the annoying habit of thinking that his plans are foolproof, even when the flaws are quite obvious [...], and not realizing that there may be a problem until it is too late [...].

(Source: Personality section of Wikia page)

The biggest issue with this portrayal of the Doctor is... There’s just. So. Much. His personality grew and changed drastically over the course of the never-ending story in ways that don’t always make sense. Some of his arcs seemed to be the end of him, but you can’t get rid of the main villain, so he came back despite there being no logically believable reason to. Robotic body literally exploded? Built it back. Complete mental breakdown? He reasoned himself back to reality. His character has possessed so many different traits at different points that the question becomes... is he really one character?

The Mad Scientist

Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics, Post-Super Genesis Wave)

Clearly, neither of the two extremes worked well for a children’s video game series. We need to be able to take the Doctor seriously, but not simply see him as the featureless face of evil either. And so, somewhere in the middle, a balance was found that turned Eggman into the character we know him as today.

As previously mentioned, the Archie Comics needed to adhere to new media as it was created, so surprisingly the good Doctor didn’t change that much. Mostly his past was simplified from a giant drama to a set of specific successes and failures, which served his character much better. He still ruled the world, and he still kept getting beaten by Sonic.

The most interesting change this brought was that instead of dealing with robots and robians, much of the Doctor’s regime centered around mobians with free will working under his watch. He no longer works in a bubble of just his own thoughts and plans; he occasionally actually receives advice from the mobians that are loyal to him.

However, this doesn’t stop him from making it absolutely clear that he is the one in charge. He might be goofy enough that they occasionally speak up and offer a different view of a situation, but he’s still utterly frighting in other respects. All of the mobians shown to work for him have cyberkinetics somewhere in their body. If they betray him, they can say goodbye to their mobility. No one would dare say he’s not a threat to them.

Sonic X

I will mention I’m going by the original Japanese for this up-front, because honestly 4kids didn’t localize the series well at all from a story/character perspective. I re-watched the first several episodes of Sonic X in the past few years for a personal project, looking specifically at characterization of Eggman. Going into it, I thought he’d be a comical villain. He can’t be that dangerous, right? He has them gamble the Chaos Emerald on a round of baseball, like it’s a can of soda or something. Clearly he’s a joke.

But then...

Y e a h.

Eggman here is actually deceptively intimidating. In spite of his odd ways of going about things, he thinks his plans through pretty thoroughly no matter what they are. And most importantly, we get to see that on-screen. It doesn’t matter how wonky the plan is, we see his train of thought and realize it might actually work.

But while I was almost always anxious about Eggman’s plans, I never found him frightening. He’s incredibly expressive, often silly looking or sounding. Ironically, I think a lot of the time he uses that to his advantage. “Go ahead, underestimate me; it’ll make defeating you a cakewalk!” He played Knuckles this way, and he played a few of the human characters too.

He’s a funny villain, very cartoonish in looks and behavior. But he’s a smart and capable one, with several plans having victory slip just barely through his fingers.

Game Canon

Of course, none of these modern Eggmans would ever exist without the games. No matter how far back you go, the Doctor was never at one extreme or the other. Even, you might be surprised, in the games without story at the forefront.

You can show characterization through more things than dialogue. In fact, old video games relied on this sort of characterization because of not being able to have voice-acted characters. Large blocks of text on screen were tedious and cumbersome, so the bad guys had to match whatever tone they were going for.

And we got these guys. Not the harshly mechanical designs of the SWATbots in SatAM, not the mildly-grotesque designs of some Pokemon or Koopa Troopers, not even the round but metal designs of the later Egg-pawns. Brightly colored robotic animals. And even at that, the boss fights were entirely different. These were the roadblocks he threw at Sonic to slow him down and hope to get lucky. The boss fights were him getting serious.

This trend was carried over once the games started getting spoken dialogue as part of the story and experience. Archie Sonic artist Evan Stanley and Sonic the Continuation writer/artist Thomas (...I don’t have a last name for him I’m sorry) briefly discussed Eggman in one video of their Sonic Adventure DX Commentary, and the statement has stuck with me ever since.

Thomas: You know what, I want Eggman to be a serious villain, and then even in the “Adventure” games [...] They had this stuff [the Egg Carrier rooms].

Evan: He’s never been serious in the games. He’s had... the promise of threat, but he’s not serious.

This is the differentiation between all other portrayals of the good Doctor, and why we most remember him. He is believably dangerous, his plans have weight, but he's equally ridiculous and quirky in a way that makes him bizarrely lovable.

We want to see him succeed. Just not for too long.

[disrepairhouse]

Chapter 30 - Chaos

A base threatening to explode.

Two robots locked in battle.

A Doctor scrambling to recover.

A third robot escaping with a broken time traveler.

 Several miles away, near a bustling city alight with rumors of a recent crash, an ancient, furious entity collected and absorbed the powers within seven emeralds.  The island it slept on shook violently, the echidna tasked with watching over it jumped to action to find the source of the problem, though could only be grateful it wasn’t plummeting to the sea like it had before.  However, as the fury of the Water God reached its peak, it wasn’t the floating island above that felt its rage, but the city below.  Tides drifted far back, giving only a small warning of the destruction coming, as sewer grates rattled and plumbing shook.  As the residents of Station Square watched the rolling clouds in confusion, waters rushed forth in violent waves and the familiar roar echoed throughout the city.

Waves crashed, pipes burst, the city flooded through in a horrific repeat of the past, the great monstrosity at the center rose from the rushing waters.  Perfect Chaos had appeared once more and his floods rained from above and below. Amongst those scrambling to higher grounds to avoid getting washed away as the ocean spread further inward than it ever had before, was a tiny blue hedgehog, who looked on in baffled confusion. He’d been there before, he recognized the great monster, the situation, but just like before, he was lost on how to deal with it.  Chaos hadn’t just emptied the negative energy from the emeralds this time, he’d absorbed them completely, Super Sonic wasn’t going to be an option this time around. And admittedly, even the blue blur was growing exhausted from all the activity as of late.  Not that he’d let that show in front of anyone.

Several miles outside the city, the robotic counterpart to the hero hedgehog was rushing away from a rumbling base, a barely conscious time traveler wrapped in his arms, only hoping to escape the mad doctor and his latest lackey.  However, as the roar of the creature reached even them, which startled the small child awake again, he realized that there were greater dangers headed their way than a sword-wielding robot.  A series of warnings popped up on his internal screen, but he didn’t need the environmental radar to know what was coming.

Luckily, they were in open air again, and not even a flood could catch Metal Sonic.

Metal gripped the tiny time traveler tighter and kickstarted his boosters as the water roared behind them.  He only waited long enough for them to whir to life before he took off at a speed only his mobian rival could compete with.  The world zipped by and the tide crashed behind him and to his right; if the tiny hedgehog had any response, he never saw nor heard it as he raced for their own aircraft.  They’d parked it some distance away, on the further edge of the city, but Metal had no doubt he could reach it before the tides did and as the relatively small, yet streamlined plane came into view, his theory was proven correct. He slowed enough to get inside without crashing clean through the machine and shifted the hedgehog in his arms as he darted for the controls.  He beat the flood, but he still needed to act quick if he wanted to get off the ground before it caught up. The plane was considerably slower than him, after all.

The machine beeped to life and the engines purred as the water crashed ever-closer.  It was slower than he would have liked, but just as the water sloshed against the back wheels, the plane roared to life and they were off.  He had to make corrections for the jostling, but the plane was airborne and far above the waves before long.  Only after they were safely above the flood’s reach did he finally sit back and sigh in relief, though a look of concern touched his face again as soon as he did.

What about RK?

He studied the time traveler they came to rescue, since he had the time to, and gave her a small shake to drag her out of whatever shock she was apparently in.  It took several moments, but eventually she blinked and looked up at him in confusion.  Her eyes were still glazed over and there was exhaustion in her features, but she otherwise seemed coherent enough.

“M-Metal?  Was that… was Chaos…?”

“Unmistakably,” he confirmed, “I suppose out of the three, Chaos is usually the most direct in his aggression.  Though, so far as my intel goes, he only awakens when the Chao are in danger.  Robotnik wasn’t messing with them, in addition to all this other nonsense, was he? Did he happen to mention his plans to you?”

She shook her head, both to clear it and in response.  “I tried getting them from him, but…”  She looked around, as far as she could see, though her brows furrowed as she looked up at him again, “Where’s RK?”

“I don’t know for sure.  We separated in the base, he kept Zero busy while I went to retrieve you.  I can’t say whether he made it out or not.”  The concern doubled on her face as she attempted to sit up, though didn’t get far before falling right back, wincing.  “I believe this craft has scanners-- if I connect to it, I should be able to locate him easily enough.  But first,” he flipped the autopilot on and moved towards the back to search the cabinets lined along the walls.  It wasn’t a passenger plane by any means, built for speed rather than carry weight, but the space not occupied by the two seats in the back had a number of shelving units.  He searched through them, unsure if he’d even find anything of use, but eventually came across a first aid kit and pulled it out.  “I don’t know what you did, but we need to at least get those arms taken care of. Not only do I not want you burning through the plane, or me, but you mentioned one was broken, correct?”

Itara nodded, half awake, but kept her arms as tightly against herself as she could once he set her down on a seat.  “I think it would be beneficial if you rested, but let’s take care of your arms first,” Metal continued as he dug around in the white box.  He had been hoping for some kind of ice pack, but found everything short of one.  There were burn compresses, at least, though he doubted those would last long against something hot enough to melt metal.  “I’m going to assume you still can’t control your powers, as well.”

“I… n-no,” she stammered and looked away, “I didn’t even…”  She trailed off and Metal glanced up from the compresses, watching the tiny hedgehog doze off.  It would have to do for now.  He unwrapped the compresses and bandages and did his best to wrap her arms without getting himself melted in the process then moved the hedgehog to a position most likely to keep her arms in her lap. She burned through the compress and bandages quickly enough, leaving nothing but charcoal, but at least it didn’t seem to burn through her fur.  Her school uniform was a different story.

He closed the first aid kit with a light huff and returned to the pilot’s seat to plug in and search for RK, hoping he could still get some sort of reading on him.  Chaos was still raging through the city and he saw no sign of the infuriating hedgehog that always swooped in to save the day, leaving Metal to think back on the fight at the university.  He’d noticed a particular slowness in the cocksure speedster, but had assumed it was his own upgrades finally beating his nemesis.  But perhaps that wasn’t the case.  The Gods and their monsters must have kept even Sonic on his toes, especially if the attacks were stretching so far across the globe.  No doubt he was unable to ignore any of it and was likely running himself ragged trying to deal with it all at once.

The idea amused Metal, to a degree.  It was entertaining that he was finally facing a situation not so easily dealt with, but the fact that he, himself, wasn’t responsible for running the hedgehog to his edge was frustrating.  Twice now these Gods were about to steal his defeat of Sonic from him and he wasn’t going to sit quietly and let that happen.  He could always hunt the hedgehog down now, kill him while he’s weak, before anyone else has the opportunity… but first he needed to find RK.  That was priority one.  He could decide what to do about Sonic afterwards.

Metal flew over the area to survey the damage and keep an eye on Chaos’ movements.  He was hooked up to the plane so he could focus the scanner in on RK’s distinct readings while he circled the flooded-out base, but saw no sign of movement from either Robotnik nor RK.  Kipper had also vanished again.  He was sure, with Itara being away from Robotnik, the doll would return to her side where he always remained.  It threw suspicion on the doll’s movements as of late.  There was something going on there, but he didn’t have time to worry about it.

The time traveler woke up after a while, still groggy but recovered enough to remain lucid for longer than a few seconds. She studied the crinkly, black wraps around her arms before she joined Metal at the front, though struggled to get there without touching anything.  She was still weak and her head felt light, but she knew there were bigger concerns and wanted to see how Metal was doing.  He glanced towards her when she joined him, though she sat on the floor between the chairs instead of trying to pull herself up into one.

“Any sign of RK?”

“Not yet.”

“Chaos?”

“Still rampaging.  Though his actions seem strange to me, if I didn’t know better, I’d say he’s searching for something.”

Itara looked towards the windshield, though could only see the dark skies above them from her spot.  She didn’t want to get up, either.  Instead, she sighed and leaned back against the side of the chair, closing her eyes.  After several minutes of silence, she added, “Robotnik knew…”

“What?”

“He knew, I don’t know how, but he knew you were with me after you went rogue.”

Metal remained silent and stared out through the glass, debating before shaking his head.  “How could he possibly have known?  I didn’t even join you by choice.  If anything, he should have known about RK, but… he was too ready for our attack, like he expected us to come.”

“According to Zero, he knew as soon as you went rogue that you came to me.  It doesn’t make sense, though.  Like you said, you didn’t even come by choice, RK just brought you home after the reset.  You were nearly destroyed; you didn’t just go rogue like before.  Certain things can be explained by the reset, of course, explanations for things that didn’t technically happen, but Robotnik knowing specifically you were with me makes no sense.  He didn’t even know who I was.”

Metal eyed her suspiciously before a beep from the plane’s scanner brought his attention back to the ongoing search.  It was only one beep, but it drew both their attention as Metal turned the plane back around to return to the area it originated from.  Once they drew near, and Metal lowered the plane, the beep sounded again, then again. It had picked something up.  Itara pushed herself to her feet to see out the window but was still too short.  Metal’s brow furrowed as he looked out over the water.  He had hoped to get a visual confirmation, but so far it was all water and floating parts.

“…If he’s underwater, and shorted, how are we getting him out?” Itara questioned, getting a side-eyed glare from Metal.  He had been hoping that wasn’t the case, if he tried to retrieve RK, himself, he would only face the same fate.  He could stand certain amounts of water, but not being completely submerged.  But not only was RK a robot, he was one of the heaviest aside from the bulky defense bots.  If RK had been swept up in the flood, he was more than likely deep underwater.

As Metal debated how to deal with it, Itara stood back and went into her own thoughts, his lack of answer was response enough.  She looked between the window and her arms, namely the broken arm, and scrunched up her face.  “Has Kipper not come back?”

“No, I’ve seen no sign of the doll since he appeared on the Doctor’s video feed.”  Metal glanced back towards the little girl when she sighed dejectedly, unsure what was going through her head and about to question her when she looked up.

“I’ll go find RK.”

“What?  You can barely walk straight, what makes you think you can do anything?”

“Nothing, but you can’t, Kipper’s vanished again, and this plane doesn’t look equipped to go diving for robots.  So give me a location, lower me to the water, and I’ll go find him.”

Metal stared at her bewildered, but turned to look out the window again to think it over.  She was right, to a degree, but what good would it even do, sending an injured child to fetch a heavy robot like RK?  Then again, if he recalled properly, it wouldn’t be the first time she’d recovered the red robot from some form of wreckage on her own.  Though, she had full control of her powers the first time. Now she was battered and broken and barely functional, not to mention her arms.  The chance of success was… low.

He shook his head and looked at the scanner again when it got another reading.  They needed to get closer.  They were still well out of the reach of the water, but the closer he got, the stronger the reading.  RK was definitely down there somewhere, and someone had to get him.  Even if he went, himself, and somehow recovered the other bot before shorting, there’d be no one to pull them back up since Itara couldn’t touch anything without melting it.  With a quick glance around, he spotted the top of the base, still somehow above water -though just barely- and maneuvered over to it.  Itara watched him strangely, but he ignored her questions when she asked.

The landing was precarious enough, and anything less than perfection would have toppled the plane into the roaring water with everything else, but luckily he was a perfect being.  Once the plane was safely landed, he got up and faced the confused little time traveler.

“What are you-?”

“You want to jump out of a moving plane?”

“Well… no, I-.”

“I can be more useful on solid ground than in the air, as solid as it gets at the moment.  As you guessed, this plane has nothing to pick him up, should you manage to bring him to the surface, so you’ll have to bring him within my reach.”

Itara stared up at him, confused, before she realized what he was saying and nodded.  “Right. Got it.”

“Good.  Then let’s get moving.”

Itara climbed out of the plane as carefully as possible while Metal searched for anything else that could possibly be of use. The tiny hedgehog needed a way to actually pull the potentially buried, heavy robot out with her flaming arms – one of which was broken – and while there was a chance the water could cool her arms enough to not melt RK immediately, it still left the problem of the incapacitated one.  He’d seen, time and again, the complete and utter lack of physical strength in the time traveler and there was no possible way she was fighting against the current and dragging a several-hundred-pound robot to the surface on her own.

“Metal, what are the chances we can get a more exact location on his readings?”

Chaos’ rage hadn’t slowed in the slightest and, while the worst of the waves were closer to the city, they were still crashing violently around them.  There was only a small handful of feet between he base’s roof and water levels and every time it swelled up, the roof was briefly submerged in a couple inches of water. Metal wasn’t looking forward to standing in that, even if he had a protective layer on his feet nowadays, but it also meant the less time Itara spent in such erratic behavior, the better. “I’ll see what I can do to narrow it down further in a moment,” he responded once he found what he’d been searching for and took the rope out to her, “but first, come here so I can tie this around you.”

“What?  Why?”

“When… if… you find RK, wrap it around him as securely as possible and give it a tug, preferably without burning through it, and I’ll pull you both up.  Your tiny limbs will be lucky enough to just reach him without being swept off, pulling him up on your own will be impossible.”  Itara made a face, but remained silent as the bot wrapped the rope around her waist.  “There.  Now all you have to do is get around him a couple times and I can pull you both up without going near the water, myself.  It should hopefully be long enough.  Additionally, if you do get swept off, I can keep track of you.”

Itara studied the rope suspiciously.  It was a good idea, she was just mad she didn’t think of it.  Metal wrapped the back half of the rope around his hand and returned to the plane to fidget with the locator further.  Once he narrowed the reading down further, he relayed the information to the tiny hedgehog sat at the edge of the roof as she prepared to jump in.  There wasn’t much of a drop, but for someone not even three feet tall, it was a considerable drop into freezing cold water.  Though, the water the crashed up every so often had already introduced her to the temperature a number of times by that point. With a final confirmation from Metal, she took a deep breath, shimmied off the roof, and dropped down with a violent hiss as her arms steamed the water around them.  Metal watched the steam rise from a distance before he edged closer, unsure whether she would actually be able to manage.

As soon as he edged close enough to see the focal point of the steam the mass of wild spines popped up above the water again and looked up at him.  She looked oddly content, even as she struggled to keep her head above the water, as she floated in the evaporating water.  With a final nod, she dove back under and took off.  Well, at least it would be easy to keep track of her with all the steam and bubbles.  Even once she got deep enough that her figure was obscured, the bubbles gave him a consistent update on her progress.

He watched on in silence and kept track of her bubble movement, though grew concerned whenever they veered too far off to the side or remained in one place for too long.  His concerns were usually relieved when she resurfaced for air and gave him whatever updates she could manage, but more than once he’d had to pull her closer again when the water took her too far off-course.  The exhaustion wasn’t difficult to pick out, either, in both her voice and movements, but he figured if she lost consciousness at any point he could easily pull her back again and, quite frankly, they just didn’t have the time to worry about it.  The waves were growing in size as Chaos moved and the longer RK spent submerged, the more damaged he got.  They were not built to resist water like this, not to mention he didn’t know how much damage he took during the fight with Zero.  If there were any exposed wires…

Metal shook his head.  It could be repaired, whatever happened.  If the other two could repair him from the state Solaris left him in, he could easily repair RK after some water damage.  Though, admittedly, the longer the hedgehog took, the antsier he got. It wasn’t helping that he could still hear – and see – Chaos roaring in the distance with no clear sign of when he would stop.  Whatever had woken the Water God had certainly pissed him off.  Normally it would be of no concern to Metal, he had nothing to do with it, but the water levels were raising even this far out and if it kept up too long they’d be too submerged to take off again.  They would all drown.

He warned the tiny hedgehog of this the next time she surfaced, though she didn’t respond and he wasn’t sure if she had ignored him or just didn’t hear him before she went back under.  In either case, it only made him antsier and angrier. But finally, finally, after she failed to come up for some time, the rope wrapped around his hand stretched out and grew taut.  He watched the still bubbling water closely to be sure it meant to pull them out, but once he was certain he stepped back and planted himself as firmly on the flooded roof as possible.  He wasn’t quite as heavy as RK, but assumed he was plenty strong enough to pull the other bot from the water.

He wrapped the rope further around his hand, gripped it with the other, and gave an initial, hearty tug to verify it would, in fact move.  With the confirmation, he continued pulling at a steadier pace.  It was no easy task, even for him, it felt like he was pulling a log out of the sand, telling Metal that RK was at least somewhat buried under something, either rubble or dirt.  However, he progressed at a relatively steady pace, despite the resistance.  What concerned him wasn’t his own ability to pull the weight in, however, it was the rope’s ability to withstand the strain.  Thick of a rope as it was, he could still see the thinning just above the water.  He had to get them up as quickly as possible before it tore.

Unfortunately, that almost seemed inevitable when progress came to a short stop and nearly pulled the blue bot forward in the process. A string of curses echoed loudly from the bot as he readjusted and reconsidered his strategy to deal with the snag.  Though, without knowledge of the cause, he wasn’t sure how to shift.  Too hard of a pull would snap the rope, for sure, but he couldn’t waste time, either, especially with how long the hedgehog had spent under the water.  He was unaware of how long she could hold her breath, but didn’t want to accidentally drown her.

Just as suddenly as they snagged, though, the line loosened again as a great force of steam rushed from below the surface. Metal could only guess what it meant, but he at least knew whatever caused the snag was gone and he returned to pulling them in straightaway, watching the tear sharply the entire time. Luckily, the more he pulled, the closer the tear got to him and he was able to secure it before it snapped.

Finally, the shadow of a figure appeared below the surface and with a few more tugs, the inactive red robot surfaced along with the steam-clouded hedgehog wrapped up in him.  She gasped loudly as soon as she reached air, coughing and cringing, and as Metal pulled them both to the mostly dry ground, her cough turned to quiet whimpers. She looked noticeably worse for wear, but at least they were both back relatively safe and the three could leave. However, as Metal shifted his gaze from the whimpering hedgehog, who was now cradling her arm, to the red robot she went in to retrieve, he got an idea what may have happened with the snag.

RK was mostly intact, inactive and obviously shorted from the water, his hook had been seared off in the fight against Zero but that was easily replaced.  There were a couple dents in his arms and parts of the faux fur covering were singed off, likely from the secondary fight, all in all he could have been much worse off.  However, the worst of the damage, and the most recent by evidence of the molten red edges, was the partially severed leg.  Metal looked to the hedgehog with a sharp, accusatory gaze and she all but shriveled when she caught sight of it.

“I… He… there was…” she stammered through coughs, “He got… stuck under… th-there was rubble and I… I didn’t… I…”  The longer she attempted to explain herself, the less cohesive her explanation became until she burst into a fit of tears and hiccupped apologies.

Metal sighed in annoyance and motioned towards the plane, “Fine, fine, shut up.  We can fix it.  Get inside so we can leave already.”  They honestly were quite the group of broken misfits at this point.  A time traveler that couldn’t control her powers and two repeatedly broken, rogue robots.  He supposed it was his turn to repair RK now.  He watched the little hedgehog stumble her way into the plane and find a corner to curl up in before he picked the hefty red echidna up and found a place for him, as well.  Once they were set and the doors were closed, Metal wasted no further time getting airborne again and taking off for home.

As they got higher, and could see more of Chaos’ destruction, he became increasingly grateful that their own base was far across the ocean.  Initially the distance had been annoying, but seeing how far the ocean was reaching inland, with no Super Sonic around to stop it, Metal appreciated the distance.  They had just barely avoided the point of no return, themselves.  Hopefully the more nearby Gods continued their monster-based raging, rather than following suit.

Once they were on their way and Metal could comfortably leave the plane on autopilot, he turned back towards the others and studied the two at the back and had an idea.  “Hey, tiny child,” she barely glanced up, “why not make use of that damage and start drying RK’s systems.  Just don’t melt him further.”  She winced at the sharp tone, but nodded and moved towards the inactive robot.  If she held her arm near him, being careful of the distance, she could get a head start on drying him out so repairs would be quicker.  She would just need to be cautious about overheating him.  However, Metal didn’t seem interested in letting her work in silence, as he spoke up again, “So tell me what happened.  From the beginning.”  She winced again, but sighed and explained, in as much detail as possible, what happened after the university.

[mobius-prime]

143. Sonic Super Special #12 - Sonic & Knuckles

Turnabout Heroes

Writers: Ken Penders and Karl Bollers Pencils: James Fry and Andrew Pepoy Colors: Josh and Aimee Ray

So this issue is a bit strange. As you can see, Zonic is up there being all sideways and whatnot, and while he doesn't actually appear in the first story, nonetheless we're invited by him to turn the book sideways to read it, as it's all rotated clockwise. We open to Sonic waking up confused in the hospital, with Dr. Quack and his friends standing over him. They ask him if he remembers anything, and he proceeds to give them a quick rundown of his life story, which seems like a strange thing to do until they hold a mirror in front of him - and, shockingly, he sees Knuckles' face! Meanwhile in Echidnaopolis a similar situation is happening with Knuckles, waking up to Julie-Su and his father and describing himself only to see Sonic's face in the mirror. Now what could have caused such a bizarre thing to occur?

Now I know what you're thinking. What the hell is original Robotnik doing up there? Well, essentially, this story exists in a really bizarre gray area in the timeline. Depending on where you look for the answer, it takes place anywhere in between StH#71 to KtE#29, which as you might have noticed, is a huge timeframe. No matter where you try to fit it in that gap, it doesn't make sense for a variety of reasons, ranging from Julie-Su's location during the plot, to Knuckles even having reunited with his father in the first place, to Sonic's growing knowledge of the new Robotnik's plans. Once Ian Flynn took over later in the comic, his opinion was that this issue couldn't have even taken place at all due to the discrepancies, but regardless, we'll be covering it and just pretending that somehow it makes sense.

The two body-swapped heroes decide they need to go to each other's homes and try to work out what has happened, so Sonic, in Knuckles' body, hops aboard a shuttle to the Floating Island with the other Freedom Fighters, while Knuckles, in Sonic's body, hops aboard a shuttle of his own with Julie-Su to Mobotropolis. However, before either of them get far, they're both shot down, Sonic's shuttle by a legion of swatbots (which look significantly upgraded from regular swatbots, but not quite like shadow-bots, though no one acknowledges their new intimidating design), and Knuckles' by the Dark Legion. Knuckles, climbing out of his downed shuttle and seeing Sonic's going down, realizes he can't glide as normal due to the body-swap, and  instead picks up Julie-Su and uses Sonic's speed to race to Sonic's rescue. Everyone groups up just in time to face the combined threat of two evil fighting forces.

WhaaAAaaAAaat? You mean to say ROBOTNIK is BACK? Come on, Sonic, you've seen several different false comebacks by now, you shouldn't even be fazed at this point. Robotnik and Dimitri give the group an ultimatum - Sonic and Knuckles must surrender immediately, or else they will never swap their minds back into the proper bodies, and they'll also kill all their friends. Well that's a choice all right! Sonic and Knuckles allow themselves to be teleported to… uh… whatever facility their enemies happen to be in. Honestly, my assumption would have been that it was the orbital platform from Robotnik's comeback or something, but Sonic didn't give any indication that he'd ever seen it before when he and the others went up there to investigate the Robians' disappearance, so who knows where they actually are right now.

Sonic and Knuckles are forced to agree to go along for the moment, and are quickly teleported into the island's Chaos Chamber, with the Master Emerald (still containing a frozen Mammoth Mogul) inside. Knuckles is loathe to hand over the emerald since removing it will cause the island to fall, whilst Sonic is mostly just irritated at the idea of Knuckles getting to be in his totally awesome body forever. Robotnik and Dimitri watch a video feed of the two from their base, but just as Sonic and Knuckles touch the emerald the screen goes to static. Robotnik and Dimitri, suspecting treachery, immediately hit the button to bring the two back, and are surprised to see them holding the emerald after all. They gleefully instruct them to insert it into their Chaos-Cannon, and activate it for a test run on the Great Forest…

Who knows how the hell they faked such a large gemstone on such short notice - hell, maybe the Brotherhood made a fake copy for just such an occasion and hid it within the chamber somewhere - but the two heroes get to work beating their enemies up. Knuckles goes for Dimitri, who vanishes in a puff of smoke, and Sonic punches Robotnik only for Robotnik to explode violently, revealing himself to be a robotic duplicate. Gee, I'm sure that means that he was just a fake, and not a literal robot version of Robotnik himself, right? Sonic and Knuckles cheerfully walk out upon their victory, amiably arguing over whether it's cooler to be a hedgehog or echidna.

Zone Wars: Giant Robotno

Writers: Dan Slott and Karl Bollers Pencils: James Fry and Nelson Ribeiro Colors: Josh and Aimee Ray

We're back to the present now, with a story that actually fits into the timeline. Sonic is taking a day off to relax and get away from freedom fighting, fishing in a pond in the forest, when suddenly a shuttle emerges from an energy portal in front of him. A strangely-dressed being within informs him that she is Sally from another zone and needs his help, but Zonic then arrives and warns Sonic that this version of Sally, called Sallactor, is evil and trying to deceive him. He calls in the rest of her zone's Freedom Fighters, the Sonicaman: Chaos Ninja Team, who are basically dressed like Super Sentai heroes (fittingly, they're from the Sentai-Zone). Zonic is surprised to see Sonic sigh and walk away from the action, as the others defeat Sallactor and drag her back to their own zone, and Sonic says he's getting sick of all this inter-zone action, that he has a hard enough time keeping track of his own zone's shenanigans. He challenges Zonic, asking how he keeps track of it all and accusing him of using others to get what he wants.

Manipulative little bastard. Sonic goes along reluctantly, and finds himself in a city full of panicking Overlanders all running away from a gigantic, mutated Bunnie, fittingly called Rabbot-zilla. Of course, as soon as Sonic tries to turn around for answers, Zonic pops out of existence.

Sonic uses his super-speed to melt the asphalt under Rabbot-zilla's feet, gluing her to the ground, and this zone's version of Robotnik, who is of course just named Julian Kintobor and wears a white coat instead of red, runs up to thank him. He explains that he tried to stop her from rampaging with a robo-virus, presumably explaining her half-roboticized state, and points to a frozen, robotic Uncle Chuck looming over a different part of the city to show its prior effectiveness. He guiltily continues to recount how he had a hand in this entire disaster…

So to be clear, Knothole Island was clearly inhabited by sapient Mobians. Those aren't ordinary animals being mutated - they're wearing gloves and shoes the same as any other Mobian from Mobius Prime. This guy knowingly detonated an atomic bomb on an inhabited island, and he's trying to pretend like it was all an accident? Sorry, Kintobor, but I don't believe you one bit. He then built giant juggernauts which basically attempted to reenact Pacific Rim against the mutated creatures, but there just wasn't enough energy to power them, as the two halves of the split Chaos Emerald used in the experiment were left on the island inhabited by the mutants. Sonic decides to go along with his plan, using his own speed on a treadmill installed in one of the doctor's Jaegers, the Giant Robotno, a name which pretty much describes how I feel about this whole thing. Clearly Sonic isn't too thrilled about working with him, however.

He blasts off, using the robot's rocket feet to fly to Knothole Island, where he encounters all his friends as mutated monsters. He has no choice but to fight them in order to search for the emeralds, and happens to spot this zone's version of himself, mutated as well, with one of the emerald halves affixed to his chest. However, at that moment he's attacked by his mutated father, also with an emerald half in his chest, and tries to shove him away and block himself from being hit at the same time, clenching his fist as he does so.

Horrified, Sonic flies away from his dead father, as the mutant Sonic approaches and cries in grief. That's right! Sonic was accidentally forced to kill an alternate zone version of his own father to save everyone. That is brutal. Later that night, Sonic stands quietly and sadly next to Kintobor as he celebrates the acquisition of the emerald, saying he can finally protect his city properly, when Zonic shows back up to check on Sonic.

Zonic congratulates Sonic on a job well done as he drops him off back in his home zone, but Sonic angrily confronts him about having known all along that he would have had to kill his own father (albeit from a different zone) to save everyone, accusing him of not understanding how it feels to him right now. In response, Zonic simply takes off his helmet.

Is anyone surprised? Anyone? Did anyone not see it coming that the hedgehog-sized being named Zonic who constantly involves himself with, well, himself, was an alternate version of Sonic? He vanishes, leaving Sonic with even more questions, but alas, we'll have to delay those for now, as it's time to jump into the comic's adaptation of Sonic Adventure!

[mobius-prime]

128. Sonic Super Special #10 - Crossover Chaos

So I'm sure some people are already raising an eyebrow at the cover, wondering what the heck a crossover with Sabrina the freaking Teenage Witch is doing in the middle of a series about talking hedgehogs and echidnas. (…or, on the flip side, I guess that may not be so unusual for a series about a girl with a magical talking cat…) Well, the answer is: nothing! I went ahead and read the actual issue of Sabrina the Teenage Witch that ties into this one, as well as the second part of the story from the Super Special, and it literally Sonic '06'es itself out of existence in the end, with everyone involved completely forgetting about the events of the story and moving on with their lives, rendering it useless to us. Keeping in mind I know basically nothing about the character of Sabrina or anything about the series, I do know that Michael Gallagher was writing for the Sabrina comic at the time, which is likely why they had this strange crossover event. But since the story is completely irrelevant to the larger comic and is never mentioned again, I'm not bothering to cover it at all in this review, instead skipping straight ahead to the second story, which is actually relevant. Just pretend that Sabrina's weird face isn't winking at you from the cover, and focus on the Sonic Underground rock 'n' roll aesthetic on the other side, because holy crap there's Sonic Underground in this issue? We gotta see this…

Zone Wars: A Tale of Two Hedgehogs

Writer: Karl Bollers Pencils: Jim Valentino and Harvey Mercadoocasio Colors: Joshua D. and Aimee R. Ray

Evil Sonic and his band of thugs are at it again, trying - and failing - to assault the veterinary clinic of kindly old Dr. Kintobor (who appears to have lost some weight since last time). They sulk around in their hideout, and Evil Sally begin to question Sonic's leadership, claiming he's no longer the badass hedgehog who helped her throw her father into the Zone of Silence. Evil Antoine begins to flirt with her, and when she reciprocates, Sonic gets mad and he and Antoine begin to fight, with Sonic claiming this is the fourth time this week that Antoine has tried to legitimately kill him. Man, this group doesn't seem dysfunctional at all! Evils Sally, Tails, and Rotor take Antoine's side, and together they all take their leave from Sonic.

Oh boy…

Meanwhile on Mobius Prime, Sonic, Sally, Tails, Amy, Bunnie, and Antoine are taking a nice day off to have a picnic. Sally seems especially interested in what Sonic has to say today, clearly hoping he'll say something relevant to the two of them, which I think is a callback to the Sabrina story I cut out (in that, Sonic originally wants to discuss their relationship, but forgets all about it once the story is over, mildly annoying Sally who was about to agree to the discussion). However, as things tend to go with this crew, the picnic is quickly interrupted, this time by the appearance of Zonic the Zone Cop.

Zonic brings Sonic to the No Zone, the zone "ninety degrees from everywhere else" from which the Zone Cops police every dimension, which is why Zonic is always sideways to every other zone, because sure, that's how gravity works. He reminds Sonic of his old adventure in between zones, where he teamed up with every other alternate-universe Sonic to defeat Robo-Robotnik and the Giant Borg aaalllllll the way back in StH#19. Remember when I said I'd be calling back to that issue? Well here we are! Evil Sonic has begun traveling to every other zone, posing as Sonic Prime and getting the other Sonics to hand over their piece of the Giant Borg suit so it can be reassembled. There's only one zone left that he hasn't gotten the piece from, and lo and behold, it turns out to be the Sonic Underground universe! Underground Sonic (whom I'll refer to as Sonic-U for simplicity from now on), Manic and Sonia are rocking out in their little band session when Zonic and Sonic Prime drop in on them. However, Sonic-U immediately gets defensive, saying that he already told him he doesn't have the piece, and to go away as he's never heard of Giant Borg. Sonic Prime argues that the other Sonic didn't have green eyes or shoe buckles, which is somehow convincing enough to show that he's the good guy, I guess?

Great job, Zonic. Apparently his data files on this universe are lacking, so he asks the three siblings to explain their story to him, giving us a nice in to learn about Sonic Underground, presumably for those who never watched the show. I actually haven't, so the explanatory page is appreciated, but I won't include the whole thing here as it's easy enough for anyone who doesn't know it to look it up for yourselves if you're curious. The important thing is that Robotnik exists in this zone as well, and Evil Sonic has just delivered all the pieces of the Giant Borg to him. Robotnik-U, however, doesn't seem to have been expecting this delivery, and appears to mistake Evil Sonic for a Sonic-U who has turned traitor and now wants to work for him. He obliges by instructing his bounty hunter lackeys to drag Evil Sonic off to be roboticized, because hey, this is a Robotnik we're talking about. But if Robotnik-U wasn't the one who hired Evil Sonic, then who was?

Hmmm…

Well, we really don't have time to follow whoever that was right now. Robotnik-U, having reassembled the Giant Borg, has begun attacking the city with it. Sonic, Zonic, and the three Underground siblings team up to try to stop him. Sonic-U makes a target of himself, leading the suit away, but is forced to make a run for it when Giant Borg fires a missile at him. Meanwhile, Sonic Prime and Zonic sneak into the Giant Borg's cockpit to distract Robotnik-U, and Sonic-U makes a U-turn (had enough U's yet?) heading back for the mecha.

As the suit explodes, Dingo and Sleet bring Evil Sonic to a jail cell awaiting roboticization. However, soon two hooded figures show up to break him out. He's initially happy, if suspicious, and his suspicions turn out to be warranted as the figures reveal themselves to be Manic and Sonia there to help Sonic Prime, Sonic-U and Zonic arrest him for his interdimensional crimes. Sonic Prime says goodbye to the three siblings, and Zonic returns him to his home dimension of Mobius Prime while bringing Evil Sonic back to the No Zone with him.

Evil Sonic faints in horror, and Zonic is left to snicker and devour some chili dogs on his own. Aaaand… fin! I'm sure nothing else from this issue will come back to bite us in the ass, right?

[mobius-prime]

120. Sonic the Hedgehog #70

Saving Nate Morgan

Writer: Karl Bollers Pencils: Steven Butler Colors: Frank Gagliardo

So about that grenade from last issue! Everyone's okay, Sonic tossed it up through the juice bar's skylight before it could explode on top of them. Sally has come back around from her bout of unconsciousness, and everyone is pissed that Nate has been kidnapped - especially Bunnie, whose pride has been severely bruised by losing in the fight. Together they rush to Castle Acorn, where the king and Geoffrey are still discussing the fact that the escaped prisoners are probably super dead.

Yeah, they're not dead. Geoffrey is irritated at Sonic for calling his information faulty, but Dr. Quack emerges at the perfect moment to inform everyone that one of the guards rescued from the island has reported a third missing shuttlecraft, one that didn't crash into the ocean. Elias suggests that they may simply be hiding out on the closest landmass to the Devil's Gulag, which just so happens to be Big Kahuna Island where we've seen them before, and Sonic readies himself to muster the fighting force of the Freedom Fighters when…

…*sigh*

This king, man. Every move he makes has me questioning his fitness to actually rule more and more. See, I get it. You don't necessarily want to breed a future of child soldiers solving every problem in the kingdom when they're supposed to be enjoying their, well, childhood. You want trained adults to handle the dangerous situations. But it's like he doesn't even want to recognize that these individuals all worked together not only to free the entire world of Robotnik's rule, but that they put in the effort specifically to rescue the king's sorry ass as well. Has he given them a single award? Any public recognition of their efforts in the war? He was certainly eager to put them on the task of helping rebuild the city before, but carelessly dismissed Sonic and Tails' success in hunting down a known enemy of the kingdom just a few issues before, and now that their friend has been captured - by people they have direct experience fighting from before, I might add - he's suddenly being a hard-ass. No, not only that - he's unceremoniously disbanding the very group that freed the kingdom and the entire world, without so much as a final thank-you ceremony or anything. Does he not care how crushing such an order would feel to the ones within that group? Just, ugh.

Hours later, the Secret Service approaches the island in a scrap submarine, ready to unleash their tactical strike and rescue the Overlander scientist… but of course, submarines are slow, and someone had a much better idea.

Seems everyone forgot that Sonic is A. stubborn as hell, and B. has a freakin' biplane. As he insists on coming along, the villains inside an abandoned courthouse (though why Robotnik would include a house of law in one of his cities given that he was a pure despot, I can't imagine) have stuck Nate into a very uncomfortable-looking stockade and are trying to force him to agree to provide his scientific services to them. Shockingly, he's not very interested in this generous offer. Outside, Geoffrey keeps trying to order Sonic around, with Sonic really not having it, and when Geoffrey tries to position his troops around the building to try to force the crooks to come out and surrender Sonic challenges him, saying that that will only encourage the group to use Nate as a hostage. Geoffrey shows his racist side by saying he doesn't care what happens to an Overlander, and Sonic, who's obviously here more to save his friend than re-apprehend the criminals, gets up in his face about it. As they get ready to start throwing punches, a nearby soldier yells at them to stop fighting.

How do you like your chain of command now, Geoffrey? Inside, Kodos, infuriated by Nate's continued refusal to cooperate, just straight up gets ready to behead him with his giant axe, because there's no kill like overkill, but at that moment Bomb rolls himself in, getting everyone's attention. He tries, and fails for some reason, to explode, but the distraction works, and at that moment the rest of the fighting force rushes in to rescue Nate.

And then we find ourselves in the middle of our fifth satellite sequence high above the planet. This one doesn't redirect any asteroids, but the mysterious hand that commands the satellite puts down a drink once it's finished with its work, a drink labeled "Robo Cola…" Geeeeeee, I wonder who this could be? I mean, okay, let's break it down. We know that Robotnik got straight up erased from existence in the Endgame finale, no doubts, no maybes, he's gone. But we also know that wasn't the first time he got zapped into another dimension and managed to make a comeback, either. The hand that's been directing all these mysterious orbital goings-on certainly looks like his hand, and with this unit being labeled R-SAT we're rapidly approaching all the letters we need to spell out Robotnik's name. But with how dramatic and intense his demise was in Endgame, I'd wager we're dealing with a situation that's a little more complex than a simple "he survived the explosion." I guess we'll just have to wait and see, won't we?

As the battle begins inside the abandoned courthouse, Sonic frees Nate and hands him off to Elias to carry him to safety while he rejoins the fight, but before much else can happen, the building suddenly crumbles around them as a giant mutate squid with a robotic body emerges from the ground beneath them. See, West Robotropolis was once used by Robotnik as a staging ground for all sorts of weird experiments and research, and we're looking at one of the leftovers of that! Snively is caught in one of the monster's tentacles and starts screaming for Sonic to rescue him, and while Sonic considers this, Bomb, who has also been caught by the monster, this time manages to get his fuse to go off properly, blowing the squid up.

Ouch indeed. Snively, interestingly, is nowhere to be seen after the explosion, either among the recaptured prisoners or the escapees in the biplane. I wonder if he's actually…? Naaaahhh, I'm sure he's fine!

Statue of Limitations

Writer: Paul Castiglia Pencils: Chris Allan and Jim Amash Colors: Vickie Williams

So it appears that ever since he and Tails escaped Sand-Blast City, Sonic's been plagued by a strange nightmare. He dreams that he's flying over the city when his plane disintegrates, and he falls toward the statue of himself that he destroyed to escape, which is laughing at him. Every night he wakes up before he can fall into the mouth of the statue, but he recognizes eventually that it's a mental block of his own creation, and so this time, he keeps the dream going, falling through the statue's mouth to find out what's on the other side. And what's on the other side is… incredibly bizarre.

Even the clouds start forming in the shape of his face. He demands to know what's going on, and his fan up there, still somewhat starstruck, leads him through a crowd of Sonic worshippers and through a golden door to the hall of the Sonic Adventure Archivists, a group of people who chronicle his every heroic venture and obsess over the meaning of them.

This is actually a pretty funny nod to the whole thing where Sally was indeed supposed to die and become a martyr in the Endgame arc, as well as the whole will-they-won't-they the comic likes to set up between her and Sonic. Sonic wakes up from this dream in a cold sweat, and calls Tails to his room to have a chat, because if there's anyone who can help you face your inner demons in the middle of the night, it's a ten year old. Sonic admits that he's been feeling guilty over how he rushed out of Sand-Blast City before, leaving it open to attack from the Robians without bothering to try and save the inhabitants. The weight of being a hero is starting to become a little too heavy for him to bear alone, as he's not perfect and can't save everyone. Tails tells him that he doesn't have to be perfect, he just has to do the best he can, and cites Sonic's positive effects on his own life. Sonic, cheered somewhat, says that maybe he "can get used to being gray," a rather unexpectedly deep look on the whole hero thing if you ask me, especially for a comic of this caliber. Certainly Sonic has always been a gray hero - Chaotic Good, if you will - who while devoted to saving people and helping the world, can oftentimes act in selfishness and be a bit of a jerk to those who rub him the wrong way. It's interesting to see how his conflicting personality traits balance themselves out in situations like the one in Sand-Blast City, where the only way for him to escape confinement was to put everyone else in danger. He definitely experiences a lot more shades of gray as well as the comic continues on.

Anyway, the previous story's ending promised an especially bizarre issue coming up next, and while the next issue of this comic is certainly a weird one, we still have an arc of KtE to get through first! This one is particularly intense, and introduces one of my favorite villains in the comic, though not named yet…