clamdove

[clamdove]

in love with the rain.

the rain reminds me of

a man i love

with all of a third of

my heart.

a gentle rain

went over the plains today

and it felt like he was there,

waltzing in it with nothing but his

black, coiled hair,

black bag of secrets, and

black, droopy cardigan.

he lived in the rain,

longed for it.

when it rains,

i step out as boldly as he;

with a freshly-showered hair

and my brightest change of clothes

i step out and

chat for a while.

[clamdove]

I'm hot even when I'm Just Kinda Sittin' There

[clamdove]

Hey everyone, I know it's going to be a busy day for a lot of people, but Google enrolled everyone over 18 into their AI program automatically.

If you have a google account, first go to gemini.google.com/extensions and turn everything off.

Then you need to go to myactivity.google.com/product/gemini and turn off all Gemini activity tracking. You do have to do them in that order to make sure it works.

Honestly, I'm not sure how long this will last, but this should keep Gemini off your projects for a bit.

I saw this over on bluesky and figured it would be good to spread on here. It only takes a few minutes to do.

[clamdove]

What is the Canon Route in Shadow the Hedgehog (2005)?

This document talks about the following entries in the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise:

Sonic Battle (passing mention)

Shadow the Hedgehog (2005)

Introduction

“I promise not to make any promises.”

Well thank god I didn’t make any promises with the pace this blog has been going at.

Anyways, welcome to the long overdue return of the lore blog! Let’s not beat around the bush and get right into today’s topic.

What is the canon route in Shadow the Hedgehog (2005)?

For simplicity’s sake, most linked cutscenes will be in English, but if a point requires access to the Japanese version (the version that would’ve been written first, given Takashi Izuka (the game’s writer) is Japanese), then that will be used instead.

Stage 1: Westopolis

This is pretty simple, there straight up cannot be any other choice as the beginning of our pathway, so the only remaining question is which mission does Shadow clear? Well, we can’t say for certain, but the next best guess would be…

Stage 2: Glyphic Canyon

And already we’ve reached a point of uncertainty. We cannot say with complete confidence which of these locals Shadow visited. We cannot even say that he definitely did not visit Lethal Highway, as we just do not have enough evidence for it.

But, we do have more evidence for the other two stages. For Glyphic Canyon, Shadow references visiting it before in Sky Troops, expressing surprise that it could fly, but only if you actually take Shadow to Sky Troops in your route.

Conversely, in Digital Circuit it’s well established that - regardless of what route you take - the Black Arms do assault and ultimately take down the information network, effectively shutting down the internet for GUN and the United Federation for the duration of the war, though with no mention that Shadow is involved.

Given the two possibilities, I’ve deemed Glyphic Canyon to have stronger evidence, as Shadow himself displays recollection, combined with information I’m going to gleam in Stage 4 - coupled with the fact that the takedown of the internet happens even if Shadow refuses to do it himself, as shown in the Hero Mission of Digital Circuit.

Stage 3: Cryptic Castle

Here we not only know which stage Shadow visited for sure, but even which mission he took.

When visiting Cryptic Castle during the Expert Mode run (which implicitly takes place after the main campaign of the story), Cream outright thanks Shadow for rescuing her, something which only takes place here.

Stage 4: ???

Uh.

Well, it’s not like the case in Stage 2, where there was a lack of information to really determine which stage Shadow went to.

Rather, Shadow absolutely, definitely visits at least two of these locations.

The Doom comes about from a sequence of memories present in the Last Story, where among one of them (in Japanese only), a direct re-use of one of Black Doom’s lines during The Doom is used, clearly indicating that Shadow remembers this exact event.

Conversely, we know Shadow also visited Mad Matrix, as Shadow’s impressive hacking skills are imitated by Charmy during the Last Story.

While Shadow would visit Sky Troops after rescuing Cream, if we take the mission he cleared there as canonical evidence.

Death Ruins is one of two points where Black Doom mentions the ritual of prosperity prior to the Last Story’s reveal of what it is (albeit not by name), and the other reference likely can’t be used due to associated information present there.

So, technically, the canon story can’t be any individual route… Buuut, Stage 4 also happens to be the only point where Shadow isn’t collecting a Chaos Emerald. So if multiple stages are already canon, it could be surmised that there could still be a canonical emerald route, and Stage 4 is just a collection of the roadblocks and dead ends along the way on Shadow’s journey.

Stage 5: Iron Jungle/Space Gadget

God damn it.

Iron Jungle has to be canon because, while Eggman hints at it during Mad Matrix, this is the only point where he outright says that Shadow is an android, a lie he admits to during the story’s climax (in easily missable dialogue…)

But Space Gadget also has to be canon, because in that same surge of memories Shadow experiences he also remembers himself quoting shock at remembering his death.

So there you have it, no individual route can be canonical in Shadow the Hedgehog, because mutually exclusive events still happen simultaneously.

Oh, and it should go without saying, but the flashback portion of Lost Impact should be canonical regardless of the route taken, given it’s, you know, a flashback.

Stage 6: Cosmic Fall/Black Comet/Final Haunt

Cosmic Fall needs to happen, not only to help Vector find the computer room, but also because Shadow talks with the GUN Commander, where not only his memory sequence shows that he met with the Commander here. The Commander even apologises for his actions during the Last Story.

Yet at the same time, Shadow’s journey needs to end on the Black Comet (either stage), as that’s where the Last Story begins.

What about GUN Fortress, though? The President is there in the Last Story, and we see that happening at the beginning of GUN Fortress, and we’ve established that multiple stages are canon, so it must be canon too, right?

Well, no. For one, it doesn’t matter whether Shadow attempted to kill him, left him alone, or even attempted to save him would have no bearing on where the President would wind up, as he was already being evacuated.

For two, in GUN Fortress Shadow had associated himself with the Black Arms thoroughly and validated the Commander’s hatred, which contradicts their conversation over in Cosmic Fall where the Commander let go of his hatred.

For three, Central City isn’t blasted lol. I know this only factors for one of two paths leading into that stage, but still lol.

Boss: Egg Dealer (Black Comet)

He needs to get the final Chaos Emerald from somewhere, and we’ve already established why it wouldn’t make sense for Diablon (piloted directly or indirectly by the Commander) to fight Shadow, we know that Black Doom’s plan is to get the Chaos Emeralds and will ask Shadow for them in the Last Story, and we know his journey ends on the Black Comet. So it has to be Eggman by process of elimination.

But at the same time, the ending of that boss fight can’t be canon, given it ends with him killing Eggman, and that clearly doesn’t happen. That’s fine, though, as clearly none of the endings are canon since Shadow has no such epiphany at the beginning of the Last Story and seems to have just collected them.

Outroduction

Well the truth about a singular canonical route is that… there isn’t one. So it’s more likely Shadow in fact hopped through most of these areas in his search for the Chaos Emeralds, and only got his hands on them in specific areas during his search.

Given the timeframe, this clearly makes Shadow one busy hog.

So what’s the most conservative route throughout Shadow the Hedgehog (2005)? It goes a little something like this…

Westopolis Neutral

Glyphic Canyon Dark (awakens the temple)

Cryptic Castle Hero (saves Cream & Cheese)

The Doom Dark

Sky Troops Normal

Mad Matrix Hero (helps Espio collect data)

Death Ruins Dark

Iron Jungle Normal

Space Gadget Hero (racing Sonic)

Cosmic Fall Hero (finding the Computer Room)

Black Comet Hero

Egg Dealer (Black Comet)

That’s not to say that other stages can’t be a part of that routing, just that this is - by all accounts - as conservative as you can get with the knowledge of canonicity, with other stages serving as additional add-ons.

Still though, it would’ve been nice if we could point at an individual route and just say “hey, that’s the one that takes place”. Would’ve made the 326 individual story routes a little more meaningful if we could actually analyse them for the true one. But I guess that’s the point, isn’t it? The routes aren’t meant to showcase Shadow’s actual journey, but instead are gathering up the individual pieces in order to build up towards the conclusion of the Last Story, all the while showing who Shadow could have become along the way.

And who Shadow will end up as by the end of all this.

---

Credits:

Writer: Numbug

Sources obtained by: Numbug (Shadow the Hedgehog (2005), Sonic Battle)

[clamdove]

I had a dream last night where Lemon Demon released a new album. The album was called "Green Trees" or something. On the Bandcamp page, there was a really long note from Neil begging people not to be mad that he changed up the sound, but that this album was what he always wanted Lemon Demon to sound like since he started the project. There was some line that was like "I worked for over ten years on all of these songs, I fully believe that they're my greatest work." The album was over two hours long, but every song sounded like this.

Everyone wanted to be nice because the note was very earnest and they didn't want to hurt his feelings, so it became extremely critically acclaimed despite no one unironically enjoying it.

[clamdove]

[clamdove]

[clamdove]

The Adrian Dittmann Story

all the evidence and methodology from A to Z by ryan fae and me

[clamdove]

when i was really little and had just learned how to write my full name . i noticed my twin brother had really messy handwriting. while mine was like … as nice as it could be for a little kid. so i wrote my name in his handwriting on a wall and i waited to see who our parents would get mad at . and they blamed him. and that was when my life of crime began

[clamdove]

[clamdove]

[clamdove]

The trick to understanding tabletop RPGs which pride themselves on simulating reality rather than emulating genre tropes is that their designers' notion of "realism" is typically informed by popular fiction which bills itself as "realistic" – which is, itself, a genre with a discernible body of tropes.

[clamdove]

happy new year! reminder that as of January 1st, 2025, the 1929 animated Disney short "The Skeleton Dance" is now public domain!

[clamdove]

Raising money for heating fuel, rent and food. Please consider donating to my GoFundMe.

[clamdove]

So it looks like fixing my bike will cost AT LEAST 250 of god's own american dollars so uh. fuck me i guess. anything helps?

paypal: mythologicalnerd@gmail.com

venmo & cashapp: otterpopd

0/250

[clamdove]

[clamdove]

Don’t want to lose my sister to foster care 😩

I really need the assistance of raising money to afford my over due rent and this months rent. I don’t want to lose my sister To foster care, it would break her heart.

over due rent. 205/285

rent due jan 15th 0/500

cat food/litter 0/40

Venmo Queenloki89

Cashapp $Queenloki89