#Do you really think the best end for everyone is one where Sonic has to accept his new friends and his new best friend has to die?

[hadesknockedupintheunderworld]

No one:

Some random person, every week since July: Has anyone done this yet? *posts meme redraw of Shadow breaking it to Sonic that they’re gonna have to kill Nine and Sonic going "Damn😔"*

[potheadkiki]

HII... hear me out. Pool sex with katsuki..??

I know you want pool sex but honestly sex in one of those hot springs sounds so much better

⚠Warning⚠

18+ content

Bakugo being a simp but refusing to admit it

Pet names (princess, angel, babe, etc)

Some slut shaming but it's fine

Chubby reader

Bakugo is 6'4

Reader is goth

Marijuana

Reader has the ability to sonic scream similar to black Canary

Side note I am taking more requests if anyone is interested

After UA everyone is class 1-a kept in close contact. Coincidentally both you and Bakugo are in neighboring agencies and see each other quite often at mixers and group parties. One day both agencies claimed that after the most recent villain attack that everyone needed to take a break so each company decided that every hero draw a number and the two heroes that drew the same number would leave for a week to go to an all expenses paid spa with traditional rooms and a private hot spring bath. Today was no different, everyone is lined up and as one of the assistants comes along with a jar everyone grabs a piece of paper, today's number was 78, unfolding your little piece your heart stops, 78 in bold is staring back at you, stepping forward claiming the first spot wondering who you'll be going to the resort with. The agency is on FaceTime and you watch as Bakugo steps forward on the screen holding the same number as you and you feel as your stomach flips your going to be alone with him for a week, he'll be in one of those kimonos and as you imagine it your face heats up. You've been in love with this guy ever since your days at UA he'd never see you that way of course you may be smart and have a sonic scream but you're also a slacker pot head from the US. You hear as everyone cheers for you and congratulates you on being able to take the week off with Bakugo no less. Finishing up the rest of your shift trying to ignore all the comments everyone is making some rude or snarky, your friends however made encouraging remarks and how this could be your chance to seduce him. As your day comes to an end your phone vibrates looking at it your heart races

Bakugo: Guess you're gonna be in my space for a week huh?

Reading the message you laugh he hasn't changed really

You:Yeah I guess so huh you'll just have to forgive me

You reply attempting to be a little flirty but also keep the same energy

Bakugo: I'll find some way you can make it up to me don't worry

Reading that your heart is basically in your asshole I mean how are you supposed to respond to that. You're going to be alone with him and now the entire time this will be all you can fucking think about.

You: yeah you do that lol

You reply trying to defuse the situation and not think about having the best sex life could possibly give you

Bakugo: oh don't doubt me I will

You have no idea what to say simply telling him that you'll see him in the morning and to sleep well.

--next day

You make your way to the agencies where they have a company car that they'll give you unfortunately you don't have your license so that means Bakugo will have to drive he just scoffs at that but you smile

Putting your things in the trunk you're kinda nervous honestly the only bathing suit you have is a bikini with mushrooms that is kinda low cut. Grabbing the special blanket with dragons on it that you've had since high school and need with to sleep successfully, slipping in the passenger seat getting comfy. Bakugo seeing this and scoffing again before saying

"Look at you fucking passenger princess ass" you blush at that he wasn't being mean or rude

"It's a three hour drive bakugo I wanna be comfy"you say shyly holding your blanket close to your chest

"Yeah yeah whatever get comfy then princess it's gonna be a long drive" he says placing the car in reverse putting his hand on the back of your seat watching as he turns his head to see where he's going before pulling out of the parking spot once he's out he puts the car in drive and your face goes red not only did he just call you princess but he did that thing when driving too not realizing the smirk on his face as he pulls on the highway the smirk of victory.

Bakugo has been thinking about this since yesterday morning he's going to get a week with you alone completely. He's basically been in love with you ever since you transferred to the hero course here in Japan. You're smart, kind, beautiful, and you rarely care what others think of you and he loves that. He's aware you smoke it helps with your quirk apparently. He has discovered that he has quite a thing for watching you smoke. The way you purse your lips and inhale, the way you lick your lips when dry, the way the smoke escapes past your lips. Fuck he needs to focus on driving he can't be hard right now. Taking a quick glance towards you he sees you cuddle up with said blanket, only one earbud in with something playing on your phone, you however seem interested. He doesn't want that. He wants to talk to you, he wants to be at the center of your attention. He knows its toxic and crazy since he himself needs to focus on driving but that doesn't mean they can't talk. Right?

"Put your phone down and talk to me. If I fall asleep at the wheel it's your damn fault." He says glancing in your direction.

"If this is your way of asking for me to start a conversation with you then I definitely feel like you could have done that differently but okay" you say huffing out a laugh before continuing the conversation

"What's the first thing you want to do when you get? I know personally I want to soak in that gorgeous hot spring maybe smoke a little joint, if its okay with you of course." He watches you say that with a cheeky smile. Maybe he'll join you this week is after all supposed to be relaxing and that does sound quite nice.

"what a dumb question of course imma see if they have a gym" you rolling your eyes thinking naturally

"Then find some to eat maybe and maybe in between everything I'll join you if I feel like it of course." He says side eyeing you with a slight smile only to catch that you're sporting a similar cheeky smile with pink cheeks. And that's how it went for the next three hours idle chit chat and stupid questions mostly. So when he pulls up to this large log house that has steaming chimney your pupils basically turn into hearts. It's gorgeous the way the sun hits against the large mountains and shines through the trees god you never want to leave and you haven't even stepped into the building.

Once you've both registered with secretary and got your room key (turns out its one of those two in one rooms with a single bamboo room divider) but bakugo opted for just opening the divider doors claiming they'res just more space this way they would have had to share the hot spring anyways since it's a connected room and all. Most of the time they were assigned to people with relativity large families or two pro heroes on vacation. He watches in amusement as your eyes light up again before turning back around and clapping your hands together exclaiming 'right' turning your head to face him giving a soft smile

"I'm about to pack a cone and change into my bikini would you like to join me for a soak and smoke if will" He rolls his eyes at that god you can be so corny sometimes but he listens as you go on

"Then we could find some place to eat or order in either or I don't care"

"yea whatever just let me know when you're done I'm not gonna sit around in my damn trunk" He says with a slight blush thinking of the two of you together alone in a steamy bath while you wear a bikini, fuck he feels like a teenager again and he hates it. He manages to busy himself which in hindsight could have been a mistake because when he hears you clear your throat, whipping his head around he's faced with you in a mushroom styled bikini top that hugs your tits perfectly, realizing just how big they are considering you usually wear large/baggie t-shirts, and a simple pair of black bottoms that hug your ass perfectly, letting a groan slip past his lips as he stands up quickly

"Jesus woman you scared the shit out of me, just wait for me outside I'll be out there in like 10 minutes" he says not making eye contact with you as he walks away. You step outside washing yourself off before heading over and sitting at the edge with your feet dangling into the water, gently moving your feet back and and forth in a swishing motion making sure no water actually splashes up at you, not yet at least, lighting a joint with wet hands is a real bitch, your thoughts only really stopping when you hear the pitter patter of bakugos bare feet against the smooth rock turning your head you give him a smile

"Hey I waited for you before smoking I wasn't sure if you wanted to or not but if you did we could share" You say with that stupid smile while holding up said joint and an ORAGNE lighter he doesn't know why but it makes his heart jump at the thought that maybe you bought it thinking of him little does he know how right he actually is.

"Okay jesus let me rinse off first before you start rushing me" Rolling your eyes at this but giving a slight okay anyways. You can't help as your eyes follow his every movement watching as his back muscles flex and constrict due to his movements. Blush enveloping your face and a little of your neck god your going to be spending a week here with this man. Bakugo being a little tipsy as he took some shots of Soju to help calm his nerves but its doing the exact opposite maybe smoking will help he thinks when he smells it, the potent stench of marijuana. Turning his head he watches as you stand up water splashing as you walk towards him with the joint between your lips gently sucking and exhaling the smoke, he watches as your hips sway walking towards him, getting close to his face pushing said joint up against his lips as a silent plea to open his mouth and when he does you get a full whiff of alcohol and you take a step back as you look at him

"Were you in there drinking? Whats up? You know you can tell me anything right?" You say leaning down a little to make sure you force eye contact since he's been avoiding it. You watch as he groans and takes a hit before coughing slightly and handing the joint back to you without saying anything he steps into the water submerging himself halfway into the steaming water before looking back at you as a silent way of asking if your coming or not and you do walking over and you sit next to him smoking the joint a little, looking at him as he scratches the back of his neck almost ashamed, opening his mouth but he doesn't say anything so you hand him the joint again, he's clearly nervous, taking it from your hand he inhales harshly handing it back to you as he falls into a small coughing fit. Watching as he sputters a little, laughing at him a little amused, getting in closer to gently rub his back and help calm his breathing again. Not realizing that in getting to close your breast have pressed up against his side in hopes of calming him down

"Okay i'm fine now so you can move" He says shifting away from you and you smile a little giving a short 'sorry' you say looking at him in hopes that since you moved away he would tell you whats wrong with him

"Okay so we met in ua and you've always been so annoying with that damn smile of yours and the way you laugh,being able to light up a room with a single twinkle from your eye and that isn't even your quirk, I remember thinking for a split moment that maybe you were just like icy-hot with two of em but no and even after all that your damn smile was still to bright. Then we got put in neighboring agencies and we drew this dumb fucking lottery" And threw this whole interaction you could tell he was getting frustrated and you weren't entirely sure where he was going with this but it clearly has something to do with pent up feelings so you grab his hands taking a leap of faith pushing them against your chest getting closer looking at him with pleading eyes

"Please don't stop. I want to hear what you have to say. All of it." You say holding his hands tight against your breast and you watch as he looks away a blush spreading to the tip of his ears

"Fuck I just- I don't know I'm still trying to figure how to say shit" he says quickly and you realize that's true he's always been a man of action

"Well don't say anything then" you say gripping his hands pressing your breasts harder into his arm getting closer, he looks at you thinking that maybe it's the alcohol or the weed but whatever it was he could feel his inhibition lowering along with his head as his lips connect with yours, groaning as you push your chest up against his, slipping into his lap as his arms wrap around your waist possessively squeezing you tight, pulling away you giggle at his possessiveness

"Why you squeezing me so tight?" You say laughing a little more and he hides his face in your breasts before mumbling something and you grip his hair a little which seems to get the memo as he pulls away

"Like hell I'm letting you go now" he mumbles hiding his face in your neck as his hips rut up against yours causing you to gasp out changing angles which puts his face right in between your breasts as his grip on you tightens and his rutting becomes rougher the water begins of the hot springs sloshing with his movements as you grip his hair grinding down and meeting his thrusts until he suddenly stops causing you to let out a whine and he pulls away from your chest much to his dismay chuckling

"I'm not cumming till I get to feel that pussy wrapped 'round me" he says almost slurred as his eyes droop grabbing your ass roughly as he picks you up sitting you on the stone side and you shiver arching your back against him

"It's cold Suki" you say whining as you feel goosebumps spread across your body and he just rolls his eyes

"You'll be fine. I gotta open you up baby" he says and you blush you've only had sex three times neither of them enjoyable which is something you should probably admit but you don't want to ruin the mood because you want to be with him and you can feel your mind running

"Hey speak up tell me to stop" he says and you grip his hand

"No! God no please. I want to be with you but I've only done this a couple of times and none of them enjoyable so I don't want to disappoint you with my own inexperience. But it's not like I think this will be bad or anything and that's another reason I'm nervous" you say but realize that you've been rambling quickly but you see as his eyebrows scrunch

"So you're worried that you won't be able to keep up and that basically I'm going to fuck you like no one else could?" He says kinda nonchalant and a blush spreads across your face at how he could simplify your insecurities in a crude way. But you giggle

"Yeah I guess kinda. I mean everyone talks about how good it can feel like leg shaking and it's scary and what if you leave after or think I make a weird face" you say giggling a little throwing your hands up in defeat

"Well I want to do with you no pressure, obviously, but I can also guarantee that I will make you feel good and like hell I'm leaving your ass I already got a taste of you." He says with a smile leaning in between your legs nibbling at your left ear

"You promise" you say a little wobble to your voice. His hands are exploring your thighs gripping, squeezing and even pinching at your thigh

"Trust me baby I fuckin promise you're stuck with me now." You giggle a little and he leans in kissing your cheek

"Okay well I'm done over thinking. You gonna fuck me now?" At that his lips connect with yours, his hips slotting between your thighs as one of his hands slips behind your back grabbing one of the loose strings pulling it untying the top. Once untied he slips the straps down your arms throwing your top somewhere, pulling away licking his lips as he grabs at your boobs kissing your chest before he moves his way down to your right breast. Holding your right breast up he gently suckles on the nipple as his left hand tugs and pinches at your other one. Feeling as he nibbles and bites at your nipple tugging with his teeth causing your back to arch and grip at his hair feeling him still grounding down on you. His left hand travels down your stomach and slips into your bottoms as his head moves towards your left nipple giving it the same attention and hickies. He pulls away slipping his hand out your pants causing you to whine in an exaggerated manner to show your disappointment.

"Cmon don't be a brat I gotta get you out of these" he says referring to your bottoms and you blush as his hands grab at the hem of them looking at you to indicate to lifting your hips up and you do listening happily at the implications. God the man you're in love is about to finger you and it turns out he feels the same way I mean like what? That's crazy?

"Mhm damn look that pussy baby"he says with a wicked grin leaning down getting into the water until he's face to face with your pussy feeling as it throbs while it clenches and unclenches around nothing covering your face in shame because you just know he can see it happen and judging by his laugh you're right.

"Mhm look at this desperate pussy clenching around nothing you're so desperate aren't you baby?" He asks clearly rhetorically since he doesn't wait for you to respond before he slips his pointer finger inside curling it up searching for that spongy spot inside and he can tell instantly when he finds it based on how you whine and clench your thighs around his head that was barely a breath away from your pussy almost feeling his breath fan against your most sensitive area. He laughs at your sensitivity deciding to add his middle finger repeating the same action curling his fingers upwards. Feeling his breath get closer and closer until you feel his tongue lick at your clit. Your head throws back, grabbing a fist full of his hair from the intense stimulation finding ground yourself to something as you feel his fingers move curl non stop and his lips suck and lick at your clit. Feeling as not only your thighs clench around his head but the knot in your stomach as well. Back arching deeper as his fingers do the same inside you so desperate to make you cum

"I'm-im gonna cum Suki fuck I can feel it!" You exclaim as your back gives out falling back against the stone as you cum on his face thighs shaking and convulsing as his fingers milk you for everything your worth. You feel as his fingers gently pull out whining at the loss. Whining about the stones being cold Bakugo laughs at you calling you a baby and you watch as he licks his lips as he grabs your wrists pulling you back into the water as he sits down on the middle step pulling you down with him landing on lap realizing he must have ditched his swimming trunks at some point looking down in the water blushing god he's so big

"Like what you see baby? This is what's gonna go inside you baby." He says whispering in your ear as he grinds his cock against your bare pussy. Gasping as you wrap your arms around his neck tight clearly nervous at the anticipation

"If you want to stop we can" he says clearly being able to sense your nervousness. But you pull away quickly

"No! I mean no. *you say gasping trying to keep your cool* I don't want to stop I'm just a little nervous. So please just be gentle with me" you say seductively grinding down and he groans

"God damn you're gonna be the death of me you know that?" And you giggle at the comment. Kissing his cheek

"Alright princess take a deep breath" he says lovingly as you feel him lift your hips gasping as you feel his cock rub at your clit before poking at your entrance

"Told you to breathe damnit" he says as he pushes his hips up against yours. Your head throws back again to the feeling of him stretching you open, his hands grip at your waist pushing you down as well to meet his hips until he's completely bottomed out inside you. He can feel as your breath hitches and your heart quickens

"Calm down" he says as you feel his right hand rub circles into your lower back. There's a proud smile on his face as he realizes that almost instantly you try to regain control of your breathing. God she's such a good girl he thinks. Feeling as you begin to move your hips grinding down slowly.

"Yeah baby? You gonna use me and my cock to please yourself?" He asks as he buries his face into your breasts sucking hickies into your sternum as his own hips begin to move. Water sloshing with the movement of both of you.

"Mhm you feel that baby? Are your thighs shaking for me?" He asks clearly proud of himself you both keep a steady pace as he fucks into you and you meet his thrusts feeling the pressure build again as your thighs do shake from the pleasure but they're beginning to burn your so fucking to close to cumming again you just can't keep going fuck

"Please- please *gasping* I can't keep doing it my thighs burn help me" you whine burying your face into his neck as you suck your own bruises into the skin. He groans at the feeling but you feel as his hand grab at your ass cheeks pulling them apart slightly as he begins fucking up against you roughly hitting your g-spot perfectly as his other hand slips between your bodies finding your clit and begins to play with it.

"Mhm damn I can you clenching around me love. You gonna cum. Yea fucking cum do it for me. I'm so close too." He says hips moving more erratic so desperate to make you cum first. And his efforts begin to pay off as he feels you clench around him the same as you did against his fingers.

"I can feel you clenching. I know you're gonna cum just do it." He says and that's basically all it takes before you're cumming around him but that doesn't stop his own thrusting. You feel as he picks you up sitting you against the stone as he fucks into you harsher cumming inside you as he pulls out you whine and he laughs

"Why did you put me back on the stone? It's cold." You whine as he rolls his eye

"I didn't want to cum in the water. Don't want to ruin the hot spring do we? Still wanna be able to use it yeah?" He says kissing you and you blush cause he's right god how embarrassing. He picks you up and takes you to the bathroom sitting you on a stool that sits in front of the shower head.

"Alright love let's get cleaned up then we can smoke a little more and cuddle. Yeah?" And you blush at that cuz fuck yeah that sounds amazing. The fact that he fucked your brains out, is gonna bathes you and then smoke with you while watching TV god you really are in love.

[descendant-of-truth]

On principle I don't really like the idea of Sonic being sent after Shadow at the request of G.U.N for two reasons:

It robs us of the god-tier cold open of the original game where Sonic busts out of a helicopter to escape arrest

I always loved the setup where Sonic and Shadow meeting was pretty incidental - neither of them had any idea who the other was, but Sonic thought Shadow was impersonating him on purpose while Shadow just thought he seemed fun to mess with

But depending on what the surrounding context is, I can see how the movie could make this plot point interesting in a completely different way that still complements these versions of the characters, even if I don't prefer it to the original.

So, some ideas:

G.U.N has been the villain of the last two movies, so in order for Sonic to be working with them, they must have a pretty good deal for him. My guess is that they promised to leave him and his family alone - no more schemes, no more kidnapping, nothing of the sort - on the one condition that "Team Sonic" helps them deal with Shadow.

This would already function as a narrative parallel to Sonic enlisting Robotnik's help later for the same thing. The name of the game becomes "we don't like each other, we're enemies, but we need to work together to deal with this guy because he's too powerful," which becomes a triple threat if the whole cast including Shadow gets to team up at the very end to save the world

I think it would also be very fun if Sonic is trying so hard to talk things out with Shadow in large part because he heard that there was another hedgehog on the loose, and wants so badly to be friends with someone like him that it takes at least one full-blown beating before he gives up on that idea

(The other reason he keeps trying is "it worked on Knuckles" of course)

Now, this puts Sonic in a fascinating position, particularly when using the game as a frame of reference. SA2 was very straightforward with how it presented its conflict at first: you have a Hero Story and a Dark Story, and as such you're primed to think of everyone on both sides as either being good or bad.

And most people, I think, were inclined to play the Hero Story first; it's the one with Sonic in it, and the select screen hovers over it by default, too. It tells a very simple story of Sonic and friends stopping Eggman's (admittedly very threatening) evil plan, developing some new rivalries along the way.

It's already a little bit of a twist for Sonic and Knuckles to have formed a respectful relationship with Shadow and Rouge by the end, since you see them as villains initially, but they still remain antagonists by the end. Rouge returns the Master Emerald pieces, but she's still working with Robotnik. Shadow thinks Sonic is pretty impressive, but he still tries to kill him to stop him from saving the world.

But then you get to the Dark Story, and then the Final Story, and you think, oh. It's really not that simple.

For starters, you get to see more of Rouge's bond with Shadow. There's some conflict inherent to their relationship because Rouge is a spy and is only here to get information on Shadow, but after he saves her life, there's a definite shift to their dynamic. There's something genuine there, even if it doesn't get a lot of screentime dedicated to it.

But most important to the story is what we learn about who Shadow is, in part through his interactions with Rouge.

Shadow is cunning and ruthless - heck, his goal is to literally blow up the world. But whether out of compassion or survivor's guilt or both, he can't let Rouge die, so he saves her and then lies about his motivations for it to seem colder than he is.

And even though the things he's doing are definitely bad, his motivations are famously sympathetic; he wants revenge for his best friend, a young girl who was killed by the G.U.N military during a raid.

(It was implied that there was some sort of brainwashing done on him by Gerald after Maria died as well but that part of the story is incredibly vague)

By the end of the game, Shadow comes into his own as a hero and helps save the world instead of destroying it. And suddenly it makes sense why the stories weren't called Hero and Villain, because neither Shadow nor Rouge are especially villainous characters; Rouge is selfish, and Shadow is driven by grief and hatred, but they're ultimately kind at the end of the day. Both of them find people to care about - each other, as well as Knuckles and Sonic respectively.

But y'know, there wasn't a lot of ambiguity about who the heroes were in the Hero Story itself. Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles are pretty clearly The Good Guys, and nothing they do is really questioned because they're always fighting The Bad Guys.

So what I'm seeing here is an opportunity for Team Sonic to not be totally in the right for once. Yes, it's good to stop Shadow from going on a rampage and destroying the world, but look at who they're keeping for company here. G.U.N? Robotnik and Agent Stone? As if either of those groups are trustworthy enough to not stab them in the backs as soon as it's convenient. As if they're not going to find some way to exploit Sonic for their benefit.

And frankly, Shadow is totally in the right to hate G.U.N, and Team Sonic for working with them. Given that his backstory seems to be largely unchanged, it's kind of impossible not to be on board with him fighting the protagonists at least a little bit.

Besides, I don't think it's a coincidence that Shadow is doing the wrong thing for the right reason, while Sonic is doing the right thing with the wrong people (and maybe also for the wrong reason). That has the potential to be very clever if executed well.

I can only imagine the dawning horror on Sonic's face as he realizes just how much he's not on the right side of this conflict; when he learns about what happened to Maria and everyone else on the Ark. Especially if Tom's family was involved in it, like the current popular theory going around.

Also, last-second realization: what if there's something more to that line from Tom, "it wasn't always easy, but you didn't change who you are in here"? Most likely it's going to be used as a way to show how Shadow is different from Sonic, because he did change who he was in response to trauma and it'll be really poetic when he "finds himself" again

But also, consider: maybe Sonic does end up changing throughout the movie. Maybe he does something that goes against his core principles in order to get an advantage in some way, and they kind of play around with the idea that Sonic is similar to Shadow in ways that aren't always flattering to either of them. I want those hedgehogs to make each other worse before they get better

In any case, there's a lot of potential here, and I'm very curious to see what they ended up going with

[jouska-the-deer]

Sonic Twitter Takeover 2022 Tweet Masterpost

I kinda already saved every single response so I wouldn’t lose them, and I thought, why not share them, right? 

Sonic Twitter Takeover 2022 Intro

PudimAbestado asks: At everyone, what is your favorite Chaos Emerald color?

From Cybershell: Dear Knuckles, how do you type with boxing gloves on?

From TophatGeo: Hey Eggman, were you always bald?

From bryan_hedgehog: To Shadow and Sonic, do you hate each other?

System9509 asks: Sonic, if you ended up in Cyberspace, and your friends had to rescue you, what would your memory tokens look like?

From bunbunbillion: Dear Dr. Eggman, can you please show these filthy rodents your super form and eviscerate them from this world?

SonicKnuckReal asks: What’s your favorite Sonic game? Asking for a friend.

From B0b076Ian: To the esteemed Dr. Eggman, how did you survive so long in Cyberspace?

OnTheDownLoTho says: Hey Gang, hype guy here. Last year you all handed me a crazy roast that I never even got to hear. So, could I get an apology?

From B_u_l_l_r_a_m: Knuckles, do you ever get bored of guarding the Master Emerald? If you do, how do you entertain yourself?

ev0ltex asks: To Amy, what’s your favorite dessert?

From arcmantic: How often do you gotta replace your gloves or clean them? That white has to be hard to keep looking fresh like they always do.

From R8yM1x: Who can give off the best voice impression of Eggman in the group?

From RealShadowFan01: Shadow, will you marry me?

SirChar59632843 asks: To Shadow, why do you eat the coffee beans straight?

From AjleeKelly: Who would win in a race between Sonic and Shadow?

From UltimateSHSLFan: Hi everyone. Hope you’re all doing well. Especially the Ultimate Life Form himself, Shadow, you are my favorite. My question for everyone is, what song is currently stuck in your head?

From alknazka: Guys, what is your favorite hobby in your free time?

JKArgick asks: Have any of you tried speedrunning? It’s where you complete games really fast, and I think it’d be great for Sonic.

RellSG14 says: Hey y’all, can any of you translate what this says?

From TheEmuEmi: What do you like about Sonic?

From Chronocrump: To whoever is willing to answer, what’s the coolest thing Sonic has ever done?

Pizzaheadnascar asks: Question to everyone, what is the meaning of life?

HuyMinhLe0404 asks: We’ve heard some of your favorite anime, but what are the favorite animes of the ones you haven’t answered yet? Incidentally, Knuckles, are you about to watch anime on Angel Island? Is there wifi?

SaturnMunchies asks: Which are the cutest? Koco, Chao, Wisps, or Flickies?

QuickEgg45 asks: Is cereal a soup?

From PopcornNSoda247: Amy, do you ever visit Little Planet when it reappears? Seems like a nice place to relax.

Sonic Twitter Takeover 2022 Outro

Let me know if I missed any questions, made any spelling errors, or screwed up a link. 

[phasesgurl]

Sonic: Shattered

So basically, Eggman gets the prism again. Sonic and Tails and everyone come to fight him, and Eggman hits Sonic with the prism. If it were any other rock this wouldn’t be a huge problem, but this leaves what looks like a large glowing crack in Sonic’s chest.

the others continue to fight. As the cracks start to grow and new ones form in his face, arms and legs, the prism starts glowing brighter.

then, all of a sudden, Sonic screams out in pain and he and the crystal sort of… explode.

Shadow is the first one to come to. Everything looks more or less normal, other than the fact that everyone’s unconscious and the prism has turned into a swirly rainbowy portal-looking thing.

Tails is next to wake up. He realizes Sonic is gone and flies into a panic. He runs off, Shadow goes after him to make sure he doesn’t do anything too impulsive.

after a while, they sort of find Sonic. He looks like a hologram, pays no attention to anything, and keeps repeating the phrase “What you see is what you get—just a guy who loves adventure!”

Tails is confused and alarmed, but Shadow knows what’s going on. It’s a repeat of Sonic Prime, sort of. But Sonic seems to be the only thing that was shattered—Big and Froggy are normal, Eggman’s normal, almost everything is normal. Not even the prism was shattered this time, it was more blended together.

Shadow tries to comfort Tails, and they decide the solution is to go into the void and see what they can see.

of course, they have no way to get into the void because no one has any prism energy inside. They decide to go talk to Knuckles, Amy and Rouge (who have tied up the still unconscious Eggman.)

They don’t have any ideas either. While they’re talking, Tails’ eyes drift to the swirling light that used to be the prism. He stares for a while, thinking. Wondering.

then surprises everyone by jumping into it.

The others panic and end up going into it themselves. It turns out, the prism has turned into a portal into the void, complete with a rainbowy gateway to their world. Tails is standing on a crystal, awestruck.

After a brief explanation from Shadow on where the heck they are, they run off toward a random gateway to hopefully find sort of clue.

Also Tails is going to feel really guilty about what happened to Sonic.

they end up finding these guys, who were written in by the prism in a way that they wouldn’t change what happened with the original Sonic when he broke the prism:

More info on them and their friends:

The New Yolk City Sonic I think has the best backstory. He was friends with that world’s Amy before the Chaos Council took over. When they did, the two hedgehogs tried to fight back, but both were captured and turned into cyborgs. For a while, he and her were a matching set of enforcers, Rusty Rose and Scrappy Sonic. Then, he found a chaos emerald while patrolling and it restored his free will. He panicked when he saw his robotic body and ran off to look for Amy. When he found her, however, she recognized that he was no longer under the Council’s control and ordered some robots to terminate him. He survived, but did take some damage.

Ghost, Zip and Crash were a second resistance group with no knowledge of the existence of the first. They operated on Angel Island and protected the Master Emerald. They would also sneak down and cause trouble the council in new yolk.

They were sneaking in the sewers when they came across an unconscious blue cyborg. They decided to wake him up. Half asleep, he said “Amy-bzzrt-Rose…” they asked what that meant, but he found himself unable to say anything after that.

Since he couldn’t tell them his name, the Chaotix nicknamed him “Lucky” because he was very lucky to get free of the council’s control.

He still can’t talk, but his new friends have gotten very good at understanding his charades. Especially Ghost, who can practically read his mind.

Nine was overjoyed when he met Lucky, although didn’t show it. This was a guy who was just like the hedgehog who had tried to be his friend, who was nice to him when no one else was, almost identical in body and in personality! And his home was right here. He could stay with him. He was mute, but Nine felt like Sonic talked too much anyway.

In Boscage Maze, there was another group of scavengers that was more mindful of the jungle, so Thorn let them stay. They had their own version of her, named Briar. He was also a protector of the forest, and even had the power to control the plants. Imagine Gnarly’s confusion when a vine grabs his ankles and lifts him upside down. Poor echidna nearly has a heart attack.

Briar means well, though. He just likes to put newcomers through their paces.

Poison Ivy does have her fire powers, but being in the middle of a bunch of trees rarely uses them. Most people don’t even know she has them, so that comes as a shock when she comes to the void and fights the Eggforcers.

And finally, No Place. These three sail on a ship called The Chaos. Just them. Polly is a flicky that refuses to leave the ship.

One day, the Chaos is attacked by what the crew thinks is a kraken. Shipwrecker recognizes it as a version of iblis that is made of water rather than fire, and that flooded the planet years ago. Shadow gets knocked overboard and sees a chaos emerald underwater. He tries to get it, but is knocked unconscious by a rock to thrown by iblis. Sapphire panics, since he is terrified of water, but summons the courage to dive in and pull his captain back onto the ship. He sees the emerald, and thinking that Shipwrecker was trying to get it grabs that too before returning to the surface.

When the captain comes to, he reveals to his crewmates that he now has all of the chaos emeralds, and he and his crew go into super form and defeat iblis, restoring the water to its original level. As they explore their new surroundings, they see hedgehog's pass and the loop-de-loop. Sapphire ends up falling flat on his face because the loop was damaged by Dread's submarine. They fix it by making a replacement section with wood. It's like a bridge that curves.

then, they race. The starting line is drawn, the route is set, and they're all determined to prove they're the fastest of the bunch.

3..2..1.. GO!

Shiver falls behind pretty quickly. For the rest of the race, it seems like it's going to be a photo finish between Sapphire and Shipwrecker. Then, the captain stumbles over something. allowing sapphire to take the lead. He's about to win when he sees Amy, then same way Sonic sees Shadow when he's running really fast in prime. She grabs him and pulls him through the gateway.

From Shiver and Shipwrecker's perspective, Sapphire just sort of popped out of existence, so they're confused and angry. This group is for this au what Nine was for prime. Sapphire is also being really uncooperative and slowing their progress to get the original Sonic back.

Which they still have no idea how to do, by the way. Wait a little longer to find that out, I'm still deciding weather to write this story as a comic or a fanfic.

[galakianexplosion]

Okay so; another little one punch man ramble. {SPOILERS! :D}

This is for the non revised lastest chapters in specific, and the monster association arc.

The parallels between Saitama and Flash,

Originaly from a conversation with my friend @kachikirby , it might be extremly obvious to everyone but id like to speak about it anyways! :D

To elaborate a tiny bit more on this and mostly rephrase ; So both have their own foe to defeat; Saitama with Garou and Flash with Emtpy void (motivated to fight god himself).

Both of their enemies is possessed by said god. And both wanted something out of the other party. Garou wanted to fight Saitama at his best and Empty Void deemed Flash worthy enough to be gifted the same "possession". So to throw both off they needed to get a reaction, something that'd break something inside of them.

Both don't have all that much to look to, even if we know less about Flash, i think it's safe to assume he's lonely and focuses on his strenght. Saitama is simillar, a man so bored with his own strenght.

But, both have someone, now you might add that Garou also managed to kill all other heroes (and more) present near him which certainly did not help Saitama feel better, which i will agree with! But the main factor for the whole state he gets into after stays Genos. (It's also heavily heavily implied/basicaly said that Saitama relies Genos for support and all of that) Saitama recieves Genos' core- his heart.

Now Flash on the other hand, despite his messy fall out with Sonic, said Sonic is really the only one he has. They both were each other's only source of "happiness" during the times when they were in the ninja training thing. They both relied on each other and had a whole dream with each other. They both have a very strong history despite their falling out. And even after that they do still care for one another. So, even with what Flash says to Blast about being soft in the revised version, he too, has a weakness in the form of someone else. Flash receives Sonic's head as his dismembered remains falls in the back. His head is even cut in half. In the middle, horizontaly.

Now, hear me out, im pretty sure there's a connection between God and the brain (as well as psychic powers and the moon but anyways,) and Sonic's head was cut in a way that kept said brain intact. I don't have much on this part right now but i do believe theres a link between all of those things---

Also could it be said that there was Heart and Mind (Reason and feelings) parallels

SO

Sonic's dead was false. It's a projection made from Empty Void to Flash, an illusion to break his spirit. WHICH SUCCEEDED. And broke Flash for long enough to able Empty Void to get the cube to touch him.

Meanwhile, Genos' death was fully real. He was really dead when Saitama fought with Garou.

But all turned out alright for the four of them. Flash got saved by Sonic, who was fully alive and well. And Saitama turned back time which allowed Genos to be alive again (and all the other heroes but you know)

So; both also had similar expressions at simmilar time. Faces shadowed out except for eyes. (Saitama's eyes don't appear on most of the pannels however) But both were clearly in a form of distress over someone they care about dying. They're both well aquainted with Death. They're heroes who kill monsters. And Flash also is an assassin.

It can also be said that they would not really have made it out on their own in some ways. Genos' core being there managed, in some ways, to keep Saitama's brain mostly in check (if you get what i mean). Saitama could probably have been way more dangerous otherwise. And Sonic managed to snap Flash out of the possession before God took a hold of him.

Because in the end, God is a convincing little meanie. Taking the form of someone you trust. (Except in psychos case where she fused with someone already gifted by god i believe) (and that homeless emporor who i believe saw a version of god because he perhaps didn't have anyone close to him.) So Flash did see Sonic, like if all his life and troubles were just a bad dream, he was in front of his childhood friend, in a vast field, being reassured by the other he just saw being cut apart seconds earlier.

And both Flash and Saitama know each other. And both lived trough their first encounter with God next to each other (along Manako)

All of this to say that both their parallels are very dear to me. I wonder what we'll see of it in the revised version!

[ohanny]

what kind of drunks would the pit babe characters be

babe - the hot girl. he acts all cool and sits there in his leather jacket, being hotter than anyone. his drinks also aren't half as strong as he let's people believe because there's nothing attractive about a sloppy drunk. if he's forced to take multiple shots, he will quietly walk to the bathroom to give himself a drunk girl pep talk in front of the mirror.

charlie - the sober one. he doesn't drink, period. he actually hates the taste. he was destined to be the designated driver (yay, cars!) and the mom friend (sometimes this makes him wish he did drink because fucking hell, he is friends with actual gremlins).

way - the professional. he's on his tenth shot of vodka at the bar, chasing them with a whiskey and coke, mumbling “weak” at the people who started acting up after their third drink.

pete - the crier. he's a nice guy working in a high stress environment, okay? on the rare occasions he gets completely wasted, he will see a particularly artfully arranged napkin dispenser and burst into tears because life is just so beautiful, you know? and it really is unfair how much shit all of them have had to endure!

north - the social butterfly. drunk north knows the lyrics to every song ever written. at the end of the night he has like 50 new instagram followers, he's helped a girl through a break up in the women’s bathroom, he's learned the dj’s mom’s name and might have accidentally agreed into a threesome with a married couple (not that he knew what exactly they were suggesting). he's just pure vibes.

sonic - the instigator. drunk sonic has opinions and no sense of self-preservation. he will walk straight up to the enormous bouncer, get right in his face and go “wow. you're like… really ugly.” on an average night out, he should have died around five times but always gets away unscatched because, like a princess, he gets rescued by people who think he is way too cute to die.

kim - the sappy one. also a total lightweight. will declare his love for you after three beers. give him a shot and he will earnestly look you in the eyes while clutching the hem of your shirt and tell you what a great job you do and how he has always secretly admired you.

kenta - the horny one. he wants, okay? he downright needs. is he going to do anything about it? no. he will sit in some corner, vibrating, stewing in his hormones and if anyone dares to ask him how he's doing, he will look at them and go “do you have any idea what i would let him do to me?” and his smile is so terrifying no one wants any details.

alan - the slutty one. yes, there is a difference. see, alan is a man of action. alan will make it awkward for everyone by sloppily mouthing at jeff’s neck and trying to shove his hand down jeff’s pants on the sidewalk while they wait for charlie to pull up.

jeff - the houdini. he just… disappears. one minute he's there and the next he's gone, only to be discovered three hours later on the roof of a supermarket, feeding chunks of bread to pigeons. either needs a helium balloon tied to his wrist so you can easily spot him in a crowd or an ankle monitor. (was once found in a car, the morning after a frantic search. gave them a sleepy little smile and said “the gps knew where i was.”)

dean - the mute. once he hits his limit, he goes totally nonverbal. just trails behind everyone with a big happy smile and nods his head when asked if he wants to dance / have another drink / make out. super happy to be there.

winner - the big shot. tells everyone he's like the best racer ever and when people who still have critical thinking skills ask for evidence, distracts them buy buying everyone a round of the cheapest shots the bar has to offer. keeps challenging people to arm wrestle despite having noodle arms. finishes the night pissed off, buys two portions of street food and sits down next to a homeless person to share. they always let him talk uninterrupted.

tony - never goes past one glass of wine or whiskey, a lesson he learned the hard way. the first contract he lost back when he was just starting out? he hit the post meeting cocktails a bit too hard and drunk performed whitney houston’s “i will always love you” in karaoke. the humiliation was too much and i fear it really affected his behavior negatively.

[hannah-shipper-banana]

I’m bored so here’s a ranking of the Austin and Ally seasons IMO

4) Season 1

It was cute. They were all such babies.

It was goofy and the songs were bops. No drama, just fun.

What was the wardrobe department smoking tho , because why did they have Ally (a 14/15 year old girl) looking like a grandma? Austin, you’re not getting away with your wardrobe choices either buddy.

3) Season 4 (there i said it)

In terms of comfort episodes, this season has it all for me. No drama (until towards the end of the season) just vibes.

The comedy for sure matured and the characters were developed and grown up.

Also AUSLLYYYYY. They were 100% married for the entirety of the last season, no one could tell me otherwise. They were just living their best life being happy. They all acted like normal high school teens in this season which I liked. (I liked when they got to be normal teens instead of pop stars all the time)

Austin and Ally were in FULL mom and dad mode with season with Trish and Dez being the fun aunt and uncle.

Also younger me (and low key present me) wanted Ally’s wardrobe. SUCH an improvement from season 1.

Genuinely such a funny season with a lot of funny episodes.

BUT I low key missed Sonic Boom and there were a lot of filler episodes (IMO). Also idk if its just me but I felt like they were acting more grown up than they actually were.

Also where were all the performances? Where were the Auslly at the piano scenes? WHAT WAS UP WITH AUSTIN’S HAIR?

With all that being said I still really loved this season.

2) Season 2

The writers really did that!

The comedy, the goofiness, the angst, the drama, the romance! THE WARDROBE CHANGE!

THE FUCKING PERFORMANCES! (That ‘Better Than This performance’ + that ‘Tunes and Trials’ episode lives in my head rent free)

BABY AUSLLY! THE BEGINNING OF THEIR LOVE STORY! ALLY LOSING HER STAGE FRIGHT! WHAT WAS IN THAT MF NOTE?!

That finale still has me in pieces

The comedy was still kinda childish but it was a Disney show! Come on now.

THIS was the season that hooked me onto the show. MWAH chef’s kiss.

AND COMING IN AT #1, WE HAVE SEASON 3!

I don’t know what the writers were on this season but MY GOD!

This was peak Disney Channel greatness for me. Younger me was SHOOK!

The comedy was matured and the episodes were entertaining af.

The angst and THE DRAMA!! THE JEALOUSY!!!

Cannot think of a bad episode this season. (Well…)

THAT FINALEEEEEE! THE BIG I LOVE YOU SCENE!

Started off with Austin and Ally missing each other while he was on tour, a few shenanigans in between, a few relationships filled with jealousy AND THEN ended with an Auslly love confession and Austin giving up his career for her! Who’s doing it like that?!

Also what was in the water that year, cause how did everyone look so damn good?! Ally’s hair will forever be goals, it was GIVING.

There was a balance of comedy, romance and drama AND performances and that’s what made this show what it was essentially.

[krafterwrites]

Analyzing Every Shadow The Hedgehog (2005) Sequence Name

If you don’t know, there’s 326 possible ways you can play through the story mode of Shadow the Hedgehog, and all of these ways have names. In this post, I’m going to look at the name of every single one of these and see why they’re named that by looking at what happens in that specific sequence. You might be asking, why on Earth would I do this? Well, I don’t really have a reason, I just want to because the idea popped into my head one day. Anyways, let’s get into this post, which is definitely going to be insanely long

001: Punishment, Thy Name Is Ruin

This is the first path on the list, and also the darkest one that Shadow can take. In this route, Shadow works with Black Doom on every stage (Except for Cryptic Castle, where he works with Eggman). After completing the mission for Black Doom on the final level and defeating Sonic along with Diablon, Shadow obtains the final Chaos Emerald and proclaims that he was created to bring order and justice to the humans, then proceeds to say that he is going to destroy the planet. This ending’s name is relatively simple to explain, Shadow’s line about being made in order to bring justice to humans implies that he believes that humans are worthy of punishment. As the name states, that punishment is ruin, as in him bringing the planet to ruin by destroying it with the Chaos Emeralds

002: Prologue To World Conquest

This one is very simple. It goes the same as the last route up until the final level, where Shadow betrays Black Doom at the last moment. He then says that he is the ultimate lifeform, born to rule over all, and that he will use the power of the Chaos Emeralds to conquer the universe. That’s all there is to this one

003: The March To A Darker World

This is another rather simple one. In this route, Shadow works solely for the dark side up until the penultimate level, where he does the neutral mission instead. This leads to him going to the Black Comet as the final level, which he does the dark mission for. This leads to him gathering all of the Chaos Emeralds and proclaiming that he was created to protect and serve Black Doom, and that the world will become a dark empire, so the reason why this ending has its name is pretty obvious

004: The Ultimate Ego

This path is the same as last time, except Shadow chooses the hero mission while aboard the Black Comet instead of the dark one. This leads to him saying that he and only he knows what is best for himself before (Presumably) killing Eggman

005: Purification Via Ruination

Okay I’m going to be completely honest here, I’m not 100% sure of the meaning behind this name. This route involves Shadow doing the dark mission for every single level except for Central City, where he does the hero mission. Before the level begins, Black Doom tells Shadow that his past is filled with hatred for humans. Since the hero mission involves Shadow saving a lot of humans (By disarming bombs the Black Arms have planted all around the city), and since the ending is the same as Punishment, Thy Name Is Ruin, it makes me think that in this path Shadow thinks that there are some good humans instead of hating all of them. By destroying the planet, he thinks he’s purifying it (Via ruining it, just as the name says). His plan, or my theory, might have a few holes in it though since the planet being destroyed would kill literally everyone, maybe it would leave behind one or two GUN Soldiers on the ARK, but that’s it. There is another way to think of it, though. Maybe the thing that’s being purified is the wider universe, and by destroying the planet, he’s cleansing it of humans and their actions

006: Apogee Of Darkness

It’s here that I’m starting to realize that these sequence names mostly seem to be based on which of the 10 possible endings they end in, which makes this whole analysis less interesting. I’m still going to try though, although all of the stuff that I say will probably be huge reaches because I’m looking for meaning that probably does not exist. So in this sequence Shadow does dark missions for the first three stages, does the hero mission in Central City, and then does the dark mission for Air Fleet before finally arriving at the GUN Fortress and doing the hero mission. This sequence ends with Shadow proclaiming that he’s going to conquer the universe, just like Prologue To World Conquest. Apogee means the highest point of something, so this means that this sequence is supposedly the height of darkness for Shadow. This seemingly only refers to him conquering the universe (Which is indeed a very evil thing), since he does actually do a hero mission twice in this route, which would make it not be the darkest possible sequence

007: True Soldier Of Destruction

The pattern I noticed on the last post seemed to be accurate, as this name seems to refer mostly to the ending of this path, where Shadow says that he will become the minion of Black Doom and help him conquer the planet. Nothing else in the sequence, which has Shadow doing the dark missions for the first three levels, doing the hero mission for Central City, and doing the normal mission for Air Fleet before finally doing the dark mission for the Black Comet, seems to tie into this name. I feel like a lot of the explanations are going to be this, and I’m sorry for that since it’s probably kind of a let down, but even if my explanation every time is just “Yeah this name is just because of the ending of the sequence”, that’s still a lot of effort on my end considering I’m tackling over 300 sequences

008: Believe In Yourself

This one is mostly based on the ending, where Shadow proclaims that only he knows what is best for himself, but I think I can find a few crumbs from other levels as well. In this route, Shadow does dark missions for the first three levels, does the hero mission of Central City, and then the neutral mission for Air Fleet before doing the hero mission of the Black Comet which results in the aforementioned ending. This could show that Shadow was at first influenced by Black Doom and Eggman, but then decided to turn back from them and help out Knuckles (Possibly due to regret, or maybe he realized that working with the heroes could be better for him), and then when he arrives at the next stage and he has to decide if he wants to continue being heroic or defect back to the Black Arms, he decides to do neither and trust in only himself. This is most definitely a big reach, but I’m also probably putting more thought into this than whoever made the sequence names (Sorry to whoever made the sequence names, I’m thankful for your work)

009: An Android’s Determination

This is another one that’s entirely based on the ending. In this sequence, the final level is Lava Shelter, which Shadow does the dark mission for. This results in an ending where Shadow, believing that he is an android replica of the original Shadow, says that he will use the Chaos Emeralds to become even stronger than the original. That’s all I really need to say for this one, the reason behind its name is obvious

010: For Machine, By Machine...

This sequence is similar to the last one, as the ending of it still has Shadow believing that he is an android, although this time he does the hero mission, which results in him planning to use the Chaos Emeralds to take over the Eggman Empire and rule the world with machines. This is another obvious one, Shadow believes that he is a machine, and he wants to make a world for machines by conquering it with them (Sidenote: It feels like the neutral hero and neutral dark endings got swapped, it would have made way more since if you got the neutral dark ending by doing the hero mission at the end of a neutral route, and vice versa)

011: Revenge At Last

Like a few of the other sequences, Shadow claims that he will destroy the world with the power of the Chaos Emeralds to get revenge on humans. This one does have a bit more stuff to it, though, since Shadow does the dark mission for the level The Doom. The Doom is a flashback to the massacre on the ARK, and the dark mission involves Shadow killing all of the GUN forces in the level. This obviously shows that in this sequence, Shadow especially hates humans and badly wants revenge on them, which is obviously why this sequence has its name

012: Ego’s Awakening

This sequence is the same as the last one, except it ends with Shadow saying that he will conquer the universe instead of destroying the world. The Doom’s dark mission being present here ties into it a lot less than it does with Revenge At Last. In fact, I can’t really think of a way it ties in at all. The only meaning I can find behind this name is that Shadow’s ego is at its highest during the ending this sequence concludes with

013: Destruction And Scorn

Like a few others that have been mentioned so far, this one ends with Shadow saying that he will serve Black Doom and help him with his conquest. This sequence also has The Doom’s dark mission. The word scorn means belief that something is worthless or despicable, so this name makes a lot of sense, Shadow is helping Black Doom conquer/destroy the planet because of his hatred for humans

014: The Last Remaining Purpose

The name of this sequence is mostly based on the ending like all the others, but there is a bit of extra meaning that I can dig for. In this route, Shadow does the dark mission for the first two stages and works for Black Doom, and then chooses the neutral mission in the third level. The next level is The Doom, which he does the dark mission for, and then aboard the next level, The ARK, he does the neutral mission. Finally, he does the hero mission aboard the Black Comet which leads to the ending where he declares that only he knows what is best for himself. This specific path taken could be interpreted as Shadow starting off working for Black Doom, choosing to go through Cryptic Castle without helping anyone (Because the dark mission is Eggman in that level), and then reliving a version of the ARK massacre before heading to the current day ARK. The reason why Shadow chooses to take the neutral mission even though the dark mission is given by Black Doom could be because he doesn’t want to destroy what’s left of the ARK (Black Doom’s mission involves destroying the ARK’s defenses), and being requested to do this makes him realize that he doesn’t want to work for/Can’t trust Black Doom either. Since Black Doom was the only one he trusted initially, he decides that the last remaining thing for him to do is to simply trust in himself and nobody else. Or I could be looking way too far into this. Either one

015: The Nightmare’s Insulation

This sequence ends with Shadow saying that he is going to destroy the world with the Chaos Emeralds, although it also involves The Doom, specifically its neutral mission where Shadow and Maria simply try to escape as fast as possible. Because in this path, Shadow clearly hasn’t moved on from the incident aboard the ARK because of how willing he is to work with Black Doom, him destroying the planet could be seen as a flawed way of trying to make himself look better, since after that the only places he could live are alone on the ARK, or on the Black Comet with the Black Arms (I interpret him saying he’s going to destroy the planet as he’s going to literally break the entire planet, like it got shot by the Eclipse Cannon, not just destroying all the buildings on it and stuff). So, him destroying the planet is simply an insulation to the nightmare he’s going through, since it isn’t going to make things any better for him, especially in the long run

016: The Nightmare’s Sublimation

This sequence goes the same as the previous one, although it ends with Shadow saying that he’s going to conquer the universe instead of destroying the planet. The definition of sublimation (other than the chemistry meaning) is the act of expressing strong emotions or using energy by doing an activity or creating something. The name implies that Shadow is conquering the universe in an attempt to make himself feel better or occupy his mind, but like destroying the planet in the previous route, this isn’t actually going to help him

017: The Loner’s Choice

In this route, Shadow works with Black Doom for the first two missions, and then does neutral missions until the end where he chooses the dark mission, resulting in the ending where he decides to become Black Doom’s minion. That’s pretty much all there is for this one

018: Subjugation In Black

This route is the same as the previous one, except Shadow chooses to do the hero mission at the end instead, which leads to the ending where Shadow says that only he knows what is best for himself. Subjugation is the action of bringing someone or something under domination or control, so this name reflects that Shadow is bringing his own destiny under control through dark means (Like killing Eggman, which he does in this ending)

019: Replica’s Depression

In this route, Shadow goes through the level The Doom (A flashback to the ARK massacre) and then ends up at Lava Shelter, which he does the dark mission for. This leads to the ending where he believes he is an android and says he will use the emeralds to become even more powerful than the original. I’m going to stop saying “That’s pretty much all there is” whenever I’m done with my analysis for these sequences now, because I’ve already said that a lot and we’re only at 19 sequences out of 325, whenever I’ve said all that I have to say about the sequence I’ll just end the paragraph and move on

020: Machine, Machine

This is the same as the last one, except Shadow does the hero mission for Lava Shelter instead, causing him to declare that he will create an empire of androids. This is definitely one of the sequence names that’s only based on the ending, since I fail to see how it can fit into anything else that happens in the sequence

021: Disciple From The Darkness

This falls into the same category as the previous one, it’s solely based on the ending, where Shadow says that he was created to serve Black Doom

022: Beloved Clone

This is an interesting one, as it seems to not be based on the ending of the sequence at all. The one level and mission that seems to tie into this sequence’s name is the penultimate level of this sequence, Iron Jungle. In Iron Jungle, Shadow believes he is an android copy of the original, and does the dark mission where he works with Eggman. While he is doing this mission, Eggman acts affectionately towards Shadow, even saying “Those are more of my beloved androids, just like you!” when Shadow encounters Shadow Androids

023: Revenge Upon The Doctor

In this route, Shadow does the neutral route of Iron Jungle and then the dark mission of Lava Shelter, which results in an ending where he kills Eggman. Before he starts Lava Shelter, he also remarks “You’re going straight to the place you created me from!” and after starting Lava Shelter “You’re going straight to hell!”. This implies that Shadow believes he was created from hell, which would explain why he resents Eggman and wants to get revenge on him

024: The Ultimate Replica

This is another one with Iron Jungle and Lava Shelter, and you’d think that it would end with the neutral-dark ending (Where Shadow believes that he is an android and proclaims that he will use the power of the Chaos Emeralds to surpass the power of the original Shadow), but it’s actually the neutral-hero ending, where he says that he will create an empire of androids to rule over the planet. I think this name would have been far more fitting for the neutral-dark ending, but oh well. Also I’m going to stop explaining the endings now, it’s definitely already gotten repetitive, I’ll just use shorthand for the endings like the two names I used in this one

025: Sanction’s Demise

I’m like 90% sure that sanction means a safe place or something similar, but when I looked it up that definition did not appear. I’m going to stick with what I’m pretty sure the definition of it is though, since otherwise this name doesn’t really make sense. Also, I know I just said that I would use shorthand for all the endings, but the ending for this sequence is one that hasn’t showed up until this point, so I will explain it just once here. In this ending, where Shadow does the dark mission for Cosmic Fall, he decides to become the protector of the ARK (Which is actively falling apart, hence the name of the level) and spend the rest of his life there. Shadow’s chosen safe haven is dying around him, which is the reason behind the name of this sequence. Also, for future reference, the name of the ending for this sequence is semi-hero dark

026: Along With My Home

This sequence ends with Cosmic Fall like the last one, although Shadow does the hero mission for it instead of the dark mission. This results in a pretty grim ending (the semi-hero hero ending), where Shadow says that he should have never been created, and it’s implied by the names of several sequences that have this ending (including this one) that he takes his own life. Since this ending takes place on Cosmic Fall, which takes place on the collapsing ARK, this name implies that Shadow will die along with his home

027: The Cleansing Of Darkness

This is an ending that ends with Shadow saying that he will destroy the world (Which is the dark-dark ending). In this route, like all dark routes, Shadow expresses disgust and hate for humans. Obviously he would think that humans are a darkness in this route, so him destroying the planet and killing all the humans on it would be a cleansing of darkness

028: Birth Of A God

This sequence ends with the ending where Shadow betrays Black Doom at the last moment at the GUN Fortress, and then proclaims that he will conquer the universe with the power of the Chaos Emeralds (Which will be referred to as the dark-hero ending from this point on). Shadow probably does have something of a god complex in this ending, as it would take one to say you’re going to conquer the whole universe

029: The Last Soldier’s Grim Fate

This is a sequence that ends with Shadow saying that he was created to serve Black Doom (Which is the semi-dark dark ending). I don’t know what events in this ending or the other levels in the sequence would make Shadow the last soldier, or what his grim fate is. Maybe even with Shadow on their side, the Black Arms would fall and Shadow would be the only one who wasn’t killed by the heroes due to their past experiences with him and the belief that he could change. He wouldn’t go back to their side, though, and would spend the rest of his time just wandering the planet with the group he believes he was created to serve extinct. That’s all speculation, though

030: Isolation and Solitude

This sequence ends with the hero mission of the Black Comet, where Shadow says that only he knows what is best for himself (Which is the semi-dark hero ending). Since he does not join any sides in this ending, he will most likely spend all of his time by himself, since he is the sole person he trusts

031: Archimedes And The Tortoise

This is by far the most out there sequence name, but I think I actually have an explanation for it. This sequence ends with the neutral-dark ending, and there is a paradox called Achilles and the Tortoise (Archimedes is a famous Greek mathematician and engineer, which might tie into things since Shadow believes he is an android in this ending. The paradox of Achilles and the Tortoise states that if two beings (one fast runner and one slow moving tortoise) are each moving at a fixed speed and the tortoise has a 100 meter headstart, the fast runner will never overtake the slow tortoise. This is because in the time it will take for the runner to reach the position the tortoise is at, it will have moved forward in that time and will be ahead of that previous position. This means that the runner will never pass the tortoise. This rather darkly implies that no matter how hard he will try, Shadow will never surpass the original (Even though he is the original, but it would still be possibly for him to feel inferior to “the original” since he fully believes that he is an android)

032: Where Is My Happiness?

This sequence ends with the neutral-hero ending. Unlike the last one, there’s no ancient paradox for me to make wild assumptions about, instead it’s just a question to make wild assumptions about. I’m guessing that this is a similar situation to sequences 15 and 16, where building an empire of androids and conquering the planet with it will not make Shadow happy, and might even make him feel empty inside since he will have accomplished his ultimate goal yet still not be satisfied from it

033: Seduced By Taste Of Blood

In this sequence, Shadow does the dark mission for the first two levels, does the hero mission for the next level, and then does the neutral mission for Sky Troops (Which is to get to Eggman’s flagship). Next, he does the dark mission for Iron Jungle (Where he kills all of the GUN troops invading Eggman’s base) and then does the dark mission for the Black Comet which results in the semi-dark dark ending. This path and the name could be interpreted as Shadow starting off evil, becoming heroic, but then becoming bloodthirsty and lured back to the dark side after killing for Eggman to try and gain answers about his past. This bloodlust would ultimately lead to him wanting to work with Black Doom and help him take over the planet

034: A Machine Made For War

The penultimate level in this sequence is Iron Jungle (Where Shadow believes he is an android, which I’m going to also stop stating since I’ve said that several times already) and the final level is the Black Comet, which leads to the semi-dark hero ending. This ending doesn’t involve war as much as the semi-dark dark ending, so this name doesn’t make that much sense to me. Shadow is just going his own way and trusting himself, which I really doubt will involve war

035: Original Definition

This sequence ends with the neutral-dark ending, and while I was a bit confused by this name at first, I realized what it actually means. Shadow was originally created to be the ultimate lifeform, AKA the most powerful lifeform. Since Shadow believes he is a copy of the original and will try to surpass the power of said original, he’s fulfilling the purpose he was created for

036: Machine Paradise

This sequence ends with the neutral-hero ending, and that’s all there is to this one

037: Last Will And Testament

This sequence ends in the semi-hero dark ending. What Shadow says to Eggman in this ending is essentially his final will, since he intends to stay on the ARK for the rest of his life. A testament is a part of a will, specifically pertaining to personal property, which also ties into the ending, since he’s now the protector of the station

038: Enveloped in Solitude

This sequence ends with the semi-hero hero ending, but it also has Iron Jungle, so Shadow’s really going through it in this ending (hence the name)

039: Parricidal Savior

This is a very interesting name. Quick bit of context before this analysis starts, parricidal means involved in the murder of one’s immediate family. In this route, Shadow does the dark mission for Space Gadget (Where he destroys the defense systems of the ARK, his old home and birthplace) and then gets the neutral-dark ending where he kills Eggman, who he believes is his creator. I’m not exactly sure what makes him a savior in this sequence though, maybe it’s the fact that he does two hero missions in a row before the aforementioned missions

040: Copy of a Savior

This name has less to it then the last one. It has the neutral-hero ending, so Shadow believes he is a copy, and it has the two hero missions as well near the end like the previous sequence

041: Excess Of Intellect

This is one of the less clear sequence names, but I’m still able to piece something together from it. It ends with the semi-hero dark ending, so I suppose it could be interpreted as Shadow’s knowledge (Which would be a far more fitting word than intellect) being wasted since he’s isolating himself for the rest of his life. That still doesn’t fit super well with the name, but it’s the best I can think of

042: Crystallization Of Intellect

Figuratively, crystallization means the process of something becoming clear. This sequence ends with the semi-hero hero ending, which means that in this ending it becomes clear to Shadow that his creation caused a lot of death which leads to him believing that he never should have been created. Like in the last one, I think knowledge would be a far more fitting word than intellect, but maybe my interpretation is wrong and the actual meaning fits better with the name

043: The Ultimate Confrontation

This sequence has an ending that hasn’t showed up before, the hero dark ending. This ending happens when Shadow does the dark mission for Final Haunt (The most heroic final level), which takes place aboard the Black Comet. In this ending, Shadow sides with Black Doom at the last moment so he can fight against Sonic and prove that he is stronger than him. Shadow also does the hero mission for Space Gadget prior to Final Haunt, where he races against Sonic aboard the ARK to get to a Chaos Emerald, and actually gets there first

044: Miracle Of Love

This is a cute one! In this route, Shadow does the dark missions for the first two levels, working with Black Doom in both of them. Once he gets to Cryptic Castle, though, he does the hero mission where he helps out Amy, and proceeds to do only hero missions for the rest of the sequence. This even leads to the hero-hero ending, where Shadow defeats Black Doom and says that he will protect the planet like Maria wanted him to. Just like in SA2, in this sequence Amy made Shadow snap out of his villainous tendencies and realize Maria’s wish, and I think that’s really nice. (Just so it’s clear by the way, I don’t ship Sha/damy, I interpret the name as being about Amy’s love for the world and her friends rubbing off on Shadow, which causes him to begin working for the good guys instead of the Black Arms)

045: The World’s Demise

Another sequence that ends with the dark-dark ending

046: The Ultimate Power

Another sequence that ends with the dark-hero ending

047: Dyed In Lovely Darkness

This sequence ends with the semi-dark dark ending. The world will be dyed in darkness once the Black Arms take over it, but since Shadow’s working for them, he’ll find it nice

048: Vainglory Or Abandonment?

This sequence ends with the semi-dark hero ending. Vainglory means excessive pride in oneself, and since Shadow says that he’s the only one who knows what is best for himself in the end of this sequence, this sequence name is asking whether he is making this choice because he thinks he’s better than everyone else or if he’s just abandoning them because he doesn’t trust any of them

049: Messenger Of Ruination

This is yet another sequence that ends with the dark-dark ending, although it does also involve Shadow doing the dark mission for Air Fleet where he attempts to assassinate the president. Despite the fact you blow up his escape pod, he’s completely fine, but if he did actually die then that would be a good message of the imminent doom the planet would face from Shadow

050: Standing At The Summit

This is another sequence that ends with dark-hero ending

051: Controller From The Capsule

This name is a bit frustrating to me, because I know it has to mean something, but I can’t find a satisfactory answer. This sequence involves The Doom and its neutral mission (Which leads into Shadow being shot out of the ARK in a capsule) and the semi-dark dark ending, where Shadow helps Black Doom control the planet. The two pieces for the name are there, but I don’t know how they correlate

052: Beyond One’s Own Power

This sequence ends with the semi-dark hero ending. It doesn’t really fit that well, though, since Shadow isn’t going to try and become more powerful like in several other endings. Maybe what Shadow thinks is best for himself is using the seven Chaos Emeralds to become even more powerful, but that’s never really hinted at, so that’s just my best guess

053: A Clone’s Determination

This is another sequence that ends with the neutral-dark route

054: Machine Utopia

This sequence ends with the neutral-hero route

055: A Toast To The Ruler

This sequence ends with the semi-dark dark ending (Sidenote, the mental image of Shadow and Black Doom giving a toast is actually kind of funny to me)

056: Answer From The Black Comet

This sequence ends with the semi-dark hero ending. I’m not sure what specific event on the Black Comet lead to Shadow coming to the conclusion he does in this ending, maybe him doing the hero mission of The Doom and the dark mission of Iron Jungle made him not want to work for Black Doom anymore. He already didn’t want to work with the heroes since this is one of the darker routes, so he’s probably just working with Knuckles to take down Black Doom since he knows that he’ll be a threat to him. When Eggman shows up and tries to take the Chaos Emeralds he’s been gathering the whole time, it makes him realize that he doesn’t want to be allied with Eggman either, thus leading to him choosing to only trust himself

057: Transcendentalism

Another sequence that ends with the neutral-dark route

058: Imperialism

Another route that ends with the neutral-hero ending

059: The Weight of One’s Crimes

This sequence ends with the semi-hero dark ending. Before Cosmic Fall starts, the GUN Commander tells Shadow that he is the reason that everyone on the ARK was killed, which is most likely why Shadow decides to live on the ARK and be its guardian in this ending. He believes that he’s the reason why its empty and has been left crumbling and unguarded for such a long time, so he’s given himself the job of protecting it. Or, as the sequence’s name says, he’s choosing to live on the ARK because of how much his “crimes” are weighing on him

060: Imprisoned By The Past

This sequence ends with the semi-hero hero ending. Like I mentioned for the previous sequence name, in both semi-hero endings Shadow is dealing with a lot of guilt since he takes responsibility for the ARK massacre. Even if he doesn’t die (Which thankfully isn’t implied by this sequence’s name), he’s still going to feel trapped by his past

061: The Ultimate World Conquest

This sequence ends with the dark-dark ending. There is a bit of stuff that adds to this name, though, since Shadow does the dark missions for both Sky Troops and Air Fleet (Which means he destroys the Egg Fleet and tries to kill the president)

062: Black Angel

This seems to be one of the first names that barely has anything to do with the sequence at all, it ends with the dark-hero ending which kind of fits with the name, but it mostly seems like this name was chosen because it sounded cool. And to be fair, it does sound cool, especially with the context of the ending

063: Under Darkness’ Control

This sequence ends with the semi-dark dark ending

064: To Love Oneself

This sequence ends with the semi-dark hero ending

065: Revenge And Determination

This sequence ends with the neutral-dark ending, and also involves Shadow doing the dark mission for Sky Troops and the hero mission for Iron Jungle, which both involve shooting down Eggman’s aircrafts

066: Birth Of The Robot Emperor

This sequence ends with the neutral-hero ending

067: Shadow, The Black Android

This sequence involves Shadow going through Iron Jungle, and then ending up on the Black Comet and getting the semi-dark dark ending

068: A Solitary Android

This sequence involves Shadow going through Iron Jungle and then getting the semi-dark hero ending

069: Over The Original

This sequence ends with the neutral-dark ending

070: Machine Sunshine

This sequence ends with the neutral-hero ending. It doesn’t fit the ending quite as well as some of the other names sequences that end in it have, but it is a sick name

071: Life Is Guilty

This sequence ends with the semi-hero dark ending, and as its been mentioned before, Shadow feels guilty over his creation in both semi-hero endings since he believes it lead to all of the death that took place aboard the ARK

072: Fallen Angel of Despair

This sequence ends with the semi-hero hero ending

073: An Eternal Rival

This sequence involves Space Gadget, although Shadow does the dark mission for it and not the hero mission which involves racing Sonic. It ends with the neutral-dark ending, so it can be assumed that Shadow is trying to surpass Sonic as well as the original. The eternal part is probably because he believes that he’s an android, which means he would live forever as long as he isn’t killed

074: This is Just the Beginning

This sequence ends with the neutral-hero ending, and it also has Space Gadget like the previous sequence, but it doesn’t really tie into the name even if Shadow did the hero mission for it (Which he didn’t). I suppose the name just means Shadow has even bigger plans than conquering the planet with an empire of androids, maybe this specific sequence leads into the dark-hero ending except with an army of androids instead of just Shadow

075: Crystal Of Tragic Knowledge

This sequence ends with the semi-hero dark ending. At first, I thought this name made sense except for the crystal part, but then I realized that the crystal is supposed to be Shadow. Shadow is full of knowledge of the past, like a crystal formed in a cave ages ago that has recorded everything around it

076: Shadow’s Second Death

Some of these sequence names have had ellipses after them, which I’ve been cutting out since they’re not really needed and make the name look more cluttered. This ending has ellipses and a question mark after it, so it is ambiguous whether Shadow actually dies after this sequence. Since this sequence ends with the semi-hero hero ending, I really hope he doesn’t end up dying, because the implications of him dying after that ending are quite dark

077: The Legend of Shadow

This sequence involves Shadow beating Sonic in a race to the Chaos Emerald on Space Gadget, and then getting the hero-dark ending where he turns against him at the last moment to defeat him in a fight and become the ultimate hedgehog

078: Power Of Love

This is another nice one! In this sequence, Shadow does the dark mission for Westopolis, but after going into Digital Circuit and meeting with Rouge, he does the hero mission with her and then does hero missions for the rest of the levels (Except for Prison Island, poor Charmy). This leads to the hero-hero ending just like the last sequence that had a love themed name. Also just like the last time I talked about a sequence with a love themed name, here’s a quick disclaimer: I don’t ship Sha/douge, I think it’s gross. I think the love in the name is based on the fact that Rouge is the person who’s closest to Shadow and cares about him the most, since she interacted with him a lot in SA2 and got him out of his pod in Heroes

079: Deep Black

This sequence ends with the semi-dark dark ending

080: Walk My Way

This sequence ends with the semi-dark hero ending

081: This is Shadow’s Way Of Life

This sequence ends with the neutral-dark ending

082: A Monarch’s Style

This sequence ends with the neutral-hero ending

083: In the Gap Of Sadness

The ending of this sequence is the semi-hero dark ending. While Shadow’s life has had a lot of sadness in it overall, most of it occurred aboard the ARK. Since he’s living the rest of his life on it, he’s living in the one place that holds the most sadness for him

084: To Be Ignorant Of The Past

There’s two different ways that this name can be interpreted, since this sequence ends with the semi-hero hero ending. One, Shadow believes he was ignorant of his past before the GUN Commander and Black Doom told him about it. Two, he wishes he was ignorant of his past, because knowing the truth causes him to feel like he should’ve never been created

085: At Vengeance’s End

This sequence ends with the neutral-dark ending, although the only part of the ending that’s important to the name is the fact that he kills Eggman. The cutscene before Lava Shelter and one of his lines at the beginning of the level also tie into the name, but I already mentioned both of those earlier

086: Machine Boys

This sequence ends with the neutral-hero ending

087: Reborn Along With Sorrow

This sequence ends with the semi-hero dark ending, and since Shadow is essentially starting a new life of solitude aboard the ARK, it could be described as a rebirth. It’s already been mentioned a lot that Shadow is sad in the semi-hero endings, but something else that might add to it a bit is that he also does the neutral mission for Space Gadget, where he fails in a race against Sonic aboard the ARK

088: With A Fate Of Self-Denial

This sequence ends with the semi-hero hero ending, but the name is a little bit strange to me. Shadow doesn’t really deny anything about himself in this. He’s very sad about his belief that he caused the ARK incident, but he fully accepts it. Maybe this ending means that he’s denying the actual truth, that the events aboard the ARK were not his fault. It could also mean that he’s denying the fact that he was created to be the ultimate life form, since he also loses to Sonic in a race in this sequence, and he refers to himself as “A research experiment gone deadly wrong” in this ending instead

089: I Am Shadow

In this sequence, Shadow completes the hero mission for Space Gadget and then gets the hero-dark ending, so this route involves a lot of competing with Sonic. This is probably in order to prove that he is Shadow, the ultimate lifeform (Or the ultimate hedgehog, as he calls himself in the hero-dark ending)

090: Shining Within Memory

This sequence ends with the hero-hero ending where Shadow fulfills his promise he made to Maria 50 years ago, but that’s just one of the two meanings behind this name. In this route, Shadow also races Sonic for a Chaos Emerald aboard the ARK, which is reminiscent of the events of SA2. Sonic even remarks “This is just like old times!” at the start of the level

091: The Rise And Fall Of The ARK

The penultimate level in this sequence is Lost Impact, and the final level is Cosmic Fall, which leads to the semi-hero dark ending. Simply put, the last two levels of this sequence are the rise and the fall of the ARK

092: Requiem For A Fallen Angel

A requiem is a mass held for the souls of the dead, which has some dark implications, since this sequence ends with the semi-hero hero ending

093: Ultimate Shadow

This sequence ends with the hero-dark ending

094: For Love’s Sake

This sequence is the exact same as Power Of Love, except Shadow helps Charmy this time around instead of ignoring him, which is nice

095: A Heart Awoken from Darkness

This sequence ends with the dark-dark ending, and involves Shadow doing the dark missions for every single level except for Westopolis, which he does the neutral mission for

096: Destruction From Perfection

This sequence ends with the dark-hero ending. It would make more sense if the name of this sequence and the name of the last sequence had their names swapped, they fit each other better than they fit their own sequences

097: Darkness’ Strongest Soldier

This sequence ends with the semi-dark dark ending, and also involves Shadow doing a lot of dark missions

098: Severed Chains

This sequence ends with the semi-dark hero ending

099: Retribution Against Humanity

This sequence ends with the dark-dark ending

100: To Be Known As Ultimate

This sequence ends with the dark-hero ending

101: Dark Warrior’s Advent

This sequence ends with the semi-dark dark ending

102: Arriving At The Ego

This sequence ends with the semi-dark hero ending, although this name would definitely fit better with a few other endings

103: Determination Of A Fake

This sequence ends with the neutral-dark ending

104: Path To The Machine Empire

This sequence ends with the neutral-hero ending

105: Demise Wrought By Tragedy

This sequence has The Doom as part of it, and ends with the dark-dark ending

106: Turning Sorrow Into Strength

This sequence ends with the dark-hero ending, and has The Doom as its fourth level

107: The Liberated Soldier

This sequence ends with the semi-dark dark ending, and it does involve The Doom and The ARK as levels, but I can’t think of a good way that they tie into the name. Maybe Shadow destroying the GUN forces during his flashback and then deciding to not destroy the defenses for the ARK brought him some sort of peace about his past

108: Stupefaction’s End

To be stupefied means to be unable to think properly, which definitely happened to Shadow a lot in this game considering how much internal conflict he goes through. This sequence ends with the semi-dark hero ending, so him deciding to only trust himself is the end of this confusion

109: Humanity’s Folly

This sequence ends with the dark-dark route, and also involves The Doom

110: Surpassing All Else

This sequence ends with the dark-hero ending

111: Soldier Of Grief

This sequence ends with the semi-dark dark ending

112: Reclaimed Heart

This sequence ends with the semi-dark hero ending

113: Fighting Spirit Of Steel

This sequence ends with the neutral-dark ending

114: Machine Soldier Uprising

This sequence ends with the neutral-hero ending

115: The Devil Born From Betrayal

The betrayal that’s mentioned here is most likely Eggman’s betrayal of Shadow in this sequence. He does the dark mission for Iron Jungle, which helps out Eggman, but he still attacks him with the Egg Breaker anyways. This betrayal leads to Shadow deciding to work with Black Doom in the semi-dark dark ending

116: Beyond The Truth Of Impact

Going to be honest here, I don’t even have a guess at what this one means. It has The Doom, Iron Jungle, and the semi-dark hero ending, but none of those seem to tie into the name at all. Sorry for not giving a real answer for this one, but at least I managed to give answers for about 100 other so far

117: The Immortal Android

This sequence ends with the neutral-dark ending

118: The New, Coldhearted Empire

This sequence ends with the neutral-hero ending

119: A Singular Atonement

This sequence ends with the semi-hero dark ending, and also has Shadow doing The Doom’s hero mission

120: Spawn Of The Devil

In the semi-hero hero ending, which this sequence ends in, Shadow fights Black Doom. Before this fight begins, he tells Shadow that he created him

121: Black Doom's Scheme

This sequence ends with the dark-dark ending, and also has Shadow working with Black Doom in every mission where he can except Westopolis

122: Subjugating Heaven And Earth

To subjugate means to conquer and bring under control, which fits perfectly with the dark-hero ending, the ending of this sequence

123: Road Of The Dark Soldier

This sequence ends with the semi-dark dark ending

124: Dark Finale

This name is kind of strange for a sequence that ends with the semi-dark hero ending, which this sequence ends with. The only dark thing about it is that he kills Eggman, this name would have fit better with the dark-dark or dark-hero endings

125: Realization While On Board

This name seems to be based on one small moment that happens before the final level of this sequence, where after doing the hero mission for Air Fleet (A level that takes place on a massive GUN aircraft), Shadow realizes that he is an android copy of the original that Eggman built

126: Birth Of A Champion

Strangely, this sequence ends with the neutral-hero ending, and not the neutral-dark ending. I guess being the ruler of an empire that rules the planet would kind of make him a champion, but this still isn’t a very good name for this sequence

127: With The Black Arms

This sequence ends with the semi-dark dark ending

128: The Road To Self-Assurance

This sequence ends with the semi-dark hero ending

129: The Pursuit Of Dr. Eggman

This sequence has Shadow doing the neutral missions for Sky Troops and Iron Jungle, both of which involve Shadow chasing after him to get answers

130: Surpassing His Creator

This sequence ends with the neutral-hero ending. If Shadow does manage to conquer the planet like he plans to in this ending, then he will have surpassed Eggman just like the name says

131: ARK, Colony Of Pathos

Pathos means a quality that evokes sadness, which is fitting since there are a lot of tragic events that happened on the ARK. This sequence ends with the semi-hero dark ending, meaning Shadow will spend the rest of his life on the colony of pathos that this name describes

132: Perfection Lost To Darkness

Shadow was created to be the ultimate lifeform, so the semi-hero hero ending being the end of this sequence means that the perfection of his existence is being lost, whether he ends up dying as some of the sequence names with this ending involve or if he just spends the rest of his life depressed and isolated

133: A New Challenge

This sequence ends with the neutral-dark ending, giving Shadow a new challenge to take on: Surpassing the original

134: The Machines' Coup d'Etat

This sequence ends with the neutral-hero ending

135: A Vow For The Victims

This sequence ends with the semi-hero dark ending, meaning Shadow is making up for causing the death of the ARK massacre’s victims by protecting the station and making sure it doesn’t fully collapse

136: The Truth Of Sadness

This sequence ends with the semi-hero hero ending

137: The Destined Sonic Showdown

This sequence has Shadow doing the hero mission of Space Gadget, and then getting the hero-dark ending

138: The Black Hero’s Rebirth

This sequence ends with the hero-hero mission, and has Shadow doing hero missions for most of the levels

139: Truth, Thy Name Is Vengeance

Shadow does the dark mission of The Doom in this sequence, and then ends up getting the dark-dark ending. In The Doom, some of Shadow’s idle dialogue asks if this is really part of his past. My interpretation of this name is that Shadow ends up believing that him killing all of the GUN soldiers aboard the ARK is the true way that things happened, which causes him to realize that his true purpose is to destroy the planet and get revenge like Gerald wanted him to

140: Searching For “Ultimate”

This sequence ends with the dark-hero ending. I guess this ending and the name means that Shadow is searching to be the ultimate being in the universe, and by conquering all of it, he’ll prove that he’s the strongest

141: Reborn Hatred For Humanity

In this sequence, Shadow does the dark mission of The Doom, and ends up getting the semi-dark dark ending

142: A Future Taken From The Past

Shadow does the dark mission of The Doom in this sequence, and then gets the semi-dark hero ending. I’m not sure exactly how the events of The Doom ties into the ending in this case, though. Maybe the crumbling ARK in the present day is still a part of this past, and Black Doom asking him to damage it and allow the Black Arms to invade it made him no longer want to work with him

143: The Devils’ Victory Song

This sequence ends with the dark-dark ending

144: One To Succeed A God

This sequence ends with the dark-hero ending

145: Disappointed In Humanity

Shadow does the neutral mission for The Doom in this sequence, and then gets the semi-dark dark ending

146: Faith Taken From Solitude

This sequence ends with the semi-dark hero ending

147: Planted Memories

In this sequence, Shadow goes through The Doom and then ends up getting the neutral-dark ending. Because he believes he is an android in this ending, this means he must believe that the memories of the ARK massacre that he’s recalling in The Doom were planted inside of him

148: To Unite Humanity

This sequence has The Doom as part of it, and it ends with the neutral-hero ending. The reasoning behind this name is that Shadow probably believes that having an android empire rule the planet will unite humanity, and prevent them from committing atrocities like they did aboard the ARK

149: Isolated Soldier Shadow

This sequence ends with the semi-dark dark ending. My best guess at the reason why he’s isolated is that he rarely works with Black Doom in this route, only doing it once. Right after he does a mission for him, he does the hero mission for The Doom, which shows that he doesn’t completely hate humanity. Because of this, he likely won’t agree with everything Black Doom says and will not have a close relationship with him, leaving him isolated from everyone since he’s working against the heroes and Eggman

150: Answer Derived From Truth

There’s two truths that this name could be talking about. It could be Shadow believing that the hero mission in The Doom is the true way that things happened, or it could be the supposed truth that he is an android. Since this sequence ends with the semi-dark hero ending, I’m leaning towards the latter, since Shadow believing that he’s an android would lead to him not wanting to affiliate with anyone. He has no prior association with the heroes, he doesn’t want to work with the Black Arms that much since he doesn’t have an especially strong hatred from humans due to his memories being planted, and he hates Eggman for creating him in the first place

151: A Fake’s Disposition

This sequence ends with the neutral-dark ending. Since disposition means a person's inherent qualities of mind and character, and Shadow does the hero mission of The Doom in this sequence, this could mean that the qualities he saw from his original grew on him and changed him a little bit

152: A New World Without Betrayal

This sequence ends with the neutral-hero ending, and also involves The Doom’s hero mission. I would explain further, but I basically stated everything that I would have said here a few sequences ago

153: Together With Maria

This sequence has The Doom as part of it, and ends with the semi-hero dark ending

154: The Tragedy’s Conclusion

This sequence ends with the semi-hero hero ending

155: The Day That Hope Died

This sequence ends with the dark-dark ending, and also has Shadow doing the dark mission Air Fleet

156: Dark Destroyer

This sequence ends with the dark-hero ending

157: Diabolical Power

This sequence ends with the semi-dark dark ending

158: For Freedom

This sequence ends with the semi-dark hero ending

159: At Least, Be Like Shadow

This sequence ends with the neutral-dark ending

160: Seeking A Silent Paradise

This sequence ends with the neutral-hero ending

161: The Lion’s Awakening

This sequence ends with the semi-dark dark ending

162: Identity

This sequence ends with the semi-dark hero ending, and also involves Iron Jungle as its penultimate level

163: An Android's Rebellion

This sequence ends with the neutral-dark ending

164: A New Empire's Beginning

This sequence ends with the neutral-hero route

165: Bullets From Tears

This is one of the more out there names, but I do have an explanation for it. This sequence ends with the semi-hero dark ending, and Shadow’s goal is to deter everyone else from the ARK, a mission that comes from his grief that he feels for causing the people aboard the ARK to die. He doesn’t kill Eggman, just tells him to leave and never return, but if somebody tries to attack the ARK or refuses to leave then he might end up killing them to protect the station

166: Journey To Nihility

This sequence ends with the semi-hero hero ending

167: Shadow Surpassing Shadow

This sequence ends with the neutral-dark ending

168: Dr. Eggman’s Miscalculation

This sequence ends with the neutral-hero ending

169: Along With The ARK

This sequence ends with the semi-hero dark ending

170: Requiem For The Heavens

This sequence ends with the semi-hero hero ending

171: Sonic Dethroned

This sequence ends with the hero-dark ending

172: Justice Reborn In Space

This sequence ends with the hero-hero ending

173: Steel Ruler

This sequence has Iron Jungle as its penultimate level, and ends with the semi-dark dark ending

174: For The Sake Of The Self

This sequence ends with the semi-dark hero ending

175: Farewell To The Past

This sequence ends with the neutral-dark ending, and also has Mad Matrix as a fourth level, where Eggman tells Shadow that he has no past

176: Steel Paradise

This sequence ends with the neutral-hero ending

177: The Guardian With No Past

This sequence ends with the semi-hero dark ending, and has Mad Matrix as its fourth level

178: The Ultimate Atonement

This sequence ends with the semi-hero hero ending

179: A Fake's Aspiration

This sequence ends with the neutral-dark ending

180: Machine World

This sequence ends with the neutral-hero ending

181: Twilight Ark

This sequence ends with the semi-hero dark ending

182: Compensation For A Miracle

I’m not 100% sure what this name means, but like I usually do, I have a guess at what it could mean. Shadow’s creation was probably considered a miracle by Gerald and Maria, but this same miracle lead to their deaths as well as the deaths of everyone else on the ARK as well (at least in Shadow’s mind). Since this sequence ends with the semi-hero hero ending, whatever Shadow does after this ending is him compensating for the “miracle” of his creation

183: The Strongest Hedgehog

This sequence has Shadow completing the hero mission for Space Gadget, and getting the hero-dark ending

184: The Ultimate Punisher

This sequence ends with the hero-hero ending

185: Voyage Of Reminiscence

This sequence ends with the semi-hero dark ending

186: Wandering's End

This sequence ends with the semi-hero hero ending

187: The Ultimate Proof

This sequence ends with the hero-dark ending

188: Punisher Of Love

This sequence ends with the hero-hero ending

189: Messenger From The Darkness

This sequence ends with the dark-dark ending

190: The New Ruler

This sequence ends with the dark-hero ending

191: Dark Soldier

This sequence ends with the semi-dark dark ending

192: The Road Of Light

This sequence ends with the semi-dark hero ending

193: The Machine-Laden Kingdom

This sequence surprisingly ends with the neutral-dark ending, not the neutral-hero ending

194: New Determination

Just as weirdly, this sequence ends with the neutral-hero ending, not the neutral-dark one. I’m almost 100% certain that this sequence name and the last one were meant to be the other way around, and something got switched at one point or another

195: Birth Of The Dark Soldier

This sequence ends with the semi-dark dark ending

196: A New Journey

This sequence ends with the semi-dark hero ending

197: The Android’s Opposition

This sequence ends with the neutral-dark ending

198: Founding Of The Robot Nation

This sequence ends with the neutral-hero ending

199: The Eternal Protector

This sequence ends with the semi-hero dark ending

200: The Sinner’s Repose

This sequence ends with the semi-hero hero ending

201: A Hero’s Resolution

This sequence ends with the neutral-dark ending, so it doesn’t fit super well, the hero part of the name seemingly just comes from the fact that Shadow does a few hero missions in this sequence

202: The Weapons’ Empire

This sequence ends with the neutral-hero ending

203: Perpetual Voyage

This sequence ends with the semi-hero dark ending

204: A Hero’s Atonement

This sequence ends with the semi-hero hero ending

205: Dark Hegemony

Hegemony can mean dominance, so this name could fit with several endings, but the ending of this specific sequence is the hero-dark ending. In this case, the dominance is Shadow proving that he is stronger than Sonic

206: And The Dream Continues

This sequence ends with the hero-hero ending, since Shadow is fulfilling Maria’s dream of the planet being safe

207: Fighter For Darkness

This sequence ends with the semi-dark dark ending

208: The Path I Believed In

This sequence ends with the semi-dark hero ending

209: Determination’s Daybreak

This sequence ends with the neutral-dark ending

210: Machine Kingdom at Dawn

This sequence ends with the neutral-hero ending

211: Sinful Protector

This sequence ends with the semi-hero dark ending

212: At The End Of The Journey

This sequence ends with the semi-hero hero ending

213: Surmounting The Nightmare

This sequence ends with the neutral-dark ending, and while it isn’t as fitting as some of the other names, it still goes with the ending pretty well. The prospect of being an inferior copy of who you thought you were would be a nightmare to most people, and by surpassing the original, Shadow is getting rid of that problem

214: Dawn Of The Machines

This sequence ends with the neutral-hero ending

215: Wandering For Eternity

This sequence ends with the semi-hero dark ending

216: At Vagrancy’s End

This sequence ends with the semi-hero hero ending

217: The Summit of Power

This sequence ends with the hero-dark ending, and has Shadow completing the hero mission for Space Gadget

218: Under The Name Of Love

This sequence isn’t really structured like the other sequences that have love themed names, and since it ends with the hero-hero ending, I’d say that it’s probably based on Shadow’s loving the planet just like Maria did (Although in this sequence after doing two neutral missions in a row, Shadow does hero missions with Sonic for the last two levels, so do with that what you will)

219: Eternally Drifting

This sequence ends with the semi-hero dark ending

220: The Importance Of Truth

This sequence ends with the semi-hero hero ending

221: The Beginning Of Judgment

This sequence ends with the hero-dark ending, although it’s not a very fitting name in my opinion, since I can’t find a great meaning for the name with the context of the ending. I guess maybe it’s the judgement of Sonic, and his position as the strongest hedgehog?

222: This World’s Guardian

This sequence ends with the hero-hero ending

223: Light Born From Darkness

This sequence ends with the neutral-dark ending. Eggman is a pretty evil guy and created the Shadow Androids (And lied to Shadow about being an android in this path) for his own goals, and I guess wanting to surpass the original in power is a noble enough goal, so this name fits decently

224: The Order Of Steel

This sequence ends with the neutral-hero ending

225: Solitary Journey

This sequence ends with the semi-hero dark ending

226: The Fall Home

This sequence ends with the semi-hero hero ending

227: Sovereign Of All Creation

This is definitely one of the weirder names, but it still makes sense. Sovereign as an adjective means possessing supreme or ultimate power, so this name is implying that shadow is the most powerful thing to have ever been created, which makes sense because this sequence ends with the hero-dark ending

228: I Shall Be The One To Judge

This sequence ends with the hero-hero ending

229: Gone With The Darkness

This sequence ends with the semi-dark hero ending

230: The Ultimate Choice

This sequence ends with the semi-hero hero ending

231: I Am The Strongest!

This sequence ends with the hero-dark ending

232: Justice’s Awakening

This sequence ends with the hero-hero ending

233: Prelude to Ruination

This sequence ends with the dark-dark ending

234: A World United By Darkness

This sequence ends with the dark-hero ending

235: The Pulse Of Darkness

This sequence ends with the semi-dark dark ending

236: To Just Be Myself

This sequence ends with the semi-dark hero ending

237: Punishment In Jet Black

This sequence ends with the dark-dark ending

238: The Ruler’s First Cry

This sequence ends with the dark-hero ending

239: Darkness’ Conspiracy

This sequence ends with the semi-dark dark ending

240: The Faint Light Of Tomorrow

This sequence ends with the semi-dark hero ending. While I haven’t been providing explanations for a lot of the names, that’s mainly because they’re easy enough to figure out and as such it’s kind of pointless to do it. I will explain this one though, since it’s a little less straightforward than the others. Shadow’s probably not 100% confident in his decision to only trust himself, in his mind he knows it’s the right thing to do, but it’s going to be a rough road ahead since he doesn’t have anyone else to work with. Since he’s sure this is the right way though, he’s also sure that he’ll make it to tomorrow. It could be thought of in a different way, since he doesn’t know what tomorrow holds, so the light of it is faint to him

241: Time Of Departure

I really don’t know what this one means. I guess since Shadow’s only goal is to become the strongest, he’ll likely depart from Eggman’s base soon after the ending and begin just roaming around. This sequence also has the neutral mission for The Doom as one of its levels, meaning its a flashback to when Shadow departed from the ARK and his old life.

242: Rise Of The Machine Kingdom

This sequence ends with the neutral-hero ending

243: Despair’s Quickening

This sequence ends with the semi-dark dark ending, and has The Doom as one of its levels. Once again, I can’t figure out the exact meaning of this name, and I can’t tell if that’s because I’m kind of tired right now or because at this point in the sequences the developers started to run out of names that made a lot of sense

244: The Beginning

This sequence ends with the semi-dark hero ending

245: Setting Out In The Morning

Another sequence that has the neutral-dark ending with a leaving related name, am I missing something? It also involves The Doom, but once again, I really don’t know what this name is supposed to mean in relation to the events of the sequence

246: The Weapons’ Dawn

This sequence ends with the neutral-hero ending

247: Pure Ark

This sequence ends with the semi-hero dark ending

248: Making Up For It In The End

This sequence ends with the semi-hero hero ending

249: The Coming Of The Dark Time

This sequence ends with the dark-dark ending

250: The Throne Of God

This sequence ends with the dark-hero ending

251: God Of War

This sequence ends with the semi-dark dark ending

252: Howl Of Solitude

This sequence ends with the semi-dark hero ending

253: Proof Of Existence

This sequence ends with the neutral-dark ending. This one is decently clear, but I’ll explain it anyways. It’s already been stated a lot that Shadow was made to be the ultimate life form, so by surpassing the “original” version, then he will prove that the ultimate life form does exist (Since he thinks the original died), and that he is it

254: Ardent Vow

Ardent means passionate, so that means that in this sequence, Shadow is making a passionate vow. This sequence ends with the neutral-hero ending, so it does kind of fit, since Shadow promises to create an empire of androids that will rule the planet (A goal that he will have to be extremely dedicated to in order to actually achieve)

255: A Deal With The Devil

This sequence ends with the semi-dark dark ending

256: A Reason To Live

This sequence ends with the semi-dark hero ending

257: Induplicable Thoughts

This sequence ends with the neutral-dark ending, although strangely it doesn’t have The Doom as part of it. Maybe that’s why it has this name, the memories aboard the ARK that the original had couldn’t be duplicated and given to any of the androids. Or perhaps whatever thoughts couldn’t be duplicated are the reason why Shadow wants to become stronger than the original

258: Steel Struck With Flame

This sequence ends with the neutral-hero ending

259: A Heart Bound To The ARK

This sequence ends with the semi-hero dark ending

260: Tears Shed By The Stars

This sequence ends with the semi-hero hero ending

261: Imitation Complex

This sequence ends with the neutral-dark ending

262: Steel Combat Boots

This is probably the silliest (affectionate) name in this entire list. This sequence ends with the neutral-hero ending, so it’s actually a pretty clever play on words

263: Protector Of The Ashen Moon

This sequence ends with the semi-hero dark ending

264: A Demon Drifting

This sequence ends with the semi-hero hero ending

265: The Ultimate Pride

This sequence ends with the hero-dark ending, and also has Shadow completing the hero mission of Space Gadget

266: I Know The Will Of Heaven

This sequence ends with the hero-hero ending (Sidenote, this is an extremely cool name)

267: Ego Dyed In Black

This sequence ends with the semi-dark dark ending

268: Isolation By Choice

This sequence ends with the semi-dark hero ending

269: Faith Without Falsehood

This sequence ends with the neutral-dark ending. The falsehood could be two opposite things, it could either be Shadow thinking that him being the original was a falsehood, or Eggman telling him that he has no past in Mad Matrix (A level in this sequence) is the falsehood

270: Machine Empire

This sequence ends with the neutral-hero ending

271: The Eternally-Closed Door

This sequence ends with the semi-hero dark ending. Shadow and the ARK are both eternally closed doors, since the ARK itself is sealed off from everyone except him, and he’s never going to leave it

272: The Sealed-Away Ark of Sin

This sequence ends with the semi-hero hero ending

273: Silver Emergence

When I first saw this name on the list, for a split second I internally went “:O Silver!”, but this game came out in 2005, so Silver didn’t even exist yet. Anyways, this sequence ends with the neutral-dark ending, so I suppose this name is a cool way of saying that Shadow is emerging as an even stronger being than the original him

274: Pulsating Supercurrent

This sequence ends with the neutral-hero ending, so I’m guessing this name was chosen because it sounds cool and like something that would be part of a giant computer system, which is what Shadow is like in this ending since he’ll be controlling a whole empire (And possibly the planet)

275: The Reason I Was Born

This sequence ends with the semi-hero dark ending

276: The Dark Part Of The Galaxy

This sequence ends with the semi-hero hero ending

277: The View From Atop The World

This sequence ends with the hero-dark ending

278: Maria’s Testament

This sequence ends with the hero-hero ending

279: A Genius Scientist’s Lineage

This sequence has Lost Impact as a level, and also ends with the semi-hero dark ending. Since Shadow does the normal mission of Lost Impact, which involves him going to Gerald’s laboratory to check on him, the meaning of this name is obviously that he’s carrying on Gerald’s legacy by guarding the place where most of his inventions were created

280: Distorted Truth

This sequence has Lost Impact as a level, and ends with the semi-hero hero ending. Because of this, the meaning might be that Shadow doesn’t believe that the events of Lost Impact happened as he remembers them. Or, the name could only be based on the ending, and that the truth he believes in the ending is distorted

281: A Counterfeit Existence

This sequence has Mad Matrix as a level, and ends with the hero-dark ending. My interpretation of this name and the events of the sequence in the context of it is that Shadow is worried about the implications of him apparently having no past, so he fights Sonic to prove that he is still the ultimate lifeform, and not just a counterfeit

282: Beloved Memories

This sequence ends with the hero-hero ending, and has Shadow doing the hero mission of Lost Impact

283: Birth Of A Devil

This sequence ends with the dark-dark ending

284: A Dark Myth’s Beginnings

This sequence ends with the dark-hero ending

285: Black Thunder

This sequence ends with the semi-dark dark ending

286: The Torn Away Necklace

I really don’t know what this one is supposed to mean. Since this sequence ends with the semi-dark hero ending, I guess the necklace is supposed to represent Shadow’s destiny and his control over it? It was originally torn away from him by everyone trying to get him to work for them, but then he finally takes it back from them at the end. I don’t know, that’s just my best guess

287: A Soul Sheltered By Iron

This sequence ends with the neutral-dark ending

288: Steel Nation’s Decree

This sequence ends with the neutral-hero ending

289: Coronation Of Darkness

This sequence ends with the semi-dark dark ending

290: Opened Eyes

This sequence ends with the semi-dark hero ending. Since Shadow works with the heroes at first before doing missions for Eggman, and Eggman betrays him by trying to steal the Chaos Emeralds (and attacking him with the Egg Breaker after Iron Jungle, the final boss fight is probably the specific thing that leads to Shadow opening his eyes and deciding to only trust himself

291: The Doctor’s Lie

This sequence has Iron Jungle as a level, and ends with the neutral-dark ending

292: The Uninvited Successor

This sequence ends with the neutral-hero ending

293: The Closed Pandora’s Box

This sequence ends with the semi-hero dark ending

294: A Heart Bound By Sin

This sequence ends with the semi-hero hero ending

295: Courage From Turning Gears

This sequence ends with the neutral-dark ending

296: Fullmetal Prince

This sequence ends with the neutral-hero ending

297: Time’s Watchman

This sequence ends with the semi-hero dark ending

298: Galaxy’s Requiem

This sequence ends with the semi-hero hero ending

299: Charm Of The Chaos Emeralds

Since this sequence ends with the hero-dark ending, the meaning behind this name is that Shadow was tempted by the power that the Chaos Emeralds he was collecting could give him, and decided to give into those temptations by using them to become even more powerful than Sonic

300: Promise Of A Far-Off Day

This sequence ends with the hero-hero ending, I think that the meaning behind this name is that Maria wished to one day live on the Earth, which is probably part of the reason why she said that she wanted to protect it along with Shadow (She says this in the final story). By protecting the planet from Black Doom, Shadow is being reminded of that far off day that Maria wished for

301: The Grim Reaper’s Horn

This sequence ends with the semi-dark dark ending

302: A Flame Extinguished By Fate

Since this sequence ends with the semi-dark hero ending, I guess this name means that Shadow’s potential to be a great force for good or evil has been extinguished by the events that lead to him deciding to only do what he wants to, since he’s probably not going to do much that affects anyone except himself after making that decision

303: Shouting At The Morning Sun

Another morning related name that goes with a sequence that ends with the neutral-dark ending. I think I might have figured out what this means, although I’m not completely sure of it. I remembered that another one of the neutral-dark endings was called Determination’s Daybreak, so the sun rising is symbolic of Shadow’s past and what his goal is becoming clear to him. As for why he’s shouting at it, well, I don’t really know. It just made me think of characters in DBZ and how they scream when they power up since Shadow is trying to surpass the “original him” in power in this ending, so that’s my answer because I can’t think of anything better

304: Iron Ambition

This sequence ends with the neutral-hero ending

305: Sleeping On Hallowed Ground

This sequence ends with the semi-hero dark ending

306: Explanation Of The Truth

This sequence ends with the semi-hero hero ending

307: An Android’s Dream

This sequence ends with the neutral-dark ending

308: Metallic Quickening

Quickening means to stimulate (One meaning of which is development of or increased activity in), which is fitting since this sequence ends with the neutral-hero ending

309: Funeral Procession In Space

This may seem like the name of a sequence that ends with the semi-hero hero ending, but it actually ends with the semi-hero dark ending, and it is a fitting name for it. This is because Shadow is guarding the ARK because of his grief over the victims of it, so he’s essentially living through a funeral procession for them by spending all of his time on the station and thinking about their deaths

310: Lost To The Universe’s Abyss

This sequence ends with the semi-hero hero ending

311: Destiny For Two

This sequence has Shadow doing the hero missions of Westopolis and Lethal Highway (Both of which he works with Sonic in) as well as Space Gadget, and then gets the hero-dark ending

312: The Spun Threads Of Fate

This sequence is the same as the last one, except it has Shadow doing the hero mission of Final Haunt instead, meaning he does the hero mission with Sonic in all 4 missions that he appears in (And also does the neutral missions for the levels that Sonic isn’t the hero mission partner for). This name, as well as the last one, implies that Shadow and Sonic are fated to interact with each other

313: Ark Of The Heavens

This sequence ends with the semi-hero dark ending

314: Ghost Of The ARK

This sequence ends with the semi-hero hero ending

315: A Pair Of Shooting Stars

This sequence has Shadow working with Sonic twice in Westopolis and Lethal Highway, and ends with the hero-dark ending

316: The One Who Maria Entrusted

This sequence ends with the hero-hero ending, and has Shadow doing the hero mission of Lost Impact with Maria

317: A.I.’s Enlightenment

This sequence ends with the neutral-dark ending

318: A Dying Empire’s Cry

This sequence ends with the neutral-hero ending

319: Moon Of Atonement

This sequence ends with the semi-hero dark ending

320: Tear-Soaked Hometown

This sequence ends with the semi-hero hero ending

321: Sparks On The Horizon

Since this sequence ends with the hero-dark ending, I guess the sparks represent Shadow’s true power (Or the Chaos Emeralds that give it to him) being visible on the horizon ahead of him

322: A Use For A Saved Life

Shadow’s life was saved by Eggman after he presumably died, and this sequence ends with the hero-hero ending, so the use for Shadow’s saved life was saving the planet

323: Coffin Of Memories

This sequence ends with the semi-hero dark ending

324: The Self-Imposed Seal

This sequence ends with the semi-hero hero ending. It could just fit with Shadow sealing himself away from everyone else because of his depression, but I figured I would mention an idea that I saw somebody on Youtube mention as well. Their idea of what could possibly happen after this ending is that Shadow would willingly go into GUN custody, which would also fit well with this name

325: Pretense In The Mirror

The word pretense can mean two things. It can be an attempt to make something that is not the case appear true, or it can be a claim, especially a false or ambitious one. This sequence ends with the hero-dark ending, so that means that Shadow is telling himself that he is the ultimate lifeform and stronger than Sonic, but he doesn’t fully believe it. This is why he sided with Black Doom to fight Sonic, to prove that it was true and it wasn’t just a lie he was telling himself

326: A Missive From 50 Years Ago

Here it is, the final sequence in Shadow the Hedgehog, and the most heroic one you can take. A missive is a message, so Shadow’s heroic actions in this sequence are him following the message Maria gave him 50 years ago: To protect the planet and the people on it

And with that, I have officially analyzed the name of every single sequence in Shadow the Hedgehog. If you read this through all the way to the end, thank you so much, I appreciate it! Sorry that I wasn’t able to give a satisfactory answer for every single name, but considering there’s more than 300, I think I did a pretty good job overall. Let me know if you have any solutions to the names I couldn’t figure out, I’ll add them to the post if I think they’re better than the explanations I gave

[kabira]

a much-needed update.

hiiii so i realize i've pretty much left everyone here hanging for the past year, almost? and mentioned reposting on ao3 about a billion times but haven't really followed up on it. i've toyed with multiple ideas, like reposting, rewriting, deleting this blog off the face of the earth to disappear forever (jk), etc but! i've done some soul-searching in the sweltering summer and finally come to a decision.

there isn't a lot keeping me in this community now, but writing - for fun - isn't something i want to stop doing, because it's really important to me even outside the context of a fandom. i've become pretty rusty lately, though, owing to the fact that my last stint with writing a full-length piece was over a year ago, and i haven't really had the time or brainpower to chase down those plot bunnies (though they remain persistent). however, there's nothing that makes me want to write more than going through my old fics and being horrified by my many mistakes <3 so <3 i will instead be slowly rewriting and reposting my old fics.

does this mean i'll delete the old versions? probably not, because i like to see my own growth. i'll leave them unlinked on the masterlist and floating around on my blog in case anyone wants to revisit them. can't say i'm going to fix every single fic, but i'll try to do most of them. might even combine a couple of them into a single continuity (looking at you, spider-vernon).

i know i'm the prime example of all talk and no anything else, but i swear i'm going to try my best this time. hell, i opened my original draft of bhobc last night and redid the whole last scene on a whim, so i'd say the process is already in swing. if i can't bring myself to commit to something completely new, i'm at least going to try and redo what i already have. until then, i have some new ideas brewing that i'll probably end up either posting on ao3 (here) or my genshin blog (here) because i don't think i can fully come back to writing for kpop anymore. there's a million reasons for this, but the one that stands out the most is the way this community has responded to the events of the past few months.

despite all the atrocities being committed in gaza, i haven't seen most people even deem to comment on the state of affairs or use their accounts to bring light to them (some have talked it about their mains and not their kpop sideblogs with a SIGNIFICANTLY larger following - i wonder why!). even if you say it's for the sake of keeping content apart, why does this divide exist to you, truly?

it's disgusting to see that even some of the people here i used to respect haven't mentioned it, instead choosing to talk about their favorite kpop boy or, i don't know, what sonic character they'd be. even if something happens within the fandom, the outrage seems to be only momentary, a couple untagged posts expressing disappointment here, a two-week break there, and then they're right back to writing egregious smut as if nothing ever happened. where's your anger? where's your fucking humanity?

anyway, tldr, i'll be rewriting a big chunk of my fics and reposting the older versions anyway. also, fuck you to everyone who's been silent about the ongoing genocide.

[kale-smoothies]

There is never too much yapping about Prison Scourge. This arc is literally his last appearance and there’s just so much to go off about. Especially thanks the arc being so open-ended (don’t count the super genesis wave it never happened he’s alive somewhere/coping). Where’s another Sonic that is dealing conditions similar to Scourge? Even Game Eggman treats his prisoners nicer than the Warden who’s supposedly has these good intentions in mind for Scourge.

(Shit if this was written post in the IDW era, you know damn well they would’ve had these experiences crawl around his head like a parasite.)

Also do you think another way Scourge was intentionally defined as the Anti-Sonic was by how he was breaking down and mistrusted his only support left at first or do you think Sonic himself if switched places would be worn down a similar way? Sonic is just usually portrayed as such a strong figure, I see him going with the flow of things, win some respect with the prisoners somehow, him getting super worried for his friends rather than himself if they busted him out. 

Sonic would’ve made some friends, trying to make the best of the situation and wouldn’t have broken down as easily as Scourge. I mean — Sonic Forces — he was perfectly fine after being trapped for 6 months. Scourge had that happen because he NEEDED to be broken down.

Everyone hated Scourge because he was probably so full of himself when he first came in, and the fact that King Maxx was incharge? Yikes,

Sonic, if placed in the same position, probably wouldn’t have the exact same treatment as Scourge. One, the guards wouldn’t mistreat him as much, and I don’t think he’d be beat around as much as Scourge

Scourge PROBABLY would’ve made his own gang if King Maxx was not also in the same prison as him. Maxx was the reason why Scourge was a prison bitch. He said that if Scourge didn’t make his own gang, he wouldn’t order him to be torn from limb to limb.

i think the reason Maxx does this was because of both Anti-Jules and Scourge. He hates them both, Anti-Jules was probably the reason why Maxx was imprisoned anyway. He was the FORMER king of Moebuis, and we know Anti-Jules had been king since Scourge was.. around 3? Or 6? If you account the fact that Scourge killed his dad at either 13 or 16. I can talk essays about Anti-Jules and Maxx ALONE but this is abour Scourge.

I think what most people tend to overlook is the fact that Scourge IS STILL A SONIC. “He’s the anti version though!” In PERSPECTIVE! As in he’s a villain instead of a Hero, Sonic’s worst qualities enhanced in a character. He had a gang, friends even, the suppression squad. Like I said in a previous post, I think Scourge found comfort in them.

The reason why he lashes out in issue 161-162 (around there) is because he was in a bad mental state, he killed his father, there isnt that much stability in there.

I don’t think Scourge really trusts anyone. While Sonic grew around supportive friends and family. Scourge grew up alone, neglected, and bitter. He never mentions his mother, or his variant of uncle chuck, and we know about his father. He never had family to lean on.

Also, let’s not forget that everyone in Moebius is the worst. The whole thing is based around Anarchy and Chaos, no one would be trustworthy. Yet, the little prince found his friends in the streets whilst trying to defy his father’s rule

The fact that they doublecrossed him drove the nail home (or however the saying goes)

(I feel like I’m not making sense - am I making sense?)

Y’know while reading the prison arc. I was always pissed over the fact that Scourge never tried to befriend Al & Cal, especially when he took off their collars DESPITE their protests and left them to fend for themselves. Sonic would’ve, but Scourge isn’t sonic.

But, it makes sense. He had conquered his world, and almost Sonic’s. Then he was stripped of his powers, status, everything. He sees Al & Cal and hates then because, that’s who he was. He was them, figuratively. They had powers, all mighty gods, now stripped to nothing, just like him. He doesn’t WANT to be around them, a constant reminder of his biggest failure.

[tenebraevesper]

The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog (My Thoughts)

Before I start with anything, I just have to let this out: I ADORE THIS GAME!!! It has no right to be so good and I genuinely want more of these kinds of games where we get to interact with more of the Sonic cast. All of them were written so well, with their own little quirks and the game is just pure fun. Honestly, I could probably go on and on about this, but I’ll just do a quick summary of some of my favorite character interactions before moving on to one character I had been anticipating the most. Spoilers are ahead!

The player character, whose name is apparently Barry the Quokka, is really fun and I adore his cave-loving and trash-searching quirks. Not to mention the ways of him dealing with “this group’s unhinged way of thinking”, trying to just go along with all the weirdness and fanboying over Sonic.

I also love his dynamic with Tails, who is the most adorable detective I’ve ever seen. Honestly, this whole thing gave me a lot of Ace Attorney vibes and I’m living for it.

...

Well, most adorable next to another of my favorite detectives:

If you never watched Detective Conan, I strongly suggest you do.

I gotta say, Tails’ reaction to Sonic being “murdered” is kind of raw...

...and then it crosses the line with Amy being excited that someone “murdered” Sonic.

Next, another character who really looks good in his outfit - Knuckles! I love that they gave him the cowboy hat, even if it’s not the same as the Sonic OVA (progress guys, progress) and he actually commits to the bit of a sheriff, at least for Amy, only to just drop it when Tails and Barry arrive. Oh, and him and Vector for the high score at the arcade game and Knuckles just punching it in frustration when Vector beat him. Honestly, who wouldn’t do that?

Following up, Espio and Vector. I loved how committed Espio was to his role as the poet, even if his poetry wasn’t exactly... the best (not to mention his outfit looks so fitting!). He really has this “He’s a bit confused, but he’s got the spirit!” vibe going on. Then there were other bits like the fact that Espio actually speed read through a book just to spoil the ending for Knuckles.

Then there’s Vector just defending Espio when he gets accused. Let’s be real here, Vector is Espio’s Dad and no one can change my mind.

Next are Blaze and Rouge, and I found it so hilarious that Rouge managed to rope Blaze, Tails and Barry into her heist of stealing the Fabergé Chao Egg and Blaze just goes along with it because it’s part of her character lore card.

Not to mention the whole bit with them thinking the egg is a bomb and trying to figure out what to do with it (spoilers!: it’s not a bomb). Superb comedy!

Next, we move on to Shadow, and I had been really anticipating how he’d be written in this story. My thoughts? Goddamn, this was the kind of character writing I’ve been begging for ages!

In the story, Shadow is quite suspicious due to locking all the doors in the train, with Amy, Tails and Barry interrogating him and Amy believing he “murdered” Sonic. Well, as it turns out, the reason he was locking the doors was because he was trying to keep Amy out of the Lounge Car (while also handing out keys to everyone else). Why?

He was just trying to use the computer and buy Amy concert tickets of her favorite band, Hot Honey, for her birthday. Like, how adorable is THAT?!

Shadow then admits that he had trouble with it, printing out the Hot Honey website on accident and that he isn’t the best with computers. He then proceeds to explain:

So to recap, Shadow really cares about Amy and he put effort into trying to get her a nice birthday present, even if he didn’t succeed. Not only that, but he had also agreed to come to Amy’s birthday party (dressed as a Starbucks Barista; yeah, we all know the joke) and even helped out Knuckles and Vector with the arcade game they had trouble figuring out (also signing his high score with “Ultim”).

Now tell me, with the way he had been written in the Sonic IDW comics...

...and the whole SEGA mandates thing going on, do you really think Shadow would act like that? Honestly, I don’t think so, which makes me believe that, even if it’s for a spin-off game, maybe they’re finally loosening up on Shadow’s character. Evan Stanley did mention that they want Shadow to be written more closer to his game counterpart and if they’re fine with him being characterized as he is in this spin-off game, then I’m all for it!

Also, seeing Shadow being flustered over being invited to the concert is frigging adorable... and maybe a reference to the Twitter Takeover? I mean, both are apparently Taylor Swift fans. Oh, and speaking of references:

I rest my case. I also had to screenshot this because... com’n!

I said it once and I’m saying it again, Shadow is so cute in this game!

Anyways, Shadow tags along with Tails, Amy and Barry to the Conductor Car, where they solve the mystery, calling everyone to hear what happened, but when they go to get Sonic, they realize that something is wrong.

When Sonic doesn’t respond, Shadow and Espio are the first to jump in to help him. Once again, this is the kind of writing I really wanted to see when it comes to Shadow’s character. He really cares about his friends.

Speaking of friends...

Yeah... I wouldn’t want to be Amy’s target when she’s in this kind of mood.

Speaking of target, it looks like Espio isn’t the only one who’s about to commit “murder”. Yes, spoilers for those who hadn’t played the game, Espio was the one who “murdered” Sonic, albeit by using a blowdart and drugging him. However, there is a twist to this mystery.

Yeah, as it turns out, not only is the train a Badnik, but everyone is en route to be delivered to Dr. Eggman.

Honestly, this is getting rather creepy, especially with the train holding everyone hostage like this.

The train then locks everything up, throwing Sonic and Barry into the Dining Car, with Eggman calling in and explaining this was all part of his plan. He promised that he would reward any Badnik who could deliver him Sonic and his friends, and the train Badnik took it upon itself to fulfill that.

Okay, can we just talk for a moment how Eggman has managed to make a train Badnik without anyone noticing? This is disturbing.

After Eggman turns the call off, Barry starts blaming himself for not telling anyone how he noticed that Sonic was genuinely injured, because if he did, this whole story could’ve been avoided.

Sonic cheers him up, pointing out how it is easy to question the decisions that got you to the end of a road, but you should let those negative thoughts pass and keep living. Honestly, it’s the kind of advice everyone needs.

He and Barry then blast through each train car, eventually reaching the Badnik and the conductor.

The train Badnik then reveals how it just wanted to be forever friends with the conductor and was enraged when it realized that the conductor “abandoned” it, so it decided to deliver Sonic and co. to Eggman to get its reward - being forever together with the conductor. 

Damn, this game makes me actually feel bad for a train.

Sonic has none of it, calling the train selfish for doing this at the expense of everyone, and with the help of his friends, he manages to hit the train, allowing for Espio to grab the Flicky and Amy to smash the train.

Once things calm down and everyone’s outside the train, Sonic reveals the cake he had bought, with everyone wishing Amy Happy Birthday.

As for Eggman, he figures out that his plans have been foiled once again, but more importantly - SAGE CAMEO!!! And she and Metal Sonic are wearing “Let’s Go Dad!” T-shirts, that’s so adorable! (I suppose this also means this story takes place after Sonic Frontiers.)

So, yeah, this was The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog, and it’s amazing! My only complaint here is that Silver is missing, but otherwise, I love it. Like I said before, we really need more games where we get to interact with Sonic’s friends.

#Sonic Cyber Revolution Analyzer (Masterlist)

[hugsandchaos]

Guys I just realized something

Remember how Eclipse wanted to turn the world into a food source?

And you know how Sonic Boom Shadow clearly doesn’t like people?

I’m not saying we combine it, I’m saying we give Boom Eclipse’s view of the world basically Modern/Mainstream Shadow’s view!

And this Boom Shadow has a soft spot for him. At first, it was a sort of self-given obligation. Shadow felt absolutely terrible that Eclipse so strongly believed that Shadow was the only thing he could actually call family because they share the same blood thanks to their father, who was very disappointed when Eclipse rebelled and…

We’ll get into details much later.

Anyways, so Shadow knows he’s not the best person. He doesn’t even consider himself a good person anymore because of his grown dislike for people. So for Eclipse to have seen how he acts and still think that he’s a much better person to call family than those he grew up with was like a missile that destroyed the walls Shadow put up around his heart with enough force to still hurt it once it got through them all.

For a moment, Shadow remembered the better times. He waited a bit to be sure that Eclipse wasn’t lying about any of it, but once he was, he made an unspoken promise to Eclipse to be the best big brother he could be and made it a mission to ensure that Black Doom would never hurt him again. (Eclipse heard Shadow’s mind when he came to that decision, but Shadow didn’t know that they could communicate telepathically at the time.)

From that moment on, many of Shadow’s decisions were made with Eclipse in mind. One example is Shadow could go for pretty much his whole life without food and water, and given his situation, he pretty much abandoned getting it. However, Eclipse and the Dark Arms needed food and water daily, and meat was their best food source. Eclipse didn’t like the idea of hurting people, though, so Shadow often had to look for other methods to getting meat than hunting.

Either that or he’d get fake meat healthy enough to pass as real meat. Eventually, the obligated feeling melted away into something much more genuine. I mean, it was genuine before, but now that he knows his brother better, it’s even stronger than before. He’s a surprisingly great brother and friend to Eclipse. This Shadow isn’t completely heartless, but most of his love and care is reserved for his brother.

Actually, you know what would be super sad? After becoming friends with Team Sonic and joining them, Black Doom appears for Eclipse and Shadow back to use them both. Team Sonic has no idea what’s going on and Eggman’s actually horrified that Black Doom intends to use their planet as a food source. Eclipse remembers his treatment before and really doesn’t want to go back. Shadow’s ready to defend his brother, and now, their new friends.

After a fight against another wave of Black Arms sent to kidnap Eclipse and Shadow, then slaughter everyone else, many of the members are tired and injured. It’s one of those really dark hours and they genuinely think that this is truly the end. They don’t know what to do.

Shadow’s never been more sure of what to do until that moment.

He takes off one of his inhibitor rings and puts it next to Eclipse, who’s still unconscious, but healing very well. He turns to everyone and says “When he wakes up, tell him I’m sorry. Tell him “He’s our father, but you’re my brother” .” and then he disappears.

Hours later, after Eclipse is awake, he sees the ring and frantically asks where Shadow is. When they tell him what he said and that he vanished, Eclipse freaks out like never before and rushes outside, screaming Shadow’s name and “no” over and over. Team Sonic goes with him to make sure he doesn’t hurt himself. They can’t stop him because he keeps trying to control their minds so they’d let him.

When they reach the beach in their search for Shadow, there’s a huge explosion in the night sky as if from space. Soon, a golden glow falls from the explosion and into the ocean. Eclipse knows what it is. Or rather, who it is. Devastated and heartbroken, he drops to his knees and screams his brother’s name as loud as both his verbal and mental voices will allow.

Shadow went to the Comet, directly into the heart of the beast, took the chaos emeralds held inside, and removed the rest of his inhibitor rings. This time, there was no miraculous recovery.

[semi-sketchy]

Well, that's Sonic X finished. Yes I still really like the show.

Firstly, season 3 is a bit mixed. The first half it struggles a bit to find it's footing with the rhythmic "new planet, Metarex stole the egg but are still there for some reason, fight ensues". It gets pretty tedious. Honestly, at this point I was missing the human characters and their antics. Like Mr. Stewart shadowing everyone as if he was coy, Rouge having Topaz to bounce off of, Ella and Chuck... I wanted something to spice it up.

However, the second half, after the Emeralds get scattered again, it starts being less formulaic, having reveals and turns into some good entertainment.

Although, Eggman stuck out to me as being particularly not great this season. First half when he's causing trouble and such is fine, but then when he becomes a sort-of double agent and starts looking out for Sonic and his friends...I just didn't like that for Eggman. It was framed more as fatherly-oversight instead of Eggman perusing his best interests. It only happened a few times in season 1 and 2, so it was easier to overlook there, but it's prevalent enough in season 3 for me to take issue with it.

On the plus side, Shadow is actually enjoyable! I didn't care for how Shadow (or SA2 in general) were done in season 2, but I liked what they did with him here. He's kinda neutral, clashing with Sonic and trying to kill Cosmo, but at the end of the day his interests are still to stop the Metarex and save the universe. He's cold, but his actions show he does care, he just has his own way of doing things. Plus he is a bit of a showoff.

I still think season 1 overall is my favorite with 3 in the middle and lastly 2. Man the Discotek subtitles made season 2 worse...

I also went into this biased that the changes between the dub and sub were negligible. Perhaps because the dub isn't as fresh in my mind as when I formed that opinion, but the sub is definitely my preferred version now. I prefer the Japanese voice cast (I wish Cream could have an English VA as good as her Japanese X one, high pitched yet so soft spoken...it's so easy on the ears) and the music is so much better.

The biggest difference for me is Chris. I actually liked him. I can't exactly narrow down why, he used to annoy me, but that wasn't an issue this time. Maybe I've grown up, perhaps the writing frames him better in the sub, maybe it's this specific translation, I can't tell.

Are the dialogue changes that huge? No. Don't get me wrong, there is a difference, however the show's plot is still the same and understandable in the dub, which, makes sense. The story has to follow the animation. Like I said earlier, the translations between these two languages is somewhat subjective and sometimes sentences need to be shortened or made longer to fill the space. That's why plenty of lines carry the same or similar meaning but are said in a different way.

Yes, the writing is better in Japanese, hell everything is better in the Japanese version and I think that applies to season 3 the most. Could I recommend it over the dub? Easily. If possible, watch the original version. Although if you really can't stand subtitles and want the audio in English (or only have access to YouTube where the Japanese version doesn't have English subs), is the dub acceptable? Also yes, it'll do.

You do have to deal with the censorship in the dub, though I've been aware of it since I was a kid. The animation censorship is silly and stupid, but aside from Chris getting flung in season 2, I didn't think the cut scenes removed much of value. However, while I didn't like the beginning of an episode reusing the end of a previous one during bingeing, when coming back to watch more after a few days, it was a nice refresher. A reminder of a time when you had to wait a week to see what happened next instead of bingeing an entire season in a day. I liked it even though it isn't necessary in this day and age.

As said before, this was not my first time watching X in Japanese. I saw it several years ago and this series rewatch was moreso an excuse to say I finally used the Blu-rays I spent money on.

If I had to rate it, 8/10, maybe even an 8.5. Solid show where there's some very high highs and the lows are still quite enjoyable while the cast is mostly faithful to their game personalities. There's a reason this show has reigned supreme in the fandom for such a long time.

Coming off of Frontiers, it was a nice reminder that yeah, Sonic is still good.

Anyways, I guess next is Boom, although I rewatched it like a year or so ago when I bought the steelbook. I've seen it so many times, I've practically got the show memorized by now. Spoilers: I like it a lot.

[crusherthedoctor]

📞 a character others dislike but you don’t?

♠️ favorite protagonist?

🕷️a character you feel is underrated?

📞 - a character others dislike but you don't?

Elise has gained more appreciation over time, but you still get people who think she's to blame for everything wrong with '06. She was a decent if underdeveloped character who simply wasn't used in the story that well, and anyone who thinks turning her into a Not-Sally is the only way to fix her isn't trying.

There's also Zor and Marine, both of whom I will always defend. Isn't it wild how I can barely remember anything from The End's three minute tough guy Reddit copypasta, yet everything Zor says is solid gold... shout out to IDW for missing the point and making him an unironic tryhard like every other villain in the comic. As for Marine, people act as though her character development never happened, which isn't helped by Flynn being one of those very people, and I don't understand why they give her flak for her stereotypical accent, yet make no such complaints about Bunnie.

For a couple of non-Sonic examples: King Sombra kind of went through the same arc as Elise in retrospect. As in, nowadays he has more open fans, but back when he made his debut, he received a disproportionate amount of flak for being a mostly silent villain, and the way he was used. I personally appreciated what they were going for with him, mainly cause of how they conveyed his Crazy Prepared defenses and the like, and honestly, by the time FiM concluded, I think he ended up better off than certain other villains lmao.

And of course, Moneybags. Not counting the first game (cause he didn't exist yet), I don't consider it a true Spyro experience if Winnie the Shit doesn't pop up in increasingly improbable locations to make deals in exchange for, *ahem*, a small fee. He also has some of the best lines. ("What are you going to do, sue me?")

♠️ - favourite protagonist?

Gex is unironically a better written character than everyone in Frontiers and IDW put together. This realisation makes me want to drink tap water at Jerry Garcia's.

Tails has always been my main bro out of the Sonic good guys, cause of how smart he is and how much he wants to help. :D It's also why I'm vocal about how much I despise it when fans double down on reducing the franchise to Just Furry DBZ due to super forms and whatnot, since it means Tails and other characters not named Sonic/Shadow/Silver are guaranteed to be treated even more like they're not good for anything meaningful. >:|

Then there's Spyro of course, which I know will be considered ironic to some given my complex feelings on Sonic, but truth be told, Spyro isn't really that similar to Sonic beyond some snark. He does admittedly act like a dude with tude in the first game, but it's clear that he's younger in that one. From the second game onward, where he's slightly older, he's considerably more chill... at least compared to Bubsy and many others from the 90's. And speaking of, despite his dialogue consisting entirely of WOAH, I respect Crash as well, since it was the bandicoot that got little me into the world of video games.

And many things change, but my fondness for Fluttershy will never die. Just as I have a preference for funny robot-loving villains who nonetheless remain a legit serious threat instead of being a joke, I have another preference for kindhearted quiet characters... which is why I also enjoy Trip... and Tikal... look, we all have our types, I'm sure you can sympathise. ;P

🕷️ - a character you feel is underrated?

The Hard-Boiled Heavies have mostly been pushed aside since Mania came out (aside from that one IDW story, but that's not a blessing), and it makes me madder than YouTubers who pretend they're mad because there are villains with dialogue who have less personality than these guys. They're so much fun, and despite all of them having the same Egg Robo template, their designs remain distinct from each other, even in silhouette form.

I also took to Ariem early on. Like the Heavies, "underrated" refers to general lack of fandom buzz compared to other characters, since although she appears to be quite liked, the acknowledgement given to her is somewhat limited due to her being stuck in an Android-only game for the time being. Some people also have an obsession with comparing her unfavourably to either Sage or Lanolin, for reasons I can probably guess in both cases. Me? I love her design, and her interactions with Cream and Knuckles are cute. :> I know it's not likely, but I hope she appears elsewhere so that she can be brought to more fans' attention... provided she doesn't get IDW'd.

Finally, a more complicated example: Metal Sonic. Now yes, he's very popular and beloved, and remains so to this day, but during the last couple of years, I feel I've been seeing two growing sides in the community when it pertains to him: the side who loves Neo Metal Sonic, and believe he's only a threat in that form like Flynn apparently believes (given how he often turns regular Metal into a jobber), and the side who consider him lame or essentially worthless because of his minimal characterization compared to others. He might not say much, and he might be a hedgehog-shaped tool of Eggman's ambition rather than a complete person of his own, but I believe there's a lot you can do with Metal that wouldn't require turning him into Usurper the Elf Shoes. OVA Metal ain't S-tier for nothing.

[blazehedgehog]

Catching up on IDW Sonic

Really starting to miss the Archie days. IDW Sonic is feeling really simple and aimless. I know the complaint some people layer against Archie Sonic is that it was a "soap opera" but to some degree that's just any long running comic book franchise. Spider-man's been that, Batman's been that, X-men has DEFINITELY, ABSOLUTELY been that, and so on.

And with Archie it felt like there was always something going on. It felt big and robust. You knew characters were off doing their own things. Sonic would run into Mighty somewhere and it turns out Mighty had been training with the monks on a mountain top for the last two years to hone his inner strength. He had his own entire story arc off panel that the reader never even saw and became a new person when nobody was looking.

IDW is like "okay this story arc petered out into a non-ending, now we need to find something else to do." Especially since the end of the Metal Virus Saga. I get that these "non-endings" do eventually come back around; Eggman experimenting with interdimensional tech 25 issues ago is tying in to this Egg City thing and how Tangle suddenly has Kitty Pryde powers.

I really like all the new characters they've introduced -- Tangle and Whisper are great, Dr. Starline was incredible, Surge and Kit are very interesting. But I don't feel like I have enough to chew on. Not like I used to. There's a thinness to all of this that's starting to bore me. They spent, what, 6 or 7 issues on a single Surge attack? How much did that move things forward? We learned that Surge is having hallucinations. Sonic gets to reprise his "I believe everyone has the capacity for good and they get as many second chances as they need" schtick from the end of the last story arc.

Beyond that, it was a lot of noise. For six months.

I imagine some people are saying "Well Blaze, it's a kids comic, maybe it's just not for you anymore" -- and to some degree, fair. I am at the point in my life where I've been out of school longer than I was in school. I am a long way from the target audience, these days.

But children aren't mindless animals. They like good stories, too. And there's a vibe that IDW Sonic is spinning its wheels that, deep down, I don't think they entirely enjoy, either. They may not be able to articulate that yet, but I bet the feeling is there regardless.

After all -- all those "soap opera" comics like X-men, Batman, etc.? That used to be bread and butter for this audience. Like, jeeze, look at this:

Cassandra Nova is a supervillain appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics, most commonly in association with the X-Men. (...) Cassandra is a "mummudrai," a parasitic life form born bodiless on the astral plane. The mummudrai that became Cassandra became telepathically entangled with the future Charles Xavier, who possesses vast mutant telepathic powers. This granted Cassandra some psionic powers herself, including the ability to exit the womb and create a body. Cassandra is Xavier's ideological dark shadow, bent on destruction and genocide. She is most infamous for commanding an army of Sentinels to massacre 16 million mutants within the mutant homeland of Genosha.

This, for reference, is from one of Marvel's best selling series.

This isn't me launching some kind of epic takedown on IDW Sonic. I think the book is still mostly fine, but the boredom I've felt from the last nine issues is highlighting an overall problem I've felt all along. In the early days it was more acceptable, because things were just getting started. But we're 60 issues deep. The comic is celebrating its fifth anniversary. We're almost a quarter of the way to Archie's ultimate milestone. And it still feels like it's missing something deeper.