#GOTF lore

[spiritsonic]

Alright, lemmie ask about the girl on the wheelchair

Can she make cool skateboard tricks on it?

I found this doodle while I was prepping for the stream

Can she do tricks? Absolutely. Should she? That's another question.

[flo0rence]

i love quidditch chapters and all the quidditch lore but god how i hatehatehate gotf world cup chapters it’s literally traumatic

[allwaysmay]

I have an OC! And I'm finally ready to share her. I mean, I've had her for 3 years but she had just been swimming in my mind and I was scared she was stupid and unmemorable. I still kinda think she unmemorable but see an incomplete thing I'm working on

Lia the porcupine!

She has a chao but they aren't there yet.

Also want to change her sleeves to smth see through?

I'm not really satisfied with her design and she may change a lot

Umm so facts

- 14 y/o

-ENFP

-Loves drawing and comfy clothes

-she left home to explore the art of the world and help people while she can

- has an abuela she adores.

-She's Spanish

- airbending abilities

- she has this strange lore that stemmed from GOTF (cos I always insert OCs into stuff I adore) but I'll do that later. This also caused her to have a thing for shadow..idk how...

I'm open to suggestions idc what..I'm not satisfied with her design...

[lesiasmadness]

A love letter to the GoTF comic to music I found fitting

Okay, serious talk now. Ghosts of the Future is my main inspiration for anything. Not just as art inspiration (although mostly so), but also as motivation to continue to do things I love no matter how low is my skill at the time. No matter how many times I was told that you only get better at things with time and hard work, I wasn’t truly convinced until I saw a literal example that is this comic. Just the simple fact that it’s been going for such a long time, author never giving up on it, and what heights it reached is simply magical for me. 

That’s not to say the comic was bad to begin with. Far from that. The thrill of reading through chapter after chapter of this story is one I can not forget, nor can I experience again. And you can bet my 16-years-old self would stick to her DA app religiously every Sunday waiting for a new page once I’ve binge-read through what was already written. I’ve fallen in love with every character and cried along on the quietest moments. While rereading the whole thing to gather references to draw this bunch of art, I found reciting some pages from memory, like the “we’ve got all the time in the world” ending of chapter 3.  But studying every page to see how the art improves on every single one was even more fascinating. Sometimes I felt that the art couldn’t get any better, but was always proven wrong by every page getting more beautiful. 

All I can say is that GoTF sis my favorite comic among all of those I’ve read, no matter fanmade or not, no matter of the fandom. 

Ghosts of the Future belongs to @spiritsonic . Even if you are not into Sonic lore, I think it might be a great read, especially for those who have a taste for angst.

 I’m reading the new pages here on Tumblr now, but reading it from the beginning is more pleasant on DA as it’s all organised by issues. Also I’m not sure if the whole comic even is uploaded to Tumblr. They also have a Patreon. 

Once again, I can’t be grateful enough for the inspiration this comic give me. This fan art is a work of my whole summer, excluding the time I’ve spent on graduation and university entrance exams. And drawing this, revisiting the old pages of the comic for reference made me think about it’s progress a lot. And in turn that helped me gain confidence and battle anxiety of my own. I absolutely knew that once I’ll start going to art university I’ll be surrounded by people much more skilled than me. And that surely proved to be true. But I hold on to the thought that I came here to study and get better, not to be good from the start, in order not to fall into my usual habit of loosing what passion towards art I have at the moment because I can’t be as good as others. And that feeling of being open to self improvement is fueled by every new page of this comic reminding me of endless possibilities one can have. 

[spiritsonic]

I think it's really fun how you left a cameo of Sequoia & Charley from Ensouled in Tangle & Whisper! Do you think we'll be seeing cameos of original characters of yours like Vennie or Sicily in Ensouled to come full circle? :)

A lot of the Ensouled cast are already (very distanced) expies of the GOTF cast, so they're kind of already in there. Beyond the overlap in personalities and motivations some have retained visual elements. A quick rundown:

Sequoia-- Sicily. Have the same earrings

Zinnia-- Vennie. Same hair color and a similar name

Monty-- Shadow. These two are more akin in vibes

Luka-- Sonic. Blue hair, eye shape, feature necklace

Charley, Sugar, and Mr. Flood are new, and loosely based on historical figures.

But speaking of cameos I do have this :)

[spiritsonic]

Hi, I know you’re probably super burnt out about answering GOTF questions after that stream, but I guess my question didn’t come across the way I wanted it to.

I actually wasn’t talking about Vennie’s physical body at all - I agree with you that disabled characters don’t need to be “cured” to have a happy ending. I was asking specifically about her *ghost form* getting legs.

Back in Issue 12, when Sonic helped Vennie solidify her identity as a spirit, he mentioned that they’d worry about giving her legs later. Was sonic ever going to follow through with that, or would Vennie be comfortable with her ghost form as-is?

Ahh I see, sorry for the misunderstanding!

The answer is still a no, because of how her spirit form was created as an accidental side-effect of Tikal's unsuccessful healing. Her spirit form literally has no legs; the Chaos Energy copy of her body Tikal was making as part of the healing process didn't get that far. Sonic, who can form his own legs at will, assumed that Vennie hadn't gotten the hang of it yet.

She's happy with her spirit form as-is though, so it's no big deal. The only drawback is that if she were to possess someone else's body, she would have no control over their legs...

[spiritsonic]

Thank you so much for the GOTF stream! It was awesome to hear about how the rest of the story plays out. I was on the edge of my seat for the ending. XD I forgot to send in any questions, so I thought I'd send in this one now, since it never got addressed during the stream:

I can't remember what issue it was, but Silver mentioned once that he was a hybrid? What is he a hybrid of and which of his parents is not a hedgehog?

Glad you enjoyed it!

In GOTF, "hybrid" is the in-universe term for animal-people in general, which ties into a bunch of worldbuilding stuff that doesn't comes up in the story. Simple answer is that all animal people like Sonic and co. are hybridizations of human DNA and some other kind of animal. Later on in the story I moved away from referencing that, since it never becomes relevant.

(GOTF Silver does have a bit of mink from his father's side, but that's not what he was referencing)

[spiritsonic]

Really enjoying the comments and tags on the GOTF art from people who don't know the story like "Gee it'd be really cool if there was a story where [DESCRIBING EXACTLY WHAT HAPPENS IN GHOSTS OF THE FUTURE]"

[spiritsonic]

Ghosts of the Future question about Silver's mom, Ginger. She mentions in the comic that she found the amulet that gives her her powers in Apotos, but I was wondering if there was anything more to that or if there are limitations? Like, could anyone get Werehog-type powers by using it? Are there conditions? Must one be attuned to it or something? Apologies if this has been gone over, I looked but couldn't see if you'd addressed it before.

The amulet is actually Chip's bracelet from Unleashed, and it could theoretically give anybody wearing it werehog powers-- I think to be fair, it would take some practice and training to fully tap into its power. Clearly Sonic didn't know about this, so it's not an instant or obvious thing.

(honestly the how's and why's of that whole deal are pretty foggy, sorry)

[spiritsonic]

Hi Evan Stanley, I was reading your fan fiction comics about "Ghosts of the future” where sonic is a Ghost💙, I have to say this one was so Amazing I got interested and started to read more, your comics are so Awesome!😆✨ I have a question is Silver and Blaze are descendants (or Something) from the original Silver and Blaze that Sonic was friends with? In the GOTF🤔

Thanks!

Nope, GOTF Silver and Blaze aren't descendants, they're the original Silver and Blaze of their dimension. in GOTF, '06 never happened so Sonic and Silver had never met before. The Blaze that Sonic met in Rush was actually just an alternate dimension counterpart, and has nothing to do with GOTF Blaze.

[spiritsonic]

I love your holiday sonic! :D His poofy sleeves are the best. I realize you drew him just for fun, so just curious, do you have any story ideas attached to him?

Sort of? It's a de-spookified version of a costume I made up for GOTF Sonic, which was originally made back in 2011 or so for a Christmas NiGHTS/GOTF story that I never finished. Even though the story didn't have legs, I still like drawing the costumes I made up for it, it's a festive way to chart style changes.

2011/2014:

2019/2021:

The 2019 version is my favorite, but this year I wanted to do something that had a little more mass appeal.

[spiritsonic]

I binge-read Ghosts of the Future recently and fell in love with Vennie! She's my favourite character from that comic. We both like memorising Shakespeare! Just out of interest, is she going to join one of those theatre companies that are run by and for disabled people? The idea that "she can't be an actress anymore because she's been paralysed" is kind-of a bummer, and I'd love her to have a happy ending. Being disabled shouldn't stop her pursuing her passion.

Glad you enjoyed her!

And she definitely plans to continue pursuing acting, yeah-- a specialized theatre like you mentioned is very likely, as well as voice acting. She's got options, and more than enough moxie to make it happen.

[spiritsonic]

Wondering since its now black and white, are their any reference art with Shard in full color?

He’ll probably be on a cover sooner or later, but here’s an old concept sketch that will give you the main idea!

[spiritsonic]

Hey there! I was wondering, do you have any concepts/concept art or storylines for gotf that you never ended up using? If so may we see? :)

Sure! There's a handful of things Okida and I have brainstormed at one time or another that I can confidently say won't happen now. Gonna put it under the cut so the post isn't super long!

Black Knight

The main one is a second Storybook Series adventure, this time focusing on Black Knight. We had a good time thinking about the changes to the setting post-game. Our version was more SatAM themed, putting "Robotnik" in the role of an invading Roman general, and "Sally" as a renegade Guinevere leading a Robin Hood-esque band fighting back from Sherwood Forest. There would have been a focus on Silver playing Galahad's role and needing to go on the Seige Perilous. Sonic and Metal were along for the ride too, but due to some magic rules bullshitting Sonic didn't get alive'd again, but instead played a haunted sword alongside Metal as a shield, both wielded by Silver.

(I would have it be known that I came up with this BEFORE Pokemon's sixth gen came out, thus Honedge didn't exist yet. Nintendo, I expect my royalty check in the mail any day now.)

Long story short, while coming up with the setting was fun the story quickly got VERY big and didn't offer a ton of opportunity for character or plot advancement so in the interest of time we decided to not do it.

GOTF Marine

While figuring out all the New Chaotix stuff, we considered adding Marine to the cast. She would have been a friend of Blaze's who was obsessed with conspiracy theories, especially relating to aliens and GUN. She was very pushy and wild, and kind of a technical/hacker genius sort, and of course like her game counterpart she would have been terrified of ghosts. In this earlier version the parents' secrets were kept longer, so the kids ended up doing an investigation on their own, I think.

(I would have it be known that I came up with this BEFORE Sonic Boom or Steven Universe had come out, so Sticks and Peridot didn't exist yet. Cartoon Network, SEGA, I expect my royalty checks in the mail any day now.)

We didn't have anything in mind for her beyond that initial arc though, and Sicily ended up filling the role of paranoid techie person so she never made it in. A bit of a bummer, she would have been fun to write.

Tarnish

Tarnish was the name of Anti-Silver from Moebius, and was considered for a much longer version of the Moebius arc. He would have been the last surviving disciple of Antique's cult, her warped protege. You already know what he would have looked like, the outfit Silver wears during the story was originally intended for Tarnish. the big difference is that when he was a child, Antique had his arms amputated so he'd be forced to develop his psychokinesis faster. So he had big weird psi-arms.

(This isn't actually a picture of Tarnish, I can't find one in my files, but you can see I re-used the arm idea here)

While cool and spooky, Tarnish really boiled down to a miniboss for the gang to fight before reaching Antique, and since Okida and I were getting really tired of being stuck on Moebius we decided to just get back home ASAP. If I ever do a "director's cut" of GOTF in prose form, I'd probably put him back in and expand on Antique's whole deal.

That one time I wrote a GOTF screenplay in college

Ok so in my first screenwriting class in community college, I in my infinite hubris decided to write an alternate version of GOTF that would be more tied to the Archie-verse. I think I was around 17? It starts off as a pretty straight redo/update of Issue 1, then the story veers off as the Zone Cops bust in, here to arrest the boys and destroy the dimension for being a fan AU disrupting the balance of the multiverse. Unfortunately, the class wrapped before I got past the very beginning of act 2... but what's there isn't that bad? It's not perfect, but does a better job explaining the premise and doing things in an exciting way. I have it saved as a PDF, if people want I could put it up on my Patreon.

The absolute worst part was when we did a table read in class. Listening to a random dudebro do a "haha you're too slow!" Sonic impression while reading GOTF Sonic's Traumatic Backstory Monologue... truly exquisite suffering. The teacher loved it, he wanted to submit my script to a college screenwriting competition.

----

Anyway, that's some scrapped GOTF stuff. There's probably more, but these are the ones that came to my mind right now!

[spiritsonic]

Last question from me, I promise! (and this feels like a question that might have been asked before, so sorry, if that’s the case.) Being a seasoned storyteller, say you had to opportunity to go back and change things about the earlier issues of GotF, such as how Silver met Shadow and Sonic, or any other part really. What would you change and what would you keep the same?

Ooh, definitely. If I were to rewrite GOTF, pretty much everything would be adjusted and shuffled around. Nicole, GUN, and the New Chaotix would be introduced sooner. Tikal would be a more active participant in the story, and the stakes of the premise would be more clearly defined and we’d see some consequences early on. Blaze would get to do more and I’d yeet the romance drama stuff into the sun. Sonic and Shadow would clearly be a couple and Sonic would get to do more fun ghost stuff. I could go on, lol.

As for keeping stuff the same... I really like the character arcs for Metal Sonic, Sicily, and Vennie. Also, the Moebius arc probably wouldn’t change that much. Issue 16 is my favorite issue overall, I don’t think I’d change that.

I’m probably not going to rewrite GOTF, though... a lot of the stuff I wish I’d done differently there I’m going to do in new stories instead.

[spiritsonic]

ms. spiritsonic from tumblr, i must know.... when exactly in the writing process did you decide sonic/tikal/shadow was endgame?

Good question, I don't really remember... it's one of those things that evolved naturally, it doesn't really have an exact beginning. It just happened as I got to know the characters better and learned more about myself and the real world, and what options were out there.

I think Okida and I started seriously considering endgame plans around issue... 12, I think? That's around when we teamed up, and the precise direction it was going in began to gel.