#because its a snapcube reference

[weakestskeletonfan85]

The creatures who happen to be in a romantic relationship

[catholic-character-tournament]

Quarter Finals - Catholic Character Tournament

Propaganda below ⬇️

Shadow

In sonic destruction (the AI generated fan thing snapcube made a while ago) shadow was catholic or something which I think is reallyyyyyyy funny

Ok listen. I know this is a stretch but hear me out. He says “oh my God” in the Twitter takeovers so we know this is a possibility. I see him as a Christ-like figure because I saw his whole confrontation with Mephiles and was like “this is a thing that happened in the Bible??” and the pose Mephiles shows him in is literally like a crucifixion and Mephiles is meant to be a demon / false prophet reference. And also he’s called a demon in Shadow The Hedgehog 2005 then the guy who calls him that is like “I was wrong I’m sorry” and that also reminds me of a thing with Jesus in The Bible. But the biggest reason is his whole thing with Maria cause I think he’d come to earth and hear Ave Maria once and convert to Catholicism idk he’s like we’re comforted by a female familial figure named Mary sometimes called Maria?? And her color is blue????? Heck yeah I’m in because I Will Cry. Also feel free to share this as propaganda obv even if he doesn’t get in the bracket just. It’s funny.

I feel like he’d battle a lot with being seen or portrayed as a demon and how the aliens he’s related to very much look and act like demons idk lmao- and also I feel like confession would just be good for him I think he needs it for his mental health

There is a debate on the lovely website tunblr that Shadow T. Hedgehog is an allegory for Jesus Christ.

He is Jesus, idk what to tell you. He lived, he was sealed away, he was awakened again and deemed the ultimate lifeforms, he’s angry but not evil, does what he believes is best for people and the world at any given time. Total loser.

Vote for Shadow the Hedgehog

There seems to be some confusion in the notes. He is Catholic. It may not be explicit, but it can be inferred.

Shadow was created by Professor Gerald Robotnik, and for the early part of his life, lived with Gerald and his granddaughter, Maria Robotnik.

Robotnik is not a made-up name. Google Search results may only bring up pages related to the Robotniks of the Sonic the Hedgehog series, however, it is a rarely used Polish surname. Poland is a historically Catholic nation, and… come on. Maria is the most Catholic name ever. The Robotniks are Catholic. Shadow was created and raised by Catholics.

Now you may be wondering to yourself: Does Catholicism even exist in Sonic? The answer is yes, at least in the Archie comics, where Protestants are explicitly mentioned.

Couple this with the fact that several characters, including Shadow, have canonically taken the Lord’s name in vain, it is reasonable to infer that Christianity, and therefore Catholicism, exists.

So… while Shadow’s own religious beliefs may not have been explicitly addressed… at minimum:

Catholic is a cultural designation that Shadow will always be allowed to claim based on the family that made him.

Whether he’d actually want to claim that designation is a different conversation, but the other propaganda does a fine job of explaining why it may be appropriate to headcanon him as a practicing Catholic.

Now that we’ve established that Shadow has as much of a right to be in this tournament as anyone else, there’s one very important reason you should vote for him:

It would be funny if he won.

Thank you.

Essays are done!! Here’s some Shadow propaganda because the propaganda we currently have sucks and I need to fix that. While yes, Shadow being Catholic is a meme, there is more to outside of the simple “fandub said so” and its not quite stated its Catholicism but just how he behaves and his actions. There’s a lot of Sonic content so I will try to keep this brief. Gonna get headcanons out of the way.

Shadow is Chilean and so are Maria and Gerald Robotnik because I fucking say so and they’re Catholic. He definitely had un rosario next to his like. Bed or test tube whatever he slept in. So did Maria btw. Alright let’s move on because I am 100% correct.

Let’s start with some background for Shadow. Shadow was created as a cure for a girl called Maria and he grew to care for her as a sister and loved her deeply. He was artificially created but still holds a soul that is similar to Maria’s. Long story short, Maria is killed protecting Shadow who watches as she’s shot in front of him. He has his memories tampered by Maria’s grandfather, Gerald, who manipulates him into carrying out revenge on the Earth, even if Shadow ends up as collateral.

Shadow struggles with frequent identity crises, even before Maria’s death and always wondered what his purpose was, what he was made to do. Was he a weapon? Was he a cure? He’s the Ultimate Lifeform, but what does that truly mean? ? He’s Shadow, but what more is there to him? He doesn’t know what his purpose is other than what others have prescribed to him, and he guides himself through the will of others (something that he breaks through afterwards but not yet). Shadow at his core is self-sacrificing and constantly punishes himself. This is where you can see some of that good old guilt that everyone has been using as propaganda, but we also see someone who is giving and kind.

He is snarky in the game, especially when interacting with Sonic, but he’s having what is essentially an ongoing mental breakdown but keeps moving because it is his duty to his sister. He doesn’t believe himself important enough to continue on after her and sees it in himself to act out on “Maria’s wishes”. After the revelation that Maria’s final wish for Shadow was for him to make those on Earth happy and to protect them, he immediately sacrifices himself to do so.

Okay, that’s a lot and you’re probably asking “Okay, you mentioned he is a giving person and yeah he has guilt, but that’s not really Catholicism” and yes you would be right! So let’s go into the more important part of being Catholic. The charity, the community, the kindness, etc. Shadow is a very reserved person and has the habit of being a dumb teenager because well. Yeah. Anyways, he definitely has a soft spot for those he cares about and while his whole arc (in my opinion) is about finding the freedom of self-autonomy, it is also Shadow growing as a person and deciding not to save people because others have told him he needs to, but because he wants to. It is born from his soul and its his nature to care for people. It is who he is, and he knows it now. He’s not doing it because he’s a hero or because he is told to do so. Shadow is a very giving person and I think people tend to forget about that especially due to bad writing from the past decade or so. He is also stated to help out at food shelters and volunteers a lot. He is proud and a bit prickly, but he cares so deeply about those he loves. He is stronger with his loved ones and will always do his best to protect them. These are minor, yeah, but you don’t need sweeping and enormous acts to get attention for the good deeds you do. Most of what you apply of Catholicism is done at the personal level, between your friends, family, and community.He also goes to Mass whenever he can and if he can’t he goes to the capilla and also does the sign of the cross whenever he runs by a church. Cutting this off because this is already 740-ish words and I had to send these across multiple asks I am so sorry Catholic mod

Harrowhark

I'm pretty sure you've already got plenty of submissions for her so I'll just say she was raised in what is basically a cult (technically a nunnery but let's be real) dedicated to keeping the body of the thing that will kill God behind the rock. One of their prayers is actually "I pray the rock is never rolled away". Harrow is extremely devout as penance for her earlier heretical actions in the tomb as a child (spoiler!) so the Catholic guilt really comes through

imagine being a catholic nun and you meet god, but it turns out he’s a twitch streamer from new zealand who became god because everything got a little bit out of hand. and just before you met him you gave yourself a diy grief-fuelled lobotomy with the help of your best frenemy. imagine how insane you’d be. now multiply that insanity by nine. that’s the fictional love of my life right there.

she meets god. she’s not inspired

she’s number one practitioner of space Catholicism. The locked tomb is chock full of Christian (catholic) imagery themes metaphors etc. just look at her she’s got a bone rosary

They're Catholicism with extra bones. Everyone is a nun. They have what is basically a rosary made from knuckle bones. They technically worship the same God as everyone else, but they're waaaay more focused on The Body in the Tomb (Mary) and we get a moment where we find out that while everyone else prays the equivilent of The Lords Prayer, they're doing the equivilent of Hail Mary. And they paint their faces with skulls.

She thinks leaving dry bread in a drawer is taking care of someone. She's in love with a 10,000 year old corpse (the same one they worship). She spent ALL NIGHT digging with her bare hands to make sure a field had bones every 5 feet so she could fight her girlfriend - I mean, greatest enemy. Spoiler territory: She's been puppeting her parents corpses since she was 8 years old. Instead of grieving her dead girlfriend, she gives herself a lobotomy. She makes soup with bone in it so she can use the bone IN THEIR STOMACH to try and kill them.

The author is/was Catholic and the entire series had heavy Catholic overtones. https://www.tor.com/2020/08/19/gideon-the-ninth-young-pope-and-the-new-pope-are-building-a-queer-catholic-speculative-fiction-canon/ A good breakdown of how it's Catholic

Anti-propaganda (spoilers)

I love the Locked Tomb series but Harrowhark has daddy issues with God, had a childhood crush on God's cryogenic partner, and is in love with God's daughter, not to mention that she's essentially a bone-bender. The religion on her home planet exists in a way that is technically against the will of the canon in-universe God, even. All of this to say, Harrowhark is heretical at minimum if not an outright witch. Terrible Catholic. Burn her.

[crusherthedoctor]

Tbh, the more I think about frontiers, the more it feels “artificial” it looks like a sonic game, and has elements people wanted, but it doesn’t feel natural. When I look at superstars, thats how I see sonic as a franchise. But when I look at frontiers, I get constant mixed feelings, especially with how it handled certain characters and story. I don’t know, but frontiers was probably a wolf in sheep’s clothing.

Agreed.

It's not just the obvious qualities, like how it's piggybacking off of Breath of the Wild, or how various aspects of the level design are cobbled haphazardly in a way that detracts from the intended open world experience, or how bland everything is and how "Starfall Islands is meant to have its own aesthetic and style" doesn't work as an argument when there is no aesthetic and style for the environments, or how the writing feels a lot more Archie-esque, or how the voice actors sound less "I'm doing a low-key portrayal of these characters" and more "I'm genuinely depressed and bored IRL", or how The End is nowhere near as gripping as its manifestation of death schtick warrants, or how Tails says he's Wildly Inconsistent, or... everything to do with Eggman. Because even putting all that aside, the little things are frequently off as well.

Like cutscene pacing for example. There are so many moments with unnaturally drawn out pauses between characters during a conversation, and them just kind of fucking around and merely existing, the latter of which was something that the Pontaff games frequently got criticised for by fans. Then there's the specific way that references are often pulled off: they rarely feel natural and non-intrusive, and with how shoehorned they can get, you get the impression that they're desperately trying to convince you that they're totally Sonic fans to compensate for not actually knowing the games past the surface. Especially since half of them aren't even accurate references. Like shit, why not add an overdone Snapcube reference while you're at it, might as well given fans remember that more than they do the actual games at this point.

And I know I keep bringing this up, but I must stress: why is it that, nearly a year since the game originally came out, and despite all its popularity and acclaim, and fans taking any opportunity they can to boast about said acclaim ("It won an award!")... I can never find sincere praise for it that doesn't boil down to vague "They fixed it!" refrains, with maybe a side dish of Fuck Pontaff at most? Why am I more likely to find someone who can explain the ins and outs of why they like ShtH, ironically or unironically? Why am I more likely to find someone who can explain in helpful detail why they like Sonic Underground? Why are these diehard fans of Frontiers so reluctant to actually discuss the game, instead of repeating "It's the best because it is, please notice me Flynn senpai" over and over?

I'm sure they'd say that Frontiers' widespread adoration by the fandom shows they did something right. As if popularity automatically equates to quality. As if I can trust what a fandom that has grown to care more about portrayals that openly shit on the games has to say in order to convince me that I just don't get it, maaan.

[gotta-draw-fast]

Its been three yrs since I last drew Shadow, and of course its with the Snapcube references. Also, his quills know no order nor justice. A comb? Unheard of. If you dont want him at his worst you wont have him at all because that's his permanent state of being. Gl buddy

[flutteringfable]

snapcube sonic dub bits i reference an unhealthy amount:

“shadow its me da devil! i’m here to convince ya to do sin!”

“woah hes bisexual i didn’t know that”

“as you can see ive knocked over many chairs because i get so tilted at the towers”

pumpkin hill.

“shadow! get back here right now— SHADOW”

“za warudo!” “i’ll make you eat those words!”

“i have 70 alternative accounts!”

“i thought we were friends, shadow!”

[infizero-draws]

Hey! I followed you because I think your art is super funky and awesome and cool and I've been mildly interested in Sonic for awhile now. Most of my content is very secondhand, like commentary videos and the Snapcube dubs.

To make a long story short, I want to get into Sonic. Like for realsies. There's so much content out there and I don't know anyone personally who enjoys it, so how do you suggest I approach this?

Aw thank you so much I'm glad you like my art!!

It really depends on what you're most interested in! Sonic is a franchise that spans different mediums and has been on-going for a long time, so there's a lot of content with very different vibes and varying levels of quality (though that's subjective of course).

I'd say that probably the best way overall to get familiar with the characters and world as a newcomer is to read the IDW comics! They're very well-written, have gorgeous art, and are easily accessible to new fans while still having lots of references to previous installments. They take place directly after Sonic Forces, but they summarize the events of that game so don't worry about needing that context. There's also a couple of mini-series to check out!

There's the games of course, which are the main canon that the IDW comics build off of/are technically a part of. I would personally recommend Sonic Adventure 2, it's my favorite game and though basically everyone calls it their favorite, like, it's for a reason. SA2 for me is the best game overall, as its story is great, the gameplay is fun and works perfectly alongside the story, and it's just full of charm. It's the most cohesive Sonic game imo, everything feels so interconnected and masterfully woven together, I love playing it. Don't be scared off by the "2" in the title btw, though there are some elements from Sonic Adventure that are referenced, you can still totally enjoy it without knowing anything about the first game as it's mainly standalone.

^ (also sidenote but sa2's story got a littleee muddled by the english localization, its not the worst but i'd recommend this video that goes over the story in detail with an emphasis on the original japanese script. there used to be an upload of the jp cutscenes with faithful eng subtitles but unfortunately last year the channel got nuked and there weren't any backups T_T im still not over it)

When it comes to recommending games it sort of depends on whether you plan on actually playing them yourself or just watching someone else play them, because there's a lot of Sonic games that have really good stories but subpar gameplay, or games that don't really have a story but good gameplay. Also everyone has their own preferences when it comes to types of games so there's that too.

Sonic is a franchise that both sort of has an overarching story (or at least they did back in the early 2000s when the games had a story that was built upon with each game, something that we might be finally returning to with Sonic Frontiers!) and also has many games and cartoons where they're kind of separate from all of that and function as standalone stories or just take place in their own universes entirely. There's many different canons across the different mediums, but the main one is the mainline games + IDW + now Sonic Prime on Netflix, which is apparently also canon to the main game canon!

Sorry if this is overwhelming >< it's a big franchise with a lot of different stuff and different canons and a wonky timeline so it's sort of hard to pinpoint the exact things a new fan """"should"""" check out. I'd say check out the IDW comics and then see if any of the games (or just their cutscenes in a compilation on YouTube lol) spark your interest!

And I say this every time I get these kinds of asks about a fandom I'm in, but PLEASE feel free to send me another ask or even shoot me a dm if you're comfortable if you want more specific advice or are confused about something, I literally love nothing more than talking about sonic the hedgehog at length. (Although I'd prefer if you sent them to my main @infizero as I use this account mainly just for art ^_^)

Anyways I hope this helped in some way ToT

[egg-emperor]

Mate, I understand why you're upset, and I think you have every right to ask that people don't interact with your blog using fandub stuff. It is your blog, after all! But like...you can't just go around insulting people because they like something that you don't like. As far as I can tell, it's not problematic in any way (if it was, I would encourage you to bully its fan base relentlessly). Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, though. Like, seriously. Please tell me.

You're allowed to interpret this character however you please. So is everyone else. And you gotta understand that when people make references to the fandub, they are no longer talking about the same Eggman you are. Canon Eggman and Snapcube Eggman are two entirely different characters. I do understand your frustration with people who don't seem to understand that, though. There are fandub fans who think of them as one and the same, which is very incorrect. But in the end, they're not really harming you (unless they ignore your DNI warnings n stuff, that's fucked up).

You DO, however, have the right to be as bitchy as you please to anyone who doesn't respect your wishes when they interact with your posts.

And I get that it's annoying. You've probably blocked every tag you can think of, and you probably still see that shit every day. At that point, you've kinda just gotta scroll past it.

In what way am I insulting people? I didn't say a mean thing about anybody in that post. It's not like I'm calling anyone stupid, or a piece of shit, or the reason why the fandom is bad- which are all things I was called just for politely requesting that the jokes weren't commented on my YouTube video and posts. They have done this on all of my social media for the past four years and people always get angry and rude when I say I'm not comfortable with it.

I share my honest thoughts and feelings relating to Eggman and I'm always going to be honest and never repress it or pretend to feel differently. I personally dislike the fandub, I'm allowed to find it unfunny and be tired of seeing it everywhere. And I'm sick of being insulted when people get pissed at how I don't want it on my posts and videos. I have no idea how I'm possibly insulting anyone when I share my opinions about a fandub. I'm not saying anything bad about the creators or the fans.

I'm aware that they're not the same, I'm not the one that can't separate them. That would be the people that can't look a single picture of Eggman in anything, especially in SA2, without making a fandub joke. Turning a completely unrelated post and piece of media into a fandub joke is talking about the same canon Eggman, because it wasn't initially about the fandub and that's where my frustrations lie. A massive majority of people are doing this and those are the ones I'm referring to.

It's hard to just scroll past it when it's always commented on completely unrelated posts and I actually like the post and want to interact with it but it's flooded out with fandub jokes. And yeah, it's frustrating on top of that when I've tried to block tons of words and phrases and still can't escape it. I still stand by what I've been saying for the past four years and when I'm sharing my thoughts on my own blog and am very clearly not insulting anyone, I don't see the problem with me posting my thoughts.

[randomthefox]

I don't think there's anything wrong with the concept of an Abridged dub, there's certainly a market for that. But like with Ghost Stories it's kinda a problem for the bigger discussion of the material if this dub is the only way people engage with the series. And it certainly is now, considering stuff like Snapcube and many other dubs are watched less because they actually play off the original material somehow and more because people only see the out of context memes and go "haha funny meme i got that reference and i claaaapped"

Honestly even the snapcube fandubs isn't AS bad as the Ghost Stories dub, because the original game is still there to be played instead. In some ways the original game is more accessible than the snapcube video is. The youtube videos require an internet connection. Sonic games do not, you can just pop the disc in or load up the rom file and play it even when you're stuck on a desert island.

The problem with the Ghost Stories dub is it was created because the dubbers did not have any respect for the show they were working on. sergeant Frog has an abridged parody tier dub, but sergeant Frog is a comedy show. Taking a comedy show and doing a cracked out wacky dumbfuck dub isn't SO bad, again it's like the Super Milk Chan thing.

But Ghost Stories is. SUPPOSED to be. A serious show? With real characters and an actual horror vibe? It's supposed to be a show about GHOST STORIES? You're SUPPOSED to take it seriously. And the dub DECIDED to turn it into a comedy. For no reason other than the people working on the dub decided the show didn't deserve to be taken and translated on its own merits, and nobody had the good sense to fucking stop them.

Would the show have gotten the acclaim it had if the dub had been more legitimate? It certainly wouldn't have gotten the KIND of acclaim it did. But that argument is unfalsifiable because we'll never know, because they didn't do it. Frankly the fact of the matter is, regardless of how it would have turned out, Ghost Stories was not their story to ruin. They had no right. And if the shoe was on the other foot, I can't imagine they or you or any other creative individual in the world would take very kindly to someone out there in the world deciding that the story you created was a turd and thus they're entitled to completely rewrite what you wrote and insert a bunch of dead crack baby jokes instead. Because it'd be "funny" and make people throw their popcorn at the screen like it's rocky horror picture show, and you've arbitrarily decided that that has more value to it than DOING YOUR GOD DAMN JOB of translating the script you were GIVEN.

I have not seen and have no emotional investment in the original japanese script of Ghost Stories. I consider the dub to be pretty disgusting and reprehensible simply based on principle.

[bye-bye-firefly]

About the Last of Us thing-should I look up a play through of it to watch before reading your crossover thingy?? Cause like I’m only vaguely aware of plot and the only piece of media related to it I’ve consumed is this this video by inquisitormaster where she turned it into it a pokemon go thingy that I watched like 3 years ago. The game seems so cool though and I’ve wanted to watch a playthrough of it for awhile but I had been going to wait until I finished watching playthroughs for some other games but then I read your posts about your crossover like 2 minutes ago and started debating on if I should start watching it now. Anyway, what’re you most excited about it?

(If I sound delirious in this, it’s because it’s past midnight and I am)

oh my GOSH so basically i have it set POST tlou2 because well im deranged and i like both the games and i want shuichi and kaede to be going to santa barbara and. HONESTLY? .

Okay well i was about to type out spoilers LOL okay i love tlou. i can only recommend forever that people either play or watch tlou AND tlou2 because people will hate on that game just to hate it. i swear. i love both games. so like totally absolutely i would recommend penny snapcube's playthrough of the first game and then from there you should be good! like we dont reference anything that happens in tlou2 other than The Fireflies Are Now In Santa Barbara. no mention of abby or ellie or what have you. but still. its highly important to understand how the Stages of Infection work. i love tlou infected i adore them forever. can you tell ive been playing this game obsessively ever since it came out when i was a wee boy

i am really excited to write soooo much of these relationships because that is truly what tlou was about to me. but. then again. every single piece of media i interact with and write has to do with Love and Relationships and Loving People. its always about love with me. i am very excited to write the dynamic that is so severely underrated that is kaede, kokichi, and miu. those three are a RIOT. not one person says "stop" everyone is pressing the gas and doing more than the other

[mortar-canyon]

... I haven't even finished this blog yet but I'm very tempted to draw some shots from the Snapcube script and wrangle it into something that makes sense

I know I'm thinking to hard about it but. shut.

here are my ideas so far:

The shot of the hotel early on is to establish not the building itself, but the city. When Sonic leaves the frame, the camera continues panning up, until you can see a massive metal arch in the sky, and behind that, open space. That's right, sci-fi space colony time babeyyyyyy

The billboard is referring to the actual planet Earth. When Elise and Shadow return home, it's to help fix the disaster that created the hole - specifically, another Dark Gaia incident. Long story short, the planet's been under too much strain, and its goddess lashed out in self-defense.

A bunch of the remaining Shadow Androids were used to try and stop her, but instead, they only wound up destroying everything she was trying to protect, including the wilderness around Soleanna. This is why Iblis, as the "dragon", wants to get revenge against Shadow, too.

The second Shadow was one of those androids. Enough said.

There are multiple different factions within the government, all trying to work out who is best prepared to defend the new space colonies. The city this story takes place in is big, but not necessarily important, so whoever's in charge doesn't really care about mediating the disputes when there are bigger fish to fry. As such, there is wiggle room for "heroes", like Sonic and his team, to try to step in and push out groups like Eggman's who want to take a far more strict approach to the job. At the end of the day, though, they've all learned a lot from the disaster on Earth, and know that in a pinch, they are stronger together than apart. (Eggman redemption arc pog?)

There aren't actually that many people in the city yet; it's still under development, so most of the population is made up of robot shells. The people in these shells are sort of... Hooked up to a network, so if the shell dies, they're fine, they'll just get yoinked back to the hub on another colony.

The new Gerald is a clone, created by Eggman. OG Snapcube Gerald was Ivo's dad, and by Shadow logic, Eggman is New Gerald's dad. They both think it's hilarious and will not shut up about their running gag.

Eggman keeps attacking with minor threats because he wants to test out the security he's set up, and make the heroes look bad in comparison. The bigger robots, though, are all for dealing with major threats.

[loving-parappa-always]

i cant escape it

why is sonic appearing everywhere for me.  first my mom gifted me a sonic the hedgehog blanket that i used to have when i was six, then im watching parks and rec and they reference sonic, AND THEN i find myself watching a sonic parody animation on youtube IN MY GODDAMN SONIC BLANKET and GUESS WHAT BITCHES?? I FIND A SONIC GAME ON THE FLOOR OF MY DADS ROOM. I. WILL NOT FUCKING STAND FOR THIS. ITS ALWAYS SONIC THIS OR SONIC THAT, I WILL NOT HAVE ANYMORE OF THIS SHIT IS IT BECAUSE I WATCHED THE SONIC 06 FANDUB BY SNAPCUBE?? IS THAT IT?  WHY MUST YOU TORMENT ME WITH THIS BLUE SPEEDY FUCKER. I DONT EVEN HATE OR LOVE SONIC BUT I CANT STOP FUCKIN SEEING THE GUY.  I DIDNT ASK FOR A LIFE LIKE THIS NOR DID I ASK FOR SOME BLUE GUMBALL ASS HOE TO KEEP COMING IN MY LIFE. THATS IT. IM DONE. NO MORE GODDAMN SONIC.NEVER AGAIN.

[doctorguilty]

sys talk this got sadder than intended but ............ it be like that sometimes 

i feel like I should have put this together a lot sooner but I FIGURED SOMETHING OUT about Fear that’s really good

so basically how my system seems to work is that media interests/likes/etc are mostly overlapping for everyone, but for some system mates it’s their SI so it’ll be their favorite thing or theyre most passionate about it, when theyre awake they’ll reach for that

i’m an absolute idiot for not putting together the correlation of fear being awake for near the whole month of january so far (cause of ptsd stuff like thats unrelated) and having a sudden urge to talk about sonic games, its been like every other night or MORE that I’ll be feeling very Upset in bed trying to sleep so I’ll play snapcube sonic videos on my phone and literally fall asleep to them to calm down dskjfdsgsd and it only occurred to me after drawing that art and thinking about that song and thinking about living with my mom and the hundreds of hours spend playing my sonic adventure collection sdjfhsjghdsg FUCK 

like you know who would have been around a HUGE amount of time back then???? the part that literally split as a survival mechanism in my abusive home???? that we lived in for 18 years??????? adhsadgasfhdsgjasg 

and I fucking REMEMBER now holy shit, it came flooding back, I mean I remembered being really into the sonic series as an SI but holy hell other people in school bullied me about it, including my own friends, and omg I remember......... everything I ever collected i had like, plushes of a bunch of the characters, they all must have been thrown out cause I have no recent recollection of ever seeing them again 

but fear would have been so involved in all that, I know it used to be a very very VERY frequent fronter when we were like, surviving all that, and that was defs before any other EP’s existed in the group I am aware of now, in fact I’m not 100% sure Doc existed back then??? more information needed??? but it woulda just been me and fear...........which makes sense, because of the way it seems to only connect to me in the system and not really any one else................... 

god oh fuck everything makes so much sense I’m having like, flashbacks about it............ it’s no wonder its so upset, imagine being an entity protecting yourself and someone you might consider a sibling or twin in an abstract sense, taking the flack of child abuse, and then when you grow up your twins like, hey thanks for making it so i dont have to think about that a lot anymore you can do that for me, also fuck you for being a psychopath, ,, and no therapist or anything will help you, and everyone on the outside hates you because you only get to express yourself when you take over and explode on people, and no one gets it because no one knows any better, they see you as a sickness, rather than a victim of it like if YOU were a virus or parasitic infection. 

but you’re not you were just an abused kid, who grew up into an abused adult with no friends, no support system, nothing personally valuable to you, and you started becoming abusive yourself because you’re scared and no one can SEE that you’re just scared and not a single soul ever taught you differently, you have NO frame of reference for what love looks like other than violence 

and it’s weird being a system, because in an overall sense, what happened to me was fucked  up and not fair for sure, just like, me as a person, as an individual human being, and all my system mates deal with the repercussions of that. but then there’s this one specific piece who absorbed the MOST of it, became the sickest, and all I ever did was blame that piece for making my life hard and shut it out. and that’s not fair.. and I didn’t know any better and no one helped me and in fact, I received a lot of uniformed, bad advice that shutting Fear out was the correct way to handle things, but i still hold myself accountable��

I’m glad I know better now because I’ve only seen an exponential amount of progress from the day I started going in a different direction and hearing out that EP wanting to build a better relationship... 

whack. anyway i got off track and emotional and started crying at one point while writing sdhfdjgdfshk it wasnt supposed to be that intense its just like, hey I figured out what Fear likes but .............. discovering anything about it comes with some weight and you can see why.. there’s a lot to unpack even in the smallest things because.. everything has just been sitting in the back of my brain like.untouched. for 20+ years 

[catholic-character-tournament]

Round 3 - Catholic Character Tournament

Propaganda below ⬇️

Gabriel

Well he's an angel so I'm taking him being catholic as canon. There are a lot of themes in the game that point to catholisism specifically.

He's so fucking funny. he listens to nine inch nails and quotes one of the songs in a fight basically "fight me like an animal". he and v1 kind of have this yuri thing going on. he has an official bodypillow. hes a metaphor for being excommunicated and no one gets him like me and my friends do

The *true* Catholic experience is leaving the church and having a gay awakening, ask anyone

its debatable if Gabriel truly believes he's "the one true savior" or is mocking the idea of it

ok im actually gonna write some gabe propaganda bc despite what you may expect from a game called ULTRAKILL theres a lot to be said about his character and how catholicism is represented

Gabriel is a genuinely caring person who struggles to square his desire to help people with his duty as an archangel. He's the only one in Heaven trying to make things better for those in Hell, but his faith is used to manipulate him into committing atrocities against the people he used to protect (see the "TRAITOR" mural in 4-2)

he only realizes his mistakes after losing everything and being sentenced to death, but he still decides with only a little time remaining to try and make things right. for the sake of spoilers i will just say that the measures he takes are... extremely drastic and very enjoyable. i just really like the idea that even facing the end of all living things, no matter how steep your crimes, it is never too late to fix your mistakes. you are never unworthy forgiveness.

hes also SO FUCKING GAY for this dumb little robot. it mauled him so hard he tasted his own blood and he fell in love right there. theres no way this guy has a normal healthy relationship to pain he is soooooooooo fucked. i love him. please vote for Gabriel "patron saint of gay lapsed catholics" Ultrakill !!!!!!!!

Shadow

In sonic destruction (the AI generated fan thing snapcube made a while ago) shadow was catholic or something which I think is reallyyyyyyy funny

Ok listen. I know this is a stretch but hear me out. He says “oh my God” in the Twitter takeovers so we know this is a possibility. I see him as a Christ-like figure because I saw his whole confrontation with Mephiles and was like “this is a thing that happened in the Bible??” and the pose Mephiles shows him in is literally like a crucifixion and Mephiles is meant to be a demon / false prophet reference. And also he’s called a demon in Shadow The Hedgehog 2005 then the guy who calls him that is like “I was wrong I’m sorry” and that also reminds me of a thing with Jesus in The Bible. But the biggest reason is his whole thing with Maria cause I think he’d come to earth and hear Ave Maria once and convert to Catholicism idk he’s like we’re comforted by a female familial figure named Mary sometimes called Maria?? And her color is blue????? Heck yeah I’m in because I Will Cry. Also feel free to share this as propaganda obv even if he doesn’t get in the bracket just. It’s funny.

I feel like he’d battle a lot with being seen or portrayed as a demon and how the aliens he’s related to very much look and act like demons idk lmao- and also I feel like confession would just be good for him I think he needs it for his mental health

There is a debate on the lovely website tunblr that Shadow T. Hedgehog is an allegory for Jesus Christ.

He is Jesus, idk what to tell you. He lived, he was sealed away, he was awakened again and deemed the ultimate lifeforms, he’s angry but not evil, does what he believes is best for people and the world at any given time. Total loser.

[dualitysdownfall]

Portal 2 turns 8 today, so here is the third and final-for-now android GLaDOS I designed. This is the first full piece I’ve done of her, and the most detailed. Many new things were tried as well.

But instead of talking about the art I’m going to talk about the game. It’s not the anniversary of my art after all.

I only discovered Portal a little over a year ago, through SnapCube on YouTube. (Go check her out, she’s wonderful.) I constantly watch her videos even if I know nothing about the game just because she and her friends are so great and funny. I figured the same would be the case when I clicked on the first episode of Portal 2. It was when I was having to re-watch the same part of the video, once to see what the game was saying and once to see what Penny and Ryan were saying, that I figured I should probably look further into Portal.

So I did. To this day I’m still not quite sure what about it captivated me so--it’s quite evident, to me at least, that it’s not as simple as how it appears to my brain at first glance. You can tell, because of how many comments and tags I’ve written about its complexity. I guess even despite being panromantic and nonbinary, I don’t work well with things that are ambiguous or not clear-cut. And a lot of Portal’s story and characterizations lie in gray areas. You could say GLaDOS is the villain, and maybe she is in the first game, threatening to kill Chell right up until she meets her own demise. But that certainly doesn’t remain the case. Would a truly, wholly evil villain grant Chell her freedom? I think for the most part she was misguided by the scientists who made her and affected by the circumstances she was in following her activation. But I still stand by the assertion I indirectly made over a year ago in starting to write Humanoid Nature; that being that at the end of the day, GLaDOS is, despite her appearance, far more empathetic and far more human than she cares to admit, and her refusal to embrace that even after the events of Portal 2 (see her comments in co-op) is doing her no favors. She’s hurt and killed numerous people, she’s hurt and almost surely traumatized her best and only friend (we all know who that line in Want You Gone was referring to, no matter how immediately you denied it, GLaDOS!), and she’s still trying to convince herself that it’s fine, that she doesn’t need Chell or anyone else. Maybe deeper inside she feels not that she doesn’t need Chell, but that she doesn’t deserve Chell. Sure, they’ve both done awful things to each other. They’ve been antagonizing each other this whole time. But Chell saved GLaDOS and brought her back to power. And GLaDOS let Chell leave the facility and find a new life on the surface. Maybe she thinks she doesn’t deserve Chell, or anyone, she’s hurt all these people, she deserves to be lonely, at least that way the only people she’s really hurting are easily-reassembled robots who don’t seem to mind all that much.

There’s a lot to analyze in Portal, and I can’t analyze to save my life, not this kind anyway. But that last sentence was something I came up with entirely on my own, not influenced by a fic or anyone else’s analysis, which is why I’m very self-conscious that it’s probably not as good or accurate as someone else’s might be. But carrying on.

No one in Portal is definitively good or definitively bad. They’ve all done some bad things. But they have their redeeming qualities, and I love them. 

I wanted to try to keep this thread going, about what I make of the game itself, but I lost my train of thought entirely and don’t know how to tie it to a new one. So I’ll just start talking about the community.

Uh, it’s great. Despite not having a canon release in 8 years, the Portal fandom (especially on tumblr!!) is still going strong and creating amazing fanworks. Though the dedicated Portal fan has become an endangered species of sorts, I see beautiful Portal art every day, and have read so many fantastic fics, that I was inspired from the get-go to start making my own. And honestly, it’s resulted in some of my proudest creations. We even have a pretty dedicated RP community. 

So here’s to the friends, mutuals, and acquaintances I’ve made through the Portal fandom @tacothehawko @cave-science-johnson @ask-glados @beth-the-robot-enthusiast @thevoidsflame @arya-skulblaka

So yeah, maybe I was so late to this one that I have to follow the glados, chell, wheatley, and chelldos tags to get the amount of content on my dash that I can for something more recent without following any tags, but the nice part about being in a fandom 8 years after its last canon installment is that you know the people you’re interacting with really care about it. Either they have for years, or they too are discovering how beautifully the series holds up even after so long.

I think that’s all I have to say for now. Portal really means a lot to me so it was only fitting that I do something for the anniversary of Portal 2. I might finish another drawing later today, if I do I’ll post that too, keep an eye out both here and on @melancholy-starlight-art.