#im just trying to write him going against eggman

[rapidhighway]

every time I try to make up a scenario with metal i just end up writing surge. But that is not my fault and i will simply ignore that

[anyydidi]

Yeah, so i need to talk about my AUs more. That being said, i recently thought of a new one im so in love with.

Basically our dear villain Eggman kidnaps our beloved Tails, because “yeah, that little brat makes my life miserable, lets brainwash him and use him as a lab assistant.” yknow the trope,,

Why did he simply not kidnap Sonic since he makes Eggys life even more miserable? Easy, Tails is way easier to capture and two geniuses on his side is way better than one.

But of course, something backfires and Egghead can try all he wants, but Tails just wont listen and behave. So he dumps him somewhere far from Sonics last known location so he doesnt get back that fast.

And not long after that, Sonic finds Eggman and demands his little brother back. And what? Sonic doesnt know that Tails is free yet? Eggy needs to take advantage of that! “oh dear Sonic! Your little sidekick is dead! Couldnt handle one of my experiments, such a shame. He had a lot of potential.”

And Sonic does not believe him, but he does get mad and his rage probably results in Eggman dying lol. (I thought about him going Dark or smt, but im not sure about that. Eggman does eventually die not long after though).

But we know that Tails is alive, so why hasnt he got back yet?! Well, what Eggman didnt know was that his brainwashing DID kind of work and he got some kind of amnesia, where he forgot basically everything (except some pieces there and there). Plus since Eggman’s goal was for Tails to forget he is Tails and that he had some connection to Sonic, he absolutely REFUSES to acknowledge he might be that genius inventor. He gets all mad and crazy when someone mentions he does look a lot like his old self. That’s why Sonic or anyone else cannot find him. He made himself a completely new persona and avoids his old one at all costs.

He does eventually (dont know after how long yet tho) reunite with Sonic and his old friends, because he is a VERY complicated person. The after effects of the brainwashing include him having some kind of urges and impulses to cause chaos. He robs a bank, committes some kind of arson or property damage etc, but he ALSO stays true to his morals and old beliefs and helps others a lot.  Like fighting with some villages against the new villain (something like Tangle before she met Sonic and comp.), or generally fixing other people’s stuff (thats why hes still not in prison, because all his bad doings are forgiven for his good ones).

So he does something bad, gets arrested and for some reason, Amy is at the police station and is like “wtf ur Tails omg?? We have been searching for u for years??” but of course, Tails refuses, so she calls Sonic and hes all like “jesus amy i told u to give it up, hes dead and- woah he fr is Tails.” and Tails STILL does not believe them, so they tell him that because he did something bad, he needs to help them on their new mission so he doesnt have to go to jail and he agrees.

Sonic and others then pretend to think hes not Tails so he doesnt get, how i said “mad and crazy”, until they stumble upon Eggmans old recordings of his experiments on Tails and he FINALLY gets his memories back.

They then of course need to work on getting all the brainwashing from Tails’ head, because it cant just ✨disappear✨, but he does get better eventually.

Oh and do NOT get me started on how Sonic is through all of this. The only thing you need to know for now is that he gets EXTREME separation anxiety after finally finding Tails, and gets overprotective af even tho he tries to hide it.

This took me mf 30 minutes to write. I have no idea how i did that.

[chromaji]

oh i really like how this scene looks… shadow & rouge look really nice here, and the nice sunset background… there’s also a slight texture over the characters i think? i like it.

Also it was funny recognizing this shadow face from that “it must suck teleporting with adhd” “how the FUCK did i end up in nevada” post. i’d been wondering where the images used there was from.

anyway i like that Shadow at least acknowledged that he, yanno, kinda fucked up a bit there. But really the whole metal virus arc was so “everything is happening so much” that it was like. bro they had to bust out the chaos emeralds & super forms to gaslight gatekeep girlboss their way out of this one hgkgh.

Like as cool as it was to see Super Silver after so long, the arc felt weird once it reached that point where Tails ALMOST had a solution and it just got blown up. Maybe im a lil biased towards Tails but it would’ve been cool to have an “eggman and tails are on an even level— eggman made the virus but tails engineers the cure” moment. A moment for them to be pitted against each other as geniuses even if not throwing hands in mechs. Then again im not sure how they’d spread the hypothetical cure around the world WITHOUT something like the super forms or some machine that would likely take a while to build… ehh, i’m sure some quick solution would’ve been figured out.

well anyway back to this scene, Shadow says this, which I’m assuming is either him deciding he’s gonna try and look for Sonic because he owes him one, or him saying “I DID owe him one… until he disappeared. Now what?”. Idk, the meaning of this line kinda has me stumped, but the meanings I had in mind could go hand-in-hand. Like… “I owe Sonic, but he’s gone. Should I look for him? He’s capable enough to find his way back, but…” ???

Anyway, the infamous metal virus arc… yeah I liked it well enough, just felt like things were getting a bit too stacked once they introduced the deadly six and needing to get the chaos emeralds instead of my goat Tails being able to do his thing. And you know… Shadow suddenly losing common sense to prove himself as superior to someone who’s already run off in issue 19 like come on now. My brother in christ, are you fr doing this in the middle of a zombie movie? I understand him feeling like he’d be immune to a virus, as he was created to be immune to illnesses n such as the Ultimate Lifeform. That’s one thing. But that whole part coulda been executed better…

And sidenote i really liked that Metal Sonic side-comic as a whole, but especially where he doesn’t get infected by the virus & just… stands there. Like there’s either a lot going on in his mind or he’s too stunned to have any thoughts. I’ve always liked Metal but smth about that side comic is bumping him up.

this kinda turned into a review of the arc I didnt even mean to do that lmao. idk when i’ll pick back up on idw, but im assuming there’s one or two more complete arcs before the current ongoing arc (which i think is at issue 53 at the time of writing this??), and i usually like to read arcs of things once its all released… eh i’ll figure it out

[rhydium]

Info dumbo about the StarFinite story?

aright u asked for it anon GET READY [cracks knuckles] this is gonna be long so obligatory cut in 3, 2........

...1!

so the uh, the au! the story!! w/e yall wanna call it! full disclaimer, i only began working on this whole thing a while ago, but it's totally taken over my fukn brain. like, we're talking big hyperfixation hrs. am i cringe for being this invested in my own content? yes? cool i do not Care >:3€

i should also throw it out there real quick that i am kin w/ infinite, n this is actually one of my two canons (both of which are my own aus lmfao wow). i didn't go into it expecting it to be but sfsfsgdfs here we are ig!! for that reason it's got extra importance to me n this definitely contributes to the euphoria i get from it!! it's a lil odd writing ur own canon,,? but i kinda just go w/ the flow!

the au n, the story that i will start Eventually, revolves around infinite n starline (obvi) n it's honestly just ... the tl;dr is big healing momence n, what's this? uh oh sisters !!! they are falling in love 😳😳😳

uhhhh so infinite is an android, made by eggman. that's like, the most notable canon divergence here! super important context to have. i've got a whole big theory on the possibility of sega originally intending infinite to be an artificial being (which i explored in the works for my Other canon too), stemming from not only the scene in forces wherein infinite comments on sonic's "data", but a line of dialogue from tails in one of the last stages of the game where he Literally Says "so this is where eggman built infinite". that ... i mean. that contrasts w/ episode shadow pretty hard don't it?? would explain why that dlc was so rushed, n the comic too. ANYWAY adsfsfs um that's a seperate ramblepost. yeah!!!

they are also agender n use they/them (primarily) as well as he/him!! so i'll be refering to them w/ those pronouns!

after the war, infinite is taken in by the resistance n, instead of being dismantled, they're basically given a chance to rehabilitate themselves. it's agreed that they won't be reprogrammed, as despite the potential risks, it feels wrong to do so; like a violation of their free will, individuality n thinking. if infinite is to be a good person, it's not gonna be bc other ppl recreated their entire personality, it's gonna be bc it's what they themselves truly want. robot ethics idk man!! u can't tell me that sonic n co wouldn't offer this to infinite if they offered it to metal in IDW,,,, i am Standing By This!!!

it's, yknow, a bit rocky, at first. infinite has to really fight the urge to return to eggman (something they already tried once, before the resistance found them; they were cast out). it's a struggle against what they were built to do, against giving into unhealthy familiarity over facing a, while healthier, unfamiliarity. new faces, a new life, turning their back on their mission n creator, it's like, a lot.

they work for/with the sonic crew, rebuilding the world they tore down as deemed fitting justice, being closely monitored for a bit as a natural precaution. as it becomes apparent infinite truly no longer has any ambition to harm others (they don't have much ambition for anything, really), they're then granted more freedom, n start taking on more important missions!! it at least gives them something to do, keeps them occupied. they have issues with dissociation, unreality, whether they're truly a real person bc, well, android. feeling purposeless, n a lack of worth, especially. a need to prove themselves. heavy stuff. i'll kinda go into that a bit more in a sec. their work grounds them, if only temporarily.

n soooooo... IDW comic stuff happens. metal virus time. starline gets kicked out of the empire.

now, as the comics are ongoing, n as this is already an au, there's gonna be divergence, n i must admit i haven't planned out all that yet. there's a lot i have to consider!! infinite being w the resistance/restoration is a big game changer ... tho i Do believe that they were absent, likely on a far out mission during most of the chaos. eggman doesn't know abt them, nor does starline or anyone else other than the sonic crew; n some civilians that recognise them.

i'm not 100% sure of Exactly when it happens, but i think it's just after bad guys, that infinite is sent to locate n bring in starline. it doesn't prove too difficult. there's a whole, starline realising "oh fuck it's you???", some bickering n, the two don't hit it off right away. they're both kinda like. not mentally stable ddgddgdds,,,

so uh. starline ends up essentially going thru the same sorta shit as infinite. careful watch, rebuilding, all that jazz, making sure he can be trusted. he's like... very very lost, quite like infinite is. the world has kinda calmed down, in the meanwhile.

it's at this point i'm gonna go ahead n drop a bit of a ramble i subjected my friends to a while ago, to articulate the way i see the two, n their dynamic together!! i was considering making this it's own post a while ago!

analysing their characters a bit... let's look at starline. Like. so we have this, in bad guys, which SENT ME tbfh;

i feel like it's the moment that triggers starline onto the path he is rn canonically,,, he's clearly like. rly mad n bitter. the core of this?? he wants his work n his efforts to be acknowledged.

he's big angry. still kind of in denial at this stage. he has himself obsessed w/ the idea of making eggman see him as Worthy, that if he just tries hard enough, that'll happen. he's dependent on eggman's validation, n i mean, it's no surprise; he's followed him a Long Time by the sounds of it.

then in the recent issue, hold the fuck up, bc we got, This;

god. my god it's all comin together now homies. this???? this right here??? it is the CLASSIC "i have to do this to prove i'm strong n powerful n smart n worthy n should be respected please Give Me Acknowledgement" ..... n who else is Like That? can u see where im going w/ this?

i think most ppl are aware of infinite's character being extremely indicative of self worth/esteem issues n the need to prove themself, right?? the extreme adversity, repulsion, perhaps even fear toward the idea of being weak. the compulsion to prove otherwise, to show their strength, to become powerful, to conquer to make a point. their theme exudes this same energy as their behaviour in-game; an aggressive attitude, trying to assert themself, while if u rly listen...? the lyrics are actually really sad in places. it reeks of cover up, although composition wise, a v interesting thing to note is a lot of the more telling lyrics are prominent while some of the affirming ones are in the background. indicative of a desire to have their true feelings be heard but caught in a vicious loop?

okay okay that's yet Another different analysis. AHEM.

not to get deep on main (oh who the hell am i kidding that's the point of this entire thing) but i think starline has issues w/ his worth in a similar way to infinite. they both seem to have this need to Prove something, whether it's to others or themselves, n get caught in a toxic spiral of doing worse n worse things for Some kind of validation or acknowledgement. they'll go to really big lengths chasing that, n both of them ultimately sought validation in the wrong place n wrong way.

this is a big part of my starfinite dynamic,, n so, what happens, as they get closer n open up??? we have them BOTH realising together that they don't have to do fuck all to prove anything to anyone. they don't need to do all this to show they're strong n smart n worth something, not to anyone else OR themselves. they're enough as they are. they bond over that shared feeling that they have to do xyz, to prove themselves, n that desire to just finally be acknowledged n appreciated n help each other thru it. to help each other understand that other ppls approval, or lack thereof, doesn't define them, their strength, intelligence, and worthiness.

i feel like they have an interesting parallel between them in like... the above could be taken as a general analysis, but to go more in depth on this au specifically?? ...

starline followed eggman for presumably a long time n it no doubt left him feeling a heavy and deep regret for all that time wasted n spent on an unhealthy path. infinite kinda teaches him that what matters is what he's doing Now n also reminds him that if none of it happened, starline wouldn't have learnt a lot of the serious skills he has. n while starline still feels bad, he also realises himself that, he likely never would have crossed infinite's path if none of it happened. for that reason, he wouldn't take it back.

infinite has only been recently made, on the other hand. they haven't really existed long, yet, but so far their experiences haven't been very positive n it can be .... discouraging. starline sorta, shows infinite their limited experiences w/ the world are a very tiny fraction of what's out there, n things can absolutely change, yes, including for the better; that's the essence of life, a neverending, constant flow of change.

it's a big tale of moving on n letting go, honestly; made easier as they're doing it together. n as they heal n grow, well... these bitches gay. sfshshdgds like, ig that's putting it p bluntly but!! they start to trust each other, understand each other more. as they get to truly know who the other is, they both start developing The Feelings. they're both pretty oblivious n the reveal is totally unknown so far!! yeah, i know, bummer. i suck. boo. adafsfsds however i can say there will be lots of content in the making!! if that soothes the soul! i've got of ideas i hope to bring to life.

ofc there's still a lot of more specific things i haven't covered here so! if y'all want more juice hmu w/ more focused questions but !! this is the overview n i hope it was a decent read now that gave some uhhh! Cool Insight! yea!!! ✌

[mobius-prime]

222. Sonic the Hedgehog #154

Songoose (Part 2 of 2)

Writer: Karl Bollers Pencils: Ron Lim Colors: Jason Jensen

Today's issue is a bit bittersweet. While Karl Bollers hasn't always been the most popular writer, and I've definitely had my fair share of problems with certain aspects of his writing, it's hard to deny the heavy impact he had on the world of the comic. And this just so happens to be his last issue as a writer! That's right, though we've seen various writers come and go, this is the first time we're truly saying goodbye to a head writer. (You might be wondering about Michael Gallagher given his increasingly infrequent involvement with the series, but fear not, he's still got a few more future issues left in 'im.) Apparently he actually had quite a few plans for the storyline and characters post-StH#134, which was a while ago, but for one reason or another these never came to fruition, and never even had a chance to be salvaged for future issues by other writers due to his leaving the comic. So let's dedicate this issue to ol' Karl and the hard work he put into this comic, and appreciate what he brought to the table over the years. Onward!

It's the night of Mina's second concert, and the various Freedom Fighters are positioned at strategic points around and behind the stage and crowd to guard the venue from any more assassination attempts. Mina is pleased with Sonic's involvement in her protection detail, but Ash is considerably less so, and asks to speak to Mina privately before her performance. Sonic initially tries to refuse to leave her side given his duty to her, but when Ash gets in his face about it Mina steps in and tells Sonic she'll be okay to have a quick chat. Sonic reluctantly leaves the dressing room, and Ash confronts Mina about her decision to go through with tonight's concert, as he really feels it's too dangerous. She reiterates her feeling of security with Sonic around, and Ash's feelings of jealousy finally spill out as he details Sonic's perceived failings, including how he (totally unintentionally mind you) broke her heart a year ago by kissing Sally in front of her. He paradoxically refuses to "forgive" Sonic for… not dating Mina, I guess? Which you'd think he'd be pleased about considering that's the only reason he ever got to date her, but she stands firm against his tirade.

Really bad timing on this, Ash. Honestly, though, as abrasive and jealous as Ash can be, he's not wrong at all about his accusations, and in my opinion has every right to feel slighted and upset. He really does seem like a guy who's flawed yet genuinely likable - I mean, put yourself in his shoes (assuming you're not down for open relationships) and tell me you wouldn't feel the exact same way upon seeing your girlfriend routinely eyeing up another guy. Plus, he isn't flaky - notice that despite breaking up with Mina, he explicitly states his intentions to remain as her band manager. A lesser person might have left their ex high and dry out of spite, but despite their disagreement he's still completely ready and willing to help her organize everything she needs to remain a pop star. Careful, Mina, you better remember "Aly's" advice to you from a few issues ago before you let this guy slip through your fingers…

Outside the room, Sonic gets a call from Sally looking for an update, and when he lets slip that he let her stay in her dressing room alone Sally scolds him for not sticking to her like glue, ordering him back into the room to check on her. When he enters he's surprised to see her sitting alone with a sad expression, asking her what's bothering her. You'd think he'd have some clue of what was wrong considering he would have just seen Ash angrily stomping right through the very door he was guarding, but Mina just says she doesn't know how to explain, which Sonic quietly agrees with the sentiment of. She's able to collect herself for her performance, though, and begins by singing another song that definitely feels inspired by her crush on Sonic. However, Eggman's plan to kill her is still moving ahead, and he sends out Heavy and Bomb (well, Bombs, there's a lot of them) to infiltrate the concert crowd once the concert is well underway.

Sonic immediately grabs Mina and pulls her away from the edge of the stage while the rest of the Freedom Fighters rush in to battle the Bombs, something which I find funnier than it should be considering they're, well, bombs, and the best plan for dealing with bombs on legs would usually be to run the hell away from them before they blow up. Nevertheless, they seem to be holding their own by throwing or smacking the Bombs away before they explode, though Ash finds an excuse in the situation to insist once more than Sonic leave so he can protect Mina on his own, even somewhat spitefully pointing out that Mina was fine without Sonic for an entire year before now. Sonic initially refuses, but when Heavy himself arrives, crashing down onto the stage to target Mina directly, Sonic concedes and tells Ash to take her somewhere safe while he fights the robot one on one. At first Sonic teases and trash talks as normal, but when Heavy gives him more trouble than he bargained for he concocts a plan to drill into the earth and bait Heavy into following him, then drill straight into the nearby lake from below. This washes them both out into the open waters, disabling Heavy in the process. I'm not sure exactly how this plan even works, considering we've seen in previous issues that Heavy is waterproof - I mean, did Eggman take out that feature when he rebuilt him? - but either way, it does work, though Sonic falls unconscious once he gets washed out. Man, between his first battle against M in StH#132 and his easy escape from a watery grave in Anti-Mobius just a few issues ago, it really seems like later comic issues like to play fast and loose with the whole "he can't swim" character trait. Sometimes he can detangle himself from tight rope bonds and swim to safety without a problem, and other times he blacks out within scant seconds of touching water, and you never know which one you're gonna get till the plot calls for it. Of course, he's fine after waking up on shore, having been rescued by Bunnie, and the Freedom Fighters tell him that as far as they can tell they disabled or destroyed every Bomb in the area, meaning Mina is safe once more. With the threat ended, Sonic and Mina say goodbye to each other for the night, with Sonic making Mina promise they'll go out for chili dogs sometime soon. However, this wouldn't be a story if something didn't go wrong…

I like to think that this isn't even a case of the Freedom Fighters randomly missing a Bomb, rather being part of Eggman's plan - send in the big, obvious cavalry first to be fought and predictably defeated, then send in one last little Bomb to finish the job once everyone's guard is down. The explosion alerts everyone outside the backstage area, and they rush in to find Mina sobbing over Ash's body. Don't worry, though - when they rush him to the hospital Dr. Quack is able to get him in a stable condition, meaning that though he has a long slow recovery ahead he'll ultimately be fine. Sonic escorts a distraught Mina into Ash's room, where she admits her true feelings to his sleeping form.

I'm surprised that Sonic genuinely seems a little disappointed at their reconciliation, but then again, he and Mina were clearly shown to have some chemistry even before the time skip, though Sonic was obviously drawn more to Sally. It seems that with he and Sally currently being on the outs, and Mina having split from Ash, he had actually considered taking the chance with her - I mean, they did agree to a chili dog date after all - but now that's obviously not happening. Well, maybe the chili dog date is, but not Sonic and Mina becoming an item. What I'm trying to say is, this page has just sunk your Sonic/Mina ship. Fortunately, with this second failure Eggman has decided that trying to kill Mina is too hard and not worth his time, so she should be safe for now. He still finds himself lamenting the loss of his robotic body, however (something that you'd think should be child's play for him to fix considering previously roboticizing himself is literally part of his backstory), finding his current organic body too breakable. The use of that word suddenly makes him pause, having just come up with a new idea… but Karl certainly won't be the one writing about it, as with that final line of dialogue, he's officially completed his time as head writer for the Archie Sonic comics! Sayonara, Karl Bollers - though there were certainly some rough patches, on the whole I enjoyed your work on the comic, and we'll miss ya!

More Than Meets the Eye

Writer/Pencils: Ken Penders Colors: Josh Ray

…though remember, we are still dealing with Penders for a few more issues yet. Since the mission into Megaopolis a couple issues ago, Rotor, Uncle Chuck, Tommy, Tails, and Snively (plus apparently Fiona, for some reason) have all been hard at work studying and trying to understand the nanites. They try blasting them with a ton of electricity, but when that elicits no response from the nanites Tommy worriedly thinks Snively killed them with the zap, though Snively corrects him that biologically speaking, they're not really "alive," nor is anything that Eggman makes. While you may be technically correct from a scientific standpoint, Snively, I think Nicole might have a thing or two to say about your assertion that machines can't be alive…

Well! It seems Tommy was also unconvinced by Snively's words, and his tear splashing down into the nanite goo triggers some kind of reaction, prompting them to rapidly spread out and reach tendrils of themselves towards him. He's understandably a little freaked out and retreats into his shell, but the nanites don't hurt him as they make contact with the shell - in fact, the sensation is ticklish and causes him to start giggling uncontrollably, which must make for a very weird sight as Uncle Chuck reenters the room to investigate the noise. Tommy assures him that he's all right - and then from out of nowhere, his shell sprouts a pair of goddamn wings, because why the hell not?

I initially took issue with this concept due to it being established canon that the nanites can only absorb and reshape non-living matter, whereas turtle shells are definitely living matter, being full of nerve endings and basically being formed from repurposed bone matter from the turtle's ribs and pelvis. However, the above dialogue seems to indicate that they were able to fuse with Tommy's shell anyway by connecting straight into his nervous system. I would guess that after Sonic introduced the nanites to the concept of organic and synthetic coexistence a couple issues ago, they were just waiting for the chance to "study" an organic specimen in their own weird way, and Tommy just happened to end up as their test subject.  Chuck and Tommy call everyone else in, where he notes that the nanites seem to react to his thoughts without said thoughts actually controlling the nanites directly. He demonstrates this by thinking vaguely that he wants to go somewhere, prompting a pair of jetpack engines to sprout from his shell and ignite, carrying him straight out of the lab and into the sky above Knothole. The others watch with an odd mixture of bemusement and amusement as the nanites fly Tommy's body in a pattern, using contrails to write "We're just going for a test drive" in the air. Well Tommy, looks like you have a really cool and unique new ability! It'd certainly be interesting to be fused with self-replicating nanomachines that react to your thoughts and wishes by morphing themselves in ways to grant those wishes, especially when they seem to actively like their host.

[sonic-bros]

Ok so like,,, I got an idea lol but Im not good at writing so whatever but,,, what if sonic sacrifices himself (in some kind of story plot lol) so Maria can live again?? And like Shadow doesn't know what to do.

[Read it on AO3!]

Shadow stared.

He didn’t understand what happened, eyes wide as he tried to process the scene in front of him.

-

It had been a particularly difficult fight against Eggman. Everyone was a bit roughed up, but Shadow had been the only one who became overwhelmed by robots. Now, their scraps lay scattered across what was formerly the battlefield. The Doctor had fled already—Tails and Knuckles were brushing the dirt off themselves.

Sonic and Shadow knelt together.

“Hey, stay with me, Faker,” Sonic said with a small grin, hands on the ebony hero’s shoulders to keep him upright.

Shadow blinked his eyes back open. He hadn’t realized how much energy he’d used while trying to get the robots off his back. He was aching, tired. An energy beam had clipped the side of his abdomen and it stung more than he cared to admit. Nonetheless, he shoved Sonic’s hands away.

“Leave me alone,” he huffed, the exhaustion in his voice unavoidably noticeable. He got his foot underneath himself, sliding a hand to his knee to support himself as he stood up, but as soon as he got to his feet, he grimaced and collapsed.

Sonic was fast enough that he could catch him before he hit the ground. “Not happening,” he said, wrapping an arm around his waist, grabbing Shadow’s arm to move it around his shoulders for him. “I’m never going to leave you alone again.”

Shadow initially gave a grunt, not doing much to fight the help Sonic was forcing him to accept. After a second of thought, however, he furrowed his brow. “What?” he asked, looking over at him as they began to walk.

Sonic didn’t look back at him, and instead looked straight ahead, frowning deeper than Shadow ever thought possible for such an optimistic hedgehog. “I left you once before,” he said, “and I’ll never do it again.”

Shadow blinked at him, but then shook his head and closed his eyes. He was in too much pain to think about what Sonic had just said. It didn’t even make sense to him—he didn’t think he knew what he was talking about.

They walked toward the direction of town in silence, until Sonic spoke again.

“I’m going to make it up to you, Shadow,” he said. “One day, and one way or another.”

-

“No,” Shadow breathed, his voicing trembling harder than he ever would have previously allowed it.

He gazed at the two bodies in front of him—first Sonic. He watched his chest, looked for movement, looked for the flushed color of warm skin, looked for anything, but found nothing. Then his eyes slid to Maria. He watched her chest rise and fall, studied the rosiness in her cheeks and life in her lips.

This isn’t what he wanted.

He sank down to his knees, sitting back on his heels as he watched the pair lay together.

He remembered what Sonic had said to him so many months ago.

“I left you once before and I’ll never do it again.”

“I’m going to make it up to you, Shadow. One day, and one way or another.”

“No,” Shadow growled, but the anger that usually masked his fear, his sorrow, had weakened.

For Chaos’ sake, this isn’t what he wanted.

He balled his hands into fists, raising them to cover his eyes, bowing his head. He couldn’t control his shaking as he began to cry silently. He didn’t lift his head when he heard the gentle rustling of movement in the grass before him—he already knew which of the two it was.

“Shadow?” Maria’s quiet voice came.

He raised his head just enough to look at her from behind his clenched hands, eyes wet and dazed.

“What’s wrong?” she asked worriedly, sitting up straight, immediately leaning over to grab him and pull him into her arms, rubbing his back quills like it’d only been yesterday since the last time.

Shadow curled into her touch, covering his face again as he cried even harder, yet even more soundlessly.

“Shadow, who is that?” came her voice as delicate as he remembered it. He could feel her eyes on Sonic.

He didn’t look. He couldn’t answer. He wouldn’t understand.

After that day, his ability to explain who he thought Sonic had been would be lost to him forever.

[mastcrplanncr-a]

issue #23 made me really heccin’ emo over eggman and sonic. i was prepared for it, but also ?? not prepared??? holy frick im just gonna ramble under the cut.

first of all, i’m just gonna’ idly ramble about some things i noticed.

Eggman, literally 11 issues ago:

he makes these off remarks and then changes his mind whenever it’s convenient for him smh. that or hes a freaking liar and. WELL THAT’S PRETTY TRUE HONESTLY.

i’ma be honest fam starline is a freaking mood rn. it’s ?? so dumb?? LIKE EGGMAN WHERE IS YOUR FUCKING FAILSAFE UR SOLUTION WAS “not touching the robots hurr durr” PL EASE.

In retrospect, though, this is an interesting parallel to Forces because he’d apparently learned from his mistakes. TBF, and it has been brought up elsewhere on tumblr, this is a man recovering from amnesia. He must’ve just not gotten to that part. OR HE’S JUST. DUMB AND ARROGANT. Like, yeah, sure, there’s no vaccine - lol the heroes can’t fix anything & it also means you’re valuable because you’re the one person who can. BUT COME ON EGGMAN.

my friend actually predicted this holy shit. i was rambling abt a discussion we had in the egg cult, where we were talking about the possibility of sonic infecting eggman to blackmail him into getting the cure because he’s reached the point?? hes so done with eggman’s shit??? all his friends are in danger and hes backed into a wall what else is he to do than do the one thing he doesn’t want to: use eggman’s tactics against him?

and my friend was like:

LIKE. IT IS A HUGE RISK, and Sonic went FOR IT. I’M SCREAMING TBH.

THIS CONFRONTATION WAS SO FUCKING RAW YOU DON’T UNDERSTAND. I thought I was ready for it but I really, REALLY wasn’t. I love the little details of Starline bein’ like: “oh fuck” - usually he’s pretty cocky around Sonic but uh. HE’S INFECTED NOW. And the zero remark - idk if that’s intentional on the writer’s part but ZERO TO HERO anyone?

anyway toxi broke down crying at this point. you have no idea how much i was sobbing over my blue son just. pouring out his heart to his nemesis. that’s top tier tearjerking material.  also starline passive aggressively readjusting his outfit lmfao. BITCH IM FABULOUS. but man the usage of ‘ BE’ and ‘LIKE’ - Sonic knows who Eggman is; he’d never ask him to be something he’s not. but it’s also a reiteration of sonic’s want to see good in him; being LIKE tinker is a statement in that he wanted eggman to be who he was, but NOT to go back. to do good for the world. have it be his own decision, because deep deep down:

isn’t that what he really wants?

Also, although there are those sickly sweet descriptions, the usage of ellipses in this narrative really fucks me up because you can practially hear the gradual realization in eggman’s voice. his mockery starts out so !!! but it just eventually gets straight to the point, as a list. as a routine. because he was used to it. and because, some part of him misses it. notice the usage of ‘need’ and ‘use’. they needed him, and yet he used the people that appreciated him sm like puppets.

some nice guilt there, huh, doc?

ALSO I SPENT LIKE, HOURS TRYING TO FIND THIS EXACT DIALOGUE, but Eggman has a conversation in Dark Brotherhood with Sonic and makes this remark:

LIKE??? this isn’t new to his character, actually? Ignoring the ken penders thing bc smh. Going by this game he’s actually kind of okay with that set up. And he just works so well with the others too??? this isn’t even taking into account the other games he’s teamed up with them. I’m sorry but my head just goes back to this line so many times; it’s one of the ones that stick with me, along with ‘complicated guy’ from lost world. HE COULD!! legitimately do good. and he actually doesn’t find it too bad??? IM EMO MAN...

and IMAGINE making super cool things that people genuinely like... eggman has a HUGE ego, that much is very apparent; he’s super big on appreciation as comes with. and with tinker? he had that - he felt appreciated and loved. people LIKED what he made, and he didn’t have to bend over backwards to have that. his work felt included and he didn’t have to take that appreciation by force like he did with his lackeys (which half the time was fake anyway) .

first and foremost - WE SEE THAT OPEN YOUR HEART REFERENCE, IDW. also sonic’s frustration here, in comparison to the lil smile the panel before - he’s just!! “WHY CANT YOU WAKE THE FRICK UP OLD MAN”. the justification here seems a tad bit like DENIAL to me. and the justification seems... kind of odd from him? since when does EGGMAN justify anything he does? He does what he wants and when he wants, because he’s the E.G.G.M.A.N. he doesn’t care what anyone thinks... right?

it’s because - especially with the usage of better - he didn’t like where that train of thought was going. for once, he’s justifying himself - because the alternative is admitting sonic is right. that he did like that life. that he’d want to go back. throw it in a hierachy and it’s all so simple, right?

also the inclusion of open your heart lyrics here. the incident with chaos was just as catastrophic. and these lyrics in context of the previous panel, highlights how sonic and eggman both seek unity and peace but in their own ways; eggman’s is just evil. it seems a little bit of a diversion to me - to antagonise sonic and make him forget about it. what better way to do that than to relate to him? ‘own styles that we won’t change’ highlights a stubbornness in ways, too, especially with the current context of eggman denying his old life. ALSO IT IS LITERALLY TELLING EGGMAN TO OPEN HIS HEART.

and ngl this seems like idle banter to hide the fact he genuinely felt remorse for his actions for a second. because lbr he has a habit of being all talk when a plan goes wrong or suffering inside,

which starline does quite pointedly explain.

As I was saying above, Sonic has no choice in what to do now - he’s reaching his limit. OR ELSE. hes pondering doing the thing he doesnt want to do. and honestly, ‘you can’t stop me. no one can,’ is so hardhitting not just because of its looming threat, but because of how much it solidifies for sonic that he can’t take the chance anymore. if anyone is going to change eggman, it has to be himself.

also can i just cry over how much sonic trusts tails. im getting sa2 flashbacks.

also man i’d like to point out the specific use of ‘lock you away forever’. it coooould be a reference to sonic’s time imprisoned during the events of sonic forces. bitterness?

NOT SAYING I CALLED IT, BUT I CALLED IT. it still hurts though. and wow, it really is horrifying when eggman fears his own heccin’ creation, huh?

i live for sonic being passive aggressive with eggman. give me more please.

im immensely concerned the direction starline is going, honestly. but it does say a lot about eggman; how he’ll keep trying the same things expecting different results, but failing and never seeing that. because he’s EGGMAN; every plan is brilliant by default!

i love how sonic just !!! SHOT... THE MOMENT HE WAS REMINDED WHAT WAS AT STAKE. son i love you so much you’re doing great sweetie

also, man, can we talk about eggman avoiding his blatant faults, and shoving his failures onto someone else? because this little scene here - eggman ur literally the one who crashed the thing. it had absolutely nothing to do with sonic. i feel as though this is symbolism of his self-destructive nature, honestly. hes always gotta make things harder for himself. (also starline’s face is killing me)

Eggman does what he has to, but technology won’t work every time you kick it. he thinks he can get everything through force but we have several instances in idw where force did NOT work out; you’re not gonna get far, egghead.

MHM, and just who does that sound like, Eggman? honestly the mirrors between these two are seriously destroying me. although sonic is in a horrible position, so is eggman; he likes to think he’s won the war, but hes surpassed his own expectations, and that’s going to backfire on him eventually. hes stubborn to admit he has NO REIGN over this and they’re all doomed, so he’s pinning his failures / loss on Sonic.

is that the amnesia kicking ya in the shin, eggman? or sonic’s reality check? either way, the doc hates emotions. dammit man why you gotta make him emo

future eggman is going to kick past eggman in the kneecaps. it’s times like this ur reminded how much of a kid he is. eugh but that’s work i want my victory and senseless destruction now. honestly if the doc is after success, he is certainly not getting it this way and I AM FEARING FOR EVERYONE’S LIVES. he’ll probably have to work with what’s left of the resistance like the back end of most games at some point.

I’m getting a little burnt out but i can’t forget my son and how much he hurts me.

first of all that third panel terrifies me. the fact it GOT that far does me great concern. the RED EYES? that’s pushing it fam i dont like that. the expressions are also just freaking destroying me; they’ve been PERFECT this issue. and the fact sonic is at his weakest when he feels like he’s failed everyone hurts me deeply. he has SO much on his shoulders and its getting too overwhelming for him.

also man... the whole thing with eggman... just stuff me man. but it hurts all the more because it’s so glaringly clear that there is?? some good in eggman??? he just. doesn’t want to admit it. and unfortunately these aren’t good circumstances to debate on that.

ANYWAY, THAT ISSUE WAS AGONY AND IM STILL REELING AND HAVENT EVEN. TALKED ALL THAT MUCH ABOUT SONIC HERE (on account of this being eggman’s blog) but idk if i’ll write anything on that.

gonna go cry about an egg now brb

[laviarray]

Why I can’t stand Ian Flynn’s writing style.

 Ever since I read his stuff from issue 160, he consistently makes fundamental mistakes that no professional writer should ever make. He incorrectly builds his story lines, doesn’t know how to handle characters unless told, his themes are poorly thought out and shows no imagination in his fantasy or action beats. However, I tend to ask for positive opinions before because I wanted to get more insight into why people like his stuff. While I am glad for the input, I can’t get past how his writing is ambitionless and lacks basic understanding of storytelling, leading to a very unengaging script.

 EXAMPLE?

A good example of this is in issue 267, where Sonic and Rotor meet an Eggboss and Rotor’s father, Tundra for the first time. Flynn said he wanted to try to set up the mains to have rivals, with Rotor’s being Tundra. In this story Rotor meets Tundra after not seeing him for years, gets mad at him for working with Eggman, Tundra throws them into prison and then they break out with the ending being Rotor and Tundra looking up to the sky to show a parallel of… something?

Rival?

There are a lot of problems here, but the main one is that the story fails to establish these two as rivals, mainly because they have nothing to be rivals about. Being rival isn’t just being on different sides of a fight, it’s about two characters who want to beat each other for their own personal reasons and are usually written in for the writer to challenge something about at least one of the characters. Ash from Pokémon shows this pretty well. Each of Ash’s rivals are usually written in to challenge him on some element of his character. Gary challenged him on his lack of privilege and struggling to keep up. Paul challenged him on his kindness and loving nature to his Pokémon. Sawyer on his pride and his seniority getting the best of his ego. Just to name a few.

 Tundra on the other hand, doesn’t challenge anything about Rotor. Tundra does call his technology interest “hiding behind his toys” and calls him weak, but so what? Besides the fact that working for Eggman contradicts this worldview, what does this mean to Rotor? None of what Tundra speaks here contradicts Rotor’s beliefs. Rotor has never defined his strength or character to his technology nor does he have any world view that deals with strength or lack thereof. Neither of them have any reason to want to butt heads over or to compete against each other and neither of them have anything to prove by beating the other. Rotor doesn’t even have any anger or animosity towards Tundra after meeting him. He just sulks in the cell before Sonic tells him to get over it (remember this).

Maybe this could’ve worked as a revenge subplot for Rotor wanting to get Tundra for failing his home town, but that ends up being undermined when Rotor isn’t mad or vengeful towards Tundra during this whole issue. Sonic gets more upset at Tundra than he does. However, this still falls flat because the only reason you would know or care about Rotor’s home town is if you read supplementary material. Not universe issues, which still would be a bad place, but special issues that most people couldn’t get. So… yeah, there is no animosity between these two.

 Rotor’s character

I’m not surprised this doesn’t work, mainly because Flynn doesn’t know how to write characters and Rotor suffers from this the most out of the leads. Throughout the shattered world arc, Rotor is never given any major character traits besides being super focused on saving the world, and by that I mean being a straw man for why the characters keep getting distracted from the A plot to focus on side missions. He’s never given any personal moments or conflicts before this, nor does he have any motivations or wants outside of the conflict of the arc. So by the time we get to 267, the only thing of note about Rotor is that he is into technology, but not in any way that is personal to him. So having him get a rival was always going to be pointless.

 Give Flynn a break!

However, as I hear from every Flynn defender, “This might’ve been fixed later”. Two problems. One, why would any sane writer introduce and have the rivals interact without establishing some animosity or reason for them to see each other. Two, if that wasn’t the goal of this issue, this comic issue is beyond pointless. Nothing else of note happens in this issue. They have a light show of a fight scene, get caught, meet Tundra, breakout, leave. Besides getting a Gaia key, that could’ve been anywhere, there is no other reason to get these two on their own to meet Tundra, other than to establish their rivalry. To be honest, I’m not sure what’s worse. The fact that they dedicated half an issue to this half-baked idea, or that they wasted the other half on Eggman getting Metal Sonic back, that should’ve been 3 pages at best, instead of writing a story that is a major game changer for a lead character to the fullest.

(We totally needed to cut pages from learning about and developing a lead character and dedicated the same amount of time to seeing Eggman get Metal sonic back... Im not kidding they are both 10 pages.) Now the reason I was asking you guys for your thoughts was because I want to gauge how others view the comics too. However, when I get outside of comic fans, I get… interesting views. For example, I showed this issue to a group of people that all have daddy issues (as in they had to fight their dad to protect their mom kind of issues), so it should’ve been easy for them to relate to Rotor. They were also a wide range of opinions on Sonic, ranging from hardcore fans to ambivalent. However, after reading it, they all had the same reaction of “Well… That happened…” with all of them feeling nothing after reading. And after we discussed it, we figured out why. The story never gives you a reason to care about Rotor, Tundra just shows up and leaves, leaving no impact on the story or audience and there isn’t a reason to get invested with the conflict when Rotor isn’t.

 “OK, that was a bad issue, but that isn’t all of them?”

Except it is. Every last problem that I brought up here shows up throughout Flynn writing.

Poorly developed main characters?

All of them written around this quality and the ones that aren’t usually have characterization mandated or coming from other parts of the franchise.

(ok... we were five stories in at this point... Why were their 12 characters in the main cast (Chip not pictured)? Longer slice of life stories would have issues developing characters with a cast that big.) Rivalries that don’t go past superficial elements of the characters and don’t challenges the leads well?

Pretty much all of them, but especially Antoine’s with Hood, Nicole’s with Phage, and Bunnie’s with Cassia

“What about Sally and Clove?” I don’t count them as Flynn said in his podcast “Sally would be too busy to have a rival”. Which speaks volumes about his writing priorities.

Having characters get Pep talks to get them over writer inflicted trauma and to never address again?

Flynn did this 8 times in Shattered world and already 2 times in IDW (Issues 1, and 3)

B plots that go nowhere and should’ve been cut early in production?

Most of the issues during shattered world

Dedicating an entire issue to one plot detail that may or may not be relevant to later issues?

This is practically his brand at this point.

(These two are going to be soooooo relevant and integral to the story. Just... you know... Not for this entire arc...) And these aren’t his only problems.

  What is your point?

So why am I going through all of this? Why did I just type all of that for you guys? For 3 reasons.

1) I want you to understand where my vile for Flynn’s writing comes from. Not because of one thing he did wrong or that he doesn’t get a certain character right. But from a comprehensive look at his written patterns and worldview on writing.

2) I do genuinely want to understand why this man is well liked as I’ve seen some writers do half the crap Flynn does and get flogged by their fan bases.

3) If possible, try to get us to ask for better. I don’t hate Flynn or anything, but it boggles my mind that he is seen as a great writer when he is subpar at best. I don’t want him fired or anything but I don’t want him on any other branch of the franchise, nor do I want to see anyone thinking he should be either.

Now I’m fully willing to admit I’m wrong on all of these points, so feel free to tell me what you think.

In the meantime, I’m going to get ready for the completion of the arc in IDW. Expect a full essay by Janurary!

[game84cube]

My Opinions on the Sonic Movie Trailer

Okay, I guess I better say something about this movie before I lose my credibility in the Sonic community. I saw the trailer at school and everyone was talking about how weird it was on campus. I loved it at first sight, since I thought Sonic was gonna look WAY worse. Anyway, let's go over the pros and cons.

Pros:

- The speed. They knew what they were doing with Sonic and his speed effects. I mean it makes sense, what with the people from Fast and Furious.

- That Spin Dash! Sonic's iconic move was displayed amazingly in that trailer and his strength was on full display. Also when he just plopped into his little hideout in the forest and he was that fuzzball, it looked great!

- Jim Carrey as Dr. Robotnik. I get what they're doing. This is an origin story. Robotnik is gonna deteriorate into the classic crazy villain we all know him as. That ending shot proved it. But yeah. He was clearly not fat enough, but he isn't quite...egged out yet. Sort of a Kintobor thing before Robotnik/Eggman. My dad has issues with it, but I think it's fine. Plus he's got good material as well. Sassy and smart. That's how I like my Eggs.

- The acting. Marsala is giving it his all, and he sure has experience in this. I imagine he's gonna be a good focal point of the movie since title characters in these movies are NEVER the focus but are there to say that it is indeed a titled character's movie. I think Tim will be fine. A little snarky to play off of Sonic as well. Honestly I loved that bit with the "That's not your child in that bag?" This was also a good reminder that Sonic is a teenager. Good move. I forget who's playing Ann, but she seems fine. No comment yet. And then we have the Hedgehog himself. Ben Schwartz, I tip my blue spiky hat to you! You know just how to make Sonic sound like...well... SONIC! That cockiness is perfect. The voice is natural, and I want MORE! I'm sure they got some good lines for him (and some bad ones but that's inevitable sadly)

- The animation in general. Say what you will about the design, but in motion, everything looks awesome! It flows, it doesn't look cheap, and the mech designs look incredible. The effects are well integrated and seem like they're unintrusive on reality. I like it. And really, Sonic looks good in some shots, especially doing what he does best. I'm so happy they got Sonic looking cool when on the move. If they failed at that, the whole thing would be a complete failure.

-The Easter Eggs and nods! Listen to the voice of the Commander of the military again. Now imagine that voice saying something like... "Sonic Adventure 2, Hero Side Story: Farewell Sonic, Forever." Tell me that isnt the same guy! That's an amazing Easter Egg. Also I hear one of the guys in the meeting voiced Grounder in Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog. Also cool! The pike of shoes in Sonic's hideout was a neat touch. He was looking for some good new shoes. Something tells me those Nikes ain't gonna last through the movie since they ain't frictionless. I also noticed something really cute they pulled off. When Sonic did that Fitbit joke? Looking at his wrist condescendingly? Sound familiar? Almost idle? Sonic 2 idle animation perhaps? All that's missing is him tapping his t- WAIT! Yep, that's another thing I think when I think Sonic. The classic impatient toe tap. They got his attitude DOWN and I love it! And! They remember something I'm so happy about! HE'S 90'S AS FUCK!!! Sonic listened to Gangsta's Paradise on a cassette tape! That song is from the 90's! They got it! Sonic is not a modern boi. He is so lost in the last decades and that's why I love him. That old fashioned nature? That's what makes him more timeless to me.

- Check that hair. They got his hair right. Good. That's it. Sonic is also very defined by the classic shape of his hair.

- The Ring. Okay, hear me out. Yes, we're more familiar with Rings being used as a shield to prevent Sonic from dying from a hit. Um, did y'all forget the Giant Ring at the end of the level in Sonic 1? Or the Flicky's Ring in 3D Blast/Flickies Island? It's just a portable version of that. I like the spin on it, okay? I'm sure it also protects Sonic like in the SatAM cartoon. Im just glad Rings are in the movie at all.

Cons:

- Elephant in the room, Sonic's overall design philosophy. I feel like there were two butting heads at the studio trying to decide how realistic to make Sonic look. They apparently compromised at "Make him anthropomorphic and give him human facial features including human teeth." Yeah, the teeth and eyes are my issue, and some coloring issues as well (I get that hedgehogs usually have white bellies, but Sonic has always had a tan belly, since he doesnt walk on all fours. Plus he needs to be a darker shade of blue.) The features all too human just kind of take away from what was meant to be more real. If they gave him sharper canine teeth, that would be an improvement, because that would be more animalistic. Also, I like how some people design Movie Sonic with a white tuft of fur between his eyes to make that classic illusion that his eyes are connected like the old days. (Actually looking back, I think Sonic's eyes were connected on accident before but they stuck with the design. Sort of an artist's idea of eye design in the old days. If he was to be created today, his eyes might be separated) I also need something to really come out of Sonic with his face. EXPRESSIONS AND PERSONALITY! You know, that thing Sonic was known for aside from his speed? That face is not very expressive and it leaves the emotions behind the delivery of the lines feeling flat. Perhaps a more defined brow for that redo, thanks. Otherwise, I have no complaints. The lack of gloves is odd, but again, this is most likely an origin story, so he doesnt have the gloves YET. I am glad that he has proper paws with the pads on his palms instead of creepy human hands. Also claws that he probably cuts/files/chews off himself so they're more like fingernails. Solid enough I guess. And the furriness of it all as well as the dropping quills? Eh, it makes sense. Plus it almost makes the rest of his body seem cuddly. I'm just not down with the rest of it.

-The music choice. Okay, I never heard Gangsta's Paradise in my life. From what I hear it makes no sense to have it have anything to do with Sonic. Now, maybe it was the only cassette he could find, since that boombox looks secondhand and so is the tape, obviously. However, if I were to choose a song for the trailer? I have one option. All I Want by Offspring! Think about it. The dates line up. It's a fast paced rock song. It's rebellious and against the system, like Sonic is in the movie apparently (yeah I didnt get that whole "delinquent" bullshit from the trailer, did you? He just seems like Sonic to me in terms of his actions,) and it was used in a SEGA game! It's from Crazy Taxi! Come on, that's PERFECT!

- the Flash lightning. Seriously? Is that the only thing Hollywood can think of when it comes to showing someone is fast? Come on, get your heads out of your asses. It's so easy. Modern Sonic has been more compared to the element of WIND! Tornadoes, Mach Cones, Sonic Wind, all that stuff. Sonic never really messed with electricity, so bleh.

- This isn't a pro or a con, but I really wanna know this. Will we see the Tornado? Don't forget that the Tornado is Sonic's plane. He just has Tails fly it when he wants to ride the wings. I feel like they could have had Sonic use the Tornado in a cool air battle scene but get shot down (because the Tornado kinda sucks since it always gets shot down, but it's iconic to me) since Sonic isn't exactly "a hell of a pilot" and THEN finds the Warp Ring inside. I dunno, thought it'd be cool. Look, Tim just met a 3 foot, blue, talking hedgehog that runs really fast and eats chili dogs. (please remember the chili dogs) Hedgehogs on planes wouldn't be that farfetched that day, would it?

- Some writing just felt off, but some can be explained. Let's start with everyone's FAVORITE scene...to wreck. The infamous "Uhhh...meow?" Here's my take. Yes, stupid, but what if he had no idea what to do? What if Sonic was just in his head going "What sounds do hedgehogs make? What sounds do hedgehogs make? Quick, say something, stupid!" And when he said it, probably something in his head was screaming "Dont say something stupid, stupid!" Also, I just didn't laugh at the "Smells like body spray and an old ham sandwich" line. I was like, Sonic, shut up. The joke was sold. Don't ruin it.

- Why is it the law where every live action movie with a CGI talking animal (that they didn't know about before you bring up Detective Pikachu, Christopher Robin, or even Peter Rabbit) must have the main character and the CGI character scream at each other? Sonic wouldn't freak out (unless he was more afraid of the gun and was kind of unsure how to react. Also great job dodging the tranq dart, oh Fastest Thing Alive)more than likely he'd be trying to talk his way out of this or just run away with a face like 😐😳 "I'm SO busted!" Just saying there was a better way to do that aside from the cliche.

- Robotnik, why did you try to taste the quill? You dont know where he's been. Yeah, yeah, I get it. Cool and Lickable. Lol. Pretty sure typos shouldn't be legitimized.

- Quicksilver? Not in my series he ain't. Oh... wait. Yeah. The whole stopping time thing. Eh, it's been done. Cool all the same, but again, done before. I appreciate Sonic's spin on it though, playing around like a teenager would. I dig it.

-Save your planet? Like...as in you're just an alien? I dunno, plus how do you know you have to save the planet? I'm chalking THAT up to "this is a trailer and probably wont appear in the final movie the same way."

- Did they REALLY have to make him say "Gotta go fast"? Again, probably just for the trailer, but really?

In conclusion, I have no hope for the movie. Can't be disappointed if you dont expect anything. Sort of my take on his design at first. I thought he was gonna look like COMPLETE garbage, but some shots look great, like when he was explaining that he had to save the planet? The lighting and such looked good for his face when the camera was on him. And again, the movie looks much better in motion. Yeah, I still have issues, but that's because I love Sonic. I love the characters and I want the best for the series. I care about the games that have been with me since my near infancy. They have fan service but it feels like you gotta be a crazy fan like myself to get the references, so it's lackluster because of it.

Sonic deserves a great movie! I just hope they impress me with something HUGE!

[cutegirlmayra]

Hi! I have a prompt, however it's a little different than the ones you have been given. Here it goes: Sonic, Knuckles, Tails, and Amy venture to Blaze's world to help her and Silver with something (you can feel free to be creative in regards to what this something is) It isn't necessarily a SonAmy prompt, but some hints would be appreciated ;) Have fun with it! 😊

I’m actually excited to do something that’s not Sonamy! (although, I will include a little bit for ya XD) A lot of people think I only write Sonic and Amy, or just Sonic in general. I’m actually open to a lot of different things! If I know the world well-enough. If not, I can always try and investigate xD

Thank you! I’ll definitely will!

World: Probs AU-Canonish? (Blaze’s world is still a bit foreign to me. I’ll have to do some research!)

Couple/Motive: Help Blaze in her world and Silver with something. (Slight hints of Sonamy will be appreciated. But I hope Silvaze will also have the same grateful nature to it as well xD They act like brother and sister, but that can look like more too sometimes. Not on purpose anyway…. Not likely, lol!)

Summary: -listed above-

Prompt:

“Woah! You’re saying-!”

“This world’s going to die from the dimensional excesses that Eggman opened up while trying to create his own dimension! If we don’t do something, not only will Blaze’s world perish, but all the dimensions as well!”

“Including my realm…”

“Hmph.” Sonic folded his arms, looking away. He didn’t like getting cut off, but Tails had a unique way of saying things the ol’scientific way.

Silver looked down in distress. He had just created a peace in his world, and for some reason, this Princess drew him to wanting to help her.

For some reason… he felt he owed her that much.

“We’re with you, Blaze!” Amy chimed in, stepping forward with her hands out behind her. “We’re not gonna let any world get destroyed by Eggman’s recklessness. It would be so unfair!”

“Amy’s right. We’re in!” Sonic stepped forward, assuming the spotlight again, though not really trying too, but struck up a thumbs up and signature smile.

Knuckles then barged his way into Sonic’s moment, as Sonic staggered back by his abrupt entrance and intrusion. “Count me in too!” He held up a fist, smiling giddily, as Sonic looked over his shoulder and shook his head at his antics.

“I’ve been dying all day to punch something through! Over and yonder! haha!” he threw some punches before flexing a moment, as Blaze looked oddly to him and Amy jumped up, scolding him.

“Hey! Don’t bombard people like that! Give them some space why don’tcha?!” Amy pushed Knuckles back in line.

“H-he-hey!” Knuckles waved his hands around as she pushed him away, and Tails and Sonic just smiled awkwardly towards them, before nodding to Blaze.

“I can try and get your old ship back up in order, but I’ll need some spare tools.”

“We don’t have time.” Blaze stated, almost sorrowfully, as if she would have liked the luxury of that. “We have to shut that device down that’s tearing the essence of our world away!” she pointed up to Eggman’s machine floating in a dimensional tare, having his logo on it, and absorbing the life remnants of her world.

“Terra will surely fall at this rate.” Silver stepped forward, narrowing his eyes at the threatening device. “And with Terra… Gaia… and with Gaia…” he lowered his head, also feeling despair.

“Hey, why so gloomy?”

Sonic walked up and put a hand to his shoulder, smiling optimistically. “Don’t you know there’s always a silver lining?” he wagged his infamous finger at him, being charming, but just trying to comfort him and give him some hope. “We can’t do anything if all we do is mope around. And besides, that’s no fun!”

“Sonic’s right!” Tails put his two hands up, and turned excitedly and boldly to Blaze. “Leave it to me! Sonic may be fast on his feet, but I’m quick at fixing! If you’ll give me a chance, I just know I can get your ship to fly up there and we can all shut it down!”

“Tails…” Blaze looked touched by his enthusiasm.

“You two fix the ship.” Sonic turned, followed by Silver. “We’re gonna go the fast track way.” he winked, as Silver smiled knowingly, and used his ability to have them hover in the air.

“W-woah!” Tails was amazed to see that! Sonic didn’t even have tails to fly! “You’re floating!”

“Heh-heh.” He smirked, looking like a true peter-pan for a moment, before Amy’s voice off camera came from the side, and the two hedgehogs looked over.

“Ohhhh!!! Sonic!!”

“Eh?! Wa-a-a-h!” He tried to move in the air away from her advancing towards him in what looked like an emotional panic, but Silver didn’t budge him.

He even tried to swim in air…

“You can’t be thinking of going and leaving me behind! We’re you!?” She jumped up and grabbed his leg, making his arms flail around.

“A-Amy!!” he cried out, clearly uncomfortable with this.

“Oh, Sonic! Let me come with you! I can be great backup support!” she clinged with a killer grip to his leg as he squirmed, trying not to hurt her, but still attempting to loose her somehow.

He finally gave up, drooping his body forward and turning to Silver. “Eh-heh..” he closed his eyes and looked nervously awkward towards him.

“It’s… pretty dangerous.” Silver tried, seeing Sonic’s expression and then turning to look at Amy, seeming to say that in kindness and consideration of her.

“Oh! I can handle myself!” she turned her cheek and puffed it up, pouting. “Tell hi-i-i-im So-o-o-onic!” she wiggled Sonic’s leg with her clinging body as it wagged his body back and forth in the air, before he looked utterly exhausted from the movement.

“I… suppose more aid could help.”

Sonic suddenly looked surprised at his words, and looked back at him.

He shrugged. He couldn’t deny the pretty girl.

He rose his hand up and she began to hover on her own too, and happily kicked her feet in glee.

Sonic looked to the camera and shook his head, before turning to face the device. “Let’s take this thing down!” he held his fist up towards his chest.

“Yeah!” Amy shouted, raising a hand up and lifting a leg.

“Right.” Silver nodded, and took off first, the other two following him.

“H-he-hey! Don’t forget about me too!” Knuckles tried to rush after them, but his poor attempt at keeping up with three flying bodies was comical to say the least…

“Haha, come on, Knuckles. We’ll make use of you.” Tails teased, and gestured with his arm to come follow them instead.

Knuckles looked bummed out. “Ahhh… and I wanted to punch things..”

“You can nail hammers into place with your fists?” Blaze suggested, as Tails turned to her in surprise, and then laughed at her joke.

She fondly smiled and slightly chuckled, but remained composed mostly.

Knuckles followed after them, grumbling at her little joke that he actually believed for a few seconds there, happy about the prospect.

“Hmph.”

Sonic, Silver, and Amy made it to the device, landing on it’s platform, as essence rushed by them like wind carrying pollen in it… although, this pollen was life!

“Ah..!” Amy ran to the edge, looking over the world, and putting a hand up to her mouth… then to her chest. “It’s…”

The world was slowly turning into rumble and dust…

“Dying…”

Sonic and Silver walked up behind her, looking to her and then the world.

“…Yeah, we better hurry. Quickly.” Sonic nodded, and put a hand to Amy’s shoulder, as she slowly turned her head, and nodded in solemn agreement.

The three began to the entrance.

“Here goes nothing.” Silver crossed his arms in an ‘x’, powering himself up, as Sonic held a protective arm out over Amy, keeping back.

“RAUH!” Silver thrusted a powerful blast towards the entrance, and the gate dented, until Silver loosened it from it’s latches, and flung it over him, having Sonic and Amy duck as it went flying over them, denting the sides of the device and heading down to the world, turning to fire as it did so.

“You two coming?”

Sonic and Amy turned back to see Silver at the entrance, as he smiled and gestured for them to go in.

Amy smirked, “Just a little longer…~” unaware of it, Sonic had held onto Amy when the gate went flying, and she leaned her head up against him in joy of it.

“H..huh?” he blinked, not understanding, before looking at where his arms were, realizing around her, and quickly moved them away, “Ah..!”

“Hehe~ Aw… barely a moment to spare.” she swayed her body back and forth, disappointed he didn’t seem to want to hold on any longer.

Sonic rolled his eyes and let out a groan, walking passed her as she giggled from his expression.

Silver looked a little dumbfounded, not sure how the two interacted like, but figured it was just how they were.

Going in, they tackled robots and were doing pretty good as a team!

“According to those signs, we’re probably nearing the control panel.” Silver pointed up to the runway line of ‘CONTROL ROOM AHEAD’ signs being repeated so many times above their heads.

“Heh, Eggman’s getting old, huh?” Sonic teased with a playful smile.

“That reminds me,… what are we gonna do when we get there?” Amy inquired, looking to Sonic, as he turned to the side to see her keeping up through Silver’s abilities. “We don’t have Tails with us. Or anyway to contact him.”

“Amy’s right.”

Sonic looked up to Silver.

“What if he’s there, that’s a possibility we haven’t considered either.” he turned his body to face Sonic, gesturing his hand as he flew.

“..heh.” Sonic smirked, confidently. “We’ll do what we always do!” he looked ahead, getting ready…

“You mean…” Amy looked worried.

“Yahoo!!!” Sonic burst forward into a spin dash.

Amy shook her head. “Thought so.” she sighed.

“W-what? What does he mean?” Silver looked to Amy, who just shrugged a sheepish smile.

Suddenly, above them, huge explosions went off, as a blue blur dashed about the large room they almost had entered.

“Wooooo-” Sonic dashed around, before going by them. “Hooo!”

Silver and Amy stopped in mid-air, before looking to Sonic… and then noticing the heat rising on their faces.

“… oh no.” Amy turned around, clearly showing her distress when she saw the flames coming quickly at them. “Run!” she cried out, trying to run in the air, but she wasn’t going anywhere!

“R-right!” Silver bolted with her by his side out of the corridor, back down the long snake route as they dodged robots they missed before, and got out on time.

Silver got hit with some of the after-blast though, and felt the pressure push him down out of the air, and have him and Amy crash down on the platform too.

They rolled a moment and bounced, as Sonic stood triumphantly, seeing the essence draining machine start to pin it’s nose down, and slowly rotate, as if to drop a straight plummet down. “Darn.” Sonic noticed that some sort of gravity defying device was still in place, keeping it up.

“Are we satified with keeping it off… or cutting it’s strings and having it down all together?” he shrugged his question, before turning around, looking fearful as he heard…

“Soooooniiiiiccc!!!”

He gulped slightly, but barely hearable.

Amy slowly got one hand under her, and then the other, before whipping her head up as fast-paced music played.

He flinched, and ran around dodging her hammer throws before she got to her feet, “I won’t forgive you for endangerous us back there, Sonic! Ruuah! You were reckless as always!”

“Ahh! Amy! If it was so obvious, why didn’t you prepare?! WAH!” he jumped and did the splits to avoid her smash, and then landed both feet on her hammer, having her blink twice before struggling a moment to pull it up, him holding onto it. “Woooahhh!!” he was spun a moment before being launched at Silver.

“You weren’t even suppose to do anything without TELLING US FIRST!… opps!” she stomped her foot down, shouting out with all her lungs capacity, before noticing her folly and seeing the two hedgehogs with swirls in their eyes, up against an outer metal wall.

“She has quite an aim… doesn’t she?” Silver commented in his dizziness.

“Yes,… you could say it’s part of her charm.” the two men fell down, Sonic face first and Silver just on his stomach.

Amy held a hand up to her mouth, realizing she had hurt Silver in the process. “Silver! Sonic! I’m so sorry!” she dashed over, as the two men shook their heads, Sonic placing a hand up to his head, before looking up to Amy.

He nodded and put a hand out, “It’s okay, it’s okay…” he assured her, before stretching out his back, “Emmm-ah! Gotta admit. I missed your hammer swings. Almost forgot about them it’d been so long.” he stretched out his legs, as Amy looked slightly hurt by his words.

“You forgot..?”

“Hmm?” Sonic looked up from bending a knee to stretch one leg out, and held a hand on the ground to balance himself. When he noticed his error, he just smiled sweetly to her and moved to the other leg. “Nah, not really! H’up!” he hoped up a little, and scratched a hand behind his head, tilting it a little in a silly way. “I’d never forget you. Not even for a second.” he winked, as Amy smiled sweetly.

“Aww..” she swayed back and forth, falling once more for his charms.

“Well… I for one won’t forget.” Silver walked in, rubbing his head, as Amy looked apologetic with a guilty smile, closing her eyes in her embarrassment.

Sonic just grinned, liking the silliness of the moment.

The three turned when they heard an engine, and saw Tails waving from Blaze’s ship.

“Ahooooy!” the ship looked like a pirate ship, but with some technological adjustments, was made into a sci-fi spaceship!

“H-hey!” Sonic waved a hand up, “Good timing, Tails!”

“Have I ever been off?” Tails laughed.

“Just a smudge.” Sonic teased, winking, and then picking Amy up.

“Woo-ah!” Amy exclaimed as she got scooped up, and held her arms around Sonic, almost out of reflexive instinct. “W-what was that for?”

“What? Don’t I always carry you to safety?” Sonic looked at her as if this was natural, and she was being odd for pointing it out.

Silver also seemed weirded out. “But… I brought you both here…” He sweatdropped.

Sonic turned to Silver, “Thanks for the lift! I can make it from-W-waoh!”

The device started to dip deeper, and they were running out of enough of an angle to get a running start from.

“Silver! You fly!” Sonic instructed quickly, darting back a bit to get a running start.

“Ah! Sonic!” Amy cried out, before looking up to the Ship, which Silver was hovering near, about in the middle, looking back and wondering if they’ll really make it.

“We’re never going to-!”

Sonic suddenly stared down at Amy.

As they’re eyes held a moment… she then smiled knowingly.

“Emm-mmm. Nevermind.” she beamed with confidence in him.

He curled up a corner of his mouth, and then looked determined to succeed.

“Here we go!” Sonic dashed forward, building momentum as the ship still began to dip.

“We’re coming around Sonic!” Tails saw him losing his footing by the deep downward fall the machine was starting to take, and arched Blaze’s ship to the side.

“Blaze!” Silver called to her, seeing her in the cockpit behind Tails.

“Huh?” She turned to him, confused where he was talking from.

“Fire at the orb!” he pointed to the device that was Sonic’s figurative ‘string’.

“It’ll pull the whole thing down!”

Blaze nodded, glaring at her new objective, she slipped down the Ship’s interior ways and jumped the stairs, rolling into a dome-shaped fighter-canon slot and turning on the gunpower.

When the canon became operational, she moved the controls directly to aim at the sparking orb.

Narrowing her eyes, she breathed out, “…Not… my world.” She then fired a powerful canon shot straight into it.

Sonic, changing where he was running, ran straight down, as Tails dipped under the machine, having it threateningly drop as if to hit him, before Sonic jumped!

The machine’s massive size covered the small scene from the line of the camera’s sight, and the next scene was it, in blazing fury, hitting the water and causing a massive wave to sweep over the ocean.

Then…

“Sonic!” Tails cried out, looking above him at any sign of him.

“I didn’t hear a thump!” Knuckles came rushing in, huffing and puffing, having been down by the engine.

Tails looked behind his shoulder, afraid by what Knuckles had said… before…

THUMP!

“Hey, buddy!”

“Haha! Top of the morning to ya!”

Tails turned to see his two friends on his windshield, Amy kicking her legs as Sonic held her with one arm, and the other to hold onto the ship.

Amy laughed, as Knuckles and Tails cheered in rejoicing.

Sonic then looked to Amy, returning his smile to a casual one. “You were saying?”

“Hehe. Sonic… you can do whatever you put your mind… haha! And feet too!” she lovingly stated with a sincere heart, and he dropped his eyelids down suddenly, tilting his head, as if he liked the sound of that.

Silver floated up to the windshield of where Blaze was, as she put a hand to it. “You saved my world…” she stated, and bowed with her head. “Without you and the others… I would have been able to-”

“It was my pleasure.” Silver placed his hand with her own, as she rose her head quickly, and looked deeply touched by his words.

“…Why? Why are you aiding me?” She asked, sincerely, before looking away. “I can understand the intents of Sonic and his friends… They are all… fiercely loyal and kind towards a righteous cause… but you…” she looked back at him.

He stared at her a moment.

“You came here to protect your world’s future… but you ended up saving mine.”

“…Heh.” he smiled, closing his eyes and looking down.

“You could have returned.. You could have-”

“Guess you could say… I’m your friend.”

“A-ah..!” Blaze lost all speech, stunned by his words, as he rose his head back up, and looked to her.

“Y..You are all so kind…” she looked away, holding back her emotions.

“Maybe you deserve some kindness.” he put both hands up against the shield, trying to see more of her face she was now hiding from him.

“….You… you may be right. I… I can be hard when it comes to matters of the heart… but you all..” she turned back to him, nodding. “You all have taught me so much… I will never forget this kindness.”

“…Nor I you…” Silver held her stare for a moment, before flying up and away from her windshield. “I’m going home now. Tell the others… and Sonic… thank you.” he then dashed off in a ray of green, disappearing…

She watched a moment, the emerald light fading from her eyes, before closing them and stepping away a bit. “Silver… I shall not forget your name.”

(YAY! :D That was fun! hope you like it, precious Anon!)

[mobianstrip]

sonic forces me to analyze the game

this is by no means a full, in depth review of sonic forces. however, since im working on a Forces au i think its only fitting to talk about my personal gripes with the game. just to be clear, i dont hate sonic forces by any means! there are some really neat concepts about it that i enjoy, which ill include my thoughts on as well! though with that said, theres a lot about it that could have been dealt with better. this post is gonna be a bit long and messy, sorry!

now i cant speak for what the gameplay controls itself are like since i havent actually played it with my own hands, so my primary focus will be the story and general format of the game. everything under the cut!

ill start by saying that in hindsight, i think the general premise of the game is actually really neat (had the war framing of the plot not been so overly glorified and bland. more on that below). eggman taking over most of the world is very reminiscent to the initial circumstance of mobius in the early archie sonic publication. it seems especially reflective of the comic in the fact that sonic forces takes place on a planet setting more akin to that of Mobius than that of Sonic’s World/Earth, the difference being the lack of human beings aside from Eggman. while this does somewhat bother me for the fact that it paints an inconsistency with the setting, im also all for the planet being strictly Mobians + Eggman again tbh. the concept of sonic being on earth populated by humans, complete with a mock version of the united states, never really settled well with me. it always felt like just a means to make sonic more relatable, which is true, but not done because it made anything more interesting. a problem that then arises is that the origins of shadow and silver/blaze would be radically different or at least would need some retcon alterations to make sense...but thats a topic for another day

overall, looking past the inconsistency with the setting and its implications, i enjoy how the premise of the game feels like going back to the basics. but even the premise still has its problems...which is never a good sign, and this point practically sealed forces’s fate of inconsistency: the theme of war and how it frames the story is so, so poorly written

starting with whats presented at the beginning of the game, sonic is captured by eggman as a prisoner. if the writing had just left it at that, fine. however, the exposition goes on to say that sonic has been there for six months being tortured...and that tails has completely lost it. again id be fine with this - the theme of war is a darker one so these two events would make sense in this circumstance. however, that tension is just totally lost in a matter of a few episodes. you rescue sonic who is just as cheery and jokey as ever, somehow able to fight a boss despite being supposedly locked away and tortured for six months

of course i understand that its not like they could give sonic ptsd and make him look tortured and weak and so on - but why even mention the torture thing at all? the same problem is apparent with the first cutscene with tails. tails is hardly given enough time to seem like he has "lost it". i will say though that tails WAS given a bit more of an emotional response to work with than sonic overall. particularly when tails is about to be attacked by chaos, and he ducks his head in fear and calls for sonic to help him even though sonic isnt there - i actually enjoyed this small segment bc it does reflect some of what was said about how he reacted to sonics capture (aside from also being across the planet...for seemingly no reason except bc he "lost it" and to get him away from the main group so that classic sonic can appear)

frankly speaking from these two points alone, the games tone just feels kind of confused. its obvious the writers wanted some parts of the darker theme of war...and its also obvious that going all out wasnt gonna be an option bc of the nature of sonic as a character and franchise being about more lighthearted, easier to relate to stories about sonics heroism. which im fine with that being the case; sonic is a hero and more importantly a mascot that profits off of kids being able to relate and look up to. my issue is simply that the premise of this game makes consistent writing kind of doomed from the start if the writers are trying to appeal to both the kids AND older fans. they cant go to the lengths necessary to adequately build the narrative. cant go too dark, cant go too lighthearted, and not finding a balance between to two gives you a confused and bland story 

on that note,  i personally find the theme of war to be...uncomfortably glorified and unchecked (adding to the tone confusion and blandness). sonic forces is named so because...yknow. armed forces. armies. the whole point of the game is that theres a war going on and youre on the good guy side. i mean its not as if youre fighting against other living creatures, just infinite and eggmans robots, but still. i think what put me off the most is the first comic with the soldier cat. after they save the day, the last lines are "I'll do better. I'll be better. I'll become a real soldier and a real hero." now slap that as the tagline to a united states army corps commercial and suddenly its really...sour tasting

war is just one of those subjects that i think needs to be handled with a bit more care. i mean think about it: the primary gimmick of forces is that you get to make your own character, to be the sonic version of yourself in this world. the plot of the game is that theres a war, and your character joins the resistance to defeat eggman. this game is pretty blatantly glorifying the idea that joining in on a war can make you a REAL soldier, a REAL hero. to some kids, that might sound pretty cool. but theres no nuance to it whatsoever, nothing thought provoking on the subject. no one steps back to be like ‘its good to do good things but wars are tough and not fun, and being a hero isnt everything’. none-a that

now do i think a sonic game could get it into a childs head that they should join the army for real? no, not necessarily. i think its possible, but i think that would also be due to a larger issue of military glorification present in modern culture in general (especially in america). mostly i just find the implications at play with glorifying the theme of war in conjunction to the avatar gimmick to be in poor taste and also entirely avoidable because...

i dont think the war and army framing even had to be a thing. not only is it just so sloppily done in general, with that fact that the supposed soldier forces on the Resistance side are literally never seen on screen except for some dialogue boxes in one episode and the rest of the time only being mentioned through other characters, but i seriously think never saying the words “war” or “army” and not including literal soldiers would have worked just as well and even been the better route. they could have just been like yeah heres eggman taking over the world, heres the resistance fighters that have come together to stop him, they are opposing forces and you play as your avatar to stop eggman - and just leave it at that. it wouldve made the glorification of war less obvious and the handling of the topics at hand appear less confused, appealing to a more lighthearted tone rather than weighing it down with frankly out of place hints to a darker subject of war

finally i wanna talk about the story as it relates to how its told through the game. the plot itself is fairly standard - eggman starts war, captures sonic, takes over planet. you rescue sonic, and together you fight eggman and infinite and ultimately defeat them. thats all good and well even if its cheesy sometimes. the REAL problem is how its executed. a lot of the exposition is given not through cutscenes, but through spoken dialogue with text box subtitles over the episode select screen. and it just feels so...stiff. it doesnt feel like world building, it just feels like being forcefed information with no substance behind it

i get that fully rendered cutscenes throughout can be expensive and time consuming, but shoot id take in-game rendered cut scenes at least. (like in sa, sa2, shadow 2005...) anything that could have provided the world building with a bit more ground to stand on would have been great. sure, there are levels to traverse which look cool...but they dont provide any sense of scale, they dont tell us what the area is like, and more importantly, you never see the other characters who are supposedly on the battlefield "alongside" you in a couple episodes. the storyline from the exposition along sounds like it could be an epic journey - but the way its told with the given game mechanics (i.e.: stage-based gameplay with no open worlds to explore) leaves a lot to be desired

i feel like the stuff explained in the comics should have just been cutscenes or exposition or something to pad out the game a bit. the comics are so short anyways so why just put it in the game? maybe not the first comic about the rando soldier saving the day or w/e...but the comic with silver and knuckles fighting chaos? the comic about infinites origins? all of that could have easily been included. at LEAST the comic with shadow was part of the DLC...but even thats just so gimmicky. they provide important background to the main plot of this game so i really dont understand why it was sidelined to comics and not just included from the beginning

the tension that the exposition already fails to build up is brought down even worse when coupled with the confusing timing of the stage complete screens, where you get your completion rank and see what new character creation items you unlocked. listen, i know immediate gratification for completing the level is important and all...but i swear, having these screens between the end of a boss fight and the cutscene showing what happens to them after being defeated seriously impairs the flow of the game. maybe having it there allows for the cutscene to load up in the background to improve efficiency, but personally id prefer seeing a loading screen as the break between a boss fight and the following cutscene after it and THEN the stage complete screen to finish the sequence off. the boss fight end cutscenes arent that long anyways for the most part, so its just nonsensical to have the stage complete screen interrupt the action when theres only a two minute scene left to it

i cant stand how streamlined forces is to the point of the main plot. what happened to games that actually take the time to explain stuff, show us extra bits to the story and how they connect? and even when forces' does explain SOME stuff, its through audio/text only dialogue. nothing visually interesting, just...dialogue. and then its off to the next level. forces' feels very bare bones honestly. the story is supposed to feel big and epic but it just wasnt given enough to bring that feeling into fruition. this is probably the only thing that saves forces’ from the war glorification issue because the game simply fails so miserably at telling a compelling story due to poor writing and poor formatting that the war stuff gets lost in the mix - and thats just sad

all of this brings me to my conclusion. fuck i wish sonic forces was a better written and executed game, because i do think it could have been so cool. i really like infinite as a villain, in both his design and personality. yeah hes kind of a whiny, edgy bitch - but he had potential. and its really gonna suck if this game killed off all that potential in one fell swoop

(then again, thats why we have fan content and aus :3)