#like again i do *get it* why both Sonic and the writers want Knuckles off the island

[sage-nebula]

I'm thinking about Knuckles, and how little we know of him, and how what little we know of him informs what we do know of him, and how that makes some of the writing around him (in various canon materials and adaptations) feel . . . kind of disrespectful, at times?

What we know of Knuckles' backstory is this: he is the last of the echidnas, and specifically a descendant of the Knuckles clan. The Knuckles clan was an empire under the rule of Chief Pachacamac, and when they tried to take the Master Emerald and Chaos Emeralds for the sake of their nation's power, Chaos went on a rampage and wiped most of them out. Pachacamac's daughter, Tikal, sealed Chaos into the Master Emerald along with her own spirit (sacrificing her body in the process), and those that remained enshrined the Master Emerald on a chunk of land that they hefted into the sky to become Angel Island. It's there that they vowed to protect the Master Emerald, but because there were so few of them already, now Knuckles himself is the only one who remains.

What we don't know is: how the remaining echidnas on Angel Island died out, and whether Knuckles' parents were around when he was born or not.

We don't know this, because echidnas hatch from eggs at least in real life, and we don't know that they don't in the Sonic universe. And we also don't know how long it would take for those eggs to hatch . . . essentially, we don't know if Knuckles was born alone on Angel Island, with only the little animals and the Chao there to keep him company. We don't know if perhaps he named himself Knuckles, after a clan he never knew, to try to feel some connection to his heritage. We do know that he doesn't know all there is to know about Angel Island, that he doesn't know the meanings behind a lot of the murals (which is how Eggman was able to trick him back when they first met), which would lead me to believe that if his parents were around, they weren't around for long enough to teach him about his culture or their sacred duty. That perhaps they weren't around long enough to give him a name of his own, rather than just taking the clan name.

All of this is to say, if Knuckles was born alone (or if his parents died when he was too young to remember them), and he's just had to piece together what little he knows about his people and his culture from what there is on his island . . .

. . . then it kind of makes moments in canon when Sonic or others pester him to leave the island or to stop taking it all so seriously feel kind of . . . insensitive at best.

Like, I do get it. Sonic himself doesn't care about his own past, he has no ties to any family (besides Tails) or culture, that's all fine for him. But it's clearly not fine for Knuckles, who very obviously wants that connection, especially if he's the one who named himself after his clan. And while I get it from a character standpoint for Sonic, part of me also feels like writers have validated Sonic's view in things like having Knuckles decide to go on a journey away from Angel Island after Frontiers, after his conversations with Sonic goaded him into it a little. Which again, as a writer I understand, because it's hard to do things with Knuckles if he never leaves Angel Island. You have to bring the plot to him, or else you can't include him. But at the same time, he's literally the last of his people. And the only connection he has to those people, those people who are lost and that he can never get back, are there on Angel Island, in ancient murals and ruins he's not sure he fully understands no matter how many years he spends studying them . . . I don't know, I just feel like some more understanding or compassion could be given to him for this. Like the way his eyes lit up in that IDW issue when Amy returned the echidna artifact to him -- that was something made by his people! That's a part of his history! He may not (probably doesn't) understand its significance, but now that's another lost connection that he has. And while Sonic might not care about things like that, Knuckles does. That's important to him, and that should be respected.

I don't know, that post about how Knuckles is not just a warrior (or, imo, a warrior at all, but a protector instead) has just had me thinking about him the past couple of days. I'm not saying that he should stay locked to Angel Island forever, I do think it does him good to socialize with his friends as well . . . but I also wish that the writing respected a bit more often the fact that he is the last of his kind, that the island and the ruins there and the Master Emerald are all he has left of it, the only way he has any connection to his culture at all. And honestly, much as I love Sonic, and as much as this is an E for Everyone series, I do think that, at times, Knuckles should get to tell Sonic to fuck off when Sonic starts going on one of his "don't be so stuck on your dusty old island" spiels he sometimes goes on. Because it's not really about the island, and Knuckles' feelings are just as valid as Sonic's. Perhaps even more so, on this topic.

But that's just what I've been thinking about.

[chordsykat]

How I write action/fight scenes

From a prompt posted by a friend on Discord last night. :3 Just thought I would ramble a bit before getting to work, this morning. If you're a writer and want to know what goes through my head as I come up with combat scenes in my stories, then read on. In this way, I hope we both learn a lot. Because I honestly don't think I've ever laid out my "formula" before...

First, know who you're dealing with.

This tutorial is going to stick mostly to the actual writing aspects, but if you're going to do an action series, you should factor in the combat abilities of your characters as you develop them. This doesn't have to be anything fancy. Keep it to the natural human responses at least. In other words, during a conflict, how will your character react:

Fight: Push back

Flight: Run away

Freeze: Do nothing

Knowing just that will give you enough to start thinking these dances through. And indeed, that's what they are - a dance. If you know more, like, specifically what kind of fighting they do, what their strengths in combat are, etc -- all the better, but know that what I list below goes in order from most to least important, and that stuff won't be on the list until the end.

Second, (and always) make the audience care about the action.

This sounds dumb and counterintuitive but people won't find an action scene compelling just because it's an action scene. Not to knock it, because it was brilliant for a different reason and a lot of the writing staff's hands were tied... BUT... During my time as a fan of, all the way into my employment with, Archie-Sonic, I can't tell you how many action scenes happened just because some executive at Sega was like "I think X and Y need to fight." So they would, and for reasons that were muddy at best. I think at one point, we had Sonic and Knuckles literally exchanging this dialogue:

Sonic: Yo dude, be cool. Last time we met, we left on good terms! Knuckles: Maybe, but you're still an intruder and just because you did me that favor on the day my daughter was to be married does not mean I owe you anything in the way of kindness.

IDK, my memory may be foggy, but that was the gist of it. Point is, don't do that - and first make sure your audience understands the motives behind the action, the potential stakes, and why it's all taking place to begin with. Else, you can make it as cool as you want and people are going to walk away with a sense of "that was cool" instead of "holy shit I was freaking out through that whole scene." If there's any question as to what you should be striving for as a writer, it's the latter.

Third, plot it out like it's a mini-story.

To the point - figure out the end first, and work backwards, just like so many writing tutorials have said before. Again, keep it simple: Who wins? Does the conflict result in a casualty of some kind? Does a character learn something?

Before you show how it goes down, you need to establish what goes down as the action happens, and what happens afterwards. Keeping the ending in mind as yo write a scene is always a good way of making it feel tighter. And throwing littlte twists for interest (maybe a character has the upper-hand for all but the end of the fight - maybe a character is losing until a specific turning point, etc) is made much easier, too.

Fourth, mind the rhythm.

A little weird to explain this, but the back-and-forth nature of the scene needs to flow well. Generally, conflict follows a pattern of:

Character acts

Opposition reacts

Opposition acts

Character reacts

If this pattern looks familiar to you, it should. This is the basic pattern of human dialogue as seen in stories and, YES, real life. Consider your scene like a dialogue all its own (even if the characters are talking throughout). The twists and turns I spoke about in the last point should be "off beat" because there's an unexpected nature to them. When a twist happens, consider breaking the above pattern.

Fifth, showcase character traits and skills (again, always).

Some characters have a high sense of honor and would put down their weapons if their opponent was unarmed. Some of them would fight dirty and hit someone with a chair when their back was turned. Some characters are scrappy and will jump into a conflict even when they're sorely outmatched. Some are straight up cowards who might run away even when there's a good chance they could win. Some are smart enough to bow out and will not engage -- hiding at the first sign of trouble. Some will throw snowballs at the oppressor and be surprised when they pull aggro and the dude comes after them.

You get the idea -- fights, conflicts and action scenes are great ways to show your characters' strengths, weaknesses, traits, and personality. Times of struggle are going to lay emotional responses raw, and it's a great way of showing "who someone really is" as it were.

Sixth, showcase unique defensive behavior.

Some characters have specific training: military, martial arts, street-fighting, etc... which, if you're aware of those, should come out during combat or conflict. Some characters have access to weapons. Some characters' bodies are the weapon. Etc, etc etc...

Whatever you do, about the only time you're going to show off the fact that your character knows Muay Thai is during an action scene. If you yourself do not practice this martial art, then research what you need to incorporate to make it believable when you write. Watch videos and write down the ways you would describe the movement. If you're doing a comic, then sketch the movement. Use that in your story.

Last, create more interest by tying in and highlighting story themes or disparities between protagonist characters, antagonist characters, and/or the conflict as a whole.

A little trickier, but if your story has a central theme or moral, try showing pieces of it shining through the action. Just as one wild example, if you have a theme of "love conquers all" this might mean your fight will end with the two people falling in love, instead of fighting. Think like a dungeon master. If you rolled a natural 20 on "try to woo the orc" in a combat situation (remember that comic?) what do you think would happen?

Too, if your combatants have something in common, or especially something that they are diametrically opposed on, feel free to show that off in these scenes. It'll leave the audience knowing them better (and set them up for further head-butting... or romance(?) down the line. And that's always fun).

Anywho, that's just a few of my thoughts on action sequences in fiction. If this helped you, or you want me to talk about this even more -- send me a message or a note or something. Always up for discussing this kind of thing.

And your reward for reading this far is an invite to join my discord if you wanna hear me ramble on about this sort of thing, in perpetuity. :)

[benis-chillin]

IDW's Fang the Hunter and the failure of Neo-Classic Sonic

(In case you're stupid, this is an opinion piece made for discussion)

Greetings, boys and goyles. I'm Benis, otherwise known as Benis Chillin, Sonic lore enthusiast and fanfic writer. I say the latter part because I want people to know that I'm well aware that many of my criticisms are based in the fact that I'm a writer, and unlike most people, I try to run more by objective canon than my whims. I explain it more here.

And per those standards…The current state of Classic Sonic SUCKS.

Now, I am a Modern Sonic fan through and through. I LIKED the 4 main Classic games when I played through them, but Sonic Adventure was the one that truly hooked me in. The world established by that game, and the ones that followed, just have my interest more, and I would prefer things be made in service to THAT.

However, to the greater detriment of society, Sonic Generations happened, and Classic Sonic was reestablished as part of the brand after years of Modern Sonic being THE face of everything, with even collections of Classic games using Modern Sonic artwork. And with the environment of the internet in the 2010's, it's no surprise that they decided to let Classic be its own sort of "brand" with Sonic Mania(bleh)and Forces(less bleh).

But they had a fun spin on it: A split timeline.

As explained above, Classic Sonic was given his own little mini-continuity to run around in, which is actually a brilliant idea, from a brand perspective. Original Classic Sonic had the creative freedom to do whatever the heck he wanted to, since he was the main Sonic. However, new Classic material, or Neo-Classic material, as I shall now refer to it, if left in the main timeline, inherently has the “prequel” problem where things HAVE to have some kind of hook for it to really be worth having another branch of the brand available. I wouldn’t say EVERY brand has this problem, but even the most masterful uses of that format have to deal with the fact that the future is predetermined, and Neo-Classic Sonic material just does not have the leg room to work around that problem.

So, split the timeline, and just do whatever with it. It’s an AU, go nuts! Let a part of the brand reset and grow in a different way for that audience who isn���t into that Modern stuff!

And we had a promising enough start with the 30th anniversary comics! Full of interesting returns that you didn’t really see in the mainline books. Heck, we got an actual look at the design of Metal Knuckles, that was pretty rad!

Bark, Bean, and Fang also had an appearance that made their old Archie team somewhat canon, after they only appeared as illusions in Mania.  Sure, these characters were neat in the Archie comics, but getting a proper form of that in a continuity free of that Satam Stank was nice. This particular comic being a separate thing from my main love, while not diving into the weird stuff that would turn me off from it, inherently made the comic more interesting, even though I’m not much of a Classic Sonic fan.

And so this sentiment continued through the next specials, but something else began to shift on Sega’s side. The dumbassery of single timeline was stated to be the new status quo, and they started acting as such with new Sonic material.

Sonic Superstars came out, too, and my feelings on that are known. Now, after his appearance in the comics had been a bit of a treat, even if you didn't like him, Fang was in an official Sonic game again, with 3D renders to boot!

...But he was still the same jackass with barely any personality that he was before. Because Superstars was TRYING to be like 3&K with its storytelling, while lacking basically every element that made 3&K's storytelling work. Combine the lackluster story and music, both of which were caused by the idea of it being a Neo-Classic game, with the fact that the graphics were 3D, and now the question is being raised of, "Why wasn't this just a Modern Sonic game?" 

Cause from an outsider's perspective, it being a Neo-Classic game only served to hold it back in a ton of ways!

For example, the character of Trip. She seems well liked in the Sonic fanbase, but Sega's kinda funky with how they handle characters being both Classic and Modern. Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Amy, Eggman, and Metal Sonic seem to be allowed to exist in both parts of the brand, but that's it. 

Knuckles Chaotix is said to be canon, but the Classic Chaotix are unlikely to appear anytime soon since Sonic Heroes soft-rebooted them. Mecha Sonic was allowed to appear in the Modern "Scrapnik Island" mini-series, but I suspect it's seen by Sega as a "modern reboot" rather than a character being allowed to co-exist between the two brands again. Heck, they didn't even have the guts to show the Classic versions of the characters during the flashbacks, even though logically, they were still referencing 3&K.

 So will Trip be allowed to appear in any meaningful way in the future? Probably not, the way things have been going.

So, if all Classic characters can only appear in Neo-Classic material, then the Neo-Classic material has to be as good as it can be, right?

Well, that's where the Fang mini comes in.

Written by Ian Flynn, who has very much been showing how utterly stretched he is across so many Sonic projects lately(even if I would still regard him as a fairly decent writer, just...Has his limits), the Fang mini is the epitome of BORING! 

The basic story is that Fang and his gang are seeking out, "The eighth Chaos Emerald," visit a few people who tell him it doesn't exist, and then Eggman sends him to deal with the Hardboiled Heavies going rogue.

Along the way, Fang is just randomly a dick to his friends, and they end up abandoning his ass at the end because this comic is, for some reason, a direct prequel to Sonic Superstars, and we apparently needed an explanation of why they weren't there?

If my summary didn't sound that bad to you, it's because you don't have to go through the grueling wait that being an IDW Sonic fan entails.

Seriously, the wait between issues of IDW Sonic has become a real problem the past few years. Ever since the Metal Virus ended, the main book has had a massive problem with pacing. 

And sure, there are arcs and ideas I like there, I AM a fan, but not a lot HAPPENS in each issue compared to earlier in the book's run. Even re-reading them, the pace is oddly slow for a book about a fast character, and the issue especially persists here...On top of the main book being paused for a bit so THIS shit could come out.

(Current arc is doing better, though, so hope they keep that up)

Issues 1&2 are wasted with Fang harassing Sonic and Knuckles for a bit that, guess what? Goes nowhere! And then we briefly divert to Fang and co. in a watery old Eggbase so Eggman can capture them and actually get the plot going…3 issues into a 4-issue mini! Then, we finally get to the main event, where all will be revealed! And…

It's the Warp Topaz from the main book. The Hardboiled Heavies found it in a cave, where nobody ELSE knew it was, so it can't be the source of the 8th Chaos Emerald rumors.

Like I told ya, that went NOWHERE!

So they fight the bland-as-shit Heavies, Fang adds the Warp Topaz to his hover bike thing, and the airship is wrecked, leaving Sonic and Tails to have no idea what just happened, their involvement being a complete wash.

And our story ends with Bark and Bean rocketing off in little hovercars that just raise the question of why they didn't use those when Fang threatened to kick them off in Issue 2, since he has no say in whether or not they launch.

I actually managed to ask Ian Flynn about this on the Bumblekast, and this was his response:

Worth noting that the final issue has an additional editor that didn't work on the previous issues. Not saying EVERYONE'S blameless in this, but if I had to choose a weak point…

This mini-series encapsulates every little issue the Neo-Classic line has had since they officially eschewed split timeline.

 It feels the need to go out of its way to explain shit that doesn’t matter, like where Bark and Bean were during Superstars, Fang having the Warp Topaz, but not using it during Superstars creates a gaping plot hole that will not wash away, and it not going away at the end brings up a lot of timeline issues that I can only hope that Knuckles special resolves! 

In fact, why didn’t HE get the mini!?

Even in his Classic state, Knuckles has a LOT more to carry a story with! From the secrets of his island, to the mysteries of his people(which Adventure and the Frontiers promo animation hinted at), to even just doing his own treasure hunts! Heck, you could even pin him against both Fang’s crew and the HBH, and you’ve got enough of a banger to hold 4 action-packed issues right there! 

But no! Instead, we get a book that seems written to depend on the personalities of the protagonists…When said protagonists barely have any personality.

Like, let’s consider Team Chaotix from Sonic Heroes ALONE. Vector is the loud, bombastic leader with a love of music, and true detective skills, as showcased by him figuring out that their employer was Eggman on his own by Rail Canyon. Espio is the disciplined, if a bit full of himself, ninja, taking down the bad guys with stealth and precision, while also being somewhat melodramatic. And Charmy is the excitable ADHD kid of the group who may occasionally want to go off-track and play around in the giant casino area.

These characters are simple, yet so full of personality that you immediately like them(unless you’re a 2010’s YouTuber). THESE guys can hold a narrative.

By comparison, what do Fang’s gang have after 3 comic appearances and Sonic Superstars?

Fang is a hired goon who has goons, Bean is “funny” bomb man, and Bark is the silent strong guy with a soft spot.

That is really it.

And this was FINE back when they were still in “Sega forgot us” territory. Being obscure oddities that we would rarely get in stories actually did a lot of heavy lifting for their more limited personalities. Despite what the current writers seem to feel about such limits, judging by Silver and Blaze's current "vacations" in the main book, characters being rarer can actually endear you to them.

But now, these guys aren't really that rare. In fact, I’d say they’re about equal to Team Chaotix in terms of mass media exposure within the past 5 years, and they’re considerably lacking in comparison. 

Hell, even compared to the characters created RECENTLY in IDW and the Modern games, they're pretty lackluster. Yet I'm supposed to care about these assholes just as much as those guys?

Which, really, is how ALL of the Neo-Classic media feels these days.

Look, I get that Neo-Classic Sonic media doesn’t want to step on the toes of Modern Sonic. I do. But I really think it needs a good shake-up.

Quit treating it like it’s this special thing, because it isn’t anymore. Find a more solid identity for this branch of Sonic if you want it to survive, cause THIS doesn’t cut it anymore.

AND ACKNOWLEDGE THAT TIMELINE SPLIT ESTABLISHED IN A MAINLINE GAME, DAMNIT! THERE’S A STORY IN UNDOING THAT! TELL IT, OR I WILL!

[beevean]

I find it such, such a shame that basically every single OC (especially on the heroes' side) that IDW introduced has gotten flanderised and/or milked for all their worth angst-wise and such, despite so many having interesting backstories (or even just the slightest hint of prior existence in the world) that you can do something with. Belle has been unsubtly swooped right into the background now that her story is over(?), Whisper is not allowed to move on from the loss of her team and keeps being subjected to more and more horrifying experiences related to it, Tangle has swiftly become the silly goose of the bunch as opposed to someone with plenty of intelligence and emotional maturity in the Tangle & Whisper miniseries, Lanolin randomly turned into what was supposed to be the Competent Girlboss which falls entirely flat anyway because the writing's got more holes in it than Swiss cheese...

It truly makes me wonder if, in a new comic or manga if/when IDW goes down, we should want new canon foreigner characters to be introduced in there. Both Archie and IDW have proven that they will eventually turn into a drama story featuring mostly just the OCs and disproportionately dividing attention to those, with the game cast easily coming across as an afterthought or being written OOC to facilitate that drama (such as everything with Silver getting kicked out of the Diamond Cutters he never joined in the first place, or Cream's inability to fight off Rough and Tumble ruining her and Vanilla's cooking and getting turned into a bawling mess in the process. And that was just from among the most recent two issues). I feel like it has to do with the fact both comics had/have the same writers, but I also understand that it's easier to write a character from scratch than needing to stick to guidelines from higher-up... Thus, maybe if a character from scratch cannot be written in the first place, it would make an improvement? Some strange moments aside (e.g. Sonic insulting Knuckles to Blaze, Sonic being a shipper on deck for Silvaze), I don't have much to complain about the stories that have only game characters in them. And that is it: I'm just here to see fun adventures from Sonic and his friends, not the woes and troubles of new characters who have either completely failed to catch or lost my interest over time.

(Sorry for the long ask, I wanted to add enough examples. Feel free to ignore if you would rather not talk about IDW again ^^)

Some strange moments aside (e.g. Sonic insulting Knuckles to Blaze, Sonic being a shipper on deck for Silvaze), I don't have much to complain about the stories that have only game characters in them.

I'm not saying this in a mean way towards you, but I do. I do plenty. IDW Sonic is a genuinely awful character that only recently has stopped to earn my ire. And you know why? Because the story no longer features him in the spotlight, instead focusing on the OCs.

Flynn has admitted that they prefer to write OCs because they "have less oversight", basically they don't have to deal with the guidelines that come with the canon characters. With this amount of unprofessionalism, I gladly accept the OCs attracting the worst of their writing degeneration, instead of ruining further characters I care about.

Now, yes, it is a shame that perfectly good new characters have been squandered (poor Tangle didn't deserve to become an annoying "ADHD-coded" uwu shipbait), but like. At this point it's the less of the two evils. The problem is not OCs or canon characters: the problem is writers who strut around in their workplace, thinking they're misunderstood geniuses and that it's their mission to fix the bad writing from SEGA.

[thelediz]

Sonic Underground watch along

Because… madness, is why. Almost twenty goddamn years ago, I started writing a crossover between the absolute worst piece of Sonic media ever and the games. That fic is The Lost Prince. I am maybe like… two or three chapters from finishing it. TWENTY YEARS AND THREE CHAPTERS. And I have no motivation. You cannot understand the pain this causes me.

So I’m watching the worst piece of Sonic media again in search of inspiration.

And I’m going to talk about it while I do it.

(Normally, I do things like this over on lediz-watches, but because this is specifically to explain some of my headcanons and inspire my writing, it’s here)

So let’s set the scene, first. This has become somewhat common knowledge in Sonic Tumblr fandom these days, but bear with me, because it’s important context.

(Also, the next paragraph is going to get me more death threats because I CERTAINLY HAVEN’T GOTTEN ENOUGH OF THOSE FROM THIS FANDOM, but we’ll carry on anyway because it’s important context)

Once upon a time, there was a cartoon series called Sonic the Hedgehog, now known as SatAM for reasons mostly relating to its timeslot. Sonic the Hedgehog was perfectly acceptable grimdark 90s environmentalist children’s programming which due to classic 90s multimedia marketing strategy also gave rise to the Archie Sonic the Hedgehog comics. It got cancelled on a cliffhanger because that was the kind of thing that happened in the 90s where writers thought FOR SURE a cliffhanger would spare them from the dreaded 2-season contract. (It never did.)

The reason this matters is because the production house maintained the licensing rights to that particular branch of franchise. And they needed a quick cash grab.

For some reason which I will never understand, this spawned Sonic Underground, which is… an insane premise, cheap animation, surprisingly not terrible songs, and a handful of voice actors getting milked for every inch of their three-voice contracts.

Sonic is a prince! He has siblings that are TOTALLY NOT knock-off Princess Sally Acorn or Miles Tails Prower! They have magic necklaces! They save the day with music! Don’t notice the statues of King Max Acorn in the background! Knuckles’ grandfather from the comics is there! Knuckles has magic! The Floating Island has guns! Totally don’t pay attention to the fact that both the episodes and music tracks have separate licensing that will cost the networks extra! No we don’t have time to check for animation errors! ALSO let us use highly complicated political socio-economic difficulties of enlightenment and industrialism as world building BUT DON’T NOTICE WHAT WE’RE DOING just accept the ones we say are bad are bad and the good guys are good! Good? Good. Great.

It is a trashfire.

I adore it.

I have no excuse.

I do, however, have wine.

Let’s go, kids.

Sonic Underground 01: Beginnings

The plot (for want of a better word): Once upon a time, Queen Aleena of Mobius ruled a beautiful world kingdom city (?) and had three lovely babies: Sonic, Sonia, and Manic. An evil industrialist named Ivo Robotnik came out of nowhere and took over her city world kingdom (?), turning all the aristocrats evil. In desperation, Aleena turned to the Oracle of Delphi I mean Delphius who told her that she must hide herself and her children away, until they could reunite as the Council of Four and enter a glorious New Age.

This episode is about the three children growing up, realising they have siblings, magical music, and the much less exciting fact that they’re once and former royalty, and coming together through The Power of Harmony.

Now, this episode immediately showcases what I love about The Trashfire: its background worldbuilding. You are not supposed to notice the worldbuilding, but it’s there and it’s amazing.

Realistically, Aleena would have been an absolutely terrible queen. I am not in the least bit surprised her aristocrats followed Robotnik, who promoted science and industrialisation and then sold them cheap labour. Honestly. Compare that to –

The facsimile of the Hanging Gardens, right there in the first twenty seconds. The HANGING GARDENS. Beautiful, yes. Legendary, absolutely. Would I have loved to see it? Hell yes! A good use of time or resources or indeed environment? HAH. MEANWHILE –

Slums! I don’t care what your artistic imagery is telling me, those tight dark alleyways you’re running down were there before Robotnik took over, your majesty. And you’re wasting tax payer dollars mobiums on THE HANGING GARDENS.

Manic was supposed to go to a middle-class family – you can tell by the clothing of the person that comes to the door. And he’s immediately stolen. Don’t question why a thief would steal a baby (there are so many things we must not question), but notice that it took all of ten seconds. The crime rate in her supposedly perfect city is CRAZY.

Side note: Manic was supposed to go to a middle-class family! The triplets should have gone aristocrat-middle class-working class, but instead we skipped straight from aristocrat to working class and then down to thief, but Aleena NEVER INTENDED to teach her children about the underclass.

Is Mobius a kingdom? Is it a world? We don’t know. We will never know. It Just Is, and Robotnik rules it, while Aleena used to rule it. Stop asking questions.

Music is illegal. This is a real thing that has happened in fascist communities, by the way, usually as a way of controlling the youth. And yet Sonia and Bartleby are out looking for an illegal club. Bartleby is bitching the whole way, but he’s there and he’d looking because it makes Sonia happy and it says SO MUCH about the spineless little worm. I love him.

Anyway. Onto my episode notes:

These character designs. What are these character designs… In my fic I call the alien-looking thing mixes, and say it's what happens when too many super classes (like... canine, feline, fish, etc) interbreed, but really it's just WEIRD.

Goddamnit, I hate Sonia. Not because of her character itself – she is… fine. But I hated GRRL Power even when I was the target audience of it, because of reasons that I can and probably will eventually go on for hours about. But basically, I mostly just hate that she’s perfect at everything, and her only flaws are being bossy and over emotional. It’s not real character, it’s not real personality, and I hate it.

Oh. A thing I’d forgotten. Sonic Underground’s one and only positive influence on other Sonic media: this was the first western animation that gave the hedgehogs more than three spikes. Probably because 3D games were also coming and going to make it A Thing.

Also: Sonic’s Tragic Backstory! I make so much of these foster parents for so many reasons.

But uh… yeah, starting the first episode with the out of place smiles during emotional moments… Sonic and Chuck smiling blandly as the only home Sonic’s ever known burns to the ground in front of them…

Imagine if you’d never read the comics or watched SatAM. Uncle Chuck and his dump-base would be a such a strange thing to see…

Oh, wow… Sonic’s reaction to the Oracle of Delphius’s nonsense. “I’m a prince? Weird. I’m a BROTHER? HOLY CRAP!”

Poor Sleet and Dingo. They never wanted to be evil, but they’re… not even very good at it…

THE SONG: Someday. Meatloaf pop eat your heart out. You would never believe that this was actually a pretty good storyboard match for some legit music videos at the time.

Seriously, Oracle, you could have stopped all of this by just stabbing him instead of warning him. You aren’t a good guy. Don’t pretend to be.

The instrumental song! Legit Sonic music. In fact, this gives serious Sonic and the Secret Rings vibes… I demand more than thirty seconds.

“Oh no, my family has been captured and turned into a robot! But you say my necklace is MAGIC? Fascinating…!”

I mean, look. I can’t defend this thing. I won’t defend this thing. Even when I was a kid, I knew it was terrible.

But I’m having fun anyway.

Normally, on these posts, I'll do one at a time because I've just realised how LONG these are, but the first three episodes are really just an hour-long conjoined episode. And things like that are s why I know at least someone in the producer's studio legitimately thought the Trashfire was a good idea. They were wrong.

Anyway. Sonic Underground 02: Getting to Know You

The plot (for want of a better word): the three siblings set out as directed by the Oracle of Delphius. They encounter a trainer who teaches Sonic how to stop, Sonia how to spin, and Manic how to do cool tricks with his drum sticks that he will barely use throughout the series. Mostly, it’s an episode that introduces some overarching themes, like Sonic being impulsive and irritable, Sonia being prissy, Manic’s insecurities, the divide between proper girl and stinky boys, and that while the triplets will tease each other constantly, it’s always all for one if someone else comes after them.

…That made it sound much sweeter and better than it actually is.

Dingo… she’s not that pretty, and don’t let Sleet tell you you’re ugly. You’re both 90s villains. I’m sure someone’s made Rule 34 fanart of you.

Oh hahaha Sonia’s so out of touch, thinking there’s a maid and that a mouse is terrible ahahano. GUYS.

Look, I hate Sonia, I do, but I have to give her props that Sonic and Manic don’t. Two hours ago she was a sheltered aristocrat’s daughter, she’s stating her expectations, and when Sonic shuts her down she makes a quick joke and gets on with things. I appreciate the pragmatism. I will give her that.

Look, Sleet, you gave Dingo an instruction and he followed it. Don’t act surprised. (Spoiler warning: He will continue to be surprised.)

Okay, this is a weird thing that the show will play with occasionally. Sonic and Sonia trade off mission-focus tunnel vision all the time. Usually when they want the other one to seem flighty or impatient respectively. But Sonia loses her props for not just getting to the point when their lives are on the line.

And then the boys lose it for being Idiot Boys despite the conversation.

Ah, Sonic Undgeround’s weird timelines. How I’d forgotten them. Side note, I also have trouble with pacing and timelines when writing The Lost Prince, so I probably can’t blame it. But here, they’ve been walking for two days, and Sonia is only NOW asking what Manic did for a living.

(also, notice that even Sonia, sheltered aristocrat that she is, thinks everyone of their age should have a proper job. They are somewhere between the ages of twelve and sixteen, folks! I make way too much of this!)

Gondar. Is certainly not voiced by the same guy as Robotnik, I’m sure.

No one questions why Sonic has super speed. This is not considered to be his ‘hidden talent’. For Reasons.

Manic’s ability to make drum sticks fly around will never be mentioned after this episode, to my memory.

Three days plus however much training time… and Robotnik is only just now figuring out the map they found? Apparently the super genius can’t read.

Ahh, Manic’s insecurity. So very well founded. He’s right, I’d argue – Sonic’s speed and Sonia’s… whatever that spin thing is, they are both so much more powerful than being able to throw sticks. And this isn’t even Sokka in the Last Airbender thing, the sticks are basically useless and will continue to be so. His actual power (SPOILERS) is over the earth, to the point that the whole stick thing is a weird addition from the get-go.

I’ll be honest with you, the monks and the invisible stairs are the only things I ever remember from this episode, because it’s such a weird visual that isn’t important in any way.

Sonic implying less than 100% American heterosexuality counter +1

Okay, so this is another running theme with the series, where they’re going to say Sonic’s impulsiveness is a huge problem, but the times when it isn’t, he won’t do anything different, it will just be that either Sonia tells him what to do, or he suddenly shows far more battle skill than he does when the impulsiveness is a problem. This is a common thread in Sonic media, actually, and it always kind of annoys me because they never do it well. Everything is always Sonic’s fault, except when it isn’t. Yes, this is why I still haven’t gotten around to watching Sonic Prime.

The SONG: Working Together, in which 60s rock would like their style back, thanks

…Wait, that was it?

Oh, yeah, in a better show this would have been the second third of a long first episode, RIGHT.

Sonic Underground 03: Harmony or Something

The plot (for want of a better word): After having discovered Manic’s power over the earth, the triplets are told Sonic’s friend Trevor is in danger. They abandon their training to rescue him, only to uncover a scheme to hunt down the Oracle of Delphius! The triplets must think quickly and work as a team to save everyone!

Once again, Sonic being cranky disrupts the harmony and causes problems. 90s Sonic was always so cranky…

A bit of world building here again, that you surprisingly are supposed to notice: elementals (of which dragons apparently count) are a thing, and apparently common-place enough that they teach it in school. Now, the way the conversation is phrased, you’re supposed to think Sonic’s stupid for not knowing about it, but Sonia is the only one that does. This is absolutely where I got the idea that she’s the only one of the three that went to school. Which would make sense in context, but I am thinking way too hard about it…

“Control of the earth can set off powers beyond your control”… this will never come up again. Manic, you could have had such an epic character arc of growing arrogance and humility… Instead I have to think too much about it and read into Manic’s insecurity and make him into A Nice Guy and ughhhh I am such a problem.

“I have also learnt that you might have the biggest heart in the world” – this is about Sonic, and while I agree with this characterisation in general, I have not seen it in this series, and certainly neither has Sonia. But we move on.

 Jeez… yeah, Bartleby’s a sleaze and a problem, but again, put a little reality on this situation and he’s actually worth his salt. He ‘walks the fine line’ as per Sonia’s words, and is immediately threatened by the sight of a woman who was his social equal (if not better) having been robbed of her sentience and turned into a slave, and he still does nothing worse than continue to walk the fine line. He’s a jellyfish, but the man’s got integrity.

Dingo, in contrast, is a creep, and Sleet’s insults make like, no sense

Once again, Sonia knows all the things. Hacking, flying jets, this will keep happening… If a skill is needed, Sonia will have it, as a good 90s female. God, I hate her character type.

Manic… seriously, man, mortal peril is not the time to play around, but Sonia, snarking at Sonic during mortal peril is also not appropriate

And the first of Aleena’s guilt tripping holograms! Hooray!

THE SONG: Birds of a Feather… oh, the… the early 90s pop nostalgia… oh ouch… it hurts…

 …I appreciate Sleet’s pragmatism. It never works out for him, but I appreciate it.

Sonic implying less than 100% American heterosexuality counter +1

Aleena… Oracle… it… I get prophecy, but… you’re RIGHT THERE. Reunite! Save us the next 37 episodes and the unresolved ending! Or at least tell the kids to stop looking until they’re ready. Come on.

The prophecy is obnoxiously vague, by the way. In this episode, it’s… arguably implied that the triplets need to learn to be better before they can be given their rightful place as rulers, but I would argue that in 40 episodes, the show takes absolutely no steps to improve their characters and make them better leaders. And as I said last time, Aleena is implied to have been not great to begin with. So CLEARLY my solution to this whole problem is change the last two minutes of this episode.

But that was the opening movie! Ridiculously too fast-paced for what it was trying to do, terrible animation, amazing world-building, interesting characters, acceptable dialogue. Welcome to the Trashfire that I have loved for half my life.

Come back tomorrow if you want to know more!

[crusherthedoctor]

Let’s try this again...

So for those of you who can’t currently see asks, I was informed in an ask about this statement by Ian Flynn in regards to why IDW Eggman acted the opposite of a respectable, well-characterized Eggman during the zombot arc:

Needless to say, this Steamed my Hams. Here’s why. (Credit to @beevean​ and @colony-drop-program​ for several additional points.)

In SA1, Eggman was constantly one step ahead of the heroes by swiping their emeralds, had both Chaos and the Egg Carrier operating at the same time, resorted to a missile when both were seemingly dealt with (which only turned out to be a dud cause of bad luck), and revealed a second Egg Carrier in the event that Chaos would betray him. And in the case of the missile - he was clearly at his wit’s end by that point, and suicide attacks on the brink of a villainous breakdown are common among many villains, including clever schemers... like Eggman.

In SA2, Eggman suspected there was a fake emerald in the mist that the heroes wanted to use to trick him, so he set up a situation perfectly in a way that would reveal which one it is.

In Battle, he was able to drive Emerl insane with energy in case the robot defeated him in battle.

In Unleashed, the game starts with Eggman setting up a trap based on the expectation that he would know exactly how Sonic (or rather, Super Sonic) would react, and it worked flawlessly. And upon learning that Dark Gaia woke up too early and his spawn were scattered all across the planet, Eggman managed to lure Dark Gaia spawn to him, and he still able to create Eggmanland and did his best to prevent Sonic from reaching the final temple.

Even in ‘06, he had that trap where he sent Sonic and Co to the future. It may have relied on the heroes being stupid, but it still counts as Eggman preparing for something.

Even in Heroes, arguably his most pathetic role in the game canon due to being locked in a room by his own creation for the whole game, he still had the initiative to hire the Chaotix into getting him out. And Metal Sonic’s flaws with his own plan... are Metal Sonic’s. Not Eggman’s. Metal Sonic didn’t take control of Eggman’s plan, he came up with his own plan to begin with. Metal’s failings in Heroes are not in any way, shape or form the fault of Ivo’s, and I don’t know why this example was even mentioned.

And keep in mind, these are just the games where Eggman was still upstaged. We’re not even going into the games that KEPT him as the top dog from start to finish, like in Sonic 3 & Knuckles where he’s constantly doing everything he can to stall you from reaching the Death Egg (which implies planning at least some of it in advance), Rush Adventure where he created the pirates as a proxy to search out the Jeweled Scepter, Colours where he kept his mind control cannon a secret, Generations where he teamed up with his past self in order to tame the Time Eater, Lost World where he brought a Cacophonic Conch with him to subjugate the Deadly Six, then bounced his way back up even after they stole his tech, and everything in Forces (storing Phantom Ruby copies, the artificial sun plot in case the Death Egg was destroyed, being able to dispose of Infinite in case he acted up, keeping the real Phantom Ruby for himself, even having a second mech inside the first mech in case the latter was destroyed).

Hell, the entire reason he set up a racing tournament in the original Sonic Riders was so that he could uncover the Babylon Garden.

And didn’t Flynn himself write that Mega Drive comic from a while back? The one where Eggman made a similar SA2-style bargain ploy for the last Ancient Gear, only to then reveal he had the other Gears already once he got it?

Eggman may be careless at times, with occasional details, but he’s not a Mephiles-tier moron who doesn’t understand the concept of a plan or strategy. He’s a mastermind, with many elaborate plots over the years to live up to that title, and when he’s not planning things out in advance, he’s just as quick to improvise or take advantage of the situation as best as he can.

He knew what would happen with Chaos upon feeding him Chaos Emeralds, because...

He knew something would happen with Dark Gaia, because...

(He also proceeded to kidnap Professor Pickle for the specific purpose of obtaining even more information on the subject.)

And while he may not have known exactly what Project Shadow was at the time, he still knew its existence in the first place (and by proxy, the ARK’s existence), because...

...And he brought a Chaos Emerald along with him. And knew the password, “Maria”.

There is no excuse for the doctor to just shrug and do absolutely nothing upon being informed about a potential error in his plan. The fact that Ian Flynn - a man who has worked with this character for over a decade, and thus by all means should know this character by the back of his hand - completely disregards this official, canonical element of the main villain of a 30 year old franchise, only makes me less willing to trust any of the characters’ handling under his pen. And that’s putting aside how questionably handled everyone else has been in IDW.

And you might say “But it’s IDW, it’s a different interpretation”. But here’s the thing: it’s following off of Forces, a game where Eggman was at his brilliant best. There’s no way you can go from his backup-plan-after-backup-plan strategy from that game, to his DarkSydePhil-tier “nothing I could do dood” showing in this comic, and chalk it up to anything other than, at best, an extreme display of inconsistency. And as far as we know, this isn’t even the cause of those mandates that everyone loves to point to... this was all Flynn.

So yes. If I wasn’t certain that Flynn’s widespread fandom status as the Best Sonic Writer of all time, every time, was just a teensy, tiny bit exaggerated... I am now. I may be an Eggman fan, so naturally that does fuel my annoyance with his statement on the doc, but I’d be just as annoyed if it were any other character who was blatantly misinterpreted to this degree, even if it were a character I was apathetic to or even flat out disliked.

Best Writers™ do not selectively choose how characters from long lasting IPs act. You can experiment with a character. You can play around with a character’s traits. But you can’t turn a character completely inside out and expect it to work just like that.

It doesn’t work.

/RantOver

[thankskenpenders]

So, about the movie...

At long last, a week after it came out, I was finally able to see the Sonic movie. The Daytona 500 being held across the street from my favorite theater and conflicting work schedules had been keeping me away, but now I’ve finally seen it. And it was...

Decent!

Which is way, way, way, way, way better than a movie with this awful premise has any right being. That’s for damn sure. I enjoyed my time at the theater. I don’t know how they did it, but they did it. If you like Sonic and haven’t already seen it, you will probably get a kick out of this film. If you don’t like Sonic (or Jim Carrey), there is very little in this movie for you

Okay, now that that’s out of the way, it’s time to break that whole movie down. This will contain full spoilers for the Sonic movie

This movie kinda gave me deja vu because it’s set up so similarly to the Bumblebee movie. Both open with a slavishly faithful CGI sequence on another planet to ensure long time fans that the creative team gives a shit, but a conflict sends the title character to Earth. There, they form an emotional bond with the human lead as they’re pursued by the bad guys, who are working with the US government and tracking the energy signature of the title character. This setup worked extremely well for Bumblebee, because it’s so similar to the usual plot of Transformers. For Sonic, it was... a mixed bag. But it worked better than I expected

(This shot does not happen in the movie.)

That opening though, huh? Green Hill Zone looked great, and I was pleasantly surprised to see they did, in fact, use the Hyper Potions track from Sonic Mania in the actual film. (The piano rendition of the Green Hill theme used later was also lovely.) Longclaw was also interesting. I’ve seen one person bring up all the bird-themed ruins in Sonic 1 and 2 as a possible source of inspiration for the character, and I think that’s a valid take. And man, the echidnas! I wasn’t expecting that AT ALL. I guess that was probably the Knuckles Clan or something? I would never, ever picture them being alive during Sonic’s lifetime, but like... I guess Knuckles had to come from somewhere, right? If they do another movie with Knuckles, will the rest of his kind have died out?

Sadly, though, this sequence felt like it was over in a heartbeat. We barely see Sonic’s life on his home planet, and we’re expected to feel emotional over Longclaw’s sacrifice when she only gets like three lines before Sonic is sent to Earth. This is a common theme with the film--it goes for these big emotional beats that it just does not earn with its rapid fire pacing

Anyway, then we fast forward and Sonic’s a teen. This is actually kind of an interesting one if you’re constantly neck deep in Sonic Character Analysis like me, because it’s a pretty different take on the character. It’s hard to give them credit for doing something somewhat fresh with the character, though, because like... how much of that was intentional, and how much was just Hollywood writers trying to squeeze a generic action-adventure movie out of Sonic? (Honestly, it’s probably mostly the latter.)

The closest other piece of Sonic media to the movie would probably be Sonic X, a story in which Sonic isn’t really the protagonist. The Sonic of the anime is fairly emotionally distant. He cares deeply about his friends, and does nice things for them, but he’s totally fine with running off on his own for extended lengths of time, and he doesn’t really talk about his feelings. He’s not the character the audience is meant to sympathize with, but is instead this cool older kid who Chris wants to impress. This is pretty much in line with how Sega likes to depict the character. He cares about his friends, but he’s also cool with being a loner. It feels like he only runs into them incidentally, usually when Eggman is causing trouble, and then when the crisis of the week is taken care of he’s back to going on his own adventures. There’s a reason why one of his catchphrases is “long time no see”

The Sonic of the movie is the polar opposite. His main conflict is that he’s lonely and desperately seeks friendship. He’s also an overly-eager, extremely earnest goober. He literally flosses twice. (Which I loved.) I’ve seen him compared to Silver, and honestly, that’s not a bad comparison. I did like it, though! I don’t mind Sonic being a more emotionally open character, like he was in a lot of older Western media. I mean, he cried in like the second or third episode of SatAM

It’s just that, like many things in the movie, it feels less like a deliberate creative choice and more like a logical string of decisions to make when writing a generic action-adventure film for general audiences. Sonic’s the only one of his kind on Earth, so of course he’d be lonely. He has to have some sort of arc for audiences to connect with him, and if he’s gotta be accompanied by James Marsden for the whole movie, well, his arc’s gotta be about them becoming friends

I’ve gotta say, though: Ben Schwartz is great as Sonic. As much as I like Roger Craig Smith, I wouldn’t complain if he became the new main voice of the character. And thanks to the redesign, he looked great. I can’t imagine how nightmarish this movie would’ve been if Sonic wasn’t cute

My main fear with this movie, though, was that Sonic wouldn’t really be the protagonist. As a fan of Transformers, I know all too well that the cost of doing a full CGI character usually means that said character can’t really be the star of the film. Optimus and Bumblebee aren’t the stars of the Transformers movies--they’re supporting characters who are primarily present for the sake of the action scenes. The humans are the real stars in those movies, and the robots are barely even characters. I was terrified that Sonic would be the same, with the actual character I paid to see taking a backseat to James Marsden The Cop

I’m not quite sure if they struck the right balance there, but they did better than I worried they would. Sonic is central enough to the film and gets enough screentime that you can easily say he’s the protagonist. BUT there is absolutely too much of Tom and his family. The human cast is fine, the performances are fine, and there were a few good jokes, but every time the movie tried to get me to care about Tom’s life I was bored out of my mind. It’s just so trite and passionless. The other characters barely felt fleshed out at all, including Tom’s girlfriend (wife?) and Agent Stone. The little girl who gives Sonic the shoes had some cute moments, though

I do, however, love the part in which James Marsden is walking around in a San Francisco t-shirt, to remind us that he’s planning on moving to San Francisco... which then becomes the excuse for Sonic to think about San Francisco and accidentally send his warp rings there, which becomes the excuse for the buddy road trip aspect of the film. And as much as that was a focus of the marketing, the actual road trip part is like... maybe 20 minutes of the movie? There’s like three scenes with Sonic and Tom on the road and then they’re in San Francisco for act 3. The movie tries to act like they’ve formed this deep bond and I just did not give a shit. I don’t care about the cop. All Cops Are Bastards, and that absolutely includes Tom, whose dream in life is to join the extremely corrupt San Francisco PD

The whole excuse for Sonic having to sit in the passenger seat of a car going the speed limit for a good chunk of the movie is also, just. Stupid. If he doesn’t know where San Francisco is and time is of the essence, just... give him a map?

And then there’s Jim Carrey. I was worried about this one. The previews tended to highlight his most Jim Carrey Being Wacky moments, and as fond as I am of movies like The Truman Show and Bruce Almighty, that’s just. That’s not Robotnik. I was pleasantly surprised by the actual movie, though! I thought he was pretty good. I’m not sure what incarnation of Eggman I’d most compare him to, but like... it was close enough, and he was entertaining enough. I’d pay to go see another movie with him as Robotnik. Sure. (Especially with how he was looking at the end of the film.)

There were some other little interesting tidbits here with Eggman, although again, a lot of that is less “let’s do a new take on Eggman” and more “let’s do a marketable movie with Eggman in it, which requires us to explain some stuff.” Like him straight up just being a normal human from Earth, with none of the confusion present in the current “two worlds” canon of the games. Or him apparently being an orphan who was bullied in school, and who trusts machines more than other humans. It’s a safe way to depict the character in a Hollywood movie, but I thought it worked

The way they got to his nickname was kind of funny, though. Like, obviously they didn’t put Jim Carrey in a fat suit, and thank god for that. So instead of mocking his weight, the nickname is derived from the egg-shaped robots he uses. Which made sense, I guess. It at least felt logical for this incarnation of Sonic, who had annoyingly been calling Tom “Donut Lord” the whole movie, to make up the nickname “Eggman.” (Said robots, by the way, were a weak point of the movie to me. They just didn’t have that Eggman whimsy and felt very safe and very Hollywood. Honestly, though, if they had just made Robotnik’s ship grey and slapped some hazard stripes on it, it’d probably be fine.)

As a whole, I thought the humor of the movie was... okay. Sonic had a lot of good moments thanks to Schwartz’s great performance, as did Robotnik. There were just so many weird lines, like James Marsden telling Robotnik that he was breast fed, or the agonizingly long child trafficking joke with Sonic in the duffel bag. Stuff like that

The action was great, though. They definitely owe a lot to the Quicksilver scene in that one X-men movie (I forget the one), but they had a lot of fun with Sonic’s powers and it felt extremely true to the character. Seeing him do one of his Smash poses during the San Francisco fight was great. The action scenes were an absolute delight

And then the ending. Oh, that ending

So, I had already heard that Tails shows up in the stinger before I saw the film. And when I heard that, I expected it to be like, the classic Tails origin story. Maybe Sonic would return to his planet, and run into this precocious kid who decides to follow him around... but no! Not at all! Tails is already the Tails we know and love. He’s already an inventor, he’s already tracking down Sonic. I’m shocked that Sonic actually stayed with Tom instead of running off to have new adventures, but hopefully this is a sign that more characters will be brought into the fray if they make a sequel

And boy, they better make that damn sequel. This movie had a great opening weekend and a positive reception. They have no excuse not to. GIVE US SONIC AND TAILS GOING ON AN ADVENTURE

Other stray thoughts

Holy shit they put Sanic in the movie

The Sega logo animation meant that Kiryu from Yakuza was in this movie for a few seconds

The pixel art credits sequence, which featured both the Sonic 2 special stage and Get Blue Spheres as well as the Eggman logo screens from the Studiopolis Zone boss, was cute

The Saturn logo could be seen on the diagram of the other habitable planets

Robotnik had a label for “Badniks” on his circuit breaker. I wonder if the drones in the movie are intended to be Badniks, or if we’ll see actual ones if a sequel gets made

Also, was it implied that Robotnik committed war crimes for the US government

One of the government guys who I think only got one line was played by Garry Chalk and as such sounded exactly like Optimus Primal

I can’t tell if Sonic getting a red race car bed was an intentional shout out to the Archie comics or if it’s just a coincidence, but I loved it

A dude about my age wearing a Sonic Mania t-shirt literally stood up and clutched his head in shock when Tails showed up

After the movie a very excited kid got his mom to take his photo with the Sonic display in the lobby. Afterwards he was so excited that he flossed

I can’t believe they talked about Olive Garden so much

[mobius-prime]

253. Sonic the Hedgehog #184

Chaos Angel

Writer: Ian Flynn Pencils: Tracy Yardley! Colors: Jason Jensen

As Enerjak and Super Sonic take off to begin their epic duel for the fate of the world, their clash causes an explosive beam of light to shine so brightly it's seen as far away as Albion (which, if you'll recall, is located somewhere around the area of modern-day England, whereas we're currently closer to New York), which Nicole barely raises the New Mobotropolis shield in time to deflect. Super Sonic snaps Enerjak's staff, and when Enerjak blasts him with a wave of deadly energy in response, he casually reminds him that in his Super form, he's totally invulnerable, making this essentially a stalemate battle between two living gods. Below, Julie-Su is shocked that Sonic survived the blast, but Locke is grumpy and hopeless, saying again that Sonic should have let him kill Enerjak with the Brotherhood's weapon while they had the chance.

It's amazing how clueless and callous Locke is here. I mean, I expected nothing more from him, really, especially given that he has yet to reach the point of redemption that he did in the M25YL timeline on his deathbed, but still, he doesn't even seem to show a single ounce of remorse that this is what his son has become. As the battle rages on, the Destructix watch from somewhere else on the island, and decide they definitely don't want to get caught up in it (which, really, I can't blame them).

Scourge reveals his supercharged warp ring, with enough energy to warp them to another zone entirely, and when Fiona expresses some doubt about leaving Mobius he merely reminds her that the ongoing battle is a battle for the fate of the world, and it's better for them to take their chances elsewhere. She decides to tag along for some "fun," which is after all the reason she left Sonic for Scourge, while Super Sonic continues to try to beat some sense into Enerjak above. He manages to get a yell of "crunch time" from him, giving him hope that his plan to bring Knuckles back is working, but it's not fast enough, making him worry. Julie-Su and Archimedes teleport to the Master Emerald's shrine, which has mysteriously been transported from the Chaos Chamber to become a small island floating in its own right at the edge of Angel Island (it's literally not explained at all how this happened, but I'm assuming it's Ian's creative license to once again make the world of the comics conform to that of the games a little more). They confront Finitevus, who merely states that even if he wanted to stop this, he couldn't by now, as the hex he put on the Master Emerald totally enslaved Knuckles' mind when he tried to tap into its power. He's uncertain about why the hex didn't affect Sonic when he transformed, but is mostly unconcerned, as his plans are proceeding regardless.

Finitevus, I don't think you understand one bit what actual heroes are like. Julie-Su and Archimedes immediately start arguing over which one of them will die in order to bring Knuckles back, with a baffled Finitevus looking on. Locke then rounds the corner, having arrived unseen, and announces that he, in fact, will sacrifice himself, finally regretting what he has brought on Knuckles with his actions in trying to protect him from the devastated future he foresaw. Finitevus, enraged, leaps forward to attack the three of them in an attempt to stop them, but Archimedes grabs onto him and poofs him away, leaving Julie-Su and Locke momentarily alone. Locke sadly looks down at Julie-Su, and explains that for all their extreme methods, in the end the Brotherhood really did love every single member, and only ever wanted the best for Knuckles. Julie-Su begins to cry as Locke takes his place atop the emerald, and begins reciting Tikal's prayer one last time.

Okay, I'm just gonna say it. As much as I genuinely liked Locke's deathbed scene in M25YL, I think this is a much better version of his death, narratively. It's also ten times more heartbreaking. The last time Knuckles ever spoke to his father, Locke hit him with a thinly-veiled threat to his family's safety, and Knuckles punched the screen and screamed at him in response. And now, without a chance to ever apologize or say goodbye, Locke is gone, having sacrificed his life to save his son. I have never doubted for a moment that Locke truly does love Knuckles and has always done everything with the best of intentions, which is precisely why I always felt he would make a better villain than a hero. The Sonic series, as much as I love it, is sorely lacking in three-dimensional villains, with most being either like Eggman - wanting to conquer the world - or Finitevus - wanting to watch it burn. Locke, as I've gone over before, would have been a fantastic antagonist. I think it very true that the best villains are the ones we can relate to in some way. Loving your child and wanting the best for them is very relatable to many people, and permanently messing up your child because of trying to do the best for them is a very real fear for the majority of parents. And Locke realizing this at the end of his life and then giving up said life for the sole purpose of undoing everything he helped to cause is the logical narrative conclusion of this character arc. Because of this, I think Ian ultimately writes Locke much better than did Kenders, despite Locke being based on Kenders' father (which is why I kind of feel bad even saying this, but eh, I've already made the argument that he should have been a villain, I don't think I can make it much worse from here). And as sad as this is, it just gets worse as Knuckles regains his right mind and returns to the ground, asking Julie-Su where his father is. Julie-Su merely starts sobbing and babbling incoherently about how she couldn't stop him, and just as horrible understanding begins to dawn on Knuckles, Finitevus returns through a warp ring, incensed that Locke stopped his plans after all. He yells that with his luck, Knuckles will even remember his time as Enerjak, to which Knuckles furiously replies that he remembers -

An exit fitting for one such as Finitevus. Julie-Su tentatively says that they should head back down to New Mobotropolis to let everyone know that the day's been saved, but Knuckles curtly cuts him off, refusing and claiming that as the last living Guardian of Angel Island, he's never leaving this island again, and he'll guard the Master Emerald alone for the rest of his life. And thus, we've finally come full circle. Knuckles started out as the lone Guardian of the island with no one else to help him, and now he's become such once again. Come on though, man, for real - your father sacrificed himself so you could have your own life free of the destiny he's forced on you, don't immediately try to isolate yourself!

Anything

Writer: Ian Flynn Pencils: Tracy Yardley! Colors: Stingray Grafik Wurks

Well, there's still one loose end we have yet to tie up - namely, the fate of the Dark Legion. While those who were happy to be free of their cybernetic trappings were transported to Albion, those who regret losing them have remained with Lien-Da, who now seeks the help of a mysterious figure to get her people's way of life back. Her speech is actually quite fascinating, because for basically the first time we actually get to see what a lifelong member of the Legion thinks of their own history, without immediately being made out to be a cackling evildoer. Turns out… their position is kind of reasonable.

I mean, I did just go over why Locke, and thus by extension the Brotherhood, are not really good people. I don't think they're evil - misguided, more like - but it's clear that in the end, extremism was the name of the game on both sides of the technology debate, and if anything both sides have only gotten more extreme over the past several hundred years. Ultimately, while the Dark Legion has absolutely employed some really messed up methods in their pursuit of their goals, their actual ideology is not unreasonable at all. In the end, they really were just a group of people who didn't want to tacitly accept being thrown back to the stone age by their government, and rebelled when said government - a literal theocracy, if you'll recall - created an entire goddamn task force operating outside of the normal legal system to try to drag them all into a world without technology regardless. I mean, literally, think about it right now - if your government, after a bad incident with one scientist going nuts and trying to seize power, in response decided to ban all technology and mandate that everyone had to regress back to a medieval lifestyle, how many of you reading this, right now, would just accept it and give everything up? And how many more of you would say "No way in hell is this okay" and join a revolution? Use technology in secret, rebel, fight for your right to live life as a modern human being with modern comforts? The Legion was twisted over time into a force that fought for all the wrong reasons, looking for power instead of freedom, but in the end, they were more wronged than anyone else in this whole debate, and absolutely had a right to be angry over the way they were mistreated.

Lien-Da, treacherous nature aside, clearly does believe in her people's way of life, and so she crafts a deal with her mysterious contact - if he makes her the Grandmaster of the Legion, a title which she feels she deserves after watching her late brother and the decrepit Dimitri take the reins before her, she'll join his cause and have her soldiers act as his new ground forces since his were destroyed by Enerjak. Gee, I wonder who this mysterious figure could be? Ah, what the hell am I acting all coy for, it's Eggman, naturally, and he's more than happy to accept this deal. However, to Lien-Da's incredulous disappointment, the position of Grandmaster has already been filled - by none other than Dimitri! Yeah, Eggman's given him some upgrades, turning his dreadlocks into bizarre tentacle-like appendages sticking out from his head bubble. Aw, yeah, Eggman, no need to give him a proper body or anything like that, just give him hair tentacles, it'll be fiiine!

[deliriousabsol]

More Things Than You Ever Cared To Know About My Writing

This was originally posted by ‘vorchagirl’, reblogged by someone I follow. And I thought it would be fun to just outright answer these in a questionnaire type way, rather than as asks. So here we go =)

Feel free to do this yourselves if you like it. Just please remember to add the original poster.

Fanfiction Questions

Fandom Questions

1. What was the first fandom you got involved in?

Properly? Probably Pokemon. I’ve been writing fanfiction for it for years.

2. What is your latest fandom?

Funnily enough, Sonic, despite being a fan since I was like seven years old. I’ve just never seriously got into it since then until now.

3. What is the best fandom you’ve ever been involved in?

The Pokemon fandom. I’ve made some awesome friends in it.

4. Do you regret getting involved in any fandoms?

You hear things, but I’ve not really come across any toxicity besides the reaction to the Sonic Movie.

5. Which fandoms have your written fanfiction for?

A good few, but the only ones you’ll find are Pokemon, Sonic and Zootopia.

6. List your OTP from each fandom you’ve been involved in.

Zootopia - Judy/Nick

Sonic - Shadow/Rouge, Silver/Blaze

Pokemon - I don’t usually ship in Pokemon, but Jessie/James because reasons

7. List your NoTPs from each fandom you’ve been in.

Sonic/Amy. Sorry. Some art is cute, but it’s not my jam.

Shadow/Maria. I don’t ship animals with humans.

I also don’t ship yaoi/yuri pairings.

I do not poop on any ship. If it’s one I’m not fond of, I just scroll on and leave it be. Shipping can be pretty toxic sometimes, and I just don’t get it at all.

8. How did you get involved in your latest fandom?

I was writing Mask Behind the Monster and my husband’s aunt suggested I join a specific Sonic forum to post it in. So I joined the Amino and posted it, all nervous. The reception blew me away, and I met some awesome people, so I stuck around.

9. What are the best things about your current fandom?

The friends I’ve made.

10.  Is there a fandom you read fic from but don’t write in?

Probably. Can’t think of any off the top of my head.

Ship Questions for your Current Fandom

11. Who is your current OTP?

Shadow/Rouge. Also Infinite/Amy. This is because of my current writing projects.

12. Who is your current OT3?

None.

13. Any NoTPs?

We’ve been over this *looks up*

14. Go on, who are your BroTPs?

Sonic/Tails =3

15. Is there an obscure ship which you love?

Infinite/Amy. I didn’t initially.  But if it’s done right, and there are reasons for them to be together in that setting, then it works. 

16. Are their any popular ships in your fandom which you dislike?

Sonic/Shadow, Infinite/Gadget

I’m also not a fan of most Pokemon anime ships.

17. Who was your first OTP and are they still your favourite?

Knuckles/Amy. I still have a soft spot for it.

18. What ship have you written the most about?

Amy/Espio. I went through a phase... Read a couple of ‘fics and thought ‘Why not? Sounds like fun.’ XD

19. Is there a ship which you wished you could get behind, but you just don’t feel them?

Not really. As much as I like shipping, because I’m a fluff-junkie, I have to just like it.

20. Any ships which you surprised yourself by liking?

Again. Inf/Amy. This one took me by surprise.

Author Questions

21. What was the first fanfic you ever wrote?

Erm... if I remember right, Some cringy self-insert Pokemon ‘fic when I was like 14/15.

22. Is there anything you regret writing?

Everything I regret writing has been deleted.

23. Name a fic you’ve written that you’re especially fond of & explain why you like it.

The End and Mask Behind the Monster. I can’t choose one over the other. They were both written with a lot of meaning and emotion behind them, and I have a soft spot for both.

24. What fic do you desperately need to rewrite or edit?

I keep thinking about re-writing The End, but I worry it will lose its fire if I do...

25. What’s your most popular fanfic?

I think... THINK... it’s Mask Behind the Monster.

26. How do you come up with your fanfic titles?

To Title is hard. System:Reboot was a suggestion off a friend who I have lost touch with. Its working title is ‘Hacked’. A lot of my stories have preliminary working titles until I come up with something. The End was named after a song. Confectionary Conundrum was originally called ‘Sugar Snow’ which is the name of the sweet shop in that story. The Mainframe Saga’s Scrivener file is still called ‘Datastream’. Its separate books have been renamed as I’ve been ‘planning’ them out (as much as I plan).

27. What do you hate more: Coming up with titles or writing summaries?

Probably summaries, because FFNet leaves very little space to do so.

28. If someone were to draw a piece of fanart for your story, which story would it be and what would the picture be of?

I have actually had fanart, so this is hard to say. A lot of people like drawing my cyberpunk Infinite redesign which has surprised me.

29. Do you have a beta reader? Why/Why not?

My husband proof-reads my stuff, and then I question him on it. I don’t have a beta. I’ve thought about it, but I stick to a strict time-frame when it comes to uploads where I strictly give myself very little leniency. So if it wasn’t beta’d in time, I’d get a little frustrated and I do not like to pester people. I also worry I’ll be told to edit and cut a LOT, and I don’t like to butcher my ‘fics. I do that enough while I’m writing 8D

30. What inspires you to write?

My faith. That is a BIG one. You will find references and metaphors to my faith throughout my stories. Particularly in The End and The Mask Behind the Monster. Music is another huge inspiration drive. I’ve come up with entire scenes and even plots or sub-plots listening to music. I was just on a walk listening to some cyberpunk tracks when I got the spark for The Mainframe Saga.

31. What’s the nicest thing someone has ever said about your writing?

Oh boy. Where do I start? I think I was especially moved when someone told me they read The Mask Behind the Monster to their sisters.

32. Do you listen to music when you write or does music inspire you? If so, which band or genre of music does it for you?

Yes. A lot. I listen to a variety of stuff from Christian rock and EDM to cyberpunk instrumental tracks. Main bands are Thousand Foot Krutch, Family Force Five, Cruxshadows, Holon, Misanthropix, Scandroid and Celldweller.

33. Do you write oneshots, multi-chapter fics or huuuuuge epics?

It really varies. I lean towards epics. Even Glitched ended up being longer than planned, if memory serves, although it’s not epic length. The Mainframe Saga is made up of chaptered ‘fics, ficlets and one-shots.

34. What’s the word count on your longest fic?

I couldn’t tell you, because Scrivener crashes when I try to get the word count for System:Reboot XD

35. Do you write drabbles? If so, what do you normally write them about?

I don’t, but I have thought about it.

36. What’s your favourite genre to write?

Sci-Fi. Hands down.

37. First person or third person - what do you write in and why?

I prefer third person, particularly restricted third person, because it is easier to write about different characters. That way the reader knows what’s going on when the main cast do not. I was very surprised I enjoyed writing first person so much in Mask Behind the Monster, though. But I did leap into third person a couple of times to give a wider perspective.

38. Do you use established canon characters or do you create OCs?

I love creating OCs. But I will use canon characters in the Sonic fandom.

39. What is you greatest strength as a writer?

From what I’ve been told, character development.

40. What do you struggle the most with in your writing?

Violence. And tragic back stories. I have legit questioned my sanity when coming up with scenes that include this.

Also... when I write fluff... I kind of grind to a halt and struggle through it. Often interspersed with gazing from the window and thinking well further ahead than where I’m currently at. This often results in forgetting dialogue I think up during my garden gazing.

Fanfiction Questions

41. List and link to 5 fanfics you are currently reading:

I won’t post links because it is much too fiddly. But Guiding Light by Ambyssin, Heart Song by Suetonicsonic, Fall From Power by Lordius Dannius.

Hands of Creation by Namohysip, and The Curious and the Shiny by Nebula Dreams. Both of which I seriously need to pick up again.

I believe you can find all of them on FFNet.

42. List and link to 5 fanfiction authors who are amazing:

Same applies as above. Ambyssin, Suetonicsonic, Namohysip, Chibi Pika and Nebula Dreams.

43. Is there anyone in your fandom who really inspires you?

Ambyssin has provided some amazing constructive criticism on System:Reboot which has resulted in me making a terrifying antagonist out of Gadget the Wolf. I strongly hope no other antagonists will develop what I have nicknamed ‘Socket Syndrome’. His drive and commitment to his writing has been pretty inspirational, too.

But in all fairness, I think most, if not all, of my writing friends have been inspirational and very supportive. I offer digital high-fives to each and every one of you.

44. What ship do you feel needs more attention?

I can’t think of any. People should write what they like. And I believe if you want to read it, and it doesn’t exist, then you should write it yourself if you can.

45. What is your all time favourite fanfic?

Guiding Light by Ambyssin. It’s not often I fall in love with a fanfic.

Fall From Power by Lordius Dannius is another.

46. If someone was to read one of your fanfics, which fic would you recommend to them and why?

The End or The Mask Behind the Monster, because they’re pretty special to me.

47. Archive Of Our Own, Fanfiction.net or Tumblr - where do you prefer to post and why?

FFNet. I’ve been posting there for years. I’m iffy on AO3. I’ve considered posting to Tumblr, but my solution to that is to post links and artwork instead.

48. Do you leave reviews when you read fanfiction? Why/Why not?

If I feel I have something to say, I’ll post a review. I like to make sure I do so, though, and I have been known to make notes on my computer and post reviews in bulk to works posted on Serebii.

49. Do you care if people comment/reblog your writing? Why/why not?

I love comments, and I will try to respond to each one. Reblogs are totally welcome!

50. How did you get into reading and/or writing fanfiction?

I’ve been writing for many, many years. Since before I was ten years old. Pokemon likely got me into fanfiction. I can’t remember writing it for anything else prior to that cringy ‘fic I mentioned earlier (which we will never, ever talk about. Ever.)

51. Rant or Gush about one thing you love or hate in the world of fanfiction! Go!

I love the creativity behind it, especially OCs. Pokemon OCs are my favourites, particularly in PMD or Pokecentric settings. Both Sonic and Pokemon offer a lot of inspiration to create OCs as the worlds are both pretty vast. AUs and canon settings both offer massive scope for creativity. It’s seeing peoples’ headcanons and takes on the franchises that I really enjoy. Yes, I do like shipping, but a story does NOT need it to be a good story. It’s the way people tell it that matters more to me.

I know this says ‘one thing’. But I just want to make it clear, the one part of fanfiction I don’t like, is M-rated stuff. And I will not read it. It... bugs me when a ‘fic I’ve been enjoying suddenly changes its rating XD

(I do not own any of the fandoms or characters mentioned in this post) <- Nervous Nelly moment?

[rachelbethhines]

The Antoine and Bunnie Retrospective - 168

“Blackout” - Sonic the Hedgehog #207 

So way back in issue #110, Robotropolis was nuked by Station Square. Now I didn’t cover that story in the retrospective, but since then the city has been kept under a containment field and New Mobotropolis has been using the radiation as a source of power. 

As such the Iron King gets the idea to break the shield thereby draining  New Mobotropolis of it’s power and bringing it’s automated defenses down. 

But first he has to get through Sonic, Monkey Khan, and Amadeus Prower.

 If you remember from the Home arc, the fort guarding Robotropolis was Armand’s last command post before he died. And I kind of love this idea that literally everyone loved Armand. That regardless of what political sides they wound up on or what disagreements they might of had, no one had a bad thing to say about him. That Max and Amadeus were both his best friends right up until his death. Kind of telling that the revolution didn’t start until after he had pasted away.

Also on a side note, I’ve been reassessing my opinion of Amadeus recently. Before I had just lumped him in with Rosemary and kind of conflated her actions with his and that’s not really fair. Don’t get me wrong Rosemary is still a horrible person who could die in a fire for all I care, but re-reading through the series again I’ve notice that Amadeus is a pretty decent dude. He’s no Armand, or Jules, or even a Wynmacher but he is still genuine in his beliefs, makes actual good points concerning his grievances towards the crown, and is actually there for and supportive of his son. 

Good job Amadeus you manage to be better then Max, Locke, or even your wife. Not that that’s hard but given this book I’ll take it. 

But enough waffling about let’s get back to our main characters. 

While the above mentioned characters are off saving the day Sally drops in to visit Bunnie and Ant. 

*squee!* We get to see their home! And it’s clear that Bunnie is the interior decorator. I can’t say the Southwestern thing is my style but I do love that awesome dreamcatcher. This is the only room we actually see though so it’s possible Ant got a say elsewhere. Like perhaps the is bedroom in a Rococo style? While you know damn well he’s the one who organized the kitchen even if Bunnie may have picked out the silverware.    

Also fan theory confirmed  Bunnie is clearly reading a gossip/fashion magazine while recovering. 

Cuuuute! And it’s shows that yes there are little things about Ant, like his over-protectiveness, that annoy Bunnie, but she knows it comes from a place of love so she can’t get mad about it. Which is just sweet. 

Fucking thank you! Finally we get some female friendship moments in the comic! As much as I love Bunnie and Ant’s relationship it often comes at the expense of their other relationships and they both could stand to be integrated into the rest of the cast more. 

But the other problem here is the Sally doesn’t have enough of a support system. Part of this is her own fault for not opening up to others easily, part of it Max’s abuse cutting her off from her friends, but a good chunk of it is the writers just forgetting that the characters have friendships and lives outside of Sonic and romances. 

Also small confession; this is one of the main reasons why I don’t support Sallicole in the reboot. Neither Sally nor Nicole have any other close relationships with any of the other female characters post-reboot. Why should I have to sacrifice my w/w solidarity in order to see LGBT representation? Why can’t I have both? Why can’t the comic show Sally as Bunnie or Amy’s BFF and let Nicole talk to someone else for a change?

And this a frustration I have in much of the media I consume simply because there’s not enough female characters. Far too often any given show, movie, book or what-have-you will only feature two main girls and if you happen to ship those two together you can say bye-bye to any female friendships. Like please just add more women into stories for fucks sake. 

Anyways enough getting sidetracked, the whole reason Sally is here is to ask for relationship advice since a.) Bunnie is her BFF and b) Bunnie and Ant are like the only friends she knows with a successful love life. I honestly think the only other couples not torn to shreds right now are Knuckles/Julie-Su and Elias/Meg. 

But who is Sally crushing on you may ask? 

Monkey Khan. 

Yeah seriously. Up til now it’s been so subtle and shoved into the background that this story almost feels out of nowhere. Maybe if Flynn had actually committed to following through with it, I might be more favorable to the pairing, but after this tease it doesn’t really go anywhere and they’re right back to teasing Sonally again. Even though the Sega mandates had forbidden their love by this point. 

Also Bunnie, what do you actually know about dating? Antoine is the only person you’ve ever seriously been with and the “break up” with him wasn’t even a real. To which you’re response was to mope about and the try and make him jealous by flirting with Sonic. Not what you'd really call dating around. 

I love you both but, honey you and Antoine seriously lucked out on the whole finding your soulmate thing really early in life. 

Anyways Bunnie proceeds to describe Sally’s “type” while juxtaposed with scenes of Sonic and Ken fighting. Highlighting just how much of a rebound guy Khan really is. He’s a substitute Sonic in this relationship and you know that’s just a disservice to all parties involved.  

To Monkey Khan because he deserves better then to be yet another a sonic clone and this undermines a lot of development Flynn had given him recently. 

To Sally because she deserves more then to be saddled with yet another dead end relationship that only ends because of the powers that be decided to fuck with her character. 

And to Sonic, who deserves to be more then a prop for love triangles just cause he’s the title character and Sega has a bunch of stupid mandates. 

Still, at least there’s more honest communication going on with this triangle then the ones that came before and I appreciate this talk with Bunnie even if I don’t like the circumstances that brought it about.   

Also this is the best advice Bunnie has given her during this whole scene because it’s born from actual experience. How many years did she crush on Ant before admitting she liked him, three? If you want something then take a chance. You may not get it but if you don’t try how will you ever know? 

In conclusion Sonic and Ken trick the Iron King, Sally asks Khan out, and we get a wired ship tease of Sonamy. Flynn does remember that she’s only 12 right? 

Oh well they are actual friends here so you could take this as platonic. 

Next time on the retrospective we finally get to the invasion proper. 

[iamsonyeondone]

your anchor // min yoongi

♥ fluffy!!

♥ 2k words

♥ summary: some friendships are forgotten while others are just meant to take a break, and evolve into something better

wow news anchor! Yoongi with his full on attire - a crisp black suit and a black tie around his collar while his hair is swept back

A look™

But there’s a huge contrast between his appearance on and off camera

He tries his best not to wear his suit and tie that much because it gets really stuffy at the broadcasting station, people scurrying from place to place and the vicinity in general is always being packed with writers and his other fellow colleagues

Despite his calm and chill demeanor behind the camera, he still remains professional and respectful to his superiors

Unless they get on his nerves and he has to hit them with the Facts

Which Writer! Namjoon has to refrain him from doing so and drag him away from the situation

It’s also a huge bonus that his expressions are always stoic and it takes A LOT for someone to crack him up

Once he was switching the camera to his colleague, Weatherman! Taehyung, and Tae had this green suit on so only his head was floating

It was a Halloween special afterall

Everyone else in the room was trying to snifle their giggles but Yoongi just sat there with an emotionless expression and nodding his head for Tae to go on

Only the other weatherman! Hoseok and Cameraman! Jungkook has ever made him giggle

And everyone’s trying to find out why??

But we all know he has a soft spot for them

But Yoongi generally a respectful, intelligent and hardworking so even if his cold expression stirs people away, they don’t necessarily hate him because he does his work right 

so you on the other hand was a cameraperson!! because you were always interested in filming and even had a minor in it during college

and you’re pumped!! but also super stressed because what if you don’t do your job right and some sort of malfunction happens??

but you’re just being paranoid because you always double check before filming starts

sometimes it’s hard to film because someone cracks a good joke on set but you’re filming right now and it is NOT the right time to snort right now (y/n)

it happened once and the celebrities joined in the fun with you as you hid your face behind the huge camera

you were lucky enough that everyone else burst into laughter a second later because you would have been in big trouble

and what does Yoongi have to do with you???

because you guys go wayyyyy back!!

the both of you had known each other by being in the same high school

the both of you weren’t the best of friends, but you guys still put in the effort to watch out for one another 

your reason being because he was cute!!! :(((

he was 70% squishy and soft back then

but cute like a little brother, even if he was a few years older

but as time passed and it was time to part ways, there were many friends you had distanced from, one of them being Yoongi

but you didn’t expect to see him in the same broadcasting station as you

and the first time the both of you met felt so nostalgic and awkward

“Yoongi? Min Yoongi?”

“(y/n)?? What are you doing here?” he chuckled, bringing his hand out of his pocket to shake your hand

“I just got a job as a cameraperson here. Looks like you landed a job as a news anchor?” you smiled, and you couldn’t help but swoon at the sight of him

because squishy yoongi has grown mature and handsome and wow that watch on his nice hands look-

“heh yeah,”

and then it’s just s I l e n c e

“I’ll get going then, see you around?”

“yeah, sure. see you around too,”

and you just sonic zoomed right out of there because your heart is racing a mile a minute, your palms got clammy and what is this??? why is your face so red???

you only thought he was cute like just average cute

but he turned into a Whole Man

and if you hadn’t run off, maybe you could’ve caught a glimpse of his gummy smile

but you didn’t hear that from me

and it was to be expected that you’d see him almost everyday now because they were currently short on staff for the camera crew so you always took the shift for the 8 oclock news

which was when Yoongi is doing his job as the news anchor

and oh my goodness can he look any better on camera??

and every time the news ends, Yoongi comes your way and gives you a smile, saying you did a good job and you could melt on the spot

and after working there for a month, it becomes routine that the both of you hangout at the break room with instant coffee and reminisce about the old days and finding out about the current lives of your former schoolmates

and it feels like the bond had never left

It feels exactly like the old days because Min Yoongi becomes even more enamored by you

the way you smile so wide and chuckle over the shooting you had that day or the way your face turns all serious with your eyebrows furrowed when you’re concentrating

and dare I say, he is Whipped for you

since day 1 but he never had the guts to tell you

that’s when the anniversary of the broadcasting station came and all the workers were invited to celebrate it

of course it was a formal event so you had to wear something more special other than the hoodie and jeans you wore to work everyday

and it feels weird arriving to the venue all dolled up as your colleagues cheered for you because you look stunning hunny!!

and as you’re walking through the hall, talking to fellow friends and colleagues, you spot Yoongi at the corner with a wineglass in hand

you made your way to him and once he spotted you, he nearly spilled his wine

because can you get any more beautiful??

“Keeping to yourself again?” you chuckled, swooping up another glass from a waiter who was passing by as you chuckled

and that gummy smile hoLy

“You should already know how I am as a person, (y/n). Just as much as I know you feel uncomfortable wearing that, even if you look gorgeous in it”

and you kinda just,,, took a few seconds to think because,, Min Yoongi just complimented you

you shouldn’t get ahead of yourself, you thought to yourself as you took another sip from your glass

“You don’t look too bad yourself, Suga,” you teased as you looked towards him from behind your glass

and that shocked looked on his face makes your burst out laughing

“We don’t talk about my Soundcloud here you, doofus,”

“Yeah, but they’re missing out on a masterpiece,”

“Oh really?? How about the one that’s standing right in front of me?” 

and the tables just FLIP the don’t turn they FLIP because you’re losing your mind and internally panicking over that deliberate flirting

and,,,you don't know how to respond

your cheeks turn rosy pink to the point where it reaches your ears and your eyes immediately avoid his gaze because suddenly there’s this look in his eyes you can’t decipher

it’s love (y/n) get it together will you??

and yoongi is losing his mind too because where did all these obnoxious flirting come from??? who did you learn this from, min yoongi??

“I’ll go take a breather, it feels a little stuffy in here,” you chuckle nervously as you shoot him a sheepish smile before leaving the hall to enjoy the calm and quiet of the hallways

at that moment, yoongi knew he effed up

did he just destroy a friendship like that?? and the thought of him losing you had his mind running a mile an hour and before he knew it, he was tracing your steps to see where you had escaped too

a part of him wanted clarification, to see if you really didn’t reciprocate his feelings

or else he wouldn’t be able to sleep peacefully that night, or even from that day onwards

as soon as you heard footsteps behind you, you turned your head quickly to the source of the sound 

the person you least wanted to see standing in front of you with a,, worried expression?

you wished he had come later, when your thoughts were rational and not thinking about a way to plant your lips on his or runaway to another country

but you couldn’t run away now that he stood a few inches from you, a little breathless from frantically searching for you along the corridors

“Sorry if I startled you back there I just- goddamnit,” he sighed, frustration evident in his voice as he continuously ran his fingers through hi hair, his sleak and swept back hair turning messier by the minute

“What? What are you apologizing for?”

“I took it too far and flirted with you, my friend. I should’ve known you didn't like me back-”

“like you back?”

“Yes, (y/n), I like you, is it not obvious enough?”

and you’re just standing there with a flustered and frustrated Yoongi, his eyes trying to see what kind of emotion your eyes were portraying

it took you a few minutes to let everything absorb into your brain as you chuckled nervously, brushing stray strands away from your face

“so the feeling’s are mutual?” you questioned him, hope in your eyes as you bit onto your lips

and his eyes sparkle

and he wants to kiss you and sweep you off your feet

but instead, he lets out elated giggles, gently taking your hands in his as you allowed him to do so

he planted a soft kiss on your knuckles while his gaze never left you

but you catch his eyes trailing back to your lips as they curled into a soft smile

“You know, kissing doesn’t sound that bad right now. Maybe I should find a dashing guy back at the hall-”

Yoongi chuckles, his gummy grin plastered on his face as he slowly grabbed you by the waist and brought you closer

placing his hand at the back of your neck, he gave you one last look before planting a soft kiss on yours, the feeling of it melting your heart

you couldn’t help but smile into the kiss, causing him to break out into another fit of giggles as the both of you broke apart, resting against one another’s foreheads

“We’re idiots aren’t we?”

“Yeah, two idiots in love,” he smiled endearingly towards you before going for another kiss

“Wanna ditch the party and get some lamb skewers? the sliders here taste like bricks,” you scrunched your nose in disgust as the both of you walked down the hallway with your fingers interlaced

“Sure thing, babe,” he smirked, as if you couldn’t get any redder by the nickname

wow you guys are so cute :’))

so now that the both of you are now a couple

meeting at the break room doesn’t only consist of instant coffee ;)) 

and now that every time your behind the camera, Yoongi sometimes break out into a smile when he reads out articles that remind him of you

and everyone around the world has been shaken to the core

because handsome stoic dude has emotions

and of course his friends tease him about it

but he’ll gladly boast about you to them

like one time Hoseok teased him for smiling at you so endearingly while you prepped the cameras before filming

because he’s Whipped, didn’t I say that already??

and he’s like so what? they’re cute as hell, of course i’ll smile

and he HAS to say it in front of you and embarrass you

now everyone is pushing you guys to get married with all these articles of famous celebrities getting married

it’s understandable because time flies and the both of you have been together for 3 years now??

but I don’t think you have to wait that long ;))

you didn’t hear that from me or Yoongles will kill me HAHA toodles

a/n: I’ve got stupid writer’s block for the past few days so I took a break and caught up with all my groups until I stumbled upon that post about Yoongi wanting to be a news anchor HAHA I love me man ok bye bye hope you guys are having a good day/night!! 

[geek-gem]

A Serious Version Of Sonic Movie Sequel Ideas Explained

So had to click here again and I hope well I want the title to be truthful. Basically it's my thing about what I feel sequels would be. Just okay the movie isn't even out yet but I keep thinking ahead and this is in case.

But I wanted to talk about this and it relates to my post that silly one explaining events by the characters themselves. Along with relating to that Sonic movie Reddit leak whether true or not. Mainly I want to take advantage of this now and just have these ideas.

Including with the story taking liberties I'm want to build upon some stuff. Basically here's the trilogy. Along with a extra movie.

Spoilers for the Reddit leak because it references characters just in case or other things.

The first sequel. Stories taken from Sonic The Hedgehog 3, Sonic Adventure 2, and Sonic Heroes.

The first film and okay changed that last part text the first big text whatever. Wanted to change things up a bit and that change was a mistake I back spaced.

Yet the first film like the leak said the writers looked at Sonic stories mainly the Classic games and Sonic Adventure. The ones with the most are Sonic 1, Sonic 2, and Sonic Adventure.

The film takes place two years later. In 2021 almost left 201 but also the 30th anniversary of the Sonic franchise, 28th anniversary of Sonic CD Metal Sonic's first appearance, 20th anniversary of Sonic Adventure 2 Shadow's first appearance. Wanna say others but let's yet this over with.

Also seriously I keep thinking of that year as a sequel and in this timeline the 50 years not 6 but the many years after the Ark was raided not raised. Let me talk about this.

So it takes place after the first film where Sonic and his friends Tails, Amy, also new character Grant, along with Rouge and Madonna beat Dr. Eggman or Robotnik whatever name they use. Along with Perfect Chaos. With Sonic becoming Super Sonic.

The post credits scene is of Eggman building a big machine, looking at more manuscripts had to look on Google well YouTube at the top search had to use sonic unleashed gaia manuscripts almost forgot gaia. Including the end shows Metal Sonic being created.

Now here while he's building Metal Sonic, he also discovers about the government whether GUN or whatever are hiding something from the public relating to his grand father Gerald Robotnik. He then discovers Shadow.

Honestly knowing some Eggman fans I feel it's best to not have Eggman being tricked or whatever honestly this is different from Sonic Adventure 2.

Yet having Shadow and Metal Sonic. Also while I go with the theory GUN went after Sonic because they wanted to keep Shadow a secret. But just it's good to have both of these guys to help. Yet my silly post said people knew the difference or whatever with Metal Sonic and stuff.

Including Eggman tricks Knuckles into thinking Sonic is a bad person along with Tails and anyone else. Also Knuckles questioning why does Metal Sonic look more evil then Sonic. I've thought of this before but I guess Eggman saying to at least make him look different enough.

Including during the course of the movie while Eggman knows who Rouge is and she can't help them. Also theirs people who noticed some plotholes with her teaming up with Eggman and Shadow.

Yet during the course of the movie Shadow and Metal Sonic attack, and people thinking Metal could be Sonic until they find out it's a robot who looks like him. The people now start to think despite all of the good things Sonic has done. They were now thinking this is happening because of him. Theirs destruction that happens after battles, and people blaming Sonic that Metal Sonic was even born. They honestly want Sonic to be accounted for his actions.

Which actually at first Sonic does hear this stuff yet he understands and at times still helping. Also I don't wanna sound stupid at times doesn't listen some of them I don't wanna do that. Yet it's so much that he is actually thinking too deep into it.

Then connecting more into the first film. Mainly Sonic is met by Tikal's orb whenever he goes to some places even the old Echidna temple to go out and ease his mind. He's met by her and even Chaos in his normal form basically Chaos Zero. But after Sonic basically kicked his ass. Chaos then realized along with Tikal that the world changed. With the film introducing Chao but they aren't a big thing yet to Chaos they are. He's not angry anymore or not as much.

Was gonna write the thing about Sonic yet I wanna explain first this to connect and respect that in the games Chaos was angry for a reason. That he wasn't some random God Of Destruction and just this to be have audiences be aware of that lore.

Now the Sonic thing he talks to Tikal about the stuff of what's been going on. Also the themes and talks about scarifice. With Tikal despite everything she tried to stop. Chaos was angry and destroyed the world. So she had to make the choice of trapping herself in the Master Emerald wait....just....or just Tikal trapping herself with Chaos for thousands of years to make sure nobody was hurt.

I don't know well it seems to count. Yet basically sometimes scarifice comes in certain ways. Whether it be like that or other ways.

Shadow is basically still the same, being the Ultimate Lifeform and hating on humans and basically the world. With seeing his family and basically sister in a way Maria shot while trying to make sure he escaped. While still the same Shadow and trying to set up his supposed father's plans Gerald Robotnik's yet okay people say their some weird stuff with it such as why Chaos Emeralds always connected.

But basically the plan changes.

Metal Sonic is still the same thing. But basically as the film goes on he thinks a bit more for himself. Including of how his father Eggman treats him, and how this is basically getting him nowhere. Along with the obsession that he is the real Sonic.

Yet it's get more personal and he slowly losing it.

While it doesn't go the way of Sonic Heroes some people don't like how Eggman was trapped for most of the game.

Also theirs this theme with Shadow and Metal how they are similar. Both weapons in a way. Including with different relationships with certain families. With different goals.

Including Knuckles okay he figures out what's going with the Master Emerald being stolen. So he teams up with Sonic and friends. Including let's have half of the moon blown up still in a way.

Yet instead of some stuff. Okay just thought of this Gerald's video is released early and everyone figures out what's going on with Shadow.

Including Metal Sonic in secret studying Sonic, studying Shadow, and maybe some Chaos but basically for the Biolizard he decides to absorb it's energy or something and the others see this or just he kills it.

This is a different route instead of what Metal Sonic did in Sonic Heroes.

I'm seriously thinking wow Metal Sonic botched Shadow's and Gerald's plan to destroy the Earth yet Eggman... honestly he wants the Earth for himself.

So Sonic with Amy a bit but Sonic tries to change Shadow's mind. Including this is on Earth but Shadow basically kicks his ass in a fight. Including Shadow is not accepting that Maria died and what her final wishes were. He's choosing to ignore them because he is so enraged and just can't let go of her.

But it's until Sonic even admits that Shadow is becoming the thing he hates and even others learning of Maria never wanted this. Along with Amy protecting Sonic reminding Shadow of what Maria did for her and fully remembering his final moments of seeing her and her final wishes of giving them a chance.

While still I guess feeling angry. Shadow decides to help. But Metal Sonic is almost ready just he's Neo Metal Sonic now and he's so bent on killing Sonic and furious of how his own father has treated him and the world. He tries to kill Eggman but Sonic stops him. Including going Super Sonic. With Shadow becoming Super later.

Along with Neo Metal Sonic becoming Metal Madness and Metal Overlord. With Metal Overlord still being so powerful. The only way to defeat him is to get to his core. Since having the energy of the Biolizard in him and other things.

Sonic realizes that they need to get closer. Yet with how Metal is their is a high possibility of death. But also to Chaos Control Metal Sonic or his core basically his heart out of the area.

Realizing that this might be the only way and the world is going to be destroyed soon. With the whole reason Metal Sonic is doing this is that he wants Sonic dead. Knowing he could die, he wants to save everyone even Eggman and everyone who basically hates him. Showing who he really is. He doesn't care of what people think of him. But he's going to do what he thinks is right.

So he does that almost left dies. Even with Shadow using all four of his rings but Sonic going in first and Shadow supposedly keeping Metal Sonic at bay. With Shadow not approving of what Sonic is doing and even everyone else but Eggman just being shocked by this.

He gets close enough to Metal, gets to his core and some spear or something not Chaos Spear but something maybe of something fallen off of Metal then thought something Tails built.

Including Metal supposedly stabs Sonic in a way and Metal saying he is the real Sonic. Including as he Metal develops more he learns to talk. But Sonic replies their are no Sonic's with everyone hearing them. Yet also meaning both him and Metal are dying. With Sonic finally saying Chaos Control.

It happens and the explosion and Sonic's death screams are so loud along with Metal Sonic's too go across the world and even break some glass with everyone hearing them and watching them. Also yeah have it in the sky since Metal Overlord flies. As the explosion goes off Shadow basically falls down a visual reference to his death from Sonic Adventure 2 but just now witnessing Sonic's scarifice yet he manages to fly a bit yet is weak a bit after using all four of his rings.

Metal Overlord comes crashing down dead basically. Yet okay just put Sonic saying Chaos Control now but Sonic is nowhere is sight. No body and nothing. Just okay the spear there. The world just witnessed Sonic just had scarificed himself.

They saw him scarificing himself dying, Metal Sonic and even Eggman finally got what they want Sonic supposedly dead but gone. Yet Metal Sonic but died doing so. Along with Shadow seeing this made him realized now. Maria scarificed her life to save him. Now Sonic just had scarificed himself but it wasn't one person it was the whole world. Along with Shadow himself. With that symbolism of Maria and Sonic while different did similar things. They both died doing what they thought was the right thing and saved a life in Maria's case and in Sonic's case everyone on the planet including Shadow. Who was basically going against Sonic and hated him.

Basically in a way that ending people think of for Sonic Adventure if Sonic had died but differently in a way.

The world is in sorrow. Even cameos for the fun of it like Princess Elise and no Sonic 06 did not happen in this universe. He met her during those two years and is friends with her. Along with Chris Thorndyke who he met too and was friends with him and his family. Basically those are cameos I personally put in there showing those two while some or a lot of people don't like them. Wanted to show them how they would feel at something like this and not stereotypes of them because I'm okay with them and I guess like them. Not the biggest fan okay basically oh head be nice it's a nice little cameo for people who like them and I wanted to treat them with respect.

Along with a cameo building Buddy/Gadget/Rookie from Sonic Forces before the events of that game happened and him reacting to these events too.

They built a memorial for Sonic and even a statue, the world mourns for Sonic's death, while Eggman would of wanting to kill Sonic himself. For the first time in his life. He is basically shocked by an action like this and confused. Because he wants to retain his douchey self and not care.

Including after witnessing that. Shadow now wants to now help the world. But not just by Maria's promise yet seeing first hand what someone like Sonic would do.

Basically now remembered thinking he failed Sonic is life but he won't fail him in death. Including even talking to his friends with Amy there too thinking he was the one who killed Sonic and telling them he's not asking them to forgive him. With Amy and the others being confused by this emotion. That Shadow actually blames himself for Sonic's death.

But the post credits scene or whatever is of showing Blaze seeing a dimenison portal being opened and her being concerned.

Just thought of this and almost forgot or just I remember and realized this is going to be long.

Sonic Mania Movie

Basically a movie adaptation of Sonic Mania I guess the next year 2022 with the third movie coming out later. Still thinking at times a Team Chaotix movie and Shadow movie. Maybe a Team Chaotix movie before the first sequel and oh Knuckles but no it's Team Chaotix still just new ideas.

2nd sequels stories taken from Sonic Rush and Sonic Forces and a bit of Sonic Rush Adventure

Had to look at the first big text thing. Basically the world is depressed after Sonic was okay just put the Sonic Rush Adventure thing. But okay the world is depressed after Sonic supposedly died. While in Sonic Mania from what I know the Phantom Ruby dropped in this dimenison where the main movies take place. So Eggman finds it and the comic where Infinite before he becomes of what he is. Him leasing Jackal Squad to raid Eggman until Infinite discovers what the Phantom Ruby can do like Eggman. With now Jackal Squad joining Eggman and his forces now.

Shadow I guess this takes place a year after Sonic's supposed death also hey 30th anniversary of Sonic 2. But Shadow still trying to do what he can after Sonic scarificed himself. Inspiring Shadow and going by Maria's promise to protect this world.

So he finds Eggman at his hidden base and had to look so last paragraph put Shadow at front. Basically Shadow kicks the Jackal Squad's ass and him telling them stuff like this isn't worth it. Basically Jackal Squad just leaves Infinite and then Infinite tries to fight Shadow but as the story goes gets his ass kicked.

With Shadow calling him pathetic and let's put weak in there. But also him easily kicking his ass and his squad just flat out leaving it. This basically triggers even more of what happens with him. To go with Eggman's plan and become one with the Phantom Ruby.

Along with Infinite this version. The aftermath of what happened. After being left and considered weak by Shadow. Because of this Infinite's mindset grows even more negative. Disgusted by the concept of family and hating it along with despising the concept of weakness so much. He's basically losing himself at this point.

So since Sonic is supposedly dead. Eggman attacks and Shadow is the one who fights backs. With this time Infinite well they meet first or whatever or sometime. But also Infinite bringing clones of Shadow, Chaos, and Metal not a clone is rebuilt but made sure he's not gonna betray Eggman. Also the fact Sonic is considered to be dead at this point. They kick Shadow's ass and he's the one who vanishes.

Okay girl cleaned up some popcorn of mine on the ground. But basically Shadow is one of the world biggest defenses and while Shadow hates working with Shadow clones. This was Eggman's idea. Infinite decides he can torture Shadow since he's the one who increased this threat even more. I know torture wasn't the word used in the Japanese version and the English version for some reason used it.

Honestly Infinite seriously hates Shadow. I can see him doing this stuff. Also realizing Shadow can't not die or age. Yet you can mentally hurt him in some way.

For Sonic while confirmed dead. As a visual reference to Sonic Rush Adventure he washes ashore on the island where Marine resides at and she okay I had to watch the first part on YouTube I'm on my phone at Target I had the audio off.

But she starts poking him with a stick. So yeah Sonic is injured but he heals up on the island including some time meeting Blaze who wants to check on this. Basically Sonic using Chaos Control with all that power now teleported him here.

While wearing a bandage around his chest he tries to get back. Yet doesn't know how yet these Sol Emeralds could be the key. But because of what's going on in the other dimenison. With Infinite and Eggman using the Phantom Ruby and starts opening portals to other dimenisons. With Classic Sonic's world being one of them.

Also theirs no Tails vanishing and no he's not losing hope. Yet over time even with some of Sonic's last words he starting to lose hope but he doesn't wanna show it but people see it. Along with others like Amy having dreams of Sonic being alive and seeing her. Also this relates to old ideas. Even Shadow himself having dreams of Sonic being alive. Also the reversal of a racing scene between them. Instead of Shadow it's Sonic who says hey don't you remember I died which wakes Shadow up whether before he gets captured or while he is.

Also I know Shadow doesn't need sleep. Including let Grant and others be affected by this.

Including Tikal was shocked by Sonic's scarifice and even shows up I guess to help but basically pissed off at a fake Chaos and maybe Chaos helps.

Along with Buddy/Gadget/Rookie decides to help and overcoming his fear.

So instead of saving Sonic it's Shadow and he escapes and Sonic and Blaze and guess yeah put Marine there too teleport oh the Death Egg what about a random prison but using s teleporter that opened they go into that dimension and even Sonic saving Buddy/Gadget/Rookie.

Also their are changes like they have all the Chaos Emeralds but they won't work. Even for Sonic, Shadow, Tikal, Chaos, or even Classic Sonic. Including Sonic getting angry at one point.

Just okay the Sol Emeralds also theirs this critical thing the Chaos Emeralds being used so much and the idea they can think for themselves. Basically they aren't helping Sonic and the others.

Also the last Sonic movie post the silly one I forgot about Silver and I don't know I guess Blaze replaces him but still I don't know. This phone has 24 percent and I want this to be the end of this or some shit.

Looked over tags a bit got them done phone has 23 percent wanna post this

Edit got tags done and forgot Marine and Silver tags sorry for this being long now 22 percent sorry of this being long again wanted to share these

Edit well it said I reached 30 tags hope I could put Cheese. Now I'm waiting for Uber. I seriously felt like I was being unfair if Cream wasn't mentioned. Basically she cries when Sonic supposedly dies too

Edit I'm sorry even the last save I felt weird still have my large Dr. Pepper I'm very sorry waiting for Uber still I ramble

[cutegirlmayra]

Hello mayra! :D I really love your works and appreciate all the effort you put into everything you write. Keep your head up bud, you're a great writer!! (Not sure if you're accepting prompts at the moment but I really love the concept of boom!sonamy meeting modern sonamy if you don't mind. The last one you did is my favorite of all, I just cant get enough, AAAA)

Thank you so much!

I’m ALWAYS accepting prompts. But getting around to them (especially with finals coming up) might be a challenge so please be patient if you send one. But I love receiving them when people say they’ve been inspired or are truly grateful to have something there to make their day. I’m overwhelmed and thankful that you think I’m a good writer!!! *more tears* Thank you kind, soul. Thank you!

(x)

Prompt:

Modern Sonic, upon witnessing the dimensional rift that Eggman’s bright idea of releasing a ten-thousand year old mechanical being created, watched in horror as the Being flung Amy up in it’s hand.

His head quickly followed the action, standing in the space where all dimensions intersect.

“AMY!”

He raced off towards the Being, and as it looked around, found an escape route.

Throwing Amy into one portal, he flew off into another.

“No!” Sonic leaped for the portal Amy was heading into, as her eyes flickered to life suddenly from being unconscious.

She looked around, before reaching and flailing her arms forward. “S-Sonic..! What’s happening!!!”

A huge light formed around them, sucking them straight in….

Somewhere off the coast of Sonic Boom’s Island, the two crashed into the jungles, as Boom!Eggman flinched from eating his crust-cut sandwiches.

He quickly turned from his umbrella table on the side, towards the top of his layer, before shrugging and turning back to his small meal.

He happily chew until his eyes widened, or at least, his glasses bulged and he slammed his fist on the table, turning back around and having his chair fall behind him.

“Muff-er-stuff-gr-light!” He chewed and swallowed all in the same mouthful.

Pointing to the light that flashed closed in the sky, he quickly raced to the edge of his lair and looked over, towards the jungle….

“Orbot! Cubot! I’ve had a vision!” He over dramatically raised a finger skyward, and then giddily ran in, before kicking the relaxing robots into gear. “Come on, you stupid nincompoops!”

“Offph! Ow..”

“Is that an oxymoron?” Cubot rubbed his head.

“No, Cubot. That’s just repeating the same meaning of a word twice.” Orbot rubbed his keister, or what metallic part was there to be called as such.

“Grr… An Oxymoron is someone who loses all the oxygen in their heads and becomes a moron. Quite like what you two will be if you don’t SCRAM!” Eggman leaned forward, yelling at the two as they hurriedly went to work, scurrying in by getting around him.

“But we’re not even fueled by Oxygen!”

“Shut up. Hmph. I want to find out what flew out of the sky. This could be my lucky day!” he beamed.

*somewhere in the jungles*

“Ow! My hair!”

“Your hair? My legs!”

“Offph! If you would have just turned a little to the left..”

“What!? You’re seriously going to judge my ‘rescuing you from certain peril from the sky’ diving skills? Now?”

Upside down, the two hung on extremely tangled vines, Amy having one hand to hold up her dress as the other was trying to fix her hair covered in leaves and contorted by vines.

She sighed when her three bangs were the only things loosened from her struggling, as Sonic bite and tugged on other vines to try and free himself a ways beside her. However, he just twirled and flung around till completely immobilized.

He blinked through the vines, and then started to struggle in panic at being completely unable to move.

“Sonic?” Amy called, the vine moving slowly so she couldn’t see what he was grunting about.

“Amy?”

A sound from below came up, as Sonic made a face, raising his eyebrow and looking down to see what strange presence mimicked his voice.

“Huh? How’d you get down?” Amy looked down, seeing a speck of blue on the jungle floor.

“When you’d start wearing an open dress?” Boom!Sonic had his hands on both hips, raising his own eyebrow to mimic Modern!Sonic’s.

The two then stared, as Amy’s eyes shifted back and forth to them.

“AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!” she suddenly screamed.

Her screams were only amplified when a boomerang slashed through her vines, having her fall and Modern!Sonic follow her in the decent.

“AHHHHHHH!!!” She waved her arms around, before summoning her hammer and hitting a tree.

Still screaming, she had flung herself to Modern!Sonic and grabbed him, which he wasn’t expecting so his own recovery from the fall was… well… um… hindered to say the least.

“Wha-what?!” Modern!Sonic, surprised by the sudden action, was slammed against another tree, and then hit a branch, and then into a lower branch… well, you see the pattern.

The whole time, he made sure he was getting hit, whether it was his head or back, to make sure Amy was safe as she clung onto him tightly.

The two fell into the arms of a humongous Boom!Knuckles, well, huge for them, as they both were being held by one of his arms.

“Woah, two Amy’s and Sonic’s! Is this some kind of promotional event?”

The two looked over to him, their eyes wide.

Amy screamed again and fell out of his arms, landing on her butt as she stared up at the giant Knuckles.

“K..Kn… Knuckles?!”

“The one and only!”

“Not only.” Modern!Sonic looked away, before using a hand to fling himself over Knuckles’s shoulders and landed behind him, dusting himself off.

“Where are we, anyway?”

“Look alikes?” Tails suddenly came out, examining the two, “You think Eggman made them?”

“Probably.” Boom!Sonic sped up to Modern!Sonic; having a hand to his chin and peering at him, he seemed to be puzzled at how different yet.. closely resembled the two did in fact look to each other.

Modern!Sonic remained calm, simply folding his arms and staring back at him.

Boom!Sonic copied this gesture.

Then Modern!Sonic stepped his feet apart.

Boom!Sonic looked at his feet, and then back at him, doing the same.

Suddenly, little by little, the two got into running positions, and their faces lit up with smirks.

“If you are a fake, then there’s no way you can beat my speed!” Boom!Sonic boasted.

“Heh. We’ll just have to see who the real faker is, then!” Modern!Sonic matched his confidence, and the two looked forward, racing off.

“Sonic? Sonic!!” Amy reached out for him, “Don’t leave me with these-! AH!”

Sticks suddenly jumped on Modern!Amy, making her shake around and wobble.

“Spies! Clones! Spy clones! Or just back-up organs raised by the government. Either way, I’m pretty sure they’ve escaped to start a new civilization together.” She raved a moment before examining Modern!Amy, opening her eyelid before leetting the two lids smack back together and then crawling around her shoulders while trying to figure her out.

Amy looked extremely uncomfortable, having her hands to her sides and shaking in fright.

“What is this thing and why is it crawling all over me..?” Her quivering lips trembled at the awkwardness as Sticks’s tail swished in her face while she studied the ‘hoop’ like design of her red and white dress.

“Sticks, they’re clearly not run away clones.” Tails gestured out, but then put a hand up to his head to scratch it in uncertainty. “As least… I don’t think so.”

In the distance, two streaks of blue could be seen, racing each other over perilous fleets of strength, stamina, and courage.

“Look, me and Sonic fell through a dimensional barrier of sorts. We’re sorry for being in his world and all but…” she gently… before forcefully, as if growing impatient, ripped Sticks off of her and then let go. Sticks dropped like a cat, and hissed at her, spiking her back up before going over to her friends, getting back up on two legs from being on all fours.

“She checks out clean.” Sticks folded her arms, nodding to Tails as Knuckles walked over them as well.

“She’s about as light as Amy too.” Knuckles commented, before leaning down and holding a hand over his mouth, trying to side-comment to Tails. “Though, with added ice cream ratio difference…”

“I can hear you!” Amy cried from in front of them.

“And better hearing skills…” Knuckles squinted his eyes, as if suspicious of her, and then leaned up as Tails rolled his eyes and went back to politely speaking to her.

“You said another world? Like… two universes?”

“I think so.” Amy pouted, still upset by what Knuckles had said as she self-consciously hugged her stomach. “I had one extra treat…” she whined.

“Onnnee extra?” Knuckles, folding his arms, leaned his head down and raised an eyebrow, doubting her. “A likely story.”

She whimpered, smiling nervously, before a gust of wind blasted dust at her and she covered her face and lowered her dress down.

The two hedgehogs, back from their little ‘outing’ had smoothly skid into place beside her.

Leaning over her, they began to argue. “I touchdowned first!”

“You and what other liar? I was clearly here first!”

“Me and my shoes do the eye-witnessing here, bub!” Boom!Sonic lifted his foot, shoving it in his face as Amy covered her face and moved away, not wanting to be apart of their banter.

Modern!Sonic shoved it away, smiling as if enjoying this ‘other self’, “Oh yeah?” The two started rough housing, laughing like long lost brothers, before turning a bit more aggressive.

“I’m the only Sonic!”

“Guess again!”

“Ah! You.. won’t… break me!”

Modern!Sonic had Boom!Sonic in a lock, as he pounded the ground but wouldn’t surrender.

“Ha-ha!” He suddenly spun, and pinned Modern!Sonic, whose back cracked as he laughed and got a second-wind from it, curling up to slide under his kneeling but parted legs, and throw him over his back once uncurled.

“OFFPH!”

“Boys! Settle down!”

The two suddenly stopped rough-housing, blinking as Boom!Amy came out of the bush.

“What on earth is going on here?”

Modern!Sonic couldn’t help but get distracted, not used to this kind of look for Amy, so he loosened his grip and leaned back…blinking in confusion.

She looked older… somehow.

He smiled suddenly, “Nice dress.” before Boom!Sonic spun up and whammed him in the face.

“Ha! Victory!”

Modern!Amy gasped, about to come closer when a pair of robotic hands gripped her mouth, making her unable to cry out and pulled her into the bush.

Distracted by this ‘new Amy’ Modern!Sonic got up, adjusted his quills to get the leaves out of them, and then stood before her.

Seeming charming, he grinned. “You must be the other Amy.”

“Other… Amy?” she was confused, looking him over to before back at her Sonic. “What’s going on? Eggman?”

“It’s always pointin’ fingers at Egghead. But no one listens to the counter-argument of the feds!” Sticks complained, throwing her arms out as if this should be common knowledge and she, somehow, only knew the truth.

“Hey, Ames, real talk.” Boom!Sonic pushed her away from Modern!Sonic, which made him look a bit surprised that he was so direct with her, even making nicknames or pushing her away like that.

“This guy is pretty slick. He’s definitely got my speed and attitude. But from another world? Come on! I’m still the only dashing hero around here, am I right?” he looked to his friends for validation, but they all just kinda stared at him and ignored his ego for a moment.

“I think we should help them out.” Tails chimed in.

“HEY!” Boom!Sonic threw his arms down, upset by the deliberate ignorance.

“I agree.” Boom!Amy nodded, “Poor things. All the way from one world to another… how’d this happen?” She put her hand to her heart, as Sticks explained.

She rolled her eyes, “doohickey from the sky I spotted turned out to be a magic portal or something. That’s what I guess, anyway.”

“Magic portal?” Tails looked skeptical of her, and she growled to him.

“Hey, I don’t call your ‘physics’ spells ludicrous.”

“That’s because they’re not!”

“Heh, funny crowd we got here, huh, Amy?” Modern!Sonic smiled at the lovable cast, before angling himself to where he supposed Modern!Amy was.

“Think we better leave this world to it’s self and-” he turned around, but was immediately aware of her being gone.

“Amy?” he scanned around, “AMY!” he suddenly bolted off into the brush.

“Huh?” The Boom team turned around, before following after him.

“W-wait for us!” Knuckles cried out, as everyone raced after Modern!Sonic. “I haven’t asked about what I’m like in your world yet!”

Eggman kidnaps Modern!Amy, but is surprised by how sweetly she comes off, but she deceives him as he lets her go for a ‘Capture Tea-party’ she explained HER Eggman hoisted for her when he usually captured her. Getting out of her cell, the energy beams takin’ down, she suddenly turned violent and started destroying the place.

 Eggman shrieks and ducks, freaking out, as Orbot and Cubot run around and then both jump to the same cover.

“Instead of hostage, she’s turned hostile!”

Modern!Sonic arrives first to the lair, hearing the sounds happening inside and smiling, knowing Amy’s got this one.

He folded his arms and relaxed, as the Boom team came up from behind him. He looked over his shoulder and grinned, thinking they were in for a treat.

“Is she gonna be okay?” Tails asked, as Modern!Sonic nonchalantly waved his hand.

“She’s fine~” he walked towards the entrance, whistling at the place as he looked over it. “This Eggman’s got a unique style, doesn’t he..? Takes out all the stops, huh?”

“He’s acting rather casual about this.” In a bit of frustration, Boom!Amy gestured upsetly towards Modern!Sonic, before placing her hands on her hips, glaring…

“Hey, maybe she’s just proven to be just as capable as you.” Boom!Sonic patted her shoulder, seeming relaxed too before excited to see this ‘heel-wearing Amy’ take out a whole lair!

The doors slid open as Modern!Sonic flinched, ready for anything before seeing Amy, and suddenly racing up to her.

“How was it?”

“Fun. You?” She swayed her arms, happy to see him relaxed. That let her know he trusted in her.

She giggled and moved closer, “You weren’t too worried, were you?”

He nervously stepped back, “Uhh… Of what? You’ve handled bigger breakouts.” He stepped slightly forward towards her to gesture a thumb behind himself at the rather small lair.

“Definitely not as hard as I’ve had it.” She rolled her eyes, before Eggman’s head stuck out from the carcasses of busted robots.

“N-not even a little hard?” His mustache slopped in disappointment before the door slammed shut and he shouted out, “I TOO AM JUST AS FRIGHTENING AS ANY OTHER DIMENSIONAL MEEE!!!!”

“The dimensional him must be terrifying.” Tails walked up, as Modern!Amy shook her head.

Sonic and her both said together, “Not in the slightest.”

Boom!Amy moved up to Modern!Amy, suddenly noticing how close the two were standing together, and for a moment… a girly hope traced her eyes before Modern!Amy turned around, and she stood up straight and then giggled nervously, trying to look away and act like she wasn’t staring.

“S-so… ehem. You two good friends?” She batted her eyes, innocently.

Modern!Amy happily raised a curious eye, and then jumped to hug her Sonic.

“Oh~ You know we’re just the grea-grea-greatest!”

“Ah! A-Amy..!” Modern!Sonic didn’t like the shaking of her hold on him, swinging him back and forth before ducking her head under his and popping it up, grinning happily.

The cute action made Boom!Sonic step back, a bit shocked at the gesture as Modern!Sonic just looked away, seeming slightly awkward before looking at Boom!Sonic’s nervousness.

“What’s wrong?”

“Oh! Uh, nothing!” Boom!Sonic waved his hands out in front of him, denying any emotion previously upon his face. “You two just look… uh… close.”

The avoidance of his stature and eyes made the two Modern!Couple look to each other, and then to their other selves.

They smiled secretly to each other, as if knowing something the other two didn’t know, and parted just slightly, while Modern!Sonic kept an arm around Amy, and gestured to Boom!Sonic.

“So. Your dimension doesn’t do hugs?”

“H-huh?”

He laughed, “Sounds like my kind of world!”

“Oh you.” Modern!Amy playfully pushed him away, before swaying herself up to Boom!Sonic. “Such a shame… you really are kinda…” she lowered her head down, and peeked up at him, leaning forward before her kind smile suddenly turned wicked.

“Huh?” he leaned back, blushing slightly.

“CUTE!” she leaped, as Boom!Amy about lost her wits and fire rose around her at this other Amy cuddling up to HER Sonic.

“Okay, that’s enough.” Boom!Amy shook, her eyes twitching, but trying to remain calm.

Modern!Sonic moseyed along behind her, giving her a sinister look before leaning up to the side of her by her ear, “I think you’re not as subtle as you think you are.”

She suddenly froze up, freaking out without a sound, but jolting in place with her hair on it’s ends as Modern!Sonic smirked and made his way back to his Amy.

“Alright, Amy. Leave the poor kid alone.”

Modern!Amy smiled back to her Sonic, before releasing Boom!Sonic who proceeded to clutch his chest and breathe.

“Opps~ Sorry~” she batted a hand out, trying to play it off by being cute. “You were just so irresistible!”

She covered her face and swayed back and forth, as the rest of the Boom team looked shocked and awkward but Sticks, who looked deadpanned in a sense.

“Hmm. I could of sworn he’d give in first.”

The team suddenly turned to her in even further shock, leaning away from her as if she just spoke blasphemy.

The Modern duo started to advance away, smiling to one another as if they had fun, before looking to the skies…

“If I know anything about Tails…” Modern!Sonic kept his cool demeanor and put a hand to his hip, looking to his buddy’s equivalent. “Think we could catch a ride in your plane?” he winked.

“Ah! He rides a plane too!” Tails’s tails flopped around in joy, as he bundled his fists up close to his face, fan-boying almost at this wonderful detail of some other world they were all starting to believe in.

Getting on the plane, Modern!Amy hugged Boom!Sonic one last time, swaying him around in her arms and being dramatic as she usually was with Sonic, not wanting to part as Boom!Amy twitched in rage, Boom!Sonic just being utterly confused before Modern!Sonic pulled her away and held her bridal style, looking back at the Boom crew.

“Stay cool!” he winked, and then saw the portal slowly opening again.

“Chaos!” Sonic cried out, jumping, “Control!”

“Chaos what?” The boom team repeated all together, as Amy and Sonic disappeared into the white light reforming…

[sonic-nyoom]

My Definitive Opinion on Sonic Boom

I noticed that most of my Sonic Boom opinions were spread out amongst multiple posts, so I thought it would be best to have one big post to direct everyone to for all my thoughts. I’ve had plenty of time for all of them to sink in and, while they’re mostly negative (precautionary warning there), it’s not likely to change anytime soon. If you disagree, that’s fine, but this is just how I feel.

To keep things nice and organized, I’ve separated everything into very broad categories so I can go into each one without getting sidetracked and lingering on multiple topics forever.

Starting with...

The Plots

An obvious place to start, the plots in Sonic Boom are very basic. That’s not a bad thing, but it becomes a problem when the show goes on for, say, more than one season, because it means either sticking to very cliche plots, or trying to be creative and failing due to having to force it.

Even sadder is when the plots are predictable. In all the times I’ve talked about Sonic Boom episodes that I haven’t liked or have downright hated, the word ‘’predictable’’ came up a lot, because it’s a killer of storytelling for me unless I’m excitedly anticipating that thing happening, which was very rare in this show.

As an example for killing any and all expectations I had for an episode, Designated Heroes. The very second that Sonic laughs at his friends (whether he has a reason to or not), I could anticipate the entire rest of the episode. Obviously Eggman isn’t going to show up, obviously Sonic is going to fall asleep, and obviously the rest of the disloyal crew are going to come by and rub it in his face despite the fact that they were so sure they could beat Eggman before too. Even if I had believed with 100% certainty that Sonic deserved punishment for what he did, that is ruined when such an obvious plot point is thrown my way. To make a simpler comparison, I go on rollercoasters for the excitement of the twists and turns, not to ride for eleven minutes in a straight line because the person who made it got lazy and decided that it was passable enough to be called a rollercoaster. Sure, it functions, but it’s not stimulating in any way.

On another note, while I would like to say that the best plots to come out of Sonic Boom were the interesting ones, honestly, it was almost completely random which ones I found fun. I even tried to calculate if it was the writers or maybe the characters used by the writers, but it really just came down to the episode itself. The only consistent thing I noticed was that episodes that tried to inject some heart (The Sidekick and New Year’s Retribution) while still being funny had the best chance of sticking with me. Unfortunately, Sonic Boom has very few of these. Most episodes center around the comedy alone, and while that’s enough for some people, it’s not enough for me because it just leaves the show as very one note. The only episodes I can think of that I find very memorable while still being one note are Battle of the Boy Bands, The Meteor, and Eggheads, but all of those did fairly crazy things and had a fun time with it.

And if you just want to talk about canon? Look, I get that the show shouldn’t have to explain everything. I understand that. But, when I see Sticks suddenly having a crossbow or Sonic riding in his fancy new vehicle with no introduction and no explanation, I just have to roll my eyes. If the writers don’t care about what they introduce into their world and if it makes sense or not, then why should I?

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again; Sonic Boom is not meant for someone like me. While I do indeed watch comedies, I prefer to have at least some substance there, and doing anything less than that makes me turn away because it means that the show is doing the bare minimum. Essentially, I’m saying that Sonic Boom only does what it has to, sometimes goes the extra mile, but mostly just sticks to the one thing. And, if that one thing fails in my eyes, then there’s no reason for me to keep watching the episode because I know there won’t be anything else to look forward to. To give an example, even if The Sidekick had failed completely at making me laugh, I would at least still watch it for the dynamic between Sonic and Tails. There’s something else there even if one element failed.

The Comedy

Probably the most divisive thing I’ve noticed being talked about when referring to specific episodes, the comedy in Sonic Boom is extremely hit-or-miss for me, and part of the reason is that most of the characters cover a very short range of comedic angles. Because most of them are widely stereotypes with few new things, it often means that they only cover one type of joke. That’s not always bad, but after a while, it can start feeling boring.

The characters who avert the trope of being one note for me are Sonic, Eggman, and Amy. Though, on the flip side of only covering one kind of joke, I think Amy covers too many, and it becomes cluttered.

Eggman is a mixed bag, either making me laugh a lot or not making me laugh at all. I’ll talk more on it later, but sometimes, he was just too much and it ruined the jokes for me.

Sonic is the only one in the show who could make me laugh consistently, and it only partly has to do with how much I enjoy his character. He just covers a range of comedy without being too much (typically the straight man, pun boy, and general fun guy) while also playing off the other characters in varying ways depending on the situation.

The Characters

What you see is what you get. The characters in Sonic Boom are basically all stereotypes, barring a few exceptions.

The characters I enjoy watching in Sonic Boom out of the main cast are Sonic, Eggman (sometimes), Orbot, and Cubot. Orbot and Cubot mix up their personalities enough to keep me invested in their characters. They occasionally seem to care about Eggman, but aren’t against making fun of him, which makes sense because he orders them around like they’re nothing. And, when he’s doing that, I can’t really get invested in his character. The moments where he’s relatable/awkward are more my thing.

I’d talk about the rest of Sonic’s crew here individually, but there’s really no point, because they all cater to one stereotype, as opposed to Amy who caters to multiple (doesn’t help, by the way, in my opinion).

Let me make it clear; there were moments where I liked these characters. There were times where I laughed at one of their jokes or gave them some slack for something they did. On a few occasions, they actually stepped out of their boundaries and did something slightly different.

The problem, however, is that these characters are still stereotypes. They exist to follow their small range of humor and fit into exactly what you expect them to. It is not to pleasant degrees.

To delve into just one of them, I’ll pick Knuckles, because he’s my least favorite out of the entire bunch.

I have no problem with Knuckles being stupid. It was a sensible leap from the original character. My problem is when he’s forgetful, because that is not stupidity. Even stupid people can remember things that are important to them. If Knuckles was commonly forgetful - as in, that was one of his character traits - I wouldn’t complain, but it makes him very irritating. Why should I care when he’s trying to be good friends with Sonic if I know that he could turn at any time and forget Sonic’s name or even who Sonic is?

No matter how the characters change - no matter how they try to be developed - it will not carry over into other episodes unless the episode is a sequel to the episode where the development took place. Now, that’s not entirely a bad thing, but only if the characters are interesting from the get-go. Unfortunately, these four are not.

Now for the big question: what makes Sonic so different from the other characters that I actually like him?

Firstly, keep in mind that while, yes, I’ve typically favored Sonic in the past, there have also been Sonic that I don’t like. Satam!Sonic and Adventures!Sonic have both been Sonic I haven’t enjoyed watching.

And, there have been things with Boom!Sonic that I haven’t been 100% okay with. However, I could only count these moments on one hand and I don’t expect Sonic to be perfect.

One reason I enjoy Boom!Sonic is that he doesn’t completely follow a stereotype. The closest stereotype for him is the ego stereotype, but he mixes it up with his love of puns, his straight man routine, and his rare silly antics. Also, he’s not a jerk, as most ego characters are. He’s usually a pretty good guy.

Now, what about the times where he isn’t, however rare they are? Well, that brings me into my next reason.

Depending on how a character is treated by the other characters, I tend to give them slack on things they do. If Sonic is being treated poorly by everyone around him, I’ll naturally be more understanding if he’s acting in a way that isn’t perfect, because he’s not being treated fairly anyway. Or, if the writing is being unfair to him or shifting things against his favor, I’ll be more forgiving if he does anything ‘’wrong’’. Using Late Fees this time as my example, I don’t care that Sonic is procrastinating on getting Amy’s book back to the library because one, obstacles are put in his way before he’s even done anything wrong, and two, Amy has forced this task upon him without warning instead of returning the book herself like she should.

And, I also can excuse Sonic because he clearly isn’t used to friendship. He’s been a loner and not open to having friends; of course he’s not going to have social interaction with them correctly. He also doesn’t know the cores of friendship (though he has many good traits of being a great friend), so if he’s being treated wrongly, he doesn’t really know that he is and, during the few times he does something wrong, he might not even know that it’s wrong in the first place (I’m sure sometimes he does, but on occasion, he’ll give a look or response that seems to suggest that he doesn’t understand), because he was alone before. He hasn’t had any experience and obviously can’t improve if no one tells him what he’s doing wrong.

Which brings me to my final point...

The Treatment

Throughout most of my time watching Sonic Boom, regardless of how much of a fan I could say I was, there was a lingering feeling that started at around Episode 15 (Aim Low) and then continued as I kept watching the series.

A feeling of unpleasantness.

Looking at it purely from Sonic’s perspective, this is not a group of friends that I want to have. This is not a friendship that I want. They change sides on him without warning, simply to follow the narrative. He deserves better.

I’d like to shrug my shoulders and just pass episodes off when they do such things, but I can’t. I can’t settle with the knowledge that Sonic could have a good relationship with his ‘’friends’’ in one episode, but have it change with no warning in another.

Characters should not have to work around the story. The story should have to work around the characters. If that can’t be accomplished, then the story means nothing and is only a fruitless attempt to make a plot with characters who don’t fit.

And I know that there are episodes that are not meant to be taken seriously. Technically speaking, none of the episodes are meant to be taken seriously.

What does that really mean? From that standpoint, all of the characters mean nothing. They’re there only to serve the comedy, and I’m sorry, but I think that’s a really lousy way to treat characters. It’s also a huge factor on why I tend to laugh less than the average person does at this show. If I’m not attached to a character, I’m a lot less likely to find them funny, and most of the characters in this show change whims in the blink of an eye.

See, I can’t let go of these episodes because they are canon. Unless stated otherwise, every episode is canon to the character’s personality and story.

Take ‘’Alone Again, Unnaturally’’ as an example. In this episode, Sonic’s crew are trying to help him go faster and come up with crazy schemes that Sonic is understandably unsure about. They don’t put his safety first, opting for their own and blatantly ignoring him when he tells them to wait.

Now, obviously, this was done for comedy. You’re supposed to laugh at Sonic’s screaming and pain.

I don’t, so let’s take that into consideration. What changes in this story if I did find it funny?

Nothing. Whether I laughed or not, the plot remains the same. What the characters do to each other remains the same. These pieces of the story are incapable of magically disappearing. They happened, no matter how much you laughed or didn’t laugh and regardless of if it was intended for comedy or not.

And moments like that impact my view of the characters as a whole. Even if they acted like saints in a future episode, that doesn’t change the fact that they did what they did and weren’t even sorry.

When they made Sonic feel so bad that he went to Eggman for help? Not sorry.

When he nearly drowned because they forced him to go into the water? Not one apology.

When he finally got so upset at everyone’s lack of respect for him that he quit, only returning because of a twisted strategy concocted by someone who was supposed to be his friend, meaning they knew he’d be too nice to not help? Not. One. Bit.

Of course it bothers me when the villagers are rude and saying bad things towards Sonic when he does nothing wrong, but I can usually pass it off because the villagers are supposed to be a mob. They’re meant to be wild cards, capable of doing whatever the writer needs at that moment.

The actual main characters should not be that. They should never be that, at least for me.

Whenever there’s a hint of sympathy between the characters, it can all be thrown to the wayside immediately for another scene or another piece of dialogue that really makes it seem like no one cares what happens to Sonic. Any potential with these characters that I would legitimately love to see get developed is left and forgotten just to revel in how stupid one is or how crazy another is, or even to have a subjectively tasteless Sonamy joke that honestly means nothing and only exists to pander to fans and bring in more viewers. The double standard that one character can do something without judgment but Sonic cannot do the same without someone judging him will never go away. Nothing matters.

The villagers, and even Sonic’s crew, don’t want him because they like his personality or enjoy having him around. It’s because he’s useful, and anything that he does that goes against that is either irrelevant or annoying to them.

There is a way to give a character an ego and not make it seem like everyone constantly wants to strangle them. In fact, the Archie comic series already did it.

But the stuff going on in Boom? It won’t change. It’ll never change. It’s honestly not even limited to just Sonic, but he is the prime example. If anything ever happens down the line that changes that, I will gladly take my words back, but I just don’t see it happening.

Unless you’re not supposed to feel anything for the characters (as in, they’re all meant to be complete jerks with no redeeming value), I don’t think any show should ever have to stoop to singling a character out and neglecting them when they don’t deserve it. In my opinion, doing so is a disservice to both the characters and the world created around them.

And that is how I feel about Sonic Boom.

[beevean]

If/when IDW goes under... what then? I am quite fond of there being something like a comic or TV show with Sonic to fill up the time between games somewhat, but with what we have rn (IDW and Prime) that desire is not getting filled very in-character-ly. I've seen some interest in a Sonic manga, but do you think SEGA/potential manga producers would be eager to have the same group of current IDW writers and artists working on it? Or would they see a link between that group and IDW going under and stick to their own people? Then again, Ian Flynn is getting involved with more and more stuff, so it might be hard for SEGA to really let him go...

I remember this uncertainty from when Archie got cancelled, and it wasn't fun in the slightest :/ Guess we'll know what's going on with IDW if suddenly issues are not being released for months without a single heads-up? I'm curious about what the future holds after that, but also a bit apprehensive.

I don't know. Flynn will keep working for SEGA in some way, I suppose, but as for comics, who knows? Would they try for a third Western comic?

I think a manga makes the most sense, honestly, and I don't understand why the only Sonic mangas we got were obscure silly spinoffs. I doubt it would be that unpopular, both in Japan and in the West! Especially now that it looks like SEGA is pushing for Sonic to be more popular in his birth country. (and no, I doubt a manga would have Western people working on it, so Flynn & co. wouldn't be involved in case.)

As for a show, it depends on how Prime goes - I'm not watching nor following it, but it doesn't look like Netflix is treating it well. I liked Boom, but it was quickly moved to the 6AM slot so no wonder it failed (it being tied to the Boom games sure didn't help lol). I'm still very annoyed that Sonic adaptation just refuse to be compliant to the games, and instead insist on creating their own wild AU - IDW is the closest thing to what I always wanted ever since I discovered Sonic X, but of course it became what it became.

It is very possible, for me, that IDW will soon go under, as it was essentially the "filler" between Forces and Frontiers: that spot will be taken by Prime, and perhaps the third movie. If Prime fails, it could be replaced by the Movie Knuckles series. After that... I don't know. I would like a manga to become the main spin-off, but so far there aren't signs of it becoming reality.

[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)