#same with TOBOR

[stevebattle]

Tobor 1 by Robots International, Atlanta, GA (1960s). Tobor is a 5 ft. tall fibreglass store display robot that will tell you a space story for 25 cents. The story is recorded on a tape loop and you listen to it via a telephone handset. This is its story. "Hello there all you boys and girls, my name is Tobor 1, I am from the planet Blenet. My planet is very different from yours. On my planet we do not look anything like you earthlings do. We do not eat the same things as a matter of fact we are not allowed to eat as you earthlings do because it would gel up all our important controls that make us operate. You earthlings travel by cars, planes, trains, boats and bicycles but we robots have just one way home in our space age spaceship. In our space age spaceship we can travel at speeds unheard of by you earthlings, we can travel as fast as speed itself. Yes we are very different in so many ways, thats why I am a robot and you are an earthling. This is TOBOR 1 signing off."

[lil-gingerbread-sims]

🎃 Simblreen 2024 🎃

Dr F. & Tobor

With the announcement of the MySims Cozy bundle for Switch, I got the determination to do something I wanted to do for a while: make sims of some MySims' characters, especially MySims Kingdom, as it was my favorite game growing up. I don't know how many I will have the time to make, I'm very busy this year and I'm already a bit late, so don't expect much.

My first time playing/making a servo, and it was awful. You cannot choose their likes and dislikes, and you cannot change their sexualities. You have less freedom with the personalities of robots than humans in this game. I finally used a mod to change a sim into a servo. And here they are, Dr F. and Tobor. Also, another issue is that I made them father and son, with a difficult relationship, but it seems that the game sometimes erases their family status. So, beware.

I gave them likes and dislikes, skills, sexualities, attraction, but no pronouns, as the French version of the game doesn't let you. You can change anything once you have them download. If you don't have one of the packs I used, just replaced what's missing with something else.

All the cc used is included, even tho I know not every creator likes that, it's just easier for everyone. I try to have all the CCs of the same simmer in one folder, so they are still classed by creators. I use skin and eyes overlays, so I will not include these in the download, but the links are there if you want to try/have them.

🎃 Name: Dr. F

🎃 Age: Elder

🎃 Job: Scientist (Level 9 - Mad Scientist)

🎃 Aspiration: Nerd Brain

🎃 Traits: Genius - Cringe - Erratic

🎃 Name: T.O.B.O.R. bot

🎃 Age: Young Adult

🎃 Job: None

🎃 Aspiration: Master Chef

🎃 Traits: Outgoing - Clumsy - Neat

🎃 Packs used: For Rent, Discover University, High School Years, Island Living, Cottage Living, Snowy Escape, Seasons, City Living, Get To Work, StrangerVille

🎃 Skin: ARE WE ELECTRIC by Pyxis (Infant version by Incandescentsims)

🎃 Eyes: Intuition by Simandy & size slider by Marsosims

🎃 Download 🎃

[julie-sufan]

The In-Depth Look at Julie-Su Part 6: Knuckles #16-23

Issue #16 is a one shot. Here Knuckles is upset after finding out that his mom plans to marry her new boyfriend. He runs off not wanting to talk to anyone at the moment.

First (But definitely not the last) time that Julie kisses Knuckles. Then they share a nice quiet moment together.

Issue #17 & 18 features yet another past echidna guardian with a ton of backstory. He meets Julie-Su who is riding an absurdly evil looking horse type of creature.

Love that she's giving him attitude even when in the thrones of death.

In issue #18 she stops by Lara-Le's house (Knuckles's Mom) for some tea and cookies and to hear about of Tobor's (The echidna with the unique eyes) backstory.

Another moment I like. Here we see Julie-Su going from being in complete denial about wanting a relationship with Knuckles to hugging him on the exact same page. Kind of reminds me of Michiru from Fruit of Grisaia who would also fail at trying to be a tsundere type.

Second kiss scene.

Issues 19-21 barely has Julie in it and centers around the Royal Acorn Family. It really feels like a plot that should have been in the main Sonic comic series but for some reason ended up here.

Issue 20 features the first full appearance of Elias who would later show up in the Sonic comic.

After this point Julie gets knocked out for pretty much the rest of the arc.

Next arc 22-24 is going to be a bit tricky to talk about without getting political because it features politics. Please keep in mind that this arc was written way back in 1999.

It features a importance first appearance of Julie-Su's half sister Lien-Da working with the Dark Legion to smash stuff up. No matter what you're views are I like to think that people would come together against the anti-flat screen party.

Did some quick research and found this from howstuffworks. Flat screen tvs used to be called HDTVs when they were first released around 1998.

"Those sets came from manufacturers like Panasonic and Sony, and had a different appearance -- they were wider than standard televisions. That's because the new HDTV standard also included a new aspect ratio. The standard aspect ratio was 4:3, the new ratio was 16:9. They also came with a hefty price tag -- the first sets on the American market cost $7,000 or more."

Lien-Da has never looked more sinister. You can really tell that the artist (Jim Valentino) enjoyed drawing the Dark Legion and it's various members.

Nice Chaotix group shot. This upcoming full page scene I'm going to let speak for itself and that's all I'll say on it.

Hope you enjoy seeing Julie hang upside down because that's what she spends the most of issue 24 doing.

Next up: More hanging around and the Dating arc.

[charleecat-bat]

BOG Rebooted: The Living Guardians PT. 1

Hawking- -Due to his fathers actions and attitude, he grew to neglect chaos energy and even keep religion out of his life as a whole. -He was an angry, aggressive man in his youth, at first from his father’s action and abandonment, fueled by his grandfather's strictness and pressure from his family. He would try to get it out with sports but it wouldn't be enough, would get it out more efficiently when he got into wrestling and boxing... this still wouldn't stop his street fighting however. -He also felt anger from feelings inside that he didn’t feel right. Something felt wrong with him and he never could pinpoint what it was. It wasn't’ until a battle he was stuck in that injured him profusely that he was then given hints that he had surgeries done on him in his youth that he had no knowledge or memory about. -He discovered he was born female at birth but they changed his sex with surgery as no females had been in the guardian family, so the government had pressured either his father or grandfather to do the surgery. -This left him very torn on how to feel towards his situation but at least gave him answers to why he felt strange about himself. -As a result of his fathers abandonment, he actually tried his best to be a supportive and close-knit father. He settled down in his old age and tries to be much more supportive and understanding then he was as a young man but he still has some bitterness towards his father and does wonder if he’d be happier if things were different. -Eldest living Guardian but is retired, looks grumpy but is actually chilled out a lot as he’s gotten older… just tries not to think over stuff that makes him angry. He doesn’t want to be angry anymore. -Tries to share the best of what he remembers of his forefathers…and not the worst parts that he held onto for so long. This can be challenging in some instances. -Janelle was his favourite grandchild ( and was very protective and supportive of her for obvious reasons… he was glad that Thunderhawk didn’t go through the same option that he was given that he was not lucky to avoid. -Has a sense of humour as an old man, likes to decorate his wheelchair with stickers and if he has a blanket on him, it’ll be a stupid one he found online. Yes he learnt very slowly how to use the internet and it terrifies his grandchildren.

Spectre- -The eldest active guardian -He was very close with his father. -Even from a young age he had frustrations with his family. He’d give them judgemental stares. -He was a young teenager when his father vanished. Some of the guardians had concerns or accusations he abandoned the family. Spectre did not take these accusations kindly, refusing to believe his father would abandon them. -Was captured as a teenager, much like his father, and the same experiments would be done to him. Attempting to turn him over to their side but he angrily refused. They’d make a comment about him being ‘more like his father than they thought’. -The cybernetics would be forced onto him, much more properly then Tobor but still unpleasant. -Out of pure determination and refusing to let the legion have power over him, he unleashed a fury of chaos energy and escaped… -Possibly came across his father’s body as he tried to find his way home. if he did so, as much as it fucked him up, he took his body with him. His father meant everything to him and he wanted a proper burial for him. -he’d have to have multiple surgeries, as well as roboticists secretly hired by his family to help him with his cybernetics. They would attempt to remove them but unfortunately the DL made sure it’d be too dangerous to. -he knew his family were disgusted and/or off-put of his cybernetics, worried what this might do to him. This made him hate the DL as well as himself for his appearance, choosing to cover his body entirely from this point on. -Has very powerful chaos energy abilities, and while his cybernetics give him a lot of physical strength, he hates relying on them, so prefers to use chaos energy attacks. -was always quiet, even as a child. Just didn’t really feel the need to say anything unless needed. -HATES small talk but likes deep conversation. -Was quite open minded and tolerable compared to the rest of his family, it came from a place of simply not caring. If they didn’t have any bad intentions, and especially weren’t in support of the legion, then who was he to care? -Was known to be ruthless and violent in battle and he still very much can be. Don’t provoke him. -is known to do puzzles and play strategy puzzle games, if he invites you to play a game with him. It’s usually a hint he wants to speak with you. 

Sojourner- -He highly respects his father, he’s a little afraid of him but wants to earn his approval. Unfortunately Spectre can be hard to read. -He was raised to value honesty and openness… Sojourner did take to doing that verbally, but not mentally. His father wishes he could be more open-minded but stubbornness runs in this family… -ALWAYS speaks his mind, even if he’s mean, harsh or controversial. He always speaks what’s on his mind.. And some people don’t like him for it. But at least you always know he’s being mostly honest. -Is actually a terrible liar. When he tries to say something he clearly doesn’t mean, it’s very obvious he’s full of shit. A good amount of time he just goes silent if he can’t speak his mind. -The closest he can get to ‘lying’ is if he exaggerates, which is usually when he’s angry. But you know that even if he’s mad there's always a hint of truth in his statement. -Is very hesitant about stuff that is ‘new’. He finds comfort and safety in tradition and what’s familiar to him. Even if he has thoughts that it might not be the right way as times change, but he's scared of change. -He likes sticking to schedules and when his schedule is broken he gets very frustrated, he needs to have proper warning. This can be annoying when he accidentally sets a plan for himself in his head. -HATES surprises, never try to surprise him. Ever. He will not react well. -Actually enjoys cleaning, at least on his terms. Organising and cleaning is oddly soothing to him. It brings him order… and if someone comes in and wrecks this he will get as ferocious as his father. -wears decorative headgear (to take inspo from that weird lil thing he wears on his forehead). Possibly puts it on to cover a possible birthmark on his head that he hates, or he just wants to look ‘less plain’. Either way he has a secret purpose for the accessory. (possible idea to him using the ribbons to hide markings or scars as well or to be ‘less plain too’) -Has a bad habit of being an overthinker and having a negative way of thinking, a bit of a pessimist -Definitely has moments of being... A karen.

Thunderhawk- -Warm and charismatic, much more friendlier and social compared to a lot of the other guardians. Made many friends and had a lot of social skills. -Is a little vain, mostly because he’s aware of his fur colour’s rarity and being complimented on it gives you an ego boost… -very emotional, wears his heart on his sleeve. He feels his emotions strongly, positive OR negative. He was taught to try and keep this under wrapped when trying to be ‘professional’ but this has worn off -Was super into music and dancing, went to a lot of clubs in his youth and he still likes to dance privately -Plays an instrument (don’t know which yet) and sings a little, was in a band when he was younger. Not anymore though, guardian duty and all. -While he makes his opinions clear, he doesn’t fight to try and change his family's opinions anymore. He’s been around long enough to know this family is so stubborn, even him… He will voice his own disapproval but he knows how his family is. It’s a shame. -He used to argue with his family a lot in his youth, but now since he knows how hard it is he doesn’t bother much anymore. -much more open minded and wiling to try new things… at least as much as his family and government have made him believe. (he can be changed though trust) -loved and cherished his daughter more than anything in the world. -he was approached by government officials but changing his daughters gender to male but he REFUSED this idea and definitely threatened them if they dared touch her. -He raised her to be just as stubborn as their family, that no matter what to never give up and to fight for her ambitions no matter how hard and supported her in anything she wanted. (spoiled her a little)  -he fought tooth and nail for his daughter to be given a chance to be a guardian. Even if some of his family had qualms about it he wouldn’t back down. -When she was assassinated he went on a rampage against legionnaires… he doesn’t like talking about it. This was his darkest moment… -He fidgets with his hair frequently, brushes his hands and fingers through them and twirls his fingers with them when idle or stressed. -Would definitely be tempted to experiment with himself a bit… as in sexually, but of course he was raised traditionally so nope never tried. -After his daughter's death he took it upon himself to learn medicine and research diseases to try and make sure any death similar to hers could be prevented. -Even if his family hurts him and upsets him, he’s fiercely protective…sometimes a bit too much. He can overstep. -Physically affectionate -Can be a bit too chatty at times, even in mid-fight always tries to have banter. He finds it funny.

[peachdelta]

hey do you like robots. if so can you share your favorites

i’m assuming this means robots from other media and not my own HAHA

if mythra and pyra count they might be my favourite fictional characters of all time, same with malos and A/alvis, i love you trinity processor i would do anything for you trinity processor please text me back trinity processor. i could talk about these three for all fucking time you have no idea how much i like mythra and pyra they’re such insanely compelling characters that have so much potential. i’m also a sucker for ino’s WACKY fucking design her head is WAY too big for her body i love her. poppi xenoblade deserved better. i love her dearly.

im always a big fan of megaman (especially mmx and the protomen), i loved so many of the characters in command mission a LOT. command mission dub is so fucking camp i will die on this hill it’s great. i’m also a fan of copy x by proxy of a close friend being obsessed with him.

elster from signalis might be the hottest woman i’ve ever seen in my life. that scene where she’s shoving the new arm onto her shoulder and she looks all broad made me feel things.

i have very strong feelings about fi from loz. she holds a very dear place in my heart and has since i was a kid

TURING WEBBER. i cannot possibly recommend playing 2064 read only memories enough. turing is the most delightful character on earth

the three marathon AIs are insanely compelling. i love you leela i love you tycho i love you DURANDAL!!!!!!!! i have so many strong feelings about durandal. i am not smart enough to analyze marathon that much. i like staring into the abyss of marathon infinity’s timeline like i could ever hope to understand any of it. i have much smarter mutuals than me that can do that.

honourable mentions: glados, bonbon idv, ai uwasa magia record, (SPOILERS) professor layton and the azran legacy, tobor mysims, metal sonic, star dream, roni trauma team, all of the iron (x) pokemon, hatsune miku et al, v1, v2, mirage, all the ultrakill bots, wx-78

[littleeyesofpallas]

pulling a random paper sleeve from the trash bag they've been sleeping in, my first salvage of the day is... The original 1984, "Glass Mask"/GLASS no Kamen, adapting the classic 1970s manga of the same name, by Suzue Miuchi. (And right behind it two DVDs of the 2005 remake)

The original manga started running in Hakusensha's Hana to Yume/"Flowers & Dreams" shoujo magazine(and later its, now defunct, supplementary magazine, Bessatsu Hana to Yume) in 1976 --The magazine itself started in 1974-- and ran until 2012 (with a little gap between 2006 and 2008) when it was put on its now indefinite hiatus. With over 50million copies sold across 49 volumes, it is one of the best selling shoujo manga of all time. Especially impressive considering Hakesensha is a bit of a runt of the litter in terms of big manga publishers; they're not exactly "small" but they don't stack up anything close to the big hitters like Shueisha, Kodansha, of Shogakukan.

The 1984 anime was by Studio Eiken, whom are kind of all but forgotten these days. They really peaked between the 80s and 90s, but were responsible for a handful of real foundational classics. They did Tetsujin-28 and 8-Man, which were of course the basis for early American anime imports Gigantor --one of the early giant robot series-- and Tobor The 8th Man --which would go on to influence the creation of Robocop, and get a shout out in Big O.(the electric eel episode is an almost shot for shot remake of an 8-Man episode.)

The director of the original TV series was Gizaburo Sugii who is himself a real monolith of the early anime industry. He was an animator on White Snake Legend/Hakuja-den(Panda and the Magic Serpent in English) an early anime film adapting the Chinese Lady Whitesnake myth, often cited as part of what inspired Hayao Miyazaki to become an animator. Gizaburo, like Osamu Tezuka, for whom he worked, was himself inspired by the Japanese theatrical release of Disney's Bambi. He was also an animation director on the original Tetsuwan Atom/The Mighty Atom (aka Astroboy in English). He's been a key figure behind a bunch of classics, often sports series, and in Mushi Production's Animerama film trilogy, as well as a few iterations of Lupin III and Street Fighter, but perhaps his most uniquely enduring work was as the creator behind Night on The Galactic Railroad, adapting the 1934 Kenji Miyazawa novel.

The 2005 series had a different kind of big name behind it: Mamoru Hamatsu. He may not have been a godfather to the art or the industry, but he was no slouch as far as pop culture hits go. He's the director behind the original Dirty Pair and Urusei Yatsura, Yoroiden Samurai Troopers aka Ronin Warriors, all of which had substantial success in English release, and some big but slightly B-list giant robot series like Giant Gorg and King of Braves GAO GAI GAR.

[linettefox]

Had a dream there was an allusive new MySims game that everyone was talking about because a video of it randomly appeared on YouTube. The video stated that the game was bundled with a bunch of kid's movies on some legendary DVD that also played games. Among this MySims game were several Pretty Cure episodes, Tokyo Mew Mew, a few different Sonic cartoons, a few Mario games, the movie Little Nemo and the entirety of Madoka Magica for some reason which I thought was an odd choice among kid properties. The disc also has a unique capability where it could separate into VHS tapes of each cartoon that was on it. So for example if you wanted Madoka on VHS just take it from this DVD somehow.

The MySims game the dream made up was a visual novel type thing and the story was about Proto-Makoto reuniting with Dr. F. Due to many malfunctions Alexa and Dr. F got repeatedly frustrated with her and for some reason it got very dark and sad. And throughout this made up game Proto-Makoto would get more twisted and broken the more her choices lead to ridicule. There was a few scenes with regular Makoto and TOBOR trying to stand up for her and make things better. In the end there were two endings, the main ending that most people got where Proto-Makoto got fed up and killed everyone with a bomb she built, and the secret second ending where it you managed to collect every item Proto-Makoto would forgive the world and in the final act where she was about to kill everyone she would blast off into space and have the bomb blow up herself, sacrificing herself for the world.

Instead of using simlish the dream swapped between Japanese and English. Some moments were direct quotes word for word from Precure with Proto-Makoto being voiced by Ruru Amour's VA. As for Dr. F he kind of sounded like Jack Black for whatever reason probably because I watched Kung Fu Panda yesterday. Supporting characters were all crossovers such as Preme from Precure All Stars F, Ruru Amour, Papple, Higashi Setsuna (a lot of Precure characters), the fox from Kung Fu Panda 4, etc. Also it was unclear if the person Proto-Makoto worked for was Dr. F, Morcubus or Victor F they all sort of merged. Also think it has locations from all the previous MySims games and the player played the same character they did in Agents. Also think the dream claimed at one point that this is where some MySims Agents 2 storylines ended up.

That's all I know, thought it was an interesting dream now bye!

[scruffyplayssonic]

Are the ArchieSonic comics actually an 80's/90's syndicated cartoon? Episode 62: Stuck in an elevator (part 1)

Welcome back to my look at the ArchieSonic comic series, and how it shared a lot of the same story tropes as a typical ‘80s or ‘90s syndicated cartoon! The last few episodes have had a common theme - first the characters were stranded in the ocean, then they were stranded in the desert, and after that they were stranded in the snow. So what have we got this time?

Episode 62: Stuck in an elevator 

I mean, being stuck somewhere and being stranded somewhere are pretty much the same thing, aren’t they? But sadly there’s not really any great examples of this very specific topic in ArchieSonic. In fact the only times I can think of off the top of my head where an elevator was even shown was in the non-canon Sonic Colours adaptation in Sonic #219…

…and the times that Robotnik used a sneaky escape elevator to get away when Sonic had him cornered, such as in Sonic #38. 

So yeah, short one this week huh? If there’s any instances of being trapped in an elevator I missed, let me know in the comments! Next time-

Just kidding, I wouldn’t be doing my due diligence if I didn’t try a little harder to squeeze some blood from this metaphorical stone. So I went to TV Tropes to see what I could find on this topic. And sure enough, I hit paydirt:

So instead of shaking our heads and tutting at the lack of elevators in ArchieSonic, let’s broaden the topic to cover enemies and/or rivals being locked in a room together, which I feel is in the same spirit.

Our first example is one I’ve covered before: Sonic #24, when Snively, Robotnik, and the Freedom Fighters were all abducted by the alien collector, Carheem of Wheet. 

I don’t think there’s any need to retread this one, as I’ve brought it up a number of times for various episodes. Let’s move on. 

The next example is a very brief one from Sonic #48. Sonic had been arrested after being framed for the murder of Princess Sally, and was sentenced to life imprisonment in the Devil’s Gulag.

While he was being transported to the dreaded prison, Sonic found that he was not the only future inmate being taken there. Also along for the ride was Sleuth Dawgy Dawg (no, I’m not kidding on the name), a former intelligence operative who had worked for Uncle Chuck’s spy network but had betrayed the Freedom Fighters when Robotnik made him a better offer.

Mmmm, steak. …huh? Er no, I’m not tempted to go work for Robotnik, what are you even talking about? I think the better question is why was Sleuth still wearing a swatbot disguise when he was en route to the Gulag, considering he’d been arrested 6 issues prior? You’d think the Freedom Fighters would have had time to confiscate the tech and give him a change of clothes, for crying out loud. Anyway, the plane got shot down by swatbots before Sonic and Sleuth could say anything else to each other, so like I said, it was a pretty brief example.

Don't worry, Sonic was fine. He escaped went on to do his best Harrison Ford impression.

Next up is Knuckles #18, an issue in which we saw Knuckles also go to prison. But unlike Sonic he went there willingly, to interrogate Kragok of the Dark Legion. In the previous issue Knuckles had met Tobor, his several times removed great grandfather, a Guardian like himself. Tobor’s tenure as Guardian had been brief, as not long after he was charged with protecting Echidnaopolis, the Dark Legion had escaped the Twilight Zone they’d been imprisoned in and went on the attack.

During the battle Tobor and the then-current leader of the Dark Legion, Moritori Rex, had been transported to the Floating Island and were both buried in the rubble of a collapsing ruin (don’t ask why Echidnapolis wasn’t on the Floating Island at this time, it’s a long story). Not long afterwards Tobor’s father Hawking had arrived and accidentally rescued Moritori, mistaking him for Tobor due to him being badly injured and disfigured.

Tobor had eventually managed to dig his way out of the rubble and exiled himself from the Floating Island in shame. 

Did Tobor bother to let his family know that they’d been infiltrated by a leader of the Dark Legion? No, no he did not. Instead he just bummed around on the surface of Mobius for several hundred years until he one day spotted the Floating Island overhead and decided to go check it out, leading to him meeting Julie-Su and then Knuckles. After hearing Tobor’s story, Knuckles decided he wanted more information about it. So he went to interrogate Kragok, who had been incarcerated since Dimitri’s defeat back in Knuckles #9.

Indeed, Knuckles has a massive pair of b- …er, knuckles. Ahem. Anyway, Kragok didn’t want to cooperate, so Knuckles threw out the good guardian approach and switched to bad guardian instead.

…okay, putting aside the AGAB line for the moment to ask something a bit more disturbing - what the hell, Echidna Security Team? Why would a dangerous prisoner be allowed to keep a mechanical arm that can shoot lightning bolts? You would think that when he was arrested that his arm would have been removed and replaced with a non-lethal prosthetic instead, surely? Or hell, just let him manage with only one arm - it’s not like he’s going to need two arms that much inside a prison cell. Or maybe you could rig some sort of EMP field in the cell to disable the arm? I’m just spit-balling here, but anything seems better than letting a prisoner - who I might remind you was the leader of a terrorist organisation - keep a dangerous weapon in his cell.

Anyway, what happened next?

Buggered if I know. A non-specific thing happened and somehow Knuckles and Kragok found themselves trapped in the Twilight Zone - the Dark Legion's former prison. At least at this point Knuckles was able to overpower Kragok and forced him to talk, under the threat of having his face blown off with his own arm.

And what did Knuckles learn from this?

Honestly, not much that hadn’t already been said by Tobor. The main takeaway was that Tobor being replaced wasn’t a freak accident, but actually had been planned by Moritori Rex. This explains how Tobor’s family hadn’t been able to tell that Moritori was an imposter - Moritori had been able to learn everything about Tobor prior to their battle by spying on him for years. We also learned that Moritori was Kragok’s father, but this was later retconned to say that Moritori was actually Kragok’s grandfather instead. Or I guess you could argue that Kragok had just been lying to Knuckles about his parentage, that works too. Anyway, after the exposition dump Kragok and Knuckles managed to escape back to the real world through a portal, but Kragok was intercepted by Tobor (the real one), who yeeted both himself and Kragok right back into the Twilight Zone.

Our next two characters who were locked in an elevator room together are Grand Chief Lupe of the Wolfpack and Queen Hathor of the Felidae, leaders of rival Soumerican clans who had a long history of mistrust and violence caused by territory disputes and both tribes trying to claim ownership of a gemstone called the Ancient Onyx. Dr Eggman’s Dark Egg Legion had previously tried to get their tribes to go to war against each other by stealing the Ancient Onyx, but Sonic, Sally, and Big the Cat had helped to reveal the true villains and negotiate a peaceful co-existence for both tribes.

In Sonic #237 Dr Eggman sent Mecha Sally to abduct both leaders, hoping to undo Sally's efforts by causing each tribe to blame each other for their leader's disappearance and go to war.

Not long afterwards Team Fighters arrived in the Wolf Pack Nation and were informed of Lupe’s abduction by two of her former freedom fighters, Leeta and Lyco. They joined forces to investigate and soon came across Hathor in the jungle, fleeing for her life from Eggman’s forces.

“Emissary” Hathor then explained how she and Chief Lupe had been held captive together. 

So yeah, while Lupe and Hathor were still rivals and there was still a lot of mistrust between their two tribes, they were able to begrudgingly put their differences aside to work together on an escape plan. Team Fighters, Hathor, and Leeta and Lyco were able to rescue Lupe and “the Queen,” giving us one of my favourite lines in ArchieSonic:

Sorry, Drago. This queen did not slay. 🙁

Unfortunately Tumblr’s image posting limit means that I’m going to need to make a part two for this episode. I'm attempting to upload both parts at the same time, so if you don't see the other one then treat yourself to a little refresh. :)

[8dpromo]

Tobor Rellik - Stationary Traveling (Harmonious Discord)

8DPromo · Tobor Rellik - Stationary Traveling (Harmonious Discord)

Tobor Rellik graces us with Stationary Traveling, his first full-length excursion into softly muted insanity—the flavor-rich compilation of dance tracks and beyond leverages dissonance with mastery. Launching the compilation is a floaty-found sound reprise perfect for dialing in the tension in the atmosphere. Stripped-down serenades like "Tapeworm" and "Lost Control" hover between resonating nightmare fuel and future funk. "Walking in Circles" dials in the bass theatrics while keeping the blended sonic shimmers. "Droppin Moms" and "Reverse Polarity" dial up the disorienting percussion with breakdowns into largely chaotic meshes of silliness and uncertainty. "Merky Atmosphere" is an absolutely bonkers late-night driver. Stubbled drum fills and high-intensity bass variations propel the later episodes of the album. "Selective Memory" harkens to early Spectral releases with the same detail in the groove. Tobor Rellik has consistently contributed to the Harmonious Discord's evolution, and this album perfectly encapsulates his development into a sonic force.

Taigo Onez (Bang Le’ Dex) – “Truly a righteous release. Hard to pick a favorite here. This entire body of work is really, really nice! In full support! 10/10”. Colin Dale (Abstrakt Dance Records) – “Excellent LP. Some really cool sounds here!” Brian Busto (Serious Soul) – “Wicked tunes. Full support.” DJ Firefly (Couch Dancing) – “Lots of great creative details in here - well done!” Simon Kirk (Proton Radio) – “A feast of fantastic deep groovy Techno - 10/10”. DJ Morpheus (Lysergic Factory Radio Show) – “Weird and captivating tracks in here. Digging it a lot!”

Available Now From: Beatport, Bandcamp, Apple Music, And Spotify.

[mathpumamusic]

1-3-2024

[Periphery] "Periphery III: Select Difficulty" : Contains "Marigold" and "Absolomb". [Boiled Buzzards] "Eat at Joe's" : Quality Picking! [Wacław Zimpel] "In The Cell of Dreams" : Atmospheric and imaginative, the album moves slow, but is full of interesting texture. [zabutom] "New Beginnings" : Coming back from "Resolution," it's almost strange to hear zabutom play in a regular chiptune style again. [T.R.A.M.] "Lingua Franca" : Unlike many of the other weird prog albums I've poked at in the past few weeks, "Lingua Franca" is more than willing to have an entire album of exactly what the opener would imply. [Three Days Grace] "One-X" : This has the same effect on me as one of those werewolf paintings, in that I love it completely earnestly. [Tobor Experiment] "Available Forms" : Here's an album that says, "I'm shopping at the mall, and the year is 3200."

[sally-mun]

sorry i keep putting stuff in here but I thought of an interesting question this morning about the guardians. (and I don't mind if this takes you ages to do it's really fine lmao)

Where would you place your Guardians (to make it easier you can do the more 'younger' half of the family) in a ranking of... morally questionable or worse to actually morally good.

My money is on Locke or Sojo being at the bottom maybe unless we're counting Rex aka Tobor

YOU'RE RIGHT THIS DID TAKE ME "AGES" TO REPLY TO I'M SO SORRY.

Honestly tho this is a very interesting question, which is why I didn't want to answer it too quickly. The thing about the Guardians that's easy to lose sight of (as a whole, including those in BH:O we haven't gotten to address yet) is that, for the most part, most of them aren't exactly bad people, they just tend to have really shitty personalities -- or at a MINIMUM, some shitty character traits. On some level I guess I get it because it's a very isolated group that gets more and more repressed and toxic the longer it goes on, but that said I can appreciate the work someone does without wanting to grab a coffee with them.

Anyway, let me see what I can come up with here. I'll do my best.

MOST VIRTUOUS - LEAST VIRTUOUS

Athair: I think it's kind of funny that I'm putting Athair at the topic when he's largely considered a disgrace among the BH itself. But honestly, I think a lot of them know deep down inside that what Athair didn't isn't actually bad, it's just not something that directly benefited them. This is a guy that gave up EVERYTHING in his life, from a pretty young age even, to help others that were desperately in need. Athair did way more than just give up his duties as a Guardian; he gave up his relationships, his home, his reputation (especially for breaking Nemo out of prison) and even just basic comfort. The life he leads with the Lost Tribe is orders of magnitude harder than the life he has on Angel Island, but he willingly chose it because it was the right thing to do.

Sabre: Okay, I think we can all agree that Sabre can be a real tool, but the main reason he was so obnoxious was because he was so frustrated by the sheer volumes of injustice that he couldn't do anything about. He's the sort of person that doesn't let the little things go because he kind of doesn't see anything as a little thing. His sense of justice is one of his main motivations in life. The main reason why I'm ranking him behind Athair is because, while he does do a lot to enact change and also has to risk/give up things that are important to him for his morals, there's not much he can do that could ever really top the incredible sacrifices that Athair had to make for his cause.

Janelle-Li: I would say that she also has a very strong sense of justice, but that's also kind of a natural side effect when you're directly facing discrimination for most of your life. A lot of people, way more than just the Brotherhood, treated her differently simply because she was a woman, so she had plenty of drive to promote change in her world. Janelle did a ton of good for Echidnaopolis and the Brotherhood, but she took a more subtle approach to do so, mostly in the form of leading by example. There's nothing wrong with that, to be sure, but it also results in changes coming at a much slower pace overall, and sometimes it doesn't always drive home why bad behaviors are bad, so there are going to be people that never learn the lesson. I'd like to think that, had she lived longer, maybe she also would've made some bigger, bolder moves as well.

Thunderhawk: There's probably not much I can say here about Thundy that y'all don't already know, because I'm pretty sure he's almost universally everyone's favorite (living) BH member. He has pretty much the same morals as Janelle, and also shares insights into what discrimination and abuse can look like. The main reason he's ranking below her instead of equal with her is that he DOES have a bad habit of drawing lines in the sand once he's come to the conclusion that someone is bad; we saw this both in how he treated Nemo and how he reacted to Locke's treatment of Elias. All of his kind words and empathy go out the window at that point, and it can take quite a lot for him to change his mind again.

Spectre: In an interesting way, I see Spectre in much the same way I see Janelle, but the key difference between them is that he doesn't have nearly as much courage. Janelle was very vocal about her thoughts and feelings and used that as a persuasive tool when fighting adversity, whereas Spectre learned very early on that it was not safe to speak his mind. As a result, he has a strong sense of morality and why things are right or wrong, but he does very little about it. If it's something he can solve with an action, he will absolutely do so, but if it requires a discussion? Spectre is borderline useless in that situation. Unfortunately, strong morals are almost meaningless if you're unable to put them into action.

Sojourner: We all know Sojo's not a pleasant person to be around, and that he can verge into abusive territories when uninterested in holding back. He IS aware that he shouldn't do things like that, but there are two problems there: 1) He may or may not actually feel bad afterwards, depending on how justified he feels to act out, and 2) even when he doesn't feel justified, he still comes up with excuses for why things are fine and he doesn't need to change. It wasn't that bad, they'll be over it soon, it's just the way I am, life isn't fair... etc etc etc, I'm sure we've all heard these excuses before. I mean yeah, it is good that he DOES occasionally call himself out for being shitty, but if he doesn't then adjust his behavior or outlook to reduce and eliminate that quality, then it's functionally the same as not calling himself out at all.

Locke: Pretty sure you guys don't need me to go into detail here, because we all know all too well how many times Locke has crossed the line without looking back. He unfortunately has the perfect mental recipe of 1) recognizing that the things he does hurts others, but 2) convincing himself that doing so is necessary. I won't even tangle this up with the fact that he feels like his actions will be a net positive in the end, because he is DIRECTLY presented with evidence, OVER AND OVER, from lots of different people, that his information is inaccurate, that there exist far less harmful ways to achieve his goals, and that he lacks the consent of those he's affecting. Even with his belief that he's had a vision, even with the fact that he undoubtedly has mental illnesses affecting how he thinks and behaves, he actively chooses the methods that necessarily and irreparably cause others harm, purely to satisfy himself and his needs. I can't even cut him a break from the fact that his illnesses are tainting how he perceives and processes information, because he DID have that period where he was in the hospital and received some of the help he desperately needed and showed a marked improvement even in that short time -- and then chose to return to methods he knew were harmful purely for his own benefit. And unfortunately, there was no more reaching him after that.

MORITORI: MORAL OR...?

I kinda wanted to address Moritori separately from everyone else, and not necessarily because he's not "really" part of the Brotherhood. An argument could be made that he -functionally- is a part of them and therefore counts, but to me that issue is kind of a red herring. The thing to remember about Moritori is that he's playing a very different game, and on a VERY different scale. He doesn't do the horrible things he does simply for shits and giggles, he does them because he's DEEP under cover in enemy territory and trying to systematically weaken his enemies enough so that his side can be victorious. That's not really uncommon or unexpected for someone in his position; he's basically the equivalent of a CIA operative. If he intends to gain any ground for HIS side of the war between the Brotherhood and the Legion, then yeah, he's going to have to get his hands dirty.

So as far as his morality is concerned, I feel like it's kind of not fair to judge him because we're necessarily looking at him as the bad guy, because our POV is implicitly aligned with the Brotherhood's. From a BH perspective, yeah, it's very easy to say that Moritori is a despicable person that does unconscionable things -- but from the Legion's perspective, this guy has made OUTRAGEOUS sacrifices purely for their benefit. He, like Athair, literally had to give up everything in his life in the hopes of helping a people desperately in need -- and he doesn't even get the benefit of BEING with those people like Athair does. Everything he does is motivated by the idea that the Brotherhood needs to be stopped, that the Legion is relying on him, that his family needs him to do these things. If it was someone on our side doing these same things in a Nazi regime during WWII, would we judge our spy for the individual things they had to do, or would we hail them as a war hero for taking down the enemy and saving our people? And if we were to do that, does that mean that the individual acts they had to commit against the other side are now fine? They're still horrible things, but we forgive them for those things in that context. But they still did them, and people suffered for it -- just not our people, so we don't tend to extend that compassion.

Anyway, this is just a very long way to say that Moritori's morals are complicated. He does a LOT of horrible things that hurt a ton of people, but I also think that context is key, and the fact that he's under cover in the middle of a war adds at least some mud to the water. The Brotherhood would consider him less than scum, but the Legion would hail him as one of the greatest heroes of all time for single-handedly taking on the entire Brotherhood to save them. Who's right and who's wrong depends deeply on your point of view.

[theataerravoltartist]

I think, possibly, I might have found the best arc for Locke while hitting all of the bases. So basically rolling the two versions of him(writing wise) into one.

It would go something like this. He would get that vision of Knuckles dying( sorta obligatory at this point), go to Athair just for him to say something basic and cryptic like,"prepare yourself." Of course he internalizes it. Going out of his way to run tests on himself for the most optimal out come.

Knuckles is born but Locke is still second guessing as the perfectionist he is. He wants nothing more than his son to live a long life. So he takes the egg in the dead of night and used the chaos chamber without asking any other guardian. Why go through the chain of command when your are the youngest?(I really feel like age would hold much power with how the guardians are set up) Of course the doctors are confused but cannot question the guardian. One of them probably asks Laura-Le if she knew what he was up to and confused she sorta shrugs it off cause of baby brain.

Now every guardian is mad at Locke, specifically Spectre for such sudden action to be taken. Rules are placed specifically on Locke, making him more jaded in the process. "All of you would have done this for your children!"

Later down the line Locke proposes that the Master Emerald be brought underground making it harder to find and less of a risk. The idea is shot down primarily by Tobor and Thunderhawk.

When Knuckles is twelve he gets injured terribly. Locke having taken Sabre's advice walks a lap around Haven. Upon his return to the serveilance room he is mortified, remembering the vision of his son dying. Breaking all protocol, Locke rushes to Knuckles side bringing him back to Haven to tend to his wounds. For a full day Locke is able to treat Knuckles in peace, but the next day Sabre arrives. While happy his grandson is alive he gives Locke a verbal lashing for going against protocol. Locke retorts that Sabre would have done the same thing for him... right? Sabre shakes his head in a mournful fashion. Locke senses some unrest but is preoocupied with Knuckles.

As Knuckles heals and becomes more lively Locke realizes how much of his life he has missed out on. Living in fear wasn't the answer. Is being a guardian even worth the hassle? Locke enters the meeting room, every guardian alive is there. His own father standing at the opposing end. Sabre doesn't seem very enthused by what is about to take place, yet Locke can tell Sabre is falling back on his leadership persona for such an occassion. The guardians have deduced that Locke should not be allowed among their ranks any longer. His disreguard for protocols and previously ignoring the chain of command has netted him distrust among the others. Surprised by such a sudden scolding Locke asks why he wasn't given any warnings. None of them answer until Sabre remarks that he took the oath and knew the rules. He had warnings from the start. As Locke leaves, Sabre's voice breaks as he tells him Knuckles is no longer in his custody. Knuckles now belongs to the leader. Locke turns back, betrayal written on his face. He sees a single tear coming down Sabre's face."Then you will have to rip him from my cold, dead, hands."

Locke makes valiant attempts to retrieve Knuckles from the med bay only for the doors to shut. With Knuckles still in his weakened state teleporting the boy isn't an option. Locke beligerently leaves as it dawns on him that this is how Laura-Le undoubtedly felt when they divorced.

He has been getting calls from his mother periodically. The poor woman has no clue that her own family split. Locke gently tells her if she wants to speak with him it will have to be in person. He pulls his and Knuckles credit into new accounts before the others think to withdraw their lifes-earnings. Taking on a new name Locke finds a job within the medical field in IT. he still lurks in the areas he hopes to find Knuckles training at, yet so far those attempts have been fruitless.

He thought he could pull himself together by making friends in new places. He must be coming off as jaded since most of his colleagues tend to not acknowledge his existence. On his way home he sees Laura-Le at a coffee shop. Knowing she wanted space he avoids her only to abruptly feel a hand on his shoulder. She must have seen him through the window. She can see something is off from his uniform up to his face. He is tired, hopeless. Not the confident man she had married so long ago. She invites him to catch up with her at her place. Knowing she is an empath, he abliges. The insurmountable pain and pressure build as she guides him to be seated. Man up she doesn't need your sobstory. The moment she asks about Knuckles the dam breaks. He tells her everything that he can fumble from his mouth. He makes sure to apologize, she was right for her doubts. She was right to worry. "I knew this was wrong the moment we left college, but I didn't know how." Soothing him, she reminds him that the man he truly is is burried beneath the generational trauma, the lies, the gaslighting. Holding his face, she wipes some of his tears. Telling him that she can still see the man she fell in love with deep within, but he will have to fight hard to bring that man out to the forefront.

Life isn't perfect. He wants Knuckles at his side dearly. However, Laura-Le is showing him that he can be who he was thirteen years ago. She will help him in this journey. He asks her how she could still love him after all of this time. "I did not divorce you because I hated you. I hated who you became."

-------------------------------------------

Danggggg that was much longer than I anticipated! There is an alternative version where he could easily become an anti-hero, but I prefer this path. To note the,"cause I said so", attitude Locke bears in the comics is not reflected in this. I personally think it conflicts with the loving father theme that had been pushed in earlier issues. My go to for Locke is, Scientist dad who tries his hardest and is often misunderstood.

--------------------------------------------------

Why am I still writing/thinking of obscure legacy characters? The child in my brain says I must. So anytime I rant about old echidnas the child in me has taken the reigns. It's also great practice for character analysis!

[mst3kproject]

Tobor the Great

This was a movie YouTube thought I ought to watch. It’s so bad even Leonard Maltin didn’t like it.

Two scientists, Dr. Harrison and Dr. Nordstrom, are concerned about the effects of space travel on the human body, and so they attempt to convince the Civil Interplanetary Flight Commission (think NASA, but with funding) to use an alternative form of test pilot.  No, sit down, dog- and monkey-lovers in the audience, I’m talking about a huge, unwieldy, unnecessarily humanoid robot!  Obviously, foreign agents want to steal this machine and turn it into a huge, unwieldy weapon instead of a huge, unwieldy astronaut, but Nordstrom’s grandson Brian saves the day using his special telepathic link with Tobor!

The movie does not believe we’re smart enough to figure out why the robot’s name is Tobor.  It spells it out for us, literally and on more than one occasion.

Tobor the Great is a children’s movie – the main character is eleven-year-old Brian, who is mostly addressed by his nickname, Gadget or Gadge.  He’s established as an engineering genius in his own right, who gets to hang around in his grandfather’s lab and make friends with this cool robot.  He’s what every white American boy in the 50’s was supposed to want to be.  All of which makes it sort of weird that we don’t meet him until nearly fifteen minutes into the movie.

Consider some better children’s movies.  In Coco, Miguel is the literal as well as the metaphorical narrator – we begin with his voice telling us the backstory.  Lilo and Stitch gives us one title character almost immediately, and then brings in the second as quickly as it can to get us to the point where they meet.  Of course, you don’t have to introduce the main character first in a movie, but if you’re going to put it off you have to do it skillfully.  Star Wars takes its time getting around to Luke Skywalker, but it’s already given us somebody to follow in the form of C-3P0 and R2-D2, who make good audience proxies because 3P0 doesn’t know what’s going on any more than we do.  Tobor the Great lets nearly a quarter of its running time go by before we finally meet Gadge, and even more before we get to Tobor himself, and that time is spent setting up what seems to be a rather different movie.

The opening does establish the need for Tobor, but it takes way too long about it.  We start with narration and stock footage about the American space program, which is as deathly boring as it always is in these movies. Maybe it seemed more exciting in the fifties, when space rockets were the coolest thing around.  Then we get into Dr. Harrison and his complaints about unsafe practices, which lead to his resignation and to him trying to dodge the press before meeting the likeminded Dr. Nordstrom.

These seem like strange things to put in a children’s movie. I feel that a lot more time is spent justifying the need for a robotic astronaut than is really necessary, and the early close focus on Dr. Harrison makes it seem like he’s going to be our main character – but he fades into the background once we get to Dr. Nordstrom’s lab and at the end he’s not much more than a completely unnecessary love interest for Gadge’s widowed mother.  In Star Wars the two droids stick around and participate in the plot for the whole movie – Dr. Harrison doesn’t.  The politicking within the CIFC is not something children are likely to be interested in, nor is the nagging newspaper man, and all of these scenes are just guys in suits talking.  Very little actually happens and none of it involves robots carrying off beautiful women like the poster shows us!

The annoying reporter is a particularly odd inclusion. His name is Mr. Gilligan, which Joel and the ‘bots would have found hilarious.  I went into Tobor the Great totally blind, having never heard of it when the thumbnail appeared in my YouTube recommendations, but if I’d read a plot summary or something beforehand, maybe I wouldn’t have expected Gilligan to play a major role in the plot.  As it was, I figured he was either a Soviet spy or would unintentionally pass information on to them – but he vanishes after the first press conference, and the question of whether he has the right to compromise national security in the name of selling newspapers is never dealt with.  Instead the spies are a bunch of guys we’ve never seen before.

Once all this is over with, though, we do finally get to see Tobor strut his stuff.  Nordstrom and Harrison work on programming him to do things like type reports to be sent back to Earth and dodge meteor showers (as all 50’s space rockets had to do), while Gadge sits and watches… and does very little else.  You’d think this part of the movie would continue the thread of Gadge being the equal of the adult scientists, maybe overlapping with him and Tobor bonding, but there’s almost none of either.  Why set up Gadge as a prodigy if you’re not going to make use of it?  At the climax we expect Gadge to save the day by figuring something out, as he showed he could do earlier.  Instead he just shuts his eyes and thinks really hard at Tobor, like Ichi trying to summon Gamera. It works, but it’s not as satisfying as it could have been.  At the end the movie has neatly avoided almost all of its potential and anything that might have been cool to watch, and failed to give us anything it seemed to promise.

To make things even worse, Gadge is played by one of those insanely cloying 50’s child actors who say things like “oh, gosh!” and “gee whillikers!”  I cannot imagine anybody actually talking like this.  Actor Billy Chaplin sure makes it sound fake as hell.  While Chaplin is a decent actor physically, everything he says sounds stilted and unnatural, like he’s reading it off notes while trying to project his voice to a full auditorium.  The adult actors are much better, which just makes Chaplin look all the worse by comparison.

Tobor, on the other hand, is wonderful, in the ‘stupid cardboard movie robot’ way that makes Torg from Santa Claus Conquers the Martians and the delightfully awful robot of Devil Girl from Mars so much fun.  It’s got lots of blinky lights and moving parts, and stamps around with a pretty convincing sense of weight.  Unlike some movie robots it actually moves at a good clip when it wants to, perhaps helped by the fact that it has working knees.  The movie makes the point that Tobor is a large and dangerous piece of kit at the same time as it’s able to be gentle and dexterous, which reinforces the idea that it would be frightening as a weapon.

My favourite part is when Tobor drives a car.  I wonder if the guy in the costume could see anything. That must have been a hell of a day on set.

What you want me to get back to, though, is the bit where the robot is psychic.  Yes, that’s actually the premise of this movie, a telepathic robot!  I’m not sure how plausible that would have seemed in the 50’s, even in such an explicitly silly movie.  Dr. Nordstrom doesn’t expect the reporters to believe in it without a demonstration, and yet the same decade also produced films like The She-Creature that present such ideas with an entirely straight, albeit incompetent, face.  Psychic powers as hard-ish sci-fi seems to have gone out of style by the 90’s, and nowadays it sounds like something you’d see in the Weekly World News.

Man, I miss the hard copy Weekly World News.  It was so nice to have that little isle of humour in the sea of garbage that was (and still is) the supermarket tabloids.  Remember Hilary Clinton’s space-alien lover?  Classic.

The function of telepathy in this story is not just to give Gadge a way to summon the robot after the spies break Nordstrom’s control mechanism.  It is also a means whereby Tobor may acquire human traits and emotions.  How to make a robot feel things is a perennial problem in science fiction… a lot of the time the mechanism is simply glossed over, as an artificial intelligence becomes more human by interacting with humans. Emotions are just chemicals in our brains, though, and the more we learn about how they work, the harder it gets to justify a machine feeling them.  In Star Trek: the Next Generation Data and Lore have a special bit of hardware that must be installed to enable emotions, and really seem like they’re better off without it. In Saturn 3, Hector has a processor made of cloned brain cells that can produce their own chemistry, as well as a direct neural uplink to its programmer.

As such solutions go, I actually kind of like how Tobor the Great goes about it, even if the mechanism is silly.  Rather than having emotions of its own, Tobor senses and mirrors those of the humans around it.  When Gadge is panicking, worrying that Tobor is out of control, Tobor panics and goes around smashing things, thus making for a self-fulfilling prophecy. When Gadge thinks of Tobor as a hero, the robot comes to his rescue, carrying him to safety like a rescued princess, and responds to the anger and rage of the spies by turning these emotions back on them and beating them up.  This is quite different from many ‘emotional machine’ stories, in that it doesn’t actually require Tobor to be in any way self-aware.

Unfortunately the movie is not very consistent about this. There’s a scene in which Tobor gets frustrated and breaks stuff after being put through too challenging a simulation, which does imply that the robot has an intelligence and emotional capacity of its own.  This bit has a purpose, as it serves to make us worry that Tobor will be unable to tell the difference between friend and foe at the finale, but it just doesn’t fit with the way this machine is treated in the rest of the movie.

Like many others both from MST3K and from the Episodes that Never Were, Tobor the Great has a couple of good ideas at its core.  It even predicted how much easier and safer it is to send robots into space than people, although those robots don’t look much like the lumbering humanoids of 50’s sci-fi. Sadly, the film is uneven, rushed, and poorly-acted, and nothing particularly fun or exciting happens in it. Various people over the years have seen its potential and Tobor has starred in a couple of comic books and an unproduced TV pilot, but these never went anywhere either.

[gamerzylo]

I’ve once more fallen down the Archie Sonic rabbit hole; specifically the Knuckles lore. So that means AU time.

Pachacamac’s tribe and everything with Chaos goes down as in Adventure (the game, not the comic adaptation).

What’s left of the tribe take to guarding the Master Emerald and the now Floating Island as repentance.

Fast forward to Edmund and Dimitri’s era; the Floating Island is once more hovering over the Mystic Ruins and Dimitri wants to go through with trying to return the island to its former place.

The tribe council rejects the plan but, as seen in the comics, Dimitri tries to go through with it anyway and achieves super form (in place of Enerjak).

This manages to awake Tikal’s spirit long enough for her to seal Dimitri into the Master Emerald alongside herself and Chaos. During all the commotion the tribe thinks that Edmund was the one who did it despite his protests to the contrary.

Edmund is then charged with being the sole guardian of the Master Emerald; the tribe has plans to expand throughout the entire island and seek out any possible fellow echidnas outside of the tribe.

Time passes and Dimitri’s son, Menniker, makes an attempt for the emerald. It fails but he manages to kill Edmund and flee before anyone can find out he did it.

Edmund’s son, Steppenwolf, is then named the new guardian and begins his training with chaos energy.

During this, Menniker had begun assembling followers under the guise of “Edmund failed because he was weak and now we’re just expected to let his son guard the very thing that keeps our home afloat?!”.

Eventually Menniker and his followers stage an attack against Steppenwolf, who opens a portal and sends them away; unknowingly he sent them to the Twilight Cage, where fellow echidnas, the Nocturnus, reside.

Things go relatively the same; Menniker’s followers, now calling themselves the Dark Legion, escape from time to time thanks to technology they stole from the Nocturnus. This comes to a head when Steppenwolf’s great-great grandson, Aaron, is killed in an explosion along with Menniker.

Menniker’s son, Moritori Rex, takes over the Dark Legion while Aaron’s brother Jordan undergoes guardian training.

More time passes with Moritori spying on the guardians whenever he can, waiting for the time to strike. The day Hawking passes on the role of guardian to his son Tobor is when the Dark Legion strike. The point of the fight where Tobor and Moritori get buried under rubble happens as it did in canon, with Hawking mistaking Moritori for his son due to all the injuries he sustained - plus the extra detail of Moritori also having the guardian neck ring. (Edmund and Dimitri were twins, it stands to reason that even if Dimitri or Menniker didn’t have it, the genetic chances were still in their bloodline. Case in point, Jor-dann, one of their ancestors also had the ring.)

While Tobor exiles himself to the planet’s surface in shame over everything, Voni-Ca (his wife) and Sonja-Ra (his mom) suspect that “Tobor” isn’t who Hawking thinks he is. Once Moritori is back on his feet, he decides to “take care” of them via poisoned food over a long time. He would eventually do this once more when Janelle-Li, Tobor��s great-great granddaughter, began to snoop around after being told “Tobor’s” story.

After Janelle-Li’s passing her son, Athair, becomes the new guardian. (In this AU the lost echidna tribe never existed). Following in his footsteps comes Sabre and then Locke.

Once Knuckles is born, things take a turn for the worse. Getting any and all information he possibly could over the years, Moritori has had enough of playing pretend. Once the signal is given the Dark Legion invades and just as the tribe turns to “Tobor” for help, he reveals his true identity.

In the resulting chaos, Lara-Le hands Knuckles to Athair and begs him to get her son to safety; Locke and Sabre have already been caught up in the fight alongside elder guardians, Spectre, Sojourner, and Thunderhawk.

Although reluctant, Athair has faith that the other guardians will prevail and that everything will be safe again soon so he agrees.

Weeks pass and with no word or signal from the tribe, Athair takes Knuckles with him back home. Upon arriving, he is met with the sight of...nothing. No echidnas, no houses, just the vast emptiness and the Master Emerald, still sitting at its shrine.

With only Knuckles left, Athair raises him and for a time things are peaceful, until a certain mustachioed scientist shows up for the first of many times to come...

[mobius-prime]

168. Sonic the Hedgehog #100

So you remember what I said last issue about the SA2 issue seeming like it was just thrown in there last minute, with an almost flippant disregard for how it should affect canon? How it seemed like the writers were just eager to get it out of the way so that they could get back to the story they were already in the middle of? This and the next issue support my theory. This is the big 1-0-0 - the comic has finally hit triple digits, and as such you'd expect this issue to be something truly amazing, really special and bombastic in the same way that Endgame was. And yet… all things considered, despite the cover page, it's fairly ordinary. In fact, the next issue is a lot more game-changing, making me think that with the addition of Sonic Adventure 2 into the mix, the team simply pushed their next few planned issues forward one, making the issue that was initially planned as the hundredth issue into the hundred-and-first. It definitely ends up giving this issue and the next very strange vibes, as they try to make this one seem incredibly epic when it just… isn't. But that's no reason to complain, after all - there's still some very important events to cover in this issue, so let's move into it!

Reunion

Writer: Karl Bollers Pencils: Ron Lim Colors: Stephanie Vozzo

We're finally getting the chance to see what Eggman's big plan is for the Overlanders. With the help of Snively, he's upgraded his systems (because remember, he's still a robot himself) so that he's capable of roboticizing anyone with a single touch…

Well that's not good… Sally, Rotor, and Tails, meanwhile, have just managed to learn of the location of the Sword of Acorns from Uma when Kodos shows up to attack them. Sally evades his blows and races off, determined to get to the sword before Kodos. At the same time, Nate leaves Knothole, telling Mina that he intends to warn the Overlanders about the deadly radiation that permeates Robotropolis before it kills them, and Sonic, Bunnie, and Antoine catch up to Tails and Rotor in time to hear about Sally going after the sword, and are disturbed to see Uma lying dead nearby, thinking that Kodos killed her. Sonic races off to catch up with Sally before it's too late, as she reaches the fissure in the forest where Uma told her the sword is hidden. However, Kodos is still hot on her tail…

Sonic stands frozen in shock, almost unaware that behind him, Bunnie, Antoine, and Tails have begun to fight with Kodos, ultimately knocking him out. Together the entire group approaches the edge of the cliff, staring down towards the darkness into which Sally has fallen, believing her to be dead from the fall. Sonic quietly states his intention to go down and retrieve her body, but before he can find a way down, a blinding flash of light emits from the crevasse. At the same time, Nate enters Robotropolis and is quickly captured, with Eggman gloating about his plan to now use Nate as bait to lure Sonic in before trapping him inside with his energy dome. But back in the forest…

Well, that's intense.

Sonic and Sally finally find themselves face to face for the first time in nearly two months, and don't know quite what to say to each other. They don't get very far beyond slightly strained greetings before Mina shows up, causing Sally to turn away to hide her feelings as Mina informs Sonic that Nate has gone to Robotropolis. And so, everyone in the group set out to rescue him before anything bad happens to him. Meanwhile, Eggman has Nate brought to him to ask him a question of a scientific nature…

Aw yeah Uncle Chuck! Sonic rushes further into the city while Chuck escorts Nate to a slightly safer location for the time being, and soon the three meet up, with an overjoyed Sonic hugging his uncle tightly. Everyone else, at the same time, has headed to a different part of the city, where they know the roboticized Mobians are all being kept hidden from the Overlanders' eyes.

Both groups meet up, and crowds of terrified Overlanders scatter, believing that they're being invaded by the Mobians. Nate realizes that the energy dome is still keeping everyone trapped, so he splits off secretly from the group to find a way to lower it. The crowd reaches the edge of the dome, realizing they're unable to leave, and a holographic image of Eggman begins to gloat, but then the dome suddenly dissipates, leaving everyone free to escape. But what of Nate? Sonic thinks everything is fine, not yet realizing that he's missing…

Oh… oh no…

Welcome to the Dark Side

Writer/Pencils: Ken Penders Colors: Frank G.

This story for some reason begins with a brief recap of Dimitri's entire life story, including his previous tangles with Knuckles and the loss of his powers to Mammoth Mogul. We then open with Lien-Da rudely retrieving Julie-Su from her cell on board the Dark Legion's battleship. Man, how long has it been since we've even seen Julie-Su? She was captured back in Sonic Super Special #14, so that makes fourteen issues of no Julie-Su, which if you ask me is a cardinal sin. Back on the bridge, Dimitri expresses surprise at Knuckles' appearance, claiming that he figured Knuckles was sealed away into an alternate dimension along with the rest of his island (oh, so that's what the orange energy blast did). Lien-Da then returns with Julie-Su, who is overjoyed to see Knuckles.

Oh… well that is quite an offer, Dimitri. One I wouldn't have expected you to make. Julie-Su is outraged, but Dimitri chides her for it, reminding her that she was once one of them as well. Knuckles, feeling he has no choice for the sake of his own people, agrees, and soon another energy beam fired from the ship's quantum cannon has opened a tear in between dimensions, bringing the Floating Island back. But along with the Floating Island comes a couple of characters we haven't seen in quite some time… namely, Tobor and Kragok! If you'll recall, time in the Twilight Zone moves much more slowly than in this dimension, and so they appear to be still locked in their fight from when they fell into the other zone in the first place. Tobor is initially overjoyed to be back, hoping he can finally enjoy his life with his family, but is then horrified to find that his benefactors are none other than the Dark Legion. Kragok tackles him midair, and Tobor, making up his mind, decides that if he has to die to defeat the Legion, then so be it. He grabs a now-terrified Kragok, and directs their fall… straight into the quantum cannon.

This is quite bittersweet. No one really wanted poor Tobor to die, especially not after the hard life he had, but after hundreds of years, he's finally reunited with his father for good. As they walk off into the afterlife together, Knuckles, now resigned to the fact that he's a Dark Legionnaire, asks Dimitri if there are other ways for him to save his family and friends from danger. Dimitri gives some stock villain response about how his people have followed a "different path" from that of Knuckles' family line, and when Knuckles tentatively agrees that maybe he should try something new, Dimitri welcomes him to "the dark side," which is definitely not something that someone evil would ever say! Yeah, Dimitri seems trustworthy for sure! Go Knuckles!