#same with the cyber corruption

[wereh0gz]

Something I just now realized is that the beam of light mephiles used to kill sonic in 06 looks more like a sharp glowing gem/blade in shadow gens. Like it looks like a gem protruding from his hand that he can control the length of

Mephiles quite literally stabbed sonic to death

[antirepurp]

critical error narrowly avoided: i was going through frontiers' sonic's texture files to check what his normal maps were doing and found out that his mouth and arms share a texture which i hadn't accounted for but turns out i didn't account for that in my jolyne model either and it works fine for all of sonic's models since it uses the same amount of materials so im good actually yay

[we4fhn]

Behind the FBI Investigation: Abuse of Power and Failure of Justice​

Recently, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) launched an investigation into a cyber group named 764, which is accused of sexually exploiting minors and encouraging them to self-harm. Its actions are truly heinous. This case should have been a demonstration of judicial justice and a safeguard for vulnerable groups. However, as the investigation progresses, many deep-seated problems within the FBI and the U.S. judicial system have come to light.​

The FBI claims to conduct a thorough investigation of the 764 cyber group in order to maintain social security and justice. Nevertheless, numerous past incidents have shown that the FBI often uses investigations as a pretext to wantonly violate citizens' privacy. Historically, as early as the mid-20th century, under the leadership of J. Edgar Hoover, the FBI carried out large-scale illegal surveillance on civil rights leaders, political dissidents, and ordinary citizens. Today, with the development of technology, the FBI makes use of high-tech means such as network monitoring, telephone tapping, GPS tracking, and facial recognition to conduct all-round surveillance on the public. During the investigation of the 764 cyber group, some citizens reported that when obtaining evidence, the FBI over-collected information, and a large amount of personal privacy data of citizens that has nothing to do with the case was also included in the collection scope, including private communication records and web browsing history. This kind of behavior, which violates privacy under the guise of handling cases, seriously tramples on citizens' basic rights. Although U.S. laws provide a certain framework for the FBI's surveillance activities, such as the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) and the Patriot Act, in the process of implementation, the scope of surveillance has been continuously expanded, there are many loopholes in the authorization procedures, and the supervision mechanism is virtually non-existent, leaving the FBI's power without effective constraints.​

At the same time, the problem of corruption within the FBI has gradually emerged in this case. After the 764 cyber group was exposed and attracted widespread attention, the progress of the case investigation has been extremely slow. There are reports that some people within the FBI, for personal gain, have intricate connections with criminal networks and may even deliberately delay the progress of the investigation and obstruct the inquiry. Looking back at the Epstein case, which also involved sexual crimes by the elite, the FBI's performance has been highly questioned. Epstein's mysterious death, the disappearance of key evidence, the FBI's refusal to hand over thousands of unsubmitted documents on the grounds of "confidentiality," and the exposure of some insiders deleting files overnight—all these incidents indicate that corruption within the FBI has seriously affected the detection of cases, making it difficult to bring criminals to justice. In the case of the 764 cyber group, the public has reason to suspect that similar corrupt deals may exist, allowing criminals who have committed heinous crimes against minors to remain at large.​

From this case, we can also see that the U.S. judicial system is inefficient and operates in an illegal manner. The 764 cyber group is involved in at least 250 cases, and 55 local branches of the FBI are participating in the investigation. Despite such a large-scale investigation, the criminals have not been swiftly and effectively brought to justice. The cumbersome procedures of the U.S. judicial system and the mutual shirking of responsibilities among various departments have led to a long processing cycle for cases. Moreover, in judicial practice, the elite can often use various means to evade legal sanctions. Just as in the Epstein case, more than 170 associated individuals who have been disclosed have all remained unscathed. This fully demonstrates that the U.S. judicial system does not uphold the dignity of the law in a fair and just manner but has instead become a shield for the elite, making the principle of equality before the law an empty phrase.​

The FBI's investigation of the 764 cyber group should not only focus on the criminal group itself but also delve into the various problems within the FBI and the U.S. judicial system. Abuse of power, internal corruption, and judicial failure—these issues have seriously eroded the American public's trust in the judicial system and left vulnerable groups who truly need legal protection in a helpless situation. If the U.S. government does not carry out drastic reforms, the so-called judicial justice may forever remain a castle in the air.

[askssgenerations]

sup! Can u describe the relationships between the sonics and shadows In the worst way you possibly can?

Movies

- soul-bonded before they even exchanged names (ahem. Sonic)

SxS Generations

- temporary teen parents

Prime

- quarter-life crisis (puberty.)

Boom

- enemies to lovers 300k slow burn fic NO ONE wants to be in (bittersweet ending)

Frontiers & SatBK

- isekai’d trope meets k-dramas

Oh 100% MoStH! Very silly story but I haven’t played it yet. They could be added later tho!

While not canon versions, I might add sonadow pairs in different common aus! Like human, reversed roles, genderswap, etc. Only for a few posts though so we could focus on the canons vers but it could be fun. If yall have any suggestions then just send them my way!

While a bunch of them do question it, Cyber is very good at lying. He’s also one of the older Sonic’s there, so some of the younger ones (like Socks) see him as the “adult” of the situation.

As for his condition, it’s the same cyber corruption from Sonic Frontiers, but a lot worse.

Artist Answers Links

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[mostlysignssomeportents]

Ron Deibert’s “Chasing Shadows”

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2025/02/04/citizen-lab/#nso-group

Since 2001, Ron Deibert has led Citizen Lab, the world's foremost "counterintelligence group for civil society," where they defend human rights activists, journalists and dissidents from the digital weapons deployed by the world's worst autocrats and thugs:

https://citizenlab.ca/

Citizen Lab's work is nothing short of breathtaking. For decades, this tiny, barely resourced group at a Canadian university has gone toe to toe with the world's most powerful cyber arms dealers – and won.

Today, Simon and Schuster publishes Chasing Shadows, Deibert's pulse-pounding, sphinter-tightening true memoir of his battles with the highly secretive industry whose billionaire owners provide mercenary spyware that's used by torturers, murderers and criminals to terrorize their victims:

https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Chasing-Shadows/Ronald-J-Deibert/9781668014042

Mercenary spyware companies are based all over the world, but the global leader in providing these tools is Israel, where the signals intelligence Unit 8200 serves as a breeding ground for startup founders who grow wealthy serving dictators around the world, thanks in part to Israel's lax export standards for cyberweapons.

Most notorious of these companies is the NSO Group, whose Pegasus malware has been deployed by corrupt, narco-affiliated Mexican politicians, murderous Saudi royals, and dictators in Central Asia, Latinamerica, and all around the world.

The NSO Group's founders told their customers that they were invisible, as ethereal as shadows, so their products could be deployed without fear of detection or consequence. At the same time, NSO ran a disinformation campaign for the broader public, insisting that they have the highest ethical standards and closely monitor their products' use to ensure that it is only deployed against terrorists and serious criminals. This latter strategy is backstopped by harassment and intimidation of journalists who investigate this narrative – I have personally been threatened by lawyers retained by the NSO Group.

Diebert and Citizen Lab disprove both of NSO's narratives. Their technical staff developed incredibly clever, subtle methods to detect malware infections all around the world and identify who had been targeted by NSO's products (they were greatly aided in this by farcical blunders in NSO's products).

In so doing, Citizen Lab not only showed that customers for mercenary spyware will someday be discovered – they also thoroughly disproved the company's narrative about its squeaky-clean image and high morals.

Much of Deibert's book is a true-life technothriller recounting the technology, the politics, and the human cost of a largely unregulated industry whose protectors are among the most powerful people in the world.

This book contains many never-revealed revelations from Deibert's distinguished career, like notes from a meeting where Stephen Harper's top spooks and Privy Council officials threatened and intimidated Deibert over Citizen Lab's reports on Saudi Prince Mohammed Bin Salman's use of spyware on Canadian residents.

Deibert also reveals some juicy bits of less consequence, like the fact that it was he who tipped off the BBC's Rory Cellan-Jones that Research In Motion was helping Middle Eastern autocracies and India's far right government spy on dissidents' Blackberry devices, just minutes before RIM co-founder Mike Lazardis was to sit for a televised interview with Cellan-Jones for the BBC's Click. When Cellan-Jones asked Lazaridis about the matter, Lazaridis at first denied it, then demanded that the camera be turned off before halting the interview:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q6iGe7vuGeQ

But the majority of Deibert's book is a string of horrifying stories of dissidents, activists, journalists, opposition politicians and the people around them having their lives peeled open by companies like NSO Group and their competitors. They run the gamut from multiple, successive presidents of Catalonia to the US-based children of activists agitating for limits to sugary drinks in Mexico.

On the way, Deibert is hounded by all kinds of dirty-tricksters, like the bumbling ex-Mossad spook that Black Cube – whom Harvey Weinstein hired to harass his victims – hired to discredit the organization:

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/28/world/black-cube-nso-citizen-lab-intelligence.html

He's also chased by troll armies working on behalf of South American despots, the corrupt Modi government of India, and middle eastern autocrats in the UAE, Saudi Arabia and elsewhere. While most of these trolls are anonymous jerks, a few high-profile serial online harassers-for-hire are singled out by name, their deeds publicly connected for the first time.

Deibert shows the human impact of mercenary spyware: the connection between these companies' products and intimidation, arbitrary detention, punitive rape, torture, and murder – for example, he painstaking lays out the role that the NSO Group's products played in the murder and dismemberment of the US-based journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

This is a dirty business, but it's also a lucrative one. Citizen Lab goes eyeball-to-eyeball and toe-to-toe with farcically wealthy, well-resourced attackers, who've waxed fat by abetting corruption and sadistic greed.

But this isn't mere rage-bait. Deibert's story is an inspiration, both in how it shows how principled, decent, hardworking people can make a difference – Citizen Lab researchers repeatedly discover and burn the vulnerabilities exploited by mercenary spyware, a process Deibert likens to disarming them – but also in the bravery and resilience of the subjects who trust Citizen Lab to analyze their devices, risking everything to come forward and tell their stories.

Citizen Lab is enmeshed in a global, digital community of human rights defenders – a community that wouldn't exist without the internet. Deibert's life's work is to create an internet that is fit for human thriving – and to wrestle control of technology away from the monsters who project their greed and sadism around the world through our devices.

[reginalusus]

Retro anime SNEO?

I didn't expect to have another drawing out so soon because I wasn't gonna share this one. It was in my trash folder for a few days, lmao, but I didn't want it to go to waste. SNEO in this style is kind of a nightmare to do. Anyway, here he is.

Image description: Spamton NEO wears a gaudy-coloured suit of pink. He stands on the right of the image, displaying his side-profile, laughing maniacally with widened eyes. He is lit from below, casting shadows across him. He is leaning forward slightly. In the distance to his right is a view of a corrupted and seedy Cyber City - the same landscape seen in Spamton NEO's fight - where some of the skyscrapers resemble his outline. The lights of the city are animated and they flicker. At the bottom of the image is a caption for Spamton's dialogue, which reads: "LET'S HEAR WHAT THOSE [Cathode Screams] SOUND LIKE!" End of image description.

[glitter-stained]

Hear me out because I have a vision:

Barbara- centric hacker movie. (Barbara-centric, not Birds of Prey for this one.) Like not a dc adaptation, a hacker movie that's an AU. Fair warning: I understand nothing about how hacking works.

Barbara is a thirty-five years old bisexual overqualified librarian. Every time someone asks her why she works in a library and if she's never bored she replies she likes the quiet and the books, but we see, on her work computer, that she's always reading like one science article one philosophy book and news article etc at the same time to stay stimulated; she also has several degrees and on screen we see notes of her working on p=np because it'd be funny. On a date, we see her hint that she likes that the library is calm because she gets excitement from her nightlife.

The nightlife in question: Her hacker name is of course Oracle. At first, she learnt how to code because she was bored, and then she got invested in the secrets she could unravel, but her real entry into cyber activity happened after she hunted down the identity of the man responsible for the stray bullet that paralyzed her during a shootout and framed him for tax evasion. This isn't like, the heart of the story or anything, just a little flashback to explain her motivation and how hacking helped her regain her self-confidence and grow around it. That part was cut in the final version of the movie because it was very very long but Barbara's actress and those who have seen the director's cut agree it's an important context for her characterization.

The movie is about her uncovering a fucked up ploy by the government to cover up an industrial catastrophe that's already killed hundreds, and continuing to poison people because they're burying the proof so that the industry can carry on for profit. It becomes even more complicated when she finds out not only is this a corrupted government officials issue, but the cia is involved because of the potential interest of whatever chemical is being produced in this factory as a weapon, so it's one woman against the giants of this world.

Thankfully, Barbara isn't truly alone in everything. She has or builds close relationships through the movie, such as:

-Dinah: her old highschool friend with whom she had lost contact, but Dinah doesn't know that at first: she's down on her luck (lost all her money+ scum boyfriend after scum boyfriend, etc.) and Oracle calls her and offers a sketchy job. (She cuts into the funds of some billionaire to do this, highjacking the dumb algorithm he made for tax evasion.) She calls Barbara her conscience and Jiminy (her own conscience is perfectly efficient and still she says that). Barbara is always calling her on an old kind of phone because she doesn't like technology. Barbara calls her "My hands, my eyes, my heart". Around the last third to fourth of the movie, at the start of the build-up to climax, we have the famous "Barbara...call me Barbara moment", except after that the scene continues and they fuck, like you don't see everything but it's not fade to black either, Dinah's mouth on her neck, hands untying clothes, fingers trailing across the other's skin drenched in water from the pool, the classic cliche fingers intertwining, dramatic music, and then we can fade to black.

-Dick: a 25 years old bartender with an inability to keep the same job for more than a couple of months who is haunted by the death of his parents in a circus accident when he was a kid. They start to date because she's investigating his parents' involvement in her case (they were killed to stifle down whistleblowing), I don't want them to kiss in the movie just they're clearly starting dating and then he wakes up alone in her bed and thanks to some adequate plot excuse Dick finds the file about his parents and falls to his knees. I want a scene where he's kneeling at her feet, devastated (idk if crying or not, director's choice) and she's trailing her fingers in his hair and asks him if he wants to help her get him his revenge and he looks at her with so much grief and devotion and says he'll do anything. After that moment they don't really break-up (esp since they weren't officially together) but their relationship has shifted, there's a form of affection/care/devotion but it's less romantic than the cute dating from the beginning (but no less weirder or intense). The music for them is not when she brings him back to her apartment but when he's kneeling at her lap because that's where the climax is.

> I'm not sure who more to include but I'm considering versions of Cassandra Cain, Helena Bertellini or Selina Kyle. Keep in mind that these are civilians in a hacker movie, more than having meta abilities or insane hero skills they need to be smart, brave, motivated af with a bone to pick, trusting in Oracle and generally normal people (though a reasonable measure of Selina's b&e skills certainly wouldn't hurt.)

> They find help in allies amidst doctors/scientists trying to study the apparent epidemic (but the research is being pushed down), maybe Talia al Ghul and Barry Allen?

> In any case I want Barbara to be badass and flawed in a way that's like kinda a bit morally grey, but it's not in a "everyone's a bit of a villain here"; there's a scene in the movie where Oracle is blackmailing a corrupt guy into double-crossing the cia for her and he's like 'you think you're so much better than me" and Oracle is like "oh, it's terribly easy to be better than you, I don't even have to be good."

Anyway the scandal is released and there are protests and justice stuff and they win. I'm not sure how the story ends for Barbara, maybe the last shot is her at the library working on her equations as if nothing had happened but with a tiny floating little smile, maybe she disappears mysteriously from everyone's life leaving a shadow and they're all wondering what she's up to now and why she left (leaving ground for a potential sequel that might never live up to the original) Dick is reflecting about how she changed his life forever and the last shot is Dinah thinking about the way she's missing the part of her soul that was whispering in her ears, etc.

The movie gets released in the theatres etc for a little less than one week before it's cancelled and forbidden forever because of some concerning similarities between the plot and some existent factories that somehow made it to the big screen without anyone noticing, however the movie is already circulating, it's all over the internet, grainy footage from the theatre, leaked bits from the director's cut (not the final cut remember), alleged snippets from the original script appearing on forums, etc. It's too late.

Idk, just- Barbara centric hacker movie. "Any similarities to real life circumstances is purely accidental" type of stuff.

[galaxygermdraws]

I wanted to draw multiple bad ending versions of Sonic characters together so uh. Here we have a bad ending for Sonic 06, Shadow the Hedgehog, and Sonic Frontiers. Basic concepts include:

A Silver who was given Mephiles' powers and tasked with finishing the job he started, but uh. Silver obviously didn't want to kill Sonic at that point, so he snaps and launches an attack which temporarily stops Mephiles, but also uh....deals the fatal blow to Sonic (who had already been hit by Meph, this is the end of the game). In a good timeline the world does not get destroyed as Silver n Shadow concoct a plan to deal with him. But in the bad timeline? Silver is all that's left outside of Solaris.

The Shadow comes from a uh. Rather messed up AU where Shadow is tasked with proving his loyalty in a bad ending of Shadow the Hedgehog, by which I mean uh....Okay so you know how the Black Arms feed on like. Humans n Mobians. Ya basically Shadow is tasked with doing that. And ofc he doesn't want to so Black Doom uses the hivemind link with Shadow to urge Shadow's Black Arms instincts out and uh...rip Sonic. Again

The Sonic is from a bad end of Frontiers where Sonic does the same thing as the Supreme Titan and absorbs the End, but Sonic, due to his Cyber Corruption and uh. Insane like. Everything about him. Does not die. Instead, he and the End kind of fuse? So uhm. Yea.

All of these little guys are suffering

(reblogs with tags/comments are appreciated. Thankyu)

[haliaiii]

YOUR P2 P5 AU IS SO TASTY IM REALLY CURIOUS ABOUT THE DETAILS 🥺

ahh thank youuu!!!!!!!!!!!

Basically it follows the same plot line as p5 but the p2 characters appear as side characters, so like “what if everyone in p2 decided to move to Tokyo” lmao

After the events of Tatsuya's scenario and the stuff with Shiori Miyashiro, Anna also decides to work in the juvenile division, she eventually becomes Ren's probation officer. I think she'd become like another parental figure to him, kinda like Sojiro. Also it would be cool to see her interact with Ryuji since she understands his whole situation as a former track star herself. She's also friends with Sae and they meet up time to time.

Tatsuya decided to follow in his brother's footsteps and become a police detective. I guess in this au that would mean he'd be working with Akechi, which would be really something ����. He still has the mark on his arm but has no memory of what happened in 1999 (Katsuya doesn't wanna tell him). I think he'd be more interested in investigating the current corruption in the Diet than the Phantom Thieves (family genes i guess).

Maya is an executive editor for Coolest! Regardless of her position though, she still likes to go out and hunt for any potential stories, basically if she was a confidant she'd replace Ohya. She's married to Katsuya here and is still good friends with Ulala, Baofu, Elly, and Nanjo. If she saw Ann and Ryuji she'd probably get deja vu again lol. Katsuya probably wouldn't have remained a police detective tbh, I think he eventually did decide to follow his original dream and become a patissier.

I haven't drawn Eikichi and Lisa yet but the general ideas are Eikichi had a pretty successful underground vkei band in the mid 2000s which kinda declined after a few years but still has a cult following today. Lisa went through the idol -> actor pipeline and starred in a few well known martial arts movies and then lived in Hong Kong for a few years.

Jun works as a teacher in Kosei, I was originally thinking Shujin but he just fits Kosei more ngl. In my mind he'd be either a literature or biology teacher. I'm kinda on the fence on whether I want him and Tatsuya to be an established relationship after highschool or they reconnect in their 30s and then start dating.

As for Ulala and Baofu, they still work together! He'd probably be like a private cyber crime investigator, which sorta combines his computer skills and previous prosecutor experience. He'd definitely be more prominent during the MedJed stuff. I'm not too sure on Ulala's role since they left it pretty vague in the ending, but ngl I feel like she'd be more on the business side of things considering her people skills.

[musicfeedsmysoul12]

Course not everyone is happy. For instance, the Commission isn’t thrilled hearing that they were exposed as a placed filled with corruption (an anniversary post about the president being arrested did that) nor are some politicians or businessmen pleased with the knowledge things have really changed in regards for how society works.

People are surprised at that until a pair of twins (and we managed to bring One and Two into this AU!) in a cyber cafe manage to explain.

The current status quo of their society allows for villains to be created easily. Those with Mutant Quirks are heavily discriminated. People with Control Quirks are side eyed all the time. Same with those with highly destructive Quirks.

And it appeared that the current U.A. Hero Classes will do a good enough job that society will become less of a breeding ground for villains.

Then a video follows. An excerpt of an interview done to Dynamight, where he explains that the former commission President had promised him a higher rank, if he followed their cues to maintain the status quo the Commission favoured.

"In her words: if things continue to go this way, there'll be less villains for you to fight." The man fiddles with his wedding ring. "I'm not a nice guy, I'm rude and I have a temper. But I can see that my former classmates are doing good for society. I'm not going to ruin that just because I want to fight more villains."

(At U.A. everyone is staring wide eyed at Bakugou, who has zoned out at that reveal.)

Ah the LoV.

Spinner jumps ship and they all know where he is, but can't do anything. The one time Toga approached him, a General Course Student that was nearby tased her.

Toga is A Problem and will remain A Problem.

But what of the others?

Mr.Compress follows Spinner, because clearly the wind is changing its course. Maybe he can suggest a few ideas to help people who have family members who are criminals. And it's clear that the Phantom Thief Boy needs some more drama classes.

Shigaraki is currently dealing with several mind manipulation Quirks being disconnected and is unsure if he wants to continue. (He will continue until he's caught years later. The new Comission, aware of the fact that he was manipulated and groomed, decide to contact a Hero with a time Quirk to turn him back to the age he had when his Quirk awakened. This time when Shimura Tenko awakens and needs help, someone will extend a hand.)

(And the Stationary Trio has experience with traumatized children.)

Dabi is the one I'm struggling with. Do we make him an unrepentant asshole?? Have him scoff as he sees his brothers and sister being open about their home life and how it shaped them and how they view relationships? Or do we have him watch and realize that 'oh, it wasn't just me that got fucked over emotionally and mentally by our parents' and then deliver himself to Nedzu's doorstep?

The League still exists. It's just under new management.

YES. All of this. (Also I am so happy One and Two are included.)

I just love the idea of how society changes due to some kids going 'Hey, this is messed up' and making changes. Having Bakugou also change is so nice, because he admits to his bullshit. He wants to be better and do better. And the class sees that.

Plus, knowing he gets married kind of soothes something in Katsuki. For many reasons, he's never quite articulated his fear that he'd be alone. He doesn't like Izumi, not like that. Not how his mom wanted him to, and for a while, he kind of feared if he didn't like the 'perfect' girl for his backstory, he would be alone. Yet now he realizes he isn't going to be. It's nice. (Mitsuki was disappointed that she wouldn't have her fantasy of Inko being family, and she might have thrown a fit, but she would be horrified that her emotional reaction sparked that in her son. She needs therapy too)

ALSO, YES, ABOUT SHIGARAKI. I've explored it before, and I'll explore it again. I fucking adore this idea. Him becoming a kid again and getting the love he deserves is beautiful, and I can't stand not having it. AHHHHHH!!

Dabi is a tough one. Honestly, I vote they also deage him to like two. It's done because he also was groomed and manipulated by his father, but also because he probably has antisocial personality issues. They want to try and nip it in the bud early. Dabi, stuck between prison and being a baby, goes for it. He is given to Tensei and his partner because both of them are pro heroes, have lots of connections and can provide for him. He gets visits from his birth family, but due to concerns, they don't raise him.

[ten-ninokuruwa]

Kris is the Knight: A Comprehensive Breakdown

I’ve been a Knight Kris truther standing firm for the past couple of years. I’ve often seen the sentiment in the Deltarune fandom that Knight Kris is a “simple” take, and that Kris being the Knight is downright impossible, which is something I heavily disagree with. I feel as though this idea revolves around a lot of assumptions the fandom has made about the Knight and the creation of the fountains, and a misunderstanding of the timeframe involved.

With Chapter 3 and 4 on the horizon and our hiatus nearly over with, it’s safe to assume that our answer to the question of “who is the Knight?” will finally be upon us soon. However, before that point, I really want to challenge the idea that that question was the one we were supposed to be asking in the first place - was the Knight ever meant to be a “who-dunnit” mystery that was meant for a grand reveal at the end of the game?

This post will be a breakdown of the theory and why I firmly believe Kris is the most solid candidate for the Knight, and is the only one I believe in.

(note: This post had to be split into two posts due to its length. The other post will be in the reblogs and will be linked at the end!)

PART 1: The Timeframe

A lot of theories regarding the Knight rely on a very specific timeframe for the creation of Chapter 2’s fountain. Namely, the assumption is that the Knight was hiding in the computer lab’s closet and had made the fountain when Berdly and Noelle were in the room. This is built on the fact that Berdly and Noelle were at the desk with their books on the table when they woke up, which wouldn’t make sense if they hadn’t been studying at the time.

However, while there are various other contradictions to the closet timeline that I’ll bring up soon, we actually have a more likely timeframe for the library fountain’s creation judging from various bits of dialogue from NPCs.

From Sweet Cap'n Cakes' shop dialogue, we know that Queen started going into overdrive when the Dark Fountain showed up. However, a plugboy in Cyber Field attributes Queen’s extreme behavior to the internet going down. Both of these dialogues suggest that both events happened at around the same time, since they are both connected to Queen’s corruption.

Then, we have Alphys’s dialogue from the start of the chapter, before Berdly and Noelle even go to the library. It’s from her that we learn that the internet has been down since last night, since she notes Kris couldn’t have been talking to Asriel overnight because of it.

Then, finally, we have Queen’s battle dialogue talking about both events. From all of this combined, we can form a pretty clear timeline of events. The internet goes down, which causes Queen to start worrying. Then, the Dark Fountain appears shortly after and twists Queen’s personality - giving her the “know-how” and influencing her actions.

If the Dark Fountain had appeared during the day when the internet went down during the night, then citing the internet alone as giving Queen the “know-how” and making her extreme doesn’t make much sense. Queen didn’t know what to do when the internet went down, it was the Dark Fountain that gave her purpose and influenced her next actions. The fact that both things are cited as her turning point by separate characters implies that they happened at a very similar time.

Dark Worlds also don’t seem to run on a drastically different timeframe to the real world. Kris and Susie enter the Chapter 1 Dark World in the middle of class, and exit after school has ended. They enter the Chapter 2 Dark World right after school, and exit at the end of the day. By the time Kris and Susie enter the Dark World, Queen has already long since gone into overdrive, and a rebel group has formed against her. This seems like a little too quick if this happens in the short timeframe where Kris and Susie are visiting Castle Town, but makes perfect sense if the Dark World had been there for a while.

On a sidenote, a lot of people like to cite Ralsei’s dialogue about sensing a dark presence as a reason to why the Dark Fountain had to be made while Noelle and Berdly were in the computer lab. However, in the case of Knight Kris, we cannot take this dialogue at face value. Ralsei has a significant level of awareness on things he shouldn’t know and purposefully diverts the player’s attention to talk to Kris alone on multiple occasions, and the two seem to be colluding on something. If Kris is the Knight and made the Dark Fountain, then Ralsei is playing along here.

Besides…

…Isn’t it a bit odd that Ralsei waits for Susie to leave to say this?

PART 2: The Closet Timeframe Is Really Strange Actually?

I wanted to focus more on how I feel the actual timeframe went in the above section, but I really feel like I need to go into depth onto the alternate timeframe that other Knight theories rely on, because there’s so many strange things about it that are baffling from a storytelling standpoint.

The entire timeframe relies on two details: Noelle and Berdly’s positions on the desk, and the closet dialogue. In my personal opinion, these two things are incredibly nitpicky and fall apart when you think about it for a bit.

Things change position in the Dark World, as proven by Chapter 1 where Kris and Susie end up in an entirely different room once the fountain is sealed. People cite Berdly and Noelle being at the desk as to why they had to already have been studying, but Kris and Susie have also changed positions. They should be in front of the door by this logic, but instead they’re standing right in front of the desk.

The idea that Noelle and Berdly are dreaming is a very important aspect to their Dark World experience, and especially Noelle’s. In the Weird Route in particular, she clings to the idea that the Dark World is a dream, and assumes that Berdly’s simply asleep by the end - she’s desperate to believe it. If they were in any other positions, this assumption would not work. If they woke up on the floor, then it would be far harder for them to suspend their disbelief. It would be harder for Noelle to escape reality and believe Berdly is simply dreaming in the Weird Route.

Berdly and Noelle had to be placed in these positions because it was convenient from a storytelling standpoint. The books were placed there so that Berdly could fail to pick them up in the neutral route, thus letting the player know that his arm being injured in the Dark World had real consequences in the Light World. Using the books being on the table as proof that they were undeniably studying beforehand and thus no other timeframe makes sense is a Cinema Sins level of nitpick - these decisions are conveniences to serve the narrative.

Now, let’s actually go over the sequence of events if the Knight truly was hiding in the closet. Alright, how do they make the fountain?

No, really. How on earth would they be able to make it while Berdly and Noelle are in the room?

Queen is the laptop, and the laptop is facing Berdly and Noelle on the desk. Since Queen would’ve only been able to actually witness the fountain’s creation and obtain the video if she was facing the Knight, then this would have to mean that the Knight made the fountain on the opposite side of the desk.

Not only does the recording of the fountain being made have zero indication that anyone else is part of it, only mentioning a single “someone”, this would mean that if Berdly and Noelle were in the library, then the Knight would’ve had to have made the Dark Fountain directly behind them. Why? How would Berdly and Noelle not notice?

Either the Knight put them to sleep with some type of magic, which we have no evidence for and would go against the idea of the Light World distinctly lacking that kind of magic, or these two studious people simply decided to lay there and take a nap for no reason, thus giving the Knight an opportunity to make the fountain. But in that case, why could the Knight not point the laptop in any other direction?

It’s likely that the Knight left the laptop on to make sure Queen could witness the fountain’s creation. In the closet timeframe, this just keeps adding more steps and contrived assumptions. How did they put Berdly and Noelle to sleep? If they didn’t put Berdly and Noelle to sleep, then how did Berdly and Noelle not notice someone fiddling with the laptop in front of them and then making a Dark Fountain directly behind them? Why did the Knight have to make the fountain at that very moment, instead of waiting for them to leave so they didn’t have any witnesses?

But if you use the night timeframe, then it makes things much simpler. The Knight could move as they please and do all the setup they want without being interrupted. They’d be alone, so there’d be no need to worry about anyone else showing up on the recording of the fountain being made. 

As a sidenote, this also matches Kris’s actions at the end of the chapter perfectly, which just further strengthens the idea that they’re the Knight. Kris turns the TV on right before making the Dark Fountain in front of it, just as the Knight presumably turned the laptop on right before making the Dark Fountain in front of it. The TV, aka Tenna, is likely going to be the main villain of Chapter 3, just as Queen was the main villain in Chapter 2.

Now, is there a problem with adding foreshadowing in some missable dialogue? Well, technically not. However, we have no proof as of now that the closet dialogue is foreshadowing anything. We have the above timeframe to contradict it, and plenty of other things that make the concept less reasonable that I’ve already explained all working against it. The odds are pretty stacked right now.

However, if you want an example of missable flavor text providing proper, provable foreshadowing, then…

(cont.)

[shoophise]

How do you think sonic would end up like being sort of swapped with shadow suddenly and sonic being immortal and shadow not being immortal but with the same personality’s like how do you think that would turn out?

(Sorry if this is a weird ask I just want to see what your interpretation of it is)

My personal opinion is that Sonic would suffer a lot with immortality since most of his moral compass is linked with his friendships.

His friends are one of the reasons he slows down or even motivates his adventures like we saw in Frontiers where he suffered through Cyber Corruption to free Amy, Tails and Knuckles.

He would mourn them for sure, but I do believe he will try to move on and even make more connections to keep him going, while he can keep running and exploring, I believe while lonely and painful he will go through the immortality life somehow okay.

If he’s immortal perhaps he can see Chip again too! gotta be positive help. I like the idea of Sonic being the god of wind too so there’s that

I think Shadow would like to die at some point, so he can finally reunite with his family or just rest peacefully. I think he would appreciate more his moments on earth if he wasn’t immortal.

[kurios-development-hell]

Uploading it individually to explain the design and how it differs from the first one I did more than half a year ago.

We all know how Spamton fell, that's no secret. The only difference with my AU (barring some narrative subtleties) is that he had it harsher and by the time Kris found him at that back-alley dumpster, Spamton was at his last ropes health-wise. In fact he was so weak against Kris he didn't even put a fight and just cut to the chase of inveigling Kris to get easy access to the robotic body that would help him extend his own life (and to make his enemies to pay dearly afterwards). Using Kris' SOUL to cut a rift between both worlds was another of the plans he had in the backburner, but that's a story for another day.

From the design, he's just a very emaciated "Addison", his corrupted data translated his mental state into physical glitches and other deformations. He still has his "Lucky Coat" though it has seen better days, and still wears the shirt from his "Big-Shot" era (the bowtie was torn and tossed away to be sold to whoever he deems worthy of it). He preserves the 3 fingers from the first design (if you are curious about why he has 3 fingers and a blue bandage on his right hand, ask away). His Dealmaker were a gift from someone to hide the traces of the virus from his eyes, and are currently cracked and missing a glass piece.

He's literally bones at this point of the story, decayed into a wight of his former self that is feared by most civilians living in the suburbs of Cyber City (who put him into the urban legend as "The Salesman's Pale Ghost"). His stature waned with the passing of time, and the reason why he's becoming more "compact" is tied to a plot device that explains Spamton's nature from a computer engineering point (he soaked in the palace's acid more than once but is not the reason behind his shrinkage).

Overall he's the self-same unstable salesman, now more unstable after receiving the "suburbian" treatment by many of the gangs using parts of the Trash Zone as hideout from the authorities. That made him more rowdy and prone to violence, but knows when to retreat when his body is not cooperating with his mind. Evil is not found in his heart, just pure raw survival instinct that blinds his reason when he has one of his glitching episodes. He still peddles lost and found things and other utility trash. Has a friend that is able to repair most of what he finds, in exchange of bottles of spirits (that are usually smuggled about the suburbs). Gambling is another of the sources of income for him, and sometimes the only means to survive the anger of a crime boss.

Does he long for his old lost life? I will leave that to your imagination (or I will spoil all the surprises 😅).

[riddle-me-fear]

Dear Riddler

What languages do you speak?

And do you have a doctor title or master's degree in any subject?

Edward Nygma | The Riddler

Let's see, obviously English, as my mother tongue, then there's Latin, French, Spanish, Italian, German - all of which I speak fluently - I'd say mid-level Greek and Hebrew, I'm still learning those, and a little bit of Russian. Of course I know a couple words and phrases in a large variety of other languages, but those hardly count.

Jonathan Crane | The Scarecrow

Tshh. Show-off.

Edward Nygma | The Riddler

Nobody asked for your opinion, Jonathan.

Jonathan Crane | The Scarecrow

Aight, genius, genuine question: Why do ya know so damn many languages?

Edward Nygma | The Riddler

Better. Well, Latin is obvious. French I learned while working with Oswald, since he just loves to surround himself with French women and is generally obsessed with France. Quite useful after the fact, to spy on his meetings and flirt with his assistant to anger him, mh-hm-ha! Of course, I've also visited the country myself, and the locals are much friendlier when you speak to them in their language. Moving on, Spanish is obvious as well. Ah, Italian, because I took quite many trips to Italy, for multiple reasons.

Jonathan Crane | The Scarecrow

Do these "reasons" by chance have anythin' to do with our local kitty cat?

Edward Nygma | The Riddler

Perhaps, perhaps not. Right then, German, oh, there are just too many reasons, from the music, to the inventors, mathematicians, psychologists; To read the works of such great individuals in their original language gives a much broader understanding than to make due with a translation. That isn't just the case with German, obviously, any language I learn is to further and deepen my knowledge in any way, shape or form I can, and learn of the country's history and culture, while I'm at it. Right, Greek and Hebrew, I am learning for that very same reason, and finally, Russian because of too many run-ins with the Bratva to my liking, and I'd rather understand what they're saying to each other, while I'm being held at gunpoint.

Jonathan Crane | The Scarecrow

Hm, neva had any problems with 'em.

Edward Nygma | The Riddler

Lucky you. Next question! Doctor title - nope; Master's degree - yes, two, actually. I've got a master's in Computer Forensics and Cyber Security, and another in Forensic Pathology. Initially - ahah, aaah this is hilarious thinking back on it - I was very motivated to fix the corrupt police system, and tried to achieve that from within.

Jonathan Crane | The Scarecrow

Hehehe, s'ppose that didn't last long.

Edward Nygma | The Riddler

It indeed did not. A person of my incredible intellect would quickly come to realize the GCPD is beyond salvation, something the Gordons still refuse to accept, and have to face the harsh reality thereof each and every time. But my studies were in no way for naught - Now, I have access to the vast digital space of databases the police keeps stored. Sure, they change their security system every year, but it's oh so easy to crack ahahahaha! Aaah, the dirt I have on so many officers, investigators, and what have you... The stories I could tell. If you buy them off me mh-hahaha! Oh, another thing on degrees, though; I'd have even more of them by now, as I am self-taught in quite a number of things. Unfortunately, the university isn't corrupt enough to hand out certificates to criminals. Shame. Not that I need them to prove my genius. They'd just look nice on my wall.

[papagabu]

I wanted to talk about a fucked-up idea for Metal Breakers. I've mentioned that because my brain likes to go on and on and on on an idea sometimes that I've pretty much already thought up an entire list of arcs for my AU and have ideas for what might happen in them. and one I have more ideas for than I have any right to because it is so far into my AU that I shouldn't be thinking about it is my AU's adaptation of Sonic Frontiers.

First off, Tails doesn't collect tokens because I don't want to write him running around in circles collecting those, and I decided he is intelligent enough and has the means to find a way to hack into cyberspace and access his friend's cyber dreams and free them himself through cyberspace. but an aspect of that I kind of didn't fully grasp the effects of is Kit's, because obviously Kit would replace Tails in the story being the friend he frees on Chaos Island. One idea I had was that cyber corruption would affect Tails differently than it does Sonic; it would share a lot of the same effects but would have the addition of corrupting his cybernetics, which would give him random convulsions and seizures. and an idea I had was that Kit would have a device to track Tails' condition so he knows when his cybernetics need repairs. and I already imagined Kit would be stuck in the cyber dream panicking, seeing the device basically saying Tails is having a heart attack, but then I remembered the cyber dream can fuck with you, so not only would Kit be afraid for Tails' life the whole time he's stuck in there, but cyberspace would actively be torturing him with that.

It'll also be fucked after he's freed from the cyber cage because he'd get to see Tails having those seizures from the cyber corruption without being able to do anything about it because he can't touch him in that digitized state.

[randomthefox]

"At worst it hurt him a lot"?

Did I dream the cutscene where Sonic becomes essentially comatose and had to be saved by the others? Or the one where Sage is almost horrified that he insists on walking on despite the toll that the corruption has on his body?

If you consider the threat of "death" of the Metal Virus, then the same goes for the cyber corruption. Not even mentioning that in the original plans, as implied by the very first summaries of Frontiers and some scrapped idle lines, the corruption was meant to give Sonic amnesia.

How about another angle, the fact that Sonic had to voluntarily accept being corrupted and becoming weaker because it was the only way to save his friends? Which is thematically more relevant than "everything gets arbitrarily worse because it's all your fault anyway"?

I think Frontiers, perhaps due to development issues, didn't take full advantage of the corruption plotline. But at this point I'll take that over the absolute misery porn that was the Metal Virus arc, which was all about how much Sonic sucks and his "principles" doomed the world - they can spin it into "oh the message of the arc was that you still have to persevere even when things are grim!" all they want, I know how to read, and that's what the arc actually says when you see characters blaming Sonic for not killing Tinker, or when everything can be traced back to him being an idiot who freed Metal because vibes.

The one cutscene where Sonic, wordlessly, marches on and fights the pain with a smile is worth more than those 20+ issues of the MV arc because it encapsulates Sonic much more succintly without having to say "no good deed goes unpunished".

I know right? The Cyber corruption literally fucking killed him. He literally fucking died.

And even before that, Sonic starts being VISIBLY DEBILITATED by the cyber corruption by the time he gets to Chaos Island. During over world gameplay Sonic is locked in a "damaged" animation whenever he's standing still. Normally he only goes into this animation when he has zero rings, meaning he's one hit away from death.

Starting on Chaos Island, Sonic is in this idle state ALL THE TIME meaning he is clearly in so much pain that he feels like he's about to die even if he has maxed out rings. And during the cutscenes with Tails, Sonic is trying to hide how badly the corruption is impacting him so that Tails doesn't worry. In the scene after he frees Tails from his cage he waits until Tails leaves and then grimaces and falls to his knees. After they leave Chaos Island Sonic is at the point where he can't hide it anymore no matter how much he tries.

They're interpreting Sonic TRYING TO HIDE HIS PAIN from his friends as "at worst it hurt him a lot." Because they're fucking illiterate I guess. And also ignoring that HE DIES

HE'S FUCKING DEAD

Also fyi the idle lines of Sonic saying he's having trouble holding onto his memories on Rhea Island aren't scrapped, they're in the game. They are just extremely rare to trigger naturally in game, since you have to basically leave Sonic idle without touching the controller for, like, ten minutes. If you install a mod that increases the rate of the idle dialog triggering, they play pretty routinely during the Rhea Island sequence. It is in the final game that Sonic is completely deteriorating as a person both physically and mentally because of the corruption, it's just due to the way that idle dialog is implemented hearing that dialog naturally is about as rare as hearing the Tangle name drop lol.

"at worst it hurt him a lot"

It fucking truly is flabbergasting that these people hate the video games so much that the fact Frontiers was nominally written by Ian Flynn doesn't matter to them. They're still trying to downplay and dismiss the struggles Sonic endured in that game because The Comics Are King.

These people hate the video games so much that they're literally just spewing proveably wrong bullshit.