#typical eggman

[sonknuxadow]

sonic with top surgery scars is honestly kinda hilarious. like either sonics world has zero restrictions on trans healthcare for minors and let a 15 year old get top surgery or he didnt get it done the official legal way at all he just had tails invent a top surgery machine in exchange for extra mints

[oh-no-melon]

Their vision is based on movement.

Just wanted to post something quick to show I hadn't fallen off the face of the Earth. Just been busy. Yesterday was my birthday and I somehow still have a full month off from school. I'm spending that time working on my comic.

Anyway! I figure this pic took place shortly after Stone was hired and past his 90 day probationary period where quitting just wasn't a good idea. Not that he would quit anyway! He's in too deep (with the doctor <3) and he values his life.

EDIT: Color fixed!

[true-blue-sonic]

Here me out, Espilver W e d d I n g

I have a draft about it! You can imagine Everything Goes Terribly Wrong, haha:

Es and Silv wanted a small wedding with like Vector, Charmy, and maybe Sonic and Blaze there... and thus legit the entire friend group got invited instead. As my draft notes say: "And with that I mean they slapped a bowtie on Omega and made him come too."

Amy got asked to be the wedding planner to accommodate for that change and she promptly goes ballistic making it the Best Possible Wedding Ever. Espio is having regrets asking her.

Charmy was made the ring bearer, so naturally he loses the rings in the stupidest way possible. Que Vector hosting a mass investigation to get them back, driving all the guests insane and also not really getting anywhere.

Silver meanwhile is VERY excited leading up to the wedding but on the day itself he's just like "whoa this is kinda big actually it's so official all of a sudden" and Sonic all but kidnaps him (again) to give him a pep talk and tell him there's very little that'll actually change in their lives. Which means that one of the to-be-wed, kind of a necessity for a wedding, is gone and missing.

Espio now has to deal with having WAY too many people around, Amy's micromanaging, lost rings, an accidentally-runaway groom, and his own nerves, and thus is getting equally overwhelmed by it all.

Eventually all turns out alright, the rings are found (Charmy probably just held the pillow upside down or something), our grooms can say their vows and kiss, and then they are married!!💕 And promptly they take a GOOD two hours or so just for themselves to recover from all this XD But despite all the chaos, it is absolutely one of the best days of their lives, and they're happy they did it in such a way. And the reception and party afterwards and stuff goes a lot more smoothly now that everything has gone wrong before the actual wedding itself, haha!

[thecoolertails]

been having a lot metal sonic thoughts lately. i really like the idea of him eventually turning against eggman and leading a badnik rebellion against him. i think it would be really fitting for metal sonic to be the one to actually take eggmans empire down, and it would be him doing something that sonic would never be able to do on his own (because of sonic's pacifism, his sympathies towards eggman in particular, and because i don't think sonic would ever be able to unite or lead badniks like an actual robot could). i think that's the only way sonic and metal sonic could end up on the same side, for metal sonic to prove his own worth to himself FOR himself as an individual, and for sonic to admit that he did something he couldn't (and probably also tell him he's proud of him, because he would be). metal and the other badniks could then live in the remains of eggman's cities and bases and become allies to the freedom fighters/the restoration (depending on what canon we're using). and in their self-actualization they find they're a lot more capable than they ever were under eggman's control

[egg-emperor]

and this is why one day I WILL get noticed by Eggman on a Twitter Takeover, we gotta make it happen. it's my biggest wish in life and I'm as determined as Eggman is determined to take over the world and he inspires me to have hope in my dreams too fjsbgknskgmsgh

[collectivedirective]

did you know that Sonic and friends lived with a slaveholder family once? now you do

[sharpedgedfool]

i fucking love your monster au design for shadow could we have some lore abt him? (if you want to :])

Apologies for the essay I'm about to drop for your ask jddfgsdkgf, but here's a sketch as a peace offering and I'll drop all the lore I have for you under the read more! Glad people are interested in it cause I'm currently obsessed with it lmao

OK so basically Eggman in this universe is still the mad doctor type, he’s just obsessed with the occult instead of robotics. He’s a mortal human but hunts monsters for experiments and he’s obsessed with gaining supernatural powers to rule the world, and Sonic and Amy with their usual group are his main enemies.

He has a big following of humans (who think he’s trying to save them from monsters) and a rather large army of other monsters who work for him - so he has a ton of resources despite being a 'regular dude', and he’s slowly collecting spellbooks and teaching himself magic.

He finds a rare grimoire, and it unlocks a treasure trove of dark magics. Now his big master plan is to summon a demon to serve him and gain ultimate power, to do this he needs the seven emeralds for the ritual.

Sonic and Amy are the main hero duo in the story, Sonic was cursed with lycanthropy as a child when a pack attacked his village, he was spared because he was young, and went to find a witch in hopes of a cure. The witch he found was Vanilla, her daughter Cream, and Amy who is her apprentice. Before Sonic could be cured he made friends with a few other cryptids who live in the same woods and in the end decided he’d rather stay cursed with them as he had nowhere else to go anyways. He’s not in a traditional pack (all were-creatures) instead they have a rag-tag group with all kinds of different monsters that live with the witches (Tails and Knux are in there somewhere I promise jkfgdhdf). He likes having the werehog strength so he can fight back and protect his new family.

Rouge is a born Vampire, not turned. Her parents were killed at some point and she took over their coven after she avenged them and proved herself worthy. She’s like the Queen of sorts and rules over a majority of the vampires across the world - she has eyes (and ears) everywhere, there's very little she doesn’t know about. So Sonic and Amy ask her for help when they realise Eggman’s planning something big. She has a huge hoard of gems locked up in a big spooky cliffside castle, she’s obsessed with treasure still. She agrees to aid them to overthrow Eggman in exchange for the seven emeralds for herself. She doesn’t want to use them for their power, so they agree.

Everyone teams up to find the emeralds first, but Eggman outsmarts them, and the ritual begins before they can stop him, and once it’s begun it’s irreversible. The only thing they can do at this point is change who the demon is bound to, so Sonic throws himself into the curse (he already has one after all).

Shadow is the demon that’s summoned. Typical demon pacts imply that he’ll do whatever the summoner asks, granting them ultimate power, but he’ll get their soul in return. The catch is if Sonic never asks him to do anything, he’s technically not indebted and Shadow won't get his soul. It’s a game of temptation, but since Sonic was technically an unwilling participant, Shadow's more intrigued than anything - he’s confident Sonic will eventually cave and ask him for something (they always do) so he doesn’t attempt to trick him, he sees no need.

Sonic now has a demon chained to him constantly, and he’s extremely on guard (demons are as powerful as creatures get in this universe) and he’s off put by how genuine Shadow comes across. Shadow asks a lot of questions, and Sonic assumes he’s doing it to learn how to manipulate him - Shadow finds it amusing. Eventually they get used to each other, Shadow and Rouge get along well (though they both tease Sonic mercilessly together so he tries to avoid her but Shadow will nag him to visit) Amy tries to work on a spell to break the bond between them but it's a notoriously hard spell to break (perhaps impossible as they destroyed the grimoire in the fight with Eggman), but eventually Sonic and Shadow are both unsure if they want it to be broken at all…

Sonic starts asking Shadow questions too, and finds out more about Shadow. Originally he was an angel - thousands of years ago he had a mortal friend (Maria) and the two of them were inseparable. Unlike demons, angels rarely interact with the world so her village mistook her good fortune as witchcraft and assumed Shadow to be a demon. They killed her over it, and Shadow was heartbroken - in a fit of rage he lashed out, wiped out their town and proved to them he could be the demon they thought he was. He became a fallen angel, scorned and bitter - not born of pure evil but clearly capable of carnage all the same.

Unlike hellborn demons, Shadow doesn’t enjoy mindlessly committing atrocities - he has to feel it’s a necessary evil or he’ll turn it on his summoner (this makes him dangerous to summon, he’s normally considered off-limits). He’s one of the more powerful demons but he’s hard to reason with to make it worth it. Eggman targeted him specifically because he thought Shadow would side with him as Maria was a distant ancestor of his.

Once the annoyance of being forcefully summoned wears off,  Shadow’s rather pleased Sonic isn’t trying to use him for anything - he’s secretly happy to have someone with decent morals to hang out with (he’s an outcast in hell for obvious reasons) but he’d refused to make mortal contact with anyone willingly after Maria for fear of resigning them to a bad fate all over again.

Again thank you for reading!! I'll have more art to share soon!! :)

[sapphiresterreart]

Inspired by this post: where Shadow finds Super Sonic and ONLY Super Sonic attractive. Sonic's normal self is not wanted.

It made me cackle because I couldn't help but picture Shadow deciding to explore this gay awakening in the most convoluted way possible. Cue me getting carried away with the idea and scribbling a rough scene.

Stuffed under the Read More.

At one point after seeing Sonic's glow-up into Super a few times, Shadow's brain latches onto an idea and goes insane until he scratches the metaphorical itch.

He zooms around the entire planet to collect the 7 Chaos Emeralds AND the maximum amount of rings a single person can hold.

Randomly shows up at Tails’ workshop/house one day, looking particularly deranged to the poor fox because the guy's spent the past month running himself ragged and is now gunning for his older brother for some unfathomable reason. Eggman couldn’t possibly have recovered from the last beat down in such short time! Something’s clearly wrong.

Shadow’s carefully manicured quills are in utter disarray. Gunk and grease coat his muzzle. Gloves notably tattered and inhibitor rings tarnished. There’s a suspicious smearing of red all over his typically immaculate chest fluff. Worst of it all are his eyes: near feral in their intensity as they pin the fox in his computer chair from afar.

The surly hedgehog snarls. “Where’s Sonic?”

All the while, Shadow has to keep ahold of the seven emeralds that prolly act like magnets and want to repel away from each other. His sanity’s hanging on a thread. 

Luckily Sonic shows up soon (instead of late? First time for everything! What a relief) after a brief, albeit frantic call from his lil bro.

Sonic does not expect Shadow to look like such a wreck. He does not expect his usually composed rival to yank an absurd amount of rings from the pocket dimension everyone had in their feathers, fur, or otherwise back part of their body. He does not expect those same rings to be shoved into his hands and quills, forcibly stuffing them into his own ‘inventory’ of a pocket dimension. 

He does not expect the rings to keep coming until he can’t hold anymore.

He does not expect the Seven Chaos Emeralds to immediately follow after.

“Shad–” Sonic tries, absolutely baffled.

“Transform.” Shadow gives him nothing except a haggard sort of desperation. “Now.”

And. Well. When asked like that? Damn. He won’t say no but that’s some voice his rival has on him. Hmm. Still. He doesn’t go super just yet because there’s only so long a transformation can last and he’d like some of the facts first. Especially if the situation’s as dire as Shadow’s making it out to be.

“What’s up?” He tosses out a tense smirk and a quip to lighten the mood. “Got yourself in trouble with the law again, Shads? Need me to use your own money to bail–“

“Transform.” Shadow staggers and oh no he’s gonna pass out isn’t he? He straightens before he can truly fall. 

Sonic lets the smirk fall. This is too unusual. “Not until you tell me what’s going on! What the heck Shadow?”

The glare intensifies. He looks weirdly… hungry? Oh. He hopes that's not some alien DNA comin’ out to play. Sonic’s not in the mood to be eaten. At least… not in the way his shoot-first-questions-later friend would likely consider.

“…Transform first and then I’ll tell you.” 

What an oh-so generous counter-offer. Sonic’s tempted to refuse on principle but the guy looks ready to collapse and there’s only so long Sonic himself can hold all seven emeralds at once before they launch outta his grip. 

He sighs. “Yeah, alright.”

Sonic closes his eyes. Concentrates. Feels the power humming in the gems, lets them push away from him with him as their center of gravity to orbit. Momentum builds as they whirl around him. His focus deepens. A zen sort of calm settles over him like a familiar cloak as he pulls the gems back into his core sense of being. A spark ignites and he’s set aflame.

His feet leave the floor as the power repels him against the planet. Feels the gems thrumming alongside his veins as he opens his eyes. The world glitters a beautiful gold but he doesn’t have time to smell the roses. Rings are burning like a candlestick’s wick, after all.

“Start talking.”

Shadow does not start talking. Instead he stares. Only stares. It’s… kind of concerning, actually. 

“Shadow?” Super Sonic frowns, spending more energy concentrating on maintaining the sheer power humming in his soul than on coming up with a funny joke. “Are you alright?”

Shadow doesn’t make a sound. Is he even breathing? Super Sonic’s brow furrows and gently glides from near the ceiling to hover in front of his rival. Red eyes track the movement like a predator intent on its prey but Super’s not worried about that. Not right now, at least.

Keeping his expression soft, yet unwittingly focused, Super examines his rival’s disheveled state. For the Ultimate Lifeform, he looks ultimately wrecked. He smirks, just a lil, and Shadow hones in on it like a laser beam. Super blinks, smirk twisting into a puzzled smile as he tilts his head, before slowly grasping Shadow by the shoulder. 

“C’mon focus, Shadow. You with me?” Wide, red eyes blink dumbly and Super huffs a laugh. “How can I help?”

Shadow. Doesn’t respond. Merely gapes at him like he’s drinking in the sight. It’d be flattering at any other time but right now it’s just frustrating.

“I can’t help if you don’t tell me what’s goin’ on. On a time limit here–“

“You have full inventory.” 

Finally! He speaks! But lacks sense. “What?”

“Rings.” Shadows answers though that doesn’t answer much. Choosing instead to fall silent once more and continue staring.

Super doesn’t know what to do with any of this so he turns to someone who might. “Tails? Any clues?”

“N-no…” His lil bro trots over to them, visibly disturbed. Good. Glad he’s not the only one confused here.

“I’m burnin’ rings.” Super settles for instead. “Thought you said it was urgent?”

“I thought it was.” Tails gestures at the catatonic state of their friend. “I mean look at him! What was I supposed to say?”

“Well.” Super starts strong only to trail off.

He pivots in the air, still hovering in front them both. Cups his chin with a thoughtful frown. Absently skims the cluttered workshop as he slowly spins in place before re-centering with a shrug. It’s surprisingly hard to keep focus and maintain the super form when there’s no imminent threat. Without anything to go on, he's just wasting power. So. His gaze returns to his battered rival.

“If nothing else I could try this?”

He drifts closer to the still stunned speechless ‘hog. Frowns slightly at the white part of Shadow’s eyes. They’d reddened significantly. Had he blinked once in the past minute or two? Nothing worth worrying over, he supposed. Not if this worked.

Super reaches a hand, still glowing a vibrant gold and soft flames of light emanating off him, and gently braces a palm against the side of Shadow’s face. Shadow doesn’t even move as Super closes his eyes.

Tails shifts beside them. “Try what?”

Super hums. “We’ll see if it works first, buddy.”

The sound vibrates in his chest and makes its way down the arm connecting him to his rival. The rings are burning slower than usual but once he starts this, they start burning like they would in battle. 

Super focuses the gem’s energy from their raw state of chaotic power into something he can channel into another person. He smoothes corrosive edges, softens acidic potency, gentles the sheer intensity of it all and funnels them through his own energy. Pours bits of his own chaos mixed with the gem’s through that funnel in his palm. Pushes it from there into Shadow’s own energy.

Shadow doesn’t do anything more than gasp sharply and let him do his thing. Super mentally shrugs, privately delighted by the fact Shadow was letting him touch him at all especially his face, and continues his foray into healing via chaos energy. 

The rings are gone even faster than in battle and soon after the last wound has closed and Super’s pulled away, the power keeping him aloft drains completely. The golden glow fades from his quills and they drop back into blue as he returns to the ground, his normal self once again. His grasp on the chaos emeralds slacken and the tension that had been building between the seven finally releases. The gems launch themselves harmlessly out of him like a slingshot and scatter once more.

He bounces a step from the residue energy crackling inside him and beams at his rival. “So now that that’s over with, mind telling us why you came all this way looking like you crawled outta a dumpster caught on fire?”

That of all things has Shadow snapping back to himself. Any awe lingering in his rival’s face vanishes. Fully returns to his normally composed self as he straightens and crosses his arms with a muted huff.

“Merely an experiment. Good day.” Whirls on a heel with shoes revving, dips his head in what might’ve been a polite farewell at his lil bro. “Prower.”

And leaves. He leaves. The cryptic jerk leaves.

Sonic gawks. “Whuh–? What was that?” He spins to face his brother. “Did you see that? Did you see?”

“I saw.”

“Didn’t even say goodbye to me! Me! He was the one who asked me to come all this way! I was next in line for brainiac dogs over in Spagonia, you know. Not as good as chili dogs but it was buy one get one free day! What the heck?”

His younger brother can only shrug helplessly with a puzzled smile, twin tails swishing behind him. “Don’t know, big bro. He did say it was an experiment.”

“Experiment in driving me insane, maybe! Now I’m gonna go crazy trying to figure him out.”

“You mean you weren’t already?”

“Tails!” He grins and hooks an arm around his annoyingly adorable baby bro. “I’ll show you who’s crazy!”

His bro only laughs and swats at the fist digging into his hair. Futilely fighting against the inevitable noogie but he's got him secured by the shoulders. “Have mercy! I’m not the one who spent the past month looking for seven whole emeralds and an entire inventory’s worth of rings.”

“I’ll give ya that!” Sonic cackles and lets him free. “What was up with that anyway?”

Elsewhere, unbeknownst to the brothers, one Shadow the Hedgehog was having a crisis of epic proportions. He had discovered a new, albeit incredibly difficult goal in life: to have Sonic turn Super more often than not because wow did he look alluring with a face of focused intensity framed by golden hues.

[son1c]

Can we know how the 10 verse ends? And your Prime AU? The end of the original was pretty….abrupt, and I love your AU’s!

lol the ending of 10verse is different from the show. it's revealed that originally, the different shatterspaces DID each have their own version of eggman... including the grim. but, the one in new yoke city fucked around and found out, and altered reality so that they all were focused in new yoke instead.

he didn't do this with the paradox prism, since there's only One paradox prism, and it's in the shatterspace with green hill.

originally, he was just trying to increase his own power, but he ended up accidentally tapping into the multiverse with his experiment. you know, typical eggman stuff. this experiment of his took place before new yoke city was properly established. back when the shatterspace was still green. it was only once all the eggmen were together in one place that they started their takeover.

(conveniently, this coincided with sonic breaking the paradox prism and the paradox prism shard appearing in their shatterspace. so they were able to take it and use it as a power source.)

there's still evidence of eggman existing in the other shatterspaces. little clues that lead up to this twist... such as the robot ""eggman"" existing in boscage maze.

the only shatterspace NOT impacted by new yoke eggman's experiment was, ironically, the one with green hill. so, the original/prime/canon eggman didn't get pulled into his little posse.

but anyways back to the point. part of the endgame is returning the eggmen back to their rightful shatterspaces, since their displacement was contributing to the destabilization of the universe. in fact, according to my lore, the paradox prism wouldn't have been able to be broken AT ALL if the new yoke eggman hadn't ALREADY weakened its structural integrity by bringing the other eggmen to him.

after all that's done though, and the prism is repaired, the prism just kind of disappears. like, it zapped off to a new hiding place. but things are still not as they once were. because once something has been broken, there will always be a little crack, a tiny space, from where the damage happened. so the void is a permanent feature in the universe now.

regardless, sonic and shadow's world isn't reset to back before sonic broke the prism. that's boring. instead, they've both been missing for a week and then suddenly reappear together. and they have a LOT of explaining to do...

[sonic-oc-showdown]

ROUND 2

Trace belongs to @sapphanimates

Sting belongs to @whimsical-sonic

Find out more about them below!

Trace the Tasmanian Devil:

Trace is a character that resides in my AU, Project Alacrity. She was born at the tail end of the Great War between the Human settlers and Mobian natives. They had just started to come to a closed agreement, with the only fork in their plans being a pack of ruthless Jackals who followed no rules and took whatever they wanted.

Trace was sent as a spy into their ranks, claiming to be a child of hybrid decent, and ended up gaining their trust. That is until her ruse was discovered by a young Infinite, who exposed her to the clan. As a punishment, they melded a metalic grate onto her face, preventing her from using her powerful jaws to attack, and to stop her from spreading secrets. Her hometown effectively retaliated, driving the Jackals away, but it was too late. She was permanently afflicted mentally and physically.

Months later, she eventually decided set off on her own, and came across a basilisk lizard named Zess, who taught her sign language and helped to care for her. From there they made more allies and grew a team, The Daybreak's Angels. When Infinite allied with Eggman and began their conquest, the Angels were there, assisting the Resistance from the shadows whenever they could.

Trace is respected by her team, not only for her experience in battle, but also in perseverance and her fair judgement. She believes forgiveness can be earned, if one puts their full effort into achieving it.

Sting the Scorpion:

Sting is a medical student with a side gig in mercenary work, although "side gig" is starting to turn into full-time work. Originally, he took up odd jobs to help pay for his classes, but his success has tempted him in better paying, more challenging jobs.

Sting is stern, typically no-nonsense, but is not immune to the occasional cocky banter. He runs on a personal moral code that no one but him seems to know. He's not a bad guy, but he'll do almost anything for the right price.

He is proficient in martial arts. He only uses his poisonous stinger in combat if the situation deems it necessary.

[renegadeknucks]

Hello I was wondering if you have any sonuxadow (hope I spelt that right) headcannons I love your art style by the way

i do! and thank you so much i really appreciate it!

Sonknuxadow headcanons

The three of them wear matching gold jewelry to keep close to each other, Shadow and Sonic both have their right ears pierced with two earrings, and Knuckles has the gold bands on his spines because he lacks visible ears. They do all have promise rings as well, but they're not typically worn due to none of them wanting to break such a sentimental item.

Sonic flirts with both of them constantly during battles against Eggman, he thinks it's funny. On multiple occasions this has led to Eggman forfeiting because he really doesn't want to hear it.

Their favorite nap spot is on top of the Master Emerald.

They seem to spar far more frequently than before the three of them were dating, often using it as a competition to see who can be the least worn out at the end of each session. It's almost always Knuckles, but Sonic seems to be really proud whenever he actually manages to stun the echidna. Shadow always looks the most well kept after, no matter how long it goes on, and the other two will immediately gang up on him for the sole purpose of messing up his quills. They're all very competitive.

The teasing and bickering also became far more frequent, except now instead of ending up with someone being physically hurt (usually Sonic) it now ends in them laughing due to them starting to truly understand what's off limits when it comes to each of their personal lives. 

Knuckles and Shadow are both trying their hardest to help Sonic get over his fear of water, giving him gentle kisses and holding his hands as soon as they see him getting even slightly nervous. They haven't gotten him to try full on swimming, but he's gotten okay enough in the water to go waist deep while he's with them. He still prefers to stay as far away from it as possible.

Knuckles had found the two, on multiple occasions, sneaking onto Angel Island just to play with the vast population of Chao. He finds it cute.

All three of them are known to ramble for hours about their interests, and they're always purposely asking about specifics so the rambler can go into heavier detail about it. They all love listening to their partner talk about topics that they know nothing about, they just want to hear their voice and like seeing them so passionate.

Knuckles seems to leave his island a little more often since he'd started dating them, along with using his communicator a lot more because he grew attached very quickly than anyone expected him to.

Sonic and Knuckles both help Shadow mourn the date of Maria's death and celebrate her birthday every year, Shadow secretly thinks she really would have liked them.

Shadow and Sonic started dating first, and they were only dating for two weeks before they decided someone was missing and immediately got ready and raced to Angel Island to be the first one to ask him out. Yes they did bring gifts of chocolate and flowers and stuffed animals, they had no idea what they were doing.

Speaking of stuffed animals, that's like their go to gift for all of them. Shadow has a collection of various cat plushies which eventually led to Sonic and Knuckles getting him a real cat for his birthday. Sonic has various sea creatures, and Knuckles has forest creatures. They also all have a plush of the other. None of them are the best at gift giving, Sonic often forgets he needed to.

Shadow and Sonic help Knuckles with his chores around the island, they practically live with him as their relationship goes on. They were never really invited to stay, but Knuckles loves them too much to kick them off unless they're becoming genuinely destructive or too much to handle.

Shadow does both of their makeup, the three of them all like feeling pretty so it usually ends up with all of them dressing up in feminine or masculine clothes depending on how they're feeling that day.

[sonknuxadow]

confession when i was watching the most recent twitter takeover i briefly forgot what a chocolate egg is and when eggman said his favorite dessert is chocolate eggs i thought he meant actual eggs but like. dipped in chocolate. instead of egg shaped chocolates

[redpenship]

Happy New Year! I’d love to know if you have any headcanons about Mobian culture and/or holidays, either based on things you’ve seen in the games/comics/movies etc OR just stuff you’ve made up for fun. :) Maybe this isn’t really your forte but I thought I’d ask haha!

Happy new year!

I actually don't have too many headcanons on Mobian culture itself. However, I do have HCs for their society in general which I guess would feed into the culture idea anyways. I'm just going to put all of it here because why not.

(Heads up: this post is 1.8k words long).

Thesis I: There is no Mobian state.

If you've read my fic Buzzsaw Dilemma, then you'll have already been given a basic run down on how I think this works. Since I like rambling about this kind of stuff, I will explain everything again, but this time with evidence from canon to support my theory!

To begin, it's always best to define what a "state" actually is. I prefer the Max Weber view as a state being an "organization with a monopoly on the legitimate use of force". Let's break down what this actually means with an example:

The state establishes a rule that you can't assault other people. One day, you feel that someone has wronged you and decide to punch them in the face. A police officer nearby notices this and responds by punching you in the face and detaining you. After spending the night in jail, you're charged with felony assault and the police officer is not. Why?

As a random citizen, you do not have a right to the legitimate use of force. You cannot punch people to get what you want with impunity. The police, as official arms of the state to use against domestic populations, do have a monopoly on the use of force. They can shoot people, put them in prison, and basically do whatever they want (within reason, technically, but the state doesn't like challenges to its authority and will always resist holding itself and its officers accountable for perceived illegitimate uses of force) because they're the only ones allowed to do so! Your boss at work can't kidnap you and hold you prisoner for a year because you broke a rule. The state can do that to you because it is seen as a legitimate use of force.

Now that we both know what a state is, I can explain why I don't think one exists on the Mobian islands. I am going to cite a lot of stuff from IDW since it's allegedly canon now and the games tend not to focus too much on day-to-day life on the islands anyways.

Point one: the Restoration. Since aid organizations apparently don't like working on the islands, which I suspect might be due to the Eggman Empire's fixed presence there, the Restoration was forced to step up after the war to fix up the islands. Although it's true that some states just don't give a shit about their populations, I don't think it's wrong to say that post-war clean up would typically be a job for an existing state. The lack of any central authority points to the conclusion that one may just not exist.

Here are some panels from IDW issue #42:

Here, Zavok is surprised about the lack of security at Restoration HQ. Master Zik explains that Mobians don't see a need to prepare for violence because they aren't violent to each other. This is an interesting assertion given Tails' backstory, but I guess his two tails were just that disturbing to the people at home!

The main takeaway here is that the islands don't really have security guards or police officers. I like these panels for that reason only. I'm afraid the reasoning provided by Zik still implies that police/guards would be necessary if there was violence among Mobians, so it's not really that revolutionary of a worldbuilding moment and realigns the comic with statist ideology.

So, let's summarize: the islands don't have a central authority. They don't have any means to enforce a monopoly on the use of force. Does this mean that they don't have a state? In the absence of government, does the Restoration pave the roads?

In my general opinion, yes. There are some instances that could be used to disprove this theory, such as the Everhold Prison seen in Bad Guys, which is seemingly guarded exclusively by dog Mobians:

The existence of a prison implies a functional penal system, which in turn implies that somebody on the islands has a legitimate monopoly on force. On the other hand, it's never explicitly stated that Everhold Prison is hosted on the islands, so for now I can still cope and pretend it never happened. Yippee!

Thesis II: The islands don't use money.

I hosted a poll on this subject a few weeks ago, in which I learned that most people think there's money on the islands. Allow me to argue otherwise!

The most common theory for the origin of money is that it came into existence because bartering for stuff fucking sucks and nobody likes doing it. Nothing has a standardized value, so if the guy in your village responsible for making shoes is a pompous asshole who makes ludicrous demands such as asking for FIVE bushels of wheat in exchange for a pair of shoes, even though you've heard the guy in the next town over only asks for three bushels, then you're shit out of luck and have to fork over all your wheat. Maybe the shoemaker is on a gluten-free diet and refuses to trade with you, so as a wheat farmer who only trades in wheat now you can't even barter for a new pair of shoes! Sucks to be you, buddy.

Under a monetary system, a bushel of wheat and a pair of shoes both gain a standardized value. A bushel of wheat is $1, and a pair of shoes is $4. After selling enough wheat that you have $4 in profits, you can walk over to the shoemaker, slap some coins down on the table, and tell him to get to work. Now, you might say, "wait, if you're in a captive market, can't he just charge whatever he wants and you have to deal with it?" The answer to that question is yes, but asking economic theorists to consider greed in their theories is a bit hard since they don't really care about fairness at all and still don't understand what's wrong with kids making carpets in factories since their hands are the perfect size for that sort of thing. All these stupid labour rights activists don't understand comparative advantages and it's sickening!

Here's the problem with an existing Mobian monetary system: it assumes greed! Or, at the very least, assumes that Mobians have normalized the hoarding of commodities for personal gain. I don't believe this is the case at all.

Let's recall Zik's statement to the Zeti: Mobians don't steal from each other because they are kind and compassionate to one another. I would argue that the origins of property/commodity ownership implies large-scale theft, as developing something like an apple orchard requires dispossessing your neighbours of a plot of land and claiming it for yourself. Then you grow a ton of apples on your land--that they once could have used as they pleased before you took over--and tell them that they can't eat any of these apples unless they give you something in exchange. But the apples are right there, bro, they'll complain. You can't eat all of those on your own. You'll tell them to suck it up and eventually they'll bring you items (or money) in exchange for some apples.

This doesn't seem like something we'd see the cute Sonic furries do to each other. Since we're talking about farming, here's a panel from there IDW 2022 annual where all the characters are helping out on some kind of communal farm:

Moving on, let's look at why Sonic hates Eggman so much. Eggman has always served as a representation of industrialization, environmental exploitation and degradation, and individualist greed. If the islands had a monetary system, and the ideals required to develop one in the first place, then a lot of what Eggman is attempting to implement would have already existed! Economic development requires exploitation, both of other people and natural resources. Money is the result of economic development. It just doesn't fit for me.

Thesis III: Equity as a norm.

This is basically the section on culture. Leading up to this section, I've established a rule: Mobians live in a stateless and moneyless society. Here are some cultural norms that might have lead to such a society in modern times.

Ecology as a priority. This is consistent with the environmentalist themes in the series, but also with the way that most Mobians we meet in the series seem to really care about the environment. My personal take is that they simply haven't developed the view that they are above nature, which is something seen in Eggman and other industrialists. In Sonic Prime, we see Thorn Rose react aggressively when she notices that her friends harming plants by taking more than they need from them. This may have been because they violated a strict cultural norm! Although this occurred in an alternate dimension, I like to think about its implications for the main universe, too. Is the cultural pressure to maintain and protect the land they live on enough to suppress industrial development? Maybe!

Conformity as a means of social cohesion. Generally, I think Mobian society demands a lot of personal sacrifice from people. A core tenant of collectivism is that you have to put up with not getting what you want most of the time, and sometimes this even comes at a direct cost to you. Maybe your neighbour stole your favourite toy truck and you can't complain about it or everyone will accuse you of trying to establish private ownership over something stupid. Or, maybe, there hasn't been a lot of rain this year and your communal farms are flopping. Out of desperation one day, you wander into the woods and find some bushes of edible berries that could help you survive better for the next few days. However, since eating while your neighbours starve would violate the ethical values imposed on your by your collectivist society, you must accept only having a few berries instead and sharing the rest with your village. If you're someone like Tails, who stands out because of a physical mutation, then tough luck if your village cares about appearances. Everyone knows your business and you're dependent on them for support. As soon as they decide they don't like you, you're going to suffer severely. Upsides and downsides to everything.

Alternate methods of punishment. A society without a state likely wouldn't have prisons. Building on the concept of conformity, social crimes would be mitigated through social pressure--basically, if you do something wrong, everyone will be mean to you and not like you as much as they did before. Fear of risking the judgment of peers is a very strong deterrent for most crimes, arguably moreso than prison itself.

Everything I've written here is my basic take on Mobian culture and society! In terms of holidays, I'm sure they have stuff relating to harvest times and seasonal changes.

Thanks for the question!! Sorry if this isn't what you wanted at all haha.

[soundofspeed]

Here's an iconic part of the Sonic CD original JP OST. During the Bad Future mix of Metallic Madness, a robotic voice can be heard saying various discouraging sentences. This is an isolated clip of one of them, followed by a recreation from Collision Chaos Radio on YouTube. The speech synthesizer used appears to be from the Amiga 500, a not-too-uncommon choice for dance music artists of the time. Correct me if I've misheard, though.

It's unclear if this is meant to be Metal Sonic speaking, or if this voice is simply a representation of the Eggman Empire in sound form, but since the lines are typically associated with Metal Sonic, I'm using him for the picture. Just keep in mind that the voice isn't necessarily Metal.

[gayemeralds]

important question: what are your top 5 favorite qualities of sonic’s character?

rattling you like a snow globe i am. OOOOOOOH i love sonic's character so much let's see (in no specific order)

1) moral ambiguity

sonic's not a typical goody-two shoes protagonist and i think that's super interesting, especially considering how his other "rival" video game protagonists at the time (like link and mario, etc) were. sonic's not a very cut ad dry character- he is a simple guy, sure, but when you start to peel away at some of his layers.... he's a lot more nuanced than you're lead to believe

sonic's very much a live by my own rules sort of person. and while his rules sort of match up to him being the good guy, it doesn't always make him "heroic". he killed king arthur under the complete understanding that king arthur was a real person. he kills erazor djiin. he encourages elise to kill solaris. sonic's not afraid to fight dirty, and he's not afraid to get his hands dirty when the situation calls for it.

most protagonists are more of a "we have to save everyone" or "if we kill the bad guy we're just as bad as them" type. but i think sonic specifically is interesting, because he does help some overcome their misdeeds- like knuckles, shadow, silver- but ultimately it's because those people weren't that bad in the first place. they were misguided and manipulated and confused. if they had a full grasp of the situation at hand, chances are, they would have chosen a different path. and even if they didn't, they still showed the potential for true growth.

but for a lot villains that are simply plain evil... sonic doesn't seem to particularly hesitate. sonic's attack in satbk would have undoubtedly killed merlina- he didn't know her well enough to assume that she could choose a different path, and was willing to act first and talk later, knowing he wouldn't be able to talk her out of it.

not even with eggman. he was going to let his counter part in satsr fall to his death, until shahra convinced him not to. he's used excessive lethal force before, especially in the classic games. and then of course there's the implications that sonic lets eggman get away because he finds their adventures fun. like yes, sonic's going to stop him- everything eggman does is against his principles. so sonic's going to fight him. but sonic is also a thrill seeker and a daredevil, and wouldn't life be quite dull without eggman?

2) villainous qualities

it sort of ties into sonic's more moral ambiguity but i think sonic's interesting because a lot of his qualities, depending on the framing, could be quite villainous in nature. a guy who chases after adventures, who fights just for the thrill of it, who's stubborn and doesn't ever compromise, who lives life by his own rules and doesn't care if the breaks other peoples rules?

if sonic ever chose to be a villain... he'd make a pretty good one. he has a different set of morals than others and he doesn't like compromising on his beliefs. he thinks he's right, so he's going to act on it. and quite a few sonic villains share a similar point of view- that their revenge, that their opinion, is correct, and they have no intention on listening to anyone else's.

additionally... sonic's not particularly shy with manipulating those around him. you can see this characteristic plainly in sonic x and idw, where sonic manipulates his friends into trying to get him off a boat and shadow into not killing eggman.

deep down, sonic isn't that much different from rouge, for instance. they're both thrill seekers who don't compromise on their beleifs and are, in some senses, quite selfish. they're very self driven and independent and are great manipulators. the only difference between the two of them is that sonic seems to have a bit more compassion. they're two sides of the same coin.

3) environmentalist

i kind of miss the messaging of the older games... sonic was always invested in maintaining the beauty of the natural world around him. he fights a villain who essentially pollutes just for the heck of hit. he started this heroing gig with little more motivation than protecting his woodland animal friends and their homes.

it wasn't always about gods and the hubris of men pretending to be them. at the very beginning, it was just about protecting a tiny island in the middle of the ocean and the little critters who lived there.

it's also interesting to note how this can translate to other scenarios, like with merlina. she wanted to go against the natural order of things, she wanted to try to create an eternal kingdom- sonic saw through her selfishness and also tried to convince her that some things just were meant to end. and sometimes you just have to enjoy it as it was.

4) kindness

i think the last point also segways into sonic's kindness- again, sonic didn't necessarily start this mission to save the world. sonic did this to save those little animal friends. he stepped up to the plate and challenged a mad scientist armed with thousands of robotic drones and fought him.

i think the best instance of his kindness is in sonic 06, where that same compassion actually causes the end of the world. sonic's insistence on helping elise, and not just saving her but getting her to smile, ends up dooming the world. he forms a bond so strong with her in the small amount of time they'd been together that seeing him die causes elise to cry for the first time in ten years. it's his death that sets causes the apocalypse, all because he was compassionate.

it's this kindness, too, that i think adds more nuance to his character. because sonic is at his core a devil may care daredevil, who only does what he thinks is right, and who only does things for the fun and the thrill of it. but its not entirely true, because sonic will go above and beyond the demands of the situations he finds himself in.

saving tails from his bullies? sure. he doesn't believe in oppressors of any form. but then essentially adopting that kid and letting him tag along on adventures, despite his solitary nature and unwillingness to settle down or be tied down? not necessary. saving angel island and giving knuckels abck his master emerald? well, he can't just let eggman win. befriending knuckles after? not necessary. helping shahra stop erazor djinn from devastating the arabian nights? well it's not like he's got anywhere else to be at the moment and it looks like a fun challenge. promising to get shahra to smile and taking the hit for her? not necessary. defeating merlina after she shows her true colors? it's what he thinks is the right thing to do, and her disregarding the natural order of things is just plain wrong. but trying to console her after they attempted to kill each other? unnecessary.

sonic is a bizarre juxtaposition of selfish and selfless. he's here to have fun and constantly seeks out danger, but he's not just willing to save the world- he's also here to help you smile.

5) subversion from usual "speed types"

sonic's also interesting to me in a sense that he's not really your average speedster, personality wise. yes, sonic can get impatient, and he that can lead to him being reckless, but for the most part... sonic isn't afraid of taking things slow and steady sometimes.

sonic's hobbies outside of fighting bad guys include reading, looking at pretty natural landscapes, and snoozing. when he's not fighting a bad guy he travels the world but otherwise has some pretty mundane, rather slow hobbies.

think of the usual speedster archetype- fast talking, always on the move, never sits still, chatty and friendly and kind of annoying.

and sonic can be all those things, but sonic's also allowed to be pretty slow. he's allowed to laze around and read a book or take a long nap. he's allowed to be solitary and non-social and quiet. he knows how to slow down and smell the roses. he knows to appreciate the moments he's got.

[egg-emperor]

Also gotta love how Eggman continues to never once worry and fuss about Sage's safety when she jumps in and protects him

From letting her fight off the G.U.N helicopters,

letting her go on a snicide mission in the old ending,

to standing behind her in the face of danger the Final Horizon teaser like a reverse of how Sonic typically shields Tails,

to letting her protect him from the line of fire in the new version of the ending.

It's almost like the fanon of him being a super caring worrying protective father figure that will protect her with his life, begs for her not to get into danger and commit violence for him, or tells her to "just go" and leave him behind to succumb when he's in danger isn't accurate to the game at all.

And it's almost like, I dunno... Eggman actually specifically created her to protect him or something... and wants her to actually fulfill her function, which he says himself and is the specific reason he praises her every single time he does in the base game and update lol

"I developed you to protect me"

"Sage has been crucial to my survival *lists the ways she has aided/protected*"

*Praises her for her loyalty and efficiency in doing as she was created and told to*

I mean man, there's not a single thing about their dynamic that the most popular fanon gets right about them but I'm just happy that the canon is way better so I'm not going to ever subject myself to it again.

The only way Eggman could be overprotective in any way in actual canon is through being jealous of Sage giving anyone else the attention and admiration he wants. As he'd want to stop that and protect her from admiring Sonic and any potential influence he could have on her, and protect her praise and value of himself so she doesn't stray from it when that loyalty and efficiency is valuable and rare in his creations.

So it would be a lot more toxic and messed up way than the generic cutesy protective caring-about-their-safety-too-much dad way, along with how it's actually a total reverse and role swap of that anyway as she's meant to get into danger and protect him from it. Which is very fitting with how their dynamic isn't supposed to be pure and innocent and actually "unsettling" as Flynn said.

And we actually do see him getting jealous and pissed over seeing her admiring Sonic so hey 👀

That's the type of "overprotective Eggdad" I really wanna see, where he's being jealous and possessive over her attention and admiration as her creator and father. Not protecting her from danger, as that's supposed to be her job for him.

Also, it would tie in with how he was jealous of Maria getting attention he felt entitled and greedy for instead as a child. Especially with how I headcanon that he thinks taking pride in Sage and showing her off as an impressive life like loyal efficient creation will help him get some of the same attention Maria got as he compared Sage to her, which would lead to recognition of his brilliance as her creator, so he can finally get a piece of that pie.

But when his perfect creation is the one that gives his arch nemesis the kind of attention and admiration he wants her to give him and help bring to him instead... Yeah, he's gonna get pissed off and protective of that attention, admiration, and loyalty of hers as it should go only to him. And his reaction and attitude when he sees her admiring Super Sonic is very fitting for it!