#yes rouge very cool

[thankskenpenders]

The Knuckles show

The announcement of a live action Knuckles streaming miniseries was surprising, to say the least. I mean, what would such a show even be about in a version of the Sonic universe with no Angel Island and barely any characters from the games around? Is he gonna go treasure hunting with the gang from Montana or something? Would a streaming miniseries have the CGI budget to squeeze in any new game characters, even briefly? Rouge? Amy? At least one member of Team Chaotix? Anyone?

Now the show is finally out, and it turns out what they actually made was a comedy show about bumbling deputy sheriff Wade Whipple, the minor comic relief character played by Adam Pally who you might not even remember all that well from the first two movies, with Knuckles as his sidekick. While, yes, Knuckles does get a decent amount of screentime and opportunities to punch bad guys and do cool moves from the games, large stretches of this show focus on Wade's personal life, to the point that a couple times I almost forgot I was watching a Sonic-related show. If you're judging it purely by the metric of how well it adapts and engages with its source material, this surely must be one of the worst adaptations the Sonic franchise has ever seen.

So then, despite some huge complaints... why do I kinda like it?

(This will contain full spoilers for the Knuckles show.)

A brief summary of what the show is actually about because I know half of you aren't going to watch it

The show picks up not too long after the end of the second movie. Knuckles is now living in Montana with Sonic, Tails, and the Wachowskis out of a sense of debt to them, though he doesn't really see it as his home. He doesn't feel like he belongs on Earth, and his life currently lacks direction. After communing with the ghost of Pachacamac, though, Knuckles is instructed to keep his culture alive by teaching "the ways of the echidna warrior" to a new apprentice: deputy sheriff Wade Whipple, who's currently more concerned about winning a bowling tournament in Reno than anything else.

Things are complicated by the interference of two rogue GUN agents - Agent Willoughby, played by Ellie Taylor in a bad wig, and Agent Mason, played by Kid Cudi. (Yes, the artist behind the second movie's credits song is one of the bad guys in this.) They want to steal Knuckles' power and sell it to a former associate of Robotnik's played by Rory McCann (The Hound from Game of Thrones), who now works as a black market arms dealer. Yes, they're still doing the thing where Sonic and friends' quills radiate some kind of super-energy that the bad guys all want. No, I don't particularly love this element of the Paramount Sonic continuity. Anyway, they go after Knuckles and Wade, complicating their straightforward road trip to Reno. Antics ensue.

The Wade show

So here's the thing. While the first episode focuses largely on Knuckles, the entire rest of the show is very much the story of Wade, and by extension the other original human characters invented for this miniseries.

Episode 2 is about Wade having to rescue Knuckles from captivity after the GUN agents get him. Knuckles spends most of the episode in a cage.

Episode 3 is about introducing Wade's Jewish family, including his slightly overbearing mother and weird sister, so that Knuckles can learn about their family traditions and have Shabbat dinner with them (and then save them from bounty hunters that the GUN agents hired).

Episode 4 only features Knuckles at the very beginning and very end of the episode, probably for less than a minute total. Wade is captured by a bounty hunter he personally knows, and Knuckles decides to let that be a trial for Wade to overcome on his own.

The last two episodes feature the climactic showdowns with the GUN agents and their arms-dealing ally, who comes in with a mech for the obligatory final boss fight. You'd think this would be Knuckles' time to shine, but really, these episodes are mostly about the bowling tournament in Reno where Wade encounters his estranged father, wrapping up his own personal arc. While Knuckles does get some fights, a lot of the finale is spent on lengthy bowling scenes where Knuckles isn't in the room or even mentioned. It frequently feels more like a spiritual successor to '00s sports comedy movies like Dodgeball, Talladega Nights, or Blades of Glory than it does a part of the Sonic franchise, and the presence of ESPN 8: The Ocho commentary in the finale only drives those Dodgeball comparisons home. They get so immersed in the bowling stuff that it's genuinely hilarious when the show suddenly pivots and remembers "oh shit we still need to do the final boss fight"

Throughout all this, Wade is the protagonist. He's the character we spend more time with, he's the character who drives most of the major events, he's the character who gets more of an arc. The emotional core is Wade's journey. Knuckles is still present - sometimes, at least - but he's there as Wade's wingman, and also just as the excuse for there to be some fight scenes.

How much Sonic stuff is actually in this show?

Honestly? Not much.

Sonic and Tails are only in the first episode. Sonic gets some good scenes, but Tails gets a grand total of five lines. I counted. Unsurprisingly, Jim Carrey is absent as Robotnik, though he does get mentioned a fair bit. (For that matter, basically the entire established human cast beyond Wade is absent, even including Tom, though Maddie is there in episode one.)

GUN is involved in the story, which helps it feel slightly more connected to Sonic, but it kind of feels like it's GUN in name only. They don't use any recognizable GUN tech, and they don't call in the military. It's just two agents in suits. They might as well be the Men in Black.

The Master Emerald is mentioned as something Knuckles has to guard, but it's never seen. Angel Island is pictured as a drawing during the show's intro, appearing exactly how it does in Sonic 3, but it's never referenced at all beyond that.

I guess the climax taking place in and around a Reno casino is a reference to Sonic's many casino-themed levels. That's something. I'll give them that.

Oh, and if you're wondering if this is the point where we finally start to get actual music from the games: no, it's not. The soundtrack consists of a lot of '80s needle drops, many of which are generic Hollywood picks like "Holding Out for a Hero" for the billionth time, thought it at least has some slightly less obvious picks than the Mario movie. The theme song is '80s rock song "The Warrior" by Scandal. You'll hear it many times. You'll hear the Adventure era Knuckles raps zero times in this. You'll briefly hear classic A Tribe Called Quest song "Can I Kick It?" before Knuckles takes the question too literally and breaks the radio in Wade's car.

Beyond a handful of surface level references for nerds (one of which is admittedly wild - we'll get to that), this is probably the least an officially licensed adaptation of Sonic the Hedgehog has ever tried to actually engage with its source material. I struggle to think of another Sonic adaptation that has less to do with Sonic. For as much shit as I and countless others have given Penders for seemingly ignoring the content of the games in favor of building his own convoluted mythos, his Knuckles comics honestly included way more elements from the games than this show does.

Somehow, the one new(-ish) Sonic character introduced in this is the ghost of Pachacamac of all characters. Not even Tikal! Pachacamac! A very minor character nobody has particularly strong feelings about! You can't even use the excuse that they already had the character model, because they completely redesigned him compared to his cameo in the first movie to better match his Sonic Adventure design. And he's voiced by Christopher Lloyd! Honestly, so many of his lines are strained that it sounds like he's on death's door here, but then he'll surprise you with a more casual line like "just do it, man" and it catches me so off guard that I can't help but laugh.

Pachacamac here has basically nothing to do with the game character he takes his name and appearance from. Where the game character was a cruel warlord who kicked off a 3000 year cycle of violence, Paramount Pachacamac is now just this chill old man who gives Knuckles (and later Wade) advice in two episodes of the show. Hell, he also feels completely disconnected from his established role in the movies, where he's literally the guy who shot Longclaw. The show will not grapple with this contradiction at all. He's just here to be a thing fans like me will recognize from the games. Again, if that's all they wanted, it's kind of baffling that they didn't just use Tikal.

I don't love Knuckles in this

But what about Knuckles himself? Well, he doesn't feel all that much like Knuckles to me. Ironically, he sometimes feels like one of the weaker elements in his own show.

Back when the second movie came out, I noted that Knuckles' characterization seemed to be pulling heavily from MCU Thor as a gallant warrior from an archaic alien culture who doesn't really understand modern day Earth stuff. That worked for me in that movie. It was just there for spice. Just a little extra flavor for the character in what was otherwise a very faithful adaptation of Knuckles' storyline in Sonic 3 & Knuckles. Without those familiar elements grounding him and with a much higher reliance on comedy, Idris Elba's Knuckles becomes a pretty one-note character in this.

In damn near every scene with Knuckles, he's going to say something about being a proud, honorable echidna warrior, or brag about his glorious feats of strength, or be confused about some Earth thing and call it sorcery, or act like every other character is also a member of some noble warrior clan. He still has his moments for sure, but this schtick kinda gets old fast, and it just doesn't feel like Knuckles to me. His entire character feels derived from the scene in the diner where Thor smashes the cup on the ground and goes "Another!" Sure, I can picture game Knuckles smashing a radio to turn it off and being a little too gung-ho about busting holes through walls. That's Knuckles behavior. But building a barbarian combat pit in the living room so the Wachowski family dog can fight the mailman? Nope. That's some other guy now. It really does just feel like them taking a broad character archetype from something popular that kinda sorta fits Knuckles and just running with that, rather than trying to actually adapt the character.

Oh, but don't worry, he wears the OVA hat for like two minutes! AND he loves grapes! See, Sonic nerds? We read the wiki! That's his favorite food! Grapes! This is gonna come up like five times!

Knuckles kind of gets an arc here, but not as much as Wade does. I think the stuff about him starting to feel at home on Earth thanks to Wade's mom and the way he connects with their Jewish family traditions is oddly sweet. This arc is kind of let down, though, by the fact that Knuckles' heritage is treated as a complete joke. He's a cartoonish pastiche of various historical warrior cultures stuck together in a blender and used mostly for comedic effect. When Pachacamac's ghost appears, he's reading a newspaper and bemoaning the fact that the Mets lost again. This is not the place for a serious examination of Knuckles' feelings on being the last of his kind.

This is far from the only time the show undercuts itself with its jokes and attempts at self-parody. In the first episode, for instance, Knuckles clashes with GUN Agent Mason and his tech-enhanced punches, leading to an extremely on-the-nose inversion of the "Do I look like I need your power?" scene showcased in the trailer for the second movie. Except this time, Agent Willoughby butts in and points out how stupid that line is in this new context, since they're literally trying to steal Knuckles' power. The fight can't just be cool, they have to get cute with it. A lot of stuff like that happens in this show.

Given all these complaints, the first two episodes left me thinking I'd be fairly negative on this show overall. This seemed like the version of the show from the fandom's collective nightmares, one that undoes all of the progress the movie series seemed to have been making towards faithfulness to the games. Like, just look at these cast posters. Is this what you want out of Sonic? Do these excite you?

But then, something strange happened. Over time, I just kind of let the jokes and shenanigans wash over me and basked in how fucking weird this show is.

And I started to actually enjoy it.

Look. The Wade & Knuckles Show was never going to be peak Sonic. But that sure as hell doesn't mean it can't be entertaining.

This show is so fucking goofy

Here's the thing.

The show is funny.

Unlike a lot of other people, I didn't hate all the wedding stuff in Hawaii in Sonic 2, because I thought a lot of it was funny, both in its actual jokes and in the ways in which they tied everything back to Sonic. Tom looking wistfully at some bodybuilders doing Top Gun shit and spraying each other with beer and being like "I wish Sonic had that" is weirdly funny. The twist that those muscle bros are all agents of the newly formed GUN, who orchestrated the wedding as an elaborate scheme to catch Sonic, is funny. Mr. Olive Garden becoming the fucking GUN Commander is VERY funny. Are any of these elements of my dream Sonic movie? No, of course not. But my dream Sonic movie was never gonna happen in live action.

The Knuckles show follows up on the comedy of the previous films by being probably the funniest live action Sonic release yet. Did every joke land for me? God no. There are some stinkers in there that made me roll my eyes. But enough of them landed that it worked out for me overall. A big part of this is the fact that they've got a good cast of actors and/or comedians here.

Adam Pally is funny as Wade, and I found myself liking him more and more as a character as the show went on. He becomes an oddly endearing loser, with some sweet moments in his personal arc that made me feel for the guy. I like Wade more than Tom now, thanks to this show. I will now be happier to see Wade in Sonic 3 than I would have been previously.

The supporting cast is frequently great, too, many of whom are playing completely cartoonish, over-the-top characters. They took a cue from how exaggerated Carrey's performance was as Robotnik and decided to just abandon all pretense that this is the real world. Stockard Channing as Wade's mom is funny, and carries some of the more sincere parts of the show. Cary Elwes as Wade's very British dad who abandoned him as a child to run off and be the world's most egotistical professional bowler is funny. Edi Patterson as Wade's sister Wanda is... well, she's kinda trying too hard, but she has her moments. The Mighty Boosh co-creator Julian Barratt(!!) as a scenery-chewing bounty hunter, who was also somehow Wade's former best friend and bowling partner, is VERY funny. I love this guy.

(Honestly, they should let more people who were on Garth Marenghi's Darkplace be in Sonic stuff. Where's Matt Berry)

This is kind of a stacked cast for a bunch of stupid side characters in a live action Knuckles show! And honestly, that just makes it funnier to me. Even when they're not funny, the fact that this exists makes it funny. They somehow convinced Paramount to give them a bunch of money to make a spiritual successor to Dodgeball about a schlubby guy who wants to beat his dad at a bowling tournament... except also Knuckles the fucking Echidna is there as his personal life coach. My life is richer for the fact that I can say that sentence. I think about all the little kids who are probably watching this show this weekend, going in expecting a show about Knuckles the Echidna and having to sit through extensive bowling scenes and lore about Wade's family, and sorry kids, but I just have to laugh. Wade isn't even on the poster! The poster is just a picture of Knuckles!! They punked those kids!!!

In a franchise where every single aspect is so carefully micromanaged these days, it feels truly special to get an adaptation this bonkers. It frequently appeals to the same part of me that enjoys the fact that there's an officially licensed Knuckles comic in which Charmy Bee's best friend (also a bee) dies of an accidental LSD overdose from a drug-laced chili dog. Or like, everything about the original 1993 Super Mario Bros. movie. Or the fact that they made seven direct-to-DVD sequels to Alpha and Omega, one of which is half a retread of the adventure from the first movie (with more annoying supporting characters in tow this time) and half a literal clip show of the first movie. The sheer absurdity of the fact that these things exist is charming to me. Except, with the Knuckles show, it has the added benefit of frequently being funny on purpose! This is why I'm not sure I'd call it "so bad it's good." Like, it's not amazing, but there were a lot of parts that I enjoyed in the exact way I was supposed to enjoy them.

Look. Here's a list of real lines of dialogue from the Sega-approved Knuckles the Echidna streaming show that they're billing as a pillar of the Paramount+ lineup, to drive this point home. Let these marinate for a minute:

"I only eat grapes, and Cool Ranch Doritos™."

"Annihilate this little girl, Wade. Crush her spirit. Humiliate her so badly her parents won't even look at her again." "Doesn't that seem like we're going a bit far?" "Not far enough."

"So is he Jewish?" "Half, I think."

"I had a friend who when he listened to Alien Ant Farm he could lift a Toyota Corolla over his head."

"I'm in dire financial straits. Due to my lawsuit against an unnamed rainforest-themed restaurant franchise, I don't have two pennies to my name."

"We're here in sunny Reno, Nevada, which is so close to Hell you can smell the sparks."

"You can't threaten me with your Jewish karate chops because I am a federal agent."

"I will say, regardless of how you feel about child abandonment - and I'm against it! - the deals at TJ Maxx can't be beat."

This is a Sonic show in which they got Paul Scheer and Rob Huebel to appear as ESPN 8: The Ocho commentators.

This is a show where Wade's mom insists upon pronouncing "Knuckles" with the throaty Hebrew "ch" sound, and declares that Knuckles is basically Jewish. Later, they watch Pretty Woman together while enjoying a nice slice of key lime pie. Knuckles comments: "I don't understand. This young streetwalker with a heart made of gold, why do the others treat her with such disdain? Is it so wrong to walk the streets?"

This is a show where the fourth episode is directed by one of the guys from The Lonely Island and features a hallucinatory low budget rock opera stage musical put on by the ghost of Pachacamac. It recounts Knuckles' life story, with Wade playing Knuckles and the "evil" Longclaw played by the bounty hunter guy who's played by the Mighty Boosh guy.

Look at this.

And also, Knuckles' singing voice is provided by Michael Bolton, which they proudly announce in the middle of the musical.

And also...

Also...???

IBLIS IS IN IT????????????

Yes, Iblis!

From Sonic '06!!

Knuckles is said to have looked for a mythical power called the "Flames of Disaster" to avenge his clan, which ended up being the power that was within him all along that lets him do fire punches yadda yadda yadda. As part of this, he apparently fought Iblis off-screen at some point, as conveyed with the giant singing papier-mâché Iblis in the musical.

...Then Iblis sings about hitting up Facebook Marketplace

How? How does any of this exist? Why reference '06 of all games? How did Iblis get into the live action Sonic movie universe before Amy and Metal Sonic? Why are they using Iblis and the term "Flames of Disaster" in such a goofy way that completely disregards their original context?

I don't know. I don't know how any of this happened. But I love it. We got a Knuckles miniseries in which Michael Bolton sings the phrase "the Flames of Disaster." The world is a beautiful place sometimes.

Some people will tell you to skip episode four. "Knuckles is barely even in it," they say. "It's dumb and pointless," they say. "They clearly just ran out of special effects budget," they say. These are people whose opinions you should disregard. The episode with the least Knuckles in it is somehow the most entertaining episode of the show. I would, in fact, go as far as to say that if you only decide to watch one episode of the Knuckles show to see what goofy bullshit they get up to, it should be this one.

I cannot be mad at this show. It's so dumb, but it completely owns the fact that it's a dumb and unnecessary spinoff. Inferiority is baked into its very DNA. It's very self-consciously redoing the premise of the first movie, but stupider. It's about The Other Cop from the movies, instead of the competent one. Instead of being into a "cooler" sport, his life revolves around professional bowling. Instead of going to Vegas, he goes to Reno. Even his tragic backstory that shaped his entire life sucks. He was abandoned by his pro bowler dad in a TJ Maxx. Not even a nicer department store. A fucking TJ Maxx. This whole show is a Dril tweet.

They put a ton of effort into making it dumb in an occasionally spectacular way. So much effort was put into that joke rock opera that fans will just write off as stupid filler. They put their whole pussies into it. This is not a poorly made show. This has better production values than half the shit made for Disney+. This was made with love. Maybe not as much love for the Sonic the Hedgehog series of video games as we'd like, but it's love nonetheless.

Maybe this show broke me and these are the ramblings of a madwoman. Maybe I'm just really nostalgic for the '90s and '00s comedy movies all the Wade stuff is modeled after. Maybe the Alan Wake fan in me just really loves it when a story pivots to a silly rock opera for no real reason. I won't discount any of these possibilities. This isn't high art. This isn't something I would recommend to anyone with zero interest in Sonic, and it also isn't going to sway Sonic fans who hate the Paramount universe. I really can't blame them for being bewildered by this show. But for a specific type of person, this is the absurd three-star Sonic-adjacent comedy miniseries of your dreams. It's a mid masterpiece.

Again, I just have to step back, realize the fact that this shouldn't exist, and smile. Sega's too afraid to do stupid bullshit with the franchise like this these days. And I can't blame them, after years of Sonic being a treated as a laughingstock. But part of me misses some of the goofy shit. No matter how much I tore some of the Archie comics apart as I was reading them for this blog, I just look back on stuff like Cal and Al or the Many Hands issues and laugh. And that same part of me looks at this show about Knuckles being the sidekick to this fucking guy, and just goes...

"We're so back."

In conclusion, I genuinely think this was a more enjoyable TV show than Sonic Prime.

I wouldn't go back and rewatch Sonic Prime anytime soon, aside from maybe, like, a couple of the Shadow-heavy episodes. Huge stretches of that show bored me to tears. The writers squandered all of that show's potential. But I would rewatch the Knuckles show, which takes a terrible premise and has a lot of fun with it, in a heartbeat. Even the bowling parts. The bowling scenes in the Knuckles show are more engaging than 70% of the fights in Sonic Prime. I am not trolling. I mean that sincerely, with all my heart. Don't @ me.

Stray observations

There is effectively zero meaningful setup for the third movie in this, unless Wade's family or the two GUN agents come back or something. Project Shadow is not mentioned in this. There is no secret post-credits scene with Gerald

The CGI in this is pretty good. Not quite on par with the movies, but pretty good. Sonic's weird forehead wrinkles are distracting in his scenes though. Please fix that

I wouldn't say I liked this as much as the second movie, which obviously gets a ton of points for, you know. The Cool Sonic Shit. But I had more fun with it than the first movie, which I still feel is a painfully generic family movie that was only saved by Tyson's redesign

"Grapes are an interesting choice for someone who doesn't use his individual fingers."

Agent Willoughby was apparently the one at GUN who had to buy the Olive Garden gift cards and set up the fake wedding. Her origin story is that she hated doing shit like that and wanted to go fight aliens

This miniseries contains another Keanu namedrop because Wade's childhood bedroom has a Speed poster on the wall. I swear, if Sonic doesn't say Shadow sounds just like Keanu...

Knuckles is familiar with Paul Blart Mall Cop

Near the end the ESPN 8: The Ocho commentators say that the 1974 Reno bowling championship was also interrupted by an extraterrestrial, and given that was exactly 50 years ago I can't write off the possibility that that was Shadow. Please for the love of god give us a sequel series after the third movie where Wade takes Shadow the Hedgehog bowling. I need this more than I need air

[tim-shii]

tiktok trends with bf!sae

a/n: my man MY MAN RRAAAAHHHH i need him in my life it is crazy INSANE that hes not real and hes not in my arms rn (p.s sae is taller in this ,, it doesnt specify how tall but just tall enough that he has to lean down for a kiss ty)

it’s a rare occasion that your boyfriend agrees to go along with your antics. a prank, a trend or just him being in the frame. however, sae can’t seem to ever say no when you ask him nicely to do a tiktok with you. he has one condition though: he will never ever do a dance.

" THINK I LIKE YOU BEST WHEN YOU'RE JUST WITH ME "

the green in his eye looks so pretty. it goes perfectly well with the brightness in yours. sae looks straight in the camera as you instructed. yet there’s an itch in his system telling him to look in your direction instead. his pupils are dilating, he knows. and he knows that you notice it too, the growing blush on your face an indication of you acknowledging his obvious adoration. a few seconds before the audio ends, sae turns his head slightly to kiss your cheek. resulting to you dropping the phone. failed ending, yes, your followers found it cute though.

" STAY WITH ME, I DON'T WANT YOU TO LEAVE "

now, this. sae agrees to do this trend with you the moment you showed him the video. why would he refuse? he gets you kissing all over his face. that’s practically heaven to him. the marks are just freebies. after leaving a decent amount of lipstick stains on his face (sae thinks you should’ve left more), you pushed him out of frame and hit the record button. he waits until you purposely smudge the rouge past your lips, his thumb smoothly wiping it away. his periphery catches you sliding the phone to show him in the frame. his eyes are locked on your tinted lips before going back up to lock gazes with you. his hand slips to the back of your neck, pulling you closer yet pushing you back simultaneously away from the frame, and his lips meet yours. your lips transferring color to his already rosy ones.

" YOU BETTER LOCK YOUR PHONE "

from what he saw, you either stand there looking pretty or twirl around. either way, all he has to do is walk over, hook an arm around your waist and walk away (in a cool manner). it’s going well a few seconds in. you stand in front of your phone, showing your outfit. he starts sauntering the first time you turn your head to him. the second time you do it, he’s left stunned when you swiftly ran to the other direction. he follows after you, his longer limbs allowing him to catch up to you within seconds. sae throws you over his shoulder and carries you back to where you left your phone, that was still recording. the video ends with him dropping you to your feet and pinching your cheek.

" I'D NEVER FIND SOMEONE LIKE YOU "

this trend is somewhat similar to the other one. it starts with him off the frame and ends together with you. he can only hope you don’t rush out this time. if sae was being honest, the song used is definitely one of his favorites. not his go-to genre to listen to, yes, but he truly does believe you’re out of his league sometimes. he bumps into you at the beat, wide shoulders colliding with yours. he makes sure there’s no aggression behind it, sae doesn’t want you hurt over a video. when you turn back, he’s blessed with a smiling face. your arms wrap around his waist, chin on his chest. sae finds it easier to lean down and capture your lips this way. there’s a warm hand holding the back of your head and the other found its home on your hip. when he pulls away, his eyes drift past you and he’s reminded of the device diarizing this very moment.

likes and reblogs are appreciated! masterlist

[triona-tribblescore]

Hello there, skeleton annon here,

Was reading your pirate au and was wondering, Leo was raised by big mama right? Then how do the others know him? Were they also big mamas kids? Or is it a separated au where they were raised by splinter without him?

Can't wait for the next update!! :D

- 💀

totally accurate recreation of how they met-

HI!! TY FOR THE ASK :DD

boutta info dump a lil-

OKAY SO! Yes!! Leo was raised by big mama, and the others, by Splinter~ So I suppose I'd consider it a separated AU! :)

Not gonna reveal toooo much on Splinter atm cause I actually have a bit of a whole mini-arc thing for him planned, he may be filling in his role of absent father once more guys im sorry- /lh

The others were told to get some of their own experience out at sea, But obviously, the only knowledge they have of it is through what stories Splinter has shared with them and the minimal training he's taught em. very bare-bones stuff. So they are kinda just out there wandering with no real goal or idea of what to actually do

Until they find leo that is!!

Despite finding him, the uh, the guys... don't actually know that leo..is their brother...YET!! YET!

And vice versa, Leo just saw these guys and was like

"Oh, this lot looks cool~ and i am desperate for a crew and im alone out here and kinda sad and ihavenoideawhatimdoingOHGOD- so uh, join me? :)"

totally unbeknownst to him that they are his bro's/that he even HAS brothers. As IF big mama would ever give him that type of hope yk? ;)

the three already know April too, she joins later on after the ship pulls into a shipping port and finds her trying to pick a fight with a rouge mayhem who stole her boot.

AH- ANYWAY TY FOR THE ASK!!!! Hope that clears it up a lil :))

[fandomzwriterk]

Can you do a sfw (or NSFW if you want) if Smoke and reader having an argument and Smoke tries to make things right with the reader?

A/N: oh absolutely I will! Also mentions of JohnShi and RaiLao!! (We stan MK1 ships here)

Warnings: pretty much chill except a few harsh words

A Little Smokey

Tomas, you, Hanzo, Kuai Liang, and Harumi were spending the hot summer afternoon on the training floor of the building, as it was the only room with no walls and a roof over with shade. Kuai wasn’t having it, being that he was burning both on the outside and on the inside. Tomas was dying from the heat as well, both him and Hanzo on the other side of the room to stay away from Kuai’s heat. This was bad even for you, and having Bi Han around would make it easier but sadly no, he’d gone rouge and left you all behind to work with Shang Tsung. The heat was bad today, the five of you practically out of commission for today. Even Liu Kang wasn’t having fun either, he and Geras were burning up too.

“What I would give to find a giant pool of water right now.” You spoke out loud

“Yeah I’d feel so much better and not like I’m burning inside.” Kuai added

“Hold on I have an idea!” You hear Raiden say from a distance away

“What is it?” Tomas asked

“Let’s go ask Johnny if we can use his pool! He’s always saying we can use it since he’s almost always never around.”

“Fuck it I’m in.” You answered sitting up speed walking to Raiden and Kung Lao

“Me too.” Kaui added as he got up and sprinted over with Harumi behind him

“Alright fuck it we need an off day.” Tomas replied

And sooooo…

It took a little time to get to Johnny’s place, with the group also trying to see if Kenshi wanted to go as well. Unfortunately they couldn’t find him, so they resorted to going anyways.

“Ah yes finally free cooling!” You cheered as you, Kung Lao, Raiden, and Tomas went running through the door and into Johnny’s open door

“Oh hey guys I heard you-“

You four didn’t get far, crashing into someone a little ways into the house and falling to the floor. You fell on Tomas while Raiden and Kung Lao rolled to the side but right on top of each other. To your surprise, it was Kenshi, swearing a pair of white swim trunks patterned with pineapples, no shirt while having dark sunglasses covering his eyes.

“Kenshi” You shouted

You shot up from Tomas’ grip, going to hug Kenshi since it’s been awhile since you two interacted at all.

“Hello Y/n it’s good to see you too. I see you brought the whole team.”

He gently elbowed your side, noticing he was looking in the direction of who was at the door.

“So let me guess… it’s Raiden, Kung Lao, Y/n, Tomas, Kuai, Harumi, and Lord Liu Kang.”

“Good guess my friend you know us all too well.” Kuai responded back to Kenshi

It took a few minutes for everyone to get their clothes off, most of the boys just walking around shirtless with some sort of shorts on. You could see Harumi gawking at her husband Kuai, and you felt the same about another brother of the Shirai Ryu.

“Hey Y/n come on! You’re so slow!” Kung Lao shouted

“Cannonball!” Both you and Raiden shouted as you both ran to the edge of the pool before jumping in

“Incoming!” Johnny shouted as him, Kenshi, and Hanzo jumped right on top of you both

Almost everyone was in, except Harumi, Kuai, and Tomas. You couldn’t see what they were doing very well or hear what they were saying but it seemed like Tomas was nervous and asking a question. What you didn’t know at all was that Tomas was asking questions, about you.

“Just go to her and say ‘I like you’ to Y/n. That’s all you gotta do!”

“But-“

“Your brother is right Tomas you just have to say those three words to her and she’ll fall on her knees for you.”

“And what makes you so sure she will?”

“Just trust us.”

And so Tomas bid Kuai and his wife a quick farewell before slowly walking to the edge of the pool, quickly spotting you in the middle with Raiden, Kung Lao, Johnny, and Kenshi around you like they were fawning over you. It made him frustrated, after all he did like you but it was a pain to deal with four different guys at your feet as well.

“Y/n!” He shouted

You quickly looked behind you, spotting the handsome assassin looking right at you from outside the pool. You quickly swam over and pulled yourself out of the pool, standing in front of the grey haired man you admired.

“Can we talk over there?” He asked pointing to an open area behind him a few feet away

“Sure!”

You followed him to the spot, your eyes drifting to his ripped chest and bulky arms. He was attractive, and your eyes couldn’t stop staring at all of him. However, his attitude quickly turned when you didn’t expect it too.

“What are you doing with those four?” He grumbled

“They’re my friends Tomas I like talking to them and joking around with them.”

“Well I don’t.”

Where was this coming from? You’ve never known Tomas Vrbada to have clashing personalities with anyone else in the Shirai Ryu… well except Johnny. Yes he was Tomas’ favorite actor and Johnny’s even asked Tomas to star in things with him, but there are times where Johnny oversteps like he did before with Kitana and her sister Mileena some odd months ago.

“So?”

“So? I know for a fact Johnny and Kung Lao will try for any girl within ten feet of them, while Kenshi and Raiden will get to you slowly, hoping you slip one day.”

“And we’re just friends! What wrong with that?”

Now you were confused and annoyed, you’ve always been friendly with the champions of Earthrealm long before you realized you’d have feelings for Tomas. Were those feelings a lie now? This wasn’t normal of Tomas, to be angry and annoyed with someone.

“What’s wrong with it? Y/n the four of them like you why else would they always be around you?!”

“For your information Tomas they don’t. I know that for a fact, and there’s no reason to speculate it. Why are you mad about it? You know I don’t like them either! I like you!”

Before Tomas could even react, you started to turn and walk away.

“Wait Y/n!”

Tomas shot an arm out, holding onto your wrist as you both stared at each other.

“You like me?” Tomas asked

Oops. You didn’t mean to say that out loud.

“Yeah?”

“I-I thought that-“

“Tomas how blind are you?”

“What?”

He let you go, and you smacked yourself in the face with your hand. Oh so Tomas wasn’t as observant to other relationships as well as he said he was.

“Tomas… oh my god.”

“What? What’d I do?!”

“You are so clueless.”

“To what? What’d I miss? Clearly they like being near you cause you’re a girl!”

How were you gonna say this since Tomas’ perception of a “relationship” was a boy and girl… but that was not the case with the four guys you were both talking about.

“Tomas… Kenshi is in a relationship with Johnny and Raiden is with Kung Lao.”

The weight of his own stupid assumptions hit Tomas in the face. Well, there went his bragging rights of saying he knows everyone and everything about everyone there.

“Okay… I see… my bad.” He answered covering his face with his hands

Poor Tomas had just been hit with the classic “the four guys are gay and the girl is actually not any of their crushes”.

“I am so dumb aren’t I?”

“Yes you are Tommy.”

“H-Hey! Don’t call me that in front of others!”

You just laughed, even though you felt a little hurt at Tomas’ blind views of how you felt about him and your friends.

“How can I ever repay you back?” Tomas asked moving his hands away from his face

“You don’t have to Tomas. Just know it’s always you.”

He smiled, feeling heat in his cheeks as you went and grabbed both of his hands in yours.

“I feel bad and I want to fix what I said.”

“You don’t have to. We both messed up in this situation, I should’ve told you a while ago when the boys came out of the closet.”

Tomas held back a laugh. You felt better knowing you made Tomas smile and laugh, forgetting about your small disagreement from earlier. You didn’t regret telling Tomas your feelings, not one bit.

“Ready to cool off?”

Tomas held your hand in his, taking a step past you to bring you both back to the others. You heard someone go “called it” and someone else add “Johnny” in the crowd of your friends. Kuai Liang and Harumi were smiling at you, Kuai holding in what seemed like a perfect joke.

“About time brother.”

“I hope it went well?”

“It went just perfectly.” You joked

And so Tomas and yourself walked over to the edge of the pool, right before Tomas grabbed your waist and jumped in with you. You could feel his grip on you even under the water, you knew he wasn’t ever going to let you go. You both came up for air, Tomas shaking his head to get the water out of his short grey hair, while you pulled back your hair. He treaded water next to you, smiling as his grip got a little lighter. His smile was wide, quickly looking to the four boys mentioned earlier and sighing.

“I like you.”

“I like you too.”

The end…

[000marie198]

I'm cooking but kinda bored so

[vivyen-qwq]

Can we please talk about Knuckles history/ past?

I just saw a tick tock video, which topping was sad history and showed pictures of Movie Sonic, Tails, Knuckles (and that fanmade movie Shadow version).

That made me think.

When I was a kid, I always saw Knuckles as my favorite character because he was cool, red, and strong. But today, he is my favorite because of his sad story. And I personally think that he has the most sadest story of all Sonic characters. Allow me to explain:

1. He has no real family. His entire race died because they wanted to use the Chaos and the Master Emerald for evil stuff. They all died, and Tikal sacrificed herself to seal Chaos. So Knuckles had to grow up by himself, hunting/ finding food, without a mother or father or anyone, all by himself, alone for 16 years. I mean, yes, the little Chaos are there to keep him company, but they can't talk or take care of him much of him.

2. His feelings: He is naive and believed Eggman several times and teamed up with him, despite knowing that Eggman was evil, but still tried to see the good in him, which was all for nothing, because Eggman used him. Then we have Rouge, the flying bat thieve who is trying to get the Master Emerald. She would fight and flirt her way through to get what she wanted and now image. This boy never had someone to love him, so he doesn't really know what love is (I guess) and now imagine how it would feel to have a girl flirting with you, but not being sure if she is serious about this or just wants the Master Emerald. This makes Knuckles even more insecure than he already is because he is constantly alarmed when someone calls out Rouges' name like we saw in the Tails tube video.

3. Angel Island: Like I mentioned in the first point, Knuckles' ancestors wanted to use the power of chaos for evil stuff, so Knuckles wants to fix his ancestor's mistakes by guarding and protecting the island without any help from others. But the problem is, if he doesn't take the other's help, then he will never be free from that burden. Everyone can be on earth and go wherever they desire, but he can't. He is trapped on the island because he knows that no one except him will guard the Master Emerald without even a "thank you". A lot of people are not seeing how much Knuckles does to protect others by staying on Angel Island and protecting that Emerald.

Also, he is the only one who can communicate with the M.E. to neutralize the Chaos Emeralds' power. He will forever be bound to that big responsibility, whether he likes it or not. He is never going to be free, and he knows it. That's why he sees no real purpose in life except for having fun and doing your best (what he said in the Twitter takeover). I mean, yes, he leaves the island to watch "One Punch Man" at Cream's and Vanilas' place, but guess who will probably use that to his advantage: Eggman.

4. His friends: Sonic seems to be the only one who really cares about Knuckle's lonelynes. When they had that short, deep talk during Frontiers, Sonic said that his friends were there to support him. But in the last Twitter takeover, when it was mentioned that Knuckles had a fan, he talked very low of himself, seeing himself as a character who doesn't or shouldn't have fans. Sonic told him to be nicer to his fans, and Amy asked him about his personality, where he replied that everything sucks. It was quite obvious that Knuckles spoke very low of himself, but Tails tried to brush him off.

Why wouldn't his friends try to be more supporting, maybe saying that it wasn't really his fault? Or trying to make him see the good things in himself?

Like, Tails got into a big group hug when they were told that Tails didn't have a home back then. Or when they talk about Maria when Shadow is there, it is a sensitive topping, and they are making sure not to hurt Shadow's feelings. Or when Sonic had that dream about him saving the city and no one noticing, they gave him therapy.

But Knuckles doesn't get that treatment?

Yes, Sonic talked to him in Frontiers, but why not in the takeover? Why not get more support for him?

So yeah, that's what I've been thinking.

Knuckles sure had some character development, but it doesn't change his history or the fact that he will forever have to stay on the floating island.

I really would like it if someone stayed by his side and visited him sometimes so Knuckle could have some rest or simply would have someone to talk to for at least once in a while.

[hankbot0-9]

I may have only made, two posts about Doctor WHO and like, no one knows who I am really, but here's another. I am slightly, disappointed with the new Tardis Interior. Now, don't get me wrong, I love the size, it's so spacious and the ramps and walkways are great to see (If I were in that Tardis I would just be running up and down the entire thing like David). Plus the new lighting system, peak, love it. Almost. See the main problem I have with the new interior is not the size or hell even the emptiness of it, it's the way it's lit. Take the interior in Space Babies for instant.

Looks good right. Nice color choice, feels cozy. Yet I can't help but feel it's not there yet, like there's some form of off screen light that's making everything just that tiny bit brighter and thus dilutes the effect.

And it's why I think this Tardis interior just does not fully work for me. It has all the elements of a great Tardis, but the way it's lit doesn't do it any favors. Even with a darker theme like this one, the empty space and unhomely aspects still persists. It's annoying because I don't think there needs to be more homely aspects, maybe a few chairs and a coat hanger (I mean how cool would it be to see some of 15's other coats hanging up in a random episode). But even then the lightning would still need to work. Like here:

This feels more homely, more cozy. Even with only the jukebox this feels like a place the doctor would read a book, or tinker or something. It feels less spacious and souless, and all I did was take a screen shot and use my basic photo editing given to me by my laptop. And it's annoying because they are always so close to having a really great Tardis interior but they just, don't.

And sometimes it hurts a scene in my opinion, like here with Ruby's departure.

Like yes, there are many problems with this scene and when the only emotion I had during it was "OMG the Church outfit" something is definitely wrong, but I can't help but feel like one problem was the way the Tardis was lit, like why is so bright, so impersonal with the larger, empty space only adding to the problems.

(Again using basic editing software and knowledge, with a few small changes and it feels more right)

Another example is Rouge, where once again the Tardis is shot with warm colors but does not take advantage of the lighting and still keeps it very lit up with little shadows.

Still making this very close and emotional scene where The Doctor and Rogue almost share a kiss feel, cold. Wrong, like the atmosphere and mood is just, not there in the lighting.

But here it the lighting fits the mood. It's dark and feels more personal, close, romantic. The lighting is helping instead of hindering. And that's the real problem, the lighting is constantly hindering the mood of the scene or just not quite getting there, leaving it to feel impersonal, empty and just, cold.

[broadwaycantdie]

Theater Camp

james potter x fem!reader

Synopsis: james convinces you to go to theater camp with him. you secretly love it and you guys become close. it’s the final show of the summer and you’re putting on Moulin Rouge.

Genre: fluff

Authors Note: this came to me in a dream, also this will be on my AO3 if you prefer that

Warnings: spoilers for Moulin Rouge the musical

—

“SATINE??” you yell.

“Yes! I got Christian! Who’d you get y/n” James calls out happily.

“I got Satine. I didn’t even audition for her, I auditioned for Nini”, you reply.

“Well maybe you blew them away enough to get you a lead role.”

James was born to be a leading man. But you? You were terrified. This was the first time you’ve been casted in a lead role, and with a show as complex as this one. But you put the feelings behind you when you think about the idea that someone thought you were good enough to be a lead.

—

The weeks go by as you rehearse like crazy.

James is a natural. Christian is a perfect role for him. He’s off book by week 2, while you’re still struggling. He encourages you every day and never gives up.

You’ve been friends with James for years now so he knows exactly how to help you. But you’ve always been just that—friends. And that’s how you’d like to keep it. You didn’t want to mess up your friendship with The Marauders, even though Sirius and Remus were already dating. But they have been for years. This was different.

You see James’ talents really shine through this role. Like it was written for him. You kind of forget that you’re Y/N and James, and instead you’re Satine and Christian. Rehearsing Come What May made you legitimately cry. And you couldn’t help but laugh at James’ corny dance during Elephant Love Medley—which he did over and over to get it right.

But you pushed your feelings away and focused on being the best Satine you could be, and you were feeling quite happy with your performance. But the show was coming up quick and your nerves couldn’t help but rear their ugly heads.

—

Half hour to places and you’re panicking.

“I don’t know my lines!! I can’t remember anything!!” you yell out, “I can’t do this, I’m gonna freeze.”

Your friends are trying to calm you down while simultaneously getting ready.

“Where’s James?” one of them calls out, “he’s the only thing that’ll get her to relax. We all know you love him.”

The girls start laughing while you blush.

“What? No I don’t! We’re friends, have been for years. That’s it.”

They continue to laugh and you feel yourself get even more red. You start backing up towards the door to get some air.

“And even if I was in love with James—which I’m not—it wouldn’t matter anyway cause he doesn’t fancy me like that.”

The girls quiet their laughter into giggles as a voice speaks up behind you.

“Oi, y/n, you’re not?”

Shit. It was James. You try to act cool but you very clearly aren’t. You’re half dressed to go on, flushed red, and sweating from panic. But James. He looks perfect. That cheeky smile of his you can’t help but love covered his face as he leaned on the doorframe.

“You have a crush on me, y/n?” he smiles so brightly, “or was it…in love with me?”

He’s so cocky.

You cover your eyes with your hands as your face flushes scarlet. He grabs your wrists lightly.

“Don’t do that, you’ll mess up your makeup. We’re still going on.”

You get shoved back into reality when James says that. Suddenly you remember why you were panicking in the first place.

“James”, you say seriously, “I don’t know my lines.”

“Yes you do.” He replies, matter-of-factly.

“No I don’t. It’s gone. I can’t remember a thing.”

He leans down and kisses your forehead lightly.

“Baby you’re a firework.” He says softly.

He leaves you to finish getting ready and you feel different. Now instead of panicking about your lines, which you still aren’t convinced you know yet, you’re panicking about possibly dating your best friend.

Suddenly it’s showtime. You hear the beginning notes and you know it’s now or never. You get situated in your satin swing and wait for your time to sparkle.

You don’t understand how, but as soon as the lights hit you, you transform. You know every word, every beat, every step exactly how it’s performed. You transform into Satine. Then you look at James. He ogling at you, as his character is supposed to do, but you can’t help but think maybe he’s being for real.

The show goes on without a hitch. You and James feel so natural on the stage. You’re being playful and coy. Teasing and flirting as the characters do. The crowd is loving it. You find it extremely easy to pretend to fall in love with him.

By the time you die in his arms, you’re exhausted. And you can feel James’ tears fall onto your cheeks. He’s really selling it.

You finish the show and do your bows. After running off the stage you and James meet face to face. In a rush of adrenaline he grabs your face and kisses you. Not how he did in the show. But instead with so much passion and trust. He kissed you like he really meant it. And you kissed him back, melting into his lips.

You break apart and look at each other. Sweaty, tired, and out of breath. He smiles sweetly.

“Wait till we tell everyone back home.”

[lara-prism-light]

Redesign(and rewrite) of Alya and Rena Rouge for my Miraculous rewrite.

The original design was too generic for me and didn't look like a girl who has a blog. I know a Ladybug themed t-shirt that she would start wearing after the heroes' popularity kicked in, She wears a plaid jacket, jeans and boots. I chose this style because I thought it suited her a lot, and yes, I made her hair curlier, and a thousand apologies if it turned out bad, I'm still trying to learn how to draw curly hair TwT

As you can see I also moved the mole a little above her eyebrow, the original position would be covered with her hair. And yes, I decided to dye her hair orange at the ends, I don't know, I thought it would look cool, let me know what you think.

Alya is still Marinette's classmate, and in the beginning she has a very empty blog with very few followers (who would be her closest friends) but before the Ladyblog she would talk about heroes about heroes from other countries, since at the moment Paris would not have heroes yet. She takes a liking to Marinette after helping and defending her from Chloe and showing off the rest of the school (in this rewrite Marinette is a new student at the school as well as Adrian).

She and Nino are very close and she likes superheroes a lot and wants to be a journalist when she grows up. As soon as Ladybug and Chat Noir arrive, she begins to document everything about them, to the point of becoming an obsession of hers that ends up consuming part of her life. Her family and friends, especially Marinette would try to bring her back to reality but she would be trapped in her obsession of discovering who her beloved heroes were.

That was the perfect motivation for Hawkmoth to send an akuma to her, turning her into lady wi-fi, which would go after the heroes looking for their dear answers. She would be defeated and Ladybug would explain how important their identities were, which Alya, after learning that her best friend Marinette was very dejected by her selfish actions, realizes how wrong she was, almost giving up on her dream but being motivated by ladybug to keep dreaming, and that one day she would be an amazing journalist.

Even more inspired by Ladybug, and even more affected by her amortization, Alya begins to change her investigation focus, she no longer wanted to know the identity of the heroes, but that of the villain. She would start balancing her normal life with her little investigations into where the villains came from and who was behind them, and seeing her family, friends and boyfriend being akumatized, She grew to hate Hawkmoth, and wanting to bring justice to those he hurt and manipulated. This attracted the attention of the curious and treacherous Trixx, who felt curious about the number of times he saw her close to danger looking for clues, but he could also feel a desire for justice coming from Her. And then one night, during an akuma attack, she got tired of being useless and tried to help, even though she knew it would be dangerous, but was told to stay out by Ladybug and Chat Noir. Trixx appeared to her and gave her the Miraculous of Illusion, so that she could help her idols and protect her beloved city as Rena Rouge!

I didn't change much in the design, out of all the designs on the show this is one of my favorites but I still added road details. She now has an orange jacket, her knees have white diamonds, and her wrists and heels have fur. The ears are now like a bow for her ponytail, and the cream colored part of the ear contains a dark tone in the middle. Other than that, everything else is the same, just with some additions of different shades of orange.

Trixx gets a tuft of hair too, I thought it would look cute :3

Her flute still has the power to create illusions, mirage is still her main and strongest power, but now she needs to focus on the illusion to keep it as realistic as possible. Her illusions are now much more realistic, when using her illusions she can almost warp reality enough to make her illusions semi-physical(like the phantom ruby ​​from Sonic forces) The more intense the illusion the more she needs to maintain focus.

She can also use camouflage, it's practically the ability to become invisible, but for that she would need to hold her breath. I based it on the fact that foxes are known to be sneaky, and with that Rena would be able to sneak past enemies without being noticed.

Like ladybug and Chat Noir, it also contains a special effect, this effect would be the hallucination effect, With that effect she would play a melody on her flute that would cause a mental confusion in the akumatized that would make them hallucinate for a few minutes until the music stopped. It's more of a distraction but depending on the akumatized it could very well be dangerous. More additions to powers can be added, like a Ktsune-based power or something like that. Tell me what other powers she could have.

As a character, Rena Rouge would be the type to play pranks on other heroes in her spare time such as on patrols and important meetings. She would be close to Ladybug and Chat Noir and would follow any of their orders, but at the same time respect their privacy when she could. She would always go out at night to investigate Hawkmoth alone, but would start to be accompanied by Chat Noir who would also go out at night to patrol alone.

She was always going to interrogate the akumatized about their conversations with Hawkmoth but didn't get much out of them. That is, until a whole group of villains appeared who seemed to be much stronger and had a greater connection to Hawkmoth, filling her with even more questions and leaving her exhausted from investigating.to the point that she couldn't even post anything on the blog, seeing it as something not very important anymore.

Much more is yet to be rewritten about Alya and Rena Rouge, stay tuned!

[niko-jpeg]

Originally, Shadow 05 was not going to be in this au. But then I came up with the funniest possible way to include it in the story, and I couldn’t help myself. So you know how Camp Green Hill is set up like an animated series, with seasons and episodes and such? Well, I present to you Camp Green HIll: Shadow the Hedgehog, a post canon movie spinoff featuring our beloved moody hedgie and his adventure of accidental self discovery. The details are a little in the air right now, since I’m still finishing the base plot of CGH itself, so doodle explanations under the cut <3

Title Drop: First doodle of the batch I made, featuring Shadow and Rouge. They still work together under GUN post canon, and are cool and badass and etc. Slight design changes to Rouge because I wanted to, and Shadow rocks the button up and suit jacket combo. And yes, of course, he still has a gun.

I Can’t Draw Omega: I tried. And it did not go well, I’m so sorry Omega truthers. 

Weird Way to Meet Your Dead Beat Dad: I saw this scene vividly. After the opening sequence, Rouge and Shadow are going back to the apartment, only to be met by Shadow’s alien dad, who he does not remember. 

In the Lab, All Alone: This one’s more of a stretch, a vibe doodle if you will. I wanted to draw him in emotional distress, so I stuck him back on the Ark in the classic shitty hospital gown while he tries not to cry tears of frustration. Why? Because I said so. I don’t think it’ll make the final cut, but I had fun drawing it anyway. 

Sonic and Tails: As I said, this au takes place post canon! Now Sonic is 18, and Tails is 14! Shadow is 19 himself. However, because of just how many times Sonic has gone super, he’s begun to physically change a little. While coming down from being super has its emotional fallouts, he’s done it so many times he’s begun to grow electric yellow fur on his ears, hands, feet, and around his eyes. It also seems to be on his quills, strangely. Tails is as nerdy as ever, clearly.

Super Shadow: Unfortunately, Shadow goes super every once in a blue moon too, and it too is beginning to manifest. While at the moment the third eye is just a temporary thing while super, there's no saying if it may stick around if he does it again. A note on that as well: the only Hedgie that doesn’t go Super more than once is Silver. This is intentional, on his part, as while he was super, he found it quite a challenge to keep himself under control and has avoided it since. Who knows what his manifestations may end up looking like. 

Expressions: A surprised (though not unhappy) Shadow, contrasted with a visibly aggressive Shadow. 

Cuddle Pile: Request from the stream. Coming down from being super has its downsides, and a pretty rough mental fallout. Being a god for an hour doesn’t leave a guy unscathed, y’know. While Silver resists it initially (for various plot reasons), eventually the two are able to convince him to join the emotional recovery party Sonic’s closer friends throw him when he goes super. This usually includes blanket time, as seen here. 

Post Credits Shenanigans: I have this very vivid scene in my brain that would take place after the events of the story. Earlier, Sonic gushes about how cool he thinks Shadow actually is, under all the bitey rough exterior. Rouge, naturally, gets a recording and after everything is said and done plays it for him. This obviously flusters him. Please excuse the poorly edited blush, I realized I forgot to turn that layer back on only after I had saved the file. Oops. 

Remember, asks are open for the characters themselves, or about the au <3

[the-sky-queen]

Does your After Today AU have any designs for their real counterparts? 👀👉👈

I DIDN'T HAVE DESIGNS BUT I SAW THIS AND DIDN'T WANNA LEAVE YOU HANGING SO I SKETCHED THEM OUT AS FAST AS I COULD!!! They are very rough sketches though, so apologies if they don't look the best. (Also ran out of room for Silver and Blaze, so I'll just explain what I'm thinking for them.)

Starting with Sonic, we've got our pretty standard Nicky look with slightly different bangs, though no glasses for this boy. But I think the hoodie is still red. Also, I made his quills much shorter than Hero!Sonic's quills. This boy isn't fighting evil every day, he has no reason to make sure he can cut through solid metal with his hair. XD

For Tails, I changed his bangs because I can't draw his canon bangs for the life of me. (Or Amy's for that matter.) I was thinking for his shirt that he's wearing some kind of baseball jersey. We can let this kid play sports, as a treat. :D The number two is obviously a reference to his two tails, which yes, I let him keep! I figured since it's a mutation, it would probably still happen in the real world. The only difference is he can't fly with them. I also gave Tails glasses because yes.

With Knuckles, I tried my best to make him tall and bulky, since he's a football player. So basically, the Boom Knuckles look except not quite that exaggerated. Gave him a scar that he probably got during practice one day, but mostly because I really like giving characters scars. XD And then he's got a skull t-shirt and some shorts because he's a tough sports guy.

For Amy, I debated hard on what expression she should be making, and I ultimately decided on an indifferent pose because of character arc thingies I have in mind for her. :3 Changed her bangs, changed her hair a bit, and gave her a long sleeve shirt with a heart. She's a cheerleader with some cutesy clothes, not much else to say. (Also she's looking at her phone if you couldn't tell.)

Rouge was pretty fun because I LOVE putting her in outfits. Gave her bangs because I'm a Rouge bangs truther. She's wearing what I hope are some stylish popular girl type clothes complete with way too many bracelets on each wrist. (pretend she's wearing more than she is) And then some high heels to top it off! Also let her pierce her ears twice because why not.

Shadow's wearing a hoodie like Sonic, but his has some patterns! I think his hoodie would be dark gray with those stripes being red. He doesn't have red stripes on his quills since he isn't the Ultimate Lifeform, though I think he can keep his red eyes. Also gave him some emo bangs for fun.

Moving on to describing the ones I didn't get to draw! For Silver, I think he's wearing all white clothes. I'm kinda picturing a jacket with some puffy white fur around the hood kinda like the jacket I drew here. Also, I think he's wearing sunglasses, like he's too cool for this world. XD

And then for Blaze, she's a foreign exchange student and I'm thinking she's from Japan. So, I think it would be really cool and pretty if she wore a kimono! Maybe she's got her hair up in a bun with a pretty accessory/clip of some kind to keep it tidy.

Anyway, yeah! Those are my basic thoughts for everyone's designs! :D Hope you like em!

[nuwuna]

Dance HCs for the Redacted bois :)

David: Ballet

My man likes rules and ballet has those rules. He was the best at partner work and lifted those girlies into the air with no problem. The pack teases him abt it sometimes but angel loves it. They constantly ask him to teach them variations.

Asher: Classic Jazz/Hip-hop

I think he was enrolled in jazz classes as a kid and really enjoyed it. Later on, he thought hip-hop was really cool so he watched a bunch of videos on it. yes, self-taught hip-hopper ash. he's an absolute beast at clubs and definitely dances to the songs playing at grocery stores.

Milo: BALLROOM PLEASE HE'S LITERALLY PERFECT FOR THIS ARE YOU KIDDING? He loved every aspect of it: the style, the costumes, the competition, EVERYTHING. He was really good at it too, he won like 90% of the competitions we was in. He definitely had a massive rivalry with another person and was petty abt it.

Vincent: Contemporary Ballet

not necessarily ballet but it has a certain artistic element that he enjoys. He took a few classes as a kid and then enrolled in some classes at his college. I just think that he would be really good at it and it's not super traditional.

Sam: Country Western

my guy is from the south what did you expect? anyways he went to a lot of shindigs as a kid and then went to country clubs in college. He's goated at partnering too. he spins his partners around and lifts them into the air with ease. Even tho darlin is made of steel he can still pull crazy stunts.

William: Ballet

He's literally from France and was the reason why Tchaikovsky wrote the Nutcracker. He KNOWS his stuff.

Gavin: Jazz 

Okay a bit different, but I think that he enjoys the more mature jazz/theatre. Like cabaret, chicago, and moulin rouge. he LIVES for that shit. fosse is his idol bro. he occasionally surprises freelancer with a little number lol

Damien: Ballet

my man went far with this like he was GOOD. He was definitely enrolled in a professional company before he went to damn. He was super particular about every move and argued with people during variations. He even got annoyed at the girls he was paired with because they weren't certain moves correctly. The other dancers didn't like him very much, but those russian ballet teachers did, and that's why he got so many good roles in the shows he was in.

Lasko: Musical theatre

okay, hear me out here. he's a show tunes guy. he loves newsies, grease, and hamilton and was for sure a theatre kid before his powers manifested. Like can you imagine how cute that is? he's a little bit embarrassed about it but when freelancer asks him about it he pulls out the old CDs. pls so cute

Huxley: Rhythmic tap

no not theatre tap like he goes hard with the rhythms. you really wouldn't expect it but you can sometimes catch him tapping when he's sitting or waiting in line. he's an absolute beast at it.

Caelum: Lyrical

he loves all of Maddie Ziegler's solos. the likes how much emotion is put into every move and gets very invested in the stories he tells through the movement. he also really likes all the pretty costumes.

anyways this is all just my opinion and I miss dancing a little bit. :P

[generic-sonic-fan]

Team Dark Week: Creation

Summary: After seeing some of the files regarding Shadow’s creation, Omega has something of his own to reveal. For @teamdarkweek.

1890 words, no content warnings

---

“A loud Omega is normal. A quiet Omega is a cause for great concern,” Rouge said as she filed her nails.

“You’re right. He hasn’t been acting like himself since viewing the files.”

“Yeah.”

“He thinks of me differently now, doesn’t he?”

Rouge looked up. “I wouldn’t think so. Why would he care about how you were born?”

“Created.” Shadow corrected. 

“Still. I don’t get how reading The Professor getting all weepy and emotional about you would piss him off. Unless his hatred of Robotniks is generational.”

“I shouldn’t have shown it.”

“Hey, look at me.” Rouge grabbed his hand. “You showed us for a reason. A damn good reason. Let me go talk to him, he might just be pissy about something stupid that’s entirely unrelated.”

“I doubt that.”

Rouge finished filing the nail she was on, before leaving the filing board on the countertop and disappearing into the hallway. She returned with Omega behind her. 

“So what’s got you all snippy, hmm?” She asked him.

“I AM NOT ‘SNIPPY’.” 

“You haven’t said very much since we got back.”

“I REQUIRED TIME TO PROCESS THE INFORMATION SHADOW HAS GRANTED US.”

“Did it anger you?”

“NEGATIVE.”

Shadow and Rouge glanced at each other. 

“YOU SHARED THE CIRCUMSTANCES OF YOUR CREATION SO THAT WE MAY, QUOTE, ‘HELP YOU REMEMBER’.” 

“I did.” Shadow replied.

“WHY WOULD YOU WANT US TO SEE A TIME WHERE YOU FOOLISHLY DID NOT HATE YOUR CREATOR?” 

Shadow took a deep breath. “Because it’s part of who I am. His initial kindness to me and his reason for creating me are things I don’t wish to forget.”

Omega paused. Instead of saying anything more, he turned around and stomped back to his room.

—

At 10:00 PM, Omega yelled “TEAM MEETING.” 

Shadow opened his bedroom door to see Omega standing in the doorway of his own room. Rouge emerged from her room with her headphones around her neck.

“What’s up, Omega?” She asked.

“THERE IS SOMETHING,” Omega paused. His cooling fans whirred higher. “I WISH TO SHOW YOU.”

“Alright.” Shadow replied. 

Omega beckoned them into his room with his hand. It was strange to see him use a gesture instead of words. His room was bare, as usual, with the exception of his power cord and his desktop computer. A data cable snaked out of one of the computer’s ports. Shadow didn’t think Omega owned one, given his distaste for having his processor accessed. 

Omega took the data cable and plugged himself in. The screen’s nuclear explosion background was overtaken by the scrolling data of Omega’s processor. Segments of the data began aligning, until a video player formed on screen. 

“What are you going to show us?” Rouge asked.

“WATCH.”

---

REPLAYING MEMORY LOG _001. . .

---

“Isn’t it magnificent?”

Dr. Ivo Robotnik stood five feet forward, gesturing behind himself in front of two smaller robots, one yellow and one red. 

“Yes, it truly is, master!” The red one crooned.

“I don’t know, seems to be missing a chin, if you ask me.” The yellow one put his hand on his own mentioned appendage. 

“It doesn’t need a chin, you dolt!” Dr. Ivo Robotnik stepped forward and backhanded the faceplate of the yellow one.

The force of contact between the flesh of his hand and the metal of the yellow robot’s chassis was not enough to fracture any bones, but it was enough to burst small blood vessels close to the surface of his epidermis. This constituted an “injury”. It was forbidden for any Badnik to injure its creator. Such insolence must be punished immediately!

Unit E-123 marched forward and snatched the yellow robot by the throat. He quickly calculated that the position of his claws was ineffective for a target that did not require respiration. Unit E-123 had not been programmed to destroy robots beyond information on the basic tolerances of metal plating. He created a new folder in his programs and began compiling data for the possibility, before-

“Hahaha! No need, E-123. Put him down.”

Unit E-123 released his grasp, and the yellow robot fell to the ground before floating away at what he calculated to be the maximum speed it could achieve with its thrusters. The red robot also activated its thrusters and traveled a similar direction. 

“See that?” Dr. Ivo Robotnik came beside Unit E-123’s extended arm. “That lethality? That obedience? Truly I’ve outdone myself this time.”

Dr. Ivo Robotnik placed his gloved hand on Unit E-123’s arm and pressed downwards. Unit E-123 understood the implicit command and returned to a neutral position. He swiveled his head and tilted his optics up to observe Dr. Ivo Robotnik’s face. 

“I certainly solved the particular set of problems that bubbled up from the previous of its series!” Dr. Ivo Robotnik grinned. “Not to mention fit the most superior firepower of my entire army within a single chassis!”

Dr. Ivo Robotnik strolled around Unit E-123’s frame, scanning his eyes up and down. Unit E-123 followed with his optics. 

“Heh, respectful, too! Keeping eye contact, ready to receive any order. Although we’ll see how that changes when its short-term adaptive processing calibrates and we start getting some more intelligent thought up there. . .”

Dr. Ivo Robotnik turned and interfaced with the computer.

“Oh! Seems to have finished calibrating a few minutes ago. In that case,” Dr. Ivo Robotnik whirled around and clasped his hands together, “hello, my creation! Status report?”

“Systems fully operational.” Unit E-123 reported. He then considered his next words for longer. He was a magnificent, superior robot. He should not reply with a basic status report. That was unbefitting of his actual status, evidently!

“Good, good.”

“Status: superior.” E-123 elaborated further. 

“Ha, it even knows!” Dr. Ivo Robotnik said to the red and yellow robots cowering near the door. 

“Indeed,” the red one ventured forward the equivalent of one of Dr. Ivo Robotnik’s strides, “you are quite superior, Unit E-123! You will do the Empire proud.”

“You’re going to get Sonic real good.” The yellow one nodded as well. 

Unit E-123 fired all of its scanners- visual, audial, tactile, chemical, and chaos radiation -to search for any sign of Sonic upon his mention. He found none. The yellow robot must have been referring to the wretched enemy in the hypothetical, a possibility he had not considered before in verbal interactions until now. Unit E-123 noted this for future reference. 

“Ohohoh, if Sonic tries to interfere with the Subject, he’s going to be in for a nasty surprise.”

“This unit will eradicate him!” Unit E-123 affirmed.

“Yes! Yes, you will!”

“He will not withstand the firepower of this unit’s arsenal!”

“Why, you’ll blow him away! There won’t be even a smear of blue left on the wall once you’re done with him.”

“I WILL SHOW HIM MY SUPERIORITY!”

“Augh, not so loud, not so loud,” Dr. Ivo Robotnik lowered his hands from his ears. “While I love your enthusiasm, you’re going to damage my hearing.”

Unit E-123 lowered the volume settings of his voicebox, and to ensure that he would never make such a mistake again, he knit together a program that would create a warning message should he ever be tempted to raise the volume high enough to damage Dr. Ivo Robotnik’s hearing. He patched it over the software that interfaced with his voicebox. 

“Now, speaking of hearing loss, allow me to grab my earmuffs and we’ll head out to the firing range to see how you do.”

Dr. Ivo Robotnik walked to the nearest counter and began searching the drawers, grumbling the phrase “now where did I put them?” as he did so. 

“Drawer label #12, beneath one layer of processed wood pulp.” Unit E-123 pointed to where his scanners had identified the location. 

Dr. Ivo Robotnik opened the identified drawer and retrieved the personal protective equipment. He then smiled back in the direction of Unit E-123. “Well aren’t you just perfect!”

“Affirmative, I am.”

But instead of affirming, Dr. Ivo Robotnik frowned. “Let’s correct that little slippage before it starts to become a problem. You are to refer to yourself as ‘this unit’.”

“Affirmative.”

“‘Affirmative, Master.’”

“Affirmative, Master.”

“Good!” 

---

END OF MEMORY LOG _001

---

Omega unplugged himself from the computer and the video disappeared from the screen.

Shadow was the first to speak. “I have never seen the doctor behave that way.”

“YOU ARE NOT TO SHARE THIS INFORMATION. IF YOU DIVULGE ANY INFORMATION PERTAINING TO THIS MEMORY LOG TO ANOTHER INDIVIDUAL, I WILL KILL YOU.”

“We won’t tell. Of course we won’t tell.” Rouge patted Omega’s forearm. “Your secret’s safe with us.”

“GOOD. COMMENCING DELETION PROCESS. . .”

“Hey, wait a minute. You’re not deleting that, are you?” Rouge said.

“NOW THAT YOU HAVE WITNESSED THE FILE, YOU WILL ‘HELP ME REMEMBER’. STORAGE OF THE FILE IS NOW UNNECESSARY.”

“”That’s not-” Shadow balled his fists.

“Omega, you can’t just delete your own memory.” Rouge said.

“HOW DO YOU INTEND TO STOP ME?”

“I’m not going to stop you- I’m just going to tell you that you really shouldn’t do it.”

“YOU HAVE THIRTY SECONDS TO ARTICULATE YOUR ARGUMENT.”

“Because it’s part of who you are. You can’t just run away from the bad things that have happened to you. Deleting this is just going to bite you in the ass later when you get the feeling you’re forgetting something you really should remember.”

“THERE IS NO VALUE TO REMEMBERING THIS REVOLTING EXCHANGE.”

“Well sure, you could hate the man without really knowing him, but remembering a time when he wasn’t a complete self-serving fool helps you hate him even more.”

“YOUR ARGUMENT IS FALSE! MY HATRED FOR EGGMAN WILL NOT BE AFFECTED!”

Shadow stepped in. “Keeping this memory will remind you how far you’ve come.”

“Yeah, you were able to get around all of the fawning the doctor programmed you with! That says more about how strong you are than almost anything else.”

“MY KILL COUNT BEGS TO DIFFER.”

“Strong internally,” Rouge flew up and knocked on his head plating, “which is not something a lot of people could say about themselves.”

Shadow met Omega's optics, stared at the flicker of intelligence behind the glass. “I couldn’t have done what you did.”

Rouge landed. “Hey, knock that off.”

“It’s the truth.”

“YOU DEFIED THE INTENT OF YOUR CREATOR ABOARD THE SPACE STATION ARK.”

“I had Maria.” The room went silent as he said her name, as it always did. “I couldn’t have done it without my memory of her. You had no one but yourself.”

Omega’s frame went still, and his optics defocused. 

“That makes you stronger than I am.” Shadow finished.

Rouge came beside Shadow, waiting and watching for Omega’s next response. She parted, however, when Omega abruptly walked towards the door of his room. 

Before he left, he turned his head over his shoulder. “I AM GOING TO THE TARGETING RANGE.”

“They’re probably closed by now.” Rouge replied.

“THEY WILL NOT BE CLOSED IF THEY WISH TO KEEP THEIR SPINES INTACT.”

“They probably aren’t closed, then.” She snickered. “Let me get dressed and I’ll come with.”

“NEGATIVE.”

“Think about what I’ve said.” Shadow crossed his arms. 

“I WILL NOT COMMENCE THE DELETION TONIGHT.” 

He left. Shadow followed him out into the hall and watched as he shut the apartment door behind him. 

“Do you think he was lying?” Rouge said.

“He trusts us.”

"Seems he does.”

[thelastspeecher]

The other day I saw a comment on a video of a Mountain Goats song that said they finally figured out that the overarching theme of Mountain Goats songs is radical kindness.

And like, okay, your interpretation is valid, and given the song it was commented on ("You Were Cool"), understandable. But I also think it is very, very wrong.

In my opinion, there is no one theme to be applied to all or even most Mountain Goats songs. There are too many concept albums for that, for one thing. But if I had to choose a theme that pops up the most, it wouldn't be radical kindness. It would be radical acceptance.

Acceptance of a troublesome, complicated past or present. Crucially, not forgiveness or moving on or revenge. Just accepting that this happened and regardless of how I address it, I have to live with it. "Prowl Great Cain", "No Children", and "Romans 10:9" are a few off the top of my head that I think fit into that general idea. And, funnily enough, I think "You Were Cool" fits as well.

Within that theme, there is a subtheme that I see the most, which is moving on without enacting revenge, forgiving, or seeking forgiveness. Which makes sense, given how many songs (especially earlier songs) are about John Darnielle's history of drug addiction and the abuse he experienced at the hands of his stepfather. "Up the Wolves" (my personal favorite), "Small Green Things", "Picture of My Dress", "Never Quite Free", and sorta kinda "Heretic Pride" are some that fit.

However. I do think that trying to condense the discography of the Mountain Goats into one theme or even one major theme is not the greatest thing. Individual albums, yes. Like I said, there are a lot of concept albums. But there are so many powerful and complicated songs that you have to really think about and understand John Darnielle's past to Really Get. Saying there's one theme, and in particular saying that theme is "radical kindness" minimizes and reduces the complexity of much of his work. There are multiple themes that show up multiple times, but there is no one theme.

There are songs about drug addiction, and domestic abuse, and the Khmer Rouge, and Dungeons & Dragons, and divorce, and toxic friends, and professional wrestling, and a hawk you see in your backyard, and a book series by someone kinda racist, and a character that appeared in a song in an earlier album.

The songs of the Mountain Goats aren't about one thing. And they never have been.

[baileypie-writes]

~Ranking All Yellow Cures in Pretty Cure~

~~~🎀~~~🎀~~~🎀~~~

Disclaimer: These are all my opinions! If you don’t agree with them, that’s fine! Just don’t attack me or anything.

‼️Warning: Spoilers for Futari wa Precure Max Heart, Heartcatch Precure and Doki Doki Precure‼️

(I’m pretty upset that there’s no yellow text color)

~~~🎀~~~🎀~~~🎀~~~

~🍯13 - Cure Honey🍯~

(Happiness Charge Precure)

Booooooring.

Cure Honey is one of the most boring cures to ever exist. Her only personality trait is food. All she ever talks about is wanting to eat rice. She even sings about it for her attack too, and it’s just so dumb.

That’s all I have to say about her. Boring.

~👑12 - Shiny Luminous~

(Futari wa Precure Max Heart)

Boring part 2.

She really has no personality, and her design is ugly. She’s only there for the plot. I was never a fan of her. The only thing putting her above Cure Honey is that her attacks are cool enough.

~🍍11 - Cure Pine🍍~

(Fresh Precure)

Boring part 3.

She’s shy, likes animals, and is Christian. That’s pretty much it.

But honestly, she’s not too boring. She adds something to the story. She’s just not as interesting as the others, and her attacks are cool.

~⛸️10 - Cure Etoile⛸️~

(Hugtto Precure)

I didn’t connect with any of the Hugtto characters at all.

I’m not a Cure Etoile fan. I don’t like her personally, and I don’t like her design. Like, why is she a flight attendant, and not a figure skater?

That’s all I have to say about her. I just don’t like her.

~🎶9 - Cure Muse🎶~

(Suite Precure)

Honestly, I don’t think she’s as bad as people claim. Sure she’s rude, but at least she has a reason. And she’s not too rude for me. After joining the team, she gets better.

I really like her design too. She’s really cute!

~♣️8 - Cure Rosetta♣️~

(Doki Doki Precure)

She’s cool! I love how her richness comes in handy, and how she’s not afraid to use it.

Her whole backstory with her being afraid of her strength was really interesting, and I enjoyed her journey to becoming a Pretty Cure.

I like her design too. Her hair is so cute!

~🟡7 - Cure Papaya🟡~

(Tropical Rouge Precure)

I like Cure Papaya’s design a lot! I’ve heard quite a bit of hate for it, and I don’t understand it. She’s so cute!

She’s lacking a bit in the personality department though. But I think she’s really funny sometimes!

~🍮6 - Cure Custard🍮~

(KiraKira Precure A La Mode)

Her little backstory spoke to me on a personal level. She talks to much about her interests, and weirds everyone out. She’s so me fr.

I think her knowledge for sweets is really cool. She taught me a lot of things!

I’m not the biggest fan of her design though. I just don’t like that shade of yellow paired with brown.

~⭐️5 - Cure Twinkle⭐️~

(Go! Princess Precure)

She serves.

Her confidence is amazing. And her attitude is perfection.

Her design isn’t for me, but I think it suits her very well. That’s all I gotta say!

~⚡️4 - Cure Peace⚡️~

(Smile Precure)

She was my favorite growing up(back when I watched Glitter Force… *sigh*). She’s super cute! And she’s an artist! I tend to like the artist characters a lot.

Her design is adorable too. I love her hair, and the little *pop* it does when she transforms. And the fact that she can control lighting is super cool!

~🌻3 - Cure Sunshine🌻~

(Heartcatch Precure)

I loved her backstory. Her feeling the need to be masculine, and her longing for cute things made me feel so sad for her. I was so happy when the other girls helped her explore more of her femininity. Did anyone else notice that her hair was longer in the last episode? I loved that detail!

She has a super cool design as well! And her relationship with Potpourri is really cute!

~🍋2 - Cure Lemonade🍋~

(Yes! Precure 5)

Cure Lemonade was the first cure I considered my favorite, and she remained my favorite for a long time.

I loved her personality and vibe. Her whole actress/idol thing was entertaining to watch as well.

But her design is probably what I love best about her. Her hair is just awesome. I love the way it swirls into place in her transformation!

~✨1 - Cure Sparkle✨~

(Healin’ Good Precure)

One of my favorite cures ever!

I love her design. It’s so unique! The poofy underskirt is probably my favorite part!

I see myself in her as well. She gets caught up in the moment, and gets too excited. And she feels like she’s unintentionally dragging her friends into things they don’t want. Seeing things I don’t like about myself in characters pretty much makes me like them instantly.

That’s all! Let me know what you think of my ranking, and how you would rank them yourself!

~~~🎀~~~🎀~~~🎀~~~

~~baileypie-writes

[the-heart-of-a-monster]

I’M BACK MUAHAHAHAHAAHAHAAAA COWER IN FEAR FOR I HAVE RETURNED ONCE MORE TO ONCE AGAIN SPEW THE OBVIOUS

Translation: I’m back and I’m making it everyone’s problem

So yes, I saw the new pages, and as it turns out I was right about Sonic! As suspected, he’s hiding how he really feels about his new bodily features, and I think he’ll continue to do so for the rest of the comic. The finale for this series is right around the corner, and this issue is gonna have a lot of Eggman fighting, so based on what we already know… Yeah. Unless Sonic’s development is intended to be kinda rushed or last-minute, I don’t think he’s going to stop faking his optimism. It also has to be remembered that Sonic doesn’t always have to fake said optimism because he is at heart a hero and a snarky little gremlin. During the earlier days of the comic, Sonic was seen being elated at the prospect of Shadow willingly keeping a secret for him. Bro danced and sang all the way home just because someone was being nice to him. But even still, he’ll most likely continue faking his true emotions at least until the very end of the comic when things go back to normal for him. Because at the end of the day, Sonic is a happy little guy who just does what’s best for him and his friends, and that is that.

About the secret base, I honestly find it so funny and so realistic that the Chaotix have to basically beg for new cases in order to pay for their home and the secret base. It’s like families who thought they’d have enough for two homes but then a year or two goes by and they’re like “Oh crap, we’re broke.” It makes so much sense and it’s so funny to me! Meanwhile the others just appreciate the fact that they have a secret base and not the fact that they pay for both homes. 🤣

Chaotix: 🥲 Yeah yeah we’re fine we’re not broke we’re totally alright 👍🥲

OH AND HERE IS SOMETHING I JUST THOUGHT OF. There is of course a reason why the Chaotix have a secret base, and I wondered for a second why they would need it in the first place. They’re detectives, journalists, problem-solvers. In their field of work, it doesn’t take too much effort to become targets of the government. So, in case they got noticed by either GUN or some other important people, they have a back-up place where they could continue their work in secret. I think they specifically anticipated GUN, because they make a point to mention them in their explanation in the newest page. Probably not something SuperEm thought too hard on, but uh. I did. So… Guess I did their job for them???? idk I thought it would be cool to flex my worldbuilding skillz

Now I wanna talk about Rouge here. She, along with Amy, know far more than they let on and I’m wondering if that will have a part to play in Sonic’s story moving forward. In the newest page, we see him standing awkwardly and trying to grasp the fact that his friends knew about him for a while! He figured Tails might have taken the hint a while ago because he knows Tails better than anyone, but Amy?? That’s a different story. The two haven’t properly interacted in a while, almost 2 years (Or maybe 1 year I’m terrible at this) in our time and a week or two in their time. Amy and Rouge have been investigating Dark Gaia and Sonic’s new form for probably a month or so, meaning that they’ve known for a long, long time! I think Knuckles and the Chaotix were the only ones left in the dark the longest. So if Sonic were to find out about this, how would he react?? I’m thinking it wouldn’t be too different to his reaction about Tails and everyone else knowing, but him and Amy have had a rocky relationship status over the years, so it could also be different. I doubt we’ll get to see anything since it doesn’t make much of a difference to the blue blur at this point in the comic, but if we do I’m excited to see how he’ll react!

Now I’m going back to Sonic for a bit because I noticed something intriguing about him in the newest page. In the first panel, we see him standing awkwardly with his hands tied behind his back, fidgeting with his fingers impatiently. Then we see him immediately walk over to Shadow, who’s waiting for him outside. When he opens the curtain, we see him squint upwards towards the sky, a warm light seeping onto his face and his whole stature seeming softer. (For lack of a better word) Thematically, this sequence of movement/expressions is used to indicate a character’s growth, or to just show that they are willing to become better. I mean, that’s my takeaway from that. I’m not a theatre/film professional. All I do is stare at animations and talk about each frame as if I know stuff. But for me that’s the kind of vibe I’m getting from this page, that Sonic is learning or growing, and that he’s willing to step out into the light and be fine with who he is. Earlier on in the comic, he would’ve requested for Shadow to come inside or for him to not be seen by others, but now that he’s been through quite a lot and after being appreciated by the small snowy village, he feels much better about himself and is thus willing to just. Walk outside for a bit and talk to someone. Sonic is learning how to be around people again, learning to trust others with his secrets, and I love that for him.

Again this most likely is not SuperEm’s intention and I highly doubt those were the actual the thematically correct rules, so if anyone is reading this and is a film/comic geek, please Please PLEASE correct me via a reblog or a comment. I need some correction desperately please. I don’t wanna spew incorrect information.

Now, I would go ahead and talk about Shadow because he clearly has a lot going on in his brain, but OH MY GOD THIS THING IS HUGE. PROBABLY THE BIGGEST ASK IVE EVER WRITTEN HERE ON THIS FINE WEBSITE CALLED TUMBLR. So please do yourself a favor and give your eyes a break because holy crap I did not skip any corners for this one. Your pupils will thank you later, I promise. Go read a real book or go outside or something, please.

Anywhizzle, thank you so so so much for reading this whole thing, and have a good day/night!

(Also SuperEmeralds, just know that I adore your outdoor backgrounds so so much and they are not being overlooked. Your background skills are amazing and I’m so hype for what you have in store for the next few pages)

i think it is interesting how split the opinions are on sonic having learned nothing throughout the story and sonic finally having accepted his flaw and adapting. the mirror snap has divided the thoam theory community like no other askfjhasjkfhajk

who says they're paying for that run down place though? trust me i think super hard about literally everything, im sometimes embarrased abt it bc literally no one ever points most of my little details out but it makes me happy to connect dots so i just keep doing it

though sonic already reacted in a way, he knows everyone knew. granted the explaination happened off screen because quite frankly i didnt want the same conversation to happen twice back to back with the end of issue 8 and the beginning of issue 9, its better to just fill in the blanks yourself with everything.

the way i wrote sonic's emotions after waking up hopefully convey everything going through his mind well. there's a whole lot more pages to this so rest assured it's not over! your interpretation definitely makes sense! though i'd def disagree with the idea that in an earlier state of the comic sonic would've called for shadow to come inside? if his secret came out earlier in the comic he would still have reacted similarly and learned his lesson equally. the difference with the way it is in the comic is that he learned more about himself, and shadow, by dragging out the resolution to his (non)problem

thanks btw i love drawing environments and ur gonna get a good view of some really cool stuff soon ^_^

btw i have a name.. u can call me talaka, it's a little awkward to be called by my @ lol