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zippityzap · 3 years

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Sonic Tarot Card Project: explanations for character picks

Recently I completed a summer-long project where I created Sonic themed versions of the tarot major acana. I put a lot of research and thought into what characters to assign to which cards, and I wanted to explain my rationale behind each one! (Everything’s under the read more cut because this is a very long post!)

To start off, let me explain why I did this project in the first place. This summer I watched Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure for the first time, and in Part 3, Stardust Crusaders, the majority of the stand abilities are named after the tarot major arcana. Thanks to cultural osmosis I vaguely knew the meanings of a few of the cards and I realised that one of the characters suited his assigned card pretty well. I was curious if this matched anyone else and so once I finished watching that part, I did research on tarot and found that yeah, a lot of them do match! That got me interested in tarot and since I like combining things I’m interested in, I decided to make Sonic versions of the cards.

I do want to note that while Jojo did inspire this project in a lot of ways, I tried not to let my character picks be influenced by Stardust Crusader characters, although there did end up being some picks that did coincidentally happen to match nicely anyway. Also, I’m not gonna lie, ever since picking these card choices I’ve been highly tempted to draw Sonic as Polnareff.

Anyway, on to my explanations for character choices!

0: The Fool (Charmy Bee)

The Fool represents innocence, spontaneity and recklessness. I believe Charmy’s happy and carefree nature, along with the simple fact that he’s essentially just a little kid who likes to have fun makes him a great fit for this card

1: The Magician (Infinite)

The Magician represents creation and strength, but also manipulation and narcissism, a good match for Infinite and the powers of the phantom ruby. (I was also very pleased to notice that the traditional art for the card has an infinity symbol- everything lined up very well!)

The Rider Waite version of the card also depicts a sword, a wand, a cup and a pentacle; the suits of the minor arcana. I have attempted to depict these with various objects from the Sonic series, namely Infinite’s sword from the IDW Forces prequel comic, the sceptre of darkness from '06, a chaos emerald, and a ring respectively.

2: The High Priestess (Princess Elise)

The High Priestess represents secrets, repression, and the unknown, which I believe fits with Elise’s initial desire to control her emotions and her sadness. (Admittedly this is one of the looser character/card connections for this project, but my two other picks for this card I felt were better suited to different cards)

3: The Empress (Vanilla the Rabbit)

The Empress represents nurturing, fertility and childbirth, all traits that I believe make this card a good pick for a kind, caring mother like Vanilla

4: The Emperor (Dr Eggman)

A card fitting for the leader of the Eggman Empire! The Emperor represents authority, power, and tyranny, all traits Dr Robotnik desires, if not possesses in many continuities.

5: The Hierophant (Espio the Chameleon)

The Hierophant represents wisdom and tradition, and in both upright and reversed forms it has large connections to the concept of social conformity. Perhaps I’m drawing more from the various comic versions of Espio, but he comes across to me as someone who is hyper-aware about how he presents himself.

Fun fact: a hierophant is essentially another word for a religious leader, although I’ve never seen it used outside the context of tarot. I assume the religious connection is the reason why in the OST of the Jojo part 3 anime, Kakyoin’s theme is called Noble Pope.

6: The Lovers (Amy Rose)

The Lovers represents love, communication, and passion; and Amy is certainly a character who wears her heart on her sleeve! She’s a good example of a character who I feel fits a number of different cards, however there are no other characters who suited The Lovers quite as much as her.

7: The Chariot (Sonic the Hedgehog)

The Chariot represents journeys, wanderlust as well as the ambition and willpower to achieve your goals, which I believe is the perfect match for Sonic’s adventurous and heroic spirit. This was one of the first cards I decided on and it’s probably the one I’d defend my interpretation of the most.

If you’re wondering why there’s dark and hero chao in the artwork too, it’s because the original card art depicts the titular chariot being pulled by black and white sphinxes, and this is my way of calling back to that.

8: Strength (Maria Robotnik)

This card pick might seem unusual at first if you take the word ‘strength’ at face value, however considering the original card art depicts a maiden peacefully taming a lion, perhaps the Strength card represents inner strength, courage and determination rather than physical strength. These are traits that I believe Maria possesses.

9: The Hermit (Knuckles the Echidna)

The Hermit signifies awareness and independence but when reversed can mean isolation and resignation, traits that parallel well with Knuckles and his duty to be the protector of the Master Emerald

10: The Wheel of Fortune (Big the Cat)

The Wheel of Fortune represents fate, karma and luck! This is admittedly a bit of a cheeky dig at myself since I’m awful at the Big fishing levels in SA1 and mostly got through them through luck. But that’s not to say the card doesn’t apply to Big himself! His frequent cameos do have a bit of a fate/destiny vibe to them and in IDW Big is lucky enough to manage to avoid the metal virus for quite a long time.

11: Justice (Vector the Crocodile)

The meaning of the Justice cards is… pretty much what it says on the tin: fairness and clarity. Of course the Team Chaotix detective agency represents this as a whole, but that trait especially shines through with Vector himself. He may be a little money oriented, but doing what is morally right always takes priority.

12: The Hanged Man (Shadow the Hedgehog)

The thing about Shadow is that he’s a fairly complex character which means there are a number of cards in the Major Arcana that match him well, but I knew early on when tackling this project that I wanted to assign Shadow to The Hanged Man. This card represents change, release and sacrifice, which all align well with the character arc that Shadow goes through during the course of SA2 and beyond.

13: Death (Tikal the Echidna and Chaos)

Despite the morbid name of the card, (and the admittedly macabre scene I’ve depicted) the Death card is not an inherently negative card to draw. Yes, it can mean endings and grief, but it can also mean letting go and new beginnings. The story that Tikal and Chaos go through in SA1, their anguish and how they later find peace, is something that I think pairs well with this particular card.

Fun fact: this is the only card in this project that has two significant characters on it rather than just one. I felt I needed both of them to be on the card in order to fully represent its meaning

14: Temperance (Blaze the Cat)

The Temperance card signifies balance, harmony and patience, which matches Blaze’s very poised and graceful demeanour. Admittedly I had a little bit of trouble deciding on a card for Blaze since the High Priestess and the Hierophant are also good matches for her.

15: The Devil (Rouge the Bat)

The Devil card represents temptation, seduction, and materialism and well… look, Rouge is one of my favourite Sonic characters, I’d be one of the first people to tell you that there’s a lot more to her than what initially appears, she is so much more complex than just sex appeal and a gemstone obsession. However, I felt there was no other character that matched the traits of this specific card better than Rouge, and so my choice was decided by that.

16: The Tower (E-123 Omega)

The Tower card represents a number of things; disruption, disasters, sudden changes etc, however the trait that made me believe that Omega would be the best selection for the card was violence.

17: The Star (Miles ‘Tails’ Prower)

Tails’ character arcs normally centre around him gaining independence and self-confidence and learning to believe in himself. He is also largely characterised by his unyielding faith and trust in Sonic. These traits are the reason why I believe The Star card represents him well, as it symbolises hope and faith.

18: The Moon (Shade the Echidna)

The Moon card symbolises mysteries and the unknown, and when Shade is first introduced in Chronicles, she and the rest of the Nocturnus Clan are certainly presented as mysterious. The Moon can also represent misconception, which fits well with how Shade was initially unaware of the true nature of Ix’s plans.

19: The Sun (Cream the Rabbit)

The Sun, when drawn in an upright position, has a lot of positive meanings! Freedom, fun, happiness, good luck etc. Cream’s cheerful and optimistic disposition makes her a good match for this card

20: Judgement (E-102 Gamma)

The Judgement card symbolises liberation, awakening, redemption and second chances, all of which I believe represent Gamma and his character arc in SA1 well

21: The World (Metal Sonic)

In the upright position, The World card symbolises triumph, completion, strength and happiness while in reversed position can mean failure, anxiety, lack of self-confidence etc. I had both positioning of the card in mind when connecting it to Metal Sonic; he is devoted to the tasks given to him and is self-assured in his belief that he is the true/superior ‘sonic’ yet he repeatedly finds himself at the hands of failure. But he doesn’t let previous failures hold him back, thus starting the cycle anew. (Another connection to the World card as it also symbolises cycles)

#sonic the hedgehog #tarot cards #I'd be curious to hear if people agree/disagree with my choices

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geek-gem · 3 years

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Sonic Resurgence Characters

This is my part 1 of this. I’ll make more with reblogs. I have talked about this before. But to get attention off of the last reblog. I’m finally gonna make this shit. The other parts will include Chaos, Shadow, Knuckles, and whoever else. This may get developed more and better as time goes on.

Sonic The Hedgehog.

Voiced by: Zeno Robinson.(The Owl House)

Age: 21.

Info: Said to be born on somewhere named Christmas Island, Sonic is a young adult blue hedgehog. Born with the remarkable power of super speed and other abilities that make him less originally than other animal people where he grew up.

Despite mainly raising himself and being seen as an outcast and loner. Sonic throughout most of his life has hated oppression and injustice. Knowing he has the power to make things right. Sometimes he has done simple things to something bigger. Whether it’s saving a group of people from a burning building, or being able to stop a group of criminals. He has mostly kept to himself, while helping out here and there. Not wanting fame, and just keeps moving.

But due to for some reason the military accusing him of stealing these things called Chaos Emeralds, and doing other sorts of horrible things. He is chased by the military and tries to figure out what’s going on. Which leads him into allying himself with people he’s met before, or hasn’t met.

Hardly ever worked with anyone, but not minding it. Sonic and others are thrust into an adventure that goes beyond trying to not only prove Sonic’s innocence. But possibly the fate of the world is at hand. All while Sonic soon feels like he in a place where he belongs. A family that he can finally be close to.

To protect his newfound place and family. He must fully embrace his powers and push harder than before as he goes against his toughest challenge yet. Which is himself in a way.

Metal Sonic.

Voiced by: Zeno Robinson.(The Owl House)

Age: None. But mentally, Sonic’s age.

Info: Built to withstand most firepower, able to break the bones of even the most deadliest of men, being able to take on groups of soldiers, and possibly one of the fastest machines in existence. Possibly the perfect killing machine, a literal terminator that is based on maybe the most powerful being on the planet.

Metal Sonic is truly a dark image of what Sonic is. Cold, unremorseful, brutal, and mostly silent. Built to be the perfect weapon to be loyal to Robotnik during his conquest and plans. And built to be superior than the original Sonic.

But once Metal meets the original. His mindset starts developing, becoming more aware and starts adapting. Thinking about what he was built for, and his entire existence.

While not interested in overthrowing Robotnik because he thinks it’s meaningless, while also being loyal to the doctor. The more he fights Sonic, the more he thinks and questions his reality and purpose.

Metal soon realizes that to put an end to his troubles. That there must only be one Sonic. Which means to kill his original self and prove he is the real Sonic. And he will do anything to achieve that goal of proving himself against Sonic.

Dr. Robotnik.

Voiced by: John DiMaggio.(Batman Under The Red Hood)

Age: 52.

Info: Despite being respected by people around the world. As he grew up, Ivo Robotnik was an egotistical man and still is. But his ego also matched his big plans, despite having a sense of humor, and able to gain people’s trust easily. He is not a man to be messed with.

Having disappeared for a year, Robotnik had returned with the means to challenge anyone who stands in his way. A man with an IQ of 300, thinking himself to be better than anyone. He goes rogue against everyone in conquest to achieve power himself and present himself as a clear ruler.

Able to make machines that can topple empires, and other powerful armies. Robotnik will not let anyone stand in his way of achieving his goal. To the point he makes sure to make a robot that will make sure his end goal will be met. And that same robot is Metal Sonic.

Sienna Regine.

Voiced by: Wendie Malick.(The Owl House)

Age: 44.

Info: A single mother who is mainly confidant and honestly sassy. But also quite intelligent being a researcher of trying to learn the history of the animal like people that have inhabited the planet along with humans. And why there isn’t much of them anymore.

Having met Sonic only a couple of times when he was a teenager. Which makes her familiar with the young hedgehog, as they share similar beliefs. But because of her latest research into a rare emerald she found. She and her daughter are thrusted into this situation as well. Which leaves Sienna to offer the hedgehog a hand because she knows he’s innocent.

Miles Tails Prower.

Voiced by: Zach Callison.(Steven Universe Future)

Age: 14.

Info: A young teenage fox born with two tails. And also a super genius that is able to build amazing tech. Tails and Sonic’s paths crossed when the blue hedgehog defended the fox from being bullied. Ever since then, the fox starts to admire the hedgehog for his deeds and wants to try to be like him.

But when he discovers the situation with Sonic, he offers help in trying to prove Sonic’s innocence and stopping Robotnik. As the adventure continues, the two start forming a brotherly bond and that Tails doesn’t need to try to be like him, but himself.

Amy Rose.

Voiced by: Jill Harris.(Hazbin Hotel)

Age: 18.

Info: A young pink hedgehog who is friends with Katelyn. Because of one day the blue hedgehog saved her life. The girl had developed what appeared to be a crush on the hero. Despite looking like she could be pushed around, she is able to pack a punch with her secret hammer.

Learning of Sonic’s situation, she decides to join in despite the protest from some of them. But she desperately wants to help Sonic prove his innocence as well.

Katelyn Regine.

Voiced by: Erica Lindbeck.(Helluva Boss)

Age: 19.

Info: The only daughter of Sienna. Compared to her mother, Katelyn is more shy and less chaotic than her mother. Yet seems to want to step follow in her mother’s footsteps.

Rouge The Bat.

Voiced by: Nicole Tompkins.(Resident Evil 3 2020)

Age: 24.

Info: An unknown treasure hunter that decides to join Robotnik and Metal Sonic in their conquest. Seeming to be more interested in the emeralds than helping them, Rouge is a tricky lady who knows how to handle anyone. Which angers the opposing side trying to stop them.

But later on, it is revealed she was working for the president to secretly stop Robotnik in his plans. Even if it means having to appear and play the bad guy. When she fully isn’t.

#Sonic Resurgence

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stobotnikblewup · 3 years

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Excuse me. Are you in charge here? ...Nope. Wrong. I'm in charge! Me! I'm... In charge. You've never seen anything like this before, have you? Ya see, that's because I'm the top banana... In a world full of hungry little monkeys. Allow me to clarify. Zzt! Zzt! Inasequentiallyrankedhierarchybaseduponlevelsofcriticalimportancethedisparitybetweenusistoovasttoquantify-... Agent Stone? (The doctor thinks you're basic.) I'm initiating a sweep sequence, 25 miles in every direction should suffice... Is he still looking at me funny? Tell him to stop or I'll pull up his search history. Sorry, major... What was your name? NOBODY CARES! Nobody cares. You know why nobody cares? Because nobody cares about your feeble little accomplishments. And nobody cares how proud your mommy is that you're now reading at a ThIrD gRaDe LeVeL! Have you finished Charlotte's Web yet? Spoiler alert; she dies in the end. But she leaves behind a big creepy egg sac... Awhhh, my babies! Ooh, look what came out of MY egg sac! You know what I love about machines? They do what they're told! They follow their programming! They don't need time off to get druuunk and put the boat in water! And you, do what you're told. Stand over there on the edge of your personal abyss... And watch my machines do your job. Can you feel it, Stone? It's evolution, Stone! IT'S EVOLUTION!

Stone, do you see anything useful in this image? ...Of course you don't. Your eyes haven't been trained to spot tracks by the native american Shadow Wolves. Thanks... For nothing. Nooo, what's really amazing is that from this image alone, I've determined the height, weight, and spinal curvature of this creature. And it doesn't match anything... In earth's entire animal kingdom. This was no terrorist attack, and that's no baby bigfoot. This guy is something else... Entirely.

Good morning, my rural chum! I'm... From the power company, investigating the blackout? If you don't mind, I'd like to take a few readings inside your house? Oh, Spencer! ... He's a good maaaan... Great. I'm sorry, mister... Well, Tom Who's Dentist Calls Him Tim, you may have noticed that this entire town has been experiencing a power outage. 20 minutes ago, I tracked a pulse with a similar energy signature to the one that caused that disruption... Doctor. Doctor Robotnik. But my dentist calls me Rob. I bet they do. I'm sure you're HELLA popular with the Jebs and Myrtles and Billybobs in this glorified gas station rest stop. I'm sure you go way back to the days of TIPPING COWS AND PLAYIN' IN THE JUG BAND! pthpblpbltbhthbtphblp Maybe someday you'll achieve your dream of owning a Costco card or adopting a labradoodle. But the reality is, I've already surpassed EVERYTHING YOU'RE EVER GOING TO DO... Before I was a toddler. I was spitting out formulas while you were still spitting up formula. (I was breastfed, actually.) Niiiice. Rub that in my orphan face. Mr. Wachowski, are you familiar with US code 904 title 10 article 104? Anyone who attempts to aid an enemy of the United States shall suffer death... And if I'm the one that catches you? It'll be worse.

...That you thought that you should stop them? Open your mouth and say you thought that you should stop them. Y'know what's hard about being the smartest person in the world? Everyone else seems STUPID, yes. You got that one. Whatever that creature is, it's our job to secure it, protect it, UNCOVER the source of it's power... And if it resists? We take it apart. Piece by piece. Stone? Call optical illusions, tell em I need new frames. They know what kind I like. ...Oh and bring that quill.

Now THAT'S what I call good cop bad cop. ...Left yourself open. Judging by the most direct route to san francisco, the approximate speed of their vehicle, and local weather conditions, they should be right about.... Here.... Thanks. For nothiiiiing.

No, but thank you for asking. Ever wonder where YOUR tax dollars are going? YEAHHH! OOOOOOH! GIVE ME A BIG! FAT! BREAK! ...Stone? May we have a moment? Pin yourself to the wall. You know, I won't miss you when you're gone. Humans are unreliable and STUPID and I care VERY little about them. But my machines are diligent. Relentless. ThEyRe EvErYtHiNg To Me! .... Omoshiroi.

AUGH! ...What are you, an imbecile? Of course I want a latte, I LOVE THE WAY YOU MAKE THEM! ...Ready the prototype. With this kind of power, my machines will finally be able to reach their full potential.

Welcome to San Francisco, Mr. Wachowski. Are you enjoying the clam chowder? ...It's a flight suit! Designed to modulate my body temperature and reduce drag! Oooh, good one! You are catching FIRE, Thomas! And speaking of heat, I see you've taken a lover. Does she have a name, or should I just call her 'colateral damage'? The time for talking is over! It's time to push buttons. Confidence! A fool's substitute for intelligence. ...I was not expecting that! ...But I was expecting not to expect something, so it doesn't count.

May I give you one genius piece of advice? Don't run. It'll only hurt more if you do. ...The hard way it is. That was an illegal left, by the way! Excuse moi, monsieur! Lost... visual... contact... You can't be up there, it's one of the seven wonders!

You're an astonishing little creature. I can't wait to take you back to the lab for a litany of invasive exploratory procedures. Any last words? I don't have to tell you how many scientific breakthroughs have been made possible by animal testing. You're being very selfish right now. WHAT THE- who the HELL do you think you are? Autopilot, adjust. WHY? WHY would you throw your life away for this... THING? That's why I don't have friends. Next thing you know you're somebody's best man and they wanna have the wedding out of town, like nobody has ANYTHING better to do. Anyway, where was I? Oh yes. You were about to die. ...I don't mean to be indelicate here, but someone should get some ice... Keep the body fresh. HE'S JUST A SILLY LITTLE ALIEN, HE DIDNT BELONG HERE! ...Oh, NOW YOUVE DONE IT! AAAAAAAAaaaaaauuuuuu....

My grasp on sanity remains... Absolute. Isn't that right, agent stone? Why don't you get a head start? Do some rockonnaisance! AHAHAHA! ROCKONNAISANCE! What's the matter with you? Here's the sitch... Uninhabited planet, no resources, no apparent way home... A lesser man would die here. I'll be home by Christmas. Zzt! Zzt! ROCKONNAISANCE!!!

#doctor's log #long post

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alchemy-fic · 3 years

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DELETED scenes from 88 and 89

The doorbell rang.

“MARI, who is it?” Eggman called.

“It’s… it’s your mother and she looks very upset.” MARI answered. “Do I enter lockdown mode?”

“Uh, no.” He escorted the Mobians to the operating room to wash up. He ran to Sheptilah and took her hands in his. “Please. Please be nice to Mama. She’s very abrasive but the sooner you meet her the better. It’s like ripping off a scab. She’ll leave on her own when she gets bored.”

“How bad can she be?” Tilly asked.

Eggman pulled her into the elevator and got off on the ground floor. “Just promise me you won’t hurt her and you’ll be patient.”

“Of course, Ivo.” Tilly cocked a brow.

“MARI, I want all the robots to treat Mama with respect. She’s still family so no blasting her, got it? Just keep her happy.”

“Yes, sir.” MARI answered.

Eggman threw open the door.

Before him stood a shorter, heavy set woman with the same luxurious mustache as her son. Her pink and white dress did not match her oversized teal church hat or her black pumps. She had the same black sclera and red irises as her son and spoke with a deep, booming voice. Her lipstick was expertly applied as was her eyeshadow. In her hand she carried an old, beat up suitcase.

“Mama!” He said through a forced smile.

“Why didn’t you invite me to your wedding, you slime bucket!? Just when were you going to tell me you got married!? ” She hollered. “I had to find out in the Mobius Home For Really Bizarre Mothers from some river rat’s bubbie that you got hitched! Is this the girl?” The woman spat.

“Mama, this is Sheptilah, my wife.” He gestured at her.

“Why does she look like Cher but with the colors inverted? Did you marry some dirty hippie? You didn’t even ask my permission to marry someone! How do I know if she’s any bad for you?”

“Mama, you will be pleased to know that Sheptilah is a queen .”

“Oh, that explains it. You married a goth queen. Who else would mix black lipstick, heavy black eyeshadow and white hair?”

“I’m wearing kohl.” Tilly crossed her arms. “It’s my custom, I’m not goth . My people never invaded the Roman empire.”

“... Not visigoths , girl.” Mama looked at her with a furrowed expression, one eyebrow cocked. “It’s like you aren’t… from this time. Nobody calls it kohl anymore...”

“She’s a real queen… It’s a nation near Iran.” Eggman interjected.

“Oh, great . Why haven’t you taken over the world or gone to war? However many goats he traded for you it was too many, little girl.” She blew past the couple and trudged into the kitchen to fix herself a snack.

Eggman looked at his wife apologetically.

“That is not abrasive.” She hissed under her breath. “That’s virulent . Also, I’m worth many, many goats.”

“I’m sorry. I love you, but please handle her until I’m out of surgery. I’ll make it as quick as possible.” He trotted after his mother.

Sheptilah took her time following them.

“Mama, I’m about to go help perform surgery on someone upstairs. In the meantime my wife and the robots will take care of your needs.”

“I didn’t raise such a wuss. Go, do your totally real surgery thing. I’m sure it’ll be all your robots and not your own handiwork.” She popped open a soda and guzzled it.

“Mrs. Eggman…” Sheptilah said, watching her husband leave the room.

Ivo winced and broke into a sprint.

“My name is Sylvia Robotnik! My slimeball of a son changed his last name years ago because he was ashamed of our family name.” She tossed the empty can over her shoulder.

“My apologies, Mrs. Robotnik.”

“You, girl, will call me Madam.” She piled on random ingredients to make a giant, disgusting sandwich.

“Right, sorry.”

“So if you’re a queen why do you live here in this dump?” She knocked the refrigerator door closed with her hip, making the appliance rattle.

“Truthfully,” she hesitated, “I am a five thousand year old queen and my kingdom doesn’t really exist anymore.”

“Of course you are. So why would my loser son marry you? Oh, no. Did he knock you up?”

“Ivo is not a loser,” Tilly grit her teeth, “And I am not pregnant.”

“He’s a loser, sweetheart; but you’re avoiding the question. Why would he marry you? ”

“Because he loves me?”

“Ivo doesn’t know how to love! I didn’t raise him to be sappy and sentimental! And what’s he trying to pull by being buff now?” She sat down to eat.

Sheptilah picked up the can and put it in the recycling bin.

“How are you even that old?” Sylvia practically ate the entire sandwich in one slobbery bite without chewing.

“I’m a witch and I was kept in a crystal for five thousand years until Ivo stumbled upon me and brought me home.”

“Oh, I see. You don’t have much experience with men! That’s why you decided to tie the knot with my loser son.”

“Madam, I think you don’t understand. He’s built himself an empire and controls almost every continent from right here in this lair with his Egg Bosses. He’s a literal emperor. He has a base on the moon . The moon!”

“So? What has he ever done for his mother?”

Tilly groaned in frustration. She balled her fists then relaxed. “Do you just not like me because I’m brown-skinned ?”

“What? No, I don’t like you because you’re a hippie! Look at you recycling and cleaning and whatever else it is you do. I bet that ugly garden out back was your idea.”

“Hmm…” Sheptilah mulled this over. She switched gears.

“What?”

“I think you would like something to eat, yes? I make great honey cakes.”

“How good of a cook can you be? You are a string bean.” Sylvia looked her over suspiciously.

Sheptilah summoned a plate of piping hot fried dough and a pot of honey. She drizzled the golden liquid over the cakes and slid it toward Sylvia.

“I am a woman of many talents, Madam.” Sheptilah then summoned gold coins into her hands and turned them into brilliantly cut gemstones. “Your son and I have plans for world domination, we are just busy with other things at the moment.”

Sylvia pushed the plate away. “Parlor tricks. Not very impressive. I’m growing bored with you, girl.”

“Well, what do you want to do?”

“I want to level this whole island to build a poorly designed parking lot with a ton of toll booths, for one. Then I want that stupid hedgehog caught and killed.”

“Are you talking about Sonic?”

“Yes! That pest! Always interfered when I tried to help my son get ahead in life. Do I smell cookies?”

“Yes, right this way.” Tilly escorted her to the dining room. “I made this tea myself.”

“Brew a fresh pot! I don’t know how long this has been sitting out here; and I want more cookies!” She practically inhaled the plate of leftover madeleines. “Don’t get any of your gross hair in them, either.”

“Right away,” Tilly left for the kitchen with the teapot. She washed it out and gathered some ingredients for a different brew.

Lavender, bergamot, catnip and lemon balm were added and boiled to extract flavor. As she poured the strained, boiling tea into two cups she whispered into one.

“ This tea as it passes lips, shall cause exhaustion with each sip. Every flavor strong and steep shall

curse the drinker into sleep. ”

Faint sparkles appeared as she blew across the tea. They disappeared and both cups looked identical again. Sheptilah turned the cursed tea cup so that the handle pointed inward and she could tell the difference.

She used magic to summon new cookies and brought them to the table.

Sheptilah placed the teacups on the table with a click and slid the cursed one to Sylvia.

The woman picked up the warm cup in her hands and inhaled deeply. “Smells awful!”

Sheptilah waited patiently for the woman to sip her tea but Sylvia lingered on her cup. “You’re a witch, right?”

“Yes.”

“Can you read tea leaves? I want you to read my fortune.”

“I can read tea leaves.”

“Well, go get some so you can do that!” Sylvia put her cup down but kept her hands on it.

Sheptilah groaned and got up. She retrieved some tea leaves in a slotted spoon and came back. She tipped the leaves into Sylvia’s cup and set the utensil aside.

“What’s in this junk, anyway?” Sylvia took a sip and yawned. “The aftertaste isn’t bad, at least.”

Sheptilah smirked. “Bergamot, lavender, you know… tea stuff.”

Ivo’s mother rested her elbow on the table and leaned her face against her palm, sloppily swaying the

cup back and forth as if she was aerating wine. She watched the tea leaves spin in the vortex she created.

“Feeling tired?” Tilly asked in a somewhat antagonizing voice. Sheptilah sipped her tea primly.

“Yes, it was a long trip up here.”

“That’s too bad.”

“It is, isn’t it?” Sylvia grinned mischievously and guzzled down the rest of the drink. “You’re too pretty for my son.”

“Hmm?”

“You’re too pretty . You’re outrageously skinny, your hair is too long and you wear nice clothes. You’re too pretty for him.”

“Do you mean to say I’m too feminine?”

“Too fragile in looks but not personality.” She shot a pointed look at Sheptilah, a broad and evil smile drawn across her face. “I figured you’d try to poison me.”

Tilly stiffened up. She felt her chest grow warm and her eyes become heavy.

“I’m immune to all that from years of eating hospital food but I switched the cups just in case .”

Sheptilah’s hands went numb. She dropped the cup and it shattered, spilling its cursed contents on the table. Sylvia stood and walked around toward the prone witch without letting the tea touch her.

“Ivo may be an idiot but he’s my idiot and I know my idiots. I know he’d never settle for anyone who wasn’t as smart and conniving as him; but I’m disappointed with how weak you are. A garden, recycling, being clean and nice? It’s disgusting in all the wrong ways! If you really knew what you were doing you'd have cursed both cups.”

“I eviscerated Katella.” Sheptilah muttered. "I can and will kill you , too."

“But you healed her and look what happened.” Sylvia pointed to the missing finger.

“How do you…”

“I have access to and read the EggNet, sweetheart.”

“How?” She struggled to stay awake.

“My son is predictable and never changed his passwords.” Sylvia gingerly brushed Sheptilah’s hair out of her face. “Are you dying?” The leaves stuck in her teeth made her smile look all the more menacing.

“No… It’s… sleep...”

“Too bad. Don’t worry, I won’t kill you.”

KORin entered the room. “Step away, Sylvia.”

“What the Hell are you supposed to be?” Mama Robotnik rested her hands on her hips. “Some kind of maid bot?”

“I’m the bouncer. It’s time for you to go.” KORin fixed her eyes on the woman.

“Nah, no thanks.” Sylvia walked up to the robot. “Stand down, tin woman.”

“My orders are to protect the family. I am here to protect the empress. Leave.”

“See, that’s the thing. Who is higher up on the rung? The emperor or the emperor’s mother?”

“KORin… it’s okay.” Sheptilah shut her eyes. “It won’t last… long…”

“Are you sure?” The robot stared at the witch.

“Yessss...” She passed out.

“So? What are you waiting for?” Sylvia stomped her foot. “Let’s move the body and get started on world domination!”

An hour into the surgery things were well underway and proceeding fine.

“Doctor Eggman?” Smiley looked up from his work when he saw the human move oddly out of the corner of his eye.

The human swayed on his feet. “Maybe I was not ready to come back…” He sat on the floor away from the operating table and rubbed his temples. “Suddenly I’m exhausted.”

Lourdes jumped down and checked him over. “When did you last eat?”

“Not that long ago.” He answered.

“Stay here for a minute, okay? Until you feel better.” Lourdes went back to monitoring Maw’s vitals.

“This surgery is going to take at least five hours and I need you awake to supervise. Remember, if the cybernetics malfunction we could all get sucked in! That sounds terrible.” Smiley dug around in Maw’s gums.

Eggman shook it off and stood. “I’m fine, I think I just had some kind of blood pressure drop. It only lasted a spell.” He stretched until he heard the joints in his spine pop.

“Neurally mediated hypotension!” Smiley looked up. “You were standing still too long hunched

over and watching us. Walk around the room a bit, you’ll feel better.” The corgi went back to his work.

“Wakey, wakey… your mother in law is ka-ray-zee.” Scourge shook the witch by the shoulders.

Sheptilah snored loudly.

“For God’s sake, lady! What happened?” He lifted her by her hair and slapped her face.

No reaction.

“I wish I could sleep like the dead.” Scourge slapped his own forehead. “The living, I wish I could sleep like the living… Oh, fuck.” He noticed the cursed tea twinkled oddly in his vision.

“Fuck! Fuck. How do you break curses… shit.” Scourge wiggled his fingers in her direction. “Abracadabra!”

Nothing.

“Um... what did she fuckin’ say once?” He muttered to himself. “Hex breaking… it was some stupid bullshit…oh! Cayenne pepper! Anything fuckin’ spicy.”

Scourge floated into the pantry and knocked ingredients over haphazardly. When he found the pepper he grinned. Grabbing it, he tried to fly out of the pantry only to get stuck with the pepper not passing through the door.

“Shit!” He struggled to pull it through, the bottle clanging against the metal. “Come. The. Fuck. On! Why does this work with people but not…”

The plastic bottle pulled through but without the powder inside inside it.

“Pepper. Right… that shit wards off ghosts. There must be no ghosts in fuckin’ Mexico...”

He calmly opened the pantry and tried to scoop up the pepper but it simply passed through his fingers.

“This is so fucking stupid!” He howled.

He angrily floated to the table and picked up Sylvia’s unbroken teacup and poured it out onto the floor. He then went to the pile of pepper and tried to scoop it into the cup with the same fruitless results.

“Fine, we do this the hard way!” He grabbed Sheptilah by the underarms and dragged her to the pile and dropped her face directly into it.

He glowered when he heard Sheptilah snore loudly. After a second the witch sat up sputtering. She clawed at her face, tears streaming from her eyes and mucus from her nose. She vomited up the sparse contents of her stomach.

Scourge calmly walked to the refrigerator and pulled out a bottle of milk. He unscrewed the cap and doused Sheptilah over the head.

“What the Hell, Scourge!?” She choked.

“I just saved your ass, Sleeping Beauty. You’re a real idiot for trying to play the evil queen by cursing her tea. You should’ve cursed both cups and not drank from either!”

Sheptilah felt her way to the sink and washed her burning face. “I’m going to become a necromancer just to bring you back to life so I can slap you to death.” She sloshed some water in her mouth before spitting it out.

“The pepper got into my lungs!” She coughed deeply.

“You’ll heal. Listen… your mother in law is nuts! Nuttier than squirrel shit! Kick her out!”

“Scourge, I can’t breathe. I’m tempted to turn my lungs inside out and run them under cold water…”

“Wouldn’t that make you drown?”

“I can give myself gills!” She spat up a huge wad of phlegm straight into the sink and washed it down the drain.

“It’s the only way I was able to break the spell, ya ingrate.” He crossed his transparent arms.

“Thanks.” The burning began to subside. “What’s Sylvia doing?”

“Trashing the place. She’s already bossin’ Orbie and Cubey around and threw around a bunch of furniture; including the sofa.”

“The really big and soft one?”

“Yep.”

“I’ll have her head!” Sheptilah charged off, bumping into things with her eyes red and bleary. “Sylvia!” She called.

“I told you to call me Madam!” The woman shouted back. “I’m in the den, if you could call it that!”

Sheptilah walked in to see Sylvia moving all the heavy furniture around with one hand.

Holy shit, she thought. That woman has the same strength as Ivo!

“So what happened to your kingdom, anyway? If you were a queen we should use this to our advantage.”

“Advantage for what? World domination?” Tilly crossed her arms. Scourge appeared next to her.

Mama Robotnik let the sofa land with a hard thud. It was moved to the other side of the room blocking an exit.

“Giant parasites we sealed in the moon broke out when your son cracked said moon in half with his nonsense. They’re back and trying to kill everything but especially me. They’re causing all those wild earthquakes.”

“That’s your story?” The woman turned to Sheptilah and stared at her with disbelief.

“It’s true.”

“And how exactly has this prevented you two from taking over the world?”

“Well, we can’t take over a planet if something actively trying to destroy it is in our way. Once we get rid of those things we will decide what we want to do with the empire; but I won’t lie. I am considering expanding it.”

“By how much?” Sylvia cocked a brow.

“I want to convert my pyramid into a base and work on getting a large space station going.” Tilly nodded to herself.

“Small potatoes. Think bigger! Hold the sun for ransom!”

“He tried that once and it didn’t quite work out.”

“Moon for ransom?”

“He already tried that, too.”

“What about all the freshwater for ransom?”

“Eh, pretty much did that.”

“The planet for ransom!”

“Yep. He did that. That one almost worked.”

Sylvia flopped onto the sofa with a disgusted sigh. “But the hedgehog got into the way.”

“Among other things.” Sheptilah stuck out her hip. “Ivo is smart but he often does things without thinking. It’s really not that hard to kill Sonic, he just doesn't want to.”

“See, that’s his problem! He has no killer instinct, but you seem to have a semblance of one.” Sylvia sat up and straightened her hat.

“I have personally executed six people.”

“One of which being the child ghost that is making faces behind your back?” Mama Robotnik smirked.

Sheptilah whipped her head around to see Scourge was acting cute and innocent. She squinted at him before turning back to face Sylvia. “I’m not proud of his death. He’s haunting me.”

“Neener neener nee-nee!” Scourge teased. “Nah, the haunting was revoked forever ago. I’m just here for fun now.”

Mama Robotnik stroked her sizable mustache. “Still, why would my son marry you? More importantly, why wouldn’t he tell me? ”

“Because it was supposed to be a secret . We eloped. We’re not going public with the marriage until a later date. Trust me, he’d invite the world to come see his splendid wedding and get himself decked out and all that.”

Sheptilah sighed, tapping her upper arm with her fingers.

“We’re on thin ice with GUN because Shadow the hedgehog is my familiar, as you probably know.”

“Shadow? ” Sylvia thought this over. “ Gerald’s Shadow? I remember when he was this big.” She held her hands apart by about a foot. “He was an ugly baby. He looked like a turd crossed with a raisin.” She grimaced.

Tilly chuckled. “Yes, that Shadow. I guess not everything is on the EggNet.”

“They executed Gerald, his creator, and Shadow works for GUN anyway?” Sylvia grit her teeth and her face turned red with fury.

“Yeah, after they kept him in stasis for fifty years, destroyed his memory and tried to kill him.” Sheptilah shook her head, “I have a feeling he won’t work for them much longer. GUN really, really hates that he’s my familiar but recognizes they can’t do anything about it.”

They stared at each other in silence for a while.

“So who is my son performing surgery on upstairs?”

“Maw the thylacine. He’s one of the Egg Bosses. His jaw is all messed up.”

“Bah, when will he hire more humans? Who needs animals when you have human beings around? Besides you, of course. You barely count as a human; what with your alien magic nonsense and all that.”

Sheptilah rolled her eyes. “Well, it was nice having you for a visit but now you need to leave. We’re getting ready to bug bomb the place once Ivo’s done with the surgery and no living person can be here.”

“Oh, please! This place is spick and span! Clean as a whistle! It’s disgusting, really.”

“Madam... “

“Take my suitcase.” Sylvia threw it at Sheptilah. She barely caught it, the impact knocking the wind out of her. “And get the master bedroom ready. That’s where I’ll be sleeping. You and my moron of a son can sleep outside in your hippy garden.”

“He is not a moron.”

“He married you , didn’t he?”

Tilly adjusted her grip on the suitcase. “Scourge?”

“Yes?” The ghost smirked.

“Take this… and show her to her room.” She handed the spirit the luggage. Scourge understood and grinned at Sylvia.

“Right this way, Your Disgusting-ness!” Scourge bowed in a grand but obviously sarcastic gesture. He grabbed Sylvia with his free hand and dragged her through the walls and out of the lair.

“Don’t let her back in.” Sheptilah instructed MARI. “Please reactivate your and your sister’s bodies.”

“Thank God for you, mom.” MARI chirped.

Scourge came back, very proud of himself.

“Thank you, King Scourge. Fantastic work.”

“I love throwing people out on their asses.” he ‘dusted’ off his hands. “As long as spicy pepper isn’t involved I can do anything I want.”

“You may outgrow that cosmic ‘allergy’ as you get stronger.” Tilly giggled. “But you’ll always be affected by blessed salt.”

“I’m fucked if I ever go into a salt and pepper store.” He gestured like he was hanged with a noose.

“MARI, how’s the wife doing?” Eggman said.

“She and Scourge just kicked your mom out.”

“It’s nice they’re getting along.” A pause, and then: “Wait, what?”

The lair rumbled.

“Jeepers creepers!” Smiley yelped. “Earthquake?”

“No, that would be my mother.” Eggman sighed. “Finish up with him; I’ll be right back.”

He hurried out of the room.

“Sylvia!” The witch howled. “Put down the boulder!” She stood in front of MARI and KORin with her arms out protectively.

The hulking woman held the giant chunk of outcrop she broke over her head with little effort.

“No! You will learn some manners!” She broke the boulder in half simply by pulling it apart like stale bread.

“What kind of Mickey Mouse physics is that!? ” MARI cried.

“Girls, go back inside.” Tilly whispered harshly.

“No way!” MARI refused.

“You can’t do anything, MARI. It’s forbidden for you to hurt his family and unfortunately that’s family!”

“But we can still defend you.” KORin said.

“Do so from inside the lair. Maw’s still in surgery and he needs the protection. That’s an order!” Tilly ran in zig-zags, making it hard for Sylvia to aim the rocks. The robots lingered in the doorway before going inside.

Mama Robotnik threw both stones at the same time, both just barely missing the witch.

Sheptilah looked up at the shadow darkening over her body. It was Mama Robotnik coming in elbow-first with a wrestling slam. Sheptilah, eyes wide, stared up for the split second it took for gravity to pull the massive woman downwards. All at once the air was knocked from Tilly’s lungs and she was seeing stars.

The acrid smell of sweat and cheap perfume was all she could sense. Mama Robotnik stood up and

trotted off to pick another boulder to hurl.

Sheptilah, dazed and unable to focus, was sure she was flattened like a piece of paper. She felt the back of her head, noting her skull was cracked open and chunks of bone floated in brain matter. Warm blood streamed from her nose. She touched her forehead with her fingers, feeling the indent caused by Sylvia’s elbow.

Another shadow descended upon her. She flinched, believing it would be another blow but instead nothing happened.

Small stones fell around her with an almost hollow clatter. She looked up and saw it was her husband who had just punched the boulder to smithereens.

“Mother!” He shouted angrily.

Shadow teleported in with a massive headache. “Ti-ti! Sorry I’m late; I came as soon as I felt something was off.” He didn’t seem to be too shaken by the image of his witch with her brains out and about. She healed just as quickly on her own.

“Hi, Shads!” She said dreamily.

“She was rude!” Sylvia said petulantly. “I had to show her who was boss.”

Ivo’s fist throbbed. “You need to leave, Mother.”

Shadow turned to Eggman. “Do you want me to kill her?” He started toward Sylvia.

“Maybe.” Eggman said. “Open a portal to some place far away, if you please.”

Sylvia protested. Screaming nonsense, she charged at her only son.

Shadow slashed at the air and opened a knot to a mostly deserted beach.

Ivo picked up his mother, held her over his head and unceremoniously tossed her in. He chucked in her suitcase after.

Shadow closed the portal and helped his witch to her feet.

“Where’d you send her?” Ivo asked.

He shook off his headache. “Coney Island, New York.” Shadow smirked.

“This is the second time my brains were on your lawn, Ivo.” Sheptilah frowned.

Ivo looked at his aching fist and saw his glove was torn and bloody. He walked over to his wife and held her tightly. “Why weren’t you fighting back?”

“It’s hard when your brain is trying to reconstruct itself…” She shuddered. “Thank you for… saving my life.” The full horror of what occurred finally hit her and she stumbled.

He caught her and kissed her cheek. “I’m so sorry I had to leave you with her. I should’ve just kicked her out at first sight. I won’t let her come back ever again. I just couldn’t let the two doctors sit with Maw for that long because the bombs are so delicate sometimes.”

“How did the surgery go?” Sheptilah felt ice cold and shivered.

“Hm? Oh, Maw is in recovery but I don’t care about him right now.” He rubbed her shoulders to warm her up.

“Recovery? Oh, his jaw.” Shadow pretended like he forgot. “You did that today? With your mother here?”

“My mother surprised me.” Ivo huffed. “Had to leave my poor wife with her for four hours…” He rocked her back and forth in his arms.

“I’m okay, really. The lair is a mess but I can clean it up… I tried to curse her with sleep but ended up being cursed myself and while I was out she was rearranging things.”

“Just rest, honey. I’ll have the robots do that.” He ran his hand over the back of her head and cringed when he felt chunks of brain matter and bone. She was really hurt if the meninges tore that easily… what the Hell did my mother do? He thought. “Actually, I’m going to have Lourdes look you over.”

“Should I stay?” Shadow asked her.

“Only if you want to, Shads.” She nodded.

“Call me if you need me.” He took a step back and teleported out. A ring of dust was left behind and blew away in the wind.

“I’m so sorry, Tilly.” Ivo hugged her tightly. “I never should have let her stay. I knew something like this would happen.”

“How did you survive your childhood?” Tilly looked up at him.

“I got myself into boarding school and left home at a very young age.”

She buried her face in his chest.

#deleted scene

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segafan37 · 3 years

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Shadamy Snippets: 12 Years Later Ch1

After the horrible events of the metal virus, when all living things had turned to metal, the nefarious Dr. Eggman had yet again planned to take over the world. But this time with the help of the anthropomorphic platypus, named Dr. Starline. Dr. Starline greatly admired Dr. Eggman and used to work under the human scientist, as his apprentice. However, during the climax of the metal virus, Eggman grew tired of the platypus and fired him. To gain Eggman's graces once again, Starline created two supreme beings. By applying the same procedures performed by Eggman's grandfather, Professor Gerald Robotnik, Starline had recreated "Project Shadow", but instead of protecting the world, as was the intent of Pro. Robotnik, their objective was to subdue it.

FLASHBACK

"I call them: The Ultimatum." Starline said, proudly introducing the mad scientist to his demonic creations.

"Ho Ho Ho!! Starline, you surprise me! Two Ultimate lifeforms!?"

Eggman stared with wonder at the two floating beings inside glass capsules, moving his head from side to side. He pressed his face against the glass of the capsule on his left, trying to get a better look at the creature within. Eggman looked as if he was a child outside a candy store, admiring sweet morsels.

"Yes.", Starline replied coolly, as he stood by the capsule on the right, amused by his bewildered leader.

"So, they have the same strength and power as Shadow the Hedgehog!?"

"Yes, but more so."

"Hmm!?", Eggman questioned, finally turning his attention toward the platypus.

"Shadow claims he is the Ultimate Lifeform," Starline explained, "because of his immortality, but after much careful research, I have identified a singular flaw.."

"And what's that!?"

Starline sighed. He hated to be interrupted.

"He has...", Starline continued, growling slightly, "emotion."

"What! So, you're saying that these beings have no feelings, whatsoever!?"

"Precisely, Doctor! If we wish to be successful in conquering the world, it is necessary that Ultimatum is deprived of emotion."

"Necessary? Why is it necessary?"

"Because, if you examine the original Project Shadow, you'll discover that his emotions have caused him to make many dreadful errors in his past. Shadow's love for Maria and sympathy for Amy made him help Sonic destroy the ARK's canon, which resulted in him losing his memory and being lied to and misused by you. His superiority complex made Zero feel inferior which caused him to become Infinite. His brash behavior gave Neo Metal Sonic what he needed to become Master Overlord. His pride caused him to become infected with the metal virus. And his sense of guilt, at Windmill Village, caused him not to kill YOU, even when he had the chance. Therefore, I removed that feature from their minds."

"I see your reasoning, Starline.", the Doctor realized, rubbing his chin. "Shadow's emotions weaken his abilities! But!.., removing them from Ultimatum will mean that they will complete their mission By.. Any..Means..Necessary!"

"Exactly!", the platypus yelled holding an evil grin.

"Ho Ho Ho!! Ho Ha Ha Ha!! Starline," Eggman began, towering over the platypus, "You've developed something that even I missed when creating Infinite... A being without a soul! And not only have you given me the means to finally destroy that insufferable blue rodent, but also the tools to end Shadow the Hedgehog, as well! I believe this is the makings of a wonderful partnership."

Eggman turned to leave, but stopped short.

"I have one question, though, Starline." He spoke over his shoulder, "I thought the alien race that Shadow's DNA came from no longer existed. How were you able to find a suitable life source to match Shadow's?"

Starline gave a smile like the Devil and said, "I have my ways, Doctor."

END OF FLASHBACK

Eggman released Ultimatum into the world. I remember it like it was yesterday. Everyone was there: the Chaotix, Team Dark, the Babylon Rogues, Blaze, Silver, Tangle & Whisper, Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Cream & Gemerel, and me... Amy

Want to read more? Check out my story on Wattpad, DeviantArt, or Quotev!

#amy rose #shadamy #shadamyforever #sonic couple #fanfic #fanfiction #shadow the hedgehog #idw sonic #deviantart #quotev #wattpad #my story #sega #story snippet #love story

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mobius-prime · 4 years

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186. Sonic the Hedgehog #118

Oh boy, we've got a big one on our hands, guys! First of all, it's worth noting that for the next seven issues the comic kind of had this "magazine cover" gimmick going on, where every story was described on the cover in a humorous, pseudo-tabloid manner. And second, every story in this issue is highly significant, two of which have a huge impact on future storylines, and one of which resolves a problem I've been salty about for a while. So without further ado, let's jump right in!

Robotnik's Return

Writer: Benny Lee Pencils: Steven Butler Colors: Jason Jensen

“Benny”, I've noticed, as a writer has an unfortunate tendency to solve any conflicts in the plot extremely suddenly, often in a very deus-ex-machina manner that contrasts with the "long game" approach that Penders usually takes toward his stories. For those who don’t know - I was unaware as well at first - “Benny Lee” is a pseudonym that Karl Bollers took on for some of his stories after receiving criticism for his writing. (However, I’m listing him as a separate writer just for the sake of consistency, as clearly he didn’t want certain stories associated with his real name.) For whatever reason, his stories as “Benny” seem to be choppy and full of fix-it gimmicks that, instead of gently guiding the story along a natural path, blindfold it and shove it violently into the next plot point without mercy. This story is no different. Eggman and Snively have managed to finally restore themselves to new mechanical bodies without any pesky Mobian interference, and what's worse, these bodies are free of the virus that caused Eggman's data on the location of Knothole to be corrupted. He's delighted at the opportunity to find its location at last and launch an attack, but, you guessed it, right at that moment the Freedom Fighters burst in, having tracked their location.

Suddenly, the forms of Eggman, Snively, Sonic, and Tails all begin to dissolve, with Nicole confirming to a shocked Sally that they've been unexpectedly teleported somewhere else. But where might that be?

Yes, that's right, they've been randomly abducted by aliens! Now, I have to point something out about this page. You can see that at first, the aliens are speaking in some kind of alien language before they presumably switch on a translator or something. Except, that's not actually just "some alien language"! Look closely at it. Notice anything unusual? Anyone who's ever been to Disneyland in California should recognize exactly what they're looking at - the symbols used in the aliens' speech are in fact the same symbols used in the carvings on the walls of the Disneyland Indiana Jones attraction! I recognized it immediately - I grew up going to Disneyland my entire life, and it's still my favorite theme park in the world. So, I took the liberty of translating exactly what these aliens were saying using one of the old decoder cards that they used to hand out in line! For anyone hoping for some intelligible speech, you're going to be disappointed - it looks like they might have just keysmashed on a keyboard and then "translated" the results. The first dialogue bubble says, approximately, "Denite idlothxo vhry muph i," and the second one "Viuyhkvqj efsqr." I say "approximately" because the letterer appears to have taken a few liberties with the symbols, which don’t all exactly match the ones on the decoder card. It's honestly a very strange but funny homage to the ride - clearly, whoever was responsible for the symbols being included is a fan of Disneyland, and as a fellow fan, it gave me a warm and fuzzy feeling inside to see these symbols in the place I would have least expected them.

Anyway, the aliens explain that they've beamed the four of them up here for a little experiment. They use their technology to transform Sonic and Tails into mecha bodies, while transforming Eggman and Snively back into their flesh and blood forms, and inform the four that they will be made to battle each other, and the winners will be reverted to their original forms while the losers will be made to keep their new forms permanently. This seems like a rather pointless experiment, if you ask me - I mean, what is even being gained from this apart from some perverse entertainment? - but the four test subjects are beamed into a holographic recreation of Robotropolis and begin to battle it out. Eggman and Snively immediately plop themselves into a robotic mech, but Mecha Sonic and Mecha Tails easily blow it apart. Eggman runs for his life and Mecha Sonic gives chase, while Mecha Tails guards the terrified Snively to ensure he doesn't run for it. Mecha Sonic easily spots his quarry with infrared vision and shoots a net to capture him, winning the "game."

The aliens keep their word and return everyone to the planet, with Sonic and Tails back in their normal bodies, and Eggman and Snively now reverted back to an organic form. Sonic and Tails return to Knothole where they explain everything that happened to the others, and while they're a little skeptical they ultimately accept the story, though they're nervous that since Eggman is now flesh and blood once more, it will be harder to track him. You see what I mean about this being a deus-ex-machina resolution to the Robo-Robotnik problem? It's good for the story to have him be an organic being once more, so that he has to work harder to protect himself from harm instead of weathering explosions and the destruction of his various bodies like they're mere inconveniences, but just… random aliens being the cause? I dunno, man. It is quite interesting, however, to see Eggman's reaction to being transformed back into an organic being, as certainly while in his own zone he existed for the first forty-odd years of his life as an ordinary Overlander, he's remained a robotic being for decades by now. That will be hard for him to adjust…

Heart to Heart

Writer: Karl Bollers Pencils: Ron Lim Colors: Jason Jensen

Ever since Eggman's capture of the Secret Service and their subsequent infection with his nanites, the remaining members have been in treatment, with Dr. Quack unable to find a proper cure. However, with Rotor's help, a fix involving aggressive nanomachines sent in to attack the nanites has been developed, and everyone is finally cured. Sally welcomes Geoffrey's return to active duty as the leader of the Secret Service, but he seems dejected and uninterested as she walks away. Hershey asks him what's wrong, and he explains his actions up till now - that as a boy, he always greatly admired his father's sense of duty and sought to emulate it, which evolved into his no-nonsense, humorless personality of today. However, he was always jealous of Sonic and wanted to prove that he was better than him, which was why he convinced Elias to accept his "help" in ruling the kingdom in the king's stead.

Now this is the Geoffrey I like. Up till now, he's been alternately somewhat charming and likeable, and a complete jerkwad. This is the turning point where he goes from a self-centered jackass, to a genuinely focused individual who actually respects those around him, including his rivals. It seems that some time in isolated treatment has given him lots of time to reflect on himself, and in the end Hershey brings out the best in him. With his resolve renewed, he approaches the king and asks for permission to take some leave from his position and go in search of the missing Elias, which the king approves, so together he and Hershey leave to find him. This is honestly the best ending to Geoffrey's asshattery that we could get, because not only does it make him a much more likeable character, but it actually pairs him up with someone who is, well, his age, instead of him creepily pursuing a fifteen-year-old as his beau instead. Hooray for character development!

Ultimate Power (Part Four)

Writer: Ken Penders Pencils: Dawn Best Colors: Jason Jensen

We've reached the ultimate confrontation - the culmination of everything the Green Knuckles Saga has been building up to this entire time. Knuckles faces off against Mammoth Mogul, his finger on the button ready to disconnect Dimitri from life support. Mogul reveals that he was able to obtain his own version of the Chaos Syphon due to having actually met Dimitri once before, when he was still an ordinary scientist developing the device. Despite the danger, Knuckles refuses to listen to Mogul, determined to save Dimitri while preventing Mogul from taking his powers, and begins to pulse with light which reflects across the whole city, drawing Remington, Julie-Su and the Chaotix, and Lien-Da to his location like a beacon. Mogul, furious that Knuckles is refusing to submit, hits the button to disconnect Dimitri's life support, and Knuckles immediately leaps into action to prevent him from dying.

…okay, Penders, a word of advice, writer to writer. If you ever make your character say "Not if I go into overload mode," you have just ensured that no one will take him seriously and will immediately begin to meme the hell out of it. Also, when the hell did Mogul find the time and energy to build an entire Chaos Syphon room in the middle of Echidnaopolis? Knuckles, in his efforts to save Dimitri's life while resisting the Chaos Syphon, begins to expend energy at a rate he's never reached before, bathing the entire city in his green light. This rapid release of energy causes Mogul's facility to explode violently, leaving a crater in the city where the building once stood. Everyone rushes to the site of the blast, worried about what they might find.

Oh, did you think this very important main character was going to survive this altercation? Well think again, 'cause Knuckles is deader than dead! While all of this is going on, a rededication ceremony is happening across the city, to honor the return of the island's inhabitants to their homes after the firing of the Quantum Beam. The speaker is confused about Knuckles' absence for such an important gathering, but Lara-Le nervously tries to insist that he probably has a good reason. I'm sure she didn't expect the reason to be that he's really, super duper dead!

Yeah, I wasn't joking, guys. For those of you who hadn't read the comic up till now and were unaware, yes, Knuckles has actually died in this issue. There's no mistake, no trickery. He's gone. And that's the note that this issue decides to end on! I guess we have to say goodbye to Knuckles as one of the comic's main characters, because there's no way a comic book would ever temporarily kill someone off only to bring them back a few issues later…

#nala reads archie sonic preboot #archie sonic #archie sonic preboot #sonic the hedgehog #sth 118 #writer: benny lee #writer: karl bollers #writer: ken penders #pencils: steven butler #pencils: ron lim #pencils: dawn best #colors: jason jensen

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glapplebloom · 4 years

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I like the Sonic Movie in case you didn’t notice.

It takes place 6 months after the events of the first movie. We get a montage of Sonic spending time with Tom and Maddie. Its now around Christmas time and Sonic begins to be super excited about getting a present. But he suddenly stops when he sees an owl. This makes him remember Longclaw, so he loses excitement and heads to his room. Tom goes up so they can talk about it. Tom says that if he ever wants to go back, he can. Sonic insist on staying.

Cue the next day where Crazy Carl calls the police about a fox he captured. He specifically asks for Tom because he thinks he would know what to do with it. When Tom goes to Crazy Carl's place, Carl shows him a two tailed fox in a cage. He looks to be similar to Sonic, but a fox instead of a Hedgehog. Tom ask who he is and Tails answers “Miles Prower”.

After being freed, Tails tells him that he's looking for a Hedgehog named Sonic. Tom putting two and two together brings Tails to Sonic. Sonic doesn't know who Tails is, but Tails seems to know about Sonic. This is because Tails knew Longclaw and she told him about Sonic. Sonic asked if she is okay and Tails informs him that she's not. She has been imprisoned by a Tribe of Echidna because they want to know the secret of Sonic's power. She refused until they captured Tails. Seeing no choice, she tells them about seven gems known as the Chaos Emeralds. When they put the two in prison, Longclaw tells Tails about Sonic. Its Tails idea that Sonic is the key to defeating these Echidnas, so he created a device to help him find Sonic through the dimensions. Sonic wants to go after her right away, but he looks back at his Human Family. Tom and Maddie understand that he needs to go and that they'll be here. So Sonic goes with Tails back home.

In Sonic's world, an Echidna Tribe has a masked figure. When brought to their leader, they unmask it to reveal one of the Echidnas that attacked Longclaw. This is a different Echidna Tribe, one that has been at war with the other. When the warrior told Pachacamac what he overheard, Pachacamac feels the time to be defensive is over. They must go on the offense. As Pachacamac goes into the temple, Tikal and Knuckles overhears this. In this story, Knuckles is Tikal's Bodyguard. Knuckles, being clueless, doesn't understand why Tikal is worried. Tikal then tells him to follow her. Back with Sonic, he is awestruck on seeing his world once more and immediately goes for a run. He enjoys everything until he remembers he left behind Tails. He was about to turn back when he sees Tails flying right behind him. Sonic was impressed and called him Tails. This gets Tails to stop.

Tails sadly gets called Tails as a taunt by the other kids. Its why he decided to focus on technology than making real friends. Sonic was about to say something when they got caught in a trap. This was a high tech trap that you wouldn't expect them to have considering how they first attacked Longclaw. But before Sonic could break out, a pink figure suddenly attacks the Echidnas. Not as fast as Sonic, but you don't get a good look at the person until the fight is over. After one swing from her hammer to knock out the last one, it pans to reveal that it is Amy Rose. She breaks them out of the containment when she finally sees Sonic. Its love at first sight. She tries to play it cool though so think of her being similar to Boom Amy Rose. She introduces herself as an adventurer who travels the world saving people. But three months ago, a group of Echidnas became a bigger threat thanks to their new leader.

Its Robotnik. Three months ago, he managed to find the source of Sonic's home and decided to stop by there to find a better power source. Its thanks to him using Tails that gets the information from Longclaw. If Jim Carey does return, you could always add more scenes of him and make the reveal sooner. If not, good excuse to make Eggman closer to his design thanks to his warp technology didn't work exactly. When Sonic hears the description, he recognizes him as Eggman. And knowing the trouble he caused, he knows they got to stop Robotnik before he takes the new power source to Earth and uses it against the planet. Amy has the Tornado, which allows them to travel to where the Chaos Emeralds are: Angel Island.

At Angel Island, before it floats, Tikal shows the gullible Knuckles the Chao Garden. He doesn't know the details about the Shrine, only that it was their duty to protect it from others. Tikal informs him, and us, the story behind the Chaos and Master Emerald. And it is this power that she fears her father will use against others. She pleads Knuckles to try to find a way to stop it. So Knuckles decides that the only way to do it is to stop the enemies before they use the Emeralds. Problem is, he was a Guardian: so he does not know the identity of the villains. This is how Robotnik tricks Knuckles into helping him fight Sonic the Hedgehog. But when the trio arrive on the island, Robotnik's forces are on it trying to get in.

Sonic and Pals defends it, but Knuckles seeing these creatures attack Echidnas made what Robotnik said believable. While Sonic fight Knuckles, Tails and Amy decides to fight the army and see if they can free any prisoners. Sonic and Knuckles are pretty evenly matched but before they continue, Longclaw stops the fight. Knuckles recognizes her as Tikal's tutor way back in the day. Longclaw is glad to see Sonic is doing well, but fears that retreat is the only way they can be safe. Sonic, remembering the lesson from the first movie, knows that he can't run away. This is his home and he has to help. Longclaw is sad, but proud Sonic grew up to be a kind person. So Amy, Tails and Longclaw try to attack Robotnik's forces while Sonic goes with Knuckles to the Chao Garden. As they arrive, they see Tikal trying to stop her father like in Sonic Adventure.

As they try to reach her, the Chao become hurt during their charge. Soon the Master Emerald begins to crack. Lightning coming from the Seven Gems that surrounds it goes towards it, darkening the Chaos Emeralds. It soon reveals to be Chaos in his perfect form. He creates a huge wave that wipes out everyone. Luckily for Sonic he is saved by Knuckles. He goes down to save Tikal before she is washed away like the others. Amy, Tails, Longclaw and Robotnik avoid this by flying away, but as far as the Echidnas are concern, this is how they're all wiped out. When the group gets back together, Longclaw feared that this is what would have happened if they got Sonic from long ago.

It seems like they have no choice but to retreat back to Earth as this world gets destroyed. But Sonic is drawn to the darken Chaos Emeralds. As he gets close, the electricity that flows through him reacts to the Chaos Emeralds. Despite being darken, they begin to glow the colors they originally had. Tails believes that the Emeralds has a Positive and Negative Charge. Chaos took only the negative, which means there are still Positive Energy within them. Tikal then mentions the Legend of the Seven. Then Sonic focuses the energy towards himself. He soon becomes Super Sonic. This begins a battle between Sonic and Chaos. Sonic does eventually beat Chaos as the water begins to reside. Tikal can feel that Chaos still has rage within him, so makes the sacrifice to be imprisoned with him within the Master Emerald.

With the two in the Master Emerald, Angel Island begins to float and becomes the Floating Island we all know. They all go off the island except Knuckles, who decides to stay because “he's her Guardian”. Sometime later, a portal to the Human World opens. Sonic is there to introduce Tom and Maddie to Longclaw. But he decides to stay here because this world needs him. Tom and Maddie understands, giving Sonic his Christmas Present, a picture of them together. So the team of Sonic, Tails and Amy are made to be this world's heroes. Sonic and Tails goes off ahead as Amy uses the Tornado to catch up with them. But after the credits, Robotnik reveals his Plan B: a black hedgehog in a pod.

#Twist of Fate

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blapisblogs · 4 years

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I have now officially liveblogged every episode of Sonic X. That was certainly... something. It sure had its ups and downs, didn’t it?

I’ll be honest, this show obviously isn’t for everyone. The English dub in particular has many flaws, to say the least, plenty of which I pointed out while blogging about it. I didn’t go too much into the acting for it because, well, let’s face it, that dead horse has been beaten so thoroughly that you can’t even tell it’s a horse anymore. Though I do feel it only fair to mention the voice acting for one specific reason.

You might recall that way back towards the very beginning of these liveblogs I mentioned that the English dub did at least one thing right, in my opinion. I mentioned something that I called the First Sonic Voice Recasting Controversy where the cast for this show ended up replacing the ones for the games in 2005, as well as the Second Sonic Voice Recasting Controversy where they replaced nearly the whole cast again in 2010. Now you might’ve noticed that I’ve briefly mentioned the actual names of some of the voice actors for this dub here and there, but one I never said by name was the one for my favorite character: Doctor Eggman. It’s not because he’s a terrible person or anything (as far as I’m aware he’s alright), I just wanted to save mentioning him for the very end for the, like, I dunno, one or two people who don’t know this.

In the English dub of Sonic X, Doctor Eggman is voiced by Mike Pollock.

You know how I say “nearly” the whole cast got replaced in 2010? He’s the reason for that “nearly” part of it. They did have tryouts for Eggman, but found that nobody could quite match him, so they brought him back, making him the only one who managed to keep his role after the 2010 recasting. (After he was picked and first went in to record lines for Eggman, out of curiosity he asked “Am I the only one?” The response he got was “You’re the only one [from New York] as far as I know”.) As of this post (2019), he’s been voicing Eggman in the games for fourteen years, and sixteen years total once you include Sonic X, which is longer than any of Robotnik’s previous English actors combined. (Actually if he keeps this up for a few more years he may even surpass Eggman’s longest recurring seiyuu, Chikao Ōtsuka, who sadly passed away in 2015.) He’s also been nominated three times for his voice acting as Eggman since the recasting, so I think it’s safe to say it’s been going pretty well for him.

Personally I think he’s gotten even better at voicing him as time’s gone on, and his acting for Eggman is part of what endeared me to the character and brought me back to the Sonic franchise again. I know he wasn’t always Eggman and can’t be Eggman forever, but at this point it’s hard for me to imagine anyone else being quite as good at being this character than him. (Of course maybe someone else could prove me wrong, but... Let’s just say that person is not Jim Carey.) If it weren’t for this show and the circumstances behind everything, he wouldn’t be Eggman right now, and I’m glad things kinda worked out this way.

I guess this is a long-winded way of saying that sometimes something that doesn’t seem so great can later lead to something better.

And that hearing Pollock as Eggman makes me really happy.

Also, he helped make moments like this even more worth it.

Thanks for sticking around and hearing me go on about a cartoon involving a tall, adorable scientist with a fantastic mustache- I mean a blue hedgehog. Next time I’ll try to pick something involving monsters, I promise.

#Blapis' Sonic X Fest #Blapis' Sonic X Fest (Part 3)#not a liveblog #final thoughts #I'm love the Eggman?#long post

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vrheadsets · 7 years

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VR vs. 10 Franchises SEGA Would Be Crazy Not To Bring To VR – Part 2

Hello everyone I’m back to talk virtual reality (VR) and the House of Hedgehog for another week. As you may recall last week on VR vs. I started a list of ten franchises (and one honourable mention) that would – in my opinion anyway – be great for the leap to VR. SEGA is of course no stranger to VR down the years, there was the SEGA VR for instance. A headset which was initially designed with the idea that it could provide support for not just the SEGA Mega Drive/Genesis and the SEGA Saturn but the arcades as well. A project that would have seen a 1994 release date after being revealed at 1993’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES) event. This in itself is not to be confused with the SEGA Master System’s 3D Glasses that allowed you to play a number of titles in quote-unquote “3D”. Yes such things existed.

But enough of the hardware of the past let’s get back into those games franchises, eh? What else, via way of a lick of virtual paint, could hypothetically make its way to modern VR? Well when it comes to SEGA sometimes you’ve got to make some tough choices (as any long time SEGA fan can probably tell you) and when it comes to this list there’s one or two games that could easily occupy the same space. Such a dilemma can be found with our next title, it was a tough decision in the end but let me explain my reasoning.

Virtua Cop: OVERKILL

Admittedly having a game with “cop” and “kill” in it isn’t going to win much in the way of good publicity, but this combination name should tell you everything you need to know about where I’m going with this. For you see when it comes to VR genres we have the ever popular (and increasingly railed against) wave shooter, and it just so happens that for SEGA two franchises – Virtua Cop and THE HOUSE OF THE DEAD*. I could give you very good reasons for both being on this list but I’ve gone with Virtua Cop. Why? Because put simply we’ve not had a Virtua Cop game for nearly fourteen years.

FOURTEEN FREAKING YEARS.

Yet people still think of the series fondly. HOTD on the other hand has had quite a few iterations, is a staple of SEGA’s All-Stars franchise and has proven itself to be an arcade mainstay. In other words, if you’re going to use VR to help elevate some old properties why not help the one that needs it more. Increase your viable library of characters. Increase the interest and hence their and your value. At the very least you’d raise some interest in getting some ports of the older titles going.

For VR the idea is simple. We have wave shooters, and the idea of having such a game where hiding behind some oh so handy barrel or outcrop of rocks isn’t 100% infallible makes it a far more frantic experience.

But what about the suffix? Well people familiar with HOTD will like as not recall the Wii game THE HOUSE OF THE DEAD: OVERKILL. UK studio Headstrong’s entry into the series took the franchise, supposedly back to the very beginning before all the nonsense at Curien Mansion and into the shoes of rookie cop and series protagonist Agent G. Except things weren’t quite as people were used to with the game. OVERKILL took the franchise to 18/R-Rated territory by spoofing the grindhouse genre. Partnering the straight-laced G with foul-mouthed Detective Isaac Washington a man incapable of finishing a sentence without a s***, f*** or m***********. (Except, ironically, at times when it would technically be accurate. Long story.) In fact there were so many swears it actually held the world record for number of swears in a single game for some time. Eventually only taken out by Grand Theft Auto 4 I believe.

The video below features some… examples of this. You have been warned.

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OVERKILL might not have set the world alight with sales but it, along with another SEGA title, Platinum Games’ MADWORLD, certainly held up the ‘adult’ end of the Wii gaming spectrum. It was later ported to PS3 and given extra levels, ported to mobile and eventually PC where it was converted yet AGAIN this time adding old SEGA favourite THE TYPING OF THE DEAD into the mix. Four games from one game. Not bad going, huh?

The point is OVERKILL was very tongue in cheek about the franchise’s own foibles, and that’s in a series that was already very self-aware. It was so fresh and different why not do a similar trick with Virtua Cop? Turn it into a self-aware parody of all those 80’s cop shows. Or even the 90’s, you meta humour all over the place then about old VR tech. Make it these two ridiculously out of touch cops dealing with endless suited gunmen in shades, ninjas and all the other lightgun game staples who for some reason think this is perfectly normal. Make it Miami Vice on acid with smart mouth and a stick up its ass. Make Virtua Cop but HOTD: OVERKILL.

In VR.

Then let me know so I can buy it.

Thanks muchly.

NiGHTS

NiGHTS is a pretty deep franchise, if you did but know it and one I have all the time in the world for. Not only do they have the most friendly fanbase I’ve ever met (no really, they’re all lovely) the game is fun, scary and promotes an array of ideas that would be very interesting to explore in VR. For a start there’s the obvious connotations of dreams and nightmares, and Sonic Team had no problem going dark. This shouldn’t be a massive surprise since in one of their games they once showed the moment a little girl gets shot for goodness sake**.

But NiGHTS isn’t just about dreams it is about the psyche itself. The original idea is based on the works of noted psychoanalysts Carl Jung and Sigmund Freud. The ideya you collect are aspects of the Id – your personality traits. hope, growth, intelligence, purity (white) and lastly courage (red). Even their colours weren’t chosen randomly. The game deals with the topics of freedom, confidence, growing up, parental issues, loneliness, friendship, the idea of two people sharing the same experience and trust. NiGHTS is after all actually a Nightmaren – the bad guys. Trusting the person based on their actions and not on the preconception of where they were born is also something NiGHTS (particularly Journey of Dreams which has more of an outright story) touches on.

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It is also about freedom and flight. So I want you to now imagine a first person NiGHTS game, one where you actually get to feel the simulation of flying, where you travel through a colourful level doing tricks and collecting… balls. And things. Now take that landscape with its SEGA blue skies and popping colours and what if we added a touch of Nevermind to it? What if the game reacted to your character’s welfare and became more dark and twisted the closer you came to running out of time or whenever you take a hit? It’s not that far fetched. The various levels in NiGHTS, the world of Nightopia is shaped by the Visitor (your character). The levels are given subtitles such as “The IDEAL”, “The POSSIBILITY”, “The CONFUSION” and are all based on relationships and aspects of their lives.

The feeling of flight and a bit of psychology. Sounds interesting?

OutRun

We all know that driving games can be translated over to VR, some of which can be done very well indeed. But what about SEGA? It has a number of driving franchises that you could port. But All-Stars Racing was never going to be on this list. SEGA Rally was a distinct possibility but no, I turned down that too. Initial-D was a strong contender considering its arcade longevity and popularity specifically in Japan. But ultimately the choice to fill this spot can only be OutRun.

So why OutRun over SEGA Rally let’s say? Because SEGA Rally is a game and OutRun is both a game and wish fulfillment. OutRun has, for decades, been not just about the game but about going as fast as possible in a sweet looking ride to impress the girl. About owning a Ferrari and being the personification of cool. It sells you a fantasy, one that gives tremendous satisfaction. A ‘long-medium right’ done well is one thing, but it doesn’t match slamming the steering wheel to full lock as you drift around a car and through a narrow gap between two buses in your Testarossa (or a British racing green Ferrari F40 if you’re me). It just doesn’t.

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Taking a first person viewpoint and actually living the ride would be quite something. But there’s another reason VR would be an interesting mechanic for OutRun. Do you not remember you have a passenger in your car? A passenger who is very… needy in her desire for you to GO FAST! KEEP PASSING CARS! ETC! As she either falls in love with you or, you know, violently berates you because you clipped a barrier. If you’re actually in the car with her it gives the game an extra dimension as you’ve got to check how your would be lady (or gentleman – I think some choice on who your passenger and driver is should definitely be included at this point) friend is reacting to the ride. They also in doing such act as a distraction, and OutRun is always a balancing act – particularly in Heart Attack Mode – of balancing speed and safety.

For me it’d be a very interesting mechanic to explore.

That’s all for this week. Next week we round off the list some more games including one I suspect none of you will have guessed is on my list. Until then!

* Old SEGA employee note: For some reason THE HOUSE OF THE DEAD is always supposed to be shown in capital letters. It’s part of the branding guidelines. If you see any SEGA official messaging with the game not in upper case it has actually been done wrong. #TheMoreYouKnow

** In Shadow The Hedgehog the moment young Maria Robotnik is fatally shot by government soldiers sent to wipe out the ARK facility is actually shown in the light of Shadow’s eyes at the end of a flashback. That’s messed up, Sonic Team.

from VRFocus http://ift.tt/2kL6imI

#VRFocus #vr #virtual reality #canada

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robotnik-mun · 7 years

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Robotnik Retrospective Part Five: A Robotnik by Any Other Name

It’s that time again folks! Hello and welcome to another edition of The Robotnik Retrospective, where we delve into the depths of SatAM Robotnik, providing insight into why I like the guy so much and all the things that helped to contribute to that, both from within the series itself and without. Having thoroughly covered the in-series aspects of the character, we are now going to veer beyond his origins and take a look at this model’s utilization in other major adaptations within the franchise. In doing so we are going to take a look at how they impacted my perception of the character... as well as address a rather sizeable elephant in the living room. If you follow my blog enough, you’ve likely already guessed as to what THAT could be.

Because no matter how stringent a lot of us tend to be about this sort of thing, we cannot help but take something or the other from other adaptations, especially if those adaptations go into directions not covered by the source- especially when they can fill in the gaps that we might appreciate seeing covered, or various other details we might find fitting for the character. Adaptations can serve as a nifty way to enhance a character!

And with that said, let's get a move on!

On of the great and frustrating things about growing up with Sonic in the 90s? Brand confusion. There were so many versions of the character and his story running around it could be hard to keep track of, and with the advent of the internet it only got worse. Which was the ‘real’ Sonic? The one in the games? The one in the show with Scratch and Grounder? The one in SatAM? The comics in the US or across the pond in the UK? Yeah, the early days were something else, and for a lot of people it could get real confusing. Many fans like myself didn’t really do all that much to differentiate between the adaptations and mediums- Robotnik was Robotnik whether he looked like this, this, or this. Sonic was Sonic, robots were to be fought, and everything else was gravy. Of course, there were always those who liked to scream very loudly about who the ‘real’ Sonic was, but most of us didn’t really care.

I already detailed how that began to change once Sonic Adventure came along and SEGA decided they wanted something a bit more concrete for their setting, but in those days? It was pretty much jungle law. It could be a great thing, and it could be a horribly frustrating thing. The early 2000s in particular could be a pretty nasty time once SEGA decided to put more emphasis on storytelling and pushing a unified vision of Sonic, as you had game purists clashing with people who had preferred the spin-offs getting into a pissing match with one another.

War stories aside though, the nature of Sonic’s franchise during the Pre-Adventure Era was such that there were many many different takes on Sonic available, and as I had estasblished with the Adventures model of Robotnik, this meant that designs introduced in the animated adaptations would be re-utilized for comics meant to tie into the games and shows. The strangest of these adaptations, without contest, had to be Sonic Underground.

Sonic Underground was a very weird chapter in the franchise, with a premise so out there that many half-jokingly wonder what kind of drugs were being inhaled or injected when it was thought up. In some ways a spiritual successor to SatAM, Sonic Underground once more operated under the premise that Robotnik already ruled Mobius and Sonic was fighting to remove him from power. This time however, Sonic was helped along by a pair of siblings, Manic and Sonia, used magical musical instruments to help fight, and of all things was a *prince* whose mother was a queen on the run from Robotnik, who feared a prophecy involving all four that would topple his empire.

The premise alone is so out there that it leaves one to wonder if maybe this was meant to be a different show entirely and simply had Sonic slapped onto it for brand recognition (astoundingly enough though, this WASN’T the case... which is honestly a lot weirder than if it had been another show altered for a quick tie-in). Sonic Underground was notable for being the first western made Sonic show to feature Knuckles... and for being the ONLY Sonic show to never use tails. Infamous for it’s crazy premise, weird designs and shoddy animation, Sonic Underground is a somewhat contentious subject in the fandom- much like everything else really.

Is it bad? Personally... I don’t really think so. There’s a lot wrong with it, but it has things that I feel make it an okay show. Definitely not irredeemably awful. But I digress, we’re not here to analyze Sonic Underground- just a single part of it as it pertains to Robotnik, which is namely the Underground incarnation of Robotnik.

As I said, Underground was in many ways something of a successor series to SatAM- it included much of the original writing staff for that show and re-used mainstays of the series such as Robotropolis and Roboticization, and of course, re-used the design for Robotnik to serve as the basis for the Robotnik of Underground’s setting. So, how did this version measure up?

Well...

Not all that well, sadly. While still a global dictator, this Robotnik’s behavior was decidedly of a more comedic bend than his predecessor. Even more short tempered, bellicose and vain than SatAM’s Robotnik, this Robotnik was much more often subjected to physical comedy buffoonery, and his case wasn’t helped by his voice actor Gary Chalk (who had previously voiced Grounder in AoSTH). Now, Gary Chalk is a very talented and experianced voice actor, but the performance he gave for this Robotnik was less “Menacing Dictator” and more “Pompous Windbag”- and I suspect that was the point.

Other points against him where that unlike his SatAM self, this guy’s reign over Mobius was dependent upon the nobility paying taxes to fund his operations, and that even though he had personally wronged Sonic and his siblings, the emotional impact of his actions were blunted by the fact that they didn’t treat him with the same level of hostility and fear as his predecessor was often treated. His more comedic-by-comparison traits similarly undermined his credibility- he was at once the supreme dictator of Mobius who none the less was often much more thoroughly humiliated than his predecessor, putting him in an awkward middle ground between a comedy villain and a more serious kind of villain that didn’t really work that well.

Adding to that, this Robotnik had absolutely no backstory. While SatAM Robotnik wasn’t exactly a deep well of details when it came to his past, at the very least there was a context to him- he was once the leader of the Kingdom of Acorn’s military and a trusted friend and advisor to the king, who used his influence over the robot army he had constructed to keep the peace to conquer the kingdom from within. In Underground however, there is nothing provided, nothing to contextualize how he came into power to begin with or how he exactly relates to the hedgehogs. At times I’m not even sure his robotic arm is even really robotic, given that there have been times that *flesh* was seen underneath...

At this point you probably think I wholly dismiss this incarnation of Robotnik or that I disdain it. Well, surprise surprise, but I don’t. There are in fact interesting aspects to this version. While him ruling over people through somewhat more legitimate means made him less threatening than his SatAM Predecessor, it IS on it’s own an interesting and unique twist on things that Robotnik is able to rule via the consent of the nobility, allowing them free reign in return for paying for his various schemes while the commonfolk fit the bill. Similarly, Roboticization being dolled out as a punishment for transgressions rather than the default fate for anybody who is captured by the guy is an interesting use of the concept. And hey, I rather enjoy the wide variety of robots and vehicles that this Robotnik got to use. Also, for all about him that was taken lightly? He did get at least one *really* cool moment in the series- blackmailing Knuckles into helping him by essentially holding all of Mobius hostage, declaring that if he couldn’t rule Mobius then he would rather see it destroyed. That’s actually a pretty legit awesome moment there, and it’s the only thing that I ever took from him.

So yeah, I wouldn’t say that this is a ‘bad’ depiction of Robotnik- it has its merits, but in the end he just didn’t capture my attention the way his predecessor did, nor did the bulk of his actions impress me in the same way.

Which brings us to the REAL meat of this section- Archie Comics.

One thing I’ve mentioned in this retrospective and elsewhere is that my timing when it comes to Sonic has always been rather weird. The first game I played was Sonic 3, AFTER I had already seen Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog on TV. My first encounter with Amy and Super Sonic came from an issue in Fleetway. My first episode of SaTAM and first encounter with Robotnik was the Doomsday Project, and my first issues of the Archie Series? Was the last two issues of the Endgame Saga.

Boy, what a time to come into things, eh?

As I once said, for the longest time I didn’t really ‘process’ continuity when it came to Sonic. Since this comic featured Sonic and the Freedom Fighters and the familiar model of Robotnik, I just viewed it as an extension of the show, and lemme tell you... it blew my mind away. This comic featured things like Robotnik framing Sonic for killing Sally and ended with what remains one of the coolest looking fight scenes in the comic, with Sonic pushed to the very brink and nearly dying as he strove to take down Robotnik once and for all, ending in a final victory for Sonic and the Freedom Fighters!

I mean, how could I *not* be impressed?

I later got the Director’s Cut version, and it became even better as it expanded his evil deeds and set up and finished the final fight in an even better way. That was some seriously kickass stuff, my younger self thought.

What I didn’t realize at the time though, was that all that stuff I had seen? Was ultimately an outlier. Or that my ability to discern quality storytelling was soooooorely lacking.

See, because I lived overseas, my early exposure to Archie came in bits and pieces each summer for a while. As such, I really had no idea what the earlier books were like. See, while Archie was indeed made to tie into SatAM, the original miniseries was published *before* SatAM, and as such while there were designs and general characters and used from the show, the actual tone and characterization of the series aligned more to the Adventures cartoon then it did SatAM, and the things that WERE included were based off earlier production materials. Sally for example was an orange furred blonde in the miniseries before having her hair and fur switched to pink and black, Antoine took several issues before he finally got his trademark accent (and was evidently envisioned as being *British*, and Rotor was initially addressed with his early name of ‘Boomer’ and retained his design and color scheme from the SatAM pilot episode.

Naturally, this meant that while Robotnik in Archie had the same design as his SatAM counterpart, his personality was more aligned to the Adventures model. It’s kind of funny actually, because it’s the opposite of what happened over in the UK with Fleetway- there, Robotnik would eventually take on the design of the Adventures incarnation, which had been for a comedy show, and went on to become one of the most terrifying incarnations of Robotnik out there.

Fun little bit of irony, isn’t it?

Anyway, the point is, for the longest time I was quite unaware of the fact that in Archie, Robotnik had spent the bulk of his career as a comedy villain, and it was only after his death that some of his nastier deeds were elaborated upon. For most of his time within the comic though, Robotnik was a comedic villain- a petulant manchild with a major league hate-on for Sonic. As time went on he would go on to be less and less comedic... but he never really reached the same levels as his Archie counterpart in terms of personality *or* dialogue. This Robotnik was very talkative and tended towards a more casual tone of voice even when fighting Sonic and company. Even his better moments in the book (such as the Mecha Madness Storyline) didn’t really help to give him the same kind of gravitas or presence that his predecessor possessed. Not helping matters was the fact that multiple writers handled him, giving him a shaky and unsteady voice throughout much of the book. Even picturing his dialogue with Jim Cummings’ voice speaking the lines didn’t really help. It was only with Endgame that Robotnik truly began to show the same kind of menace as his source.

However, this Robotnik DID have something else going on for him- a greatly expanded backstory. Here we learned that Robotnik was an ‘Overlander’, a member of the enemy faction during the Great War who defected over to the Kingdom of Acorn and with his insight into Overlander tactics helped deliver victory to the Kingdom. It was further revealed that he was from a prestigious family called ‘The House of Ivo’, that he had a brother called Colin (who himself was a ranking member of the Overlander army and the father of Snively), and that during the Great War he sabotaged the Roboticizer before its first use, resulting in Sonic’s own father Jules becoming the first Robian.

As you can imagine, I ate it up, and gleefully applied it to the SatAM Robotnik, because honestly, at some level I still conflated the two. Yep, I was really, very much influenced by all the details that the Archie comics provided for Robotnik and all too eager to make use of them. Who could be responsible for so much that brought me joy, eh?

That sound your hearing? Is the sound of an elephant firmly planting itself in the room. I mentioned that I would be addressing said elephant in the last retrospective post, and for those of you that know this blog, you already know who I’m talking about.

The guy responsible for all these developments was Ken Penders.

Yup. Ken Penders. That fucker. I don’t really need to go on about him- I’ve said more than enough about the guy in general, and I don’t need to elaborate on it really. I deeply dislike Pender as a person, as a writer, as an artist... just in general really. No more needs to be said about that, as I’ve said MORE than enough elsewhere on this blog.

However... for a time, I was once a fan of his, and I really, truly loved everything that he had done, both for Robotnik and for Sonic in general. It would be dishonest for me to pretend otherwise. At some level I saw the comics as being an extension of SatAM, one that happened to include things from the games, especially including Knuckles and giving him more to do. Best of all worlds. Hard to believe given how often I criticize the man and his works, but its all true. I loved his stuff and it became a huge part of why I loved Sonic and why I liked Robotnik as a character, even as I began to differentiate the various continuities from one another and began to grasp that each one was contained to the self. I did not care. Even as I got older and began to notice certain discrepencies in the stories I liked so much, I still did my best to take them and make sense of them, creating my own take on familiar stories and bits of lore and forming it into something more logical and whole (even in the fanboy days I thought the canonical end to the Great War was a weak one). Yep, it’s safe to say that I owe a lot of what I liked in Sonic to Penders.

Then, the lawsuit happened. That he would pursue legal action over characters that were clearly Sonic characters did a good deal to sour me on the guy. Then, by the grace of my good friend Fini-Mun, I was directed over to his forum and his twitter... and that was when it dawned upon me that this man, who I owed so much happiness to, was a horrid, horrid person. After that I began to delve around and learn the full scope of his antics, and it was here that I really began to open my eyes. I was now able to re-read his works, and I was now able to realize something that many people before me had already known but that I had refused to accept- Penders was a terrible, terrible writer. His dialogue was dull and stale, his plotting was drawn out and aimless, he was overly reliant upon exposition, while character development was often done with little build up and rarely built upon. To say nothing of his over reliance upon references to other franchises to act as substitutions for actual worldbuilding, and his disastrous and utterly baffling attempts to insert ‘real world’ subjects into the book.

Sadly, even my beloved Endgame was rife with this- the plot ultimately moves along due to happenstance, and Sonic is only triumphant due to events beyond his control. It became clear that if Sonic had done literally nothing, then the outcome of the storyline would have been more or less the same, ending in Robotnik’s death and with Sally alive and well. It dawned on me that save for a few neat fight scenes... Endgame on the whole kinda sucked. Kinda really, really sucked.

Except for this- this was awesome, at least.

Last cool thing out of Endgame, I promise.

So, what does any of this have to do with Archie Robotnik? Well as I mentioned, the events of Endgame and the backstory material that Penders provided for him really helped to enhance my enjoyment of the character and Sonic on the whole... and in slowly peeling away the layers of Penders’ mediocrity, a new picture began to present itself, a final nail in the coffin that was my enjoyment of the man’s work.

Divorcing my negative feelings regarding the lawsuit and the revelation of just how bad a lot of his writing was from an objective standpoint, his various statements and actions soon made it clear that he had little real respect for Robotnik as a character, along with the franchise that he was meant to be working on. Killing off Robotnik in Endgame might have seemed like a daring move, but evidently Penders felt that it should be a permanent arrangement and even fought to keep Robotnik dead in the aftermath of Endgame, claiming that it would ‘allow for new challenges’. Problem is that Robotnik, or Eggman or whatever you call them is the principal villain of the series and by default must be a constant. To this day, I still think the fact that it was Robo-Robotnik who returned rather than Robotnik proper was done as a compromise to appease Penders and allow him to have his precious 'moment’.

Point of order though, there was something suspicious about this to me. Curiously though despite his insistence upon Robotnik dying and staying dead, he never seemed all that eager to do away with the villains he had created for his Knuckles the Echidna comic, The Dark Legion. Even after the comic was canceled Penders continued to try and build up the Legion as a major threat, despite having previously used the failure of a miniseries to justify the killing of a major character he didn’t know (Princess Sally, and that wasn’t the only excuse he gave), even seeing fit to have Dark Legion characters survive into the world of Mobius: 25 Years Later. Not at all helping his case was the discovery of his opinion that the Dark Legion could ‘eat Eggman and any of his incarnations for breakfast’, when asked about the Dark Legion going over to Eggman’s employ during Flynn’s run.

The real breaking point though came when I discovered that not only had he permanently killed Dr. Robotnik off, but twice tried to replace his role in the book with cheap knockoffs of his own creation.

The first one, naturally, debuted in the Image Crossover Super Special, one of the most notoriously awful books in the entire Sonic line and easily deserving in the place of Top Ten Worst Issues. The Image Crossover was a bizzare concept, namely the heroes of the then nascent Image Comics Universe encountering the heroes of Archie’s own Sonic comic. Strange, but it could be workable. Unfortunately, the Image Crossover would not only fail to truly exploit its premise, it ultimately served as little more than a glorified commercial for Penders’ own intended Image Series, The Lost Ones. The villain of this book, introduced without any context or build-up or foreshadowing of any kind was this guy- Dr. Ian Droid.

Before you ask, no, that name isn’t a slam on Ian Flynn, it’s just a stupid pun. This guy’s name was never uttered in the book itself, nor his precise origins, but on his message board it would be revealed that Ian Droid was indeed a counterpart to Dr. Robotnik (specifically stated him to be another version of Robo-Robotnik), and eventually the utimate menace of 25YL-THIS guy would be the one to pilot the Robotnik mech seen in Locke’s visions, which kicked off Locke genetically modifying Knuckles to begin with.

Yep. That’s right. This incredibly generic looking refugee from the 90s was meant to be a legitimate counterpart to the incredibly distinct looking and behaving Dr. Robotnik, a copy of a copy (Robo-Robotnik) and the ultimate menace of everything. Oh, but even better? He was also the main villain of the Lost Ones. He didn’t do squat there either! But yes, you heard me right- Ken Penders tried to create a character owned by himself, and then through his connections at Archie, tried to make this character into a legitimate, in-universe equivalent to a character he didn’t own, belonging to a franchise he didn’t own, all so that he could try and promote his goddamn failure of an independent comic. And not only was he meant to be a counterpart, but the ultimate threat of the book. This guy, who literally has no distinct design or personality features at all. Even his freaky square pupils were lifted off of Galactus!

Oh yeah, incidentally, that giant Robotnik mech? First debuted in Sonic Live, being made by dozens of Robotniks from other zones.

Yep, that’s right folks- the big, super evil weapon that Locke saw his son fighting? The thing that would ultimately kickstart the Big Epic Storyline of Knuckles and gradually damn near overtake the entire Sonic comic line under Penders? Had its origins in Sonic Live, easily one of the absolute worst books in the entire franchise (not unlike the Image Crossover), another one that justifiably tends to rank high in the ‘Worst Issues’ lists people tend to make. This thing is so awful, it basically caused the Knuckles series to happen!

What could have possibly motivated Penders to think that ‘Ian Droid’ was a good idea is something that is unknown to this day, beyond the warped need to try and use the Sonic franchise to boost his own projects even back when he was still on the book.

As I said though, there were *two* attempts at this, and Droid was only the first. The second time around, Penders would display *slightly* more savvy by crafting an explicit connection between his creation and Robotnik/Eggman... and in doing so, even further highlighted the utter redundancy of the addition.

In his last run on the book, a gold plated clone of Gamma called “Isaac” would show up and reveal himself to be from the Pre-Xorda days of humanity, acting as a caretaker for his master... Dr. Ivan Kintobor, born June Sixth of 2006 AD. Yep. Born 6/6/6. Oh and also he was the one who dissected a Xorda which caused them to destroy the Earth, which in turn caused the creation of Mobius.

Yeeah, you can see where this is going. Penders was very clearly setting up for Ivan Kintobor to become a new, major threat... despite Eggman already being in the picture and more than established as the central villain of the series. Mercifully, Penders left before he could implement whatever he was building Ivan Kintobor up to, and when Flynn came on board he immediately nipped that one in the bud.

The point I am trying to get at though? It becomes very clear that Penders had very little respect for Robotnik as a character, or for the games that the book was made to promote, or the show that it had been made to tie-in to, and this knowledge has all but shattered my ability to fully appreciate this incarnation of Robotnik, particularly since in the long run, his list of truly cool deeds is incredibly limited. Similarly, knowing that the man responsible for that would think of the book’s main villain, an incarnation of the franchise’s principle enemy, was so disposable that he could just replace him with “my version but better” twice over, as well as view them as being inferior to villains he himself created? Is intolerable.

It’d be like if someone at DC earnestly managed to kill-off Darkseid...

.... and then immediately tried to replace him with THIS.

“Darkthornn”.

The key difference though is that when Liefeld made that mardi-gras colored mockery, he used him exclusively for his own book rather than trying to make him an in-universe counterpart for Darkseid or trying to replace the guy with his own creation.

So yeah, in the end? Penders did a lot to flesh out Robotnik, and for a while I was cheerful to use it as my own... but knowing his mentality and how many of the little details were really badly written (in particular, the nauseating fact that the Overlanders were little more than a straw humanity to contrast Penders’ straw Utopian mobians) has soured my once rather deep enjoyment and desire to utilize this version’s details. It feels like a validation for a man who ultimately saw the franchise on the whole as a personal stepping stone for his own ideas. If anything good came of it though, it has in fact made me doubly appreciative of the SatAM incarnation of Robotnik.

Penders however wasn’t the only one to provide some interesting ideas for this Robotnik. Karl Bollers never really got to write in-depth for the character, being the one to usher-in Robo-Robotnik and his ascension to Eggman. I’m not going to cover him given that he’s really a separate character entirely and technically ceased to be SatAM Robotnik-based, but I’ll say this much- while it was a confusing as hell means to re introduce Robotnik and later Eggman’s SA design into the comic, I actually did kind of like the concept, that of a Robotnik from another Zone who had managed to triumph and, bored with victory, left his own Zone to re-live the thrill of conquest on another Mobius. Driven more by amusement than anything else, it’s a unique motivation for a Robotnik/Eggman. Also, I thought the Roboticization touch thing was a cool idea.

Moving on though, Bollers DID add a few details regarding Archie’s Robotnik that helped to enhance the character and ultimately my perception of the Robotnik that spawned him.

One of these was the revelation that in the past, Robotnik had a mentor, a kindly fellow called Nate Morgan.

Nate Morgan’s proper origins actually begin with SatAM, where an unused character by that name was envisioned as a wizard allied with the Freedom Fighters.

The Nate Morgan shown in the concept art however had very little to do with the character Bollers introduced. This Nate Morgan, in the past, served as a teacher and mentor to Julian, and allowed him to assist in secret research that would eventually lead to the creation of the power rings. Betrayed by his student, Nate would be exiled from Overland and wander into the Kingdom of Acorn, where his technological expertise would be used to raise the Mobians out of the medieval era stage of development they were in, and he would later go on to be a close advisor to King Max and mentor CHarles Hedgehog, before a conspiracy from Kodos and Naugus would force him to go into self-exile.

Like many things in the comic, Morgan was not a very well utilized idea, but for his concept alone I appreciated him all the same. I enjoyed the irony of the idea that someone like Robotnik could be mentored by someone as kind and gentle as Nate, and appreciated the connection he gave to Charles beyond them both working directly for the King. There was potential for stories in there regarding both Charles AND Julian, particularly regarding how Nate might have responded to seeing the damage his two students did to the world and how it would impact him, knowing that their knowledge sprang from him to begin with. Either way though, I appreciated the way this guy enhanced Archie Robotnik AND Chuck’s backstories.

The other thing was a really just a minor gag, but one I got a lot of mileage out of- namely the four robotic replacement bodies under Robotropolis, built by Robotnik Prime and later utilized by Robo-Robotnik, which served as a means to upgrade Robotnik’s design to Eggman’s.

This panel just amuses and intrigues me on *so* many levels, because it leaves open soooo many questions about how this Robonik’s vanity operates. Only one of those bodies could be considered conventionally attractive, and that one lumpy looking fella is even *uglier* than how Robotnik normally looks. Otherwise? They’re all just variations of Robotnik’s features of being bald, fat, and possessing extensive facial hair. I just find it fascinating that, given the chance to have an entirely new body, Robotnik only made one that could be regarded as an idealization of himself while making the rest different takes on his usual features. In particular, with the hindsight of realizing that he surely based the 'Eggman’ body off of his own grandfather, it made me wonder if perhaps this Robotnik deliberately chose to grow out his mustache in direct homage to the man. It’s a shame they never came up or were used again, but oh well, they were pretty memorable for all the single panel that they showed up on.

While never directly relating to “Robotnik Prime” properly, there were a few other things that I enjoyed for the intriguing possibilities they presented- and one of them was none other than M.

M didn’t have a lot going for her, but her existence did make me wonder what would motivate Eggman to specifically create a ‘daughter’, and to specifically give her the features that he did. The implications intrigued me, particularly in the way that they could reflect off of Robotnik Prime’s own backstory, aligning with a few ideas I had held for the SatAM version. I won’t get into details, but Mecha ended up having a bit more of an impact with me than you might think, regardless of how little real use she got.

And finally, there was one of my favorite Bollers contributions- Hope.

Hope’s character presented an intriguing concept- the White Sheep of a family with a heavily checkered past in general and an ESPECIALLY horrible reputation thanks to the actions of her uncle (and his counterpart). Notable for being one of the few Overlander characters in the book to sympathize with Mobians, Ian Flynn later got a lot of mileage out of her by revealing that, much like her half-brother, uncle and great-grandfather, Hope had inherited the Kintobor affinity for machinery and the scientific genius to go with it. Determined to restore her family name after her uncle and brother had dragged it through the mud, Hope was a really great idea and a great character. She never interacted with her ‘real’ uncle, but her existence and antagonistic relationship with the rest of her family none the less served as wonderful story fodder all the same. Helping matters was the fact that, by a wonderful coincidence, Hope managed to strongly resemble the long dead Maria Robotnik despite debuting before her.

In conclusion? My relationship with the Archie Robotnik is a complicated one with a complicated history, with my forgiving attitude of ‘good idea, bad execution’ clashing with and ultimately losing to ‘realizing the guy writing for him didn’t give a crap really’. Though I will not deny that this one’s existence greatly enhanced my enjoyment of SatAM Robotnik and, once upon a time, I was all too willing to use the precise details of his life and conflate them with SatAM Robotnik, and at one point I might have even called him my favorite. With the realization of how poorly handled his characterization was and that his only real time to truly shine (in a convoluted and poorly explained story) came only in the same arc as his death, along with understanding the dismissive and self-serving motivation of Penders, that is no longer even remotely the case.

Ah well. Mecha Madness was still cool.

However, the bottom line is though that these two re-interpretations of SatAM Robotnik, Underground and Archie alike, were none the less unique takes upon the doctor, spinning interesting new interpretations of his character to fit the new worlds that they were a part of. While neither of them really matched the original deal, they were both memorable in their own right, and that is more than enough.

With that, we move on past the other models of Robotnik that existed, and prepare to veer into the next retrospective. The subject of which is a... personal favorite of mine- criticisms of the doctor, and my counterpoints to those criticisms. Fun times ahead, lemme tell ya.

#Sonic the Hedgehog #Dr. Robotnik #Analysis

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geek-gem · 7 years

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I'll say this now Metal Sonic related

Well not a good title. Yet I’m a bit nervous to say it. Including I feel like people are gonna hate my opinion just a personal opinion of mine. Also spoilers for Sonic Heroes. As much as I like Dr. Eggman/Robotnik. Also this may piss off some Eggman fans a bit.

I’m honestly proud of Metal Sonic in Sonic Heroes for some reason. Maybe cause I know it wasn’t the best and how it ended. Yet the idea of Metal becoming his own, over throwing Eggman, pretending to be him, and becoming a big monster trying to take over the world. I feel like it’s one of my favorite moments with him. Or just stuff concerning him.

Also I for one think he looks badass including his Neo Metal Sonic form. Along with his Metal Madness and Metal Overlord forms.

Yet my favorite shining moments of him are still the Sonic OVA which I felt like watching last night but not but soon.

Also the fact it sounds weird. Yet this weird fan fiction but story idea of just him fighting against Sonic and it being a bit personal cause with Metal wanting to be the Real Sonic. It’s well…a fight or something where Metal does everything and he brutally kicks Sonic’s ass like it’s Batman vs Superman in The Dark Knight Returns, Batman V Superman Dawn Of Justice, and the Sonic OVA yet Metal really kicking his ass cause he’s determined and he’s not gonna wanna lose.

Yes I also like the no talking thing yet I feel at times he would say something truly believing if he kills Sonic he will become the real Sonic finally able to beat Sonic and him not being a copy anymore. Including shit like this of him saying which I find cool man.

“Your not the real Sonic, I’m the real Sonic” because he’s so bent on that goal now. Also shit like he’s the one who finally beat him.

Then shit like Sonic says something and Metal stops and shit ha…almost left ham instead of ha…lol man. Theirs also Shadow and Chaos…yet Metal can take on Shadow which is great man kick ass.

I gonna watch the Sonic OVA soon. We have a Sony Sonic movie 2018 soon and if it still exists or just ha…I wanna watch one of my favorite versions of Sonic and here’s hoping for Metal Sonic in the movie with a fight meh ideas in my head haha dude man. Put tags man ha stop um

Edit also seriously the, “Tuesday” track from Batman V Superman Dawn Of Justice I swear I can imagine the scene of Metal spoilers when he first appears in the OVA and can kick Sonic’s ass so much cause Sonic finally met someone who equals his power and speed he met his match. I’ve had thought Metal Sonic is like Sonic’s Doomsday yet I don’t know man ha…just…ummm a bit much also Sega and Sonic Team even if Sonic 06 was shit just…what a crummy way but I wanted to say that soundtrack name and mention the Doomsday part before anyone else does chill edit meh smiling a bit cause like this

#metal sonic #sonic the hedgehog #sonic heroes #sonic ova #sonic movie

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disrepairhouse · 4 years

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::Return - Chapter 17

Once discussions about Chemical Plant were hashed out and Tails was content, the group separated to go about their day as needed. Itara knew she needed to get some scrapes looked at, especially after the fight with Infinite, but she wanted more information that didn’t need to involve the entire group. She waited until it was only Silver, Amy, Knuckles, and Tails left in the room, then crossed over to Silver. “Do you have a moment?”

“Yeah, of course.” He gave a quick nod to Amy before following Itara to the other side of the room, “You said you were from Soleanna, right?”

Itara turned back to him and nodded, moving Kipper to one hand so she could cross her arms behind her back. “I was created in a lab just outside of it, yes. I’ve traveled a lot, but my home is in Soleanna. You’re… also from the area, right?”

Silver nodded, “Born and raised, but I came here to join Sonic’s team… about three years ago, I think.”

Itara’s brow furrowed in confusion as she looked off to the side. He’d been in this time for at least three years, though it sounded as though he’d been here this entire time. She looked up at him again, tilting her head, “Do you… know anything about… Iblis?” She wasn’t sure how much to reveal about the situation, but she thought perhaps a name was fine. If he knew, she’d have her answer, if he didn’t, she could just pass it off as something from her world. The uncertainty that spread across the other hedgehog’s face told her all the needed to know, though. Before the ‘no’ even left his mouth, Itara had her answer. He questioned her about it, but she waved it off, explaining it away as a local legend from her world. She was sure of it now, the incident never happened here. “What about Solaris’ Flame? Does the royal family still have possession of it?”

“The flame? The one that’s said to be held within the princess?” That was it. Her ears perked as she prodded him for more information, “I don’t know how different things are in your world, but from what I understand, Solaris blessed the royal family with his flame millennia ago and it’s reborn within a descendant every other generation. The current princess is the holder of the flame.”

“Have there been any incidents regarding the flame or the princess? Say… eleven years ago?”

He struggled for several long minutes before shaking his head, “I… don’t think so? Not that I can remember. Why?”

Would Silver even remember if it did happen? The thought only then occurred to her that, if the incident went as it normally would have, without her intervention, time would have been resent. No one even remembered it in her timeline, and it turned out drastically different because of her. Perhaps she was asking the wrong person, after all. But the only one that remembered in her timeline, after being exposed to her powers was…

With a heavy sigh, she gave Silver a forced smile, “Thank you for the information. That’s all I needed.”

“Wait, why did you need to know? Is it related to the Phantom Ruby?”

She shook her head, “Not necessarily. I just wanted to see how different this world was from mine, that’s all. I knew you in my timeline, as well, so I thought you’d be the person to ask.” Though, when she knew Silver, it was two-hundred years into a destroyed future and he and Blaze were being manipulated by Mephiles to hunt Sonic down. Not helping Sonic hunt Robotnik down. She headed out of the meeting room, with Zero close behind as he spoke up for the first time in hours.

“What are you thinking?”

“That I have to have an annoying conversation with an infuriating hedgehog. I’ll explain later, after I know more. There’s… something… about the Phantom Ruby. But I don’t want to jump to conclusions. Let’s just… get some rest for the night. Tomorrow’s going to be a full day. Were you able to find a place to charge up?”

“Yes. It’s rudimentary, but I should be able to refill a basic energy level. So long as we aren’t in this world too much longer,” Zero glared as they entered the room again, closing the door to avoid prying ears.

“I don’t intend to be,” Itara shook her head, shuffling her shoes and backpack off and climbing into the bed, “If worse comes to worse, I can probably steal some of Robotnik’s tech to build a better charging station but hopefully we can get out of here before that becomes necessary.”

“Have you always been such a little thief?”

Itara glared up at him, but her ears pinned against her head as she grumbled, “It’s better I have it than him, isn’t it?”

“Is it?”

There was silence before Itara shook her head and decided she was done talking about it. She only stole from Robotnik. Mostly. What did it matter, either way? She spent the rest of the evening distinctly ignoring Zero again as she went on a hunt for a first aid kit. Her everything was sore and she needed to wrap her knees up again. She quietly thanked X for the bandages he gave her before while she replaced the remainder of scuffed-up, barely hanging-on bandages. Afterwards, she headed for the room again to try and get more sleep than before.

However, the fear of blowing the base up won out over the need for rest and she, instead, spent the evening traveling around the world to study the differences between this world and her own. She slept outside overnight, half a world away from the Metropolis base, and went right back to time traveling once she got some much-needed sleep. She learned quite a bit during her travels, including one particularly shocking revelation about the princess of Soleanna, but she also accidentally and completely annihilated her shoes in the process. They were banged up and falling apart to begin with – while she could find replacement clothes in Zero’s world, shoes were completely out of the question – but they finally gave in during an attempt to flee some roaming badniks, and a massive snake, around Mystic Jungle.

Luckily, she was back in her world where mobians existed again and shoes came in appropriate shapes and sizes again. Unluckily, everything she found that wasn’t burnt to a crisp or missing its match was in the wrong size for her very, very tiny feet. She did finally get some small level of amusement, however, when she managed to find a pair of shoes almost identical to Shadow’s. She found them in one of Robotnik’s many abandoned labs – of which he had far more than even she was used to – but she couldn’t resist the urge to try them out. Especially when she realized they were greyed out in color. The flashbacks were well-worth the look on Shadow’s face when she finally returned to the Resistance base and ran into him. Of course, there was the constant fear of the rockets activating on their own considering she had no idea how they worked, but if she was going to wear shoes that didn’t fit anyway, she may as well mock Shadow while she was at it. At least until she found some that did fit.

But now it was time to get ready to leave for Chemical Plant. Itara sighed as she finished stuffing everything she would need into the small backpack. Prototype ruby, notebook, Kipper… extra socks. With a huff, she stood back up and pulled the backpack on, tapping the front of the awkwardly-sized shoes against the ground to make sure they would stay on. With the shoes checked and her bag pulled on, she gave a quick nod of confirmation before turning to Zero, who stood nearby listening to the goings-on. “Can you stay here for this one?” The towering robot turned an accusatory glare down at her, his eyes narrowing further at his continued exclusion from the fights, but she threw her hands up in defense, “I looked into the future a bit, as much as I could anyway but something’s going to happen later that would benefit from your presence.”

“What is it?”

She gave a quick, wary glance around the room full of Resistance fighters, and enemies in another world, before returning her gaze to him, “other world allies.” His eyes narrowed again until he realized what she was saying. Once she was sure he knew what she meant, she continued, fidgeting with the straps on her backpack and looking away, “I feel like, if I go, I may give something away. But I don’t think you’ll have that problem. They’re no doubt an enemy in this world, so don’t hold back if you fight him, but if you can get information from the encounter, I would appreciate it.”

Zero remained silent as he studied her closely, though looked away again, “Which one?”

“…Sparky.”

“Hm. Not the one I would have preferred to fight, but fine.” Itara eyed him for the comment but she shouldn’t have been surprised. Even if Metal was the more antagonistic of the two, Zero didn’t keep his interest in rematching RK exactly hidden. “Are you sure you can handle going alone?”

“Tch, of course I can!” A few side-eyed glances from the group around them brought her voice back down to the hushed whisper as her ears dropped and she looked away again, “I’ll be with Tails. It’s fine.”

“That one didn’t look like much of a fighter.”

“Well, he’s not… really. But I also intend to avoid as much fighting as possible. I have my time travel abilities back and my notebook is working properly again, we should be able to handle it just fine.” Zero studied her closely but shrugged. Before long, Tails motioned to her that he was ready to go and she nodded. “Right, well, I’m going to go find out what I can about the Phantom Ruby, you stay here and wait for news on… the thing.”

Zero nodded and watched the two take off while the rest of the room went about their businesses, casting him the occasional side glance, which he promptly ignored. He didn’t want to be here in the first place and, so far, X’s insistence that he was needed was wrong. But he supposed this information about the Phantom Ruby was good to know, either way. The apparent prototype was removed from his world, which he assumed meant his world would return to normal, but X was right, they should be thorough.

He couldn’t help but wonder if he could defeat this Infinite on his own.

The reality altering effects of the ruby were troublesome, but not impossible to work around. Especially knowing what he did now. Perhaps he would see while out hunting down this world’s Metal Sonic. But would it be the real one or a fake? That was likely what Itara wanted him to find out.

“Man, I hate just sitting around waiting,” Knuckles whined across the room. Zero silently wondered how the organic counterpart held up to his robotic version in terms of strength and considered offering a brawl to find out. However, the pink one known as ‘Amy’ responded before he could.

Her face scrunched up in frustration at the computer screen she’d been working on for some time as she growled, “Way to jinx it, Knuckles. Metal Sonic’s been sighted in the city!”

“Is it another fake?” Shadow questioned. Zero would have been impressed with the fact that he caught on just as quickly, but it was a fairly obvious connection to make considering the situation.

Sonic, who jumped to attention at the mention of his metal counterpart and arch nemesis, furrowed his brow in confusion at the question, “Why would they bother making a fake of something that already isn’t real? Couldn’t Egghead just build more?” Zero wasn’t sure how much offense he took to the insinuation, but before any response could be given, Sonic shook his head and grinned, “Either way, it’s gettin’ wrecked!”

“Be careful out there, Sonic, you’re still recovering after all,” Amy warned as she pulled up a map to show him where the robot was.

“Ah, don’t worry about me, I’ve beaten that pile of nuts and bolts countless times!” the blue hedgehog grinned. However, his grin turned back to confusion once he realized Zero was following him to the door.

“I’m going with you,” was all he offered for explanation.

Sonic looked warily between the much taller robot and the group behind them, getting little more than confused shrugs from the others, before shrugging himself. His grin returned and he gave the bot a thumbs up, “Well alright. Just hope you can keep up!” And with that, he was out the door and gone. Zero gave a mental sigh, but followed after the obnoxious hero hedgehog. He’d already grown tired of this one’s mouth, but the prospect of a decent fight was enough to ignore the mobian.

Red Gate Bridge. It was a bit of a run, but not too far. Sonic was already far ahead of him but the further he got from the loudmouth, the better. He had come to understand why Itara and the others despised him as much as they did over the years. Chipper and upbeat and optimistic, he was used to. X was optimistic to the point of naivety, but X also took situations seriously when he needed to. Sonic seemed to be far cockier and full of himself, seeing most situations as a joke and taking almost nothing seriously. It wasn’t someone he saw himself spending a lot of time around. In a way, Sonic reminded him of Dynamo and that one, stray thought caused a sudden and unrelenting, unbridled rage. Luckily, he was on his way to fight one of the robots to release some of the sudden aggression.

The bridge came into view before long, and the blue hedgehog with it, as he seemed to be waiting for him to catch up. “Too slow!” the hedgehog jokingly called out but, as luck would have it, the bridge rather suddenly crashed from underneath him. A massive, towering robot shattered the bridge to pieces and sent the hero hedgehog sprawling to remain standing. The robot in question wasn’t Metal Sonic, at least, so far as Zero could tell, but it was several stories high and offered a brief release of steam before they continued on.

While Sonic zipped his way around the crumbling bridge pieces and swinging arms of the large, round bot, Zero studied the lumbering body for a point of weakness. Judging by the damage Sonic was already doing to its hull, he didn’t imagine it was all that impenetrable. His saber could likely cut through it easily enough. He watched with sharp eyes as Sonic kept the robot’s attention, waiting until it nearly had its back to him, swinging its long arms into the side of the nearby mountain and breaking several pieces off, causing part of the arm to bend. Zero took the opportunity and used the falling rubble and broken bridge to launch himself up and around the robot, releasing his saber and striking through the center of the robot with one, swift motion. The bot’s arms jerked and its body jolted and sparked. With a final, crashing swing, it barreled into the side of the mountain, breaking through to the inner bridge that both Sonic and Zero quickly jumped in to avoid getting caught in the ensuing explosion.

The side of the mountain shook and crumbled in, forcing the two to take off again with a quick glance back at the destruction. “Huh. Well, thanks for that,” Sonic grinned, though with less certainty than usual. Zero almost grinned at the unease in the hedgehog’s face but kept his expression straight and said nothing.

It didn’t take long for the true object of their interest to appear, or rather, assemble, before them. Almost as soon as the two exited the mountain side onto the main portion of the bridge, the red and black blocks swarmed in front of them. Sonic muttered a curse under his breath as a much larger than expected Metal Sonic formed from the blocks, though Zero wouldn’t have even known what he was looking at without Sonic’s commentary.

“So they really did just make an even faker Metal,” the blue hedgehog huffed before shrugging, “So be it.” He tossed an amused glance back to Zero before taking off after the massive fake, leaving the other bot behind to wonder. He supposed this answered Itara’s question, but Zero felt a bit disappointed that he wouldn’t be fighting the real one, even if it did seem to be a much earlier version of the robot he’d grown accustomed to. Beyond the obvious size difference, the proportions looked more in-line for being a robotic counterpart to the blue hedgehog. Did this mean RK, as well, had a much different original appearance? It seemed likely. Perhaps he would ask the time traveler once they returned to base.

For now, Sonic was getting all the fight and that was unacceptable. Fake as it was, they did say the fakes had the same powers of the originals so he imagined he would still get a decent battle. With that decision made, he took off after the hedgehog and his robotic counterpart, preparing to attack, though had to quickly dart to the side as the massive bot suddenly zipped by in the opposite direction. Before either Zero or Sonic could change directions, however, the fake Metal dashed by again to get back in front of them, likely as an attempt to run one or both of them off the crumbling bridge at the gaps. When that failed, however, it returned to familiar tactics of shooting off lasers from its core and throwing smaller, diversionary bots at them to gain distance.

The attempts proved meaningless as Sonic sped forward, busting through the diversionary robots with ease, and spiraling forward to slam into Metal. The clash sent the bot crashing forward into the concrete, causing a loss of momentum, and giving Zero the edge he needed to catch up. Rushing past the blue hedgehog as he landed, he drew the saber from his back and sliced through the bot as it attempted to regain its footing. Instead of the sparking and zapping as he expected from cutting through a robot, the fake Metal Sonic only spasmed for a moment before exploding into the boxes again and vanishing. A scowl touched Zero’s face as he watched the opportunity to fight disappear so easily, which only worsened when Sonic joined his side with yet more unnecessary quips.

“Hey! That was pretty great! We were like a well-oiled machine, fighting a… well-oiled machine…” The confusion spread across the hedgehog’s face before he shook it from his head and turned back to the annoyed robot.

“That was far too easy. If that’s what’s considered a ‘well-oiled machine’ in this world then I don’t understand how Dr. Robotnik’s gotten as far as he has.”

“Well,” Sonic muttered, reaching up to rub his head, “I guess we just needed someone like you around, huh? Though I guess the real Metal is normally a lot… more stubborn.” Zero eyed the hedgehog with implied mockery, which took Sonic a moment longer than it likely should have to catch onto. “In any case, we should head back to base since this is taken care of. Don’t want to miss any more excitement that might crop up.”

“Is that not what your communication devices are for?”

Sonic looked down at the watch on his wrist with a blank stare, but before either of them could respond or move on, the bridge suddenly wavered and while Zero easily stabilized himself, Sonic struggled to remain on his feet. “Whoa, whoa, whoa!” the hedgehog yelped as the bridge twisted at unnatural angles, the concrete bending like paper. Zero narrowed his eyes as the air snapped and crackled with the familiar aura, reaching for his saber as the world dissolved around them. The sky smoldered, the clouds caught fire, and the once vast ocean below them vaporized. Sonic stared in horror but Zero recognized the destruction of Itara’s world quickly enough. The faraway hills flattened and plumes of smoke billowed off what remained of the bridge. “What,” came Sonic’s breathy gasp.

But once again, the world snapped back to normal and Sonic was left confused and winded by the vision. He glanced around, patting his face to make sure he was actually awake, before looking to Zero, “Did you see that?” Zero gave a sharp nod. “What was that?” His brows furrowed as he crossed his arms, “That wasn’t… Robotnik’s doing, was it?”

“No,” Zero removed his hand from the saber at his back and turned towards the closed-off mountain pass, “that was a glimpse of the world Itara comes from, the world I’ve been stuck in for the past eight years. We should return to base. I had assumed these energies would stop with the return of that gem to this world. If they’re happening here now, there may be more to this situation.” He glanced towards the horrified hedgehog before giving his own quick nod and taking off, leaving him behind. Though, it didn’t take long before the blue speedster regained his composure and flew by him again, grinning at him on the way through. What an irritating creature.

----

“What happened to you?”

Zero’s eyebrow raised at the tiny time traveler covered in bandages, scowling up at him. By the time he reached the base, she had already returned and been in the process of tossing her shoes halfway across the room, muttering incoherently under her breath, with bandages wrapped around her arms, hands, and knees, and a blood-soaked tissue stuffed up her nose. His question only seemed to frustrate her further as she grumbled a quiet, angry ‘stupid rocket shoes’ before grabbing the possessed doll from her bag and climbing up on the small bed. He studied the tossed shoes, remembering that Shadow had, indeed, been using rockets to keep up with Sonic before, and resisted the amused smirk at the obvious situation.

Instead, he turned back to the hedgehog as she scribbled furiously in her notebook with the doll in the crook of her arm. “Did you find anything useful about the Phantom Ruby’s power?”

Itara remained silent until she finished scribbling in her notebook, sighed heavily, winced, and looked up at him, “Yeah, yeah, we found what we were looking for.” With another sigh, she leaned back and stared off at the ceiling, reaching up and counting on her fingers as she explained, “Failed battle plans – like, a lot of failed plans – robot blueprints, like ten terabytes of selfies – I really wish I was joking about that. But also, information on the Phantom Ruby. Tails even figured out a possible weakness. We’ve already updated everyone else on what we found.”

She put her hand back down and wrapped the doll up in her arms, staring off towards the wall, going silent. Zero waited for her to fill him in on what he missed but when she said nothing for several minutes, he prompted her to continue, “And?”

Her ears dropped back before she shook her head and looked back over to him with clear discomfort. Whatever they found, it was upsetting for some reason, and he wondered if it meant Tails’ apparent possible weakness was wrong or it was something more personal to her. He got his answer soon as she gave a humorless laugh and explained, “I think my suspicions were correct. About the main power source of the Phantom Ruby, to a degree. I did some more digging through the database after Tails headed back. Robotnik found something in a buried, locked desert location, right around the same time he would have found the scepter in my timeline. He didn’t explicitly state what it was, but it held a vast amount of ‘reality bending power’. Robotnik spent the next several years working to find a way to use it, ultimately leading to the Phantom Ruby. And Infinite.”

Silence filled the room once more as her gaze returned to the wall. Zero took the information into consideration and was about to prompt her about the weakness when she continued, “I don’t think Infinite knows much about it, though. From what I was able to gather, he was part of a mercenary squad that Shadow wiped out during one of his raids on Robotnik’s lab. He was the only one left. I think all he wanted was the power to get revenge on Shadow, and Robotnik – being the opportunist he is – used him to test the prototypes. My theory is that, instead of looking for one fitting, living vessel for the power he found, he instead decided to create one. A gem that could be implanted into someone and used.” She gave another short, humorless laugh and looked over at him, “I guess you could say Infinite is the more successful experiment. I think it’s the only one of Robotnik’s experiments that didn’t go rogue on him. It even successfully managed world domination. It defeated Sonic! Well… for a time.”

Her ears pressed firmly against her head as she looked down, curling in on herself and hugging the doll tighter, “Infinite wasn’t the only one to defeat Sonic.” Zero watched with uncertainty as the tiny hedgehog seemed to zone out of reality entirely, her eyes unfocused as she muttered, “He didn’t even actually kill Sonic. But dad… Mephiles did. Mephiles killed Sonic. And Iblis killed the world. Is it Sonic’s fate to fall to Solaris, no matter the timeline? If we hadn’t appeared in this world, would they be able to defeat Infinite? Will there be another Crisis City in the world in just two days? Even without Iblis, he’s still found a way to destroy this world.”

“You mumble too much.” The sharp tone cut through the frantic hedgehog’s ramblings, but her eyes were no more focused when she turned to stare up at him. “You prevented your Crisis City once before in your timeline, did you not?” Itara gave a slow nod. “Then there’s no reason you can’t do it again in this one. Even if it’s true that the power held within the Phantom Ruby is an alternate Mephiles, it simply means you know what it is and how to combat it. That’s why you’re here in the first place, isn’t it? If X believes you have the power to save this world, then you do. No matter the enemy, you simply strike them down, however you must. Having faced this multiple times before, you should know exactly how to deal with this. Or are you useless without your robot babysitters?”

Itara’s eyes finally focused back in and narrowed, “I’m not a baby!”

“Then prove it. You have incredible power, you ought to use it better. If this Solaris is so world-endingly powerful, then you ought to be able to deal with some mercenary with a revenge plot. This Infinite is only wielding a power he knows nothing about, you are part of it. Make use of your advantage. You have entire worlds counting on you.”

Itara’s eyes widened, staring at him for several minutes before turning away and curling up further. Her ears flattened tightly against her head as she considered his words, turning the idea over in her head several times to get a grasp on it. Endless timelines and outcomes tossed around her mind as she tried to get a hold of herself again, her arms wrapping further around the doll in her arms until the stuffed toy was nearly flat against her chest. Zero watched her eyes dart back and forth with her thoughts, hoping she pulled herself together soon. Preferably without igniting for once. But after several long minutes, she finally closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

With a heavy exhale, she opened her eyes and uncurled, putting her feet back over the edge of the bed – though they didn’t quite reach the ground. Her grip on the doll loosened, though not completely, and she turned back to Zero with a calmer expression, “You’re right. I’m sorry. What did you learn during the fight with Metal Sonic?”

Zero eyed her a moment before giving a nod. He was unsure how long her calm would last, considering this wasn’t the first and would doubtfully be the last of her outbursts. She was an emotional child, so far as he’s seen, but at least for the time being she got a grip on herself. They didn’t have time for delays. The sooner Infinite was defeated and the Phantom Ruby was in their possession, the better. Though, it did beg the question, what would happen if they got a hold of it, if it truly did hold this world’s Mephiles? Could she even realistically use a power like that without some form of paradoxical backlash? Then again, the prototype seemed to only boost her powers, perhaps the final product will do the same. He supposed he would have to see. But first, he needed to inform her of the visions.

#Disrepair House #Itara #Zero #Shadow #Sonic #Infinite #::Return #Chapter 17 #Arc Three #sonic fanfic #fanfic #Sonic Forces #Mega Man X #worlds collide #apocalypse #found family #robots #rogue robots

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mobius-prime · 4 years

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241. Sonic the Hedgehog #173

Round Up!

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

So! What is this mysterious thing that Antoine is so determined to do? What is so intimidating to him that he needs Sonic and Amy to back him up? Well, the first page of today's issue tells us quite plainly…

Compared to the constantly-in-flux love life of most of the other characters in this comic, it's so nice to see two characters who (aside from the hiccup caused by Evil Antoine) have remained pretty steady with each other throughout most of the story so far. And now they're about to get hitched! Especially considering how many other plot points have revolved around marriage and potential marriages, this is incredibly sweet and heartwarming to see - an actual marriage based on love and respect. With his main goal completed, Antoine's nerves finally crack though and Sonic has to steady him as he admits that he's been trying to work up the courage to do this for weeks, while Amy excitedly discusses girly things such as dress fittings for the wedding. Bunnie then takes everyone in search of Sally so they can tell her the good news as well. Sally is currently taking a call from Knuckles with Rotor in the brain trust lab, discussing Mina's current world tour and how the Chaotix are acting as her bodyguards in case of any other assassination attempts. Knuckles then mentions he's heard a rumor that Rouge has stolen the Master Emerald from Angel Island and is offering to sell it to the highest bidder, and apparently the only strange thing about this according to everyone present is that normally Rouge would likely want to keep the gem for herself instead of selling it. Really, guys? No mention of how the theft of such an important gem would likely be nearly impossible to pull of at this point with so much security, or how doing such a thing would cause the entire island to plummet violently to earth? Sally prepares to arrange a mission to go after Rouge at the same time that the happy couple and Sonic arrive in the room, and thus, that night finds the four of them split into two groups on watch for any sign of the emerald. Sonic and Antoine, while on watch, discuss their situation.

I feel like Antoine here has kind of summed up what I had said before regarding The Slap - namely, that Sally's erratic and uncharacteristic behavior was a result of severe stress and trauma stemming from what happened during the year that Sonic was in space. Furthermore, those two aren't the only ones discussing Sally's current involvement with this mission - Sally herself has something to admit to Bunnie.

I think in lieu of Karl making it clear before he left that Sally is self-aware about her behavior, Ian has made a point of clearing things up right here. Sally was once a core member of the Freedom Fighters, leading them all personally and participating in nearly every mission with enthusiasm. I still firmly hold to the idea that her parents, particularly her father, are who influenced her so strongly to give a lot of that up and transition to being a more distant, princess-like ruler instead, staying within the safe boundaries of the village. It's taken her a long time to work through her trauma and begin to get back to where she was before, but she's closer than she has been in a long time. Both conversations are interrupted by the abrupt arrival of several familiar faces - Bunnie and Sally find themselves facing a vengeful Nack, while Sonic and Antoine are up against Bean and Bark, the former of whom is as insane as ever.

Nack alone isn't much of a match for the two girls, and quickly finds himself subdued, while Bean and Bark take Sonic and Antoine a little longer, though in the end they too end up defeated. Bunnie and Sally go about tying up their new set of captives while Sonic and Antoine head out to find Rouge, who is nearby, lying on top of the emerald which is covered in a sheet. She's very unnerved to find herself suddenly faced by none other than Mammoth Mogul and Naugus, who have naturally been lured here by the promise of a powerful magical artifact. However, there's something… different about Naugus now…

Mogul sends Naugus to try to take out his two new challengers with a new technique he's developed called a "shadow-meld," but they easily guess that he's trying to sneak up on them from behind and knock him out. A furious Mogul threatens them with his Ixis abilities, until a rapidly-growing engine revving sound reveals itself to be Sally on Nack's bike, dropping in from above to knock him out cold. With the most obvious threats out of the way, the heroes turn their attention to Rouge, but she quickly points out that she's on their side, pulling the sheet away to reveal the "Master Emerald" is nothing more than a table with a green lantern (no, not that one) underneath it. She then says that she did all this, helping them capture various baddies, for Knuckles and Knuckles alone, wanting to show him that she could "be a good girl and play by the rules," in perhaps the most stunning misunderstanding of what Rouge is actually like in the comics so far. Seriously, normally I appreciate Ian's take on most characters, but I think it took him a while to actually figure out Rouge's whole deal, because not once in the games does she pull anything like this solely for Knuckles' sake. Her interactions with Knuckles in the games mostly seem to amount to a lot of flirting, flustering, and teasing purely to make him angry and mess with his head - I believe there's even a line somewhere where she outright admits that he's "not her type" and she only does all that for fun. I mean, she is known for being a flirt after all, but that doesn't mean she's actually interested in everyone she flirts with - she's a manipulator. Now, of course that's not something that will ever stop fans shipping, and I'm certainly not one to judge people for shipping whatever the hell they want, but if we're talking canon, her actions here don't really make a lot of sense.

Anyway, Rouge does consent to help transport their haul of prisoners back home, and before they all head out, Bunnie and Antoine ask Sally and Sonic to be their maid of honor and best man respectively, to which they both say of course. As they get ready to head on back to Knothole, we zoom out to find that Eggman and Snively have been watching the proceedings the entire time from their cameras, with Eggman having hired Nack, Bean and Bark to attack just to be certain that the Master Emerald offered up by Rouge was fake. They then smirk as they discuss a new plan of theirs being right on schedule - something to do with the production of a "new fleet," which seems to have just been launched…

See Ya' Later Chao! (Part One)

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

On that ominous note, it's time for something much more lighthearted! Bernie comes out of her room one morning to find Jules and Sonic doting on a chao that's causing a bit of chaos in their home. She has no idea what it is or how it got in their house, so Sonic explains what he was up to yesterday, beginning with Rotor picking up a strong energy signature from the old, dried-up Lake of Rings that Robotnik sucked dry all the way back in the Sonic Quest miniseries. Thinking it might be a Chaos Emerald, Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles all set out to investigate, only to be surprised by the sight of a chao garden thriving where the lake once sat.

The three basically just played in the chao garden all afternoon and discovered what every young Sonic fan did back in '99 - the chao life cycle and how the way you interact with them affects their appearance, stats, and ability to reincarnate. Unfortunately, in the middle of their delightful chao-filled afternoon, Eggman showed up in a big mech with a drill on it, ready to mess up their day… Wow, guess both stories in today's issue end on a cliffhanger!

#nala reads archie sonic preboot #archie sonic #archie sonic preboot #sonic the hedgehog #sth 173 #writer: ian flynn #pencils: tracy yardley #colors: jason jensen

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